Gettin' Ripped!

This Sunday will mark my third straight month of Zone eating (yay!). As I mentioned before, I have definitely reaped some of the benefits of eating Zone, one of the most obvious is weight loss. I hear it all the time, "but where'd you loose it from"? Well, as a crazy as it may sound, I've lost it from everywhere! Although now it may appear that I had no fat to loose, I did. And plenty of it. I am glad to have gotten rid of a lot of access fat, now I am focusing on building more muscle mass and gettin' ripped!!!!
As a faithful Crossfitter, I find it disheartening when a WOD comes up that I have to scale down to a fraction of the prescription. Its just plain frustrating. According to Mark Rippetoe, I should just suck it up and crank it out even if it takes me 2 hours 23 minutes and 16 seconds to complete the work out. Hmmm?....no thanks. When it comes down to it, I just need to get stronger. I have a small/petite frame, so this may be bit tricky.
After I attended the weight lifting seminar in late September I was determined! On October 1st I started supplementing my regular crossfit training with additional weight training following Rippetoes 5x5 scheme (refer to Starting Strength).
This is how my quest to get my muscle on went down:
1. Week 1
Back Squat (3 work sets x 5 reps): 105#
Shoulder Press (3 work sets x 5 reps): 55#
Deadlift (1 work sets x 5 reps): 130#

Back Squat (3 work sets x 5 reps): 110#
Bench Press (3 work sets x 5 reps): 72#
Power Cleans (3 work sets x 5 reps): 75#

2. Week 2
Back Squat (3 work sets x 5 reps): 115#
Shoulder Press (3 work sets x 5 reps): 57#
Deadlift (1 work sets x 5 reps): 150#

Back Squat (3 work sets x 5 reps): 120#
Bench Press (3 work sets x 5 reps): 75#
Power Cleans (3 work sets x 5 reps): 75#


3. Week 3
Back Squat (3 work sets x 5 reps): 112#
Shoulder Press (3 work sets x 5 reps): 58.5#
(no deadlift)

Power Cleans (3 work sets x 3 reps): 80#
Bench Press (3 work sets x 5 reps): 77#

(no squats)
Bench Press (3 work sets x 5 reps): 79#
Power Cleans (3 work sets x 3 reps): 82#
4. Week 4
Back Squat (3 work sets x 5 reps): 110#
Shoulder Press (3 work sets x 5 reps): 59#

Back Squat (112)

5. 10/29-10/31
Back Squat (3 work sets x 5 reps): 103#
Bench Press (3 work sets x 5 reps): 79#
Power Cleans (5 work sets x 3 reps): 77#

***Red Text represents the weight at which I failed.
As you can see, things started out really well and quickly went bad as the month progressed. Weeks 1 &2 were fine but by the third week I was not allowing enough recovery time between workout and became very apparent on the platform. I backed off a bit the 4th week but made sure I hit it hard at Crossfit using heavier weight for the WODs.

For November I plan to back off on the weights a bit more, focusing more on technique & form and will definitely make sure I get plenty more LEGITIMATE rest days. Please post any thoughts or suggestions to my comment. And wish me better luck this time around.