11.16.2010 Crossfit!

I took an hour's PTO time to head to CFOTR for my 5PM ON Ramp session with Justin today.

I got there a little early and was hanging out talking and stretching while we talked about the wod the big kids threw down yesterday. FRAN "kenstein" HOLY HELL! It's FRAN + a 1.25 mile run! I'm glad I'm in On Ramp! (Not really, I'd have loved it!)

So, today's lesson was on Dead Lifting. This is after 30 minutes or more of stretching, Hollowbox, and this fun squatting thing that we had to hold for 3 minutes (KILLED the shins).

We get the DL lesson with PVC pipe and we did about 20 to 30 DL with the pipe and then used the 35 Lb Bar with the wooden disks for our WOD. But before we begin the WOD we need to learn the other skill involved today. The Rope Lower. My upper body is extremely weak so this was quite the challenge for me.

Todays's WOD

10 DL

2 RP

8 DL

2 RP

6 DL

2RP

4 DL

2RP

2 DL

2 RP

3:34 was my time. I'm somewhat disappointed in that, but really not sure how I could have done better. The fitness will come. I pushed myself so that I almost puked on the rope towards the end and was totally soaked. Yes, soaked from a 3 minute workout.

I have really loved every single CF so far and can't wait for tomorrow!

Yay Crossfit!

11.16.10 Running

Today was pretty much awesome, fitness-wise.

I woke up at 4:20 this morning and forced myself to lay in bed till 5AM, when I sprang out of bed. Did two loads of laundry, cooked breakfast for the Trophies, showered, packed, etc, etc, etc and headed off to work.

So I know I need to start upping the mileage, but decided to do 2.5 each day for the rest of the week and try to up it a mile or so next week. I run anytime between 11am and 1PM, and decided to go out today at 12:30 ish. The sky never did lighten up today and I knew we had more than just a chance of rain, and the old me would totally have made that a legitimate excuse to not run, but I just added a layer, left my sunglasses in the office and headed out.

It was just a really light rain when I left the office and headed down toward the bike path that runs along the Great Miami River, but by the time I actually hit the bike path, my long sleeved shirt was about halfway soaked. And that's when it started to rain. My legs felt stiff and sluggish, but I kept it going all the way down to the turn around, where I stretched for 1 minute before heading back.

At the turnaround, I noticed I was soaked to the skin. My hair was 100% wet, 2 layers of shirts, running capris, everything. Oh well, this should make me run faster on the way back right? sure.

Venturing up the hill, I was looking down at the road passing under my shoes when I noticed water shooting out of the toe box with each step. AWESOME! My shoes were also waterlogged. And I got to jump through and over puddles from then on back.

The rain was coming down sideways at this point and I was wondering if the thermometer at work that read 41* was wrong, because it felt like sleet.

All in all it was a good run. Not my best, but I'm so glad I did it. I'm starting to feel like my old self of ten years ago that would NEVER skip a run. YAY for me!

11.15.2010

So, this past weekend was quite the busy one. Dr. appointment Saturday morning, followed by Crossfit at noon (still in On Ramp) and then football in Hamilton at 3PM.

So CF this weekend was fun. I trained with the other girl in the On Ramp Class. So we went for a mailbox run first of all and did our stretching out. Funny thing is that stretching somehow includes 20 squats! Then on to stretching out our arms. Funny thing about that is that Saturday was the first day I could fully extend my right arm since Wed's workout just about killed me (pushups).

So we learned the Shoulder Press. I got the hang of this one really fast. The hed movements kind of were instinctive and I just knew I was going to KILL this one.

Knees to elbows. Hang from the pullup bar and lift your knees to your elbows. Sounds easy enough. I can tell you that after our practice 2 or 3 my hands were bright red. They aren't used to that kind of thing so I figured this was going to be the death of me. Also, my knees only got to my waist or so... never to my elbows.

BURPEES! I LOVE BURPEES! Like Up Downs in football, but badass... with a pushup in there. I love em!

We learned the different exercises, their names, proper positioning, etc. and then Justin gave us the WOD.

AMRAP in 7 minutes
6 Shoulder Press (I have no clue how much weight he put on there, but I'm sure it wasn't a lot.. maybe 65 pounds including the bar?)

4 Knees to Elbows

2 burpees


3, 2, 1.... Go

So I started on the shoulder press and immediately bust out 6 of them before the other girl was on 4 and was off to the pullup bar.... I was scared of this part, but my adrenaline got me going and got the 4 done pretty fast. I do need to work on getting my knees higher, but they didn't kill me. Then to the burpees... Check.

In the second round, I was a bit slower on the shoulder press... maybe 3 times as slow. Man, my body just doesn't have the stamina it used to. Ok, so I'm fixing that but it's going to take more than a day.

In the third round, I had to stop after 3 reps of shoulder press and then do 3 more.... but this is when the other chick passed me. DAMMIT.

Justin stood by me with round 4, 5, and 6 of my shoulder press, since every single one of them was a bitch. They took forever, and my entire body was shaking trying to get that damned thing lifted. My upper body strength is for shit, but I've always known that.

I finished 6+ 1 in 7:00 and it's odd. I didn't feel like I was going to die because my legs weren't screaming at me and my abs were ok. But my arms felt like 20 pounds of warmed crap.

I really liked it, but I sure do have a lot of work to do to get better.


Today, ran a 2.5 miler at lunch. I'm trying to do this everyday, eventually building the base for Marathon training in the dead of winter. This way my body is recovered in time for CF inthe evenings.

Have I mentioned I LOVE Crossfit today? Because I do. <3

Fun weekend

I have to say that this was a really fun weekend! Thanks Mike for taking me to my very first Crossfit workout. I've got to say that this was the most fun I've ever had working out, and for sure the most rewarding. I'm pretty out of shape, but the folks at CF Mad City took good care of me, teaching me the proper form for the squats and the sumo dead lift high pull.

The workout consisted of a warmup of a 400 meter row, squats, and back extensions. So, I get on the rower and it was pretty easy, and in no time I was at 400 meters, so I was thinking, "man, I'm going to rock this workout." Um... yeah, someone got rocked, but it wasn't the workout... let's just say that every muscle in my body was sore the next morning.

After the warmup we got the WOD. 5 rounds of step ups, sit ups and SDLHP, So, I was ok during the first round, and was really trying ot keep up with the girl beside me, who as it turns out is the wife of the owner. So, by the second round, I was in some serious pain, winded, and not sure I would make it through all 5 rounds.

In round 3 I started internally cussing out Mike, who was already finished with all 5 of his rounds! HOLY CRAP!

So I was really, really thinking how humiliating it would be ton not finish, and my body was shaking with every single sit up and my legs were screaming during every single squat. Then everyone cam over and was so encouraging to me... Mike was determined I wasn't taking any more little rests... so I finished :-) 21:49. SLOW, but I was so happy! And soaked!

Now, I used to run a lot. I've run 2 full Marathons, 5 to 10 half Marathons, and over 100 5 and 10K and NEVER have I been this sore after a race or a training run.

OMG that was tough and I can feel where it really worked me out. So awesome.

So, on the way home, Mike showed me the closest CF to my house, for which I'm glad. I sent them an e-mail to discuss setting up something for me, since scheduling will be somewhat difficult, but this is FOR sure something I want to stick with.

Thanks to both Mike and Jaimie for telling me all about CF! I'm so lucky for you both and am excited to get going with this!

Dear Person That I Work With,

You are a complete tool.

No, I won't do that thing you asked me to do, that is exactly the opposite of what my boss told me to do. Just because my boss is out of the office for 3 days on bereavement does not mean that I'm going to blindly throw policy aside and follow in your shallow footsteps, turdburgler.

And as an aside, emailing me 4 times a day and copying everyone in the bank on the email is not going to make me move any faster. Get me what I fucking asked for and I'll get the work done, in the meantime, leave me the fuck alone.

Fuck Off,

Me

P.S. I won't make shit up to cover for your lazy piece of shit ass, so don't even go there you lousy waste of air, pissant.

Finally Friday

So, it's been quite the week in Jenna-Land. Work has been out of this world busy and then I've been running all week, with the exception of last night. I did take a bath and get to bed early, so I feel pretty good today and am ready to increase my mileage again. Thank FSM!

Does anyone have any tips on teaching a dog to go running? I mean, teaching her not to try and kill me when I take her running? Irma seems to think I like her to keep it interesting. She will go along straight for a little while, then she weaves back and forth in front or me; then weaves back and forth behind me. Tries to hide UNDER me when she sees kids out playing in their yard, and of course there is the ever-present sudden stop so she can drop a deuce in someone's yard. :-) I lover her so much, but the reason I got a big dog instead of a little one was to have a running partner, so the bitch needs to start earning her keep!

So, tonight is a run and I may or may not take her with me. Then it's time to hang out with the Captain. :-) Ah, sweet Captain, how I've missed you.

So anyway, this week blew. I hate bing so busy I don't know what to start on first, and that's how it's been all week, with no sign of letting up soon.

More later.... time to go read some tax returns....

Seriously?

What the heck was that? I'm going to call it a run, but that's a loose interpretation of the word. The plan was to run the same route as two days ago, thinking I would do a lot better since I took last night off. So, I ran it a little better, but it sure felt harder tonight. I still concentrated on my stride and breathing, but I have to admit that when I was going up the two longer, steeper hills, my concentration of even breathing turned into concentration on not puking. And my Achilles was tight tonight, which was not making momma happy.

And what the heck with the weather. At football I was wearing a sweater, a blanket, earwarmers and gloves and I was cold, so I decided on a long sleeved T shirt, gloves and headband to run in and the gloves were off before I was off my street. Holy FSM that was HOT!

I sure am in a bitchy mood today. It must be a whole moon, because everyone else (of course not me) is totally batshit crazy this week! People can't drive, people at work are more stewpid than normal, my dog shit in the house and my kids are all wonky too.

Oh well, I'm not full of enlightening and funny stuff tonight. I'm just in a mood, so Imma take my toys and go home!

Thoughts on the run

So, the goal last night was to get in a 3 mile run, well, I ended up around 2.2. Not because I couldn't finish 3 because I think I could, but I also need to focus on speed and form. I used to run 7:30 to 8:00 pace pretty consistently. Lately, that's dropped to like a 11:00 or so pace, which is the big old suckola. It happened over time. Weight gain, stress, the divorce making me stop running for a long, long time (laziness is the word I'm looking for here). Well, I just had to start all over again a couple years ago. I was able to get the miles in, but the form that brought my speed went to hell. So, last night I really concentrated on finding a breathing rhythm and striding out. I mean, I have long assed legs, why have I been running with these tiny little strides? So I really put some thought into my run last night and my pace was a TON faster. Of course I had to stop a few times to stretch, breathe etc, but I still managed to lengthen the run by .2 miles. I'll do the same tonight and maybe a little farther tomorrow. I want to run a 5K but if I can't break 30 minutes I'm too embarassed to even sign up. So, I'll be training my butt off all winter and my goal is to get 55:00 0r so at Bolder Boulder. I know I can do it, I just need to put some thought into it and not go through the motions.

So, as I was thining about my stride length and trying to keep my breathing slow, my normal thoughts of winning a karayoke contest turned more towards mountain climbing. I love hiking and don't get to do nearly enough of it. And I am going to Colorado this year... so do you think I can con anyone into taking me hiking or trail running while I'm out there? I started having visions and fantasies of climbing various mountains, like the ones I climbed at Tahoe, Yosemite. Pikes Peak... Everest. yes, I was visualizing climbing Everest.... I wonder what I'd have to do to climb Ranier? How fun of a hash weekend could we make that?

Ok, I need to stop. But, my thought while running certainly entertain me. Although I normally sing in my head with my ipod and think about karayoke and how everyone will tell me how awesome I am (I suck in a big way). Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

State

So, yesterday morning I got up at 5am, showered and hopped in the car to cruise over to my parents' house and pick up my son for the drive up to Columbus and the State Cross Country Meet.

JR is perhaps the most unorganized child in the world. I had asked him the night before (when he was preparing to go over to my parents house) if he had all of his running stuff together and was ready for the meet. Of course he said yes. So, I made him pull out his uniform once in the car Sunday morning. Yeah, he was missing his black shorts, so we headed back home to hunt down a clean pair for the day. Do you know how pissed I would have been had we gotten all the way to Columbus if he couldn't run because he was missing half of his uniform?

We got up there at 9:30ish and he was going to jog the course at 10:30 and had the meet at 1PM, so I just had to hang out all day.

JR came over to visit me at about 10:15 and had already torn his t shirt. gah! Because I am an awesome Mom, I told him to shut his pie hole when he tried to give me an explanation for how that happened. So now I'm pissed and sitting in the sun with jeans on... it was supposed to be cool and posibly rainy, so I dressed for the weather, instead Indian Summer decides to descent upon Columbus Ohio. Thanks for that one, God. You're awesome :-/

1Pm and the kids line up.... always on the end of the line... always. Except this time it bit them in the ass. They had 100 yards to the sharp right hand turn, so it bottle necked and our kids got stuck. JR lost at least 10 seconds there. All of our kids did.

He looked strong during the race and finished with a nice kick. 12:48. His PR was 12:35 on a much flatter course. He was disappointed. Mom was proud. I'm giving him a couple days off and he starts training for Track season on Wed. :-)

10.25.2010 weekend shenanigans

So this weekend was a lot of fun, I've already told you all about the redneck haunted barn.... or did I? So after football on Friday we went over to my friend's house for some sloppy Joe's and Captain and Coke and then piled the sweaty kids into the car and headed over to the French District aka Cheviot. We had heard that there was a mini festival and a free haunted house for the kids. Well, when we pulled up there were about 20 people there and a total of maybe 16 or 17 teeth amongst them all. They did in fact have a haunted barn, which cost $2 to go through, a haunted hayride, which we never were able to find, and a haunted train, which was a lawn tractor pulling a train of cars made of carved out beer kegs mounted on skateboards. awesome!

We were barely even out of the car when we were approached by a lady and her 3 kids panhandling... for money to use for the hayride.... or so she said, but we think differently, as she kept walking over to this man wearing worn out sweats and a red sweatshirt that was at least 4 sizes too small for him. AND he was staggering so badly we aren't sure how he managed to stay upright. He was bumping into all kinds of stuff and just a total hot mess. We started to wager on whether it was alcohol or meth... we decided on meth and moved on to the ticket counter where they were selling the tickets to the "rides" for $1 each and beer for $2 each, only it mysteriously looked like pee. Now, I'm no beer snob, but I'm not drinking Burger Light, FLAT, with all the toothless wonders in Cheviot.

So we meandered back over to the barn, and of course I had to go through first. It was mildly retarted. The funny part was a mummy jumped out at Kari and she almost pissed herself. But I'd give it a C-.

Then the fun part.... back to Kari's for more Captain and Coke. mmmmmm I think I found a new love!

Time to work.... boo!