Burgers & Greens & Whining

First some pictures of something delicious, and then some whining.

I had been neglecting the 10ish pounds of ground beef that came with my cow share - it was a lot more exciting to make, say, a t-bone steak, or a roast, or fabulous green curry with beef cubes, than it is to start something with ground beef. Especially when you ALSO get 10ish pounds of pre-shaped burger patties, which are tremendously convenient.

BUT, rumblings have started about it being high time to get a second cow, and so I need to be more diligent about using up what I have so that I can re-up when everyone else does. So, the other day, I pulled out two pounds of ground beef in the morning before work, so that I'd be forced to make something with it when I got home that night.

I settled on burgers. First, I sauteed up an entire onion in some grassfed Icelandic butter.



While the onion cooked down, I seasoned the ground beef. There's no fat percentage on the cow share labels, but I'd guess it's around 80-20, maybe 85-15.



My old go-to burger recipe called for soy sauce and brown sugar...neither of which are among my current nutritional choices. So, I scoured my favorite new cookbook...



...and used the spices from their recipe for buffalo burgers. I tried to keep the patties relatively small, and I ended up with more than ten burgers. I cooked them in the same pan I sauteed the onions in, after taking out the onions. Didn't need to add any extra fat - the first round of burgers may stick a tiny bit at first, but they'll release more than enough fat to cook in without an issue.



I set the burgers aside to rest while I sauteed collard greens in the drippings.



Tasty. Two pounds of beef yielded dinner for PhillyGuy and I, plus three or four leftover patties for lunches and dinners that week.

And now, as promised, the whining.

This round of the CFCC BCCC is a little draining. It was discouraging to not perform to my expectations at the Total last weekend, and I reassured myself by trying to focus on the fact that I'm going to cut the last bit of body fat. However, as I'm entering my fourth week of black coffee, no dark chocolate, weekday salads without that handful of bacon bits or avocado, and rationing my sweet potatoes to long metcon days...it's getting a little old. Other than the occasional 30 minutes of cravings here and there, I haven't felt too deprived, and it hasn't been HARD...but I'm struggling because I'm not seeing the results I feel that I should be seeing.

Part of this is because I had so much success with the first challenge. Fat seemed to just melt off - the scale consistently went down, and by the end of the challenge I had lost two inches off of my waist. Two inches! In 30 days! The first challenge also wasn't as restrictive for the entire time. I had chocolate a few times a week for the first two weeks and had cream in my coffee until the last ten days.

This time around, I'm just not seeing that same progress - and I understand that it's a different ballgame to lose pure "vanity pounds." This time, the scale's just not moving. I'm consistently within a 151-152 pound range, having started the challenge at (by my scale) 153.X. I don't actually care what I weigh, but I'm definitely not putting on muscle mass (as evidenced by my inability to PR two of my three lifts at the total), and I still have enough body fat that the scale should go down as I lean out. I took a quick measurement of my waist last night and I think I've gone down about a half inch - but I'm not sure, since I didn't take my first set of measurements.

All this to say - if I'm going to keep NOT eating that bar of Green & Black's 85% dark that's been sitting in my pantry, I want to see something from it. I try to keep reminding myself that my bodyweight stuff is getting stronger - pull ups continue to improve and all that - but damnit, if I can't have cream in my coffee 5 days out of the week, I'd really like to be a size 0 for my troubles.

Whining over. Workout recaps:

Monday, 1/23: Squat Elizabeth. 21-15-9 squat cleans (135/95), ring dips. No option to scale dips with a band - if not RX'ed on ring dips, sub push ups. 19:06 with RX'ed weight and pushups. My squat cleans continue to improve, in that I was able to actually squat clean most of these instead of power cleaning and doing a front squat, which is SO.MUCH.HARDER.

Tuesday, 1/24: strict muscle up work. False grip ring pull ups with mini band; close w/o band but still not there. Metcon: 10 rounds for time, 1 muscle up/5 handstand pushups/10 pistols/15 unbroken double-unders. 25:05 with strict pull up (bodyweight), inverted pushups from a box, single leg squats to box, 15 unbroken DU's. Shit, this was hard.

Wednesday, 1/25: intro to oly. Spent the entire 90 minutes working on my snatch (FNARR FNARR, as Modern Paleo Warfare would say). Lots of drills, followed by sets of 2-3 at 53 and 60lbs. Snatched from blocks at 53 and 63lbs. Drilled the overhead squat at 53-73lbs. Not my strongest performance ever.

Thursday, 1/26: split jerk, singles. 45x3 to warm up, then 65-80-95-115F (oops, this was supposed to be 105)-105. 2lb PR from prior max of 103. Metcon: 10 handstand pushups, 20 pull ups, 30 kettlebell snatches (1.5/1pood), 40 wallballs (10'/8'). Option was to RX everything or scale everything - I don't do HSPU's yet so I chose to scale. 6:25 with inverted pushups from a box, pull ups with mini band, American kettlebell swings and regular wallballs. I went through the first three movements very quickly and then took the wallballs unnecessarily slow.

Sunday, 1/29: gymnastics followed by intro to oly. Back extension rolls to plank; bridge work; handstand limber. Skipped metcon to save my shoulders for oly. Snatch drills; back and overhead squatting; snatch balance; hang snatch. Snatched from boxes the entire time and worked with kilograms for most of class. 53lbs/24kg up to 66.2lbs/30.2kg. Clean, also in kilograms: 66.2lbs/30.2kg up to 45kg/99lbs for doubles, then singles at 49kg/108lbs, 51kg/112.4lbs (2.4lb PR over prior max of 110 and VERY easy). I tried 55kg (121.25lbs) three times and was SO CLOSE - first shot my elbows were too slow; second try I got under it, but got stuck at the bottom; third try my jump was huge and I should have had it, but those slow elbows get me. Next time I'll get this.

A Little Disappointed

PR'ed my back squat and my overall total.

Hit my current PR for the press.

Not even close to PRing my deadlift.

187.4/245/80 for a total of 512.4.

Primary goals were 185/275/85 for a total of 545. My secondary deadlift goal was 260, for a total of 530.

But let's rewind a little bit. I woke up around 7:45 to plenty of snow and some ongoing freezing rain, which Cosmo and Sophie were not happy about. My lifting slot started at 10:30, so I decided not to eat breakfast, which is standard for my morning workouts. After standing around waiting for.e.ver for my dogs to pee, I came back in, had some coffee with cream (! THIS IS SO GOOD) and starting planning out my outfit.

(Not joking. I wanted to be colorful, and I have so many options. Eventually I settled on a bright blue t-shirt, neon pink socks and headband, and my new orange chucks.)

PhillyGuy came with me, so I have some pictures of myself looking (moderately) strong. When we got there, I was delighted to see Maddox keeping warm.

My glutes and hamstrings were ridiculously sore from Thursday's dynamic lunges, so I spent a ton of time with a foam roller and a lacrosse ball during my warmup. When 10:30 rolled around, we headed downstairs to warm up for the back squat.

Taking a warmup set with the bar.

I'm not completely sure where my warmups ended and my first attempts started - mainly because we were working with kilos and I had zero idea what was on the bar at any given time. I know I made a jump from about 170lbs to 187, bottomed out and failed - and then, when I tried to stand the bar up, it slipped off of my shoulders and right into Tim's hands. Um...oops. Sorry buddy.

At Tim's suggestion, I added a belt, which I've never used before, and backed off for my next attempts. I hit a couple more heavier weights (seriously, NO idea) before attempting 85kg again - or 187.39 pounds.

Want to know what my PR face looks like?

Yeah buddy.

I pulled it off - and it wasn't too slow, either. I was REALLY happy with this, since my squat was what I was most unsure of. After PRing my back squat by 12.4lbs, we headed back upstairs to warm up for the deadlift.

Right about here is where my day started heading downhill. I warmed up with a few reps - 115, 165, 195, 225. Things were feeling good, and I was planning to open with 260lbs (this would be a PR, but I figured it was a given, based on how smooth it felt when I doubled 250 a couple weeks ago), then jump to 270 and 275. So, based on that, I went to take my last warmup lift at 250.

In case you're wondering, THAT is what it looks like when I can't get 250lbs off of the floor to warm up.

And THIS is my "well, fuck, now what" face, as I watched Dorcus take 4-something and tried to figure out what I was going to do.

I decided to open at 245. And I couldn't move it. Opening with a fail is really not good for my attitude. Liz and I chatted briefly - I could NOT figure out what the crap was wrong with me and why I couldn't move a weight I'd pulled for three before. Maybe the soreness from the lunges affected me more than I initially thought?

"Are you cutting weight right now?" she asked.

....oh. "yeah. Yeah, I am." Well, that'll do it. So, I took my next rep at 235 so I'd at least put up something I knew I could do.

And then took my third and final attempt at 245.

245, locked out and totally nonplussed.

Disappointed, I went over to PhillyGuy, who decided we should take a picture of the mini-tear over my callus that popped up while moving 1.65x my bodyweight. (Not 1.82x, like I planned.)

From there, it was time to buck up and warm up for the press.

I took my first attempt around 80lbs - my PR and a given.

I took the next two attempts at 84lbs, both of which were fails. I thought nothing was going to frustrate me more than the deadlift - until I got home and saw this picture of my second attempt.

WHY COULDN'T I PUT MY DAMN HEAD THROUGH AND LOCK THAT SHIT OUT??? GAAAAAAAAAH.

Oh well. So, it wasn't my A+ goal of 545, and it wasn't my secondary "safe" goal of 525, but 512.4 is not too shabby - it's still a PR of 42.4lbs over September's total of 470. And I'm happy to be leaning out, because while my nutrition these past few weeks hasn't been great for my deadlift, it's been killer for my pull ups.

So, I've got plenty of time to finish out this BCCC and make a hard push to drop the last of my body fat so I'm at a happy, sustainable level, and then turn my focus back to my performance. I still have five and a half months to meet my next big set of goals (deadlift 300, back squat 200).

Fran.

Fran is pretty much THE crossfit baseline workout. 21-15-9, barbell thrusters/pull ups. RXed weight for women is 65lbs, for men it's 95. Ridiculous people do this in under three minutes. Really jacked people do it in under 5. Most others are somewhere in the 6-11 minute range, with appropriate scaling and all that jazz.

Before tonight, I had never done Fran. I've done Sandy Fran, which was an unmitigated disaster (over 13 minutes with an average band and a 40lb sandbag). I've done Heavy Fran, which was...well..heavy (15-12-9 of thrusters (135/95) and deadhang pull ups (+45 for men, bodyweight for women).

Since the last time we did any variation of the deadly thruster/pull up combo, I have been working REALLY hard on my pull ups. Every single day, I do at least one or two pull ups on my guest room closet door mounted bar. At first, all I could do were jumping pull ups. They got easier and easier, and I started messing around with my grip. Now, chin ups are almost easy, and I can do a couple pronated grip pull ups. And that, my friends, brings us to today's Franathon.

This may not be the most flattering picture anyone's ever taken of me, but it's fast becoming one of my favorites. In my last couple reps of thrusters:

YOU SEE THAT TIME?

10:24, 65lbs/mini band. MINI BAND. That's over three minutes off of my Sandy Fran time - and I used a substantially stronger band for Sandy Fran. I am so happy with this. Fran, you and I are going RX'ed next time. Promise.

Post-Fran, I was ravenous. (OK, PRE-Fran I was ravenous. The last of my BCAAs staved off the "I'm going to barf" hunger headache, but that shit is NOT food.) Observe the laziest dinner ever: 4 ounces of smoked salmon and an entire avocado (halved and sprinkled with kosher salt and pepper) over a "salad" comprised of the last of my container of baby spinach, a bunch of grape tomatoes, a little handful of crumbled bacon, delicious olive oil, rice vinegar and granulated garlic. Served right in the container, so as not to dirty a dish.

And after I inhaled this and I was still hungry, I ate a leftover pork rib. CFCC BCCC, day one down.

Yesterday's stuff: gymnastics (! hooray), followed by intro to oly (frustrating!). Gymnastics was freestanding handstand practice followed by iron cross ring work. I'm getting much better at ring support, and was able to move my hands out the tiiiiiniest bit. Skipped the metcon to conserve energy for oly, where I spent the entire hour and a half working on my snatch. (I don't even have the energy to make a joke there, because the third pull of the snatch is such a source of frustration for me. it's my latest nemesis.) Couple sets at 53lbs, a whole bunch of sets at 63lbs, and then a lot of drills (snatching from blocks and snatch balance) with 53lbs.

Achievements and Not So Much

First of all...Mama PhillyGirl is getting married tomorrow. Yes. Tomorrow is my mother's wedding. I took today off so I could get last-minute errands done, and join my mom to get our nails done. Probably going to pick up a couple little splits of champagne on the way there so we can really class it up.

Anyway. I took advantage of my day off by hitting up CFCC for the 8am class, which I've never done before - weekday mornings are a completely different group than my usual 6:30/7:30pm bunch. Today was front squatting.

Today was disappointing.

My front squat max is 140. This week is "peak week," which means that everyone who's spent the last four weeks working on their lifts is PR'ing all over the place.

Not me. The fact is, between my workload and my foot injury, I just haven't been spending time in the gym, and it showed. My squats:

Yup, that's where I failed my prior max twice. TWICE. So frustrating. I understand why and all that, but frankly, it sucks and it's disheartening.

Metcon was a little more fun.

The focus was on being fast. At the beginning of class, I tested my 50 double-unders and it did not go fabulously - I did the first 20 or so unbroken, and then couldn't string together more than one or two after that. So, with 100 singles (completed mostly unbroken), 1 pood kettlebell swings (completed first round unbroken, second round 23/7), and 15 pull ups with light + mini bands (5, then 4, then doubles and singles), 3:43 and 4:17. That didn't suck as much.

Last night: handstand walking skill work. Meh. This is another source of frustration, since I'm good at handstands but for some reason find it difficult to get all the way up (TWSS) on the mat, so I never end up actually walking. Metcon: AMRAP 60 seconds each air squats, strict pull ups, row for calories. Scoring 1 point per squat, 1 point per pull up, 3 points per calorie. 50/11/20 = 121. That wasn't bad.

I figured I'd recap all of this as I sit here icing my foot and getting ready to get moving on my errands.

(If you're wondering, that would be an ice pack tied around my foot with an undershirt. It ain't fancy but it works.)

The fact is...I don't like not working out. My performance suffers and I get very frustrated very quickly. I'm frustrated that I've been working so much, and I'm frustrated that I hurt myself in such a silly way (really? bruised foot bones from warming up with an empty bar? and WHY am i not healed yet? the doctor said i'd be almost 100% better after a week or 10 days, and it's going on three weeks now).

And it takes away from my accomplishments. Like last night, when I was working on pull ups before class, and I got TWO unassisted, legit deadhang chin ups (palms in) and came SO, SO close to a legit deadhang pull up (palms out). This is huge progress for me, and yet - having to dump the bar twice at 140 this morning completely deflated it.

BAH. Time to get a little cleaned up and out the door. Back soonish, with pictures of my fabulous mom's wedding!