Saturday morning.

I've just found out that I love speak text. This helps me to write a moving blog in my car!! The best part about it is that I did not have time this morning to sit down and write a blog, so being able to speak into a phone and spread my blog love is more than amazing. Ain't technology grand? I'm still waiting for the phone that I don't have to hold, whose speaker sounds crystalline. But I digress.

As I packed my bags this morning for the training, all I could think about was how I should have done it the night before. I thought about how I should have gotten gas in the tank before, How my vitamins should have been laid out, how my nutritional intake should have been ready to go. And of course, as it goes on every day of the week, once again, none of these things were done… But lucky for me, I am able to move quickly to get to my destination. Funny thing is, I forgot to eat!! I guess that's why I ate carbohydrates last night, and attempted to preload my muscles. I am pretty sure that I am not going to be nutrient deficient in the least bit…

Today is definitely going to be one of those days where by the end of the day, I will probably post three more blogs with conversation about the exciting highlights.

I will be reporting on everything from the chalk and tape and gloves that will not be on my hands, to the impressive responses from my coaches and peers. Okay, now I'm really daydreaming!! Okay. Now let's get busy. I'll be talking out my phone soon. I'm thinking that I write better than I speak…

Almost there.

So this week was nothing short of interesting. It consisted of more days of rest than I am usually accustomed to. I tried my pull-ups at the beginning of the week, and then allowed it to be exactly what it was going to be. I know that things can't be perfect, but I would sure as heck like them to be. That was the main motivator for my taking two days off this week. I didn't want to train so hard that I was completely shot, and had no energy left for performance day, which is Saturday. 

In addition to rest days, I noticed that I had a particular longing for carbohydrates. Now in recent days past, I had not had any particular taste for grain carbs. Brown rice however, made with coconut oil, was definitely on my agenda for the week. This followed Potatoes, and a multitude of very fresh and delicious cherries and green grapes. Then I noticed myself craving bananas, oranges, and grapefruits. I made my water with limes and lemons, and by the end of it all, I realized what was happening. I was loading for my performance today. Somewhere in my head, I was hoping this would help. I was hoping my intuition was serving me well…

Because of my long week, I had failed to do the one thing that I probably needed to do over all the workout days in my week: stretch, long, deep, and thoroughly. Although I do a bit of regular stretching, my thoracic spinal area felt a bit restricted. My scoliosis curves to the left, and I could only wonder what would come of it today, as I walked in with fairly tight hips and a restricted lower spine.  was just foam roll and invert, and all I ended up doing was eating, washing dishes, and looking up information such as the address and registration for the big day.

Somehow I am figuring I will have time during the workshop to sit in a long forward fold, and maybe a pigeon stretch, releasing my hips, making them free! In fact, I think I'm daydreaming about it right this minute. What is my issue? I am used to preparing myself for competition days and performance days. I guess it's been a while since I've gotten on this horse, and it feels just a tiny bit foreign to me, now after all of these years. In fact, I think that's what's most exciting about this Certification.

The Flexed Hang Test and Tonight's workout.

Ugh.

I am dreading the flexed hang test a little, but I really shouldn't, because I can at least do one pull up. But the thing is, how long can I hang out in a flexed hang? Now, I'm pretty sure I can do longer than 20 seconds, but part of my concern is how they, the HKC judges, will make me hang. For example, will they assist me into it, or will they make me jump into it? Either way I had better try my damndest to get into it a number of ways before the day. I also have this rather ludicrous fear that I will kill all of my adrenaline stores before I even get to the day. This is something I concern myself with because of the fact that pull ups are so darned tough for me! If it's the test of strength, with all of the grueling workouts I've put myself through, it makes me wonder if I've ever been tough, truly...okay okay, this is the wrong moment to doubt myself! It's just another opportunity to get stronger, again.
 I probably should have trained my pull ups a little harder, but me and the girls enjoy a ton of variety, so our workouts are never boring. They are anything but! Sometimes the boys in our gym don't understand why they see us training so often, but that's just because they don't understand the philosophy of the swing! Once it enters your mind, you are stuck....

 Hmph. I act like this is my first rodeo. Now it's time to talk some Smash Team Strength into me. I think tonight is going to be our 100s night.

Flexed hang practice (3 sets x PR...start with at least 20 seconds)
Assisted pull ups x 5 sets of 12 reps
push-ups x 5 sets of 20 reps
Leg press x 5 (pyramid set, 100 reps on 1st set) I start with two total plates (45s) and rake up to 8 or 10 plates. I know I can get 20-25 reps with 8 plates....

front racked or goblet squats, bottom, x 5 sets, at least 25 reps
100 sit ups
Burnout sit up set with halos
1 minute plank holds x 5
And possibly some rowing for my cardio portion. 10-20 minutes max.

...I'm not married to doing this whole adventure, but if it works out to rock the whole thing, I'm down.

This workout will give my palms a rest from swinging. I think Wednesday I'll run a straight swing and snatch test, looking through my requirements and just see where I'm at.

Lead Feet and Stone Arms

Memorial day gave me more time to sleep. It almost seemed like a bad idea.

Because I typically stay up to write, I end up getting less sleep than the average population, and that only works out sometimes, not all the time. This leads me to spend the days off sleeping, which produces a bit of a lazy sort of mindset. It seems that I can still pull myself to the gym...but when I do, it becomes a leadfoot session, the most difficult session in the world.

Then to add insult to injury, I do one of the harder workouts I can think of.

10 2-hand swings
10 1-hand swings
10 front racked squats
1 reverse lunge
swing pass and repeat

The whole thing again for a second set, after resting.

Then we broke apart this set:

 20 goblet squats
20 2-hand high pulls
10 1-hand high pulls
5 single hand snatches
5 double snatches
10 goblet squats/15 second holds in between a high, box, and bottom squat/10 more goblet squats
20 chest presses with leg extension (thanks Pat Flynn for killing us with this set)

As I threw the bell up above my head, I could only think of how heavy I felt throughout the entire set, but I still kept pulling another and another until I found a definite stopping point: the dizzies. On the plus side, Vita Coco has this delicious orange flavored coconut water. It at least tasted amazing during and after that grueling workout.

Only 4 more days until the HKC!! I swung with no gloves yesterday, in an attempt to make sure that I could do it. I was most successful...but I don't think I'll do much swinging without gloves this week, just because I will build callouses yet again. I've got to give them the lemon, pumice and cocoa butter scrub tonight. So excited and maybe a little bit nervous. The idea of tonight's pull up session is staring me down right now.

HKC Time.

So I signed up.

Through me ran a mixture of "oh crap!" and "Wow I'm awesome" and "What ever will I do if I don't pass?" and "What the hell are you doing?" and "I got this!!!" and "I've been training so long. Maybe I am overtrained?" "I wanna cry, I'm so excited!!"

So that about sums it up.

I ran to the gym that night after sharing my excitement with my friends. It's funny though. The two people I thought would be interested in checking into the certification were two trainers, and they actually tried to say all of these negative messages and tapes running through their skull, ready to discount the next cert, it being a bite off the last one. Well I happen to see these guys as the real deal, and I've been studying them for some time, and I couldn't be more pleased than to be training with them.

Anywho, I went in with my Smash Team girls, and we did a five set routine with 10 pullups, 10 pushups, 50 situps, 10 single forward leans, 10 double kettle squats, and 5 minutes of rowing. After the fifth set, we wanted to poke each other's eyes out.

Some of this may be nerves toward the big day. I just hope my minimum requirements are ready. I really don't have anything to worry about, but sometimes it's fun to kick up some adrenaline. I can't wait!!!

Oh Look! A Running Rant.

I forgot how darn tough it is to run.

I mean seriously. Running takes patient, pounding, and skill, maybe even talent. There was this time in my life when I ran marathons, but it hasn't been in years. I usually leave running to the pros these days but I have to start my cardio stint back since I went to the doctor. You see, what the doctor told me kind of irritated me, besides the fact that I had a few extra carbs this weekend of a rather naughty kind. And once you get naughty, sometimes one can spiral. Lucky for me I have some form of discipline.

Anyway, back to the doctor, who told me about my blood pressure. She had the nerve to say it was normal, and that my heart rate was a whopping 75 bpm! It's never been that in the history of my life. After seeing anywhere from 45 to 64, I thought that maybe I should throw just a little bit of cardio back into my life, and it doesn't stop with the good 40 minutes of walking and mild jogging. I only wish to use the jogging for gearing myself up a little, but not to the point where I am running hours again. That was mildly excessive.

So I'm over the notion or concern of eating into my muscle tissue. I know that this is going to be another fun exercise with carbohydrates and balancing my life between the two extremes, but it sure is easy to train on moderate carbs. I don't know what it will be to run on moderate carbs but so far, my body seems to want to adapt to anything.

Now I'm heading to the gym to run a quick pull up, push up, plank and swing practice...nothing fancy tonight. Besides, I have no idea how I will even feel just yet. Either way, I'll feel accomplished when it's done.

The Road to HKC.

How do I love and stress out thee? Let me count the ways...I've just spent time blogging instead if the usual Saturday morning yoga session, my style. However, for some reason, this is proving to be okay because I needed apparently to carve some time out for writing, as evidenced by the gaping holes in time between blog posts. This must end.

This post runs on much like the procrastination of my next pull up session, in preparation for the HKC. I'm gathering the money for it and commiting today, offering up a block that could potentially last if I don't see this moment as a window of opportunity. Although I'd be doing it on borrowed money, hitting the ground for clients has got to be my point of focus after this cert. just a few good clients could be the difference in my outcomes.

The HKC cert is in June. Who knows? These top guys and gals may be interested enough in me to notice my work and to want more from this experience of the Connie. Hey! Though it's a humorous thought, you never really know how you are impacting a person at times, until they just come out and tell you...anywho, I think my mindless ramble has a bit to do with the nervousness surrounding my success with this cert. I throw a lot of food on my plate to consume, and this is yet another beast mastering gauntlet I am asking myself to undergo, as if I haven't had enough challenges this year. Well it comes to my attention that swinging this wrecking ball of dynamic change is so symbolic with the initiation of strength that the hard style Kettlebell Cert seems to represent.

I do look forward into the future with faith that HKC will bring me extra success as a fitness professional on a higher plane, a larger playing field. I notice how hard it is to get into this larger field of consciousness with everything and it almost threatens to seize me up again and take me off course of what I've already found to be most valuable in my life. It would be a major disservice to miss this portal. I'd better jump thru.