crlgrl’s BodyBlog

I think the old "I buy Playboy for the articles" adage might apply to BodySpace sometimes. Something like "I’m just here to read the blogs…I don’t even notice the pictures." (: When someone asks me how training is going and I’ve spent time blogging exactly how my training is going, I sometimes want to say read a blog!! But I know that a good majority of the time it is just a way to say "HEY"! (: So, anyway, this is how my training is going…..

Saturday I did the CrossFit total. A combined score of squat, shoulder press and deadlift. My score didn’t improve much, I went from 370 to 385. Shoulder press stayed at 70#. Boo! Sunday was my long run of 7 miles. It felt pretty good and I finished in 58:22, which felt really good! My goal was to finish in 60. Yesterday I did a CF workout. Pull ups, dips, push ups and shoulder press. Start with 10 reps of each and then 9 of each and then 8……finishing with one rep each!! Fun Fun! Today is my easy run of 2 miles and whatever is on the Crossfit page today!!

As you all probably know, I hate going to Wal Mart!! It is part of my "Axis of evil"!! It’s really nothing against Wal Mart per se….it’s the other people that are at Wal Mart. I’ve blogged on my frustrations at the lack of considerations for others…..standing across an aisle while you talk; and about the fact that people don’t follow basic traffic laws. They work out on the road so why not in the aisle? Or probably my personal favorite…..parking your cart on one 1/2 of the aisle and then your ample body in the other 1/2 to stare at the pickled pigs feet. GEEZ! Park your @ss and cart on the same side and the rest of us can get by!!! Anyway, (before I get too worked up) I stop at the deli counter to get some turkey and a rotissere chicken. How do they pack so much goodness into one little yard bird anyway? Back to the deli counter…a dangerous place, because you are not moving and you have a chance to look around and see the OTHERS!!! This is the time to not make eye contact! First, I HEAR, the guy from California. And how do I know he is from California? Because he tells everyone, in a very loud voice, in every sentence that "they have pickle loaf in California." Yeah, we don’t get the cool Californians here. We basically get the guy that lives in a trailer in San Bernadino but he calls it a "modular home". "Trailer Park, buddy, you live in a Trailer Park."  So to avoid a conversation with Mr. Pickle loaf, I look over towards the yogurt aisle, "How much Activa do I have?" And then I see them….the scrawny couple with stringy hair and darting eyes. Their cart of course has several boxes of Sudafed and matches and a book titled "Meth-making for Dummies". I aimlessly begin to wonder how funny it would be to see a holiday edition of Martha Stewart’s Olde timey ChrisMETH recipes….and realize I’m looking at them and they are looking back…sort of. It’s hard to tell with the darty eyes. So, I do the only thing I can….I just look down and focus on labels. I start reading my Sara Lee 100% whole wheat bread. Which I’ve been eating for years, I know this label by heart. When I write out my calories, carbs, all that…I don’t have to even look. So, when did they start putting 2 seperate calculations on the label?? 2 slices has always been a serving. And then I’m like…"Wait a galldarn minute….I’m offended!" Are they really dumbing down the label for us? I mean is there some one out there going, "I just wanted to eat a fold-over but how am me  supposed to figure this up when a serving is 2 slices…uh, is multiply? No, divide? Ohhhh, too much! I’ll just eat a full sandwich!!" And then the deli lady in the paper hat breaks through the fog of frustration…."Mam… mam…Can I help you?" I look around quickly and realize she’s talking to me and California and Meth-Mom are looking at me like I’m the weird one. I just mumble, "Got any pickle-loaf?" (:

Went into the gym on Monday for my CF WOD. 5 thrusters, 7 hang cleans and 10 SDHP’s as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes. Man that’s a long 20 minutes!! It seems like the RX weight was 90# but I used 45 instead. I can do the last 2 exercises with more weight but can’t do much more on thrusters. Anyway, it had me sucking wind several rounds into it! Then Monday night I did my "easy" 2 mile run, I clocked the first one at 8:22 and the 2nd one in 9:something. The total for the 2 miles was 18:04. A little faster than last time. I really would like to be able to run 8 minute miles for at least 3 miles.

Well, I have been at my little 5k plan for 8 weeks now and this week called for a rest week of sorts. I was scheduled to run 3 miles, 3 miles and then 4 miles. So, I decided that since I hae been doing CF and then either running and biking it might be good to just take a rest week altogether. WOW! Monday I did my last CF workout and biked 10 miles that night. The rest only lasted 4 days which, mercifully, I worked 12 hour shifts on 3 of thoise days. By Saturday, the energy was almost at an uncomfortable level. I went to the gym to do a CF work out and picked Cindy…one of my favorites. It is 5 pull ups, 10 push ups and 15 squats, which I decided to do wall ball squats with my 20.8# wall ball….don’t forget the .8! (: You do as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes. Then I did some HGSU and planks to finish it up. I was worn out, which was a good thing because my next chore was to go to Wal Mart!!!! I’m gritting my teeth even thinking about it!! Then I run into my friend, Christy, who is my rock climbing, mountain biking all things outdoors pal who has been out with a foot surgery. She says she is ready to try the bike! So I moved my 4 mile run up to Saturday night because my friend, Sonja, who is my biking, running, swimming all things moxie gal pal (whew) said I could. (: That way I was available to bike this morning. BTW I ran on the track late last night and there was a guy there that ran in from somewhere and like lapped my a thousand times!! He had to have run 7 or 8 -6 minute miles!!! I felt slow! The bike ride was GR8 we rode a fairly flat 10 miles, to make sure the foot held up and it did!! So good to have back! Tonight, I am so sore! I really didn’t htink that amount of time would make a difference but SHEEEESH! My quads, lats and chest are super sore. I’m glad the rest is over but also glad I did it and it was just in time to keep me from committing murder at Wally World!!

I’m so glad I switched up my run days!! Tuesday is usually my easy 2 mile run and Thursday is a tempo or speedwork day. This week, I felt really energetic on Tuesday and wasn’t sure that I would after 2 shifts in the ER on Thursday, so I took the liberty of switching them up. Thursday I was down to run 2 easy miles at a pace of 12:56. Since I don’t have to worry about making the 12 minute time, I try to use the easy days to practice form and relax. I worked on keeping my chest high and open and letting my shoulders drop back to aid in breathing and relaxing. Unitl I got to the 1 1/2 mile mark and looked at my stop watch. For some reason I just can’t stand to not improve on my time!! Maybe it’s being a first born or type A or just competitiveness?? My last 2 miler on this road was 18 something and this one was 17:10!! That evening I did "Ryan" one of the hero WOD’s. It consisted of 7 MU’s and 21 burpees for 5 rounds. Still can’t do a MU so I had to sub pull ups and dips. I wish I could sub burpees because I just don’t like ‘em!! 20:20. Today I went to the gym and did another hero WOD, "Mr. Joshua" which is run 400m, 30 GHSU’s and Deadlifts at 250# for 15 reps. 5 rounds for time. Needless to say I did not use the 250# for deads but used 135 instead. 25:42. My 400’s are much faster and easier than they used to be for some reason??

Tuesday night I did crossfit at the affiliate and chose to do Sundays WOD instead of Barbara. All lifts were supposed to be with 135# which I could have used for the deads but not the other 3 lifts I had to choose the weakest lift and stick with that weight. The WOD was 15 deadlifts, 12 hang power cleans, 9 front squats and 6 push jerks for 5 rounds of time. My weakest lift of the 4 is the push jerk, which if you ever read my blog, I can’t really do yet. So, I used 55# for all 4 lifts. The deads were easy at that weight, cleans and fronts weren’t too bad until round 3 but putting up 55# pounds on push presses was getting really tough by round 3. I started to really dip and shove to get it up and realized I was doing a push jerk!!!! It just started to come naturally as fatigue set in. (: Anyway, 14:32 and lots of sweat and I was done!! I worked yesterday so no workout. This morning I did my easy 2 mile run, pace on my plan is 12:56. My focus today was opening up my chest and letting my shoulders fall down and back and RELAX until the last last 1/2 mile and then I just want to run!! Time was 17:10. Tonight is a hero WOD: 7 MU and 21 burpees for 5 rounds. I’m behind a day but I’ll catch up!

Last Sunday I ran 6 miles and this Sunday I was to run 6 miles again at a 12:56 mile pace. I ran the same trail which is a fairly flat mix of loose rock, sand, grass and bridges. The scenery is really nice and I haven’t seen another person there yet. Usually it takes me about a mile to a mile and a half to kind of relax into the run and just get in the zone, but this week I struggled to get there the whole 6 miles!! 2 miles into it I got a stitch in my upper right abd. quadraunt that would not go away so I ran the last 4 miles with it. Then about the last 2 miles my calves started to hurt. I finished in 58:12 but I still wasn’t pleased with it. FrogPrincess assured me that it is perfectly normal and she’s the expert! Today was a tempo run. Total distance of 5 miles including warm up. 2x 1600 @ 10:40 with 800 meter jog after each. 1st mile was 9:55 and 2nd was 9:12. Tonight I go to the Crossfit/ju jitsu place and do a WOD while my son practices MMA.

Friday was a rest day for Crossfit and my running plan, but Docdru had a little WOD that he came up with that I gave a try. 10 deadlifts at 110% bodyweight followed by 25 boxjumps for three rounds. Yes, he’s trying to hurt us!! I used 135# for my deads and a 24 inch box for the jumps. The deads were heavy but do-able but the boxjumps were tough. I probably sounded  like an elephant landing on the box and did not feel gazelle like or coordinated at all. But it was all over in 7:12 and I did some ab work while my son finished up his weight lifting!! Thanks Drew, it WAS just what the doctor ordered!!!

Tuesday night I did the 5X5 squat WOD. My strength didn’t show much improvement: 95, 105, 115, 125 and 130. I don’t like it when people tell you the WOD they did and then add a bunch of excuses as to why they didn’t have a better time or lift…I didn’t eat breakfast, I worked all week, It was cold outside, I ran outside and it was all uphill…blah, blah, blah. So, I’m not going to make any but I think I can do better than that. Wednesday I worked so I took that as a rest day. Work has been crazy the few months. Normally in the summer the ER is slower and the hospital is less full. This summer the ER has seen double and triple the normal number of patients and the hospital has stayed close to full. We were on divert all day Wednesday!! Thursday I went in to the gym to do the WOD from Wed. 2 MU, 4 HSPU and 9 KB swings as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes. I had to sub 6 pull ups and 6 dips for the MU’s and used a 35# DB for the KB. I love this kind of workout!! I did 9 rounds. Then I made the mistake of doing my 3 mile tempo run 20 minutes later. I normallly run in the morning and do CF in the late afternoon or CF in the morning and Bike in the evening, and after yesterday, I’m definitely going to keep them seperated. (That is a good song BTW!) I need to continue to improve my diet for the sake of fuel for my workouts!!! Tonight is the High School homecoming and tomorrow night, my son and I are going to a MMA fight and Matt Hughes is going to be there!! Fun weekend!!!