Friday March 27th

It's been a few days since my last update...

Wed.

On Wednesday I was reminded of what it means to be a bit "overdone." I woke up tired and very sore and it went downhill from there. I jumped into Alison Starnes' (cycling badass!) eCycling class and was greeted with some zone 5 (meaning VERY hard intervals) and I just didn't have the legs. Had to cut everything back, tone down the intensity, and struggle to hold on for an hour rather than the full 90 minutes. 

Thursday

For as bad as I felt Wednesday, I felt fantastic on Thursday.

12pm- 1:00 run at lunch. I was working in Mill Valley and it was 75 degrees and sunny, perfect day for a trail run. I started with the dipsea trail steps (goes up for a mile) and then headed to Muir Woods. Gorgeous.

6pm-

strength workout with Adrienne Bozman

5 sets of 10 reps Back squats with 95#

5 sets of 10 reps shoulder presses with 25# each arm

I definitely had some fatigue left in my legs. Back squat sets were 10,7,7,55 reps.

Finished it off with 5x5 pull-ups (working on these this month)

Friday March 27th

skin the cat warm-up

21-15-9

burpee-medball clean-wall ball combo then pull-ups

7:37 (jumping pull-ups)

March 24th

Very tired tonight....

12pm- 1 hour run at lunch (including Coit Tower and the Lombard street stairs)

6pm- 20 minute run to workout, 25 minute warm-up, 10 minute "main set", 10 minute run home

Main Set:

- 1000 meter row

- 50 thrusters with the 35# bar

- 30 pull-ups

This workout was supposed to be "for time" but my pull-ups REALLY slow me down. Rather than do assisted or jumping I banged them out 1-3 at a time. Thanks to Kelly S for the encouragement!

Monday March 23

I finally got back on the bike today. Good thing since my ride is fast approaching. Thanks again to everyone that has donated so far. Remember, no donation is too small! Every little bit helps.

12pm

1:05 minute eCycling class. Solid workout with zone 4 intervals (www.enduranceptc.com)

6pm

Workout with Angel

7/7 split leg dumbell snatch

7 pull-ups

7 push-ups

Repeat 3 times in 7 minutes. 3 rounds for a total of 21 minutes and 63 / 63 DB snatch, 63 pull-ups and 63 push-ups. 

I had to do some of the pull-ups as jumping pull-ups by I am working hard on these in April. I want to get 21 in a row by the end of the month! Also had to drop my weight for the DB snatch. Started with 35# but my left arm hit failure fast- dropped down to 25#.

Ready for tomorrow....

Two Great workouts

After a week of low intensity efforts, it felt great to really push it the past two days. 

Friday:

short WU run

dead lift warm-up

5 rounds for time:

-10 deadlifts 115#

-20 push-ups

- 30 double unders

Total time was a bit over 11 minutes. For me, the hardest part was completing 100 push-ups quickly. I was sore yesterday!

Saturday:

Tempo run- 45 minutes (short on time)

Sunday

5 mile WU run with some interval work

5 rounds for time:

-4oo meter run

-30 wall ball shots (14#)

-30 box jumps (18 inches)

Total time was 26 minutes. Sam and I did this together and we were both kicked! The whole session was less than an hour but we got a lot of work done. 

Finally back to some weights this morning

I am happy to report that I was finally able to do a strength session this morning. Not so happy to report that I am feeling crappy again this afternoon so perhaps it was too soon! Live and learn...

Alarm went off at 5:30 am, great way to start the day:

15 minute warm-up run

great workout with Adrianne

-dynamic WU

-clean and jerk movement review

-10 clean and jerks (65#) run <.2 miles

-8 clean and jerks run <.2 (longer than the first run)

-6 clean and jerks run .2 miles

-4 clean and jerks run .25 miles

- 2 clean and jerks DONE 

The main set was just over 11 minutes all in.

It felt great to be moving some weight again but I made a few observations:

1. Should have gone a bit heavier (moved through the reps pretty quickly) but it was certainly a challenging load. I had to break up the sets of 10 and 8.

2. Felt VERY flat on the run...still not totally recovered and probably feeling some of the effects of adjusting to a strict Zone plan. 

Finished with a 15 minute run back home for a smoothie. Hoping to be back at it this weekend but I will prioritize getting 100% healthy.

feeling better and the sun is shining

Things are looking up. I am finally feeling better and it is a gorgeous sunny day in Mill Valley. I checked the box with a 5 mile easy run at lunch (in the trails) and plan to get a strength session in this evening. 

Strength-

OHS drills (work on erector strength) with med ball and KB

Work up to heavy front squats

Hoping to start re-introducing some intensity this weekend. 

Hard-core zone experiment day #3!

Zone experiment

I am still sick! This is getting very old. In hindsight, I may have been better served to rest last week rather than "checking the box" by doing short run workouts. I am ready to get back at my strength training (with a focus on intensity for the next month) but I must be patient and prioritize getting healthy first.

In the meantime, I am starting a 30 day Zone experiment today. For the next 30 days I will follow the Zone prescription to the best of my ability and see what happens. If, after 30 days, I am not feeling strong and seeing good results in my training I will abandon the ship and go back to my normal (mostly clean) daily nutrition plan. Sam is starting a strict 30 day Paleo diet so it will be interesting to compare results as we go. 

I hope to be back in the gym by mid-week and will post more training sessions as soon as I am back in action. 

finally running again

We had an incredible trip to Utah. Can't beat some solid training at Gym Jones followed by perfect skiing conditions with good friend. Now that I am home I have been feeling like hell (figures) but doing my best to clean up my nutrition and get in some decent run sessions.

Sunday:

40 minute run (really felt the altitude for some reason. Perhaps because I started by running UP the mountain...)

Full day of kick ass skiing

Monday:

Home:-( Crazy day at work and felt really run down from the travel.

7 mile run in the evening

Tuesday:

another 7 mile run. Planned to do a longer run (10+) and some strength work but was feeling really run down. Cut it short but added some "work":

1o minutes easy (7.4)

20 minutes  of 1 on 1 off (10.0 / 7.3)

15 minutes (5 min. 7.3, 5 min. 7.7, 5 minutes 8.0, 5 minutes 8.3)

finished easy

Hoping to shake this tomorrow and be fully back in action. Aiming for 80+ miles this week.

Final Day at Gym Jones

I am a few days late with this post- busy skiing in Park City... The last few days have been a 40 minute run (at altitude) to get the kinks out in the morning, followed by 9 hours on the mountain. No complaints at all. Sam is tearing it up after just learning to ski last year so we are having a blast. After 4 days of straight strength / intensity work, I was jumping out of my skin to go for a run!

Please ignore the "tracker" for my Aids Ride fundraising. For some reason it is not acknowledging the generous donations you guys are making. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Okay, Day 4 at Gym Jones

20 minute warm-up on the airdyne

Accumulation Workout:

This workout was a killer but a lot of fun- truly. The "accumulation" means that we actually did 3 mini hard workouts, each about 5 minutes, as the main set.

1. tethered band sprints forward (hard and fast as far as you can go) x10

followed immediately by 10 body weight deadlifts

repeat circuit 2 more times- no rest.

2. tethered band sprints backwards x10

followed immediately by 10 push-ups on the parallet bars

repeat circuit 2 more times

3. 100 meters all out rowing (rest as long as it takes Sam to do the same) x 10

All in all it was an incredible few days of training thanks to Rob "Maximus" MacDonald and Mark Twight - pretty amazing / inspiring place to train!

Day 3- the fun really begins

I don't think I have ever done such a hard workout in my life! Including Ironman races which are approximately 20 times as long.

Warm-up

Airdyne for 10 minutes

Main workout IWT:

1) 12 Kettle Bell swings with 53# + 2 minutes of rowing (hitting at least 500 meters) 

then rest 2 minutes

repeat circuit for a total of 3 rounds (501, 501, 502*)

* Rob told me that he had never seen a women hit 500 on all 3 rounds - fighting words! that comment made me DIG!!!!

Rest 3 minutes

2) 12 KB goblet squats with 53# + 2 minutes on the airdyne (15seconds all out, 15 seconds "not as hard" for a total of 2 minutes) - aiming to hit 30 calories (the measure on the airdyne) each round

rest 2 minutes

repeat 2 more times for a total of 3 rounds (32, 30, 29*)

* I physically could not dig any deeper on the 3rd round. I haven't felt that way in a VERY long time- throat puckering, sweats....very close to throwing up the delicicous breakfast Sam had prepared for me a few hours earlier!

Rest 5 minutes

3) "Recovery"

4 minutes of 30 seconds push-press/ 30 second overhead hold with 10# - this is WAY harder than it sounds. The holds wreck you but if you bring the weights down you are signing up for a "penalty round" at the end.

All in all our workout time was less than 90 minutes but we were spent. It was awesome!!!!

The altitude definitely does not help but Rob is quite a motivator. He got some pics which I am sure are going to be lovely (who doesn't look good goblet squatting and on the verge of puking?). I'll post them ASAP.

One more session tomorrow then it is off for some R&R (skiing) in Park City. 

Gym Jones Day 2- the fun continues

After a solid 11 hours of sleep last night Sam and I were ready to get back into the gym today. We were told to expect an "easy" form/drill/technique day once we got there. This was partly true..

Things I learned:

1. It is important to occasionally do a workout that somebody else designs. No matter how hard we try, we are all drawn to what we do best.

2. I have a very imbalanced core- strong "abs" week erector muscles. Mark was kind enough to show me some "fun" drills to practice to address my weaknesses. Sam got some good pics but we left our camera cord at home so the pictures will be posted later. 

3. Ring push-ups are VERY humbling!

Workout:

Warm-up

15 minutes on the airdyne

power clean drill progression (1 second drill)- focused on straight arms and big jumps (65#)

10 minutes of:

1 power snatch followed by 1 OHS- every 30 seconds for a total of 20 rounds (45#)

Main workout:

30 OHS using 30% of bodyweight

30 ring push-ups (goal is to have your feet higher than your hands in the rings) I only got 5 that way!

20 OHS 

20 ring push-ups (5 legit, 15 knees on ground)

10 OHS

10 ring push-ups (all knees on ground)

Gym Jones Day 1

Today I was introduced to something that can best be described as a medieval torture device- the airdyne. If you have never seen an airdyne, go scour your grandparents' basements- it's entirely possible that that there is one down there being used as a laundry rack!

The airdyne is a "bike" with arms and it has been around forever- it sucks! Sam and I learned to respect it immensely today. 

Day 1 -

flew into SLC this am 

4pm start at Gym Jones

warm-up on airdyne

"Louder than 10" (watch the movie "This Is Spinal Tap" if you don't get the reference)

11 rounds for time:

5 med ball slams (mine was 15#)

10 push-ups

15 Kettlebell swings (35#)

11 rounds is a LONG time! I was ready to wrap it up by about round 4. Total time- 13:30 (30 seconds behind Sam, I'll need to get him next time!)

then 10 minutes active recovery on airdyne

followed by airdyne Tabata intervals (20 seconds of all-out work, 10 seconds of rest) 8 rounds

I was truly questioning my fitness by the end of the Tabata intervals- 100% spent. We capped off the day with a trip to Acme burgers..100% local/ organic/ grass fed etc. Awesome. I'll post a picture of Sam's "grande special" later on but I had an incredible salmon burger - just what the doctor ordered!

We're ready to get back at it tomorrow.....