move around, lift heavy things, sprint

I have been neglecting my crossfit gym lately. But I have a good excuse!

I bought a HOUSE.

oh HOUSE. Or really I bought a constant source of stress that requires immense physical, as well as financial exertion.

Anyone who has moved knows how exhausting it can be. As I was collapsing onto my makeshift bed on night two, I was feeling oh so guilty for not hitting up the gym between packing, unpacking, painting, cleaning and tearing my hair out.

But then I remembered that it is not about hours spent at the gym (or box or whatever you want to call it).

I totally fulfilled the the philosophy, as I understand it, behind the paleo/primal and subsequently crossfit, lifestyle during my move.

• Move around a lot at a slow pace: Cleaning, packing, crying for four days straight pretty much covers that
• Lift heavy things: I have a really awesome packing style where I put all the heaviest things conveniently in one giant box. Then I enjoy struggling to carry it out to the car, because of course I don't have a dolly, and then I'll quickly decide to drop set it down in a mud puddle. I'll then lift that beast back up, attempting not to throw my back out, and shove it into the car. 
• Sprint occasionally:  My lovely animals have made sure I get my fair share of sprinting. I now understand the expression "herding cats" but probably more literally than others... sigh....

Six weeks to 50 el bees

New Years is in SIX WEEKS.

Can you believe it?!

My apartment is a hot mess of boxes, animals, clothes and general debris at the moment. I am gearing up to move into my very own big girl house next week.  Yes. I bought a house. Hashtag DEBT.

 

Amongst the mess, I found a craftastic piece of cardstock with very carefully written goals for 2012 etched in colored sharpie. I examined my goals, somewhat skeptically, trying not to be too critical of my ability to stick with a plan. I'm a dreamer, so shoot me!?

    some of my goals: 

• dedicate daily practice time to music (check and shameless self-promotion)
• take an acting class (check)
• apply to grad school (eehhhhhh)
• workout 5days/week
• lose 40lbs

If you had asked me last January, which of my 2012 goals seemed least attainable, I would have begrudgingly pointed to the last one. Lose 40 pounds. That's been on my list for several years. What a daunting number. FORTY. that's like half a backstreet boy.

BUT, as I've tooted several times during the past month. I did it! WOO!

So, now as 2012 comes to a close (WOAH) and I am BACK in action at good ol' Crossfit Stumptown,  I am challenging myself to lose another ten pounds by new years eve. 

So here's to the next six weeks, and ringing in 2013 fifty pounds lighter. 

The stumptown snatcher.

Okay I have been tweaking lately. I've been without my beloved ass-kicking workouts on a consistent basis. I've got LOTS of excuses, even good ones, as for why I haven't made it to crossfit the five days a week I promised myself I would.
 Like the class times are inconvenient, I need to sleep and actually the most legitimate, I dont have a car.

But I'm going to have to say fuck that to all of those excuses. 

1. Class times are inconvenient? I have 8 class times to choose from. Get over it. Get out of bed earlier or good lord forbid cut back on the afternoon tv zoning and get to class.
2. Yes sleep is important. But perchance going to bed on time will alleviate the need to sleep till 7:30.
3. I am indeed without a car. BUT I already solved this issue three weeks ago.

Meet the Stumptown Snatcher

Add caption

 I NEED to get back on track. So here are my goals for the remainder of 2012.

1. Crossfit 3/week

2. Run 2/week 

3. Ride my scooter at least once before Halloween ( I may or may not be terrified of it). 

4. Continue to ride said scooter.

5. Lose 12 pounds by Dec. 31

attack of the frump monster

I spent my entire morning creating an outfit based on a stupid scarf I made this weekend. 

MY ENTIRE MORNING.

Granted, getting dressed has become a decidedly difficult task. Not the actual physical act--- I mean if we are talking about morning battles let's address the whole getting out of warm bed and facing the world at the ass crack of dawn. 

The difficulty lies in my lack of wardrobe choices. Forty-five pounds lighter and with a paycheck that also seems to be shrinking, new clothes don't seem to be in my future.

It also doesn't help that my cat steals my socks.... and I am damn well sure he stole the yellow sweater, that fits, that I wanted to wear today.

Nike+ = Liz+

I've been out of commission on the CrossFit front since last saturday, after a crazy intense workout with CrossFit Stumptown.

My competitive edge won over the common sense telling me to slow down and I ended the workout sweaty, heart racing and with an severely inflamed bicep. And while I'm sure it was comical for manfriend to watch me struggle to put on my jacket (or really move at all), its kept me out of the gym for about a week.

I hate that. 

I've seemed to lost all sense of routine since leaving Portland FitBody Bootcamp. My mornings used to be very particular: Wake up at asscrack of dawn five days a week and sweat with some badass women. But a series of events has made that less of an option these days.

So now I am getting all creative in my workout endeavors. A major saving grace in the grumpy factor has been running. I've long wanted running to be my thing, but always felt like I was failing miserably. I admired my sister and the grueling marathons she'd battle like a pro, but didn't imagine I'd ever get to that point. ( I am still not even close to that).

But I would say that running is slowly, but surely, becoming my thing. The other night, after a particularly tenuous day at work, I laced up my reeboks, zipped up my hoodie and hit start run on my Nike+ Running App.

And off I went.

Goal time of 45 minutes. The first fifteen minutes kind of sucked to be honest. It was cold; dark clouds threatened to test the hopeful waterproof protection of my zip up, but I kept going.

Explosive cheers from fabulous facebook friends "liking" that I'd started a run with Nike+,  interrupted my music from time to time, making me smile and push a little harder

And right as I ran up to my house, Sanya Richards Ross congratulated me on completing my goal of 45 minutes and racking up 4.51 miles.


To be brutally honest, the last time I attempted to run just four miles in a row, it took me nearly an hour and I thought I was going to die.  Forty-five pounds lighter and infinitely stronger, I now feel unstoppable.

rawrsome running.

I have been all about pounding the pavement lately. Its been delightful. Each time I lace up my tennies, I am pleasantly surprised at my ability to run farther and faster than the previous run. I've most definitely been inspired by the lovely Roya over at Life of Roya . She's been blowing up the blogosphere with her fabulous musings for more than a year now--- go check her out. 

 Last week, I did the color run with the lovely Jen and her friend Lauren. Admittedly, it was more color than run, due to the 15,000 other color enthusiasts sharing the track.

We are ready to ROCK this race

Ohhhhh yeah B-)

Color Cloud party at the end. I swear I am still hacking up tickle me pink colored phlegm. 

The day after the race (still covered in pink powder...), I boarded a plane to good ol' Denver, CO for a work conference.

I battled the elevation and ran through the streets of LoDo. Much to my surprise, I managed to PR on my 5K time, clocking at just over 30 minutes. Surprising because 1. I haven't run more than three miles straight since I smashed my ankle to pieces 8 months ago and 2. I'm running at 5000 ft. elevation. My sea-level lungs felt it the next day....



Unfortunately, these days I am without reliable transportation. Getting to Stumptown Crossfit has been no easy feat, so I've been creative in my bootykickin' I stumbled out of bed this morning and on to the streets of nopo. I trotted through the brisk october air and shocking loved every minute of it. Three and half miles later, I clambered up the steps to my apartment to get ready for the rest of the day, barely breaking a sweat.


I've said it a million times before, but I absolutely love challenging my body and pushing myself to the limits and its doubly rewarding when my body responds so positively!

Oh and down another 4 pounds. :)

feeling oh so strong and oh so fine.

CrossFit makes me feel like a BEAST

in a good way...

I think...

I love feeling strong. I love pushing my body to the limits. 

And thank fucking goodness I have found a place to do that. No. Not just do it. But pushes me to push myself. It is amazing. 

I am in the midst of the Lurong Living Paleo Challenge. It's going well so far, but I swear my office is out to get me, ... offering candies... beer... soda... all things I so enjoy, yet cannot touch. On the other end of the spectrum, boyfriend won't even let me have a sip of his soda when I am DYING of thirst. Granted, that is exactly what I requested prior to the challenge, but I am not used to this whole "listening to what I say" thing he's trying ;)

Anywho, my w/o buddy and I are battling our way through the bench mark work outs. So far, we've checked off Randy (75 Power Snatches for time) and Christine (500m Row, 12 bw deadlifts, 21 box jumps; 3R for time)

Honestly, I have been fucking terrified before starting each one. But at the end, I feel AMAZING. Like woah. Holy ballz look what I just accomplished. Christine was tough, but I managed 123lbs for my dead lift!!!

Its moments like this, that I can't help but simultaneously revel in my sense of self-awesomeness and be insanely excited to see what my body can do in another six weeks.