Miss Marissa's First Challenge

[miss_marissa]

Hello everyone! Exciting to be starting my first challenge. After the holidays where I went a little off the rails it would be nice to get back on track.

 

A little bit about me. I am a 25 year old female. I work as an aerospace engineer and just got my masters degree last month. A few of my interests are comics, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones series, watching television, powerlifting, aerospace/aviation, and the Green Bay Packers.

 

I’m competing in a powerlifting competition halfway through the challenge, so my goals are somewhat revolving around that, but also monitoring my nutrition a bit.

 

Main Quest: I want to lift 500 lb combined between deadlift, bench press, and squat. Currently at 445lb (175 SQ, 85 BP, 185 DL). I also want to reach a body weight of 132 lb, currently ~136 after having a little too much over the holidays.

 

3 goals:

1) Compete in my first powerlifting competition Jan 17 and go 9/9 on my lifts. I don’t have a specific weight total I want to hit, or want to win my weight class. Since it is my first competition I just want to enter and see if competing is something I like and want to continue to do.

A- 9/9

B- 8/9

C- 7/9

F- less than 7

 

2) Strength train 4 days/ week. Exception for the week leading up to my competition I will only have 2-3 training days. I work with a personal trainer to help coach me and use workouts specifically designed for me for powerlifting. I work with him 1-2 times a week and the other workouts on my own.

A- Meet training minimum all 6 weeks

B- Meet training minimum 5 weeks

C- Meet training minimum 4 weeks

F- Meet training minimum 3 weeks or less

 

3) Limit myself to eating out or getting fast food once/week. No alcohol. I’ve been working hard to prepare my meals ahead of time for the entire week. The hardest thing I see with this is that I was working 2^nd shift for the past 9 months, but will be going back to first shift starting tomorrow. Getting used to a new sleeping and eating schedule will be my biggest challenge.

A- 6 or less meals out + alcoholic drinks throughout the challenge.

B- 12 or less meals out + alcoholic drinks

C- 18 or less meals out + alcoholic drinks

F- more than 18 meals out + alcoholic drinks

 

Life Quest: I got a sewing machine for Christmas and I’m really excited to start learning how to sew. Eventually I would love to start making costumes for cosplay (going to my first comic con during this challenge as well!). I want to try to make one project during this challenge, whether that be a pillow, skirt, leggings, purse, or scarf. 

[miss_marissa]

First Challenge Day 1 underway!!!

 

Yesterday went pretty good for my training. Upped my numbers slightly from last week:

Bench Press 5x5 at 75, 4th and 5th set had a hard time getting the 5th rep up

Push PRess 5x5 at 55

superset

Incline Bench Press 3x12 at 45

Lateral Dumbell Raises 3x12, 8e

superset

Kettlebell Single Arm Overhead Presses, 2x8e at 15, 1x8e at 20, decided after my second set 15 lb was too light and bumped it up

Dumbell front raises 3x8e, 10e

Plank: 2x60s

Side plank: 2x35s e

 

Followed it up with 20 minutes of walking at 6% incline on the treadmill. I've found that since I added in that little bit of just 20 minutes/day I've been losing fat a lot faster. Well see how well I can keep it up!

 

I cooked all of the meals I ate yesterday. Meal prepped everything on Sunday to make sure I have enough food through Thursday (M-Th workweek). Didn't have any drinks. Didn't touch the sewing machine at all.

 

Goal 1: TBD

Goal 2: Week 1: (X) ( ) ( ) ( )

Goal 3: 0 meals out + alcoholic drinks

 

New sleep schedule is starting to catch up to me and I and very tired today. Hopefully I can get my workout in a little earlier and get to bed a few minutes earlier tonight.

[elvenengineer]

Sounds like you had an awesome first day!  Thanks for commenting on my post, I really appreciated your support!  

 

I'd love to start powerlifting, I need to get up the courage.

 

Good luck, keep it up!

[miss_marissa]

Sounds like you had an awesome first day!  Thanks for commenting on my post, I really appreciated your support!  

 

I'd love to start powerlifting, I need to get up the courage.

 

Good luck, keep it up!

Thanks! If you ever want any tips or help with powerlifting let me know! I am by no means a pro, but I know my way around a weight room decent enough I think it's something everyone should try. Hope your challenge is going well so far!

[miss_marissa]

OK! Day 2 progress

 

Today I trained with my coach. We had a training plan in mind and totally ignored it, so I am recalling from memory since we didn't write it down. Spent almost my entire training session focusing on squats: making sure I was hitting good depth, going over commands, etc.

Warmup: 3x8x45, 1x5x45 with pause, 1x3x65, 1x3x85, 1x3x105, 1x3x125, 1x2x135, 1x145 looooong warmup haha

Squats: 5x1x155 worked on depth and commands mostly

5x1x135 worked mostly on depth

3x5x95 with 2s pause

front squats: 1x5x45, 1x5x55, 3x5x65

leg extensions: 3x12x50

Single arm dumbell rows: 2x12x25e, 1x12x17.5e

bicep curls: 3x12x20lb ez-curl

 

Again did 20 minutes of walking at 6% incline on the treadmill (while reading GoT Clash of Kings!) Worked up a real sweat today.

 

Again, ate all precooked/homecooked meals. No booze. Didn't touch the sewing machine as I'm hoping to get to bed after this post.

 

Goal 1: TBD

Goal 2: Week 1: (X) (X) ( ) ( )

Goal 3: 0 meals out + alcoholic drinks

 

Hope everyone else's challenges are going well!

[Xisiqomelir]

These are excellent goals. Here is a motivational video for you:

 

 

Good luck with your challenge!

[miss_marissa]

These are excellent goals. Here is a motivational video for you:

 

Good luck with your challenge!

Thanks for the reply! She is a beast! Her benchpress is insane, I hope I can bench even half of that, haha!

Looks like you have some pretty crazy nutrition goals. I hope you can reach them Good luck!

[Tayakin]

Hey miss_marissa, I love you challenge! I love girls who kick-butt and that's what you do! I really like how accurate you are at keeping track of your progress. The fact that you noticed walking on the incline helps YOU lose fat faster is really cool, because everyone is different and paying attention to the signals from your body is really important. Good luck in your competition and keep being awesome!

 

[miss_marissa]

 

Hey miss_marissa, I love you challenge! I love girls who kick-butt and that's what you do! I really like how accurate you are at keeping track of your progress. The fact that you noticed walking on the incline helps YOU lose fat faster is really cool, because everyone is different and paying attention to the signals from your body is really important. Good luck in your competition and keep being awesome!

 

 

Thanks for checking out my thread! I appreciate the compliments

[Eireann]

Your goals sounds awesome and you're kicking butt so far! Keep up the good work! 

 

I'm a female engineer too (!!) with the same nerdy interests (GoT, HP)! Female engineers gotta stick together! 

[miss_marissa]

Your goals sounds awesome and you're kicking butt so far! Keep up the good work! 

 

I'm a female engineer too (!!) with the same nerdy interests (GoT, HP)! Female engineers gotta stick together! 

 

Yay for lady engineers!! elvenengineer (above) is also one! You may want to check out her challenge page as well

[miss_marissa]

Alright! Crushing this challenge so far!

 

Wednesday was my day off from working out so I relaxed at home a bit, watched the peoples choice awards (awards shows are my guilty pleasure, love them!) and had a pretty early bedtime.

 

Thursday I bench pressed again. I'm trying to wind down my training a little bit so I don't have any muscle soreness and I am 100% for next weekend. Focused on mainly some heavy singles (75, 80, 85 lb) and totally lost track of how many sets I did. But at the end I had my boyfriend spot and put 100 lb on the bar and help assist me with the weight (just to get used to a heavier weight) and you know what? I almost had it on my own! I think I should be able to hit 90 lb in competition, maybe even 95? After bench pressing I finished up with 3x8 pull ups with band, superset with 3x8 dips. Some leg raises and 20 min walking to finish up! The boyfriend plays on a semi-pro football team and one of him teammates also works out at the same gym as us, so they finished their workout together and after my walk I got some sweet, sweet foam rolling in. Hurts sooo good.

 

Which brings us to today! Woke up pumped for today's workout, DEADLIFTS! Being able to sleep in on Fridays is a glorious thing. Warmed up with sets of 5 and worked my way up 10 lbs at a time doing sets of triples all the way to 165. After that we lowered down to 135 and did 10 singles focusing on speed and ripping the bar off the ground, only had about 20s in between each rep. Quite a workout. After deadlifts, did 5x5x65 front squats, 3x10 back extensions and 3x8 decline sit ups. Ended the workout with 20 min on the stationary bike because it's freezing outside!!!! When the weather is warmer I was riding my bike to and home from the gym (about 15 min roundtrip) but it's just too cold out now. I can't wait for it to warm up so I can start riding again. Also, my coach gave me some wrist wraps to use while bench pressing. I tried them out with just the bar and I think it will help me keep my wrists stable and be able to hold more weight without wrist pain.

 

I haven't had any meals out yet (yay!). Even though Thursday most of my coworkers go out to eat for lunch since it's the end of the week. I brought my lunch and went over and ate with a coworker who I absolutely adore (I call him Grandpa) who I don't get to see often because he works in a different building). It was very nice, I think I will do that more often. I am going over to a coworkers house tonight for dinner (his wife is cooking asian food, excited!) and some Settlers of Catan. Hopefully I can stick to my nutrition goals!

 

I was expecting today to get a package of 2 pairs of shorts, but it hasn't arrived yet, hopefully tomorrow. I was going to practice sewing by undoing the stitching and redoing to make shorts for my Harley Quinn cosplay. I'll keep you posted on my progress!

 

Goal 1: TBD

Goal 2: Week 1: (X) (X) (X) (X)

Goal 3: 0 meals out + alcoholic drinks

[miss_marissa]

Weekend Update!

 

Alright so this past weekend was definitely a struggle!

 

Friday night went over to a coworkers house for dinner and had some delicious asian food (homemade wonton soup, stir fry, steamed tofu... yummy!). Afterwards I stopped at the bar that my boyfriend works at, as he was just getting out of work. I did not have any drinks, however, he ordered a pizza and couldn't finish it so I had a few small slices. Combined with the booze filled chocolate I had for dessert, I will say this is one meal out. Good news though, no drinks at the bar! Only water

 

Saturday, the Ravens (boyfriend's football team) volunteered at the high school regional powerlifting meet. So from 8:30 until about 3, I loaded bars and spotted all of the competitors for their lifts. What a workout! I was so wiped out, I think I was asleep by 9pm that night haha. I was glad I went though, gave me a more in depth look at how my competition will be run next week and certain things I should look out for as a competitor. Also, gave me more insight on where I should open with some of my lifts. Also, kind of embarassing! Some of these girls can lift waaaay more than me and are much lighter! Imagine how much I could lift if I had started at age 14 instead of 25. Lunch was provided at the competition and although it was homecooked (cheesy chicken casserole- essentially pasta, chicken and cheese), it was far from healthy. Glad that I brought some snacks to make it healthier (carrots, apple, protein bar, coke zero). After the competition, Justin (boyfriend) and I went to dinner with his defensive coach and his wife (team owner). I had a totally unhealthy chicken mushroom swiss sandwich and fries and enjoyed every calorie filled second of it.

 

Sunday was a day for watching football (GO PACK!) and house cleaning/meal prep. Made some homemade tacos for dinner and then watched the Golden Globes! I wanted so badly to open a bottle of wine or champagne and watch, however I stuck to water

 

Goal 1: TBD

Goal 2: Week 1: (X) (X) (X) (X) + X bonus from the powerlifting meet

Goal 3: 2 meals out + alcoholic drinks

[miss_marissa]

Week 2!

 

Starting to get nervous and excited (mostly nervous) for this weekend's meet. This week's training is slowing down quite a bit so that I am 100% for Saturday!
 

Monday's training (Week 2, Day 1)

Squats (warmup- 2x8xbar, 3x65, 3x75, 3x85, 3x95, 3x105)

5x1x115 - really trying to nail my depth so I don't have to focus on it so much during competition

Deadlifts (warmup, 5x95, 3x105, 3x115, 3x125)

5x1x135 - focus on speed and explosiveness off the bottom

Leg Press - 3x8x90

Walking Lunges - 3x8e bodyweight

Decline Situps - 3x10

superset 2x15 each exercise

Leg Extensions 50 lb

Leg Curls 50lb 1st set, 60lb second set

 

Finished up with 20 minutes bike and some foam rolling/stretching. Any recommendations for stretching out my unreasonably tight calves would be greatly appreciated

 

Did some food prep yesterday because I was lazy on Sunday. Did chicken in the crockpot, and some zucchini turkey burgers via this recipe. Will be eating it for lunch. I'll try to take a picture and let everyone know what I think! It's the first time I've made it.

 

Also! Went to the fabric store after work today and bought some items for my cosplay: some fleece to line my shorts with, white fabric for my collar/necklace. Hopefulyl I will have some time to relax and unwind and start to play around after Saturday.

 

Goal 1: TBD

Goal 2: Week 1: (X) (X) (X) (X) + X bonus from the powerlifting meet

             Week 2: (X) ( ) ( ) (meet)

Goal 3: 2 meals out + alcoholic drinks

[elvenengineer]

Looks like you're doing great!  Thanks for the advice on my thread

 

I'm sure you're going to rock at the meet.  Good luck!

[Blaidd]

you're doing fantastically so far.

 

You might notice that someone has added tags onto your thread.  This is not to pigeonhole you into a specific guild, but rather to attract the attention of the guild ambassadors because of your lifestyle or a grouping of goals, so that they might be able to motivate, encourage and advise you of anything during your challenge with us.  You don't even need to wait for them, you're welcome to pop into the Warriors to say hi and introduce yourself and to see what they're about. Also you are more than welcome to drop me a line at any time if you need anything.

 

Good luck

AB xx

[miss_marissa]

Looks like you're doing great!  Thanks for the advice on my thread

 

I'm sure you're going to rock at the meet.  Good luck!

Thanks! Starting to get super nervous

 

you're doing fantastically so far.

 

You might notice that someone has added tags onto your thread.  This is not to pigeonhole you into a specific guild, but rather to attract the attention of the guild ambassadors because of your lifestyle or a grouping of goals, so that they might be able to motivate, encourage and advise you of anything during your challenge with us.  You don't even need to wait for them, you're welcome to pop into the Warriors to say hi and introduce yourself and to see what they're about. Also you are more than welcome to drop me a line at any time if you need anything.

 

Good luck

AB xx

Thanks! Pigeonhole me into the Warriors all you want! hahaha

[miss_marissa]

Good afternoon!  A few updates from last night's workout.

 

Worked with my coach last night for an easy upper body workout. Decided this will be my last strength workout of the week so that I can heal and rest before Saturday. So for my Goal 2 for this week, I am going to adjust to have 3 strength workouts + 1 yoga/stretch session for a total of 4 (instead of 4 strength workouts) Really 2 strength workouts, 1 yoga/stretch, and the meet.

 

So last night's workout: warmup

Bench press: 5x2x65, 5x1x75

superset

lateral dumbbell raises: 3x12x8lbe

tricep bar pushdowns: 3x12x?

end

chest supported rows: 3x12x50 ... see a trend forming here? lol

lat pulldown: 3x12x? (I think ~38lb)

strict overhead barbell press: 3x8x45

finished with foam rolling, no cardio today.

 

We set my opening weights for Saturday, these are subject to change depending how I feel after each attempt or after my warmup on Saturday. Everything in lbs.

Squat: 150, 165, 180

Bench: 75, 80, 90

Deadlift: 160, 175, 190

For a grand total of 460 if I follow this and hit each of my 3rd lifts!

 

Yesterday and so far today I ate all meals cooked myself. FYI the turkey burger I had for lunch was delicious! I took a picture, but haven't hooked up my phone yet to publish here. In case anyone is curious about making them, I would cook for a little longer than the recipe recommends. Also, consider flipping onto a cooling rack and then placing the cooling rack back on top of the tray so they finish cooking and some of the moisture can drip down. But I like my meat well done (read: burnt) so to each their own!

 

Planning on doing some foam rolling work tonight with some walking and then yoga session tomorrow.

 

Goal 1: TBD in 3 days!

Goal 2: Week 1: (X) (X) (X) (X) + X bonus from the powerlifting meet

             Week 2: (X) (X) ( ) (meet)

Goal 3: 2 meals out + alcoholic drinks

 

[Jezaraen]

Good work so far!! Hope the meet goes well. Would love to see a recipe for turkey burgers. Sounds delish

 

Keep up the great work

[miss_marissa]

Good work so far!! Hope the meet goes well. Would love to see a recipe for turkey burgers. Sounds delish

 

Keep up the great work

Thank you!!!! I have the recipe hyperlinked above, but here it is again. Sooo yummy.

 

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jamie-easons-livefit-recipes-italian-turkey-burgers.html

[elvenengineer]

That looks delicious, and super flavorful.  I'll definitely have to put that on my recipes to try.

 

Good luck at the meet tomorrow!

[miss_marissa]

Yay! The meet happened! I'm going to separate into a few different posts though, so I don't have one monster post!
 

Week 2
Thursday- Did bodyflow class at the gym followed by about a half hour of foam rolling, all over. Ate all meals home cooked.

 

Friday- Did 40 minutes of walking on the treadmill while reading and some light foam rolling. Finished by just running through each of the 3 lifts with just the bar, focusing on form and going through the commands in my head. Had a relaxation massage to calm the nerves, I normally go deep tissue, but I didn't want to be too sore. I just needed some time to relax and get my mind off of the competition. Friday night I packed my bag and watched a movie to try to get pumped up! Couldn't fall asleep until much later than I wanted to (about 11:30, not good when I had to wake up at 4:30).

[miss_marissa]

Week 2 Saturday

THE BIG DAY!
Woke up at 4:30, double, triple and quadruple checked my bag to make sure I had everything. Hit the road just after 5:00, my boyfriend drove and a friend came with. Super duper beyond nervous. Arrived at the location of the event at 7:00 on the dot, right when registration was to start. Start registering with the masses and I have no idea what I am doing. Did I mention there was 130+ competitors in this meet?

Get signed in, go to get my equipment and uniform checked... and my wrist wraps aren't an 'approved brand' so I can't use them. Bummer, but not a huge deal. All of my other equipment is ok. Go to the gym, get my rack heights for squat and bench press. Last step, go to get weighed. Now I hadn't ate nor drank anything yet today, and didn't each much yesterday because I was nervous, but for some reason I was still worried about making weight, even though I had no reason to be. Weighed in at 60.1 kg, well under the 63kg limit for my weight class.

Now all the hard stuff was done, I had some time to eat and hydrate. To be honest I don't remember what I ate at what time throughout the day, but I know I had a bagel w/ cream cheese, some blueberries, rice cake w/ pb and a snickers. I was drinking a gatorade style beverage mixed with protein powder throughout the day (Herbalife's H30 and Wild Berry Beverage mix if anyone was curious)

 

About 8:00 I started warming up, foam roll, dynamic warmup. Started working my way up, a few BW squats, a few sets with the bar, a set at 75, a set at 95. Singles at 135, singles at 155. I then setup and stood with 185 just to feel the weight on my back. I will say one thing, warming up with only 4 squat racks and over a hundred people trying to warmup is hard! I typically like to make small jumps when I warmup, and some of these girls were starting with 135 and wanting to jump to 185 right away. I'm glad I started warming up early so I could speed up/slow down my warmup as necessary. (For reference I typically warmup 2/3 sets BW, 2/3 sets of 8 with the bar, set of 5 at 75, set of 5 at 95, and sets of 1-3 every 10 lbs until I get to my working set)

So I was in the first flight on my platform, so a few minutes before 9 I moved into the gym. So nervous I was pale as a ghost and shaking at this point. I was second in my flight opening at 150. Did my squat and was so focused on hitting it and putting in my next weight I didn't even look at the lights. Apparently I got one red, 2 white, but since I didn't notice lights, I forgot to ask what I did wrong. Second attempt at 165, 3 whites. Third attempt at 180 would be a PR, I was significantly less nervous at this point, but still nervous. Set-up, got the squat command, went down and about halfway back up just stopped and collapsed. Fail.
I think I was just so anxious and hyped up that all my strength was gone. I have no doubt that if I were to walk into the gym today I could hit that 180 no problem. So bummer, 2/3 so far on the day.

Small break took some time to eat, hydrate, and hang out with my family who came to support me After the first round of the last flight, I started warming up for my bench press. Pushups, a few sets just the bar, doubles at 65, singles at 75. It was a pretty quick warmup since I didn't have much room to work with. Moved out to the platform and they decided to have a 10 minute break between squat and deadlift (I was told there wasn't going to be a break). So here I am sitting there getting cold. Also, they decided to switch benches from what we had set our rack heights on originally. So it took another 10 minutes or so for everyone in my flight to go back through and reset rack and safety heights. Although good news! I was talking to one of the other women in my flight and was telling her about my wrist wraps and she had an extra pair that she let me borrow. Awesome! (Thanks Brenda!)

I was the first to go for each of these rounds. Started at 75, hit it easy. Went up to 80, easy again. Even though the judge I had was making us pause for what seemed like an eternity (compared to the other judges). Third attempt at 90, lowered, pause and pressed and got the bar about 3 inches above my chest and hit my sticking point. Hovered there for a few seconds pushing my hardest.... and failed. Again. I'm not as upset about this one though because the highest I had ever hit in the gym was 85. And with the eons long pause that this judge was making me do, I'm not sure I would have been able to hit it, even without nerves

Last but not least deadlift; I ate and chit-chatted some more. Started warming up again. Dynamic warmup, a few sets of RDLs with just the bar, a few sets of RDLs at 95, singles at 135, singles at 155.
I finished my warmup fairly quickly (again, not much room to work with) because some of the girls were moving up and past 2 or 3 plates on each side! Only warming up with 1 plate and change I didn't need as much time.

I was again first in my flight for deadlift. First attempt 160, 3 white. Second attempt 175, 3 white. Third attempt 190 (which would be a PR). At this point I decided failing wasn't an option, I was gonna pull this and I knew I was gonna get it up or I was gonna poop myself hahaha. I set up and started pulling and it came up fairly easy!!! So excited! 3 whites! I shook all the judges and helpers hands and started celebrating!
After this I was done for the day! Woo hoo! I changed out of my hideous and stinky singlet into some more comfortable clothes, had a protein shake, and just relaxed and watched the other flights and waited until awards.

So there were 3 people in my weight class, and I ended up getting second place!!!!! Woo hoo! I was definitely NOT expecting that! I got a trophy and everything!

After the competition, my boyfriend had his banquet for his semi-pro fall league team. He received the Brick Wall award, for being unstoppable on defense! Here I had 2 very well deserved beers and a meal of all of the things I haven't ate in weeks: pizza, cookies, cheesy potatoes, taco dip, etc (not that there was a vegetable or lean protein in sight for me to eat anyways... football players)
Drove back home and hit the bed immediately.

[miss_marissa]

Week 2 Summary!
Sunday
Slept almost 12 hours. Long day Saturday. Ordered food for the Packer game, calzone with grilled chicken, green pepper and jalapenos. Nachos to munch on shared between me and the boyfriend. And ice cream after the loss to ease the pain. A pretty piss poor day food wise, but I was just glad to be done with the competition and not have to worry about gaining weight (water or otherwise). During the late game I played around with trying to ruffle some fabrics for my cosplay outfit. It is a lot harder than one would think.

 

I'm glad I got my first competition jitters out of the way! The next one I can crush it! I've learned some things I liked the way they went, and some other things I would do differently. Overall a good learning experience. I've officially got the powerlifting bug!

 

Goal 1: 7/9 C

Goal 2: Week 1: (X) (X) (X) (X)

            Week 2: (X) (X) (X) (X)

Goal 3: 6 meals out + alcoholic drinks  <- I should given myself a little bit more wiggle room with this one. I didn't think to build in things like eating out after the competition, or not being at home in 2 weekends for being at comic con. Now I know better for next time!

[elvenengineer]

Congrats on doing your first competition!  Do you know when the next one will be?

 

Wiggle room for your goals always helps, but it's all a learning experience.

 

Congrats again, and keep up the good work!