Like falling in Love again..

I did a sprint tri today!! I don't know what it is about triathlon, but MAN did I have fun out there. It hurt. Oh, yes. It hurt. But I felt strong throughout the race and as soon as I made the turn to head down to the finish, I couldn't stop beaming! It was just so.. FUN. I hadn't pushed myself like that to try to go fast in soooooo long. After a couple years of being a 'distance snob', and then going straight into all easy workouts through pregnancy.. and then I got swept up by crossfit fun.. It had just been a long time since I had embraced the pain and joy of a short race. Well color me in love. I can't wait to do it again! As in.. I could go do another one right now.. or maybe tomorrow.. OK. Maybe I'll wait a month. But I definitely had fun and am looking forward to my next chance to push myself out there and to try to go a liiiiittle bit faster. In the sprints, it's tough to make up much ground. But I have some ideas on where I can improve. First and probably the easiest would be to remember how to not transition like a boob. I forgot to put 'zip' (or whatever they're called.. the bungie thingies) laces in my shoes, so I just loosely knotted them and crammed my foot in there.. not the most efficient way to put on a shoe. Other than that, I think just remembering what I'm doing, in general, and I could move a little faster in there. Also, I waited until race morning to sign up (turns out I'm a big baby these days and I didn't want to race in the rain.. All week they were calling for storms all through friday night and saturday, so I held out. Guess what? beautiful race day morning. Yay!), so I had a high start number. This race has you 'self seed' yourself based on your swim ability, as it is a 'time trial' type start (one at a time, leaving probably 2-5 seconds apart? spreads things out better than a mass start, but can get crazy if you mix slow swimmers in with faster swimmers). Luckily, I didn't have to start way back with my number because they actually prefer that you adjust your start place based on your ability, but I still had to rack my bike according to my number. 'Why is this a big deal?', you ask? Good question.. Didn't think it would be a big deal, myself.. until it came time for me to come in off the bike.. Everyone has to follow the same direction, so everyone ends up going the same distance.. BUT. If you have a rack far away from where you dismount.. let's just say it's the longest, goofiest run you'll ever take. Trying to guide your bike and clinking along on your bike shoes (I'm not cool enough to do the 'leave your bike shoes on the pedals when you dismount'. Even with as many races and as many years as I've been doing this thing, I still haven't mastered that skill. In fairness, I only tried once.. but that one attempt was traumatic enough, so I just keep doing what I do. It's just a few seconds I'm not willing to lose my life over!).. it felt like it took forever. So. For the next race, maybe I'll try to pre-register so I can have a lower number and not have to do that long, clinking, wobbling run of shame. Anyway. So there's lots of room for improvement in the transition (I actually haven't even looked at my splits, so I have no idea how long my transitions were.. maybe I should do that before I go on and on about my race). Just checked out the actual results.. ouch. Here goes: 11:24.1 (154), 01:26.9 (115), 0:29:29.3 (20.3 mph/ 80), 01:53.0 (242), 0:22:57.8 (07:39.3/ 83), 1:07:11.1. Translation? Slllllloooooowww swim. But I knew that was coming. Sighting back to the beach was pretty rough, and that time also includes a little bit of a run. Almost a minute and a half in transition? Good lord. That is ridiculous for a sprint. Maybe an IM, that would be great! But a sprint.. move it, lady?! Just under 30 minutes for the 10mi ride, so just over 20mph.. I'm pretty content with that. I pushed pretty hard for most of that ride and feel good about it. As I mentioned, I haven't done that for a long time, so room to improve, but I'm happy with how I did today. TWO MINUTES??!! Told ya it was a long, goofy run to my spot after the bike.. Well. Upside there, should be no problem to improve on that one?! then a 7:40 avg pace for the 3mi run. I told myself I'd be happy with anything close to or under an 8min/mi pace.. so there it is! I felt good. I noticed I did a lot of 'self motivating talk' on this run.. Very cheesy, but I guess it worked. I just kept telling myself not to let up, to hold the pace I was at and to stay strong. I even started some sort of chant.. something about 'light on your feet. fast turnover. lean forward. use your arms'. I don't even know what I was talking about, but I kept repeating that any time I felt myself start to let up or slow down. I also, and guys, I never do this.. I even started to strategize passing people?! I'm very much a 'race your race' kind of gal, so this was a new one. Maybe I just needed to divert my focus from the developing side stitch? But I actually, at one point as I was closing in on a gal, thought to myself.. should I pass now, or wait until later? She's probably going to chase you down if you pass now.. Who am I? Well, I just passed..and I'm pretty sure she didn't chase.. Oh, well. It was going to be very dramatic in my mind. I did, however, come up on another gal right toward the end and was able to out-kick her to the finish. She came in just a bit behind me and I offered up a friendly 'good job', to which she ignored and walked away.. Oh, well. It was fun. Honestly. I had a great time. I had no expectations coming in, which was nice. I even forgot to wear a watch, so I had NO clue how things were going, other than a vague idea that I was doing alright..based on what..I have no idea. But it seemed like things were going ok for me, so I just went with it. Overall, I wound up with a 2nd place in my age group..which means basicall nothing, but..hey! 2nd place! Woo! The boys all came out to cheer me on and Mason looked like he was having fun watching mama like the good ol days.. He's such a big boy now, though! As we speak, he is off on a 'man-date' with his daddy at the movies. We had a pep-talk about how 'they are just silly monsters, not scary' (they're at Monsters University, or whatever), but 'if you get scared, you can just close your eyes'. He hasn't ever made it through a movie at the theaters before.. We have only tried twice, but it hasn't gone well.. So here's hoping this one is successful! So that was my race. I'm planning to do the same race again in about a month.. maybe I'll work my speed a bit more on the bike and run.. I'm not sure how much I can improve my swim in such a short time, but I'm thinking actually getting in the pool a time or two between now and then might be a good place to start (I went to college.. I know smart things like that). Crossfit stuff has gone well this week. We went a bit lighter, since our fearless leader was on vacation. Still did all the lifts and about the same quantity, but just more focus on good form with lighter weights (60, 65, 70% of our 1 rep maxes.. not way off what we normally would do, but just a slight bit lighter.. probably so we don't do anything stupid while coach is away. He went to college, too..so smart). Probably the most notable workout, for me anyway, was doing the 30 muscle ups on one workout. That has always seemed like a 'something I can't do' kind of thing.. just so many, it seemed like I would lose my arms before I could get through all 30. But the workout broke it up.. 15 muscle ups (MU's), 1mi run, then 15 more MU's..and I did it! I actually only missed one MU attempt the whole time and that was because I was talking mid MU..not a good plan for success.. So I felt pretty good about that day. Of coarse there was plenty of 'knock you back down off your high horse' moments, too.. like the other MU workout of the week (I think I already wrote about that one), or that time I tried to do an L-sit.. Well, I think that about wraps it up. Tomorrow I plan to do an easy ride and run..and hopefully get in to the gym for some kind of fun. Matt and I are officially kicking off half marathon training??!! Matt has always said he has 'no interest' in longer races, but I guess he's caught the bug, so I'm going with it! We are planning to run the Baltimore half marathon together in October.. wish us luck!!

Back so soon??

Is it possible I have more to say already? Well. I'm trying to make this a regular thing.. Just humor me. So I know you're wondering..did you do your core exercises yesterday? Yes, I did! A 5 minute L-sit..because what better way to improve on your L-sit than to..L-sit!? Exactly. In other exciting news from yesterday, I broke out the ol bike trainer and hooked the boys up to the back of my mt bike! Last time I used that was last summer when I was pregnant and, somehow, riding that up to pick Mason up from school when it was too hot to think about walking made perfect sense. And by 'pregnant', I'm talking, like 9mo super pregnant.. Like, my son's teacher still talks about it.. "I couldn't believe you were out there pulling him around on your bike.." yeah, yeah.. We all know I'm a little nuts. It's ok. At least Mason thinks I'm cool..most of the time. Miles, on the other hand, does not seem to be so sure. He often looks at me with this mix of confusion and concern. Can't say that's the first time I've seen that look..probably won't be the last.. But anyway. It was fun. Miles was smiling and Mason was PSYCHED. I think it was his dream come true. He was jumping around, fist pumping..just beaming when he saw he was going to get to ride in the "chariot" with his baby bro. So. Go us! Good times. It was hot, though. I was dripping sweat just getting the tires all pumped and the thing hooked up. I'm sure I looked awesome picking Mason up. I don't think I'm ever going to be one of those moms you see all put together picking their kids up from where ever.. I'll probably always be sweaty and embarrassing. At least I'm getting them used to it from a young age, right? You're welcome, boys.. Alright, then. So my workout today.. Strength was a little lighter, as far as quantity, but a good time to think about good form. Went a little something like: power snatch: 3 at 75#, 3 at 80#, and 3 sets of 3 at 85#. Then power clean and jerk: 3 at 90#, 3 at 100#, and 3 sets of 3 at 105#. I did some weighted back extensions with a 25# wt, just for good measure.. Have I mentioned I have no core? A core is a good thing to have when picking up heavy things.. So I'm working on it! The workout was fast and furious.. 2 min max effort(ME) calorie row (it's a setting on the rowing machine..instead of distance, it tells you how many calories you 'burn'), I am not great on the rower, so I got 33 calories. Next I got a WHOLE minute to rest before starting a 4min AMRAP (as many reps/rounds as possible) of 24" box jumps(10), and toes to bar(TTB)(15). I got through 3 rounds + 5 box jumps. I was then supposed to rest another minute, but I sometimes miss these things when I read the workout, so I just went right in to my next 4min AMRAP, which was 10 Burpees and 15 wall balls with a 20# ball (women usually are given a 14# ball).. I only got through 2 rounds + 5 Burpees on that one. Then back to the rower for 2 more minutes..30 calories that time. Done with that! Last, but not least.. 50 handstand pushups (HSPU). That took me 5:15 to complete.. We had to alternate 'strict' and 'kipping'.. I won't bore any non- crossfitters that may ever stumble across this with the details of what that means. Overall. The workout went well. I didn't do any other workout today, other than my 6min of planking.. Usually I try to do something..either swim, bike, or run..but Mason didn't have swim lessons (which I usually swim laps during) today and it was super hot, so didn't want to take the boys out for anything..so we'll call it a taper for that sprint race I'm most likely doing this sat? Not much else for today.. Taught a gymnastics class..that's about it! AND. That's all I have to say about that.

Life..lately..

Oh, how I have let my reader down.. Well, I'm making another attempt at getting back to blogging. I really do like to write.. and since I'm terrible with taking pics and forget about any video documentation of anything.. so this is kind of my only shot at keeping any sort of track of things. So. I'll try to be succinct in recapping the last couple months.. maybe I'll do separate posts to catch up.. let's not get ahead of ourselves, though. First thing worth noting, I suppose.. Running! Or the lack thereof.. I still run. Yes, I do. I ran the Hospital Hill Half with my sister back on the 1st of June and it was actually much more successful in a 'that didn't feel like death' kind of way. I pretty much backed off my whole 'advanced running plan' thing, which included hills and speedwork and such, when training for CrossFit Regionals kicked off. It was just too much and, if I've learned anything over these past few years, if you really want to do well in something, you need to focus on it.. So since I wanted to do well at regionals and it was going to require a new level of commitment to picking up heavy things, I decided I couldn't also focus on getting faster. My new plan was to maintain distance to keep up endurance, but not really worry about improving speed right now. I've kept up running, but just short stroller runs during the week and then, while I was maintaining distance for the half, a long run sunday mornings. You know what only running slow does to your pace? You guessed it! But it was fun to run with Abby. I let her determine the pace and we chatted comfortably the whole time. It was a beautiful day and I still, for some reason, love that darn, hilly coarse and will most likely do it again next year. Abby wanted to start super slow and easy and aim to pick up the pace later and that's just what we did. We steadily picked up pace throughout the run, but kept feeling good. We finished just over 2 hours.. and that was that! It was nice to finish the distance feeling so good and left me feeling optimistic about my endurance life again.. though since then, I've been shorter and shorter on my endurance stuff.. Now I'm aiming for a sprint tri or two before summer is up. Actually the first one, if I bite the bullet and sign up, already!, is this saturday! I've been getting about 1-2 rides in a week and 1-2 swims, along with continuing the usual running, except subbing part of the 'long run sunday' for a brick (usually run 5-6mi, ride 20mi, then a short 1-2mi run). So I think that's all I have to say about my run and tri stuff. Hopefully I'll check in and let ya know how my illustrious sprint tri career goes! I can tell you this.. it is going. to. hurt. Of this, I am certain. BUT. I'm no stranger to a little discomfort.. hopefully I'll remember how to go hard out there! Now.. CrossFit stuff. So Regionals has come and gone. It was a lot of fun and a great experience, for sure. The training for it was fairly intense, as there was a lot to improve on in a short amount of time. I could go on and on about the training, because it is very fun and new and exciting to me, but perhaps another time. Basically, the Cliff's Notes goes a little something like.. squat, snatch, clean and jerk daily, then a workout that will push your limits daily.. repeat. I loved it!! I really love the olympic lifts and it is a lot of fun to increase my max lifts, usually simply by improving technique. The workouts that our coach came up with for us were often more like 'skill work for time' for me, especially when it would include several lifts all at what had recently been my 1 rep max (ie: 10+ hang cleans at 135#..which was my 1 rep max prior to that day.. Just FYI, now my 1 Rep Max for the Clean is 150#.. See what a little pushing the limits and regular training can do?..and still so much room for improvement..have I mentioned I enjoy this stuff?), but it was always fun and exciting for me to take on something that I maybe previously would have backed away from, but, with the 'if this is at Regionals, you can't scale it' mentality.. I just had to figure out a way to get it done. So we trained like that for the weeks leading up to the announcement of the workouts, then the real fun started! We tested some things out and then were assigned the workout that gave us the best chance for the best outcome.. and then we practiced those workouts like crazy until the big day! Again, that part was fun, too, because we had a specific goal in mind and knew exactly which skills we needed to work on. For example, there was a workout with rope climbs and squat cleans at 135#.. that 135# barbell became my best bud for the next couple weeks. My workout was deadlifts and box jumps.. so I picked up heavy things (AND put them down) and jumped on boxes many, many times. So how did it go? Well.. it went.. OK. Like I said, it was a great experience and I hope to go again next year.. I even hope to do some more competitions leading up to regionals this year.. But I had a few rookie mistakes, which, I suppose by nature of myself being a 'rookie', was bound to happen. Things started off strong and I hit a PR for my 3 rep max Overhead Squat.. so I had that going for me.. Then we did our 'burpee muscle up' workout and had no misses and everyone was feeling good! Then.. the next mornings' workout.. I don't even really want to talk about it. Silly mistakes that I have no excuse for, so there's not much to say.. I kept missing the wallball target. I have no idea why. Never had a problem with it before. Haven't had a problem with it since. Just an off day, I guess.. Everything else, for me, in that workout was fine, but the frustration of the wallball/target debacle kind of bummed me out. Later that day was my deadlift/box jump workout.. Again, another silly mistake. I had to switch out the weights after my partner went and, for some reason, the weights on one side were STUCK. So annoying. Finally got 'em off and did my workout just as planned.. almost caught a gal or two, but the damage had been done. On the plus side, we made the time cap, which when we first started practicing, was a concern.. All in all, aside from the sticky weights, that workout went as well as it could have. The last day started off kind of exciting when our team got first in their heat and, I think, 2nd overall for that workout. All we had left was one more with the whole team.. and it was one that we knew wasn't exactly our best.. the rope/cleans. I think we all did our parts as planned, so we were able to finish feeling good.. but also hungry to train hard and come back even stronger for next year! Which is where we are now.. I've decided to really dedicate this next year/season/whatever to CrossFit and really see where I can get with a full, solid years training. We've kicked off a 'competition' style training cycle.. whatever that means.. It's similar to what we did for regionals training (so see above Cliff's notes explaination), but a little less 'sped up', since we have more time to build.. The workouts and strength is still all very fun and exciting, so I'm having a good time with it! Maybe I'll start posting the workouts and results, since I don't keep a training notebook.. I don't know what it is with me, but I've never been good at keeping logs or calendars, etc.. So maybe I'll just document it here? It's my blog.. I guess I can write about whatever I want.. Kids, you ask? SUPER LOUD at the moment.. Mason is, at least.. He's "playing rock n' roll", you see.. He'll start kindergarten in just a couple weeks.. turned 5 a couple weeks ago.. His party was at the Indians game, which he was excited about. Then we finally took him to Chicago.. kid has been talking about Chicago for months now! So we went to the aquarium and then to the White Sox/Orioles game (yay!). We only made it to about the 3rd inning..it was cold?! He got to see warm-ups and got a ball and snacks.. all the important things. After the game, we set off to continue our journey out to vacation-land USA. Not sure where that is?? Iowa.. obviously! We went to Clear Lake, which is actually a nice, cute little Iowa town and had a lovely time visiting some family friends who were celebrating their wedding. So that was a nice little trip. Miles is 10 months and crawling around everywhere..of coarse. I've recently noticed how much more 'interactive' he is.. He'll crawl over to his highchair when he is hungry, or pull off his bib when he's done eating, things like that. He has FIVE whole teeth..and they are so darn cute. He is eating mostly finger foods, so chopped up versions of what we eat..and the kid loves, like LOVES black beans?? and cheese.. But then again, I guess, who doesn't, amiright?? So kids are good. Mason is obsessed with baseball..watches 'highlights' any chance he gets, looks up on the computer ALL the games and needs to know who is playing who, what the score is, etc. He always asks.. do you want the Padres to win? or the Blue Jays.. and, apparently "I don't care" isn't an acceptable answer, though it's the one I give him just about every time.. Anyway. Want to know what my workout was today? Here goes: 5:30am-enter JoCo CrossFit to finish my warm-up (which I start at home to help me get started faster so I can finish on time to get home and let my husband get out the door and off to work) Strength: Squats: 4x115#, 4x130#, 4 sets of 4x150# (off a 1 rep max of 185#) snatch with 3 sec pause below the knee: 4x75#, 4x80#, 3 sets of 4x85# (off a 1 rep max of 120#) Clean and Jerks with a 3 sec pause below the knee: (4+1) at 90#, (4+1) at 100#, 3 sets of (4+1) at 105# (1 RM of 150#) Snatch extension: 4 sets of 4x110# Jerks: 4x110#, 2 sets of 3x120#, 2x125# Whew! Now the workout..was supposed to be: Every Minute on the Minute (EMOTM) for 10min: 2 Muscle Ups (MU), 20 Double Unders (DU), then with rest of the minute, do clean and jerks at: 10x95#, 10x115#, 10x125#, 10x145# So that was the plan.. After the 1st minute, I realized that my connecting muscle ups weren't happening, which wasn't going to leave me enough time to complete everything and get any clean and jerks in, so I went to just 1 MU with the 20 DUs and the clean and jerks. At the end of the 10min, I only got through 10 at 95# and 5 at 115#. Just ran out of time. It took time to swithc the weights out. I was getting tired, so was more out of breath each round, making it tougher to get through the MU/DUs fast enough to get much more than 1 or 2 clean and jerks in the minute.. It was fast and furious and didn't quite go as I had planned or hoped, but it was a good workout and I gave it my all! After that we did 'Glute/Ham Raises', which we used to do back in the day in gymnastics.. always fun to kick it old school and remember the good ol' days! So that was crossfit for today. Usually I would have walked Mason to school and then run a short run with Miles in the stroller before we head in for naps, but since I didn't get my swim in yesterday, but DID do about 7-8mi run and 20mi bike.. I thought I should try to swim a bit. I didn't have much time, but got in the water and did a lil swimmin.. and that's it for today! Except I might do some sort of abs/core and some stretching later.. just because I'm on a personal hunt for my mid-section. I don't know how it's possible with all the strength training I've been up to lately, but my abs are purty weak.. on some things.. Basically on L-sits.. hanging L-sits and parallette L-sits to be exact.. I've gotten much better at seated L-sits on the floor and can plank like nobody's business.. but picking my feet up in mid-air? Not so much.. So feel compelled to work on that.. it's probably important, right? Maybe not. But I'll try to improve on it, none-the-less. Holy Moly, this is a lot of info.. I'm done. Plus I'm needed to "play a little game of basketball", despite the fact that it's dinner time.. And I need to make dinner.. Kids..