Christine Lukasik's Everyday Fitness Blog

pull up video

clukasik — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:37:02 +0000

Here’s a short video shot by Michael Street, my incredible coach at CrossFit Eastside of me working band-assisted kipping pullups morning. First full speed, then slowed down to analyze form. Note that my push back at the top of the movement starts to decline as I fatigue - but my hip drive increases to compensate. Awesome to be able to vid these and watch them back to really drive performance improvement.

Handstand!

clukasik — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:28:31 +0000

Check me out here doing my first handstand!

Breakfast

clukasik — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:53:23 +0000

Many have asked how the Zone food delivery/diet is going - just take a look at breakfast! Peanut butter stuffed french toast with syrup, chicken sausage, and fresh fruit. Really quite good and also filling! 1100 cals a day overall is pretty light for the workouts I’m doing so BOY OH BOY do I get hungry in between meals. Thankfully the intervals are pretty short!

CrossFit PR

clukasik — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:51:44 +0000

Crossfit going great even with the calorie restricted diet - maybe better in fact! Today I PRed on Push Jerk - 39Kilos!! 88lbs, well more than half my body weight!

Zone Food Delivery

clukasik — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:43:35 +0000

Today’s my first day of having Zone Seattle food delivered to my house. So far so AMAZING! This is my afternoon snack - some kind of pizza pita thingies that are so yummy AND seem like a total treat to me. Nothing I would ever think I am supposed to/allowed to eat and still lose weight. Yep - I’m on a killer track to lose the last little bit (read: Lean out something fierce like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2), but more importantly, really chase some awesome CrossFit performance. Dialing in the diet scientifically with weighed and measured food in exactly the right proportions is the way to do it so I’m going to hire the pros to get me off to the right start. All my food for the day shows up at my door by 6am. MAGIC!

Chipper revisited

clukasik — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:00:00 +0000

“How’s CrossFit going?” people ask….. Well, remember my first chipper back in march? 14ish minutes to complete? Yesterday we revisited that workout and I completed it TWICE, the first time in 7:14ish and the second in 7:04!!!!! Holy crap. I LOVE CrossFit.

Logbook Activity

Type: Strength Training
Date: 06/25/2008
Time: 08:00:00

5k Row (500 easy, 500 hard) 24:33

clukasik — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Still a long way to go on rowing, but certainly improving. Back is healing nicely and I’ve been back at CrossFit for a few weeks now. Pretty much back to full steam on things that don’t involve high impact or load to the back and feeling like I’m moving ahead now. Working a lot on my rowing form, and took a Pose running clinic this week so I can try to work running back into my routine in some fashion. Overall feeling like CrossFit is the best thing I’ve ever done fitness-wise. NOTHING beats throwing med balls around, dragging fire hoses, and jumping pull-ups!

Logbook Activity

Type: Other
Date: 06/05/2008
Time: 07:00:00
Total Time: 24:33:00.00

Seattle CrossFit Championships

clukasik — Wed, 21 May 2008 04:54:18 +0000

My photos from the weekend CrossFit Seattle Championships. I didn’t compete, but was so excited to be there and support the other CrossFit Eastside athletes!

Walking down a familiar path on my own

clukasik — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:55:14 +0000

My father had pretty serious back troubles when I was younger. I don’t remember him ‘throwing it out’ often (perhaps he did and I just don’t remember) but I do remember that it all came to a head sometime around my Jr. year of high school that involved ruptured discs, a hospital stay with 7 days in traction followed by surgery and several weeks of him working out of a home office that consisted of a rug on our living room floor that he would lie face down with papers spread about. I remember that getting in and out of the car was difficult, and that sitting in the car and driving was nearly impossible for a period of time. I remember his back stretches. I remember that it did get better.

Whether hereditary or not I too have had my share of back issues over the years mostly down to being out of shape and/or straining things too hard with yard work, marathon training, or other random stuff. This week what seemed like another in a “no big deal” string of inflammations delivered (via an MRI yesterday) the upsetting news that my back looks like one of an “aerobics instructor” in terms of the number of and the degree to which my discs are herniated. I’ll get more details today but basically it’s nearly all the discs from cervical on down with the worst being L4-5. Those little babies are bulging or whatever they do and are touching the nerve – likely causing lot of my pain. Yesterday was my first in what is meant to be a series of 3 cortisone shots – step number 1 to reducing inflammation to the point where I can move and sleep (would be nice) and then figure out what to do from here.

I can safely say that getting a shot in my spinal cord was the most scary thing I’ve had to experience so far in this life. The staff was wonderful and really did a great job keeping me calm and making me feel better but HOLY CRAP what they call “you’ll feel some pressure” has a whole different level of meaning when it’s pressure on your OH, spinal cord. Super duper mega thanks to colleague Stacia for driving my panicked ass to and from the loooooong appointment.

And a note: Yes, thank you, those who have said “you’ll wreck your body” about one of my crazy fitness exploits (marathon training, CrossFit, etc). I know you’re saying it out of love and you may well be totally and completely right. However, I LOVE doing those things and while they MIGHT have contributed to this back thing they have also made me much healthier in many other ways such as weight, flexibility, and most importantly mentally. There’s every possibility that this would be exactly the same had I never run a mile in my life.

Run from the front door

clukasik — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 13:30:00 +0000

I’ve been in my new place right off the BG trail for about two weeks, yet today was the first day I had time in my schedule to step out my front door and hit the trail for a run. OMG and WOW how excellent. Rolled out of bed at 6, gulped some coffee, fed the cat, walked out my door in my gear at 6:30 with music and a key in my pocket, ran, and walked back into my garage - shucked shoes, stretched in the living room on the way to hopping in the shower and was at the office for a 9am meeting. Feeling so lucky today I can hardly contain myself.

Logbook Activity

Type: Run
Date: 04/08/2008
Time: 06:30:00
Total Time: 1:06:00.00
Distance: 6.14 miles
Average Pace: 10:45.16/mile