Confessions of a Recovering Couch Potato

She’s headin’ to Afghanistan…

Nicole Schwegman — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 10:33:25 +0000

So I know I haven’t updated in a hot minute and I’m sorry about that. But I’ve had to leave PCF because I am on my way to Afghanistan. I feel confident however that I will be able to carry all of my crap because of the training I did at crossfit. Before leaving I decided to challenge myself physically with a goal of being able to do 100 pullups without dropping knees to the deck. Can I do it? Will I perish trying? Who knows. But it’s something that I can work on while I’m gone that should be good for me. I also have every intention of doing Crossfit workouts while I’m gone. I was lucky enough to download a guide that gives 75 crossfit travel WODS that someone can do when they have no equipment. I’ve been doing them in my room.

I’ll try to keep updating this thing with my Afghan WODs, but no promises based on how internet and the like will be over there.

In any case, I know I will greatly miss the gym.

Day 105

Nicole Schwegman — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 14:46:35 +0000

WOD

For Time:
30 Chest to bar Pull-ups
15 Deadlifts (225/155)
400m run
30 Push-ups
15 Push Press or Jerk (135/95)
30 Squats
15 Front squat (135/95)
400m run
15 Deadlifts (225/155)
30 Chest to bar Pull-ups
Post time to comments.
Everyone will have 1 bar and change weights themselves.

My results: 25:46 with red, blue and black bands (I probably should just use green but mentally, this helps me to use smaller bands), 155lbs for the first round of dead lifts, 45 lbs for the push press and front squat (weak but I was dead tired by then) and 125lbs for the last deadlift set.

So after a three day stint with Strep Throat (yes, it was nasty and yes, it made me draggy all week), I felt good enough to come into the gym today to get my butt kicked. And by the looks of that workout, it was definitely going to be a butt kicker. And it did kick my butt but in a slow burn way. It was hard to know how to scale this because I am a lot stronger on the bottom than on the top. I can lift 155 15 times but not in a row. I can’t do it twice in one workout. My form starts to go to crap around 12 and that’s no good as I want to have a healthy back and doing deadlifts the wrong way is a surefire trip to backache city.

Over it’s been over 100 Crossfit workouts for me and I must say that I feel really good. More times than not I am still terrified of workouts and if I am not terrified, I am completely caught off guard by how hard a supposedly easy looking workout really is. As I count down to deployment which is only three weeks away, I have to say I know I still won’t be a perfect workout machine, but I’ll probably be able to hang on in the runs that we have to do. I now know that I won’t die if I have to carry four seabags full of crap down a tarmac by myself. I feel physically confident enough to handle a weapon. And I am mentally confident that I can take some pain.

I have to head off to training for about two weeks, but I am hoping to try and find a box near where I am to get a workout or two in. Until then I’ll be stalking the PCF page and trying to do the workouts on my own.

Day 98, Day 99

Nicole Schwegman — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:56:25 +0000

Day 98

WOD

Christine

“Christine”
3 Rounds
500m Row
12 Deadlifts (Bodyweight)
21 Box Jumps (20 inches)

My results

15:08 with 115lbs for weight.

Day 99

WOD

Back Squats
3-3-3-3-3

3 Rounds
10 DB Hang Squat Thruster (40/25)
15 KB Swings (2/1.5)

My results: 130lbs max weight for reps, 6:16 for the METCON

So after a week of doing afternoon workouts I am back to morning workouts again. I must say however that although I enjoyed the afternoon, it feels nice to know that I am done for the rest of the day.

The workouts felt good and I am feeling confident going into the deployment that I am pretty strong. Running however is still a weakness for me. But what I want to talk about this morning for a moment is body image.

So I was at the pool on Saturday and felt pretty good about the fact that I can now wear a bikini without shame. I mean it’s taken a while to get to that point, and while my body does not look perfect by my standards, my husband thinks I look fantastic. (And no, he’s not the type of man to give false complements.) So anyways I was at the pool and this girl, who looked like Heidi Klum’s sister was complaining about how fat she has gotten. Make no matter that she looked like a size two and had a COMPLETELY flat tummy and a beautiful tan. I couldn’t tell if she was serious but she looked serious so I am going to assume for the moment that she was actually embarrassed by her weight. So much so that she would not take off her cover up and join her friends in the pool.

So then I got to thinking, if this girl thinks she is fat, then I must look like Shamu in a bikini. I mean, if you’ve seen me, you know that I have some junk in my trunk. While I am small, I would never be mistaken for a “skinny girl”. For five minutes at the pool, I started to panic. Maybe I should put on my cover up. Maybe I should not be wearing a bikini after all. Maybe I should ditch the pool and lock myself in my condo and watch nothing but Biggest Loser re-runs to keep me terrified from missing a day at the gym.

Then after the panic attack I looked at skinny chick over there again. Here was this gorgeous woman complaining about how fat she looked. And I came to the conclusion that she was delusional or fishing for complements. What I learned from her is that when you only look to the outside to look good, you will never be happy. I have derived a lot of physical confidence from Crossfit that deals with more than just how I look. Sure, I am digging the Michelle Obama arms that I now have and I am stoked that I look so much better in my clothes. But I guess I am also just more mentally confident with my body because I know that I can workout hard and not give up. I am healthy and strong and in the best shape of my life. And that’s what’s really important in the long run. So maybe I don’t have rock hard abs yet and my butt is still a little bigger than I would like it to be. That butt allows me to squat 130lbs easy. It’ll get smaller and I am working on it. But in the meantime, I’m gonna be happy with how I look today and enjoy myself at the pool. In a bikini.

Day 93

Nicole Schwegman — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:10:44 +0000

WOD

CrossFit Total
1RM Squat
1RM Press
1RM Deadlift
Post total load to comments.
You have three attempts after warm-ups on each lift to set a 1 rep max.
Compare to 091101.

My results:

135lbs x 3 for squat

60lbs 1RM for Press

200lb (PR) 1RM for Deadlift

Total — 395lbs

Today was a mixture of crappy and great performances. I did terrible on the squat. My goal was to get to 210 and I completely failed at that. I put 170 on my back and nearly fell over twice. I just could not get it up. I did ok on press, I knew that I would peter out in the 60s. But I absolutely killed it on deadlift. I was able to pick up 200lbs, which was 10lbs over my last PR. I was all over the place this morning. So I think I know why my squat was so crappy this morning. Three factors: 1. I had drink last night with dinner and I felt somewhat groggy this morning. Although some may say it’s only one drink, that was enough to affect my body. This tells me that I cannot drink before workouts because I don’t recover fast enough. Even one small drink really affects me. 2. I went to bed late. I’ll admit it, I was up watching True Blood when I should have been sleeping. I need more sleep to be stronger. 3. I’ve been eating too much crap again. Slowly but surely, I’ve been bad and falling off the Caveman Wagon. I need to eat better so that my body isn’t all in flux. It really shows in my lifts. So then why did I pull a PR in deadlift? It’s simple really: Sheer willpower. I was so embarrassed by my squat I had to make it up in the last event. So just think about how much more I could have pulled if I had taken care of the other three factors.

Just goes to show you that the fuel you put into your body really does make a difference.

So truly, I have no one to blame but myself and this is the price I pay for not being stricter with my diet again. Back on the wagon I go.

Day 88,89,90

Nicole Schwegman — Mon, 31 May 2010 18:55:38 +0000

Day 88 WOD

Deadlift
3-3-3-3-3

3 Rounds

10 Overhead Squat (135/95)

50 Double Unders

5 Minute time limit. Scale appropriately.

Post loads and times to comments.

My results

195lbs max DL, 4:40 scaling weight to 32lbs.

Day 89

Fight Gone Bad

1. Wall-ball: 12 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
2. Sumo deadlift high-pull: 55 pounds (Reps)
3. Box Jump: 20″ box (Reps) — I used four 45lbs weights
4. Push-press: 55lb pounds (Reps)
5. Row: calories (Calories)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of “rotate,” the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

My results (scaled version) — 205

Day 90

“Nutts”
10 Handstand push-ups — I used box assist for this
250 pound Deadlift, 15 reps — I used 125 lbs
25 Box jumps, 30 inch box — I used 20 inch box
50 Pull-ups — I did 25 with blue band and had to switch to green band for the last 15.
100 Wallball shots, 20 pounds, 10′ — 50 Wallballs using 8lbs ball
200 Double-unders — 25 DU and 100 SU
Run 400 meters with a 45lb plate — Ran 400m with a 25lbs plate.

First three days back. Yes, they all sucked and yes they were totally hard. But I am so glad that I did not wuss out and pushed myself to head to these WODs. I am pretty freaking tired and can barely move off the couch but I did it. And I actually had the nerve to do a short jog before going to Monday’s workout.

I have a goal this month do work out as much as programming will allow before I take off on deployment. I am so grateful for the base I have built all last fall and this winter but I really want to hit it hard at the gym before I head off on deployment. So here goes.