No Chickens Were Harmed

Yesterday was the Crossfit Fitness Derby. And unlike last year, no chickens died (click here for that story). This year, the fair folks made sure the Derby was on the opposite side of the fairgrounds from the Cluck Hut. And unlike last year, I participated this year! I was going to wax eloquent about the metaphor one can draw between sports competition and life; not believing your own stories about what you think you can do (I even found a nice Bruce Lee quote). Blah, blah, blah, whatever. I'm tired. Too tired to even hold a thought in my head.

Allergies - 1/Heather - 0

Today started out as such a productive day. I was up by 7:15 in time to have coffee before my 8:00 live webinar CEU class; I was at the allergy clinic by 10:00, I was going to wash window screens before going to the gym at 11:30. Man, was I off to a good start!

Nothing like a trip to the ER for it all to go to hell.

AK Champ!

Folks, you can now say that you know an Alaska State Record Holder in Olympic Weightlifting (for my age/gender/weight class). There are two lifts in Olympic Weightlifting: the snatch and the clean &Jerk. My record for the snatch is 66lbs; and for Clean &Jerk 93.5lbs.To be clear, I'm not *the* record holder. Each age group is broken down by weight classes and there is a record holder for each of those groups.

Forgive Me Father, I have Sinned

Tonight at Crossfit I almost cheated on Fran. First, let me explain. Fran isn't a who, she's a what. A benchmark workout in the world of Crossfit. Periodically we do these benchmark workouts to measure our progress. Tonight we did Fran. This ecard says it all:

Hot

Hot, as in Bikram Yoga hot. The room is 105 degrees while you move through a sequence of 26 poses. Like Crossfit, I have goals for Bikram yoga: don't throw up and don't pass out. Unlike Crossfit I don't need to worry about peeing my pants. During hot yoga you sweat so much that the studio floor has to be mopped before the next class. If I even had water remaining in my body to excrete no one would notice if I tinkled in my pants.

I did Bikram yoga this past week while visiting my friend Hollie. I blame this on her. She convinced me to go because of the "scenery" in class. I wouldn't know if there was scenery or not. I couldn't see due to my vision being obscured by copious amounts of sweat. After being in -40 temps for weeks immersing myself in 105 degrees may have been a shock to my system. At times I felt dizzy, nauseous and like I was going to hurl. The heat was oppressive -- it hurt to inhale. But it felt good.

I found Bikram Yoga to be equally as hard as Crossfit albeit in a different way. Very technical, like Crossfit, and the intensity is similar. You get little breaks but they're never long enough to recover. And as I mentioned, there's the whole passing out and puking elements that tie the activities together. Apparently these are things I enjoy about exercise. Go figure.

Winter Solstice!

It's finally here. Winter Solstice. A very exciting day in Fairbanks. The shortest day of the year. From here we can only go up: more daylight, more sun. Oh yes, please, more sun! It's only been in the past two weeks that I've felt the oppressiveness of the dark, and I am over it. I've been popping Vitamin D like candy. 

I'm off work for a few weeks now and find myself with a lot of time on my hands. It's been too cold for snowshoeing or skiing. Heck, it's even been too cold to snow! I spend the morning with the paper, my coffee and Happy Light: 

Notice that it's pitch black outside. This was at 9:00am.

No Words Needed

Momma's Tired

What a weekend. I spent two days at the "Ultimate Athlete" seminar hosted by Crossfit. It was very informative and I learned a lot but man am I tired. Stick a fork in me I am done! Preemptive Advil is in order because tomorrow I don't know that I'll be able to lift my arms above my head to wash my hair, or be able to bend over to pull on socks. I squatted, deadlifted and bench pressed more than I ever have before.

Weight I deadlifted.

Green Salad, Vodka, and a Missing Breast

On the flight home from Adak this week I was upgraded to first class.There were 15 people on the jet, total. Ten of us were in first class. The flight attendant asked me if I'd like to have dinner -- an herb chicken breast with a green salad. That'd be lovely, I said. Oh, and a vodka and sprite zero cocktail too, please!

Cluck Hut Casulties

Last weekend Crossfit Fairbanks hosted the second annual Fairbanks Fitness Derby at the Tanana Valley State Fair. I (wisely) chose not to compete but I did spectate. The derby was intense; each of the five events was a workout that we'd typically do at the gym on one day. These people were completing all five events in one afternoon!

The Goods Are Odd

Let's focus for a moment on the men portion of this blog, shall we?

I've mentioned before that in Alaska there's a saying about the plethora of men compared to women: "the odds are good but the goods are odd." To exemplify this point I give you the following email I received from ClassyBigDee, shortly before I met 007.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, this is what's available in Fairbanks, Alaska. And, this was not an isolated incident. (You remember my experience with the BARF, right?) Oh, and to you, "Singleandesperate" -- please change your user name.

Is it any wonder that I've been so taken with 007? I cartwheeled* to my laptop to cancel my match.com account after our second date. Suffice it to say 007 is far classier than BigDee. And that's not classy with a 'K'.


*I've been watching a lot of Olympic coverage (albeit through illegal streaming), in particular the gymnastics. Hence the cartwheel reference. What I wouldn't give to be able to do "a roundoff, one-and-a-half twisting flip into another roundoff, backhand spring, half-twisting double flip, into another flip." Sheesh. I can barely get my feet off the ground to do a jump tucks at Crossfit, and not fall over when I land! 

Camping in the Interior

Over July 4th I went camping with Agent 007. (His name is Ken, but 007 is just more fun.) This wasn't camping that I'm accustomed to. First, we arrived in daylight. Not just because there is still 24 hours of daylight, but because we actually got to the trail head at a reasonable hour. Usually my camping trips consist of Julia and I reaching our destination at 1 in the morning and camping in the ranger station parking lot. Sometimes we accidentally camp in the trail head parking lot thinking that it's the campground, only to be awakened the next morning by people parking their cars next to our tent. How rude!

This trip was off to a good start. Except for one minor detail. We were riding 4-wheelers 18 miles to our cabin destination and I had never been on a 4-wheeler before.  Well, there was that one time this winter when sledding with Blair and Mark. I remember the look of fear that passed over Mark's face as I climbed on and asked him what the silver doohickey was for. "The brake", he grimaced. Good to know.

Our view for much of the ride.

Reason #789 to love Crossfit

After today's WOD, while working on my double unders, one of the guys dashed out of the bathroom into the main gym, wearing only a towel. He grabbed something from behind the bench and ran back into the bathroom.

After that I lost all focus on my double unders.

I'll Show You!

The Crossfit WOD (aka Workout of the Day) was to do intervals of sledgehammer strikes and kettlebell swings. I haven't swung a sledgehammer in awhile so before we started I was testing out the different weights of sledgehammers (ranging from 8-15lbs) to decide which one I'd use. I picked up the 15 pounder and wasn't sure I could manage that weight for the length of the workout. I set it down.

Then... some jackass said to me, "you might be more comfortable using a lighter weight".

Waiting for Jack

The fall color around town is spectacular right now. The weather has been what I think of as typical for California in October and November: bright, sunny days and chilly nights (36 degrees this am!) But here we are in the middle of September.

The Weekend Part 1: Friday Night

It was a busy weekend so this will be a two-part post. First, a re-cap of Friday evening and half of Saturday.

The weekend got off to a strong start with Attitude Adjustment Hour (AAH) at The Roundup. I pass the Roundup almost everyday on my way home from Crossfit.

BARF

Born And Raised in Fairbanks.  Yep. This, is how Fairbanksans who have lived here their entire lives refer to themselves. "I'm a BARF." I didn't make this up (believe me, I wish I had). I was told this by my new found hair stylist. He was proud. I like it: short, accurate, double entendre. The perfect acronym.