I bimmin' love crossfit.....

(I blimmin' hate going but I love it afterwards) and I say this as I write with a cut face, scraped palms, bruised right hip and scraped and bruised knees.  I had been feeling a little smug this week having achieved double unders and working hard on my pull ups and dips so wasn't feeling too bad about a WOD that was AMRAP 12 minutes 8 ring dips, 8 pull ups, 16 alternate lunges with (5kg) but did groan a bit at the 1km run to start (especially as the first bit is up hill (ish) ).   I stopped worrying about it when Charlie announced his warm up (our warm up is your workout.....)  30 forward bendy, hamstring exercisey things with a barbell, then 21,15 and 9 16kg american kettlebell swings/burpees and then 30 forward bendy etc...etc.. THEN the 1km run.  Now those who know me will know that I'm RUBBISH challenged at running but with all my achilles work I was hoping to get a PB of under 6mins.  It was not to be......  As I came down the hill I tripped over my feet and face/body planted into the concrete, narrowly avoiding squashing a small dog.  I managed to get up and finish the run 10 seconds over my PB grrrr.  Luckily the WOD involved the use of my palms and knees yaaay and my knees got steadily more painful throughout, but while trying to ignore the pain I did notice that the pullup and dip training in the gym has paid off and I will have to go down a band on both exercises.
The real problem was that I couldn't be too wimpy as one of the girls taking part is about to give birth!!! You heard me, I hadn't noticed she was pregnant when she had her jacket on but as we were about to start I did wonder why she had shoved a medicine ball up her top.  Luckily I noticed her bump was real BEFORE I joked about the medicine ball!  She understandably didn't do the run but did everything else despite being due in 1 week - I am sooooooo humbled.
I have been in the wars all week, as I have been continuing my BEAST sessions at the gym - I was fed up with the runninng intervals on Thursday and so decided to skip for 3 minutes instead and then do 10 double unders before starting on each set of exercises.  Skipping is fine but a double under fail results in a sharp and painful whip strike to the arm - I got lots of those and realised that I now look as if I have spent some time with Mr Grey....right upper arm is covered in whip welts.

 Not sure the skipping excuse is going to be believed so I shall be mostly wearing long sleeved tops for the foreseeable future.  I finally understand why the crossfit guys wear the silly arm sock thingys.

Glute recruitment

Ooof it's been a long, long, long, long (ok you get the drift) time since my last post which probably gives you a good idea as to how good I've been *ashamed face*.   In my defence I  haven't spent the whole time lying on the sofa living on wine, curry and after eights.  Cowes week was awesome and I ate healthier food, didn't drink myself senseless EVERY night and I even went for a run (albeit to the pub for lunch!).  Was ever so dissapointed to find that I had still managed to put on 5lbs*urgh* which weirdly disappeared a week later!???  I headed back with my tail between my legs to crossfit and of course ended up unable to walk after a week of glute recruitment - kettlebells, deadlifts, squats, lunges boom!   I love the feeling of crossfit but only immediately after the session - I do struggle to drag myself up the Gloucester Road especially when I have to cycle.  Me, bikes and traffic don't get on - by the time I get to the session my heart is beating so fast I'm almost ready to pass.  So when I have been unable to face the trek to crossfit I brought the beast back to the gym
The beast is the workout from hell - a form of interval training that leaves me crying on the floor and other gym members slightly bemused. The theory is 6 x 800m runs interspersed with alternate upper body, lower body exercises to failure.   The interval exercises range from pulls ups/dips, press ups/sit ups, kettlebell russian swings, jump squats/walking lunges, olympic squats/ power lunges, deadlifts.  I haven't managed 6 sets yet........
I have also been really, really, really, really (you get the picture) good at working on my achilles - thanks to Mobility WOD for their "rebuilding the feet" videos.   I have been doing the exercises religiously (well nearly!) and so lots and lots and lots of skipping and standing on tiptoes.  As I was really not in the mood to run on my last beast session I decided to insert skipping instead of running and after several hundred skips I even managed to do finally crack double unders (not sure why he's wearing the weird arm sock things.....) without trashing my achilles ie: I could still walk the next day!
Finally my top tip for getting out and doing some exercise - go and find something silly to do with a mate that involves running around.  My mate Murray found  2.8hours later which involved orienteering around Bristol trying to escape from zombie hordes.  Cue an evening of wandering around abandoned buildings, police cells, churches and church yards; running, sprinting, screaming, jumping over walls and ultimately being caught and infected by the zombies so that we could attend the zombie disco

Followed by a hilarious trip back home on the bus....no one wanted to sit next to me! Can't think why...