04-28-09 Tuesday Week 13

Shana A. finishes the Rope Climb wod at the CrossFit Games Dirty South Qualifying from Shana Alverson


Saturday April 25th Day 1
9:15AM
3:00 Max Point Suicide
2:00 Rest
3:00 Max Deadlift

Suicides went well. Deadlift was fair. I was in 8th place after this wod with Laura Demarco in 1st and Jenni Orr in 9th right behind me!

12:35PM
As Many Rounds As Possible in 8:00 of:
5 Clean & Jerk 95 lbs
10 Chest to Bar Pullups

Got 5 rounds plus 5 C&Js. Tied for first with Jenni. Got some bloody knuckles from the Oly bar bouncing off the rubber track.

3:55PM
5 Rounds for time:
20 Double Unders
10 Wall Ball Shots 14# to 10 ft target
15 ft Rope Climb

This is the wod I was most looking forward to. I might have been able to do it even faster had it not been the THIRD one that day! It's amazing how much energy double-unders take when you are completely exhausted! I was actually glad to get to the rope each time because it meant I was DONE with that set of Wall Ball shots. Managed to keep my hands in tact up to this point so there wasn't an issue with that at all.

04-27-09 Monday Week 13

After the beatdown that was dealt by the Double-Under/Wall Ball/Rope Climb wod...

I am going to just do a brief post today. I know there is so little out there right now and so many people that want to hear about this weekend. I have a LOT I want to say about it, I just don't have the energy to say it right this second. There are so many people I want to thank, including every person that reads this blog that has emailed me, commented, shown support in any way - it has meant more to me than you will know. What I've discovered is that knowing how many people are reading this holds me accountable in a very positive way. I keep asking myself, what would they do, what will they think ... and it's effect was absolutely reflected in the outcome.

What a crazy, amazing weekend. If you don't already know, I finished 2nd in our region to the legendary Jenni "Jelli" Orr - which I don't mind at all - who is a total stud-ette !! I made a list and checked it twice and 18 people from our gym made the trip to Jacksonville to either compete or cheer. EIGHTEEN people from a gym open less than a year. What an amazing group!! Several times over the weekend I had goosebumps and tears in my eyes from the love that was going out to athletes, whether they were from our gym or not!

My body is beat up, and it's fair to say that I am mentally exhausted, but my heart is so proud and full I could do it all over again if I had to. Better than coming home with the silver medal is the feeling that this little gym that I started with friends less than a year ago is everything I ever wanted in my life; a place of fun, a place that uplifts, a place of acceptance and encouragement, a place to grow, a place to inspire and be inspired, a place to empower and change lives.

More than anything, this weekend was the culmination of not 12 weeks worth of physical training for a competition, but a lifetime of dreaming about what the perfect life would be like. This one might even be a little better and I am a VERY lucky girl. Thanks, CrossFit Community, for making this possible.

More about the dirty workout details to come tomorrow... but to keep you sated for now - here's a few links to about a jillion photos...
CrossFit East Decatur took a few pics... (SEQ=South East Quals)
CrossFit North Atlanta took a few MORE pics... (709 up so far!!)

04-25-09 Saturday Week 12

Shana prepares to start the Suicides in the first workout of the day.

Shana had a great first day of competition and is in second place heading into Sunday. You can checkout all the details of the standings at the Dirty South Qualifier website.

Good luck, Shana! We are all pulling for you! Go get 'em, girl!

04-24-09 Friday Week 12

We were supposed to be doing a pullup at the same time - I was trying to figure out what the heck he's doing....

We went to CrossFit East to check-in today. It's pretty warm down here -- and by warm I mean hot. It's a nice facility with lots of room and I got to see lots of CrossFit pals already! I got my heat assignments ...

1st workout; Suicide/Deadlift is at 9:15AM
2nd workout; C&J/Pullup AMRAP is at 12:20PM
3rd workout; DU/WallBall/RopeClimb is at 3:45PM

At my sister's house chillin' right now -well as much as you can chill with a 2 year old and 4 year old who haven't seen their "Aint Shana" in a while!

More tomorrow...

04-23-09 Thursday Week 12

Made it to Jacksonville, and on the agenda -- SLEEP!

It was about a 6 hour drive and I am typing on about 4 hours of sleep, after working out Wednesday night, blogging, then getting up Thursday at 4:30AM to make it to CFED by 5:20AM to coach a LOOONG morning of Filthy Fifty! We left Atlanta around 2:30PM and I am sitting on my sister's couch catching up on Facebook and email, watching my brother-in-law eat pretzels (I've got my water) and Jonathan is staring at their ginormous HD TV! That thing is literally taller than me!

Tomorrow we will head over to CrossFit East to check in. I am going to try to arrange to get an aircard and post live updates from the event on Saturday. Hopefully it will work out!

But for now -- time to SLEEP!

04-21-09 Tuesday Week 12

Sorry for the lack of updates, ya'll. Nothing much exciting going on ... I'm doing "taper wods" ... to me it feels like I'm just hanging out in the gym!

If you haven't been already the website for our South Eastern Qualifiers is in the links list to the right. The workouts were posted yesterday and the madness begins in just 4 days.

So far, the plan is to post updates throughout the competition on this blog... hopefully we can get an aircard for the laptop so we can update live from the quals!

I'm going to try to work it out ya'll so stay tuned!!

04-19-09 Sunday Week 11

Tommy and I doing pullups during our "taper" wod today.

The countdown is on. Six, yep, that's 6, days now. I don't know whether to be nervous or excited or scared or enthusiastic... I'm trying to relax and regroup, but it's hard to relax when I know what's coming. The website for the Dirty South Quals still says there will be 3 workouts on Sat and 1 on Sunday. God, I hope that doesn't mean participants have to do 4 workouts.

Training Log
1:45PM
4 rounds:
400 M Jog (Jog? What's a "jog"??)
15 Overhead Squats 45 lbs
15 Chest to bar pullups

Time -- Both Tommy and I finished in exactly 15:21 -- ha!

Definitely wasn't 100% intensity. It was probably about 90. I think. That's all I got. I'll let you know more about how I'm doing tomorrow. I kinda don't know right now.

04-18-09 Saturday Week 11

Practicing the kip-up...

I learned a new trick today. I'm just glad I didn't land on my neck and do some CNS damage! LOL... I was inspired by all the tough people at our gym who pushed through that intimidating wod today! We had several members who had never even tried a single handstand that did the whole workout! It was really awesome. Our resident gymnast and badass, Zeke, taught me how to kip-up from the floor. I've tried it before but this was the first time I've been able to do it! Yippee! No matter how much CF stuff you learn there will always be something new, I LOVE IT!

Training Log
11AM
Run 1.3 miles up Stone Mountain wearing 10 lb vest. Then run back down.
Time up -- 16:28 (I think)
Time down -- 8:30


Tommy beat me both ways. Some time I will have to get out there on a weekday around noon when it isn't so crowded. Crazy ton of people on the mountain today. Only SEVEN MORE DAYS until quals. I might go crazy!! AUGH! The taper has begun.

04-16-09 Thursday Week 11

No photo today. Dead camera battery. Dead shana battery. I'm. completely. exhausted. Life is making me tired. I got 4 hours of sleep last night and really had a hard time getting a nap in today, you know how sometimes your brain won't let you sleep. Definitely not feel fresh and strong, a little drained and weak. But it's okay. I just need sleep.

Training Log
4:30 PM
Front Squats
3x3
155x3
165x3 (PR)
170x1 (PR also)

I didn't push it as my back has been on the blink. I figured with the PR, no biggie to not do another attempt at 170. Took a little time to practice snatches. Tommy was helping me tweak it and it felt much better when I was done. I got under 95 lbs without having to press it.

5:40PM
3 Rounds for time:
750 M Row
10 Wall Ball Shots 14 lb ball to a 12' target
10 Dumbbell Thrusters w/30 lb DBs

Time -- 16:23

That sucked. I feel pretty good about the time. My ass is lit up like a firefly right now. Goodnight.

04-15-09 Wednesday Week 11

Doin' "Helen" ...

I've been feeling pretty good these last couple of days. I was excited when I saw "Helen" come up last night. I was supposed to do Front Squats today, too, but it was one of those days. Had to run heats in several sessions due to the volume of members coming in to tackle a benchmark.

Training Log
6:45 PM
"Helen"
3 rounds for time:
400 M Run
21 Dumbbell Swings 35 lbs
12 Pullups

Time-- 8:35 PR (Previous PR from 2/5/09 was 9:51)


Totally stoked. First run was around 1:22 and all pullups and swings were unbroken except for my very last set of pullups, it was broken at 5/7. Awesome. Good day. Little bit of a diet setback today but I'm back on the horse now....

04-14-04 Tuesday Week 11

Shana does CrossFit League WOD from Shana Alverson

Training Log
4:15PM
5 Rounds for time:
5 Squat Cleans 100 lbs
7 Burpees
9 Chest to Bar Pullups

Time -- 7:44

Got a little bit of time crunch tonight as is usually the case when I have to edit video. Took rest yesterday -Mondays are NOT good days for me to try to fit in a workout. I'm feeling pretty stoked right now and getting more excited about Quals than scared!

04-12-09 Sunday Week 10

Pic of me coaching... it's really what I spend the majority of my time doing. Here, I'm explaing to Irene about core tension for pushups.

My lower right lat has really been bothering me since doing Eva last week. Took yesterday to give it a rest - coached in the AM and then took a CPR cert with the rest of the CFED staff. It was back to the grind today. Jonathan and I met Sheryl at the gym - he did Thursday's CFED wod - and Sheryl and I did yesterday's HQ wod. Total gasser.

Training Log
1:00 PM- ish
3 rounds for time:
500 M Row
21 Burpees
400 M Run

Time -- 18:09
Sheryl -- 26:35
Jonathan (here's the wod he did) -- 12:59

It's way easier to work out in a gym with other people than an empty gym and I am extremely grateful for them suffering along with me. =o) Rowing still sucks and my butt hurts. Burpees felt good - just the lungs trying to keep up with everything else. Only 13 days to regionals. I can hardly think straight. People must think I am crazy lately, they ask me questions and I just stare at them like they are speaking another language... I'm chalking it up to focus. Starting tomorrow, going to tighten up the diet even more -- I'll let ya'll know how that goes.

04-10-09 Friday Week 10

115lb overhead squat.
This workout had me cursing Sven by the last set of deads.

I can always tell when I let a wod get to me mentally. I end up ranting towards the end about what a stupid workout it is. Oh, there's cursing and swearing and huffing and puffing and grunting, etc. But when you hear me ranting about it being stupid, that's when it's gone to my head. This wod was one of those mind-fuck wods. Of course, now that it's over and done with and I'm at home and have a belly full of salad, I'm thinking that it wasn't so bad -- but then I've also got myself propped up with some pillows stacked around me so that absolutely no muscles are necessary to hold me in an upright position.
Spencer did this one with me (Thanks, Spencer!)

Training Log
4:30ish PM
For time:
21-15-9 reps of
Overhead Squat 115 lbs
Deadlift 185 lbs

Time -- 16:24
Spencer -- 19:25 (115/205)

Post wod -- 1 mile run in 7:11
10 strict muscle-ups/no kip, practiced turnout

Uh... I was supposed to do this in under 13:00. Yeah. If the weight had been 20 lbs lighter on both of the lifts, that would have been possible. My abs are super sore from the 100 situps in Angie on Tues and my back was apparently still worn out from the deads I did post-Angie on Tuesday. My low back started spasming and it took me too long to recover to put up any kind of respectable time on that workout. The squats MIGHT have been unbroken if my shoulders and elbows weren't feeling so stressed from having that amount of weight overhead. Excuses, excuses. I know. At least I'm not calling it stupid anymore. I hope Sven isn't too disappointed.

04-08-09 Wednesday Week 10

In a hurry tonight -- so no picture -- trying to get to bed so I can get up at 4:30AM to go train the kiddies!

Training Log
6:00PM
"Angie"
100 Pullups
100 Pushups
100 Situps
100 Squats

Time -- 23:58 (2 minute PR!!)

Then:
15 - 12 - 9
Deadlift 205 lbs
1 minute rest between rounds.
4:10-ish...

So, "Angie" is one of my most-hated wods. I was thrilled today when I hit a PR!! The first 70 pullups were Chest to Bar - the bigger kip is affecting my grip... I could have handled the pull, I just couldn't stay on the bar and it was starting to affect my time so I went to chin over bar pullups for the last 30. All pushups are chin-chest-thighs touching the floor to full lockout. Situps are unanchored on the AbMat and I touch my toes at the top of every rep. Squats felt faster today - no med ball so I could go deeper - knees and hips fully extended at the top of each rep.

I was extremely exhausted for the deads. First set was unbroken. Second and third sets were unbroken up to the last freaking rep -- grip again!!

Overall, a good day.

04-07-09 Tuesday Week 10

Shana does Grace In A Boat

Took video of this so Coach Sven on the West Coast can check out my form -- to see if it's the cause of me being such a SLOW rower! I maintain it's my height ... at 5'4" (barely) it's like wallballs. Felt pretty good on the cleans but I was glad I got video, because I could see that coming out of the squat with a little bounce gives me an opportunity to get in a better jerking position, and I haven't really been taking advantage of it.


Training Log
6:30PM
3 rounds:
Row 500 M
10 Squat Clean & Jerk 105 lbs

Time -- 15:40


Thanks to Marshall for doing this wod with me!! Marshall, you made me go faster. He used 135 for the squat clean & jerk and his time was 16:51 . I'm sure he will agree that it was a really fun wod. Yeah. Fun. My back is pretty sore but I am still feeling pretty strong. Diet is on track and I'm starting to get excited about a trip to Florida!

04-05-09 Sunday Week 9

Had a great wod today because of great company!

Training is SO much more fun when you can do it in a group! I had a fun strong group of girls with me for the suffering and I ALWAYS push harder when I get together with the girls! We decided we'd do the same wod that was posted in the CrossFit Journal the other day - the one with Jolie Gentry, Caity Matter, Ashley Westerheide and Chastity Slone. I recruited Kath and Ann-imal from CrossFit North Atlanta and fellow CFED strong chicas Brooke and Rae. We had a blast!

Training Log
12:30PM
3 rounds for time:
4 Handstand Pushups
8 Chest to Bar Pullups
12 Deadlifts 135 lbs
16 Box Jumps 20"

Times --
Shana 4:14
Ann 7:24 (HSPU to 1 AbMat depth)
Rae 7:48 (pike pushups for HSPU)
Kath 8:12
Brooke 9:59 (pike pushups for HSPU)

I felt great during this workout. We all got a good case of "Fran-cough" afterward... 10 hours later and my lungs still aren't quite right! I think I just lucked up in that all these moves tend to be strengths of mine. Loved this wod! Thanks so much to all the strong chicas that came to hang with me!! There's a vid HERE and some more photos HERE. Enjoy!

PS- Yesterday wasn't actually a rest day. I took a leisurely hike up Stone Mountain and ran back down (2.6 miles round trip, elevation at the top is something like 1680 ft....) with a 10 lb vest on. We all forgot our watches so I wasn't able to time it. Oh well, next time I'll remember.

04-03-09 Friday Week 9

Did "Nancy," one of my fave girls, with the 6:30 Friday night crew. That's David G. on my right.

Went back and forth with Sven today over what wod to do. He said to do a 5K but I really wanted to do Nancy because I love it. He said okay, but to take it nice and easy, mainly because I'm still SO sore from Tuesday and Wednesday.

Training Log
6:45PM
"Nancy"
5 rounds for time:
400 Meter Run
15 Overhead Squats (65 lbs for women)

Time -- 14:19

That's a PR for me by almost a minute and a half. I'm really excited because I felt like I was cruising. I could have pushed a little harder and broken 14, I'm certain of it. I'm glad I did it but now I have an awful headache. Hopefully, it will go away when dinner kicks in.

04-01-09 Wednesday Week 9

Suck-Fest. Part two.

I'm almost dead right now. It's really amazing I can actually lift my fingers to type. Last time I agree to do a wod in which it's evident that the main goal of the creator is to attempt to end the existence of any parties involved. It was worse than Eva if that's even possible. Yeah. It is.

Training Log
3:45 PM
3 rounds for time:
10 Handstand Pushups (I did negatives on parallettes)
20 Burpees
30 Hang Power Cleans (95 lbs)
40 Weighted Walking Lunges (55 lb dumbbell)
50 Ring Dips (assisted w/ red band)

Time -- 52:53

Normally, I'd rather die than scale a wod, but my shoulder was not going to be up to 150 ring dips after already having done 100 of them on Friday. Plus, I just had my elbow worked on by the doctor this morning and I just wasn't feeling it. The HSPU negatives were tougher than my usual kipped HSPU - I had to go a LOT further down and had to re-kick up into a handstand for every rep. I did all 90 HPCs in sets of 10. Probably the most successful part of the wod. My thighs have enormous bruises on them. Really. Giant black spots. It's SO sexy.

I was pretty disgusted with the whole wod by the time I actually made it to the last round. Two wods in a row that took me over 50 minutes. Ugh. My back is not happy with me. At. All. I could go on, but I'm going to stop there. Just kill me now.