Whole Life Challenge

I have signed up for the Whole Life Challenge, which begins May 3. I have been keeping my eye out for the next challenge, as it looks like fun in a non deprivation way. The challenge goes for 8 weeks and each day you gain or lose points. If you eat treat foods you lose points, if you do 10 mins of mobilisation or 10 mins of exercise you gain points etc.

I think it will be a good fun way for me to get into the habit of stretching/mobilising daily and doing 10 mins of exercise daily, which I think will be walking the dog time.

I am also looking forward to focusing on making healthier, whole food choices every day!

Personal Training Session Number Two!

This morning I had my second personal training session, not sure how it would go, but it was really enjoyable. I was worried that I would not get to work towards all the Crossfit movements, since leaving my Crossfit box, but for this morning's 30 min session we covered the following:

- Kettlebell swings, worked my way up to a couple at 16kg's
- Lunges in between kettlebell swings
- Farmer carry walk with kettlebells
- Back squats
- Strict pull-ups
- Knees to chest
- Throwing a 36kg ball over my shoulders

I definitely felt like I had a workout when I left 30 mins later!

Last week I could only get the 36kg ball over the right shoulder twice, but happily got it over the left shoulder twice today, lots of grunting to get it up there, but I succeeded.

I am really glad to be back in weekly sessions again and looking forward to adding a second session sometime soon. Thinking I may have to wait until after my half marathon, but I will play it by ear.

First Personal Training Session

Sadly I've decided to put my Crossfit Membership on hold for a few months until I work out my routine with my new work hours. I am finding the class times don't work for me anymore. 

I had a personal recommendation for a personal trainer with a Crossfit background.She works in 30 min blocks, which makes it affordable, with the goal to work up to two sessions a week.

Yesterday was a getting to know me session, we worked up through the weights for split jerks, which felt good, jumping on the bike in between each set, strict pull-ups and ball throws over the shoulder. I definitely got a solid workout within the 30 mins.

I love weight/strength training, Olympic lifts, pull-ups etc, so we are going to work more on these things and I can work on the cardio in my own time. Next session is next Wednesday morning before work.

In other news I have made the last minute decision to train and run the Great Ocean Road Half Marathon. This one has been on the horizon the last few years, but this is going to be the year to run it. I have 8 weeks left and my body is feeling good. The Crossfit training has really helped with my speed and fitness. I have a couple of other fun runs and maybe one or two big runs in sight for later this year.

Training For My Third Half Marathon

I have decided today, with 10 weeks to go, that I'm going to enter and run the Great Ocean Road marathon, which is actually 23km's, whereas the official half marathon distance is 21.1km's.

A friend asked me to go with free accommodation, so I'm going to run it, enjoy the view (entire run along the ocean), soak up the atmosphere and the experience with my friend/s.

I have also just purchased the Half Marathon Roadmap mostly because it is a plan for vegetarians, with food suggestions and also keen to see his training plan. I am going to have to modify all the distances as they are in miles and also start in week 3, as it is a 12 week program, but otherwise for $25 USD it looks good.

Tomorrow I will go for my first run in over a month. Hoping it goes well...

Open 14.1 Scaled

After two weeks off due to work, I was quite nervous about today's workout, which was a scaled version the Crossfit Open 14.1

AMRAP in 10mins:

• 60 single skips
• 15 power snatch (25/15)

I did it rx'd and finished I think 3 rounds + a few skips, but I can't remember my exact number of reps, although I know it was in the 200's. I was just happy to be back. 

I was amazed how hard the snatching was with the 15kg bar. I wasn't expecting it to be that hard, but thinking about it, I did do 45 snatches. The easy workouts are always harder then they look and the ones that look hard are sometimes not so bad. 

I was amazed that the skipping felt like a recovery, compared to the snatches, even if I did keep tripping over my feet as I got tired. I can see such an improvement in my cardio. I remember how hard I used to find skipping and now it feels a lot easier. I am hoping it won't be too long before I get my first double under.