This week was awesome for training! I was on spring break so I literally had the entire week to focus on my workouts. In fact, I feel like that’s all I did. And snuggle with my puppies. Oh and I started watching Parenthood on Netflix. Anyway, it was so nice to not have to stress about when to fit in training, and I feel like I had a great week because of it.
Also, I have muscles! Like, new ones I’ve never seen before! And my butt is getting bigger, and I have totally gained weight since I started crossfit. I’m trying not to stress because all my clothes still fit the same (and some better). I tend to be really skeptical when people say things like “Oh it’s probably just muscle!”, although in this case I just might be swayed to believe it. You know that muscle between your shoulders and neck where it always gets super tense and needs an elbow to massage it? Ummm, it’s bigger. And so is my shoulder. And I can flex my pecs and feel them move! Whaaaaaat?? I kinda feel like a man. Anyway, here’s how last week’s training went down.
Monday AM: 1 hour swim. I set a new swimming PDR and swam 2150 yards (half ironman distance!!!). I am still a snail, but I feel good about the new distance, and I got to a mile 5 minutes faster than I did the last (and only) time I swam a mile, so I am getting better. Slowly, but surely.
Monday PM: Crossfit. So I actually started a note in my phone to keep track of my crossfit workouts. I’d like to be able to track my progress and have some idea of what weights to use. I think they’re tired of me asking every.single.time. I wasn’t feeling super motivated on Monday, and I was sharing a bar with someone else so I kept the weight light and did 3 x 7 push press with 65 lbs. Then the workout of the day (still not committing to abbreviating…) was 30 pull ups / 400 meter run / 20 pull ups / 400 meter run / 10 pull ups / 400 meter run. I still can’t do 1 pull up, and they don’t do the whole band thing (no idea why…), so they let me cheat and use a low bar to cheat. It looks like this man. Because I was cheating and there was so much running involved, I finished first for the first (and probably last) time ever in 7:56. Pull ups are still my nemesis.
LOOK! I’m a real crossfitter now. I have the battle wounds to prove it!
Tuesday AM: Crossfit. We’ve been doing these awful workouts on Tues/Thurs where there is a crap ton of stuff and you have 45 min to finish as much as you can. It is pretty terrible, but I’m sure it’s really good for me. Today was 3 x 250 meter row / 20 push ups (I used my knees…I’m a wimp) // 8 x 10 squat clean (rx was 65lbs, I did 45) / 15 dips / 30 overhead lunge (rx was 15 lbs, I did 10) // 1 mile run. I was one of THREE people that finished out of all the classes that day! Only one of those 3 did the rx. I felt totally awesome and told everyone that “I won crossfit”.
Tuesday AM: 2 hour bike + 20 min run. My legs were shot and it was one of those days where it felt like there was a headwind 100% of the time, but we got it done and cycled 27.7 miles, then ran 2. We finished around 12:30 and it was HOT. We both also forgot sunscreen and that was a…big mistake. Lesson learned. Also, 20 minutes seems like such a short time, but sometimes…it isn’t.
Wednesday AM: Track. MY FIRST TRACK WORKOUT IN OVER A YEAR!!!! I literally had no been (or done anything more than fartleks) since I was training for the marathon! Of course the day I come back was 1 mile time trial day. I had no idea how fast to go right now, so I played it a little safe at the beginning and ran the first 3 laps almost exactly at 2:03-2:04, then we picked it up in the last lap and Nicole pushed me to the end and I ended up with 8:08. It’s not my fastest mile ever, but it’s still better than I expected and Coach Susan said she had expected me to be 10 seconds slower, so I was happy, but a little bit pissed that I hadn’t run 9 seconds faster. I am so excited to be back to speed training though, and I have that excitement about working hard and getting faster back. I don’t have to be afraid to run fast and work hard because I am FINALLY healthy (like feeling the best I have in a loooong time), and it is time to get BETTER than I was before!
Dutch Bros is a post-track tradition. It was still cold out, so Nicole and I sat in the car to gossip and have our drinks. You know you’re from Arizona when 60 degrees is too cold to sit outside.
Wednesday AM: Crossfit. I came home from track and it was still early (track starts at 5:30). I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I went to crossfit. Yeah…I don’t know what’s wrong with me. We did 5 x 5 sets of dead lifts for skill building. I had no idea where to start (like usual) so I started sharing with an other lady at 85 lbs and just kept adding until my last set was 165. I asked the coach what a good dead lift was and he said “150% of your body weight” to which I responded “OMG I need to get skinnier!” Whatev. I think 165 lbs is pretty good for my first time attempting them (other than learning how to do them with the bar in the very beginning). Then in a team of 3 we had to complete 800 meter run (with a 25 lb plate!), 150 squats, 1500 meter row, 75 sumo dead lift high pull, 75 burpees and 75 wall walks (of death). I did 400 meter run / 100 squats / 25 high pulls (at rx…even though for some reason it was only 65 lbs) / 25 burpees / 25 wall walks (of death). My team finished in 16:17.
Thursday AM: Swim intervals. Uggghhh. This was SO HARD. The only “speed work” I had ever done in the pool was swimming 25 yards fast and then waiting for like a whole minute and swimming back slooowwwwly. I found an interval plan online and just kinda went for it. I did a 200 (yards) warmup / 200 kicks / 150 yard pull / 200 build /50 recovery / 100 fast / 50 recovery /150 fast / 100 cool down. There was supposed to be 200 fast at the end, but I ran out of time, and decided this was sufficient for day one. I ended up with 1200 yards in about 40 minutes. Those kicks and pulls took soooo long and were so hard!
Friday AM: 70 min run. Nicole and I headed to Tempe Town Lake for a change of scenery. It’s beautiful in the morning, and there were tons of other runners and cyclists out. The first half of the run seemed like it was never ending, and I just wasn’t feeling it, but I finally warmed up and ended up with all negative splits again! We ended up with 7 miles in 1:11.
Seeeeee?? So pretty.
Friday AM: Yoga. I finally returned to yoga! It felt hard and awkward and my legs felt like they had never been stretched in a million years, but I was reminded how much I love it, and my body felt SO MUCH better afterwards. I need to make this a thing again. I have neglected it and my body needs it.
Saturday AM: 1 hour bike intervals + 10 min run. Today was one of those awesome days where I just felt great! We kept all of our intervals between 18.5-20 which is really good for me! An awesome end to a great week.
Sunday: Rest. Necessary.
Totals:
10 workouts, 11 hours of training, 63 miles (15 miles running, 47 miles cycling, 3,350 yards swimming), 1 4:30am wake-up that reminded me how much I hate waking up that early, 8 hours of exercise with my training buddy and we still haven’t run out of things to talk about. In fact, I don’t think it’s humanly possible for us.
YOUR TURN! Tell me about your training, your battle wounds, your favorite thing to talk about while working out…!