We’re officially into 2015 and it’s been a big week of new things at Solcana CrossFit!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope you all started the year off with renewed spirits like I did. After being out of town performing shows for New Years, I can report that I officially started 2015 in a hotel bar, post show, in the middle of nowhere Minnesota, with about 8 complete strangers and a couple of other comedians. By 12:20, I was in a hotel bed eating cheetos and watching a documentary on David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco, TX. They always say to start the year how you’d like the rest of it to end up (oh god, lets hope not).
I got back to town on New Years Day, and the gym was closed for the holiday so I officially did my first workout of 2015 on January 2 in the 11:30 am class. It was KILLER! We did strict presses and pushups and air squats and pull ups (ring rows!) to infinity. It was tough, and it was a good way to jump start 2015 so I am not complaining. Jumping out of bed Saturday for the 9am class was pretty difficult, mostly because my quads were S O R E and nearly gave out on me. Okay, no they didn’t but just let me be dramatic for effect in this blog, okay?
We started Open Training on Saturday and I was really unsure what to expect. The CrossFit Open is a competition that everyone in the world is invited to compete in, and consists of five workouts over five weeks, and the training we are doing on Saturdays moving forwared is in anticipation of the competition. Actual CrossFit Open competition dates and workouts haven’t yet been posted, so we are currently working off competition workouts from previous years. Once things officially kick off, as a competitor, we will post our scores online in real time and see how we match up. Last year, almost 140,000 athletes competed in the Open, and competitors get ranked both worldwide and by region. Then, the fittest 48 men, 48 women, and 30 teams from each region will earn invitations to one of 17 Regionals. Now, I’ve run a half marathon where I finished nearly last (6 people were behind me) so I accept my place in this competition. The training workout we did on Saturday was BRUTAL, so naturally I’m terrified to see what we’ll do this week. To give you an idea, we completed in 10 minutes AMRAP (as many reps as possible) of:
- 5 shoulder to overhead at 75lbs (I did push press)
- 10 deadlifts at 75 lbs
- 15 box jumps (step ups)
My partner, Emma, killed this workout getting 8 rounds in 10 minutes. I made it 5 rounds and felt like dying. The box steps up kill me mostly because I’m so dang short and the step is higher than my knees! Killer. What can you do though? JUST KEEP DOING THEM. Saturday also was the first Solcana Powerlifting Team workout at noon, so I made it back to the gym for that. Keep in mind my body was on fire, so when I heard Coach Sampson tell us we were working on our one rep max for each lift I almost fell over. I managed to squeak out a 205lb squat, and failed a 125lb bench (though I did this the week prior successfully!). I left the deadlift since we had just completed our 1RM earlier in the week so I opted for a 5×5 training set at 155. I’m looking forward to seeing my lifts increase as we prepare to compete in spring. So exciting!
This all brings us to the present…and the kickoff of the Solcana WholeMe Challenge. Coach Hannah’s post yesterday outlined the first week plan, including free-floating points and and how to work with your accountability partner (shout out to my partner, Hannah P who was thoughtful enough to send me an e-book on meal planning that I can’t wait to fully attack to continue everything moving in the right direction. Check it out here.)
Basically the main points of week 1 include:
- 8 hours of sleep (I succeeded in this on Sunday night, failed last night only getting 6)
- Going to the gym (did this last night, plan the same for tonight)
- Drink one gallon of water (this is 6.5 refills of my 20oz Klean Kanteen – DID IT Monday, on my way to making it Tuesday too)
- Add 3 cups of different vegetables each day (successfully completed on Day 1 with a variety including spinach, sweet potato, carrots, snap peas, broccolli, avocado, brussels sprouts, and radishes
Here’s my nutrition journal from yesterday:
Things I’ve noticed with this new plan include:
- MANY trips to the bathroom. I know this will get better…and in the meantime, I’m enjoying my many breaks from work and meetings. 🙂
- A little bit of stomach ache this morning, possibly from the mass amounts of vegetables I consumed yesterday in comparison to my previous eating habits (we’ll get through this, too).
- Change is hard when it’s not your choice – as a team, we need to stay positive! This a great plan that is going to help all of us make better food choices. I’m actually excited to be held accountable for it.
- I USED MY CROCKPOT LAST NIGHT to make a paleo kale and ham hock masterpiece. SO GOOD (if you know me, you know i don’t cook so this is HUGE.
- I probably need to eat more food, and I’m working on this. I recently started a new medication with a side effect of appetite suppression, so it’s a process. EAT EAT EAT EAT. That’s my new mantra.
I also did a bunch of food prep last night after the gym, which I plan to count as one of my personal time
points, being that I was taking care of myself and no one else. I made bacon for use during the week, Hannah P’s awesome brussels sprouts and bacon recipe, egg/meat cups for breakfast on the go, as well as prepped a bunch of cut vegetables – some of which I brought with me to work today for easy consumption.
Overall, I’m feeling good. It’s only Day 2, but like the saying goes, “just take it as it comes, one day at a time…”
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some radishes and carrots to eat for my morning snack, washed down with 20oz of water.