Weekenders

This weekend I decided to ride up to the PCF Trail Run. Knew it would be an uphill climb and a challenge before the race, but I was up for it.

Sat am ride:

1:18.23

avg HR 149, hi 177 lo 106 (data from new watch)

Parked on PCH just past Topanga Canyon. 

Thought I could cut through up Cross Creek to Palm Canyon to get to Malibu Canyon, but it dead-ended in a gated community and I had to turn back around. That added time and about 1 1/2 miles. Went back down to PCH and around to Malibu Canyon for the climbing. Lots of climbing.

18.79 total miles 

trail run: Malibu Trail Race of Death 2.0 (no one died)

about 4 miles, with some terrain and added challenges like burpee-broad jumps back-and-forth across a 20-foot bridge, climbing around boulders, jumping on one foot through an agility drill ladder and around cones, jumping squats (6 sets x 10 reps) and picnic table climb-overs. I received a 40 sit-up penalty for missing two of the six words on the mental challenge (I turned indomitable into abominable, like the snowman, and missed another. Actual words: Nemesis, x-Ambition, x-Indomitable, Bizarre, Thrice, Meh.)

Total time: 56:40

avg HR 167, hi 183 lo 116

Overall, not toooo hard, but challenging following the effort of the ride. Started with a quick pace and definitely slowed as the course and challenges went on. Worked through the jumping squats unbroken at each station, same with the tables. Last uphill was enough to get me walking for two short breaks (and at least two times before that as well).

ride back:

1:11:08

avg HR 141, hi 165 lo 92

This time it was mostly downhill with no detours, but I was tired. I think I waited too long before getting back on the bike. Sitting around I started to tighten up. Should have just fueled up and ridden back after a short break. Instead I was hanging out for about 2 hours with only minimal stretching. Great food though!

Distance on the way back was 17.47 mi.

Then I watched a bunch of Olympics. Saturday and Sunday. 

Monday was Track Night

(instead of this workout:

12 minute AMRAP of:
30 Double-Unders
20 Shoulder Touches
10 Strict Pullups or Ring Rows)

About 6-7 drills through the agility ladder followed by the workout:

6x rounds of 3x shuttle sprints @25 meters (150 meters each round) every 2:00 minutes

~my splits 

41.87 rest 1:18

39.33 rest 1:21

41.28 rest 1:18

41.68 rest 1:18

42.61 rest 1:17

41.29 and done.

Fairly consistent splits, with one 1.5 secs faster. 

More track nights in my future, especially if they're at the new location.

Recent Workouts

Thursday
Did I run last Thursday? Nope.

Friday

2 Deadlifts with bands (approx. 65% of your 1 RM on the bar) ~205#? Not sure of weight...
5 Strict DB press, as heavy as possible ~started w 35# 2 rds, 6x 45#
Rest 60 seconds

4 rounds for total working time of:
Run 400 meters
20 pull ups
Rest 1:1 between rounds

13:09 total working time if I remember correctly (19:++ total). First three rounds under 3mins (2:43, 2:47, 2:51, or so) with the last round over 3.  Doing the math on this was maybe the trickiest part, adding rest time to each round’s finish time was mental with the clock running. I like that it added a mental exercise to the taxing physical workout.

Reminder that sprints are not my strong suit – distance baby!!

Saturday 

swim @ Zuma
New goggles performed well. No leaks, no isues. I think that and my new watch 

were motivation enough to swim mostly straight through. It was a bright morning with clear skies, no marine layer to speak of. Lack of clouds and the goggles made the water very clear and see-through. (It's strange describing the clarity of water, but I'll get over that...) I could see the bottom occasionally, which was a new experience for me in the ocean. Swim took just over 20 mins, so now I have a base line to improve upon. Calm waters and a few breaks for sighting, but no real stops to fidget with gear or because I was too winded. 
After that I changed and went for a run. Did the 10k route (down along the beach path all the way to the cliffs) and ran two flights of stairs on my way back. Finished that in 51 minutes and headed home. (Thinking ahead to PCF's Malibu Trail Run this Sat.)


Thought about riding w Roy Sunday, but instead walked on the beach with Katrina. (Also, I was kinda sore.)

Monday

for strength: 4 sets of 3 Heaving Snatch Balances

Did these the previous week as well, which I was already adding the heaving part. It was difficult not to jump, and my ‘shrug’ is still a weakness.

“Power” Elizabeth

21-15-9 reps for time of
Power Cleans (135/95) ~115#
Dips 

 -8 minute time cap-

Didn’t make the time cap @ 8mins, but finished my last three ring dips to get through it.

Wednesday

Back Squat 3-1-1-1-1 reps ~finished @ 275#

(Notes:  Rest no more than 2 minutes between sets.  Use 90-100-105-110-105 percents of your 3 rep max or heavier than last week.)

Workout:

3 Rounds for time and reps
5 Squat Clean into Thrusters (135/95) ~105#
50 Double unders ~scaled to 25 makes
5 Squat Clean into Thrusters
1 min rest
1 min Max Effort Burpees ~15, 14, 16
1 min rest

This was a terrible workout for me. Doing the ‘Clusters’ after the d/u s was tough, and got worse each round. I was outside, and could see my reflection in the windows. I was pulling with arms bent before completing the deadlift. Once into the clean position the squats went well, just slower as I went on and repped out mostly one at a time.  

Did some handstand work afterward while stretching for something fun/productive after a frustrating wod. 

Thursday
swam this morning @ Culver pool. a little warm-up and KB before
4x 200m (CF Endurance was 6x @ TT pace, but I didn't have that much time) with equal rest as the swim interval
First round was 4 mins and a little slower after that. last round was clocked at 3 and change, but that can't be right. Need to do this (full) regimen again and pay attention to timing. And figure out my watch better!!

And I'm headed to PCF for this later today: 

For time:

40 – 30 – 20 REPS OF
CLAPPING PUSH UPS
JUMPING LUNGES

Should be a good one...

I'm skipping Friday and doing this on Saturday morning.

Malibu Trail Race of Death Part 2

Wednesday

Swam in the am:

10x100, rest 30 sec between 100s,  

4x50 kickboard

broke this into two chunks 5 x 100 + 2 x 50 kick, last 5 100s took 20 secs rest

felt like I was passing a slower guy every time on the first five, so I adjusted the rest to stay in front or far enough behind.

good swim, but still not efficient as I want/need to be.

new goggles are great! testing them again Saturday, this time in the ocean...

CF in the evening:
Barbell warm-up:Spend 15 minutes to find 2 RM Snatch balance~started at 55# and worked up to 95#, failed @ 100#
50 Double unders ~scaled to 40 total makes & attempts (still single-double, single-double)
7 Snatch balance (95/65)  ~75#
30 Pushups ~2x15
30 Good Mornings with a barbell
3 Position Wall Extensions, 30 seconds each
Quad on Wall Stretch, 60 seconds each
Oh, and I rode Tuesday after work:
Oh, and I rode Tuesday after work:

Workout:

AMRAP 12 minutes:

7 Hang power snatch (95/65) ~75#

~2 completed rounds + 40 d/u + 4 hp snatch

Cool Down:

~also tried a few pull-ups with the new fat-bar grips. Will certainly do more of these, as Diso said, "to recruit more muscle". Sounds good to me. Hear that muscle fibers? You're being recruited.

(I'm ready for the bike trail construction to be completed. Don't like the detours...)

not sure if this will link properly or not:

micoach data

so I'm typing out the stats:

time: 53:35, 508 cal, 12.28 mi, 13.74 avg mph (4:22 min/mi), 1198 ft of elevation 

3x hill climbs and a short sprint.

On the Rings

Monday 7.16.12

from Paradiso CrossFit
Barbell warm-up:
2 Power Clean and Push Jerks EMOTM for 10 minutes
~did this 2x at 125#, 2x at 135#, and 6x at 145#
Workout:
4 rounds for total working time of:
5 muscle ups ~with red band
20 burpees

7 deadlifts (315/225) ~did these at 205#
Rest  ½ : 1

-20 minute time cap-

I timed out at 20 minutes, but got through the 4th round of muscle-ups and completed 10 burpees.

Rest time was a little tricky to calculate on the fly and I lost a few seconds (10-15) each round prepping the band when starting the muscle-ups.

But after doing MU's for the first time on the high rings last Thursday (and 28 of them) I was determined to do them on the rings again this time. Felt like I had graduated to them finally and earned my spot there. 

I was totally stoked to be back in the gym following the CrossFit Games final events I watched on Sunday (another reason I wanted to tackle the rings again). And I'm feeling enough better after fighting this nastiness of a lingering sinus infection to get back in there. It was a sweaty mess afterward, but felt good to be back at it and working hard.

A Few Things ... and Nothing

So I figured I can just write whatever I want here....not the most profound thought for a blogger, (which I would not consider myself anyhow) but I can post more in relation to my training. 

Case in point, this picture:

What does a staged photo of me holding a giant rock have to do with my training? A few things, really. And also nothing, really. 

I am in a deep 'squat' stance, knees out over the toes, hips below the crease of my knee, and arms overhead. Good stance, but bad arm position - not locked out - rather, necessarily adjusted for humorous photographic effect. Like I'm holding a giant rock. More specifically a 340-ton boulder on the grounds of LACMA. Even more specifically the granite behemoth known as "Levitated Mass". I know and have better technique for an empty-handed overhead squat, but it's modified here for sake of the visual gag. 

These things I know from my practice of CrossFit. 

But if you didn't know, and why would you?, would the joke make sense? Possibly. Maybe it's just enough to create a smirk or snicker. 

Back to blogging my training. Since I do it some already on the twitter, I can certainly keep track using my other tools as well. As I've read numerous times, the more you track your training the better you can compare and see measured improvements over time. Since this is really why we do these things, for gains over time, right?... Right.

Paradiso CrossFit maintains a daily blog with workouts (WODs), so I can literally cut-and-paste the regimen and upload my own data: weight, time, scaling. 

Maybe I import photos I drag into the pinterest world. 

I might share a twitter link. 

I have no facebook, therefore no content/context from there.

flickr? Yes. Some.

I'm sure there will be plentiful additional resources as well, so expect to see some more, random as they may be.

That is all.