Sneaking in some Mileage

What a gorgeous Tuesday we had on our hands today didn’t we? When I got out of school today I headed home and immediately took a nap. My upper body was feeling those Caber tosses from yesterday’s workout. Good news is that I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to take whatever workout Marc planned for our Sports Bootcamp class (I just figured out that is the “official” name for bootcamp on the registration site).

I had half a Clif bar about an hour before class (and ate the other half after class).

I also decided that since I had a little nap, I should run to and from Crossfit. It is only a little over a mile from my front door to theirs and serves as a great warm up before class. Of course, bootcamp was going to be outside (it wasn’t raining) and I knew we’d be running, but these mini-runs serve as a great way to sneak in some mileage each week.

Run (to and from)

• about 60 minutes total (including at least a 25 minute talk break when I bumped into Ali on my run home and chatted on Medford St.)
• 2.25 miles total

Bootcamp today was an original Croffit WOD (all of them are named after women).

WOD: Kelly, for 5 rounds, 32 minute time limit

• 400m run
• 30 wall balls (10lb ball)
• 30 ledge jumps

The workout was killer. Marc told use we could modify as we thought we needed to be able to complete 5 full rounds in the time given. I did the first two rounds as prescribed, but I was struggling with catching my breath. For round three I modified to 20 wall balls and at four and five I modified the wall balls to 20 as well. These modifications were very necessary- I went at this WOD balls to the wall (no pun intended 😉 )
(SOURCE)

I finished my modified WOD with like 45 seconds to spare, and then had no energy to stretch after.

Did I mention I had to run home?  I ran a total of 4ish miles today.  See how I snuck that in?!  Clever right?

I was delighted to see Ali running on the other side of the street though I definitely disrupted her Fartlek fun (she was doing some speed work). The only part that neither of us thought out about our chatting: having to completely start our runs over! My body totally cooled down during my break and when I started running again my whole body hurt! Gah!

When I got home, Jack and I decided that we would use a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory and treat ourselves to dinner out. I promised him that at some point I would start cooking dinner again, but as of now we should continue eating out every night 🙂

I started dinner with a couple pieces of bread, a huge glass of water, and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. I actually wasn’t very hungry so I ordered a garden salad served with balsamic vinegarette and fried zucchini sticks.
(SOURCE)

Right about now I could go for a huge brownie sundae and 12 hours of sleep. Since I don’t have brownies and ice cream, and I have to work at 8 am I am plain out of luck for this evening.

I will have to settle for some cookies instead.

Night!
~l

Thing I haven’t Done

Hey everyone!  Happy Saturday!

I haven’t blogged in over a week, but that isn’t the only thing I haven’t done in a week!

I also didn’t:

• run (with the exception of an 8k road race last Sunday and a 5k run Thursday)
• Crossfit
• do laundry
• go food shopping
• cook a home made meal
• make my bed when I got up
• wake up without hitting snooze or resetting my alarm
• shower

OK, I did shower, but I didn’t do much else.  Sometimes life just calls for you to take a break and I guess, as you can see, when I take I break I take it from everything.  Why discriminate right? 😉

Unfortunately one thing that happens when I am not on schedule is that I feel more stressed out and cranky than normal!  I am sure if you asked Jack he would agree that I was probably one tough cookie this week to put up with.

Today I decided it had to end.  I had to get back on track with my Saturday morning bootcamp class.

I always liked the bootcamp classes because I am a fan of the circuit type workouts where you do timed intervals for each exercise.  Our WOD in a regular Crossfit class includes these types sometimes too but usually is a certain amount of reps for a certain amount of rounds.  For a while I thought that because our bootcamps would be outside that we wouldn’t be doing circuits until winter because we had access to a track and could run instead.  Tristan never disappoints though, and he must’ve read my mind, because today’s class was what I would consider my dream bootcamp class.

Warm Up

• 1 and 1/2 laps around the track
• 30 jumping jacks
• 20 air squats
• 10 push ups

Bootcamp:

stations with a partner, two 30-second rounds for each exercise (totaling 2 minutes)

• (A) jumping jacks
• (A) burpees
• (B) bear crawls
• (B) bicycles
• (C) side steps
• (C) Thrusters with 15lb weights
• (D) kettle bell swings with 14kg
• (D) jump rope singles
• (E) push-ups
• (E) walking lunges
• (F) shuttle runs
• (F) ab mat sit ups
• (G) grape vines
• (G) mountain climbers

Then we did the whole circuit again but for just 30 seconds a piece.  I love the 30 second intervals because I can do anything (bear crawls and mountain climbers mainly) for 30 seconds.  It keeps the workout flowing and moving at a fast pace, which I LOVE!

It was such a good workout and I felt strong and happy to be getting back at it.  The sun got very warm toward the end so I was a sweaty mess by the time we were done.  I have got to get myself some unrestrictive summer workout clothes so they only thing that makes the workout hard is, well, the workout! (and not overheating because of clothing thats too heavy).
What haven’t you done this week?

~L

psyched

Hello!  How was everyone’s Tuesday?  I was pretty psyched that it was forecasted to be 80 degrees and sunny in the Boston area.  I was up and ready to go so early today!  Having my lunch packed the night before and a fun math lesson to do with my fifth graders did wonders for my motivation to get out of bed today.

After school I came home, did some blogging, cleaned up the house and waited for Ali to stop in so we could head to Avalon Crossfit Bootcamp at 5:30.  I have been taking Marc’s bootcamp class for a while now and really do enjoy the format and his instructing style.

Today we got to go outside to enjoy the weather (with everyone else in Charlestown 😉 ).  I have begun to realize that a lot of the outdoor WOD/classes are going to involve running, which I am OK with for the most part.  I am not very fast but hopefully that can be something that comes with more 400m runs.

Today my legs were extremely tired: my calves are tight and my hamstrings burn when I walk up the stairs.  After class today I decided that I need to put anymore Crossfit classes on hold until after the race Sunday.  No sense in pushing through to get in a workout, over-doing it can lead to injury.  Part of it is definitely because this weekend I ran twice (4.5 miles Saturday and 5 miles Sunday).

Bootcamp Warm-Up

• 0-25 yard line: walking lunges, high knees, butt-kickers
• 3 rounds: 25 jumping jacks, 15 air squats (yeee-ouch!), 5 inch worms

Bootcamp WOD (Crossfit Benchmark workout modified to work outside)

AMRAP in 20 minutes: I did 5 full rounds and a 6th round with the running and ledge jumps

• 400m run
• 10 ledge jumps
• as many chest to ground push ups as possible without stopping (I usually did 10-15)

It was a really good workout but I couldn’t wait to get home to eat.  I didn’t have a chance to have my pre-workout Clif bar today and I could feel it when I was working out!

Dinner tonight started with a half glass of Riesling that I had to drink before it went bad 😉 *wink* and a salad.

Main course is Barilla pasta (it cooks in 45 seconds and is so much better than dry pasta) and a couple pieces of Pepperidge Farms frozen mozerella garlic bread.

On tap for tonight is the Glee season finale and bed.

The weekend can’t get here soon enough!

~L

Another Rainy Day

Hey there!  I wanted to start off for apologizing the bomb of blog posts I published yesterday.  I felt the motivation to write and went with it!  If you missed them, check them out here, here, and here.  I am really trying to post more regularly but sometimes I feel lazy uninspired.

I had a rough time sleeping last night.  I think I woke up around 5 a.m. and tossed and turned thinking about how vacation is basically over, I haven’t correct a single paper I brought home, and our math MCAS is 11 teaching days upon our return to school Monday.  I still have a ton of math to cram down my fifth graders throats teach and it is freaking me out.  Believe me, MCAS causes a lot more stress on teachers and staff than politicians and the general public would think.  I mean, in Massachusetts the education commissioner is actually proposing using test results as the “central” tool in evaluating the effectiveness of teachers (see article here).  Ugh.  That is another story for another day.

(SOURCE)

But I can’t let that ruin the last two days of vacation I have now can I?

After tossing and turning, and watching TV, I fell back asleep around 8, for my alarm to go off at 9:30 for bootcamp.  It boggles my mind how fast an hour and a half of sleep can go by!  Literally I felt like I had just closed my eyes.  I debated skipping but my body was telling me I could definitely handle class this morning.

And rainy Saturday afternoons are made for naps, right?!

I was a little sore from yesterday’s WOD but I decided to push through and give at the very least 90% of what I had to give.  There were a lot of new faces in class today, which is great to not be so much of an Avalon Crossfit newbie see membership expanding.

BOOTCAMP 3/23

1 minute, AMRAP (as many rounds as possible)

4 rounds

• walking lunges
• wall ball shots
• push-ups (I wussed out and did them on my knees, even though I said I was going to tough out “real” ones)
• jump rope singles
• shuttle runs
• rower
• ab mat sit ups

We did 3 rounds and Marc, the trainer, decided to switch the last round to 2 minutes of burpees and 2 minutes of mountain climbers.

What a crazy decision, though I did appreciate the surprise element of the switch.  I didn’t get to dread the burpees until literally 30 seconds before having to do them.  And for the record, 2 minutes of burpees is not half as bad as 2 minutes of mountain climbers.

Good workout.

It was pouring out after and I decided getting a hot latte would be a good decision.  I stopped into Zumes and got a caramel latte with skim milk.  Yum.

Then I did some more baking for Easter.

Oh ya, I have a couple of dessert posts coming up!

Must. get. some. lunch.

Later,

~L

A Bright Idea

Good evening 🙂

I just got back from an Avalon CrossFit bootcamp class that left me the sweatiest I have been at that place yet.  It was a really great workout and it lasted for a short 24 minutes!  Not that the 24 minutes were one bit easy, but ONLY 24 minutes!

About an hour pre-workout I ate a Blueberry Crisp Clif bar.  These are pretty amazing!

(SOURCE)

Bootcamp: 3 rounds, 1 min each station

• ab mat sit-ups
• plank hold
• rowing machine
• tire flip
• side steps
• shuttle runs
• kettlebell swings with side step
• jump rope

I am loving CrossFit a lot, but the problem I have been having is that the “regular” classes (where we do the prescribed Workout of the Day) are from 6:30-7:30. By the time I get home I never end up cooking dinner!  I usually each cereal after a class and wasting the meat and produce I bought for the week.

Today I had the idea that when I got home from school I’d cook dinner BEFORE class so it would be ready to eat when I got in from class.  This bright idea made my belly very happy.

Tonight I made chicken (which I marinated over night in Newman’s Own Teryaki) and whole wheat rice pilaf.  Delish!  I couldn’t take a picture because I am devouring as I type this post!

On tap for me tonight: Glee! and a Cozumel recap (well, depending Word Press will let me upload my pics…grrrrrr)!

Stay tuned!

PS- CrossFit posted an interesting article titled “4 Things Women Should be Doing in their Fitness Training- but Aren’t” on their Facebook page.  It is pretty interesting, check it out!.

Shot Bloks

What a wonderfully warm Saturday we had this morning!  It is getting chillier and chillier as we speak, but I really do think it warmer today than it has been!

I was up and out for Tristan’s 10:30 a.m. CrossFit Bootcamp class and haven’t stopped since!

It was my first bootcamp class..ever… so I was really excited to try it out!  I set my alarm for 8:30 so I’d be able to eat something before class.  I definitely would be useless if I didn’t eat before and I knew that.  I ate a Chocolate Chip Clif bar when my alarm went off. Yes, I ate it in bed, and then promptly fell back asleep until 9:45.

Evidence

The class was pretty full with 13 or 14 people signed up but we split into pairs to go through the stations today so it didn’t seem as crowded.  Crossfit Bootcamp is different from a regular class because it uses more body weight routines and it is (in my opinion) much more fast paced.

Today we did the following, with a partner, for 30 seconds each, then switched for 30 seconds.  We did this for two minutes before resting for a minute and switching stations.

• rope swings/medicine ball push ups (modified)
• mountain climbers/air squats
• Kettlebell overhead walk/kettlebell rows
• rowing machine/burpees
• ab mat sit-ups/side shuffles (I may have made the name for this one up)
• jumping jacks/ bicycle crunches
• box jumps/ball slams

We were all staggered to start and were supposed to just move through the list from where we start.  Well, apparently I do not follow directions very well and went to the wrong station after the first switch, which messed everyone else up.  At the end my partner and I and another group were left to do the same station. Ooops sorry class!

Then, when I thought I was done, Tristan said we were going to do the entire rotation one more time for 30 seconds/30 seconds, resting 20 seconds between I think.

I really liked the bootcamp because:

• it was fast paced so the time flew by
• it was challenging but do-able (all the classes are)
• I can do anything for 30 seconds, including burpees
• it was tiring but left me with amazing energy
• it made me realize I may be ready to try a real push-ups!  Yay for progress!

I was a sweaty mess after.  Word!  What a great workout and after my vacation next week (I am going on a cruise next Saturday for a week!) I will make this a part of my Saturday mornings!

After I was full of energy and since it was noticeably warmer than it has been lately, I decided to do my long run outdoors.  This was a saving grace because I wouldn’t have last for 7 miles on a treadmill.

Before heading out I tried 3 Shot Bloks, which are energy chews.

They had the texture of melting gummy bears which isn’t good or bad.  The strawberry flavor reminded me of a fruit roll-up.  I am undecided on how much I like them still.

On previous runs I have tried Power Bar Energy Chews (raspberry flavored) and I also have some GU to try on a future run.  I think the key with using these is finding the right source of fuel for you.  I had 2 Power Bar chews around mile 5 of the run.  They are my favorite so far.

I ran using my Garmin to measure distance and overall I felt great during the run.  My left knee started throbbing around mile 5.5 though I am not quite sure why.  I finished just about 7 miles in just about 1:24.

Any ideas why my knee starts to hurt 5 miles into a run?  Does stretching help it out?

Now, after getting my eyebrows waxed and perusing Barnes and Noble for some fun vacation reads, I am ready to nap before I go to Garden Club tonight (I’ll explain Garden Club later!).

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday!

~L