Heroes of a different kind

I try the best I can to keep this blog lighthearted, but a couple of months ago something really struck a chord in me that I wanted to share.

A few months ago, an email came to all members of CrossFit Hutt Valley, asking if we'd like to take part in a charity event at WOF CrossFit in Porirua. It seemed like a good cause so I put my name forward to be part of a team of 6 from our 'box' (I'm afraid I'll probably never get used to calling it a box!).

The event was "24 girls in 24 hours". The "Girls" are short, intense workouts, so the event would see our team taking turns to do one of these workouts every hour on the hour - each of us completing 4 hard workouts over the course of the event.

The cause was an incredibly touching one. A guy who lost his wife to cancer and is raising four children on his own. A youth worker, an artist, and a man passionate about working in and for his community. The fundraiser was to set up a trust fund for his children.

A few nights before the event, we got together to put our bids in for the workouts we wanted to do, with coach Donny gallantly offering to take what was left. Strangely I managed to choose lots of pull-ups and running - neither of which I'm actually any good at. Ah well, "how hard can it be?" I found myself naively wondering...

On the night of the event I was also due to go for dinner with some girls from my antenatal group, so I had made sure my first workout wasn't until later. Fuelled by a plateful of prawns and cashews, and a lovely evening of girly gossip, I made my way to Porirua ready for my first workout, Chelsea. I will never forget doing Chelsea at 12.30am. Every minute, on the minute, for 30 minutes: 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 squats. I managed to do 23 of the 30, which I was proud of, even if I did substitute ring rows for the pull-ups. And I was SO grateful for the support of my team mate counting for me and cheering me on. My next workout was 6.30am, so I should have gone straight to bed, but I stayed up to pay it forward and cheer on my next team mate as she smashed out 150 wall balls at 1.30am.

Our sleeping quarters that night was a space above the office, which was still very noisy, but with an airbed and a foam mattress, and being a slightly darker space, this was positively luxurious compared to those who had just bedded down on them floor of the gym, right in the thick of it. It was hard to get any sleep, but I think I managed a couple of hours, which was enough to get me through my workouts at 6.30am (Nicole), 10.30am (Jackie) and 1.30pm (Nancy).

If by now you're thinking one of two things "four workouts doesn't sound all that bad" or "wow - that sounds quite hardcore". Then I'll put it into context for both of those schools of thought. Over my four workouts I did:

5.2km of running
345 squats
230 push ups
278 ring rows
60 overhead squats
50 thrusters

And for those who concluded that this sounds like a hard day's night (and, oh man, was it tough!), the context is this:

At around 3 o'clock, with everyone feeling tired and beaten, we were reminded of why we were all there. A special guest arrived to speak to us all. In front of us stood a shy-looking man, hugging a framed photograph of his wife. He spoke from the heart. Of family and community. Of the loss of his wife, and of making the choice not to sink into depression, to strive to keep himself on top of things, be strong, and build a future for his children. One love, one heart, one whanau.

And that folks, is why all of that hard work was worthwhile. A community coming together to raise money for someone truly deserving.

I guess my point is that for those 24 hours, a huge group of CrossFitters came together and became one whanau, working together and supporting each other to achieve something awesome. And it was an amazing feeling to be part of it.

Thanks WOF CrossFit - you guys rock.

Honouring a hero

Sometime ago on this blog, I made a promise. It was a public commitment, but also a very personal goal. I promised that the next time I saw Murph, that I would do the whole thing. Murph is the name of one of the hero workouts, hardcore workouts named after true heroes.  I first encountered Murph when I was a CrossFit newbie and scaled it down by half to make it doable at my fitness level. At the time I was in awe of the strength of those who could do the whole thing and I wanted to be able to do the same.

When I made my rather grand (and frankly naive) promise, I honestly wasn't expecting to see this particular hero again quite so soon. So when I saw the workout last Saturday morning I was surprised (and not necessarily in a good way!) but I put on a brave face and arrived announcing that I was going to tackle the lot. No scaling down for me. Little did I know that before I arrived, the others were starting to talk about scaling down - I could have got away with it! But in the end we all took it on.

And this is what we did:

1 mile run
100 pull-ups
200 push-ups
300 squats
1 mile run

I broke the middle part down into 20 sets of 5 (jumping) pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 squats. I worked at a consistent pace, my 16 month old niece bellowing encouragement from the sidelines in her own special toddler-speak - that really kept me smiling through this hardest of workouts. No CrossFit workout should be easy, but this was a whole new level of hard.

And in the end it took me 64 minutes and 40 seconds. Not that I cared about the time, I just wanted to get through it. And I'm pretty damn proud of myself actually.

Was Yoda right?

Since my last post, I've had a big change to my daily routine, namely the dreaded "Going Back to Work". I am now working 4 days a week, in a mainly sedentary office job. Sure, I do a lot of running around to meetings, and (following the earthquakes) the stairs to my 4th floor desk suddenly seem a lot more appealing. But the problem, or problems aren't with my desk job.

I've found that, while hubby and I get into the routine of daycare drop-offs and pick-ups, plus a very heavy workload for hubby, I've not made it to as many training sessions as I'd like to. At the moment I'm averaging twice a week, which really isn't enough. Must try harder.

Also, I've committed to starting work at sparrowfart so that I can leave early to give the little munchkin as short a day as possible in daycare. Early mornings are not something that come naturally to me, so getting myself organised enough to take food for the day is a real struggle too. So I've been relying on the very delicious, but otherwise wholly bad-for-the-waistline offerings from my work cafe. Don't even get me started on how tempting their date scones are. I wouldn't want to start counting how many I've eaten. Hot, buttered, sticky, yummy, yummy scones.

Thirdly, and here's the real tough thing... our work culture is very food-based. Team morning teas, team afternoon teas, cake to celebrate people joining, cake to farewell people leaving, treats to celebrate a big success, treats because another team had a morning tea and there was some leftover... you name it, we have eaten our way through it. And rarely are the treats healthy. Oh no. Cakes, cookies, cheese, crackers, dips, chocolate, chippies and lollies. Someone will always buy a bag of fruit or some carrot sticks to satisfy their craving for something healthy but who wants to eat grapes when there is a plate of chocolate next to them?

So I've been trying to think how best to combat all these challenges. First off, this week I have found three days that I can make it to the gym and have booked myself in. Plus, I played netball on Sunday too (and I played centre, and didn't die!) - gold star for me. I also did a paleo-friendly shop at the supermarket. By this, I mean I mainly shopped the perimeter of the supermarket. Vegetables, fruit, nuts and meat made up the main bulk of my shopping trolley. A loaf of bread for hubby and a bag of pasta for the baby were the only grains. I admit, I did have a bit of the bread last night (a lovely hearty bowl of thick soup really deserves a slice or two of bread, don't you agree?). I saved some of last night's soup for my lunch today, and intended to take some fruit and carrots to snack on. In my rush to leave the house this morning I forgot everything. So I had a scone for breakfast, pasta bake for lunch and team afternoon tea - chocolate biscuits, mallow puffs, fruit loaf - I had all of it. Fail!

This brings me back to the title of this post. The fact that I have tried to get back on track makes me feel better, but the fact that today was a massive fail has made me feel worse. So the mantra that I have been quoting over and over in my head for the last couple of weeks isn't really sitting all that comfortably with me right now.

"Do.... or do not. There is no try"

It must have been the shoes...

So last night was probably one of the first times I looked at a workout online and almost changed my mind about booking in. I usually try not to look, so that I just get a surprise (I must get out more). But I did look, and I didn't like what I saw: 5 (timed) rounds of 21 kettle bell swings, 21 box jumps and 21 toes to bar. Toes to bar is exactly what it sounds like - hanging from the bar and swinging your toes up to touch the bar - I can't do this yet, so I do something akin to a hanging stomach crunch. I'm terrible at box jumps and anything involving hanging from the bar is my nemesis - it always feels more like a punishment for how delicately lady-soft my hands are than anything else. Kettle bell swings are ok for me, but I decided to do lower than the prescribed weight of 20kg. Given that I was going to struggle with everything else, I went for a nice comfortable 12kg.

I've always tried not to be defeatist about my workouts, and have made myself do the hardest version that I think I can manage, but I had already got myself convinced that I would be struggling to do box jumps all the way through, and that I'd have to switch to step-ups. And I just knew I was going to fail miserably at the toes to bar and might have to have the number scaled down...

But, blow me down, I did it! I did the whole bloomin' thing! AND I managed box jumps all the way through, AND I finished earlier than everyone else (all guys!). AND I thought that maybe next time i should try a heavier kettle bell (Donny says 20kg - not so sure about that...). Maybe it was because I was using a much lower weight kettle bell than all the boys. Maybe it was because I hadn't worked out since Saturday and had some extra energy. Maybe it is because I'm 3kg lighter (yes readers - I've lost some weight!). But I think it's my new shoes. You see, I finally invested in some proper shoes that are better designed for CrossFit - flatter and lighter than my heavy and highly cushioned old running shoes. There was a choice of a multitude of (fairly hideous) colour choices, so I chose black - isn't that what Wellingtonians are famed for? They're not pretty, but they certainly seem to be doing the job. And buying shoes that help with my workout is the perfect excuse.

Every girl loves new shoes, but mine are magic.

Life just gets in the way sometimes

Bless me readers for I have sinned. It has been almost a month since my last post.

When we last spoke, I was just beginning my third week of the paleo eating challenge. For a lot of people it finished last Thursday, after 30 days. I had a bad weekend a couple of weeks ago so decided that I should make good by continuing on the challenge up to 6 weeks. I have to admit, that with one thing and another (baby with a throat infection, a bug that was far too gross to talk about in polite company, and just a bit of laziness on my part), I've been a bit 80-20 since then. I'm trying, I really am, but it's not easy.

Still, I think my takeaway from this can be that no matter what happens, or what life throws at you, it is actually possible to still make good choices even if they're not perfect. Here's an example - the other night, after a busy day, our baby was struggling to get to sleep. By the time we finally settled her neither of us had the energy to deal with cooking, so we phoned the local takeout and in 20 minutes time I was tucking into a chicken matsuman curry. I'm counting this as a good choice as my plate mainly consisted of chicken and vegetables in a coconut sauce. Ok, so there were a few potatoes, and I had some rice too, but believe me, at 9pm when you're starving, you try resisting all those lovely carbs!

I've also not been very consistent with my workouts either. The hubster has been so great and supportive, with getting home from work early so that he can take over baby duties while I head off to the gym, but his work has been a bit crazy lately, and so has the weather, which has thwarted any of his attempts to get home on time for me to get out. And now he has had to go to Auckland for a conference and I have a stupid headachey faceachey cold and don't even feel like leaving the house, even if I could.

This is turning into a big whingey bag of excuses. That wasn't my intention, believe it or not! I'm sharing this as I think it's important to show that no matter how much you want to do the right thing for your health, life just gets in the way occasionally. But while I'm at home feeling sorry for myself I can make lots of hearty comforting (paleo-friendly) soups and keep myself happy scouring the internet for some new trainers - mine have definitely seen better days. And Donny promises me that my lifting will improve when I have the right shoes.

And talking of lifting, I'm having a great time learning all of the different lifting techniques. Not all of them are easy - I lack a certain amount of flexibility, but that will all come in time. It's something I've never done before so I'm pleased that I've come as far as I have in such a short time. It's less than 3 months since I started CrossFit, and already I've learned so much.

One other success that I thought was worth sharing. Earlier this week I had no idea what to make for breakfast for me and the baby so I mushed up a banana, whisked in an egg, some almond meal, cocoa powder and chopped prunes, and baked them in a mini-muffin tin. Hey presto, yummy tasty mini breakfast sweetness - I ate four! As someone clever once said, necessity is the mother of invention.

Oh, and one final thing, and this is a biggie... my blood pressure (which regardless of how much running, etc. I have done in the past, has barely shifted from its unbelievably high reading) is actually starting to look a bit more, well... normal. I can't give you an official answer as to why this is yet - still seeing an endocrinologist about why it was high in the first place, but we'll see what comes of this, and I'll be tracking it at home too. I'm still on my medication, but my last reading was too low, which means I may be able to at least decrease my meds.

CrossFit 1 - plain old cardio 0.

No junk in my trunk

I am Paleolithic Woman (almost)

You may remember me making a few diet promises a while ago. Well, I kind of did ok, but I cheated a few times - it's hard doing this sort of thing on your own. And I have a real problem with willpower, especially when it comes to food. So it was perfect timing that CrossFit Hutt Valley decided to launch their "No Junk in my Trunk" challenge with their gym members. This involves clearing my diet of all processed food, grains, sugar and dairy. The resulting foods left in my fridge and pantry should be meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds. Oh, and eggs. Basically it is living a modern-day version of how our old hunter-gatherer paleolithic ancestors would have lived. 

Those who eat a mostly paleo diet already have just gone straight for full-on clean eating. For the rest of us, we are gradually easing ourselves in. So in the first week I cut out 'obvious' refined sugar (no cakes, biscuits, lollies, chocolate, etc), last week it was wheat that got the chop. This week I'm feeling brave enough to go completely grain free. And it really helps that other more experienced paleo-eaters are sharing their delicious  recipes. 

So far I have had easy and not-so-easy days... 

Cutting out sugar was relatively easy, as was wheat - only fell off the wagon accidentally a couple of times, just by finishing up the baby's dinner without thinking. I had one day halfway through the second week where I had some intense sweet cravings and really wanted a biscuit. So I had one, but I didn't beat myself up about it.  

I'm only a day into this grain-free week, but it has been pretty intense already in terms of thinking what to feed myself. I didn't really get myself prepared very well, which was a bit short-sighted of me. But I've held onto my promise to myself, and really proud that I even got through the day without a single forbidden item passing my lips.  

This morning I woke up in a panic, we were running late for our first appointment of the day and I didn't have a clue what to make - then I saw a post on facebook from those lovely people at CrossFit about their breakfast smoothie. Phew! Got a ton of berries in the freezer and a banana in the fruit bowl - and I'm still allowed milk this week, so I had a beautiful deep purple banana and blueberry smoothie. 

Lunchtime had to be a quick turnaround, so three jumps at the fridge and I had made myself a pumpkin, broccoli and quorn curry. Quorn is fake meat - possibly not very paleo, but I was in a hurry, and it's not yet on my 'do not eat' list. It is made from mycoprotein (a kind of fungus). The resulting curry wasn't the most delicious thing I've ever made, but it did the trick. 

I'd had my evening meal planned for ages - been looking forward to replicating a chorizo frittata that I'd eaten a couple of times at the lighthouse cinema. So, while the baby was occupied eating her own dinner (mini vegetable frittatas - she's not on the diet, but dinner was a good paleo effort from her too!), I roasted some kumara and chorizo, mixed it all together with some beaten egg, and some lumps of cream cheese, topped it with some more cheese for good measure (making the most of still having dairy!), and baked it.  I also caremelised some onions to go with it. Even my carb-loving hubby said he'd eat it again. AND he doesn't even like frittata usually. I'm pretty sure Paleolithic Woman would have made something similar for her husband with woolly mammoth sausages and moa eggs. 

 

So that's my first day - I survived. I didn't go hungry, I snacked on dates and nuts, and I haven't felt deprived. Except at playcentre, when one of the other mums had made the most delicious looking chocolate cake, and the smell made me want to bury my face in it. 

Well, I'm only human. 

What is CrossFit anyway? Part 2b - CrossFit in Plain English - the workout

Before I start, a small confession: in the last post I told you about the equipment, but forgot one very key thing - the most important piece of kit is of course your own body. As well as the equipment, you could just as easily do some, or all, elements of a workout using no equipment at all. Just doing a good series of press-ups, sit-ups, squats and lunges is enough to give you a really good workout if you do it all properly. And "properly" is the key - that's why it's best to do these things at the gym so your trainer can make sure you're doing it right. 

And now back to part 2b, which, on second reading, seems more like a list of random musings than anything coherent. Still, enjoy!

When you turn up to a class at CrossFit, you will be doing the same workout as everyone else. This will not be the same as your last workout, nor will it be the same as your next. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life! And personally, I love the anticipation of not knowing what I'll be doing until I get there. Especially at the moment when some of the exercises are so new to me. A couple of weeks ago I did a modified version of a handstand push-up: kneeling on a box, hands on the ground, doing a press-up vertically, head to ground and up again... does that make sense? Hopefully. And wow, they were hard (I made funny faces all the way through) but it was a fun in a sadistic kind of way. 

In general, each training session begins with a gentle warm-up of stretching, and perhaps a short gentle run, followed by some skills training (e.g. working with the broomstick to learn a type of lift), then into the main workout of the day (or "WOD"). Sometimes the skills and WOD are the other way around - not sure why, perhaps just to keep us on our toes. Each WOD is preceded by a more substantial warmup. This might be something like 30 skips, 10 press-ups, 10 sit-ups, 10 box jumps- twice through. Usually I feel like I've done a proper workout after the warmup! The WOD can be just about any combination of exercises such as those I mentioned in the previous post. For example, my last workout was as many rounds as possible (or "AMRAP") in 20 minutes, of 15 body rows, 30 press-ups and 45 squats; but a couple of weeks ago I did the hardest ever - a timed 5 rounds of 25 each of 4 different types of exercise - ouch! But generally the workout will be short and intense. There are other types of workout, but more about those in another post. 

There is never an easy workout, by the way. I always leave feeling that I just worked the hardest I can, but worth pointing out that I have also never left feeling that I didn't enjoy it. 

You are not there to target specific areas, you are working on your whole body. Lucky for me I don't really believe in targeting areas of my body. I'd love a smaller waist, but I know that, even in my emaciated teenager days, my waist was still actually pretty thick. CrossFit is about strength and health. All that stuff you want to target can come later when you realise that actually you are looking pretty damn good and all of a sudden your big [insert your own body hang-up here] just isn't such a big deal any more.

Every exercise you do, you will receive proper instruction, especially if you haven't done it before. And every session you attend has some time dedicated to honing your technique. Your trainer is there to make sure your time at the gym is productive and safe. So it's pretty hard (unless you are a real doofus) to get it wrong and hurt yourself.

One more thing. You may hear a CrossFit gym referred to not as a gym, but a 'box'. I still have no idea why, but have reasoned in my own head that it has something to do with the fact that you don't need all sorts of fancy machinery, just 4 walls, some basic equipment, and yourself. And if I have it wrong, I still maintain that my explanation makes sense too ;)

So that's it, in one very large 2 (or 3?) part nutshell. Hope you're still awake! 

Next post I'll tell you all about the "No Junk in my Trunk" challenge. Watch this space..