Ode to Trails: Trail Running Discovery Park

This is the second time this month I have been trail running! Who am I?!

Let me rewind to the beginning of the weekend. Friday I went to Crossfit, despite feeling exhausted. I knew I was going to have most of Saturday to recover before my long run Sunday, and I wanted to see my friends there.

The workout was fine. It was an AMRAP and I took it nice and easy. We did 15 minutes of lunges, kettlebell swings, pushups and pullups. Since I was feeling so sluggish, I pushed myself through the workout, but didn't go all out by trying to get in a million rounds of anything.

Saturday morning I got in a nice, short and slow run. Nothing to write home about.

One of the trainer's at my CrossFit gym, Jess, is an ultra marathoner and runs several a year. Talk about amazing! Anyways, she is all about the trails and is coming off an injury. She is also running the Tough Mudder in two weekends with our team.

Anyway, in prep for our race, she has been the one taking me trail running several times. I have been very hesitant to get into trails for several reasons.

1: Hills. Most importantly: downhills, which I am awful at.
2: Increased potentail for injury.
3: It's hard.
4: Hills
5: I have an awful sense of direction.
6. I like to run fast on an open road.
7. Hills.

I think these reasons can now be thrown out the window as I think I am falling in love with trails.

Don't get me wrong. Most of my runs will continue to be "road" runs, and I will continue to enjoy working on my speed. However, I have come to appreciate trail runs to the point where I have made plans to meet on the trails twice this week.

Hold the phone. What is going on.

Sunday morning, I had plans to meet some friends at Discovery Park. There were 5 of us meeting, all of whom will be running Tough Mudder.

I had never been to Discovery Park, but since I wanted to get in 16-18 miles, I knew I needed to get started earlier than everyone else. I got to the park about an hour ahead of time and after wandering around the parking lot, found the entrance and took off. I took the main loop around and for the first lap, I was mostly alone (and swatting away spiderwebs). It was so peaceful and gorgeous out that I couldn't help but enjoy myself!

The sunrise was going on as I took my first loop around the park and I just kept a slow, steady pace, enjoying the morning!

I only got in about 6 and a half miles before meeting up with the rest of the crew: Beth, Jess, Scott and Matt. Jess took us through a longer loop that was probably 5 to 6 miles and we got to run down along the waterfront, which was lovely!

Scott is a new runner and decided after not having run over 2 miles before in his life, to start training for a 50k! How bad-a$$ is that?! I promise he is being smart about it, as Jess is helping him train. Our run Sunday morning was a new personal distance record for him! I'm really excited to watch his journey because he is still finding running to be super difficult and hasn't yet found the joy that you get once your body acclimates to running. He stepped out of his car before our run in a shirt that says "running sucks". I literally burst out laughing!

After that loop, we lost Scott and Matt. Jess, Beth and I did one more loop. I was feeling great after the first two loops and it wasn't until about halfway through the third loop that I started feeling tired. It was taking a lot of energy for me to really pay attention to my footing and not start dragging my feet along. When I run on the road, I have more freedom to stumble, but do that on a trail and you will bite it. Hard!

One thing that is probably good for me, but drives me absolutely nuts is that when I run trails, my Garmin can't always get a signal, so I never know my total miles. Jess is trying to get me to base my runs on time, but I get so anal about my distances! I just want to know how far I've gone! According to Jess, just being on my feet for a certain amount of time is akin to how far I would've gone on the road.

Garmin says 15 miles, but I think it was closer to 16 or 17. Ready to kill 18-20 this weekend! I wasn't as tired as I thought I should've been after this run. We went to brunch afterwards at the Hi Life in Ballard. I had a yummy scramble with eggs and salmon, some fruit and coffee and by the time we were finished I was excited to attack the rest of the day! Usually after long runs I need a nap and feel like I should be lazy the rest of the day. Must mean training is working and my body is getting used to higher mileage!

I'm excited for a fun week ahead. More trail running (what on earth is going on?!), CrossFit fun and my best friend comes to visit next weekend!

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.

So Many Exciting Things

Let's get right to the workouts! Several new developments have happened at CrossFit the past few days.

Monday evening I realized that handstands are really scary for some people. I know, novel realization. I'm such a smart cookie. Growing up dancing and doing gymnastics in high school, I can't remember a time when I couldn't do a handstand. I remember constantly playing on my hands with my feet straight up throughout my childhood. When I started doing yoga, I learned to actually control my handstands, although they are done much differently in a yoga class than I was ever used to.

My friend mentioned on Monday that she wanted to start working on handstands.

I was surprised, "what do you mean, 'work on them?'"

Haha. Apparently handstands are hard for people and that it is an actual CrossFit skill! Of course, all I could think was: At last! A Crossfit skill I already have! Finally.

Our WOD Monday wasn't too crazy. We went through the circuit below 5 times and I felt like I was flying through it easily.

The hardest part for me was the row, as I am still trying to work on my technique, which is making me a little slower. I'm trying to take that in stride because I know eventually, I will be a better rower!

The other exciting thing happened this afternoon. After our workout, I was working on my pull-ups, per usual. One of my coaches came up to me and asked if I could do one un-assisted dead hang pull-up. I answered "no" and she asked if she could see.

By some miracle, I did it! One dead hang pull up! Totally unexpected! And, right after that I whipped out 2 kipping pullups in a row! I'm such a proud little Crossfitter! (And that is a lot of exclamation points. Sorry for the insane excitement.)

Our workout featured a little barbell complex our coach made up. It started with a dead lift, then a clean, and a thruster. That's a lot of squating! It was a fun little complex, though, and I appreciated our coach linking so many of the lifts together.

The actual WOD wasn't too difficult, except for the fact that I was feeling pretty tired.

Admittedly, I probably don't take enough rest days. After my awesome race and long run on Sunday, I rested the remainder of the day so that I could run again the next morning. Not the smartest decision, but it works for me.

My Monday and Tuesday runs were nice and mellow. I was trying to do some tempo miles on Tuesday, but was still feeling tired, so I just slowed down when I really felt I needed to.

In other news, I've got some exciting things coming up! First, the Tough Mudder! I have a little over 2 weeks to continue to freak out about this race. I am going trail running again this Sunday to help prepare myself more. I am mostly worried about the obstacles and my main goal is just to come away without getting injured. Although I want to be a bada**, I am going to make it a point to skip an obstacle if I think I may actually get hurt from it. We'll see if I can follow through with that one!

Source

My last exciting piece of news is that I think I've picked my next marathon: Eugene 2013! A lot of bloggers are thinking about doing this race at the end of April as well, which would make it even more fun. The course is supposedly pretty fast, and after running NYC 2 years in a row, I will be excited to run a flatter course. I also have my CrossFit friend, Beth, convinced to run this with me as her first marathon!

Iron Girl 10k Race Recap

Since I already spoiled the surprise yesterday, I had such a great race! Lately all my races have been great and I attribute it to Crossfit and my ability to endure and push past the pain threshold.

My bib has my name on it. I was way too excited about this!

Backing up.

Sunday my initial plan was to get 6 miles in and then race. After several awesome long run weekends in a row, I decided to up it to 10 miles plus the 10k so I would have 16 total for my "long run". 

I knew this was ambitious and didn't really know what sort of goals to go into the race with. As usual, I just told myself to take it how I feel and if after 10 miles I was tired, I would go easy on myself for the race.

Well, the 10 miles flew by easily. I got started just as the sun was rising. I ran down the Burke Gilman trail and up Stone Way to Green Lake, where the start of the race was. 

Hark! I see sunlight!

By the time I got to Green Lake, I was tired, I'm not going to lie. Before I had a chance to mentally doubt myself, I put on my race bib and ate several shot blocks and a date. I was so glad I had decided to wear my Camelbak so I could have lots of fuel, water and my cell phone. Although I'm sure some people looked at me strangely for running only a 10k with a hydration system on my back! Whatever, I'll bet I beat them in the end. (Who's laughing now?! Muahahah!)

Then I went off in search of my Crossfit friend, Beth, who I had conned into racing with me despite her getting back from Croatia just 2 days before. 

Tee hee. I'm such a race pusher!

I found Beth in the corrals already and was so happy to see her! My excitement immediately returned and I was feeling energized again!

Sarah also found me (I told her to look for a pink Camelbak. I'm not hard to miss) and it was so great to meet her before the race!

In the corrals, ready to RACE!

Beth and I joke around all the time that we both have an inability to just "take it easy" in a workout. No matter how tired we are, once that clock starts, we both have one speed and that is crazy.

Beth was running the 5k and I was running the 10k, so there was no chance we were going to stick with each other for the race. We settled ourselves at the front of the corrals near the start so that we wouldn't have to do too much weaving around people. 

Since I was feeling pretty good, I decided to try to keep around an 8 min/mile pace. The start was a bit of a "cross country" start in that it was on grass. I was not all too happy about that and totally almost fell on my face! I kept my footing, though, and finally made it out onto the road. 

When I heard that the 5k and 10k were running together, I was a little confused as to how that would work and what part of the Green Lake loop we were going to do. The outside loop is small, so I wasn't sure how they were going to cram so many runners in there. Luckily, they had half of the road blocked off, so after the initial start, it was easy to spread out. 

I looked down at my watch after half a mile and saw that I was holding a 7:50 pace. Hmm. That was slightly off my intended pace, but I felt good, so I went with it. 

Mile 1: 7:50
Mile 2: 7:51
Mile 3: 7:41

3.1 miles in to the race, the 5k-ers peeled off to finish. I thought this would be painful to watch as I would want to be done as well, but I was excited that I got to keep running! (What a weirdo!)

Mile 4: 7:31

After I kept hitting mid 7-minute miles, I told myself that after mile 4 if I was feeling good, I would pick up the pace a bit for the final 2 miles. 

I got to mile 4 and did just that. Of course, about that time I also started feeling a little tired. Camelbak to the rescue! So glad I had some water on me. I chugged a few sips and immediately felt better.

After the 5k'ers were gone, I knew everyone left was doing the 10k. I started getting super competitive (surprise, surprise) and decided to pass everyone I could. My pace kept falling as I kept getting more and more excited with passing people. 

Mile 5: 7:18
Mile 6: 6:53

I was feeling really rough the last mile, although you wouldn't be able to tell it by my pace. The last half mile I literally gave it everything I had. I saw Beth in the last little bit (she had already finished her 5k) and started sprinting towards the end.

I finished in 46:58, which ended up being 13th place overall and 2nd place in my age division! Not only is this a new PR, but it's a new PR after already having run 10 miles. Crazy!

And I got a pretty medal, which was sweet!

I found Beth pretty quickly after the race and found Sarah a little after that. Another great race down!

Weekend Workouts

My weekend started off Friday evening with a CrossFit workout. This should come as no surprise =) For some reason our class was packed! There are usually around 10 people, but we probably had close to 20 on Friday.

We started off working military press. The Level II checklist requires 3 military press at 1/2 body weight. Apparently, our coaches are getting us ready for a skills test so we did 3 reps with as much weight as possible. I didn't get up to 1/2 my body weight, but I was close! Why is anything with shoulders so difficult?!

Our WOD was all about getting to muscle failure. Our coach put 4 minutes on the clock and for the first round, we had to row 300 meters and then do as many pushups as possible.

Ouch. And it only got worse! And, of course, by worse, I mean it got more fun!

Then we had 4 minutes on the clock to run 200 meters and do as many pullups as possible. I didn't even attempt to do my pullups unassisted and still had to stop to rest at least once!

Then we went through each round for a second time.

Bye bye arms, see you next Thursday! My arms were literally jello by the time we finished. I LOVE that feeling!

Afterwards, I drove over to Greenlake to get my bib for Sunday's Iron Girl 10k and it had my name on it! Never had a bib like this before!

Saturday I got in an easy 4 miles before work and then took the rest of the day easy.

Sunday I woke up ready to run! My plan was to hit 16 miles for the day and I got up super early so that I could pound out 10 miles before the 10k. I was really debating whether I should get my extra miles in before or after the race. I ultimately decided to pound them out before so that I could go as fast as possible during the race and not think about getting in more running afterwards.

My 10 miles flew by. I ran down the Burke Gilman Trail and then up Stone Way to Green Lake. The race was most excellent, but I am going to do a full recap tomorrow. Let's just say I got a shiny new PR and 2nd place in my age group!

Wow, way to blow the surprise there, Allison.

The rest of my weekend was spent mostly studying. I'm working to get my ACE Group Fitness Certification and I am slowly making my way through the textbooks. Studying on my own is not my forte, nor are exams. I have already done my certification for Personal Training, so I know I can do it, I just have to buckle down and get it done!

Luckily, we had some gorgeous weather Friday and Saturday, so I was able to take my books out to the park so I could get in some sunshine with my studying. I also spent some time planning my classes that start this week. I am teaching a Tabata class, two core classes and a H.I.I.T. class each week. It's definitely going to take some planning, so good thing I really enjoy it!

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!