Mediocre Runners

I’m a little tardy on my posts bc for the first time in over a couple of years I didn’t have access to the internet for a WHOLE weekend. Ran an amazing 9 miles in Sheboygan, WI–a small city on the lake about an hour north of Milkwaukee. The weather was *amazing*, 65 degrees, sunny, breezy…which made me wonder why I didn’t see any other runners out at 9 am on a Saturday morning?? I guess I am so used to the plethora of mediocre fitness-fans who frollick around DC every day. But wait, I did come across a sole running companion: a 65+ year old man who passed my ass, and smiled and waved while doing so. Good for him. Spinning tomorrow morning at 6:15 am, ouch!

I must be on a rib thing right. After last nights success with lamb ribs, I grilled up some boneless beef short ribs.  I made regular bone-in short ribs a couple of weeks ago that were paleo-licious, so tonight I aimed for some refinement by ditching the bones.  Before grilling the ribs, I made a spice rub of approximately 2 teaspoons ground coriander, 1 tsp ground pepper, salt and 1/2 tsp green chili powder. I also squeeze some lemon on the ribs towards the end of the cooking time.  I serve these with slices of lemon and a green salad with real vinaigrette  (1 part vinegar to 2 parts oil, chopped shallots, salt and pepper, 1 tsp of Dijon mustard).

I’m a big fan of the “lesser” cuts of meats. I’ll take a skirt steak over filet mignon, or my personal favorite, hanger steak over a New York Strip.  You can also find wonderful grass-fed beef at your local farmers market or even Whole Paycheck.  And grass-fed beef is high in Omega-3 fatty acids so it is even really good for you. Our cavemen ancestors would be pround

I made a seriously paleo dinner tonight : grilled lamb ribs seasoned with zatar, lemon and chili powder. I served it with a cucumber, mint, tomato and watermelon salad. You don’t get much more caveman than charred meat and bones.

Check it out:

I didn’t have a chance to go to my local box to do a WOD today, so I adapted a workout from Gym Jones and scaled it to account for my mediocrity. (By the way, don’t tell Mark Twight that I used one of my workouts. He may punch me in the face while doing a Turkish get up).  The GJ workout calls for 8 rounds of 400m run + 25 pushups + 25 squats.  After warming up with a mile run @ 8:05, I scaled this workout to 400m run + 10 pushups + 10 squats and through in some pullups here and there for some flavor.  Here were my times:

1:38, 1:39, 1:38, 1:42, 1:39, 1:43, 1:39, 1:40

I was totally spent after this workout and even almost puked on the last run.  But boy did those endorphins come rushing in on my walk home.  Another thought: one of the nice things about these kinds of workouts is that you don’t need a local box or gym to perform them.  I just ran down to the local trail which has some monkey bars, measured 400m with runningahead.com, and did my workout.  Now the only problem is that my ankles and calves are killing me. I think I’ll go out and buy a foam roll tomorrow.

Ok, despite my blogging record, I have been working out.  Although I have not adhered to my schedule completely.  I will break it down for you.

Monday:

Today was a good day for lifting.  It’s been awhile since I’ve done some strength training, so hanging power cleans 3-3-3-3-3 was just what Coach ordered!  I did get a PR for the power clean, so CF is def working.  I suppose the true test will come when I can actually run.  My leg was a little sore today from swimming yesterday, so the warmup 3×100m was tough.

My cleans came in at 95-105-115-120×1-120×1-95.  I could only do 120 once (instead of the 3) and so to end the WOD I did an extra set at 95 just to keep my attitude positive.  See, us here at MR need all the help we can get.  So I threw up a mediocre 95 for the last set.  I felt good afterwards!

Tuesday:

Today I had a date with another woman.  Her name was Cinday and she pwned me.  For thos who don’t know, Cindy is as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes:

5 Pull-Ups
10 Push-Ups
15 Squats

I did this WOD by myself at 6:15am and was able to knock at 15 rounds.  Now I’m still nubs at pull-ups so I use the red assist band (I will have you know that the red band provides the least assistance).

Now I took Tuesday PM off and scrapped the CFE workout.  It’s ok.  Remember, I’m mediocre.

Thursday:

This WOD was a treat today.  I haven’t done many squats with weight so this was some challenge.  The WOD called for:

Overhead squat 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Front squat 1-1-1-1-1 reps
Back squat 1-1-1-1-1 reps
(Try to increase load on each of the 15 sets.)

Here’s how I finished up:

OHS: 65-100 PR

BS: 85-165 PR

FS: 155-210 PR

You’ll notice that yeah, I PR’d in everything today!  When you’re mediocre, you tend to PR a lot because you have so much room to grow.  Stay frosty…

Ok listeners, we have our first question here at MR.  Let’s delve into the mailbag.

Dear MR,

I very much enjoy your blog.  I also enjoy a bit of cross training and regularly use the great outdoors as my gym…primarily b/c I’m too cheap to join a club and really enjoy the scenery and people watching of the DC metro area.

Anywho onto my question…I’ve often been running and riding in parks and along trails that have those “work out station thingies”.  You know where there are random bars and pieces of wood aligned in all sorts of slants and elevations that you have to balance, pull-up, push-up, jump over, and otherwise exert yourself on/over.  Problem is, I never know where to find them, unless I just happen to run across one. (pun intended)

I’ve recently moved to a new neighborhood and would like to find the closest “work out station thingy” to my house, however I’ve found that the rest of the world doesn’t call them “work out station thingies”.

What is the correct term for these cross training challenge circuit areas and is there a good website that tracks the location of such places so that I can plan my workout routes accordingly?

Thanks,

Hack

Hey Hack! Thanks for writing in!  Unfortunately here at MR, we’re no experts so we have no idea what those “workout station thingies” are.  For argument sake, let’s call them “workout station thingies.”  There just happens to be one of those work out station thingies on my normal run root on the Four Mile Run Trail. I will check it out and get back to you.  Also, Ryan says there is one on Rock Creek and he uses it daily. I’ve seen a set of pullup bars over near wear Rock Creek and Connecticut Ave meet.

Again, thanks for writing in!  Please feel free to email MR at help [at] mediocrerunners dot com.

Fun WOD today!

5-5-5 Front squat: 75#

3x 500m row: 1:46, 1:55, 1:55

I’m still working on my squatting form and my wrist flexibility. But I think I’m getting it. I also worked on getting my stroke count down on the row. For my 1:46 time I was at 40 strokes/minute.  I’m trying to do fewer but more powerful strokes to keep up the pace.

went to an awesome spinning class at RESULTS today–the AC was actually not working well, but it made for a better workout. almost like ‘hot’ yoga, but on a bike. my one spinning gripe of the day are those people who NEVER increase their resistance and think pumping their legs all over the place is going to improve cardio fitness or strength. faster speed does not necessarily equal a better workout!! that’s what she said.

My legs are still trashed from Friday’s WOD, so I reached into my mediocre WOD and did a “Lynne” today.  Lynne as RXed is:
Five rounds for max reps of:
Body weight bench press
Pull-ups

I did this WOD 0n 20090626 and was able to pull this off this scaled version using dumbells:

1 set  70# + 2 pullups

2 sets  90#  + 2 pullups

2 sets  100#  + 2 pullups

1 set 100# + 2 pullups

Today was an improvement:

1 set 90# + 3 pullups

2  sets 100# + 3 pullups

1 set 100# + 2 pullups

1 set 120# + 3 pullups

I warmed up with a short .5 mile run practicing some POSE running.  I ditched my normal Asics for my beat up pair of Montrail Streaks (great shoes), which are a little less structured than my normal shoes.  The running felt really good and I think I am getting some of the techniques down.  I’m going to keep practicing POSE once or twice a week and hope to eventually use it for my tempo and speed workouts.  I’m also looking at getting a pair of minimalist racing flats like Saucony Kilkinneys.

We here at MR like to consider us a mediorce jack-of-all-trades (and especially masters of none!), so i decided to hit the pool this morning.  The CFE WOD for today called for Swim:  2 x 500m/yd holding best possible pace, recover 2 min.  Time on the first 500/yd was  ~13 min and ~14 min on the second.  Normally you’re supposed to do a CFE workout 3+ hours after your CF WOD, but CF didn’t happen today because of the coming week’s schedule:

• Monday PM: CF
• Tuesday AM: CF PM: CFE
• Wednesday: off
• Thursday AM: CF PM: CFE
• Friday PM: CF
• Saturday AM: CF PM: CFE
• Sunday: off

I should get a swim, bike, and either a run or row in for the CFE WODs.  It’s all up to CF Diesel for the CF WODs.  It should be a tough week to say the least, but I’ll feel great once it’s over.  I’m looking forward to the week!