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!

Half Marathon training updates

Today was supposed to be 8 miles but my sister was not feeling well and needed to rest. And I missed a run doing other things. We just got back from vacation on Friday night and quite honestly, I didn't mind taking a day off. Although, as usual, I sort of regret not running now that its the end of the day. Oh well. Back at CrossFit tomorrow. I'll just have to work harder.

So, I think I may change our training plan to something like this:

Aug 4th 8 miles
Aug 11th 8 miles
Aug 18th 9 miles
Aug 25th 10 miles
Sept 1st 8 miles
Sept 8th 12 miles
Sept 15th 6 miles
Sept 21st Race day!

With the option to make adjustments as we need them, of course. I'm not worried. We will likely only miss one more Sunday together. I'll be out of town on the 18th. I'll have to figure out a run while I"m traveling. But, I think I can manage that. :-)

Training - so far so good

We are on track with our half marathon training! Ok, it's only been two weeks but still. That's important. Got in 7 miles last Sunday. The plan calls for 5 miles this weekend. We'll be running on Saturday. I leave for vacation on Sunday. (Yay!) Our next race is the Heart and Sole 10K in Boulder on August 25th.

CrossFit is going well. We have an app now to track our workouts. This week I added pre-app workouts from my calendar. Wow! I really am getting stronger! :-)

Rest Day

My sister is officially registered for the Prairie Dog Half Marathon. It was a birthday gift from our brother. So, it's on!

This weekend we took a rest day. Her granddaughter's first birthday was today so the celebrations were going on. No running for us this morning. It was probably a good thing though because my hip was unhappy for some reason. Squats were uncomfortable for sure. Weird. It's such a fundamental thing to do and I felt so strong during that 200 squat WOD. Maybe it was the 6 mile run the Sunday after that did me in. Oh well. It's much better today after taking an extra day off.

Here is our tentative training schedule (based on the Arvada Running Club's plan):
July 14th 7 miles
July 21st 5 miles
July 28th 8 miles
Aug 4th 9 miles
Aug 11th 10 miles
Aug 18th 11 miles
Aug 25th 12 miles
Sept 1st 8 miles
Sept 8th 14 miles
Sept 15th 6 miles
Sept 21st Race day!

We'll adjust as we go.

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! :-)