Getting Better Every Day

My favorite thing about CrossFit is that progress is so measurable. I can see myself getting better and more fit every day, and the proof is in the pudding. This past week at CrossFit was great. I made a positive step towards being able to do double unders, and I PR’d my power clean by TWENTY pounds!!! To say I was excited is an understatement. Let’s start with Wednesday’s workout first.

Wednesday’s workout was heavy on the upper body. I matched my last one rep max for push press at 85 pounds. For the WOD, I knew the jump roping and the squats would be relatively easy for me (who knew 100 body weight squats could be relatively easy?), but 50 pull ups are far from easy.

I did 60 singles in place of 30 double unders, and used a green band plus a small red band for the pull ups. By the fourth round of pull ups, I broke it up into two or three reps at a time. It was tough at the end. Like I thought, the jump rope and squats flew by and I finished in 8:36.

As I’ve mentioned before one of my goals for 2013 is to master double unders. Again, double unders are when the rope passes under you twice during one jump. They are super hard! I had made zero progress with this goal until Thursday when I finally managed to alternate between singles and a double under without tripping over the jump rope or stopping completely! I was just playing around with the jump rope and all of a sudden I did one double under and continued with singles. I shocked myself! Here’s a video to show you:

 
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It’s not that impressive I know, but for me it was a big step. I do a bit of a “dolphin kick”, as I like to call it. This is not ideal. My chest comes down and I kick my feet up and in a bit during the double under. I should still be maintaining a straight body line, so that is something to work on going forward. Take a look at these nasty whip marks from practicing double unders!

Ryan Gosling told me that it’s okay though.

I found this on Pinterest, and died laughing. I love it.

The most helpful tip that one of the coaches at my box, Sway, told me was to slow down the pace of my single unders. I can do singles really, really quickly but if I do singles at a really fast pace, clearly my double unders are going to need to be twice as fast. Once I slowed down the pace of my singles, double unders become much easier. So far, my record is only two in a row…but it’s better than where I started. 

The WOD was pretty tough on Thursday too. Dead bugs for skill. Wall balls. Blech.

I used a 10 pound ball and a 25 pound kettlebell. Ten swings, ten wall balls, nine swings, nine wall balls etc. Down the ladder, and up the ladder. Going up was hard at the end. The prescribed wall ball of 14 pounds and kettlebell weight of 35 pounds for girls is still out of reach for me for now. I’ll get there eventually. I finished in 13:23.

Friday was a big day for me. I could not believe how much progress I made in my power cleans. I truly believe it is because of my technique. I may not be super strong, but my technique with this olympic lift is spot on and I know it helped me add twenty pounds from my last one rep max. I jumped from 85 pounds as a one rep max to 105 pounds! I was smiling the rest of the night. And I was so so so close to hitting 115 pounds too. Next time!

This WOD was fun too. I only used 35 pounds for the sumo deadlift high pulls and the hang cleans. The push ups killed me. Seventy push ups today for me. I have to say, I love seeing that PR next to my name!  

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