Mediocre Runners

I did the Army 10-Miler today in Washington, DC. The results haven’t been posted yet but unofficially my time was 2:13. Which is about a 13 minute mile.

My longest run in training before the race was only 6 miles thanks to a nasty calf strain but I was still able to run the race and finish. I wasn’t concerned with making a good time, just finishing.

Almost all of my training was done on the treadmill and I ran 3 or 4 times a week. My next big adventure is the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in the spring. My goal is to break the 2 hour mark.

I signed up for the Austin 2010 Marathon on V-day, so I have about four and a half months to train, woo woo! going to be perusing through Runner’s World and some books to come up with a tailored training plan–my one main goal will be to incorporate yoga, pilates, and strength training as religiously as I check off the long runs. if *anyone* is interested in running it with me, let a sista’ know (jetarte, ahem?) I’m pretty pumped

Just got back from a three-day conference down at Ft. Bragg, NC and it’s SO good to be home, *sigh* I was fairly ambitious and planned on working out all three days down there, but lack of sleep and gross-heavy military food (think grey salisbury steak, fried pork cutlets, and over-boiled, buttery canned vegetables) got in the way of that. I tried to go for a run yesterday (4 hrs after lunch), and could only run about a mile and half before a weird nausea-heartburn thing started kicking in. So fast-forward to today: got home (made sure to grub on Lara bars, nuts, and apples on the six hour drive up) and went for a five-mile run in FORTY-FIVE minutes!! 9 minute-miles x 5 – woo woo! (can you tell I’m proud?) Moral of the story: sleep + healthy/whole foods = good workouts–for me at least, in my mediocre state….I know a lot of harder-core peeps who can run on 5 hrs of sleep, eat a cheeseburger an hour before their run and pump out 6 miles no prob. But that’s what this blog is all about, figuring out what works for me

Poplin-Green Wedding this weekend at a Winery in Berryville, but will post next week’s workout goals on Sunday evening.

It’s late, I’m mediocre, haven’t posted in a while – BUT did happen to hit the gym on Friday night for a crazy-hard 40 min interval session on the Stairclimber (vs. Master) and went back for more today, only for 30 min. Once again, common theme: skimp on strength training. This week is crazy bc of PhD applications and getting ready for a conference next week, BUT I will strive to at least accomplish the following:

Mon – 30 min Cap Hill workout, planks, push-ups, and Pilates
Tues – 40 min fartlek run (after 10 min warm-up and last 10 min cool-down)
Wed – PM Spinning class, Abs class – RESULTS Gym all the way…
Thurs – Off
Fri – Pilates 6:30 AM class, 30 min. Stair climber
Sat – leisurely jog w/ Travis, 5-6 miles
Sun – off

So it’s down on the blog, gotta represent for MR now and gitter’ dun.

I did a fairly decent job hitting CF workouts last week, however I completely slept (literally slept in) on CFE workouts.  Soooo, I’ll be doing three this week for punishment.  And I’m doing CFE workouts starting BEFORE 5am!  That’ll teach me, huh?  Ok, here’s the upcoming schedule:

CF: Mon Tues Thurs Fri Sat

CFE: Mon Thurs Sat

In addition to the 8 workouts, I’ll start Zoning.  Crossfit subscribes to it, so I’ll keep you posted on how it goes for me over the next 30 days.  I figure I’ll give it a shot and see how my CF improves and how my overall body feels/looks.  The good news is you do eat carbs, which Sam Adams Octoberfest is part of.  Mmm….I love this time of year!  Well because I am mediocre, I’ll be eating 18 blocks.  Basically, a “block” is an easier unit of measurement for food.  So, 7 grams of protein = 1 block, 9 grams of carbs = 1 block, and 1.5 grams of fat = 1 block.  The idea is to eat equal blocks for every meal, which will essentially give you a 30/40/30 (P/C/F) breakdown in your daily nutrition.  I’ll try to eat 5 blocks per meal with a couple snacks throughout the day thrown in there to get my 18.  It’s kind of a pain weighing and measuring food, but I think it’ll pay off in the end.  Stay tuned!

I just scored a pair of New Balance 840 from my local DSW for $33.  I was looking for a replacement for my beloved Montrail Streaks and I couldn’t pass up this deal. The 840s are a minimalist, but rugged shoe that is pretty close to a flat. It has a minimal heel and a very rugged outsole. It fits wonderfully and isn’t restrictive at all.  Needless to say, I felt the urge to test them out on this beautiful Sunday.  So I headed over to Potomac Overlook, which has some great trails, complete with hills and streams to ford.

But before heading out, I needed a plan. Mediocre Runners is against mindless slogging through miles for no purpose.  Now if I was going out for a long slow run just to enjoy the weather and being outside, that would be another story.  So I hit up Pat and asked his advice. Two words: Crossfit Endurance. I quickly found what I was looking for: 5 Min on, 2:30 Min off, 6 Min on, 3 Min off, 7 Min on. All out effort. This is a “lactate shuffle.” I have no idea what that means.

Anyways, I hit the trails and did a quick warm up on a flat part.  Then I hit the stopwatch and began my lactate shuffle.  The first 5 minutes were broken up my a stream I had to cross. So I started over and headed down hill a ways towards the Potomac. Then I headed up hill to work on my hill climbing technique.  My first 5 minutes were up more quickly than I expected.  The next two intervals were the same: fun, fun, fun.  I’m not sure the Crossfit Endurance workout was meant for some pretty steep trails, but I can say that was a pretty badass workout for only 18 minutes of actual running. I can’t wait for some more.

I almost forgot about the shoes! I’m no trail running expert, but I can say that I never lost grip on a variety of terrain: streams, rocks, roots, mud, dusty single track. The 840s bit and wouldn’t let go.  And they are FAST. I was grinning on the downhills. The minimal style and low heel also promoted a more natural mid foot strike. I love these shoes and can’t wait to hit the trails again.

This was a good week. I hit my lofty goal of five workouts and two days of rest. I did my best to follow some of the WODs from Pat’s box, Diesel.  I did Stronglifts 5×5 workouts on Monday and Saturday to get my strength days in.  If you aren’t familiar with Stronglifts, it is a beginner strength training regimen that uses some of the same whole-body lifts that you see in Crossfit with the gradual addition of weights. The foundation is doing 5 sets of 5 reps, thus the 5×5. I did workout A on Monday and Workout B on Saturday.

Monday: Squat 5×5: 70 lbs, Bench Press 5×5: 90 lbs, Inverted Rows: 3 sets x reps to failure (6-8-7), Pushups: 3 sets x reps to failure (40-25-11), Reverse Crunches: 3×12.

Saturday: Squat 5×5: 75 lbs, Overhead Press: 5×5 75 lbs, Deadlift 1×5 135lbs, Pullups: 5-4-4 reps, 3×30 sec of the plank.

I did traditional Crossfit WODs on Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesday: Push Press 3-3-3-3-3-3-3 reps: 65, 75, 85, 90, 95, 105, 115. I think I could have gone heavier on these from the start.

Thursday: 4 rounds for time
400m Run
500m Row

18:04. I have new-found respect for the Concept 2 rower after that WOD. Doing a rowing sprint after a run is really f-ing hard!  This WOD was hard to do at the gym because transitioning from the treadmill to the rower took about 30 seconds for each transition.

Today’s WOD will be the subject of its own post because it was so damn good.

It was a pretty good week of working out and crossfitting.  The week started on Labor Day with a free crossfit session at Diesel.  It was one of the athletes last day before heading to the Marines, so the WOD was a doosey!

• 15 reps BB squat clean (155/ 100#)
• 30 Toes to bar
• 30 Box jumps (24/20″)
• 15 Handstand Push-Ups
• 30 Pistols (15 Left, then 15 Right)
• 30 Double Unders
• 15 reps BB Thruster (135/ 95#)
• 30 Pullups
• 30 Burpees
• 300′ OH Walking lunge (45/25# plate)

I had to scale the squat cleans (115#), HSPU (pike), thrusters (95#), and pistols (used wall), which all felt very appropriate.  Total time was 44:09, def a doosey!

I HAD to take Tuesday off after that WOD.  So my next workout was Wednesday; strength day.  The WOD was Push Press 3-3-3-3-3-3-3 reps.  We did this exact same WOD on July 28, so not too long ago where I maxed at 120#.  I knew I had to beat it and my lbs looked like this:  95,105,110,115,115,120,125!  Overall, not too shabby, plus I was still VERY sore from Monday.

Thursday’s WOD I was really looking forward to after it was posted late Wednesday night.  It consisted of:

4 rounds for time:  400m Run 500m Row.

Diesel only has 2 Concept2 rowers currently, and with 6 people, there is a bit of a bottleneck.  So we did the first ever team WOD at Diesel!  What it entailed was two 3-person teams, everyone does the run, and as a team we row 1500m.  A couple rules first tho.  Everyone on the team starts the run together (but can finish on their own), you can’t begin rowing until each team member is finished with the run.  My team consisted of one guy and one girl along with me.  As the alphas, the 2 guys rowed closer to 550-650m per round.  However, because of the team row, it allowed for more rest time which certainly helped with each 400m run.  Total time for my team was 33:49.  My goal for the workout individually was sub 16 minutes.  I’ll leave that for another day tho.

Pat rowing

I was really hoping to take Friday off, but after checking workout I couldn’t pass it up.

• 50 Sit-ups
• 21 Pull-ups
• 40 Sit-ups
• 18 Pull-ups
• 30 Sit-ups
• 15 Pull-ups
• 20 Sit-ups
• 12 Pull-ups
• 10 Sit-ups
• 9 Pull-ups

Since pull-ups are my new favorite exercise, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to knock out 75 (with 150 situps)!  So I raced home from work, changed, and got to Diesel just in time.  I knocked this WOD out in 14:29 as Rx’d!  It’s a great feeling knowing that you didn’t have to scale a difficult WOD.  As I continue to crossfit, I’ll scale less and less WODs!

Alright, you’re all caught up now.  Until next time…

I know a lot of people are confused these days about what foods are good for you, bad for you, aren’t even food to begin with, etc. – it seems like it changes EVERY week, so when I came across this article in TIME Magazine that broke down the strongest arguments for sustainable agriculture and eating whole, local foods I knew I *had* to post it. The article is cogent, digestable….and it just makes sense. Would be very interested in any thoughts/comments!!! (I actually am pretty passionate about this subject and will be posting more helpful links, articles, book reviews, etc. – so def more to follow…)

Well, folks, I successfully completed my SECOND half-marathon this past Sunday in VA Beach and finished at 2 hrs and 22 minutes, which I know, is pretty mediocre. And to be honest, I am really proud of Brie and me (my BFF who I ran with) because we logged the training miles, proved that ‘non-runners’ could in fact complete a long-distance event, and were smiling and laughing the whole way–it was truly a fun, uplifting race.

But at the same time I remember realizing throughout the entire run that my lungs were never being pushed (there was a moment at like mile 9 when I realized I was having a full-on conversation with Brie w/o any shortness of breath…at all) and instead I started developing this nagging pain in my left hip at mile 6 or 7 that slowly got worse as the run progressed. I knew I would finish, but I was surprised at how sore I was getting only half-way in and I know if I want to train for a full marathon I’m going to need to go see a running professional and talk shoes, stretching, stride.

Speaking of which, I am officially committed to the Feb. 2010 Austin Marathon. Thought I was going to do the Tucson Dec. 2009 one, but decided I didn’t want to push anything too soon and Travis agreed to run it with me! Huzzah! I know there are a number of different ways to train for marathons, but I’m not down for the five-runs-a-week types and would rather def get one long run in a week and maybe two other days of hills & fartleks, but that’s it for running. I’ll spend the rest of my workout time on crosstraining (spinning, stairclimbing, hiking) and possibly/potentially CrossFit or another form of strength training.

But I really want to push myself hard on the strength training. Ever since I started working out regularly I’ve always skimped on strength training–if I didn’t have enough time, ST got dropped, if I’m a lil’ extra tired, I forgive myself for throwing in the towel and going home after one set of squats.  I’ve become entirely more committed when it comes to cardio, and I’ve got to balance those two out.

Sooo, I’m piecing together some fitness goals and I’m thinking they’re going to be centered around this upcoming marathon (not only finishing, but getting faster) and committing to ST, but don’t know how to quite quantify the second one yet.  Dinner with Pat & Jon tomorrow night to discuss over sushi and sake bombs (for Jon), red wine for me.  Paleo-style.