Tag Archives: goals

Break on through to the other side

8 May

I’m closing in on my first “official” year of CrossFit. I think our first On Ramp class was around May 15th. Holy Self Discovery, Batman, has it been a year?!?! I wrote this post about my honeymoon stage with CrossFit nearly a year ago, and unless I’m still stuck in the warm fuzzies of a relationship, it is everything I had hoped it would be. And more. I’m just thinking through all the things I can do now that I couldn’t do a year ago:

– Overhead squat: I wobbled through 30 lbs a year ago. Now I do 65 lbs in a workout and can do 100 lbs for one rep.
– Back squat: I started at 135 lbs, now I’m at 175.
– Front squat: I was dropping the bar at 95 lbs in September, and did 3 reps for 130 yesterday
– Dead lift: 155 lbs for 1 rep to 175 for five reps (last one rep max before that was 170, so I’m sure it’s higher now too).
– Bench press: 95 lbs for 1 rep to 120 lbs
– Clean: I remember flailing and struggling through 55 lbs a year ago. Now I do 75 in a workout and have maxed at 100 lbs.
– Jerk: Last summer or fall I could barely jerk 85 lbs, a few months ago I easily had 100, and could’ve had more if I could’ve cleaned more.
– Kettlebells: Started with the 25 lb, now alternate between the 35 and 45 lb bell, depending on the wod.
– Wall balls: I was falling all over the place with a 6 lb wall ball when we started, now I power through solidly with a 14 lb ball.
– Pull-ups: Couldn’t do a single unassissted pull-up, chin-up, or kip a year ago, now I flail through the wod’s with kipping pull-ups, and can do several strict pull-ups and   chin-ups with no assistance.
– Push-ups: I always had a few full push-ups, but always dropped to my knees, now I can finish nearly every workout with no knees.
– Ring dips: I couldn’t even hold myself up steady on the rings when I started, and now I can do a couple ring dips in a row.
– Double unders: I have unsuccessfully attempted double unders for a whole year, making zero progress, not even able to make a single purposeful double under happen, until LAST WEEKEND. Finally got a hand position tip from Ronnie that made all the difference in the world. I made one happen in a giant stomping jump, and repeated that a few times to make sure it was real. Once I trusted myself, I started putting them together with with singles in between and was able to get a short rhythm going. It was one of the best accomplishments I’ve ever had, coming from a year of frustration and zero progress. I was honestly beginning to think I was missing a part of my brain, as the longest running no-double-under-fool in the gym. But no more! I’ve got them, and now I can practice and only get better, just as I have everything else.

When I started CrossFitting, I didn’t really consider myself a CrossFitter. I was just a woman trying CrossFit, but I wasn’t good enough or cool enough to actually BE a CrossFitter. I felt like a wannabe. Somewhere along the lines I embraced it, and I learned that CrossFit isn’t just for the elite athletes. It’s for anyone who wants to grow, change, get stronger, embrace the hard work, and have fun doing it. Looking back on my accomplishments, I actually have some skills up there that I foolishly told myself that once I gain those skills, I can call myself an official CrossFitter. It’s funny, now, but what I didn’t realize is I already had the skill of CrossFit within me all along, DESIRE and WILL. From the first time I attempted a CrossFit workout and went back for more, that was it. I am CrossFit.

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Just because

3 Jan

I hit another PR today at the gym, this time on back squat, something I felt was not improving for months. Finally, twenty pounds more than last time, now a solid 175. I went for 180, and I’m pretty sure I would’ve had it, but my bar partners couldn’t help themselves but lightly touch the bar as I was slowly inching my way up. They said they barely touched it and I should count it, but I know better. Next time, I’ll have 180 easy, so no worries!

It’s that time of year when I think I should write some resolutions. Just because. Even though I know there is no end goal, it’s always to just keep improving, being better than yesterday. So, being new at strength training, I have no idea what I’m capable of in a full year of doing this. I’m only just over a half year in, so maybe I’ll try to double the progress I’ve made in that time? Who knows, but these are the next milestones I’d like to accomplish at some point this year, before I move on to my next milestones.

Back squat: 200
Dead lift: 200
*Ronnie says my dead lift should be significantly higher than my back squat, so these goals seems imbalanced. Basically I should already be doing more than 200 on dead lift, but I’ve struggled with that one the last few heavy go-rounds. Hopefully that is one I hit early in the year so I can keep it moving up faster than my back squat!

Bench press: 130
Shoulder press: 90
*Shoulder press is my absolute weakest lift, I feel. I have no idea what a reasonable goal there is, but I know right now, 75 is a struggle.

Overhead squat: 100
*Haven’t done much of these heavy. Did 80, several months ago, for 3 reps. One hundred might be a wimpy goal, but I like getting over those nice round numbers, and again, I haven’t done much heavy here, so who knows?

Front squat: 150
*That seems a huge jump from my current 115, but when I did that, it was the first time I was actually doing it right and felt good doing it. I think I’ve got potential to get stronger on this quickly. We’ll see!

I’m not going to set goals on the Olympic lifts right now. Don’t know my current max, so I don’t even know where to start. I love these lifts, but somehow always happen to miss the heavy days. Maybe that should be my resolution here, not to miss heavy Olympic lifting days!

Pull-ups: Do an entire WOD with unassisted kipping pull-ups.

Double-unders: Just be able to do them. Still no progress since I started in May 2011!

Happy New Year! May it be a productive and joyful 2012!

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R & R

15 Nov

Last week Ronnie and I left the Midwest, our work, and even our families to get some beach time in Florida. It was our third visit back to Anna Maria Island, where we got married over five years ago. I dream of this place often, envisioning the turquoise hues of the water and the rhythm of the waves when I need to check out of the here and now. It brings me peace and somehow calms my constantly racing mind, and all I can think of the ocean’s beauty. I saw a Bible verse posted recently, which pretty much sums it up: “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Since having a baby, for all beach vacations, I’ve set the date of the trip as my “get in shape” goal. I gotta lose “x” pounds by then, I’ve got twelve weeks to complete this workout video series and then I’ll be fit for a swimsuit. Can I get back into those short shorts by then?. I’d get motivated for a week or two, and then lose it, getting busy, getting sick, getting bored, all the while not getting any more fit. I’d count down the weeks in desperation, all the while watching my vain goals for the upcoming vacation slip away. Of course, I’d still go on vacation, have a blast, but not feel good in my skin and dread seeing swimsuit pictures.

This trip was different. Since doing CrossFit and finding a love for working out and challenging myself to try new things and improve my strength, endurance, and skills, I never saw the date of our trip as an end all goal, point of no return to look okay in a swimsuit. The date of the trip had nothing to do with anything, except enjoying life. Instead, every day I chose to workout was a day to get better at something, whether that be a lift, a pull-up, or a bad attitude. And that kept me coming back for more, instead of worrying about how I would look in a tank top in pictures.

I went on the trip feeling confident, and ready for rest. I knew how hard I’d been working in all areas of my life, from parenting, to career, to fitness. There were cameras snapping everywhere, and other than not feeling as comfortable at the end of the trip as at the beginning due to over-endulging in non-Paleo treats, I knew it was fine. The body in that swimsuit is a body that has discovered so much about itself in the last six months, and is still capable of SO. MUCH. MORE.

Jump for joy

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Glimpses of progress

18 Oct

It was double-under night, and I had my trusty new pink rope. But instead of just practicing individually among the group with all the whirring and slapping of ropes going on around me, we had to practice one at a time in front of each other. And tonight’s class had to be pushing twenty people. This meant I couldn’t hide in a corner and pretend to practice my double-unders in the half-assed directionless way I usually do.

People would be watching me.

And I was chosen to go first!

A couple singles of revolution and one fast attempt that counted as one double-under. I got it! But just one, and the goal was to do as many in a row as possible, and each turn, increase that amount. It felt good, so I tried to replay the motions over and over in my head, but the feeling faded as I waited and watched and cheered on the others as they got theirs. By the time it got back around to me, the memory was long gone, and the pressure to get two in a row this time stressed me out enough to forget how to even get one. And so were the rest of my turns; I couldn’t get that one double-under while nearly everyone else in class was able to increase theirs by at least one, if not several, each time. Even the newbies.

We moved on to the WOD, which had double-under’s, but I just did my usual triple amount of singles, while every now and then in a good rhythm, attempting doubles. I got a few, but never more than one in a row. But I felt something this time. Something that stuck each time I attempted it again, some faint memory of where to hold my hands or a better way to jump. Something, some tiny glimpse of progress that I was able to hang on to and reproduce a double under more than once. Before tonight, any successful attempt I ever got felt like an accident. Tonight, there were deliberate double-unders, no matter how sloppy and lonesome they were between the singles and the tripped-up ropes.

My new best friend and I…we’ll make it. It’s gonna be a rough road, but I finally see the chance that this relationship might actually go somewhere.

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Where there’s a will

6 Oct

A coworker told me a disturbing story yesterday.

She was at the gym and observed a guy bust out a ton of pull-ups like it was no big thang. I believe, from what she said, that he was also a personal trainer or some sort of fitness professional. I could be wrong but that was the impression I got from her story. She commented to him that it was impressive to watch his pull-ups, and that she was working on those, and while she couldn’t do one yet, her goal was to string several together in a row someday. Hmmm, that sounds familiar!

But the guy straight told her that she was a girl and couldn’t do pull-ups. That it takes serious upper body strength and she’d have to bulk her arms up ridiculously to ever be able to do them.

Is he freaking serious? I wish I would have been there to witness this. I would have jumped up there and shown him my [sloppy] pull-up, and maybe, in anger, busted out several. And then asked him to measure my arms and tell me they are bulky. And then I might have told him to drop and give me 100 burpees for telling a girl she can’t do something.

I was dumbfounded by this story, and I truly truly hope that I misunderstood and this guy was not a fitness professional, because any trainer with that attitude ought to be fired. And even if he isn’t a trainer, he’s a total tool, and I’d love to have him out to Sky’s Limit CrossFit to show him what some of these chicks can do.

One thing I have learned in the last few months is a total change in attitude and the language I use. “Can’t” is no longer in my vocabulary, unless I use a modifier to say “I can’t do that right this moment, but I will get there.” Solid pull-ups, double-unders, rope climbs, and barbells with more than 200 pounds of weight on them? I am not currently able to walk into the gym and do those things. But some day, maybe even within the next few months, those things will not just be on my “to-do” list, they will be on my “can-do” list. And there isn’t one person that can tell me differently.

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That was quick

18 Sep

I posted just last week about my first unassisted chin-up success. Well today I decided to show Ronnie I could do it (and prove to myself that I really could). He made me do two in a row for good measure, as any good coach would do, right? And then I decided to give the traditional pull-up a try. Surely I have at least made progress on that since the chin-ups improved. Ronnie wasn’t observing when I gave it a go, but my mom and friend were there watching. I pulled and pulled and inched my way up to a questionable height, which I did not give myself credit for. I assumed it was an inch or two short. But I was thrilled with the progress as it was much further than I had gotten last time I tried.

I went ahead and attempted some kipping pull-ups. I figured if the strict version was that close, than adding a swing and some momentum would surely get me over the top. But see, there’s that whole coordination thing that I am not good at. The momentum only really works if all the body parts work together in the right timing. I don’t have that yet. My swing has improved greatly, but connecting the swing with the pull was still not happening.

I dropped, feeling the hunger, still happy about my chin-ups, and decided to rest up for a few minutes. Maybe all I needed was a short recovery and some mental anticipation.

We visited with the parents and friends for a few minutes longer, until they left and Ronnie and I prepared for our little Sunday WOD. It’s fun to get these quiet workouts in together without the hustle and bustle of the usual gym bunch. It’s rare that he and I get to workout together, so when we do, it’s a nice change. As he got the rowers and kettle bells set out, I told him before we start, I was going to get that pull-up, and he was going to by my witness. I had convinced myself over the last few minutes after my first try that I wasn’t leaving the gym today till I got it. It was far too close.

I grabbed the bar, took a few deep breaths. I doubted. I second-guessed that I should try this again, lest I ruin the excitement of my chin-up accomplishment just days before. Took another breath, and pulled. I reached my threshold a few inches short, when Ronnie yelled “Kick it!” so I gave a little kick with my legs to thrust me upward those final couple inches, and he said “Got it!”

I am not 100% sure this counts as “strict pull-up” since I did have to use my legs at the last second for some extra energy, and it definitely wasn’t a kipping pull-up. So maybe it was somewhere in between the technical definitions. There are people that are sticklers for definition and technique, so I’ll make my claims carefully. But it was a pull-up, no-less, with no assistance from any external physical thing. My own body got my chin up above that bar from a dead hang all by itself. So it counts. I have accomplished the hardest part of my 2011 New Years Resolution. Now to get multiples, which will no doubt be easier. Once you know you can do something, it makes improving it so much more motivating and doable.

So, I’ve reached my goal. I feel incredibly proud and exhilarated. I’ve been buzzing on it all day. Ronnie went to take a Sunday afternoon nap and I can’t do it. I’m not doing much else productive, other than writing this post, but at least my mind is still accomplishing things. One thing I did realize in all my processing, is it didn’t feel like this. It was much more difficult than it was in my dream, but that made it all the more fulfilling.

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Starting line

5 Jun

Ronnie and I went up to the gym this morning for a workout. He’s usually closed on Sunday’s but with the grand opening yesterday and all the prep work the day before, neither of us had worked out the last two days. Which was pretty okay with me since my booty was so sore from Thursday’s class. It was sore up high on my butt, which I haven’t felt for a long time. Ronnie assured me that was due to doing my dead lifts and overhead squats with correct form, so I gave myself a pat on the back for that accomplishment!

This morning he had me do a little heavy squatting, which isn’t something I’ve done much of. I’m too chicken to do it by myself in the gym at work, with no one to spot me or keep me focused on form. Yeah, there are safety bars on the squat rack but I’m just not comfortable! I tried once and remained comfortable at 90 lbs, but “comfortable” isn’t where I need to be to learn to lift heavy!

He started me out with 85 lbs for 5 reps, and kept adding about 10 – 20 lbs for each set. We ended up at 135 pounds (more than my own body weight!), for five reps. Skyler was with us and challenging our patience, so we stopped there. That weight was challenging, but thrilling at the same time. It gives me a nice little gauge of where to start building my strength. I’ve found a great starting line that I’m personally proud of. Squatting one’s own weight seems pretty impressive, at least to me. Looking forward to seeing what my 1 rep max is one of these days!

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Get out of my dreams

30 Apr

I jumped, my hands grasped the metal bar. I balanced my grip, took a breath and cleared my mind. I focused all my energy and strength in one full body contraction, and lighter than imagined, I pulled myself up. I lifted my body from a dead hang to my chin reaching above the bar. I couldn’t believe it. I lowered myself down slowly, and did it again. It was almost easier this time, after knowing it was possible. I think I went for five pull-ups total, before dropping to the ground with burning hands.

I was euphoric and exhausted. I felt my heart racing and blood rushing through my veins, all while feeling stronger and lighter than ever before. I had done it. Pull-ups, that elusive physical strength goal that always seemed so far away. I couldn’t believe I had mastered this skill and the time had finally come. There would be more challenges – now I could reach for quantities, and more difficult tasks like doing this on the gymnast rings, maybe even a muscle-up. But for now, I was thrilled with this accomplishment.

And then I woke up.

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