Fear

Last weekend, I competed in Reebok's Ready For Action competition. The top 48 females, males, teens, and masters who finished in the Crossfit Open in Israel were invited.

Disclaimer: I promise this post won't be some meathead rant about throwing weights around and protein shakes. It was way more than that.

source

If I am being upfront, I had a minor panic attack the day before I was scheduled to fly. Andrew and I were on a run, and I suddenly stopped and started crying and babbled about how I was terrified to compete in a foreign country, I wasn't ready, I had just spent four days in Mexico eating quesadillas and drinking margs like it was nobodies business, etc.

There was never the actual question if I would actually go back and do it or not. I landed Wednesday night, picked up my gear, and went to bed. But I was scared.

Thursday was basically a longer endurance workout to rank us into heats for the next day. I wasn't necessarily nervous about that, because I knew I could do it. What I was scared of were Days 2 and 3, and facing workouts that were going to knock me on my ass.

Scared actually might be an understatement here, because I was f@cking terrified excuse my french. And when Day 2 rolled around, and I stood in the hallway waiting to enter the arena for my heat, having minimal idea of what was actually going on as all of the announcements were in Hebrew -

SIDE NOTE: HUGE thank you to my coaches and teammates for not only the constant coaching and reassurance, but having to translate non-stop for my ignorant monolingual self. 3 2 1 GO may now be the only four words I remember in Hebrew. 

Anyways, as I stood there, I had that fear that gets down deep into your stomach. And I turned to my friend Jillian and asked, "Why did I sign up for this?"

Of course, like so often in life, after the fact I couldn't be happier that I did it. 

Don't get me wrong, there isn't some magical ending to this story, where I work super hard and pull off an awesome performance. Naw. The workouts were hard, I got my butt handed to me. I failed handstand push-ups for ten minutes straight after managing to complete three. Which is better than the zero I could manage two months ago - but still - nothing like repeatedly falling on your head in the middle of an arena.

I was faced with this workout, which was simultaneously my favorite and one of the hardest I've done in my Crossfit life:

10 Rounds for time:

1 Rope Climb

7 Overhead Squats @ 40 kilograms

8 Bar Facing Burpees

While wearing a 6 kg vest, 20 minute time cap

(kilograms x 2.2 = pounds) 

Want to feel badass? Rope climb in weighted vest. Want to the immediately feel not badass? Walk over to your barbell and fail the overhead squats multiple times in a row (I eventually got through a few rounds).

I sadly don't have any pictures of myself doing rope climbs but here's
one of my pal Moshe killing the workout

The last workout of the competition (for me, I didn't make finals) was to max out on our squat snatch. Snatch is my worst lift... well none of my lifts are great, but it's trickier for a 5'11" chick to flip a heavy amount of weight above her head and catch it at the bottom of a squat. Quickly. And stand it up. I did manage a small PR, but my favorite part was watching the top women's heat.

One of my favorite athletes - who I had never spoken to in my life - nailed a heavy PR on her snatch. I only know this because she immediately dropped to her knees and started bawling. 

I approached her afterwards to congratulate her, and tell her that she had made me tear up myself. She was still smiling through tears, yet didn't speak English, so the girl standing next to her translated my message.

It took me too long to realize it, but it finally got through my thick skull that it didn't matter that the entire competition was put on in Hebrew, or that I don't speak the primary language of 90% of the competitors there. Or that I'm not as strong as a large majority of the girls there. We were all there for the love of competition, of challenging our bodies, and seeing what we are capable of.

The three females representing Crossfit Tel Aviv

It was a crazy cool life experience; one of those that will get tucked away into my brain forever. And If nothing else, I hope this rambling post encourages you to go out and do that thing you've been putting off or avoiding. That thing you have coming up that you don't want to do because it scares you.

I think the concept "Do one thing a day that scares" you has a lot of merit. And it can be exemplified in so many awesome ways. So just do it. Talk to that guy you've been terrified to say anything to. Shoot to run/bike/swim/roller blade a distance you never imagined in your wildest dreams. Grow that garden you're certain you will kill within months. Steal the neighbor's cat and make it your own.

Don't be afraid of failure guys, be afraid of never actually failing. That means you aren't challenging yourself.

((Drops mics, walks off stage, grabs beer))

Cheers -

Kait

Investments

I like the kind of questions that make me stop me in my tracks. The kind that get down under my skin and really make me think, forcing me to repeatedly revisit it.

April has been nothing short of a whirlwind, with two fantastic weeks of back to back visitors. First we had the honor of hosting Andrew's brother and wife, who then went on from here to Greece. Two days after I headed back to the airport to scoop up three of Andrew's high school/middle school/elementary school (IDK these guys have been friends forever) buddies, who we had a blast running around Israel with.

Andrew's friend count of visitors: 5

Kait: 0

(not including family)

Where ma' girls at?

Since the dust settled this past Monday and the boys went on to their next connections - including Andrew who had a work trip - the apartment has been eerily quiet. Too quiet. So quiet that I made a point to hardly be in it at all, jumping from working in coffee shops to dog walking to visiting new babies to the gym, etc.

But it was the quietness and loneliness of this week that made me revisit the question that one of Andrew's friends asked me last week - What would I even be doing with my time in Israel if I didn't have an interest in fitness.

The question honestly left me without an answer, and my response at the time was to laugh and shrug, admitting that I had never even thought about that.

Think about it though. Think of the most prominent interest/passion that you have in your life, whatever you are most invested in and love, and then pretend you actually don't like it at all. Wipe it off the map. What do you think your fall back would be?

I'm still scrapping my brain. I would say my runner up is writing - but how do you make friends through writing? Attend slam poetry contests? Maybe a local writers workshop hosted in Hebrew?

Perhaps I would get heavily invested in dogs. I mean I already am - and genuinely, heavily miss being a dog mom every single day. I've always had in the back of my mind to volunteer at one of the local shelters - and have even looked up courses as to how you can become a dog trainer. Dogs are probably my second passion tied with writing.

I don't know why, but the question shook me and simultaneously made me step back and really appreciate what this passion has done for me - actually for both of us as a couple - in regards to the life that we have built here in TLV.

Outside of the fact that fitness-related activities take up a lot of my time and are slowly but surely intertwining with my career, it's also how we have made roughly half of our friendships in Tel Aviv. So to imagine removing that entire portion of my life actually makes me wince a little.

It's an odd thought to have, but I found it to be an equally productive brainstorming session. At any moment passions/loves/interests can quickly be extracted from our lives, and perhaps it's smart to know what you can fall back on when it comes to dedicating your time and energy.

Just felt the need to share, and let the general realm of health and fitness know that I'm appreciative of it. On that note - I'm off to swim. Have a great weekend!

Cheers - 

Kait

L1

I'm the worst at self-development.  Literally.  It stems from being lazy about reading, and if there are too many big words or large paragraphs or the topic doesn't fully hold my attention, I ditch it.  So when I sat down at the beginning of this year, I tried to be reasonable about goals.

One goal that has been creeping around my mind for the past few months has been ways to develop my fitness background, professionally.  Then, through a series of cool events, that goal got fast-tracked - and this past weekend in Athens (which was a crazy story in itself) I went through the Crossfit Level 1 Training Course.

Yep, I was in a gym for most of my weekend in Greece.

A massive, beautiful gym for the record.

Crossfit North Zone

I learned way more than I anticipated - covering aspects of nutrition, how to calculate work and power, details around movements, etc. I could go on all day.

But what I really loved, is that I was the only American there (besides the instructors). I got to spend the weekend next to 7 Greeks, 2 Turks, 2 Egyptians, and 1 Cypriot, learning about constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movements.

While the course was in English - it was a second language for everyone but me.  Which wildly impressed me (there was a translator on hand who helped with some of the technical concepts - I really can't imagine learning about 'food blocks' in another language).

Stories were shared - crazy cool stories.  I sat next to a guy who had been doing Crossfit for three months, and loved it so much he decided to MOVE across Cyprus to live closer to an actual gym.  Then two months after that decided to take the L1 course.

Something else that really resonated with me is that we only had 4 females out of 13.  Compare that to the numbers I found for the 2016 Crossfit Open  - 42% female participation - to 31% females in my course.

I don't have numbers to back it up, but I'm pretty confident in suggesting that the female participation rate in Crossfit at an international level drops off big time if compared to just the US. It's more normal than not to find myself as the only female during classes in Tel Aviv.

Yet that doesn't really  discourage me.  It encourages me, because that shows potential for growth.

It also - for some reason - puts a chip on my shoulder to go harder.  Because it's not just that I'm a female in Crossfit - I'm also 5'11'', and I love running - two things that existentially go against Crossfit stereotypes.  I can't even tell you how many times I had to be corrected over the course of the training because I have these long ass femurs that refuse to track over my toes - my body is nowhere near compact - therefore I have a larger margin of error to f*ck up a movement.

Excuse my french.

It's my grind though. I might not "look" like I should be doing Crossfit but man do I love it, and how it's changed my outlook on both fitness and life.  Mentally it's made me stronger than being a Division 1 athlete did.  And I'm convinced I can be good at it, get down all the movements, and eventually coach it.  As a tall, gangly female.

But why?  Why Crossfit - why don't you just stick with running Kait?

Because Crossfit is running.  And rowing, and swimming.  And slamming balls around and swinging around on bars, walking upside - it's everything.  It's being able to move the bookshelf across the room without having to wait for your husband to get home to help, and it's being able to throw your 6 year old over your shoulder when they're having a temper tantrum in public.

It's cliche but it truly is training for life, and

I dig that.

But I think even more - I dig the camaraderie.  When you're grinding through crapiness together day in and day out, you realize that you actually have a team to help you get through.

And at the end of  Day 1 last Saturday, when the instructors (who were rockstars) threw a golden workout of thrusters and burpees at us, we had one classmate teammate struggling through the last set.  So you know what we did?

The rest of us - the 12 who had already finished - started hitting the floor with him.  The words 'I can't' left his mouth and we were like oh hell no, and we were up and down with him, grueling through, until he finished those freaking burpees.

And that's why I wanted a Level 1.

I've seen it change people's lives, I've seen people lose massive amounts of weight, kick habits, take on new hobbies because of it. But it's the knowing that you have people who believe in you - really truly - that's why it works.

Anyways, if you're reading this and rolling your eyes and thinking I'm brainwashed, I promise I'm not.  Or maybe I am, but I also know the facts. I've loved health and fitness for pretty much as long as it's been on my radar.  I jumped from globo gyms to niche gyms, consistently ran my face off through stress fractures and broken toes.  I've bought passes to hot yoga and cycling studios, and it's all great, I've enjoyed it all and still do.  But I've never seen or felt changes like Crossfit - and I've never seen fitness transfer into my other passions like this has.

Anyways, thanks for reading if you got through this whole thing.  I'm excited about what's to come, if you can't already tell.  And huge thanks to my husband & my "boss" -  who both enthusiastically got behind me to pay for the training - that sh*t ain't cheap - and it was one heck of a bday gift/work perk.

Signing off, just in time for the Crossfit Open to kick off.  Oh, and to drag my butt 13.1 miles (21.1 km) tomorrow morning.

Cheers - 

Kait

Crossfit Tel Aviv

It's pretty crazy to me that we are coming up on four months of living out here. A third of a year?? Time flies.

I like to frequently take time to reflect and make note of what's worked, and what hasn't. What was harder than I expected when moving to a new country, and what was easier than expected.

It surprised me how difficult I found starting at a new gym to be.  It wasn't like in the past; I wasn't going into crossfit with zero experience, and (for the most part) I felt confident that I knew what I was doing.

I don't know if it was the occasional language barriers, the overwhelming-ness of the move as a whole, or what.  But for the first several weeks, every other time Andrew and I had plans to go workout at a certain time, I had an aggressive internal battle with myself around why I didn't want to go.

Yet the quote 'Life begins at the end of your comfort zone' has continued to hold true throughout this transition, and the gym was no different. It took awhile, a few moments of awakening, but it began to get easier.

One day while walking home from a workout in deep reflection, I realized something important.  And it's obvious, but it's something that I lost grasp of somewhere along the way, and I think it's something we as athletes all need to be reminded of.

The "rules" of crossfit aren't just something that are sacred to your gym, or your region, or even your country.  The rules and expectations of crossfit apply worldwide.

You cheer on every last teammate - even if you know damn well they may not know English - clapping works right?  And you don't put your equipment away until every teammate has finished the workout.

 You will continue to be pushed outside of your comfort zone, whether you are a new or old athlete, and you don't take that personally.

And there's no feeling sorry for yourself.  Which believe me, I had moments where I tried.  The extreme attention to the details of lifting form took me awhile to get used to (and not take personally) and eventually I've slowly come to appreciate and value it.

But I won't lie, there were frustrating moments that had me on the edge of tears.  

Slowly the coaches are getting to know me; when I'm being a baby about heavy weight and when I actually may need to scale.  Just last week I was encouraged to do Grace at Rx weight (which as a side note, figuring out what I'm actually lifting in Kgs vs. Lbs has also been a struggle) and I surprised myself by finishing under 7 mins.

Yet if I've really been shown anything the past four months, it's been that the one thing that sets CrossFit apart (worldwide) is the instant induction into a community that cares about you.  Whether you fluently speak the same language or not, have the same president or not, have the same goals or not.  Without what has come to be the safety net of a little gym on the beach to go to every day, be greeted warmly, and work with others towards getting better... this move would have been a hell of a lot harder.

Cheers - 

Kait

Community

It's funny, because I almost published this exact same post after I first moved to Baltimore.  I even went back to my drafts to see if I had saved it; I'm sad that I didn't.

When you move to somewhere new you kind of get used to feeling invisible. Not in like a.... oh poor me I'm invisible feel bad for me sort of way, but simply because the odds of randomly running into someone you know when you in fact don't really know anyone is... low.  At least for the first month or so.

I'm out and about several times a day between part-time work, going to the gym, running errands etc. My doormen probably know me as the tall American who talks to her husky and wears shorts during 'winter.'  Yet outside of them, typically while walking the dog or lugging home ten tons of groceries in my backpack... I'm pretty much in my own little world.  Especially since I don't understand the language surrounding me 90% of the time; I just kind of zone out and do my thing, sometimes even sing country music out loud in hopes that it will catch on.

I run Kai along the beach on M/W/F mornings -  and by run I mean I usually am either sprinting, or dragging her at a snails pace as she tries to hunt pigeons. I'm really glad that I left my headphones at home this past Monday and opted for the Mediterranean waves soundtrack, because otherwise I might not have heard this -

"Kait!"

I pulled Kai to a screeching halt.  "WHAT no one here knows who I am and Andrew is at work this is confusing", said my brain as I turned around, half expecting to have misheard my name for perhaps some Hebrew word.

But alas, it was a fellow gym member who had recognized me.  Instantly I grinned and waved and then let Kai continue to drag me along.

(That stupid grin lingered for at least a half mile.)

Like I said, you just kind of get used to not running into people, not having random encounters and catch-ups with acquaintances. But when that starts to be broken - when you build those relationships, force yourself into awkward get-to-know-you situations that you may hate in the moment, but know it will eventually pay off...

When you start to randomly be recognized, and realize hey maybe I'm onto something here... it's pretty darn cool to slowly see the rise of what may be your next community(ies).

As a side note/plug, right here is also reason four million as to why I love crossfit - whether you want to be noticed or not, you'll be noticed, and accepted into the gym fam  :)

So yeah, I just wrote a blog post about how being recognized in public made me happy.  To wrap up, other things that make me happy: it's December, and it's actually cold and rainy here today.  Mother Nature must have taken my post earlier this week personally.

Happy Friday!

Kait

Sweat (part I)

I won't lie, I've been putting off this fitness post for... roughly two months now?  Funny too, since this blog originally started out as a running/health blog back in the day.

I've been putting it off because my general emotions towards fitness - running, crossfit, swimming, sometimes yoga, etc - have been super bumpy as of late.  And I think that's somewhat normal right? We all get really into certain things at certain times of life, get turned off by certain things, decide to try new things etc.  We get hurt, we get burnt out, whatever it is; relationships with fitness can fluctuate a ton (as all relationships can).

I love taking care of my body, and challenging it - this has always remained a constant.  But the months throughout this past summer had me in a weird spot.  A slump, if you will. A conversation I had right before the move actually had me saying, "Actually to be honest, I'm in the worst shape I've been in a LONG time right now."

Now let's pause and define: "Being in shape" means something different for every single person. Everyone has different expectations and visions for the words "I'm in shape" - and for me, it's not just about being able to fit into my pants.  I'm kind of strict with the standards I hold myself to (sometimes it's too much, I'll admit) and so what I mean by saying this is, my running mileage was VERY low, and super slow.  Normal activities were just a *little* harder than they should have been, and when we found ourselves running the stairs outside our new gym week two of arriving out here, it was WAY harder than how I ever remember running stairs in the past.

How equally convenient and awful that these stairs are next to our gym

I love fitness, I believe I always will.  I so enjoy pushing my lungs and my muscles and my mental willpower to its limits; I love the challenge of hard things. One of my favorite motivational quotes has always been, "Anything in life worth doing is worth overdoing" and therefore, I hate the fact that this summer I found myself half-assing it through workouts and runs.

There are plenty of excuses I could rattle off - sure.  Injuries, dealing with a new puppy, preparing for an international move.  But the fact of the matter is, people do incredible things, every day, with much bigger things on their plates.

So there's no excuse.

Anyways - the point of this post - there should always be a point, right?  The point is, I'm finally re-grasping once again what's important to me in the health & fitness realm, and slowly crafting some goals.

Last year on Halloween, I was able to run a 10 mile race at a 7 min. pace. This year, current state, I'm really not sure I could hold that for 5 miles.  However, we have a 10k night run coming up here in a few weeks, so I guess that will be a good chance to see where I stand.  And then base running training off of that - as the Mr. and I both recently signed up for the Tel Aviv Half Marathon in February.

except we are doing 13.1

Eek.

Time to start upping that mileage.

Yet I would be remiss if I didn't talk crossfit; it's what allows me to run the distances I want to. If I've learned nothing the past two years when it comes to working out and my body, it's that healthy running doesn't happen with this 5'11'' frame unless I've got the muscles to keep it going strong. And man, am I believer in the importance of strength training (specifically crossfit style) - and how well it pairs with endurance races.

So of course, we became members of Crossfit Tel Aviv day 2 out here, and as motivation and comfort-levels increase (and I go more consistently) I am slowly seeing progress. Even if a workout of snatches and burpees over the bar knocked me on my butt last night - quite literally.

Wrapping up; back to those goals.  They're not quite 'Hang on the fridge' worthy yet, but they're in the making, and I'm excited about it.  I identify as a lot of things, but as far back as I can remember an athlete has always been one of them.  I lost that a little bit recently, but am pumped to feel it starting to come back.

So there you have it, way too long of a post babbling about things you might not necessarily care about.  But if you do, keep your eyes open, I'm hoping to starting talking sweat a little more consistently on here.  I'm huge on tackling new things, setting lofty goals, and talking about stuff that inspires us all to be a little bit more badass.

Cheers -

Kait

Snowy Green Seagulls

In case anyone was confused, today is the real, official St. Patrick's Day. I know I was confused for awhile as Baltimore literally celebrates the holiday for 2.5 weeks straight (which I love)... and even this past weekend there were a couple more green beverages to be had. But alas, today is the actual day.

green champagne :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Currently, there are some very confused seagulls flying around outside the house, in the snow, wondering what this white stuff is in the middle of March.

I've been wondering that too seagulls.

Another Monday, another day of snow. My office has a delayed start, so I'll be heading in soon, crossing my fingers that most Maryland drivers are choosing to stay off the road.

We first were notified of a possible impending snow storm on Saturday, when the two below alerts popped up in my weather app.

A winter storm watch with a fire warning. Now that's new. 

Friday after work I arrived at crossfit and quickly learned that we (the beginners class) were going to participate in the crossfit open, but could scale down the weight if we wanted to.

Coach - 'Kait, I really think you could use the Rx weight'

Sigh...

Below is the workout, I made it through 20 deadlifts at 155 lbs, 90 reps, tiebreaker of 7:38.

source

Needless to say, it was a challenging workout, and I'm still sore today. So sore in fact, that Saturday AND Sunday consisted of hot Bikram yoga. Saturday I even dragged this guy with me -

whole foods coffee after.

He killed his first ever class; handled it much better than I did the first time I tried it about a year ago. Remember that?

Current snow aside, we had a beautiful Saturday here, and following yoga Andrew and I headed north to explore Rocks State Park. There were some pretty stellar views.

Later that evening, we enjoyed futher stellar view from my deck, which I can't wait to be back up on every day once it's consistently warm...

Cough Cough, scram winter.

I hope you enjoy your Monday. I hope it isn't snowing there. If you're feeling particularily blue, fill out a March Madness bracket and challenge a friend. Loser buys dinner.

Andrew and I love going head to head in March Madness. Anyone else enjoy bracketology as much as I do?

Cheers my friends -

Kait

I wanted to tell you guys

Do any other bloggers out there keep a weird running list of things they want to blog about?

Or even if you're not a blogger,  maybe a list of things you want to remember to tell people?

(I do that a lot with my boyfriend, not gonna lie)

Normally I either keep track by taking pictures, or keeping a list of random phrases in my ‘notes’ app in my phone that would make absolutely no sense to anyone but me.

Oh yeah, I wanted to tell you guys about….

How I’ve been doing Kettlebell swings wrong for the past year. Figured that one out at Crossfit on Wednesday night.

Apparently it’s all in the hips. I’m sore today everywhere, and it’s glorious.

I wanted to tell you guys about…

The fact that I reach a point every morning where my body basically rejects coffee. I would say that I average about 1 – 1.5 mugs of coffee per morning. My mug is big – maybe about two-ish measurable cups? Anyways, usually a few sips into my second mug my body is like ‘ok I’m awake, switch to water.’ It sounds weird, but I swear I feel it daily.

I wanted to ask you guys…

If I need this scarf from Target? Maybe? Probably not, because apparently Target sucks lately.

I wanted to bitch cry to you guys about…

yesterday....

The weather. (YA COOL KAIT YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE)

But seriously, enough is enough winter. Go home.

Pretty sure wind chills were in the teens this morning.  I wore a scarf to work. I literally cannot wait until all I wear to work is a short-sleeved shirt and I’m sweating through it.

Oh, and I wanted to rave about how my favorite TV show lately is House of Cards. I started season 1 a few weeks ago with my one month Netflix trial, and am hooked. So intriguing. Love watching it while I pedal away on my bike.

HAPPY FRIDAY!! You made it! Today is Jeans Day at work, Sunday is the start of March Madness, and Monday is St. Patrick’s Day!

PUMPED.

Linking up again for #Backthatazzup Friday - how 'bout a little fun.?

Am I the only one who struggled with KB swings? Anyone else excited for some March Madness action?

Cheers - 

K

Anuli & Juma

Howdy ho, it’s Friday, we did it. Last day of the work week, last day of the shortest month of the year! 

First thing’s first, how did Fabruary go? If you followed along, let me know your thoughts below, I’m curious. I think I missed a day at some point, but overall was happy to have something to keep me on track.  I’m currently in the process of making up some March goals, hoping to have them pinned down by Sunday.

there i am, writing my goals!

Andrew’s awesome roommate & GF signed me up for a subscription to Baltimore Magazine for my birthday, and the first copy came yesterday. Don’t worry, I was immediately informed via page twenty-something that the Maryland Zoo has TWO NEW female giraffes – Anuli and Juma.

More amazing info. on them here. Must meet them.

I really like prunes. Is that weird? I feel like the word ‘prune’ normally makes people wrinkle up their nose and scream ‘gross!’ but I honestly like them. I keep this bag in my snack drawer and usually eat a couple per day. Pruney and Proud.

In case you are interested, the Crossfit Open started yesterday. I didn’t officially sign up through the website or anything like that, but each week for 5 weeks they will post the workout of the week, and you can try it out and compare your scores to others, if you’re interested and want a challenge. Andrew and I are going to use it as an opportunity to compete against each other. Neither of us are officially crossfit gym members, but will hopefully figure out ways to complete the workouts with the equipment at our normal gyms…. That’s the plan at least.

Crossfit is actually on the docket for 4:30 pm this evening, followed by a fun evening full of green. More details to come.

I leave you with another #backthatazzup jam – one of my favorite songs from the new Dierks Bentley album this week. Nothing screams Friday like ‘Drunk on a Plane’

 

Cheers –

Kait

Two Days

It’s snowing again today. I suppose I can’t really comment, as I’ve stated in the past that my personal rule is I can’t complain about snow until we hit March.

Two more days 'til March guys.

I realized that the combination of a beautiful weather weekend followed by three crappy cold snowy days of weather this week was been the perfect concoction for a bad attitude, and not feeling so hot. I have literally been a Debbie Downer to the point that I googled ‘things to do to make me happy’ … and super unmotivated to the point that I considered going to bed at 7:30 pm last night.

Instead, I went over to Andrew’s in full-fledged pout mode, and he did two things that I really needed.

• Got me a mini cheesecake from Whole Foods
• Told me to stop being a pansy

Fair enough. So I guess instead of sitting here being a crying pansy, I will do everything in my power to share positive things.

I’m feeling good about the workout balance that I’m finding over the course of this past month. Andrew and I recently bought a Bikram Hot Yoga Groupon, so that will now be implemented 1 – 2xs per week, on top of my twice(ish) a week spinning, running, and crossfitting. Pretty solid balance if you ask me.

source

Speaking of crossfit, here is my most recent WOD:

4 sets, for time

15 thrusters (45 lbs)

15 burpees over the bar

Total Time, 12:36. Shoulders are still feeling sore today.

I discovered a few challenging looking treadmill workouts on Ashley’s blog - I think I may try the one below out this week. I’ve been trying a little harder recently to find more blogger friends who I enjoy reading. Another is Becki over at Bites & Brews who is currently hosting a Craft Beer book giveaway if you’re interested!

original source

Last but not least, one of my favorite ways to stay positive is to find quotes on Pinterest and share them, set them as my phone background, write them down, etc. I find a lot of power in simple words, so I shall leave you with a few.

and my personal favorite - 

Cheers to being halfway –

Kait

Five Things Friday

BEFORE we go any further, I have an announcement. Last night, at my third Blue Crab Crossfit class ever, I did my first double unders! 45 total, strung together about 10 in a row. The coach, Ben, was awesome, and sorry I'm not sorry, I'm a little bit proud of myself.

Moving on.

For Five Things Friday, I’m going to name one thing under each of the five categories that I’ve selected. This has been done mainly to cover the random assortment of things that I want to discuss.

1 (one) thing I loved this week – My run on Wednesday after work. Temperatures were hovering right around 55, and I was able to pull on shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt. It was magical. I did a couple laps around Patterson Park and then a short jaunt down by the water, totaling just over seven miles for this girl.

1 (one) thing (I realized) I dislike this week – The fact that Starbucks doesn’t offer almond milk. Am I being outrageous here with this expectation? I guess I just figured that enough people across the country now drink almond milk almost exclusively… it would just be an awesome option to have. Is anyone else with me here? Hello Starbs, are you listening to me??

1 (one) thing I (oddly) miss – I never in a million years thought I would say this. But while I was in the office kitchen earlier this week, another dept. was setting up for their team breakfast, and a woman was setting up one of those electric griddle things. See below.

It flashed me back to my time working in the Sunflower Deli back in good ole’ Fort Collins, CO (which is now apparently a Sprouts). Once a month we had a senior breakfast, and would set up about five of those griddles at 6 AM to cook up a plethora of pancakes, sausages, etc. At the time one of my favorite hobbies was b*tching about that job, but looking back, it was a job that kept me incredibly active, I worked with very caring people, and got to interact with a ton of (mostly) happy customers on a daily basis. I mean we were in Colorado after all – everyone is pretty much always happy there.

me, in Colorado, being very happy.

1 (one) thing that makes me sad – My leg still hurts. My right hamstring to be exact, right up under my butt. The thing is, it isn’t sharp or jabbing or anything that is super restrictive (hence why I still allow two runs per week) but my sadness comes from the fact that it has been lingering since late September. If I had to wager (I’ve been doing some reading) it’s an obnoxious case of high hamstring tendon apathy – you can readthis post on it, or this article, and then shake your head and agree with me.

I’ve started implementing some of the mentioned exercises and should probably get a little more aggressive with them. Any other suggestions or comments on this matter is more than appreciated.

Last but not least –

1 (one) thing that makes me excited – USA men’s hockey vs. Canada, today at noon EST. A win puts us in the finals – fingers crossed!

Zach Parise

Linking up with #Backthatazzup Friday – enjoy the below jam!

Cheers to ‘Merica!!

And last, but not least - an extra Friday thing. This late V-day gift - a giraffe named Sphincter - showed up on my porch last night. I love him like he's my own son.

Tell me some things you love/hate/miss/are confused by/pumped for this week. Ready go-

Kait

Monday Blues

If we are being dead honest, I had a serious case of the Monday blues this morning. So no better of a reason than to link up for a Marvelous in my Monday post to sum up my weekend, and announce the winner of my Blogiversary Giveaway!

Marvelous was going to our first ever REI garage sale. We had no idea what to expect when pulling into the parking lot at 8:30 AM – and were really surprised when we saw a line of about 50 people deep. They passed out tickets by color depending on what time we had arrived by – we were the third group to be called back.

For those of you have never been to an REI garage sale, it’s basically when they put out products that have been gently used/returned, marked down to an insanely low prices. We managed to snag a sleeping pad for our (hopeful) camping endeavors this summer, and I got an awesome pair of North Face workout capris that were marked down to almost nothing.

I also have a Marvelous recipe to share. Last night my roommate Megan showed me a delicious looking gluten-free pizza recipe on the blog inspiralized. It gave the option to use either sweet potato or regular potatoes, so we decided to have a cook-off. I made the version with sweet potatoes to make it (almost) paleo (minus the mozzarella cheese), and she made the version with regular potatoes...

Meg's

Mine

 We then had Andrew do a blind taste test. He claimed to liked them both, but could ‘tell that mine was healthier’ and liked Megan’s better because he ‘could house it a lot easier.’

Fair enough. Round one goes to Megan.

Last Marvelous the day? It's a little bitter sweet, because I have a confession to make...

I cheated on running... and spinning... and I liked it a lot.

Awhile ago my coworker showed me a LivingSocial deal for a new crossfit gym near our work - Blue Crab Crossfit. I purchased it (10 beginner classes) and then literally put off going for a solid two weeks. Monday morning kicked my ass hard, and I knew I needed a literal ass kicking workout to lift my spirits, so I nervously headed to the gym after work.

In short, it was great. We practiced overhead squats after a short warm-up, and then the modified beginner WOD consisted of:

12 mins, every minute on the minute:

-8 wall balls (14 lbs)

-6 burpees (no jump)

I managed to finish 11/12 sets. My lungs were screaming at me after the fact, and I left feeling pretty damn good.

  AND finally, the winner of my Larabar giveaway is....

Congrats to Nicole over at Not Before My Tea, who ironically moved from Baltimore to Chicago a year or two ago. Opposite life stories, both runners, but she has funnier jokes than I do.

Cheers my friends - 

Kait