Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Row Run Circuit and Swim

WOD#1: 500 row, 400 run, 5x thru for time: Time 23:52. This was my lunchtime activity. I did this circuit last on January 22nd in 25:40 - good improvement. This is a hard one but a good one. Just frustrating for the precious seconds it takes for the rower and treadmill to get computers active.

WOD#2: 500yd swim - later, after work activity. I call this a nuisance swim because it takes me longer to get to the Y etc than to swim. But I have felt totally energized for the past 5 days or so and I am ready to attack the water.
Had a slow as shit swim - 10:01 - I know I sound like a broken record, but I am at the point of not worrying about gaining seconds anymore in the water - I love the water, love to swim and my endurance is good in the water. Enough said.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

5K run and Circuit (and personal question)

WOD #1: 5k run - today my goal was to keep a 93 cadence for the entire run. My time was just a few seconds slower than the last 5K, which was 25:03 on March 16th. Today's time was 25:18. The interesting part was I was cadence focused and in hindsight could have pushed it to a higher cadence, but this was the longest run using cadence so I did not know what to expect. (and I did not check my prev time beforehand) But there was improvement w/my avg HR - on 3/16 it was 160 and today was 152, so to me that is a pretty significant improvement and probably an indicator to keep a higher cadence next time.

WOD #2: 100ft walking lunges, 10 burpees, 25 situps, 3x thru for time. Total time = 7:40 (compared to 9:49 on 3/16). It is improvement in the burpees - I used to have to stop for a few seconds after 3 or 4, now I can do them straight through - still hate them. Also, on 3/16 I did this outside and tried to do the lunges up my driveway, worked ok up, not so good down and I had to stop a few times to keep from falling down.

Now to the personal question - maybe more for the ladies, but here it goes - anyone have any bladder issues when trying to run the CF or Pose way? There I asked. I can't quite figure out what is going on other than maybe I am a bit more relaxed than I think - ok, everyone can laugh now. Hey, we have to be able to poke fun at ourselves, right.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Another 21-15-9

WOD: Run 800, 21 burpees, run 800, 15 burpees, run 800, 9 burpees. Time = 16:54 - Avg HR 156, a high 163. And burpees were done w/full pushup - no knees :)

Before this circuit, I did running drills, week 3 (haven't done any drills for 2 weeks, and needed to get back on track). The week 3 drill is 4x90 sec @98 cadence, CF drill - I chose 3x10 each side forward lunge, then 1x6 min @93 cadence. I think it finally clicked today. I was relaxed, focused on the lean forward and relaxed foot, not a high knee. It all felt right today. The 6 min run came in at 7:58 min/mile and I ran .755 of a mile. The 90 seconds started at an 8:42/mile and came down to a 7:45 for the last one.
I felt comfortable in the running flats and decided to keep them on for my circuit thinking the run distance was shorter than what I had just done for my HW drill.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Row Circuit and Group Swm

WOD #1: 500 row, 21 boxjumps, 21 pushups, 500 row, 15 jumps, 15 pushups, 500 row, 9 jumps, 9 pushups. I had 7 risers on each side of the step and did step ups, 21, 15, 9 and each leg during the circuit. Total time 12:15 - I haven't rowed in a while and each 500 came in around 2:15. I realized as I did the last 9 pushups as full pushups (vs. knee) that I am at a point that I could do full pushups all the time now, which is what I will do going forward.

WOD#2: Group swim - only 6 of us showed up, so we got some good 1/1 time with the coach. He likes the way I look in the water -said my stroke looks good, head and body alignment all good, but that I was swimming too dainty like, delicate. He pulled me out of the water to try and get the concept of 'pressure' across to me. I know this is my problem and when he said I had to figure out where the 'stillness' of the water was to know where it felt good to apply the pressure, it made some more sense to me. I also totally relaxed which automatically made my upper body rotate like I wanted and it all felt pretty good.

On a side note: My upper body, core and back are so different looking that they were in November, in a good way - muscle definition like crazy, even my huby commented. Now if I can only alter genetics and get rid of my grandma triceps, I would be perfect.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

40K Bike, Proud I got out, Doubted myself the whole way

My original plan was to do a charity ride w/a group at 8:00 am. I got to the bike shop (starting place), it was cold and I just wasn't dressed right. I also was 2nd guessing my decision to ride my road bike for this ride. W/in 5 minutes, I said hi to some friends and then made the decision to head home. I wanted to get a quality ride in and it just wasn't happening with me being freezing cold.

After 3 hrs of procrastination (well I did finish cleaning out my closet), looking outside at the strong wind, trying to talk myself out of riding outside, I just got dressed and got on my bike. It was windy, but the sun was out and I was dressed perfectly and I was on my Tri bike. Did the 40k in 1:38, ended up riding about 26 miles in total. There is a stupid hill at the end of my ride that I just can't seem to conquer. I got off the bike and had to walk up the hill. Is that allowed at LP? Do people do that? As I was walking, I asked myself, what the 'F' am I doing - I am not feeling the hills, and that is a problem. Do I need to do a flat IM? I got back home, purged my doubt to husband, who said, you will be fine - it is early, you haven't been riding outside that long. You did it last year, but in the same breath, he said avoid the hills next time, well that was the WRONG answer, I need to seek out the hills and that is exactly what I need to do, I can't try to pick flat routes to do the bike intervals - I need to just go with the hills and take whatever time I get. I will get up that stupid hill next time. (for those locals, it is the hill up Barndoor Hill Rd going towards Simsbury Rd)

Link: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ct/simsbury-rd-into-granbymass-loop-%28damn-hill%29/932127092743611212


Deadlifts, later, much much later. - 95, 115, 125, 125, 135, 145, failed at 165

Friday, April 9, 2010

Run Interval and 100 Pullups

WOD#1: The weather and my schedule had me inside on the treadmill for the run interval - 1st @8:08, 2@8:05, 3rd@8:10, 4th@8:07
I felt pretty strong and only wish I was able to do this outside.

WOD#2: 100 pullups - the first 40 were done at 10lbs harder weight on the gravitron, next 20 at same weight as last time, then last 40 alternating harder and same weight. Total time: 5:29.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Bike Tabata & Thruster/Dip circuit

WOD #1: Bike 1 minute, rest 30 sec, 20x thru. I did this outside and tried to pick a relatively flat loop, which is hard to come by. I liked this sequence alot. I kept thinking, can I do this for 112 miles and make the time go really fast? Ended up at 8.9 miles.

WOD#2: 21-15-9 Thrusters @45#, Dips. First time doing dips - tried it out on the gravitron before starting the circuit. First set of thrusters seeemed relatively easy - able to go straight thru. Then to the dips - wow, hard, hard and hard. 2nd and 3rd set of thrusters were much much harder - had to break them up, put the bar down once each set. Total time: 5:43

My abs/core is killing from the 250 situps on Tuesday - I sneezed a few times today and it was not pleasant. My arms also hurt and I am afraid, very afraid of what tomorrow brings - the big 100 pullups.