The weekend is off to a great start. Good food, killer workouts, friends, yoga and the farmers market. It’s so nice to be in town and back to the normal weekend routine.
I really enjoyed my Friday. I spent the morning shadowing/observing personal training sessions before coming home for lunch.
Lunch featured the leftover Grit Yeast Gravy. I can’t get enough of this stuff. It’s addictive. I layered brown rice, sautéed spinach and broccoli, a scrambled egg and leftover tofu in a bowl and topped it with a generous helping of the gravy.
I headed back to the gym after lunch to train one of my favorite clients. She had to take a few months off from training but we’re back in the swing of things now and I’m thrilled to be helping her get ready for her wedding! I spent the rest of the afternoon attempting to get caught up on email. It was overwhelming. I asked the Twitterverse for advice on effective ways to manage your inbox and got some great suggestions. I’ll write a post if I figure out a system that works for me. Pray that I do! My issue is my iPhone. I quickly scan emails on it and then promptly forget I ever received them.
After three solid hours of sitting in front of the computer, it was time to work out. I missed a tough endurance WOD on Wednesday so I decided there was no better way to kick off my weekend than tackling the “Small” hero WOD.
Three Rounds for Time:
1,000 meter row
50 burpees
50 box jumps
400 meter run
It took me 47:35. I am not a great rower and it’s really tough for me so I was expecting the row to be the worst part. I was surprised to find that the row was manageable. It was the burpees that killed me. I love burpees but there is nothing fun about doing 50 consecutively. And the strategy for this WOD is just to keep moving at a steady pace because it’s going to completely burn you regardless so stopping in the middle of the burpees doesn’t help. This is a great benchmark WOD to measure improvements in endurance. My coach was able to shave 20 minutes off of his last Small time. Incredible!
I was SO ready for a fun dinner out with friends after that workout. I met some of my favorite girlfriends at ZINK for drinks and dinner. It was great to catch up because all four of us had been traveling the last couple of weeks so we had tons to share. We started out with the spicy feta spread with housemade pita.
I chose a salad with grilled salmon for dinner. I repeat this every so often but I do not share on the blog every single bite that goes in my mouth. For example, before CrossFit I ate a bunch of nuts, after CrossFit I ate cheese and crackers and at dinner last night I also shared a side of mac and cheese and bites of dessert with my friends. This is not a food diary but rather a look at how I eat. Just a reminder!
Speaking of not photographing everything I eat, I ate a cupcake for breakfast this morning. 😀
I subbed a hot yoga class and took a hot yoga class this morning – heaven…opportunities to teach and practice have been few and far between these days! I was literally wringing sweat out of my tank at the end of class and in need of caffeine. There is something about iced coffee that doesn’t appeal to me but I couldn’t even think about drinking something hot so I went with the iced version. It reminded me how much I dislike iced coffee but I still polished it off.
It’s been weeks since I’ve been to the market because of travel and the fridge was seriously lacking on the fruit and veggie front. I restocked with heirloom tomatoes, a mix of cherry and grape tomatoes, green peppers (3 for a dollar!), chard, blueberries, eggs, peaches, cucumber, squash and sweet potato.
Lunch was leftover veggie pizza that I made for dinner Thursday but never blogged about. Ranch for dipping…guilty pleasure! I made a little salad on the side with tomatoes, avocado, basil and salt.
Plans for the rest of the day include cleaning, baking blueberry crumb bars and a manicure. Not bad, huh?
Hope y’all are having a great weekend too!
Just the thought of doing 50 burpees makes me want to pass out!
That sounds like a great benchmark WOD! 1000 and 2000M rows are always the hardest during WOD’s! I did a travel wod on vacation that was 50 burpees run 1 mile 50 burpees and I wanted to die!
oh, that sounds like a great vacation WOD! and i agree, WODs with long rows are so hard!
Wow! I am going to attempt that wod on monday. I am already getting nervous! Burpees are my most dreaded thing. Was it here that I read that they are one of the single best exercises you can do? and they were created by some British military guy, whom I think of as ‘Herr Burpee’ when I am doing them.
It will do me good right? other than just rendering me useless for the rest of the …week? should it be adjusted for advanced age? Like, if you’re over 40 just do one round?
hey trish – don’t be nervous. the burpees are the worst part but they are a great total body exercise. i totally recommend starting with one round before doing all three. one round will be killer!!! lots of people at our gym did it that way.
A cupcake for breakfast sounds awesome 🙂
i did it again today! 🙂
I’ve got to try to make that yeast gravy – it looks incredible.
Oooh…dipping pizza in ranch dressing is one of my guilty pleasures too! SO YUMMY!
why is it so good!?
Do you believe/know if cross fit helps with running? Like improving time and such?
yes, yes, yes! i have reduced my mileage but become faster and stronger since starting crossfit. actually, there’s a whole crossfit + running training method. check out crossfit endurance.
That little tomato and avocado salad looks yummy! I must try it!
it was a nice twist on getting some veggies in with lunch.
I totally want to do that workout, it sounds super intense!! 50 burpees for 3 rounds, holy moly I may die in the process;) All your eats look so yummy so far!
HI Jen,
I am off topic here. I remember once you are deciding between mac and other laptops. from the top of my memory you bought mac , right? Are you happy with it? or you don’t see much of a difference?
hi! yes, i switched to mac and love it! i’m now 100% apple – phone, work desktop and home laptop and couldn’t be happier. definitely worth the extra spend.
Hi Jen –
So I read your blog every day. It’s such a great resource for me…..and now that I’ve hit my own problems with workout injuries I need your help! I’ve been told by my doctor that I need to stay off running for awhile because of nerve issues….which is fine when I’m home because I can use the elliptical, stairs, bike and lift. But I’m going to London for a week in two weeks and I won’t have access to a gym. Help! How can I workout when I can’t run and have no gym? I’ll be there for ten days almost so I really can’t afford to not work out at all. Could you do a post on workouts/exercises with limited equipment? (thinking I could buy a jump rope and bands and bring them?)
Thanks!!!!
hey katy – thanks for reading my blog! i’m so sorry that you are dealing with injuries right now. i’ll try to get some travel/at home workouts posted this week. great topic idea! hope you enjoy your trip!!!
Hi Jen,
Email overwhelm is a very real problem and email management isn’t a sexy topic, but when you do it right, you get HOURS back to your day and week and DAYS to your years.
One of my very favorite tips from Tim Ferriss (4 Hour Work Week) is to batch. It states to only check email at set intervals throughout the day. It’s hard, but it’s helped me stay on task and be more productive. I also let anyone know either in my signature or through communication that if they really need me immediately and it is indeed urgent, then they should call me on my cell. Most people won’t do that and you can get to it when you check your inbox next.
And I turn my email off on my phone so I’m not tempted to check it after work hours!
I’m also sending a pdf your way that you may find helpful 🙂 Good luck!
Hi, Jen! A question on your WOD – do you do push-ups with your burpees? While it would help slow things down a bit and give a break from all the other cardio in this workout, 150 push-ups would be quite a lot for me!
Thanks!
you can do them two ways – jump back to a high plank and then back up to standing OR jump back and lay all the way down onto the floor (chest hits the floor) – so not necessarily a push up but harder than the plank variation. does that make sense? google a video if it doesn’t!