11042018 – Run

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to go out or not this morning.  It was kind of rainy and cold (36 with a “wintry mix”).  I ended up getting out and had a nice mind clearing run.  The wintry mix was a light off and on rain that I didn’t really feel in the woods. I ran a perimeter route around Wirth and didn’t really see anything exciting. My legs felt some of the hills and my body didn’t want me to force it to work too hard on anything, so I just kept running along at a somewhat easy pace.

I ended up with 4.5 miles in 44:41.

11032018 – Mountain Bike

I had a hankering to get out on two wheels and with rain in the forecast I knew this would be the last chance for a bit to hit the trails.  I’m sure glad I did. I started with the Area 36 trails.  As I noted last week on my ride, I haven’t ridden much lately so I wasn’t planning to do anything crazy or super hard.  I felt like I was in a good groove and only needed to dismount once or twice which is an improvement!

After the Area 36 trails I headed to the Back 40.  As I tried to enter them I was stopped by this deer. She was in the middle of the trail trapped by me and the fence on two sides.  As I stood there waiting for her to move, the Buck came walking out further up the trail (can you spot them both?) It was a pretty cool break in the ride.  They both moved along and so did I.

Nothing else exciting happened in this section, I just kept cruising along enjoying the solitude of the morning ride and the brisk fall weather (upper 30’s). Everything is still pretty right now with all the colors on the ground and some still in the trees.  As the leaves have fallen we get some cool views now too. After finishing this loop I headed on South and did the skinny section north of 55. I struggled in my usual spots, but kept on going. I didn’t see another rider until I started climbing into the Glenwood section (between Glenwood and 55). I felt the climbs and tried to enjoy the flowy downhill.  I still struggle with relaxing into it and letting go.  I continued my southward journey and did the Bog trails.  There are some tough climbs and easy downhills in this one.  I did okay except the one major downhill.  I tried harder to relax into the rest of the flows and did pretty well.  I started home and back climbed up the Glenwood section.  I was able to manage the flow sections back out of here fine!  They aren’t as steep and fast.  About halfway into the skinny section I ran into the turkeys (see main image).  They didn’t want to move so I had to help them a little bit. I almost made it through the uphill + turn rock garden here! And then I just hit the paved trails all the way home.

It was 10.45 miles in 1:26.  Not too shabby. But wait…

I had 26 achievements and 10 of them were segment PR’s.  Pretty sweet for a no-frills ride!! Can’t wait to get out there again.

11012018 – CrossFit

Today was a Professional Development day at work which meant that I was able to go to the 5:30 AM class at Solcana this morning.  It was nice to be there! I should get to go next week too!

Thursday’s have been longer MetCon days.  Today was a fun partner MetCon that I did with Mike.  Well, first we started out with some shoulder stretching and Wall Walking! Being upside down has gotten easier, but the shoulder tapping felt really hard today.

On to the MetCon. It was actually 3 different sections.  Mike and I completed the Gold standards.

The first part was a 12 minute AMRAP alternating partners each round of

12 kettlebell to overhead (snatch) with a 35# kettlebell

9 box jumps (20 inch box)

6 burpees

3 minute rest and then…

Full depth clean ladder in 5 minutes.  After each partner we had to add 5#’s which meant I was jumping 10#’s between each lift.  We started at 75#’s and I did the last clean at 135#.

Then.. we had a minute of rest and then max effort plank.  When the first partner quit it was over.

For the first section we finished 8 rounds and 16 reps. I switched arms on the KB after 6 reps and Mike alternated each round. It all felt good.  The KB weight didn’t feel easy, but wasn’t too heavy either, I think the 53 would have been too much.

Like I said for the Clean Ladder I started at 75 and then did 85, 95, 105, 115, 125, and 135. It all happened pretty quickly and we pretty much kept moving the entire 5 minutes.  You were either lifting, changing plates, or trying to catch your breath! 135 is my 1 rep max for the full clean, I’ve done 155 in the power clean. So that was pretty cool!

The plank felt like forever but was really only 1 minute.  I was the one to stop first for our team.  Planking kicks my butt!

10272018 – Biking

It had been awhile since I’ve been on the bike.  It felt good to get out and ride. I didn’t push it too hard, but had trouble deciding what distance to do! I ended up riding out to Hopkins on the Greenway and back on the Cedar Lake Trail. It was in the mid-40’s and foggy so a little damp. It is mostly past peak leaf season but there are still some pretty leaves and trees out there.  There were tons of wet leaves on the trails which is also pretty if not a little dangerous.

I ended up getting 16 miles done with that ride.

Later in the day I rode with Nadia to the theater and donuts after that.  We ended up doing about 11 miles with the trail behind.  The trail-behind’s chain is loose and kept falling off, so the one benefit wasn’t super helpful.  It was fun as we rode around some of the lakes together.

That was a lot of biking for going from nothing for awhile to almost 30 miles.

10252018 – CrossFit

First workout after my race and it felt pretty good. Still a little tired but good. In continuing with the Deadlift trend today I went back and did Monday’s lifts. It was 7×4 at 74%. I lifted at 195 pounds. I wasn’t sure if I’d finish or not but I was able to do them all. Afterwards was 10 sumo deadlifts at 155. I was glad to only have to 10 as 20 was getting to be a lot. 

I didn’t have a ton of time so I did 3×10 sets of hanging shoulder raises working on improving my pullups. I also did 5 minutes on the spin bike to loosen my legs up. I finished up by hitting a few routes on the bouldering wall. 

A nice little workout that wasn’t super strenuous!