Minime 2008 : Journey to Crossfit Excellence

I'm a little late but please accept my belated best wishes for your good faith, fitness, fortune and health on your birthday and the years to come.

You weren't even your daddy's little squirt yet when I was 26 years old. You are a young pup so enjoy your youth!

[CF-OC_gal]

Happy birthday Minime

I hope you have a strong year again.

[minime]

Thanks guys! I had a great birthday weekend and a lovely day off yesterday I like days off.

Monday November 10th
Power cleans
65x5
75x5
85x3
95x3
105xF
105x1

the sets of three were singles. 105 is a PR for power clean but my form was ugly. I have video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZrOSgVm7s0

the other videos of lighter reps are up there too. i think it looked pretty good up to 95

WOD (scaled)
5 rounds for time
15 inverted burpees
15 pullups
15 burpees

22:37

Tuesday November 11th
Fight Gone Bad
Total score of 267, 2 reps off my PR

i don't have my score sheet but something like this -

wall ball 35-29-25
sdhp 15-13-12
box jump 25-23-22
push press 15-12-14
row 9-9-9

whatever that adds up to, I am prob off on a couple reps but I know what the total was.

Last night I finished the last of my very decadent birthday cake - and for some reason today I am starving!! I just ate a ton of nuts after my lunch because it's all I have left to eat! Now they are gone and I'm still hungry!!

[minime]

hmm forgot to say monday i walked a lot - 8 miles

yesterday 4 miles

[JDR3]

Power cleans look good
The 105 wasn't pretty - but that doesn't matter, it was a PR!!!!!!!!!!
I don't think they can be pretty at max.

105 video was great, you could tell how pissed you were at yourself
on the first effort..........been there many a time!

Anyway get job!

The first power clean looked more like a clean high pull drill.

A PR is a PR - you can always fix the form later, but in general drive with the legs rather than pull with the arms.

I like how you dropped the weight afterwards. Dropping is wonderful, particularly when it's from overhead as it immediately takes the weight demand off the body.

[minime]

Thanks for your input peirini - I love dropping the weight one reason I love my gym so much, lovely bumper plates!

After last wednesday's crossfit class - learned to KB snatch, and did heavy jackie - 1500m row, 65lb thruster x35, burpee pullup x20 in 20 minutes, I took three days off. my shoulder was annoying me, I felt tired and beat up and thougth it wouldn't hurt. It was very enjoyable.

Yesterday I returned to the gym once more well fueled with copious amounts of sunflower seed butter, dried pears and beef.

Sunday November 16th
Back Squat 5x5
95-105-115-120-120

"Annie"
50-40-30-20-10
double unders
situps

8:38 (PR)

OK so my squat numbers are not impressive, but I was really focusing on form - going deep, and not doing this weird Good morning squat thing I have had a tendency towards lately. So as it turned out, 120 was very very hard for me yesterday. I plan to do squats more consistently and hopefully will be up to 125 next time.

Wednesday walking 4.5 miles

Thursday 6 miles

Friday 6 miles

Saturday 4 miles

Sunday 6 miles

I am delighted to say my husband has begun (somewhat grudgingly) to exercise. His motivation comes in the form of ski season right around the corner and the fear that he won't be able to keep up with men 20 years his senior.

He ran 3 miles on Friday, on Saturday I had him do 100 situps, squats and pushups, and yesterday despite being very sore he did some jump rope for 10 minutes.

Strangely enough squats are hardest for him - it's weird but even after not working out in a long time, he could still do over 30 pushups in his first set. I still can't do 30 pushups

[minime]

Looks like I am up to a whopping 80 miles of walking this month so far. I might just beat my last month total.

[sweetdream]

hey talia, wow that was a mouthful Yes, I went on a little rampage with typing last night haha

you really need to stop thinking in terms of attempt number this, and that, and 'giving up' after this time etc. I'm not sure why I do it, it's because I feel like I have failed at something I have been trying to do forever

don't think of it like a diet, think of it like a lifestyle change. Of course you can have bread and pasta and pizza in moderation, stop thinking of all of these things as forbidden foods. this is really my problem I either eat it or I don't and when I do I get out of control because I never do

if you know you will be having pizza for dinner, eat low carb the rest of the day up until dinner in preparation. IF you are having spagetti, take half what you normally would and eat extra veggies. how many carbs do you eat in a day? and how long do I need to try doing it before I think it's not working and give up

a food in particular does not make you fat. Like a nutrient alone (fat protein or carbohydrate) does not in itself make you fat. Different nutrients have different purposes, and they all have energy (calories)

Fat and protein based diets will enable you to eat less and be less hungry. Carbohydrate heavy diets will generally make you hungrier and less able to stick to your plan. Especially if the carbohydrates are coming in the form of white breads, cookies and candy. yes I do feel like more **** if I have eaten heavy carbs/sodium in a day compared to eating a lot of fat and less carbs..

You already know I don't agree with you cutting your fat further. Back when you were a veggie for a while, you were lighter not because you only ate 40g of fat, but because your activity was higher and/or your calories lower. this is true, I ate veggies all day long but was miserable because I was constantly worried about what to eat- now I am starting to think the pattern never really changed, just that I started eating meat again haha. but yes I was active because I was working out 6 days a week and also serving a lot too....

this is how the body works - energy in being balanced with energy out. If you eat more than your body burns, you will gain weight. If you eat less, you will lose.

If you eat a lot of processed food, it is not that the food itself is bad - nothing wrong with the odd slice of pizza or bread or whatever, but the problem is portion control gets very difficult. You think, oh one slice of pizza probably about 100 cal of bread, 50 cal of cheese etc. when one slice could be say, 500 calories and you would be WAY off.

As I told you since I cut the sugar, breads and processed crap from my daily diet, upped my fat grams considerably and eat less carbohydrates, I have never felt better in terms of body composition. And i'm not freaking out about it or anything - i'm no food nazi. In fact this morning I ate a muffin. It's just that 90% of the time, I DON't eat stuff like that.

And I work out a lot.

Your workouts might be needing a fresh injection of intensity, no?
my workouts do need a boost but now I am in a bad place because I have no other option but to use my elliptical in the basement and do my own lame ass free weight routine with 10lb db and a stability ball. I still work out 6 days a week and I have gone back to waitressing too so I am hoping that the change in my work routine will help burn the calories I wasn't when I was moving like a snail at the BAC. It will be 2 weeks tomorrow, and so I still have another 2 weeks before I could even consider asking for my membership back, maybe if I am lucky I could ask my fellow co-worker to talk to the manager...

I guess I just need to give myself more credit, I mean, how long are your workouts everyday? do you workout 6 days a week? what kinds of cardio do you do? and what kind of work do you do? I get too easily frustrated and too easily defeated by my own actions.. also, how long did it take you to acquire this type of diet? are you in maintainence mode? I feel like thats where I am but I dont want to cut calories further because that's just bad news so I figured cutting fat would help...I am way wrong..

[seraph]

hey minime happy belated bday!! i'mm impressed with your work!!! haven't been on the site much but good to see the same faces still working their a$$es off!

Originally Posted by minime

OK so my squat numbers are not impressive, but I was really focusing on form - going deep, and not doing this weird Good morning squat thing I have had a tendency towards lately. So as it turned out, 120 was very very hard for me yesterday. I plan to do squats more consistently and hopefully will be up to 125 next time.

If you are planning on doing more squat work, concentrating on your form, think about doing 8x3 rather than 5x5. Just a training idea. And cycle your squat workouts between light, medium and heavy training days.

[minime]

Thanks for stopping by Seraph, I trust you are enjoying the sunshine in California? It's in the 20s here, brrrr

Pierini, do you mean 8 sets of 3 or 3 sets of 8 - i always get confused by this. My plan was to throw in some max squat and deadlift work in once a week or so, just so I can track progress. I may also put in some bench. Do you think I should still do 'light' squat work, considering there is often a lot of that sort of stuff in my Crossfit workouts?

Talia - I will reply in your journal to your questions!

Monday November 17th
500m row - 2:12 (ties PR)

"Helen"
3 rounds
400m run
21 kettlebell swings 1pood
12 pullups

13:28

Disappointed with Helen Performance, PR is 12:50 but I wasn't feeling it today. you win some you lose some i guess

Tuesday November 18th
Deadlift (after warmup sets)
155x3
165x3
175x3
180x3
185x3 (PR)

Double Under practice, made it to 38 consecutive (PR)

Yippee for a day of PRs! So happy to get 185x3 for deadlifts, I may try for a new 1RM before christmas, 2x bodyweight would be awesome!

Wednesday November 19th Rest day

Walking of 4.5 miles monday, 5 miles tuesday, 6 miles yesterday.

We are planning to do a hike this weekend, I am quite excited!

I suggest 8 sets of 3 on a heavy squat day you do only once a week, going no higher than 90% of your 1RM. Here's my suggestion progression for the 8 sets: 60% - 70% - 80% -90% for 5 sets. Plenty of rest between sets as the name of the game is perfect upright form.

Check out my blog today for an exercise to work the uprightness part of squatting.

For me, I wouldn't combine heavy deadlifting with heavy squatting on the same day.

You are probably getting enough squat work with CrossFit so that additional squat work is not necessary. I've been supersetting the squat workout by doing sub-max pullups/chinups between sets. There's not much room for anything else (for me) on those training days.

Good job on those new PRs.

[JDR3]

Great job on the DL's

But especial nice work on the Double-unders!!

[minime]

thanks pierini! I will try that next time! and i meant, heavy squat and deadlift on seperate days, or one or the other, I wouldn't work them both close to max on the same day or even consecutive days. Too taxing, I find that after a max deadlift workout my low back is very fatigued the next day.

Thanks JDR!

Thursday November 20th
Clean drills
- foot stomp
- rack recieve (pvc)
- scarecrow drop (pvc + 33lb)
- high hang clean pull (33 + 53lb)
- high hang high clean pull (33 + 53lb)
- hang power clean (53lb)

Jerk (Split)
3 sets of 5 at 53#
about 5 or 6 singles with 75
singles
80-80-85-85-85-90-90-90F

Happy with Jerks, first time doing these with anything more than 75 i think. I am happy to say that I think I 'get' it! I was tired at the end, hence the fail but I am thinking a bw jerk may not be that far away for me. Just need to work on dropping lower as there was a little pressout on some reps and this is taxing for the shoulders.

Also did a few cleans with 85 and 90 as I had dropped the bar from jerk.