I Love My Oly Shoes

Last night I attempted double-unders and after 3 felt some major pressure on my bladder. Forget that idea. I'm not peeing my pants for this. I start doing the Burgener Warm-Up with a 25 lb bar. I still had no idea which workout I wanted to do, but next to me was a loaded 65 lb bar. Temptation struck. In my Nikes I attempted a full snatch. The moosh of my shoes sent my body and the bar all over the place. I thought up a quick wod and changed into my favorite shoes ever...My Oly Shoes! These babies reap a strict, solid landing under the bar. The sound they make as they hit the floor at the bottom of the snatch is like music to my ears. I attempted my next snatch and it stuck. Love it!

The WOD
3 Rounds
250m Row
10 Snatch - #65
Time - 17:34 I'm not sure why I even keep time at this point.

Olympic lifts make my heart go pitter patter. They are my strength and I'm going to be very sad when my belly is too big to safely get the bar around it. Guess I'll have to settle for dumbbells.

Below is a video of Olympic winner Natalie Woolfork-Burgener. She is the daugther-in-law to Olympic weightlifting Coach Mike Burgener. If a dream vacation were in order for us Isbell's, it would probably be a week in Mike's Garage learning to lift like Natalie.  I wonder how much her training will change when she is pregnant?





On a sad note, I was bumped from my last number 1 spot on the leader board yesterday. Deric kicked ass and took names on Fight Gone Bad beating my 333 points with 432. Ouch!

A Thing for the Girls

FRAN
21-15-9
Thrusters - 65 lbs
Pull Ups

Time 2/3/20 - 12:06

It took me all week to find the motivation to work out, but FRAN was knocking on my door. That and I got my heart rate monitor and had to test it out.

Every CrossFitter has a story. Its that quick go to event you tell to help new comers or non-CrossFiters understand why you wake up at 5am for an 8 minute workout. CrossFit is my passion. Beyond my family CrossFit isn't just CrossFit...its everything.  That being said, I have a lot of stories, but my go to event is Fran.

I started CrossFit in the fall of 2007 2x a week. My athletic abilities went no further than high school dance team and since those days I had had a baby and dabbled in the boring Gold's gym style workouts. By January 2008 I had taught myself kipping pull ups. My coach at the time invited me to a workout with him and his buddy, another affiliate owner. The workout was Fran and being new to CrossFit I had no idea what a thruster was or why this workout was named after a girl. I watched the two guys do the workout then fling themselves to the floor gasping for air after just a few short minutes. Then it was my turn. I used the prescribed weight of 65 lbs for females. 10 minutes later I was struggling to get my last pull up over the bar. After 4 attempts one of the guys came to give me hand. I snubbed it off and gutted out my last pull up Rx.  I walked away not understanding what I had just done, not knowing it was the first of many milestones through out the next 2 years.

In June of 2008 I attended my CrossFit level 1 certification in California. The workout on the first day was none other than Fran. By this point I was doing CrossFit several times a week and had been strictly zoning my crappy food for 6 months. The man of my dreams, Scott, and my CrossFit Hero, Jolie Gentry, stood in front of me cheering me on. I took a personal record (pr) on Fran in 6:24.

By October 2008 I had switch to Paleo Zone with my diet. Quality and Quantity. I took on Fran in a casual corner here at CFCP. There was no hype, a small crowd of people warming up, and the clock. Again, a PR with 4 minutes and some change.

April 2009, just before Qualifiers, I nervously took on FRAN with the camera rolling. After 3 minutes and 53 seconds I threw myself to the floor gasping for air. I completely understand the intensity of the coaches attempting this back in January 2008. I too had hit that point.

Just before the CrossFit Games I took on Fran again with no improvement, a scary thing when you are about to compete against the fittest men and women in the world. I believe I actually did it in 3:55...OUCH.

BUT, By November 2009 I reclaimed my spot on the board  with a Fran time of 3:49. And that's all she wrote.  (I was bumped down by Deric last week. Chest to bar Fran in 2:41...WOW!"

Last night I took on Fran with a heart rate monitor, the video camera and an obvious baby bump. After doing some research I've found that heart rate monitoring is a little less important than it used to be during pregnancy. There is no rule stating you need to keep your heart rate with in a certain range, but I'm not sure they wrote that with CrossFit in mind. I found when I had the natural urge to rest is when my heart rate hit 160-170 bpm.  Listening to my body seems to be the best rule of thumb.  In my Games training I learned to resist the urge to rest, but now its time to respect that urge. Scott was there, giggling at Baby Bumper's appearance more than my performance, but also to make sure I knew when to stop. My time was safely 12:06.  I had some solid butterfly pull ups my first round, but switched to kips when my deconditioned calluses wanted to give out.  Butterflies really fly. They are so much faster. I'm so glad I have taken the time to learn them and I can't wait to hit my next Fran PR. The goal is 3:30 post baby.

Side Note - I can now feel my belly when I row. Its not in the way yet, but it won't be too much longer.

Rekindling An Old Flame

Scott and I had full intensions of taking on FRAN saturday, but it was our first (and one of our last) weekend with no kids in a long time. (One of the only perks of sharing our kids with the exes is the occasional reminder of life before kids. As many parents out there know, it makes you feel young and frisky.) So we blew FRAN off for baby furniture browsing, running shoe shopping, lunch, napping, and a nice dinner out. He wore a button up shirt, I wore perfume, we basked in "date night".  I even stayed up until 10:30pm, but it felt like 2:00am to my pregnant hormonal body. I was starving by 7:30am and found myself too weak to sleep, if that's possible.  This made accomplishing anything on sunday completely impossible.

Monday came quick and with it a new goal, getting my family back on paleo. I think my entire house is pregnant. For the first time in months I was able to get through the grocery store with out crying on the cracker isle as I scrambled to open a box of saltines. I did my well known route around the perimeter of the store dipping into the isles only for a few snacks for the kids.  The skies opened and the angels sang as I entered the produce department. I was ready to reclaim my relationship with the vegetables. Zucchini, bell pepper, onion, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, avocado, and squash I have missed you. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me? 

I'm happy to report that things are currently going very smooth between the veggies and me. So much so, that my husband has happily jumped in on every meal with us.