Thursday, January 24, 2013

I Have A Badittude

Tuesday morning was my last first day of school, and thus my last first day of melancholia.  Here goes 14 weeks of doom and gloom.  Isn't it terrible that I complain about the privilege of higher education?

To assuage my sense of dread, I decided to go for a morning run.  The fact that I actually made it out the door surprised me, as  A.) I positively do not love running and B.)  It was 6 degrees outside, with a windchill of -16.  Note to self: pairing something you dislike (school) with something you do not love (running) doesn't make you feel better.  However it did give me a proud sense of entitlement to my morning shower.  My work towards liking running has been a lifelong process. refuse to give up! Maybe if this cold snap brings some precipitation, I can go snowshoe running.  Now that I do enjoy!

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Hammerhead Games, Part I

It feels strange and insignificant to post about CrossFit competitions instead of kayaking. I'm not that good at CrossFit yet, so my experiences are mostly local and probably fairly mundane to most. Oh well, it's my blog. Read at your own risk!

On Saturday, Crossfit Buffalo hosted the first round of the Western NY Hammerhead Fitness Games.  It felt so good to get back into competition mode. Autumn in the gym was productive and fun, but for me CrossFit is not just a kayak lifting program anymore. It's a sport in itself, and I absolutely love going head to head with the girls from other gyms, especially because no one knows what the events are going to be ahead of time.

There were three workouts.The first was a 7-minute muscle-up/clean&jerk ladder (115# for women). I was excited to try out my muscle-ups for the first time in competition, and I was stoked to get 9 total during the workout.
C&J and MU
The second workout was a front squat ladder. Uh oh, leg stuff. I've been doing everything short of Sam's suggested gomad diet to strengthen my legs this autumn. Since progress isn't instantaneous, neither my squat nor my patience is yet close to adequate. The squat ladder started at 105lbs and went up incrementally by 15lbs, ending at 205. You had 30 seconds at each platform, and if you failed a lift you had the remainder of the time to do as many box jumps as possible. I ended up PRing at 135, which tied me for last place. No complaints, just facts. (Facts that will change.)
Box jumpin'
The third workout was 40-30-20 reps of 1-arm KB snatches and double-unders. There was no alternating arms, i.e. you had to snatch 20 on the right, then 20 on the left. Women's weight was 35 pounds, which was amazing compared to the guys weight of 70lbs. The women's workout was snappy. I think I finished in 5:38. The men's version was almost painful to watch, and took them much longer.  I give them a lot of credit!
KB snatch
Double unders and KB snatching in a heat with Melissa, Anne, Erin, and Alicia
It was a great day overall: fun as always. Oh, and the weather was wacky: 60 degrees!!! They opened up the garage doors to the gym and it felt eerily like springtime. Thank goodness it's not, though. For one thing, I want to ski a lot more, and for another, I need more time to work on these kayaker legs before the big competitions come around!
Some of the CF Rochester female contingent:Lindsey, me, Erin, Alicia, Isabelle. Missing Meghan and Beth
Look at the little baby kettlebell I found!
Erin and I are number one at napping.  If we don't beat you in the workout we'll crush you in recovery

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Mickle and Fem's Winter Adventure


If you do something two years in a row, that automatically makes it a tradition, right?  So, it's a tradition for me to hate school. It's tradition to re-read my favorite book every January. Tradition to not go skydiving on the first of every month. You get the idea.


So basically I'm declaring it a tradition for Mickle to visit me around New Year's every year. And traditional for us to have a great time. This year, she flew in on New Year's Eve.  Remember that snowstorm on my birthday? And how we had about 18 inches of snow?  Mickle and I wasted no time getting in to the winter spirit.  And what's more spirited than an igloo!?
Champagne.  Champagne is more spirited than an igloo.
My parents' backyard has plenty of space; the weather gave us plenty of snow; and we bought plenty of champagne, so naturally, we started construction on an igloo. Pretty simple in theory: you pack snow into recycling bins and spiral them upward. However, because we are total igloo rookies, we only started angling the blocks after the 4th row. The result was a nearly 10-feet tall and somewhat triangular structure, which we decided looked like a snow teepee.
The first layer
The seventh layer
Igloo spaceship and space martian dog
COMPLETE!  And yes, we have a mailbox.
It took about 30 hours total between Mickle, myself, and my mom, to finish the igloo.  Have you ever been inside one?  It's so much fun!  Warm-ish, and unbelievably quiet. When we were bored of hanging out in there by ourselves, we called Katie and Steve and told them that we custom-designed our ceilings for Steve's 6'8" frame, and therefore they must drive in from Buffalo immediately.  They did!
Mickle, me, and Katie. . . reunited!

Mickle and I also did lots of xc skiing, snowshoeing, and CrossFit. It snowed almost every day!
On a snowshoe adventure
I wish I had more action shots of the whole week, but I just upgraded from a 3-year-old flip phone to an iphone, and I'm treating it like a porcelain doll, or a bag of raw eggs, or both.  However, the iphone is eventually going to work out great for anyone who still cares about reading my blog, because I'll have more pictures to share!  I'm such a techno bot now. Did you know I even have a twitter?  I don't really understand how to retweet or reply or anything, so I just write my own posts. (Plus I'm somewhat wary of twitter because I'm afraid of birds.) But the occasional tweet is practically a tradition so I guess I have to keep doing it.
 

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Le Blog is Not Dead

Hello, internets! Nice to see you again. For 2013, I am giving you a requiste catch-up post of the last 5 months. Life has been crazy/awesome/sad/stressful! I completed my penultimate semester of school (school=barf), got a gorgeous puppy with Matt, set some PRs, lots of fun with friends, lots of crossfit, helped host Thanksgiving, and then went through a mutual (but nevertheless sad) ending of my relationship. Breakups suck. But school kept me busy pulling my hair out and screaming. Not to mention as I was studying for finals I also had to find a new place to live, deal with bronchitis (that is still going strong after 9 weeks and 2 rounds of antibiotics!), work, start a new [winter] job, deal with a minor but annoying knee injury, and get ready for the holidays. Yikes, when I write it all down like that, I honestly have no idea how I managed to make it to 2013. One thing is for sure: when it rains it pours. And life is finally starting to calm down a bit. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?
We adopted Stanley at the end of August from Pitty Love Rescue, an amazing pit-bull rescue in Rochester, NY.
I competed in Voodoo Fitness's Pump and Run, which is the coolest concept ever.  After a weigh-in, you perform max number of reps on bench press at a percentage of your body weight. Each rep counts for 30 seconds off of your finishing time for a 5k, which you run the following morning. I love bench pressing. I wish all 5ks had a bench press element.


This is little Stanley, doing the two things he does best since the day we adopted him. . . snuggle, and sleep!

I wasted no time in getting Stanley out in my canoe. He did pretty well, although he was more interested in trying to drink the creek water than staying still.
In early September, I competed with Jess at the Triathawod, which was fun except for the running part (and the lack of bench pressing).
In early October, I competed in a 5k kayak race at the Erie Canal Boat Company, and afterwards swapped my sprint boat for the most bathtub-esque kayak available so I could take Stanley!! My relatives were visiting from Chicago, so my cousin got to go out too.
Stanley was amazing in the kayak. After a few minutes he laid on my lap and went to sleep. No kidding. 

In October I participated in Kalsu for a Cause at Crossfit Boomtown, which was the breast cancer fundraiser we subbed for Barbells for Boobs this year. It was a much harder workout, mostly because my baby kayaking legs can't handle 95-pound thrusters. I think I embarrassed myself.

Here are all the dumb books I read this semester. You know where I put them?  In a box that I won't open for  a very, very long time.  Fair warning: my bitterness gets worse every semester. Sorry for not being sorry.

To my delight, Stanley LOVES the snow! We got a storm on my birthday that delivered 18 inches of glorious powder.  The only thing better than snow= a puppy going berserk experiencing snow for the first time!

I found Rich Froning at Crossfit Rochester!! I thought it was Andrew. . . but then when I saw the back of his shirt I realized it was indeed the legendary Froning. Crazy town!
I finally got my muscle-ups to the point where I can do more than 1 per day.   Woohoo, that only took 7 months!
Love love love this photo of Stanley. . . thanks for the antlers, Adrienne!
I am, of course, a Christmas baby (almost).  This year in lieu of a cake  I  did sushi.  Which is extra awesome since my family doesn't even like sushi. Win!

Julie and I planned a CrossFit kids party at the gym, which was a great success. . . Santa even made an appearance!

Family Christmas photo 2013