Mediocre Runners

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…

Here’s what I’m shooting for for Labor Day week.

M, Tu, Th, F – CrossFit

Tu, Th, Sat – CF Endurance supplemental

This schedule gives me 2 days of complete rest, 2 double-ups, 2 Dedicated CF workouts, and 1 day of dedicated CFE.  Brutal, but it’s go time!

I just finished a mediocre Jackie and realized I did 4 workouts of the day this week. I usually shoot for five workouts a week and tend to get three in, so this is sort of a big deal.  I just notice there were a lot of metabolic conditioning with thrusters and pullups this week, so maybe next week I will focus on some more strength and heavy weights.

Jackie was a tough one, especially since I smashed my nose with the knurled part of the bar during the thrusters.  At least I didn’t get a bloody nose.  I almost did this one as RX’d, but just couldn’t power through the pullups. I got about 15 done in the beginning, hit the pullup assist for about 8, did a couple more unassisted and then finished on the machine. So here’s the breakdown:

Jackie: 16:08
Row 1000 (4:04)
50 reps 45 lbs Thrusters
30 Pullups (half with 85lbs assist)

My other WODs this week:

20090901:

For time:
Row 1000 meters
45 pound barbell Thruster, 21 reps
4 dead hang Pull-ups
Row 750 meters
45 pound barbell Thruster, 15 reps
15 assisted Pull-ups
Row 500 meters
45 pound barbell Thruster, 9 reps
9 assisted Pull-ups
26:26

20090902:

21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 65 pounds
Assisted dips
12:00 minutes or so

20090905: Helen

I did a modified Helen workout yesterday and tweaked my back from a bad kettlebell swing.  But I still have a lot of love for the kettlebells.  By far, my favorite Crossfit exercise is the Kettlebell swing.  Even though I’m still working on my form, I can’t help but have a good time swinging the KBs.  The fun sometimes masks how f-ing hard doing 21 kettlebell swings can be after a 400m spring on the row, especially on the last round.  I hope my back gets better soon so I can swing away soon.

My stats for Helen were mediocre at best.  Keep in mind at the Globo gym, each station is on a different floor.  Also, we have escalators at my gym and people actually just stand there. Isn’t the whole point of the gym to exercise? They are probably on there way to the ellipticals.

• 400 meter row
• 35 Kettlebell swing x 21
• Pull-ups 12 reps (85 lbs assisted)
• 21:08

In an effort to get back on track, I’ll post this morning’s WOD and breakfast.  This morning’s WOD was Jackie which consists of

• 1000 meter row
• 45 pound Thruster, 50 reps
• 30 pull-ups

Since I used up my 3x/week CF classes at Crossfit Diesel, I too had to hit up the globo-gym.  This makes times interesting because I not only had to find where to find a barbell for thrusters, but had to wait while some donk finished up on the chest machine so I could do pull-ups.  The first time I did Jackie (on July 17), I finished in 11:28 but used the red assist (lowest assist) band for pull-ups.  Today I finished in 13:33, almost 2 minutes slower, BUUUUT I did it as Rx’d!!!  I love that I can do pull-ups now.  Just a few days ago, I did 15 in a row during the warm-up.  I feel I could have done a few more, but the warm-up only called for 15.

For breakfast, I stopped by our new favorite grocery store and bought some eggs, fresh salsa (only 5 calories!!), and a couple avocados.  I cooked up the eggs with some EVO, mashed up the avocado, and threw some salsa in the mix.  Top it off with a glass of chocolate milk.  Mmm…it was really good, filling, and only 470 calories for everything.  Remember, chocolate milk is the new sports drink!

I’ll top this off this evening with a CFE WOD.  Not sure what I’ll do, but I’m sure it’ll kick my butt!

I completed my first WOD at the local globo-gym.  I recently cancelled my membership at the local CF box and have begun my experiment in CFing on my own.  So today’s globo-gym WOD was:

Warm up: 10 minutes on the elliptical

10 sets each of bicep curls, lat pulldowns, and  tricep presses.

Just kidding! I did an honest to goodness CF WOD there and it was a breeze despite the personal trainers and towel service.  The WOD was as follows:

5 Rounds for time:
Row 250m :56. :56, :57, :56, :58. 1 min rest between rounds
Rest 5 minutes
“Tabata Mash-up”
4 Alternating rounds of each exercise:
Push-ups
Situps

I’m pretty sure I was supposed to do 8 alternating rounds rather than 8 rounds total. My high for the pushups was 19 and my low was 13.  For the situps I did a consistent and mediocre 10. Cool down is typing the post with a very warm cat on my lap nibbling my arms.

Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. Regularly learn and play new sports.

Pretty well said.  I think that’s about what we here at MR would like to do?  But how can we adapt this motto to fit MR even more?