CrossFit PR and Leaderboard Triumph!

It’s Bob and my 1 year anniversary! We will not be celebrating by going out to dinner or indulging in a decadent dessert. I think Bob is going to grill some steaks (yum)! Maybe we will throw the rest of the zucchini from our CSA on the grill too. We decided last year that we would go to the Great American Beer Festival in Denver to celebrate our mutual love for beer and each other for our anniversary. We leave for Denver in 12 days! Very “paleo,” I know! ;-) What is WHOLE 30 approved? Bob gave me a paleo cookbook this morning (along with a dozen roses and a pumpkin beer to be consumed after Whole 30 is over). Already started reading, “Practical Paleo” by Diane Sanfilippo!

In other news, I made the leaderboard at CrossFit this week! That’s a first for me! And during my Whole 30 too…

On Wednesday we did the benchmark WOD, Nicole: AMRAP in 20 minutes of 400 meter run and max rep pull-ups (unbroken). Your score equals the total amount of pull-ups you complete over the course of the WOD. My score was 70 and I got the second highest score out of all the girls! I had never done Nicole. When I saw the WOD my goal was to get 100 pull-ups. After finishing the WOD I was thinking about how I wish I could run faster… I would have been able to get more pull-ups in. But needless to say, I am pretty happy with my score. I guess 100 is a good goal for the future. I really need to work on my running.

 On Thursday we had time to find our split jerk 1 rep max. Pull-ups and jerks are my two favorite (strongest) movements, so it was a good week for me… or should have been at least. For some reason I was having trouble with split jerks on Thursday. 125lbs has been my 1 rep max for months… maybe even 6 months. I even had just split jerked 125 the week before. I jumped to 115lbs too quickly and failed. I was pissed! It got into my head. I scaled the weight down a little bit, succeeded at 115, but failed when I bumped up the weight to 125. I hated those weights and I took my failure personally. I am a horrible person! I have to be; otherwise I wouldn’t have failed so completely. I left the gym without stretching with everyone in the noon class, because I couldn’t stand to be there anymore.

Well, Friday was a new day! I completed the WOD, which was: -5 rounds for time- 200 meter run, 5  squat cleans (135#/95#), 5 Shoulder-to-overhead (135#/95#). I scaled the weight down to 85lbs (hey it was fifth day WODing in a row) and completed the WOD in a little over 15 minutes. After stretching with all the ladies in the class, I decided to take some time and work on my back squat form with low weight. While working I noticed Coach Ian (owner of CrossFit Mission Gorge) getting all the high split jerk numbers to put up on the leaderboard. THAT killed me after my failure the day before. In between my back squat sets I peeked over at the list Ian was making. If I had performed like I normally would have the day before I totally would have made the leaderboard. I continued my squats, but couldn’t help feeling bummed out. Should I just suck it up, admit that yesterday was not my day, and accept that being on the leaderboard isn’t that important – that it doesn’t prove anything. I couldn’t let it go. I went up to Ian and told him that 125 has been my 1 rep max for split jerks for months and I asked if I get it today could I still get on the leaderboard. Ian said, “Yes, if you get it now before you leave.” Awesome! I knew despite my tired body after WODing and squatting I could get 125. I had just the week before and I had no choice, but to do it right then and there. After a few warm-up sets, I loaded the bar. 115 –easy. 120 – easy. I took a 2 minute rest. 125 – got it! Phew! I loaded 1lb baby plates on each side – I mean, I have to at least try for a PR! 127 – eeeeeeh, got it! So my new PR for split jerk is 127lbs and I got up on the leaderboard for that lift too! All in all, it was a good week. :-)