I am back!

I haven't stopped training during the healing from partially ripping my calf muscle...just been quiet on the blog. I'm taking great care to stay properly hydrated, get lots of magnesium and rest. Also loving my Trigger Point Therapy Ultimate Body kit - keeps me mobile!

BIG NEWS!!! I participated in my first ever triathlon - a baby one...I did the swim portion (250m with a 500m run to transition) with some girlfriends from work. It was a blast! We ended up coming in 3rd out of 15 teams in our group! Amazing! I cannot wait to train more and try again :-)

Had a FUN workout today. Serious therapy for women to get their frustrations out in a way that is allowed - I LOVE hitting things hard so today's work out was perfect!

Warmup – Airdyne 5mins
1x CFWU (7 toe push ups – aiming for 20!)

Strength – Deadlift
3-3-3 @ 65kg-72.5kg-75kg – slowly working my way back to my PB of 82.5kg for 3reps
1×15 @ 50kg


WOD – “Hammer gone bad”
8lbs hammer, 10kg kettlebell – I LOVED this work out – I find hitting something so satisfying….gets all the frustrations out in a healthy way. Will’s right – it’s all about technique!

3 rounds of:
1 min 8lb sledge hammer swing (onto big fat tire)
1 min 21" box jump (step up for me with calf)
1 min 8lb sledge hammer swing
1 min 10kg Kettle Bell cleans
1 min rest

My score for each round
108+122+129 (was going for 130 damnit!) = 359 Total Score

OWWIE!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately - I partially tore my right calf muscle working out in the deep sand about 12 days ago. Thankfully it was just before a long weekend (there goes my surf trip to Denmark!) so I had some seriously dedicated icing and relax time on the couch for 5 days. I think it's helped heaps along with my homeopathics from my Naturopath, Peter Yeates from Fremantle Natural Therapies. AWESOME!

Number one lesson I have learned is to not take my mobility for granted and to put extra effort into caring for my muscle tissue!

I have recently just ordered the Trigger Point Performance Therapy Total Body Kit to help me with mine. I'm looking forward to having my mobility back soon and getting back into the swing of things. I am trying to see the injury as a landmark in my training - my first injury of this type which means I'm becoming a better athlete I reckon. Soon I'll be an even better one as I learn how to take better care of my body.

Girl's day

Today ended up being "girl's day" at Cottesloe beach this morning....just Kate and I (and of course Steve our coach!). Kate is a new mate who is an awesome athlete and really fun to work out with! After a nice warm up jog and some mobility movements on the beach here is what I was in for today.

Swim to Pylon and back, 1 rep
16kg American KB Swings, 60 reps
Swim to Pylon and back, 2 reps
16kg American KB Swings, 40 reps
Swim to Pylon and back, 3 reps
16kg American KB Swings, 20 reps

Time: 20:48min

Kate did 4 rounds matched with 80 reps. I was overcome many times with an irrational, gripping fear of what might be in the water. I know logically there is nothing to be scared of although some small part of my brain isn't listening and each and every swimming stroke was hard won against this fear...I wonder if it will ever diminish? It frustrates me that I cannot "control" it - the small shadow that lurks in my mind. Classic.

Fight Gone Bad - Cott Style

Well, I knew it had been a long time since I had done this workout..not since my fundamentals class in Nov 2008. Not sure if it's even worthy of comparison though....

“Fight Gone Bad”
3 rounds. 5 movements. 45 secs per movement. 1 min rest between
rounds.
Wall Ball, 5kg
SDHP, 16.5kg
Push Press, 16.5kg
Box Jumps, 10 inch box
Rowing
Score: 169pts

So this one was only 3 rounds. I know I'm fairly consistent with my effort so let's just assume if it was actually 5 rounds my score would have been ~ 252 points (169/3 x 5)

I was a bit bummed I had the lowest score of the group today although in comparison to my fundamentals class, I can only be happy with the results!

Fight Gone Bad “Beach Style” – Championship Edition
5 movements
1 min per movement
5 rounds
1 min rest between rounds
Record number of reps performed for each movement, each round, then total them at the end.

Movements:
1. Split Jumps - (then went to just lunges to focus on technique)
2. 16kg Torsion Bar Push Press
3. 12kg KB Front Squat (these suckers killed me!)
4. Push ups (inclined straight leg)
5. 12kg KB Swing - Overhead - think this is the American style? Strangely these were my "make up time and points" part!

Score: 442 points

Finisher:
Full Tier Climb, 3 rounds

November 2008 = 252 points
January 2010 = 442 points! Wooohoooo!

Highlights Last week

I remembered I could climb things and we swam with sharks! (well, not too closely thank goodness).

Wednesday was the day of my very first ocean swim! I've been in the ocean plenty of times before but this was different. Goggles on. Head down. Doing freestyle! ...and freaking out I could see the bottom and that every single shadow or the seagrass that drifted across my face was a SHARK! whew...There was actually an official shark warning and some of the northern beaches had been closed the day before due to several 3m tiger and hammerhead sharks lurking around feeding on schools of fish.

Here's the pylon at low tide - our swim was at high tide. I actually really enjoyed this workout.

I did 3 rounds instead of 5
Cottesloe Beach
5 rounds for time of:
Run from Cottesloe Surf Club to the water
Swim 50m (Pylon is 25m marker)
Run to the grassed tiers, climb all tiers
Run back to the starting point

Time: 13:42min

Finished off with some sun salutation yoga moves in the evening as I was still having troubles walking from Monday's workout!

Friday's workout involved no water...all on land and running the unfortunately short but weirdly long 800m distance.

For time:
Run, 800m
Then complete 4 rounds of:
Pull ups, 10 reps
Push ups, 20 reps
Sit ups, 30 reps
Air Squats, 40 reps
Then:
Run, 800m

Time: 27:43min for 3 rounds

I lived off a Choco-Banana Paleo bread in the mornings before the work out and have to say the recipe was a hit! The rest of my meals were paleo during the day with lots of chicken, beef sausages and fish for protein. Good week!

1st outdoor session 2010

We trained at Cottesloe beach this morning! Anyone not been to Western Australia it's a beautiful spot where the walking trail is up on a cliff that overlooks the beach and the ocean. Magic!

Today's workout was the first I've done in 3 weeks and as Steve mentioned during the training- yes, I'm guilty of a bit of carb loading over the holidays! Paleo and Xmas treats didn't really jive too well this year! Didn't vomit though so I was happy about that!

I trained with two other gals today as my "partners" and the boys did their thing together. Here it is:

“Partnered Beach Ladders”
For Time:
16kg Torsion Bar Thrusters: 1-10-1 reps (this means 1-2-3-4..and so on to 10 and then back down to one...10-9-8-)
Soft Sand Run, 200m
Push Up: 1-10-1 reps
Soft Sand Run 200m

Finisher:
Death by 10m in soft sand

The girls group finished in just over 20 mins and my death by 10m in soft sand was 7 rounds. Good benchmark for later in the year.

Apparently we'll be doing some swimming too so I'm a bit thrilled/scared at that as I've never really done ocean swimming before! Great session today and thanks to my training partners. The plan is to train outdoors for most of the summer ~ 3 months and then head back into the gym.

I love the feel of sand between my toes! Woot!