blood ties

Bike wod – on the trainer (yuck yuck yuck and yuck!)

5 minutes easy, 3 minutes moderate, 2 minutes hard to warmup then 7 minutes on, 3 minutes off, 5 minuteson, 2:30 off, 3 minutes on. Plus a 5 minutes easy cooldown.

Pushed a lot of gear. But hate riding the trainer. Had to do it today because of time and weather issues.

Warmup

20 air circles each direction

10 air squats

20 ball situps

5 pullups

10 supermans

5 chair dips

20 kettlebell swings at 35 lbs

30 air squats

5 pullups

Amrap 12 minutes   - 9 of which were about humility!

10 kettlebell swings @35 lbs

5 pullups.

Got 9 rounds. (ha!) I started off great. Thought I would get 12 rounds by the way my first few rounds went.  I kipped for the 3 rounds and then tore my hand open on the 4^th set of pull-ups. (welcome to the club, gimme some blood) So for the following 5 rounds I used a band and did strict pull-ups with a shirt tied around my hand. I even had to break the kettlebell swings which are normally a strong point for me. I could have gone lighter on the weight to make it easier but I don’t regreat using the 35. Some of it might have been doing them with a shirt tied around my hand. But most of it was my grip was just shot going back and forth between the KBS and the PUs. I def lost grip strength. While my performance was humbling the good news is I was able to kip and drop off the pullup bar without pain. Two things I was completely unable to do when my knee was hurting. I think I am finally on the road to recovery!

Dead Weather

Sunday – started the day with yoga. Then rode the cross bike for an hour and ten minutes. My lower back was pretty sure towards the end of the time. I got a lot of different terrain in and it was super fun.  This is pretty much what I have to do next week. I would have liked to get a little longer in but I ran out of daylight. I am going to have to start doing some cross practice in the dark since my last race will be at night. I registered for another cross race on Saturday. The hess mess!  (www.meatybeaty.com   - click under updates to see some race course photos) I registered for the open so I’ll be out there suffering for an hour! (cough! Gasp! Wheeze!).  This is the part of the rivertown race series which I have a lot of points in so far this season.

Monday – swim – warmup 100 swim, 100 kick, 100 paddles, 200 swim, 200 kick, 200 paddle. Then 1,000 as 50 hard 50 easy. I always love this workout. Took me 18:47 for the whole thing. My lower back along my tailbone was bother me after this I must have strained something flip turning.

Then some deadlifts. These went really well. No pain! Warmup as

65x5,95x5, 115x5 then

135x5

155x5

175x5

180x5

185x5

I decided to quite there as that was starting to be tough. I did not want to push the knee too hard too soon as regret. But it felt good to be doing these again. Probably not the best thing for the tailbone but i don't think that is anything serious.

If you want blood (you've got it!)

Bit of a catch up blog post . tuesday afternoon I threw down a cf wod. Did 10 pushups, 10 squats and 10 situps to warmup and then did a 15 minutes amrap of 5 pushups, 7 situps and 9 squats. I happily got 19 rounds. It's been awhile since I did that kind of work. So i felt it for a few days.

Wednesday - 100 swim,  200 kick, 300 pull, 200 kick, 100 swim.  Main set i did with jeff as 100 -pull, 200 swim, 300 pull, 400 swim, 400 pull, 300swim ,200pull, 100 swim. did a 100 of fly kick  and 50 backstroke, 50 breatstroke. All of the pulling I did with paddles to turn this into more of a strength workout.
Took a great yoga class in the evening. I really needed it to loosen up some. felt great afterwards.

Thursday took a rest day for thanksgiving. Here is the menu I cooked for me and my husband to enjoy.

Garlic Teesy Cheddar Biscuits
Cornbread Dressing
Celebration Roast
Roasted Carrots and Parsnips with Cumin Vinagrette
Harvard Red Beets
Shredded Brussel Sprouts with Apples and Pecans
Blueberry Pie

Some of these things are a treat as i don't normally consume them but overall we kept it on the healthy side. I posted photos of this to my facebook page and i received numerous requests for recipes. which I gladly give out. On a day when most people are over eating I love getting contacted for a brussell sprouts recipe!

Friday - Water running - 10 minutes easy then 30 minutes with a 1 minute all out effort every five minutes. 5 minute cooldown.

Then back under the barbell again! I am going to a new gym now. http://www.leveragetrainingstudio.com/
It is not a crossfit specific gym but it is studio that lends itself to crossfitting as it has the same basic equipment. barbells, kettlebells, pullup bar,  things tojump, dumbbells. and the only machines are treadmills and rowers. i believe there may be one bike. Also it is a small gym so i won't have to fight people for equipment or space. especially since i will be there at off hours most of the time. the best part it has a shower!!! most crossfit gyms are garages or industrial spaces so they don't usuall have the comforts of home in them. But when trying to fit training into a busy day it is nice to be able to shower before continuing on with the day.

Warmup 25 situps on ab ball, 25 pushups and 3  rounds of 5 pullups using a band. I also did 3 rounds of 5 kipping pullups. Then back squats were the order of the day to test out the knee a bit. went in reps of 5 at 45,55,65,75,85,95,100,105.  I miscounted my addition and 3 reps at 135. i started to feel some knee strain at that weight which is what made me look at it. so i called it a day. i just happy to be back in a gym and under a barbell for awhile. Tim showed me his various "ab" toys around the gym. he doesn't believe in situps finding them ineffective and i have to say i agree with him. i can do situps forever and then don't bother me. He is a stronger believer in stability abs like planks and rotational abs. i was throwing around a medicine ball on a string. the only piece of equipment they don't have that i used to use a GHD machine. But there are plenty of other ab options and I can always do good morning for back etensions. Overall i think this place will be a better fit for me.

 Saturday - had to do a fast and go and get some bloodwork done. it has been awhile since i last had it taken. it came back really clean last time so i didn't have to get it done for a bit. But it is a good idea for someone living as a vegan and especially a vegan athletes to get it checked occasionally. Now most people that are vegan for health reasons are not going to come back with high cholesterol or anything like that but having certain vitamin levels checked are a good idea. namely B12 and D. If you are taking any kind of vegan supplements you should be fine. But if you not you can run into some issues with B12. you body can store it for years but since it isn't normally found in vegan food you need to get it somewhere. they are various places. mine is vega. http://myvega.com/
 Vitamin D isn;t an issue if you spend time in the sun  everyday but in the colder areas like where i live. Wintertime can lead to a problem. It is important for athletes to get these checked because fatigue is a normal symptom and for people doing heavy training it can hard to notice.

Bike - done on the trainer (not the most fun i've ever had) warmup 8 minutes easy 2 minutes hard then

on:off 20:10 3:10 40:10 50:10 60:10 60:10 50:10 40:10 30:10 20:10 and a 5 minute easy cooldown.

Also went to yoga class tonight. I can feel the effects of the squats on my legs from yesterday but it isn't too much. So far my knee seems to be tolerating this new work!  It has improved a lot of the last few weeks.

K-Town Cross Race Report +

Friday  - took it to the pool in the morning. 300 swim, 100 kick, 4 x 50 builds on 15 sec rest, 300 pull. The main workout was 300 pull, 6 x 50 fast on 15 seconds rest, 300 pull on 20 sec rest, 4 x 50 fast on 15 sec rest 2 x 300 pulls on 20 sec rest and 2 x 50 fast on 15 sec rest. Cooldown was 100 backstroke. This felt like a long and tedious workout. I just didn’t feel great swimming. I was hitting about 45 seconds on the 50s. I did a couple faster with Kevin but for the most part that was where it was at today and I wasn’t really happy with it so I finally broke down and decided to call the doctor since it was 3 weeks and I still had the sinus infection. Happily he got me in the same day. Gave me some antibiotics and we’re hoping that the end of it but because of my history with sinus issues. If it doesn’t clear up it is a cat scan and back to the ENT.  He is also sending me for bloodwork (yuck!) since I haven’t had it in years. I was also offered a shot for my knee to just see if that helps to get me over the hump of this long healing process. We’ll see where it is at when I go back in a couple of weeks and he will do it then.  Due to a social commitment on Friday my later day training and my early Saturday morning training didn’t happen.  

Saturday I did a 2 and half hour hip opening workshop. It really did help as I was able to get back in the full lotus position again. It’s been awhile since that was accessible to me.  But I didn’t do any other training because I wanted to try to rest a bit and get ahead of this sinus infection because I wanted to race cross the next day.  Saturday I decided to leave the CrossFit gym I was training out of. That was a stressful decision but I do believe it will be for the best overall.  I felt very stressed there lately and I just don’t need any unnecessary stress in my life.

Sunday I raced cross again! This time a usac sanctioned race so the women’s field was open. Meaning all categories of female riders  from elites to beginners raced together in the same race. It was lot of suffering and really fun which is kind of the cross formula. I got there early so I could pre ride the course and I found they had a log in one section of the course.  I don’t have the skill to bunny hop that kind of stuff yet so I freaked a little but decided to just run it and not take any chances. The rest of the course was lot of tight turns on grassy, muddy, dirty terrain. There were 2 sets of 2 barriers each and they both were really high! Everyone was commenting on how  they were higher than they were supposed to be but I didn’t get too hung up in it because everyone had to get over them. Although I admit they were harder. I didn’t feel like I had a good running flow of them. I felt like I was getting over it then running then getting over it. Not smooth! Gotta work on that! There was a technical section in the back end of the course that was winding around a bunch of trees and roots and it was really torn up from all the riders that had already raced through there. There were itty bitty uphills and downhills. Nothing too serious in that area. I was riding back to the starting line to get ready for my race and my chain got twisted around the front derailleur and completely locked up my pedals. I couldn’t get it out. So I asked another guy to help me. He couldn’t do it either and like an ass I didn’t bring a spare bike because there was no way I was going to ride anything other than my cross bike unless my cross bike broke. So thankfully another guy ran over and flipped my bike over and started kicking my pedals. He said the only way to get it out was to force it. It did work but I was a little nervous heading into the race that it was going to happen again because if it happened on the course I was screwed. I had no spare bike so if the pedals locked up I would have to run the entire course or dnf and I don’t dnf. He said I would be find and it didn’t happen again but I am going to try to get it into the shop sometime soon to have it looked at.  So I wore shorts and just a long sleeve jersey this time and I was still hot! I zipped down my jersey while I was racing just to vent a bit. I must put off a lot of heat or something. I haven’t found the magical bike clothing formula because it’s so cold when your not riding and then when your racing your just full throttle hot. Jay wanted me to wear gloves but I just couldn’t do it. Although after the race my hands were all red and  black and when I went out to ride today they were sore.  I’m going to have to work on having gloves on. I just never liked them. Anyone back to the race.  Since it was an open race they were calling the riders up by name and placing them in the start position. I was in the second row behind the elites.  We started on a grassy uphill that did a hairpin turn into a grassy downhill as the prologue into the actual course. I didn’t get out well. I was blocked out kind of early but I’d have time to try to get back into it. The riders broke up over the first lap of the course pretty quickly.  I felt like my skill level hurt me more on this race than it did on the last. My dismounts were good but my flying mounts were rough. I didn’t have a good efficient flow to them I felt like I really had to muscle my bike after each one to accelerate. I need to practice them more.althought my inner thighs are bruised from hitting off the seat during the flying mounts. I did good through the technical sections. I was fishtailing a bit in the mud around the turns so in the following laps I was trying to ride the tape line when I could just to try to get a bit of better traction. I did slow down a bit through all of the muddy turns because I didn’t want to fall and lose even more time. Some riders actually choose to dismount. I don’t know if was really any more efficient. None of them passed me.

I rode the tape line in some other areas just because my turns were wide.  I passed one girl early on in the course but I couldn’t really catch the rest of the field. But I had a battle the whole time with the rider behind me. She tried to pass me a few times but everytime she went I would match her sprint and stay in front of her. She would drop back everytime. This happened like 3 times. But she stayed on me the rest of the way and it put the pressure on me to try to ride really clean and not make any mistakes. I always wanted a bigger gap so everytime I could I tried to open it up but I really wasn’t building any kind of great lead. I knew going into the last lap that she was going to try to sprint me for the line. So I started riding as hard as I could (which is rough six laps deep) and we sprinted for the line and I was lucky enough to beat her. It was a great challenge to ride this way. I congratulated her on a great race after we crossed the line. She pretty much bitched at me and rode off. Later her teammate came up to me and said something about how I was blocking her and sprinting off everytime she tried to pass me and that as a rider she needs to become more aggressive. I talked to Chris about it because I thought that was weird and he said I didn’t do anything wrong I was just holding my position. I was happy with the way I raced. My avg heart rate was 170 and my max was 180 so the effort was there. I just need more skill work..  This was a 45 minute race and since I started my last lap until the 45 minutes I finished in 52 minutes. So it was a long time to suffer compared to last week’s 30 minute race. Cross brain is funny. In lap 1 your acknowledging your pain. By the middle of the race our accepting it and by the final lap I was thinking I’m so tired I’m going to flip over these bars on some of this shit and the break of lying on the ground for awhile might be nice.  The girl that finished in front of me came up to me as soon as I crossed the line and said she thought I was going to catch her the whole race. I could barely talk to her I was so wound. I didn’t think she was in striking distance, I guess I was too focused on the chic chasing me but she said I basically ate away at her lead until the end when it was closer than I thought. One thing I am really not used to is cross being a no hands up sport. Meaning you can’t eat or drink on the course (not that you have the time to really) . so you can’t take anything with you on the bike and the spectators can’t hand you anything.  I had some serious dry mouth at the end. I’m sure the antibiotics I am on for the sinus infection didn’t help that. They are killing my stomach too. But tomorrow is hopefully my last dose as they seem to be working! I was pretty tired after the race so I stayed to watch the elite men’s race. Even some of them fell over their handlebars on the log. I feel like I need to start really mountain biking so I learn how to ride that kind of terrain better. No cross racing this weekend so I have to wait for 2 weeks to race again!

Monday – felt much better this morning than I did after the race yesterday. Energy level was back. Sometimes I think being out in the cold like that is an energy zapper because I was really tired after the race for only a 52 minute effort. Not really sore but just fatigued. I was ok doing  life stuff but if I had to go out and train again it would have been rough.

Swim – 500 drills, 10 x 50 as distance per stroke. Not a fan. It just makes me swim slower. 3 x 300 moderate hit on 5 minutes exactly. Then 2 x 100 fast hit as 1:30 and 1:29 all over 20 seconds rest. 50 backstroke and 50 breaststroke to cool down. Had a 30 minutes recovery ride on the schedule today so I grabbed king Henry and took it to the terrain!  We came back to work muddy and happy. I didn’t ride  hard but I worked on tight turns and riding in rocks a bunch. Also it is supposed to rain the next few days so I wanted to get out and ride a bit. I am going to switch my training schedule around to try to keep most of my riding outside for as long as possible.

Tuesday – water running – 5 minutes easy, 3 minutes moderate, 2 minutes hard, 7 min moderate, 3 minutes easy, 7 minutes hard, 3 minutes easy, 3 minutes all out! 7 minutes moderate and 5 minutes easy.

Monachry of Roses

Wednesday -

Water Running – 5 minutes easy as a warmup then 10 rounds of 2 minutes hard and 20 minutes easy. Followed by 5 minutes easy to cooldown.  The knee still feel like it has a physical block when I first start this. But it goes away as I continue.

CF wod (of sorts) – warmup – 10 situps, 10 stepup easy leg, 10 reach for the sky and 10 supermans.  100 air squats for time.  2:51. 

Thursday – Yoga  - did some hip opening work today and I can’t believe how tight my hips are. I am going to do a 2 and half hour workshop on Saturday all on hip opening. From all the riding and probably running too they are not as flexible as they used to be. I am starting to believe this is a another big factor in the knee issue. Anytime I backbend my  quads pull at my knees. I put on some muscle  in the quads from all the cycling.

Took the cross bike out in the cold. Found lots of mud to play in. Froze my toes. I probably should start wearing covers.  Had a good workout. Was pretty tired after ward. 20 minute ride down the park to warmup and cooldown. Then 2 x 7 minutes hard on 2 min rest. I used the 2 minutes rest to work on tight turning through a series of pillars.  I registered for a cross race in Kutztown on Sunday. I have been the told the course if flat and grassy with a lot of turns. So I rode a lot of grass today and some dirt trail stuff. I did some off camber too.  I expect the competition to be tougher than my last race but it will be a good learning experience and a great workout.

STILL have the stupid sinus infection.  It’s not too bad but it would be nice to have it cleared up for good.

Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy

Yesterday was my first cyclocross race and I did well. In the 30 minute beginner race I was the first female to finish and 9^th overall. I got in 3 laps on the course. I was happy with the way my race went. I worked hard the whole time and had a blast. I got there early so I could pre ride the course and see what was going to happen in the loop so I knew going in where the challenges were. It was a great decision I already knew where everything was, where I was going to need to dismount and run the bike, etc.  The race director was teasing me that I was going to be tired before it even started. Time came to line up and I decided to go aggressive and line up in front. My thoughts being we start on a paved road before we get into any technical sections and I wanted to get ahead of any problems that might be occur with riders. So the gun went off and I sprinted down the street and was in the top 5 riders to hit the course. The course consisted of a lot of sharp turning on grass, dirt, rocks and mud. It also included two sets of 3 barriers. The first set seemed to be lower in height than the second set of 3. I did well getting over them. My mounts/ dismounts were decent. I had good jumps going over the barriers and I didn’t catch my bike on the barriers so all went well there. I also did ok on the turning for the most part. Sometimes I didn’t get the greatest line but none of them were too bad.  There was one section that had a rock wall build in the ground of large rocks of various heights. I felt it too aggressive for a cross bike and decided I would dismount and run my bike through that section every time. I figured if I tried to ride it and fell it would cost me time and even if I didn’t fall it would be slow riding so in the name of efficiency I ran it. In my race no one rode it. In the hour race after mine 2  riders braved it but they had mountain bikes. So far the most part no one rode it. The other section I had to run my bike was this 180 degree turn into a steep short uphill that was all loose mud/dirt. I never saw anyone ride it in either race. You lost so much momentum  going around that turn and the surface was so loose that it was just faster to dismount and run the bike. The hill itself was short and probably ride able. I think it’s just where it was placed that made it so tough. There were a few steep rocky dirty descends but I just kept my weight shifted to the back of my bike and hopped for the best.  There was only one thing I didn’t do on the course and that was the fire jumps. There were 2 setup in the course but there was plenty of room to ride between them so I decided since I never practice jumping my bike especially over fire it would probably be fastest to just ride pasted them. That’s not really a cross element so I was surprised to see it in there. Every time I rode past that section the spectators were chanting fire jump at me and I would ignore them and then when I wouldn’t do it they would boo me but I didn’t much care.  It was kind of funny but I was more interested in racing as fast as possible than with throwing in tricks for the crowd. The jumps were NOT high and I am sure I could have done them but if I missed it would have cost me time and I would have been upset to lose time on something like that. I had to work the entire time as I had a girl chasing me most of the way. I had a technical mistake on my second lap. I had to ride through a sections of rocks and dirt and the rocks were a bit big for a cross bike so I was going wider than I would have liked. She took that opportunity to pass me and I knew I had to shut the door so after that section was pulled up onto a short stretch of paved road. I hammered it and flew pasted her. I knew I had to keep on it. My avg HR was 166 but most of the time I saw it at 170-173. So I was working. On our final lap she tried to take me out but running faster down the rock section where we were carrying our bikes. I flying mounted off of that and took off down the grass regaining my lead. I knew I had to go hard the rest of the way or she would take advantage of any mistake I  made.  But I held out for the win.  She was the next rider to finish behind me but there was a decent amount of time and space between us so it wasn’t a close finish.  I was happy I didn’t fall I saw a few people crash on the course. Nothing serious they all got back up to ride.  I do however have bruises on my inner thighs, right hip, right knee, right shoulder and some stratches too. I probably was throwing my bike around a bike more than I realized. I also got hit with other riders bikes a couple of times going over barriers and on that hill when we were running and carrying them. My traps were really sore the next day most likely from as chris puts it “manhandling” my bike. It doesn’t seem like your carrying it that much but it had to be from that.  There are 2 more races in the series and I am considering moving up to the 1 hour open class race even through ill be suffering out there twice as long!  I am also considering going to race on Sunday in a difference cross race series where I will have to race with the cat 1 – 4 women.

Went to a yoga class Sunday night to try to stretch the race out of me. It was little more intense that I was expecting but it was all good stuff.

Monday – swim – 10 x 50 on 15 sec rest to warmup plus a 300 pulling. Then 400 yards, 4 x 100, 300 yard, 3 x 100, 200 yard, 2 x 100 all on seconds rest. The 100’s were ranging in the 133- 137 range. 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke to cool down.

Also took an easy spin on my road bike (in the rain) for 30 minutes to spin out the legs. I kept it a mostly flat ride to keep it easier. I got a road id. Now I just have to remember to wear it!

Tuesday – Yoga Class to start the day.  CF wod – 25 pushups, 25 situps, 25 squats to warmup then 10 rounds of 10 step up per leg and 1 minute plank hold.  The knee did ok during the wod. Ill see how it fares for the rest of the day.