ETP 3.13: WOD Day & trying to feed my Dad

Ugh. Burpees. So many burpees. More than I've ever done before, or ever hope to do again.

Today's WOD was a descending ladder of pull ups alternating with an ascending ladder of burpees. Doing 10 pull ups (well, a jumping pull up since I can't do strict yet) and 2 burpees isn't bad. But when it got to around 4 pull ups and 14 burpees, I stopped having fun. And I was definitely over it by that last set of 20 burpees. That was 16 minutes and 110 burpees that I don't care to repeat. My shoulders are the first part to fatigue - I need to figure out how to drop to the ground more efficiently than essentially doing the lowering portion of a push up each time. Hope I didn't fatigue my shoulders too much before having to attack all those thrusters in 15.5 tomorrow (DOUBLE UGH!!!).

I've been so obsessed with all of my logging and blogging since starting ETP 2 weeks ago, but I'm realizing that I think it's really just to keep my mind off my Dad's failing health. I'm trying to jam 2600 calories and 2+ liters of water down my gullet, and my Dad can't even bring himself to drink a glass of water and a couple Ensure shakes all day. I'm trying to fuel myself to do WODs with 110 burpees and 72 thrusters, and he can't walk across the room without getting winded with his walker. I'm the fittest and strongest I've been in my life, and he's at his weakest. I'm finding that I'm angry that he won't eat and drink so he can be strong, more than I'm sad that he just doesn't have the will to do so. So hard to see your parents get old and sick. While I'm struggling with thoughts of quitting during my WOD tomorrow I'll need to remember to think that my Dad would love to have the energy and strength to do even one rep. 

Brian brought the kids to Sweet Frog today, so I asked him to hook me up with some pre-15.5 fuel. They have one dairy-free flavor: chocolate fudge, although I like to indulge in a little hot fudge, peanut better, chipped Resee's Peanut Butter Cups on top, so it's probably not 100% dairy-free by the time I'm done. But it's a rare treat, so I savor it. I bought some jelly beans the other day since I have my annual Easter-time hankering for them, but I haven't eaten them yet - still feeling guilty about mainlining THAT much sugar. I also picked up a bag of Stew Leonard's Sweet Potato chips on Thursday - we've been saving those as our post-15.5 lunch with a big old burger. :) 

Pre-breakfast: Tea with honey & half a lemon's juice
Breakfast: 3 eggs scrambled  3 Jones turkey links topped with hot sauce sweet potato fries
Post-WOD: Healthy & Fit Chocolate egg-based protein shake 2 oz lite coconut milk 1 frozen banana 1/8 c dried cranberries (sweetened)
Lunch: Big salad with chicken and 1/2 avocado Honey Chipotle dressing
Snack 1: banana 1 T Sunbutter
Dinner: Sweet & sour chicken jasmine rice
Bedtime: Sweet Frog dairy-free frozen yogurt with goodies (only had half though) Magnesium supplement with honey

Carbs: 36%, Protein 29%, Fat 36%

Totals	2,561	236	100	186	26	3,360
Your Daily Goal	2,585	265	85	185	25	2,500
Remaining	24	29	-14	-1	-1	-860
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Fiber	Sodium

ETP 3.12: WOD Day; VO2max & food allergen testing

It's Day 12 of ETP, and I'm feeling leaner already! I think the approach I'm taking of sticking with whole foods instead of indulging in sugary cereals is keeping my body happier. I've been pretty close to my macros every day, but it is taking conscious logging, weighing, and planning. Hoping it becomes more intuitive later on. 

The final CrossFit Opens WOD was announced last night, and it sounds pretty horrible: a combination of alternating rowing and 65# thrusters. The final WOD last year was burpees and thrusters, and nearly killed me. So I know this is going to SUCK. So, I decided not to attempt it today since I'm coming off a control day - I'll be better fueled up on Sunday morning after 3 days of eating higher calories. 

So, instead of going to CrossFit today, I decided I should go to our YMCA for another jog to keep trying to improve my stamina and get ready for my 5K. I've been wearing my heart rate monitor again for kicks, which determines my calories burned based off my sex, height, weight, and VO2max. So, I decided that I should retest my VO2max since it's probably changed since I last tested it well over 2 years ago. According to this page on VO2max calculations, there are a few different ways to test. First, I tried the resting pulse test. My resting pulse for 20 seconds is 20 beats (I could keep time with my pulse!), and that calculated to a VO2max of 46, which supposedly puts me in the "Superior" category according to this VO2max chart! Then I took the 3 minute step test at the Y. The step might have been a touch shy of 16.25", but my heart rate never got above 155 throughout the test, which I thought seemed like an improvement over last time. When I finished, my 15-second pulse count was 36, which is calculated to a VO2max of 39. That put me in the "Good" category. Boo. So, I guess I should average the two, which puts me in the "Excellent" group. I'll take that. I remember taking the step test in 2011, 4 months after my son was born when I was still 252 pounds, and I couldn't even complete the 3 minutes of stepping then! Had to stop at 2:12! So I'd call that progress.

Brian stumbled upon a Groupon for some IgG food allergy testing today, and decided to order a test for himself after seeing my success with eliminating foods to which I'm intolerant. It was for the Meridian Valley Lab Food Allergy Bloodspot Panel, which tests for 95 foods. The Cyrex Array 4 test that I took in 2013 covered about 30 of the 95 items on the list, but I am curious about the others since I still have patches of eczema that have not cleared up after eliminating everything that showed up as problematic on my other test's results. So, I went ahead and ordered one too. The $125 was a pretty good deal on it.

After the step test, I made myself run for 21 minutes at 5.6 MPH, which was a step up from the 20 minutes at 5.5 MPH that I did last week. I hated every minute of it. I don't know how people enjoy running. But I really want to improve my stamina, so I'm going to keep at it.

I splurged on some candy tonight at my daughter's school Bingo Night. But, hey, it fit my macros - 265g of carbs is a LOT of carbs, and I STILL came up a little short! For dinner, Brian ordered some Thai food for me. Yum! Although I measured the pork and beans in my dinner, I'm not really sure how much oil was in there...had to guess on that, but probably fair to say it took me a little over my fat allowance. But I added some extra chicken to make my protein goal for the day instead of having a shake. 

Pre-breakfast: Tea with honey & half a lemon's juice
Breakfast: 3 eggs scrambled  3 Jones turkey links topped with hot sauce 1/2 grapefruit sweet potato fries
Post-WOD: Healthy & Fit Chocolate egg-based protein shake 2 oz lite coconut milk 1 frozen banana 1/8 c dried cranberries (sweetened)
Lunch: Big salad with chicken and 1/2 avocado Honey Chipotle dressing
Snack 1: banana 1 T Sunbutter Snack 2: small bag of Swedish Fish (treat at Bingo Night)
Dinner: Thai Prik King with pork (take-out) 1 cup rice 3 oz grilled chicken added
Bedtime: Magnesium supplement with honey

Carbs: 39%, Protein 28%, Fat 33%

Totals	2,612	253	94	183	24	1,919
Your Daily Goal	2,585	265	85	185	25	2,500
Remaining	-27	12	-9	2	1	581
	Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Fiber	Sodium