2013 - Year in Review

January
27th - Yeti Chase 5K - 51:01
February
10th - Ralston 5K - 48:49 - we won Girl Scout cookies!

 24th - Frozen Foot 5K - not timed due to the blizzard conditions; with my sister and nephew.

March
16th - Lucky Laces 5K - 52:11 - with Chris and Raina and beer after!
April
23rd - Dash & Dine 5K - 37:22 - We ran for Boston.

27th - Cherry Creek Sneak 5K - 54:30
30th - Dash & Dine 5K - 44:25
May
12th - Westminster Women's Classic 5K - 42:32
14th - Dash & Dine 5K - 42:17
21st - Dash & Dine 5K - 40:54
June
6th - Esprit de She 5K - 40:37

 9th - Skirt Sports Half Marathon Relay - 2:55:18 - Team Rauschenberger-Wallace, 13:22 pace
22nd - Stadium Stampede 10K - 1:16:52

 25th - 303Vodka 5K - A fundraiser for Fire Fighters

 July
4th - Four on the Fourth 4K - 31:37

 August
25th - Heart & Sole 10K -1:22:56 - final race before the half

September
21st - Prairie Dog Half Marathon - 3:04:22 - My sister's 1st half, my 6th!

October
6th - Hot Chocolate 15K -2:03:17 - 13:14 pace; new distance, new PR
November
16th - Pumpkin Pie 5K - 33:34

28th - Turkey Chase 5K - Did not run, elected to stay home and visit with family. :-) 
December
21st - Christmas Carol Classic 5K - Did not run, recovering from a cold.

This season was about my sister's quest to complete her first half marathon. Sure, I convinced her to register, but it was really all about her. We had a training plan and fit many races into the mix to stay focused. Even when we traveled we kept each other accountable. I think our longest training run was when we were in Atlanta together.

For me, it was a nice relaxed running season. My main focus was on CrossFit this year which I started at the beginning of the year. My focus was on creating a 3 days a week workout routine and getting in my long runs on Sundays. Mission accomplished!

It was a great year of focusing on my overall health and not a particular event or even particular sport. I am loving CrossFit even more than I thought I would. I found a new work out pace and place and am looking forward to 2014! I have no real goals set for the new year. I plan to continue on this road of good health, consistent workouts, (mostly) paleo diet, and see where it takes me.

My next half will be one from my bucket list. The Indy Mini Marathon! I'm super excited! Training officially begins on January 12th.

Holidays!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! My in laws come to visit and we celebrate all of our November birthdays - mine, my hubby and his two girls. This year we added one more, Brayden James, our brand new grandson was born on Nov. 5th!

We did not have a paleo Thanksgiving and I was ok with that. Thanksgiving is about family and tradition. I did manage to sneak in a paleo side dish - brussel sprouts sauteed with bacon and mushrooms. It was tasty! But, that's where the diet ended for me. I ate lots of non-paleo foods and enjoyed every bite. I'm calling it a cheat day (or 2). Pumpkin pie, pumpkin maple pecan cheesecake, creamy sweet potatoes, white mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce... Mmmmm. The day after I had leftovers. Later I even indulged in some ice cream from Scrumptious. I'd been craving some ice cream from that particular place for a while and now that I've had some, I'm good to go. It didn't sit well but it was worth it.

Today, Saturday, I am getting back on track and trying to clean out my system with exercise and hot tea.

I'd registered for a Turkey Chase on Thursday but decided to skip it. I was pretty tired from three days in a row of CrossFit. And it was nice to sit around and visit and prep for the day. Instead I ran on Friday at Van Bibber. I did 3 miles and was happy to be out. I finished the run with a sprint up the hill. Well, "sprint".

Catching my breathe at the top of the hill.

The hill.

Today is a lazy day. My sister-in-law is leaving today. The parents-in-law leave tomorrow. Shopping? Football? Movies? Relaxing.

Food Challenge Results

It is now more than 20 days beyond the 30 day paleo food challenge. And while I don't agree with the premise behind the diet, I cannot argue with the results.

6.4 lbs lost
3% body fat lost
0.6 lbs muscle gained
1.75 inches lost in my waist
0.75 inches lost in my hips
0.25 inches lost in my neck

WOW! 30 days of eating no sugar, no butter, no processed foods, no legumes, no white potatoes, no dairy, no alcohol. Wow.

I knew I'd been doing well in those last couple of weeks. My clothes weren't as tight. My face and neck wasn't so puffy. I'd been synching my belt a bit tighter. But, seeing the numbers was a rush of emotion. I made a point not to step on the scale during the challenge. I'm glad I did that. I couldn't believe how much weight I'd lost in that short time. And guess what. 20 days later, I'm down another 2 pounds (maybe even 3!). My scale at home is just a typical bathroom scale. I should make an appointment to get weighed and dunked again at the end of the year, or maybe on my one year anniversary at Roots. :-)

I haven't been as strict as I was during the food challenge. But, for the most part, I am sticking to the paleo thing. The weekends are very hard to be focused on food. So, I'm trying not to sweat it too much. Also, the birthdays and holidays are upon us. So, I've had birthday cake a few times. And yet, I have still lost more weight and more inches as well (according to my belt).

I think I may need to buy new clothes. :-)

My food and nutrition plan is to be as strict as I can, especially during the week, eating paleo. Weekends are just whatever right now. Yesterday I bought a nutrition notebook so I can keep track of what I'm eating and how I'm feeling. That really helped a lot during the challenge. That way I can tweak things if I need to. I have noticed that eating sugar really makes me angry. And gives me a headache. So, that's good to know.

30 Day Paleo Food Challenge

CrossFit Roots' Fall in Love with Your Body Challenge began on October 7th. The last food challenge was in January. I'd just joined Roots and certainly wasn't up to the challenge. At that time I was only focused on making it to my workouts three times a week. Some times it was all I could do just to show up. I remember those days well. Ten months into CrossFit and those days still feel like they happened just yesterday. But, I'd been waiting for this food challenge. I knew I needed something to kick start my nutrition intake, or lack of it.

30 days of paleo. No sugar. No grains. No beans. No alcohol. No dairy. No kidding.

The weekend before the start of the challenge I had brunch with my book club girls. I ate so much! Saying goodbye to all those sweets. The next day my sister and I ran the Hot Chocolate 15K. Finishers received a mug of hot chocolate with a large marshmallow, dipping Ghirardelli chocolate, a banana, pretzels, rice krispie treat, and cookies. It was so good!! It was a good way to splurge before starting the challenge. :-)

Week one was a lot of trying to figure out what to eat. I spent a lot of time prepping my meals for the week and dinners and worrying about the weekend. I boiled lots of eggs to have for breakfasts, bought fruit and salad fixins. It was tough. I don't usually think that much about what I eat. I'm learning that is part of my problem. We also were required to keep a food log. Our coaches gave us tips and feedback throughout the week. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be in that first week. I was anticipating being starving which I wasn't. I quickly learned that I really wasn't eating enough especially at breakfast.

Week two was a lot more difficult. The meals were not difficult. I like all of the foods I am allowed to eat. I was getting used to the prep involved. But, my energy levels were very low. My workouts were suffering too. I felt like I was running out of gas during the WODs. And I felt like I wasn't recovering as quickly as I should. I started feeling angry and tired. It wasn't so much fun in week two.

Week three there seemed to be a turning point. I'm not sure why. I was still doing all the same things, eating nearly the same things. But, it seemed I suddenly had more energy. And it also seemed that my workouts were improving. And, I started to notice some changes in my body too. I hadn't been on the scale at all. I'd told myself not to weigh myself during the challenge. We were weighed at the start and would be weighed again at the end. I just wanted to focus on the food. So, maybe my body was finally catching up to and enjoying the nutrition I was giving it. Whatever the reason, I really started to feel good about being in the middle of this food challenge.

I'm now in the last 7 days of the food challenge. I am feeling really strong. I will definitely be glad when this is over and I can relax about being caught "cheating". There's $100 at stake and that pressure is a little intense. All in all, I am very glad I am meeting this challenge. One more weekend to get through.

Monday I get retested - weighed, photographed ("after" photos), and dunk tank body fat test. My goal weight was 127 (losing 9lbs of body fat). My body fat percentage was 31%. The challenge officially ends at midnight on Tuesday.

Half Marathon Race Report

Success!! My sister completed her first half marathon in 03:04:22 just shy of her 2nd goal of under 3 hours. The first goal was to finish.

The course had to be changed at the last minute due to the flooding that happened the week before. In fact, they were still pumping water out from an underpass the morning of the race! You'd never know it though. Everything went very smoothly. The organizers, 3W Races, did a fantastic job and so did the city of Westminster. Much kudos to them both.

Here is a link to our Garmin stats for the race:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/379169666

We had a comfortable pace for most of it but, once we hit the 10 mile mark, my sister lost her confidence a bit. Not really her confidence but, she kind of hit a mental wall. 10 miles had been the longest training run we'd done prior to the race. She was worried about it before we even got there. So, once we got there, I think she expected to fall apart. Which of course wasn't going to happen. But, all in all, it was a very good run.

During much of the race she talked a lot about the next half or when we do this same race next year. She was clearly not intimidated by the distance. :-) 

The finish chute!

It is quite an accomplishment, the half marathon. This was my 6th one and at the end of it I still felt like I did after each of the other 5 half marathons. I can't believe I just did that!

We are taking the weekend off. Haven't done that in a while. After that we are going to stick with maintaining our base and run a couple of 5Ks, maybe 10Ks.

Last weekend we completed the Hot Chocolate 15K in downtown Denver. That was fun! Lots of chocolate! But, after that run it will be nice to just relax for a bit.

At the start!

I'm thinking of the Rock and Roll half in Raleigh in April.

3 more weeks until the Prairie Dog Half!

Where does the time go? We only have three more weeks of training to go. That's two more long runs - a 10 miler and another one.

Last weekend we ran the Heart and Sole 10K. Not exactly a long run but that's ok. We ran it quite slowly too. But, that's ok too. The after party was great! The race was at the Boulder reservoir, the same location as the Dash and Dine series. That's the series where we really started to focus our training. It was nice to get in a run there and feel comfortable. My sister had a moment at the end where she felt like she couldn't go anymore. But, she sucked it up like a champion and finished strong! My moment came closer to the start. I felt like I couldn't get loose. It took me a good 2 maybe 2.5 miles to finally feel warmed up.

The race shirt was a neon pink tech shirt. Awesome!

This weekend we will be running our 10 miles on the Fremont Trail. It's dirt and an out and back. We'll need to carry our water for the full distance. That might be difficult since we run for so long, we'll need lots of it.

CrossFit - Deadlift PR!

Today's workout was Deadlift 5-5-5-5-5 then 5 x 250M row with 1 minute rest. (We ran out of time and only did 4 x 250.) The deadlift, to find your heavy set of 5, included some built in rest time as well. We did the lifting in pairs, except for my group which was three of us. The one and only other time I've done this workout was back in February. I was still very new then. My On Ramp class was in January. Back then I lifted 120 pounds. I remember feeling strong and being quite sore after. I don't remember if we did anything else that day, like the rowing today, but I don't think we did. One of my crossfitting friends told me back then that I'd deadlifted like a whole person. That made me feel really good!

Between now and then we've done deadlifts as part of our WOD but hadn't revisited the heavy 5 sets. I think we did a heavy set of 3 at some point.

Today was a good day. I didn't know what we had planned. We've been doing the same WOD as the rest of the gym lately and today, the other classes were doing rope climbs and clean and jerk. I can do those so I was looking forward to it but didn't get my hopes up. We had a sub coach today. And by sub I mean, the owner of the gym was our coach because our regular coach is on vacation. So, absolutely no slacking was to be had on this Friday. Not that Coach Ali ever lets us slack off either but, usually a sub implies that you can get away with a little slacking. Not so at CrossFit Roots. It's why I love it so! :-)

The idea with the 5 sets of 5 reps is to add weight each set. We built up to a starting weight after reviewing the proper form and such. Then each team had 3 minutes to do their lifts. We had to wait for the time to finish before starting the next set. Coach Nicole kept an eye on us and gave us our jumps after each rep. For our group, it went something like, "Next set add 20." Each time our eyes would get larger and we'd shrug and grab more weight. The three of us ended up lifting the same weight. We finished our 5th set at 165 pounds!!

That's a 45 pound PR! That's CRAZY!! Over 5 or 6 months it doesn't seem that huge of a jump. But, considering we don't really deadlift or do this 5 rep max check up on a regular basis, it's crazy to think all the work we've been doing could result in such a big jump. And, of course, Coach Nicole thinks I could have gone heavier. No, I think I'll bask in the glory of those 45lbs. It certainly felt heavy enough to me today. But, noted.

I love CrossFit!