Resolutions

I love the idea of making resolutions at the New Year.  I like to know that people are thinking about how to be better.  It doesn't matter what people are thinking of being better at - organizing, spending more family time, getting healthy, being a nicer friend, calling parents more often, getting finances in order, etc.  I love them all.  

There is no bad time to set a resolution.  I do it all year long, actually.  But there is a feeling of a new beginning that comes with the New Year, making it the classic ideal time to make a resolution. 

I almost always have a new years resolution to lose weight.  It's, obviously, rare that I meet that goal. It's because it's not a good goal.  Not for me.  

This year will be the first one in a long time where "lose weight" is not my resolution.  I will not write that down as a goal.  The goal that I WILL set is to "be healthier".  

Not just "be healthier".  That is too narrow.  I want to improve my strength and to improve my aerobic capacity.  I want to be able to run again.  I was making a lot of progress on that in 2016, and I've set some things in motion during the down year of 2017 to be able to continue that (namely, I've been working on my darn ankle).  I'm signing up for a weightlifting competition again and I'm excited about improving there.  

This weekend I will take some time to make SMART goals.  I like to spell out the details and know what steps to take to make the goals real.  2018 will be a good year.  It's already started...

It's exciting folks.  Make a resolution.  Make plans to get started and make it happen for you.  Dream BIG.  

Recording

The Crossfit that I go to uses a program called WODTogether.  WODTogether is where you sign up on the schedule, see the WOD, post your results, see everyone elses results, record PR's, pat your gym partners on the back, and look up what your max's are.  This is the GoTo program to see your improvements.  I love it.  I'm one of the people who logs every workout.  I also refer to it when we have a benchmark WOD, are building 1RM, or working at a percentage of our 1 reps. I refer to it a lot.
 
Now that I'm doing the Weightlifting Club, I can't log my workouts in WODTogether.  Well, I guess technically I can, but I'm told it's cumbersome.   I talked to my coach about having a system for logging the WODS.  He wants us to "work to a 3 rep max", or a 6 rep max, or 4 sets of 6 at 90% of 1 rep, for front squats, back squats, dead-lifts, push press, push jerk, etc... I know it isn't random and he has a system, but it feels random to me and I can't remember what all of those numbers are.  I mentioned that to him and asked how he keeps track and he said he just uses a note book and takes notes.  Which is what I figured, but I'm sure there has to be a system to use to be able to quickly look those numbers up. 

Does anyone have one?  Do you have a system to log your workouts and track your successes?  My coach said he just writes it down day by day, but I think that will be hard to look up.  But it would be good to see day by day. 

I've been tossing around starting a Bullet Journal.  I've been seeing bullet journal ideas pop up in all of my social media outlets recently, and I like the idea a lot.  I've never been great at using a day planner, for several reasons.  One is that I hate the set up.  I never like the way the pre-planned pages want to define me.  Another reason is that I just lack consistency in all things.  Ha!

I think that this might be the answer to keeping track of the workouts though.  I think that I can make a bullet journal fit for keeping track of weightlifting.  In my mind there is an index point for all of the Oly Lifts, and then I'll be able to add one for each of the main accessory movements and maybe a page for miscellaneous accessory work that he throws at us occasionally (last week we did plants with a 25# plate on our backs, I loved it).  And I'll also keep a day by day log in the journal.  Maybe I'll keep a measurement log along with it, but I'm thinking that I want to keep my body out of the book and keep it gym weights alone.  I haven't decided on that yet.  It ties in with my new years resolution though (a post to follow). 

I'm looking for advice.  If you have a system that you use, I want to hear about it. 

She doesn't have Moxie

OK.  that was short lived.  I ended up losing my partner for the Moxie Games at the same time the weightlifting club started back up.  I participated in the weightlifting club in the spring and I L.O.V.E.D it.  I really did.  I'm pretty sure I frustrated the heck out of the coach, but I still had a blast.  I like to lift and be strong more than I like to burpee and box jump. 

The announcement and initial meeting about weightlifting came out at the same time as the Moxie Games excitement was going on.  I went to the club meeting and was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of people there.  The last time the club was running, there were three of us.  All beginner girls.  It was neat to see some fellas who I expect to be talented weightlifters and some other women who will be too.  

After my Moxie partner dropped out (through no fault of her own, she's injured and won't be well in time to train), I went back and forth over which I'd rather do.  I tossed it around for 2 full weeks without making a decision.  Over Thanksgiving break I decided that I'd enjoy the weightlifting more.  So that's the direction I'm going. 

In the middle of all of that I'm dealing with an ankle injury.  I've actually had a janky ankle for years.  When I started Crossfit I couldn't squat to parallel because it felt like there was a barrier in my ankle.  Like the bone was hitting something that wouldn't let it bend further.  I don't know when that stopped.  I just noticed one day that I could squat low finally.  It probably started when I had a bone tumor in my foot and graft from my ankle and had to wear a walking boot and be on crutches for a few months in 1996.  Yeah, ~21 years ago.  

A few weeks ago it started to hurt when I was doing heavy back squats.  And it never stopped hurting.  Then, I noticed that my knee hurt to go up stairs.  At that point I decided those two things were likely related and I made an appointment with a chiropractor/muscle activation doc.  He is awesome. He confirmed what I thought, which was that it may have just started hurting me, but it's been a long time coming. He thinks that my fibula isn't in the right place.  

It all comes together really. It makes sense when I remember how my old squat was hindered. And when I run that calf gives me a lot of trouble, when it gets tired my foot feels "floppy", like I have to fling it out in front of me (that's hard to describe).  When I left his office, I had no pain.  I've returned to see him several times now.  As I write this, it's the best it's felt in weeks and getting better every day. 

I was also recently refereed to an Instagram site called TheFootCollective.  They are all about healthy feet and what they have to say makes so much sense to me.  They are all about moving away from narrow toe box shoes to shoes that fit a more natural foot.  They believe in getting away from orthodtics (which I don't actually use, but I have used over the counter inserts in flat shoes before, with no benefit).  One particular post they made talked about how to tell if you are walking properly by the callus on your toe.  I have a callus on the toe of the right foot (the one that hurts) and not the other.  I always thought that was weird.  It is and it isn't.  The callus usually forms when there is limited ankle mobility (tada!). It's because I'm walking improperly on that foot because my ankle hasn't had the range of motion that it should have. So, I'm concentrating very hard all the time to walk properly and keep that foot pointed straight, rather than out like a duck, as well as doing mobility exercises to get the range of motion back and seeing the muscle activation doctor. And I'm getting better.  My ankle hurts less and I feel like it is getting easier to walk without thinking so hard about pointing the foot forward.

I think I'm getting stronger.