Race Report: Hot Chocolate 15K

Posted on March 21, 2015 by chatty

Back in January I mentioned this race I signed up for. Remember? So, it finally came up, the Hot Chocolate 15K, on March 1. For those who don’t want to do the math, a 15K is 9.3 miles. Training-wise I had managed to get one 9-mile run in. It was hard, but done. At the 6-mile mark my ankles were beginning to ache, and knowing I had another 5K to go was kind of killing me, though I made it through. As the race course appeared to be a big uphill climb up Highway 99, I forced myself to incorporate a lot more hills, including THE HILL (NE 70th, between the Burke-Gilman Trail and around 45th Ave NE. Aiiyaah).

So anyway, I ran the HC with two other women, Rina and Trina. Yes. Tina, Rina and Trina ran the race. #Winning. Both of them are faster runners than I. My target was a 10:00 mi pace, and I hit it. More or less. Less.

Here are my unofficial splits, per my Timex:

10:10
9:41
10:01
9:57
10:14
10:31
9:05
10:14
11:37
3:29 (final .3)

Overall it felt okay. I passed on the first “treat” station. Chocolate chips, I think. At the 6-mile station, or whatever station they were doing strawberry marshmallows, I said what the hell and had one. It actually tasted really good. At around mile 6 you reach the turnaround point on Highway 99, and start going downhlll back towards the Seattle Center. That mile was my fastest and it felt great. Those final 2 miles were incredibly tedious. The downhill is not as downhill as you want it to be, and for me I was ready to be done. Now that I’ve reviewed my splits, I see that the final final mile was where I really tanked. I remember already suffering and there’s one final hill on Mercer Street. Like a lump more than a hill, but you’re running up it thinking to yourself, this is unfair!

Overall the race is a well-oiled machine. Parking wasn’t horrendous (we carpooled, parked far enough way that the walk to the course is basically a warm-up. Mildly long Honey Bucket lines. Good swag. Not as crazy-fun as Beat the Blerch, but at least it’s not in Carnation. And when else do you get to run around Hwy-99 and check out the gorgeous view of Lake Union from up high? That was pretty cool. These treats were cool, too

This pic is from Trina’s FB page. I finished the race long after R&T were done, so I too my chocolate platter to go, and got it share some of it with the kid. The kid now uses the cup as a bath toy. Not too shabby.

There was an early race start, like 8 AM. We were home by 10:30. I stretched, showered, then headed up to Bryant Corner Bakery for the weekend breakfast I had been craving.

That’s a lot of food. But I ran a race! And it was good. So good.

Yep. Here’s how I like to train:

https://instagram.com/p/zn3qhDouXp/

So, the lesson here is that the 10K is still my favorite race length. I hit my goals pretty much with the 10K in mind. Add that extra 5K and watch me flounder.

BUT…. I just learned that a college friend is coming out to Seattle this summer to run See Jane Run. Half-marathon. Soooo.

Nah.

Maybe.

I’ll decide in May.

WODs of Feb ’15

Posted on March 20, 2015 by chatty

February saw a review and practice of olympic lifts. I also added an extra day of running every week, in preperation of the 15K I ran (race report, coming right up).

Overall, a good month of steady workouts. It was an up and down month of eating. Work was a bit nutty which often translates into stress eating for me. Just getting out of that rut, and feeling much better.

At the end of the month I also added a yoga class to my repetoire (which has since replaced my morning of running). I’m very new to it, but I like it. Did you know you can sweat doing yoga? And I’m not talking hot yoga. More on that later.

AKA 13.3 I assumed I would not get through the Double Unders, so I didn’t get a pull-up bar set up (I need a box to reach the bar, as well as a band to perform more than one pull-up). I might have had a better score had I been prepared. Wonder if I’ll remember that next time it comes around.

Is it me, or did we do a lot of DUs this month? I’m working on the skill. Not as good as Rina or Amanda, but can string more than 5 in a row a few times, then just do a few at a time. All in the timing.

More Double Under! Are you keeping track?

Sprints on the erg, at a 25 SPM or less. Right up my alley.

No DUs, but singles.

Rowing for calories a crossfit thing, no? It would seem to be the only reason why I might tamper with the damper. Anyway, my mantra in times like these is, you can do anything for 60 seconds. Just get it done.

Fun.

New handwriting. New coach. Same burpees.

Wendler returns. This quarter I’ll be doing Bench Press, Press and Deadlift. These are the 1RMs I’m working with: Bench Press: 85 Press: 80 DL: 165 Oh, the workout happened, too. Yay box jumps.

Wake up, work out, repeat

Posted on March 11, 2015 by chatty

There are a few studies that you can probably scrounge up that will say there are benefits to exercising in the morning. There is this one study that showed you are more likely to lose weight if you exercise “in a fasted state” (which basically would mean before in the morning before eating breakfast, as the only time you can really fast long enough is when you are sleeping). Another study showed older women slept better if they exercised or stretched in the morning. And even another study showed that women were less distracted by food porn when having worked out in the morning (I’m guessing they didn’t call it food porn, but that’s probably what it was).

So, the benefits are there. But it will only work if you’re there.

I’ve been doing this early morning thing for a while now, but I didn’t start that way. All through school soccer practice and volleyball practice was after school (Volleyball practice in high school was held, like from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., or something like that). In college, my friends and I went to the field house after dinner (I won’t even get into the useless workouts I did at the field house. But that has sparked an idea for a future post). And even when I was living on my own for the first time, the gym was always a thing I did after work.

The morning routine only started after I joined a rowing team. And really truly, it was because the friends I had made at the boathouse were all moving to mornings, and I wanted to hang out with them. Oddly enough, of the 8 or more that I started this routine with, I was the only one left standing after a while.

The mornings ended up working out best for me after I had the baby and went back to work. I would take the bus in my sweats, go straight to the gym, workout, shower at the gym and arrive at work just around 9 a.m. Ultimately that seemed too late for me. I prefer to be in the office at around 8 so I can get a jump start on the day.

These days I do the crossfit class Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 5:30 a.m. I recently added Yoga on Tuesdays at 6 a.m. If I show up at a 6:30 a.m. class, my coach asks if I’m sleeping in. Usually that’s the case.

When I was training for the half-marathon a few years ago I threw in two mid-day runs a week during lunch (go back into the chattycha archives and you’ll be able to find plenty of “running” entries during that time). I have tried to incorporate that back into my schedule from time to time, but I always find a reason to put it off. Even on the weekends. If I don’t get a run in before noon, I pretty much write it off as a day I’m not going to work out. I just don’t have it in me by then. Not the greatest thinking, but it’s just not my thing. No matter what the studies say, the best time to work out is the time that works for you. Maybe it is nights, and if you are consistent and you like it, then that’s all that matters.

You can turn into a morning exerciser, though, if you really want to. It will just take a while. I recall hearing somewhere that it takes 21 days to make something into a habit. So, make it through three weeks of early morning working out and you may just make it a habit. A great habit, if you ask me.

Here are a few suggestions to make morning workouts work for you:

1. Be accountable. To be honest, my best consistency in early morning workouts is when I’m paying money and/or others are relying on me to be present. For me that means taking a class, meeting a friend, or practicing in a boat where you need all participants there. If you really want to get that workout in, make sure you have a very compelling reason to get out of bed alongside that desire to get the workout in. You’ll be more likely to ignore your body’s wish for 5 extra minutes of sleep.

2. Be prepared. Every night I lay out all of the clothes I’m going to wear on the couch in the living room. I do this in the living room so I don’t disturb the husband in the bedroom sleeping. This means once in a while I’m pretty sure our newspaper delivery guys get a glimpse of a strange lady getting changed in the middle of the living room but whatever. On the couch I lay my sports bra on top of my t-shirt on top of my long-sleeve. My leggings are on the arm of the couch. I tuck my socks into my shoes which are next to the couch. I have my bag next to my shoes. Everythng is in the same place each time, I could do it closing my eyes (I’m already doing it in the dark). The only thing I need to do after my alarm goes off is pee, put on my contacts, change (clothes already out), and grab my water bottle, which I fill the night before. My phone and fitbit have been added into that routine, too. I do this all so that I don’t have to think much. I had a friend who used to tuck her workout clothes under her pillow. Whatever it takes.

3. Do something you really like to do. I’ve tried to run first thing in the morning. I’ve tried to run after lunch. I’ve tried all sorts of times and really the best time for me to run is morning, but after breakfast. I’d say 8 or 9 is my sweet spot these days. Which means I won’t set my alarm for 5:00 to go for a run. I’ve tried and I’m not successful. If you do something in the morning that you’re not keen on doing (or your body is telling you, no thank you), do yourself a favor and find another activity. Not liking the planned workout is only going to tempt you to ignore the alarm.

4. DON’T IGNORE THE ALARM. Your significant other (even if that SO is your dog) will be grumpy. (Also if you use your phone as your alarm clock, learn to wake up with your phone on vibrate. At some point you may end up waking up a minute before your alarm. That’s when you know you’ve made it)

5. Give yourself a break. Take at least one day a week to wake up later. Get to bed at a normal time (for me, my bedtime is 10 p.m. as I write this I see it is 9:50 so I know I have to either wrap it up or save it in my drafts). When I rowed I tried to go to bed at 9. If for some reason I’m having a bad night, I’m just not sleeping, only a few times over the past 2+ years have I skipped that class the next morning. Many more times I suffer through it sometimes because I know. This is my time to get it done, and if I don’t do it at 5:30, I won’t do it. And I’m selfish. I want it. So, I suffer.

6. Remember that it could be worse. You could be The Rock:

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A post shared by therock (@therock)

#Crazy

WODS of January 2015

Posted on February 8, 2015 by chatty

I’ve been doing this for over 2 years now. It’s kind of hard to fathom. Our strength focus lately has been fine-tuning our lifts. Form and such. As January was NFL playofss, you may see a few (or more than a few) Seahawk-themed workouts here. Sigh. Just sigh.

Happy New Year … a month with a lot of burpees. Funny, that.

I was on the “More Awesomer” team. This was Championship Blue Friday. We won by a point in the “fourth quarter”. What I thought would be a good omen. It wasn’t.

Our Kam Chancellor wod. A lot of jumping.

The wide receivers workout. In high school I think we called these Suicide Runs? Probably not PC anymore. And in the 6am class we’re doing them in a dark, near pitch black, alley.

It was tough to finish this one within the time cap. I just made it through. The first time listed was our 1,000m row time. For me, 4:00, which is my personal goal for those types of sprints.

Blue Friday WOD. We did a similar one last year. Your reps are team player numbers. 89 Bicycles … Thanks Doug Baldwin, Thanks.

I’ve stopped going Toes to Bars. (hanging down from a bar you bring your toes up to touch the bar) It’s too much for my back.

Thanks, January. Moving on.

WODS of December 2014

Posted on January 22, 2015 by chatty

Well, my goal (because I refuse to set new year resolutions) of blogging more has been SOOO successful.

But, everyone should have fitness goals. Last year my goal was to increase my max pull ups and … I’m still at one. Oh well.

This year? I’m itching to switch things up a little bit but haven’t figured out how, exactly. I did someone get conned into signing up for a 15K. Funny thing, that. I thought, oh, March is so far away and that’s plenty of time to train. And then after signing up I thought, Hm. Race date is March 1, which is basically the end of February. And then I thought, Huh, actually it’s already mid-to-late January and suddenly I’m like, AAAAAHHHH?!

So. I have that to look forward to.

I still have 10 days to post the December WODs, before I need to get my butt in gear to post January’s so here you go:

And … I’ll leave the commentary out of it this time.

WODs of November 2014

Posted on December 28, 2014 by chatty

Life has been busy, and I haven’t even been cooking much. I have been doing my usual exercise thing, more or less, though. I’ve been doing this Crossfit thing for over 2 years now, and I’m now debating what’s next for me. I’m certainly stronger, but my body shape is … weird. In a good way, I guess. Sort of related, am I the only one to notice that the people who design women’s shirts for the Gap don’t believe you should have any upper body strength or something? Just wondering.

Here is November’s workouts. In a few days, I’ll probably post Decembers. Sorry so late.

Only me and one other guy, Scott, opted for the 5K run. My time is a minute or more slower than the previous test. So, most of my benchmarks are worse. Do what you will with that information.

Again, a slower benchmark. But this time it’s because I stupidly tried to do Fran at 65#. Stupid.

Hmm. Though I can’t remember this one, the presence of DUs leads me to believe it wasn’t an easy one for me.

In the original crossfit open version of this, the weight increased with each increase of reps. Such a bad a idea. I don’t remember this one much, but it looks like I was just slightly lower than some of the strong guys in this class. This was the day I then went on a plane to visit my buddies in Chicago (see previous post). Not a great workout to do right before jumping on a plane.

Yeah.

One of my coaches, Jess, has been great at giving me cues to improve my DUs, and it’s sorta kinda beginning to pay off. I still have trouble, but have been stringing more together lately. The most recent observation she made was to slow down my hands since my feet can’t keep up. You’d think maybe I would have figured that one out myself. I didn’t.

Seems like I didn’t take many photos here. I was also out for a number of days, in my (weak defense).

WODs of October 2014

Posted on November 3, 2014 by chatty

I blinked and suddenly it was Halloween. And now all the stores are hawking their holiday wares. It’s like they’re not even trying to hide the fact that they’re starting so early anymore. We’ve all become immune or something.

Workouts continue. Some better than others. Here’s a peek, in no particular order:

I do remember finishing this one and actually saying something like, ‘wow, this was pretty good’. On occasion the workouts we do balances out the heavy squatting we’ve been doing during our “skill set” portion of class. This is an example of that.

This was a Friday, our “de-load” day. I didn’t do HS PUs, but instead just held the HS for 30 sec or something. I see we did DUs here which leads me to believe I did not enjoy this one. If you squint to see the times you’ll notice I was the last one done, by like a couple of minutes.

Instead of the 100m sprints in the rain we did 250m sprints on the erg. If anything, I’m consistent.

Core to the max. We called those skater jumps “apolo ohnos”

This was a good one, with decent rest in between each set.

The pull ups were killing me on this one. A lot of resting, a lot of bands. A lot of counting by 3’s

Yep

Halloween WOD. Our fearless leader Jess dressed up as an 80s aerobics instructor. We ended up combining times as two teams. To win it, i think your best bet is to do the front squats for the minute, and do them quickly, to outpace what you would have gotten were you to d squat cleans. At least, that was my strategy. Unless my legs couldn’t handle it any more.

Oh, look. Doubleunders. And look at that low score next to said DUs. Sheesh. Actually being as this was a while ago I have very little memory of it. See how I can just block these out of my head?

So, after 2+ years of crossfit, I finally found myself doing a 2K. And, it wasn’t as dreadful I had feared. Oh, wait. It was. My time, not great, but I’ll take it … especially if I don’t have to do another one for 2 more years.

Well, then.

People don’t realize how difficult jumping squats or split squats are until they have to do them repeatedly. I won’t forget the workouts from The New Rules of Lifting, which incorporated both into their workouts. Ouch, just ouch. I chose the jumping squats.

I used a dumbbell instead of a kb. 25#, maybe? Yep.

Yes, 3 1/2 min more goodness, with the goal of hitting half of your original 7 minute number. I made it, and I also beat my previous record for 7 min. We later found out that some of the classes didn’t do the 3 1/2 minute portion. The risks that come with attending the first class of the day.

Good month of workouts here.

WODs of September 2014

Posted on October 18, 2014 by chatty

Usually our group does Wendler for 12 weeks a couple of times a year. This time around we’re doing a new strength training cycle, that’s all about squats (front squats and back squats). In the pic immediately below you can see how it kicked off. For the couple of weeks prior, we all did 1RMs for our front squat. I did mine after coming back from a week of not lifting much at all. I was feeling cruddy that day, was running out of time before doing the WOD and didn’t want to rush, so I stopped at around 100# and called it a day. When this first day of lifting came around, well, I wasn’t struggling very much which made coach Danielle look at me with her stern look:

“Did you sandbag your 1 rep max???”

“No!”

<continued stern look>

“I might have”

So now I’m basing my numbers on Rina’s 1RM, which is 120#. It’s going ok. We are about 5 weeks in and have another 5 or so weeks to go. Let’s just say heavy is heavy, and at this point I’m getting tired of squatting. On the other hand, my squatting is looking pretty good these days. They call me textbook. That’s a good thing, at least when it comes to squatting.

All of this heavy lifting means that many of our WODs are more cardio-intensive, which for some reason translates into double-unders. Which continue to be the bane of my existence.

I’m posting this late into the month, so I’m leaving most of these without comment, unless there is something that really sticks out there.

WP_20140922_001

I didn’t take too many pics this month.

I ran a race

Posted on September 29, 2014 by chatty

Race report. On Sept. 20 I ran my first race of the year. I Beat the Blerch. And it was great. 10K flat out and back at Tolt-MacDonald Park in Carnation. There were Blerches on the course, suggesting we stop and take a nap. There was cake, Nutella sandwiches and a couch at mile 3. These treats were at the finish line, as well, for those runners like me who might have vomited were they to eat cake at mile 3. What a delicious Nutella sandwich! I’ve got to get more of those in my diet.

If you don’t know anything about The Blerch, allow me to introduce you to
this comic, which sums up how I often feel when faced with the task of training for a race.

So, yeah. Fun. Bumped into a few friends at the start line. Also fun. Convenient parking. Lots of portapotties. Nice swag. Smooth start and the announcer says your name as you cross the finish line. One of the smoothest, well-organized running events I’ve been to, especially as a first-time race.

Oh yeah, and photos, lots of them, available for download at no cost. Wha??? Here’s one …

My time was about 1:01, or a 9:53 pace. Not surprising, considering the minimal training I had been able to do. The 10K is an ideal pace. Short enough to be done with minimal training, long enough to be worth a race entry fee and the hassle of race day.

What’s next?

WODs of August 2014

Posted on August 31, 2014 by chatty

This is going to be abbreviated, as I was out of town for a week, and two other weeks I only went twice because of poor sleep issues (for those of you not in the know, I am a regular attendee of the 5:30 a.m. class. Every once in a while I find myself unable to sleep and end up cancelling my spot at 2 in the morning to try to snag some extra Zs), and once I forgot to take a pic. Actually, that one I remember. It was a 4:30PM class the day after returning from our vacation, and the coach erased the board for the day before I could snap a pic. But, it was EMOM even minutes 10 Burpees, odd minutes 6 Front Squats, for 12 minutes. Good times. And so were these …

This was yesterday’s (end of the month, end of the week). A very sweaty workout. Pull-ups were terrible, maybe because I did the burpees before the row, and that wiped my back strength out? All around a hard and long workout.

A lot of front squats this month. Not a fan of this particular squat.

I am a nervous nelly when it comes to those lateral jump overs. Ideally one can whip them out, do them quickly. I can’t string more than two or three together like that.

Lot of writing on this wall. Hm. Doubleunders I’m sure slowed me down for this. I was a full 2 and a half minutes slower than the other guy, it seems.

I remember this one in that the kettlebell swings clicked for me. My coach, Jess, gave me some cue that changed the way I was doing them, for the better. It’s all about the momentum.

I remember doing this one, especially the skill work (balance) …but it’s not memorable.

A lot of running. Good deal.

There was one more I remember doing this month … We basically did 6x400m, where the goal was to rest for the same amount of time it took to run the lap. What I remember about that one was the consistency I was able to maintain over the 6 reps: The first 4 were all around 2 minutes and the last 2 were like 2:06 or something. More running. Good, since I’ve only been getting out to run maybe once a week, in prep for my upcoming 10K. First race of the year. Yeah!

Chatty Cha

dessert first

Category Archives: fitness