Tiger Mountain, New Breakfast and Rowing PR

Happy Wednesday! I am excited to have a day off today! You know those weeks that are just never-ending?

I've pretty much felt that way since last Friday and just powered through work the past few days. Working in the customer service industry, sometimes I find it really hard to be "on" all the time. It's one of those things where every day before I go to the gym, I take a deep breath and put on a happy face no matter what I am feeling. I am naturally a peppy person, so it's usually easy, but these past few days I have been tired, so I have definitely utilized my deep breathing =)

Enough complaining!

I'm excited to head out to Tiger Mountain today to run the same loop I will be doing twice for my Pigtails 50k in December. I have every reason to believe this run will be better than the disastrous run last Friday, so I'm excited to redeem myself!

Trail madness love!

This morning I decided to try something knew for my pre long-run breakfast. I haven't been very consistent on this front, lately. I know, BAD runner! It is usually recommended to find a breakfast that works for you and stick with it before a long run. I used to be a big believer in toast, peanut butter and banana, but I actually hardly used that at all while I was training for the New York City Marathon (tear).

I was talking with another trainer at work who told me that he has found the best pre-endurance meal to be Grape Nuts Cereal and Strawberries. He said he had tried it before and recommended it to many friends who all had great PR's on this breakfast.

That got me thinking, why not try it?!

I always thought of Grape Nuts as an old fogie cereal. My dad eats it every morning. Enough said =) I also try to stay away from processed foods. Nonetheless, I picked up a box the next time I was at the grocery store. When I looked at the ingredients, I was surprised to see just wheat flour, malted barley flour, salt and dried yeast. And lots of vitamins and minerals, including 90% of daily iron needs!

Even the back of the box touted the use of Grape Nuts for endurance athletes.

So, this morning, I am giving this a whirl. I will let you know how it goes! Has anyone else tried Grape Nuts for pre long-run breakfast? Did it work for you? Of course, I added some banana and almond butter to my bowl because I can't get through breakfast without either!

Final news for today: I rowed 2000 meters straight through for time yesterday at Crossfit. I can't tell you how unhappy I was when I heard the coach yell: "WOD today is 2000 meter row for time! Grab a rower!".

Admittedly, I wanted to strangle him. But I got my rower, while grumbling under my breath, and told myself slow and steady wins the race. And ya know what?

I killed it. Level II goal time was 8:50, and I crushed that with 8:46. Maybe I'm not so bad at rowing, but it still hurts! My butt is just a liiiiiitttlllleeee sore today! =)

Workout Catch Up

How is it Thursday already?! I've got lots of workouts to recap!

Lets start at CrossFit! It's been a good week for me. I think my body is getting accustomed to so many workouts in addition to teaching and training. Woo hoo!

Monday we had a nice little circuit workout that I just killed. I loved the short but sweet workout this day.

We did three rounds of kettlebell push press, pull ups and push ups. All this after working 5 sets of military press! Haha, my shoulders were fried, but I owned it! As usual, I loathed the row, but was able to push through it because I knew it would be over soon!

Tuesday was fun as well. I killed "Helen"!

Helen is one of the benchmark workouts that is three rounds, as fast as possible, for time.

 I love "Helen" because it is really about endurance. There aren't any Olympic lifts in there, so I just have to go balls to the wall and hold steady until I can collapse at the end. I think I finished in 8:45, and did everything prescribed except the pullups. I have faith that in a few months, I can have enough unassisted kipping pullups strung together, that I can finish the workout as prescribed!

Our workout last night was another good one! It's been a good week at the box!

After trail running again yesterday (more on that in a second), I was worried I wasn't going to feel very recovered for the afternoon workout, but I felt great!

We started by working on rowing technique, which is always welcomed. Our WOD was a 500 meter row, then 21-15-9 reps of burpees and v-ups. Then a 500 meter run followed by 21-15-9 of double unders (I did singles) and kettlebell swings.

Loved it! I finished first in my class of 20! Of course I get ahead on the run, but I've found that I tend to get ahead on burpees, too. This is strange because I still have trouble with my pushups, but I sort of slam my body onto the ground and then explode back up to a squat. It works!

My runs this week have been great too! Both Monday and Tuesday, I took it easy, but ended up speedier than I intended. LOVE it when that happens!

Yesterday I met my friend Jess again for a trail run. SO MUCH TRAIL RUNNING! I'm loving it.

Up and ready for the trails!

 We went back to Cougar Mountain and I find that I love those trails so much better than Discovery Park. The trails are just more beautiful and there seems to be less people, which makes it more serene. The trails also seem to be more "rugged" (the only word I can think of). The Discovery Park trails are paved with dirt or gravel over them, but on Cougar Mountain, it's just the dirt and tree branches to hop over. Jess and I ended up running for about an hour and forty minutes.

Garmin wouldn't connect, so we used Jess's watch.

It is so peaceful being out there on the trails and I feel so lucky to have such a great mentor and teacher in Jess! Of course, she's recovering from an injury and is working her way back up to ultramarathon shape, which means 4-8 hour runs, which I will definitely not be able to keep up on!

After trail running, I came home and made the most delicious "cheesy kale chips" from Emily on Daily Garnish. Darn this stuff was delicious! There really wasn't a recipe, but I wrote it out below in case you want to try it.

Cheesy Kale Chips
Daily Garnish

Kale
Olive oil
Salt
Nutritional Yeast

Massage kale with a glug of olive oil, until soft. Add salt and nutritional yeast and toss. Spread onto a baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

My Overtraining Balance

First things first, workouts!

Yesterday I took it very easy on my morning run. I only did four miles and kept all of them close to 8.30 minutes per mile. I was feeling tight and sluggish during the first two and a half miles, but finally started feeling better halfway through.

Another morning I was just thankful I got to get out and run!

I attended a noon CrossFit class since I taught in the evening and couldn't make my normal class. Noon classes are going to be my normal several days a week now because of my teaching schedule in the evenings. This makes me so sad because I love the class I normally attend at night and am going to miss my friends!

Anyways, I ran over to Crossfit when I got off work and by the time I got there, I realized how tired I was! Sometimes I feel tired and then once I get started I feel fine and kill the workout.

That didn't exactly happen today.

Our workout was a killer. We did "Christine" 3 rounds through, interval style.

"Christine" includes a 500 meter row, 12 dead lifts and 21 box jumps. Three times through. For time. Kill me now.

I have mentioned only a million times that rowing is not my strong suit and it is safe to assume my legs were spent after the 5k row on Wednesday. Not only was it difficult to get through the rowing, but by the time I finished the dead lifts and box jumps, my legs were a wreck!

After the first round, I had to lower my dead lift weight from 15kg to 10kg and was able to pull it together for the last 2 rounds.

After killing myself the second round through, I let it slip to my coach that this was my third workout in the past 18 hours.

I've spoken to one of the runner-coaches at the gym before about my schedule. The most important thing was to listen to my body. If I am feeling worn out, take a step back.

Of course, this is easier said than done. There are always times I don't feel like going to a workout, but push myself because I know I'm just being lazy. It is sometimes difficult for me to tell when I am just a little tired or when I actually need a day off.

I enjoy running so much. It is just apart of who I am now and it's what I do every morning for my sanity. I can't letting it go at all. I also enjoy racing and pushing myself to get faster. There is so much joy for me in running.

I feel the same way about Crossfit. Not only do I love the workouts, but they have made my running so much better. I am a stronger and faster runner because of Crossfit's awesome insanity. On top of that, I have lots of friends at Crossfit and generally enjoy the social aspect of it.

Now that I am teaching fitness classes twice a week, my activity level has gone up even more and I need to make sure I'm paying attention to how my body is feeling since it is now my job.

Usually it takes my body about two weeks to adjust to a new schedule, so I'm just holding steady for now.

To keep healthy, I'm making sure to do as much recovery as I can. I'm drinking lots of these:

Water and green tea in my Phantom mug (duh).

I'm making sure when I do have downtime, I'm using it to rest my body. I find it very hard to sit still and not be running around checking things off my list of To-Do's, but I know its important to let my body recover as much as I can between activities. Mostly it's sitting here, being lazy and studying:

Hi couch-time!

If I'm not on the couch studying (or reading blogs, obviously), I'm out enjoying this extended Seattle summer we seem to be having. By enjoying, I simply mean layout in the park studying. Still a recovery activity!

I'm making an effort to take more of these, even though it's getting cooler out and the last thing I want to do is jump in ice-water:

Ice bath. Such a love-hate relationship.

And, of course, I roll-out and use my Marathon Stick as often as I can and am making sure to stretch every night before bed:

Foam roller and The Stick. Hurts so good.

I know other people struggle with overtraining (or just loving working out so much!) as well. It's all fun and games until someone gets injured! Any tips?

Anything you do to aid in your recovery that I may not have thought of?

All the Rowing

Despite feeling tired a bit run down on Tuesday, I was up and ready to run by Wednesday! I had 5 miles on my plan and decided to get in some mile repeats. I kept them all under 8, but was a little disappointed they weren't lower. After the second one wasn't up to my standards, I turned my attention back to just enjoying the act of running and feeling the crisp air on my face.

Pretty morning!

Cheesy? You betcha! But it works!

After work I tried to go home and take it easy so I could have a good CrossFit workout later in the afternoon. Of course, I couldn't sit still (although I did make it through an episode of Dance Moms!) and my grand plans of icing my knee for a few hours turned into me choreographing for my classes tomorrow. Haha. I'll never learn!

I loved our workout last night. We started by doing a superset of pushups and pullups. I need help with both, so it was definitely a good strength workout for me. It was also helpful to work strength with the dead hang pullups instead of just kipping, as we usually do during workouts. My arms were totally spent by the end of that. They were shaking all over the place!

Our "WOD" doesn't sound up my alley, but I ended up really enjoying the challenge. I was also glad to give my knees a little break from the usual running and squatting.

We did a 5k row, split up with a partner. I usually detest rowing, but I tried to think about improving!

Source

My partner and I decided to split it up into 250 meter segments. I was trying to think about my technique and making sure I was sitting up straight and pushing the bar forward.

My coach mentioned that I need to try slowing down my strokes and exploding from my legs more. She said that I rely on my speed and quickness too much and that I need to work on power now. After that, I worked on slowing down my reps, but making each one count!

I think we finished around 21 minutes. Which means I was rowing for over 10 minutes with a total of 2500 meters! I'm sure if you asked me if I could have rowed that much last week, I would have said no! And that is yet another reason I love Crossfit. It pushes me past what I think I am capable of.

Exciting Things Thursday at CrossFit

The most exciting part of my day yesterday was my afternoon CrossFit workout. And not because the workout was super amazing, either.

Ready to Crossfit in my lime green shoes.

 First things first: I got my first unassisted kipping pull up! I have been working on my pullups for such a long time and it has become so apparent how piddly (yes, that's a word in Allison language) my upper body strength is, especially my shoulder strength. I started Crossfit several months ago and was pretty much struggling to do ANY sort of pullup even with the thickest band we had at the box. I specifically remember doing a WOD that included a set of 20 pullups and I really struggled to get through it. And that would never do!

Everyday for the past 3 weeks or so, I have stayed after class to work on my pullups. Every coach seemed to have a different opinion about how to get better at pullups. Some said to work on my kipping pullups and go down a band size every time I got up to 15 reps. Other coaches said to build strength I should be doing dead hang pull ups. I kind of switched between working my kip and building strength from a dead hang.

GRRR!!! Pull up MUSCLES! Or just an awkward self photo.

 Today one of the coaches told me to just try a pull up without the band. After about 2 attempts and a short break, I GOT IT! Holy cow I was so excited I couldn't handle it! Of course, I was pretty maxed out and exhausted at that point, so I only managed one. Still, a very big milestone!

Next on my bucket list: double unders!

Before the extreme excitement of the pullups, we started the workout finding a 3 rep back squat max. I have to admit, I was insanely sore from all the deadlifts we did yesterday and my knee was being a cranky *itch, which I think is attributed to all the downhills I did while running on the trails the other day. Or it could be because I am not engaging my glute enough when I squat and the downhills aggravated it.

Anyways, the big news with my back squats is that I finally pushed myself to the point that I had to bail mid-squat. Watching other people max out at the bottom of a squat has always scared the crud out of me! When you have a huge barbell on your back, squat, and can't get back up, you are supposed to drop it behind you. My coaches have actually had me practice this, so I was lucky I already had some muscle memory for this.

This is a back squat. Source

During my last set, I got down to the bottom of my squat and literally just lost it. It happened so quickly that I'm not sure if my core crapped out on me, or I was literally just maxed out, but I felt my chest dropping and had to let go. The bar rolled down my back and hit the floor. I was startled, but more than ok. I was glad I got my first "bail" out of the way. From now on I know what to do!

I also got some help with my atrocious rowing technique last night. It's amazing to me that I can kill a running workout, but I am almost always one of the last ones off the rower.

Here are a few pointers my coach gave me:

• Sit up straight, don't ever lose your core.
• To recover, you want to think push arms, torso follows, then legs bend. 
• Explode with the legs to begin stroke.

I know all those things sound very basic, but especially the sequence of recovery was opposite of what I was doing. Rowing is definitely a skill, so I am going to try to get my technique down so I can add speed correctly.

Finally, on to the WOD!

Today's was short and sweet. We did one round, all out, 500 meter row, 50 kettlebell swings and 50 wall ball. I was hurting while I was going through the workout, but after I finished I realized I probably could have pushed harder. Oh well, next time!

I've had several good runs the end of this week. Thursday was an easier 4 miles. My legs were starting to feel the deadlifts from the night before, so I just listened to my body and took it easy.

This morning I did 5 miles with 5 800 repeats. I found these lots of fun and was definitely challenged the whole time. I ran by the marina and it was pitch black across the water. I'm going to miss catching the sunrise during the winter!

Waaahhh! Why so dark?!

The run felt great and I finished in 39 minutes. And again, after I was done, I realized I probably could have pushed harder. Grrr!

This weekend I'm running the Iron Girl 10k around Green Lake. I'm excited for this run mostly because I conned a Crossfit friend to run the 5k as well! I plan to get 8-10 miles in before the race, so I'm not expecting a pr. You never know, though! Have a great weekend!