The After Math

Barbara left me quite sore and fatigued so Wednesday was a much needed rest day! Although, I did go in to the fort to complete a rowing WOD; I was hoping it would help my legs loosen up a little. The WOD was row 1,000m, 6:00 rest, row 500m, 2:00 rest, row 250m, 2:00 rest, row 250m. I completed this WOD in just over 8 minutes. I felt good and was able to see consistent rows each round. I’m finally starting to feel a little more comfortable on the rower!  After my row WOD Zach and I headed to Prairie Ridge High School to watch my little brother Tanner play some hoops. His team won a TIGHT game against McHenry to launch the conference tournament.

Throughout the day on Thursday I became progressively sorer. My abs were aching and my quads were tight. I knew the strength was going to be heavy front squats, which I was not looking forward to. As we were warming up just the mountain climbers were killer and I wondered how I was going to get through the strength and the metcon. I started with several warm-up sets of front squats to really get my legs loose. We were instructed to go a little heavier than last week, so I decided to just add one kilo to my bar. I completed three sets of three front squats at 72 kilos. It was brutally heavy but I fought through the suck. The metcon looked a little intimidating, it was a two part AMRAP, 6:00 of three cleans (55k) and seven clapping pushups, a 6:00 rest, then 2:00 wall ball shots (14). I wanted to push myself and go Rxd, it would be rough, but I knew I could and should do the heavy cleans. I ended up completing 5 rounds plus 3 cleans, and I got 34 wall ball shots. I definitely slowed down on the wall balls; my legs were burning and begging me to stop!

Push Presses getting difficult

Friday we worked on the push press. We completed three heavy sets of three. I had the pleasure of working with Stacy again this week, which made me happy. It’s nice seeing her back at the fort more regularly! : ) The WOD was 4 rounds for max reps of :60 push press (30k), :60 rest, :60 pull-ups, :60 rest. I had a feeling this WOD was going to be sneaky hard. I knew the :60 rest wasn’t going to be near enough time to recover, plus pull-ups are one of my many arch nemesis. My reps slowly declined with each round, it felt as if someone had swapped my bar out for a WAY heavier one. Round 1: 26/17, Round 2: 23/16, Round 3: 20/14, and Round 4: 17/13. I think I racked my bar twice in that last round, it was pretty brutal.  I ended up coming away with 146 reps, I think I could have pushed harder but my body was still trying to recover from our Mega Metcon Tuesday…

Saturday morning Zach and I woke up early and headed downtown to meet our fellow CrossForters at the Chicago Indoor Rowing Championships. Bill has spent the last couple of months training and preparing us for this rowing competition, and all of our work paid off. Twenty two CFF members competed in the 2,000m row and we saw several PRs and earned three medals! I ended up pulling an 8:20

Coach Zach helping me pace myself in the 2,000m

2,000m which was 26 seconds faster than my previous time! I want to thank Zach for his encouragement and coaching throughout those nasty 8+ minutes. We also had a men’s and women’s 5 x 2,500m relay team.  Nicole, Kirsten, Hannah, Kinsy and I made up the women’s team. I knew I would be the weak link on our team but I was determined to sit down on that rower and give it EVERYTHING I had. We ended up taking 3^rd place overall. I’m felt sad we didn’t walk away with the win and gold medals but I know I pushed myself as hard as I could just like all of my teammates. Our men’s team which was Garth, Brandon, Neil, Andy, and Bill took 4^th place overall. I had an absolute blast bonding with everyone and truly enjoyed my time with my fellow CrossForters! : ) I am so proud of everyone’s efforts and camaraderie.

CFF Crew at the Chicago Indoor Rowing Championship

I was thankful Sunday was a rest day. I wasn’t feeling sore or fatigued but it was nice to just be home all day with nothing too important to do. After a nice big breakfast of bacon and eggs I decided it was time to tackle the guest closet which was FILLED TO THE BRIM of old clothes. Getting rid of these clothes actually gave me a sense of empowerment and made me realize how far I’ve come. Some of those clothes I was bagging up were size 16! Over the last two years I have dropped 4 pants sizes and 50+ pounds. I have made quite a transformation and sometimes I forget how far I’ve come. So seeing all of those old fat clothes reminded me of what I have accomplished and much healthier I have become. I couldn’t help but smile! : )