50k training – week 3 recap

Hi there!

Happy weekend!

So, week 3 of my 16 week training plan for the 50k is in the books. Thank goodness!

It was a long week – a good one but tough, too.

Monday

I had track work on my schedule but I had to be at work by 6:45am so that didn’t happen. Such is life when you work at the Commonwealth’s Attorneys Office and last weekend was a 3 day holiday (read: drinking) weekend. It was all hands on deck for picking up the arrest warrants, creating and entering the cases, and getting things ready for court that morning. Good times.

I would have (maybe … okay, probably not) made it up after work but I also had CrossFit on the schedule.

Before you freak out about the doubles, I only have them one or two times a week (pretty much alternating weeks) so it’s not like I’m going crazy with the working out. 🙂

So, for Monday’s workout at CrossFit, we started with 20 minutes to find our double cluster max. Basically, how heavy we could do 2 squat clean thrusters (hence: cluster) in a row.

Mine was 85#. That’s actually a PR for me too! I tried 95# but I could only sorta get one squat clean and the thruster part just didn’t happen.

Then, the WOD was 3 rounds for time of 10 thrusters and 20 toes to bar.

I opted for 55# as my scaled weight and finished in 10:22.

Tuesday

Just CrossFit today.

We started off with a 10 minute EMOM (every minute on the minute) workout.

The odd minutes were 5 strict pull-ups (you had the full minute to get the 5 done and then you rested until the even minute). I used the purple band.

The even minutes were 30 second hollow holds. Oh, hello abs!

Then, the WOD was “the Ghost” – 6 rounds of 1 minute calorie row (count calories burned), 1 minute burpees (count the burpees), 1 minute double unders or attempts (count how many you did) and one minute of rest. (Um, hello, that’s basically 6 minutes of burpees!)

I knocked out 217 total! I really, really suck at double unders but Coach wasn’t letting us do singles instead. She said that we’ll never learn to do double unders if we always do singles so we were doing attempts. I got a few each round – maybe 5 or 6 so I’m pretty stoked about that. I definitely need to work on those some more though.

Wednesday

Just CrossFit today.

We did heavy Isabel.

The CrossFit “girl” WODs are benchmark WODs. You do them to see where you are, what you need work on, and then, how you’ve improved.

Isabel is 30 snatches.

Coach wanted us to do squat snatches instead and go heavy, making the workout slower and more intense than regular old already intense Isabel.

Of course, I can’t go heavy because my overhead squat is atrocious. I stuck with 45#.

Coach had me power snatch (like in regular Isabel) and then reset and do my overhead squat because I am a big awkward mess.

I can’t remember how long it took me but I was working hard!

The good news is based on the power snatch, I know I can do more than 45#! Just have to really work on that overhead squat.

Dear hips and ankles, gonna need you to work with me and get a little more flexible, please. Thanks! Love, me.

Thursday

Tempo run!

Had 7 miles on the schedule.

1 mile warm up @ 9:30 pace, 5 miles @ 8:27 pace, and 1 mile cool down @ 9:30 pace.

Except, when I got out there, I forgot it was 8:27 and thought it was 8:30 instead. Oops. I blame early + no coffee.

My tempo miles were 8:29, 8:26, 8:32, 8:34, 8:32.

I cut my cool down mile a little short because, honestly, I just ended up back at my house sooner than I expected and I didn’t want to run down the street and turn around and come back or do laps in my yard like a dog. Besides, I had to get ready for work. #lazy 🙂

No CrossFit today.

Friday

Just CrossFit today.

We started with 20 minutes to find our one rep max of the push jerk.

I PR’d with 105#!!!! AND, I almost got 115# but I just wasn’t getting my body down underneath the bar. But, I’m almost there!!

Then, the WOD was 30 muscle ups for time.

Except, I don’t even have 1 muscle up.

So, scaling for that was 3:1 with pull-ups and ring dips.

That means 3 pull-ups and 3 ring dips per 1 muscle up.

If you can do math, you know that’s 90 pull-ups and 90 ring dips. UGH!

I planned on kipping all of my pull-ups but I set up a band just in case. 90 pull-ups and 90 ring dips is a lot of shoulder work! I have to use a band for the ring dips – not quite there yet with those.

I was moving along quite nicely – broke them down into 9 rounds of 10 until pull-up number 56 when my hand ripped. 😦

I tried to kip a couple more but couldn’t so I had to do the rest banded. I struggled to hold onto the bar because my hand hurt so it really slowed me down.

I can’t remember my time but it was probably 24-25 minutes.

Thank goodness I don’t have CrossFit again until Tuesday! My hand needs the time to heal.

Saturday

Long run!

I had 17 miles at 9:34 pace.

Man, that run was tough.

Yeah, the 9:34 pace didn’t happen. My legs were tired and a little heavy feeling. I had to stop twice to take off my shoe and massage the ball of my left foot. (I have metatarsalgia and boy, did it decide to flare up. Massaging really helps.) I was drenched when I got home – looked like I had gone for a swim instead of a run. Something chafed my back the entire way – not sure if it was my sports bra strap or my Nathan Race Vest or a combination of the two since the vest had somehow gotten loosened where my phone pocket is – and now I have an really painful spot on my back. I drank darn near a liter of water while I was out there but still ended up dehydrated. And, I only went 16 miles. And that was only by sheer will because I was ready to stop at 14 miles.

I finished in 2:42.22 with an average pace of 10:09/mile.

I felt like crap, got woozy in the shower, had to turn off the water and sit down for a bit. My sailor brought me some chocolate milk and that helped some. Luckily, I kept it down and I could finish the shower! I ate a little, drank a TON of water and some IN Refresh electrolyte replenisher and I took about an hour nap. Whew!

Thank goodness that week is over!

Next week, I have a 20-miler on Saturday and a rest day on Friday. Hopefully, that will help me be more prepared for that long run. I definitely don’t want to be dehydrated again.

Talk to me: What did your week of workouts look like? Are you training for anything? 

 

– jennifer

Week 1, Day 1 of 50k training! and some other stuff…..

Hello!

Happy Monday! 🙂

Hope you had a good weekend!

Mine was pretty good. Did some shopping on Saturday – pet food, cute workout clothes for FitBloggin, groceries, wine, etc. Good times.

Except for the part where I forgot the $5 off coupon for the groceries. #fail

Sunday was laundry, vacuuming, planning my outfits for FitBloggin.

Um, did I mention that I’m going to FitBloggin? IT STARTS ON THURSDAY!!!!!!

So, we FINALLY caught up on season 4 of Ink Master.

Raise your hand if you thought the finale was lame and that the choice for winner was BS.

Seriously.

I’m actually really, really mad. I enjoy(ed) watching that show because of the talented artists that compete and, well, I like tattoos. The drama that goes along with it is to be expected because it IS a reality show and a competition and it’s people stuck together for a long period of time. But, they are totally playing up the drama too much and making the show more about that than the art and the tattoos.

I mean, really. Season 5 is “the rivals.” Oh. Goodie. More drama.

Add to the fact that there was the possibility (BLATANT REALITY) of favoritism by the judges (um, seriously, how can you leave a SPIKE out of the Statue of Liberty’s CROWN and not get eliminated, much less WIN THE WHOLE SHOW?!?!?!) and you’ve got more drama.

Pretty sure I’m done watching that show.  Sorry, had to rant a little. 🙂

And, moving on….

Guess what today is?!

It’s the first day of 50k training! Whoop!

I kicked off my day with mile repeats at the track. I’ll head to CrossFit after work and then, I’m fairly positive that I will fall over and die fall asleep standing up.

So, I had 3×1600 in 7:25 this morning. Except, adrenaline got the better of me and my repeats looked a little more like this:

mile 1 – 6:58

mile 2 – 7:22

mile 3 – 7:26

I don’t know where that 6:58 came from. Oops. #speedygonzalez

The track that I was running on was old, cement, and rife with tons of cracks, grass, and weeds.

The other alternative was to use the indoor track which was super nice, in excellent condition, springy and 15 laps to a mile.

Um, no. Really? 15 laps to a mile?! How depressing!

It was also what surrounded the fitness area in the Y so not only would I be running in a TON of circles, I would be doing it in front of a ton of other people with nothing better to stare at than me going in circles….over and over and over and over.

At least I had the outside to myself. Just me, the birds, the ants, and my pepper spray. Oh yeah, of course it’s not in the bestest part of town. But, the area is fenced and all the gates are locked and the people at the front counter know I’m out there (yes, I DID tell them as I was walking outside. accountability and all that jazz). So, as long as I’m running in the daylight, I think I’ll be okay.

Talk to me: Have you ever run on an indoor track? Have you ever run on a track that’s shorter than a 1/4-mile? Have you ever seen such an adorably lazy dog? 🙂

 

– jennifer

Track(less) Tuesday & a winter storm, maybe.

Hi there!

So, I’m totally sitting here by the window waiting for it to snow.

Except, it’s 44 degrees and sunny outside.

Generally, in my opinion, that’s not snow weather.

Even if we don’t get any snow, it’s definitely going to get cold so I stocked up on firewood.

And, I just learned that this storm has a name?! Janus. And apparently, he’s a mean one.

Again, it’s 44 degrees and sunny.  Hm.

Are you affected by Janus?

Can I have some snow?

Just a little. I’m not really in the mood to shovel but an inch or two would be nice. And so pretty! I mean, we’ve been living in Florida. The panhandle definitely gets cold during the winter but snow? Um, no. It’s nice to be back in an area where snow is a possibility. I kinda love it.

source

So, anywho, I had some speed work on my calendar today.

800 meter repeats in 3:37 each.

I figured out my Garmin (really, it was SO easy that I feel really ridiculous for waiting 3 years to do it. really, I’m not resistant to change!) and set my lap to 1/4 mile.

I would prefer to do these at the track but I neglected to call the school and find out if their track is open to the public and what the hours are. So, I ran my 800s in my neighborhood.

The original workout called for a 2 minute rest interval between each but, that was too much for me to figure out and I certainly wasn’t going to wear 2 (!) watches – one for time and one for distance. So, I dropped back and punted and came up with a 1/4-mile rest interval.

Hey, my watch dinged every 1/4-mile so it made sense! I just did what my watch told me to. It was like I had my own personal coach! 🙂

I warmed up with a mile, did 4×800 with 400 rest intervals and finished with just over a mile cool down. Hey, I had to get back home!

That last 800 darn near kicked my butt! I really had to push myself. Thank goodness there were only 4 this time!

I ended up doing 3 loops around my ‘hood so, if any of my neighbors were watching, I’m pretty sure they think I’m bonkers.

That’s fine.

According to the totally bizarre dream I had last night, I am.

Don’t judge me.

Talk to me: When was the last time you made a snowman? Or a snow angel? Or a snow fort?

– jennifer