i wanted to share some fitness updates with you all today. first things first, i FINALLY got kipping pull-ups at CrossFit on Tuesday! the WOD we were doing involved pull-ups and push jerks (it was a ladder, 15-12-9-6-3), so i grabbed a band to do the workout as usual.
(side note: i thought that i could do pull-ups without a band when i started crossfit, but it turns out all along i'd been doing chin-ups in my IFT barbell class. a pull-up is when your palms face away from you on the bar, and a chin-up is when your palms are facing you. when i went to do a pull-up, i was shocked that i couldn't even do one! turns out that chin-ups are easier than pull-ups for most people. so it was back to square one with using a resistance band to assist me on my pull-ups.)
i actually was using a thinner band than normal during the WOD, and it's the thinnest one we have at my box. and the WOD felt surprisingly easy, so after doing 45 assisted pull-ups during the workout, i decided to give kipping pull-ups another go. my coach taught me how to do them about a week prior, but i was having major trouble with the technique and couldn't even do one. during the WOD, i noticed that i was doing a sort of kipping motion while using the band, which is when i realized that my brain was probably getting in the way of me doing kipping pull-ups. when i think about something too much, usually i get totally confused.so i just went for it, didn't think about it, and managed to bang out 15 unassisted pull-ups!
i also ripped my hand for the first time, but hey, totally worth it in my opinion. i was so proud of myself!
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| yep, i post pictures of my ripped hands on the internet. strange. |
i also was reminded at CrossFit yesterday of how bad i am at handstand pushups. i'm great at handstands, but horrible at the push-up part (and have yet to master kipping for that). new goal for the future: do a handstand push-up.
in other news, i spur of the moment signed up for a Spartan Beast a week from tomorrow. i'd been thinking about it for awhile and then one of my good friends was persuasive enough to get me to sign up. it's a 10-12 mile obstacle course, and i'm probably going to die. (kind of kidding. kind of). the fastest elite racers finish in about three hours, but i think us normal folk typically take anywhere from four to six. it'll be quite the event! they also don't exactly tell you what kind of obstacles there will be, but from what i've read, it's going to be crazy hard and crazy fun. i think that CrossFit and training for a half marathon have prepared me well!
i also need to figure out the fueling/water/clothing situation. praise the Lord there's 6 aid stations on the course (unlike the ONE that they originally said there would be), but we're responsible for bringing our own fuel. i'm trying to figure out how i'm going to carry it since anything i wear is probably going to get trashed. and i also am trying to decide what to wear - at the moment i'm thinking spandex shorts, and either a dri fit tee or tank (not sure if more skin exposed is better or worse).
for now, i'm going to focus on getting through the Giant half marathon this Sunday! wish me luck :)
have you ever done a Spartan Race before? any suggestions on what to wear/bring?
Wow you have so much going on right now! The spartan race sounds awesome! We just had an event like that in my area but I waited to long to sign up for it and it was waaaaay to expensive...hopefully next year! The half sounds awesome too! I have major race fever right now.
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