Tag Archives: Angie

“Baby Angie”

Posted on by
Reply

It was Angie day at the gym.

Of course, Zach and I had already worked out what I would do, since 100 pull ups, push ups, sit ups and squats is a little beyond my abilities at the moment.  I did “Baby Angie.”

“Baby Angie”
45 pull ups
45 push ups
45 knees-to-elbows
45 squats

Time: 15:32

I used a blue+purple band.  I set up the low box and did push ups on it.  At first I tried from my toes, but I was having trouble going down to my chest, so I dropped to my knees and worked really hard to go deep.  It burned, but I needed it.

Honestly, it was a little easy for me.  Looking back, I think I could have handled 60 or 65 reps of each exercise with no problem.  Not that it wasn’t challenging, but adding the extra reps would have put it closer to my abilities.

It’s been a while since I’ve done full on pull ups, so I prepared for Angie with Monday’s workout:

21-15-9
Deadlift KB 32kg
Muscle snatch #45
Pull ups

Time: 14:47

I used the rebar on the snatch, since a regular snatch is hard enough with just the bar — a muscle snatch doesn’t give you the same momentum.  My time would have been less had my band on the pull up bar not fallen apart in the middle of round 2.  We had to stop everything to put it back up.  It was not funny at the time, but it’s pretty funny now.

Dreading, then welcoming Angie

Posted on by
1

I’ve spent the last week dreading today’s benchmark workout, when it turned out I had nothing to fear.

It’s time again for “Angie.”  Oh, YOU remember:

100 pull ups
100 push ups
100 sit ups
100 squats

The cutoff for this workout is 25 minutes, and I always finish after the 20 min mark, so I was worried — given my current state — that I would be hindered and possibly not even finish.  Plus, this is probably the last time I’ll be doing prescribed sit ups for a while — after 4 months I’ve been advised to knock it off.  NO LAYING ON MY BACK — es no bueno por el bambino.

But today I wanted to do the workout as close to Rx as possible.  They threw in something different this time, however.  There was a 7 minute time limit on the pull ups.  After 7 minutes, we had to move on, whether we made it to 100 or not.

I set up three purple bands on the bar (a little tight, but there were no blue bands left), and we were off.  I came close to 100.  Despite my frequent breathing breaks and the couple of times I got down for chalk, at 7 minutes, I was at 82.

From there, the rest was cake.  My push ups were not as low as they have been in times past.  Belly is keeping me from going chest to deck (I may have to elevate in order to get full depth in the future).  Sit ups actually felt fine.  And squats were awesome.

Time: 18:13

That tells me I could have finished all 100 pull ups, but no worries.  I’m supposed to dial down on reps and intensity anyway.  :)

Running toward "Angie"

Posted on by

My coach once asked why the hell I don’t run to Crossfit every morning since I live a stone’s throw away.

Yesterday, I asked myself the same question.

I got up early on Monday and timed out the run, which is nearly a mile from my house (.97, according to MapMyRun.com).  It took me 10 minutes at a leisurely pace, which is only 5 minutes more than driving.

Seriously.

So this morning, I hit the road in my running shoes, rather than my car, with my journal, key, keycard, phone and ID, and headed off to the first Crossfit workout of 2010. It was breathtakingly cold — under 30 degrees — and I wore my gloves and heavy-duty hat for good reason.

Fortunately, I got there early enough to rest a few minutes and grab some water before we actually started.  Zach threw 20 burpees into the warmup to get us good and warm.

Today’s WOD was a benchmark:

“Angie”
100 pullups
100 pushups
100 situps
100 squats

In my hurry to set up, I grabbed a green band, since I didn’t see the blue one, and it was way too strong for me.  Zach noticed and suggested I make a change, so Crystal ran over and grabbed three thin little bands.  It was definitely more challenging after that, but I tried not to rest as much as the last time I did “Angie.”  My strategy was to break the exercises into 25 per set — it made it easier to count and better to attack mentally.

The pushups were brutal, as always, after the pullups.  And today, our situps were in the butterfly position, reaching toward the sky the entire time — definitely more challenging.  Squats — a fav and strength for me — were the easiest to attack.

I finished in 20:46 — shaving 4 minutes off my previous time.

Wow!

Then I bought a new food/workout journal and ran home, which was harder, even though it was downhill.  Must’ve been tired or something!

I returned to the gym a couple of hours later to meet my I AM Crossfit Challenge coach (JDP) and have my body comp assessment done.  Off the top of my head, I don’t remember the inches as compared to when I had this done in October.  But I do remember the body fat, and it was quite a surprise.

In October, I was at 29% body fat, and Zach and I set a goal of 25% in 3 months — that would be mid-January.

Today, I was at just over 22% body fat.

Yay!

My goal is to reach 18% by the end of the challenge.

I also set some other physical goals.  I’ll be looking at all of my goals for the next three months and 12 months, and I will have a post on those at some point in the near future.

Benchmark test — "Angie"

Posted on by

For the month of October, my Crossfit gym is doing “The Girls & The Heroes” from Crossfit.com.  This should be interesting.

We started with a “girl” that I’m already familiar with — “Angie” — one of the three regular benchmark workouts that we do at my gym.

“Angie”
100 pullups
100 pushups
100 situps
100 squats

The last time I did this WOD, I did jumping pullups and most of my pushups (or maybe all?) were half-ass — not chest to floor.  What a difference three months has made!

Although I finished more than 2 minutes slower this morning than I did last time — with a time of 24:08 — I did all 100 pullups with a band and all 100 pushups chest to the floor (on my knees, of course).

(Man, I hope I counted right.  For some reason I keep feeling like a missed 5 pullups.  Oh well.)

The pullups took the most amount of time.  The band I was using was not the tightest I could have chosen, but I think it worked to my advantage.  All last night, I kept envisioning myself doing a kipping pullup.  This morning, I actually did it.  The band was loose enough so that I could fully extend myself at the bottom and let myself swing and pull my chin up over the bar.  I focused on then pushing myself back and letting my momentum swing me forward.  It’s hard to get a good swing with the band, but I eventually found a rhythm.  What derailed me was not only fatigue, but also sweaty palms.  I had trouble keeping my grip, and although chalk initially helped, it would rub off after only 5 pullups.

The pushups were pure agony after the pullups.  My muscles were screaming at me, and sweat was dripping all over the floor.  I was glad for the mat under my knees, because they’ve have been so torn up and bruised lately, I didn’t think they could take much more.

The situps were a relief… until about 50, that is.  That’s when I started to slow down again, and I struggled to keep going.  The coaches had us use abmats for the situps.

There were less than 5 minutes left in the WOD when I hit the squats — my strength! — and I went as fast as I could, pausing after every set of 20 for just a couple of breaths.  This was about the time I felt like I needed to puke, but I swallowed my nausea and tried not to think about it.

I’m very glad I finished this workout.  For a little while, I didn’t think I would — I made it just under the wire.  I’m so incredibly pleased by my pullups — I just can’t express it.  Despite the blisters on my hands, I want to do more!

Performance Log

I’ve taken to carrying around a performance log lately.  Everywhere.  It doubles as a workout log and a food journal.  Zach requires us to bring it to class.  This morning, a few people didn’t have one, and he had us do 25 burpees.  “Ya’ll are going to be real strong if this keeps up,” he said.

Grrrr… people, better start bringing their journals.

But I digress. 

It’s useful as a workout log, but the food journal is really why I carry it around.  Seeing everything written down makes me think twice about my food choices.  It’s not that I necessarily think I was making “bad” choices before — not all the time at least.  But keeping track is really helping me think through the day.  And it’s helping me see how much of a particular food I’m eating and examine whether I should be cutting down.  For example, I realized I was eating a lot of cheese.  A. LOT.  But I’ve cut that down significantly, and I’m making better protein choices.  I definitely recommend food journaling.  The coaches were right — it does make a difference.