Tammy Salo

Traveling over ground and imagination

Tammy Salo - Traveling over ground and imagination

Tag Archives: Squats

What a Difference a Year Makes!

You say it’s your birthday…

 

 

I am 36 years old today. Thirty-Six…that’s 4 years shy of 40. While age has never really mattered to me, I’m left wondering where all that time went. I swear I was just 28 last year! Many of my family and friends sent me birthday wishes and my parents called from the airport to tell me happy birthday. I feel very blessed to have such thoughtful people in my life. Of course, Facebook helps to remind people too! hahaha

 

Me At 28

 

Since it was my day of celebration, I decided to take the day off of running and do a Birthday WOD instead. It was short but sweet.

1 Round:

36 Squats

36 Push Ups (Competition Style)

36 Sit Ups (Butterfly)

Finished in 2:36

 

The push ups were the hardest of the bunch. I had to stop around # 26 to stretch my arms before finishing up. However, I’m well aware that my upper body strength is weaker than my lower body.

 

Mike and I went out to dinner at Chili’s and had a Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie…yummm. I think I ate enough calories/carbs today to last me a week! Of course, Mike helped me eat it. What a great guy that he’s willing to take on the extra calories/carbs so I don’t eat them all! haha…

 

I was thinking earlier today that I am probably at my healthiest at 36 than I ever have been. Over the past year I’ve:

 

1) Lost 25lbs (probably more than that thanks to gaining and re-losing!)

2) Started CrossFit (and debated not going back!)

3) Gave up Sugar (and…gave in….)

4) Completed the 30 Day Paleo Challenge

5) Celebrated our 7th anniversary by walking the equivalent of a 1/2 marathon

6) Battled Cancer by running Bill Crew’s Remission Run (5K)

7) Completed my first 1/2 Marathon Race.

8) PR’d using more weight than I ever thought I would

9) Met Charlaine Harris

10) Started writing again

11) Got my dream machine

12) Competed in my first 10 mile race

 

All in all, I think this past year has been a success. I’m still struggling with eating correctly and increasing my endurance/speed/strength, but I’m moving in the right general direction! Let’s hope this next year is even more successful. After all, I have my marathon coming up on Jan. 1st (if I don’t drop down to a 1/2).

Cindy and Race Recap by Photo

WOD:
Cindy
AMRAP 20 Mins
5 Pull Ups (Green Band)
10 Push Ups (Competition Style)
15 Squats (To Med Ball)
Finished 10.6 Rounds

 

Last time we did Cindy we had deadlifts every 3 minutes and I finished 8 rounds. So…I’m not so sure this is an improvement. We also did kettlebell swings instead of pull ups at that time because the class was so large. However, I will take 10 rounds!

 

I got an email today saying my race photos were ready. I’m always nervous to look at the photos because they never seem to turn out very well. Typically, this is because I’m pooped and forget to smile when I see the camera. Well, these weren’t too shabby!

 

The race begins:

The big “hill” (aka…bridge) between mile 9 and 10. If you look closely, you’ll see Clara in blue behind me:

And finally…heading for the finish line. Look at that concentration! hahaha:

Hello My Pretties!!

Whoops…it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted. Ok, let’s see if I can catch everyone up to speed!

Monday 8/23
WOD Modified due to breathing
5 Rounds:
5 Front Squats (45#)
20 Weighted Step Ups (15# Kettlebell in each hand)

Tuesday 8/24
Strength:
Clean and Jerk
3(65#)x 3(75#) x 3(85#)

WOD:
100 Push Ups
200 Squats
OMG…are you kidding me?! I was sore for days afterward! The others had to run 200 meters every time they stopped/rested. I didn’t have to.

Wednesday 8/25
Skill:
Snatch

WOD:
3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, etc
Push Press (55#)
Pull Ups (Green band)
Finished round 15 and 10 push press into the next round.
The push presses were tough. My arms were quite sore from the push ups the day before. My arms were very achy over the weekend from both WODs.

Monday 8/29
Skill:
Kipping Pull Ups

WOD:
5 Rounds
3 Cleans (65#)
20 Burpees (Modified to 10)
Finished in 12:13
I could definitely do more weight on the cleans. One of my problems is estimating the right weight for me.

Tuesday 8/30
Strength:
Front Squats
5(45#)x 5(65#)x 5(75#)x 5(85#)x 5(95#)

WOD:
Tabatas
Squats (10)
Push Ups (6)
Back Extensions (7)
Abmat Sit Ups (9)
Whew…those back extensions were vicious! Glad I did those before the sit ups though. I have a love/hate relationship with Tabatas. They relatively short but it really zaps you. I fell asleep on the way home! hahaha

 

Tomorrow is my 3rd dilation. I can’t wait to be able to breathe again! Last time they were able to increase my trachea by 200%. I hope they can do the same this time. If you have no clue what I’m talking about, you can read about it here. The nerves are starting to kick in and I have a feeling I may not get much sleep tonight. I have to be at the hospital at 7:30 tomorrow morning. Surgery is at 9 and I hope to be home by 12 to get some more sleep!

Endurance Testing

We started doing our Benchmark tests yesterday and finished them up today with the endurance portion.  I thought we were going to do Deadlifts today, but nope…we didn’t. I was a little disappointed with that, but I’m sure it’s coming some other day.

Endurance Tests:

1 Minute Pull Ups (15, green band)
1 Minute Push Ups (26, on knees)
1 Minute Sit Ups (with abmat, 27)
1 Minute Squats (to med ball, 41)
20 Cal Row (56 Seconds)

We only had 5 people show up today. The past two days there had been 11 people, so I expected more. We started with the Row, which was very tiring. I’m glad I got sub 1 minute but will definitely try for better next time. I tried not to look at the cals so I wouldn’t focus on “almost done” and just try to push through the entire thing. It was great watching the others do it too. They were flying so fast a couple of them flew off the seat!

Next up was sit ups. My abs were sore from Monday’s workout so it was a painful minute!! Normally we do abmat sit ups with butterfly legs and using arms overhead. For this test we had to keep a regular sit up position (knees up) and hands behind our heads. Our elbows had to touch our knees for it to count. I’m glad Jennifer was my counter because I’m pretty sure I would have lost count! I’m happy with the fact that I didn’t stop once, even though I wanted to.

We went into pull ups after that. I used the green band because I just can’t get many with the blue band. The pull up didn’t count if your chin didn’t reach the bar. DOH! I definitely need to work on my kipping motion again.

Going from pull ups to push ups was tough. My arms were tired and burning. I didn’t do “normal” push ups (not on knees) because I wanted to keep good form. I get too “wormy” if I try to do too many plank push ups. For a push up to count you had to touch your chest to the ground and lock your arms out at the top. I rested 3 times for about a second each. My arms were burning too bad.

Last, we did body weight squats to a med ball. If your butt didn’t hit the ball and you didn’t lock your hips at the stand up then the squat didn’t count. I had to pause a couple of times; However, I was happy with my number.

All in all, it was a good day! Glad I get a weekend to recover because I’m already pretty sore! How was your day?

It’s an “easy” day my a…

Saturday I met the ladies at Town Market Square and got 3.75 miles in. I wore my new vibrams with the hopes that they’d help with blisters.

Nope….didn’t work. I felt them starting about 2 1/2 miles in. I’m a little bummed, but it may just be that I didn’t let my feet get use to them? I got blisters on the balls of both feet and on the heel of one. I’ll keep wearing them and see if maybe it gets better.

Today was supposed to be an easy day at CrossFit. While it looked pretty easy, it actually kicked my butt pretty good.

We started with 50 Double Unders/200 singles. I did the singles since I can’t do DUs. After about 25 of them I kept hitting my legs with the rope. Guess my rhythm was just off. So, I threw the jump rope to the side and just did it without the rope. As soon as we finished the 200 jumps we started our rounds.

WOD:
3 rounds
10 Pull Ups (green band)
20 Push Ups
30 Sit Ups
40 Squats
Rest for 1 minute
Finished 19:40

My pull ups were pretty good. The hardest for me today was the squats. My quads started burning pretty quick on. It wasn’t the hardest workout I’ve done, but it was still hard!  Tomorrow and Wednesday we’re supposed to be doing strength and body weight benchmark tests. While I normally try to go Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, I think I’ll go Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Weigh in was Sunday…I’m back down to 199.7. Finally back down below 200…now, to keep going. Want to get below 196 and into the 180′s. 196 is the lowest I’ve gotten since starting crossfit.