Joy Like A Childs

Yesterday I skipped the workout for various reasons....one being that my muscles are extremely tight and fatigued from mondays workout/romanian dead lift. (hamstrings killin...need to stretch more obviously).  Another reason is that Papa Craig and Nana Nalani surprised Lokela (my son) with a new playground/playset of his own.  I LOVE playgrounds!   Even though I am way to big to be playing on this particular playground, I am super excited for what ever adventure Kela will have as his imagination is unleashed as he plays.  And for those of you who know Kela you know that it will be something to see for sure.

Watching him play for the first time on his new toy all I saw was pure joy.  It was a good thing we were outside because if not my eardrums would of been blown out.  He ran to the road at one point and yelled at the top of his lungs to the neighborhood kids, "HEY GUYS! COME SEE MY 'TREE HOUSE'! EVERYONE COME AND PLAY!" Where he got "tree house" I have no idea....maybe because it's made out of wood??...I don't know.  So anyway, he then proceeded to guide all the neighborhood girls (girls... go figure) to the yard.  They had so much fun running, jumping, laughing, throwing balls at each other, swinging on the swings, & inventing new games to play that encompassed all of the above.  By the time it was time to say good bye to everyone and get ready for dinner he was drenched in sweat.  Reluctantly he contented himself with a grin, waved goodbye and made his way to the house.

As I watched the kids play, I reflected back to when I was that age and how it seemed I had an unlimited amount of energy.  I remember doing muscle ups on the bars without much thought or effort.  I also remember swinging on the monkey bars with the sole purpose of building calluses on my palms.  Playing had its share of pain and discomfort (scraps, bruises, blisters, blood, & broken bones) but as children we never let any of that hinder the enjoyment of the task.  An example of this from yesterday: 2 of the girls (sisters), one was swinging while the other one was running around.  The running sister got a little to close to the swinging sister and got hit right as she swung back.  All I heard was a loud WHAM as they hit and the sister running got knocked 2 feet in a spiral motion.  I thought she was down for the count, but she just popped back up asked if her little sister was ok and went right on running.  I'm a mother, so my protective instincts went into action.  I was in a half run, half leap watching this in slow motion.  My heart almost jumped out of my body.  But then I had to stop short and recompose myself because the girls were fine, happy and smiling.  Gosh that was close.

So how does this story tie into CrossFit?  Well I believe that in a way with much imagination CrossFit is our adult version of a playground or playtime.  There is much sweat, bruises, scraps, discomfort, pain .......and in Erin's case broken bones...but in no way do we let it hinder our experience (also getting inspiration from Erin, who has a broken collarbone from one of her adventures in CrossFit and still comes anyway to 'play' at the 'playground' with her friends).  And in some ways it even makes the experience more memorable.  So as I whine and complain about the difficulty of the WOD, I also need to remember to have a sense of joy and merriment that I am with good friends on our own 'playground' doing something worthy of our time.  So enjoy "Playtime" people and keep up the amazing atmosphere at RFM that I am glad to be apart of!

G&GNO (Girls & Guys Night Out) and the WOD that followed

G&GNO turned out be sooo totally fun! Thank you so much Robert and Kristi for making that event possible! You guys Rock! 

So as you can see from the picture I posted, the RFM ohana went to Ohana Karaoke and had a blast singing, dancing, eating, & drinking!  Even thought it was supposed to be a "girls night out", it was a great night with the guys of RFM as well.  Oran brought the ruckus to the mic and sang the night away.  Even Rod and Joe had a few songs to bring life to the party.  Kehau and Patty's idea of picking songs were early '90's rap songs that nobody knew the words to so all you heard was the music track and a lot of mumbling random noises coming from the crowd.  AWESOME!  Val did her "Thriller" number and even danced the moves while singing....Talent right there!  Micki also brought her own flavor to the mix as she danced to every song sung and made "rip panty" drinks for various girls in the party.  I think even Luke favored us with his famous "smooth" squat or two.  Not to mention Kehau's "drunken pistol squat" that she demonstrated later in the night.  All in all, it was a very eventful and happy night for all the RFMers that attended.  All that was missing was Chandler & Derek's inviting and happy personality to make the night complete! (as you can see Derek you were dearly missed, Ikaika was crushed when he heard you were going to be a no-show....don't tell him I told you:P)

Basically, as the night progressed and we moved the party to Ale House, the night got more fun and more "interesting"....to say the least.   lol.  All the while Kehau insisted that tomorrows work out was going to be "fun" and "easy", of which she told me that I "HAVE TO" participate in bright and early at 9am.  Looking at the time on my phone the hours kept rolling by.  By the time Ikaika and I got home it was around 1:30am. YIKES!

To tell you the truth I was planning on turning off my phone and sleeping in.  But for some unGodly reason I got up at 7:45am and had time to shower, get ready and even eat before it was time to leave for the gym.  To my surprise I was not the first one to the gym...on the contrary...I was the last person there. (I thought my 8:55am appearance was going to be impressively early) but no. I was "late".  Kehau, Patty, Lori, Kats, Val, Dar, Oran, and Vern were all there and ready to go. WOW, since I'm pretty sure a few of them had WAY more to drink then I did.

So I'm looking forward the this "easy" & "fun" workout the Kehau promised me.  But then I see what she is writing on the board and it's a pretty good size list.....and all I wanted to do was cry. 

So here it is:
(to start off) "Snatch Balances" (WTF Kehau)

(Next) "Pick Your Poison": (your choice of which one to do)

"choice #1": 15 HSPU(headstand pushups) or 30 ring rows
 (base)
"choice #2":  50 pushups or 25 pullups
(base)
"choice #3":  Run 400 meter or Jog 200 meter w/ 20lb wallball
(base)
"choice #4":  25 burpees or 40 tuck jumps
(base)

(what is the "base"?) well I'll tell you.

BASE: 15 sit-ups, 15 box jumps, & 15 lunges
and as you can see we do the base in between each "choice".

I don't know where the "easy" part was...I don't see "easy" anywhere in that WOD. "fun".....well maybe it was fun for Kehau and Oran to watch us squirm with unease.  One thing I was grateful for was that we were in teams of 2 so you didn't have to mentally do it alone.  Encouragement from your partner is a MUST for this WOD.  So thank you Kehau and Oran for that.  Other than that I think I wanted to pass out just looking at the workout.

After I was done I felt so shaky and weird I needed to go home to collapse.   Not to mention I needed to get ready for work.  Oh Lord!  After my shower I felt a little better but once I got in the car I knocked out....good thing Craig drove.  OMG! I couldn't keep my eyeballs open.  And thank the Lord the summit was cloudy because I really needed the break from....functioning.

So in conclusion.....and much reflection.....Thank you to everyone that made the night worth the punishment in the morning.  Much love to everyone! Peace.

Anyone Order a DumbBell?

So today's WOD (workout of the day) was:

Advanced: 50-40-30-20-10 Kettle bell swings...and 10-20-30-40-50 Double Under jump rope...um jumps.  Hopefully you all kinda know what these things are because they are hard for me to explain.  Since I suck a jump roping I opt for doing parallete bar jumps instead which really just remind me of "Chinese Jump roping as a kid".  (thank the lord I was active enough back then to do at least that.)

Anyhow, obviously intermediate and beginner reps were modified.  To give you an idea of how hard this is...the total reps for the advance is 150 of each....intermediate 90 reps, and beginner 75 reps.  Of course me being the crazy dummy I am....I go for the advanced.  The motto for me is...."Ran would do it!" (Ran is my little sister that beats me at everything....some of you may have met her at the gym...she was the short Asian that beat me at everything.)

Anyway, so I do this ridiculous WOD and all the while I'm saying in my head...."don't throw up!" (btw: don't eat right before you do this workout....not a good idea.)  My head is the biggest player in this game.  Which doesn't help when you can't think anymore. 

So, by some miracle I get through all 4 rounds and I realize I still have to do 10 more kettlebell swings and "50" parallete bar jumps...at this point my arms are burning and I can feel a butt cramp coming on at full speed....(relax the butt....how do you do that???? omg!) Thankfully I get through the kettlebells with moderate discomfort....fweew! Uh-oh 50 jumps....oh God please help me! Because I'm taking so long Kehau is now screaming at me, "YOU ONLY GET 5 SEC. REST!", "Common Rikki last round!!!".....great now I have a time limit...so 5 sets of 10 is my goal with 5 sec. to rest in between...(o man now i gotta pee...I thought I just went before I got here.....oh gosh don't think about that, FOCUS!) By my last set of 10 my knees felt like buckling. But I got through it and now it's over. YES!
.....O what is that? now we have to do "Cash out's"????....15lb dumbbell locked out over head with one hand for 100 meter walk, then switch hands for the next 100 meter walk.  HOLY CRAP that sucked!  And good think Robert was there because Kehau almost made us do "Farmers Walk" plus "Cash Out" (so a dumbbell in both hands one up and one down, switch ) which wouldn't of made a difference for Shawna because she's over there running...not walking her 200 meter "cash out". WOW!  Shawna is my Hero!

Anyhow, so yes I'm in pain and my brain hasn't fully become functional yet but it was oddly fun and satisfying to get a hard WOD done bright and early in the morning.  Now I have all the time in the world to nurse my aching muscles today.  Plus, tonight is RFM Karaoke night and later GNO (girls night out) so I gotta get rested up and warm up my vocals because I have a feeling it's ON 2 nite!

Peace!

CrossFit + Pink Shoes= One Badass Filipino!

Hello All! Yes I'm another one attempting to do a blog, documenting my experience as a new member in RFM's CrossFit Ohana. 

Just a warning....I'm not as eloquent as Kehau, or as funny as Rod.  I don't even really know what I'm doing here but we'll see how I do.

I guess we'll start my journey with what kind of kid I was growing up.  (and yes it is relevant to me doing Crossfit)

For those of you who know me outside of crossfit, I'm assuming you are laughing right now because in no way does this seem like something I would do.  I was a prissy girl growing up.  I loved playing with barbies and painting my fingers.  I didn't play sports growing up......well actually scratch that I did play soccer and to say the least......I was thee worst player you have EVER seen!  For one I had no concept of team playing...to me it was "just run kicking the ball as far as you can without someone ramming you in the shins with their cleats".  There was little to no dribbling the ball....and foot coordination was a....No!  Oh and one time my dad tried to teach me how to play baseball, but he threw the ball and it hit my face.  I was pretty much done with that sport from that point on.  And that just about covers all my sports experiences. 

PE....well PE was another thing that didn't sit well with me.  I would think of ANY excuse to get me out of PE.  Everything from....I'm sick......to I have cramps..to I broke my toe.  Run a mile....No Thank You!  I did weight training in high school but I got by with the bare minimal activity....stretch, crunches, & I even got my teacher to let me "power walk" the mile once.

So now that you know that......why Crossfit you might ask....suicide? maybe.  Actually I thought after 7 years away from my old life as a child/teen....I should step up my game a little.  So I did Zumba...dance exercise? ok I'll try it.  And I loved it.  It was fun, and I loved the results after going for a few months....ok ok.....so just a little heads up....Childbearing has unforeseen catastrophic affects on your body.   And as I have had one child I am very afraid what I will look like after having maybe three....yikes! scary for sure!  So yes results are a must!

My mother-in-law is a crazy workout freak.  And she has seen AMAZING results in her 3 years of seriously working out.  She's the one who found Crossfit.  I had noooooooo ambition to do anything more than "latin booty shaking".   But of course since she joined my husband (Ikaika) had to join too.  Still no desire to join their little crazy group....but then here comes Craig....(my non athletic father-in-law) out of left field saying he's going to join too.  Well SNAP! Since the whole household is there besides me, now I gotta go too.

I'm not going to go into how completely terrified I was to start something this intense because you will be reading mostly jibberish....ummm...reasoning...I'm a little "special" if you haven't figured that out by now.  Honestly I don't know why...I just can't seem to bring myself to type that part of my story.

So anyway, after my first FREE day...not even elements...I was HURTIN! I was praying....lord give me a sign that this is something that I can keep doing.  A few weeks later during my elements period of crossfit...I went to Sports Authority because apparently my workout cloths were not up to my husbands ideal standards.  While I was there looking for workout cloths that I would never consider unless I lost all my body fat....I found my "sign".  The most beautiful PINK workout shoes ever created.  I just had to try them on.  It was like Cinderella! It fit just right and I (of course) bought them.  After that I made a pact with myself that if I had the guts to look this outlandish in these pink shoes at crossfit....I will do everything that crossfit throws at me.  So here I am.....thinking to myself, "what the hell did I get myself into!" But it's been a month so far and I am loving and hating every moment of it.

Thanks for reading! but that's all for now. Peace!