Thanksgiving Chief, year 2

Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 2010

Front Squat + Jerk

63x2+1

83x2+1

93x2+1

103x1+1

113x1+1

WOD

partner Chief with Sam Y

3 Rounds

AMRAP in 5 min

3 Power Cleans 83#

6 push ups

9 squats

1 min rest between rounds

Partners alternate the Chief sequence and while one is working, the other holds the plank position

7+7 squats/7+5 squats/7 +2 squats

Try as I might, I could never get that last round finished! I loved, loved, loved this partner Chief. I almost didn't come to the Thanksgiving class when the memories of last year's Chief WOD came flooding back. But of course, I am very glad I made it in. I told my sister on the way in that if we had to do the running partner Chief, we'd have to be together and she would get to run 600m rounds while I ran 200. Then when I got home, I went back and read my entry from that wod.

Way back then I was still slightly overwhelmed by the shear eliteness of Cliff and Golden, so there was a lot of pressure from being the way, way, way slowest person in that wod. Ah the memories... And a year later, I still whine about running, and I am still often the slowest person in the wod. Now being slow doesn't bother me as much, and I am ever so slightly better at running, slightly being the operative word.

And then I went home and finished all of the preparations for our Thanksgiving feast. I am often asked if I cheat, so here is some photographic evidence of my cheat day-

The paleo foods-

Turkey, one smoked and one roasted

Sweet Potatoes

Paleo Stuffing

Brussel Sprouts

Green Beans with Bacon

pumpkin bars

Apps: vegetables, fruit, mini sausages

The non-paleo foods-

Cranberry sauce

gravy (thickened with potato starch and no one noticed the difference)

Cauliflower squash with asiago cheese

real, traditional mashed white potatoes

gluten free biscuit

whipped cream on my paleo bars

Apps-jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped with bacon, artichoke jalapeno dip, m&ms

And wine and gluten-free beer

Ouch!

Back Squat
228.5 x2x3

3 box jumps between each set

The squats were kind of off tonight-rolling onto my toes, dropping too fast, feeling like they were heavy...but sometimes you just charge ahead and get the work done.

WOD
5 rounds
15 yd suitcase lunge 30# DBs
15 yd resisted run (with Anna)

Last time I did this wod with 20# DBs. This is also the first time in a long time that I have done resisted runs with my own sister. If you want to work less, it is certainly preferable to partner with someone not related to you. Non-relations (Black-hearted Kyle excepted) tend to be concerned about not resisting TOO hard, and might even be worried about breaking you. My own sister apparently had very little concern for this.

I can feel the effects of this wod very, very definitely. Apparently I have still not adapted to the combination of back squats, weighted lunges and resisted runs.

Thanksgiving Cooking-Paleo Pumpkin Pie Squares

Paleo Pumpkin Pie Squares

Ingredients:
Nut crust
1/2 a cup of pecans, chopped up as finely as possible
1 cup of almond flour
one squirt of honey
a dash of salt
4 tablespoons of coconut oil

Filling
1 1/2 cups of pumpkin puree (make sure you purchase pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling that is pre sweetened)
3 eggs whisked
roughly 1/8 cup of honey
3/4 cup of full fat coconut milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 teaspoons of cinnamon
1/2 a teaspoon of nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon of ground ginger

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees for the crust.

Mix all of the ingredients together for the crust and then press into a 9x9 baking dish lined with parchment paper. Bake until light brown. For me, this took 10 minutes, but it could take anywhere between 8-20 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven.

Combine all of the ingredients for the filling and pour on top of the nut crust. Lower the oven temp to 350 degrees and bake for 30 minutes. When finished, the middle will still be wobbly, but the edges will be set. Remove the pumpkin bars from the oven and let come to room temperature, at least 45 minutes. The pumpkin will solidify as it cools. Cut into bars and serve!

Mini Goals

Hang Power Clean + Power Clean
88.5x2x4

Got them all done, but they didn't really feel that remarkable.

WOD
3 rounds
200 m run
21 kettlebell swings 35#
12 burpees

Time:

So here are my wod reflections tonight-
I am trying to remember to set myself mini-goals, (as was presented in the goal-setting workshop) for the wods. I have been taking breaks during the wod far too often lately, so this is one of my personal self-corrections.

I ran the whole time I was outside on the runs-the whole time, even at the turn around.

I kept all the KBS unbroken.

I had a goal of actually jumping down and up for every burpee (instead of kind of stepping down) but I didn't make this one. My first burpee on rounds 2 and 3 were definitely more step and less jump, and I think I threw in a few other fakes a couple of times.

Dip, Drive

Front Squats
150x3x5

Chipping away at the front squat goal with a defined progression...little by little, week by week. My front squat is disproportionately low in comparison to my back squat, so I this is clearly a weakness that I need to chip away at.

WOD
3 rounds
200 m run
10 cleans 83#
10 front squats
10 shoulder to overhead

Time-18:14

Yep, that one took me 18 minutes and it felt like it was a really, really long 18 minutes. Jason graciously allowed me to scale the runs down from the 400 meters. That would have killed me or I would have had to scale the weight way down. So I was very, very happy with this compromise and really feel like it worked well for me.

The shoulder to overheads were not fun. I was just feeling super off and my regular jerks were very uncomfortable. I think that was because my timing was off. If you don't actually do it right, the dip of your legs provides no help and then the only way to get the bar up is to press it. That gets old really quickly! So I had to just stick with split jerks which are slower.

Thrusters, yeah!

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Clean Deadlift
153x3x3

WOD
3 rounds
in 2:30 minutes
Row 200 m
10 Thrusters 83#
Max Rep Pull Ups-ring
12/7/9
1 min rest between rounds

The thrusters were really hard. They were the kind of hard that really make you regret loading the bar with that weight with single plates since i spent the first round wishing I could just strip off 10#. They were the kind of hard that make you think about shorting reps, and that's what I spent the second round thinking about. But they were the kind of hard that you know you can tackle, when you reach that last round and realize that the end is in sight and actually very possible.

And then after all of that, Kevin convinced me to run butcher sprints. I am weak and would have given up after 1 sprint, but I made it through 4, thanks to some encouragement.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

The Mental Game

11/15/2010

Press 3x5
78#

Who can mess up what is probably the simplest lift ever?!? I can! Every single time, too! But I did get it done.

WOD
60 KBS 45#
40 Burpees
20 K2E
Time: 9:12

I certainly don't look forward to these high rep, single round wods, but I know they offer a unique training element so I like them anyway.

If this wod was broken up into 5 rounds of 12/8/4, it would be so different! It is this long string of hard things that so changes the mental side of the workout! I still break the work up into smaller sets in my mind, meeting those mental goals sometimes, and giving up on them at other times, but even when I tell myself to just get 10 done, I know that right after that, I'll still have another 10, and then another 10...

Since the gym has the new butcher, Kyle just had to throw in sprints with that thing as our finisher. This time we only had 50# on there, but on my last sprint, Golden was thoughtful enough to push back on the sled, all in the interest of improving my personal fitness.