Becca Borawski’s Blog

12:00pm – CrossFit, Advanced

Ugh, some days highlight where I am NOT currently in my fitness. lol! This was basically three things I’m not so good at…but strangely I don’t mind doing any of them, so I guess it wasn’t so bad. Good practice!

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 15 minutes of:
9 Deadlifts (100#)
12 Push-ups (Games standard)
15 Box jumps (20”)
5 rounds, 9 deadlifts, 12 pushups, 3 boxjumps
204

The push ups just crushed me. The other stuff I could at least move through steadily, but the push ups killed me.  Special thanks to Danny Lesslie for getting me through this one. Kinda wanted to cry at one point. It just hurt.

Did a lot of foam rolling on my right calf afterwards. It’s a very unhappy camper. Hoping all the mobility work during this challenge will get it better!

9:00am – CrossFit, All Levels

Wahoo for moving weights around! I was dreading working out all morning and I’m not really sure why, because I like both these movements. Just a momentum thing, I think. I am half asleep for the last few weeks since I got off the Diet Rockstar and now being on tea instead of Diet Coke has me sleepy again, too. It’s just not the same!

15-12-9-6-3
Handstand push ups (1 abmat + #5 plate)
Hang Power Cleans (95#)
9:12

Had fun on this one! Awesome crew and energy in class today – people really went for it and it was great. The first round I thought maybe I should only use an abmat for my HSPU’s and go lower, ‘cause I did 15 unbroken, but then when I went to do my first HPC I felt the impact. Woah. Both the HPC’s and HSPU’s were harder from that point on. Was glad for my little plate under my abmat.  I stayed strong on the HPC’s though, tried to stay conscious of form and kept moving forward. I was happy to get this done in under 10 minutes.

7:30am – CrossFit, Instructor Training Program

So we didn’t do our regular ITP routine this morning, instead we all measured each other and then did the workout to get ourselves going on the Whole Life Challenge.  My total girth (both biceps, waist, hips, both thighs) came out to 135.5—my weight is basically back up to where it was before I cut weight for rowing in January. It’s more than I like to weigh and this last month has not been one of my favorites, so I’m excited to use this challenge to fine tune what I’m doing with my body.

AMRAP in 12 minutes:
5 burpees
10 situps
15 squats
12 rounds + 5 burpees, 4 situps
369 reps

This was way more painful than it needed to be. Wasn’t warmed up at all, so just dove in and tried to keep a steady pace. I was right next to Logan, who I thought was way ahead of me since he did his burpees in a fraction of the time I did, but Michael informed me halfway through the workout we were actually on the same round, so that motivated me to keep my pace going.

Squats were definitely the worst part. Not sure why, if it was Muay Thai and running, or not being warmed up, but they were excruciating from the first round and I refused to break up any of the sets. We’ll see how tomorrow feels!

Happy with my score and will be happy to beat it at the end of the Challenge in 8 weeks! Totally confident I will be fitter and faster then.

7:00am – CrossFit, All Levels

Two part workout today, strength and then metabolic conditioning.

Back Squat
5-5-5-5-5
5x 115#
5x 115#
5x 125#
5x 135#
5x 135#

The first set at 115# felt HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE. Strangely every set after that, even as I decided to go heavier, felt better. I think my nervous system just needed a punch after so long of not lifting heavy. Gotta get strong!  It felt good to lift heavy today.

As many rounds as possible, in 12 min:
15 box jumps (20”)
10 abmat situps
5 handstand pushups (1abmat + 5#plate)
7 rounds, 3 box jumps

I used a higher target than I probably really needed to on the HSPU, but I wanted to get cardio and as many rounds as possible. Next time a lower target!

7:00am – CrossFit, On My Own

We didn’t have our regular Instructor Training Program workout today since most of the firebreathers were doing the CrossFit Games Open workout later this afternoon.  So I did Thursdays workout on my own!

Press 5-5-5+
Wendler Cycle 2, Week 1
65%, 75%, 85%

5x 44#
5x 51#
5x 58#

Definitely felt stronger on this than I did the last time we did Wendler. Getting slightly stronger again in general….maybe!

For time:
50 Flutter Kicks (2-count)
10 Arch-ups
40 Flutter Kicks
20 Arch-ups
30 Flutter Kicks
30 Arch-ups
20 Flutter Kicks
40 Arch-ups
10 Flutter Kicks
50 Arch-ups
7:48

I definitely would have benefited from doing this part with other people. Wasn’t so fast, but still felt it. Ouch!

12:00pm – CrossFit, Advanced

First week of the CrossFit Games Open!  I am actually a lot more excited about it now that it’s started than I was in previous weeks.  It is a lot of fun to see the scores all pop up on the national leaderboard and feel like I’m part of a big game.  So, nice work CrossFit!  Hopefully as weeks go on they will continue to get all the kinks worked out on the website — http://games.crossfit.com/

As many rounds as possible in 10 minutes:
30 Double Unders
15 Power Snatches (55#)
4 Rounds + 30 Double Unders + 6 Snatches

Soooo…I was not so excited about doing this, even though these are two exercises I typically really enjoy.  I just wasn’t excited about the fact I haven’t been lifting heavy and haven’t been feeling strong. The weights I’ve been doing this week would have felt easy a year ago.  But, it’s not a year ago.  It’s now.  SOOO, I sucked it up and I ended up doing pretty well and really got into the workout by the end.  Danny was an awesome judge/counter, too, so that helped.

12:00pm – CrossFit, Beginner/Intermediate

Yes, I went to the beginner/intermediate class on purpose.  I was trying to remember today when the last time I lifted heavy was…it’s been a really long time.  Possibly last May or June, I think. Surgery, then rowing, put my focus other places.  Now it’s time to get strong again.

Clean & Jerks
1-1-1-1-1

The workout was to find your one rep max, but I did sets of three instead to practice form and move more weights around.  I used to be able to rep 105# pretty handily. Ugh.  I’ll get back there!

3x 83#
3x 88#
3x 93#
3x 98#
3x 103#

The upside was that form felt really good and I felt like I was getting under the bar well on both movements.  Really focused on extension and speed.  It was good practice to get back into lifting.

Afterwards I did….

5x
3 min jumping rope
1 min rest

7:00am – CrossFit, All Levels

So, I decided a few days ago to kick my Diet Rockstar habit.  It has not been very much fun and, in fact, pretty miserable on a physical level.  But this morning I felt like I was getting through the really unpleasant part of it…I had more energy, wasn’t in pain…but I was really really hazy mentally.  So much so I did the workout wrong. ugh!  It was supposed to be 15 pull ups and 15 dips.  Oh well.

5 rounds, for time:
15 pull ups
15 dips
50 double unders
23:22

I did the first set of 15 pull ups straight through and felt great. Every set after that was much harder as this workout was shoulder intensive.  Dips were hard. Haven’t done these in a long time. I used to be able to do them unassisted….not today! Did the first round with the black band, all rounds after that with two minis.

Double unders were unbroken on rounds one and two and then in two sets on rounds three and four. I think I took three sets on the last round.

10:30am – CrossFit, at CrossFit HEL

Got up this morning to check out yet another CrossFit up here in Portland.  There are a TON of them up here.  But, my back feels HORRIBLE this morning.  I think because I slept on an air mattress last night.  I’ve had that happen before.  Took me a long time to maneuver this morning – getting dressed, socks, shoes, etc, was really not fun.  The whole, “maybe if I lay on my back and try to reach my foot to pull my sock on” routine gets old fast…as apparently, am I.

CrossFit HEL (Human Evolution Lab) is a great facility. Tons of space and cool equipment. They’ve been around a long time and have a hard core reputation.  I was excited to check the place out and it didn’t disappoint.

Tabata Squats = 18
510m group run
Tabata Pull Ups (dead hang) = 1
510m group run
Tabata Push ups = 4
510m group run
Tabata situps (abmat, butterfly) = 10
1530m run, for time = 7:50

UGH.  We didn’t do much of a warm up – we ran a lap and then did some stretching, then got into the workout.  My back was tight to the degree that it was actually really painful to do an air squat, but I figured if I didn’t go crazy on the workout that moving and getting warm would actually help it loosen up.  But wow, I have never had less fun on tabata squats before.

The first three runs were active recovery pace, as a group.

Pull ups I did dead hang because their standard here is chin over the bar is you’re doing dead hang or chest to bar if you’re doing kipping.  My shoulders are generally wrecked from this whole week, so I went with dead hang to work on strength.  I actually got 4 on a few sets, but due to the joys of tabata scoring, I got a 1.

Push ups I went gingerly on also and did 4 every set.  I think I could have done 5 since my shoulders actually felt really strong in this direction.  That was a nice surprise!

Sit ups were abmat, butterfly…and my right hip flexor started hurting, same one I fried back in December.  Basically, I’m an f’ing mess this morning.  Not sure if it’s travel, non-paleo food, air mattress, or what, but geez.  I feel like a total geezer.  Although, on that same note, the coach was totally shocked when I told him I’m 36 and kept bringing up that he didn’t believe it.  Brownie points for him!

4:00pm – CrossFit at Team Quest Mixed Martial Arts (CrossFit Gresham)

I’ve been friends with the crew at Team Quest for…geez…a lot of years now, and they recently added CrossFit to their roster of classes.  So I hung out a bit at the gym and took a class to check things out.

5x, not for time:
3 press
5 push press
7 push jerks
45, 55, 65, 65, 65

They didn’t have bars lighter than 45# and didn’t have 2.5# plates, so this workout was a little difficult to do.  The idea was to work up in weight each round.  Might have been able to get higher had I been able to do so more incrementally, but working at 65# wasn’t bad either.

Afterward I wanted to do some more, so I made up a cookie for myself…

21-15-9
Pullups
Toes-to-Bar
Pistols
14:40

Oh, my forearms felt like popeye after this one!  The bar here is a little too close to the wall so kipping was a little curious sometimes.  I kicked the wall a couple times and felt a little uncomfortable really letting loose on the kip.  Nevertheless it was good practice building my pull ups back up…and I just love pistols. They are, actually, one of the few exercises guaranteed to make me sore still, no matter what.