CrossFit WOD – 5/7/12 – CrossFit Games Regionals WOD

Warm-Up
400m run
Squats & push jerks warm-up

Games Regionals WOD
For time:
50 Back squats (135/95)  [M:95 | J:95]
40 Pull-ups (20 if modified)
30 reps Shoulder-to-overhead (135/95) [M:65 | J:75]
50 Front squats (85/65) [M:65 | J:75]
40 Pull-ups (20) 
30 reps Shoulder-to-overhead (85/65) [M:35 | J:65]
50 Overhead squats (65/45) [M:35 | J:65]
40 Pull-ups (20) 
30 reps Shoulder-to-overhead ( 65/45) [M:35 | J:65]

35 minute time cap

We knew were in for a doozy tonight when we saw this posted on the web.  For the Games Regionals tournament, there was a 22 minute cap for this.  Only one woman finished in less than that, which floors me that ANYone could finish this in less than 22 minutes!!

Anyway, the modifications for this were to first cut the pull ups by half (which we both did), and then to lower the weight if needed (which we both did).  I modified too much, though, by going down to 35 lbs for the last 3 exercises. I kind of breezed through them, and finished in 32:48. Jeff went the full 35 minutes.  Rest assured, though, that even with those modifications, I still definitely got a good workout in!

After the WOD, people assumed the traditional post-WOD position:

Recipe: Vegan Elvis Cake

Today marks our 1 year anniversary!  As part of my gift to Jeff, I offered to make him a cake of his choosing. Since peanut butter and bananas are his favorite combination ever, he chose Elvis cake!  So I found a recipe and then veganized it. This is the delicious, amazing, sinful result.

Cake Ingredients

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• ¾ cup (1½ sticks) non-dairy butter
• 1 ½ cups plus granulated sugar
• 2 egg replacements (3 tsp Ener-G egg replacer whisked together with 4 T warm water)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1.25 cup non-dairy milk

Banana Filling Ingredients

• 4 medium bananas, peeled and sliced
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 T non-dairy butter

Chocolate Frosting Ingredients

• 1/2 cup non-dairy butter, softened
• 1/2 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
• 1.5 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Spray two 8-inch round pans. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Meanwhile, in the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the non-dairy butter and 1 ½ cups sugar; beat in peanut butter. Beat in egg replacer and vanilla until incorporated; alternately add flour mixture and non-dairy milk (beginning and ending with flour), frequently scraping down sides of bowl. Transfer batter to two pans.
3. Bake in the oven until the cakes test clean with a toothpick, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, turning cakes out of pans after 10 minutes.
4. Make banana filling: Heat ¼ cup brown sugar in medium skillet over medium. Cook, swirling pan occasionally, until sugar melts and turns an amber color; add remaining non-dairy butter to pan. Add bananas; remove from heat and toss to slightly soften.
5. Assemble Cake: Place one cake layer on a platter; arrange bananas on top of layer. Sandwich with second layer; frost with Chocolate Frosting (recipe below).

Chocolate Frosting Instructions

1. Cream together shortening and non-dairy butter with electric mixer.
2. Add cocoa powder and mix well.
3. Next, add 1 cup of powdered sugar and 1 T non-dairy milk. Mix well. Alternate adding the rest of the sugar and milk and keep mixing.
4. Lastly, add vanilla and incorporate well.
5. Frost cake once it cools, and devour!

And, to mark our anniversary – a picture from our wedding.  What a wonderful day it was!

CrossFit 6 Month Progress Report

We had our first day of CrossFit at the end of September 2011.  After about 6 months of going religiously 3 times per week, we thought it would be fun to look at all our progress.  I wish we had done a baseline WOD that we could re-do now, but alas, we didn’t do that.

One of the things I love about CrossFit is that, as a woman, I have always worried about how I LOOK.  We women spend so much time worrying about our weight, our thighs, our arms, our booties, etc, and how all those things stack up compared to other women.  It takes up so much mental energy, and if you’re like me, causes a lot of stress and anxiety.  CrossFit has been good for me because it’s made me feel kind of amazed at what my body can do – which means I spend a lot less time thinking about how my body looks.  I mean, when we started, I had done dead lifts before, but never more than maybe 65 -70 lbs.  One of our early CrossFit workouts, I did 45 reps total at 110 lbs (in early October).  More recently, I did the same number of reps using 165 lbs.  That’s a 50% increase.

To me, even more remarkable is that when I started CrossFit, I couldn’t do more than a handful of push-ups without modifying (ie, going to my knees).  Not long ago, I completed a WOD where in a 20 minute time period, I had to do 110 push ups, and I did them ALL on my toes.  Realizing that through hard work, my body can accomplish these kinds of things has made me so appreciative.  Anyway, here’s a summary of our progress in table format. Keep in mind, though, that the starting values weren’t necessarily maxes – they were just where we felt comfortable starting when we were learning the exercises. Still, I think this is valuable info, and I look forward to updating it periodically!

CrossFit WOD – Tough Mudder WOD #1

Our CrossFit gym has a team participating in Tough Mudder.  If you’ve never heard of that, you should definitely click on that link and watch/read about it.  Jeff and I really wanted to do it this year, but we’ll be in Iceland when it’s happening, so we can’t. We can, however, participate in the WODs that are preparing the team.  This was tonight’s WOD, and it took me 41:13.  It was super difficult but I feel awesome!

Recipe: Quinoa with Toasted Cashews & Fresh Basil

This is a recipe I adapted from The Kind Diet.  It’s so, so simple to make, and super healthy. And because it’s both of those things, you might think it’s going to be boring or bland, but it’s not – sure, it’s simple, but that simplicity allows you to really enjoy the flavors of the quinoa, the nuts, and the fresh basil.

Ingredients
1 cup quinoa, uncooked
2 cups vegetable broth or water
1 T olive oil (flavored is fun if you have it)
1/2 cup raw cashews
Fresh basil (about 15 leaves)
Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Rinse the dry quinoa in a fine mesh strainer, and then combine in a saucepan with the 2 cups broth/water.  Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook until all the liquid is absorbed (stirring occasionally) and quinoa is light and fluffy (about 20-25 min).
2. While the quinoa is cooking, place the cashews in a small frying pan on medium-low heat.  Shake up the pan frequently and watch closely as they start to brown so that you don’t burn them!  Once they are a little brown, set aside.
3. Take your basil leaves, stack them up, and roll them, and then use your kitchen scissors to cut them into thin strips.  Set aside.
4. Once the quinoa is cooked, place in a large bowl, stir in the olive oil, basil, and cashews.  Taste for salt and add as needed.

Makes 4 servings
Nutrition per serving:  300 calories | 37g carbs | 14g fat | 8.7g protein | 3.6g fiber
Weight Watchers PointsPlus points per serving: 8

CrossFit WOD – 4/28/12

Warm-Up
2 rounds:
400m run/row
120 singles/40 double unders
15 squats
Burgener warm-up
Hip mobility

Skill(z):
Snatch – 2 sets of 3
Overhead Squat (or Front Squat) – 2 sets of 3 @ 70 1 rep max

WOD
8 rounds
4 sandbag to shoulder throws (70/50)
5 pull ups
6 box jumps (24″/20″)

First we worked on the Snatch.  I need to work on my technique a bit – apparently I let the bar stray too far away from my body, which will limit how much I can lift. So, I kept the weight at 55 lbs and just worked on fixing that.

Then we could work on either overhead squats or front squats.  I did the former and Jeff did the latter. I did a couple warm up sets, and then did  my 2 sets of 3 at 70 lbs. It definitely was not a 3 rep max, but it was the most I’ve done, I think (mostly because we don’t do these much).  Jeff did 150 lbs for front squat.

For the WOD, because I stabbed myself last weekend, I was unable to do pull ups. I was afraid I’d break open my wound, so instead I did kettlebell back rows with 26 lbs in each hand.  I finished faster than most people because of that – I think they were quite a bit easier. I finished in 8:47. Jeff took maybe 11 minutes (we can’t remember!).

CrossFit WOD – 4/26/12

Today’s WOD was ideal for a person who just stabbed her hand on Sunday – it was all rowing and running.  But because it was all rowing and running, the instructor decided we should have some “fun” first. And his definition of fun is different from mine.

The “Fun” – aka Warm Up
Part I:
3x through
7 pull ups (I skipped these because of my hand)
7 hand stand push ups
7 Shoot throughs (loud music in video)
7 OHS (with PVC)
200m run

Part II:
“Death by Ball Slams” – every minute you do the following # of reps of ball slams (40lb for men, 30 for women), and you can rest until the minute is up when you finish your reps:
Minute 1 = 3 reps
2 = 4 reps….up to
Minute 10 = 12 reps

The first couple minutes obviously weren’t bad, but by the end we were feeling it.  We ended up doing a total of 68 reps.

Now, for the WOD:
400m run
1200m row
400m run
800m row
400m run

I finished in 17:55. Jeff didn’t come tonight, because he went yesterday and did so many burpees he was really struggling this morning!  He also got a new PR for push jerks – 150 lbs!  That’s  pretty exciting. Nothing better than getting a new PR!