15.2 went off without a lot of fanfare. That workout is a repeat from last year, and I still remember that day last March quite sharply. The portion of the workout I was up against included 2 rounds of 10 overhead squats and 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups in 3 minutes.
Going in, I knew my squat and overhead position had gotten a lot stronger versus last year. Last year, I was terrified about bringing 65# from the front rack to back rack position, this time it was SO much easier! 65# was and still is a fairly heavy overhead squat weight for me, so last year my score was a paltry 9 reps.
This year I went in much more confident. I knocked out my first set of squats in 2 sets of 5. I’m normally pretty strong on pull-ups, but I had to break them up into 3 sets because my sad little wrists were quite fatigued from holding the overhead position. I got back to the bar and surprised myself by getting it up over my head in time to squeeze in 1 more rep! That made my total score 21, a vast improvement over last year! I would’ve loved to complete the allotted reps in those first 3 minutes, but let’s not get greedy. ;)
The CrossFit folks threw us a bit of a curveball with 15.3: muscle-ups were the first movement, meaning that if you could not do a muscle-up, you had to scale the workout. I’ve been working on muscle-up progressions for months, so I figured it would be really good timing to get one.
The WOD was 14 minutes long, which ends up being a nicely limited amount of time to allot for muscle-up attempts. You can do, at most, 8-10 attempts during that time with a reasonable amount of rest. After that point, you’ll just get tired and desperate, which is a recipe for not only frustration, but also potential injury.
My first try was this past Friday. Although I’d attempted muscle-ups a handful of times, I had never managed to get myself from the kip position to the “catch” where your chest is up over the rings. So, my victory for the day was I got up over the rings two or three times. I only managed to stabilize myself in the catch once, and it was on my last attempt. I tried three times to lock out before I dropped off the rings, but I just couldn’t do it (see pain face above). Since I’d made several attempts by then, I felt like I was just too fatigued. I knew I’d have better luck if I tried again fresh.
My first try, I missed and didn’t get my chest over the rings. After I shook out the jitters, my second try went a lot better. :)
I made a few more attempts before my 14-minute cap was up, but the one rep was all I had in the tank. I’m still so pleased that I got one for this week’s WOD. Getting this one rep catapulted my leaderboard rank up by 14,000 places. What a difference a muscle-up makes! I’m currently firmly in the top half of the leaderboard, which makes me really happy considering I was in the bottom 1% last year!!
Also: I am SOOO happy I got to skip out on the wall balls and double unders that were supposed to be later in this workout! ;)
For 15.2, I wore my lululemon black grape rebel runner crops with a cool racerback in surge and Alala’s flash tee in black.
For 15.3 part 1, I wore my new Splits59 everest devon tank with nova trailblazer capris in hype.
For 15.3 part 2, I wore my lululemon spring has sprung speed shorts, cool racerback in bumble berry, and mini check pique forme jacket. To and from, I wore my Lorna Jane candy puffa vest in ocean.
We’ve had some short bursts of warm weather lately, and anytime it breaks 60, I can’t help but pull out the speeds. I really like to pair love red (speed shorts) with brisk bloom (scuba hoodie). I think black and white patterns go beautifully with reds in general, and the floral pattern adds some femininity and playfulness to what’s otherwise a somewhat masculine color combo. I also wore my black striped full tilt long sleeve because hey, it wasn’t that warm.
(Photobomb brought to you by my sweet and mildly obnoxious Pippin.)
Another color combo I love: bruised berry (cool racerback) and blue tropics (speed shorts). In a way, this is the inverse of my surge/black grape pairing: teals and purples just go so well together. I’ve been daydreaming about a heathered blue tropics cool racerback that I can pair with my bruised berry speeds and black grape rebel runners. Wishful thinking??
As above, I had to add another layer (white herringbone forme jacket) since it’s not quite summer weather yet. Also, I really need some colored formes/defines. All I have are the two in this post, and I’ve been wearing them so much this season!
I’m both eager and anxious to hear the 15.4 announcement tomorrow! I really hope I don’t have to break my RX’d workout streak–not gonna lie, it’s been encouraging to be able to do 3/3 RX’d so far. We’re still due for burpees, box jumps, and thrusters in this year’s Open, so I’m betting we’ll see at least one of those movements this week. Historically, thrusters have always been last, so I’m thinking those won’t turn up til next week. I would die of happiness if we got served up some handstand push-ups (my specialty!), but that’s probably about as likely as a heathered blue tropics CRB. ;)
Impressive! Congrats! Pippin is super cute. I also love teals & purples together. I need to steal the pink-green color combo idea!
Thanks! Pippin is indeed adorable–when I saw his profile come up on the local shelter site, I was immediately drawn to his foxy, fluffy self. :’)
You did great and you looked great too-congratulations!
Thanks Wendy. :)
Love your crossfit posts! It’s a great feeling to see progress after all the hard work! Also, I love that Lorna Jane vest.
Another commenter noted that the vest is on MD on Lorna Jane’s site (the color looks muted online but it’s quite misleading)–not that you probably have winter vests on the brain right now. :P I try not to bombard everyone with crossfit posts but I’m willing to make an exception for the open. ;)
also noteworthy re: the LJ vest: it is listed as $125 but as soon as i added it to my cart it was $100. wahoo!
On the home page they note they’re doing an extra 20% off sale right now, that must be what it is!
I knoooow.. I added it to my cart and everything… but then common sense came by and said, “hey you live in Florida and you’re going paddle boarding in the gulf next weekend”. lol
I’m pretty cold-natured, so I find it really useful for the “cold but not frigid” range, like the 50s-ish. So hey, maybe it *will* be useful, just not right now. :P
You rock! Congrats!
Also, All of your clothing reviews have been spot on. I got the Moto Olympia leggings. They are sexy. Need to be mindful of underwear color, and as you say, it’s not a flat seam on the inner leg. Also got crane and lion. Nice fabric feel of original tights, but wouldn’t work for super sweaty exercise because the fabric takes a while to wick. Beautiful marlin color though. The LS just feels like a regular cotton top, as you pointed out in the fabric composition, but the ruching is pretty.
Love your blog!
Thank you! I’m glad my reviews didn’t lead you astray. :) I try my best to portray products in the most accurate and informative light possible which can sometimes be a little intimidating! Thanks for the notes about C&L. This is the second largely positive review, so that’s a good sign that they might have staying power as a brand. I usually wear full-length tights for warmth, so if the sweat management isn’t as good, that probably won’t be a huge concern for me since I rarely get to that point with tights anyway. I suppose it would be more of a concern with their crops, though, since presumably they use the same fabric.
Btw, what shoes did you wear hiking in your Olympia outfit? Sneakers seem not to go with this line very well…
I ended up not wearing shoes in my Olympia pics for that exact reason. :) On my actual hike, I wore my older pair of Reebok nanos–all the dust on the trails makes for very dirty shoes, and that particular pair is also easy for me to get on and off (which I ended up doing many times), so I wore those for purely practical reasons. I think the best match would be something very simple, like black and white Nike Frees, although I agree it’s a bit tough as far as athletic shoes go.
What kind of dog is Pippin?
Good question. ;) I adopted him and his brother from a shelter, and the consensus seems to be part corgi (his brother has quite the corgi-ish body type), but no idea what else!
It’s so inspirational to see how much improvements one can make over a year from consistent hard work. And Everest is a very pretty green shade on you! :)
Love our animals and wish they would photo bomb all :D
Thanks! It’s been really cool to see how far I’ve come this year. My first year of crossfit (which is basically synonymous with my first year of serious fitness in general, since 20 minutes on the stairmaster and some idle dumbbell curls don’t count for a whole lot, lol) was rife with challenges and wasn’t particularly impressive, but I feel like I’ve definitely hit my stride in my second year!
And yes everest is a really gorgeous color! These past few months I’ve been branching out with a little more green, and I think it’s a great complement to the rest of my array.
Yeah sometimes the body needs time to get on with the program and then everything clicks into place all at once :) I’m still waiting to hit mermaid status, currently I swim like a fish rides a bicycle. Can’t wait to see how you’ll perform in your third year!
BTW, my Dark Cherry SSs didn’t fit small, and in fact, they came with generous bat wings. :( Sad.
Awww that sucks. From your comments, it seems like the inconsistent sizing can go both ways right now (i.e. big or small). Sigh, lulu, why do you toy with our emotions like this.
congratulations! i agree with the others – this is so inspirational!
also… these pics finally pushed me over the edge…. i just ordered that ocean puffa vest from lorna jane (on sale!) that i have been coveting ever since your original review. im 9 months pregnant and its 80 degrees here in CA, so it was a VERY practical purchase… that i am totally thrilled about!
That’s funny, it wasn’t online for the longest time! Maybe the stores sent back their stock to corporate and they put it on MD online that way, I dunno. Anyway I hope you love it! I’ve gotten a lot of use out of mine. :)
Great job on all the WOD’s! Super happy to see you push for those Rx reps. At my gym, some people who can move weight fast can’t move themselves the way us little girls can. I’ll take it! Love all your outfits.
Thanks Laura. :) I loved the HSPU this week too, although the clean was way too heavy. Hey, at least the HSPU were first. ;) 4/4 RX so far… Really hoping Castro doesn’t screw us littles over with thruster weights this Thursday!