Crossfit 11.5

Posted on November 5, 2012 by chatty

I’ve not recorded many of my workouts. Need to work more on that. Today is a good day as we retested the timed mile and I managed to shave a whole five seconds from my time. Never mind that the two other women I ran with/against cut their times by like thirty seconds. It’s a race against me, right?

Also this was the first workout where I finished first. I have a feeling my weights should have been stronger but I did what I was told.
Diane (several WODs are named)
21 – 15 – 9
Deadlift (65#)
Dumbbell push press (15#)

Oh, and my mile time: 8:03
Nearly identical weather and time conditions. At least I improved, right?

Crossfit 10.17

Posted on October 17, 2012 by chatty

The hardest one yet, if you can believe it. Push ups are hard. I was offered the chance to do 25 pushups instead and said, no, i want to try 50. I actually did 40 that first time, 30 the second time. Here is the official:

50 pushups
Run to blue wall (300M or so)
50 sit ups
Run to blue wall
50 squats
Run to blue wall
Repeat

I also learned how to do a “clean”. The Olympic Weight Lifting is new and different. Interesting.

Crossfit 10.15

Posted on October 15, 2012 by chatty

Today was my first official class as a crossfit gym member. After the warmup I was given the choice of either… Wait for it … A timed mile or a timed 2K on the erg. I knew it was coming, and I obsessed over it, sweaty palms and all. I am not ashamed to say the 2K scares me, it is a beast I can’t fathom fighting right now, so I chose the timed mile.
My time: 8:08. More than a minute SLOWER than I estimated. Slight incline in the first half mile of the course today, but I feel like the DT Bellevue Park loop is misleading. I never thought it was a mile for 2 laps, and maybe this confirms it. Or maybe I had a bad day this morning. Or a little bit of both. I definitely have room for improvement, and no crazy erg fear, no heart palpitations. For now.

The rest of the workout: 3 rounds of 15 snatch, 15 burpees. A lot of sweating.

I am taking a 5:30 am class. I have to get used to this schedule.

lift 10.10

Posted on October 10, 2012 by chatty

Working on some stuff I learned at crossfit. Here was my workout.

Erg Warm Up, which included, for the hell of it, a start/high-20/shift/race pace for 500M.

10 each, in a row x 4:

Back Squat (45 lb bar)
Push Ups (full range)
Box Jumps
Sit Ups

With 10 minutes to spare I sat on the erg some more, worked on form and also did 20-on/10-off. Until this old lady smelling of strong perfume sat next to me. Perfume? At a gym? At 8:15 in the morning? Really?

run 10.8

Posted on October 9, 2012 by chatty

Oops, almost forgot. The Crossfit peeps are doing some benchmarking this week, which I’m missing out on since I’m not officially a member yet. But got me thinking about it. They are doing timed miles and a timed 2K. Now. A 2K? Just thinking about it gives me heart palpitations. All of the mental (not to mention physical) anguish I used to go through to do a 2K in hopes of making a boat just stressed me out so much. It was too much, all I could think about.

A timed mile, on the other hand. Why not? I don’t have any idea how to plan for it, I just go out an run. And so on Monday morning before work, I warmed up by running from Lincoln Square over to Downtown Bellevue Park and jogged one lap around. The signs claim that 2 laps = 1 mile. I’m not so sure about it, in fact I checked on MapMyRun and I think it’s more like .9 miles. Anyway, I timed myself doing 2 laps and recorded a time of around 6:36. Since I’m pretty sure I cannot run a 6:36 mile, I suspect it is .9. At the 5K last week I ran the last .1 mile of the 3.1 race in 43 seconds. So if I add 43 seconds to my 2 lap time I get 7:19. I think that is probably closer to my actual timed one-mile time.

So. If I had to choose one over the other (timed mile vs timed 2K) I’d have to say I would pick the one where I am finished faster, and not suffering from burning lungs. I would choose the one that does not raise my blood pressure just thinking about it. I would choose the one that doesn’t make me exhausted for the rest of the day and requiring a nap soon after. I would choose time timed mile, for sure.

Ask me again in a few months, after I’ve spent some crossfit time on the erg.

crossfit 10.6

Posted on October 8, 2012 by chatty

Today I practiced the front squat with press; push up; pull up and medicine ball clean (precursor to an actual clean). Push ups were full range, which was new. Pull ups were with bands, which I love. The workout was Tabata for each exercise, 6 reps each exercise. Very quick but tiring. One more essentials/training class then I am on my way.

Race 10.5

Posted on October 5, 2012 by chatty

Ran the Microsoft 5K today. Final time, 27:56, a pace 10 seconds slower than last year. Dang it! According to my watch, here were my splits:

mile 1: 9:36
mile 2: 8:39
mile 3: 9:07

That is a slow first mile. I had some things going against me. First, running in the afternoon is not my forte. Second, rushing to the race course after several conference calls and wolfing down a bowl of soup probably not the best way to prep for a road race. But those are just excuses. Let’s face it. If you don’t train, you don’t go fast.

No excuses, but allow me to share my race day pet peeve. Let’s face it, slow runners. It’s quite likely you are aware you are not a 7-min miler. People who are 7-minute milers KNOW they are that fast. Why? Because they work at it. So, then, slower-than-7-minute milers, WHY are you starting with the 7-minute milers? You know what happens, right? You are going at a snail’s pace and slowing everyone down who is forced to pass you. This is why they separate us by time.

There, I’ve said it. I feel a little better. This year was fun. Great sunny weather; skipping work for a good cause; just wished I cold have been a little faster.

crossfit 9.29

Posted on September 30, 2012 by chatty

This was the second of four “essentials” classes. I’ve done more erging this week than I have all year. (In addition to the below I also found myself on the erg earlier this week at the gym. The poor gym ergs … they looked so shiny and new three years ago ..)

What I practiced: Press; Push Press; Wall Balls; AbMat Sit Ups

Our mini workout was 3 rounds of:

250m row
10 Push Press
10 Wall Balls
10 AbMat Sit Ups

I clocked in at around 12 or so minutes. Looks harmless but you still end up pretty sweaty.

Running Around London Part 2

Posted on September 29, 2012 by chatty

Here are more pics from my London sightseeing by foot…

Run #3: Houses of Parliament, up close and personal.

Run #3: Better shot of BB. Built in 1834, folks. Wow.

Run #3: Nelson’s Column at Trafalgar Square. Last time I was here in 1999, I recall a lot of pigeons. And tourists paying vendors to buy seeds to feed disgusting pigeons. Yet one more benefit for checking this out at 6 am.

Run #3: National Gallery. I hear there’s some cool stuff here.

Run #4: The Serpentine. I had to get an early start as I was leaving this day. We had a week of terrific weather.

Run #4: Kensington Gardens. Whose house is this? It gave off a Harry Potter vibe. Like, maybe where Tom Riddle grew up, but less creepy.

Run #4: Still Hyde Park. What a cool sculpture. Crazy Brits.

Run #4. Marble Arch. It’s hard for me to fathom that this has been around since the 1880s. That’s 18.

Should you need to want to know anything about the public art around Westminster, Wikipedia has a great list.

Workout 9.23

Posted on September 23, 2012 by chatty

I’m trying out the Crossfit gym up the street from me. It’s a tiny little studio. Good thing there was just two of us in the beginners/essentials class. In addition to learning correct posture and positioning for a variety of lifting exercises, we did a quick workout of:

Run 300m
5 back squats
7 deadlifts
9 box jumps

Repeat 3x

I was freaked about not injuring myself doing those deadlifts. In fact it was the box jumps then running that made me feel weak in the knees (and not in that romance novel kind of way)

I like it. I suspect this will be a new way to meet some neighbors since it is so close to me.we’ll see how the remaining 3 essentials classes go…

Chatty Cha

dessert first

Category Archives: fitness