Missed a couple of workouts w/addendum

Old me - would be really pissed.

New me - knows that the reasons I missed for were much more important than the workouts.

Sundays workouts were missed due to spending as much time with family as possible - daughter going away to camp for whole week (school related). It is not easy to send your 9 year old away for a week - the longest we have spent away from our daughter since she was born was maybe two days (one night). Carol and I have both traveled for business, but the other was always home with Alicia. Also, we are not allowed to talk to her all week. We can call the camp and they will be more than happy to tell us how she is doing, but they will not put her on the phone.

Monday - have missed the last few swims so I moved Sunday's swim to Monday and planned to do the crossfit workout as well. The swim went o.k. - definately felt tight in the shoulders and back due to not being in the water in a while. Workout was 10 x 50 all out with 1:00 rest. Went to do the Xfit workout right after the swim which was row 500m, 21 25# (each) dumbell thrusters times 3. I did the first row (no problem) and then started the thrusters and OH MY GOD! My shoulders were just too stiff from swimming. ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!

Tuesday - the only thing planned is 5k run for time. Will do that early evening - in the meantime I did the aborted workout from yesterday at lunchtime. Went much better - 13:36 total time. 15:05 last time I did this (back in February).

Addendum:

5k For time. Did the EW Veteran's 5k route. Finished in 24:21 which equates to 7:51 pace. It is not my best 5k time, but it equals my best time (last year's race). Considering that I am not rested and there is always a little adrenaline boost at a race I am quite happy with this result. I have been chasing this result all year! Now to beat it!

I finished the first mile in about 7:48. I don't think my watch keeps splits (either that or I am too moronic to figure it out) so I don't have any splits for the rest of the run. I ran this pretty even which pleases me. I used to run the first mile too fast and lose time later in the run. It seems I am finally figuring this pace thing out.

I'm on fire!

O.k., so many of you probably would not be very impressed with a 50:27 10k. For me, this was an unbelievably good time.

I ran the Suffield 10k this morning. It's a pretty low key race, but it's close to home and the course is challenging.

Before I get into my own race, let me tell you - there were a lot of kids who did the 5k that preceded my race. These kids were fast - I was very impressed. There were a fair number of kids (low to mid teens) running under 7 minute pace. There was also a 57 year old running under 7 minute pace.

I actually was not feeling that well when I woke up this morning, but had been looking forward to this race so I did not want to blow it off. Something I ate yesterday was not sitting well in my stomache, but after three trips to the bathroom I was feeling much better.

Drank lots of water to make sure I was hydrated. Drank some coffee too. Ate a light breakfast and then off to the races.

I was pretty relaxed at the start of the race - did a good warm-up and stretching session and then waited for the gun. When the gun went off I just followed the group out onto the roads. I had my pace set to show on my watch and every time I looked down at it I was running under 7 minute pace. This did not make sense as I felt comfortable and my HR was not outrageous. I finally turned it to miles instead of pace as I felt keeping an eye on this would distract me. Sure enough I ran by the first mile marker at exactly eight minutes - this is more like it. I felt very comfortable at mile one, but decided that it was much to early to think about kicking it up a notch so I kept to my comfortable pace. Not to mention I knew what happened in between mile 3 and 4 - big, steep hill. I conserved some energy for the hill - strategy was to run the hill hard and then try to hold on till the end. This is exactly what I did. I passed a few people on the hill and a few right after the hill - not a single one passed me back. I basically switched to another gear after the hill and just endured the pain for a little over two miles. I think I ran the race pretty even, but the second half was a whole lot more painful than the first half.

My total time as stated above was 50:27 (8:08 pace). Two years ago I finished this race in 56:23 and felt a whole lot worse upon completion than I felt today. Not only did I beat my prior time, I have not even come close to this in a training run. Add to all this - this was a difficult course. I'm ecstatic to say the least. This is the single biggest gain I've seen in my running in a long time.

Here's another tidbit on the race results. The guy who won was 32, the second place finisher was one second behind and he was 52. I'm guessing out kicked in the end. Third place finisher was 48 - appearently all the young folks do the 5k.

Back to back pain sessions

I worked late last night which is turning into a recurring theme. We are fortunate to have the work after a slow summer so I am not complaining, but it does screw up the workout calendar. I seriously considered skipping the workouts, but thought about how that would make me feel - did the workouts.

First one: Row 500m, 50 20# kb swings, Row 500m, 40 20# kb swings, Row 500m, 30 20# kb swings, row 5oom. I was pretty sore from Cindy the day before so getting going was a little painful, but I managed to beat my prior time by 30 seconds. Finished in 13:57.

Second one: Like I said it was late - had to do my running speed workout on the treadmill. I much prefer the track. Times are hard to keep track of on the treadmill so I keep track of the speed. Workout was run 200m, 400m, 800m, 400m, 200m 100% effort. Rest equals prior work period. Speed was 10, 9, 8 (bumped up to 8.2 in last 200m), 9.1, 10.1.

First workout today - five sets of 3 rep deadlifts. 200, 220, 230, 230, 240



I need a new training watch/hr monitor. I'm thinking about getting a Garmin. There are so many choices. Any suggestions?

back on track

Today called for a 10K run for time and Cindy. Did both. I'm racing a 10k on Saturday so I ran the 10k at tempo instead of race pace. Still managed a decent time for me - 55:53. The last time I did Cindy I finished 17 full and almost all of 18. This time I only managed 16 full and the pullups on 17. I finished number 17 for a total time of 20:40.

I'm rearranging my week due to the race on Saturday. I'm supposed to swim tomorrow, bike on Thursday, run intervals on Friday. I don't want to do the run intervals the day before I race so I'm going to do the run intervals tomorrow, still bike on Thur and swim on Friday. I need to figure out where to drop in the xfit workouts. Thinking about just leaving them where they are.

I have 28 running miles in this week - very unlike crossfit. I will have over 35 by the end of the week. This is the most I have run in a week in over a year. Sometimes you just gotta run!

Way off the reservation

Saturday was supposed to a be 60k time trial and a crossfit workout. A good friend of mine who I have not seen a long time wanted to ride with me - I was not going to say no. We rode about 33 hilly miles - I pushed the hills, but other than that did not go hard due to wanting to ride with my friend. Did not do the 30, 20, 10 reps of wall balls, squats and pushups.

Sunday was supposed to be 300 squats for time and a swim interval session. I went for a long run with another friend who I don't see very often - they were going 20 so I decided I would go 18 to try to finish around the same time as them. Actual distance was 18.17 in 2:53 for an average pace of 9:31. They finished a little before me.

Going to run easy tomorrow to relieve myself of some lactic acid and should be back on the schedule on Tuesday.

Temporarily off the reservation

Wed - no swim due to life's complications. Planned to squeeze it in Thursday - Life's complications continued to get in the way.

Thursday bike - was supposed to do 5 miles hard, five minutes rest times 5. Did not have time for this workout, plus had a bike buddy for the day so did his workout - moderate (tempo) pace for 21 miles (was supposed to be 30). Got two flats - went to get my tube and it was gone - fell out of my bag. Good thing I had my bike buddy (yes, I know that sounds gay). Got it fixed, rode five minutes and got another flat. Good thing he brings two tubes. At this point I was mad so we time trialed the way in which was five or six miles.

Friday morning - knew today would be another of life's complicated days so got up early to get it done. I learned the hard way that I can't do speed workouts in the morning so I ambled off for a five mile run. Total time 47:07. Felt sluggish - could be the humidity.

the short one's are the hardest

I have come to the conclusion that the easier the workout looks on paper the harder it is going to be. I went to LAF at lunch today to swim and do WOD. I usually swim first to try to avoid cramping from cooling down hot muscles. The pool was packed so I did Xfit WOD first. 5 deadlifts, 10 box jumps, 500m row for time. It was short, but it was not easy. First round always goes well, but by the time I finished the first row I was totally winded - I was a little dizzy going from the rows to the deadlifts but byt the time I got back to the bar I was fine. Someone stole my bar while I was rowing, but they had the proper amount of weight on it and I jumped in. Second row - figured there was only one more after this so I went hard again - again I was dizzy going to the deadlifts, but o.k. to deadlift when I got there - jumped into some else's workout (people are so nice), did the box jumps and then just really let it rip on the last row. The last 150 was done all out - every ounce of energy I had. Talk about dizzy!

Total time 11:39 - jumping into other people's sets did not take too much of my time - maybe 10 to 15 seconds.

I postponed the swim until later today - this wiped me. I did feel better after warming down, stretching and taking a cool shower though.