Monthly Archives: July 2011

Meet Jen

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts and tagged with , , , , , , ,

You’ve met the line up of female ass kickers out there…

…you’ve met Fran

21, 15, 9 Thrusters and Pullups

…you’ve met Cindy

100 squats, 100 situps, 100 pullups, 100 pushups

…you’ve met Annie

50, 40, 30, 20, 10 of double-unders and sit-up

Well folks…there’s a new chick in town…

Meet Jen…

Jen

4 rounds for time:

100 single unders

400m run

50 sit-ups

She looks innocent enough…but her bite is FIERCE!

So, this is a workout that I created a couple of months ago. I laugh thinking of Nick’s response when I came up with the workout… He took one look at the running and looked at me and said, “Who ARE you?”

It used to be that if I showed up to Crossfit and there was even just a 200m run on the whiteboard, I delve to a level of grumpiness that could only be brought on by something wretched..running. I haaaaaaaated running! So to create a workout that had this much running in it is almost as if it were created by the hand of someone completely different! Well, in all reality, I AM a completely different person than I was when I started Crossfit…but anyway.

The first time I did this workout a couple of months ago, I got a time of 24 minutes.

Nick expected the same greatness out of me (yes, I am tooting my own horn, it was greatness…I pushed myself as hard as I have pushed myself in far too long!) this time around. The last time I did it I was wearing my pink high-top chucks, and got a mad rash on my back from some crazy chemical the city of Santa Barbara sprayed on our poor lawn.

My lovely boss, Matt (at lulu), likes to check up on that rash from time to time by loudly asking me “Hey, how’s that rash doing??”…in front of customers…haha.

I digress…

My first time was about 24 minutes…so last night I decided to change just one thing. I decided to go barefoot. I haven’t done much barefoot running at all, so I was nervous to find out what would happen to my feet after a quick mile run.

I’m not going to lie to you, about 3/4 way through my first 400m, I started whimpering thinking, I can’t doooooooooo this. Then, I mentally b%#tch slapped myself in the face and said, “stop whining, YES YOU CAN!” and went straight to the sit-ups. After that whole workout, I only had a little bit of raw skin on the bottom of my foot (although, I think I have abnormally tough feet since the last time I went for a pedicure the guy performing the procedure..yes procedure, took out a bottle and just pointed at it and said “we need…” and scrolled across the bottle was “Callas Remover”…awww mannnnn). I definitely woke up in the middle of the night with throbbing feet as well, but by this morning, it was nothing to write home about.

So, did I beat my time?

Well, I did my final sit-up at…

22:50!!!

I crushed my last time…BEING BAREFOOT!!! I swear I’m way faster barefoot…I was pacing less than 7 minutes for my mile time…crraaazzzzyyyy!

This is such a great workout, and its a workout you can do ANYWHERE…you just need a rope :)

On to even MORE exciting news…

Tomorrow morning, Nick and I will be driving down to LA to watch our friends from Crossfit Route 1 in Beverly compete as a team in the CROSSFIT GAMES!!!!!! Read all about it HERE!! and read about our beastly buddies HIZZZ-ERE!

I will take TONS of pictures, and share lots of phenomenal stories when I get back :) Soooooooooo excited!!!

Much love,

Jen

1 Day Down!

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts and tagged with , , , , ,

Well, I kept my promise! I said I would talk to you today ,and here I am!

As soon as we closed up shop last night here at the office, we made the long trek across the courtyard to the Innate Fitness gym.

Innate Fitness

Pretty sweet, isn’t it? :)

Workout

Tabata (on steroids- 40 seconds on, 20 seconds off)

Kettlebell thrusters (holding the kettlebell goblet style)

double unders

pullups or body-weight rows

First off, I was barefoot. I typically don’t wear shoes when I work out over there, which I LOVE! Second…I PR’d on something VERY near to my heart…

…double unders!!

Somehow I feel like I found my rhythm last night! I got 16 consecutive double unders in a row!!! In the 40 seconds, I had my highest amount of double unders at 28 :)

Finished up the workout with a regular length tabata of alternating hollow rocks and pushups. Smoookkkkeeddd my abs!

Something else I realized?

Nick and I make a lottttt of noise when we work out. I didn’t recognize this at all when we were at the Crossfit in Beverly, because everyone was grunting. The place sounded like a birthing room for peets sake!

When you get into a group that is not used to shirtless sweaty guys in their class, and grunting and loud, painful moans coming from a chick…AWWWKKKKWWWAARRRDDDDDD

Unfortunately, working out like this…

…Don’t get results like this…

And while I realize that not every woman wants to have a 6 pack with huge quads and a big booty…

…I do…

So for that to happen…I’m going to probably have to deal with feeling a little awkward at times, because I know that when I’m NOT grunting and making loud noises, that I’m just not pushing myself hard enough (and I’m saying that’s ME…if you don’t grunt in the gym, doesn’t mean I think you don’t work hard enough…I WISH I could work as hard as I need to in complete silence, hahha!).

Till next time…

Get it GET IT! :)

Till tomorrow xoxo :)

Jen

Just Freakin’ Do IT!

Posted by beautifullystrong in Crossfit Workouts and tagged with , , , ,

About 60 seconds ago I was nestled into a beanbag on my lunch break reading a passage from “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin when she wrote a whole section on how writing in a blog can make you happy. It got me thinking. When I started this blog in December of 2009 (wowwweeee!) I wrote a post every stinkin’ day! I would get into work, get a coffee and settle in to write a post before getting to my work. It fed me. It nourished me. It gave me a feeling of purpose. Yes, writing in a blog gave me a feeling of purpose.

In the last 6-8 months, I have been extraordinarily spotty with my postings. I got real lazy. I got lazy with blogging, but I also got lazy with working out and that is what feeds my content; without content, we have no blog folks.

I tried videos…While I think that is fun on occasion, its way more of a hassle for me, and thus leads to me not posting as often; and honestly, there is nothing more gratifying to me than sitting down at a table first thing in the morning with a hot cup of coffee and my laptop…writing it is.

I miss you…I miss blogger me…

…so I guess the solution here is to quit getting in my own way, and get back to doing what makes me happy…blogging…and Crossfit :)

 

Yesterday I got a text from my lovely future bro-in-law mentioning how I will soon need to get Crossfit certified and get in the gym to help coach (Innate Crossfit here we come!!) asap.

Dream.

Who would EVER had thought that this would ever be some kind of a reality for me. Such. A. Dream.

The only issue with it, for me, is that I don’t yet feel like I’m ready. There are things I need to get back to serious about before I feel comfortable teaching others.  This is such a gift really…a great opportunity to reseal my commitment to my health, my fitness and my rockin’ body goals :)

Remember this?

(far right, pink shirt...pre-crossfit/paleo diet/Nicholas Araza :-p

Dec 2010

I am a different person than I was two years ago. A person that I know still has many, many miles to go…and I am freakin’ excited to go there!!

Thank you for still being on the other end of this to read what I have to say.

I’ll talk to you tomorrow :) xoxox

Jen