PR's all over the Place

So last week was 're-test' week at JoCo, meaning it's time to see how all of our work with the strength program is going. I'd say it's going well! I didn't get any huge new numbers, but after the snatch PR the previous week, I was able to squeak my numbers in everything else up just a little bit more, too! Again.. nothing huge, but I think after 8 weeks of work, we're on the right track. My 'high bar back squat' went from 185# to 195#, the clean moved a tiny bit from 150# to 155#.Jerk went from 150# to 160#. Snatch (previous week) went from 115# to 125# (this week I just matched that, couldn't quite get 130#, but it's SO close!). Front squat went from 160#-170#. I'll take it! It was actually nice to have this re-test week leading in to the 'Go Girl' Sprint Triathlon because it was a relatively light week and made for kind of a 'taper'. As I mentioned before, my goal for this month was to try to train to go 'faster' at the same distance/sprint triathlon that I did in July. What did I do to try to make this happen? Well.. I swam more..not that it helped much, but I tried! By the time the race came around, I was feeling more comfortable in the water and almost felt like my old self out there.. slower.. but at least I felt like my form was returning and I would be efficient and confident in the water. Well. Let's just get right to the race recap, shall we? My swim..was not good. I felt OK, but I just couldn't seem to get a free spot in the water to actually get into a groove with my swim. The whole thing felt like a battle and it's not usually like that for me. I'm not sure why this was, except that I was likely surrounded by a bunch of similarly abled female swimmers, so we were all just kind of bunching along together instead of breaking free of each other. Oh, well. I didn't compare the two races side by side (I should do that..hold on..). Here's my Go Girl results..:11:38( 61),1:11.3( 19),29:30.3 (20.3 mph/6),1:30.6 (71),:21:14.9 (07:05.0/4), 1:05:05.0. Here's my July results:11:24.1(154),1:26.9 (115),:29:29.3 (20.3 mph/ 80),1:53.0 (242),:22:57.8 (07:39.3/83), 1:07:11.1. So.. verdict? My swim was slower! Not much, but still.. I guess I knew that was coming. Darn it. 11:38 this time and 11:24 in July. Both, by the way, are laughably slow. I went a touch faster in transition from swim to bike, though not much. I had further to run out of the lake to my bike this time.. Not much change. My bike was identical! But felt harder this time.. I remember feeling like I was flying on the bike in July. This month I held the same average pace (20.3 mph), but man.. there were times I sure worked hard for that! At least my extra 'perceived' effort on the bike this race didn't effect my run.. That really was where I made up all my time and I have NO idea how that happened. Again, my transition from bike to run was a touch faster this month than in July, but not much.. 1:53 last time vs 1:30 this time. Move it, would ya? But my run went from 22:57 last month with a 7:40 min/mi avg to 21:14 this time with a 7:05 min/mi avg! Overall, my final times went from 1:07:11 to 1:05:05. A two minute improvement over a short time in a short race is OK by me. I didn't really improve where I thought I might, so there's that.. But I guess I can't complain. Over the past month, to train.. I mentioned getting in the pool more.. some good that did! I changed my wednesday ride to a spin and run.. I guess that probably helped with my run pace off the bike, so that was a good switch. I still did my usual crossfit every morning during the week and most saturdays. I continued with my sunday ride and runs, but we did a couple that were more 'speed' and 'interval' type workouts.. Again. Probably helped me with my run off the bike. Over all. It was fun to have a specific goal to train for and focus on in regards to triathlon training. As we come up on the closing of the outdoor pool.. I'm not sure where I will go with continuing to swim. I don't think completely stopping would be a good idea.. but it's so hard to want to get in a crowded, hot, indoor pool.. So we'll see. I was surprised by how hard the bike felt, but then how good I felt in the run. I have no idea why the bike felt hard. I guess that's to be expected, though, when you push hard for 10mi. My main goal, aside from beating my July time, was to 'make it hurt'.. Done and done, there! Compared to the run in July where I had to really talk myself in to pushing my pace and trying to pass people, this time I felt great, like I could keep the pace I was at for a while, and it was really fun to look up ahead to see a girl and to focus on reeling her in and, eventually, making the pass and feeling strong while I did it! Seeing as my next race on the agenda is a half marathon in October, I guess it's a good time to be doing well with running. So I'll be building my run distances on my sunday runs. This weekend is an exciting one.. First, saturday is a olympic lifting clinic with a hall of famer! I'm looking forward to having him break down my lifts and..just maybe I can improve a bit more! Good thing I got those new lifting shoes and knee sleeves.. looking pretty fierce these days. Sunday.. Miles turns ONE!! And is getting baptised! And my parents and Matt's mom and sister will be here to celebrate with us! And hopefully some friends, too!! So it should be fun. Lots of fun. Miles is really starting to look like he might want to walk soon. He actually took a step today (don't tell Matt.. he might be bummed to miss it..), but is looking more and more interested in the whole thing, so we'll see! Oh. I forgot to mention that I wound up 5th overall in the race and 1st in my age group.. So.. I don't know.. It was fun!

Southside Throwdown

Alright! So a little late, but wanted to recap the throwdown/friendly competition at our gym two weekends ago none-the-less.. So here goes. Our gym, JoCo CrossFit, came up with a plan to have a friendly competition with a local southside crossfit gym..southsiders stick together! Their gym, Sworn, opened up not too long ago and it's fairly close by, so I think our owner figured some friendly camraderie and competition to welcome them and get to know some of them would be a good thing.. and I agree! The whole day, all the workouts, the whole thing was a blast. I've only been to one other crossfit competition, which was Regionals, so I think the bar was set pretty high as far as my expectations go.. and they did NOT disappoint (not that I ever thought they might). All other competitions I might attend in the future have big shoes to fill, for sure. Kind of like with triathlon, once you've been to a high quality race put on by Ironman and now Rev 3, it's hard for the smaller races to live up to that. But anyway, the gym was cleaned and ready for some working out. So many fellow JoCo members opted to volunteer instead of compete which was really amazing of them.. to give up their day to help out..and they were awesome. Run like a tight ship, for sure. (wait.. is there such a thing as a 'tight ship'? did I mix euphomisms or something? Did I just make up the word 'euphomism'.. moving on). We started off with a fast and dirty 6 minute workout at the Farmer's Market.. and this would be my lowest ranking of the whole day.. I don't have any excuses, the other gals just moved quicker than I did. It was a triplet of ascending reps.. 3's the 1st round, 6's, 9's, etc.. with burpees jumping on to a weight (I think this is where I was slow), then kettle bell swings (relatively light at 36#), and abmats (sit-ups). I tried to move quickly.. but I must have looked slow because a fellow crossfitter reminded me "Sara, this is a sprint".. yes, yes.. this IS my sprint.. but, thanks. Anyway, I never looked at the rankings through the day..it WAS a friendly, fun competition, yes? But glancing through the list the following monday, I see I ranked 4th on this one. Well. Moving on. The next workout was one that folks seemed to think I might do alright at.. a run! a 2.5mi run. That may not seem like much to..well..anyone that runs.. But for crossfitters who prefer their run distances to be listed in meters or feet, 2.5mi was some folks' everest.. which is the great part about crossfit and competitions! Everyone has things they might be 'better' at, but everyone also will get a chance to test their limits on challenges that are a little less comfortable to them. I suppose I did my job on the run. Turns out I got 1st in that one! I even beat the boys, which never hurts. Maybe (spoiler alert) that run gave me the confidence to push my run in the upcoming sprint tri I had.. I don't know. But it was fun and went well. Next workout was a clean and jerk ladder and this was, by far, the most fun to compete in and to watch everyone else! You could really cheer everyone else on and it got exciting to see people push hard at the end of the ladder, whether it was a new PR (some got their first cleans and or jerks at a new weight during the competition!) or pushing hard to get the most lifts done at the heaviest weight (if you could clean and jerk the heaviest weight, you wanted to get as many reps as you could in that last minute..did that make any sense?)I wound up tied for 2nd in this one with a couple other gals. I got through the ladder and then managed 6 clean and jerks at 125# in the last minute.. I was aiming for 5 or more, so.. Done! The last workout was kind of Fran-esque with a twist.. It was 21,15,9 of wallballs and pull-ups, but the twist was you had to do 50 double unders after each round (so 21 wallballs, 21 pull-ups, 50 double unders.. then 15..etc.)All went OK for me, except I couldn't quite make it through the 50 double unders without getting tripped up a bit in each round.. Nothing too terrible, luckily, but not flawless.. So I came in 2nd in that one, too. The added bonus of placing in the top 2 females from our gym was that we were then going to have an extra, final workout with the top 2 males/2 females from each gym competing on a team in one last throwdown. It was a chipper with 50 calorie row, 40 overhead squats (65#), 30 toes to bar, 20 over the box jumps, then 10 wall climbs (start in a push up position with your feet touching the wall (chest to the ground), then push up and walk your feet up the wall until you are in a handstand against the wall, then walk back down.. repeat). Marcie (my partner) and I split the work 50/50 and got through it pretty quickly, passed it on to our guys and they did their work (I think also split 50/50). JoCo team wound up winning that contest, so we took home the prize for this throwdown.. but I don't think it was about that at all. It was a great day, lots of fun, really well put-together and executed by those working and volunteering, and a nice way to meet some more crossfitters in the area. So everybody wins! My favorite part was having my boys come cheer me on. Mason was mostly interested in playing with the other kids that were there, but Matt and Miles were there watching and Miles was clapping and smiling..especially through the clean/jerk ladder! It's always fun having them around and I think Matt got a little more of an idea of what it is I do at the gym all the time. He only got to see a little bit of regionals and he's always supportive, regardless of his understanding of what I do, but it's nice to get to show him what I enjoy. Good Stuff!

Compression socked my way to a PR!

This week has been pretty rough on the ol' legs. Lots of squats. Lots. I've stuck with my usual 'run it off' plan, and it hasn't gone super well. Let's recap a bit.. This week started off with the usual strength stuff at crossfit, but going ever so slightly heavier, which you start to feel after so many reps. But it was going well. I actually have felt really good about my lifts lately and feel like the 'program' is doing what it's designed to do.. so that's a good thing! The workout on monday was a nice little triplet of double unders (jump rope), GHD's (sit-ups bending way back off of a 'glute-hamstring developer' thing.. I think most often used for back extentions), and box jumps. It went well, though I messed up and used the wrong box height.. but oh, well. Tuesday's workout was the beginning of the end for my poor legs. We had lots and lots of squatting to do in the workout. I'll even write it out here, just for future reference.. The workout was: 30 squats (135#) 30 CTB (chest to bar) pullups 30 front squats (115#) 30 HSPU (handstand pushups) 30 overhead squats (95#..this was kind of big for me! these used to give me major issues, so I've come a long way with a lot of work) 30 ring dips After this day.. OUCH!!! from my entire legs and also from my triceps. I mean, my legs hurt to touch. I'd try to roll them out on the foam roller, but it would hurt SO bad. I ran later that day. Just a short run, but it was kind of a death march. I also swam that evening..the reason for the swim was a mixture of wanting to enjoy the outdoor pool a bit more before it's closed, another attempt to shake out the soreness in my legs, and needing to continue to swim to get ready for the next tri.. Again.. kind of a death march..but at least the pool was enjoyable! I also swam on monday and am planning to swim again after teaching gymnastics tonight (thurs), so 3 whole swims this week! Never mind that each swim is only about 30min long.. that used to be laughable, but now seems super adequate! Anyway, so my legs were pretty mad at me after tuesday and wednesday wasn't exactly going to provide me any relief. The lifting stuff on tap for tuesday was pretty tame, but the workout included Muscle Ups (MU's.. yay!) and weighted pistols (single leg squats holding a 35# kettle bell). It was 10,8,6,4,2 reps of each.. so 30 MU's in a workout again! No misses this time.. starting to feel fairly good about those, though they can always use work.. for example.. starting to string them together and/or using non-false-grip (that probably means nothing to most, but I can't think of a way to explain it, so I'll just let it be..). So. My point is.. my legs weren't going to get any less sore by doing weighted pistols. YIKES. And to add to the fun, I had a spin and run waiting for me that evening. I enjoy the spin and run, so wasn't going to bail, but I knew going in that it may not be a set up for the best workout ever..and I was right. I spun, but it didn't feel like I was working as hard as usual.. I think my body was involuntarily holding itself back.. somehow.. Same thing for the run. I think we held a fairly honest pace, but definitely couldn't push at. all. I rolled and stretched some more..and then I reached for the big guns.. my good ol' surgical compression thigh high tights.. And guess what.. I feel significantly better today! I mean a LOT better. Probably should have ice bathed and compression tighted tuesday night, but better late than never, I guess. So today, we had a relatively easy going strength session.. mostly power snatch and cleans (meaning no full squat needed.. legs likey!), though we did have some squats.. Then the workout was a mix of rowing and progressively heavier snatches. I asked coach what he wanted me to go for, as far as the weights for the workout, and he had a doozie for me.. How 'bout you build up to a PR at the end of the workout?! OooooKaaay.. Actually.. As I mentioned, I've been feeling pretty good with my lifts, so I felt pretty confident about the workout and was excited to take it on.. new PR's are always fun. So started off.. nice, smooth rowing; nice, easy lifts.. knocked out all the snatches at the 85/95/105 and 115# weights, which 115# was actually my previous PR.. But the 115# snatches went up nice and easy and I was feeling good! The workout was a little something like this: 500m row 5 snatches (85#) 400m row 4 snatches (95#) 300m row 3 snatches (105#..things are going well..) 200m row 2 snatches (115#..still nailing it.. don't get too excited..) 100m row 1 snatch (125#.. first attempt I only managed a 'high pull', which isn't even close. Next attempt I went for it, got under the bar, but not quite enough. Had a couple more of those.. getting closer.. With the help of coach Mike and encouragement from a few others in the gym.. up it went!! PR!! Felt good. Really good.. So, yay!) So that's where we are now. Basking in the glow of a new snatch PR.. which isn't so 'glowy' when you try to explain it to your 5 yr old.. "mommy picked up a heavier thing today at the gym!".. "oh..that's cool".. The words were right, but the enthusiasm was lacking. This may end up being an expensive PR because my 'purchase finger' has been hovering over the 'buy now' button on some spankin new lifting shoes for a few days now.. I don't know how much longer I can hold out and this excitement over the lift might be just the push I needed.. Tomorrow is a 'rest day' of sorts.. Might work on a skill or 2 at the gym, but no lifting session or workout planned. I'll probably get another easy stroller run in.. the weather has been so perfect for running this week.. gotta get out to enjoy! Hopefully it will feel a little better than the other 2 runs this week.. Saturday we have a friendly competition at our gym and I'm excited for it! A whole day of workouts..not much better than that! I'm still also attempting to get faster at biking and running.. I guess we'll see how that's been working out for me in about a week at the next sprint tri.. Ooof. Still looking forward to it. Just not sure how much faster I can go. In family stuff.. Mason is loving kindergarten and seems to be doing really well there. He mostly loves the bus. And lunch. And recess. But I can tell he's learning a lot already, too. And he's staying out of trouble.. at least while he's in school!.. Home is another story.. though I think it's getting a little better. He's just been exhausted and trying to adjust to the new schedule, which, lucky for us, tends to mean more fits at night.. But we're getting there. Miles.. is Miles.. Smiling. Crawling. He's been pushing his push toys around more and more.. some times on feet.. sometimes on knees. Just a few weeks from the big #1!! So that's about all that is happening around here! Good stuff.