Chrondro whaaaaaaaaat

[Lift.]
I went to my ortho dude on Tuesday this week to have him check out my knee. As of late (read: past 2-3 months) I have this sensation of pressure coming up out of squats...on anything related to squatting. The Ortho told me he thinks it is Patellofemoral Chrondromalacia (which is essentially a scratch on the underside of my kneecap). This makes anything that requires a deep knee bend, including walking down or up stairs, a challenge as there is usually pain. Step 1 is drugs. Lots of drugs. I also need to improve the muscle balance of my legs to allow proper tracking of my patella....which could mean isolation shit mixed in with my normal WODing.

I did manage to do the following workout today, with minimal discomfort (and only on the very first round of 21 squats)

21-15-9
Bodyweight Back Squats (a fat 175lb)
Power Cleans, 155lb
Pull-Ups
Double Unders (100/75/50 by round)

23:03

I just couldn’t get my double unders going today and had to break the cleans up as doubles and occasionally singles.


[Eat.Live.]

I ate way too much crap this past weekend. The highlight of the weekend, however, was the 5lb burrito I ate at Bandidos. I have never wanted to die from the over-consumption of food as much as I did when trying to eat the whole damn thing....and I did...eat the whole thing, that is. The first half was delicious...the second half tasted like salt...and sour cream.


Tiny arm....or big ass burrito!

Chugging on

[Lift]

No. This is not about beer.

My knee has been giving me problems for the past 2-3 months and I am finally going to have it looked at on Tuesday at my Orthopaedic. There's pressure when I come up out of the bottom of my squats. Stretching/rolling my calves and hamstrings (and IT band, adductors, and quad) seems to relieve the issue. I've also been having issues when running with my right hip. Resident CrossFit Durham PT Jay De'Awesomeone thinks it's because my hamstring on that leg is extremely weak...like Paul Potorti weak (scary). I'm doing isolation (cringe) work on both legs in hopes to bring up lagging muscle groups.


Fun to note. I recently got a Split Jerk PR @ 225lbs. We had a metcon to do after so I didn't keep working, although I feel like I could have gone much heavier. My form on the 225 was MUCH better than any of the previous sets.


Today's WOD was awful and fun at CFD...it was supposed to be a group WOD (3 people), but I scaled it for me and based on how my knee was feeling.


I did:


50 Hang Squat Cleans, 135lb
100 Pull-Ups
200 Double Unders

The HSC were very difficult. They took me 10 min just on their own. Pull-ups were okay. I knocked out 20 right away and then struggled to hit 10 each time after that. Double Unders were hit and miss as they often are at the end of a WOD.

Total time was 22:41


I'm going to try and update this more frequently (2-3 times a week...maybe just once).


[Eat.Live}

Tonight I will attempt to eat "El Gigante" Burrito at Bandidos in Durham. A Mr. Jack Wiggen believes it's no big deal, which makes me want to try for 2 burritos (about 4-5lbs each). I'll update on how that goes.

Chicken Deliciouso

All is fine on the workout front. Since last time I have squat cleaned 205 and split jerked 215. I've also managed to get my snatch back up to 155. Everything is moving in the right direction and it feels good to be doing strength stuff again.

The real reason for this update, however, is Chicken Parmigiana.

I recently threw together a primal recipe that was a huge hit, so I'll do my best to outline it below...not sure on exact amounts of some stuff...


Ingredients

2-2.5lb chicken
1 Jar of Organic Marinara Sauce
1 Large White onion
2 Medium Red Peppers
1 Carton of Mushrooms
1 large tomato
garlic

*CHEESE - I used the 6 cheese blend by Sargento (Mozzarella, Provolone, Parmesan and Fontina, plus Romano and aged Asiago.

**For the super fancy, shred your own blend
**For the Paleo - possibly try using goat cheese


Chicken:
Bake or grill the chicken with whatever marinade, herbs, and/or spices you want. This is up to you. I used the Tomato Basil Chicken from the Meat House.

Veggies:
Chop all veggies thinly and have them on standby. Heat some olive oil in a pan with fresh chopped garlic. Add the onions first and cook for a few minutes, followed by the peppers and mushrooms. GO ahead an add in herbs (I just used "Italian Blend" from a spice rack) Add the chopped tomato last. This should all take about 10-15 min to saute.

In your pan:
No idea what size...just one that will fit what you've prepared...

Layer the veggies on the very bottom. You can also mix in a little sauce with them (and/or cheese!) if you'd like. Cut the chicken breasts in strips and try to completely cover the veggies for the next layer...sort of like a meat puzzle. Use the rest of the sauce (or 1-2 cups) on top of the chicken.

2 paths to choose:

If your veggies are still hot and chicken was just cooked, go ahead and add the cheese as the top layer and bake for 10 min...broil for 2-3.

If you do what I did and prep it for a later time, you'll want to bake it for 10-15min...add the layer of cheese...bake again for 10 min, then broil for 3min.

Dig in!

Oak City

Quick shout out to the guys at Oak City CrossFit who have been nice enough to let me use their box for WODs.


I went there on Tuesday and worked on Overhead Squats. Nothing impressive to report...I worked up to 165 for a single.

Then attempted a CFNE WOD:

3 RFT
12 OHSQ, 135lb
5 Muscle-Ups

This WOD was a mess from the get go. 135lb was way too heavy and I ended up dropping to 115lb for the last round. I ended the WOD with a nice neck issue and my hand went numb on the last muscle up...impingement? Yikes! I received a massage the next day and all was well.


Friday AM

Snatches
worked up to 140lb x 1 (felt good)

Box Squats 165 @ 6x2

Deadlift 2 on the min x 10 min

245/265/275/295/295/295/295/295/295/295

nothing impressive here...finally doing deads again after 3 months

500m Row - 1:36.6 (11 sec PR)


Friday PM - Oak City

Worked on handstands


10 RFT
10 Power Cleans, 115lb
5 Pull-Ups

*3 burpees at the start of every minute*

Time: 11min 36sec

Felt awesome!


And now to touch on the "Live" part of the blog:

I'm off to be social and partake in "Milkshake Friday"

Mother's Day Weekend....CF Charlotte Friday WOD

This weekend being Mother's Day, I decided I would come home to Charlotte to celebrate with the family. Every time I come back to Charlotte I try to keep up with my workouts....and where else to do that than the one and only CrossFit Charlotte with the great Andy Hendel!?

Today's WOD was:

5 min max clean and jerks (games competitors 155, men 135, women 85)
4 min max calories, C2 Rower
3 min max steps, walking lunges
2 min pullups
1 min Wall Ball, 20lb @ 10ft target


Coach A stated that if our Grace time was under 4 min, we should probably up the weight to 155lb. My best grace time is 2:52, so I took the challenge.

The WOD went as follows:

Clean & Jerk (5min):
155lb didn't feel as heavy as I thought it would. I kept a nice steady pace for most of the 5 mins. It was hard to hear where we were during the set and I didn't want to get on the rower with negative time. I stopped too soon (accidentally) and walked to the rower with 30 seconds left. When I realized I had that much time left I ran back to my bar and knocked out another C&j. Total Reps @ 155lb: 27

Rowing (4 min):
Rowing for calories...how I [used] to hate you. I remember Paul saying there was a secret to getting a good number of calories, but never actually met with him to figure it out. I looked online and the general consensus seemed to be that intensity = calories. I set the damper to 6 and rowed 10 hard strokes followed by 5 steady strokes. I kept this pace as much as possible, tiring a little at the end. Total Cals: 70

Walking Lunges (3 min):
This was just go, go, go! My knee hurt a little (but it's getting much better) and I was slightly winded from the rower. I kept a nice steady pace, trying to not to rush....although I probably could have pushed harder (esp knowing that my legs would get a break on pullups).
Total Steps: 72

Pull-Ups (2 min):
Prior to the WOD, Coach had us all pick our spot on the pull-up bar. Was that spot available when it was actually time for pullups? Hell no. I had to use the higher bar which required a good bit of jumping to reach. Oh well. Pullups went fine...not spectacular, but not bad considering I haven't taken an off day since Sunday. Total Reps: 40

Wall Ball (1 min):
"This should basically be one minute straight of wall ball. Nobody should be stopping!" Ha, Coach A...you're so damn funnny. I. Still. Hate. Wall. Ball....but I don't suck that badly anymore. My legs and arms were burning a little at this point. I stopped a few times...more than I'd care to admit. Total Reps: 18

TOTAL for the WOD: 227 Reps

FUN WOD! I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also made sure to call my ocfvvbff Paul Potorti and let him know of my improvement with the rower. ocfvvbff stands for original crossfit very very best friend forever. Ashley is still my cfvvbff, but Paul was my first.

One more WOD tomorrow morning and then shoveling mulch for my mother as her Mother's Day gift (per her request)....YES, I'll actually be updating!

Goat WOD

A Goat in CrossFit is essentially the stuff you don't want to pop up out of the hopper..the stuff you dread..usually because you suck at it or in my case because I suck at and don't practice it. This will not happen again next year.

Today was CF WOD 11.5 (or #5 for some of you hipsters).

AMRAP 20min
5 Power Cleans, 145lb
10 Toes 2 Bar
15 Wall Ball

I have nothing to say about this WOD except that I've been dreading it since it was posted. The only thing I'm good at is the Power cleans, which I did unbroken for all but 1 round. My toes 2 bar were unbroken for the first round and then died out after that. I'm just not efficient at kipping them yet and I never practice. Wall ball is more mental than anything to me. I find myself missing the wall (at proper height) and that DOESN'T count..contrary to what most of the people doing the WOD today thought, until I told Ryan the standard...just in time for the final heat (my heat).

I ended up with 7 rounds and 25 points (just 5 damn wall ball shy of 8 rounds). I already have a super secret periodized program that I'm dying to start as soon as the Open is over this year.

My friend and fellow Lifestyle Family Fitness goer AC, met me at the gym after mobility and I put together a "fun" little AMRAP for us.

AMRAP 10
5 Tire Flips
max reps Power Snatch, 115lb

Tire flips were the time keeper...the other person did as many PSN as possible in the time it took the other to knock out 5 tire flips. I finished somewhere around 34 and AC hit 40...but he started first :)

My lower back and hamstrings are done.


I really have nothing else to say, except sorry if this lacked my usual wit and humor...it gets tiring, just like Paul Potorti, who may or may not still be my friend.

3...2..1...wait! Umm, really, ok...go!

It's been a long time blah blah blah Ashley Thompson Denton made me blah blah blah I hate Paul Potorti blah blah blah


To appease people like Mitchell Rosser who say I don't talk enough about the "live" portion of my blog:

I had a nice lunch with Paul Saturday after working out at CFD...I paid, which makes him the luckiest girl in the world. I hope I didn't send him the wrong message, as I will not be calling him back.

Saturday night I was talked into going out to Ruckus with some people. My normal cheat day interfered a little and I only had 2.5 Red Oaks...and passed up chip and guac. I also only ate 8/10 slices of my large pizza and had 2 cookies...I think my stomach is shrinking.

Sunday was a nerd fest as I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 1 and the Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader.....I watched them both alone and then cried myself to sleep.

That brings us to shit some of you (Ashley) might actually care about (I don't care if Paul gets bored, he sucks - ask Jeff).


Today I went with Rick to CrossFit Clayon. After watching a video on the CF Journal I had a WOD in mind and Matt agreed it was the right choice.

5-4-3-2-1
Deadlift, 315
Muscle Ups

5-4-3-2-1
C&J, 225
HSPU

5-4-3-2-1
Snatch, 135
Burpee w/ lateral hop over bar

The idea was the perform the 5-1, strip off a 45 and go on to the next couplet. The guys (James Hobart and Austin Malleolo (sp)) stated there goal was sub-10 since Graham Holmberg did it in about 10:17 or so.

I decided to wisely lower my weights to 275/185/95 for the couplets as I've never had more than 215 over head...except for this one time, but that was before Paul lost weight.

Matt being the champion that he is went RX and Rick used 275/165/85.

This. WOD. sucked. I immediately texted Ashley after to tell her such. I couldn't string together MU's together in the first set of 5...mental block I think. Once I talked myself through it I didn't have any more problems. The cleans felt pretty easy, but I missed a few jerks which def. cost me. Snatches were the easiest and I def. should have gone with 115.

Matt seemed to struggle and miss some reps as well. You could tell that we all thought this would be "easier" than it was. I made the joke at one point that this was a really fun "chipper".

All in all it was a pretty good workout. I finished in 26:11 and Rick in about 32...Matt was probably done around the 20min mark. Everything hurts. My back is fried and my shoulders are red. I plan on going back to play with Matt's balls...umm, stop. His new Hybrid Athletic Mold Made Atlas Stones. Ashley is invited as well...on a Thursday.

I hope you enjoyed my blog today. If not, fuck you.


Side Bar: I'm trying an experiment based on research. The experiment? If I talk shit about Paul Potorti will he find my blogs more or less interesting? He probably got excited just because I mentioned his name.