Becca Borawski’s Blog

8:30am - CrossFit, All Levels

More strength work - I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel after heavy squats yesterday and was pleasantly surprised that everything felt REALLY good today.  Like, even the warm up run felt really enjoyable.  Not sure what’s up with that! lol!

Did a few warm up sets building up to each of these exercises…

Front Squat
5 x 125#
5 x 130#
5 x 135#
5 x 140#

Deadlift
5 x 165#
5 x 170#
5 x 180#
5 x 185#

I feel very friendly with the front squat lately.  Not sure why, but I’m liking it nearly as much as the overhead squat.  Deadlift was a nice surprise today - I did it a month ago and was struggling with 160# and 170# on my sets of 5.  Today I think I might have actually been able to do 190#!

Did a bunch of burpees this morning and then more after this class, so I was all done by mid-morning with my 89 burpees for the day!

1/4

“Rest” Day

Burpees were unpleasant today!

123 burpees over the course of the day - some from yesterday and all of today’s.

7:30am, CrossFit - Master Class

My One Year Anniversary

Today in Master Class we celebrated the one year anniversary of me breaking my ribs, by doing the workout I was doing when it happened.

It was one year ago, on January 3rd, that Jonesy and I were doing the "Lynne" together outside of class time.  For anyone not familiar the "Lynne" is 5 rounds of a max set of bench press (bodyweight for men and 1/2 bodyweight for women) and a max set of pull ups.  I did a set of bench press, then was working on getting a new personal record on my first set of pull ups.  While I did wind up achieving a personal record (29), I managed to launch myself off the bar on my attempt at pull up number 30 and land ribs first on the black box below me, which I had stood on to reach the bar.  Needless to say, I did not complete the Lynne that day.

A few months later in March, I attempted the Lynne again, only to pull my bicep muscle on the third set of pull ups.  I was beginning to wonder if I was just cursed when it came to this workout.

So today, on the anniversary of the rib-bust, I was also Kahuna for the Master Class and decided to have another go at the Lynne.

“Lynne”
Max reps bench press (women = 1/2 bodyweight, rounded up to 70#)
Max reps pull ups

1. 20/20
2. 17/21
3. 17/18
4. 16/15
5. 13/16

Total bench=83
Total pull ups=90
Score= 173

On one hand it’s a little cruel to do the Lynne right after the holidays when we’re all carrying around some extra cookie weight, but on the other hand, it’ll feel really good when we’re all lighter and stronger the next time we do it! LOL

The first few sets of pull ups I was still nervous about doing a genuine max set. The last time I did what I thought was a max set, it turned out to be BEYOND my max set, but obviously at the time I thought I was going to be able to do it.  So, I haven’t been quite sure how to gauge when my grip is really done and when I’m just stopping short because I’m nervous.  Andy asked me at the end of my 2nd round if I had done a genuine max set, and I said I didn’t think so.

For me, the triumph of today’s workout was that by the 5th set, I felt like I DID DO a genuine max set - I didn’t think I could have done one more on that one.  For me, that was a mental triumph—and I wound up with a pretty good score on the workout, too.

50 burpees done so far today, will either do some more later tonight or make them up tomorrow.

That’s correct, right here is the new love of my life…

…my new ASUS Eee PC 1000HA 10-Inch Netbook!

Isn’t she a beauty? I had a BIG laptop up until about a year ago. It had a gorgeous huge screen and could do all sorts of things, but it died from a fatal case of the Blue Screen of Death. While I did miss it terribly when I was on the road, or just too lazy to get out of bed, once I stopped working in the film & TV business I had secretly been wishing it was much smaller and more portable.

Recently, I realized everything I do really requires only the Internet, Word and Excel. I don’t need much computer at all to do that. In fact, I only need about three pounds of computer. With the help of an Amazon gift card from my parents, I decided to buy my little Eee PC for Christmas for myself. It just arrived today and I couldn’t be happier!

Here are her vital statistics:

• Operating system: Windows XP Home
• Internal memory: 160 GB hard disk drive (HDD)
• RAM: 1 GB DDR2
• Processor: 1.6 GHz Intel Atom
• Memory expansion: Slot for MMC/SD(SDHC) cards
• Screen: 10 inches, 1024 x 600 pixels, LED backlight
• Networking: 54g Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), 10/100 Fast Ethernet
• Bluetooth connectivity: No
• Peripheral connectivity: Three USB 2.0
• External video: One VGA
• External audio: One headphone and one microphone port
• Webcamera: Yes, 1.3 megapixels
• Battery: 6 cells (6600 mAh), up to 7 hours
• Weight: 3.19 pounds (51 ounces)
• Dimensions: 10.5 × 7.5 × 1.5 inches

Strength Workout

Did a few warm up sets on each of these exercises, leading to the work sets listed below.

Back Squats
5 x 155
5 x 155
5 x 155
5 x 160
5 x 165

Shoulder Press
5 x 55
5 x 55
5 x 57.5
5 x 60
5 x 62.5

Both of these felt strong today!  I feel like I can keep my form well even on the heavy back squat weights now.  Next time I’m starting my work sets at 160!

I also think all the burpees have helped my shoulder press—I’ve laid off pressing movements in my strength workouts for fear of overtraining my shoulders with all the burpees, but I didn’t feel like I’d lost ground today.  In fact even the last two sets felt pretty good, even though they were challenging.  Yay for progress!

Also, 81 burpees done today. Woohoo - getting closer!  Which is good, because I’m getting seriously TIRED of these. 

8:00am Beach Workout with Dawn & Mtanwyck

The Master-Classers in town got together at the beach for an equipment-free workout!  We warmed up with some burpees, among other things and I got 30 burpees in.

Then on to the workout….

50-40-30-20-10
Mountain climbers (2 count)
Sit ups
Good mornings
12:29

The mountain climbers get ugly rather quickly.  My hip flexors kept threatening to get cramped on these.  I started out in sets of 10 with short breaks, but for the sets of 50 and 40, by the end I was doing like 7-8 at a time.  I knew I’d make up time on the sit ups, although I was wishing I hadn’t done so many yesterday! lol!  Good mornings felt like a nice stretch—I’m sure I’ll feel differently about them tomorrow.

It was fun to be out on the beach, even in the cold air, and nice to get a workout in first thing today! I had two pair of pants on and three shirts, it was so cold this morning — it was down into the 30s over night!  But once we got going I shed a few layers and it felt fine and crisp out.

After I got home, I did a few burpees every half hour or so, while I was cleaning, organizing, playing around on the computer, etc.  Eventually I made it to my goal of 79 burpees for the day!  Getting closer and closer — there’s 20 days left and 1,890 burpees to go.  It feels good to see that number under 2,000!

I went shopping this afternoon - on a mission to find some organizing stuff at the Container Store and happened by a huge sale at the Lucy store.  I like their clothes a lot, but it’s pretty expensive for workout clothing — EXCEPT when it’s on sale!  It was 50% off the tagged price, even if it was already marked down.  So, I bought $175 worth of clothes for $55.  That was fun!

Over the course of the first part of the day I did 81 burpees, doing 5 at a time in between eating, errands, cleaning, reading, napping, etc.

Then I did a workout:

10x
5 pull ups
10 burpees
15 ab-mat situps
19:32

That gets me all caught up on burpees - having done 181 burpees today total - and back in gear on working out!  Good day!

10 Burpees

Lots more Christmas food….and I owe 181 burpees! lol! Nonetheless, Christmas was great.