Flywheel Upper West Side

Darryl is BACK. New Yorkers rejoice!

Rebecca and I made plans to finally go to a Darryl Gaines spin class together after seven months of discussion. So at 12:30 PM on Saturday afternoon, I could be found clicking my spin shoes into the bike at Flywheel Upper West Side.

The commute from East 82nd to West 83rd was a struggle.

Yes I did send this photo to my brunch date.

CrossFit Isn't Dangerous Plus 3 WODs

I've been seeing a lot of articles about how dangerous CrossFit is on Facebook, on Twitter, and in my inbox. After careful review of each, I realized one person wrote a poorly written article and every other news outlet cut and pasted various portions onto their own sites.

Now I have a blog about pushing limits to extremes and not using common sense. Yes, these stories are true but I never said they were a good idea. If you've been reading this thing since 2010, you might have noticed a change since I started going to CrossFit Hell's Kitchen in June. My workouts are now planned and managed by great highly-trained coaches.

courtesy of CrossFit Central LI

Jumping Rope

I read a post on CrossFit Central LI's website that really hit home with me. That Chris is just so wise.

"If there’s some movement or exercise that’s been haunting you that your just having trouble getting down.  Take the time to practice it, don’t ignore it. Ignoring it only frustrates you when it comes up in a workout… Unless of course you ignore it in the workout also."

The exercise that I avoid is double-unders. I'm competitive and I can jump single-unders for over 5 minutes straight, so instead of practicing double-unders during a WOD, I've taken the scaled version which usually just doubles the number of single-unders. So today I decided to practice double-unders.

I warmed up. I got into a good single-under rhythm. I did one double-under! Not really sure how, but I did. I did some more single-under jumping. Got another double-under, pretty much on accident. And a few more jumps later my jump rope broke. Oops.

I went for a 3 mile run instead.

I'm someone who really relies on muscle memory. The only reason I can dance at all is because there are certain moves that are so ingrained in my head that I can just do them. I don't know what it feels like to do a double-under so at this point I'm not sure how to do it again.

Friday Night CrossFit

After a long week that seemed to fly by, I was really excited to cap it off with a 7:45 PM class at CrossFit Hell's Kitchen. I fought with an Excel spreadsheet for most of the afternoon, submitted my finished task to my boss, and headed down to the box a little early to watch the 7 PM class.

Sniffles and a Shake Out Run

My allergies flared up like crazy after yesterday's WOD. Feeling like garbage, I struggled to fall asleep and I had a 6:20 AM run scheduled with the Professor.

2 AM. Wide awake. Don't I look sexy?

Burpee Box Jumps

I'm back from Tulsa and back at CrossFit Hell's Kitchen. There's been some renovations while I was away and the place looks great. I especially like the dressing-room-style glamour lights over the sink in the ladies' locker room.

Anthony also got us Wodify so that we can track our performance. It looks sick and I cannot wait to start using it.

I know I haven't done a Weight Loss Wednesday in a while and I think I might be gaining weight back. I know that I have definitely added muscle but I've been eating a lot of junk (i.e. rice, dairy, bread, Cheetos) and not monitoring portions at all.

First Feelings of Fall

This morning I stayed in bed until a normal person hour because I was tired and probably concussed. My black eye looks much better, so I think this decision was for the best. I got a head start on my inbox before heading out for a brisk run. 

Emphasis on the word brisk - it was chilly out this morning. Long sleeves are back! I also wanted to get some use out of my racing flats and see if I can handle more than quick jaunts around the CrossFit parking lot in them.

Trip to Tulsa and CrossFit T-Town

I was in Tulsa this week for a conference. I extensively researched CrossFits in the Tulsa area in advance and decided that I wanted to drop in at CrossFit T-Town. I called ahead and spoke to owner/coach Christina Merlo about dropping in and she made me feel completely jazzed about coming by. I pretty much couldn't have cared less if I made it to the conference sessions, but I was getting to CrossFit T-Town if it killed me. (The sessions turned out to be pretty neat too and I attended every single one I signed up for.)

Belching Fran

The Belching Fran relay, otherwise known as the WOD that made me want to kill myself, was a great way to kick off an epic Saturday. I woke up much less hungover than I deserved to be and I was very thankful that I signed up for the 12 noon class.

Selby and I headed to the office to get our sneakers. I wore my Real Tree hat because who wouldn't?

Some Runs I've Done

This morning I met the Professor for a run in Central Park. Today might be the first time he and I have ever done a weekday morning run come to think of it. It was a casual combination of road and the reservoir and we cut out onto the pavement at Columbus Circle.

Since I haven't posted a lot of my recent running photos and I just upgraded my picmonkey account, I made you some collages.