Just flew in from London, and boy are my arms tired… I mean my brain. I mean my neck. I mean pretty much every part of me. I just got back from a super-quick business trip to London over the weekend, and my poor body doesn’t know what hit it! Here’s what the last four days looked like:
- Flew out Thursday night and arrived in the UK on Friday morning (sat in the cheap seats, so I only got about 1-2 hours of sleep)
- Worked from the hotel during the day Friday and was able to drop in at CrossFit London for a jet lag-busting workout (more on that below!)
- Worked all day Saturday and took my team out for a fab dinner at the Spice Market (short ribs! slow-cooked ribeye! yum!) in central London
- Spent the entire day Sunday flying back to Austin (long, long day, but… I did get unexpectedly upgraded to business class on the Heathrow-JFK flight – woohoo!)
Needless to say, I’m ready to get back into my food and workout routine – that much travel is just hard on the body. I will admit that I wasn’t 100% Paleo over the weekend, although I was pretty darn good. My biggest non-Paleo indulgences were dessert on Saturday night at the Spice Market (it was simply too good to turn down!) and a couple of pints of lager with my team. When in Rome, eh?
I did get to enjoy the very Paleo-friendly English breakfast during my stay… these guys do bacon right:
English Bacon and Eggs... Yum!
One of my very favorite parts of the trip was getting to drop in at CrossFit London over in the East End.
The gym itself is very cool – it’s actually in an archway underneath a train line, and you can hear the Tube rumbling along above you every few minutes. When I arrived, Andrew (coach) and team were plotting about an upcoming CrossFit competition for the region, and they pulled me right into the brainstorming session. Andrew was absolutely hysterical during the entire workout. I forgot how much I missed British humor! We were laughing out loud for much of the class, and I don’t think I’ve heard that many delightfully-delivered swear words in a single workout before. 🙂
Andrew and I after my workout at CrossFit London.
Our workout of the day was 5 rounds for time of:
- 12 Deadlifts
- 9 Hang Power Cleans
- 6 Push Jerks
We had a 15-minute cutoff for the workout… I finished at 10:15 with a 65# bar. Wanted to go a little heavier, but I was struggling with the Hang Power Cleans and my mental focus (the jet lag was killing me). I’ve consistently struggled with getting my elbows up high enough on my hang power cleans, so that was a major focus area for me in this workout. I finally started getting the feel for them! (after, of course, I bruised the snot out of my collarbone on my first two reps) After the WOD, we practiced holding handstands and falling onto a mat… Andrew explained in detail how you need to squeeze your glutes so tight you could hold on to a 20 pence piece… 😉 Loved it! Plus, it was a gorgeous 68 degrees outside during the workout – it’s amazing how much stronger you feel when it’s not 105 degrees and sunny.
All in all, a great trip… glad to be back home and back to normal, though! Lots of recipes and food fun coming this week now that I’m back… stay tuned.
PaleoBetty 
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