Fun Long Run

Today I'm going out for a 26-30 mile run in the Boise foothills with friends. I haven't been running much at all lately, so I don't know how I will feel.

The run is a loop run starting out at Military Reserve where you start your climb up trail 5 (freestone), trail 6, trail 4 (curlew connection), then finally down Three Bears to Shane's, to the high trails through Military Reserve back to home base. Then, do it again!

I have my Garmin charging, and my Ipod fully loaded. I have my glucose, almond butter, protein powder mix, bananas, lots of water and a backup protein bar. I have warm clothes to start the run, and enough more warm clothes to change into if I get too wet/cold (as I plan to hang out to meet the others at the end of loop 1).

I guess the only thing left to do is go and have a good time this morning :)

Death by "Hammer"

"Hammer"

Five rounds, each for time, of:
5 Power clean, 70#
10 Front squat, 70#
5 Jerk, 70#
20 Pull-ups
Rest 90 second

Wow, that was a rough one. After round 1, I was thinking “I don’t know if I can do this”

70#

R1 0-3:34 = 3:34
R2 5:04-9:24 = 4:20
R3 10:54-15:37 = 4:43
R4 17:07-21:55 = 4:48
R5 23:25-28:21 = 4:56
Total time: 28:21

Now I need to stretch and rest in preparation for my 26-28 mile run tomorrow. I'm so excited!

Games WOD 11.5

Even though my legs are pretty darn sore from the 400 meter walking lunges and post-workout foothills run, I decided to go ahead and do the Games workout, 11.5. Greg and Bob were both going to do it and it just looked like fun!

So, 11.5 WOD is a 20 minute AMRAP of:
5 Power cleans (145/100) (I did 70#)
10 Toes to bar
15 Wall balls (20-10′/14-9′)

The last time I did power cleans, my max was 65#, so I wasn't expecting to be able to do the 100# power clean required to participate in the Games. I worked my way up to 70# and that was very heavy. And although that was a good weight for the workout, I should have gone maybe 5-10# heavier to make it a really heavy power clean.

I had trouble with toes to bar -- I just didn't have my kip down at all during the workout. But I got through them.

The wall balls I did 14# to 9' target. Though because there was no actual target for the 9', I just focused on getting it in between the 8' and 10' target, and if the throw was too low, it was a redo. I hate when there is not a firm target though. I loved not using a target ball under my butt because I could actually get into a deep squat, making the throw easier. And I've got a very deep squat so I do not need the target ball and don't plan on using one any more.

The result: 7R + 5PC, + 10 T2B, +8 WB. I'm okay with this number, but I should have added a bit more weight on my power clean, and I could have gone faster! I rested too much and I really did have enough in the tank at the end of the WOD.

I'm surprised that I didn't feel worse during this WOD considering the soreness in my butt and thighs from the lunge walking. After the WOD is a different story - walking up and down our stairs is difficult and my legs are stiffening up if I'm not continuously moving around. I suspect today will be a work while you stand kinda days.

A little twisted

Yesterday I twisted my left knee after the walking lunges while screwing around on the rings. I felt pretty good the rest of the day and in fact went on a short leisurely run without problems. I continued the rest of the day with a lot of stretching, walking around and standing (watching Cameron's lacrosee game). This morning I woke up to a tweaked muscle in my left leg, making walking a little difficult. I'm sure it's just an angry muscle so I'm babying it today with the usual type of treatment: ice, heat, elevate, ibuprofen. I will keep up treatment all day -- the only thing I need to do today outside the house is visit the doctor.

Walking lunges and leisurely run

The Crossfit WOD was: 400 meters walking lunges, and I did it in 10:15! That's a very improved time - the last time I did that WOD, it took me 21 minutes. So I'm very happy about that! I think I could also shave that 15 seconds off to get r' done in less than 10 minutes next time.

I've really been slacking on my Crossfit workouts and running lately. I need to get motivated to train for the next race. So today I'm going to treat myself to an enjoyable run. I will do some CFE on Thursday since I really need to start interval training again. Plus, I'm going to hang for a long run this weekend with a friend on Saturday. I think she is punching out 30 - so I will join in for that. Next week I will really gear up my CFE training and really work extra hard to include lots of heavy KB swings, Deadlifts, back squats, and rebounding box jumps into my workouts to improve my overall strength for my upcoming adventures!!

Lacking motivation...lacking fitness

Today's CrossFit workout was

3 Rounds for time of:
20 Parallette Burpees
40 Double-Unders

And it totally sucked! I got so frustrated with the double-unders. The first round I was getting 5 or 7 in a row, but then the 2nd and 3rd rounds I was doing one double-under at a time!! Grrrr!!! In fact, I was so frustrated I refused to look at the clock when I was done. Dammit.

So because I am not feeling good (got some thyroid issues), I am continually frustrated with how I look, feel and perform.

My Achin' Calves

My calves are SO sore from rebound box jumps on Sunday. So, I am not looking forward to our CrossFit WOD tomorrow morning:

“Helen”

3 Rounds for time of:
400m Run
21 Kettlebell Swings 35#
12 Pull-ups

Another 21-15-9 WOD

Today's Crossfit WOD was yet another 21-15-9 WOD. But this one included

HSPU
ring dips
pushups

This is NOT one of my favorite workouts cause I have to tweak the hell out of it...and I'm just about tired of doing the 21-15-9 scheme. But...going with the flow, I modified the workout as follows:

21-15-9
HSPU - knees on 24" box
Ring dips, jumping
Push-ups, regular.

Cuz I just can't do HSPU's, I placed my knees on a 24" box, placed my hands and body close to box for more of a vertical form and landed my head slightly above my hands placement -- like a wide upside down v. These were the easy part of the workout.

For my ring dips, I jumped up into the ring dip and slowly lowered myself down in a as-much-as-possible kinda control. So when is it a good rep or bad rep? How slow must I go to be a good rep? Plus, I don't really know if this is helping me develop ring dips at all. I think allowing me to use a tiny purple band would help me get strength and confidence I need to then eventually lose the band -- just like I did with my pullups. But, oh well...

I really suck at push-ups! So I was just planning to do my normal knee push-ups which are hard too. But then I chatted with my CrossFit friend Annie who was "planning" on doing real push-ups. Well I thought to myself - "I know she's stronger than me and can do real push-ups, but I'm only going to get stronger by doing them. So if Annie's going to do man push-ups, so will I". There. Plus, I had a new hand position I was going to try out. Maybe it won't be as hard?? So, 5 reps in and I realized that this was going to be a long workout :) Slowly but surely, I struggled through the man push-ups - concentrating on getting my hips up before shoulders, and keeping my core tight with a hollow body. Annie killed it - she finished like 10 + minutes ahead of me. Come to find out, Annie switched to knee push-ups after like her first 6 or 9. :'>

This bad-boy workout took me 21:50 to finish. I am wiped!

Sunday Fun

CROSSFIT

We don't normally go to the CF gym on Sundays, but Greg wanted to redo the games 11.3 workout so we skipped last day of skiing at Bogus and headed to the gym. Thankfully there was a fun WOD planned! It was:

21 Knees-to-Elbows
3 Box Jumps (20″)
18 Knees-to-Elbows
6 Box Jumps
15 Knees-to-Elbows
9 Box Jumps
12 Knees-to-Elbows
12 Box Jumps
9 Knees-to-Elbows
15 Box Jumps
6 Knees-to-Elbows
18 Box Jumps
3 Knees-to-Elbows
21 Box Jumps

On the box jump, start from on top of the box. No waiting or gathering on the ground. Athlete must land and spring back up on top of the box. One repetition is jumping off the top of the box and bounding back up on top of the box. Step-ups are not counted.

I absolutely loved this workout!! It was my first workout where I was connecting my kipping Knees to elbows; and the first time I rebounded onto a 20" box - and first time where my rest was on top of the box, not the bottom. I loved this because I don't work on rebounding, and I certainly haven't tried it on a 20" box. It's not as hard as I thought, though I am a little clumsy with my movement. I'm really looking forward to implementing these rebounding box jumps into all my box jump workouts!

Oh...this WOD took me like 11-something.

RUN

In the afternoon I took a nice leisurely run - the Hulls Gulch loop. I really concentrated on having fun, but also running in proper form and maintaining good speed.

Rest day

Rest day

Fool of April - Day of Skiing, Mtn Biking, Golf, Tennis, etc.

Today was a day of Fun including Crossfit, mountain biking, skiing, tennis, golf, and finally dinner! Here's how the day went:

Crossfit at 6:00 am
5 Rounds for time of:
250m Row
5 Back Squats , 65#
Because of time (I needed to leave by 6:50), I only did 4 rounds. It felt great, but should have done the final round since I had a good 10 minutes to spare! And I should have gone heavier on the backsquat -- 65# was really light!

Mountain Biking at 7:30 am
Mountain biked up 8th to connect to the reverse corals trail until we hit the trailhead for Bob's trail. Then we headed down Bob's. Bob's was fun but definitely had some muddy sections, several high level water crossings and one area of wash-way. I thought I would be cold on this trip but I had hand warmers in my hand, and continually wiggled my toes -- which remained cold but not painfully cold. Overall it was a great ride - our 1st ride of the season.

Skiing at 9:00 am
We headed up the hill at 9, and were skiing shortly after 10. The snow wasn't the best..well, it really wasn't very good. The group we were with kept going down groomer runs...but Sandra and I found some powder to ski in since we both really had groomed runs ;0 Before heading down the hill for tennis, we had a quick snack at the Lodge.

Tennis at 2:00 pm
Played doubles tennis at Crane Creek. I'm not a tennis player but my teammates were very helpful and impressed with my tenacity of hitting the ball. I really enjoyed the game, learning rules.

Golf at 3:30 pm
Played 9 holes of golf at Crane Creek at 3:30. I've had a few lessons, but am unfamiliar with the rules of the game and am very unskilled as I've barely played since the lessons I took well over 10 years ago. Had a great time. Loved to drive the ball; wasn't good at and didn't like putting.

Watching my son Coach Lacrosse game!! 6:30 pm. Cameron is a coach of Timberline JV Lacrosse. After golf, I picked up Greg (w/o changing clothes), then headed out to watch his game in Meridian -- in very cold weather :( Brrr..... They lost the game, but it was a very good game and Cameron learned a lot as a coach. I loved watching him being a coach!

Dinner
After the game, we returned (again without changing clothes) to the country club for dinner, drinks and desert. Yum. But extremely expsensive.

Finally home by 11ish. Time to shower and rest :)

Doing "Diane"

For today's Crossfit workout we did “Diane” which is

21-15-9 reps of:
Deadlift (heavy)
Handstand push-ups

Time: 12-something (I forgot my time)

I decided to go with 120# which is heavy enough for doing a total of 45 reps! And in comparison to a previous workout I did with high reps of deadlifts, I actually felt stronger today. I took fewer breaks and was able to link 5 and 6 at first, then down to 3 and 2 reps in the "15" round, and down to 2 and 1 in the "9" round. I probably should have done 125# though.

Shoulder workouts are not my strength and HSPU are not my thing. So my wimpy self decided to try the whole workout doing the handstand pushups with piked with toes on a 24" box and full extension. Well..that didn't work out so well. I ended up doing 7 with toes on box because I just could not release my shoulders to hit my head on the ground. That was frustrating. So I switched over to knees on box and worked on proper, as knees on box HSPU are too easy.

On the way home I decided to include in my warm up or cool down:
- Light deadlifts to work on form. I think if I do this for a month, then my form will be automatic and then I just have to worry about weight.
- HSPU with knees on box to increase strength and work on form, followed by 5 HSPU with toes on box.

Hike day

I told myself I would take 2 weeks off running following the Ultra; but I'm really itching to run. But to keep myself in line, I've been walking/hiking around the Boise foothills. So today I went for an 1-1/2 hour hike during lunch, and then I went hiking with my sister tonight for another 1-1/2 hours in the rain. My sister is a fast walker/hiker so it's a real treat to go with someone who is serious about getting out and getting a workout.

Pull-ups and Dips...Yay (sigh)

120 pull-ups
120 dips (60 tiny purple, 60 small red band)

25:43

Feeling Strong

Today at Crossfit, our workout was a 12 minute AMRAP of:
20 Lunge to Step up 20"
7 Sumo Deadlift High Pull 45#

I managed to get 8 rounds + 2 step ups which was fairly decent. I'm happy with my rounds. I'm happy to be feeling more energetic in the workouts. And...more importantly, I am taking my coach very seriously -- meaning, I am giving 100% (or very close) to the WOD. I did not take breaks. I did not break my box lunge/steps, or my SDHPs. I did not stop to take a sip of water. I did not concern myself with how others were doing on the WOD. My transition times were minimal. I just kept my head down and did.

My goal is to keep giving 100% to the WOD, pushing myself to new limits.

Rest Day

Nothing to post about.

Saturday Fun

We headed up to Bogus Basin this morning for our Saturday ski day. Alas, it was raining on our way up the hill....and then we got to the top lodge, it was still raining! Big drops! So we turned around and headed down the hill.

We decided to head over to the CrossFit gym to join in their open gym. I didn't do the workout of the day, I came up with one of my own:

11 minute AMRAP
15 35# KB swings
15 double unders
15 strictish pushups

I didn't document how many rounds I did, but it was a good workout!

Friday Fun

Modified recovery WOD
4 R of
25 squats
20 pull-ups
15 dips

Didn’t track the time