WODs & Well-Being

January 29, 2013 Do you dog it? Are there days that you just don’t want to work hard? Are there days that you just go through the motions to get through the day? To be successful, to reach a goal, to get to the point of ultimate satisfaction… you just cant do it. Hard work, dedication, drive… no excuses… that’s what it takes to elevate yourself beyond your goals. This holds true with anything in life. When I was a kid, I can remember going to softball practice for the in-town youth team. When I started out I was   this skinny lanky kid with glasses and a glove that the ball barely fit into that I couldn’t even squeeze. I had no business being on the field, but I really wanted to learn how to play and be as good as my brother was at baseball. I can remember picking daisies in the outfield (because when you are 8 years old the ball rarely reaches the outfield unless it goes through the infielders legs) and being really sad that I didn’t get to be the catcher like was on ...

November 21, 2012 22 Days of Thanks 2012 - Day 21 I am thankful for vacation days! Headed to PA to see the fam, run a race, celebrate Thanksgiving, watch two amazing people get married... and make memories! WARMUP: 3 Rounds - 10 Lunges - 10 Shoulder Dislocates - 10 Pushups - 10 Spiderman - 200m Rum WOD: The Decender for time Row 500-400-300-200-100 KB Swing (1pd) 25-20-15-10-5 Pullups 25-20-15-10-5 (17:55 Rx) SKILL/STRENGTH 3 Rounds - 10 GHD - 10 Superman - 10 Hollow Rocks .

October 4, 2012 Today was another WOW day! I saw this go up and needed to do it. It certainly looked like it was going to be a challenge and thats exactly what I needed. Hubs and I are leaving tonight to Killington to Celebrate our Anniversary so I am going to be away from CrossFit for 4 days. We are going to give it a shot to do something while we are there, but of course you get the best workout when you are at the gym. I think I was actually saying the above quote to myself over and over while I was doing this WOD. It was one of those workouts that chips away slowly and once you get over the hump you just have to keep baring down and pushing to the end. At some point it feels like it will never be over and at another point I would think "all I have left is this this and that, I can do this." At no point did I think I was going to quit or wasnt going to be able to finish, I think I have been past that for a while, but I will say that I didnt think some of the elements...

**Had to post some of the few dates I missed back in June/July for my archive** June 18, 2012 WARMUP: 3 Rounds - 10 Burpees - 10 Pullups - 10 Back Extensions - 10 Wall Squats Group: Junkyard Dog 2X3 9 Fundamentals w/PVC WOD: 4000m Row for time w/partner - 250m ea *no partner 8, 250m Intervals w/1 min intervals (14:40) SKILL/STRENGTH Back Squat 5-3-1 160 (5), 180 (3), 200 (2) .

**Had to post some of the few dates I missed back in June/July for my archive** June 15, 2012 WARMUP: 3 Rounds - 20 Double Unders - 10 Grasshoppers - 5 Pullups - 10 Burpees - 20 Squats 1 Min Pigeon Stretch Each Leg Group: Row Progression WOD: "Black Betty" 4 Rounds - Row 250m - 20 Wall Balls (unbroken) (9:20 Rx) SKILL/STRENGTH: Deadlift 3-3-3+ 175, 205, 230 .

September 7, 2012 On the eve of the Garage Games I have so many emotions! I am so excited, I am so nervous, I am so anxious, I am so... EXCITED!! I got home from work today and it was time to get focused for tomorrow. I am such a planner, I went downstairs and grabbed one of my camping tupperware containers so we could keep everything we bring together! I remembered last year that they ran out of toilet paper so I just had to include a roll of TP and some paper towels (because you never know!)!! I of course threw in the forever wonderful foam roller and the best invention ever "the stick" for sore muscles and mobility. In the backpack I included my notebook, tape, grips, wrist wraps, band-aids (spider-man ones too), neosporin and a few pairs of socks, a shirt and an extra pair of shorts... you never know what you are going to need!! Than, it was onto food. Hubs and I have our food all planned out so it was just a matter of assembling some chicken salad, that we have dec...

June 7, 2012 Ahhhh, Thursdays… I get a little extra sleep in the morning and usually wind up running like a mad woman out of the house because I am out of my typical routine!! Wednesday nights are my “late nights” so if I make plans with friends, have an appointment for something or want to stay up late to watch tv or read, that’s the night that I do it! Its nice to have one day that’s a little different from the rest. I try to keep my food intake as “normal” as possible and since I cant kick my healthy crossfit addiction, I make my daily trip to CFW for some good old fashioned “active recovery” work. What, you ask, is “active recovery?” Its pretty important in any training regimen and athletes of all kinds should have some days like this in their training schedule, they are almost as important as total rest days and working days! There have been plenty of studies done on this and some different findings… but over all here is what I have learned. Active recovery is either done ri...

May 16, 2012 Damn... Fran got heavy overnight! Fran is pretty much THE crossfit staple WOD. Its the "how much do you bench" between crossfit athletes. Its not a "hard" WOD, its not a lot of movements or complicated movements... but its pretty much the benchmark for your progression in crossfit. I read somewhere the following quote... "One of the most anticipated events at the olympics is the 100m dash and the final lasts less than 10 seconds. Fran is crossfit's 100m dash." So, today CrossFit Wachusett put a special "twist" on Fran. Today we did Fran before she became a crossfit athlete... before she dropped the weight. We did HEAVY Fran! Typically Fran is a 21-15-9 with 65lbs thrusters (for women) and pullups. When modified to be Heavy Fran we did a 15-12-9 with 95lb thrusters (for women) and had to do either weighted pullups or chest to bar pullups... I opted for the chest to bars. Wow, what a workout! I am a huge fan of lifting ...

May 14, 2012 I have this new thing I do every morning when the alarm goes off. I open my eyes think about the day and go at it full force. I make myself understand "today is a new day" and try to leave behind the thoughts of yesterday. I dont want to loose myself in this as to which I dont pay mind to the things that affect me emotionally, so I still think of all of those "things" but try to approach it with a fresh mindset. Todays WOD was great. It was something different from what we are used to. It was a typical WOD, a 21-15-9 however with the TABATA clock running we we forced to work for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds through the entire WOD. I really enjoyed doing something a little different, if sort made me rethink my strategy of how to complete the work. My strategy was work work work. Get as much work done in the 20 seconds on, dont stop, push as hard as I can and use the 10 seconds rest for what its intended. I felt like I was on FIRE, I plowed...

May 9, 2012 There is so much comfort in knowing that I have made the right decisions in my life as far as who to let in, who to let go of and who to hang on to with all my might. When I think about my friends, there are certainly people (like we all have) who we were the best friends in the world with through a certain time of our lives and suddenly we look back and think "what happened." There are also people that I have been friends with in the past and thought... "why is this so much work?" There comes a point where you just have to let go sometimes. When I was young I didnt have a lot of friends. In fact when I was in 5 and 6th grade when the wonderful world of "bullying" became a part of my life. I was approached at least once a week with some asshat saying "you dont have any friends do you..." and when I said "yes I do" and told them who she was they would laugh and say "she would never be friends with you." I w...

April 20, 2012 Open auditions starting today!!  Seriously, if there is one thing I have learned in my life, being myself and staying true to being the person I want to be is by far the most important lesson I have learned. It didn’t come overnight and I didn’t “learn” it from one particular instance. My parents didn’t “teach” it to me, I didn’t read about it… It is all the moments in my life so far rolled up into one tight package. As a child I wasn’t “popular” I had a rough go for a lot of years in school with getting made fun of and even having people throw shit at me (kids can be so crule). I spent years in the nurses office trying to get her to call my mom so that I didn’t have to go back to class. Lots and lots of broken thermometers in the nurses office faking a fever… but she was on to me of course. I couldn’t understand (and still don’t) how I, who didn’t do “anything” do anyone could be treated that way just for being me. I tried hard to get involved, t...

April 9, 2012 WARMUP: Jump Rope Circuit 2X - 10 Singles - 10 Each Leg - 10 Side to Side - 10 Front to Back - 10 Crossover - 10 Double Unders 2 X 9 Fundamentals Lax Ball Mobility WOD: Thruster Ladder 3 thrusters on the min, every min Start with 65lbs add 5 lbs each min until failure 65-115 (got 120 for 1) SKILL/STRENGTH 4 X 250m Row w/1 min rest (56, 53, 51, 53) .

March 30, 2012 WARMUP: Jump Rope Circuit 2X - 10 Singles - 10 Each Leg - 10 Side to Side - 10 Front to Back - 10 Crossover - 10 Double Unders 2 X 9 Fundamentals Shoulder Opener WOD: EKG 5 Rounds for Time - Row 200 - 10 Push Press (65lbs) - 20 Walking Lunges (10:36 Rx) SKILL/STRENGTH: Deadlifts 3-3-3 235, 255, 260 (PR!!) .

March 21, 2012 Mornings like this make me very happy and motivate me to start the day off with a smile. I had a great nights sleep last night, woke up and was geared up and ready to tackle whatever it was that was going to be on the board at CFW. To my surprise I was greeted with deadlifts (yay!), rowing and KB swings!! This was going to be a good one!! It was also a great morning to have a run in the warmup and as always there was a great 5:30am crew, JM, L, G, and T!!  My goal… to use all the motivation that I have learned in the last few weeks to really kill this WOD. I enjoy deadlifting (so that helps), and I have been working on my speed a lot… yesterday even. We have also been focused a lot lately on proper form while rowing, making sure to have long pulls and straight backs, which is also a huge benefit for this WOD.   I started adjusting my foot straps to the highest setting as well upon recommendation of one of our CF Family members who was a crew member in coll...

March 6, 2012 WARMUP: 3 Rounds - 20 Walking Lunges - 10 Inchworms - 5 Pushups 2 Rounds - 5 High Hang Power Clean - 5 Hang Power Clean - 5 Power Clean - 5 High Hang Squat Clean - 5 Hang Squat Clean - 5 Squat Clean WOD: "Flow" 3 Rounds For Time - Row 500m - 10 HSPU (two abmats) - 30 Air Squats (My Time 11:48) SKILL/STRENGTH: Cleans 3-3-3 120lbs, 125lbs <--- failed first one and stopped for fear of hurting my hip more... getting frustrated but I know I have to heal! .

February 28, 2012 You know the moment when you are trying to accomplish something and all of a sudden you realize that you are almost done... just a few more steps, minutes, reps.... whatever it may be (in our out of the gym)... in that moment whether you know it or not, you make a decision. The decision to go on, push yourself to stay up for just a few more hours to finish the paper due tomorrow, work a few more hours to meet the deadline you promised a client, run the last quarter of a mile without walking a step, struggle through the last rep of a 10 minute AMRAP of an exercise that might not be your "favorite", or even spend time thinking about whether a relationship is worth saving when it is on the rocks... you either decide to push to go on, or you decide to give up. The choice is yours.  In that moment its determination that comes into play. If you want it, you can have it... Sometimes you have to learn to push yourself for the smaller things first... ...

February 21, 2012 Well, its another Monday holiday. Its nice to work for a company that actually gives more than Christmas and Thanksgiving off! We were closed today, so even though I took some work home I was looking forward to a day off and a 4 day week to follow. I still (no shock here) was signed up and ready to go for the 5:30am session at the gym. I had talked to T previously and he was still heading in for 5:30am as well... and we had a little "project" planned for after the WOD. We arrived and J joined us. We all talked with K about our "post paleo hangover" which was actually more from the overdose on food than it was on beer (though the beers didnt help with the situation). As I started warming up I could feel Saturdays workout coming back to bite me in the ass. Literally... my hamstrings, glutes and quads were killing. How was I going to do MORE kettle bell swings for todays WOD? Not sure. All I could do was warm up a lot and stretch really really wel...

February 8, 2012 Its hard to believe (and somehow at the same time it flew by) that just a mere 6 months ago Hubs and I arrived at the old garage for our first time, met K for the first time and were introduced to our first CrossFit WOD. I looked back into my journal to see what it was we did that day. I wasnt blogging yet.. it was a 21-15-9 of wall balls, burpees and abmat situps... and it took me 14:24. I wish I blogged about that workout, but I know I can remember pretty much feeling like I was going to die at the end of those 14 1/2 minutes! Somehow, I was absolutely hooked from that second on. The adrenalin, the feeling of finishing, the push by K to keep going, the anticipation of the next workout... and really, the challenge, had me ready for more. Here I am 184 days later, not only 22lbs and many many inches later, but in the best shape of my life still ready for tomorrow, still anticipating the next WOD and still pushing to be better every single day. My friend posted TH...

February 7, 2012 Ego [ee-goh] noun, plural e-gos 1. the "I" or self of any person; a person as thinking, feeling and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from objects of its thought. 2. Psychoanalysis. the part of the psychic apparatus that experiences and reacts to the outside world and this mediates between the primitive drives of the if and the demands of the social and physical environment. 3. egotism; conceit; self-importance 4. self esteem or self image; feelings. This sign is PERFECT for any CrossFit box, and really should be thought about before every workout. Its message is the point I have been trying to get across to myself (and through this blog) all along. Sometimes its harder to digest than others, sometimes it only feels natural to be upset if you dont finish "first" or at the top of the list. As an athlete you always have to remember to just put your best foot forward, push as hard as you can and be damn proud t...

January 31, 2012 Holy crap, where did the month of January go?! When I arrived to work this morning after a great 5:30am ass whooping, I opened up my email and was greeted with a fantastic message. Within this message was a quote... now...  I was more than flattered that this person read the quote and thought of me, but in addition to that, it couldnt have been a more perfect morning to receive it. “Motivation is like food for the brain. You cannot get enough in one sitting. It needs continual and regular top ups." How true is that. It basically sums up the emotions and thoughts I have on motivation in two sentences. Its human nature to crave things that make you feel good. When you get that feeling, that "high" from doing something, anything... from something as simple as making someone laugh, to lifting a personal record weight,  you just cant wait to get back in and do it again. I have talked before about habit and starting something, keeping...