A hiking we will go!

Name: Point Reyes Hike
Date: July 18. 2009
Distance: 8.90 miles
Elapsed Time: 4:22:05
Avg. Speed: 2.0 mph
Max Speed: 9.9 mph
View in Google Maps
created using MotionX-GPS on the iPhone

It lost a little data in the trees at the beginning, so there's a large chunk missing from the trail - but i changed where I was carrying my phone, and it did a lot better.

This was a truly glorious day. The weather was absolutely perfect - the fog stayed at bay for all but about 20 minutes of the hike, at which point a little coolness was extremely welcome. And I felt STRONG. When we left the house we thought we would probably do a 6 or 7 mile hike. We thought that was all Daniel's mom would feel up to. But she was feeling great, and really wanted to try something closer to 9 miles. At fist I was just totally mentally unprepared for that, but we stopped and got some snacks for the trail, and got on our way.

The trail we chose started with a massive climb that just went up and up and up and up - seemingly forever. A year ago, it would have left me winded and tired. I was barely breathing heavily by the time we got to the top. My legs didn't feel leaden, either. For the first third of itor so I was right on Daniel's heels, and he's always been a strong hiker (he's got those long legs ;-) ). Daniel's mom was sort of struggling along, one step at a time in the back, much like I used to do, and I felt bad about leaving her behind, so I dropped back to keep her company, but it felt good to really stretch my legs - feel my muscles happily chugging along to propel me forward - for that little bit.

Last year, when I'd been doing crossfit for only a few months, I felt like I'd made large gains in my fitness, but when I went out to go hiking or biking, it didn't really translate - those activities were still pretty damn hard. So it was really nice to finally see my CrossFit fitness actually translate into a separate sport.

I definitely did start to get foot sore around mile 5, and my legs started getting really tight, but I found that stopping and stretching them out helped me to get a fresh burst of energy, and to feel less run down. And I never really hit that plodding - just put one foot in front of the next - state.

I was definitely ready to take my shoes off when it was done, and I was pretty stiff legged for the rest of the day, but it was a fantastic hike.

Yoga. Humbling AND refreshing

Today, we went to an Ashtanga yoga class instead of Crossfit. I found it extremely refreshing to be doing something other than CrossFit for a change. It also became immediately clear (though I already knew this to be true) that i have a LONG way to go towards working on my flexibility.

I was gratified to notice that there were aspects of it that I was better at than I used to be - I can jump back into the plank position for sun salutations, which I could not before, and I also spent less time in child's pose when a movement required too much strength. Ex. I did not used to be able to hold downward dog all the way through all of the introductory Vinyasas - my arms and shoulders would just give out. And I was able to, this time.

But there have definitely been slips in balance and flexibility (particularly flexibility - since balance is just always bad), which I am very much looking forward to working on.

I liked the teacher. He was clearly extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the practice of yoga, and he actually went around the room and adjusted the students when they were having trouble with a pose, which I really appreciated.

7-16-09 Rest Day

I woke up with a scratchy throat, and I felt sluggish and low energy all day. The workout looked like 100 kinds of horrible (a modified rehash of the final chipper WOD from the games):

In this workout you move from each of eight stations after three minutes. The stations are:

squat cleans (100/155 lb.)
toes to bar
box jumps (20/24 inches)
muscle-ups
Single-Arm Push-Press 1.5P/1.0P
double-unders
thrusters (95/135 lb.)
pull-ups (chin over bar)
burpees
walking lunge steps with 45/25 lb. plate overhead

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of "rotate," the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep.

I decided to skip it.

What a slog

First workout back after the games, and I was just happy to be working out again - I'd had essentially a week with plenty of activity, but nothing really physically strenuous, and I was feeling antsy.

Run 800 Meters

5 Rounds:
Barbell Hang Squat Snatch 45# 28 Reps/18 Reps
Barbell Thruster 45# 28 Reps/18 Reps

Run 800 Meters

56:29 RX

That happiness didn't last very long into this. I worked in with James (there was a shortage of bars), which made it take a bit longer, but I don't think I would have blazed through this anyway. I started out with sets of 7 on the snatches, but bumped that up to 10/10/8 in the third round. Likewise my thrusters went from 10/10/8 to 14/14, the last four of which typically had horrible, rounded form at the bottom. First run took 3:15, and the second took 4:30 - I could barely walk when I started it. The rounds took between 9 and 11 minutes.

Terrible no good very bad day

Warmup: ME and ... don't remember what else

WOD:
5 Rounds

Barbell Hang Snatch 45# 28 Reps/18 Reps
Barbell Thruster 45# 28 Reps/18 Reps

Run 800 Meters
*Subbed 15# body bar for snatches and thrusters

Results:
33:47 - DNF after 3 rounds.

Round	Run	1	2	3	Run
Run 800m	6:02
18 Hang Squat Snatches		5:06	5:15	5:03
18 Thrusters		1:48	1:54	2:15
Run 800m					6:20

Comments:
Ugh. I thought that after essentially a week off, my first workout back would go pretty well. This workout started terribly and continued terribly. At about the 300m mark I got the worst side stitch I've had in quite a while, and had to walk a great deal of the first 800 - hence the disastrous time. I haven't had to walk an 800 run in months. Particularly not the first run.

The squat snatches were also ridiculously hard. 18 15# squat snatches just should not take 5 minutes - not even when i had to power snatch the bar and then do an OHS - which was what most of them ended up being.

At the end of round 3 I stood around for a few minutes trying to decide whether I was going to continue. A couple other people had dropped out after round 2 or 3, so it was tempting. I was also having a hard time keeping my right knee out, and by the end of the third round it was feeling positively abused. I was afraid there might be injury if I kept going - and, in all honesty, I was extremely glad to have any excuse to stop. I decided I might as well finish out the run - but at about 250m the side stitch returned with a vengeance, so rather than limping through the full 800 I just called it done and staggered back to 'base'.

It was all pretty horrible.

800m x 4

Warm-up: ME, a few pull up attempts, some push ups, some minimally successful clapping push up attempts.

WOD:
Run 800 Meters x 4 every 9 minutes on the ninth minute.

Results:
4:16 | 4:24| 4:38 | 4:24

Comments:
None of these are a PR, but the first one is close. I'm glad I was able to pull that last one in. I had a classmate right behind me the whole way which was a great motivator - but i almost lost it in the end - i got a terrible side stitch about 30m out from the finish line, but managed to run it in anyway. I was having a REALLY hard time breathing today. I thought it was just personal lameness, but Daniel said he was, too.

These scores are quite a bit better than the last time we did this workout. I also spent a lot of time on the ground just trying to breathe between rounds this time that I didn't experience last time. Probably a combination of working harder and whatever was wrong with the air today.

Aromas Bound

CFEB classes are cancelled this week, as we'll be down in Aromas for the games. We may get in some sort of workout down there for noncompetitors, but the focus is going to be on Polly and the Team. Tonight was a simple back-off workout.

Run 800m every 9 minutes, four times

2:40(PR) | 3:04 | 2:59 | 2:54

I didn't realize this was a PR until I got home - I had a time of 2:38 in my head for some reason. Turns out I set my previous PR of 2:47 almost a year ago to the day. So that's pretty cool! It KILLED me for later laps, though - the second lap felt simply awful, and my lungs were burning. I think the air around Ironworks is just bad for running.