A Chat with the Executive Director

Julie and I were the only ones at CrossFit this morning. I guess everyone's sleeping in today or coming in later. I'm glad that we went because otherwise Ryan would have no one to coach!

After getting cleaned up from the gym, I went to the office to have a chat with my Executive Director to talk to him about planning my boss's retirement party (her last day is July 6). We talked about how the work conference we were at was a big success, but that we were happy to be home. When we got to the topic of my boss (he was going to help with planning her retirement party), he said “Karen (my boss) told me how proud of you she is. She said you really stepped up to the plate this year.”

Whattt. Wow, that was so nice, both for her to say that to him and for him to report that back to me! Our staff has really grown over the years, and I’m not always sure he’s aware of everything that his staff does because there’s so many of us and he’s got a lot on his plate. It was nice to get one-on-one time with him and get that recognition. He said he'd take care of lunch, Drew would take care of the staff appreciation plaque, and I'd take care of cake/cards/conference room reservation.

I also went to the office because I wanted to order some food. My refrigerator is looking very bare from being away from home on work travel. “Butter chicken? I like butter chicken!” Mmmno. I’m pretty sure you don’t. Nice try though!

Testing Deadlifts at CrossFit

6:30 AM CrossFit, check! It’s test week…1 rep max for deadlifts. My 1 RM is 170 lbs, but with my back injury last year, I haven’t been able to (or wanted to) lift anywhere near that weight. I stopped at 135 lbs today, and I’m happy with that since the last 3 x 5 I did was at 115 lbs. I can’t wait to see where I’m at the next time deadlifts appear in the strength cycle.

WOD, for time, 15:00 time cap
100 Walking lunges
80 Sit-ups
60 Push-ups (I started with just a black band, but I had to add a red one halfway through because my arms were toast.
40 Wall Balls (10 lbs ball)
20 Pull-ups
Score: I got through 11 wall balls in the time cap. Whew! What a way to start the week! I’m wearing a new shirt I got over the weekend. It’s got hummingbirds on it!

Lip color: Maybelline Creamy Matte in Touch of Spice

Box Jump Mishap at CrossFit

6:30 AM CrossFit, check! Push press day…3 x 5 at 90 lbs. Maybe I’ll go on Saturday and do 95 lbs to get a star next to my name. We’ll see how 17.3 goes tomorrow, whatever it is.

WOD, 12:00 AMRAP
400 m run
Max set of Unbroken Pull-ups
7 Box Jumps (24 inch box…usually I use the 20 inch ones!!!)
Score: # of pull-ups…24 with green and red bands. I scratched my finger on my box before I jumped on it. Does anyone wanna kiss it and make it better? Or buy me a donut? Boston cream or jelly. Kthx.

Lip color: Maybelline The Bolds Collection in Gone Greige.

International Women's Day

6:30 AM CrossFit, check! 3-second pause back squats today… 3 x 5 at 85 lbs.

WOD:
5:00 Row for max calories
–1:00 REST–
5:00 7 Wall Balls (8 lbs ball) + 7 Burpees
–1:00 REST–
5:00 5 Bear Complex (55 lbs) +15 V-ups/tuck-ups/sit-ups

In honor of International Women’s Day, I’ll be wearing red to work. Truth be told, I’ve had this red dress hanging in my closet for the past, I dunno, year? Never been worn, tags still hanging. Ah, what a perfect day to break this out! I hope all the ladies out there feel strong, beautiful and capable today. Well, any day, really! But especially today.

The new BBQ place near work was open for lunch today, finally! Thank goodness! If I was turned away again like I was yesterday, I would have been super disappointed. I went with 5 of my coworkers, and we enjoyed the good food and company. I got the lunch special: 1 meat and 2 sides (BBQ pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, and mashed potatoes). I’d totally go back!

Lip color: Maybelline Creamy Matte in Nude Nuance.

Birthday Recap

9:30 AM CrossFit, check! I got lots of birthday wishes this morning at the gym, so that was really nice! I had to test my 1RM for my hang power clean because I missed that lift this week. I maxed out at 105 lbs. I tried for 110 lbs, but didn’t get very far.

WOD, 3 rounds:
400 m run
20 2 DB OH Walking Lunge (15 lbs per hand)
10 DB Push Press (15 lbs per hand)
Time: 11:19 As I was huffing and puffing around the parking lot, the owner was shouting, “Come on, birthday girl, work for that birthday cake!”

I met up with Shannon at Dunkin’ Donuts for a donut and coffee. Mmm, Boston cream donut and iced caramel latte. Afterwards, I went to Old Navy and Target and tidied up my place.

Robyn and Julie came over for dinner on Saturday night. One of Robyn's New Year's Resolutions was to make a legit layered cake. She went with a 2-layered chocolate cake with freshly whipped cream and strawberries. Julie made me a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, per my request. She made RJ and Harry cake toppers, how funny are those! Mom made me my usual birthday request dinner: beef noodle soup, yum!

Shoulder Press PR and Happy Valentine’s Day!

6:30 AM CrossFit, check! Test week, day 2…shoulder press! I got a new 1 rep PR at 70 lbs (+5 lbs from my last PR).  I tried for 75 lbs, but no go. I think I maybe go the bar up to my eyeballs, and then I had to rerack. We’ll try again in the next strength cycle.

WOD, 3 rounds, :40 work/:20 rest and transition
Push-ups (on my knees)
Kettlebell swings (26 lbs)
TTB (Hanging Leg Raises)
Row for calories

Happy Valentine’s Day! I got some Valentine's Day mail last week from my friend Laura's twin boys. Of course, I promptly displayed it in my gallery of kid art in my work cubicle.

Gotta be festive in red!

Front Squat PR

It's test week this week at CrossFit. Today, we tested our 1 rep max for front squats. I maxed out at 1 RM at 135 lbs, +20 lbs from my previous 1 RM PR that I set in May 2016. I tried for 140 lbs, but I squatted down and couldn't get back up again. Heh. Ok, something to work on for next time!

My sister had to bail out on one of her lifts, and we just stared at the barbell for a second, like “ok, now what?” Fortunately, Coach Nic cleaned and reracked it for us, “That’s what I’m here for.” Oh, good, because there was no way I could have lifted 115 lbs from the ground (yet...).

WOD, running clock, using 8 lbs ball:
5:00 EMOM:
20 Double Unders + 15 Wall Balls (40 Single Unders and 12 Wall Balls)
5:00 EMOM:
30 Double Unders + 10 Wall Balls (50 Single Unders and 8 Wall Balls)

The winds last night knocked down one of the pine trees nearby! I'm hoping there's a tree crew that comes to clean that up soon.

Extra credit workout today: I did a FitnessBlender HIIT workout this evening (cardio + total body workout) and sweated my little heart out. Since I quit the regular gym back in October and haven't done a spin class in such a long time, I really need to make an effort to get my cardio in.

CrossFit and Pet Beds

The local animal shelter built a new facility not too long ago, and we've been looking for an excuse to visit it. We'll bring present, perfect! Julie got funding from her volunteering organization to buy enough fabric and foam pads for 15 pet beds. We went to Joann's after CrossFit this morning to pick out fleece fabric in different patterns. The design is basically two sheets of fleece fabric and a foam pad in between. You cut strips around the edges of the foam pad and tie the two panels together, so new sewing involved!

RJ supervised the whole operation, of course.

We got about halfway though the project today before Julie had to go home to get ready to go out with friends. I stayed on the couch and watched CNN. I had no energy to do anything else...so soreee.

Work, Rawr

Work this week has been exceptionally challenging, and there was nothing I could have done would have prevented it. I've been working on a return on investment project for the past 3 years with a workgroup composed of members from my association. My work hired a consultant to crunch numbers that the workgroup provided, and for the past few months, we've been asking the consultant to explain how he got the numbers. This shouldn't be difficult, right? Just show us the formulas. Easy peasy, right? NOPE.

We had an in-person meeting yesterday and today, and wow, things got a little heated yesterday (first thing in the morning, mind you) when the workgroup had lots of questions for the consultant. He raised his voice a few times and got defensive. UGH, it was so uncomfortable, I wanted to leave the room a few times. I feel like this project is one step forward, three steps back. BLAH! I'm hoping we can find ways to move forward with this project without the consultant because there is NO way I want to add $30,000 to this project and continue to work with a consultant who is rude to our members and slow to be forthcoming with his data methods.

At least folks had a good time at dinner last night. 1/2 price bottles of wine probably helped!

I'm glad I was able to make it to CrossFit this evening. I couldn't go yesterday because of this meeting.

CrossFit, Pet Beds, and Valentines

9:30 AM CrossFit, check! Wow, big class today, even though it was a little snowy outside. As an ice breaker, Coach Rel asked everyone in the circle to say their name and one thing they are looking forward to this weekend. It was funny to hear what people chose to share: playing with their pets (riding a horse, walking a dog), going to see Wicked, going to sports games, etc. Julie talked about a crafty project (see below) and I said I was excited about the curry rice that Mom's making for dinner. Hah.

Anyway, I went to all the lift days this week, but I wanted to practice my hang clean form. Maddie said “Nice work!” so I guess I’m getting somewhere! 3 x 5 at 70 lbs.

Partner WOD…Between you and your partner, accumulate the following:
200 wall balls (8 lbs)
100 med ball sit-ups (8 lbs)
50 cal row

We did the exercises bottom to top because it was a big class, and there wasn’t enough room for everyone to do the same thing at once. In the time cap, my sister and I did the cal row, the med ball sit-ups and 140/200 wall balls

Julie and I met up at Joann's around lunch time to look at pricing for fleece and foam pads so we can make no-sew cat and dog beds. The idea is that we'll make them and bring them to the local animal shelter, as an excuse to see the new facility and see the cats and dogs. If there's a stowaway in my purse, oh well! After we parted ways, I went to get a slice of Costco pizza and my free bagel from Panera. Yummm.

For my afternoon activity (since the weather was rather snowy!), I made some Valentine's Day cards. I bought this pack of Valentine’s Day embellishments a while ago, and I wanted to use them as the focal point of some of these cards. I used this previous Valentine's Day card as a reference. I haven’t decided if I’m going to send these out myself to friends or put them in the staff kitchen for coworkers to pick through.

Mom made curry rice for dinner tonight, so of course, I went over for dinner. That's 2 sit-down family dinners this week. That New Year's Resolution is off to a good start! :)

The CrossFit Community

When you read about CrossFit, there's usually an element of community somewhere in the article. For the morning classes, it used to be Maria, Ryan, my sister and myself. Maria moved to Mexico in October last year, but even today, her name still came up. Coach Rel said that she was still expecting Maria to be scurrying down the parking lot exactly at 6:30 AM and we could start class. I still text with her at least weekly just to see how she's doing. I hope I can count on her in 2017 to tell me that whatever cake or baked goodie I'm lusting after is probably dry and awful, and I shouldn't have any. Once an accountability partner, always an accountability partner I guess.

After doing my makeup inventory on Monday, I took note of what items (makeup and non-makeup) are almost done that I need to focus on in the next month or so in order to finish them up: 2 Bath and Body Works sprays, 1 deodorant, 1 lotion, and 1 Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze. I want to get back into the habit of doing empties on my blog every so often, especially this year where I'm going to make a conscious effort to finish stuff up instead of bringing stuff in!

Last Workout of 2016 and New Year's Eve

9:30 AM CrossFit, check! The last workout of the year was a partner one.

Partner A completes 3 rounds of the following circuit:
10 Thrusters (55 lbs)
5 Pull-ups (with bands)
10 Push-ups (with bands)
15 Air squats
20 Burpees

While Partner A is doing that, Partner B does the following until A is finished and the switch.
400 m run
25 Sit-ups

Oh boy, this was tough! My sister did A first while I did B. She got through almost all 3 rounds before time was up for the people that decided to do A first. I got through 2 complete rounds of A before time was up for me, and the next class was coming in. Whew!
I’m closing out 2016 on a positive note:

• Baked a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread.
• Vacuumed the house, scrubbed down the bathroom, and did a load in the dishwasher and washer. Ah, a clean house to start 2017 with! 
• Tried out my new Urban Decay Vice lipsticks that came in the mail today: Alpha and Moshpit.  
• My sister and Robyn came over to make dumplings and EAT ALL THE FOOD and watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as we waited for the ball to drop. I could barely keep my eyes open, heh.

12 Days of Strong WOD and Merry Christmas Eve

9:30 AM CrossFit, check! It’s the 12 Days WOD at the box. Last year we had to partner up to share equipment because there were so many people, but this year, the owner asked that you signed up to make sure we had enough space so everyone could get their own equipment. Like the song, you had to do 1 and then 2, 1 and then 3, 2, 1, etc.

WOD, for time, 40:00 time cap:
1 Thruster (55 lbs)
2 Push-ups (on my knees)
3 Box Jumps (18 inch box)
4 Power cleans (55 lbs)
5 Lateral burpees
6 Push press (55 lbs)
7 Walking lunges each leg
8 Wall balls (8 lbs)
9 V-ups (sit-ups)
10 Pull-ups (with red and green bands)
11 Front squats (55 lbs)
12 Barbell step ups (55 lbs)
Time: 39:33

I think I was the last or second to last person to finish, but I finished…and within the time cap! I’m really proud of myself because I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do it as the final minutes were ticking down. Everyone cheered and went to get a snack (Coach Melissa brought homemade Rice Krispies treats and homemade peppermint bark). RJ was in the same spot that he was in when I left the house.

Christmas Eve dinner was at my parents' house. Several people brought dishes, so Mom wouldn't be stuck making everything herself: Mom made fried noodles, Aunt made vegetable and chicken dishes, my cousin brought a salmon lasagna and another cousin brought potatoes and a sticky rice dish. I finished everything off with my plain cheesecake with blueberry topping.

Then it was time to open gifts. The cousins did a white elephant exchange. I ended up with what my sister contributed: a Regal movies gift card and a pack of gummy bears. My cousin's girlfriend ended up with what I contributed: a nice red blanket. The cousins all chipped in for a new tv for my uncle and aunt. This was the year of cat presents for me: Julie and I gave each other cat t-shirts, Mom gave me a cat mug and cat flannel sheets, and my friend Suzie sent me a stamp with cats on them.

Cards from Crafty Friends

After I went to CrossFit this morning, I checked my mailbox and found 2 Christmas cards from crafty friends: Jen gave me the cat card and Louise gave me the snowman cards. Thanks, ladies!

After I got somewhat cleaned up from the gym, I headed to the office because my friend Reggie said that he left my Christmas present at my desk. It was a large bag with something wrapped in tissue paper. OMG, it was 2 Harry Potter coloring books (that I don't have but have seen at Target) and a set of colored pencils. How nice! :) Ok, he gets extra cookies next year, oatmeal raisin ones (I rarely make those because they aren't my favorite, but I can make an exception!).

I had some bananas that were going to go bad soon, so of course I made a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread. I also made a plain cheesecake for the family Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow. I hope it's fine, since it's not really brown on top like the pumpkin one turns when it comes out of the oven. We'll find out tomorrow!

Julie ordered Five Guys burgers, which I picked up on the way to the house. We watched Zootopia on Netflix (well, I watched half before going home and Julie watched the rest when I left). Check out that Christmas ambiance! :)

New Shoes: CrossFit Nano 6.0

A $20.00 off Zappos.com coupon magically showed up in my email recently and I figured this was a sign to invest in some lifting shoes. I've been wearing regular running shoes to CrossFit in the 1.5 years I've been doing it and the extra cushion isn't the best for lifting. One of the most frequent pointers I get is to keep my weight in my heels. I'm hoping that it'll be easier to do that with these new shoes (CrossFit Nano 6.0). I was so excited to put these on when I got home from work! Size 8.5 fit perfectly!

Here's to smashing PRs and keeping up with the boys in 2017!

My Victoria's Secret order arrived yesterday and my Black Friday Ulta order arrived today, so it's been nice to have packages waiting for me at the door when I get home from work (free and fast shipping...my favs!).

Black Friday Activities

10 AM CrossFit, check! My sister and I went for the Turkey Burner workout. The owner split us up into 4 groups and we rotated through 4 different stations, 7 minutes each. One random thing: I saw one of my former coworkers there, so it was nice to briefly catch up!

7:00 AMRAP: 100 m run, 15 Box Jumps, 30 Air squats
- 2:00 REST-
7:00 AMRAP: 10 DB Push Press, 20 Walking Lunges, 30 Mountain Climbers
-2:00 REST-
7:00 AMRAP: 7 Wall Balls, 7 Burpees
-2:00 REST-
7:00 AMRAP: 400m run/row, 15 Push-ups, 20 Sit-ups

Afterwards, we went back to my parents’ house to eat. We enlisted the help of my cousins and cousin’s girlfriend to help set up our Christmas tree and lights. It only took us 20 minutes since Hugo is pretty tall and with his help, I didn't have to drag a chair along the floor to hang the lights on the columns and up high.

I went home to take a shower and proceed with a productive afternoon!

• Hung up my Christmas wreath
• Turned in my mortgage check
• Got bubble tea
• Got new Nikes to replace my current workout shoes (25% off!). The afternoon coach gave me a hard time the last time I was at the gym. "Tina, you need to get new shoes. You've been wearing those since I've started coaching here." 
• Got cardstock and paper to make this year’s holiday cards
• Sat at the dining table and did some online shopping for Christmas presents for other people and myself, heh. I couldn't help it!  Some of the Black Friday sales were too good to pass up, especially with free shipping deals! I placed an Ulta order and a Zappos order for bright blue Reebok Nanos (CrossFit shoes).
• RJ watched me from the couch. Maybe he is using telepathy to get me to buy him lots of treats for Christmas.

Life Update

Oh boy!  Whew, wow, is it dusty in here!  (Takes a Swiffer cloth to the blog). 

Hello out there!  I've recently had some folks (thank you, Louise and June) reach out to me to the tune of "Tina, are you okay? You haven't posted on your blog in a while!" Yeahhh, sorry about that! I guess a part of me wondered if my content was getting stale since my day-to-day life doesn't really change that much: CrossFit, crafting, work, food...RJ. And I was just feeling meh about blogging, but the kind messages I received have reenergized me, so I'd like to get back to posting every now and again (as opposed to dropping off the face of the planet).

CrossFit is still going strong. New news: I did cancel my regular gym membership at the end of October because I found the combination of CrossFit and spin class very draining. The relationships that I've made with the people at CrossFit are much stronger than the very few I've made at spin class. Plus, my sister holds me accountable for going to CrossFit, whereas I didn't have that at the regular gym. I just needed to be honest with myself about where money is better spent, and yeah, it's great having that gym membership money not be taken out of my paycheck anymore.

One of my friends asked me to make some topiaries for her parents' wedding anniversary party. One down, one more to go! It's kinda nice to do something new!

We had a fall potluck at the office this past Monday. My contribution was a pumpkin cheesecake. Other people brought green bean casserole, turkey enchiladas, sweet potatoes, stuffing...yum! I got several compliments on the cheesecake and came home with an empty pan. 

My sister and I went to Target this past weekend. I walked by this shirt and was like "Ok, let's not make an impulsive purchase. Let's think about this overnight and see how we feel about it in the morning." Yeah, heh, I went to another Target the next day and thankfully they had these shirts there too, so I bought it. Harry Potter fan for life!

Bench Press Womp

6:30 AM CrossFit, check! Test week: 1 rep max for bench press. I was really hoping for 105 lbs (+5 from my last PR of 100 lbs back in May) but alas, it didn’t happen. However, I was able to do a 1 RM of 100 lbs today with one try, so at least I didn't regress. Sigh…grrr, next time! One of the guys did 235 lbs (?!).

WOD, 7:00
3,6,9, etc. ladder
Hanging knee raises
Dumbbell thrusters (25 lbs per hand)
I got through the 12s and then completed 5 of the thrusters. Whew!

Today's my last day off of my 4 day weekend, and it was good timing because I was feeling discouraged and down about the workout this morning. It's only a 5 lb increase, why couldn't I do it? Maybe it's more of a mental block? It kinda sucks to put in the work for a 6-week strength cycle and not really have anything to show for it (at least I PRed yesterday on squat cleans!). I took a shower and then did some organizing (threw away some beauty products that had expired, collapsed some boxes, put some plastic recycling together) and after a nap and some food, I felt better. Heh.

RJ also smacked me in the face when we were playing peekaboo. I was laying down on the edge of the bed and he was on the floor. Grr, you jerk!  At least he didn't use any claws.

Oh, and my Milani Cosmetics order came in yesterday (ordered TH, delivered MON, wow!). I didn't know because I hadn't checked my mail box yesterday and then when I got an order complete email and checked the tracking, it said that it had been delivered! Yay, I can't wait to try this new stuff out.

Testing Squat Cleans and Custom Wedding Card Order from the Office

6:30 AM CrossFit, check! It’s test week, and today we tested out 1 RM for squat cleans. After 3 tries, I was able to do 100 lbs. It was down to the last possible minute, but I did it! I had to sit down on the mat right after because my body was like "Ok, let's take a little break, right now."

WOD, 8:00 AMRAP
21 push presses (55 lbs)
15 front squats (55 lbs)
9 pull ups with green and red bands
I got through 2 complete rounds, and 8 of the push presses in the 3rd round. The goal was 5 rounds. I don’t think anyone was able to hit that, so I don’t feel bad.

When I got home, since I was already sweaty, I trimmed the bushes outside the townhouse, vacuumed, and scrubbed down the bathroom. Not bad for a day off and before 9 AM. I also went to deposit a check and run by Ulta (I bought a few lip liners using my 20% off coupon, 3 from NYX and 1 from Rimmel).

Before I went to Jacksonville for vacation, one of the girls at work asked me if I could make a custom wedding card for her friends upcoming nuptials. I was thinking she'd want something flowery, but nope. She had a specific request.

I was wondering if it might be possible to have the two main characters of the card be a marmot and a bear. That would be a very personal card for them! Front of card: “Whoever thought that a marmot and a bear would get married?!?” Inside of card: “Best wishes in your new den.”

Ummm...ok, sure. Internally, I was thinking, "What's a marmot?  Like a groundhog? I had to google it first to double check.  Here's the card that I came up with. I sent this picture to my coworker, and she really liked it, so mission accomplished! :)

Dinner with the CrossFit Girls

Work out together, eat together.

I got a side salad and the meatloaf (which I got last time, but it was so good that I wanted it again). I didn't get a drink last time since they are rather expensive. I swapped it out for sharing dessert: slices of lemon cake and chocolate cake. Yum!