Weekly Wrap Up - Burn Off the Bird 5K & Lots of CF

I don't know about you, but I've been missing these weekly wrap up posts.  And I don't usually start with Saturdays, but I have to tell you about the 5K we ran last weekend!

S - Burn Off the Bird 5K (35:40) - Dave and I haven't really been running at all, but when I saw the t-shirt for this race included a turkey/Jurassic Park logo mash up, I had to have it.  We figured we weren't going to be running any PRs, so we decided to take a laid back approach and bring the pups along!  When we ran this race in 2012, we were happy it was in the 30s since the overnight lows were in the 20s (yikes), but this time around the weather was perfect with temps in the low 50s.  The course was a bit hilly, but changed from when we ran it last ran it to include more time on a trail and less time on the road.  We did a mix of running and walking, with an 11:28 overall pace.  The dogs were quite a hit, everyone was cheering for them and giving them tons of attention.  It was a really fun event!  (Side note: Dave and I ran side by side most of the race, but I felt like we were blocking the little girl in pink from finishing, so I ran ahead to give her some space, but when I saw this pic I was so bummed that Dave and I didn't finish together!  Regret!)

S - Rest

M - CrossFit

• Strength: Back Squat - 5 at 40% (55#), 5 at 50% (70#), 5 at 60% (85#)
• WOD:
• 8 Minute Clock
• 1000m Row buy in
• Then AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) "Ground to Overhead"
• Can be snatches or clean & jerk
• Women 45/65/95
• Men 65/95/135
• I finished my row in 4:18 and completed 32 G2OH with 45# in the remaining time.  I really considered using 65# because the actual score was your weight x reps, but I got psyched out at the last moment and settled on 45.  It was hard anyway, but I kind of wish I had tried the medium weight.

T - CrossFit Barbell Club

•  Warm Up:
• 3 x 5 Front Squats, Back Squats, Good Mornings (with 15#)
• 3 x 5 Deadlifts, Overhead Press
• Workout:
• 5 x 2 Hang Squat Cleans - I worked up to 85#
• 5 x 2 Deadlifts (with a pause at the knee) - I used 85#
• 2 Squat Cleans EMOM (every minute on the minute) for 6 minutes - 85#
• I hate not being able to lift as heavy as I want to, but I know it's a good life choice for my back.  I spent a lot of time working on not shooting up my butt in the deadlift portion of the clean.  My hamstrings were so sore the next day!

W - 1.25 mi walk with the pups + CrossFit

•  Strength: EMOM for 8 minutes
• Minute 1-4: Power Snatch (with a 3 second pause above knee)
• Minute 5-8: Power Snatch (no pause)
• I worked up to 85#.  I felt good at 80, but I lost my technique in my last snatch at 85#.  I should've kept it lighter.  My back was feeling pretty achy the next morning.
• WOD: Annie
• 50-40-30-20-10
• Double Unders
• Sit Ups

I was not excited about this one at all.  I have been crossfitting for over 2.5 years and double unders (jumping rope where the rope passes under you twice in one jump) seemed like the only thing that I couldn't seem to get better at.  They are extremely punishing if you're not good at them: they take you longer, make you more exhausted, and you will whip yourself... sometimes in the face.  I came to dread every workout with dubs and I started to wonder if I should just give up and do the scaled version of 3x singles.  And then last night... it clicked!  I had been doing dubs with singles in between and my first round I got 23 dubs in a row that way, which was definitely a PR!  And then about halfway through the workout, I decided to try and drop the singles in between and for the first time ever, it worked!  I did 12 consecutive dubs in a row!  They were the best double unders of my life and I still can't believe I finally made progress on them!  I finished Annie in 14:11, which is a super long time, but I Rxed and I am so proud of myself!

Can you find me in the back?

Th - 1.30 mi walk with the pups + CrossFit

• Strict Pull Up Ladder (do one, then two, then three...) - I used a light green band and I got 6+4.  Maybe one day I'll get one unassisted!
• WOD: For Time 
• 2000 m Row 
• Partner 1 rows to 250 
• Partner 2 does 7 burpees
• This workout kicked my butt.  I worked out with someone who rows a lot faster than I do, so I was barely finishing my burpees by the time she was done rowing, aka I didn't get much rest.  I also didn't want to hold her back, so I rowed as fast as I could.  By the last set of burpees, my back started to really hurt.  I should've taken this day as a rest day :/  I was pretty much out of commission afterwards.

F - 0.8 mi walk with the pups

S - 1.7 mi walk with the pups and Dave

The rest of my weekend was spent catching up with friends, pulling out all my Christmas decorations, seeing a show at a winery (aka drinking way too much wine), and honoring our yearly tradition of cutting down our Christmas tree with Dave's parents! 

 

 Do you think our tree is big enough?!  The pups don't know what to think about it.

I'll try to take more pictures throughout the week to make these posts more exciting haha.  Hope you're enjoying all this beautiful December weather and all the awesome Christmas movies on TV!

Do you have a yearly Christmas tree tradition?  

15.5 & Phillies Charity 5K Race Recap

I was dreading 15.5 all day.  I'm usually finished by 7 am, but since our gym was doing a Friday Night Lights event, I had all day to contemplate the workout.

It took the pros 7 minutes and change.  I knew it was going to take me at least twice that time.  I figured I had to do the workout Rx because I knew I could, but the 65 lbs thrusters were going to be heavy!  I was right.  They felt heavy from the first one during warm up.  I kept looking around beforehand hoping one of my coaches would notice the panic on my face and tell me I should scale it (which was 45 lbs), but that didn't happen.

The workout started and I took my time on the rower.  All the advice I had read beforehand told me to pace myself rowing and save it all for the thrusters.  It probably didn't matter... the thrusters felt heavy immediately and chipping away the 27 was challenging.  The rest of the workout was pretty much a blur of trying to catch my breath on the rower and pushing through the pain on the thrusters.  My legs were burning and I was sucking wind.

During the WOD I just kept thinking of this mantra that I read earlier that day in a 15.5 mental performance tips post: I love getting to the dark place, because I know that's where the magic happens.  I'm not really sure anybody loves getting to the dark place, but I knew I was in it and knew it wouldn't end until I finished all the work.  All I can say is thank God for my CrossFit family.  I was seriously struggling, but everyone kept cheering me on and encouraging me and it helped so much!  I loved the energy in the gym all night!

Thanks for all the great photos Kate :)

16 minutes and 12 seconds later, I crashed onto the floor so happy that it was over!  15.5 was honestly one of the hardest workouts I've ever done in my life.  It was the perfect end to a mentally and physically challenging 2015 Open!  Like I said before, the Open took me out of my comfort zone and pushed me to accomplish things I didn't think were possible!  It was a great experience and while I'm glad it's over, I'll definitely be signing up next year.

Usually I'm not sore from CF until the next day, but my legs were really hurting immediately afterwards.  We all went out to a local sports bar for dinner, but when I got home I quickly popped some ibuprofen and covered my thighs in icyhot.  I woke up in the middle of the night and had trouble getting back to sleep because my legs were just aching.  When I woke up in the morning, it hurt to walk.  Between that and the 30 degree temps outside, I really contemplated trying to convince Dave to just skip the race.

But I knew I'd hate myself and I'd never be able to wear the nice tech T race shirt because I would just feel like a big liar in it lol.

We left our house around 6:30 am.  There was no traffic, so we cruised down 76 and parked a little after 7.  It was cold, so we hung out in the car until 7:30.  The race was very well organized.  They had a ton of porta pottys so I didn't have to wait in a long line, which is a race day win!  The announcements were loud and clear, so we knew what was going on and where to line up.  We settled in between the 9 and 10 min/mi pace markers and did some stretching.  Did I mention my legs were sore?

At 8 am, the race started and we were off!  The beginning was a little crowded.  It's always a little bit of scramble trying to dodge people and get into the groove.  My quads were on fire immediately and as we passed some people walking during the first mile, I was thinking that it would've felt pretty good (and also that I hate when people suck at lining up based on their pace).  We ran past the Fanatic and soon we were in FDR park and headed into mile 2.

The path was a bit more narrow in the park, but the further we got into the race, the less everyone was trying to pass.  At the halfway point, they were handing out water, but I knew if I stopped at all, I wasn't going to get my legs to begin again.  I realized we had been following a couple for a little while, so I made it my goal to stay with them.  I tried to zone out and just concentrate on them.  My legs felt awful and I was definitely winded.  I was so cold before the race began but now I was wishing I could ditch some of my layers.  I just kept thinking this will all be over soon enough.

We finished mile 2 and soon we were leaving the park.  As we headed back onto Broad Street, I could hear the announcer at the finish line.  As we rounded the corner, the finish line was in view!  We left our pacing couple behind and started to push.  Right after we finished mile 3, I saw a guy go off to the side and thought that's weird we're so close... until he started tossing his cookies.  The last little bit of the race was so tough, that 0.1 felt so long.

Crossing the finish line was the sweetest relief!  Our official time was 30:06.  While I didn't have any goals for this race other than to just survive, Dave wanted to finish in under 30 minutes.  My running app said we ran 3.22 miles (instead of 3.1), so I'm still counting it as a win!  We both only did 2 training runs beforehand and our legs were smoked already, so I was quite impressed with our performance.

Negative splits, for the win!  We grabbed our medals, some water, bananas, and soft pretzels, and made our way to the field entrance for our cool down lap around the warning track.  It was pretty neat being down on the field!

We snapped some pics and took in the sights, but soon I was cold and ready to get out of there.  We hobbled up the stairs out of the stadium (cruel!) and headed to the car.  We grabbed some cheesesteaks (at 9 am, breakfast of champions lol) and headed home!

Now it's Tuesday (Happy Birthday Mom <3) and it still hurts to walk!  Hopefully my legs will feel normal at some point this week....

Victory for Voices 10K Race Recap

When my alarm went off this morning I was not very excited about getting up for the race.  Despite spending about a third of the day Saturday napping, I didn’t want to get out of bed and the gloomy foggy weather wasn’t helping.  I was kind of stressed out, I wasn’t sure exactly where we were supposed to be, what I was eating for breakfast, or how I was going to feel through the race.  My nerves were eased a bit when we got to the race with plenty of time to pick up our shirts, stand in the porta potty line, and meet up with Allison and her cheerleaders Tracy and Jess!

I know, our hair looks amazing.  It was pretty chilly while we were standing there and the thick fog was keeping a lot of moisture in the air.  We were ready to get the race started!

And we were off!  The race was a 3.1 mile loop through the park, the 10K was two loops of the course, so you could decide midrace.  So we started off with everyone… up a huge hill!  I was pretty full of hatred running up the hill at the start, but knew it would be worse on the second lap.  The first part of the course was on roads through the park, after we defeated the long hill at the start, we faced another shorter uphill and soon we were half way through the loop.

The second half of the course was on a paved trail through the woods.  The trail had a good amount of windy turns, but it was mostly downhill or flat.  Dave and I had planned to take our time through the race since we wanted to last through the 6.2 miles, but Allison was running her first 5K and we followed her pace through the first lap.  Even though she claimed she was “so slow” she was definitely pushing me!  I floated the idea of skipping the second lap to Dave, but he made me commit to finishing the whole 10K.  Yay for positive peer pressure.

Soon we were out of the woods and approaching the 5K finish line, we cheered Allison on as she finished and prepared to face the hill again.  I was full of hatred as we headed up the hill.  I had a lot of pain in my Achilles and we did a good bit of walking up the incline.  We did some more running and then took another short walk break up the smaller incline.  We took our last walking break through the water station around 4.5 miles.  The course was way less crowded during this lap, which made it kind of less exciting but we ended up running with a woman who was cheering on everyone around her and making us laugh.

Soon enough we spotted Allison, Tracy, and Jess and we could hear Gagnam Style pumping through the speakers at the finish line.  We sprinted to the finish and we were done!

We both felt extremely proud of our finishing time of 1:01:28!  Of course I forgot to charge my Garmin, so I don’t have the regular splits, but running faster than a 10 minute mile pace was amazing considering our (lack of) preparation!  It was Allison’s first 5K and she won 3rd place in her age group!  We were going to leave before they did the 10K awards, but Allison and Tracy convinced us to hang around because you never know… and Dave won 3rd in his age division too!  It was also the farthest he’s ever run, yay for his PDR!  They rock!!!  Also, kudos to Tracy, our awesome photographer!

And now I’m retiring from running… jk!  Kinda.  Dave and I are planning on joining a gym ASAP, so I’m looking forward to getting back to lifting in a gym setting.  I’m sure I’ll keep running, especially when the weather gets nice again, but for now I’m not really interested in running any winter races or training for any long distances.  Maybe I will have another love affair with running, but for now give me a weight room!

Do you go through fitness phases?

Burn off the Bird 5K Race Recap

Dave and I arrived at the race with plenty of time to pick up our bibs and shirts, meet up with our friends Karisa, Frank, and Ashley, and utilize the indoor restrooms (race day gem)!  It was in the high 30s, which we were pretty pumped about since the forecast was calling for overnight lows in the 20s, and it was nice and sunny.  The wind was whipping but we just kept trying to remind ourselves that it could’ve been raining… or snowing!  The race included a long sleeve tech T, which I can definitely use more of, and the turkey on the front makes me giggle.

After a quick warm up in the parking lot, we headed to the starting line.  There was some confusion but before we knew it, we were off!  Dave and I decided to do our best, but we knew our lack of training meant we weren’t destined for any new PRs.  The first mile went by quickly and we were running faster than I expected.  Apparently we were feeling great, because the second mile was even faster!  There were some killer hills throughout the course, but running Valley Forge continues to pay off because we found ourselves passing multiple people up the inclines!
The third mile was definitely the hardest.  I really wasn’t feeling our pace anymore, but Dave kept pushing me to finish strong.  We were also following a dad pushing his two daughters in a stroller and let me tell you, both kids looked like they were pretty much pushing the size limits on that stroller, and I just kept thinking, if he can do this, so can I!  I knew that in a matter of minutes it would all be over and soon enough we were rounding a corner and could see the finish line.
We pushed ourselves hard on the last 0.1 and we finished!

Like I said, definitely not a PR, but we were super proud of our time and it was a great warm up for our postponed race next weekend!  We celebrated completing the race by having a big bacon filled brunch with Karisa and Frank, I couldn’t think of a better way to cap off the morning!
How did you burn off the bird this week?  Did you run any turkey themed races?

Blogiversary & Moyer 5K Race Recap

Wow, I can't believe I've been blogging for a whole year tomorrow!  Over the past year I've learned a lot about blogging, photography, and myself.  The blog world is so great for keeping yourself accountable, getting advice, and just for general support.  I've really enjoyed writing and I hope you enjoyed reading along   Thank you so much!

Last night Dave and I ran the Moyer 5K!  I thought the race started at 6 so we got there at 5:30, but apparently it didn't start until 7.  Boo to the website being unclear but it wasn't too big of a deal.  Dave's tummy was rumbling so we walked over to Wawa to pick up some race fuel, did a few laps around the park, and hit the porta potties.  Oh funny story, while we were standing at the porta john's some kid is standing there with the door open kinda looking lost and then he goes, what do you do if you drop your cell phone in?  Bad day!  Fortunately, there were dog waste baggies right there so he grabbed a few to use as gloves and put his phone in.  Needless to say, we did not stay to watch that situation go down!

After doing a little warming up and stretching, we headed to the starting line.  We wanted to be fairly close to the start since there was no chip timing, but we didn't want to be too close and get passed by everyone.  We found a nice spot and before we knew it, we were off!  We went along with the mob around us and started off rather quickly.  I was worried we started too fast, but as everyone spread out, we seemed to easily maintain the 8:50 pace we were running.  Mile 1 flew by pretty fast!

Mile 2, not so much.  The second mile began with a mild steady incline and I ended up with a side stitch.  We continuously slowed our pace and eventually I felt a bit better.  And then Dave got a side stitch.  We kept chugging along and had to run another long mild incline.  Thankfully it was super cloudy so the sun wasn't beating down on us, but we were definitely feeling the heat.  A couple of residents had their hoses out and we ran through every one!  It was pretty cool because the race was right through my neighborhood.

As the third mile approached I just kept thinking, in 10 minutes I will be chugging water and eating a popsicle!  After we had to run the steepest part of the course, we came up to the local firehouse which had one of their big hoses mounted on top of one of their trucks!  The water felt amazing and they had a guy playing the bag pipes!  That's when I knew we were done the hills, the crowd support picked up, and I could feel the finish line getting close.

As we hit the last 0.1 mile stretch Dave and I took off.  We both wanted to beat our times from March and I was so pumped when I saw the clock that I let out a "YEAH!"  We finished together, both PRed, and it felt so good!

Do you have any races coming up?  Do you like running small local races or big popular ones?

Broad Street Run Race Recap!

This is what I look like amped up at 5 am...

Do you see the crazy in my eyes???  My alarm went off at 4:45 am, but I was already up!  Shayna slept over in the guest room and TJ arrived promptly at 5:30 am.  Shayna prepped our breakfast (mini cinnamon raisin bagels, with a choice of almond or peanut butter, and bananas) while Dave packed the cooler full of post race goodies.  We left around 6, not sure what traffic on 76 would be like but made it down to North Philly in a record 25 minutes!  Dave dropped us off near the start and we were feeling lucky when we found some porta potties that hadn't been used at all yet!  What a race day gem!

Next we headed into the Central High School football stadium to kill some time singing random songs, meeting new people, and making jokes about the guy with the shortest shorts ever (and the odds of his member making an appearance at the race)!  We got there pretty early, but I was glad that we weren't dealing with the craziness of the crowds in the subway. 

Next thing I knew we finished an awesome warm up and were headed to our corrals.  There were a ton of people but it was easy to find where we were supposed to be.  We even found Jenn!

Since our corral was second from the back, we waited around 40 minutes just to get up to the start line.

And then we were off!  The beginning was pretty intense, running with so many people was so exhilarating but also pretty crazy.  We spent the majority of the race weaving in and out and passing people.  The first few miles ticked by.  There were random spectators along the sides of the streets yelling for us.  And then we started passing bands, rappers, DJs, there were even some zumba dancers!

We knew Dave was waiting for us around city hall, but we weren't sure if the cross street was before or after so it was kind of fun looking ahead to each street to see if it was the one.  It really made the miles tick by.  Then the crowds really swelled when we got to city hall, and right as we came back onto Broad Street there was an awesome band and we saw Dave!

 

After city hall things kind of died down.  The crowd was scattered and my knees were really starting to ache.  Miles 7 and 8 were probably the hardest part.  I just kept saying we got this and almost there to encourage myself, Shayna, and everyone around us that could hear me.

Then all of the sudden I realized how close we were to the finish.  Shayna and I ran together until 8 or 8.5, but I started to lose her in the crowd around us so I told her I was going ahead.  And then I was off!  I started hauling it and passing a ton of people.  I just wanted to be done.  The course kept getting more and more narrow towards the end, which was annoying because it was hard to get through but I just kept pushing and pushing!

Next thing I know, it was over!  I did it!  I crossed the finish line and received my metal!

I didn't really have any specific goals for this race, I just wanted to finish.  But in the back of my mind I did want to beat the 1:47:42 I ran my 10 mile training run in.  I killed it.

Seriously look at those splits!  I hadn't done any of my long runs nearly this quick.  At the beginning I was worried we were going out too fast.  I didn't want to burn out at the end, but the pace felt natural and every time we tried to slow down, we ended up around the same pace anyway.  It ended up working out, because I felt great throughout.  And look at the last 2 miles!  Holy moly!  My official race time was 1:40:32 as well and I placed 21,425 out of 33,988, not too shabby!  I think the distance on my Garmin ended up being a little over 10 because we rounded city hall on the outside, something to think about for future races.

The aftermath was crazy, there was no cell phone service since everyone and their mom was trying to meet up with someone, and it was mobbed.  I wandered around for a while and ran into Ricky, someone from my Tuesday night group runs, and a neighbor from college!  Eventually we all found each other and headed back to FDR park for some tailgating.

And then the rest of my day was spent doing a lot of this.

(I'm pretty sure Dave is snapping to get the dog away from licking my face and waking me up!)

So that was Broad Street!  It was a great success and I'm definitely feeling ready for the half.  And for some weird reason my knee doesn't even hurt today.  Win!