So Much

to post about (sort of). So little time (totally).

I have a bunch of great stuff backed up, like the amazing lamb shanks I made last week from "Make it Paleo," which I picked up when Bill and Hayley from the Primal Palate joined us at CFCC for our Halloween party/WOD.

And this weekend's Rittenhouse Run, where I did a bunch of double-unders and turkish get-ups in public, in 30-degree weather, while wearing red lululemon shorts and green knee socks (this is seriously a fabulous combination of a lot of the things that make people want to punch crossfitters, I think).



(Thanks to CFCC and Mike Mackintosh for the pic! Which I stole. Without permission.)

BUT since it is December 20 (HOLYCRAPITISDECEMBER20!!!!) and I have a lot (a LOT) of crap to finish this week, I will just leave you with some workout logging and promises to make more fun posts later on.

Saturday December 10 - little WOD named "faceplant" to get me moving before Mama PhillyGirl's wedding. AMRAP 5 minute row for calories, 4 minutes of squat cleans (155/105), 3 minutes handstand pushups, 2 minutes box jumps, 1 minute kettlebell swings (1.5/1p). Scaled with 95lb squat cleans (and WOW those are a WHOLE LOT HARDER after rowing like crazy for five minutes) and regular push ups (by the way, I rep these "for real" now!). Score: 138, though I suspect it may have been a bit higher since I found myself very uncertain of my rep count on at LEAST three different occasions during the workout.

Sunday December 11: intro to oly. Didn't drop a bar on my foot this time (woo!). Snatch: 53x2 (hey where's your pull?), 53x2 (what third pull?), 53F/53, 58x2 (OH, right, PULL UNDER), 58x2, 58x2 (landed super high, but whatever), 63x1 (muscled up, dumped at top), 63x1. Clean & jerk: focusing on that goddamn third pull and putting my feet where they belong in the jerk. 63x2, 73x2+2j, 73x2+2j, 83x2, 93x1, 98x1, 103x1. Some pull up work - 2 unassisted chins, ALMOST one unassisted pronated pull up.

Monday December 12: back squats, peak of 5. 75-85-105-115-125-135-145. Dear body: why do you insist on folding in half when you squat? Metcon: 2 rounds, AMRAP 2 minutes each of back squat (185/135), burpees to plate, row for calories. 11/28/25/4/26/26 = 120 total, as RX'ed.

Tuesday December 13: weighted pronated pull up, peak of 3. Last time I did this was over the summer and woo boy have I improved. At that point, peaked at average band + 7.5 (maybe 10). This time - average band, average + 7.5, light band, light + 7.5. Metcon: Angie (100 pull ups, 100 push ups, 100 sit ups, 100 squats). I did half-Angie using a light band and otherwise RX'ed. CRAPFEST, those push ups killed me - took me more than 8 minutes to complete the push ups, but glad I chose to do them legit. 20:34.

Thursday December 15: I am putting this in here because I am so sad. I've been looking SO FORWARD to deadlifting...but Wednesday night I gave Cosmo a rib bone and let's just say it was too rich for his blood. SO, instead of deadlifting for 5 on Thursday night, I washed my dog. And all of his bedding. And fed him pepto-bismol.

Friday December 16: Strict press, peak of 5. Um, I have gotten a WHOLE LOT STRONGER. Previous max, from the last CF Total back in August, was 75 - and that was a true max, since I failed at 80. This time: 45-55-65-70, and then 75 for FOUR. Yes, I did my previous max for a set of four, and came SO CLOSE to getting it for five. BAM. Metcon: 3 rounds for time of 250m row and short loop run, with option of subbing 30 double-unders for short loop run. I foolishly chose the double-unders since I haven't run on my foot since busting it. BAD choice. Would have been faster for me to walk the short loop. 11:05 (everyone else finished in like...6 minutes. and cheered my on during my last round of jumping rope. wherein I subbed 90 singles because I did not want to be there until midnight).

Saturday: couple pull ups, followed by a brutal partner WOD. 3 rounds of 50 wallballs (20/14), 50 overhead squats (95/65), and 50 pull ups. Each round for time, rest between rounds as needed. Mel and I went RX'ed, except that I used a light band for the pull ups. 10:38, 10:31, 10:38. Um, and during the third round I sort of dropped a barbell on my face. I...I just have no excuse.

Sunday: Rittenhouse Run. Will explain later.

Monday: some pre-class pull ups (3 or 4 with mixed grip, 1 pronated with some serious kicking). back squat, peak of 3. 85, 105, 125, 145, 155 (baaaaaaaah). 155 didn't count, because while I did get the weight up and down, I did that thing where I fold in half and then on the third one didn't get anywhere near the right depth. Metcon was fun: 5 rounds for time of 5 back squats with 50% of your peak set, 60' bear crawl, 10 russian kettlebell swings (2/1.5p). 6:20, as RX'ed (73 pounds), immediately collapsed on to the floor next to my bar afterwards.

And now I leave you with a picture of my dogs, sharing a dog bed that I set up next to me in the kitchen while I was working. They were great officemates.



Tell me a funny story.

DIY Oreo Disaster

For just about all of December, I get insane cravings for the chocolate/peppermint combo. Peppermint mochas, peppermint hot chocolate, peppermint bark (not my favorite, actually, because I cannot stand white chocolate)...they're all great, but nothing comes CLOSE to the elusive Candy Cane Oreos, and their OMG-EVEN-BETTER cousin, Candy Cane Joe-Joes.

This year, I somewhat unintentionally held off. Being in the city, I don't grocery shop all that often - typically we do a big Costco run once or twice a month, and supplement with produce from our corner grocery store as we need it. I always checked the cookie aisles, but neither of my regular places carried the Candy Cane Oreos this year. I never felt like making a special trip to Trader Joe's, so I went most of the month without them.

And I guess that's why my craving intensified. And intensified. And intensified. Until one Friday night, about a week or ten days before Christmas, I snapped. It was about 8:15 and I couldn't stand it anymore, so I bundled up, hopped in the car and drove the ten blocks or so to Trader Joe's.

AND THERE WERE NO CANDY CANE JOE-JOE'S TO BE FOUND.

Over the next week, PhillyGuy, being the amazing husband he is, made a bunch of calls to the local Trader Joes...Ardmore, South Jersey, and our Philly store - only to be told that TJ's was SOLD OUT NATIONWIDE. Argh.

And that's why I decided I was just going to have to take matters into my own hands and make my own Candy Cane Joe-Joes.

You have to love any recipe that starts like this, right?

The dough looked amazing.



I got flour and powdered sugar all over my new lululemon sweats.



I LOVE THESE, by the way. LOVE. They're the Cuddle Up pants...this year's version of the Cozy Up II pants, which are my favorite sweats ever. Apparently no one else likes them. Sad face.



I also love making buttercream. I had no idea how easy it was to make until a few months ago...let's talk life-changing.



I rolled the dough into little balls and flattened with my hands. I did overbake the cookies by a couple minutes, but they looked fine when they came out, so I just ran with it.



Um, and do you want to talk about things that look "just fine?" HOLY COW.



I filled the cookies while watching Rocky V on TV. Um, yes, that movie is exactly as bad as you remember it being.



I could.not.WAIT to dig into these bad boys. I was pretty much shaking with anticipation. Poured myself a little glass of milk, called PhillyGuy into the kitchen, and handed him the inaugural cookie.

I knew something was wrong when PhillyGuy took a bite of his Joe-Joe...he looked at me and said "so, do you want your own cookie or did you just want to finish this one?"

Uh oh.

Guys, it was like eating cardboard. I don't know if I overbaked them, or if I screwed something up, or if the recipe just wasn't great, but these were NASTY.

The peppermint buttercream was good, though. So I did what anyone would do.





Scraped out the filling and threw out every single one of the cookies.

I think the worst part was that I was planning to wrap these up and give them out to my coworkers for Christmas. Um...not so much. Thank goodness I had a huge stash of RhodeyGirl's chocolate covered pretzel rods.



Can't win em all. And the true Christmas miracle?



ALLISON (from the Sunday Flog) FOUND CANDY CANE JOE-JOE'S AT HER TJ's AND SENT ME A BOX. So I got my fix after all.