crazy Sunday

Random Friend/Stranger/Person (RF/S/P): So Joanne, how was your Sunday?

Fierce Female Fathlete (FFF): Fine. It was just fine. It started when I woke up at 3:30am to get ready for a bridal gig. I met the bride at 4:30am and did her makeup.

(RF/S/P): OMG. That's so early in the morning!

Fierce Female Fathlete (FFF): Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. So I got home at about 6am and had a killer headache. I took a nap which was supposed to only be a half hour. But I overshot my nap and woke up at almost 8am. I dressed up and headed over to Berkeley to pick up Margaret. We committed to running the Nike Women's Half Marathon earlier this year and today was race day. Yeah. I had a wedding gig and a half marathon. Don't ask questions. But here are the finish photos!


This is the not-so-sexy me in a sweaty post 13.1 mile run mess. Yeah. Whatever.

And this is Margaret who by the time took this photo had some time to rest, stretch, hydrate and dream about the post-meal. Hence, why she looks way more sane than I do. Boo! I hate you!

(RF/S/P): Er. Um. What the hell kind of race was that? Where are all the Nike+ people and the cool mylar sheets they wrap you with to keep warm? What about the schwag?

Fierce Female Fathlete (FFF): Alright. Alright. Damn! Such questions! Each year the Nike Women's Half/Marathon gets harder and harder to get in to, so they do it by a lottery system now. Unfortunately, I didn't get in through the lottery. (Ahem. Personally, I think the thing was rigged!) So Nike offers another alternative if you want to run and benefit the leukemia and lymphoma society. You pay a smaller race fee and log in your miles through the Nike+ system (personally, I have the sportband, but you can do it through your ipod nano). You have a week after the race to log your miles. From there, the lovely people at Nike will mail you your schwag. Satisfied?

(RF/S/P): Damn. No large gathering in San Francisco? No chocolate mile? Sucks for you.

Fierce Female Fathlete (FFF): Whatever. Don't rub it in. I still get a Tiffany keychain and you don't!

(RF/S/P): Word. So what did you do to celebrate the run?

Fierce Female Fathlete (FFF): We headed over to Union City to munch on delicious Filipino food. Margaret has this thing for lechon kawali. For the record, my limit is about 3-4 pieces. After that I feel like throwing up. It's just a gag reflex from all the fried fatty food I guess. Wanna see pictures? Go ahead. Look!


Oh lechon kawali. How do I love thee? (Um your eyes aren't fooling you. The photo is blurry. Apparently, Margaret got the shivers when the lechon came around and this photo was a simple casualty of hunger.)

My case of the shakes wasn't as bad. So here's Margaret diving in. Yeah. Enough said.

(RF/S/P): Wow. You had one hell of a day!

Fierce Female Fathlete (FFF): I'm sorry. Did I say that the day ended there? Oh hell no! I went home, showered, dropped Margaret off to bart and did the second part of my makeup gig. I was at the bride's place by 4:30pm. Yeah. That's right. I met her at 4:30am and 4:30pm. After her makeup application I went to my sister's house, took a nap and headed to the wedding reception. I got home after 10pm and conked out on my bed. That was the end of my day!

(RF/S/P): Dang!

Fierce Female Fathlete (FFF): Yup. Make-up application. Check. Half marathon. Check. Greasy food for fuel? Check. Make-up application two. Check. Post wedding par-tay? Check check. That's right bitches. This fathlete is fierce!

friday light

This is another old photo of me circa sometime in 2006-2007. Yeah. They used to post way more photos of me on the one world site. What's up with that?! Ha ha. Anyway... this is me doing a deadlift. Um. A very light deadlift. It looks like it could either be 95# or 65#. I forget what the weight is. I'm posting this because I'm sore right now from yesterday's deadlift WOD.

I've been working/busy on Fridays and have been missing my Friday light which consists of yoga and belly dance. So to come back to Friday light was great. I love my dance class and though I don't get to do it as often as I like, I treasure each moment. The dance really helped work out the kinks in my lower back. Plus, it helps me maintain my sexy. ha ha. Seriously. Cheers to more Friday lights for me.

CrossFit One World WOD

This is how I felt like during the entire WOD today. This is Freddy during his post-Fran suffering period. Sometimes (more often than not) you have your bad days. Today was one of mine.

Warm-up
Run 1.1 miles

WOD: Mr. Joshua
Complete 5 rounds for time of:
Run 400m
30 GHD sit-ups
15 deadlifts 140#

Joanne's Final Time - 55:00

A little info about Mr. Joshua:

Today's WOD is one of CrossFit's new hero WODs. It was created in memory of SO1 Joshua Thomas Harris, 36, who drowned during combat operations on August 30th 2008 in Afghanistan. He is survived by his parents Dr. Sam and Evelyn Harris, his brother Ranchor and twin sister Kiki.


Notes (to myself) about this workout:
This WOD made me want to cry. Period. Really. Even Eric said I looked like I was going to cry. At the start of the fourth round, I could feel a lump in my throat because I wanted to cry. Though I scaled the weight down (rx'd was 185# for women), this was still miserable. Deadlifts kill me. And my head just wasn't in the game. I made the mistake of running as my warm-up. I really should have done a much lighter warm-up because this WOD was really intense. In fact, all the hero WODs (especially the new ones they've been posting. Apparently it feels like there have been a ton of people killed overseas because of this senseless war. Okay. Remember to vote because I can't handle more people dying. Though hero WODs are nice gestures, it makes me sad to see a new hero WOD posted because it means another innocent life lost. So go out there and vote. End political rant.) are really hard.

Again, my head wasn't in the game and I'm not sure why. I think the silly stress of the whole Sbux thing (I'll explain if you ask nicely) fucked up my CrossFit karma and not my dating karma. So yes, karma bit me in the ass today and it came in the form of Mr. Joshua. I'm glad to be off CrossFit for the next few days because I really need the rest.

CrossFit One World WOD

Warm-up
Run 1.1 miles

WOD: The Bear
One cycle of "The Bear" is a power clean to a front squat to overhead to a back squat to overhead. Complete seven cycles to finish one round. Once the weight is picked up off the floor, it can only tap the floor between cycles. (Touch and go.) Rest with the bar on your shoulders, overhead, or tucked into your hip. Complete five rounds for max weight in the last round.

Joanne's weight:
Round 1: 35#
Round 2: 45#
Round 3: 50#
Round 4: 55#
Round 5: 70# (for three cycles) 65# (for four cycles)

Before I give my notes about this WOD, here are video clips of JD's last round where he did a 185# round. The other clip is Cheryl hitting a 105# round. Great job, folks! This is such a killer WOD!




Notes (to myself) about this workout:
Since there was a trainer's meeting, I didn't get to the gym til past 8pm. I was actually happy because I finally got to watch the presidential debates live! (I missed the first one but saw the re-caps and analysis; I missed the VP debates and am sure that the SNL version was way more entertaining; I completely missed the second presidential debates, though I downloaded it on my ipod, I still haven't seen them.) Um, it doesn't take a genius to figure out who I'm Barack-ing the vote for. Anyway...

This was a really tough WOD and I want to give special thanks to Eric and Imran who coached me through this late-night WOD (we didn't leave the gym til 10pm!). Admittedly, I was afraid of lifting too much weight because I really wanted to complete all seven cycles and all five rounds. Eric and Imran have different opinions on the matter and I tend to lean towards Eric's way of thinking where you push the weight to your max, but don't aim to fail. Imran says it's okay for the weight to fail because you're still pushing your max (okay, you have to get weightlifting speak to understand this). Between the two, they agreed that I wasn't lifting enough weight, which is why my last round jumped so much. In retrospect, I think I could have lifted the 70# for the whole cycle. I just let the weight intimidate me. I failed on the first movement because I forgot to remind myself to shrug into the power clean. When Eric lessened the weight, I kept saying "shrug" before the first movement and it helped me make it through the rest of the cycles.

Yes, I could have and next time will push more because I wasn't exactly dying at round 4 and 5 like you're supposed to. I didn't hunch over like you see in the above videos, which means I had more in me. I just need to get out of my head and into the movement. Plain and simple.

Here's my take on women and oly weightlifting....
I'm not a weightlifter and have no interest in doing the uber-heavy lifting that Eric is known for at the studio. But I will say that I actually like olympic (oly) weightlifting and wish I did more of it. In fact, when the half marathon madness is over, I'm planning on taking Jason's Sunday morning weightlifting classes just for knowledge.

I know a lot of women are afraid of oly weightlifting because they fear bulking up. My response to that is look at Jolie:
She's very lean but lifts a good amount of weight. Bulking up happens if you follow a particular diet and you mean to bulk up. But if you want to be lean and strong, oly weightlifting is actually a great thing to have under your belt. Personally, I like oly lifting because it requires an awareness and discipline of my body that I've never known. Also, if you're doing it right, it gives you a strong core (for me, the bonus is less useless crunches to lean out the mid-section). Whenever I do a good oly lifting session, I can feel my upper body get significantly stronger and can feel actual muscles in my arms!

I also think women are better suited for the oly lifting because we tend to have better flexibility and grace for these types of lifts. For me, I have weird legs. Eric thinks perhaps one leg is longer than the other, which is why my standard stance is so screwy. Other than that, Eric and Imran agree that I naturally have good form and am consistent. This is a huge surprise for me because I assume that I'm bad at all things athletic. Lesson learned ladies and gents... you never know what you're good at unless you actually try!

I remember when I first started doing cardio kickboxing about ten years ago (OMG, it's been that long!). I thought I would be a total klutz, but I found that I took to the movement pretty naturally. I was a good student and picked up the details pretty quickly. It wasn't long before I went from cardio kickboxing to actual bag and focus mitt work. All this started at Macomber Karate in Goleta after I graduated from college. After I moved out of Santa Barbara, I let about six months pass by before I signed up for another studio. I settled on the Self Defense Institute in Fremont because I really liked the vibe there and was interested in something more practical. Krav Maga (which I first heard of in Santa Barbara) suited me and that's how I started taking martial arts semi-seriously. I did tae kwon do and krav and have green belts in both disciplines. When things at SDI started to fizzle, I followed my favorite instructors to my new home at One World and have been there ever since. At One World, I've done krav, fit-to-fight and am now just a CrossFitter. I'm sure I'll pick up the other stuff at some point. But to balance that with the yoga, dance and running I do, now is just not the time.

Geneology aside, I would have never thought to pick up these activities if I honestly believed that I didn't have something inside me. I'm not the most athletic person in the world. In fact, I'm always the one who finishes last. But I give it my all every time I'm in the gym and for me, that's what matters the most. So the point of the story is, do what intimidates you the most. You never know, because you just might be good at it.

And that's why I think more women should do oly lifting!

CrossFit One World WOD

Warm-up
Run 1.1 miles
Three sets of 10 reps of:
Samson stretch
Shoulder rolls
Overhead squats
Followed by: random stretching

WOD
work on the power clean!

Notes (to myself) about this workout:
Today I was supposed to do the bear WOD. Here's how it goes: One cycle of "The Bear" is a power clean to a front squat to overhead to a back squat to overhead. Complete seven cycles to finish one round. Once the weight is picked up off the floor, it can only tap the floor between cycles. (Touch and go.) Rest with the bar on your shoulders, overhead, or tucked into your hip. Complete five rounds for max weight in the last round.

It looks like this:


I'm not sure what was going on with me today, but I think I let everyone else's weight get to my head. When I contemplated this WOD, I was really concerned about getting the movement down. So when I started, I realized that I didn't even nail the power clean! So I spent about 40 minutes playing with different weights trying to do the first movement, which was the power clean. From there, I did two rounds of the bear at 45# and 50#. It was tough. For me, the hardest thing was remembering the sequence.

Since I didn't finish today, I decided I'd do the Bear tomorrow night. Let's hope it works out!

CrossFit One World WOD

Freddy posted this a few days ago and I thought I'd share it since I did this particular hero WOD today. Condolences to the family and friends of Officer Brad Moody.

Richmond Police Officer Brad Moody, 29 years of age and an 8 year employee with the Richmond Police Department, was involved in a single patrol-car accident Saturday morning (Oct. 4), shortly before 8 a.m. on Marina Bay Parkway just north of Regatta Blvd. in the City of Richmond. Officer Moody's vehicle struck a utility pole in the median while responding to a call that involved a felony assault with injuries. It had been raining a short time before the call and roads were slick.

After heroic efforts at the accident scene involving several members of the Richmond Police and Fire Department, as well as several PG&E employees, Officer Moody was transported to John Muir Trauma Center in Walnut Creek , where it was determined that his injuries were not life-survivable. At 2:45am on October 7, 2008, Officer Moody was removed from life support and passed away.

Officer Moody is survived by his wife, Susan, and his two young daughters. Officer Moody was a K-9 officer with the department and his dog "Rico" survived the accident and is recovering from minor injuries. Officer Moody was also a member of the RPD SWAT Team. Brad was held in the highest regard by his peers.

Brad was a great friend to One World members Mike Mahaney and Silvia Haro. They have purchased wristbands that we will be selling at One World for $5 each. All proceeds will go to the family. Please feel free to sell wristbands to your family and friends.

A fund to benefit the Moody family has been established at Mechanic’s Bank. Donations may be made to the “The Memorial Fund for Officer Brad Moody” and dropped off at any Mechanics Bank location. They can also be mailed to:

Mechanics Bank
3170 Hilltop Mall Rd.
Richmond,CA 94806

It's time to step up to the plate One World and all who visit this website! Dig deep and help this family out.

Warm-up
Run 1.1 miles (my time was 11:36, a new PR!)
Three rounds of:
10 Shoulder rolls
10 Overhead squats
Samson Stretch
10 hanging knees-to-elbows

WOD:Moody
Complete the following for time:
Row 500m
50 push-ups
Row 500m
50 squats
Row 500m
50 burpees
Row 500m

Joanne's Final Time - 27:00

Notes (to myself) about this workout:
I've been out of commission for three days, so this was a hard one to come back to. It was either this or "virtual shoveling" which didn't make it any better. I've been wanting to do this since Freddy posted because doing a hero workout in honor of someone local is just a little more meaningful. Granted, I don't know Officer Moody, but I did see the news coverage of this accident.

I'm not sure what was wrong with me tonight, but I couldn't row for the life of me. I really need some rowing tips because I feel like the harder I work, the slower I go. It sucks! I thought I was doing good time. In fact, I was at about 14 minutes up until the burpees. Oh those damn burpees! I hate those damn burpees! I ever had a signature WOD, (which I actually did have!), I'd never do burpees! EVER! I think the burpees took me a good ten minutes, which is why my final time was exactly 27 minutes. I hate you burpees. I hate you so much!

On a lighter note, I did do a new PR with my 1.1 run. Wa-hoo! Eric wants me to time every warm-up run. Personally, I don't like doing that because it takes the joy out of running and warming up for me. I think I'll time myself every Monday. I'm also working on my kipping pull-up and am the very baby stages of it. Currently, I'm just trying to hang on the bar to support my body weight. Um, I'm lucky if I can get five to ten seconds of that. I'm developing the ugly CrossFit hands even with gloves! Sucks! But I can manage my personal version of a hanging knees-to-elbows, something I couldn't even think of doing a few months ago. I'll get there. Pull-ups here I come!

CrossFit One World WOD

Sick Abs! This is Laura and was taken when she first started at One World a few years ago. As mentioned before, I don't get to see her much because she doesn't train as much at One World anymore. I do get to run into her during our events and things, which is nice. Okay. So I don't aspire to have abs like these. However, I would like to have less jelly in the mid section!


SPORTS BRA SALE! If you're anything like me, you understand the importance of a good sports bra. However, if you're anything like me and are a little on the busty side, you also know that a good sports bra can cost a fortune (I'm talking at least $40 and up). As someone who needs a full support bra at least 3-5 times a week, we're talkin' a lot of sports bras! If you're wondering what my super sports bra secret is, it's all about Champion! In my humble opinion, they make some of the best sports bras and have an incredibly wide range of sizes - anything from a modest A-cup to a voluptuous DDD-cup. They also have a great range of support from light (for yoga) to high (for running). A few times a year they have their $19.99 sports bra sale and ladies, it's that time of year! If you haven't discovered this gem yet, do check it out! They have a bra finder function that customizes your search. If you sign up on their email list and open a free account, they ship to you for free. I find that their bras are pretty true to size. But if you order and find you need to return or exchange, it's a really easy process. So if you need your sports bras, stock up now! I don't know when the sale ends, but stock runs out (and you'll end up on a waiting list and will have to wait up to a month for your support supplies). *End my spiel on sports bras.*

And now on to todays' WOD....

Warm-up
Run 1.1 miles

WOD: Timed Rows
Row 500 meters four times. Rest two minutes between efforts.

Row 1 - 2:16
Row 2 - 2:16
Row 3 - 2:15
Row 4 - 2:15
Row 5 - 2:16

Total Time - 11:18

Notes (to myself) about this workout:
I modified this WOD slightly. The original WOD was timed 400 meter runs. Truth be told, I can't stand timed short distance runs. I'm a distance runner and I have trouble adjusting. Also, for me, running isn't about fast times. It's about completing the distance. I guess this is where I have trouble with the CrossFit system. I completely understand why we have to time the workouts because it totally ups the intensity. However, I prefer to take a little extra time to nail form. Once the form is right, then we can speed things up for time. Right now, I'm still trying to nail my form. In EVERYTHING. Patience. I just need patience.

My fastest recorded row was during my last time trials where I clocked in at 2:14. I was slightly slower tonight, but I think I made a decent showing. I realize I approach my WODs the way I run. I aim for form and consistency. There's not a lot of difference in each round of rows. If you look at other people's times (well, they ran so it's a different story I guess), the rounds are pretty different. Like they say, different strokes for different folks and I'm now finding my groove. Wa-hoo!

CrossFit One World WOD

This is another old photo circa 2006 or early 2007. Something like that. This is what I looked like during today's WOD. I was praying for those damn squats to end. Boo!

Warm-up
One hour of yoga
Run 1.1 miles

WOD: Barbara
Complete five individual rounds for time of:
20 jumping pull-ups
30 push-ups
40 Abmat sit-ups (I weighted my feet down)
50 squats
Rest 3 minutes between rounds and post a time for each round.

Round 1 - 6:36
Round 2 - 6:50
Round 3 - 7:28
Round 4 - 7:22
Round 5 - 8:02

Notes (to myself) about this workout:
Everyone I know who did this WOD says they were sore for the next few days. Apparently, Eric did this WOD and is still sore. Hence, why he was a no-show again. No worries. It's hard working out on your own, but I also need to just suck it up and do it. This WOD is as hard as it looks. By the fifth round I didn't give a shit. That's why the time was so bad. UGH! It's done.

CrossFit One World WOD

Old Skool Style. This is me sometime in 2006 doing box jumps. I'm happy to say that I've recently graduated to the red 18" box. It's a struggle, but I'm trying to manage. Yea me.

Warm-up
Run 1.1 miles

WOD
Complete ten rounds of the following for time:
Run 200m
10 burpees

Joanne's Final Time - 27:47

Notes (to myself) about this workout:
Any WOD that includes burpees sucks. Period. It's getting darker earlier and the weather is getting colder and it's been harder to want to workout. I didn't confirm meeting with Eric and it looks like he took the night off because of extreme soreness from James's class. Yeah. Rest is always in order. That's what last week felt like to me.

So yes, tonight's WOD simply sucked. But I finished. It's not fun doing the stuff alone, but I don't know. I can't seem to get myself into a class. I just hate the competitiveness of it all. I need to think about it. Hmph.

almost 13 miles

This is a photo of JD that was taken during the infamous century game. Yeah. This is what my trial half marathon felt like. after mile 9, I just wanted to kneel down and pray and hope I'd make it today. (ha ha ha)

I've been sick for the past week and the last thing on my mind was the trial half marathon. Meaning, I didn't carbo-load the days before and I didn't pay attention to proper hydration (but I was properly hydrated because I'm trying to shake whatever this thing is I've got). I worked a long day on Saturday and when I got up on Sunday I didn't eat a proper pre-run meal. In short, I did all the stuff you shouldn't do before running higher mileage. I was good up until mile nine, heading into mile ten. In fact, miles six to nine were great. I was really energized. But by the time I took the break at my car, I could hear my stomach growling. I should have listened to my spider senses and stopped right there or opted to go for lower mileage. But I really wanted to get as close to 13 miles as possible. Big mistake. I ended up walking a great deal those last four miles. When I finally ended at 12.9 miles, I did it because I could feel some major leg cramps coming on.

My pace was 13:59 (way slower than all my past runs. It was all the walking I did at the tail end that slowed me down.)

I was exhausted, hungry and wanted my mommy! Lesson learned.

I spent the rest of the day resting my legs. My knees hurt and am currently icing them. I'm so going to pay for this!

CrossFit One World W.O.T.D.

I lifted this image from the main site. Yeah. Across the nation there are some crazy CrossFitters out there! Beware!

Warm-up
1 hour of yoga

WOD
Run 5K

Pace - 12:08
Time - 37:49

Work on 18" box jumps and kipping pull-ups

Notes (to myself) about this workout:
I'm glad we got to run today because I haven't done a long run in two weeks. Yeah. Terrible. I'm training for a half marathon and I haven't run in two weeks. I'm not worried because it's normal for people to slack and come back strong. But I really should be on it. This weekend is the trial half marathon which I plan on running in San Francisco with my trusty friend Margaret.

The run felt good. I clocked in at a 12:08 pace which is nice. I was hoping I'd be faster, but not bad considering I haven't run long distances. Also, please note that I interval run: 4 minute run, 1 minute walk, which makes this a pretty decent showing. I started the run before 6:30pm and had to beat the dark. There was a lot of wind and I forget how that can slow you down. Oh well.

After the run, I headed to One World because Eric said we'd work on me having a higher box jump and we'd start on my pull-ups. I'm happy to say that I can do an 18 inch box jump. It's hard and requires more concentration and I'm slower at it than when I do the 12 inch jump. But I'm glad to graduate from the blue to the red box. Yea for me.

The pull-up was a different story. For now, I just need to hang. Hanging from a bar like a monkey isn't so bad. I just have to hang and get used to supporting my body weight (though not as heavy as before, it's still pretty damn heavy). I can hang for maybe five seconds. From there, I have to work on swinging and then move on to trying to do the pull-up. It will take a while (like MONTHS), but I hope to do at least one by Valentine's day. At least that's my goal for now. I may have to push it back to Easter. Hmph.

My least favorite part of the pull-ups are the callouses that form on your hands. Ew! I usually wear gloves, but I can see how your grip is better without them. I need to come up with a solution to having callous-free hands. Suggestions? (I know. Don't do pull-ups. Nice try.)

Special thanks to my coach Eric for pulling me through the box jumps. Yea. I did it!