Monday Fun

Crossfit

WOD: Hang power snatch 3-3-3-3-3 reps

I did okay, but should have been able to pull off bigger numbers. 45-50-55-55-60(f)-60(f) If we had more time, I would have gotten the 60#. I became unfocused when others in the gym started to set up for the bonus WOD of:

5 rounds for time:
- 3 hang power cleans (35#)
- 6 pullups
- 9 frog-leap box jumps (20″)

Results: 5:19

Crossfit Endurance

30 seconds on/1:00 rest x 8. Used the hill by elephants perch. Nice elevation.

Extra

1000 jump rope, single unders

125 single leg jumps, right

125 single leg jumps, left

Rest Day

Wheh...it's a rest day :) though I did go for a 1.5 hour hike/run with a friend who is getting back to running after a series of unfortunate injuries and a very recent arthroscopic surgery.

Saturday Ski Day

Today was a great ski day at Bogus Basin! Lots of fun powder to play in -- though we did not play for long. Just a couple hours.

For my extra work today, I did:
5, 1 minute front planks
3, 1 minute right side planks
2, 1 minute left side planks

300+ single foot jumps. Left foot is weaker and I have trouble jumping. So I will focus more on my left than my right.

1000 single both foot jumps :)

Max Back Squats

Crossfit WOD

85-95-105-110-115
need to work on reaching back far enough w/ hips

Wod @ 85#: 2 back squat on the minute for 10 minutes, exploding from the bottom of the squat.

Crossfit Endurance: Nothing today. I have 3 meetings spread out during the day.

Fun Crossfit WOD

What I did for Crossfit today:

Row 1K
20# Dumbbell snatch, 50 reps
Row 750m
20# Dumbbell snatch, 35 reps
Row 500m
20# Dumbbell snatch, 20 reps

My results: 21:05

Today's 2 hour hill training run

Today, it's my 2 hour hill training run. Since I've been kinda lazy lately, I'm going to work real hard and push through today. I'm sore from Monday's workout (Cindy) but it's mostly upper body (from pushups and pullups) and quads (from squats). It may be challenging but I have got to focus on my pace and mental strength. Will post results.

Ran 2 hours, with 2252 elevation gain, little over 10 miles. Trails were muddy and I ended up walking around a couple muddy sections several times. Wish the trails were cooperating.

Tuesday Deadlift

Today was 3-3-3-3-3 deadlifts.

My numbers were not impressive:
115
125
135
140
145(f)
135

I would like to get up to 165 for this WOD! That's my new goal. I'm super impressed with some of the girls in my gym who are about my size and can lift 190-215, 3RM!!! Wow!

No intervals today. No extra work today. Feeling fatigued - though I really need to get my butt in gear! This is the time I should be really working hard and I feel as if I'm not doing everything I can to prepare for this race. Lazy.

Cindy and Skiing

“Cindy”
AMRAP, 20 minutes:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats
Total: 17 rounds, knee pushups
Next time I will try to do as many rounds doing real push ups as possible before switching over to knee pushups.

Then we went skiing. No interval training today. Will that hurt me for my run...I doubt it. We had a ton of fun and worked hard in that wonderful fluffy snow :)

Rest Day

Today is a rest day. Not that I really deserve one this week but it feels good to take it! Tomorrow is a CrossFit and ski day : )

It's a SKI DAY!!

Today was my free day to do whatever fun active activity I like! And, since it's snowing out -- Greg and I packed the car and went up skiing at Bogus Basin. Lots of fluffy white snow and perfect between-the-tree runs :) Given the lack of snow fall, we've been skiing a lot of groomed runs, which are b o r i n g, and the fluffy powder was exactly what I wanted.

Kelly - Another named CF WOD

“Kelly”

5 rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 Box jump, 24 " box
30 Wall ball shots, 12# to 10' target

Results: It took me a disappointing 40:30. This was my first time doing this WOD so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Now I know - it seriously sucks, and I seriously struggled through it.

The run was the only part that I felt pretty good about. 400 meters isn't long and I felt like I kept a fairly good pace throughout the WOD.

After the run, I was faced with jumping on a 24" box. I, of course, stood around trying to catch my breath and convince myself to jump on the box. I spent so much time between each jump - it was bad...very, very bad. What I learned after the WOD was I should: step up or jump up on the box immediately after the run, if tired step-up on the box until ready to jump again, and step down as an alternative to jumping down. I suspect if I use these recommendations I will gain some time.

As for the wall balls, I really don't suck at this movement but today I could not find a rhythm! I seriously struggled with these today - I would do 1 or 2 at a time then stand around before finally picking up the ball again. I would repeat this until I reached 30. It felt very chaotic.

Crossfit Endurance:

I decided that even though I did a longer workout this morning, I was in real need for longer interval training. I decided on 1250 meter sprints x 5 w/ 3 minute rest:

1- 7:16, with 96 ft gain
2- 5:51, with 109 ft gain
3- 6:19, with 124 ft gain
4- 5:54, with 86 ft gain
5- 6:12, with 153 ft gain

Annie

Crossfit

Today at Crossfit we did a workout called “Annie”. It seems fairly easy and simple. Annie is

50-40-30-20 and 10 rep rounds of:
Double-unders
Sit-ups

I've done this workout numerous times in the past - and so it is nice to see a steady improvement!

5-18-10: My first time at Annie. I was still just learning the double unders. My notes from the workout said, "My time really stinks because I don’t link my DUs. But by the end of the WOD, I was beginning to link the DUs with singles in between – doing 4 and 5 in a row! Woo Hoo!" My time: 13:51.

8-13-10: My next Annie workout. I was still struggling with double unders, but I was doing 1 single in between every one 1 double. My time had improved slightly to 12:58.

2-17-11: Today's Annie workout was much improved!! Not doing any singles during the workout except for the 2 or 3 I did before starting the double unders. I was actually linking 4s, 5s, 6s, and 7s together. Once in awhile I linked fewer but that only happened a couple times. I'm happy with my performance today. Today, I did Annie in 8:47!! Next time, I'm shooting for sub-8 minutes!

Preworkout fun: 1,000 meter row, KB training including trying american swing with 53#KB, rope climbs from floor, ring dips (working towards muscle ups!), push-ups (just cuz I suck at'em!)

Endurance

Tabata's! 20:10x8 up 8th street. I compared my times with those on January 31st. However, the big difference is that I started in a different location. On 1/31, I climbed 98, whereas today I gained 172. That's double the elevation (though not much elevation, period). Fastest speed today was 8.7 w/ 6:53 pace w/ zero gain, compared to 1/31 where I had a 9.4 at 6:22 w/ a gain of 10. Bummer! My slowest pace today was (an embarrassing number as I seriously lacked energy for this 20 seconds) 12:40 w/ elevation gain of 35 -- this on my 7th run and I was super tired; compared to a pace of 10:11 with 19 elevation on 1/31. I thought I ran stronger today than the 31st....but I'm not comparing apples to apples so I can't really tell. I am shocked by the 12:40 pace though -- wondering if Ms. Garmin got it wrong or if I was seriously as slow as a turtle for those 20 seconds. I mean...that's really really slow!

Additional Work post CFE

For my additional work, I did 100 single leg jumps on each side, total 200. Then I did 500 single unders. Planned to do 1000, but my feet were feeling sore so I stopped at 500. Also quickly did 5 front planks, 2 planks on r, 2 on left x 1 minute each. 20 push-ups, 20 1 legged squats and tried working on rocking hollow - which I really suck at :(

Wednesday rest day

I didn't do well on yesterday's training run - seriously ran out of energy. Only ran about an hour + for my 2 hour training run -- and walked the hills which is completely not like me! I've been fatigued, back ache, had difficulty catching my breath, and have a constant low grade headache. While fatigue may be cause by just a very little bit of over-training, the remainder I believe are a result of the antibiotic. So...today I'm taking what I believe to be a well-deserved rest day!

Tuesday Crossfit and Training Run

Today's Crossfit was a lot of fun!

21-15-9, for time:
Box Jumps 20″
Pull-ups
KB Swings 53
Push-ups

I didn't do great, just okay. Results: 10:18 w/ modifications
20″ box
Pull-ups (1st 12 in a row)
53# kb, russian (unbroken)
push-ups (1st 5 real, rest knee)
*Plan to work on full ROM of 53# KB swings, and need to work on real push ups!

CFE
I went to run my 2 hour hill training run today for Crossfit Endurance. I only made it to 1 hour, 24 minutes! I ran extremely slow and was exhausted with any elevation. I ended up walking quite a bit, and ran up all the hills - which is unusual for me - I love hills! I decided to go home instead of slugging through the run. Sad.

Additional Training
Walked around with a weight vest on. Walked up and down our stairs 12 times, and did 125 squats.

Slight deviation in training

Today's Crossfit WOD was fun!

Five rounds of:
5 Dumbbell deadlifts
5 Dumbbell hang cleans
5 Dumbbell push presses
5 Dumbbell squats

I'm feeling a bit fatigued and a little sick from the antibiotic I'm currently taking for a potential staph infection (see Saturday's post), so this was a great workout for me. I didn't need a lot of energy -- something I have less of since starting this medication.

I'm not very strong but thought I would be able to increase my weight, ending at 40#. Boy was I wrong. I started at 15#, and the most I was able to successfully lift was 30#. I tried twice to lift 35# and was able to deadlift and hang clean the weight but could not push press 35# overhead. My attempts went like this: 15-20-25-30-35f-35f-30.

Endurance:
Today is supposed to be an endurance day, however I may change up my week as weather forecast is rain all day Wednesday. Plus, I ran Hulls twice yesterday, instead of my normal rest day. If I do my hill training tomorrow, I should give my legs a rest today and avoid CFE - though I need to add it later in the week.

Extra work:
I worry about my core and hips for the ultra run. I felt a little muscle irritation in my left hip during yesterday's run. So, I will spend time this afternoon working my core, hip and doing a little 1 legged jumping.

Running Hulls Gulch on medication

Saturday's are my days to do whatever - ski, bike, run, Crossfit. No training - just fun! But since I was at the doctors, I missed out.

I was warned the medication I'm now taking will interfere with my workouts - but my thought is that I eat extremely healthy and am in great shape, so it is likely not to affect me as it does the every day average joe.

So, today I ran Hulls Gulch - twice!! I didn't have my Garmin on so I'm bummed that I don't have my time documented. But today was so beautiful out and I miss running Hulls (it's been a bit mucky). I felt okay on the first trip and decided to run a second loop. Actually, I planned to run Hulls and Sidewinder but Sidewinder looked pretty muddy so I decided to keep going but was not tired when I finished. Plus I wanted to be outside, so I went on a second loop. Fatigue set in fairly quickly for the second loop and I also felt irritation of my left hip muscle. Once home, I got some protein in me (egg drop soup with crab!) but soon felt overwhelmingly fatigued and ill. My legs were sore, my stomach upset, my head pounding, I layed on the couch trying to recover. I was pretty done for the remainder of the day. I'm not sure if it's just that I'm not in great shape right now, or over trained, or the medication, or a combination of it all - but yesterday was not good and I don't want a repeat of it.

Infectious

Well I spent about 4 hours today going to, being seen by and undergoing treatment from various physicians for a potential staph infection in my hand as a result of a heavy hand workout from Crossfit on Friday.

As you can see from my self-portrait, my hands got pretty torn up after the CrossFit WOD. My right hand had a lot of blisters, but only one blister that popped. My right hand looked bad but felt good. My left hand, however had 2 popped blood blisters and a large tear from a blister on my ring finger. My left hand looked and felt horrible!


However, last night I had difficulty sleeping partly because I had restless legs, and partly because I could not get in a position that made my right hand feel better. Yep - my right hand!

When I woke, I took a good look at my right palm (just under the middle finger) and noticed the blister in the palm of my hand had filled with liquid. There was also redness and swelling from the blister up to the middle finger - about 1 inch in length. I pressed down on the blister and out came pus. Uh-oh, it's infected.




We contacted Greg's brother, Dr. Ed Perkins, who was able to see my wound via skype, and referred us to a Nampa physician, Dr. Richard Augustus. Dr. Augustus diagnosed a staph infection, though a culture will determine the exact type of bacteria located in the wound, and prescribed Bactrim. I will be on the antibiotic for 10 days. I hear some of the side affects include fatigue :( I'm in great shape and eat well so I hope fatigue will not be so bad as to interrupt my training.

Holy Cats!

Greg and I slept in this morning, so we missed our 6am class, but made it to the 7am CrossFit class. Today is a mainsite rest day, so Tyler designed the WOD:

3 sets of 4 Rounds for time of:
7 Deadlift (135/95)
7 Knees-to-Elbows
7 Pull-ups

Rest 2 minutes between sets

I did this WOD as prescribed. My deadlift was 95# which was a good weight, but got pretty darn heavy pretty darn fast. I was doing 2-3 DLs at a time. Knees to elbows I did using my new kipping technique which allows me to do them pretty fast but it's harder on your hands. Plus, I need more development in my lats to consistently get my knees to my elbows. Half were to my elbows, half were to my chest. I also stunk on pull-ups which I was doing 2-3 at a time. My results:

6:20
7:25
9:57
total with breaks 27:42

(Compared to Angie in our class who rocked it: 5:24, 6:27, 6:20 for a total time of 22:11. Amazingly consistent and fast!)

My hands were very tender and sore even before this workout. So just jumping on the bar each round was seriously not fun. I would hang out in front of or underneath the bar trying to convince myself to grab the bar and GO. Just touching the bar hurt. I was aware early on that my sore hands were likely to get blisters and if I was lucky, they would not tear during the workout. I tried to baby them between reps/rounds, but ended up with huge tears on my left hand, blood blisters, and just plain old blisters.

Good WOD. Tough on hands.

Of note - I do so much better when I find a corner of the gym where I am by myself, and can focus on just my workout. No distractions. Today I had Greg behind me and a new girl in front of me who was doing a different workout. I found this very distracting and did not get into my zone - a place where I can blank out everything and everyone around me - where I concentrate on just counting my reps - where I can focus on form. My zone is where I work best and perform best. I have to figure out a way to find my zone despite where I am located in the gym. Why am I so scattered when others are around me? Why do I waste time watching others when I should just be doing my workout? This is definitely something to work on because there isn't always going to be a corner available just for me :)

CFE Workout:

So instead of 3x800 meters (which I was thinking of doing this morning) I did 4 x 5 minutes with 3 minute rest between. Rounds 1 and 3 have a slight decline in elevation while rounds 2 and 4 have slight incline. I'm unhappy with the distance covered in 5 minutes:

1- .70
2-.57
3- .71
4- .60

A Crossfit hero workout

I'm very anxious on Wednesday evenings to check out the WOD for Thursday - moreso than any other day. Wednesdays are my heavy hill training days - leaving my posterior chain and legs depleted. So when I saw today's WOD, I knew today would be difficult. Today's WOD is a Crossfit hero workout called "Wittman". Wittman is:

7 rounds for time of:
35# KB swing, 15 reps
55# Power clean, 15 reps
15 Box jumps, 24″ box

A few months ago I changed my strategy on CF workouts. Since I want to gain strength, I'm going heavy on my workouts, so I lift the prescribed female weight (if I can), or as close as possible. Also, I want to get better at jumping to help my box jumps, jump rope and ultimately my running. So, I use the 24" box on workouts.

Keeping that in mind, I chose the prescribed weight for females for the KB swing. This was a no-brainer for me as this is a fairly easy movement and 35# is not difficult. I was able to do all rounds of the 15 reps unbroken.

For the power cleans, I went 10# shy of the prescribed weight for females (65#), which was still really heavy for me given the number of reps. These really sucked in the beginning as I was not performing one fluid movement - I was breaking into two movements which made it a lift at the top. I thought I would need to drop 10#. But then Tyler came by and corrected my form, instructing me on the one fluid movement concept. That made a world of difference. Although the weight was still at a high suck factor level, I knew I could get through 15 reps on each round (though they were broken up into sets of 5s and 10s). Given the fluidity in the form I learned, I think in the future I will increase my weight to 60#, if not 65#.

I chose the 24" box for the box jumps instead of the 20" prescribed for females. This is where I spent a lot of time standing around while the clock ticked away. I would guess I was more depleted today because of yesterday's hill training, which caused not only more leg fatigue but also caused me to hesitate more between reps for fearing of catching an edge.

I finished "Wittman" in 28:16. Ultimately I am happy with the weights I chose and the height of the box - but unhappy with how much time I waste trying to catch my breath. I want to learn to pick up the weight (or jump on the box) without trying to get another 10 breaths in before I do - it's going to suck with or without those extra breaths so why not just take 1 breath and go!

Supplement:
As always, there are many things I need to work on in addition to Crossfit and Crossfit Endurance. I supplement my morning workouts with afternoon fun. Today that fun included 5 rounds of 20 plank ball knee-ups, and 100 situps; 100 single jumps per foot; and some hip strengthening work that is just too difficult to explain.

Crossfit WOD: HSPU, toes to ring and ball cleans

Today's Crossfit WOD was an interesting one:

20 minute AMRAP
5 pirallette handstand pushups
10 toes to rings
15 medicine ball cleans

Mods: I can't do HSPU, let alone on pirallettes! So, I modified the HSPU by placing my toes on a 24" box and angling down for HSPU. I tried this technique once before, but this is the first time I performed this motion in a workout. Prior, I did knees on box which is easier. So...I am making progress. I was able to do the toes to rings but with a big swing, and I was on rings in front of a bunch of weights which was distracting when I hit. The medicine ball cleans were fun - and I did those with a 16# ball - the prescribed weight for females.

My results: 5 rounds + HSPU + toes to rings + 2 cleans

For my extra work today, I am: wearing a 20# weight vest around the house for a few hours while cleaning house, walking around, sitting here writing posts. Also planned for the day is more jump roping (to beat up my feet) and some 24" box jumps.

Monday's Core, CF, CFE

On Mondays, I do both the Crossfit WOD, and Endurance work. I like to use the workouts listed on the Crossfit Endurance website, but don't follow the days when they are posted.

Crossfit WOD:

5 Rounds for time of:
30 Double-Unders
25 Sit-ups
20 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls #45
16:51

Note: DUs took too long. I did one single between every DU. Cant string together yet. SDHPs were heavier than expected but I am trying to do as many of the WODs as prescribed. So, I was a little slower but doing the heavier weight will help me in the long run, I hope.

Endurance:

For my endurance work, I wanted to do more of a tabata type run but have done too many tabata's lately (20:10x8). A variance on this is one that was posted on CFE a few months ago and which I did in December. It is 30:30x15 (30 seconds on, 30 seconds off x 15 rounds). I thought I could compare today's CFE with the last one but apparently I did this CFE on the same loop - but in the opposite direction. Ugh.
Results (best/worst): 14th lap 5:53 pace, 10.2 speed, and .08 distance. Worst was (of course) my 1st lap which was 8:40 pace, 6.9 speed and .06 distance.

Extra:

Core: I also worked on my core today which I really need to be more diligent about. I did only 5, 1 minute front planks, 5, 1 minute right sided planks, and 5 1 minute left sided planks. No breaking of time which was really hard. My goad was 10 front planks, but was completely exhausted after 5! I also attempted the rocking cradle which I am still amazed that I cannot do! Jump: 250 single jump rope jumps on each foot.