Becca Borawski’s Blog

7:15am – CrossFit, Instructor Training Program

This week Omid was the Kahuna and came up with a kettlebell workout for us, which he dubbed, “Kettle-Hell.”

8-12-16
Overhead Squats
Swings
Squat Snatches
Sumo Deadlift High Pull
Kettle-Sit
15:40

I did everything with the 16kg kettlebell.  I typically would do 20kg on a workout like this, but the squat snatches threw me off.  I can rock the power snatches all day long, but am not used to doing squat snatches with the kettlebell.  So, down to 16kg it was.

I did the overhead squats straight through each time, same with the swings.  The snatches were slow and I can’t remember if I did the SDLHP straight through each time.  I’m pretty sure I did.

Kettle-sits were just awkward!  They actually go easier each round as I found my balance better.  I did more of a chair sit than an L-sit on these.

Tomorrow is going to be a rest day.  My back feels tight and my legs don’t work.

12:00pm – CrossFit, Advanced

Another Fight Gone Bad Friday, as we head toward our big event day on September 25th!  This week was “Fight Gone Wild” where we all moved DOWN a weight class.  I also started in a different position.  I’ve been starting at Wall Ball all this “season” so far and today I started on Sumo Deadlift High Pull.

“Fight Gone WILD”

With a continuously running clock, complete three 5 minute rounds, switching between movements every minute during each round. Take 1 minute of rest between rounds. Your score is the total number of reps/calories completed during the entire 17-minute workout.

Sumo Deadlift High Pull – 35# – Scores: 30, 28, 27
Box Jumps – 20” – Scores: 16, 16, 17
Push Press – 35# – Scores: 27, 24, 25
Rowing (calories) – Scores: 11, 12, 13
Wall Ball – 8# – Scores: 18, 16, 16

Total Score: 296

My legs felt really stiff today.  I think the residual effects of “Roy” on Tuesday—lots of deadlifts and box jumps that day.  It was really difficult to be able to bend my legs today and really put much hip into things.  Which really isn’t helpful on a workout that’s all about hip.  It was definitely good cardio to go at the lighter weight, though!

Some new CrossFit photos — from the Goes to 11 workout, just the other day:

12:00pm – CrossFit, Advanced

Today looked like a good combos of things to work on, but after all the pull ups yesterday and the fact that I haven’t done all that many in the last month, I decided it wouldn’t be smart to do 125 today!  I swapped out glute-ham developed situps instead.  So, this workout became some serious hip flexor fun!

5 rounds, for time:
15 deadlifts (135#)
20 box jumps (24”)
25 ghd sit ups
25:13

I also did a little lighter weight than prescribed on the deadlifts.  I did 135#, instead of 155#.  So, I went higher on the box jumps and did 24”, instead of the prescribed 20” for women.  As you can see, there was a lot of mental bargaining going on today.

I did the deadlifts in sets of 6-5-4 almost every round.  The box jumps I did in sets of 10-5-5.  And the sit ups were something like 8-6-6-5, or there abouts.  EXCEPT for the last round, where Burch yelled out to me as I got on the machine, “Straight through!”  I said, “Yeah, right!”….and then proceeded to do them straight through.  Thanks, Burch!

1:00pm – CrossFit, Advanced

I think this is the first time I’ve been in one of our 1pm advanced classes.  It was quite a little crew today, too—me, Leslie, Doc G., and Welch.  And for some reason we were all very wound up and silly.  It made for a pretty entertaining hour.

I was excited for the workout.  This is totally the kind of workout that I traditionally love, plus, today I planned my triumphant return to push ups! Yay!

For time:
11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
L Pull Ups (subbed – dead hang pull ups w/ mini band)
Handstand Push Ups (subbed – regular push ups)
21:59

In the past I’ve been able to do L-pull ups, I just have to build my strength back up after the last month of little to no pull ups.  Same with hand stand push ups.  But no complaining here!  It was good practice/training to do all the dead hangs today.  I did the first round almost totally with no help, and even did most of them as chair situps, but quickly realized that was not going to last.

Push ups I did all on my toes!  Yay!  It was a little painful at first in one spot on my sternum, but I think it was just some adhesions or something, because it went away quickly and everything felt. great.  They actually felt better and better as I went through the workout.

I think I’m ready to start kipping again soon, too – range of motion is feeling pretty darn good in general.  I’m excited!

…Oh and I’ve been testing the classes all day today, dropping the line, “This one goes to 11” just to test the sense of humor out there!

10:15am – IndoRow, at Revolution

So glad I went to rowing today, even though, or actually BECAUSE it crushed me.  I was excited I was seated between Jay, a fellow firebreather, and Chris, the instructor, today, as that meant I’d be going hard.

Here’s what we did today (and I’m trying to write these out in a more logical way from now on, so it’s more clear what we do in these classes):

Warmup – review of rowing technique and our “pressure test” where we determine for ourselves what split times we’re going to hold ourselves to for easy, medium and full pressure (think jog, run, sprint).

Wave #1 – 12 minutes:
1 minutes easy pressure
2 minutes medium pressure
1 minute easy pressure
2 minutes full pressure
1 minutes easy pressure
2 minutes medium pressure
1 minute easy pressure
2 minutes full pressure

Wave #2 – 6 minutes:
3 minutes easy pressure
3 minutes full pressure

Wave #3 – 5 minutes:
5 rounds
20 seconds easy pressure
40 seconds full pressure

Relay Race:
6 members per team
50m, 100m, 50m, 100m

There was an awful lot of full pressure today!  Yowza.  Particularly, a lot of long intervals of full pressure.  This was actually perfect for me and my focus on mental toughness.  Really trying to keep pushing and not give myself any “outs.”

The fact that we row in sync definitely helps—you get a sense of energy from the people around you and it also reminds you to stay in rhythm and not abandon your form.

On the relay race I made it down to 1:26 on my intervals.  I may not be able to maintain it, but I can do it for 100m.  It’s a start!

This was a really hard class today and I also felt in better shape cardio wise than I have the last couple weeks.  Hard work is starting to pay off!

12:00pm – CrossFit, Advanced

This week was another Fight Gone Bad variation, leading us up to the real event on September 25th.  This week we partnered up in teams!

“Fight Gone Double-Team”
In this version of “Fight Gone Bad”, work with a partner and complete the traditional FGB workout with the following exceptions:
- 90 seconds per movement / station (rounds will be 7:30, with a 1 minute rest between each round )
- Only 1 person may be working at a time
- Accumulate as many reps/calories as possible together with your partner

Wall Ball – 14# – Scores: 39, 24, 22
Sumo Deadlift High Pull – 55# – Scores: 47, 23, 23
Box Jumps – 20” – Scores: 40, 19, 20
Push Press – 55# – Scores: 46, 21, 15
Rowing (calories) – Scores: 25, 14, 22

Total Score: 400

Since we had an odd number in class, I volunteered to go on my own so none of the students would have to be partner-less.  We tried on the first round to have me shadow one of the other partnerships, but it didn’t really work out very well, so on the second and third round I did my own thing.  So, basically I worked in spurts on round one and then worked throughout for 90 second intervals on rounds two and three.  90 seconds gets to be a long time! lol!  But that’s why my score looks so wacky, too.

And while we’re at it, if you can donate even a couple dollars to the Fight Gone Bad event, it WILL make a difference!

12:00pm – Run On My Own + CrossFit, All Levels (Cookie Only)

Today was one of the heavy back squat days for Wendler and since I’m totally off schedule on that, I decided to use it as a chance to get one of my weekly runs in.  I ran for 30 minutes and felt REALLY good.  I felt fast and worked on some Pose elements.  I wasn’t any faster on my route, which was a little frustrating, but I also picked the hottest part of the day to run.  So I think it probably evens out.

After my 30 minute run I joined the CrossFit class for the “cookie” at the end of the workout.

15-12-9
Burpees
Dead Hang Pull Ups (mini band)
Pistols
10:20

This was my first time doing burpees again and they were fine.  Pull ups were supposed to be weighted, but I’m not totally back up to speed on these so I did dead hang with the mini band.  Pistols I always love, so that part was awesome.

9:00am – CrossFit, All Levels

This workout today was a good mix of exercises and a short but hefty dose of intensity.  This was my first workout doing the full weights again AND I did a push up from my toes during warm up.  Wahoo.

As many rounds as possible in 7 minutes:
5 Squat Snatch (65#)
10 Wall Ball (14#)
45 Double Unders
Score: 2 rounds + 5 snatches + 3 wall ball (128 reps)

We spent a long time warming up on the snatches, so I was able to get real comfortable with the weight and the movement again.  It’s probably my favorite of the olympic lifts, so it was nice to have some time to practice.

On wall ball, I wasn’t too excited about catching the ball yet, so I threw it and let it drop each time. Definitely slower, but more prudent right now!

Double unders just hurt my mind.  It’s like I have nothing else to think about but how unpleasant they are.  I did the first set of 45 straight through.  The second round I stopped at 25 for no good reason and then did 20 more.  Not a win on the mental toughness front today.

Tried to hustle between stations and keep moving on this one!

10:00am – IndoRow, at Revolution

Back to my normal hour of IndoRow – the 10am Sunday class, led by Chris T.  Jay is one of the other firebreathers in this class and I always know it’ll push me to go hard if I sit next to him, which I did today.  Still getting my lungs back, so I knew this wasn’t going to be a “fun” class today, but it felt really good in a horrible way.

I don’t remember all the specifics about the waves we did.  I remember the first was 13 minutes and there was a lot of medium pressure, but we started and ended with some long sections of full pressure, which was hard.  We also did a 6 minute and a 5 1/2 minute wave I think.  It’s all a blur.  Usually I’m better at remembering all this and committing it to memory between the waves.   I think I lost focus due to the extreme cotton mouth happening between waves today.

I do very much remember ending the class with a 500m sprint.  Which made me very unhappy.  I hate 500’s.  Nowhere to slack off and hide!  You’re just committed to 2 minutes of total unpleasantness.  BUT, this is also why rowing and running is great for me—getting okay with being miserable.  Working on mental toughness!

I tried not to “fly and die,” as Josh would say, and went hard but controlled in the beginning.  For the middle third of the sprint I got in sync with Jay’s stroke rate and really felt like I was flying there.  After a while he picked it up even further though and I can’t handle a stroke rate upwards of 35 without compromising form/efficiency beyond what’s acceptable to me, so I stayed put.  In the end, I did the 500 in 1:48.  Not bad at the end of an hour of rowing!