Scared

I am scared....really scared.  I am also kicking myself (not literally) because I am so easily persuaded to do things that I really shouldn't agree to do.  Some people (YOU KNOW  WHO YOU ARE!) have managed to persuade me to enter the "Raising the Bar" Masters Crossfit Competition in Cardiff in April - that's 2013 not 2014 or 15 which would have made me a little more comfortable.  While "Masters" is crossfit code for old people, this doesn't mean that the competition isn't hard,  it's the qualifier for the European championship so the whole place is going to be full of ninjas.  If I'm honest the persuading point was the promise that the guys would be working out with their tops off... and now I'm regretting it, big time (things have got to be bad when the prospect of a room full of boys with their abs out isn't enough to make me feel better!).  To make matters worse, in the same week I was also persuaded to do Tough Mudder in September.  Now, what I hadn't appreciated was that this involves a 10 mile (not km) run and at the moment I can't even run 3 miles *moresighing*!

Sooo after a week off games due to lurgy I am back at the box, back in the pool and back on the treadmill with a vengeance.  I may be rubbish at most things in crossfit but, I reckon that in a month and a half's time I can aim to be a little less rubbish.

I was less than happy, therefore, on my first day back in the box (still scratchy and a bit lurgyfied) to see that the WOD was 6 sets of 6 clean and jerks and 6 hand stand wall walks.  The idea of hanging my cold-ridden head upside down was not attractive, also I can't do them!   Luckily the scaling allows you to do a half - so you get your feet up and shuffle your hands a bit and then walk back down - I have to say I was slightly in awe of the guys who managed the 36 full versions!  We had a strength session before starting, and I am steadily increasing my back squat now that I can get down full depth (I even made sure I had a box to check my depth as Andrew told me off for cheating last time!)  It was a full-on session so we were limited to 20 mins for the WOD I put a reasonably light weight on for the clean and jerk (22.5kg) as my shoulder is still feeling funky and I knew the wall walks would trash my shoulders.  After each shuffle up the wall I lay down and stretched out my arms before attempting the next rep, after 3 sets (actually who am I trying to kid!  After the first set)  it became increasingly difficult to persuade myself to push up to do the next rep, especially as I could just see steam rising from my body and my arms shaking uncontrollably (I think Hugh Thomas thought I had passed out at one stage, because I lay there for so long).  I amazingly managed to finish (according to my friend Murray) in 19.46 mins (I completely lost count and thought I had another full set to go, which was a little demoralising).

Having finished the torture I wobbled down the road to go home and have a nap. In the spirit of wishing to avoid complete humiliation at "raising the bar", and still having the memory of filthy fifty etched on my brain, I signed up for the open session the next day so that I could work on wall balls (and also sign off some more of the level 1 requirements).  While being off games I missed a workout called Karen - which is 150 wall balls for time.  As coach Glassman says “Hiding from your weaknesses is a recipe for incapacity and error,”  so I decided that the best way to get better was to face my nemesis.  I used a 4kg ball because I can't even throw the 6kg one a couple of inches and I used the green 9m  "ladies'/hobbits' " line because with the best will in the world I still can't hit the 10m "boys'/giants' " line.  I tried to concentrate on making the squat a full one and using both hands to throw the ball rather than my right hand as you would in netball.  I aimed at 5 with 5 breathes' rest and finished in 15 minutes 14seconds with no swearing! Obviously I now can't walk or move my arms and I have sessions booked for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so I shall be stretching like a lunatic for the next few days (I may even head to the sauna, might as well make use of my gym membership before I get rid of it!)

Apart from ramping up the exercise regime I have strayed a little from the paelo path - not so much with the wheat but with sugar and rice - so now it is that Lenten time again I have given up chocolate and sweeties and I am back in my cave now that I have a lovely new kitchen to cook with.   As KFC used to be my dirty, little secret I have found a paleo alternative at cookingcaveman which uses pimped up spicy coconut flour and egg- I added salt, pepper, paprika, ground cumin and a jerk chicken rub to my coconut flour, double dipped turkey escalopes alternatively in flour and egg, fried them for a couple of minutes either side and then cooked in the ove for 15 minutes or so.  They are great with a poached egg, asparagus and spicy sweet potato fries or with a tomato sauce and stir-fried green things

I am still in love with cavolo nero and will happily eat pretty much anything with it, although I draw the line, at the moment, at green drinks.  Apparently kale is  the latest big thing in the US whizzed up in a smoothie*bleurgh*.  However, having been to a really fab pop up restaurant at Hart's bakery run by MiCasa I may now be a cauliflower convert.  I ate a really lovely blended cauliflower dip which, didn't make me go bleurgh, in fact it was yummy and I ate a lot of it - so now I may have to start cooking cauliflower with spices and tasty things, and in a way that doesn't look like cauliflower - watch this space for my attempts at cauliflower rice and cauliflower pizza base.