Home again

Whew, what a trip! I was terrible at posting while I was away, but here are some highlights:

After leaving Boulder on Thursday morning, I headed to Park City, UT, home of my second favorite CrossFit gym. The drive across the southern part of Wyoming was worse than I remembered and maybe even worse than the drive across the eastern part of Wyoming. After about 8 hours I finally arrived in Park City. I didn't have time for a mountain bike ride before the 4:30 class at CF Park City, but I figured out where I was going to camp and then headed to the gym. The WOD was to run 10 minutes out in one direction, turn around, and run back in less than 10 minutes. The penalty for not making it back in less than 20 minutes was 25 burpee pullups. I came in just under the wire - 19:59.

The Speallers were kind enough to put me up for the night, and Sarah Spealler made me the most delicious salad for dinner. Let me tell you, that girl doesn't mess around with her salads! It had a little bit of everything on it. Definitely not boring.

Then, Friday morning, I worked out in the 6 a.m. class.
WOD:
AMRAP in 20 minutes of:
200m overhead carry (35# plate)
8 tall box jumps (29 inches)
12 pushups
1 rope climb

I got 5 rounds plus some overhead hold. That was a brutal WOD. I think Chris made it up just because he knows I don't like to put things overhead :)

After that, I took the puppy on a 9 mile mountain bike ride. It was pretty awesome - lots of up and down, great singletrack, awesome scenery. I tried to take pictures, but I forgot.

I drove back in time to make it to the Grand Opening of Gallatin CrossFit, our valley's newest CrossFit. At the grand opening, there was a pullup contest, and I did 31 pullups! Yesterday I worked all day, and then went on a mountain bike ride. We went on the new Downhill trail in town. We had to ride our DH bikes uphill for over an hour, and the downhill portion was probably 10 minutes, or so. It was fun, but now I am definitely exhausted.

Oh, and today, I also registered for the Bridger Ridge Run. It's a 20+/- mile "run" that goes along the Bridger Ridge from Sacajawea Peak back to town. I did it last year but it was horrible because my IT band was really painful. This year, I'm out for revenge and my sub-5 hour time!

Today is a rest day. Monday, I start training again. Aromas is only 6 weeks away!

Colorado

I've been in Boulder (and the surrounding areas) for the past couple of days. Tuesday I was a Level 2 Test Subject, meaning I volunteered to be trained by people taking the Level 2 test. I actually knew, or recognized, or knew of lots of the people who were there.

I met Tommy from CrossFit East Decatur (ala Shana Alverson). I sorta met E.C., who's last name I can't spell off the top of my head. After about half hour she turns to me and says "I think I owe you a congratulations, you just qualified, right?". That was pretty cool - I don't think she owes me anything, but it's nice to be recognized (not gonna lie).

After a total of 130 minutes of total movement, the majority of which was med ball cleans, front squats, and overhead squats, I was toast. I spent the afternoon trying to stay awake. I got talked into doing the Garage 4150 WOD which was 5x5 Push Jerk (yay...my favorite...not). I did PR by a solid 20 pounds! I got 115# for a 5 rep max, and I think I could get more.

Yesterday, after a morning of working on stuff for Bridger CrossFit, Mikey and I went out for a mountain bike ride. That's where this picture was taken. It was quite an ordeal to find a trail where dogs were allowed. For a liberal town, Boulder sure let's the horse people rule.

Then, I went to an olympic weightlifting session with Nicole and Eric. The session was held by a coach named Ryan. It was really good. We worked on cleans, snatch balance (I got 55kg for a double!) and also split jerks. He was a great coach and it was neat to have another perspective on the olympic lifts.

And, lastly, I saw that Shana posted in the comments, wondering where I have been! Sorry! I have just been forgetting...

Still a no-go

I had really wanted to have some awesome video to show my fans (all 3 of you), and I wanted to write up a re-cap of the weekend, and I also wanted to hit another WOD by now. But, I seem to have come down with something. I have whole body aches and a headache that just won't go away....

I'm taking the evening and tomorrow morning off of work. I plan to sleep for 12 hours, if I can. There's not nearly 12 hours of darkness right now, and my room gets pretty light pretty fast, but I think I can do it.

Hopefully by Saturday I can ease back into the workouts. I'm thinking about getting a coach. Everyone needs a coach. Even though I really enjoy programming my own WODs, I know that I have a tendency to avoid my weaknesses too much. Plus, sometimes, I second guess myself, and I like to follow someone else's plan, sometimes. It would be even better if it were a plan created especially for me :)

Going to Aromas!

I finished 6th overall in the qualifiers, but the top 3 women were all from Front Range CrossFit and are going to compete at the games as a team. So that leaves me as the 3rd qualifying female from the Rocky Mountain Regional Qualifiers!

Thanks to everyone who has supported me on this journey, through reading my blog, offering advice, or otherwise.

See you in Aromas!

Day 1 results

WOD #1. 7:17, 28th place. 59 seconds from 1st.

WOD #2. 5:33, 1st place. 30 seconds ahead of 2nd.

3rd Overall @ end of day. 21 seconds behind 1st, 19 seconds ahead of 4th.

Tomorrow's WOD I'm sure will be a good one. I'm going with 77 reps at 65#.

How does this happen...in Wyoming?

An entire gas station out of gas. Well <I>I'll be.</i>

Unbreakable my ass

Check out this awesome photo. My boyfriend was chopping up a chicken when it got a little out of hand. Either he's really tough or that meat cleaver was more than worth the forty bucks. Or maybe the cutting board wasn't worth the ten bucks. Kinda reminds me of the incident Byers had with her bar.

Almost time

Today was the last big workout day before I begin my taper and rest up for the Qualifiers. The workouts at the Qualifiers are as follows:

WOD #1
3 Rounds for time of:
8 Deadlifts, 300#/195#
400m Run

WOD #2
3 Rounds for time of:
10 Chest to Bar Pullups
10 Front Squats, 165#/105#
10 Burpees

My comments: These look really good. Heavy, but good. It's a little weird that they are both 3 rounds, but at least one is a couplet and one is a triplet. My initial reaction was that these are going to be really short, and they might be for some people. I think the weight is heavy enough though that it will really slow things down.

Today, I had planned on deadlifting, and then when the WODs were announced yesterday, I decided I definitely needed to deadlift. Last time I deadlifted, it didn't go so well. More than anything, today, I needed a confidence booster. I just needed to know that I hadn't lost all my deadlift strength.

WOD 090511

Buy In: 3 sets of 5 HSPU with red band.

Deadlift

• 175x5
• 195x8 Yay! I can do it!

Metcon.
Thanks (I think) to Shana Alverson for this WOD. Oops, I used the wrong weight.

5 Rounds for time of:
5 Squat Cleans, 105#
7 Burpees
9 Chest-to-bar Pullups

8:50

Meh. I had hoped for faster. I wasn't feeling super good today, and I thought about not even doing a metcon. I maybe shouldn't have, but I guess in light of that, my time wasn't too bad. Shana did this in 7:44 with 100# squat cleans. I watched her video and I notice she doesn't let go of the bar between cleans. I do, and my bar bounces all over the frickin' place. I really need to try just holding onto it. I rest too much.

Cash Out: Massage. Thanks Nicole Snow!

My throat hurts. I think I might be coming down with my boyfriend's cold. Bastard. (just kidding).

"Grace"

95# Clean and Jerk, 30 reps for time.

4:14

1st time Rx'd. Compare to: 4:12 with 85# a few months ago, and 4:27 with 75# last summer. I guess I'm pretty happy with my time today. I was feeling really weak and not really excited about doing "Grace" today, so I'm looking forward to hitting this on a fresh day.

I plan to sleep a lot this week. Rest, rest, and more rest.

Oh, and I find out what my qualifier workouts are in 9 minutes! I am so excited!

"Daniel" 1, Jenna 1

I finally got my revenge.

A loooonnnng time ago, at the affiliate I used to go to, the trainer prescribed us "Daniel", though he didn't call it that, and we rowed instead of ran. I didn't finish the workout, because I tore my left hand so badly that I was bleeding enough to prevent me from holding onto the pullup bar. I had 10 pullups to go. I am sure I have my time written down somewhere, but unfortunately I think that notebook is at the gym. I am positive it was well in the 20-minute range though.

Today, we pulled from the Hopper Deck. "Daniel" was the lucky winner. I definitely would not have done this WOD had it not been randomly drawn.

"Daniel"
For time:
50 Pullups
400m Run
21 Thrusters, 65#
800m Run
21 Thrusters, 65#
400m Run
50 Pullups

16:43

My goal was under 20, so I'd say this was pretty good. I am really surprised with this time, because everything felt really, really hard today. The first 50 pullups might have been the worst part - they were so hard I wasn't sure I was going to get sub-20. I guess I move faster than I thought.

Gotta go to bed. Tomorrow will be another long day....at least it's a rest day!

No rest for the weary.

It occured to me the other day that I have not taken a vacation since I opened my gym. I've gone out of town, and I've traveled places, but I have not gone anywhere that did not involve work. On my ski vacation to Park City, I went to a Dutch training seminar. I wouldn't have gone if I hadn't been able to make a work-trip out of it. I've gone to certifications, of course. That's not a vacation though. Even last summer, when I went to Whistler before we opened the gym, I made a special trip to Whistler CrossFit, partially to get exposure to as many CrossFit gyms as I could, and to network, of course.

Even in a couple of weeks, when I go mountain biking in Fruita, I am planning on making a stop at CrossFit 801 and CrossFit Park City. Not technically work, I suppose, but important networking nonetheless.

But, you know, I'm okay with my lack of vacations. I love my job and even if I went on vacation, I probably wouldn't stop thinking about Bridger CrossFit.

---

WOD 090507

Hang Power Clean & Push Jerk 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

95-105-110-115-120-125-125

All PRs from 110# and up.

Then,

2k Row

8:33.5

PR by 33.3 seconds since sometime last fall....

Pretty darn happy with today. I wore my new Saucony Type A2 running shoes. They're kind of a racing flat - probably made mostly for the 10k distance. They're definitely kind of squishy compared to all the other shoes I've been wearing, but I wanted to have a good running shoe that I can also WOD in. Plus, I think they're absolutely spectacular to look at, so wearing them makes me happy :) I probably could have gotten the 130# clean and jerk today had I been wearing my lifting shoes....but, I'm okay with it.

Here's a video of my first 125# Hang Power Clean and Push Jerk. It's not pretty, but hey, I did it.

Hang Power Clean & Push Jerk 125# from Jenna Rettenmayer on Vimeo.

Lucky 7

Yesterday's Squat Snatch/Pull Up WOD smoked my posterior chain. At least, I hope that's my excuse. I had planned to do a max DL today, but getting 215 off the ground felt really hard. I hope I haven't lost 30# on my 1RM deadlift in less than a month....

My brother had trouble deadlifting today, too, and we worked out together yesterday. I'm sure that we are just more smoked from that workout than we'd like to admit...

Buy In: Burgener Warm-Up, once with PVC, once with 15kg bar

Deadlift 3-3-2-2-1-1-1

185-205-215x1 hahaha, riiiiiight

Push Press 7-7-7

75-85-95

Stoked with the push press numbers. My goal was originally 85#, but after seeing my friend Lauren hit 95# yesterday, I decided I should give it a shot. I also wasn't sure how heavy I should go, what with my rib and all, but it didn't really hurt more to do 95# than it did the 45# bar.

And, great news! My rib feels 90% better. I'd like to thank Travis Irish, DC, the wonderful local chiropractor who tortured, errrr, I mean fixed me yesterday. He's an amazing chiropractor and worth his weight in gold. When I woke up this morning I was reeeaaaalllly sore, but he had warned me that I would be. I thought maybe I had back-slid a bit and was worried that I wasn't getting better.

But then, this afternoon, I didn't even realize my rib wasn't hurting until one of my athletes who was arriving for the 4:30 class, asked me how I was doing. Fine, actually! I didn't even notice! It's funny how much we take normal life for granted...

No news isn't always good news

In this case, though, no news is an indicator of total laziness on my part. I had good intentions to post something non-workout related, non-injury related, and just plain happy, to show my readers (all 3 of them) that I hadn't lost all hope.

But, I got busy.

I do have great news, however! I was able to workout today. In fact, I had a great workout. I have a little bit of pain during pretty much all movements, BUT it was not very much pain. Except ring dips. Supporting myself at the top of the rings is not gonna happen for a while. Cross your fingers and hope there are no ring dips/muscle ups at my qualifiers!

Buy In: Handstand Pushups. Three sets of 5 with the red band.

WOD:
21-15-9 reps for time of:
65# Squat Snatch
Chest-to-bar Pullups

10:29

Thank you Jeff Tucker. My chest-to-bar pullups are soooo much better now, after learning so much at the gymnastics cert. My rib hurts a little on the forward (chest-open) swing, but it's barely noticeable during the workout. It doesn't hurt as bad as my arms do :) I didn't feel any pain at all in my rib during the squat snatches.

I had a hard time getting the intensity up today. The 5 days off was hard. Mentally, it's hard to push yourself very hard when you get out of the habit of doing so. Also, I had no real competition. I mean, I worked out with my brother, but I was pretty sure he would beat me. I also worked out with Loni, who was doing a scaled Elizabeth. I actually pushed pretty hard to try to beat her (she beat me by 2 seconds - great job Loni! If only I had done my last 9 pullups all in a row...) but it's just not the same when someone is doing a totally different workout. Or, maybe I just tell myself that. Who knows.

I am really happy with this time though, because it would have gotten me 6th place in WOD #4 at the Mid-Atlantic qualifier. AND, I know I could have gone faster/harder with the adrenaline of a competition. That's really reassuring for me :)

AND, here's a video of my awesome boyfriend front squatting 305#. Nice.

Ben Front Squats 305# from Jenna Rettenmayer on Vimeo.

Test

One more try.

Wow, it worked! I was trying out this "Mobile blogging" thing. It's pretty cool! Now I should be able to easily update my blog, from the road :) Can't wait for my mountain biking trip!