Training Adventures

My personal fitness log. Advice, support, constructive criticism, motivation, and other feedback welcome!

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Arboretum run in the rain - 37:22

A little confession...
Today was supposed to be a day off, but after a bacon-and-eggs breakfast, and a nice big prawn crepe for lunch (YUM), I really wanted to burn some of those calories.

So, I went for my usual 4.5-mile run through the Arboretum (no sprint intervals though), and finished in 37:22 - my fastest time yet! I was definitely pushing myself the whole way, which felt good/hard. It was getting dark out, and it was drizzling, so there was hardly anyone else on the path - definitely a luxury.


P.S. Looks like I'm ahead of the game! Friday's CF WOD is to run 10k. I only ran about 7k, but same idea...

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Nasty Girls

Modified Nasty Girls today...

Warm-up: 1 mile run (8 minutes)

Round 1:
50 squats
3 x 7 pull-ups & 7 dips (40 - 55# assistance)
10 hang power cleans (50#)

Round 2:
50 squats
10 hang power cleans (50#)
21 push-ups - pull-up machine in use. >:-(

Round 3:
50 squats
3 x 7 pull-ups & 7 dips (55# - 70# assistance)
10 hang power cleans (60#!)

Total time: 20 minutes

Felt pretty good. Was happy that I could go up in weight on the power cleans at the end - my coordination got much better. I guess I should have warmed up with those before I started...

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Turkey & Bleu Cheese WOD

I just finished my workout and am still feeling a little light-headed. It was a doozie!

Turkey & Bleu Cheese Workout (Thanks, Kim, for posting it!)
25 kettle bell swings (40# dumbbell)
50 squats
25 Sumo dead lift high pulls (40# dumbbell)
400 m run

25 pull ups (90# pull-down - no pull-up bar in the little gym)
50 squats
25 push ups
400 m run

25 push jerks (Presses with a pair of 10# dumbbells)
50 squats
25 burpees (10 pull-downs + 15 burpees)
400 m run

Total time: 27:30

I don't think my legs have fully recovered from last week - they were starting to feel pretty tired during the first round today. I should give them some more time off this week and try to focus on my upper body.


Yoga tonight! Yay!

Monday, January 28, 2008

Climbing

I'm still definitely recovering from last week's workouts. This evening, I can finally walk without looking gimpy or feeling every particular muscle in my quads and glutes. We'll see how it feels to run/squat tomorrow...

Climbing tonight went pretty well. My partner was putzy, so I didn't get all that many runs in, but I felt good. Tried some routes that I couldn't finish - definitely frustrating, but it's good that I'm challenging myself and at least trying them.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Belly Dancing!

My second belly dancing class! Even though we're all beginners, and all different shapes and sizes, we all look sexy in this class. It's amazing. (None of us are nearly as sexy as our teacher, though - she's really amazing.)

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Cindy

My legs were toast from yesterday's workout, so I was secretly relieved when no one else showed up for Ultimate pickup... running would have been *very* hard.

We did Cindy instead:
20 minutes of:
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats

I finished 12 rounds + 5 pull-ups + 8 push-ups.


Last time (Dec 16), I only got 10 rounds + 15 squats, so this was definitely an improvement! The pull-ups and push-ups felt a little easier.

Friday, January 25, 2008

400m's, sumos, thursters

This is a very tough workout. I modified it to:

Four rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 pound Sumo deadlift high-pull, 21 reps
30 pound Thruster, 21 reps

Time: 25:10


I had to use dumbbells instead of a barbell. I didn't know how many rounds I'd get through. I'm glad I got more than 3, but a 5th sprint would have been too much. My legs are going to need a long recovery after this!

Next time, though, next time I'll do a full 5 rounds.

Labels: , ,

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Climbing

My back was pretty sore from all the pull-ups Mary made me do yesterday, and my butt is sore (from the one-legged squats, I presume). Nonetheless, I had a great time climbing tonight! There are some fun new routes up, and I climbed a few 10b's - before Christmas, I was just getting to the tops of 10a's. Of course, the ratings are very subjective. (In Duluth, I was struggling on 8's.) But it definitely feels good to master a 10b!

Getting excited for belly dancing next Sunday...

Labels:

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Mary, Yoga

Did Mary for the first time!

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Handstand Push-ups (mine were only a few inches deep)
10 One legged squats, alternating
15 Pull-ups (jumping)

I completed 6 rounds + 5 HSPUs. My pull-ups were pretty weak by the end - even with a jump, they were still pitiful. Lots of room for improvement. (I have not been good about doing pull-ups when I walk under the bar mounted in my office doorway. Shame on me. I'll start doing that again.)

I get to go to yoga in a few minutes - it's a very easy, relaxed class - a good chance to stretch out everything I just worked.

Labels: ,

Monday, January 21, 2008

3/5 of a Nancy

Did three rounds of Nancy instead of five, because all of the treadmills and rowing machines were taken. Grrr. I definitely need to work on my overhead squats - I just used 30# today, which wasn't particularly tiring, but I couldn't control the 50# bar. At least the running felt good!

Scott was at the gym with me, so he spotted me on a max bench press - 85#.

Labels:

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Belly Dancing!

My first belly dancing class was today! A good rest-day activity - it's not a workout, but we do get warmed up and stretched out. And it's really fun.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Hiking

Beautiful hike through Stebbins Cold Canyon. Around 5 miles round trip. Nice and steep - my hamstrings were pretty sore from the Linda deadlifts, so I was feeling them quite a bit on the way up!


From the top of the ridge, we could look left to see Lake Berryessa. On some days, there's a view of the mountains to the right, but it was too smoggy on Saturday.



As we were driving through the rolling hills on the way to the trailhead, Ashlyn announced that she felt like she was "frolicking on the thighs of the Earth Mother," and we giggled about this for the rest of the day.



Ashlyn, Lisa, hatless Libby

Friday, January 18, 2008

Climbing

Scott and I climbed for an hour and a half tonight. I was crabby - the staff has been in the middle of putting up new routes for at least a week now, so there were *very* few routes available. That said, I ended pretty strong on a 10b that I'm looking forward to trying again next time.

Labels:

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Interval running

Tough run today. :-(

About 36 minutes total, which included 5 sprinting intervals - I was SLOW. Ugh. Definitely tight from yesterday's deadlifts.

Labels:

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Linda

I last did this workout on 12/9/07.

Warm-up: 500m row (time - 1:51)

Linda: 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1 rep rounds for time:

Deadlift (110#)
Bench press (65#)
Clean (60#)

Time: 28:45 (Grr, had to keep waiting for a bench to free up... busy gyms are annoying.)

WAAY easier than last time. Still not easy, per say, but I definitely need to go up in weight on all 3 exercises next time. Just about all of my sets were unbroken.

Labels: , , ,

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Interval running

24-minute run, which included five 1-minute sprints. Neither one of has has done intervals for about a month, so we were happy to do this abbreviated version, rather than the full 4.5 mile loop.

Labels:

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Climbing

Scott and I got in about an hour of climbing today. I didn't complete many routes though, which was frustrating.

Labels:

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Long walk on the beach

It was so nice on Tuesday, I did it again on Thursday.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Sprint Tabata on the beach

5+ warm-up run, a little stretching

Sprint tabata

A few minutes' walk, and a 5-minute cool-down run

20 push-ups

The sprinting felt terrific.

Labels:

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Long walk on the beach

Arrived in Hilton Head yesterday, for the Sheep retreat. We're staying really close to the beach, so this morning I got up and went for an hour long walk. Fantastic. I'm thinking of doing a sprint tabata tomorrow, and maybe the "sunrise yoga" that our HR woman is leading.

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Climbing

Went climbing with our Colorado friends at their gym in Boulder. I had a great day - I feel like my fingers are suddenly much stronger, so I can accomplish routes that were closed off to me before. And I realized that I can do underhanging routes a lot more easily than ever before. Awesome!

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Skiing

Skied almost a full day. In the morning, we inadvertently went down a run that started out as a not-so-bad black diamond and suddenly turned into something worthy of a double black rating - really steep moguls. I got down the first part alright, but fell apart on the lower half. I was afraid, frustrated and teary. I skied a few easy runs afterwards, but was physically and emotionally worn out. Ick. Even though snow is fun, I like climbing a lot better than alpine skiing.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Skiing

Arrived in Colorado on Tuesday. Had to work all day Wednesday, but got to go skiing today - my first time in about 10 years! I was pleased to see that I remembered how and didn't wipe out once. Went down one black run... rather tentatively. Definitely tired by the end of the day.