Crack Veggies

so, these?

they're like crack. I found them in a little store in the sketchier portion of Suburban Station (per the label..."Nutty World") that sells, well, mostly nuts. And dried fruit, and other snacky things. And these? Like crack. I'm worried that they're soaked in sugar or something, but whatever.

Good training week for me.

Saturday, 3/3. Crossfit Games Open WOD 12.2, attempt number 2. 7-minute AMRAP of 30 snatches at 46lbs, 30 snatches at 75lbs, 30 snatches at 100lbs and max snatches at 120lbs. First attempt, I got 44 reps total. This time, I blasted that away with a total of 55 reps. If you're keeping track (and I clearly am), I did my max snatch 25 times. Baller. And then I got a massage. REAL baller.

Sunday 3/4 - intro to oly. Not much snatching - just up to 63lbs and mostly from boxes. Clean & jerk up to 103lbs for a double, and then backed down and did a whole bunch of hang cleans at 73, 83 and 88lbs to work on my form.

Tuesday 3/6 - strict band-assisted handstand pushup work. Did a set of 3 with an average + light band, then a few sets of two with two light bands. Probably could have managed one with light + mini but I just...didn't try. Next week, I guess. Metcon: 20-minute AMRAP 1 strict muscle up + 1 extra ring dip, 2 skin-the-cats, 40 double-unders. Scaled the muscle-up/dip to a bodyweight pronated grip pullup + dip with mini band. Pull ups got REAL hard. 5 rounds (I think) + 5 double-unders.

Wednesday 3/7 - intro to oly. Snatched mostly from boxes again, up to 67.5lbs. More form work on the clean & jerk - doubles at 35kg (77ish lbs)-40kg (88lbs)-45kg (about 100lbs), then failed 50kg (about 110lbs) three times and backed down to a bazillion hang cleans and 55/65lbs, followed by a few hang cleans and full cleans from the floor at 35kg.

Friday 3/9 - sumo deadlifts, peak of 2. 135-165-195-225-245. Felt good. Far better than 245 felt at the Total in January. Feeling good about PRing during peak week, and hoping that we do conventional deadlifts next cycle.

PhillyGirlNeverRuns

that's what i should rename this blog. Or maybe "PhillyGirlNeverF!@kingRuns&isSuperBitterAboutIt."

It's been a nutty week. We road tripped it back home on Sunday and spent most of the evening getting everything in order to get back to the real world on Monday.

LOVE road trip snacks. I definitely had my fill of "junk food" on vacation, so I was ready to get back to eating normal stuff. And yes, beef jerky - in all of its sodium-laden beauty - is "normal" for me.

Between catching up on what went on while I was gone, addressing a couple of minor emergencies, managing a closing that I had hoped - foolishly - would happen while I was gone, and having one major crisis on Thursday (yes, I did actually cry at work. in my office. while my boss was there. don't worry, she offered me Crown Royal), this week was exhausting. I managed to work out pretty regularly, and the beautiful weather made my commute very calming - thank goodness.

Honestly, I think those two things - a gorgeous commute and regular sweat sessions - are the only two things that kept me from collapsing on Thursday. I was mentally and emotionally exhausted, and all I wanted was comfort food. So, I came home, put on my bedazzled Phillies sweatpants, and ordered my new favorite takeout - a chicken kabob salad with feta cheese from the pizza place across the street.

Not pictured is the enormous styrofoam vat of hummus I ordered with my salad. I mean, come on. I cried at work. Do you think I was really going to soothe that with lettuce? I ate just about the entire order of hummus, between dipping my chicken in it, dipping my veggies in it, and just flat out dipping my fork in it.

But hey - it wasn't an entire pizza.

All of this was further complicated by the fact that Broad Street was coming up. I've mentioned before that my knee started bothering me right around the time I registered. And true to form, I've been short-sighted and I've kept myself from healing by continuing to run a couple times a week, 3-4 miles at a shot, with plenty of intervals and speedwork. It's satisfying, in the short term. It gives me a good sweat, releases some endorphins, and helps me stay sane. But I never felt 100% and I never did long runs, since I'd inevitably start one and punk out at 4 or 5 miles, when my IT band or my patella started to hurt.

I didn't want to admit to myself that there was no way I could get in shape for this race. Could I have finished the ten miles? Probably. Would I have been risking a much more serious injury? Also probably. Would I have been hard on myself for running at a pace likely 90 seconds over my goal pace? Definitely. Am I going to be hard on myself tomorrow, when I'm down at Broad & South with my camera, looking for my friends? Well...I'm going to try not to be.

And maybe next time I won't be so shortsighted. In the meantime, I spent 20 sweaty minutes on the bike today, followed by a shoulder-and-arm-blasting session of P90X that left me totally smoked. And now it's time to settle in for some Ghost Adventures, a sleeping Sophie and a bowl of roasted veggies, chicken and marinara sauce.

Good luck tomorrow, Broad Streeters! Look for me at South Street!

Hi, I Need a Second

to breathe or chug a glass of wine or something.

I can't believe it's Thursday already. Sunday night seems like it was so, so long ago...but it was so great.

PhillyGuy and I had big plans of grilling fish for dinner. He picked up some fresh sea bass at Whole Foods. I was doing something when he came home - walking the dogs, or doing laundry? I don't remember. I DO remember coming out into the living room when he got there to see a bit of a spread.

"I picked us up some snacks to have while we watch the game."



Um, yes. Some snacks.



No one should ever try to reduce the fat in guacamole. This wasn't awful or anything, but it wasn't great.



THIS, however, was great. And not in any way, shape, or form reduced fat.



The chile cheese dip was surprisingly delicious on the Food Should Taste Good chocolate chips. It reminded me a little bit of mole. We stuffed ourselves so silly with the "snacks" that I barely had the room or inclination for dessert.



But don't worry, I tried the black sea salt caramel bar anyway. And shockingly, it was only OK. It was filled with a soft, gooey caramel - sort of like an upscale Caramello - which kind of swallowed the sea salt. I'd never have known there was salt in the bar at all if I hadn't read the label.

We ended up putting the fish in the freezer. Oops.

This week's been a whirlwind. Monday night I attempted to run six miles on the treadmill, but it was not meant to be. I made it 3.5 miles altogether before I gave up...and not before I had several incidents involving (1) my digestive system, (2) my clumsy ass hitting the "STOP" button accidentally with my water bottle, and (3) my IT band tightening up. I did some abs and called it a night.

Tuesday I was supposed to have dinner with a client, but it got pushed to Wednesday due to an emergency on my boss's part. When I got home around 6:30, I found my poor husband standing outside on a conference call on his cell phone, holding the dogs' leashes in his hand while they pranced around the grass.

"Don't touch Cosmo. He isn't feeling good." In polite English, "isn't feeling good" means "had explosive diarrhea in his crate and stood/sat around in it for an undetermined period of time this afternoon."

We spent the evening washing the dog (which he hates), washing his collar and bedding (which he also hates - he feels naked without his collar), and wiping up dog-poop-footprints from the hardwood floors (which I kind of hate, but have to admit beats the hell out of cleaning carpets).

Poor buddy's been on a bland rice-and-chicken diet. Instead of treats, he gets spoonfuls of pumpkin hidden inside rolled-up turkey lunch meat. He is not impressed.

Last night I made it to dinner. A couple glasses of wine later, I made it home and barely kept my eyes open for 45 minutes before I had to stumble up to bed.

Today's nuts. Tons of work to get done (apparently, the end-of-quarter rush from last month is turning into an end-of-every-month rush). Lots of training to do with my slave first year associate. And I'm kind of shell shocked for some reason - looking at my to-do list but somehow unable to actually decide what task to do next.

I hope blogging cleared my mind. Maybe I'll go downstairs and get a coffee and then come back and hope that I'm a normal person again.