Squats!

Today's WOD was 4 rounds for time - 400 meter run and 50 squats. It's a simple workout and I was looking forward to the simplicity of it. Meditative in a way. I haven't had much time to meditate lately with all of our summer visitors. Not that I'm complaining. I've enjoyed every second of every visit. I just haven't had much downtime to recharge. Running used to be that for me. When I first started running I ran by myself. I had the "I'm not a real runner" complex and didn't feel worthy of company. But, that wore off pretty quickly. Misery loves company or so they say. CrossFit is not usually a meditative type of exercise although much of it is mental - you against yourself. But, when you are simply trying to finish a workout and not pass out, it's hard to reflect on life. That usually happens after the workout when I think to myself, "I just did that!"

Today, the 400M run seemed very very long. Try doing 50 squats and then running and you'll understand what I'm talking about. So, that gave me a little downtime.

I am still working on my overall mobility but squats are one area where I can see real improvement. And today, for some reason, something finally clicked and I was able to squat well. Even on the 200th one. I think what I was doing before was not thinking about standing from a squat. I was only thinking (and working) on the way down. Nicole, our fill in coach for today, had time, with only three of us there, to make me think more about the way up. I wasn't pushing my knees out on the way up, only the way down. Once I squatted, I relaxed before standing and wasn't holding my form or engaging my core throughout the movement.

Repeating the movement 200 times also helped I guess. ;-)

I didn't even have to use a target to get my full depth. Nicole also had us think about the movement in a slightly different way. She said to think about your toes being on a saucer and as you squat, try to rotate the saucer out. That helps to push your knees out and it also helped me stay in my heels. I have trouble keeping my weight in my heels. (I like to think it's because I'm more top heavy than others but...LOL.)

So, it was a very good day. And I'm looking forward to the weekend and some rest. Active rest like walking around the mall to stretch my legs. :-)

Here is a CrossFit video demo of proper squat technique with explanations about the various parts and some funny stuff at the end. And a link to a blog post about squatting properly. And here are some babies squatting.

My grand niece and granddaughter. :-)

Happy Friday y'all!

Catching up on the blogging...

I'm not sure what happened but it's been a while since I've posted to the blogs. Nothing terrible has happened. Just the opposite really. We've had lots of family visiting, the granddaughter turned 1 year old, I'm still running and going to CrossFit. It's all good. I did a little traveling for a work related conference which kept me from my workouts last week and this week. In fact, it's been two weeks today since I've been to CrossFit Roots. I'm going this morning.

Soon I'll post a race recap of the Skirt Sports Half Marathon Relay that I did with my sister. Maybe I'll get her to write up her own race report. She rocked it! :-)

CrossFit & Running

I feel like I'm really hitting my stride. Last week I doubled up on a couple of workouts. I missed Monday (for a meeting) so went on Tuesday instead. The WOD was 10 dumbbell clean and jerk, 1 pullup, 9 DB C&J, 2 PU, 8 DB C&J, 3 PU, until we laddered to 1 DB C&J, 10 PU. For time. And for once, I wasn't last. Pull ups have become my thing. I need to drop a band on the assist.

Tuesday night was also the 3rd Dash & Dine 5K for me and my sister. I've been sort of pacing her on this series. Her times have increased with each race. Knowing we were going to run walk the event, I didn't worry too much about doubling up the workouts that day. What I did worry a little about was the WOD the next day, Wednesday. That WOD was run a 5K for time. Well, I thought, this will be a good test of my running fitness.

On Tuesday, our finishing time was 42:17. That's about a six minute improvement since we started. On Wednesday, for the 5K time trial, I finished in 34:38. Wow! That's fast for me. It's especially fast considering how hit and miss my running training has been. This CrossFit stuff is pretty amazing. I am so all in!

Our half marathon relay is June 9th. :-)

CrossFit, Running, Vacation

Maybe not in that order. It's been a while since I've posted but it's all good. I went on vacation, where I did no running or CrossFitting or even stretching. Lots of eating, drinking, and visiting. Yay! Now, I am back home and focused, ready to make some fitness progress.

My sister and I are registered for the Skirt Sports Half Marathon Relay! I talked her into it. She's always quick to point out how I can easily make her do these things. The relay is split in half so we're building up, on our weekend long runs, to 6 miles. This weekend is the Westminster Women's Classic 5K. She is also doing the Mud Run the day before. She's also thinking about buying the Halloway walk/run timer watch.

CrossFit is really starting to gel in my mind now. I feel confident in my ability to successfully complete many of the moves. And by successful I mean struggle through with proper form. WODs are still pretty hard and they will likely always be hard if I keep pushing through to new weights I can lift, etc. But, I feel very good about knowing when I should back off from something and when I shouldn't. And I trust my coaches (well coach now that Tracie has moved :-( to Durango) to know this as well and give me proper instruction. So, I don't dread showing up. I don't dread getting injured. I don't dread any of it. I grin and bear it, suck it up, grit my teeth finish! And I love it!

Here's a photo my coach took yesterday. She loves my pushups and how I maintain my form throughout. Those were hard pushups! The workout was a 20 minute AMRAP of 5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 air squats. I did 6 rounds plus 5 pullups. :-)

Crossfit is Sinking In

The latest Women Only On Ramp class has ended which means we have new classmates. Which also means, I am officially not the new girl anymore. Woo hoo!! Maybe that had something to do with my confidence on Friday. Or maybe it was just that I was familiar enough with all the exercises. At any rate, something seemed to click for me on Friday. It was a long WOD, 30 minutes, but I was able to stay focused and get through everything confidently.

The WOD:

We had 6 minutes to complete each exercise. When it was completed, we had the remaining 6 minutes to rest before starting the next one. My effort went like this...

500M row took about two and a half minutes. We all finished about the same time. With the remaining time I took a potty break and got my water bottle.

The 400M run I completed in about 2 minutes. I finished about 3rd to last, finishing strong.

I was most excited about the pullups. I'd had a dream earlier in the week about being able to do pullups. We had 2:30 to complete as many pullups as we could. I was using two green bands for my assist. Also, on the warm up, Ali (our coach) made the suggestion that folks could watch my pullups if they wanted to see proper form. That made me feel very good and confident! I was able to complete 45 pullups! I was super excited about that.

Then came the kettlebell swings. On Wednesday, we'd don't both kettlebell swings and thrusters so I felt confident in my ability to do them and do them well, but I was pretty sore and my shoulder was pretty tired. It took me all 6 minutes to finish the kettlebell swings. And I was using the lightest weight I could, 8lbs. Ugh. For a while I wasn't sure I was even going to finish. Ugh. It was hard but I kept going and pushed through to get it done. Woot.

Because I finished last and without any rest time, the rest of the class started their 30 dumbbell thrusters right on time. I had to rest before starting my set. I think I rested for a full minute before I started. I knew that I'd probably be last at that point but it didn't matter. I think everyone finished when I hit 20 reps. I was trying to do sets of 5 but couldn't manage more than two really. Ali asked if my shoulder was bothering me, which it was. She suggested I only go overhead with one dumbbell. (I think she was kidding but I'm not sure.) I asked if I should drop to 10lbs in my left and keep the 15lb in my right. She said that would be weird but I could switch to the 10lbs if I wanted to (since everyone else was done). So, that's what I did. Two sets of 5 and done.

I really liked this work out. It was hard and it was long but I could do all the exercises without modifying at all. I had my usual assists but that is ok.

My shoulder has been bothering me a bit more. I've done three weeks of PT but have slacked off a bit with my stretches and prescribed exercises. I need to get back on track with that. And maybe ice more after these long or heavy shoulder exercises. I am still very sore even two days after Friday's WOD. And not just my shoulder, but my pullup effort is also what I'm feeling.

Can't wait for Monday. :-)

For Boston

I worked from home today because of the weather. And because I wanted to run. I wanted to run for Boston. My sister and I were (are) registered for four 5K races in the Boulder res Dash & Dine series. Last week was postponed because of the snow that never came. So, that took away the one rain delay date. This week, it's very snowy and supposed to snow more this evening but the race is going on. I'm sure some of it has to do with yesterday's events as well. I'm sure people just feel the need to run. I know I did. But, my sister and I decided we didn't want to make the drive if the weather was bad but would get some miles in on our own. I decided that the treadmill wasn't going to cut it. I felt the need to be outside, breathe the cold air and not have anything to distract me like a television or music at the Y. So, I ran at Van Bibber.

It was overcast and cold enough for me to see my breath but not too cold to breathe. I had on enough layers not to be distracted by the temperature.

I felt good considering I haven't been running much at all these days. I started out at a comfortably slow pace. There were only a couple of other people out walking their dogs. I could meditate a bit on why I was there and what I wanted to do. As I thought about it it occurred to me that I should run a significant number of miles. In CrossFit we often do hero WODs that have reps or rounds or a time that is a number of significance. I thought I would do 3 miles for the 3 people who died yesterday. But, I didn't want the run to only be about dying. So, I decided I would run 3.262 miles. The .262 would represent the marathon distance.

As it turns out, my Garmin only goes to two decimal places so I ended up going 3.27 miles instead. That kind of bummed me out a bit. But then, I looked at my stats. It also recorded the time I began the run. It was 3:26.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/299049468

I may never run a full marathon. But, I think I know that triumphant feeling. I felt it crossing the finish line of my first half marathon. Joy, triumph, invincibility. I have felt it at all of the half marathons since that one, even the Platte when I was in so much pain. For me it's the "I-can't-believe-I-just-did-that!" feeling. Yesterday, so many runners were robbed of that feeling, that opportunity to finish strong. I hope they get that back. I don't want the bad guys to win. So, I will keep running.

Peace and Love everyone. Don't let them win.

Boston

I have no words. :-(