heyarnold13

Hiya! I am doing the Spartan Trifecta this year and want to get a good hydration pack that will stay out of the way of barbed wire while also keeping my dehydration-prone self nice and fueled for rope climbs and bucket carries. Anyone have a good recommendation for me?

I am in the gym until 10:30am tomorrow (right by the circuit place, actually! My gym crew will be running hill sprints there on Wednesday oye) but I am going to try and make brunch afterwards! No promises, though. I am an assistant coach at my gym and I haven't written warm-ups for the upcoming week's programming and I need to get it all done by noon tomorrow. #procrastination #oops But I will try my best!!!!!

City Tap House might be another venue idea that is more "in between" circuit and monument walk. Circuit people can take the red line down to Metro Center and walkers can bus/walk/metro up. It's a pretty big spot, but reservations are recommended, and it's at 9th and Eye (I. India. Indigo. That lettered street.).

I'd also prefer something more social, but that's because I already have my 6x/week workouts planned out and I can't skip my rest day

Hi DC Nerds! I have been way MIA the last few... months... but I am trying to be back! I have been way busy in life for gym reasons, actually, so woo!!! I would love to meet up this month, but my schedule is a little crazy, so I will probably be a last minute yes/no depending on the weekend.

Just hit my most meaningful deadlift PR to date!!!! Back in July, I managed to deadlift my bodyweight at 200lb. Since then, I have dropped to 185/190lbs. Yesterday, I hit 235lb on my deadlift. Not only does this surpass my bodyweight at the beginning of my journey (225lb in January), I ALSO passed my coach/role model's last 5-rep max! Granted, her 5-rep max has probably gone up from last time she did it, but it still felt really good AND my other coach snapped a picture during the workout. My shirt is kinda falling weird on me for some reason, but my back has never looked so muscley. What a fantastic Sunday yesterday was

So sorry, Gnome Thoughts are definitely with you and your family, as Jess said. Also saw this float across my newsfeed on facebook today and thought I'd share: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-benanti/my-experience-with-the-voldemort-of-womens-health-issues_b_8209092.html

So in!!! Also up for this.

I have discovered the mother of all sports bras recently and have to share. I used to be a Nike-only girl, but after a few months of powerlifting/CrossFit-type workouts, my lats went crazy (in the best way possible) and I lost a bit of boobage. Cue the "oh no what sports bra can I use now?!?" UNDER ARMOR TO THE RESCUE AGAIN!!! They have this one sports bra that has some light padding in it (just enough to avoid the inevitable high beams when going from sweat-central to cool down) and adjustable straps which have been a godsend for me. I'm a 36B/34C in regular bras and I have these in a large and I will never wear another sports bra again: https://www.underarmour.com/en-us/ua-renegade-printed-bra/pid1251753-007 They might feel weird at first because you are so comfortably strapped in there, but I am SUCH a fan.

OH MY GLOB HOW COULD I FORGET THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE END OF THIS CHALLENGE?!?!??! I REACHED MY MAIN QUEST WEIGHT GOAL! After several weigh-ins, I am consistently at the 190 mark! Which means I have now lost 35lbs since I really committed to this whole damn thing. On to the next goal! This calls for one of my favorite gifs:

Monday, September 7 Theme: Happy Labor Day - Let's Work! “Chelsea†30mn EMOM [we cut it to 20 THANK GOD] * 5 Pull-ups * 10 Push-ups * 15 Air Squats (note: 1-2-3 ratio...) Then: “Hollow Rockin’ Annie†50-40-30-20-10 * Hollow Rocks * Double Unders Good LORD was this hard. Not only was I super fatigued from last SEVEN days in a row of working out (my own fault), but this was just tough. I started the EMOM with 4-8-12 ratio, but after two rounds I was getting zero rest before next minute so I cut to 3-6-9 with push-ups off the bench instead. Those were what killed me.. damn push-ups. Arms were so tired. By round 10, I was down to 2-4-6 with 15sec rest in each minute. More manageable, but those were some damn slow 20 minutes. Usually I can crank out a single-under Annie (with double single unders instead, so 100-80-60-etc) in about 6:30, but we only had 6:00 left to work at the end of class and I only got through my 60/30 round. SO EXHAUSTED! Whole gym then trooped over to a park for Labor Day picnicing fun afterward!!! Aaaaand I sprained my ankle playing frisbee... so we'll see how that heals up. I'm really mad at myself for that one.

Sunday, September 6 Deadlift 5*5*5*5*5 Snatch Pull 2*2*2*2 4R (4T) * 15 KB Swing * 10 SA® KB Swing * 10 SA(L) KB Swing (rest 45s btwn rounds) Deadlift Day == Best Day! I was way tired and sore though, which was a downer. I got my rest days messed up (went on super-fun adventure time with Slates on Saturday to an OCR course), so my last rest day was last Sunday. Oops! Hands were blister/rip-destroyed from rope climbs and monkey bars the day before, so deadlifts were HARD. Still hit a PR at 210 though!!!! Could barley hold onto the bar when it came to Snatch Pulls and I kept myself at 145lb max for those. The weight was easy, but hands were crying.

Friday, September 4 Snatch: Skill Work Pull-ups 3*3*3*3*3*3*3 3r (4Q) * 4 Bar Rows * 6e SA Ring Rows * 8e Banded Torso Rotations I graduated to playing on the pull-up bar instead of ring rows on Friday!!! Did a few green-banded assisted pull-ups for first two rounds, then did rest of my rounds with 2 eccentrics and 3 scapular pull-ups. Arms are STILL sore from that.

Thursday, September 3 Skill: Rolly-Jumpies BB Glute Bridge 15*15*15*15 Back Squat 5*5*5 3r (4t) *10 Pistols *20 DB (front rack) alt. F. Lunges * 30 Mt. Climbers Finisher: 20 Seated Banded Abduction Rolly-jumpies, aka standing, roll back to hollow position, then roll back up to standing. I can only do these with a medicine ball or dumbbell in hand, but they're getting better! Always fun to play with. Hit 100 on my glute bridges, which was great because I'm still so stuck in sucksville with back squats. My back position goes from fantastic to CRAP in a one-inch span. I'll get to right before parallel with great back position, but as soon as I drop that next inch, it goes round and I lose it and I don't even realize it. Hate it. So I've been stuck with my lil 55lb bar for forever on that lift... ugh. Much annoyance.

Wednesday, September 2 Skill: Cartwheel to Lateral Wall Walks (6) OH Press 3*3*3*3 Push Jerk 2*2*2*2 Then: DB Push Press/Double Under Ladder Woo playing with cartwheels!!! Did 6, then just some lateral wall walks. Not brave enough to cartwheel onto the wall yet. OH Press is always one of those that I either have or don't have on a given day... and I did not have it that day. I don't remember what my max is on those, but the assistant coach was doing my bar and I think overestimated how much to add to me each round so I ended up failing on my third round -.- was very displeased with myself. Failed on 75 for my third rep on both 3rd and 4th round. But push jerk was much better! Hit 95 and definitely could have done 100 if we had another round. DB Push Press/DU ladder was harddddd. Started with 15lb dumbbells but those were too light and head coach gave me 17.5s for every round after the first. Arms were BURNING!

Had SUCH A FULL WEEK this last week! Was excellent in cleaning my apartment (laundry, dishes, floors, organized shelves in closet, AND bathroom!), went grocery shopping last Monday AND yesterday to prep for gym picnic, and killed it on all the workouts. Except my last rest day was last Sunday and my head coach gave me "the look" when I admitted that to her on Sunday. We were deadlifting and I was struggling a bit with fatigue and destroyed hands from the most excellent of outings with Slates on Saturday, and she just goes "okay kiddo WHEN is your rest day?" Tuesday? Sorry! We had our Labor Day workout today and it was so. effing. hard. Started with the Chelsea (hate) and ended with a Hollow Rockin' Annie. Usually I can bust out the Annie with single unders in 6:30 or so, but today we had 6:00 to work before the class was done and I only got to the 60/30 reps part. DEAD from Chelsea. Chelsea is a bitch of a 30min EMOM, and we only did 20min. I started with 4-8-12 of ring rows (my pull-up progression), push-ups, and air squats, but I was getting maybe one second of rest each minute with that and dropped to 3-6-9 with push-ups on a bench (which only feels a fraction easier than a strict push-up for some reason). After 10 rounds, I went down to 2-4-6 because push-ups were just so damn hard by then. It was a real struggle, and then following with Annie was SO HARD!!! But it was a great workout. Then we had gym family picnic! So fun. There were so many dogs and we had SO much delicious food. I brought a spinach arugula salad with avocado, strawberries, and hazelnuts in it with a homemade balsamic dressing. Delicious! We were out there for hours, buttttt during the last hour, I was tossing the frisbee around and hit a huge hole. And my ankle made a terrible cracking/popping/snapping sound and I think I sprained it pretty badly. It hurts like a bitch. Got ice on it immediately since I had an icepack from transporting salad things, but effffff I'm so angry with myself right now. Ankle injuries are the bane of my existence. They take forever to heal and I hate hate hate them. I've sprained this ankle a few times before but was doing SUCH a great job with it! Hadn't had any issues for almost two years now and then I went and did this stupid thing. Pissed. I managed to walk back to gym with one of my coaches since her car was there and then she drove me home because she didn't want me to walk all the way. I'm taking tomorrow off as a rest day anyway, so I'm really hoping this isn't as serious as it sounded when it popped and that I can be up and going again on Wednesday. But I'm going to TRY and be really good about actually letting it rest and if it still genuinely hurts tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to take Wednesday off, too. Even though that will kill me. Because my gym is my life and those people make me so damn happy and I hate not being around them. Ugh. Anger. Saturday with Slates though was the best day ever!!!!! We went to this OCR place and climbed ropes and flipped 400lb tires and did monkey bars and it was amazing. I think it's so valuable to take yourself out of a gym setting every once in awhile to see what you're really capable of. I get so used to what I'm doing in the gym that I forget how strong I am sometimes. Going and seeing my grip strength take me through monkey bars or climb a rope or flip a bigass tire are all things I never could do in my gym and they're amazing accomplishments. I was so proud of myself after our training day and it was a great reminder of why I train so hard in the gym. It's so I can go out and do super cool fun stuff like that

Tuesday, September 1 Grass Track 4 x 800m intervals (w/ 2:30 walking rest in between) Then: 5r (4Q) * 4 Pull-ups Effing grass track! It was SO humid and hot out, but off we went to hop the fence to the field and run in circles! It was all good. Everyone was in a great mood and we had a lot of fun doing our pull-up work in the gym afterwards before all trekking down the street for popsicles

Head coach was camera-happy this morning during cleans and just posted this SUPER FLATTERING picture on the gym's facebook... just me taking a little nap during my lift with my 100lb teddy bar. Dear elbows, get UP.

Monday, August 31 Clean 3*3*3*3*3 Clean Pull 2*2*2*2 5r (4T) *10 Squat Jumps *10 Pushups Cleanssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love. Head coach was taking lots of videos and pictures during the last few rounds, so I'm hoping those surface so I can check them out. My focus today was to get a big jump for my cleans, because that's where I always need work. Explosive power out of the hips!! Hit 105 for a 5lb PR on my 3-rep, and on clean pulls I got up to 145. Sweet.

Saturday, August 29 Skill: Handstand Bench: 5*5*5*5*5 4 Rounds: * 4 Dips * 8 DB OH Press * 12 Pushups (rest 1mn btwn rounds) Love Saturday workouts!!! This was the last one for awhile, though, because we moved the weekend RtB classes to Sundays from Saturdays. Alas! Had a museum sleepover the night before (last of the season, thank god), so my schedule was: Friday 7am gym, arrive at work at 10am, go from office to museum at 6pm, leave museum at 9am Saturday, arrive at gym for 10am Saturday workout. I was LOOPY tired. Like beyond just grumpy tired to the point of giggles. My coach commented, "I'm surprised you're so chipper right now." I was very out of it. My 95lb bench press felt heavy, which is how I really knew I was exhausted. Ended up doing 100lb for my 4th set, and while I could have done 105 for probably 3 reps in last set, I did a back-off set at 95. Dips are my current "thing" right now because I AM SO CLOSE TO FULLY PUSHING MYSELF BACK UP OUT OF THE DIP STATION!!! We set up the big boxes with a ton of plates on them to do full body dips (progression before dips on gymnastics rings) and I am so. freakin. close. I almost had it on Saturday! I pushed myself up past my sticking point, and honestly if I had been rested and hadn't just done bench presses, I miiiight have been able to fully press up. Alas, Saturday was not meant to be. Everyone was in all sorts of good moods that day. We were going to brunch afterwards (one of my friends and I are self-appointed social chairs), and my coach was super camera-happy and kept taking pictures of us. After I finished my workout, I decided I wanted to perch on the dip station. So I perched.

I CAN'T WAIT FOR SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Taking today off work, yet still decided to wake up at 5am to make it to 6am gym session instead of going at a later time or even tonight. We did cleans and clean pulls and they were awesome!!! Lovelovelove cleans. Hit 105 for 3-rep cleans and 145 for my clean pulls! Time to tackle the rest of the day off with some more cleaning (this time with swiffers instead of barbells), a dentist appointment, and later tonight I'm hitting up my favorite brewery with some friends for "Joggers and Lagers," aka run a few miles then drink a few brews!