3 bars of death....

Brandon and I hit it hard today, this is one that I have not done in a while.

1pm

warm up
-circuit
-some light deadlift, bench press and power cleans

W.O.D. - "Linda" aka 3 bars of death
10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 of:

Deadlift (285# - 139% of bodyweight)
Bench Press (205# - 100% of my bodyweight)
Power Clean (155# - 75% of my bodyweight)

My Time: 23:36
Brandon's Time: 22:55 (he did 295# deadlift but bench and cleans were the same as me)

I wasn't sure how this one would be, I was aiming to finish under 25 minutes and did but wish I would have just done the 295# deadlift. It just felt incredibly heavy when I was warming up. I actually felt like I was getting stronger as the workout went on.

Sore Calves

I woke up today and felt like I have never ran before, my calves were sore! Those 5 finger shoes definitely work your muscles in a different way.

I did a WOD with Daren today...

10:30am

warm up
-circuit

W.O.D.

500m row
21 Ring Dips
21 Sit ups
21 Wall Ball (20#)
400m run
15 Ring dips
15 sit ups
15 wall ball
400m run
9 ring dips
9 sit ups
9 wall balls
500m row

My Time: 13:45
Daren's Time: 12:16

Strength - Overhead Squat

135 x 5, 155 x 5, 165 x 3, 165 x 5, 175 x 5, 185 x 5

I should have eaten something before the met con b/c I felt drained on that 2nd 400m run, like I was out of fuel, not out of strength. The last food I had was an apple and almond butter at 7:30am and my usual egg white, sweet potato, avocado breakfast at 5am. Lesson to all: eat at least 30 minutes before you workout. I had a shake and an orange right after the met con and then did the overhead squats, I was pretty pumped to get 185 for 5 reps. I felt like I could have gone up but ran out of time.

Five Finger Shoes

You may have heard of the newest fad in running, some magazines and experts have recently talked about the benefits of running barefoot. The first thing that comes to mind is "ouch", right? I am 20 chapters into a book called Born To Run which is what I think inspired these thoughts. If you have not read that book, you should, even if you are not a runner. Well, a new line of shoes...not really shoes, more like gloves for your feet, called the 5 finger shoes is supposed to give you the closest and safest simulation of running barefoot.

I received a pair from my AWESOME brother (Henry), AWESOME sister-in-law (Laura) and COOLEST & CUTEST nephew(Little V) for my birthday and broke them in today. I have to say that it was definitely a different feeling than the addidas Supernova cushion I have grown accustomed to. I was definitely watching where I ran a lot closer because if you run over a crack or a rock you feel it. The first mile I was thinking about the different feeling it was and the small amount of pain I felt (really minor but I have wimpy feet). I felt the balls of my feet a lot more and right now (2 hours later) I feel them EVEN MORE. I thought that when I took the shoes off after the run the balls of my feet would be bleeding, lucky for me they weren't. I didn't have any pain in my joints but I did feel like the run was a little more taxing on my body, like I worked different muscles a little more than when I wear shoes. I will have to tell you more on that tomorrow :-) Overall, the run felt good, I am not going to endorse the shoe 100% yet so please do not go out and buy a pair because what I have said. Read the book Born To Run and make the decision for yourself. I have EXTREMELY sensitive feet so I am sure it will take me a few weeks to toughen them up. I am definitely looking forward to doing more runs in these shoes and EXTREMELY THANKFUL to Henry, Laura and Little V for getting me them as a gift!

1pm

Garmin Stats-

Time: 40:25
4.68 miles
Avg Pace: 8:39 min/mile
763 calories

Heavy Grace and Heavy Helen

6pm CSCF class
warm up
-circuit
-few clean & presses

WOD - Heavy "Grace"

30 Clean & Press 155#
Time: 3:59
rest 10 minutes
Row 30 calories (58 seconds)
rest 2 minutes
Row 30 calories (59 seconds)

Then I decided to break in the new 70# kettlebell and do Heavy "Helen" with the on-ramp class...

7:30pm
warm up
-10 burpees

WOD - Heavy "Helen"
3 rounds of:
400 m run
21 KB Swing (70#)
12 Pull ups

Time: 11:25

I realized tonight that my pull ups are my Achilles heal. I think Will said it best last night when he said to me, "we need to get you 10 pounds lighter but also 10 pounds stronger". Pull ups have always been a struggle for me, I never even attempted pull ups until I started CrossFitting in May of 2008. I hated pull ups, the reason I hated them was because I was terrible at them. Don't we all usually do that? For example, if we are terrible runners, meaning we get tired quickly, we assume that running is not for us. I used to feel that way about running but now I know that if I run, do it consistently, I will be a better runner. I need to take the same approach I took towards running towards my pull ups, I know I can get better at them. It may take swallowing my pride and doing some band pull ups for a while, either way, I only have 2 and a half weeks until sectionals so I better hope the WODS favor my strengths so that I have more time to prepare for regional’s.

300 continued...

I came in the studio this morning and Brandon asked me if I wanted to do the 300 workout, I had to accept the challenge :-)

warm up
-circuit

"300"
25 Pullups
50 Deadlifts (135 lbs )
50 Pushups
50 Box jumps
50 Floor wipers (135 lbs )
50 Kb Clean and Press (16Kg)
25 Pullups

Time 15:44 (improved since Feb. 1st when I did a 17:49)

Brandon's time - 14:11
Daren decided to participate too - 12:24
And...Will had to get in on the action - 18:21

Now Daren and I are gonna get some rowing in....

7 rounds of 500m row and 250m row:

500 m row-
Charlie Daren
1:49.3 (warm up) 1:58 (warm up)
1:48.1 1:45.8
1:54.9 1:49.5
1:54.1 1:50.3
1:51.0 1:50.3
1:50.3 1:49.7
1:44.8 1:49.5

250m row-
:46.8 :47

I have to say that I work a lot harder with Daren than on my own, awesome row workout!

I am planning on working out with the 4pm CSCF class today....

4:20pm
warm up
-rushed through circuit and a few deadlifts at 185#

WOD:
30 Deadlifts (225#)
30 Double Unders
30 KTE
30 DB Split Cleans (30#)
30 Wall-Balls (20#)

Time: 8:00

Strength - Squats
135x5, 225x3, 225x3, 245x3, 265x3, 275x3, 295x3, 295x3, 315x2

I did the squats after the WOD because I was late to class. The met con was harder than I thought it would be, I wish I would have mentally pushed harder. I feel like I didn't give it all of my mental strength if that makes since to you.

Back at it

I got back in town at 5pm, we picked up Peanut Butter (our pet Maltiz) and I was at the 6pm CSCF class. Daren sure knows how to stick it to you on a Monday, haha....

warm up
-circuit
-400 m run
-20 abmat situps
-20 kb swings

Power Clean
165 x 5, 185 x 5, 205 x 3, 225 x 3, 225 x 3

12 min AMRAP:
10 Thrusters (135#)
20 Floor wipers (135#)

I did 5 complete rounds + 6 thrusters......brutal!

SobeFit 5k......why not?

When we came in town Thursday I saw a sign for a 5k run on Sunday, I thought it would be a cool to run in but wasn't sure if I was going to. When I went to the website yesterday to sign up it showed that registration was full.....so I called the phone number on the website and the lady said that the pre-race registration was full but they would have some spots open in the morning if I wanted to come out and sign up. She also said that she has had a lot of people contact her about this race and to secure a spot I would probably need to come out at 3:30 or 4am....the race was at 8am and I thought that was ridiculous so I figured I would not run.

I woke up this morning at 7:20am and thought I would call that lady just to see if there were spots open, sure enough there were 41 spots and she said to hurry because there were still people arriving to sign up. I quickly ate a banana, had an advocare spark energy drink, took a quick shower put on my clothes and rushed out of the hotel to get a cab. The race was starting right off the beach at 8th and ocean drive in South Beach Miami. I made it to the race at about 7:40 and went to the wrong sign up table first and by the time I made it to the right table the guy in front of me got the last spot.....

So I asked the lady if I could PLEASE get a race bib and run the race, she told me to hang around for 10 minutes and she would see what she could do....I waited.

Fortunately for me, I got a spot! So I had about 10 minutes to warm up and then the race began, there were about 1800 runners, here are my results:

Time: 21:06
Pace: 6:48 per mile
Overall Place: 62nd
25-29 Age Group Place: 15th