You've GOT to be kidding me?

Who has two thumbs and is sick AGAIN? Yup, that's right, this GAL!

I honestly can't believe it. I've gone years without being really sick and I've been sick most of this month- first with the flu and now a cold. I'm pretty sure it's because I'm so stressed out with worth- the heightened stress is lowering my immune system...that's my theory anyway and I'm stickin' to it.

Before I caught this cold last night, though, I was really busy. This past weekend, I cleaned every kitchen cabinet, junk drawer, and even our file cabinet- getting us more organized than we've ever been!

Here's a picture of our desk drawer-

And here's the junk drawer in our kitchen- afterwards, everything had a proper spot so the drawer is now empty!

And as for the file cabinet, well, that was pretty much a disaster to start with so of course, I had to make a mess of my den before the cleaning could begin-

But the mess I created was worth it because now I have a fully-fuctioning file cabinet that will hopefully save time and stress for years to come-

How many junk drawers do you have in your house?

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A workout like none other

What a day! I feel like my house has still been messy and cluttered from when I was sick. Last weekend was crazy busy and I really never had the time to get caught up.

I woke up this morning and practiced the piano before having my lesson at 10AM. And besides eating and a small break in the middle, I have been cleaning since I finished at 11AM. 

Damn, it feels good to finally get caught up with our household chores and feel good about how we live!

First, I got laundry going including all the bedding in the house. While that's been going, I did the following-

Dusted
Swept
Mopped
Picked up garage gym
Wiped down front of kitchen cabinets
Did the dishes
Washed all of the baseboards in the main level except in the den

I tell ya, I was working up a sweat! And those base boards are a great leg workout- I kept squatting to get low enough.

So, I may not have done a WOD today, but sure feel like I got a workout in... and I have a clean house as a result! FINALLY!

Until tomorrow (when I'll hopefully workout),

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Fun WOD

I almost didn't workout tonight. I have a book due back to the library today that I'm not done with yet. I was thinking that curling up in my pj's with my book sounded like a pretty good plan... but then I saw that the WOD for today should take less than 10 minutes and I did just have 2 weeks off from being sick so I talked myself into working out really quick.

And I'm glad I did.

21 kettlebell swings 35#
21 situps
10cal row
15 kettlebell swings 35#
15 situps
10cal row
9 kettlebell swings 35#
9 situps
10cal row

Time = 6:02

It was a challenging little workout and just what I needed- something quick!

We used some of our Christmas money to outfit our rower a bit better. We bought an ergonomical handle and seat and new straps for our feet. Tonight was my first night using the rower since Michael put them on and it was a big improvement.

Okay, time to get off the computer and curl up with my book as planned.

Until tomorrow,

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Finally back in action

HIIIIIIIIIIIII! I'm finally back in action! Yippy! After 2 weeks off of working out due to illness, tonight was my first workout. Of course, it was a strength night and I didn't want to go balls-to-the-walls my first day back so I took it easy.

Back squat 3-3-3-3-3
95-105-110-115-120

Considering that my one rep max is 160, this was fairly light for me. When we first started warming up, I couldn't believe how stiff I felt all over, especially in my hips. I think taking it easy was smart and I felt good afterwards.

After work tonight I met my piano teacher at a music store to buy more music. I'm excited to report that I've progressed to Level #3 of my books! Yippy! I also bought 2 new books- one with rock n' roll songs and one with musicals (like Lion King). On Saturday during practice, I was able to play a song on the first try pretty effortlessly that was really difficult a few months ago. I had ignored it for a while but she had me play it again on Saturday and I was surprised how easy it was. It made me realize that I am progressing even if it is slowly!  I'm excited to practice now!

It feels so good to finally feel like myself. Friday was really the first day that I felt mostly better and then the weekend turned out to be super busy. I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

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Yup, still alive

Ugh, I'm still here, just still sick. Not confined-to-my-bed-sick anymore but more like operating-on-cold-medicine-sick.

Yesterday was my first day back at work and after 5 days of rotating between the couch and my bed, I was actually looking forward to getting out of the house. But by the end of the day yesterday, I was feeling crummy again and went to bed right after dinner.

I feel "okay" today but still not great... the cold is lingering and all I can do is continue to take it easy and wait it out.

I can't wait to feel like myself again- to workout, to go for a walk outside, to go shopping, to breathe through my nose, etc.

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Sick

Wow. After my last post, I got hit with a really nasty flu bug. It's honestly made me the most sick I've been in years. I woke up yesterday feeling like I'd been hit by a semi-truck. I called in sick to work and then went back to bed. I didn't wake up until this morning! It was a full 24 hours of sleep!

This morning I called in again since I haven't held food down yet. I attempted breakfast and proceeded to throw it right back up. Bummer. I went back to bed for about 5 hours. I woke up when my hubby came home for lunch and he made me a smoothie. So far, it hasn't come back up but I just finished drinking it so we'll see.

I hope I'm better soon.

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Another weakness? Really? How many can 1 girl have?

Okay, add "double unders" to the list of "things I need to work on." The list is already long- why not add something else to it right?

I'm half teasing - I'm not bent out of shape about sucking at yet another exercise - but yes, I truly do suck at double unders!

I've come a long way from the day it took me 20 minutes to do 15 double unders. Oh yes, that is NOT an exaggeration. Me + Jump Rope = Uncoordinated Chica

I worked on them a lot during 2010- I started by doing one, stopping (not intentionally, I probably tripped and had to regain my balance), doing another one, etc. Then I would connect them with a little hop in the middle of each one so while a workout called for 20 double unders, I was doing the 20 plus 20 single unders as well! But I was doing more double unders so I didn't really care how I was doing them, as long as they were getting done.

Finally, it wasn't until October when I was able to do 10 double unders consecutively (without the little hop) and then 15 consecutively! It was a momentous occasion indeed!

So, I suppose I should be pleased with the fact that I can do them at all, let alone the 240 that I did tonight. But I'm just not. Plain and simple- I'm not happy with the fact that I still look completely ridiculous and uncoordinated as ever when I do them.

And I swear, the CrossFit world knows that I suck because just today, this picture was posted on the main site with the caption:

"The jump in an efficient double-under is almost indistinguishable from in a single-under."

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See that guy on the left? He's extremely inefficient jumping that high but guess what? I totally got him beat. Yup, he doesn't have anything on me. My shitty double under totally beats his shitty double under. So there!

So it's no surprise that a WOD like the one today that calls for 240 double unders takes me forever and I want to literally die before the end is near.

8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Hang Squat Cleans 75#
30 double unders after each round

It's not like the HSCs were easy, 75# is pretty heavy for me (95# is my one rep max), but the double unders KILLED me.

My time was an ugly 20:26.

Note to self = work on double unders.

Until tomorrow,
 

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Pullups oh pullups

...how I hate thee.

As you know, one of my 2011 goals is to do "Fran" in under 9 minutes. Fran is a famous CrossFit workout that calls for
21-15-9 reps
65# Thruster
Pull-ups

Don't let the "small" WOD fool you. It's a doozy. A lot of people have met pukie while doing Fran. Just go to youtube and type in "CrossFit Fran" as your search and you'll be amazed at how quickly some people can complete this WOD. I think the record for men is a sub-2 minute time and many elite female CrossFitters can do it under 4 minutes. It's almost pathetic, then, that my goal time is 9:00!

Why Fran?

There's a secret motive behind why I chose this WOD- yes, I can do a pull-up and I can actually do a lot of pull-ups, but I'm extremely inefficient at them and I can't string a bunch of them together at a time. My kip sucks and in order to get a good Fran time, I'm going to have to improve my pull-up.

I did Fran today and even videotaped it because I wanted to document where I was starting at in 2011! Watching this, I swear I spend more time catching my breath than actually working out. The combination of thruster and pull-ups kills my endurance very quickly and because I'm inefficient at pull-ups, I just cannot get myself to get into a rhythm with them without taking time to catch my breath. It adds a lot of time to the clock!

Either way, I beat my previous Fran time by almost a full minute. My time today was 10:51 and it was 11:45 before. (In the video, I actually do 1 extra pull-up by accident so although the time stops at 10:54, my time is actually 10:51.) This means I need to take two more minutes off my time during 2011. I plan to do this by adding pull-up work each week to my regimen. I'm going to start with the kipping variations and step 1 of learning how to kip.

Anyway, here's my video of "Fran"- what do you think?

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