Recovery

My hamstring hurts every day now, and I completely know that I am not letting it heal properly. The desire to workout, play football, practice L-Sits...I am stubborn with everything. I do plan on giving it some real recovery time, but not for a couple of weeks. Till then, I still have some things to take care of!

Just got my schedule for my grad classes in the summer, super intimidating. And the summer is only half of what I'm going to have to do starting in the Fall. I'm saying it here and now though, I WILL keep CrossFit going in my life!

Diet's doing okay...not great, but okay. It's about to get a major boost in motivation though! More details to come =)

Energized

Being back in the Zone(ish) has brought me back so much energy! It's amazing what happens when you kick the carb hangovers and eat well throughout the day. Cravings have definitely decreased, but I still feel like measuring drives me crazy (hence the "ish" in Zoneish).

Farmers walks yesterday were brutal, and I can really feel it in my forearms today. My hamstring is still acting up a lot...I always feel ready to go, then I do the warmup run and pain starts to shoot up my right leg and tighten up. I know it's my fault because I'm not allowing myself to recover properly, but there's always that urge to say that I'm fine and I can do the workout with no problem.

Sleep

Did some grocery shopping yesterday and I'm super excited about all the new meals I'm going to be making! I'm also making a big change though to my diet and doing half the carbs, 3x the fat. I love carbs so this will be a bit of a struggle at first just to kick the habit. My personal goals I had set also shifted back a little bit because of this and of my hamstring, but still rolling along =)

New thing I need to work on: sleep. Because of my job and just my tendency to be a night owl, I sleep very late, which I can tell really affects me during the day. This definitely needs to change, especially since I'm going to grad school here soon. Sooo...taking it in baby steps, this week I'm going to be in bed by 11:30pm each day, then the next week 11pm, and so forth till I get down to 9:30pm. 

Hamstring...Again

Aggravated my hamstring again while doing sprints yesterday. I thought it would go away today, but it was still really tight in the morning and then even running a light jog brought back the same pain as yesterday. My lack of daily stretching is definitely showing.

Prescription from trainer: PNF 3x daily and short sprints to work on form. I'm not quite sure what exactly the colors mean in this picture, but I know I want to be in the blue!! =)

Coffee

For a while now, I've thought of coffee as bad for health yet obviously something everyone is addicted to. With the gallons I would see my family go through, I guess I just figured it couldn't be good. After using the coffee to keep me awake in China/Philippines though, I've been having a little each day since then (with lots of milk) and so I decided to check out what exactly are the risks and benefits.

First, is it CrossFit/Zone friendly? After browsing the message boards and realizing that the master of the Zone, Robb Wolf, himself downs 6-8 shots of espresso everyday, it seems like the only main concern is the addiction to the caffeine (which is a far less concern than the risk of addiction to energy drinks, or "meth in a can").

Second, any relation to disease? I found many sources really praising its benefits, like lowering the risk of diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and colon cancer. I also saw the different myths that people have about coffee, like that it will give you heart disease or cause ulcers, and how based on much research those really are just myths.

Overall, it seems like the conclusion I gathered on coffee is that in moderation, it's perfectly fine...maybe....I don't know... =)

Delay

So it seems I'm getting a little more sick before I get better, so I may not be working out again until Tuesday. My personal diet challenge is fully underway though!

So in the meantime till I can start posting about WODs, I forgot to mention in past posts that I was able to visit some other new affiliates: CrossFit Balboa & CrossFit Laguna Beach. If you ever get the chance to go to either of these affiliates, they have very welcoming trainers (thanks Max Mormont and Gillian Formaneck!) and solid facilities . It's always a great experience to check out what's going on in the CrossFit community, and to see just how many amazing athletes there are out there.

When I was there, I worked on some snatches and back squats, did 100 pullups for time, and got a PR in split jerks at 100 lbs! I was really stoked on that, and it feels incredible to know that we have such great training at CrossFit Ventura that we can go to other affiliates and feel comfortable with everything we do. I am still, however, also really hooked on our community and class energy at CFV--we have such encouraging members and an addicting group vibe that I appreciate more than anything!!

Getting Organized

I know it's been a while since I last posted, but was motivated again by recent posts and some new blogs (yay Dave and KT!). There are also definitely some new developments going on though that I'm excited to update about =)

First off, since my last post about my poor clean, every opportunity I have I'm picking up a PVC pipe or an empty bar and just practicing the basic hip, shrug, fast elbows, get-under-the-bag. I wasn't sure how far I had come along, but yesterday with the SDHPs I could tell that I've really made some progress at not just using my arms, but the full momentum of my hips, and I was stoked! I felt faster and much more efficient.

Also, with all of the recent posts about diet, I'm going to get back into cooking and just a little bit more strict with the zone. Recently it's been more Paleo, and no limits on grain or cheats, but now I'm going to stick to 9-10 blocks, 1/2 carbs after WOD, 2x fat, Paleo/Gluten-Free, and one cheat meal per week. 

Chicken Florentine I made for Bill and I tonight.

It's always easiest for me to have short-term goals in mind, and I've come up with a few (in terms of diet, in the next 57 days, 48 will be completely in the zone). I'm sure a lot of you know that I start the Teacher Education Program at UCSB in July, which is really exciting but at the same time a pretty big bummer for everything CrossFit related. First, my orientation day is on the same day of the CrossFit affiliate competition, so if I did actually qualify for our affiliate, I wouldn't have the chance to compete =( Then, if you aren't familiar with the program, it jams two years of work into one and pretty much consumes your life, so I will definitely keep CrossFit a priority, but it will be a challenge to find the time to get the workouts in as much as I do now.

So I figure while I have as much free time as I do now, I should make the most of it and devote a lot of energy into CrossFit training. Starting Saturday (almost done being sick), for every day I have off from work where I didn't work the night before (the restaurant seriously knocks me out for the next morning), I will come twice to CrossFit--once in the morning for practice, and then again in the evening for the WOD. Though I'm examining different weak areas, there is one definite one that will be a staple every day: running. So while the morning practice will vary, it will ALWAYS involve sprints.

I'll be doing this until July 10 (when I start grad school), and what I'm SUPER excited about is my new workout log!!! I know, I'm a dork =) But I made a new workout log that will really help me examine how my body reacts based on the amount of sleep I had, diet, what else I did during the day, etc. 

This blog is here for everyone to see, so if I'm not doing what I say, you have full permission to nag me about it!! =)