Memorial Day Murph - A Way To Remember

We are exactly one month from Memorial Day. For many people, that day has come to mean little more than a barbeque, or the unofficial start of summertime activities. But it's more than just a three day weekend, it's a day to remember the men and women who have died in the service of our nation.

If you want to be inspired by one such group of dedicated servicemen, head on over to the Memorial Day Murph site and read about Operation REDWING and Medal of Honor recipient Lt. Michael P. Murphy. For years, Crossfit Affiliates have honored this fallen warrior with the workout "Murph", and now there is a yearly day to do this workout as a means to raise funds for several charities: the Wounded Warrior Project, the Lone Survivor Foundation, and the Lt. Michael P. Murphy Memorial Scholarship Foundation.

This workout is not for the faint of heart (or body), it involves a 1 mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 pushups, and 300 squats, then another 1 mile run. I imagine it's going to take me a fair while to accomplish (hopefully I won't have to take a nap in the middle to complete it). And since I can't do 100 real pull-ups, I'll be using one of the Crossfit pull-up bands to help me out there. But, we've got a month to get ready, so if anyone wants to join me in doing the Memorial Day Murph, it doesn't take a lot of equipment or space, but it makes a big difference.

The Ironmom Extra Mile:  History of Memorial Day

Killer Workout: Deck of Cards

There's nothing worse than a boring workout, right? Sometimes it's even nice not to know what's coming. That's where the Deck of Cards workout comes in handy (some call it the Deck of Death). Essentially, you get to deal your own workout, and it's different every time. You can use this workout at the track, at the pool, at the gym, choose different exercises for the cards and your workout possibilities are endless.

I did this workout last night with my Karate Conditioning class. Here's the way it goes:

Hearts are Flutter Kicks (ala the Navy Seals)
Spades are Squats (Crossfit-style, thighs below parallel)
Diamonds are Situps, Standard style with hands crossed on chest, knees bent, feet on floor
Clubs are Pushups, Chest to ground

Jokers are a 400m Run

Basically, you deal a card, do the exercise according to the suit, and the number of reps on the card. Aces are worth 11, face cards are 10. When I did this with my class, I set the timer for 20 minutes (since we only have a 30 minute class) and we got through as many cards as possible, but you can do the whole deck if you want.  We did the workout together, and everyone who finished before the last person had to hold until the last person was done (hold in plank position for pushups, hold at the bottom of the squat, hold in a V-sit for situps or flutters). For the run, everyone who got back inside before the last person had to sit against the wall in the Isometric Chair position.

Great workout, fun workout, beats that wintertime indoor boredom!

Independence

Happy Independence Day tomorrow, to those of you who are Americans. I wore this suit swimming to the lake this morning, just for fun. It was a gorgeous day, the water was smooth as silk. And though I've had a major knot in my shoulder this week that kept me from swimming on Tuesday and Thursday, the wetsuit provided enough extra support that I could cruise along through the open water without any discomfort whatsoever, a pleasant surprise for the morning.

This afternoon we went to a BBQ at some friends' house and I had one of those "small world" experiences. I met a triathlete that lives not a mile from my house, we have tons of mutual friends, we've been apparently swimming in the lane next to each other at the outdoor pool on Tuesday mornings, but we'd never met. We chatted about races, trails, rides, and the Ironman. One thing about having done the Ironman is that when you meet another Ironman it's like you both just know what the other is made of. To have done that distance, that says something about a person, about their ability to dig deep and to persevere. I guess I'd never really thought of that before.

Speaking of digging deep, I did a ride yesterday with my hubby, about 40 miles of hills that he kicked my booty up and down and all over town. I can make an excuse for some of that, I had done a really killer Crossfit track workout that morning that absolutely blew me up for the day (see below for details) but the other half of the equation is that hubby has gotten to be a killer cyclist. He's been mountain biking like crazy, training for some nutty 55 mile mountain bike race with like a million feet of elevation gain. So his pedal stroke has gotten very efficient and smooth. He's also lost 10 pounds since starting the Paleo eating plan, and is now at 10% body fat, which is pretty lean. This means he climbs hills like a madman and while I can still take a turn letting him draft me into the headwind, he pretty much dropped me on every hill. Still, after eighteen years of being together, it's just plain awesome that we can go out and do stuff like this. Our relationship has always been glued together by mutual interests and just enjoying each other's company.

So here's the killer workout I devised for Friday morning. Any old time that you feel like you haven't beaten yourself up enough for the week, give this one a try. This is done for total time at a track:

1600 meter run
40 squats (quads below parallel)
1200 meter run
30 situps (arms folded across chest, no kipping with arms, shoulders to ground and then breaking vertical plane)
800 meter run
20 pushups (chest to ground and full extension)
400 meter run
10 Burpees (including jump to full hip extension)

This took me 23:52 and like I said, it was a killer workout. After the first round of squats, you can really feel your legs on the run. After the round of situps, it makes you very aware of your core on the run. After the pushups, you even get a good feel for how engaged your arms are on the run. So it really lets you zero in on all of your major muscle groupings as you run.

The Fifty-Fifty Run

Sometimes things are best when they're comprised of different components. When I was a kid and the ice cream truck would come around, my dad would always buy us a "Fifty-Fifty Bar", which is one of those orange and vanilla concoctions that they now call a Creamsicle. They don't taste as good now as they did back then, probably due to the fact that they used to be made of vanilla ice cream and something with actual orange in it. Now two of the first four ingredients are corn syrup (there's both the regular and the high fructose kind) and the rest of the ingredients have nothing to do with either vanilla or orange or ice cream. But I digress...

Yesterday I had a long run to do. Hubby wanted to run four or five miles, and my friend Kay wanted to run four or five miles. Put two and two together and I got a half of a long run with one, and a half with the other! After loop one, I just rang Kay on my cell phone and told her I was 10 minutes from her driveway, she met me there and I just kept rolling into the second half of my run. Not a bad way to go: the fifty-fifty run. If you're an athlete doing a long slow day, and you've got friends who don't want to go that long, it's a good way to still get to run together.

This morning I had a tough Crossfit workout to do, involving five rounds of an 800 meter hill run, plus 30 kettlebell swings and 30 pull-ups. Although I have recently graduated back up to using a green (narrower) band on the pull-ups, I had to go back to a thicker band for this workout given that it would be 150 total pull-ups. Still, I'm grateful that my arm is now working well enough to do the pull-ups and the kettlebell stuff, and miraculously my legs felt pretty darn fresh on those runs!

But, now I'm jonesing for a Creamsicle, the real kind of my memories. Maybe I'll have to make up some kind of Creamsicle smoothie with vanilla protein powder and call it good.

Finding Your Climbing Power

It's that time of year: when we look at our upcoming races and the terrain we'll need to cover, and we start to get more specific in our training. If your races involve hills, that means training on hills. Over the years, I've been lucky enough to cycle with some great hill climbers and learn a few tips that have made me a better climber. I'm still learning and growing as a cyclist, but here's a few things I've learned along the way:

While it might look dramatic on TV to be climbing while standing on the pedals (in fact, I had to laugh out loud when I watched the Ironman Florida television coverage - the footage they got from the bike course was of athletes standing on their pedals to climb the only "hill" on the course, an overpass. The triathletes were just stretching out their legs after miles and miles of flat windy riding, there was no other reason to get up off your seat on that tiny incline!), in reality you're often better off staying seated while climbing. This is especially important if your build tends toward the sturdy and muscular and not to the slim and whippetlike. A top road biker who is an expert climber will generally weigh (in pounds) no more than twice his height (in inches). Yes, that's  144 pounds for a 6' tall male. If you haven't yet (or never want to) achieve this body style, every extra pound you carry will cost you in the climb.

Staying seated has many advantages: it keeps your weight partially supported by your saddle instead of by the muscles in your legs (a rule of thumb is that you use about 10% more energy as soon as you stand up to climb), it uses less of your core and arm muscles (fewer muscles engaged equals less oxygen consumed), it utilizes your legs and glutes more effectively with less wasted motion, and it allows you to keep up a faster more consistent cadence.

In order to stay seated, you have to use your gears wisely. Many triathletes who are not yet comfortable on their bikes tend to avoid shifting as much as possible. You wouldn't do this in your car, where you would hear your engine lugging or over-revving when you refused to shift. Your body is doing the same thing when you don't shift to keep your cadence constant. So picking the right gear for the start of the hill and then staying on the shifters to maintain your cadence in the 70 - 90 range is crucial. Keep those pedals spinning and your heart rate in a manageable zone as you cruise up the hill. Hammering a hill and flooding your muscles with lactic acid (especially in a race) might look cool in the moment, but is a recipe for disaster. Those lactic-flooded legs will feel dead on the run!

If you do need to stand, either to change body position, give your back a break, or because the hill is too steep to stay seated, work on keeping a steady line while rocking the bike back and forth underneath you. This is a skill that will come with practice, but many triathletes weave and wobble when they stand on hills, potentially endangering any athletes trying to pass on the side. So when you're out training on hills, be sure to get some practice with standing climbs. Use your body weight to help you push down on the pedals and let the bike travel side-to-side underneath you, but not too far (6 - 8 inches is enough). Observe the track of your wheels and make sure you're still traveling in a straight line. Don't lean way far forward over the handlebars as this takes efficiency away from your legs, try keeping your weight centered over your cranks as much as possible. Don't forget that just before you stand you may need to shift into a higher gear to account for the increased power of a standing climb.

Best way to get good at hills: stop fearing them and start doing them. I know I used to hate hills but now I kind of find that I like them. I've started tracking my times on some local doozies so I know when I'm getting better over the course of  a season, and even when I've started off a new season with better climbing skills than I started the last one. This year's Crossfit training has made me a stronger hill climber with lower body weight and more power, so I'm eager to see how I'll stack up against my benchmark hills this season!

ERG? URGH!!!!

Wow, it's been awhile since I did a workout intense enough to bring on an attack of the almost-pukies. In triathlon training, almost nothing comes close to approximating the intensity of an erg (rowing machine) workout. Probably the closest thing would be doing crazy sets of killer 200s in the pool. When you're biking or running, half of your body is more or less resting, and while the intervals can definitely be tough, they are not the all-encompassing pain of a total body interval that you get in the pool or on the erg. I've heard it said that competitive swimmers have to have a higher pain tolerance than the general public, and I'm willing to bet that competitive rowers are right up there with them.

With the arm out of commission, almost anything you can do in Crossfit that's puke-inducing (burpees, wallballs, thrusters, etc.) were out of the picture for me for a long while. Today's workout was 5 x 500m on the C2 Rowing machine, with a 3 minute rest interval. Crap that was hard! Well, first of all I wrote down the workout wrong, it was only supposed to be 4 x 500, so we did  a little extra. But I'm glad we did because mentally, you can do four of almost anything, but that fifth one is a killer. 

So two weeks ago, the arm wasn't to a place where I could row under 2:00 for a 500 meters. I had to take it slow and deliberate. While I still don't have my full range of motion and extension so my pull stroke is still pretty short and choppy, I was able to go 154.7, 152.7, 151.7, 153.3, 153.0 for my five intervals. That's a big improvement in just a couple of weeks, and I should see those times drop a bit more as I get my arm mobility back.

Shaking Things Up With the Muddy Buddies

How many times do we just go for a run: same routes, same paces, same gear, same tunes. Today was a shakin'-it-up run for our Crossfit group. The other day I was out and spotted the local frisbee golf course. We have a 9-hole course less than a mile from our house. This time of year (especially with the rain dumping down last night) it looks something like a small swamp. What a perfect place to run! Next to it is a little bark circular track, close to a 1/4 mile around.

So today's Crossfit running workout was this:

Sprint once around the track, then head off in search of Hole 1 on the disc golf course. Once the first runner gets to the tee-off for the hole, they (and the rest of the runners) have to do an exercise of their choice (jumping jacks, squats, pushups, etc.) until the last runner arrives. Once the last person is there, walk or jog back to the start of the track. Repeat for holes 2 - 9.

The workout took us almost an hour, often sprinting through big muddy bogs. After awhile I got the biggest endorphin rush and started giggling uncontrollably after each round. It was so much danged fun. Muddy buddy Carrie pointed out that workouts like this where you push through your own comfort level are what really help us to grow as athletes. The cold, the rain, the mud, the sprinting, all were uncomfortable, but also fun and exciting in that "stomping in mud puddles" childlike way.

Broken But Still Strong

You know it's funny to consider, but once you've been bit hard by the exercise bug it is like torture to be taken away from it. While the rest of the population tries to see how little exercise they can get by with (Bikini Body in 5 Minutes A Day!!! screams the advertisement flashing in the sidebar of a web page I was on recently. Yeah. Right. And I've got a beachfront property in Arizona to sell you after you buy that one), those of us who are athletes scramble to find ways to move our body even when it's difficult to do so.

One of the things I like best about Crossfit workouts is that they're scalable. At any point, a group of people can be doing the same workout but at different intensities with different weights or subbing different exercises to still get a good workout. This makes it ideal for me at this time since I'm obviously unable to do many of the basic exercises (like anything involving my left arm of course).

Today's workout was one of the Heros, Crossfit's workouts that are named after fallen warriors. This one was Daniel, for Daniel Crabtree, killed in Iraq on 6/8/2006:

50 Pull-ups
400 meter run
95 pound Thruster, 21 reps
800 meter run
95 pound Thruster, 21 reps
400 meter run
50 Pull-ups

One of our members was having knee trouble, so she subbed rowing for running. I had to get creative for my workout, so I subbed 50 situps + 50 back extensions for the 50 pullups each time, and I did one-armed thrusters with a kettlebell instead of two-armed with a bar (a thruster is like a full squat and then you thrust the weight overhead). But just the same, it was a tough workout (especially since you consider that all of our runs here are hill runs!). Nice thing was, the arm doesn't bother me when running (as long as I take it easy and don't fall on it) and I felt strong throughout the workout.

Yesterday I was able to bike on the trainer with my left arm propped on a pillow. I think I'm gaining core strength since essentially I have to support myself on one arm right now. A few days ago I could only bike for 30 minutes with the one arm and yesterday I made it an hour. I tried swimming a bit on Saturday, I figured I would just keep my arm by my side and kick, but that didn't work out at all. It turns out that the water would move my arm in unpredictable directions, causing it to hurt. So water (even water running) is probably not going to be possible for another week or two. Luckily it seems like I can find enough that I can do to keep myself busy.

One of the reasons that I chose a Hero workout for our WOD (workout of the day) was to remind myself how precious these moments are that we're given. I don't know anything about Daniel Crabtree, other than what his friend wrote about him on this blog but I'm pretty sure if he could choose, he'd be somewhere running around enjoying life. Life's too short to whine about what we can't do, we're better off embracing what we can. Today's workout was a great reminder that though part of me might be a bit broken, the rest of me can still be strong.

Two Exercises Every Swimmer Should Do (and Probably Every Biker and Maybe Every Runner)

So I've been working with the variety of Crossfit exercises for about eight months now, and while I totally believe the Crossfit methodology of constantly varied workouts, I know that not everyone has the time, inclination, money, interest, or opportunity to train like this. But I think that especially for swimming, there are two exercises that I've learned that really really transfer great power, so I wanted to share them here. Being as both exercises greatly increase your core strength, especially in back and neck, I think they'll be very beneficial in biking and running as well, since often in those two sports it's the tiring of the core muscles that lead to form deficiencies that eventually lead to slowing down (ever watched someone do the leaned-over "Ironman shuffle" at the end of an endurance race? That's core muscle exhaustion right there). Also, these two exercises can be done with a bare minimum of equipment (a kettlebell) in your own living room, garage, hotel room, wherever.

So here they are:

The Kettlebell Get-up
(also called a Turkish Get-Up)
No, not this kind of Turkish Get-up:

By the way, the first time I did a workout with a lot of Get-Ups in it, I couldn't believe how many muscle groups were sore afterwards. Two sheaths of muscle across my lower back took a big hit, along with some fiddly muscles in my neck, and all of those muscles that stabilize the shoulders. This exercise combines a weighted sit-up, a lunge, and a weighted arm extension for an excellent total-body strength workout.

And the Overhead Kettlebell Swing. If you've looked at other kettlebell videos or books (like the wonderful resource Enter the Kettlebell by Pavel Tsatsouline) you may have noticed that the Russian-style kettlebell swing only goes to about chest level. If you're curious why Crossfit (and I) believe that the overhead swing is superior, you can read this really fascinating little essay that, incidentally, also gives a really interesting window into how the Crossfit folks select their exercises for inclusion in the program. In addition to what they've said here, I'd add that for a swimmer, the overhead swing brings your lat muscles into play at the top of the swing because to counter the arc of a heavy kettlebell, you have to start pushing down with your lats before the swing reaches the top extension. Master this one, and you'll have those killer swimmer lats in no time! It totally blows that silly lat machine at the gym out of the water (literally).

Gettin' All Rocky Balboa in the Garage Gym

I know those of you in the great far frozen North will scoff, but it's been a chilly 12 - 15 degrees Fahrenheit here the last few mornings and that is C-O-L-D to be getting up and getting a workout in. Our garage is approximately one degree warmer than the outside air temp I think, though without the wind chill it feels just a teensy tiny bit warmer. Over the past few months, Wayne has been working really hard to sort through old tools and camping gear and turn half of our garage into a home gym. There has been several motivations for this. The first of course is just that in the long run it will save us a fair bit of money. He was able to drop his club membership and we both dropped going to an outside Crossfit gym, and we will have the equipment for the garage just paid off in savings from all of that within a reasonable timeframe.

There are other factors at work though. For one thing, I hate to drive anywhere that I don't have to. As much as I would've loved to ride my bike out to do Crossfit all the time, the reality of the class schedule there was that I had to wedge it in among other commitments and the kids' schedule and so most of the time I had to drive. There's something in me that really rebels HARD about driving somewhere to go workout.

And then there was the injury/overtraining issue. I found that in doing something as intense as Crossfit in an environment that fostered heavy competition for times and rounds, and in a place where I was being pushed to do more weight than I really should've, I was always nursing some nagging injury. I know I'm a highly competitive person by nature, and so for me it's way better to do the same kind of workouts by myself, or with Wayne or a few friends in a much mellower more supportive atmosphere. I'm getting just as much out of the workouts, but am able to concentrate more on holding good form and on making sure I get the most out of each exercise in range of motion.

So it is that on these 12 degree mornings I find myself in the company of a few solid die-hard friends facing down some tough WODS (Workouts of the Day for those of you not familiar with the Crossfit slang). I love how we look all Rocky Balboa in our sweats and watchman's knit caps. No fancy schmancy gym garb here!

On Monday we did our home garage version of the Lumberjack 20, a tribute workout on Crossfit's main site to the victims of the Fort Hood shootings, 4 of whom (and 11 wounded) who came from one Crossfit affiliate, Lumberjack Crossfit. Since we live on a big hill, by necessity the 400 meter run that repeated 7 times in the workout was down and up the hill, which we have knicknamed Heartbreak Hill. And at a chilly 12 degrees, our lips were about freezing to our teeth during the hill runs! Here's the workout in all its glory:

20 Deadlifts (54 pound Kettlebell)
400 Meter Hill Run
20 Overhead Squats (45 pound bar)
400 Meter Hill Run
20 Kettlebell swings (1 pood = 36 pound kettlebell)
400 Meter Hill Run
20 Burpees
400 Meter Hill Run
20 Pullups
400 Meter Hill Run
20 Double-unders with jump rope
400 Meter Hill Run
20 Medicine Ball Squat cleans (20 lb ball)
400 Meter Hill Run

Yah, I know most triathletes scoff at Crossfit, and many are turned off by Crossfit's own sometimes-overbearing rhetoric. But expect to hear more from me about how Crossfit is having a positive impact on my overall fitness. Sure, triathlon is great for endurance training, something most Crossfit athletes seem to lack, but that's only one aspect of fitness. I'm working on a personal program for ultimate health and fitness balancing out areas of strength, endurance, speed, agility, flexibility, coordination, balance, overall body health, and more.

Swim Workout: Crossfit-Inspired BLAST in the pool

For this week's Saturday Masters, I decided to let my Crossfit training provide the inspiration for a truly taxing workout. For the main set, I got everyone out of the pool and used all four lanes. We did a serpentine swim, entering the pool on one side and swimming up and back in that lane, then under the lane line to the next lane. Up and back in that lane, switch to the next lanes, etc. until you reach the other end of the pool and get out on the opposite side. Since our pool is four lanes, that's a 200 yard swim total. Then on that corner of the pool, swimmers did 10 squats, came back over to the starting side and did 10 situps. We did that all four times, so four rounds of 200 yard swim, 10 squats, 10 situps, for total time.

One thing I noticed as I watched my Master's swimmers go through this workout is that different swimmers have different limitations. For some people, it's flexibility. Some swimmers can't squat without their heels coming off of the ground. This points to reduced leg and achilles flexibility, which can hamper swimming. For some swimmers, core abdominal and back strength is a serious limitation, for others its overall conditioning or swim technique. Since this workout hit all of those areas, if you couple it with a technique-heavy warmup like I did, it's a great one for making sure you are improving across all of the modalities that swimming requires: Technique, Flexibility, Core Strength, Conditioning.


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SKILL: Kick Timing
DRILL: Two-beat kick with pull-buoy

Warm Up
300 Drill/Skill by 50
100 Kick 200 D/S 100 Pull 100 D/S

3 x (25-50-75-100 Build reverse IM) r 10


Main Set

4 x 100 Desc. Get warmed up!

4 x All-lane serpentine swim + 10 squats + 10 situps For Time

EZ 100

2 x 200 Pull, 200 Stroke

100 EZ

3550 y

Doing the Deck Work

I'm having fun with creative swim workouts lately, and this week was no exception: a new Crossfit-inspired swim workout that I think left everyone feeling taxed in new and unexpected ways. Give it a try if you are tired of just plain old yardage that's not getting you anywhere and want to really feel tapped to your last muscle fiber!


First of all, I'm doing something new with the Master's swimmers. Each week focusing on a certain skill with one specific drill to target it. This week's skill was the High-Elbow Catch, meaning that you shouldn't drop your elbow at any point in the underwater progression from catch to exit. The reasoning is this (try this at home if you don't believe me): as soon as you drop your elbow, you've placed all of your propulsive power in your arm muscles, mostly biceps. Keep your elbow high and you've moved it to the much bigger muscle groupings in your back - especially the lats. The drill for this is the "surfboard" drill - swim like you're paddling a surfboard. No glide portion, just a high elbow catch as if there's a surfboard underneath you. Yes, this is a big exaggeration, but it should give you the feeling of where your catch should be coming from.

Warm Up
300 Drill/Swim by 25s, 100 Kick on Back, 300 Pull, 100 Kick on Side
300 Swim, 100 Kick on Front

1200 y


Main Set

3 x 200 Desc. @ 3:15 (fastest one should be med-fast, we're getting warmed up for the really hard stuff to come)

25 then get out of the water and do 10 pushups, or alternatively do pool pushups from underwater to straight arms on the side of the pool)
50 + 10 pushups
75 + 10 pushups
100 + 10 pushups

50 EZ
2100 y

3 x 150 Desc. @ 2:30 (again, fastest should not be all out but should be med-fast)

25 + 10 pushups
50 + 10 pushups
75 + 10 pushups
100 + 10 pushups

3 x 100 Desc.

50 EZ


5 x 50 Get long – lower stroke count each

3400 y

Trainwreck

Yep, it's the off-season...when triathletes sit back, relax, wait until after the holidays to start base-building again...

Nope. It's the combo of Crossfit and karate that's killing me. Right now by Friday afternoon each week I feel like I've been hit by a bus. Then I swim on the weekend, get all good and recovered and stretched out, and get ready to be run over by the same bus all over again come Monday.

But I'll be all the stronger for it. Right???

Seriously, 2010 is going to be the Year of the Black Belt. I think I am seriously going to commit to not doing a triathlon until that belt o' black is tied around my waist. That will ensure that I attack it with the necessary fervor to accomplish the goal. Right now, I'm aiming my sights at June 2010. If I manage to pull that off, I can still grab a late summer triathlon or two afterwards.

FIVE Real Pullups

Yep, I can do five now!!! I could only do two last week, but that was before the crazy 105 pullup workout (with the help of a band - the rubbery kind, not a marching band, though come to think of it that would've been really helpful too, especially if they were playing the 1812 Overture or something equally compelling). In any case, that must've upped my muscles a ton. Ten is not looking so far away now.

So Cool

Boy I missed my regular Crossfit workouts in the taper process! It was fun to get back on the horse today with a workout called "One Minute Pullups". That's 1 pullup in the first minute, 2 in the second, 3 in the 3rd, etc. One of those workouts that seems super easy at first but then gets ridiculously hard. Sometimes its surprising what your limiters turn out to be. Today it was my forearms - not shoulders or arms or back or even my poor blistering hands. Nope, it was the Popeye muscles, those pesky forearms. I bet if I was still riding my old Triumph with the drum brakes I would've had better forearm stamina. I used to have the grip of steel when I was riding that thing everywhere. You couldn't actually stop unless you squeeeezed really hard.

But I digress (so easy to do when you start thinking about old British motorbikes, and isn't mine a beauty??). So anyways, now I'm down to the very last pullup band, the purple one. I can actually do a couple of regular (no band) pullups, but for this workout that wouldn't get me very far so I used the band. Four months ago I tried and COULD NOT DO ONE PULLUP with the purple band. Seriously. Today I did 14 minutes, which adds up to 105 pullups. So today I can only do a couple of regular pullups, what will I be doing in four months?

As for the bike, the kids want me to fix it back up and get a sidecar...

Seven Days Away

It all comes to a head this week at the

Almost six months of Crossfit training, four months of Crossfit Endurance programming and a lot of unanswered questions about how it will all turn out.

Here's my pre-race update:

I'm feeling like my strength and power are greatly increased. I've done some hills on the bike recently that used to seem tough that look like tamed lions now. My leg strength is definitely dramatically increased, and it's really starting to show up in my swim stroke as well. I did an interval workout last week with a friend and easily held alternating 1:15 and 1:20 pace per 100 without too much effort. People have asked me what my secret weapon is, and there's no doubt in my mind that I owe all newfound power to Crossfit. It's definitely a program I would recommend to triathletes looking for all-around total body strength and core conditioning, not to mention to anyone at all looking to get more fit over a broad range of conditions.

Endurance, I'm not so sure about. I am still not feeling like I have a handle on how well I'll be able to last through a 2.5 hour race. I ran a 10k this week at about 85% effort and to be honest it kind of sucked. On the other hand, I usually run better off the bike (emphasis on usually) and usually the longer the race, the better I feel. We'll see if that still holds true.

Taper: I only did two Crossfit workouts last week and none this week, and I'm tapering the Crossfit Endurance workouts this week. I'll do some transition work this week too.

The course:

Hilly.
That's one of three loops on the bike, each of which gains close to 700 feet. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was just a teensy eensy bit worried. Normally, I'm good on flat courses, great on flat windy courses or rolling hills where power works for me and weight doesn't work against me. But the bigger and steeper the hills, the less advantage I have. I don't really know how to predict my times on this course, what with the current on the swim in the river and the hills on the bike.

Looking at times from people I know who have done the course (and who I've done other courses with, so I can get a relative triangulation on what times I might do), I'm going to say I would normally (with my normal training and speed that is) be able to do:

Swim: 23:00 - 25:00 (giving myself a little extra due to current from the river)
T1: 00:2 (Swim and T1 times seem to be long from previous results)
Bike: 1:20 - 1:25 (I'm giving myself 10 - 15 minutes over my usual Oly distance time)
T2: 00:1
Run: :52

Total: 2:38 - 2:45

I have no idea if I'll be on this time, faster than it, or slower than it. It will probably come down to whether my extra power on hills will give me a faster bike time, and whether or not my endurance is compromised and my run time will be slower than usual, or not. My last Oly run time was :50, but I haven't come anywhere near that in workouts in the last few weeks. So it's all up in the air. I'll probably be very nervous this week, so keep your fingers crossed for me that all goes well on race day!

Workin' It Out On the Road

Our family is still up here in Washington, we came up for a family reunion and especially to be with hubby's brother who is still deeply grieving. Although the sadness is there, there's also the joy of seeing family and getting to spend time with people you don't see very often. A real emotional roller coaster this week for sure. Whenever I travel, I try to find ways to slot those workouts in, and especially when things get intense I find that I need that pressure release valve more than ever.

Running is of course the easiest activity on earth for the traveler, so the well-worn running shoes are the first thing to get packed. The family reunion was at a lake, so the swimsuit and goggles were a no-brainer as well. Although the lake was full of waves in the afternoon that kept the kids having fun jumping them and body surfing, the early mornings were like polished glass and so clear I could see the individual leaves on the kelp-like plants growing up from the bottom (is there such a thing as lake kelp? I don't know what that stuff is.)

The bike got thrown on for good measure, though I've only used it once for some CFE-prescribed hill repeats. This morning I payed a visit to a local Crossfit gym as a visitor and got my butt handed to me by the "Deck of Cards" workout (weighted back squats, power cleans, power snatch and push press according to suit, and the number dealt by the card... yes, an entire deck...wow!). I'm hoping I can manage a run tomorrow morning before we head for home tomorrow a.m.

The Great Experiment Update

I'm about halfway to my Oly triathlon on solely Crossfit and Crossfit Endurance training. The hard part is I have no idea how to gauge my progress at this point since everything feels completely different and I'm not doing the same workouts that I've used in the past as baselines. I could be doing a bike ride and have done a CF workout that morning where I was squatting heavy weights and in the bike ride I'm supposed to be doing 2 minute sprints. So I really can't tell within all of that where my overall endurance fitness is at.

I haven't done anything over about an hour until a tempo ride I did earlier this week. I really felt like I fizzled out once I passed the hour marker, but I can't tell whether this was because I had been doing some heavy duty Crossfit leg work earlier or because my endurance past an hour is no longer what it used to be. It's hard to say what I'll feel like once I start the pre-race taper and let my muscles fully recover from everything I've been throwing at them.

On the plus side, I feel like I've really adjusted to the Crossfit side of things well and have been feeling strong there in most of my workouts. I'm "making the board" pretty regularly (scoring in the top 5 women at our gym, which is who goes up on the board for each workout), and in workouts as diverse as the 2,000 meter row (1st on the board at 8:12 - our coach took that cute photo above of one of the little ones watching me go at it) or the "Crossfit Total" which is all heavy lifting (total of your Deadlift, Back Squat, and Shoulder Press, mine was 3rd on the board at 410). So I can see myself improving at a broad variety of exercises, many of which I had never done before a few months ago. Today I even got two full body weight pullups in a row! I couldn't even do half of one when I started, couldn't even budge myself toward the bar. For that alone I am super excited!!!

On the "dunno" side, I have no idea yet how effective the Crossfit Endurance thing is going to be for me. I will be very nervous and very much interested to see how this Oly race will go for me. Nervous because normally I know exactly where I'm at training-wise when I toe the starting line, and this time it's a total crapshoot. I could feel totally strong and just bust the course wide open, or I could just totally choke from lack of long-distance endurance training. Once again, stay tuned....

Committing To A New Plan

So those of you intrepid readers who actually attempt to follow my meandering thoughts here probably fall into one of two categories. One who are already experiencing, or who are interested in the concept of the new workout experience in my life that is Crossfit. And the others, perhaps dedicated triathletes or other endurance athletes who really could care less to hear about lifting big hunks of iron or throwing medicine balls at walls.

If you're in the second group, you can tune me out about now, because I'm about to throw even more of my training eggs into the Crossfit basket. I'm embarking on full-scale Crossfit Endurance training, replacing any of my LSD (no, even though I live in the hippy holdout capitol of the universe, that doesn't refer to a mind-altering drug, it's Long Slow Distance training) with much more focused, targeted, shorter, more intense triathlon workouts. The reasoning behind this? As the Crossfit Endurance (CFE) website claims:

Studies demonstrate that the adaptations caused by anaerobic training are similar to high volume endurance training, however, this adaptation comes at much lower training volumes

As a very busy homeschooling mom, I'm extremely intrigued by the concept of training for endurance and ultra-endurance events on a much lower time commitment in terms of training hours. I'm willing to up the intensity of the hours I put in if it means more time with the family. But does it work? That's the big question of course. So since I have a good long-standing baseline of my triathlon times in various distances, I'm giving it a go for this summer's Olympic distance triathlon. With several months of CFE training under my belt, as well as my regular Crossfit workouts, I should be able to tell whether I'm: A) At par with my regular performance, B) Blowing my regular performance expectations away on a shortened schedule or C) Whether there really is no substitute for putting in the miles.

Based on the results of my Olympic triathlon, I'll decide whether to add back in some distance work for my September Half-Ironman.

So far I am on Week One of the total commitment to the CFE schedule. So instead of my usual Sunday Long Run (I'm sure you're all familiar with that one), I headed to the marked mile loop to do short time trials at high intensity. I have to say, the feeling afterwards with only 40 minutes of running was similar to last week's 10 miler, so maybe there's something in it after all.

Stay Tuned as the Experiment Continues.....

You Know You've Done a Hard Workout When...

Your hubby phones and your arm muscles literally can barely lift the phone to your ear, and then the whole time you're talking your arm is shaking like a leaf trying to hold it there. Guess it's time to find the charger for my bluetooth headset if I'm going to keep doing workouts like this...