Lewis Black on Milk and Water

Thanks to Freetheanimalcom:

Another immune system disorder bites the dust...

G7 Stories - Veronica Garza from G7 Athletics on Vimeo.

Phew.

I need to reorganize around here and get rid of all the dead stuff, but --- I'm back, finally.

Post-wedding my motivation for crossfit was dead zero. A combination of factors. Tired and a bit overwhelmed, well unhealthy and full of weeks' worth of heavier foods and waaay more alcohol than I needed to be drinking, and just wanting some time to have no To Do lists.  This was fine. A week of this would have been fine. Two weeks was not. Three weeks was DEFINITELY NOT. And then all raring to go, feeling like I was ready to start again on the last Monday of the month, Steve and I got dosed again.

It happened at the wedding too, about four days before. Feeling great, energized, happy, elated -- and then BOOM out of nowhere, exhausted, weak, hurting, ill.  And found out that the bulgar wheat Steve's sis bought for us -- which often doesn't have any actual wheat in it, despite the name - was wheaty.  And that dose knocked us both out and made me konk asleep that night to the sleep of the dead, wake up fevery and ill for a couple days, and then it was gone. The muscle scariness was a lot less scary when I figured out the cause and knew it would be out of my system soon.

So last Sunday, we find some awesome rye bread. Eat a bunch of it. Find out -- whoah nelly, that might have rye flour in it but the wheat flour is there something powerful.  I've been in bed the last two days rotating between normalish and pulling myself up the stairs in the house.

BUT. I went to crossfit today. I was weak and pathetic and took lots of breaks and didn't get anywhere close to finishing my massively scaled down workout, but I went. And I'm still jointy and weak and a bit of out of it, but at least I'm feeling like I haven't given up on my body, and I'm not feeling like I won't get back to crossfit, and I felt awesome just for showing up.

AND I find out that the gym has expanded loads while I was gone and now there's about a billion times to go and supplementary classes and all sorts of fun stuff. Can't wait to be back.

C

June 16th

Yesterday was great. I love this shit.

Matt gave me loads of coaching pre-workout as I was needing help on both the strength section of the day and the WOD.

Warmup: 400m run and... some other stuff I've forgotten, will add.
Strength: Power cleans 5x3 - was supposed to be 40%, 50%, 60% of ORM but I was using this for form so just stuck with the green bar and at points some light weights.

WOD: 5RT
15 overhead squats - done with 10kg, usually only did about 7 per set. Thought it was more important to have SOME weight on it than to be doing it with a training bar as otherwise you don't really nail the form, but my wrists are still weak and they'd start to tweak out after about 7 reps. Brian showed me how to keep the wrists straight (like a vertical fist) rather than bend at the wrist and that helped enormously.
400m run

Time was ridiculous. Not really sure, either 17 or 23min. Have forgotten when I started. :) So be it. This one was for form.

I'm so grateful I've got a place to go that makes me feel amazing, where someone will spend forty-five minutes making me confident I'll get the form right and won't break myself so I can focus on doing more and getting stronger. That kind of support is incredible. Thanks Matt, thanks crossfit.

Week whatever, back to it.

After being broke and part-time employed for a few months, the job search is over and I'm back in the gym with the solvency to pay my fees. Ace.

Monday's workout was great, felt totally high afterwards and more myself than I have in weeks. I just don't function as well without exercise, and crossfit exercise is a whole other level.

Warm up: Run, row, skip until warm
mobility drills
Max reps pushups (15 girl pushups, so sad I've lost 'real' pushup ability)

Skill/ Strength: Deadlift
1st set of 5 reps at 40% of 1 rep max - did all these at green bar + 20kg to get form back.
2nd set of 5 reps at 50% of 1 rep max
3rd set of 5 reps at 60% of 1 rep max

WOD: 5 rounds for time:

10 thrusters (43kg) - green bar black when exhausted.

5 burpees - subbed some doubleunders at times.

100m sprint

Got through it with loads of substitutions, felt fantastic. Great to be there.

Week whatever, back to it.

After being broke and part-time employed for a few months, the job search is over and I'm back in the gym with the solvency to pay my fees. Ace.

Monday's workout was great, felt totally high afterwards and more myself than I have in weeks. I just don't function as well without exercise, and crossfit exercise is a whole other level.

Workout's in my books but roughly:
Warmup - 400m sprint, pushups max (I've lost the ability to do real pushups and am back to girlpushups, 15 total), 5 ring dips to max (5 on red band, 3 on one lower? need to check).

Strength: 5 deadlifts at 40%, 50% 60% ORM.  Didn't max as I've been away from this on form so just did girlbar and 20kg.

Workout - 5FT
10 thrusters (green bar only on this, switched to black bar when exhausted)
5 burpees
100m sprint.

Got through it with loads of substitutions, felt fantastic. Great to be there.

Interruption

I've just returned from Easter break, pardon the interruption. Happy to say that many days of travel, alcohol, bad and occasionally wheaty food, scale weight hasn't changed more than a bit and should be taken care of by a few days of good eating to take off the bloat. I'm working from home today so no crossfit, but am planning a crossfit at home style workout and will be in the box tomorrow. Normal posting resumes then, I think.

I ate anti-paleo and all I got was this lousy scurvy

This is a bit ridiculous, but check it out. I was checking pubmed to see if there have been any decent Vitamin D/immune system clinical trials, and accidentally stumbled upon a 1978 article from the Western Journal of Medicine that is essentially a case study in the effects of an anti-Paleo diet. A 43 year old woman walks into a bar/the University of California with skin lesions and a host of complaints from fatigue to depression. She gets batted around a bit until someone eventually asks about her diet. Lo and behold...

A dietary history showed that she had been on an elimination diet during the previous four years because certain "acid" foods caused stomach irritation. She had eaten no fruit or vegetables for the past two years and no meat for three months. Her diet consisted of milk, bread, distilled water, macaroni, spaghetti and pudding.

Diagnosis? She gave herself scurvy! Scurvy, for fuck's sake!

Yeah, I know. It's a case study. And essentially, she wasn't on just an anti-Paleo diet, she was on a diet that gave her no nutrients whatsoever. So it's a little baby bump for Paleo and protein and veggies.

Still awesome. Eat your meat lest you gets the scurvy, mates.

wheat free update - my skin rocks

So based on a combination of factors ranging from my boy's quiet but very consistent urging, research on rheumatoid arthritis (which I have) and paleo reading, I've cut wheat out of my diet for the last three weeks.  There have been a few small bumps here and there but I've been pretty damned consistent with it.

Two weeks in, the very red-flush and bumps (as the scientists would say, keratosis pilaris) which has been on the sides of my face and upper arms my whole life started to disappear. It's now almost completely gone from my face - I wake up without any redness and the skin is now almost 100% smooth. Although my arms look the same (er, ew, kind of like this) and the redness hasn't disappeared, the skin is lots smoother and the bumpiness is really reduced.

A post on gluten and how this once-skeptic decided to cut it out of her diet is due soon, but just a nice little update. Red-free skin is awesome.

Week 5. Day 1. March 2010

Brilliant. We're into the second month.  The major goals for this month are consistency three times per week at crossfit plus excellent food during the week and only a smallish cheat or two during the weekend. I continue to reserve the right to one night of drinking per week but need to keep it to one, and hopefully some weeks without.

Crossfit was wicked this morning. I was dreading it a little -- knowing I'd feel great when I got out but feeling out of shape and a bit intimidated by the idea of working hard this morning. When the alarm went off a bit before 6am this morning there was a wee bit of me that thought about how nice it would be to simply pretend I'd messed up my alarm and go back to sleep.  Laying there, I thought a) you've felt like crap the last few days, and if you go you'll feel awesome, b) you've eaten badly the last few days and if you go you'll eat well, and c) you're dreading your work day and if you go you'll have energy and motivation for it.

What a freaking difference from the way I usually have to motivate myself to work out.  "Go and you'll feel awesome and be really productive"? Yeah, cool.

Warm ups 2X15 situps, pullups, ring dips (green band, I think), kettleball swings (16kg), pushups.
WOD: 10 rounds for time. 15 deadlifts, 15 pushups.  Time 21:20

Scaled to girl pushups and didn't make it even close to 15 in most of the rounds. half and half pushups and then girl pushups from rounds 5 on. 25kgs deadlifts, working on form. This is the first time I've had deadlifts in a workout. Being really careful about form and about keeping the lumbar curve as I could feel it in my back.

Major (if small and ridiculous) milestone: I got one 'real' pushup today! It's been a LONG time since I've been able to do that, if ever - I just get failure at the bottom.  Very cool.  Now to string a few more of those together. I can't wait to get off my knees.

Week 4. Day 6-7. March 2010.

Oh, my. Being away from crossfit all week meant that my primary drive for good nutrition was absent over the weekend. We chose to have a quiet Saturday night rather than throw a Fuck You Winter party in commemoration of the first day of Spring, but then a mid-evening phone call got a friend of ours over for drinks, and then some more, and then some more.  Sunday was a planned hike in the country, downgraded to a city hike, then shortened when we got a lunch invitation at his place from one of our favorite people, and then showed up to find several more friends and copious amounts of alcohol. And roast potatoes. Oh, the roast potatoes.

At 4am on Sunday eve/Monday morning I awoke to get some water, realized I was still drunk, and turned off my crossfit alarm set to go off in two hours.

In other news, I'm healthy again. So just trying to not beat myself up about the stupid weekend and just focus on showing up tomorrow.

Week 4. Day 5. March 2010

I was feeling so much better yesterday (outside of the box) and now this morning I'm massively sore throated again. I don't get it. This is not a normal cold, I can't tell what's happening. Will give it through the weekend and see how things go.

In other news, all the clean eating is working. Scale's at 136.2 this morning down from 141 originally, and my tummy looks purty.  Consolation that I can still make progress in fat loss, at least a bit, while I'm stalled from getting fitter in the gym this week.

Date night. Enjoy your Friday guys.

Week 4. Day 3-4.

Frustrating. Still no crossfit this week. Tuesday night I was coughing all night and while staring at the ceiling at 3am trying again to get back to sleep turned off my 6am alarm, realizing I needed to give myself more rest. Thursday I showed up for the 7am class, got about five minutes into the WARMUP and was gasping for breath and covered in sweat, took a look at the mess of me, and told Brian I wasn't fit enough to be there. He's exiled me til Monday.

In good news, I've been awesome on food and took hour long walks with Wonder after work on Tues and Wed to soak up all the new sun. I cooked a great pork tenderloin on Wednesday and it's now one of my new favorite cuts of meat - ultra cheap, easy, lean. I grabbed the recipe from Mark's Daily Apple and will use it again.

Cooked up some turkey thighs with the rest of the peppers and olives and that was breakfast and lunch Thursday.  That and some brazil nuts and cashews, and some salmon and broccoli later in the day was food. Good stuff.

So, boring updates. Can't wait to get back in the gym.  How cool is it to be desperate to work out?

Bill Maher talking sense

Excellent stuff, via Blood, Sweat and Heels:

Week 4. Day 2. March 16 2010.

I'm feeling MUCH better today but when I just did my two burpees for burpee challenge as a little test of how much, it made me winded and shaky. Yeah, not healthy. I'm catching myself wondering if I can go to this evening's workout but reminding myself that to show up while ill-ish, with my brokedown immune system, is madness.

So I'm sitting in bed typing away at job applications and taking mini procrastination breaks checking out crossfit sites. My obsessive nature is in full force with crossfit, with a wedding dress search coming in close second. You'd think that an informal wedding (we're doing a backyard hog roast) would mean I'm NOT that bride doing endless ebay searches and picture searches for dresses, but I'm simply a wee bit obsessive. I was the same way about finding our apartment and that turned out awesome, so hopefully we'll just get repeat success with the dress and about fueling crossfit motivation.

Wonder's cooking tonight so I'll be non-paleo but still wheat and dairy free, and then I take over the rest of the week. I'm going full paleo the rest of the week just to make up for it psychologically. 

LET ME BACK TO THE BOX, BODY!!!

100 day burpee challenge.

Burpees are far and away the hardest thing for me in crossfit. Doing six or seven is hard.  Doing 60 between two people at last Friday's workout was only possible because my partner was fit as fuck - I think I did about 15 total over too many minutes.  My aerobic conditioning blows, but the thing that really kills me is kicking my legs back to start the movement. I just don't have that strength, can't get my leg out at all. Throw in the normal pushups on the way down, girl pushups on the way up and you have one ugly, messed up burpee.

So then I see the 100 day burpee challenge. You know, do 1 on day 1, 2 on day 2, 27 on day 27, all the way to 100. I need it. I think I'd really, really hate it. So yeah, might have to do it.

Today's day 1. Day 1 is easy!
Wish me luck.

Here's The Rules according to CrossFit Santa Barbara:
1. Use Burgener's burpee standards for form (see examples below)
2. You can complete each day's burpees all at once, or broken up and done at different times throughout the day
3. If for some reason you miss a day, you have to make up all the missed burpees the following day
4. If you don't start the challenge with us today, you can "buy-in" at any time by doing ALL the missed day's burpees on your first day
5. Any burpees you complete during your regular workout can count towards that day’s Challenge burpees, if you want them to
5. Have fun doing burpees and getting stronger doing it!

In other news...

Our next door neighbor, who is usually so quiet we don't hear a thing, has had West Side Story on three or four times per day since last Thursday. He just started up again. Tonight, Tonight, indeed.

Week 4. Day 1. March 15 2010.

Woke up early and started type type typing away on the job application. The bad news is that my previously waning cold is now back hardest yet, complete with big stuffy head and a bit of fever. I'm hoping this will burn off so I can go to lunchtime crossfit. Stop it, illness! I'm on a schedule!  "20 weeks of crossfit except all those times I didn't go because I was ill" is a bit less exciting...

Update: By around noon I was not only not better, I was dizzy and fevery and feeling weak. Blergh. I completed the job application but cut out any idea of going in for the lunch and evening workout or the next day's 7am workout.  I also let Wonder know I wasn't going to make the grocery run to make dinner for our friend Ian this evening.  We ended up with Thai takeout (probably higher fat than I needed, but I didn't eat much of it and didn't eat any rice/bread/grains, only meat and veggies) and I crashed and left the boys to it around 9:30.

Food:
Brazil nuts (5)
Home-made lentil soup. Lentils, chickpeas, tomatoes and loads of fresh spinach. X2, breakfast and lunch.
A couple of sips of Wonder's beer. It looked so good.
Thai chicken, prawns, and broccoli.

This ain't exactly the ultra clean eating I was hoping for, but it's not bad.  Home made fresh lentil soup is fairly defendable comfort food and a fuck of a lot better than the ice cream and pasta I was craving.

I did do my one burpee for burpee challenge in the morning.  Heh.

To feeling better tomorrow --

Inspiration of the Day...

... for finishing applications, not fer crossfit. Although I could happily take this to the box.

All the way from 2009, on repeat while I get this shit in.

http://hypem.com/track/771667/Estelle+-+American+Boy+Feat+Kanye+West

Week 3. Day 6-7. March 2010.

Saturday was nice and quiet. Brunch of fish, salad and black lentils with Wonder's family.  I had planned this as a cheat meal but we ended up making something healthy and small portioned instead of a big roast. And then a nice long walk. I took my cheat meal later in the day and had pizza and 1/4 a tub of ice cream for dinner...!  I'm sending Wonder off to a party and I'm working on job applications this evening with You've Been Framed on the telly. I forsee a few more quiet evenings in my future until I get another job - I don't have cash to go out right now. The good news is (cheat meals aside) it's good for my eating.

Also, Whee! Scale at 136.8 this morning, what what? And the bodyfat at 28.1. Obviously I haven't lost bodyfat overnight, but still in firm yey territory. I don't trust the bodyfat monitor yet, but hopefully it just keeps trending downwards and then it doesn't really matter what the numbers are.

I used the scale at my old gym on Friday and it clocked me in at 132, clothed. I think home scale is right; gym scale didn't do me any favors by underestimating my weight and when I look at pictures from last year about this time I don't think I was actually at 130 like it said!   :)

Application time.
---------
Sunday. Big walk, favorite eggs breakfast at our local cafe, more walking. We were walking down the street and Wonder and I found a massive beautiful square of wood just the right size for a table. Big, heavy, and beautiful hard dark brown/cherry wood.  After a bit of debate about whether to rent a streetcar to drag it home, we hefted if up between the two of us and just walked it back. About a mile of hauling, good stuff.

I puttered around in the evening and worked on a job application for Favorite Job, which goes in tomorrow.  Meanwhile Wonder tripped to the lumber yard, picked up some wood for table legs, got out the workbench and carpentered it all out. We now have a beautiful coffee table in our previously blank space in the living room. I love this man. I love my table.

In other news, I made quinoa, tomatoes and spinach for dinner and regretted it. I hadn't planned far enough ahead to have any meat in the house and although my first priority for the rest of March is to eat wheat-free and dairy free, I'd really like to keep the grains out of there too. Blergh. Lessons learned. It's nice to relax a bit on food on the weekend and have a cheat meal now and again and everything, but I'm feeling heavier and a bit gross even from these relatively modest deviations. Looking forward to hitting the box tomorrow and eating clean.

Week 3. Day 4. March 11 2010.

So I'm finally feeling better.  My legs are still sore from Monday, despite the fact that it wasn't too hardcore on the legs, which is secondary proof that something's a bit funky with the system.

Also, first cheat. Ham and egg sandwich this morning. Oh, the wheat! In comparison with the office sweets and creme egg and gazillions of other temptations sidestepped today, I'm ok with that. Today was a wee bit higher in carbs and lower in protein, but still fairly respectable and definately not an all out cheat.

So one more day of quiet, then crossfit tomorrow and either also Sat morning or just a home mod version. I like the idea of keeping crossfit to the week. At some point I'd like to do Mon-Tues-Thurs-Fri but for the moment three sessions is just fine.

FOOD: ham and egg sandwich, prosciutto and red pepper salad, brazil nuts, tomato soup, cauliflower. Which it turns out is a great snack. couple of dates. DailyBurn says around 1100 cals.

SLEEP: 9+hours

HEALTH: sore throat, bit of headache, tired legs.

MOOD: positive, found a job I'm excited about, good work meeting.

ENERGY: bodily tired on and off but not mentally tired too like yesterday.

STRESS: low

Wheee! First crossfit pictures!

Ok, this is ultra dorky, but I am excited to see that the site's been updated and pictures of my first post-foundations workout are up, including my first box jumps ever! Wheeee!

Crossfit geek, crossfit geek.

Inspiration of the Day

Um, yeah. This is awesome.



As is Mark's Daily Apple, where I found it.

Week 3. Day 3. March 10 2010.

Ugh. Feeling less sore throaty than yesterday, but more 'I'm sick.' It's in my chest a bit now. Verry tired on my 9 or more hours of sleep. It was a very good call not to set the alarm for 6am and go to class this morning, and an evening class is out of the question. So we're down to Thurs, Fri and Sat. Hopefully I can get two sessions in, maybe only one depending on how I feel over the next two days.

It's so frustrating to break the momentum.

In other news, when I got out of the shower this morning I caught an image of my waist in the mirror this morning, cocked my head to look the other way, did a little turnaround and then another, and -- yes, I can confirm it -- my waist is starting to slim out. There's a little oomph curve to it that hasn't been there for a few months. I just pulled up my starting pictures to double check I wasn't going crazy as it's only been two weeks since I took them, but there it is. Nice little ego and motivation boost, especially as there hasn't been any scale change for me yet. Things is happening!

I also ran a bodyfat check on my home scale, which was around 28.8 when I started crossfit... and is now consistently down to 28.4.  Not a huge change I know, and it might still end up being within error range, but I'll take it. If it keeps going down I'll know it's for real. It's fantastic to think that two and a half weeks might be starting to show up in body comp even if I'm not losing weight. Losing weight is usually a month two thang for me, though it would be great to drop a couple of pounds before the end of the month.

Off to work.

Target Weights

Just found this on the crossfit forum - a very helpful 'weights to shoot for' for squats, deadlifts, cleans, press and bench press scaled to body weight and months/years working out.  Although for the next couple of months I need to just keep focusing on form more than anything else, this is helpful to be thinking forward with and set some short term goals.

Inspiration of the Day

I can't embed it, but this is completely fantastic. 40 pounds of postpartum weight to get down to muscled and rocking. And Jesus, I want to do the things she can do.

http://www.icechamber.com/videos/mgcomeback1.html

Week 3. Day 2. March 9 2010.

Crashed asleep last night at the late great hour of 9:45 with book in hand. A combination of having been up earlier than usual, of having my ass kicked by crossfit, being out in one of the coldest days of the year, and fighting off a cold. I went to sleep feeling heavy as a rock and with a sore throat. I woke up with sore throat and feeling massively groggy but by 8am it had burned off. Will take the lesson to go easy on myself today, but it looks like I'm dodging this one.

Update: Feeling worse, not better by later in the day. I'm thinking about tomorrow's morning crossfit and emailed Brian and asked whether with hints of a cold I ought to forgo a session, show up and massively scale down, or just show up and do my best. His reply: you've got plenty of time to get fit, don't make yourself sick. Get better and show up after.

Sigh. My immune system is a mess and leaves me pretty susceptible to respiratory illness. But Brian confirmed the 'safe voice' inside me, the one I'm supposed to be listening to while I start out and start rebuilding my health. So no workout tomorrow morning I don't think, although if I'm feeling up to it I'll try to make the evening session. If all else fails, there's Thursday, Friday, and Sat morning. I'd really like to get two more sessions in this week.

In bed by 9, watched a movie, asleep before 10. Poor Wonder is wondering where his girl went the last two nights.

FOOD (abt 1200 cals)
- leftover chicken, broad bean, cauliflower, chickpea, feta, fennel from last eve.
- blackberries
- more of the same chicken and cauliflower from last night.
- raisins
- turkey, carrots and broccoli
- LOADS of peppermint tea to soothe my throat.

SLEEP: 9 hours

HEALTH: big old sore throat, bit of chesty-ness.

MOOD: positive

ENERGY: definitely more tired than usual!

STRESS: low

Inspiration of the Day

More inspiration courtesy of the Born to Crossfit blog:

Week 3. Day 1. March 8 2010.

Phew. I talked to Wonder over the weekend about planning the transition from the foundations courses to 'real' crossfit this week, and was trying to figure out whether to continue with evening workouts (which effectively knocks a lot of our time out together three nights a week), lunchtime workouts (which I've never been very good at in terms of consistency) or morning workouts (which I've never done in my life because I like sleep). I was edging towards morning workouts but wondering if the boy might not like being woken up by my alarm a full hour and a half earlier than he needs to get ready, but the first thing out of his mouth was -- 'Great, morning it is then, right? Seems to make the most sense.'  

And, we're off. Today was the first morning workout of my life, and my first 'real' crossfit workout. Got asleep by not too far past 10pm, earlier than pretty much any non-ille evening of my adult life, and woke up at 5:50 ten minutes before the alarm went off feeling awesome.

I just barely made it to class on time, but arrived with some fruit and water inside me and ready to go. In girlcramp season and the sprints knocked me on my ass -- clenched up, lightheaded, etc. It took a while to wear off. Who knew a total of a minute and a half of running could absolutely kick your ass so well. For a minute I thought I'd have to throw in the towel for the rest of the workout, but it eventually burned off and the rest went well.

SLEEP: 7.5hours

HEALTH: girlcramps, arms a bit sore, headache from noon onwards?

MOOD: sky high

ENERGY: bit of fatigue (not enough food before workout, first early rise, girlcramps)

STRESS: very stressful day at work, dreading on sunday night, but workout killed the stress and it's now just a to-do list.

WOD
Warmup- 2 sets of 10 
pullups; situps; squats; pressups (scaled to 4 real down girl up and rest girl)

Speed 3x200m sprints
28seconds; 32 seconds; 36 seconds

WOD 3x4minutes
3 clapping pushups (scaled to girl pushups); 4 boxjumps; 100m sprint; 6 kb (scaled to cleans with 15 bar instead)
Got in 2 rounds, 2.5 rounds, 2 rounds.

FOOD (abt 1350 cals)
fruit salad; bit of fish sushi; apples x 2; chicken, prawns, edamame and rice noodle salad; brazil nuts; cauliflower, fennel, broad bean, chickpea and chicken salad.

Week 2. Day 6-7. March 6-7 2010.

I decided when I started the Foundations classes that during those first two weeks I'd try to eat cleaner than usual but not get too intense on macro monitoring or dropping calories. I particularly didn't want to drop calories while getting my first workouts in as being hypocaloric and picking up heavy things are both stressors, and I didn't want to introduce both at once.

This is of course all preamble to say that I didn't eat well this weekend, knowing it was my last weekend before I start watching cals and making a transition to higher protein and veggie carb foods, in a bit of a modified paleo. At the moment, I'm not going to go full-tilt paleo. I will drop dairy, grains (especially wheat/gluten), salty things, alcohol, and sugar -- although I expect that severely limiting rather than completely cutting out sugar and alcohol will be more successful strategies for me.  But I'm likely to keep eating beans/chickpeas/lentils for a bit and occasionally pull from the grain category in the rice and quinoa columns.  At least for a bit.  Going higher protein and wheat free is going to be the biggest hurdle for me and where I'm putting my transformational energy. I think I can spare a few carbs in moderation.

Weekend. Saturday a lovely morning breakfast with Wonder and his sister, a bit of cheese and oat biscuits for lunch (goodbye cheese! I made sure to get you in) and beer, dinner with around seven friends at ours with quinoa and beef tagine.  Sunday, oh Sunday, I don't really remember.  Mostly an easy day at home with a long walk in the middle and a movie in the evening -- went 3D and saw Alice in Wonderland. It was... all right.  Purty.

Week 2. Day 5. March 5 2010.

My last of the foundations classes. Andre was missing due to back injury so it was just me and my ultrafit Foundations compadre.  We went over the last of the movements -- solidified the push press and clean, then did ringdips and handstands. Both my ringdips and handstands were HEAVILY assisted - with a little balancing support I was able to jump up once and lock my elbows out to hold position, but that more or less wasted my puny arm muscles and I couldn't get back up. And let's not talk of trying to actually dip in ring position!

Handstands were a whole other ballgame. Brian was great and patient in getting me to spot a floorpoint, aim my hands up, and kick my legs up, and I got up into position with varying levels of success. I nearly faceplanted quite a few times as my arms gave out. This shouldn't be an issue if I can actually get my elbows locked and keep them there, but the moment I move them my arms are actually carrying my full load and just completely drop me on the floor.  This will get better.

I'm still pleased with myself for getting up and doing the handstands. Hurling yourself at the floor is psychologically massively uncomfortable.  It was great practice in the power of thinking. It wasn't positive thinking that did it -- no "It will be fine, they'll support you, it's just a handstand" -- but the complete ABSENCE of thought. I had to turn my brain off. Any time I did, I was ok. Any time I let myself think about it, I got flustered and ended up on the floor.

So, unsurprisingly, gymnastics are probably going to take the most work for me. The moves require a pretty good start strength PLUS power and balance and stamina, and I've got none of the above so far. But I'll get there.

We took so much longer than usual in training that it was time to leave by the time the WOD came around, and I was due to meet friends assuming the regular time.  I stood there for probably a full minute trying to justify being massively late to do the WOD but couldn't do it.  But we'd gotten in a heavy warmup and loads of practice by then, so I'm all right with that. I was still well exhausted!

Friday's class was followed by a wicked night out at Madam JoJo's in Soho. I've finally found a few places in London that play mostly soul and funk. The music was great, but so was the crowd -- none of the scenesterism you get in a lot of London music joints, didn't get hit on the whole time, etc. Everyone was just there to dance. Great stuff.

Friday nights are also home to the beatboxers -- fucking excellent!

FOOD: Not recorded for the day (or for the weekend, last weekend of freedom before going wheat/grain/dairy free!) but there was nothing outrageous, all pretty clean.  Salmon and edamame beans for lunch, prawns and rice noodles for dinner eaten quickly before going out, and my breakfast is always on.  I did have probably 3 double whiskies over the course of five or six hours, but there have been worse nights. Felt great Sat morning.

All in all a spot on day. New things, found a few jobs to apply for, worked hard and learned new things at Crossfit, and then partied hard with the friends. Wheee, weekend!

Week 2. Day 4. March 4 2010

A good day of reading and quiet but no physical activity. Still felt funny in the morning. If I wasn't 100% sure I'm not pregnant, I'd be preparing the baby room.  However, I seem to just be a victim of drive by GI distress. This isn't usual for me, and I'm ready for it to end.

After work I hooked over the library for some research on nutrition, wheat free, inflammation, all the rest.  Let me impart this lesson: thou neglect public library riches at great and present peril.  I've not really been to a public library since I was a teenager, but have just rediscovered it since moving into my new house, where it's literally on the way to work.  Last week they served me Ben Goldacre's Bad Science, Knut Hamsen's Hunger, a load of zombie comics, Angela Carter, a book on the underperformance of Carribean kids in UK schools, and some nutrition books. Oh! And DVDs of 28 Days Later and Children of Men, to fit the Winter 2010 Post-Apocolyptica theme.

The nutrition books ended up not being that great, so I went back yesterday and slammed through a cookbook called Gluten-Free Cooking, Say No to Arthritis, Patten's Eat to Beat Arthritis : Over 60 Recipes and a Self-treatment Plan to Transform Your Life, and Pigache's Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

I've been scouring the internet pretty well over the last few weeks for Arthritis/inflammation/gluten info, in part to figure out the science behind paleo, but I learned MUCH more in the three hours at the library than in my hours of net work.  Highly recommended. I think I'll put my findings in a separate RA update post as it helps me to have everything in one place.

No physical activity, count it, none.

Met a friend for lunch in an Italian restaurant that ONLY had pasta, very expensive meat dishes that were out of my wallet range for the day, and cheesy baked appetisers. A bit of a win/lose situation, but I ordered risotto with chicken and spinach, ate out all the chicken first, ate a bit of risotto and moved the rest away.  Best I could do. 

Food:
- sweet potato leftovers
- pine nuts
- risotto w/chicken and spinach
- glass of rose
- soba noodles and prawns

Good shit:
-learned loads, now committed to moving wheat free starting Monday and likely starting an elimination diet (no dairy, no grains, no nightshades), which might mean I end up paleo by default.
- drank lots of water.
- made the best decision with the situation at hand on lunch.
- slept like a freaking rock and feeling awesome, motivated and happy.

Inspiration of the Day

I'm loving both of these quotes from the No Crying in Crossfit blog:

"Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it." - Goethe

"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action." - Frank Tibolt

Week 2. Day 3. March 3 2010

Woke up feeling hungover again, without alcohol the night before. Nothing particularly outrageous in my diet, although I did eat rice for the last meal of the evening cooked by Wonder's lovely sister. Made an extra effort to drink lots of water yesterday. One espresso and no other caffeine during the day. What's the story?  Waking up naseous (no, I'm not pregnant) is getting old.

Finding it VERY hard to get motivated to do the work I need to do today and again fantasizing about missing crossfit. Ain't doing it. Going to go meet Wonder for lunch, then go to work, then go to Crossfit and work my ass off. I'll try to get there a bit early to practice the push cleans.

------
Update: my 'waking up feeling nauseous' finally did something about itself. This girl lost her turkey.  Who knows what the hell was going on, but given that I was either a) just off color, or b) in stage one of flutown, I cancelled crossfit for the evening. Well, fuck, basically. Because by about 6pm I felt just fine.

I am impressing burpee punishment on myself this weekend.

Food:
- Greek yogurt w some raisins, honey and strawberries.
- lunch. turkey breast w/chili and garlic
- snack. more turkey!
- pine nuts
- dinner. sweet potatoes... and champagne.

notes on intensity and scaling

A note on scaling. When I came in on Wednesday totally wrecked from the squats the week before, Brian pretty quickly put his serious face on and told me that it is my own responsibility to scale the workouts as appropriate to make sure I don't end up in that position. Going at things full tilt in the gym has frequently been my downfall, and I've established a pretty good pattern of going from sedentary to overdoing it to ill and unable to show up to train. So -- Chill Out Caitlin.

Just reading this on the crossfit blog from founder Greg Glassman:

It is imperative that someone new to CrossFit takes the first month to learn the movements, if they're not already intimate with them, and establish consistency before increasing intensity. If you can get through the workouts for one month straight without falling apart, then we recommend that you up the intensity a little the following month. If you throw yourself at this task 100% from day one, these workouts will chew you up and swallow you whole. I promise it. Don't be misled by the workouts' brevity. The tougher you are the harder you'll go down, guaranteed.

I am trying to keep in mind that it's a constant balancing act between getting form right, pushing yourself, recognizing when you're tired and unused to being asked to be active vs at risk of overdoing it, going for time but needing to slow down and get the Right movements locked into muscle memory, etc.

I have a feeling this balancing act doesn't stop after a few weeks or months of crossfit - because of the variety of tasks thrown at you, practice at any given exercise might come at a weekly or biweekly or beyond interval.  I think taking a few minutes during the week to practice form is going to become an important strategy for me...

and a reminder on squats form

Got to love some of the crossfit form videos. Massively more playful than straight strength form videos dripping with boyfluids and weightgeekery, more fun than a bag of chips or a steady-state run.

Power cleans

Monday's power clean demo was rough, so I'm watching this and trying to burn it into my brain before I do some broomstick practice.

The Squat Clean from Patrick Cummings on Vimeo.

Inspiration of the Day

These chicks fucking rock.

How many years of crossfit will it take me to get here? Whatever the answer, I'm in.

Week 2. Day 2. March 2 2010

Weight: As suspected, weight was much more normal this morning - 138.5  Which means there's hope of getting to around 135 by the end of March, 136 at one month in. Again, I know from past experience that during the first month not much happens but that if I'm consistent losing weight from the second month in is a lot easier, so not beating myself up about scale numbers. I also haven't gotten hardcore on the food tracking yet (though I might after the end of this week) so am not expecting big losses.

Exercise:
-About half an hour walking to and from meeting a friend (added 15 minutes of walking by walking him to and from work before going home, not much but effort counts!)
-One hour walk around the neighborhood with S end of day.

Food:
Gluten-free cereal and milk.
Chicken soup (abt 30g protein, maybe 250 cals)
bit of chocolate (two small pieces)
Pastrami and coldslaw on rye. (yeah yeah, bread. I know)
small handfull of raisins (abt 25)
chicken stir fry and rice for dinner.
Cals - abt 1350-1400. Bit high, will be bringing this down to 1100-1200 over the next week or so.

Week 2 Homework

Homework Questions from Brian:

1) What are the most common types of dietary fat?
2) Where does each type come from?
3) How would you identify them at room temperature?

I'm taking most of my info from here.

Types of Fat
Saturated fat: solid at room temperature, high melting point, from poultry, meat, cheese, butter, bacon, lard, or tropical oils (coconut, palm, etc). Foods made with hydrogenated vegetable oil (when hydrogen is artificially added to polyunsaturated fats) also include saturated fat - most commercial baked goods, ice cream, etc.

Mono-unsaturated fat: liquid at room temperature and cloudy at cold temperatures, from plant sources like olive oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil, nuts and nut products. These are the 'good fats' which increase your HDL ('good cholesterol') and reduce triglycerides found in cholesterol plaques (thus reducing risk of heart disease).

Poly-unsaturated fat: liquid at hot or cold temperatures, from nuts, fatty fish like salmon, canola oil and sunflower oil.

Trans fat: hydrogenated poly-unsaturated fats found in commercial goods and fast food. Increases LDL ('bad cholesterol'), reduces HDL, and acts similarly to saturated fats.

Essential fatty acids: adjust cholesterol metabolism and important to the immune system, from fish, leafy greens, omega 3 eggs, meats high in omega 3 (some chicken, etc).  Omega 3 comes from olives, flaxseeds, walnuts, and soybeans. Involved in eye, brain and neurological function. Act as blood thinners (prevent strokes). Omega 6 is from sunflower, corn and primrose oil. Important in the texture and appearance of the skin. Missing out might increase cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.

Week 2. Day 1. March 1 2010.

Energy up, was so excited for crossfit. Learned cleans, power clean. Warmed up on our own.  Power clean form is really hard - need to spend some time this week figuring it out. Completely fell apart when using it for the WOD!

WOD:
10 pushcleans
10 rings (grey band)
10 squats
Got in 7 rounds in 15 minutes.

Food:
Wheetabix (oat cereal, no wheat) and a bit of milk and honey
Rest of the indian (mostly rice and onions!)
Tuna and broadbean salad.

Positives:
Was feeling a bit punky all day and at some point started daydreaming about just staying home and missing crossfit, but got my ass out of bed knowing it would make me feel like a million bucks. New intermediate goal - NOT ALLOWED TO MISS ANY FOUNDATIONS CLASSES OR TWO WEEK FREEBIE CLASSES.
Avoided pasta and wheat for dinner and instead got something with protein and good fats.
Had to bust ass (and in the end grab a taxi for the last mile!) to get to class on time after got kicked off the bus due to route change, but made it. £5 poorer, but that's fine.
Did wedding invitations after crossfit!
Calories about right!

Stuff to work on:
push clean form is a hot mess.
didn't eat anywhere near enough veggies, fruit and protein today
lower on water than I should be
lower on coffee than I should be

Week 1. Day 6-7.

Saturday. Big breakfast with S around the corner, scrambled eggs on wheatfree toast, coffees.  Coffee with P.  Sushi. Remains of monster salad w/S.

Very tired and sore pretty much all over.

Sunday. An extra 40min walk and then moved S's sister into the house. Lots of moving, lifting, sore back.  Breakfast was eggs and wheat free bread and coffee. Worked through lunch, carrots and hummus and doritos after we got everything in. Indian for dinner. This is what we call a cheat day. Still not too outrageous and worked out asses off during the day.

Update -- after hovering between 139 and 141, I was an absurd 143 at the end of the day. Wine, no water, bloaty food. Down to around 140 later Monday but still a bit of a shocker first stepping on the scale. :)

Yey, crossfit tomorrow!

Week 1. Day 5. Feb 26 2010

Third crossfit day went great til we got to the WOD and I fell apart on energy.  We ran back through deadlifts, added sumo deadlifts, learned burpees.  I was feeling MUCH more confident on deadlift form which was a relief, despite not having practiced in the week.  Sumo deadlifts I'm a bit less settled on but will figure it out.

Warm ups - catch with 4kg and 10kg ball. 10 squats, 10 pullups, 10 deadlifts.
Running (was late, ran the last 1.5 miles to class!)
WOD - 10 deadlifts, 20 burpees, 3 sets for time.

I only got through about a set and a half because the burpees killed me - muscles just gave out. This was a big wakeup call for me on how out of shape I am and how much I partly just need some good old aerobic cardio conditioning.  In a week or so I'll try to add some running in on the off days to make up for it. This was just a mess.

Second round of burpees I pulled a muscle in the groin -- turned out it was fine, just 'tweaked.' My usual problem is to go balls to the wall before my muscles are ready.  So when I felt it go ping on a burpee, decided to just chill out. Brian showed me a few stretches to do and that helped it get better, stayed for a bit and then got home to S.

Made some monster salad. Didn't fitday (I don't think I will on the weekends for the moment, often not on the computer) but had yogurt for breakfast, tuna and veggies for lunch, and monster salad with quinoa, broccoli, carrots, avocado, linseeds, other seed I've forgotten, and tahini dressing. Awesome stuff. 

Week 1. Day 4. Feb 25 2010

Thursday was a bit of a sad sedentary day. Came home from work early frustrated with work and some hours that got cancelled, thus leaving me a bit worried about cash for the month.  Got some walking in as otherwise would have done NOTHING, but that's it. 

Food not so hot, too much carbs.  Yogurt for breakfast, tuna and bulger for lunch, S made a beautiful (clean) veggie curry with rice for dinner after we tried and failed to order sushi.

One of those days. On edge, bit frustrated, S still ill and both of us tired of winter.

Oh, and I drank three glasses of old box wine.  Pish.

On the upside:
Drank loads of water
Avoided much wanted sugar
Low protein, but forced myself to at least get some tuna in, and lots of veggies.
Finished Volume 2 of the Zombies book.
Read lots of my How Children Fail book by John Holt.

Food Goals, Weight Goals

I spent a lot of time yesterday looking at nutrition plans again. (I wrote 'diet plans' and deleted it -- as much as I'd like to lose some weight this is about eating for strength, for immune system function, and for energy too.)  I think for the moment, I need to simply focus on eating relatively clean, no booze, and keeping the calories low enough that the weight starts to shift.  For me 'eating clean' still means sticking to what I would do if on an old JSF style weights program - lots of protein, relatively minimal carbs and extremely minimal processed carbs, lots of veggies and some fruit, some fat.  In practice, I don't tend to eat loads of fat and what I eat I'm fine with (some olive oil, or what's in my food, not much sweets or processed snacky type stuff) as long as I keep it reasonable; minimizing the carbs is the tricky part and what I have to watch. So I'm just going to get my veggies up again and keep the protein as high as I can. I know from experience that a week or so of that will leave me feeling good with better energy, sleeping better, all the rest.

Crossfit loves the zone and also paleo, but I think it's likely to be quite a while before I do real paleo, if ever, due to the restriction on pulses/all carbs/diary.  A more zone-y diet has worked well for me in the past, and while I'm gettting back to exercise I want to get those habits formed first instead of throwing myself full throttle into a diet/exercise overhaul.   I'm also toying with the idea of doing a proper detox and slow reintroduction of foods to check for any RA triggers before doing any strict zone/paleo stuff.   Point being, I'll give it a month and evaluate whether generally keeping clean is working or I need to be a bit stricter. If after two months I'm not making real gains at crossfit and dropping some weight I'll consider changing things up more seriously. For now, it's more important for me to just be CONSISTENT with training and eating generally well.

A note on weight. Starting weight between 138-140 (139 today but has been lower previously in the week, wondering if this is due to Mon/Tues carb overload!).  I know but will be frustrated anyway that in the first month little weight will come off.  In the past, it's during the second month I can actually see changes. I'll be taking starting pics this week.

And despite the fact that we all know the scale doesn't matter, here's the current plan. Relatively modest and attainable over a 20 week period.
End of Feb: 138
End of March: 134
End of April: 129* evaluation point on diet.
End of May: 124
End of June: 118-120
July 24th: 116-120

Of course, if I'm noticing differences in the pictures and in the mirror and my belt loops, I won't really care about the scale. But progress has to continue or I make changes to the routine.

Why deadlifts?

After I got back from crossfit last night, when Wonder asked me how it went I said something along the lines of, "Really good. A bit frustrated because I can't get the deadlift form down, so I stayed and jumped rope til I wasn't mad about it anymore. I'll just have to practice a bit."  To which he replied, "Why deadlifts? Why do you have to do deadlifts?"  Tired and hungry and trying to figure out a quick answer so I could go make food, I realized I couldn't. Why deadlifts means a lot. Why are you focusing on weights instead of cardio? Why deadlifts instead of other weights? Why are they important? Why'd you choose it? I couldn't do a quick answer, replied, "I think this is a longer question and I need to get some food inside me" and disappeared into the kitchen. But I need an answer for it.

So, I'm trying to pull up the two years of reading I did about fitness and nutrition.  Aerobic v anarobic exercise. Aerobic is activity that pulls energy mostly from oxygen stores -- running, swimming, etc -- and tends to be longer, steady-state activity. Great for improving cardiovascular performance and for helping to decrease bodyfat simply through some extra calorie burning.

Problems? You need a LOT of it to contribute to any significant fat loss and can do a lot more for yourself simply not taking in the calories in the first place than by trying to burn them off. And not only does aerobic exercise not do much for muscle building (which is key if you're trying to get your metabolism going), if you do loads of it without the proper nutrition you're much more likely to actually eat into your muscle reserves, thereby actually lowering your fitness and lowering your metabolism.  Think of marathon runners and their relatively wasted bodies.  Granted, I'm not likely to get anywhere close to muscle wasting through aerobic activity like running any time soon without some serious training -- but I ain't going to try to, as being a wasted marathon runner isn't my goal, dropping fat, putting on muscle, and increasing my strength and speed is.

Anaerobic activity, including most team sports (football, basketball, etc) and also full body weight lifting (deadlifts, squats, etc) uses fast-twitch muscles for high intensity output.  Good stuff because you also burn the calories (shite is intense), with elevated metabolism for an extended time after the activity ends, but you also build muscle at the same time. So we get calorie loss, metabolism boost, and muscle building (also a metabolism boost). Get stronger and leaner at the same time.

So if we like anaerobic activity, why deadlifts? You hit the whole back and surrounding muscles, for one -- much better than isolation weight exercises that are likely to lead to imbalances or places of weakness, a sure kicker for injury. Plus the core (lower back, abdominals, glutes). It works more muscles simultaneously than any other lift. It's really safe. It helps with grip. And, they're exhausting and give you an aerobic workout.  Highly effective anaerobic workout focused on a key strength area that helps ward off injury (and makes your ass look great) while giving you an aerobic workout so you can skip the running?

Fucking A.  Got my answer.

--
lower back and lats, glutes, pretty much rock ALL the leg muscles, forearms, shoulders, traps.

Week 1. Day 3. Wed 24 2010

Second time at crossfit, slightly less sparkly than the first as I was still massively sore from Monday's workout, shite at deadlifts, and generally a lot lower on confidence and energy. Still the right place for me for sure. I think I was partly affected by having a new kick ass girl join the group - crazy or not, think I got a bit intimidated. Got over it, and got through the workout --- the thighs even loosened up eventually.  Also, the workout was a big heads up about my really low strength levels and reminded me I'm starting from scratch here. Better to go a bit easier and take longer to work up than to overdo it and hurt myself, especially as I'm figuring out my limits.

Slept like the dead, woke next morning still fairly tired. Body getting used to being asked to actually do stuff again!

I win because:
Ate well-ish. Breakfast - yogurt and honey and fruit. Lunch - tuna and yogurt and a bit of curry paste. Snack. cabbage.  Fuckup - some banana bread at BIOS.  Dinner. tiny sushi, prawns and stir fry (abt 400 cals total on dinner). Daily Burn calculates at about 1400 which is fine, not great and will need to drop more, but will get there and trying not to make all the changes at once.

No booze!

Wanted and avoided: chocolate, sandwich, something sweet. At various points of the day.
Upped my water intake.

Woke up looking forward to crossfit.

Stayed to skip rope and burn some extra calories. Brian triedto show me how to do the double skips and I don't have anything close to the hang of it.
Got in extra walking (took bus to Regent Street and then walked to work from there. Added 25 minutes of walking to get to work then an extra 15 in the evening = at extra 40min from my usual routine.

WOD:
15 pullups w/bands
10 squats
5 pump push (black band)
Only got three rounds in, most of the time spent trying to get squat form right as I was so sore I was just toppling over. Ridiculous.

Need to:
Practice squat and deadlift form.
Come to class w/macros, micros, and food group you can live without. (I assume protein, fat, carbs; micros nutrients; bread/grains?)
----
update. Indeed, macronutrients are protein, carbs and fats. micronutrients are all the vitamins.

Week 1. Day 2. Feb 23 2010

No crossfit today, but spent far too much time on the sofa looking up more crossfit testimonials, before and afters, all the rest. I know this is mostly silly; crossfit is great and everything, but I need to get my diet locked in before I see any major changes regardless, and all of the people who did well will have nailed this. But fine. Inspiration.

I ought be charting my food even if the moment I'm not explicitly calorie tracking, as part of the ongoing effort to figure out what foods make me feel good/bad/deadly.  I've really been in stupidly good shape the last few months, no colds, no joint problems. Looks like largely a stress issue; RA is the direct consequence of over a year of serious daily stress, and a year of awesome seems to have mostly knocked it out of the water.

I was a wee bit worried that crossfit Day 1, even though it was a short day, would overwhelm my exercise deprived body and send me into a funk.  It looks like non-stress, good sleep, good food, and my boy's pheremones are stronger than a workout session. Slept like the dead, woke up in the morning feeling a bit deep and fevery, but then it totally burned off.  Left work early and did a few hours of trekking around and grocery shopping with an obscene amount of canned goods in the backpack and all fine, so I think I'm in the clear.

NUTRITION, not my favorite nutrition day:
Breakfast- oatmeal
Lunch - Tofu
Afternoon - spinach wrap
Dinner - Sausage (one and a half), masses of red cabbage, bit of mash.

Whoohoo, carb overload!

EXERCISE:
2 hours tromping around with my backpack, at least 400 cals.

In other news, woke up feeling totally hungover without any booze.

To the showers.

Week 1. Day 1. Feb 22 2010

Day 1 at Crossfit. First impressions: this is exactly what I've been looking for.  Some advice and training to get the Olympic lifts in form, which is what I always missed when lifting on my own and got intimidated by lest I break my bones or head; community instead of slogging it out in the neighborhood or in a gym alone; fucking PUSH and running til you drop; a bit of industrial chic in place of purty lighting and shite music; bit of bare bones.

Brian was great, walked me and Adam through, the right mix of human and no-nonsense, and knowledgable. The number of times I've tried to go to gym trainers and gotten bullocks back from them, wasted time, wanted to hand them some training literature - what a change!

We trained on rings, squats, pushups... squat form is good but my right knee keeps kicking out on the way back up. Something to work on. All the rest fine. I am a weak motherfucker at the moment, can't wait to change that.

WOD:
run 200
15,12,9 rings, squats, pushups.
run 200

I finished a good five minutes behind Andre (who told me a bit about himself the first night, and who rocks) but I finished, and I know I'm only going to get better and faster and stronger. Am so excited and wish I'd started two months ago as planned, but I'm here now.

YEEEEEEEHHHHAAWW!