Black Friday WOD

The gym that we train at was closed the week of Thanksgiving but our trainers had "special" Thanksgiving WOD's and we were able to get in a free workout for the week!  Friday morning happen to be when Pam and Matt had their Black Friday WOD.

I now know that anytime the word "excited" is used with WOD, it really means...Get ready for a killer workout that will make you never want to eat carbs or pie AGAIN!  Seriously folks, it was probably the hardest workout I've ever done!

Black Friday WOD (partner workout):

Run 600M (200M each round)
45 Burpees (15 each round)

180 Jump Rope (60 each round)
45 Pull-Ups (15 each round, jumping pull-ups)

Rowing 600M (200M each round)
45 Box Jumps (15 each round, 20" box)

Steven and I actually completed the WOD!

So what did I learn on Friday?  I'M AN EXTREMELY STRONG WOMAN!  3 months ago I would have probably taken an entire hour to complete this workout but it took just a short 29 minutes (my time, combined it was 34 minutes) to complete the entire thing!  I'm sure their are people that did it faster but I don't really care because this was a huge milestone for me personally!  I'm not saying I need this type of WOD every week but it's good to have something that challenges you beyond your comfort zone.  If you stay in your comfort zone all the time then how to you measure progress?

My personal challenge going forward is to always push myself out of the comfort zone!  If I can complete this hard cardio workout, then I can complete anything that I put my mind to!

Small Things

This weekend Steven and I celebrated "Steven's Day".  It's a completely made up day obviously but we had so much fun with it! We created a day built of doing that that Steven wanted to do.  It was nothing special or fancy just a day of being together.  Here's a run down of what we did:

*Shopping at Old Navy, Michael's, Barnes-N-Noble, Gander Mtn

*Dinner at Salt Grass while sitting at the bar watching football

*Grocery shopping at the new Fairfield HEB (it was awesome)

While this doesn't seem like anything special, it meant a lot to Steven.  THAT'S WHAT MATTERED THE MOST!  It wasn't about how much money we could spend or what kind of adventure we went on; it was about doing things he wanted to do for the day (I must admit Michael's was my idea but he found a great treasure).

His Christmas guy he bought from Michael's below.

Back at it: "Murph"

For those of you who have not had the pleasure to experience the joy that is Crossfit let me give you some knowledge.  There are certain workouts called "Hero WODs".  They are workouts that honor servicemen, police officers, and firemen that have lost their lives in the line of duty.  These WODs are very challenging since they are made to honor these men and women.  On Monday I had the pleasure of being introduced to "Murph".  The prescribed workout is one mile run, 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats, and to finish it off one mile run.  Oh yea almost forgot you are doing this while wearing a weighted vest.  The workout is in honor of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy , 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005.   This was his favorite workout.

Well since I am not close to being an elite athlete yet and struggle with cardio based workouts I did a half Murph.  So my runs were 800m instead of the full mile.  I started out strong I was able to run first 800m leg without stopping.  I am very proud of this because that is the farthest I have ran without stopping in years.  My plan for the movements was just do as many as I can and then move to the next one and so on and so on until I had finished all of my push up and pull ups and squats.  Then came the last leg of 800 meters. 

I was tired and my arms were dead.  I would run/jog as much as I could and then fast walk.  While fast walking I would think about Murphy and what he and his fellow brothers went through and it would give me the drive to start running again.  Now I am not saying that my struggles compare to his but sometimes you need to focus on something to get you through the wall.  To realize what you are going through is not that terrible at all that it is just a short inconvenience.  I finished strong and completed my WOD in 31 minutes. 

But for me the WOD is not done.  I want to learn more about this man and his fellow brothers.  There is a book that was written about his unit called "Lone Survivor".  I plan on reading it this weekend.  So thank you Murphy for your sacrifice for this country and thank you for making me a better person. 

Bad=Good

My morning started off with tears.  That's right, at 5:45AM tears are rolling down my face as I'm getting ready to head out the door to work for the day.  Thanks goodness for waterproof mascara!  I decided to weigh this morning for the first time in a month and was rather disappointed in the results...putting it mildly!  What a way to start a Monday! 

On the flip side of Monday, I found AMAZING success in my workout today!  When Pam first sent out the workout, I thought "she's lost her mind"!  My workout today was:

200 M Slosh Ball Run (40lbs)
300 M Sand Bag Run (50lbs)
300 M Run

Followed by:
90 Second Workout-50M sprint then max rep front squat (55lb, 21 reps)

I kicked total butt on this workout today which for me is unheard of when it comes to any cardio workout!  I normally pretty decent at holding my own on strength workouts and completely SUCK at cardio!  Not today though, I was determined to do more during my workout today and I accomplished just that!

It's time to raise the bar on myself and push myself way out of the comfort zone!  I'm so proud that I was able to use my horrible morning as a spring board to have a fantastic day!  Ate 100% clean all day and had an amazing workout!  Look out world because I'm ready to take you on!