I'm a big girl now!

That's right, ladies and gentlemen -- I'm finally potty-trained!!! Mom told me it would happen one day!!
:)  But, really, I am marking my calendar today with another CrossFit first for me ... pull-ups without a band.  I did 12 rounds of Cindy (5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats), and did not use a band on any of the pull-ups.  Now, mind you, I'm not saying the pull-ups were pretty by any means, especially since my body couldn't decide whether it wanted to kip regularly, butterfly kip, or swing like an insane monkey (the third option ended up winning most of the time, I think).  Still, it's a beginning.  Gotta start somewhere, right?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go to do the potty dance.

The Evil CrossFit Plan is working

Today was body composition test day #3. For those who do not nerd out on numbers, skip to the next paragraph for the synopsis. For the rest of us number nerds:  at my last test a month ago, we learned in the prior 28 days that I had lost 1.5lbs of fat and gained 3.5lbs of lean mass.  This last month's results showed a slow in the progress -- lost 0.5lbs of fat and fained 2.5lbs of lean mass.  Still, that means, in the last two months, I've gained 6.0lbs of lean mass, while only increasing my weight by 4.0lbs.  It looks like the most significant change has been the caliper readings at my thigh -- from 25.5 to 22.5 to 21 -- which seems counterintuitive, given that my thighs have begun to hulk out of my jeans and dress pants. 

Bottom line:  CrossFit + Meat in diet = Hill continuing her transformation into BeastGirl. :)

The Accidental WOD

I have to say, today's WOD (workout of the day) was quite good ... which, in my twisted "I love the Kool-Aid" head, means it was quite difficult.  I will say that, with some tips from trainer William, I feel like I have the form of the squat snatch down, finally.  I managed to do 4RM (rep max) of 53 lbs, and I feel confident I can build from that.  I just found myself fatiguing quite quickly, so that the squat became less of a squat and more of a bent knee.  :/  Ah, well, always room for improvements!

After the workout, I had to make a trip to Feeders Supply for some cat food and kitty litter.  I grabbed the cat food and the 25lb bag of kitty litter, hauled it on my shoulder up to the counter, paid, and hauled it out to the car -- and felt very whipped.  What the ... 25lbs wearing me out??  I didn't think the WOD was THAT bad!!!  But, of course, does Beast Girl give up?  Hell no.  So, I got to the apartment, threw on my backpack, threw the bag of litter on my shoulder, walked it up the twisty flight of stairs and into the apartment, before feeling ready to die.  I was soooooo pi$$ed -- how could one little WOD leave me so freaking weak?  Seriously??? WTF????  And, just when I prepared to kick the bag in anger, I noticed:

Oooops.  :) Ah, well, two WODs in one day?  BeastGirl can handle it. :)

How do you want to die?

How do you want to die?

How about death by burpees? 

Sure, why not!! 

For my sane family and friends who do not do CrossFit, here's a quick video clip of a burpee:

Now, regular death by burpees means that, at the beginning of minute one, you must do one burpee ... and then you rest ... until the beginning of minute two, at which time you have the remainder of the minute to do two burpees ... until the beginning of minute three, at which time you have the remainder of the minute to do three burpees ... and so on, with an increasing number of burpees and a decreasing amount of rest time before the next minute starts.  Due to time constraints, we did multiples of three.  So, the first minute, we did three burpees ... the second minute, six, etc ... until we failed or gave up or died. 

I am happy to say that I finished 6 rounds, completing the round of 18 burpees with more than 10 seconds to spare, but knowing I didn't have it in me to do 21 in the next minute.   63 burpees.  Given that, before I started eating meat a few months ago, knocking out 10 wore me out, I'll take it.  

The take-home message?  Since a picture is worth a thousand words ...

Ups and Downs

Today was a great example of one of those CrossFit days with highs and lows.  It started with many failed attempts to do butterfly kipping.  I just don't feel it yet, and I got too easily frustrated today to make progress -- LOW.   Then, we moved on to L sits and L hangs. (For those who don't know what L sits are -- sit down on the ground with your legs in front of you, put your hands on the ground either side of your body fisted up, and lift your legs.) I discovered that I can maintain an L sit on the ground pretty easily -- HIGH.  Then on to handstands, which I utterly fear due to my panic of having my feet above my head -- LOW.  William helped me to do two handstands against the wall, my first two ever -- HIGH.  But I know I need to work on them more so I can start doing real handstand pushups -- LOW/HIGH mix.  Then, on to the WOD -- 5 pullups, 10 modified burpees (each burpee included a roll on the ground -- carpet burn on the elbows!!!), and 15 kb swings (35lbs), AMRAP [As Many Rounds As Possible] 20 minutes.  I managed 7 full rounds and completed the pullup and burpee portion of the next round.  Ended the workout with a good session of stretching and then called it a day.  Highs and lows, up and downs ... just call me bipolar Beast Girl. :)

Note to self, Beast GIrl ...

Note to self, Beast Girl ... if you're going to follow up a "Death" WOD (see prior post) with a Hero WOD Rx+ the following day ... make sure, before the Hero WOD, you have some of this:

or you'll end up like this:

with maybe a couple more muscles than this stick person. 

That being said, I did Wittman -- 7 rounds of 15 kb swings (36lb), 15 power cleans (65lbs), and 15 box jumps.  For the box jumps, women's Rx was 18".  I jumped 20", thus Rx+ -- my first ever!!!!!! Yay!!!! So, that totally eclipses my sucka$$ time of 36:00, right? I'm going to say so.  And it has also earned me two days' rest, which I may spend looking like Mr. Dead Stick Person.  But, again, with a couple more muscles. :)

Let's go sledding!!

What better way to enjoy one of the coldest days of this winter than by going sledding?!?!  Yay, fun!!!

But, you might say, "Now, wait a second, Beast Girl, even though it's cold outside, you need to snow to go sledding.  Sledding without snow -- are you a little confused?  Perhaps one too many CrossFit WODs have made you delirious?"  Well, yes, you are correct -- in fact, many CrossFit WODs have left me delirious ... but none so much as today's WOD, which included pushing a sled. 

Now, for my non-CrossFit family and friends (or, as some people might say, the sane people), let me explain the sled.  I've included a photo for added explanation:

Weights are stacked or hung on the smaller poles -- for the females,135lbs. From my online research, it appears that the sled itself weighs about 33 lbs.  For the purposes of this WOD, we started out by pushing the sled using the two high poles (on the right in the picture) down the length of the room -- about 50 feet, maybe? -- and then, for the return trip, pushing from the opposite side of the sled (left side of picture) using the two lower, horizontal poles.  We did this 8 times, with approximately 2-3 minutes of rest between each round, with the final score being all 8 times added together (not including the rest periods).  Here's another visual, for added clarification --

Even though my time for these pushes was less than six minutes, I can definitely say this is the most strenuous, painful WOD I have ever done.  Murph, step aside -- while you almost made me cry thanks to your hour-long torture, you didn't make whimpers spontaneously jump out of my mouth in less than 3 minutes.  The heavy sled push is now Beast Girl's official Death WOD. 

And, of course, the irony is that, by the time I got home, I was thinking, "Hmm, I wonder how much I could improve my sprint time if I did sled pushes more often..."