A Fitter Esmerelda
The trials and tribulations of a 30-something couch potato trying to become a healthy human being.
Am not. Am still in bed feeling like crap.
Am now bored of being ill. Body, please take note - I refuse to miss my Saturday class.
…but I’m watching ‘Britain’s Youngest Boarders’. It’s bringing back a lot of memories, some good, some awful (I went to boarding schools in England for ten years from ages 8 to 17).
The t-shirt shop is open and ready for business! There are t-shirts, hoodies, and tank tops (plus a few other goodies) for women, men, runners, and supporters. There are lots of options, but if you would like to request a different color (for the logo and/or clothing) or different item, just let me know and I would be happy to add it for you!!
Make sure to pay attention to whether you are buying a runner t-shirt or a supporter t-shirt :)
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or request, don’t hesitate to send me a message or email me at kl.skogsberg@gmail.com.
5.29.12
Anyone who is planning to be in Chicago to run or support the runners during the marathon this year, put a few $’s aside and lets invade Chicago come October!
If anyone in Australia wants to buy supporters’ gear (or runners’ gear if you’re lucky enough to be racing) I am happy to coordinate. The shipping is done by purchase price, so it pays to do a bulk order.
Ugh. I hope you feel better soon. Xx
Oh, me too - particularly now I know we’re supposed to do “Jason” tomorrow.
Currently, it feels like my brain liquefied and is running out of my nose.
It’s 5am. I’ve been awake since 3:30am with a rotten head cold.
I’m just about to give up, get up and go to work.
It seems too coincidental that my body (first my back, now my immune system) is in rebellion mode after I started eating sugar and grains again.
This long weekend has to be used to get organised again and get back on the clean eating horse.
Inspired title, no?
Anyway, @melaniecanrun just texted me asking about my back, so I thought I’d update everyone here.
The back is ok. I went to a physio last Thursday morning (by which time, of course, it was nearly back to normal, oy vey). He reckons that I just jarred it, probably by landing funny after leaping to get the ball, and that as it cooled down on Saturday night and Sunday, it got stiff and sore. He gave me some exercises to do, which I have been rather slack with, and I’m going back to see him tomorrow. I also got him to take a quick look at my left arm, and we’re going to examine that more tomorrow.
I was feeling better by the end of the weekend and went to CrossFit this morning. The coaches have changed the format of the strength programme, particularly for beginners, so rather than working at e.g. 5-3-3 reps at 65-75-85% of your 1RM for any given movement, you do 3 sets of 5 at the same load.
Today was back squats and presses. Mindful of my back, I only put 30kg on the bar for the back squats (66% of my 1RM), which was still surprisingly difficult by the time I got to reps 14 and 15. I’m trying to counter my natural inclination to push everything HARDER FASTER MORE all the time and work on technique in an effort to prevent more of the crappy injuries I’ve been getting. One of the guys in the class, Joe, gave me some pointers on the squat (apparently, when I go to come up, I lean backward and my hips push forward, which is not what one wants), so I really focused on that. With all of that in mind, I’m going to stay at 30kg next week to really focus on nailing the technique before jumping to 35kg.
I haven’t done presses since our CFT, so I went fairly light at 14kg (56% of my 1RM). No major problems with my left arm, so I’m happy with that for now. On the way down, I feel like I lower the bar too far in front of my face (in an effort to avoid knocking my glasses off - ha, ha!), and I also rest too long at the top of the movement, so I might stay at 14kg for another session or so just to improve those technical issues before adding more weight (plus, I’m interested to see what the physio’s recommendation is on Tuesday).
The WOD was pretty cool (except for the burpees).
AMRAP 7mins of:
7 x Power Snatch (hee, hee, snigger, snigger) @ 6.5kg
7 x Granny Burpees (aka ‘controlled’ burpees with a bit of knee thrown in every now and again for good measure)
Because of my back, I asked Coach Mitch for an alternative to the burpess - no such bloody luck. Sadist had me doing step in and out burpees with no jumping at the end; they didn’t hurt my back, just the rest of my body. :P
The power snatches were pretty good fun - my first ever snatches. I used the technique bar and got a few ‘good’s from Coach Mitch, so I think I got the hang of it pretty quickly. Whether I can get a good snatch with a bit of weight on the bar remains to be seen, but softly, softly is the new catchphrase, so time will tell.
Closest girl, leaning waaaaay too far back on the row. You lose a lot of power this way. Technique is your friend on the erg, you can’t just smash it cos it will smash you. Once you get your stroke right it will feel so so good, I promise!
Agree (lots). Technique is particularly your friend when you are a short-arse, like me, as rowing does not favour the diminuitive CrossFitter.
(Source: thrustr)
Back is still killing me. Sitting is the worst, which is a bit of a bitch when you have a desk job.
I’m taking the week off training and have booked in to the physio first thing Thursday morning in the hopes of nipping long-term back pain in the bud. Maybe I can sneakily get him to look at my upper left arm, too, hee hee!
Apparently my stomach is a much more comfortable resting place than my toes.
I think I tweaked something in my lower back during the netball game on Saturday. It was pretty sore all of yesterday, and when I tried to get out of bed this morning…yeouch!
I’ve made it to the sofa, where my trusty toe warmer is keeping me company. Hopefully the drugs will kick in soon and I can head in to work. Too much to be doing to be spending the day flat on my back.
My veggie haul from the Green Growers market in South Fremantle - not too bad for $25.
I persuaded @melaniecanrun to come down and play for us today; my revenge for pulling me down the rabbit hole that is CrossFit. :P
For her first game in five years, girl did good!
Hehe
queue
Hehe
Love it!!!
So, I was going to come here and whinge about our sgitty WOD this morning (sprint 100m on the minute every minute) and how it took so much out of me physically that I could only do every other sprint and how it made me feel all over again the shame if being the fat kid at school who always, ALWAYS came last in the running races, and blah blah whinge whinge. Then I saw this on my dash and decided to let it go. Life is too short. You know what? Today I leapt out of my comfort zone and did something I never would have done last year. How fucking awesome am I?!
(Source: asgardianpoledanceoflove)
So, Monday was a pretty shitty day at The Cell for me for various reasons (mostly emotional).
But today was straight up awesomesauce! Well, really any day involving Good Mornings/Deadlifts and Back Squats in the same session has got to be good, but today was extra good!
GM: 7 x 3 @ 26kg
WOD: For time -
10 x BS @ 32.5kg (thought about playing it safe at 30kg, but decided to push it a little. Maybe could have done 35kg, but happy with this (although nowhere near bodyweight, 32.5 is 72% of my current 1RM)
20 x Dumbell Press with 6kg dumbells (2kg heavier than my previous dumbell weight, still a long way from HSPU but progress nonetheless. These were hard, though, my left shoulder was not happy, Jan.)
30 x ring rows
40 x knee raise crunch things
150 x single skips (I reached one of my CF goals today, which was to get 50 single skips in a row. I actually managed 65 before my coordination crapped out on me :) Next goal is to get 100 singles, then try to string three double unders together)
Time: 10:16 (really tried to get in under 10 minutes, but it wasn’t to be today. Nevermind: onwards and upwards!)
All in all, an awesome start to the day!
Starting my day off right. I’ve been quite proud of my ability to stick to the eating plan, especially in the few days that my husband, a dedicated carbivore, has been home. It helps that he had been very encouraging and is happy to do his own thing.
