Practice pays off

Its been a long process but well worth the dried out chalk calloused hands because today I FINALLY got a kipping pull up.  It ain't pretty but my chin seems to have gone over the bar.  The final piece of the FRAN puzzle has been found....now to put the jigsaw ALL together hmmmmmm.  Please excuse the videography....my camera man was holding lil' J.   

Inspiration

A few weeks ago the local SHAW cable channel came and made celebrities of Ignite Fitness/CrossFit Red Deer.  Shout out to T-RAW for looking fierce and interviewing like an old media pro. She truly is a CrossFit convert. 

The scales are tipping

It was the summer after I had just finished my fourth year of teaching when W and I started to date.  We had meet a few times before that but always in a "party" setting. So in essence he had only ever known a version of me that was carefree. A gal who was always game for a good time, would go out, stay up late, drink, have fun:) It was late August when W started to notice a change.  Suddenly I wasn't so easy going , I didn't stay out quite as late, drink as much or spend so much time doing...well doing nothing.   It was obvious I had things on my mind.  Wondering if  maybe our summer romance was fizzling W grew concerned and brought up his worries.  It was then that we had "the talk".  I was the first teacher he knew personally, it wasn't his fault, he didn't know.  And for some reading this it might come as a shock to you too but its true.  Teachers have two personalities, a summer vacation version and a school year version.  As you can imagine, in almost every case summer version is more favoured.  So I explained to W that  my distance was not because of a faulty connection but my change in mood  was because I was just preparing for the fast past, on your feet, talk non stop, help at lunch, volunteer after school, discipline all day, mark all night world I was about to re enter. I was morphing from Summer Dana to School Dana.   I am lucky he stuck it out and I am sure if you asked him he would tell you that every July long weekend he welcomes my alter ego and that the lady who emerges from behind a stack of finals at the end of June  is by far the more fun version of me.  We have adjusted and even found out that Maternity leave Dana has turned out to be kinda cool too:)That is after the hormone levels evened out.  Its a balance thing.  Teachers generally don't have any, they live school, the job sort of demands it. 

This coming Friday as I head back into school I can't help but feel apprehensive about the changes that are about to rock my tediously balanced boat.    Right now there is time, time to workout, time to prepare a paleo meal, time to play with the kids, time to clean up, time to read a book even time to chat with my husband.  Simply put there is time.  Time to explore more of who I am and find out that beyond being a teacher I actually do enjoy other things.   Time that will be quickly gobbled up by teacher things once I am back at it.  Many health experts claim that to be truly happy and healthy one must be able to toss all of life's "balls": work, play, family, spouse and house into the air and give them equal attention to keep them off the ground.  I know that the key to my success once I return to work is to find that ever elusive balance.  Something I am starting to wonder isn't just an illusion, an idealistic vision that balance means working full time, enjoying an active social calendar that includes ample amounts of alone and couple time while seamlessly managing a beautifully decorated, immaculately clean house full of well behaved, perfectly groomed children completing Mensa puzzles quietly in their rooms. 

 

I know that isn't true balance, that is merely a myth passed down from mothers to their daughter along with guilt....

Right? 

Shit!

Do you think three days is enough time to learn to juggle?

Progress Report

After a lax Christmas holiday where I just WOD-ed here and there it was time to tighten up the training as FRAN day nears.  With my return to school date also looming W and I have made some tweaks and have decided that we for the next six weeks I would return to my roots and revisit Starting Strength.  We tested and my 1 RMs have not changed much as you can see I didn't reach the goals I set out to after August, so we go from there. 

Lift	March 31st 2011	April 29th 2011	Goal  (set on April 29th)	August 5th 2011	Goal (set on August 5th)	January 1st 2012	Goal (set on Jan 1st)
Squat	35	95	121	140	165	140	150
Press	35	45	60	67.5	77	67.5
Dead lift	95	145	151	165	180	165
Bench Press	45	55	90	85	100	85
Pull ups 3 x 5	Blue band	Blue Band	Green Band	Green and Red Band	Red Band	Red Band	Kip-no band
Push Press						65
Front Squat						95

I am on my second week and am remembering very quickly how much mental game is needed to make a PR every time you are lifting.  I would really like to back squat my body weight when this is all done and since my body weight isn't going down much more I have about a twenty pound increase I need to make. 

Three days a week I lift; bench, press, squat and deadlift and we have added in front squat and push press in order to get those heavy as fast as I can as well.  I also work on my dead hang pull up, Lsits to strengthen my grip and box jumps for some volume.  In warm up I work on my kip, my skip, hand stand push ups and my transition from a front squat into a push press with an empty bar.  I have two off days and two days that I just WOD. 

We will see how this goes.....my main priority right now is my lifts that will make my thrusters better and practicing my kip.  Stayed tuned we are taping me with my phone everytime I am on the bar now we are so close!!!!!!

Inspiration

Coach IA²posted this on the Ignite page today....hmmm its a thinker!

Rite of passage-CrossFit style

My first ever hand tear from swinging like a monkey on the bar. 

Just one step closer to becoming the fire breathing CrossFitter I need to be in order to do FRAN prescribed.  

Did I mention I am really close to doing a kipping pull up :)

(Note: Please ignore the old lady hand wrinkles...chalk does nothing for dry winter hands.... yikes)

   

Auld Lang Syne

Its at this time of year that it seems like no matter where you look there is ads for gyms, health clubs and diet plans that promise this year will be the year their classes will help you to shed that last 10 pounds, their trainers will take your body from flab to fab or their dietitians will help you look on the outside how you have always felt on the inside.  This in turn will make you look better in your swimsuit, help you meet the partner of your dreams and get you into the single digit jean size you haven't seen since, well since you were a single digit age.  All you have to do is come in and sign yourself up and you will be one step closer be the healithiest and fittest you have ever been.

Really?  All I had to do was sign up?


How did a single day become the day to make promises to yourself and the rest of the world that when you wake up you will be the person you have always wanted to be?  The person who doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, is 10 lbs lighter, eats cleaner, is more active and in general just an all around more healthy person.  If each year of your life was like a lap in a perpetual race then January 1st would be like the starting line where you can reset and begin all over again hopeful to avoid the same health pitfalls as the lap before.   What is it that holds most people back from choosing to make a change in their life any other day in a year. Why so much pressure to be healthier starting on New Years.  As I have come to realize since last April, goals are important and actually essential when you are trying to change your lifestyle. But why do so many people feel it necessary to make this commitment just as the ball is dropping in Time Square.  The pressure to live up to the hype surrounding these kind of resolutions is so powerful that you are almost self sabotaging your efforts before you even get to Valentine's Day. 

I am not in the habit of making New Year's Resolutions but not because I don't believe they don't work for some people but simply because the few times I did partake in this age old tradition I never stuck with it.  Goals that should have resulted in positive warm fuzzies ended in me feeling crummy because I never followed through.   There was the year I promised myself to worry less.   Hahaha does a zebra have stripes?  The 3 year stretch in University I swore I would drink less and study more, starting the next morning of course.  There was even one New Years Eve after a rather disappointing rendezvous, I swore off dating.   Hmmmmmm....I see a pattern.  All lofty goals with results that would require more than just self discipline and a decent game plan.  Things that subconsciously I knew would require a significant alteration of my lifestyle. The kind of alteration I was never really ready or willing to make.  Thus each and every time I promised myself one of these things I ultimately failed.   It took me a long time to realize that if I was going to make a life change I couldn't just say I was going to do it.  Figuratvely speaking, I was going to have to get off the couch put down the bag of chips, make a realistic plan and then spend some time really examininig the parts of my life that would require my attention to carry out this plan.  Why do you think it took me until I was 29 to make my health my priority? Making a positive life change is hard, no matter when you decide to do it.   So if this is your year, the year you have decided to be the "real" healthy you, stick with it and don't be another New Year's Eve statistic.