3 Capital F's

Feeling F_ing Fantastic. What a difference a day makes.
Group swim today - ended up at 3000 yds, but the best thing was one of the drills, at the very end of the main set was 6x50s kick on 1:30 and I passed people in my lane even after being 3rd in the lane to start - got to attribute that to stronger legs as a result of all these circuits. Overall the swim felt great, I felt super strong today.

Day 5 on Paleo and things are starting to gel.

Tabata on tap for later today - already know my time - ☺

Spring can't come soon enough

On tap for today was a 30k bike - the good news is I had a good night sleep, but w/out getting too personal, I have some hormone issues that I choose not to treat w/meds, so about every 3rd month, I get a bad case of vertigo and today that got in my way on my bike. (Guys have it so much easier!) I ended up finishing the bike at 15mph and my true goal for today was to try and maintain a 90 cadence, but came in short at 86.

I have also hit the 'I can't get enough food' - day 4 of Paleo - my stomach feels completely empty and I keep eating.

Backsquats on tap for much later tonight. - 85/85/95, then tried 115, could not do one, 95/95 - either I need to get the gym next time for these or buy a few more 10 and 5lb plates for my barbell. I had nothing to try an inbetween 85 and 115.

First Pass on a WOD

Not sure what is going on, but had another bad night - could be a result of the switch in eating, could be 'womens hormone crap' (yes, creeping up on that magic age) or a combo - but feel like I am in a detox, stomach hurts, sweaty, just not my usual self. Have a 4x800m run, 100% effort, 4 minutes rest in between, but think I will listen to my body and take a pass. Also need to get to my son's last home hockey game at 5. I will just have to get over the guilty feeling.

And after reading Christina's blog, I totally f_up'd that torture bike ride last night. I guess the rest was supposed to be the amt of time in distance, i.e. 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, not total time it took me to ride the mileage - I knew something was not quite right. I will just laugh that one off.

Eating, AMRAP and Bike

First let me start by saying I started eating like a caveman yesterday (Paleo)- long story short, I made a recipe from one of the books, chicken veggie soup - did not think about possible affects of cabbage to ones system - I found that out at 1:00 am last night. Otherwise, day 2 and so far so good. I have been 'zoning' for just over a year and I must say it was nice to eat a banana and carrots without worrying about using up so many carb blocks for so little quantity.

WOD#1 - AMRAP in 20 minutes: 5 burpees, 10 pushups, 500m row - I was 10 meters shy of completing 6 rounds. HR got up to 165, avg 153. I must say I really liked this one.

WOD#2 - Bike 1 mile, rest mile time, 2 miles, rest mile time, up to 5 and back. I must say this was the worst task thus far. Unless the goal was to make you feel totally beat up and deteriorate before your very eyes, then I totally rocked the workout. I was all over the place with gears, big ring, little ring back and forth. I also cut the rest times after mile 5 - this was long process total time 2:54 and that was w/reduced rests towards the end. Several times I wanted to quit - now I am thinking I probably did it wrong, but it is done, can't go back.
Times:
1 mile 3:30 17.4 mph 93 cadence
2 miles 7:00 17.4 90
3 miles 11:05 16.1 87
4 miles 15:47 15.2 84 (starting to see the rapid decline)
5 miles 20:10 14.9 85
4 miles 16:07 14.9 85
3 miles 12:16 14.7 85
2 miles 8:00 14.8 86
1 mile 3:54 15.5 86

yuck

FRAN & Swim

2 WOD: 1st up was FRAN (21, 15, 9) thrusters, pullups. I did this circuit last on January 30th in a time of 5:03, but I used 25#, 10#, 25# for the 3 thruster sets. Today I did all the thrusters with a 45# barbell. Total time today was 6:20, which includes stair time to get from basement to pullup bar - given the increased in poundage, I am happy with that improvement and even my legs were shaking a bit.

2nd: 1000yd swim TT - time was 19:48 and I think I swam 50yds over - my last 1000 swim was on January 13th and I did it in 19:11 and I felt better and stronger today, hmmm. If there is anything I am consistent in, it is the swim - the endurance felt good today.

Anything to avoid the treadmill - Run and pushups on tap

For the past 3 days I have been struggling over the fact that today had a 5 mile run on tap. I haven't run this distance since late May 2009. So when today's weather came in, I spent all day at work stressing over the fact that I would had to put myself thru the treadmill torture for this run (I have never run 5 miles on a treadmill). At 3:15 pm I told myself I had to give outside a try and like Ariel, I took on the nasty weather and did the 5 miles outside. My mind was working the entire run - from thinking about my running lesson and trying to not try and run on my heels, to looking down to avoid the very slippery slush and big puddles and remembering to look ahead to make sure the cars saw me. Again, like Ariel, not so thrilled with the time, which came in at 47:16, it definitely was not a TT - I would have wiped out on the slippery streets. But the run served a purpose, I did the distance, the foot did not feel all that bad, and I definitely will be doing my running drills to get off of my heavy heel running. It will take time.

100 Pushups, even on your knees is hard- did 20 regular and then down to the knees - time was 3:54

Circuit and Swim and REST day tomorrow - yippeeeee

Circuit today was: 50 step ups, 20 box jumps, 30 situps, 20 pushups, 10 burpees, 2x thru. Total time 11:21. I used a higher step for the steps - 20 inches vs. 14. Knees have been a bit sore, and left knee on step ups felt a bit off - I did my first set of box jumps on my 14" box, but second time thru, stayed on the higher step and did an additional 20 step ups in lieu of the box jumps. If your not totally focused, I find box jumps to be extremely hard and often times end up just staring at the step. I also had a goal to do all my pushups, even w/burpees as a 'real' push ups and not knee pushups, which I managed to do.

Group swim today - 2600 yds.

Running lesson later in the day - learned alot and there is alot for me to absorb. Baby steps.

Thank goodness for a rest day - haven't seen on in about a month.

Good Ride Today & Wall Ball Shots

First WOD - 30 minute TT bike - happy to say I averaged 16.8 mph and got in 8.44 miles. Improvement is happening with each bike.

75 (NOT 750) wall ball shots later today. Time: 2:59

Eyes On Me

People continue to stare while I do run/squat circuits on the treadmill. But honestly who cares! They are probably wondering what the heck I am doing.
WOD: 200 run, 50 squats, 400 run, 50 squats, 800 run, 50 squats. Had a goal of under 10 and ended at 9:46

Looking ahead to tomorrow- I know it is NOT a typo- but 750 wall ball shots- ouch

WOD - Bike Sequence

5 minutes on, 1 off, 10 on, 1 off, 15 on. I am sure the goal of this drill is to keep the same distance (or better) for every 'on' set. I came pretty close - 5@1.4 miles, 10@ 2.73 (1.36/5), 15@ 4.04 (1.34/5), so slight decline in distance as the time got longer. Total distance was 8.17. The improvement came because I avg 16.2 mph, which is good for me.

Just a side note: on my way home, I saw a friend biking outside - very jealous, but just made me realize 4 weeks from this coming Sunday the time changes, hopefully meaning the weather gets just a bit warmer and outside riding can begin. For those of us who live in Simsbury, this is the first year the town did not put Sand down, so should not be any delay in getting outside.

And I must say, these Olympics are totally motivating. I was watching the womens snowboard qualifying runs during my bike.

10! circuit and a Run

10! boxjumps, burpees and situps: 9:30 for time. My variation includes - 14 inch box for jumps. My eventual goal is to try a higher box, but I rather do jumps on the 14" instead of step ups on a higher box.

Also had a run which I was able to get outside for - 10 minutes out, then turn around and head back: 2.30 miles (at the 10 min mark, I was at 1.13 so the 2nd 10 was better in terms of speed). Avg HR was 156. After the 250 lunges yesterday, I was surprised at how strong my legs felt - still having foot/sneaker/gait issues, but todays run was pretty good.

If It Was Easy Everyone Would Do It

is what my husband said as I did 250 walking lunges around my house - made sure to get my knee down to the floor every single time - as much as these killed, I still hate burpees more. Total time was 9:50

Also had a 500yd swim - good time for me - happy with an 8:46.

Todays WOD were on tap for tomorrow, but I switched days because the snow did not let me get outside to do a 20 minute run (10 minutes out and then turn around) - will do that tomorrow with a circuit.

That Sucked

WOD - 21,18,15,12,9,6,3,1 (thought it ended with a 1, but it did not so I did 2 extra) Thrusters w/25# bar, burpees. Total time 14:16 Max HR 157. First time I felt the burpees in my knees, had to take them a bit slower but still focused on the form w/squat and pushup. This sequence was hard. I realized my arms were still not completely recovered from last weeks 100 pullups - while I can bend them straight now and don't have any pain, I definitely felt them today.

Guilted in

and yes Big Pappa is watching. Let's just say, I won't be 'spinning' during any training sessions. Today (well s/h/b yesterday) I had a 40K TT bike and happily ended up at 15.6mph. On Saturday 1/16 I had a 30K TT bike and ended up at 15mph. Pretty good improvement. I was also happy with this improvement considering it came after a 21 mile spin class yesterday and a deadlift set of 3-3-3-3-3.

Deadlifts, done yesterday were: 115, 115, 125, 135 135

Could not go solo today

Today was a 40k TT bike - however, the thought of doing that on my trainer, by myself was hard. My legs, lower half are very sore from the run/squat circuit yesterday so I knew I needed a 'group' to push myself. I opted for an early am spin class - it was awesome - lots of hard climbs, fast sprints, very little rest if any at all. Ended up at 20.86 miles. HR stayed in the 150s

Yeah, my arms are getting better, the massage totally helped, I highly recommend regular ones.

Missed by 1 second everytime

that is the Pause time on the treadmill. 400 run, 50 squats 6x thru for time: 19:22which includes the frustrating seconds to reset the darn treadmill. I finished my squats just as the pause time winded down, ugh! Did have the speed up to 8, 8.1 and 8.2 towards the end. Also first WOD that I did in the early am - 6:45, happy it is over and so looking forward to my massage today.

Arms still hurting, but better.

Swim & Circuit

So, 3 days later my arms are still killing me - wasn't sure how I would feel in the water, but actually felt pretty good. 800 swim at 16 - a few seconds better than last time and that was with a few seconds for some rest at the wall a few times. I love the water and have good endurance, just think my swim is what it is in terms of time. Not worried.

Circuit today was 25lb KB swings, knee to elbow, 21 reps 4x thru for time. Again, arms still hurt! This circuit did not bother my arms at all, but boy, I certainly did not come close to having the form of the knee to elbows that was demonstrated in the CF video. Well, maybe came close somewhere between variation 2 & 3 - definitely had hip movement, but boy was this hard. Time was 7:18.

Actually looking forward to a run circuit tomorrow, early am.

Another deceiving WOD on paper

Today was supposed to be just an 800yd swim, but I did not leave the house because of the NO snow storm. So I did my bike for tomorrow, today: 1 min standing, 1 min off, 2 min stand, 2 min off up to 5 and then back down to 1 = 50 minutes, 12.99 miles. Midway thru the 4 min off, I realized off did not mean rest, but just meant no standing, so I picked up the pace a bit. I am sure this one will come up again and if it doesn't I will incorporate into my next longer TT just to see the mileage.
This was a good one and produced quite the sweat.
Have I mentioned my biceps, triceps, lats, abs, and every other muscle in my upper body are completely sore still. It is hard just to straighten out my arms.

Ouch and a 3K

After the 100 pullups I knew todays circuit of AMRAP in 20: 4 burpees, 8 pushups, 12 situps was going to be challenging. But I told myself at least the burpees were only 4 - did not factor in the pushups. All I can say is WOW - it was interesting to see my arms shaking during the pushups. Everything seemed to slow down and then I tried to kick it up because afterall it was only 20 minutes. Ended up 18 rounds plus 4 burpees. Did not realize I had some many muscles in my upper body - they are all asking me if I am crazy.

Did my short run outside, one uphill on my way back. This one hurt, HR avg 162, time 15:15, but it was very very hard - felt completely out of breathe and got a side cramp. Going to a talk tonight - Running w/Injury - timing is perfect. Feet still feel funny causing my gait to be out of whack - will get this resolved this week for sure.

Just hope the snow does not keep me from the pool tomorrow - my arms are looking forward to a swim, I think - better than pushups,right!

Will my arms come down from space

100 pull ups today - no choice but gravitron machine. Time = 6:20. Started at 110 for 10 reps, then to 120 for 10 and ended up at 130 for the rest, which I think means I was not pulling any additional weight meaning the 130 was essentially my body weight. Regardless, 100 of anything w/out stopping is hard. I know sets that I have done that are a 5-5-5-5-5, I have done at 100 lbs.

So I am wondering how long my arms will feel unattached to my body and I can't even imagine doing my set of burpees and pushups tomorrow, ugh.

2 WOD on Superbowl Sunday

My group swim was good today - coach was sick, but left a workout - 2900 yards and my stroke felt pretty darn good.

Waited until 4:45 to do 2nd task: 21 backsquats at 70% max weight, 500 row, 15 squats, 500 row, 9 squats, 500 row. I was shocked how crowded the gym was 1 hr before closing - I figured the majority would have already been filled up on chips and beer. First time I had to share a rower - and the lady I was sharing with was also doing some squats using the rack, hmmmm
I did have to wait to get back onto the rower maybe a minute or so, both of us were trying to row as fast as possible, but paused my watch to get an accurate read of workout time - which ended up to be 9:49 and I did 95 lbs on the squats. I did get faster on my row splits.

Bike TT - my Saturday routine

Saturdays = bike days. Today was 45 minutes vs. 40 minutes for the past 2 Saturdays. I did 12 miles, which was the same pace as my previous 40 min - so given the additional 5 minutes, I was happy to hold the same pace and I only got up once to readjust, so that is progress.

Off to walk the dogs - but think it is pretty cold out there today

Gladly give up seconds for water

This one needed water for sure: 400 run, 50 squats, 10 burpees - 4x thru = 14:55

CLARIFICATION: Was by myself in the gym, had to use the Smith machine - so I guess my weights don't equate back to that same weight w/out the machine. Had to do my backsquats from yesterday today and right after the circuit which I know is not ideal - legs were tired. 95, 125, 145, 155, 165, 165, 175

Bike Interval

Wasn't sure what to expect in terms of mileage. My task today was 5 minutes on, 2 minutes off, 4x thru. My off 2 minutes were just a light spin, I did stay on the bike. Only factoring in the 5 minutes of hard effort, I was thinking I would go 1/2 the distance I did during my 40 min TT the past 2 saturdays which would have been 5 or 5.35 miles. Today I did 7.26 miles, I am happy.

Backsquats a bit later, the infamous 7 sets of 1 rep max weight, fun is

EFFORT = HAPPY = 1:20 minutes STRONGER

500row, 50KB (20lb), 500row, 40 KB, 500 row, 30KB 500 row - 13:50 today and that includes a few extra seconds trying to get my size 11 sneaker out of the rower! Did the same WOD on January 6, at 15:10. The only word going thru my brain during the set was EFFORT - and I also wanted to try and get under 10 min for the 2000m row which I ended up at 9:43.

So with that result, I don't care so much about my 800yd swim - which I had to do right before my circuit. My goal in the water today was to practice what I learned on Sunday - long strokes, nice glide, powerful pull, breath every 2nd stroke. So I figured there will be so many TT in the plan in the next 6 months, today was about form. I managed a 16:17, which was pretty good considering I did not set out for speed. And I felt pretty good in the water.

5K run for Time for me too today

Wasn't sure what to expect considering I know I need a different shoe/insole or combo and like everyone else, my legs are still screaming from thrusters, squats, etc. I also did this on the treadmill to give myself extra cushion. The good news is that my endurance felt awesome and I really felt strong, but the hip discomfort and foot discomfort came out about 1.5 miles in - I finished in 26 minutes, which was better than last time. I was pleased.

Use Anger To Your Advantage

Found out that my long term incentive given to me 3 yrs ago is worth a whoping $0.00 - and boy was I angry - so I took it out on my circuit today: 500m row, 10# thrusters 21 reps, repeat 3x thru - 9:38, avg HR 153. I feel so much better now.

Thrusters Saturday, squats Sunday, thrusters today - my legs are screaming and I am counting on them to give me a good fast 5k run tomorrow