Weekly Workouts Roundup + Long Run Maniac

Sorry for the mini blog hiatus. I've been busy lately and enjoying being unplugged :)

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I'm getting a very little taste of what marathon training will be like.

Because I haven't stuck to a training plan until this past race cycle, I have always been really bad at consistent long runs. Thanks to my mini plan (which a post is still in order for) I have actually stuck to them and boy do I feel it. My legs and hips feel okay, but I'm just a wee bit tired. For the past 5-6 weeks I've put in 10 miles or more every Saturday (two weekends being races). I know this is still small peas for some of you, but for me, it's progress! With out fail, every single week I look forward to the long run more than any other workout I've got going on! I'm turning into a long run maniac!

I gave myself a bit of a workout "break" last week, taking more rest days (three!) than I have in a very long time.

Monday I met up with a bunch of the #TBLB ladies and +1's to visit the new FitNiche running store in Hyde Park.They were hosting a "Rock N Roll Afterparty+fun run with the Brooks Cavalcade of Curiosities on site. Meghan and I got there a little early to get a couple of extra miles in as a shakeout run post RnR. Meghan had 3 at race pace and I figured I'd just do whatever my legs felt like doing. We started out with the warmup, but after 1.5 miles, I dropped back to keep it around a nice shakeout pace (8:45-9:15). By the time we got back to FitNiche I'd done right at 4 miles. I joined in on the 1 mile run hosted by FitNiche - it was a slow but funny chatty 1 mile bringing my total to 5.

I love these peeps!! They keep things interesting! :)

I planned to go to Crossfit three times this week. Tuesday I headed over sans Nikki since she was stuck at work. As normal, I was happily welcomed. I definitely love that aspect about the Crossfit culture. 

WOD

15 min warm up: 

work on muscle up form on the rings

5 rounds for time: 

500m row 

30 sit ups

I am getting better at muscle ups and ring sits - as in I can almost do one for longer than .5 seconds. Since my legs were pretty tired from all the miles the previous few days, I jumped on the opportunity to do the row versus 50 Double Unders or run 400m. Little did I know that rowing is tough when you're not doing it leisurely. When 18:40sec hit, I was a sweaty tired mess. But it was also my very first workout done at Rx! I felt really good about that and my time wasn't last, which I was expecting to be.

Wednesday night we celebrated Mike's mom's birthday at Kobe (hibachi steakhouse). I, of course, had to be the odd one at the table ordering my meal sans soy sauce. Gotta try to keep it healthy and not undo all my hard work! I had my little pile of food cooking in the corner of the grill top. It was still very tasty, and I took half of my meal home (all of the fried rice and half the shrimp, which Mike ate). I ate all the veggies!






Thursday I headed back to CBM for another WOD.

Burgener warmup; 33lb barbellx20 squat jumps
2x1 RM snatch (I stuck to 45lb)

AMANDA 
9-7-5
45lb squat snatch
27-21-15
Pull ups (band assist); dips

Ouchies.... again. I tried to recover a squat snatch that came back on me at the beginning of the workout and tweaked my back. Coach happened to be standing right in front of me when I did it and used me as an example of what NOT to do for the class. Point taken. It felt ok so I finished out the class feeling alright, but on the way home I knew it was pulled. Dangit....

Friday morning I wanted to get in a third WOD, but my back had other plans. It was not feeling great at all. I loaded up with the heating pad, ibprofen, and took it as a sign that I needed more rest days to let my body catch up to all the abuse I've been dishing at it lately.

Mike and I woke up around 6am Saturday morning to meet BRA near us for a 10-11 mile long run. My back was still really sore, but I took a couple of ibprofen (addicted?) and sucked it up. The weather was perfect as the company and we completed the run with lots of chit chat. I of course being the terrible Garmin owner I am, forgot to turn on the watch for half of a mile after a stoplight, shorting my "distance/time". When we were done, I was right at 10.5 at 1:36. I came home after a yummy Panera breakfast with most of the crew and laced up the Newtons for their first spin.
I kept it short, a little over half a mile. I can feel the difference everywhere. Calves, my gait, the stance. It was nice to be able to feel the road in a sense. It was also nice to not feel like I had concrete bricks on my feet. So light!

And my back felt much better after the run. Who says running is bad for you - seems to heal\ lots of ailments - mental and physical ;).




Sunday, the back was light years better than it was even on Friday. I'd classify this as a semi rest day - We headed up to the House of Blues Orlando in Downtown Disney for the Gospel Brunch breakfast - which was AWESOME and I ate my face off. It will be getting it's own post, but then I conned Mike into going to the shopping outlets - for 4 hours of walking/shopping. :)

Monday was the start of a new week and a return to my previous workout regimen.

I went to spin class, lots of mountains, jumps, and a couple of sprint songs, but still managed to get in over 20 miles in the 50 minutes or so of class. I wanted to jump directly on to a treadmill after spin for a couple of miles. I didn't have a distance in mind. Just set out with what felt comfortable and ran until I decided I was done. It ended up being a short but fast 2.2 miles at a 7:47 pace. uhm... love the Newtons!

Sorry for the blurry pic! I was shaky! Sign of a good hard workout.

I'm about 40% through this book, and want to keep my miles in the Newtons low until I'm done and have a set plan for transition.

Reading this book makes me feel like I knew very little other than the very necessary things about running. I spent all weekend quizzing Mike on historical facts about shoe companies and running. He didn't know much either and he's been running 10 years (+/-) so I didn't feel so bad!






I'm linking in with Kat, Genna, and Meghan this week!

How was your week of workouts?
Have you ever read a book about running form/history?