Happy

I have had quite the week so far! It was flying by so quickly that all of yesterday I was convinced it was Tuesday. Which was a bit bothersome when it put me a day behind with my work and the deadline tomorrow. Whoops!

Penny is settling in great with Dana and I. I’m pretty jealous Dana gets to stay home with her all day while I’m at work. We took her for a half hour walk last night and it was reasonably chilly out, especially with the wind chill. But she didn’t seem to mind! I’m amazed that she’s tolerating the cold so well, especially since she’s only been in Canada for a week! Haley came over to meet her after and brought some bones for her to chew on. Penny was pumped, and stopped scratching for quite a while, thankfully.

 I can’t wait until she can be rid of the cone – she hates it and wearing it makes her sad, but she has to while she’s wanting to scratch the irritated parts. She also got a bath. She wasn’t too thrilled about that, but she smelled way better after. I think she likes living with us, overall.  🙂

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I’ve still been crossfitting up a storm, especially with the December 5^th/6^th Battle in the Barracks looming. Every time I think about it my stomach knots up. We had a session with Coach Eric on Saturday where he walked us through a few Battle-related technique expectations and strategies for success. It wasn’t quite as intense as I thought it would be, but I’m glad I went. It was intimidating to see some of the other athletes who are in my division. Previously, my division was called “scaled”, but I’m glad that they changed it to RX because I think the workouts truly are what would normally be RX in class.

I’ve had some small victories in class in the past few weeks that I attribute 100% to entering in the Battle. You reach a little higher when the bar’s a little higher, it turns out. Some things I’ve been pumped about in class recently (just for my mental notes):

• We did a 100 kettlebell swings for time, with a penalty (double unders) every time you dropped it. I certainly wasn’t doing double unders if I didn’t have to, so I held on to it and did them all unbroken in 3:32. #gripstrength
• One Saturday class was a partner play on the Bear. While one partner is doing 5 Bear complexes, the other partner is doing continuous burpees (then you switch off) for 20 minutes straight. That day I did 105 burpees.
• For a five rep back squat, I used 155#. Holding on to those Hatch program gainz.
• The other day I did 115# for a 2 rep max (RM) clean & jerk (split). My current 1 RM is 115# so…
• I FINALLY did a shoulder-to-overhead heavier than 115#. My new push press 1 RM is 120#. For the love of Pete that rep max was a mental one…
• We played around a bit with the front squat game from Event 1 of the Battle. I did 27 reps with 75# (score: reps x weight = 2025) and 30 reps with 65# (score: 1950). I’m sticking with 75# for the competition. I think I can eek out at least 27, if not a rep or two more. Coach Eric said to pick a weight you can do between 25 and 30 reps with.
• I used a 44# kettlebell (one size heavier than usual) for swings yesterday in the 20 min AMRAP. It wasn’t too heavy, which was encouraging.

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As for Dana, he had an amazing crossfit victory yesterday at Sunalta.  For crossfitters, the muscle-up is a highly coveted gymnastics movement that is difficult to accomplish, and a huge mark of achievement.  I was pretty dang proud of him when he got not one, not two, but FIVE (ring) muscle-ups during the WOD.  It was amazing!

(not Dana)

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Socially, we’ve been pretty busy. On Thursday night last week, Meg and I hit up Christmas in Inglewood. I bought a few things but didn’t go too crazy. My family is attempting to tone down Christmas spending this year. Mom flew to Calgary that night so it was a busy weekend with visiting, shopping, and seeing friends. Meg hosted a clothing swap on Saturday and it was so much fun! I lucked out and got some work and casual clothes, and whatever was left after everyone took what they liked, we donated. Win-win! On Sunday, we celebrated my sister-in-law Jenna’s birthday, and I got to play with Kade and Bailey for a bit after the lunch. They are both growing up so fast!

The weekend ahead will be another busy one – a housewarming for Linds and Mitch, my company’s Christmas party, and on Sunday we’re having American Thanksgiving at Meg and Wade’s.  And of course I’ll be trying to soak up as much Penny time as I can before I have to go back to work on Monday.