Back Squat PR and Progress Pictures

Left: June 29, 2015. Pre-Crush60. I purchased the program the night before, and this picture was taken after I had gone to the gym and ventured over to the weights section for the first time to figure out where everything was. Day 1’s workout was completed on July 1.

(Flash forward a few months. I joined my sister’s CrossFit gym along the way.)

Right: This morning, November 3, 2015. It’s test week at the CrossFit gym, and I PRed my back squat at 135 lbs (1RM). Considering I was working with 90 lbs last week, I’m feeling pretty good about it. I was hoping for bodyweight so that I could get my name on the whiteboard, but I'd rather not injure myself. I’m almost done with Phase 2 of Crush60 (Day 39 was this past Sunday).
In other news, I had 5 teleconferences scheduled today, 12-5 PM. My boss was nice enough to let me telework because otherwise, I'd be taking up a conference room for basically half the day. One of the calls got cancelled, which was a relief!

Today was National Sandwich Day and in honor of that "holiday," Subway was doing a buy one, get one free deal. I, of course, took advantage of it and gave Julie the free sandwich. As I was walking around the mall, well, specifically JCPenney, they didn't waste any time putting up the holiday decorations! (eye roll)

After dinner, I finally gave in and dyed my hair and watched The Aristocats on Netflix, sitting on the bathroom floor while waiting for the dye to process. Darn greys. Heh.

Chin-Ups and Hairdo

Test week at CrossFit! Today was chin-ups. Ugh, I wish I did more, but at least I used less resistance than before. My upper body strength is just not there. Ryan did his bodyweight plus a 35 lb. dumbbells. Tsk, boys.

 

I wanted to do something different with my hair this morning instead of the usual ponytail. It’s been a while since I’ve done this braided look, but I got it on the first try. Which worked out because that’s all the time I had before needing to leave for the office!

 

Note to self: Dye hair this week to hide the greys.

 

Oh, look. Some delts?

Inferno Day

I posted my Halloween look on Facebook yesterday and it was so positively received. Should I tell them that all I know about applying makeup came from YouTube?  Hah.

Anywhoo, I started off the day with going to 8:30 AM spin class and then going to the grocery store next door to get some stuff to make a batch of the one pot beef stroganoff recipe I found on Budget Bytes. Yum yum yum!

I went to the other gym location earlier this evening to crank out Crush60, Day 39: Inferno. A few observations: a) I'm not sure where the rowers went.  Did the ghosts and goblins take them away?  What gives? b) The town didn't waste any time putting the holiday wreaths up on the light posts. Halloween was only yesterday, folks! c) Those burpees were killer (4 sets of 10), especially since I did 62 yesterday at CrossFit!

Happy Halloween!

Julie and I were the only ones at the 11 AM CrossFit session today. Fine by me because the 10:15 AM session seemed to have like 10+ people. I worked on my chin-ups and then the AMRAP today was 10 pull-ups, 31 burpees, and 15 wall balls (how appropriate since today is Halloween). Wow, this was tough! Those darn burpees. I only was able to get through 2 complete rounds + 2 pull-ups in 10 minutes.

Afterwards I went to ACMoore to pick up some cross-stitch fabric. When I went to Homecoming last week, during one of the trips to the bookstore, I saw the Washington and Lee University crest in a cross-stitch kit form and I remembered that I have one of them unfinished. I dug it out last night and then I realized the reason why I didn't finish it was because I had spilled some ink on it. Time to start over! I think it'll be a nice goal to have and then be able to hang it somewhere in the house. Funny enough, I saw the other Maddie and her mom at ACMoore when I was there, and I had just seen them at the CrossFit gym an hour ago. I also went to Target to buy some Halloween candy because I had a coupon and I felt compelled to replace some of the candy I ate from Mom's stash.

I have been looking for an excuse to wear this Sephora cream lip stain in Polished Purple, and Halloween is just the right occasion! I also tacked on some false lashes since I did a heavy winged liner and curled my hair.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." :D Well, I have my Hogwarts shirt and a cat...just direct me to Platform 9 3/4ths!

 I went over to my uncle and aunt's house to see how they were doing and then to my cousin's house to see how he was recovering from his wisdom tooth extraction. I asked him what kind of candy he was giving out. "I haven't bought any yet." o_0 What?! Fortunately for him, I had one of the bags of candy I bought from Target earlier today so I gave it to him to give to the trick-or-treaters. Chances are there wasn't going to be anything really good at the grocery stores at this time.

Then I went to my parents' house to try the chili that Julie made for her office chili cookoff and won first place! And then I hung out there to give out candy because chances are, I wouldn't get many at my place. One of the trick-or-treaters complimented me on my makeup and several did on my t-shirt. I felt kinda like Cinderella at the end of the ball taking off this makeup...I thought it was kickass!

Captain America at Work and New Card

Flex Friday...at work.

Freakin' hell. I got a bruise on my chin from my little mishap yesterday when I accidentally banged the barbell on my chin.  Heh.  Fortunately, it's not that noticeable.

In other news, I wore my Captain America shirt to work today. It's the only day of the year that I could get away with it.  I think the design's subtle enough that no one would really know unless they are familiar with the comic book. One of the IT guys actually complimented me on it...how fitting, right?  Nerds unite!

I normally telework on Fridays, but I had some banana bread to share with coworkers (read: to get out of my house so I don't eat it all myself). There was also breakfast at work, hosted by the Accounting Department...Panera Baked Egg Soufflés, YUM!

I debated on whether or not to go to CrossFit today and ultimately decided not to. My shoulders were sore from yesterday's workout and I'm signed up to go tomorrow. I took a post-work nap instead and it was awesome...as naps usually are.

Here's a new card that I made tonight on a whim. When Suzie came to visit last week, she took a handful of cards with her which freed up space for me...everybody wins!

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox Chalk Ink in Yellow Ochre, Dark Peony, Blackbird. Stampin' Up in Pool Party. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Chipped Sapphire.
Stamp: Stampin' Up- Vintage Labels, American Crafts- Dear Lizzy- Warbler
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen
Other: Stickles

Ouch at CrossFit

It was nice to be able to sleep in a little bit today...

Well, by sleep in, I really mean is wake up at 5:30 AM to a demanding cat and feed him breakfast and then go back to sleep for another 2 hours before having to get up to get ready for work.

Today at CrossFit, we worked on our hang squat cleans. There are several steps to the movement and sometimes I just think too hard. I lifted the bar too high today and banged myself on the chin. Holy ****, that hurt! I mean, not enough that I'd see stars and birds flying over my head, but enough that I had to pause for a moment and take a few deep breaths.

The coach called me a trooper. Yeah, well, I don't really feel like one at that moment. Owowow.

Anyway, I increased my weight from 60 to 65 lbs, so I was happy about that.

Although, now that I'm writing this blog post and it's been a few hours since class, my jaw is feeling sore. BLAH!

To balance out all the Halloween candy that I've been eating, I went to 6:30 PM spin class too. I didn't go as intensely as I usually do because everything honestly felt like jello (the Metcon today was 6 push presses + 10 lunges...7 rounds and I did it with 50 lbs).
I eyed the spotty bananas sitting on my kitchen counter when I got home and decided to make some chocolate chip banana bread. I can bring some to the office tomorrow to share, at least with my boss because she was nice enough to bring me back some chocolate back from her trip to Switzerland. Hopefully I don't eat it all at once because this is some good stuff.

New Birthday Card

6:30 AM CrossFit, here we go! Today we worked on our push presses. I upped my weight from 65 to 70 lbs. Considering I started at 45 lbs at the end of September, this is considerable progress. Next week is test week, and I'm looking forward to see how my 1 rep max  goes...I'm hoping for 80 or 85 lbs. Oh, the suspense! :)

I had to head over to the DoubleTree hotel for a meeting this afternoon with some of the Board of Directors and other VIPs. One of them told me they had saved me a seat. "So, how have you been?" I told her about my trip to my college reunion. At the end, "Did you find love at the reunion?" Uhh, no. Most of the guys there were married, fathers, and/or brought their girlfriend. I think it's amusing that every so often, my love life (or reminder of a lack of one) comes up at work, not just with my boss, but with partners/members too. Everyone wants to see me married off.  Meanwhile, I'm perfectly content being a cat lady.

My friend Diana's birthday is on Saturday (yes, Halloween) and I made a card tonight to send to her. I used this rose stamp that I hadn't used in a while, used some black embossing powder and Distress Inks as watercolors. I think the use of more colors make the flowers on the card come to life.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Personal Stamp Exchange- Black
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Mustard Seed, Fired Brick, Broken China, Tattered Rose, Peeled Paint
Stamp: Peddler's Pack Stampworks- Rose Background
Other: Liquid Pearl in Buttercup
Paper: Die Cuts with a View
Rub-on: Stampin' Up- Chit Chat (sentiment)