Double Duty + Pot roast!

So I headed over to Crossfit St. Paul today to watch the Kids Class, but it was canceled, so I stuck around to work on lifts with Mike, the owner. Back squats and push press. And hey, while I'm here, I might as well do the WOD prescribed for the day. Heck why not.

Mike and I started with the back squats, 3 rounds of 5 reps each. I broke mine down as such:

45 (warm-up round) / 95 / 105 / 105 / 110

Mike coached me on the low-bar position and also on keeping my wrists less tense and more straight. I also noticed a tendency in myself on the return to sort of pause in the middle, indicating a lack of explosiveness. 110# was definitely a little tough at 5 reps, usually my first rep was the best. Then on we moved to the strict press, my worst lift:

45 (warm-up) / 50 / 50 / 55

Seeing as how my 1 rep max is 60#, I wasn't planning on going too high for the press. 55# was definitely a struggle and I felt my back arching out a bit, which reminded me to keep my core tight. By the time we were done with the press, his 5:00 PM class started to show up and warm-up, so I just joined in the fun. We started with snatch work and overhead squats:

Snatch
15 (warm-up) / 33 / 43 / 43

Overhead Squat
33 (warm-up) / 43 / 48 / 53

Not too shabby, but my arms and shoulders were pretty shot from all the presses early on. The WOD was actually "just" a 1000m row. I say "just" because it was killer! I finished in 4:14. I was at about 3:50 with only 80 or so meters to go and I told myself "sub-4:00! sub-4:00!" I actually felt my strokes get stronger and my pace get faster. But when 4:00 minutes hit and I still had 3-4 strokes to go, I gassed out and tanked. Butt is super-sore from all the squatting and rowing.

BUT...I got to eat my yummy pot roast when I got home! Good news is that poultry seasoning actually doesn't taste too poorly on a beef roast! So, here's my recipe:

1.5# grass-fed beef roast
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 parsnips, chopped
1 package white mushrooms, sliced
3 stalks celery, cut length-wise and then chopped
5-6 WHOLE cloves of garlic
1 cup red wine
poultry seasoning (or pot roast seasoning, or any seasoning probably really!)
olive oil
salt/pepper

So step one was to bring the beef to room temperature by placing it on the table while I chopped all the veggies. This is usually a huge step I forget. Then I generously rubbed the beef with olive oil and rubbed my seasoning in. Threw the beef in my non-stick skillet at medium-high heat to sear the outside (about 3-5 minutes each side). Lovingly placed meat aside with my meat tongs.

Then I threw the onions, carrots, and parsnips into the same skillet (yum! meat drippings!) and sauteed until soft, sprinkling with salt and pepper every so often. One thing I learned from a cooking class that I took was that you should season THROUGHOUT the cooking process for the best flavor, not just at the beginning or end. The veggie sauteeing took about 5-8 minutes on medium heat.

I'm not really sure what order you're "supposed" to throw pot roast ingredients into the crock pot, but I threw in the meat first, then the hot veggies, then the rest of the veggies (mushroom, celery, garlic). Garlic should be left whole so you get the full flavor! I poured the cup of wine over the whole mixture, sort of stirred it up and left on LOW until 7:00 AM this morning (about 10 hours). Probably a little much for a roast, but I slept in :)