Above Average

Normal people sleep in on the weekends. Get up late, go to breakfast or bum around the house in their pajamas drinking coffee. While I'm not sure exactly how it happened, I am no longer one of those people. I am now one of these people. The ones who are up early in sneakers and gym shorts, torturing themselves with an AMRAP on a perfectly good lazy, very hot Saturday morning.




Fifteen minutes of pain in the form of 12 American swings, 6 sprawl/high pulls, 12 lunge passes and a 50 meter run. I almost didn't show up, but I went. Then during the workout I wanted to die, but I finished. Not too bad, all told.

And afterwords when I had gotten some energy back I hopped up to the bar and busted out four kipping pullups, chin over bar, in a row! Just four days after my first pullup ever. I'm terribly proud of this accomplishment. And just think, if I had given into temptation and stayed in bed I wouldn't have passed that milestone.

Sweet Tea Vodka

My discovery of the summer thus far. Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka, which I had last night at The Lustre Pearl (another fantastic discovery). Half firefly, half water on the rocks with a lemon twist. Summer.

It's made in South Carolina by infusing the vodka with tea leaves and sweetened with cane sugar and it tastes exactly like sweet tea. Exactly like watching a summer sunset from the front porch of my childhood, exactly like a long dusk spent on said porch watching the fireflies come out while the smell of freshly mowed grass lingers in the air.

And according to the internets Spec's carries several varieties, including peach and mint tea.

Mockingbirds

The Mockingbirds went undefeated at Bloodfest, winning our three matches of the day and completely annihilating the opposition in the 3rd v 4th place establishing boat race. Major props to the Baton Rouge ladies who traveled down for the weekend and were a blast to play and party with. What a fantastic weekend of CrossFit (finishing the Spartan before a full day at the tourney), rugby, friends and fun.

Ouch

Immensely proud of myself for finishing this workout, which is pictured today on the kettlebell blog. My hands were tearing open and the snatches were laddering up to 10 per side (I think this might have been the round of 8 or 9), but I finished without stopping!

One week left in the Spartan and I can feel my resolve flagging. This week I've eaten out, and badly, a number of times and Saturday night I fell off the wagon with a few beers at the post-tournament social. Then yesterday I had a milkshake and french fries, but this was a planned falling off the wagon. Getting two fillings, both in rear molars, on opposite sides of my mouth makes for a grumpy Amy. The milkshake assuages that. And the fries cut the sweetness some after five weeks without sugar. That being said, I'm looking forward to the occasional mornings I can choose to have pumpkin bread with my coffee instead of deli meat - again.

Debutante Ball

In recent years the Dallas 7s tournament has hosted one of the most entertaining events of the summer rugby season. The Debutante Ball. A group of us rugby girls come up with the worst dresses we can find, dress up, and play goofy-rules rugby.

Aubri's dress looked like something Mrs. Brady might have worn for date night. Mine was straight out of disco, with gold boobs and everything. There was a mermaid, several dresses that might have been worn by an extra during the prom scene in Pretty in Pink, and Lauren looked like she could have been waiting on Prince Charming to show up at the Ball...

This year's Ball involved skipping. And dress tearing and a fun little cat fight that I think involved some hair pulling (for fun, of course).

And lots and lots of giggling.


(Thanks to Carrey for providing photos and Traci for being a great ref!)

Blocked

AMRAP 15 Minutes:
15 walking russian swings
10 front squats

16 kg KB, Finished 8 rounds + 10 steps.

Today's WOD was rough. Rough in the I didn't do nearly as well as I hoped or hit it as hard as I would have liked kind of way. A few rounds in I could feel my lower back and hips reacting. Not painful, but definitely carrying all the work, which made me nervous. And made me slow down. I can still feel it in my hips two hours later.

Lately I've been fighting to get over a hump in my workouts. It's completely a mental block and I just can't seem to push through. My progress in every area is fantastic. Getting a pull up is closer with every attempt. Eating Zone has body fat percentage falling and pounds are just dropping off me. (I stepped on the scale on Monday night. 158.6#, the lowest I've been since probably early high school.) But I just can't seem to push myself to my own satisfaction in the workouts.

The More I Live

"I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live." ~George Bernard Shaw

I stole this from the post Randall published this morning. It made me stop and think, ask myself how am I giving to my community? Not just living a life of self interest, but rather investing in the good of those around me. Now that I'm back on my feet post-grad school it's time to start making this a part of my life again.

Before grad school I spent a crazy amount of my energy in 'giving back' in a myriad of ways, but significantly through the junior board, which was the most satisfying, most exhausting thing I have ever had the opportunity to be a part of. Service and leadership were simply a part of who I was, it flowed naturally. Committees and officers positions, constantly planning and doing and moving. Then I started grad school. Which began a five year (can it possibly have been five years?) process of being knocked down lower than my 21 year old self thought possible and eventually coming back from rock bottom. My life is completely different now and I find I have to be mindful and actually seek out the opportunities.