05/09/2013 Training and Juicing Disaster

I'm sick. So training as been abysmal:

 

Tuesday I tried this:

 

AMRAP in 25 minutes:

Row 300m

15 DB Thrusters @ 15/hand

50 Double Unders

 

and got to 20 minutes with 5 rounds and felt like I was going to pass out because I had no air.

Today I tried this:

 

Snatch moderate + Jerk moderate + Clean moderate

A. Above Knee Hang Squat Snatch, 2 reps x 4 sets, 1 min - nothing over 65lbs, focus on speed

50/55/60/65 felt better today than I have with snatch lately. power snatched the last rep. oops.

B. Push Jerk. Split Jerk, 1.1 x 4 sets, 1 min - nothing over 90lbs

70/80/85/90 felt heavy today...

C. Above Knee Hang Squat Clean, 4-3-2-1, 1 min - start @ 65lbs, add 5lbs total per set

65-70-75-80

 

And I'm done with running with weights in my backpack. No matter how I wrap the dumbbell, it still bounces around and bruises me. I have so many bruises on my tailbone/lower back right now! I don't really understand why this Goruck challenge makes you carry bricks in your bag, a sandbag or water or something would be less ouchy and bruisy. Maybe carrying the bricks wont be as bad.

 

Ok so on Tuesday I was determined to get better and I just started to get into juicing so I thought "I'm going to make a cold-busting juice" so I packed it with all the things I know to blast through colds. Here is the recipe that you should NOT make. It tastes as disgusting as it looks, and I'm still sick, so it obviously is not the magical cure I thought it would be:

 

Ingredients

2 kale leaves

1/2 green apple

1/2 lemon

big finger sized piece of ginger

1 orange

 

Turns out ginger is a VERY strong flavour. It felt like I was drinking pure spicy acidic ginger. That burning must have done something damaging to the cold germs....

05/04/2013 Training

Snatch intense + Clean and Jerk intense + Horizontal CP

A. Power Snatch, build to a 1RM

70 75Fx2. Gah! what is wrong with me lately!

B. Squat Clean and Split Jerk Cluster, 1.1 x 4 sets, 3 min - start @ 85lbs

85/90/95/100

C. One Arm DB Rows @ 20X0, 4-6/arm x 4 sets, 30 sec b/t arms - heavy

22.5 6 reps/ 27.5 6 reps / 30 6 reps / 35 5 reps

D. 10 Push-ups per minute for up to 10 minutes - does not have to be unbroken, but must achieve 10 reps in every minute, if not, stop

complete! unbroken each time. should up the reps each time.

BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches with Radish/Beet/Carrot Coleslaw

The coleslaw was inspired by my lovely and creative friend Taryl who was telling me how she shredded carrot and beet to make a salad with quinoa. Sounds amazing doesn't it? Clearly I needed to find a reason to grate carrots a beets. Viola! My version of a Coleslaw! Matt did the chicken bit all by himself, so the recipe is all his idea!

BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

Serves 2

 

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts
28oz can of tomato sauce
2-4 big buns
1 small yellow onion, diced
5 picine peppers, crushed up
1 tsp cayenne
2 tsp chipotle chili powder
2 tsp paprika
1 tbsp cumin
salt and pepper

You can adjust the above spices to the level you prefer.

Instructions

1. Get out your slow cooker.
2. Trim any fat on the chicken breasts and place in slow cooker.
3. Add the spices and chopped onion to the tomato sauce and mix around. Put the tomato sauce mixture into the slow cooker.
4. Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4.
5. Once the chicken is fully cooked and juicy as hell, take the breasts out of the sauce and shred all the chicken meat.
6. Remove all the sauce from the crock pot and reserve in a bowl. Place chicken back into the crock pot and add back as much sauce as you desire. The more sauce, the more sloppy your sandwich will be! Discard remaining sauce.
7. Serve on buns and top with coleslaw. For gluten free version, just eat the chicken in a bowl with the coleslaw on top - its SUPER good that way!

Radish/Beet/Carrot Coleslaw

Serves 2

 

Ingredients

1/2 beet
2 carrots
4 radishes
1/2 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
juice of one lime
salt and pepper

 

Instructions

1. With the big side of a box grater, grate half a beet, the carrots and radishes.
2. Add grated veggies to a bowl and add cilantro, and all the other ingredients.
3. Mix up and top the chicken burgers with it! Also tastes good on its own.

05/2/2013 Training

Wednesday - DL intense + Vertical CP + Row Sprints

A. DL Cluster, 1.1.1 x 3 sets, 2 min - start @ 135lb, drop each rep

135/140/145

I'm happy I can do this, I was very skeptical! Felt good though.

B1. HSPU, 2-3 reps x 3 sets, 1 min - adjust height

w/ skinny side ab mat 2" away from wall: 3 rep / 3" away: 3/3

B2. Kipping Chin-ups, AMRAP (-2) x 3 sets, 1 min - focus on stringing good reps together, consistent

6/6/8 really working on that darn linking

C. Push Press @ 11X1, 3 reps x 3 sets, 1:30 min - start @ 75lbs, heavy

75/80/85

D. Row Sprint 30 sec ALL OUT x 4 sets, 2 min rest

124m/123/126/123

 

Also today on my run to and from the gym I put a 10# dumbell in my backpack to start preparing for the Goruck Challenge on August 30th. It wasn't too bad. One thing I noticed was the importance of a good backpack with good straps to keep the pack against your back to prevent it hitting you as you run.

Stranger Cardigan - Part 2

I actually finished this quite some time ago but work is crazy busy and we went to Mexico etc etc so this is the first time I've had a moment to take pictures of the final product! My goal was to finish this in 4 weeks but it took 7 weeks total, with a break to go to Mexico in there, so really 6 weeks. I'm okay with that! Once I was cruising on the cable panels it was smooth sailing from there.

The most annoying part of this project was the blocking. I don't have blocking mats or wires so that added an element of complexity. Plus I was so excited to wear it that I didn't want to soak it overnight like the patterns said to, so I only soaked it for a couple hours in the tub. Then the drying took like 18 hours. Seaming was fine, I got lots of practise on mattress stitch!

I really loved this pattern, and I would totally make it again. Since there is no shaping and a lot of stockinette stitch it's an easy pattern with a big payout on the pretty. Cables are just so damn pretty.

Pattern: Stranger Cardigan by Michiyo
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes 100% worsted weight wool in Bramble Heather (25073)
Needles: 5mm 32" circulars

I am happy with the yarn, especially for that price. There's nothing about the yarn that makes you melt or feel all warm and fuzzy inside like some yarns do, but its sturdy, fairly soft for 100% wool, the colour was saturated, nice twist and I really loved the colour. It's a greyish brown that can go with anything, which is great because I plan to (and have already!) wear this a lot. Since I've already worn this for a couple of weeks I have been paying attention to the pilling, and it is pilling in the usual spots, but I'm not sure if it is more or less pilling than any other kind of wool yarn. I'm looking forward to experimenting with other brands of wool to see how much they each pill. I need one of those buzzer de-pilling things. One downfall of the yarn is the low yardage. Yes, you can make a whole sweater or cardigan for around $30, but you're going to need 11 or more balls which means there are 22 tails to weave in. Brutal! To end on a positive note, I would definitely use this yarn again, its good value for low cost.

Now that I've made my first cardigan nothing is stopping me from making the 15 or so that I have saved to my Ravelry library muahahaha!