CFOT Gets a New Home!

Thursday, July 31;

We have been wishing for this one for over a year now. Crossfit Old Town will soon have a store front.. well maybe not a store front, but a window that looks out on to a street.. well maybe not that (I don't really know. I should drive by and see).. but definitely CFOT will have a building that will be used by CFOT and CFOT only!!

For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about. Trust me, that happens often. CFOT has spent the past year and a half of its life sharing space with a Jiu Jitsu studio that is located inside a gym. Imagine how difficult it is to answer the question, "Where do you workout." I was never able to come up with a good answer.

Now it'll be easy.. I'll just say I work out on North Royal St. in Old Town!!!!!!

Check out the future home of Crossfit Old Town.

Crossfit Old Town
805 N. Royal St.
Alexandria, VA 22314


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If you're familiar with the area at all.. it's just south of Reagan National Airport and about 3 blocks from the Potomac. I know Jerry's crazy, but I am hoping he's not thinking about WODs that involve swimming. Would he do that to us?? There are some sweet little parks in the area, and we'll certainly be able to do some nice trail running or running in general.

Also, for those of you out of town Crossfitters.. CFOT will now be conveniently located just minutes away from the airport so you can fly into National (DCA) and take a cab to CFOT!! We'll welcome you with open arms and a barbell.

There are tons of positives to this new move.. but here's what I can think of off the top of my head. Feel free to add! Post to comments.

Positives of having a new home!

1. Stationary Pullup Bars (therefor many more sub 4 min. Frans!)

2. No more running around ground up pavement and past construction workers.

3. Many more members to add to our Crossfit family.

4. If I wake up at 5am, and I can't force myself out of bed. I will be able to go to an evening class (I hope.. we haven't seen the schedule)

5. No more doing pushups while looking at curly hairs on the blue mats. I always tell myself that they are leg hairs. I got a leg hair in my mouth this morning. eck!!!!

6. More than 3 people can do wallball at a time.

7. Rope climbs and jumping rope???!!!

8. My boss will stop yelling at me for working out barefoot. I always tend to think it doesn't matter in the long run.

9. Crossfit parties on Royal St.

10. We'll be able to put the metal plates on the ground, without tearing the mats.

11. A whole new group of onlookers will be able to ask themselves, "What are those crazy people doing at 6 in the morning?"

12. We may finally get a rack so we can work out back squats. Watch out Crossfit Total.

13. Morning swims in the Potomac.. just kidding!!!!

14. We will now be called the "Royal Psychos"

15. Jerry's long time dream of owning his own gym has finally come true. Congrats Jerry!

Falling Out of Sync with a Loved One

Wednesday, July 31,

It's been about 2 months since I've gotten on my bike. I know. It pains me to think what I put into that bike, and it's just been resting in my house for weeks. It's been hard to find free time, and when I do have free time it's even harder to rally my inner troops for a good solid ride.

Despite the forecast of rain, I got home, grabbed my bike and hit the trail that runs behind my home. From the beginning I felt a little rusty. There's still sand on my bike from my last ride. That sand lends to a scraping noise when I ride. The noise was a little distracting, and it kept worrying me that there was something wrong.

I don't have much to say about this ride though.. although it makes me feel like I've lost my spark. I am not kidding when I say that dozens of bikers passed me last night. I didn't pass ANYONE!!! I swear!! The old, the young, the fit the not so fit.. they all passed right by me. I kept wondering what was going on. Were my gears messed up, was it the sand, are my legs broken. What made it worse was that I was really working. My legs were smoked by the end of my hour long ride and I was dripping sweat.

Any suggestions from you seasoned bikers, Laura??

Burpee Challenge:
I skipped burpees today, because my shoulder has been bothering me. I iced it and took it easy.

100 Day Burpee Challenge

Tuesday, July 30;

Didn't make it into the Blue Room this morning, so I decided I'd stick to my 100 day Burpee challenge and call it a day.

DAY 16 - 16 Burpees + 1 to make up for a missed burpee from Sunday.

I'm doing well at banging these out. I guess at 16 burpees at a time, it shouldn't be too hard. Last night, I cleared out a little space in my room and did them in about 40 seconds. I didn't time it, but that's the estimate. My roommates thought I was crazy. All they heard was me banging around in my bedroom. Ahh, burpees. Gotta love em!

I'll hit 17 tonight, after a good long bike ride.

Crossfit's Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Monday, July 28;

I trudged through today's workout, and called it quits after round 10. I was doing my shoulder exercises and watching everyone else gut through rounds. I thought to myself, "I'll never get my shoulder back to normal. It still hurts, and maybe I should have gone easier during today's workout. Maybe I should have done Matt's 'no shoulder' workout. When will I learn to take it easy? I'll never been completely healed." This is the Dr. Jekyll Crossfit persona.

Then the very next second I thought,"Man, I really could have done more. Look at everyone else. They are lifting heavy weights and doing pullups with weight vests. They are pretty incredible. Why didn't I do more, go heavier, push harder.." Please note, that these thoughts were going through my head as I was doing my exercises to strengthen my shoulder. You could consider this my Mr. Hyde Crossfit persona.

What is this?? Why can't I be happy just working slowly and steadily on gaining strength. I've set some pretty silly goals for doing pullups, the burpee challenge and even the muscleup goal. They are all pretty silly if I want to really focus on perfecting my form and getting a stronger, healthier shoulder. Like a true Libra, I am failing to find the perfect balance here. It's either balls-to-the-wall crazy, or nothing at all. I'm trying to channel my inner Phillippe Petit. Can someone find me a really long balance bar? I swear I won't hold it over my head!!!

Warmup:
100 jumping jacks
Sampson stretch both sides
15 Shoulder dislocates (sounds very smart for my shoulder! Brilliant! Actually these feel really good if I take it slow)

3 rounds of:
10 Overhead Squats w/ PVC
20 second Hollow Rocks

Workout:
It's a "make you tougher, so you can kill your own Fran time" workout
AMRAP in 20 minutes
5 Barbell Thursters (45lbs)
5 Pullups (body weight)

Total: Stopped at 10 rounds

Teaming up for a Take Down

Sunday, July 28:

Four very tough ladies from CFOT met up for a fun Sunday challenge. (I love team challenge days. There's nothing better than leaning on others to help make up for your weaknesses, and knowing that they do the same with you!) The exercises were all bodyweight. Four teams went head to head. Two finished within seconds of each other.. the other two finished within seconds of each other as well. Does that make any sense??? Probably not. It made sense in my head. That can be a lonely place.

Workout:

Team Workout

2 rounds for time

800 meter run

100 pullups

150 pushups

200 situps w/ abmat

250 squats

Rules: only two people can be working on an exercise at a time. You must finish the first exercise before moving to the second.

Time: 33:36

Join the 100 Day Burpee challenge!!!

So far 4 Crossfit Old Towners have joined. Chriss, Andrea, Matt K. and myself. We are on day 15 (Monday, July 28). That's 119 burpees. The deal is you do 1 burpee on the first day, and then add a burpee each day until you get to Day 100. We all started late, so we did 104 burpees on Sunday. If you join today (Monday, July 28) then you would do 119 burpees to catch up. Then you would do 16 burpees tomorrow. Make sense?? Would love to have company on this one. It's not so bad if you break the burpees up. You can do a few in the morning and few at lunch and then a few at dinner. It's not for time. Just do it!!! My back is on fire right now. Serious fire.

I HEART BURPEES!

The Sins of Sugar

Friday, July 25;

I didn't make it in to CFOT today, because I thought it would be a better idea to give my wounded arm a break. It's feeling much better today. It's just really sore at this point. Thank goodness.

Unfortunately, waiting for me when I got into work was a sweet treet. Doughnuts!!!! Now, avid readers of this blog are familiar with my battle against sweets. If there's one thing that is truly hard for me, it is fighting against my desire for sweets. I have in the past been able to cut sugar and sweets out of my diet, but lately that has been harder to do.

Back to the doughnuts.. there they were sitting there.. just 5 feet from my desk. They were just waiting for a kind hand to pick them up and send them down the hatch to a warmer, more digestive place. I always pack my food for the day, so I told myself I had to eat my breakfast before I even thought of going for the doughnuts. I went to my desk, pulled out my 3 blocks of fruit, cottage cheese and almonds, and I ate it. The whole meal filled me up quite nicely. Now I'm full and I have no desire to stuff my face with a doughnut. It's nice to know if I do that, I'll have that awful full feeling and who wants that??!

I passed another test of will power earlier this week. The significant other decided he wanted to get some ice cream before going back to my house the other night. We stopped and picked up his favorite (luckily it's not mine) Ben & Jerry's cookie dough ice cream. So, he takes out the pint, opens it, and runs his spoon along the top of the ice cream. He then decides that he is no longer hungry, closes the pint, and puts the pint (nearly untouched) into my freezer!! That's where it's sitting right at this moment. It's begging to be eaten, but my newly found steel will power refuses to let the sweet, dairy treat get the best of me. That thing will sit in there until he eats it, my roommates eat it, or it gets freezer burn and I throw it into the trash.

I hit a 1 week goal & I think I pulled something

Thursday, July 24;

I wish I could express the amount of frustration I felt this morning and that I am feeling right now. I know that some how this most recent injury stems from the good ole' shoulder injury. If I didn't think it would hurt, I would hit something very hard.

I was doing 25 pullups for this morning's workout. For my first go on the bar, I decided I wanted to try to make one of my 1 week goals. I got 15 pullups in a row. I have done that since the injury, but it's my post injury max. I was happy to be able to get it, eventhough I had to hang on the bar a bit for a little recovery after my first 10 and then finish off the last 5. Now on to 18 pullups... or not.

After the pullups, I went for KB swings and box jumps. Surprisingly, the swings feel fine, but the box jumps hurt my shoulder. It's weird, but I get momentum from swinging my arms, and I think the jarring of jumping and landing really shocks my left shoulder and arm.

After the second run, I knew I didn't want to do more pullups again. I subbed in ring rows and those felt fine. Unfortunately, I knew something was wrong by the end of today's workout. It hurts to carry things with my left arm and certain movements cause so much pain that it literally takes my breath away. The good news is that the pain is not really in my shoulder. It is in the back of my arm, kind of where my tricep sits. Anytime I put my arm behind me it hurts. It's a sharp nasty little pain. Ouch! I guess it's back to going easy on the left arm. Sweet!

Workout:
3 rounds for time:
1,000 meter run
25 wall ball (12lb ball)
1st round - 25 pullups, 2nd & 3rd rounds - 25 ring rows
25 box jumps (4 mats)
25 KB Swings (45lbs & 36lbs)

Total: 39:40