ertzeid

I got double-unders by doing the CF Games Open. First WOD: AMRAP 30 double-unders, 15 snatches in 10 mins. We had a week (and then it turned into 2 weeks) to do the WOD and put up a score, so another person at my gym and I went in early every day just to work on them. It's amazing what that kind of focus can do for a skill. Of course, our calves were all shot by the end of that two weeks, so still be careful, but if I could learn them, you can too.

I know how it feels to wish you'd gone heavy (so far out of 2 "benchmark Wednesdays" I haven't done the prescribed WOD either time, boo!). But it's just a different kind of workout, taxes your body in a different way, when the weight is something you can move quickly--10 unbroken C&J's at a weight you can just barely keep smooth is just different than 10 C&J's done in 5 rounds of 2. Just use it for motivation to keep going back so you get stronger! And you don't have to be in ketosis to lose fat. But for a lot of people it's easier to limit certain foods (like you do with Paleo or Atkins) than to count calories (like with Weight Watchers). You do have to do something that you're not gonna love, most likely, but there's tons of diet/exercise regimens that do work. But it can be just as big a pain to count calories or points as it can to avoid bread. I haven't figured it out myself yet--I want to find the right way for me to maintain and be healthy, but I haven't really, yet. You could try the Michael Pollan approach: Eat Food; Not Too Much; Mostly Plants. Food=real food, the kind that goes bad. "Not too much" means things like avoid snacks, and stop eating your meal when your 2/3 to 3/4 full (because you'll be satisfied for just as long, you just won't be stuffed and draggy and you won't have overeaten). "Food Rules" is a short, quick read that I thought was actually pretty motivational. Sorry for the long-winded story there. Point is, there's lots of ways to eat healthy, and it takes time but you'll find the one that works for you. And maybe you've just been gaining muscle! My abs totally started poking out from my ribs a bit, no lie. While there's still a layer of fat on top it can be hard to tell what it is that's growing.

Hah, I used to get at least one comment every time I went out for a run in mine. Now I don't really run, but wear them to Crossfit all the time, where everyone's so into the barefoot/milimalist shoe thing that they already know what's up. But I do love them for anything I do at Crossfit (haven't taken the plunge and gotten weightlifting shoes yet...)

I'm going to try derby for the first time tonight! Out here they have a league that sells tickets and all, but then they have a group who just go and skate and sometimes have scrimmages (for those who've passed 'minimum skills'--I've only guessed what that really means but will actually look it up soon enough), so I'm starting with that and maybe trying out for the more serious league at the end of August. I used to play ice hockey, so the balance and strength should transfer pretty well, and skating was always the part I was better at anyway. I'm excited!

A great cyclist once said, "Don't buy upgrades, ride up grades." Huzzah for gettin' it done on an old, slow bike! When you do get a nicer road bike, you'll have really earned it!

Sounds like you're really getting it all done! Just reading through your whole thread and your consistency is really paying off for you (consistency is something I haven't been so good at recently so it sticks in my head ) One bit of advice--it'll really pay off in the long run to learn to use more of your gears. I was stubborn about it too when I first started cycling, but not only does it help you go for longer rides with less effort (or, it feels like it at least), but keeping yourself spinning instead of pushing hard for each stroke on the uphill will really protect your legs. Can't wait to read about you finishing mile 200!

Scuba diving? Custom sushi rolls named after you? Sounds like you're having a rocking week. Keep it up!

Fitness: - Do 10 strict pull-ups unbroken. - Do 10 kipping pull-ups unbroken. (I think I've gotten at least 1) - Do 10 handstand push-ups unbroken. - Learn butterfly kipping pull-ups. - Join the Muscle-up club. - Deadlift 250lbs (PR: 140ish at >1 rep). - Squat 200lbs (PR: 140). - C&J and/or Snatch 150lbs (PR: 110# clean, 105# split jerk). - Get onto a roller derby team. - Do a 1000+ mile bike tour. - Do my 45-ish mile bike ride to work all 5 days in 1 week. Travel: - Visit: - North & Central America: - (US and Canada - DONE) - Mexico, especially Oaxaca - Belize and/or Costa Rica - Guatemala - The Caribbean. A lot. - South America: - (Guyana - DONE) - Peru - Bolivia - Chile - Ecuador - Pacific: - Tahiti - Fiji - (Australia & New Zealand - DONE) - Bike tour around New Zealand - Asia: - Bike tour around Japan - China - Vietnam - Laos - Thailand - Indonesia - India - Nepal - Kazakhstan - Europe: - (Norway - DONE, but will doubtless go back--have family there) - (Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Ireland, Spain, Greece, Ireland, England - DONE) - Bike tour around Iceland - Bike tour around France - Bike tour around Italy - Bike tour around Spain - Romania - Bulgaria - Norway for Christmas - Live somewhere in Europe for at least a year - Africa: - Kenya - Going in July/August 2011! - Ghana - Rwanda - Egypt - Morocco - Madagascar - Stay in an ice hotel. - Go SCUBA diving. - ... Think up more cool experiences I want to have... Life (most of these are long-term): - Become awesome at my job. - Find a way to love my job, and look forward to going to work. - Own backyard chickens. - Have a successful garden. - Own my own house, preferably a brownstone in Brooklyn. - Raise some kids up proper.

Aah! How did I forget!? I did a full (chin over... knuckles?), strict, ring pull-up yesterday! I'd never actually attempted one before, and hadn't tried doing a strict bar pull-up in a while, so I don't know if it's just easier, but we were working on muscle-up skills and I just tried and then I was up! Hell yeah!

I have the exact same issue. Mine are 2 years old now, so I wasn't all that surprised, but my coach said they do have really good customer support and may come with a lifetime warrantee, I just haven't looked into it myself yet. (I also wouldn't mind if they were replaced for free because they're STANK... But I could also try a vinegar soak first.)

Well, today was an ass-kicker. It was day 3 back at Crossfit after about 3 weeks off (and before that only spotty attendance), and it was Benchmark Wednesday! Kelly: 5 rounds for time: - run 400m - 30 box jumps on 20" box - 30 wallball shots w/ 10# ball I cut myself off after 4 rounds, at about 37:15 (and 20 mins after class was supposed to be over). I work out on my lunch break and, while my hours are flexible, I still don't want to take too much time for lunch. So, yeah, despite doing AWESOME on Monday, yesterday and today were rough. Can't wait till next week when I'll start feeling the results of getting back into a routine this week.

Oof. Second day back is always worse than the first. I was sore as hell and had to reduce the weight halfway through the WOD. First, strength work: 5 rounds (with rest in between) of: 1 Hang Clean (that means with the squat part!) 4 Front Squat ... I made it to 83# but was failing by the last squat. Then the WOD: 3 rounds for time: 10 Hang Clean (I did 2 rounds at 65# and the last one at 53#) 20 pull-ups (started with band-assisted kipping, then moved to double-count jumping, meaning the 20 becomes 40 jumping) Today, benchmark: Kelly. Stay tuned for results...

Oy. I wasn't as good at the "keep up a good workout routine while traveling" as I wanted to be. But I did make decent use of the hotel pool to get better at swimming! Then last week, did a combination of cardio and bodyweight stuff. FINALLY back to Crossfit today and feeling SO GREAT! Somehow I didn't really lose anything off of my 105# split jerk PR, so that's nice (or says that my limit is technique rather than strength, as that doesn't atrophy quite as fast as muscle). Ate nearly paleo today, which is beyond my stated goal. Feeling really excited to work out and eat right now that I'm back home and getting back to my routines.

5x1 split jerk: came close to my PR with 103# then: run 800m 30 clean and jerk (53#) run 800m Time: 14:51 Feels so great to throw heavy weight around again!

Don't say that! You can totally do 100 burpees, it just might take you way longer than 17 minutes to start out. You break it up into, say, 10 rounds of 10 each. Then tomorrow you do it in 9 rounds of 11 (plus 1 last one), and you work your way up to 100 unbroken.

I ended up swimming 6 days out of the 10 I'd intended. Sometimes I stayed up too late and couldn't drag myself out of bed in the morning; once I was sick and decided to sleep as much as I could. Not terrible, but not great. But by the last time in the pool, I was feeling a lot more comfortable with the swimming part! Also, the last 2 weeks I've been on my feet all day, and I think it's affected my metabolism in awesome ways. I'm still getting hungrier than I'm used to, a solid 5 days later. Think I'm gonna order a standing desk at work. This week is a bit tougher, between depending on others for transportation and having forgotten my Vibrams at home, making running around outside not such a great idea. But this morning I did a quick warmup plus 21-15-9 v-ups and squats. Got the heart rate going, but I'll have to convince someone to take me to the Y or something tomorrow.

Oh also @lexphoenix--my best guess is that the likeliest result of a CrossFit style workout routine is a body like a gymnast's. VERY different from a bodybuilder. Maybe your SO would be less afraid of that?

@lexphoenix - I know how you feel! My SO also gets all pissy about not wanting me to look like a bodybuilder. It's awful, this idea that me looking like his all-cardio-and-calorie-counting ideal is more important that me feeling amazing and being healthy (and I do believe that at least some strength work is vital to staying healthy, and a lot of science recently seems to be backing it up). @67alecto - Thank you. Paleo is not for everyone (I can't do it myself, though I do try to keep my carbs low). Nor is calorie-counting-cardio-only. Both work great for some people. Basically, you can't tell your partner what to do. The reason that there are so many fad diets and fitness crazes is that there really isn't enough solid science showing one right way to be healthy. So while one particular lifestyle works well for you, it doesn't mean it's for everyone. Plus, most people, even ones who love and trust you, get very protective about their personal life choices, especially when it comes to eating and exercise. Trying to tell someone what to do only makes them (at least most of them) that much more set on proving you wrong. All you can do is be happy for yourself and your own success, and trust your partner to find their own way. Consider whether there are any other factors making it difficult for them to find a healthy lifestyle, and be both understanding and compassionate about these stress factors. If you need something, like meat, definitely ask for it, but don't try to force it on them, just like you don't want some giant bowl of pasta to appear in front of you as your only dinner option. But I can relate--it is really hard to eat paleo when you're sharing meals with someone who doesn't. I've only ever dabbled in Paleo, but during the first few weeks it's that much harder to watch someone eat rice and fresh tortillas and sandwiches.

If you get fancy bike shoes, their soles are really stiff and will keep you from bending your toes. However, cycling may still put pressure on the toe, and the shoes aren't exactly loose. Not sure what your needs are, but there's some extra info. Also, cycling is way more fun on a bike outside than riding an exercise bike inside, and a lot more comfortable if the bike fits right.

DAMMIT I MISS CROSSFIT. I've been doing swimming, and I think I'm looking better than I was at the beginning. It really is a pretty good workout. It doesn't seem like all that much strength is needed, but I can feel my limbs all getting tired by the end. Plus of course, swimmers do generally have some nice muscles on them, so that's a good sign. Hopefully by the time I do get near some weights again I won't have lost too much of my strength. Also, on this business trip I've been doing a lot more standing than at my usual desk job, and I think it does a lot of good. I think I might just ask for a standing desk when I get back. I have an exercise ball that I sit on usually, but it turns it out it's actually really easy to not only brace it against my legs so I don't really need to stabilize it, but also I slouch all over the place.

One great thing about Crossfit is that you can scale a lot of workouts to do in your garage (even your barbell-deficient garage). Do as much as you can with bodyweight and get creative. And sometimes you can find other heavy stuff to use, like water jugs or something. I've done some tough workouts with just my bodyweight (though I do recommend some kind of mat if you're doing situps). Go to a playground to work on your pull-ups. Do push-ups and squats and burpees and situps. By the time you can sign up for an on-ramp class, you'll be miles ahead... As long as you keep up as much intensity with the bodyweight as you did at the meetup But, do be careful. Another thing about Crossfit is that it's been linked to Rabdo. It's important to know when to stop and rest, too.

I'm working on my swimming right now! I took a class at the Y a couple years ago that was pretty helpful, and then recently got some instruction from a friend that helped too. Use a kickboard--even get one if your local pool doesn't have any. Work your way up. You'll get a workout, but be distracted enough by the water it won't even feel like one half the time. Don't get me wrong, learning to swim is hard. You can also do non-swimming exercise in a pool. Yeah, you might feel weird doing aqua aerobics with all the old ladies, but that can be a great workout too, and a lot easier on injured joints. Can you do squats? A nice squat-pushup-situp routine can be really hard. Get creative with the set/rep combinations and do them as fast as you can: - 100 push-ups and then 200 situps and then 300 squats - 21 pushups, 21 situps, 21 squats; 15 pu, 15 si, 15 sq; 9 pu, 9 su, 9 sq etc. You can cut out the squats and still get awesome cardio with some stuff that'll be easier on your ankle. Do knee push-ups if you need.

Swam 3 of 5 days this week. One night I was feeling a bit sick and decided to get the extra sleep; today I was just lazy (boo). I've been stressed out, which for me leads to unhealthy habits. It starts with unhealthy thoughts--thinking too much about the outside (how I look) and not enough about the inside (how well I'm treating myself by eating right and working out; how awesome it feels to be in really good shape). The challenge this weekend will be finding healthy food in the sea of fast food places that is this strip-mall-ish area I'm in. During the week there's the decent office cafeteria, but that's not an option on weekends. Cracker Barrel probably has some ok salads. Well, time for bed--looking forward to sleeping late tomorrow =D

It's kind of convenient that I started a day late because now my days match up with the day of the month So also, day 1 of the business trip portion, and I went swimming! In the sort of murky hotel pool... Was a bit nervous about making it to the office on time, and had no way of keeping time, so I was only down there for 15-20 minutes, but better than nothing! And it was one of those days where just going at all was an accomplishment.

Quick update: - biked to work. Oy, I'm out of shape. And dehydrated, oops.