Still not easy

This morning was my first workout in over a week! Boy was I excited to get back into it. My body is feeling better, just itchy, but no pain anywhere, even my back.

My workout was one I've done before -
AMRAP 20 minutes:
5 Thrusters
7 Hang Power Cleans
10 Sumo Deadlift High Pull
all @ 45#

The last time I did this, I couldn't remember if I did 7 or 8 rounds. Either way, I beat both of those this morning with 8 rounds + 5 Thrusters + 7 HPC.

It's such a fricken hard workout.

I love it though.

On a different note, just think... one month from now, we could possibly be debt free.

Holy crap.

Kelsalynn

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Freaking out (in a good way)

First, if you didn't read my pity party from just a few moments ago, please take a minute to read that post too...

I have to post again though because I just realized something HUGE!! Okay, remember how I said I was $500 away from being debt free by the end of September?

The reason I know this is because I have our budget done already so I know how much we'll have coming in and going out or how much we'll have leftover to send to our POS loan during the month. Even with every extra penny going to debt, we're $500 short of paying it off entirely.

Well, I was just looking over my budget for September and don't ask me how, but I counted our Home Equity Loan twice! That's $439! Obviously, I have no intention of sending them two payments so this $439 is actually money we'll be able to send to our debt! WAHOO!

That means, instead of $500 away from a September debt free date, we're only $61! You better believe I will be turning over every couch cushion, clipping every coupon, maybe even selling myself (I could probably get $61 I'm thinking) to get the $61 by September 30th.

Unless Murphy (bad luck, accident, emergency) strikes in September, so help me we WILL be DEBT FREE by October 1st.

Woot!

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Pity party

for 1 please...

This sun burn? I'm really over it.

I'm so sick of feeling uncomfortable... at first it was the pain of the burn and the repeated globbing of aloe all over my body.

And now it's the peeling and the constant ITCHING. Argh! It sucks!

I still have two spots on my back that just plain hurt...and of course, they're right under my bra strap so I feel them constantly.

Oooh, and the coolest part, I look as if I have a disgusting case of lice or dandruff b/c my head and hairline are peeling and it's in my hair. Awesome.

I'm cranky from being uncomfortable for this entire week.
I'm cranky from not working out.
I can't sleep comfortably. I can't sit and read comfortably. I can't do anything without itching or feeling the burn from my back. What a pain in my ass.

I just want to be left alone... don't touch me, don't talk to me, just let me "be" until this fricken thing passes b/c I'm not fun to be around right now.

I'm hoping this weekend I can go to the gym and get in a workout. I think that will help. Michael's work is having an outing tonight so he won't be home until late. That's probably a great thing for him because I'm sure he's sick of me snapping at him.

Here's a pic from the trip- the good ole' days before I realized I was BAKING:

(Me, Peggy- a co-supervisor, and Michael)

On a happier note- TGIF!

Kelsalynn
PS: Now is not the time to write, "Kelsalynn, this is what you get for not re-applying sun screen last weekend." I'M VERY AWARE OF THIS! This is a pity party I'm hosting for myself here folks, not a logic party.

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$$$***$$$***$$$***$$$***$$$

So much for not having any money to send to our debts until next week when we get paid again...

Michael and I have done a pretty fabulous job this month of coming in UNDER budget in a lot of categories.

1. Groceries - not sure how we did this b/c we're usually very consistent with our grocery bill. I think it came down to everything other than groceries- the paper towels, hygiene products, toilet paper, etc. We didn't have to buy laundry detergent, Downy, cleaning supplies, etc. All of these things kill our budget. I've been trying to use rags more often than paper towels and vinegar in place of cleaning supplies when I can. I guess every little bit helps!

2. Gas - again, not sure because we drove the same distance to work each day and gas hasn't been any cheaper. I'm not going to question it!

3. Keep the Change - We have our primary checking account with Bank of America. I'm anti-big-bank right now, but with the traveling Michael was doing and the moving we did in the past two years, this really was our only option. And since I don't know how long we'll bein AZ, we're keeping it for the time being until we switch to a credit union or local bank. Anyway, that was a tangent... if you spend $19.22 on a transaction, the difference of $.78 goes into your savings account. It makes balancing the checkbook a lot easier. I had some money building up in there so I transferred it back to my checking and sent it on to our debt.

It was a little bit here and there but in total, it added up to $250!

Total Amount Remaining = $4,685.15 but I'm still at 92% payoff.

The cool part, our total snowball for August was $4,100!!!

WOWSA!

As of right now, we are $500 away from being debt free by the end of September. So help me, I am going to do everything I can to find $500 somewhere!

Kelsalynn

PS: I'm eating a chocolate and sprinkle-covered donut right now. YUM!

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yup, still kickin'

I'm still slightly sunburned, but now it's more itchy than painful. My back, of course right under my bra strap, is still hurting so I haven't really worked out yet this week.

I don't feel bad about it. I can't remember when I took like a whole week off! Hell might freeze over...

j/k

I've been wearing tops all week that don't require a bra, or have a shell underneath because honestly, that's been the most uncomfortable part about this sunburn- the bra! Ugh! And now the peeling has begun so I look really sweet.

Anyway, I have no workouts to report and no debt payoff either. So this is what it feels like to not have anything to blog about... interesting.

Don't go anywhere. I'll be back soon. I promise!

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I'm alive

I go from posting multiple times in one day to falling off the planet.

Sorry. I'm here. I'm alive.

Friday I didn't workout because I had to get to work early.
Saturday we went tubing down the Salt River with a bunch of people from work. It was a blast and I can't wait to do it again.

Unfortunately, the SPF50 I usually wear in the Michigan sun did very little to protect me from the Arizona sun and I got extremely sun burnt. Every inch of me is sun burt and on my stomach and back (don't ask me why these areas), I have blisters. Yikes. Ouch is right.

We got home on Saturday at about 3:30.

I was in bed by 4:00.

And I slept until 6am on Sunday morning. WOW! That's 14 hours of sleep! I remember waking up at like 10pm and thinking, "If I get out of bed now, I'll really be screwed up so I might as well keep on sleeping..." and that's exactly what I did. I think my exhaustion was mostly a result of the sun I received from being in a tube on a river for 4+ hours.

I would wake up and guzzle an entire bottle of water. I realize now, my husband is so good to me because every time I woke up, the water bottle was full... so he must have noticed that I was drinking it and he would refill it for me :) Aren't I spoiled?

This morning, I went to the gym but I can't workout. I'm incredibly uncomfortable. Not necessarily in pain anymore, but that's probably because I'm limiting my movements! I took my time in the shower (which sucks when you're burnt by the way) and took my time putting on aloe and the works. Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll feel brand new again and be able to workout.

Hopefully I'll get some pictures from the tubing trip that I can post on here... right now, I'm not sure who has the camera from that day.
KelsaLynn

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$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Eeeeek! So close! I can't stand it!

I sent another payment to my POS student loan today. It feels DARN GOOD! The balance is officially under $5K and we have less than 10% to go! AAAAAAAAAHHH! Look at my debt payoff bar---- there's hardly any white left! So purty!

AMT PAID SO FAR = $56,026.75 = 92%!!!

AMOUNT REMAINING = $4,926!!!

This will be the ending totals for August since we won't get paid again until September. That's okay though because September is going to be a HUGE MONTH due to 3 pay periods!

I don't know that we'll be able to pay $5,000 in September so I'm expecting a debt free date the first week of October.

How exciting right?

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Karen can bite me

"Karen" is one of the WOD's that occurs most often, in my opinion. I see it every other month or so it seems.

"Karen" calls for 150 wallballs.

Here's a video I found of a girl doing a wallball so you can see what it looks like...

Looks simple right?

ha! yeah right. Despite the fact that this does come up often, I've only done it one other time and that was a lllllooooooooonnnnnnnngggggggg time ago- November 20, 2008!

You won't believe it, but when I did this workout before, I used a 6lb ball.

6 pounds!

And today, I used a 20 pound ball! That's a big difference!

I'm pumped because I've been using the 20lb ball more and more these days and I never thought that was possible. It used to be incredibly heavy to me and I didn't even like carrying it around let alone doing a whole workout with it. Take that Karen!

My time today was 10:59 which I'm very proud of. My legs and arms went from having the shakes to being totally numb before I finished. Once I threw the ball up for the 150th time, I fell to the floor, didn't even bother catching the ball. I was pooped.

Until tomorrow,
Kelsalynn

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H-O-T-T

Monday:
2 minutes jump rope
2 minutes sit-ups
1 1/2 minutes jump rope
1 1/2 minutes sit-ups
1 minute jump rope
1 minute sit-ups
30 seconds jump rope
30 seconds sit-ups

Quick 10-minute workout. I couldn't do double unders to save my life again. oh well. Fricken double unders. Those things are stupid anyway. :-P

Tuesday:
7 x 1 reps of a push press

My 3 rep max is 75 so I was shooting for a 1-rep max of 85. Here's how I did:
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
95 (f)

I felt strong again this morning. I was really close to getting the 95 up. I should have kept trying (or I should have let out a loud GRUNT- that works for some people) but I'll get it next time.

The past few days, I've had a hard time with my body temperature. If I were older, I would say I was going through menopause. I'm soooo hot lately. Like just sitting on the couch, A/C is set to what it's normally at, and yet I'm ROASTING! I've been having trouble sleeping b/c I wake up sweating. I know it's August and we live in Arizona, but I really don't think it's that. It's more internal than external. Any thoughts?

Kelsalynn

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Comparing Linda

Today, I did "Linda" which calls for:

10,9,8, 7,6,5,4,3,2,1 REPS of
Deadlift
Bench Press
Clean

So, you do 10 reps of deadlift, 10 bench press, then 10 cleans, then 9 of each, 8, etc. Most workouts in CrossFit get tougher as you go, but not this one. "Linda" is tough at the beginning b/c that's when you do the most reps. Mentally, it gets easier as you go instead of the opposite.

I did this workout once before, although I don't remember it. Had I not blogged about it, I wouldn't have known it happened. It was almost a year ago- September 6, 2008!

A year ago, my time was a heck of a lot faster than tonight- I did it in 16:27 back then.

Tonight, my time was just over 26 minutes. I was 10 minutes slower, but I'm totally okay with it because I've gotten a heck of a lot stronger since 1 year ago!

Deadlifts: from 80 pounds to 135 pounds!
Bench Press: from 65 pounds to oh, wait, still 65 pounds! That's okay, I suck at the bench press, I don't deny it.
Cleans: from 40 pounds to 65 pounds!

Tough workout. Very tough. Michael described it as a 26-minute sprint. That's a good analogy.

I liked it though, of course!

I hope everyone had a good weekend!

Kelsalynn

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Pumped

Today's WOD called for front squats- 7 rounds of 1 rep each.

Here's what a front squat looks like-

Notice you hold the bar in front of your body, balanced on your upper arm as opposed to behind your head resting on your shoulders. It throws off your center of gravity slightly.

My max before today was based on a 3-rep max and not a 1-rep max. But, I used this handy-dandy one rep max calculator last night to see what I should expect for today.

Based on a 3-rep max of 95 pounds, the calculator suggested a 1-rep max weight of 101 pounds.

Here's how I did:
75
85
90
95
100
105
110
115
120
125

I know it's more than 7 rounds, but I just kept going and going!!! I couldn't believe it! I went from 95# to 125#! I knew by starting at 75#, I would probably end around 105 or 110 and that's what I was shooting for. I wasn't sure if I was even going to get those weights let alone 15-20# more than that!

And my form was perfect too! After every round I felt so strong and kept adding weight... it was a great feeling! It was just what I needed...

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A man's quest to be fit

...and make others fit too!

My hubby, the personal trainer, certified athletic trainer, and all-around Health & Fitness enthusiast has started a blog!

When it comes to health and fitness, he's by far the most passionate person I know! Since he was yee lad, he's known he would be an Athletic Trainer. He loves helping people rehab from injury and strengthening and improving athletes' performance. It's his thing. It's what makes him tick.

So, check out his new blog... he's just getting started but for those of you who follow me for fitness reasons, if you have a question for him or a topic you want him to post about, I'm sure he'd loved it!

FitQuest

KelsaLynn

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I was clueless...

You bloggers out there, do you ever go back and read some of your old posts?

I do, not very often, but it's always fun and eye opening when I do.

Here's a great example. I found the post when I first found Dave Ramsey's program of paying down debt (9/17/08). Here's what I wrote:

"We have a mortgage, a car loan, and student loan debt. I never thought any of the debt we had was bad. We don't have trouble financially and I always thought this was "good enough". In our society, having these forms of debt is seen as "normal" so I never worried about them.

Lately I've been feeling like that just isn't good enough anymore. I started doing some research and have decided to adopt Dave Ramsey's snowball effect with our debt...

When I did the calculations, I realized that we could be debt free in four years. FOUR YEARS! Mind you, I have student loan debt that I thought would take a decade or more to pay off so I'm really excited!!! "
Okay, does any one else find that hilarious? A year ago, I thought it would take us FOUR YEARS to pay off our debt. And to think I was EXCITED about it "only taking 4 years." YIKES!

It's less than one year (11 months) since I wrote that post and we're two months away from being debt free. It went from a 4-year plan to one I thought we could do in 2 years. Then, on March 1st of this year, I decided to hell with this debt bullshit- I wanted it gone by the time 2009 was over. Here's what I wrote-

"New resolution- be DEBT FREE by the end of 2009. In order for us to reach our new goal by the end of this year, we have to pay almost $3,000 per month. ha ha. That's almost so insane that it makes me laugh. Like I said, it's probably impossible, but I'm sure as hell going to try!!!"

Again, this is hilarious to me. I honestly and truthfully didn't think we'd be able to do it. And granted, we still haven't, but we're really really close! And not only have we been able to send $3,000 per month to our debt, since March (when I wrote that post), our average debt payment each month is actually $4,041! That's $1K more PER MONTH than what we needed to do and $1K more than what I thought was even possible to begin with.

We've come a long way and we've almost reached our goal! I can't wait!!!

Until tomorrow,
Kelsalynn

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Pull-Up Ladder

Here's today's WOD:
"With a continuously running clock do one pull-up the first minute, two pull-ups the second minute, three pull-ups the third minute... continuing as long as you are able."

It's me vs. the clock.

I beat the first 10 minutes- so I did 10 rounds + 8 additional reps during the 11th round.

Total reps = 63 pull-ups in 11 minutes!

My hands are U-G-L-Y!

Ah well, it was fun!

Kelsalynn

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Money

Since I had a frustrating workout, I came to work and opened up my budget spreadsheet. Crunching the numbers and seeing how far we've come always makes me feel good and I really needed a pick me up. (Not that I'm in a peachy mood, but I'm in a better mood than I was 10 minutes ago. )

I was reading through the Dave Ramsey's forums and someone asked what percentage of their income went to their debt snowball each month. This got me thinking...

Our average monthly snowball payment from December - August is $3,857. WOW right??? Here's the list for each month:

DEC $4,795
JAN $4,400
FEB $1,272
MAR $6,000
APR $3,775
MAY $2,200
JUN $4,710
JUL $3,712
AUG $3,850


$3,857 is 63% of our net income.

We send 63% of our income to our debt every month!!! Holy cow!!! I knew it was a lot, but that really is a huge shovel.

The cooler side of this coin is that it also means Michael and I live off only 37% of our income. One of the 3 principles of personal finance is to spend less than you earn. We spend less than half of what we earn!! One of us could lose our job today and we would be fine.
There are so many feelings I have when I look at these numbers:
A sense of accomplishment
Relaxed and not at all worried
Pride
Self-control
Maturity
Responsibility
A feeling of financial peace

...the list goes on and on.

I'm curious, what % of your income do you live off of? All of it? How much do you save and how much do you spend?

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Ugh

For one reason or another, I cannot seem to do deadlifts in the morning. My max is 205 and I seem to fall short when I do them in the AM.

Today I tried to do 3 sets of 5 reps- thinking I'd get around 175-190.

Nope.

145
165
175 (3) I dropped it after 3 reps so I couldn't even do all 5 fricken reps at 175.

The problem continues to be my hands. I just cannot hold that much weight lately. The bar slips from my grip and I end up dropping it. It's frustrating because my legs are ready to keep going, I just can't keep hold of the bar.

So annoying.

Kelsalynn

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Yup, that's about it...

Monday
Cardio-day- 4 minute "sprints" (intense) x 4- first 1/2 mile on the treadmill, then the stairmill (level 10-12), the bike (level 10) and then finishing with a final 1/2 mile sprint.

Tuesday
CFF (Football), CrossFit Main site rest day-
4 rounds:
21 kb swings
21 captain's chair knees to elbows
21 double under (approx 50 jump ropes)
Time? 11:03

I'm kind of blah right now. Can you tell?

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Oh man! I'm excited!

Today's WOD is "Tabata Something Else"... you hear me call a workout "my favorite" quite often, I realize that. But this time, it's for realsies... "Tabata Something Else" is my ALL-TIME favorite WOD! I absolutely love it.

The workout calls for:
"32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises."

I haven't done this workout since December 2008 so it's been a while! Looks like I did it on May 1st actually! I can't wait to see how I compare from then til now. Here's my May 1st attempt!

It should be interesting because back then, I couldn't do a pull-up so I did them assisted on level 14! As a result, I'm fully expecting my pull-up number to decrease, but hopefully I can make it up in the push-ups, sit-ups, and/or squats.

Looks like I did the workout exactly the same on May 1st as I did in December 2008- assisted pull-ups- because I wanted to be able to compare! I increased by 65 reps from December to May! I don't think I'll be able to beat that score with regular pull-ups.

We're heading to the gym shortly. I'll post when I get back!

****************UPDATE****************

I'm back and holy hell was it tough. The cardio aspect of a kipping pull-up is so much more intense then doing them assisted. It really zaps me for the rest of the workout. I threw up a little bit at the end! tee hee...

Here's how I did:
Pull-ups: 7,6,5,4,5,5,5,5 = 42 (compared to 63 in Dec/ 87 in May)
Push-ups: 18,14,12,10,10,9,10,10 = 93 (compared to 73 in Dec/ 94 in May)
Sit-ups: 12,12,10,12,12,9,12,12 = 91 (compared to 90 in Dec/ 119 in May)
Squats: 20,20,15,18,15,10,15,15 = 128 (compared to 142 in Dec/ 149 in May)

Total = 354 (compared to 368 in Dec/ 449 in May)

My thoughts on these comparisons---- I'm pretty pumped about the pull-ups and push-ups. I did kipping pull-ups so I knew the # of reps would decline. I'm totally excited about my pull-ups coming in at 93, which is only 1 less rep than my May # and after doing unassisted pull-ups this time around. I'm pumped about that.

Not sure what happened with the sit-ups and squats. Immediately the sit-ups felt hard. My abs were fatigued from the get-go which was weird. And the squats, usually my legs are my strength so I can bring it home with squats. Not today. My quads were ON FIRE today and afterwards, I kept pounding on them with my fists because they were so tight and burning. It was weird.

When it's all said and done though, I fricken killed myself through today's workout. I pushed myself past what I WANTED to do. At one point, I said to Michael, "I'm going to cry" and I was on the verge. I really gave it all I had so what else is there???

Kelsalynn

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CrossFit Football

In addition to CrossFit (CF), there's CrossFit Endurance (CFE), which focuses on exercises for endurance athletes (go figure, right?). It gives a WOD too, just like CF, but the WOD is for bikers, swimmers, rowers, or runners.

More recently I stumbled on CrossFit Football (CFF), which I'm sure you've deduced is for athletes who play football. It's focus is improving power...but I really just want one of their t-shirts!

I have to say I like using all 3 websites. If CF is a rest day, but I want to work out, I have two other options. If I feel like doing more cardio, I check out CFE. If I want a more power workout, I check out CFF.

Today I ended up doing a CFF workout that called for:
5 rounds
3 HPS (hang power snatch) 45#
5 Overhead Squats 45#
7 Handstand push-ups

Time? 7:56

Not too bad, it was tough though. I look forward to doing it again because I really enjoyed it. I really want to improve my snatch (huh, huh, I said 'work on my snatch...") because it's one of my favorite movements yet I'm not that strong at it.

Until tomorrow,
Kelsalynn

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Couldn't wait...

I just posted about two minutes ago and said I'll update my debt payoff bar tomorrow.

Yeah right.

I can't wait.

I sent another $900 to my POS student loan today. Originally, this was only supposed to be $500, but Michael had almost $200 worth of overtime on his pay check yesterday and he also got reimbursed $275 for his certification fees. All of it went to my student loan, bumping up the snowball payment from $500 to $900!!!

Total paid off so far = $54,179.63
% paid off = 89%

Amount Remaining = $6,773.12!

Yippy!

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Misc & Food

Wednesday's WOD
3 rounds:
25 Sumo Deadlift High Pull (SDLHP) 35#
21 burpees
Run 400m

Time= 15:54

Not fun.

Thursday
Sprints on the bike- warmed up at level 5 for 5 minutes, then took it up to level 10 and sprinted 8 rounds 20:10 (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off), then cooled down for a couple of minutes.

Then I spent 15 minutes stretching my hips, legs, back, you name it. Since working out in the mornings, I feel very rushed. I only have so much time to warm-up, workout, then get ready for work. As a result, stretching has sort of been forgotten. Not a good plan, so days like today, after a quick workout on the bike for only 10 minutes, I remind myself to just chill and stretch. It's very needed.

Few things on the food front-
1. I've been eating terrible lately. First my family was here so we ate out a lot and drank a lot. Then at work I've been chewing on candy that was left all over my desk for my birthday. Yesterday I went to Dairy Queen with a co-worker b/c she was having a bad day (I was not) and I ordered a Moolatte- pretty darn good I might add. Yesterday afternoon I realized I didn't pack enough snacks so I popped a bag of popcorn from the vending machine.

Enough. I don't mind splurging once in a while, but I need to be careful.

2. As you know, we eat off the Zone diet, which says you need to eat very specific amounts of carbs, protein, and fat. It's based off mostly how much protein your body needs. I used this Zone block calculator and realized I'm not eating enough protein. It's based a lot on your body fat % so now that mine has become quite a bit lower, I need more protein for all my muscles :)

Take a look at the calculator- are you getting enough protein?

This was my first morning eating a 4-block breakfast instead of the typical 3-blocks. (i.e. 28g of protein vs 21g of protein) I'm curious to see how I feel as the day progresses. I'll also be eating a larger lunch but then my dinner will be the same size as normal. I'm not an evening eater- I have trouble eating a full 3 blocks at dinner now but I'm always hungry in the morning.

Ramblings. Sorry. Tomorrow I'll update my debt payoff bar!
Until tomorrow,
Kelsa

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Squats and Fight Gone Bad

At the gym this morning, I did some squats, trying to max out once again.

I started at 135 and did probably 10 reps to warm up. I did 5 more at 145 and 155.

165 (2)
175 (2)
185 (2)
195
200
205

205 is still my one rep max but I felt much better about it today than the last time. I got lower into the squat and the weights before 205 felt easier too. I really want to make sure my form is right so I'm not moving off 205 until I can make sure it's absolutely right.

Tonight, Michael and I are heading to a different gym to do "Fight Gone Bad." It's one of my favorites! It's also one of the hardest! It takes everything you have and then some. It drains you completely and I know I'll be sore for days. Sounds great right?

Here's what it looks like:
"In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of "rotate", the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point."

Wallball (20#)
Sumo deadlift to a high pull
Box jump
Push press
Row

I'll post tonight when I'm done!

******UPDATE******
Well holy hell was Fight Gone Bad tough! Man, it kicked my ass, that's for sure.

I kicked off 2009 with this workout and that's the last time I did it. Here's how I did back then (activity/# of reps each round):
Wall balls- 30, 31, 25 = 86
Sumo Deadlift High Pull- 11, 11, 12 = 34
Box jumps- 30, 30, 31 = 91
Push press- 10, 9, 10 = 29
Row (calories burned)- 7, 7, 8 = 22

Total points = 262

Tonight, I used all the same weights so my comparison would be accurate:
Wall balls- 33, 32, 30 = 95 (+9!)
Sumo Deadlift High Pull- 16, 15, 15 = 46 (+12!)
Box jumps- 21, 20, 18 = 59 (-32 YIKES!)
Push press- 15, 16, 15 = 46 (+17!)
Row (calories burned)- 11, 9, 7 = 27 (+5!)

Total points = 273 (+11~!)

Overall, I'm really happy with the improvement... I'm kind of wondering what happened to my box jumps, but I'm assuming my max out on back squats this morning contributed!

I can't believe it's 9:30 PM already... I promised myself I'd try to get to bed a little earlier the rest of the week but it doesn't look like that's going to happen tonight.

Until tomorrow,
Kelsalynn

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#2

Another day with more than one post in the same day... crazy!

I sent $1,100 to my student loan today! I will be sending $500 more later this week so I'll update my status bar and totals then!

This morning I did "JT"-
21-15-9 reps of:
handstand push-ups
dips
push-ups

I did the handstand push-ups with my legs on the wall so I was in a handstand position completely. Normally I do a modified version at more of an angle but I wanted to try it this time without modification. I wouldn't say some of my reps were actually push-ups, I didn't get all the way to the ground, but I did okay. It was hard and I really liked trying the new position.

I did the push-ups modified because my arms were jell-o from the handstand push-ups.

My time was 11:04.

Until tomorrow,
Kelsa

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Connection

As you know from my last post, my family surprised me by flying into AZ from MI for my birthday (which is today by the way!).

I was stunned... I had no idea! And my wonderful husband kept it a secret for two months! It's a little scary that he can keep that big of a secret for that long! Maybe I should be worried... nah!

I had a great time with my Dad and my sisters. The ditziness level goes from 3 (b/c we've already discussed how ditzy I can be by myself) to 10 as soon as we get together! We have absolutely no filter and all of us love to talk and pick on each other so it's one continuous joke... Michael's analogy for my sisters and I is that we're the "perfect storm"-- apart, we may cause a bit of trouble, but nothing major... but together, we kill people. lol

On Saturday night, my sisters and I went to Applebee's after my Dad went to sleep and we got margaritas. We sat there for hours and just talked. It was awesome! I realized something sitting there- just like I can say that my friends Amy and Lexi know me better than anyone, my sisters also know me betterthan anyone, but in a very different way.

Growing up, we most definitely saw things that most kids do not see, we experienced things we never should have been exposed to at a young age, and we had to learn to cope with the way things were back then. These experiences shaped us into who we are and play a big role in why we act the way we do. We share detailed memories that we wish we didn't have... the kind that most days, you don't think about, but once in a while they resurface and give us each a stomach ache or make us cry all over again or make us want to talk to one another. We are the only people who understand each other in this regard. I will always have a connection with them that cannot be shared by anyone, even my husband, or Lexi, or Amy because these memories just can't be shared completely.

I may not always understand my relationship with my sisters... at some times, it may be destructive and a lot of the time, I may wish it was different. But I realized this weekend how much I love them and appreciate them. I accept the relationship we have and I'm thankful they're a part of my life- in whatever capacity that may be.

Until tomorrow,
Kelsalynn

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I take it back

What a pleasant surprise!

I had a terrible day at work yesterday (Friday).

Michael came and picked me up from work and we walked in the house. I did a double take b/c sure enough, there was my family sitting on our couch!!!

My dad and both sisters, Shantel and Trista flew in from Michigan for my birthday!

I had no idea! Michael has known for two months and never told me!

They're only here for two nights, but I'm so excited!

A few pictures from dinner:









My reaction when I first walked in and saw them:


Talk to you later,
Kelsalynn

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