Oct 12-16th (285-290): another race weekend!

Posted on October 16, 2013 by HaleyComet

On Sat, Oct 12 I drove to Chattanooga to meet one of my best friends for a ‘girl day’ of a nice lunch and strolling and shopping. We hit 2 parts of town, parking once and walking.
Day 285: walking, 1hr (was about 4hrs in Chatt, but logging one ‘purposeful’ hour)

Day 287: RACE! Georgia Mystery Mountain Marathon

I’m being lazy and copying what I wrote on my other site (that I complained about yesterday). If you’re coming from there…skip over this.

I knew it was highly technical, steep climbs, etc. It’s called “Mystery Mountain Marathon”. I bought some new shoes on Sat as I didn’t think my Minimus would be a good idea for the various types of rocky terrain, and I have Upchuck coming up. Anyway, the shoes were great (Inov8)! My feet felt great. However, I think I’m not used to the higher treads (still a more minimal shoe). I fell twice in the first 2.5mi Hit aid station at mile 3. Feeling ok…mile 4 on a downhill, I hit some rocks wrong and completely tumbled over, with my ankle rolling. It was bad.

Fast forward to me shoo-ing off some guys who offered to try to help me limp along to the aid station, leaned against a tree for several minutes as I could put no weight on it. Thankfully they said going back 1 mile to quit at the mile 3 aid station was a bad idea (since it was a big climb back up)…because hey, it might not be broken and if it’s not, then I’d be pissed if I quit….

So, I limped along until I got to the mile 7-8ish aid station, where I was going to decide if I was going to quit. But, I made it! So, since I made it I decided that my ankle was already F*CKED to hell, and I was finishing this damn state, especially if my year is over (bye, bye Upchuck, bye bye CC100 or another 50m).

I laugh now because I know to most people it’s ridiculous logic (or not logic at all), but I will probably tell people, “if you’re debating for hours if you should go to the ER after the race, the middle of the night when it’s not crowded, or Urgent Care tomorrow…” then maybe you shouldn’t be running. Yes, I’d probably tell people that. But apparently I won’t follow my own advice! I may or may not have decided that “I will not tell Kurt, or anyone what happened. I’ll finish, then go to the Dr, as it won’t change anything now. I have to get off the mountain and drive home anyway.”

Today: my ankle is feeling much better! I now know it’s not broken. Tons of ice (on the 6hr drive home), elevated it on the dashboard, slept with it elevated the last 2 nights. I have a little more ROM this morning, but it’s still stiff. Not as tender to walk on. And no, I don’t follow the “if it was broken you couldn’t walk on it” rule, because when I broke the same ankle in 2008, I walked on it for 2-3 days and went to work, before going to the ER and finding out it was broken.

Day 288: Recovery day. I took it easy in the morning as I didn’t get much sleep. I then drove into town to retrieve my computer from the Apple store repair shop (everything is ok, whew!). I parked on the opposite side of the mall, in the last row of parking spots so I could have the farthest walk to the store as possible. When I got home I did a slow stroll up and down the street as well. So, I more than covered my ’20 min purposeful walk’ requirement.

Day 289: Walked before class. Ankle doesn’t hurt with every step! Just sore and stiff.

Day 290: Raining. Kettlebells and pushups and pullups. Various weights & bodyweight stuff.

The More You Know…

Posted on October 15, 2013 by HaleyComet

The strange part of the internet/blog world, is that it provides a great cloak for people to hide behind, intentionally or not. Sure, I could go into stories of Catfishing, other friends dating people they met online only to find out after months or years of long-distance that they are drunks, or were cheating the whole time. I have so much I can write here, but this is a more workout related blog, so lets get back to that….

I’ve been a part of an athletic based website that has forums and logs for workouts, for many years now. I’ve met some great people via that place, many of whom are real-life friends, and not ‘internet’ ones. However, I still frequent that site (it’s an internal struggle, as it really doesn’t have a place in my life anymore). There are many friends, friends-of-friends. But, as with all communities, including online ones, things change. The clientele changes. I noticed this with my first marathon running group, in 2004. It was a great community and family. In 2005…things started to be different. The “clique” went from a fun-loving, clean, ‘good friends’ vibe, to a ‘party, sleep around, the Head Coach taking advantage and cheating at races’ one. I left the group. Some friends stayed for another year, then they left in 2006 as it got too disgusting. It grew too much, got incestuous amongst members (married or not) and the Head Coach got another coach to carry her timing chip in a marathon, to get her a BQ time. I’ve been finding the same trends, with the internet site, as the circles of who knows whom grows.

What’s been bothering more lately, and this could be a whole different blog post, are people who do anything to ‘fit in’. They don’t want to make waves. They kiss ass to even the most vile of people (I can’t even begin to elaborate as some of the examples are violations of LAW), completely disregarding the behavior of these jerks. Do these people have no self respect? They abandon any morals or values of their own, just to fit in. Or WORSE, they never bother to even think about who they are, how they fit in the world, what kind of life they lead…all to ‘fit in’. Now, I’m not saying I’m a lone ranger who points out everyone’s character flaws, and I definitely don’t live a perfect life. I’ve made bad choices, but I try to own them and fix them, OR at least be aware of them, so I can decide if my choices and actions are fitting into my moral framework. I could elaborate and say I see, or know, women who are not empowered. They don’t have self-confidence. They place their identity into working out, they don’t know who they are, or what they stand for. Some so desperately want to be ‘liked’. Its sad for them. And do they realize it’s the INTERNET? That there probably is no way you would be ‘friends’ with this many people in real life?! Would you try desperately to pump up the most depressive of people, day in and day out, if you saw them regularly? Would you actively try to be friends with people who are serial cheaters? Or would you actively try to be friends-hang out with them?!- with people your partner has slept with? No. Probably not. They probably wouldn’t be your friend.

I really did not like Ethics and Morals at the time, but I did learn from it.

So, I’ve taken way too long a break from my little blog here at WordPress. I’m coming back! I’m still on my 365 streak! There is NO way I can go back and fill in…but I can change my mistake of abandoning this, and move forward.

Enough of this heavy shit, here’s a funny!

May 1: new month, new goals

Posted on May 1, 2013 by HaleyComet

I’m here. I’m not dead. I haven’t quit my 365 workouts challenge. Although, I did seem to “quit” the blog for a while. Then when I kept realizing I needed to blog, I kept putting it off. Oh well, such is life of a procrastinator. I will go back and finish my entries for the past…what, 60 or so days? More? Eeeek.

In the meantime I have been focusing on school (all A’s this semester!), my food, and my workouts. I’m seeing great gains in my body. Now, I’m no low body-fat bodybuilder, or superstar Crossfitter, but I *NEVER* thought my 1 year ago 175lb self would be where I am today. I never would have thought I would be my smallest since high school.

This has been my motivation to blog again. If I never would have imagined being where I am today, where can I be at the end of this year? I still have 8 months to go! That’s TONS of time to change a body.

Here is your warning: there are pictures of me in a bathing suit on this post. They’re not great. I’m not perfect. This is a huge step for me, part of me still can’t believe I’m going to post them. I am not looking to ‘brag’ or show off (far from it!), but rather try to celebrate and embrace the body I have now and continue to work on making myself healthier. And that means mental health too. So, say it with me, “I love my body. I love my body.” This brings me to, Day 1…

This month I’m doing a little photography challenge, that’s fitness related. Disclaimer: I have NO photography skills. My iPhone sucks because it’s been dropped so many times, including submerged in the toilet once. That said, it’s fitness related and will keep me motivated to improve myself and to blog.

What else…I’m at the end of my 2nd Whole30 of the year! It’s going well. I didn’t document the food as much as I did last time. I will do another recap though.

Today for my exercise, SINCE THAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG, I took a walk with my cousin. We went 30min, 2.31 miles. 13:20 pace. Being the beginning of the month, I probably should have done more, but I wasn’t feeling it. Since this month has been food focused and 50miler recovery, my workouts have been much lighter. That’s ok, I’ve got big things coming! Doing a marathon in 2 weeks, then a 50k June 1, probably another marathon in the summer as well. Upping my run mileage!

Back to MAY.

Lets start my food today, Paleo/Whole30 stuff:
I had venison cabbage rolls for breakfast w/sauteed greens. No pic, sorry. They don’t look that great, but they taste good.

Lunch was a kale & salmon omelette with 2 pieces of bacon. Delicious!

Dinner was smoked chicken legs and more sautéed greens.
I’ve had so many greens lately, this has been a staple.

Now, for my May 1 fitness pic challenge. Entries, “BEFORE.”
(be nice people, no photoshop or editing! How many of you are putting non-covered up bathing suit pictures on the interwebs? Not many.)

Unfortunately, I do not think I’ll ever have a complete hard midsection. Being 175lbs a little over a year ago, and also 9 years ago, I think I wrecked my body in that way. Oh well, I guess I’ll always have a little pouch of loose skin around my belly button.
Or, get a tummy tuck when I win the lottery.

I call this, “my tire.” Get it? Heh. I love it. Not my stomach, but the picture.

This, my Photoshop-talented, friend TJ made artsy for me!

And finally, here is a progress pic. My handstands are improving, as is my midsection!

Welcome to May! Kick it’s ass everyone!

Days 59-66: My New Toy!

Posted on March 8, 2013 by HaleyComet

I solely wanted to write a post about my new workout toy, but then I realized I should probably go ahead and blog my workouts, because, well, that’s what I’m supposed to be doing here.

SOOO, since I get super excited about anything, I want to talk about my toy!

My friend Jacob sent a picture of a tire drag he made. I was floored. BRILLIANT! And who already has a tire junk yard in her backyard for flipping, for hitting with sledgehammers, for throwing…this girl! How had I not thought of this?! So, this week I was preoccupied with making the perfect tire drag(s) – plural because every girl needs assorted sizes.

Who wants to know how to make a tire drag? Or a drag tire? Whatever. Call it what you want.

First, go to your local junkyard. Or semi-busy highway. A road where you see tires! If you start keeping an eye out, you’ll start to see discarded tires everywhere! Ok, not everywhere, but pretty often. All my tires were free! 2 came from the junkyard, but the rest were discarded tractor & 18wheeler tires.

Next, get them home and clean them. This isn’t a necessary step, but you’ll be glad you did. Otherwise, you get nasty junk all over you and your clothes whenever you handle it. I suggest a bucket of water and bleach, some light scrubbing with a brush or rag. Pretty easy! Hose it off. Take about 5min for a small tire (regular car tire) or…a lot longer for a 300lb tractor tire 🙂

Then, weigh your tire(s). I prefer to do this after cleaning. You can do it before, and save you a step or two… as I ended up taking one back to the junkyard in pristine condition because it was too big. However, it was better than getting really dirty.

Also, weighing your tires in your pajamas–purple skull pants and hot pink tie-dye Honey Badger shirt–is essential.

Then, have a strapping man drill a hole in your tire. Or, do it yourself if you don’t have one of those handy. It’s not hard.

Here are the rest of your materials: rope. A 1/4in washer. A carabiner. A bungee rope with the carabiner attached to it. A weight lifting belt OR harness.
Put the washer inside the tire, tie off a knot in the rope.
Make a loop around the belt, attach to carabiner. Attach the bungee between the belt and the tire rope.
That’s it!

Final product!

(photo courtesy of Jacob: I don’t take pictures that pretty)

Then…try it out! Up and down the street! It’s FUN!
(oh, and super hard. ugh)

Going to a gravel path is a little easier. Also, the levee is our ONLY hill for many miles. At least 50. We’d have to drive several towns NE or W to find some things people would call “hills”.
I’ve since made the rope a little shorter. In these pictures, I have the bungee attached, that’s why it looks REALLLLLY long.
The backside of the levee, as you can see it’s reinforced with concrete. It’s really steep and terribly hard to pull the tire up that concrete wall. I had to go up at an angle.

And finally….

When you get really tired, tie a dog to the front of the belt!
It’s ok, he really liked it.

Felt pretty lazy this past week with my workouts. There wasn’t much of a focus, but I had 2 tests to prepare for. I felt tired as well, I think the 2-a-day CF workouts caught up with me. Of course, today (the 7th) my legs are really tired from the tire work the past several days!

Day 59 (feb 28): treadmill desk walking. 2hr 50min. Watched several tv shows from the night before. I love walking early in the AM to catch up on the shows I sleep through at night; since I go to bed well before 10!

Day 60 (mar 1): treadmill desk walking: 2hr. Working on schoolwork.

Day 61 (mar 2): Run.
1.5mi with the dogs. 15min, 10min/mi. Ridiculous. My other half is out of town for several days and I just can’t handle going out with the dogs–together–by myself. They’re just too big and run too fast!
(Oh, take them one at a time you say? Sure. Then whomever is left will CRY and whine very loudly! It’s pathetic. They *KNOW* the leash and collar and knows that means A RUN!, and they are very upset when they are left. Dog people problems.)

Day 62 (mar 3): Kettlebell. 15min. 10 sets of: 10 swings, 10 goblet squats to push press (kind of like a KB thruster)

Day 63: (mar 4) CrossFit, sorta. 15min. + stretching, 15min total for the day.
Warmup: 50 jumping jacks, 20 lunges, 10 burpees, stretching: 5min @ CF.
Strength: 1 RPM. Warmup & build up: bar, 65lb, 95lb, 120lbs. Stopped at 120, my hip was killing me. Aggravating an old injury I guess.
Since the WOD was more squats, I called it a day.

Day 64: (mar 5) Tire drag “run” x2, treadmill desk walking.
Tire Drag, 46lb small tractor tire:
First try (10am): .5mi, 10min. Up and down the street. Too heavy. Cement isn’t optimal.
2nd run: 2mi, time: 27:23, 13:41min/mi. On the Mississippi River levee. The gravel is a better terrain for pulling the tires.
Treadmill walking: 45min while watching Biggest Loser from the night before.

Practically falling over trying to get up the levee. Horrible.

Day 65: (mar 6) Tire drag run, home CrossFit, treadmill desk walking
Run: 1.2mi, 12:33, 10:28 pace. Pulled the 25lb tire. Much easier than the 46lb, but still hard! Planned on running 2-3, but my legs were TI-RED. They were more tired from yesterday than I thought.
CrossFit @ home: 5 rounds: 10 sledgehammer (5 each arm), 15kb swings. Time: 4:41.
Treadmill desk Walking: 1hr 15min. Watched some TV in the morning while walking.

Day 66 (mar 7): CrossFit @ home. Felt like a cop-out. Really feeling like I need some purpose rather than throwing stuff together.
3 rounds
10 sledgehammer (5 each arm)
10 KB swings
10 burpees
5 tire flips (the smaller tire, too tired for the huge one)
time: 5:52
These are my big tires, the ones I hit and flip. I hit, do box jumps and (sometimes) flip the huge one. The smaller one is for flipping and throwing when I’m tired.

Week in review: LOVE my new toy. I think trying new things, changing things up, and just keeping it fresh, is going to be key for the rest of the year. Every couple of months I’ll have to put a new life into this. Even with the excitement of the tire, I’m feeling very…without purpose this week. I can’t go back hard into workouts as I’ve got a big race in 2 weeks. So, this feeling will continue as I “rest” for that. I won’t use the word “taper” since I don’t actually train in a race specific way. 🙂

I’ve GOT to be a better blogger.

Posted on February 27, 2013 by HaleyComet

Days 45-58.

I’ve got no excuses. I just haven’t felt like blogging. School is in full swing and it feels like a luxury to ‘waste time’ and blog. I don’t believe it’s a time waster, it’s a creative outlet I need to continue.

It took me forever to write this post, because I’m so far behind. Putting the pictures into Layout, formatting and using the right ones, sending them to Flickr, then uploading here…takes a long time! ANYWAY, tons of catching up to do! So, read if you like, or just look at the goofy pictures. I’m caught up and will NOT be letting myself get this far behind. New rule: 1-2 posts per week!

Day 45 (feb 14): CrossFit, home workout. Felt good! Finally starting to feel ‘recovered’ from the race.
4 rounds:
25kb swings (25lbs)
565m run (around the big block, mapped it out!)
Time: 14:40. The run totaled 1.4mi.

Some Valentines CrossFit love:

Day 46 (feb 15): CrossFit, home again. Walk.
Walked the dogs 2miles at the dog park.
CF
Warmup: 400m jog, bodyweight stuff (squats, pushups, etc)
3 rounds
1130m run (.7mi)
5 burpees
10 thrusters (45lb bar)
Time: 16:57. Run total: 2.1miles.

Lets ignore the tissue on the ground, shall we? My dog likes to pull them out of the trash.

Day 47 (feb 16): Benchmark WOD. Stretching/Foam roller (10min).
9min AMRAP
7 KB swing
7 burpees
50m run.
Again, the burpees are always my limiter. Ugh
TOTAL: 7 rounds, +7 KB swing +2 burpees.
In Sept. I did 6 rounds + 7 swings. Decent improvement.

Day 48: (feb 17) Kettlebell. Handstands. Stretching.
KB: 50 sumo deadlift high pull, 50 swings
Handstands: Practice. MAJOR breakthrough. All of a sudden, I was “getting” it and able to hold them, without a wall, for much longer than before! WHOOO HOO!
Stretching: splits practice & foam roller.
Now I want to get my splits since my handstands are getting better. I have a long way to go though.

Day 49 (feb 18): CrossFit x2! (at the Box & at home). Stretching.
Warmup: 400m run, 20 push press w/25lb plate, 20 air squats, 20 burpees, stretching…
WOD:
13min AMRAP
“FUN WITH SANDBAGS”
100m run
5 ground-to-overhead
5 front squat
5 push press
5 back squat
Total: 8 2/3 rounds. AWESOME WOD. Finally feel 100% again.

(SOMEONE forgot their workout clothes and had to wear my short shorts! Ha! Lets point and laugh!!)
WOD #2 (home):
as much in 11min as possible:
800m run
50 situps
75 air squats
100 pushups
I did:
800m run
50 situps
75 squats
70 pushups.
I bet in a couple months I can get through all of it, doing the 100 pushups. They were all “real”, no modified, no knees, etc.
Stretching: Foam roller.

Day 50 (feb 19): Run. Stretching.
Run: 2.01 miles, 18:25, pace: 9:10. Easy little jog to move my legs in a running-type motion.
Mile 1: 9:13
Mile 2: 8:57
Felt like I could have easily kept a faster pace or sustained what I was doing.
Stretching: Foam roller. My legs needed it! Owwwie!

Day 51 (feb 20): Swim! Stretching.
Swim: 750m, 15min, 2:00/100m.
100, 100 breast, 550 pull.
Shoulder wasn’t feeling great. So sore from sandbags Monday.
Stretching: light stretching.

Day 52 (feb 21): CrossFit x2 (Box & home). Stretching. Treadmill walking.
Walk: treadmill while watching The Americans. Love my treadmill desk!
@Box:
Warmup: run 400m, samson stretch, duck walk, 50 jumping jacks, 10 burpees
STRENGTH: 4×4 front squat (did some bar & 65lb warmup)
85, 95, 105, 110! Whoop. Haven’t done that in a long time. Felt pretty easy. Should try my 1RM soon.
WOD:
100m run
15 burpees
30 wall ball (12lb)
Time: 13:09. Second fastest female, RX, as of 5p. Whoo. Couldn’t have caught #1 girl, she did 11:19.
CF @ home:
3 rounds
15 kb swings (44lbs)
10 double unders
0.3mi run
Time: 12:49
Was going to do 5 rounds but this was taking longer than I liked. Wasn’t feeling “fresh”.
+2min for warmup (DU’s, some swings, & K taking pics for blog)
Stretching: light stretching & foam roller.

Annnnnnd, as proof I don’t just use the “best” pictures, here’s some…notsogood ones:

Day 53 (feb 22): Treadmill walking. Kettlebell. Travel day to my brothers. Will be a “minimum” day.
Treadmill: 30minutes. Walked while doing some computer work in case I couldn’t get a real workout in.
Kettlebell: 35lbs
5 Sets of 10’s:
Deadlift high pull
Swings
R & L arm snatch

Day 54 (feb 23): CrossFit 318, Monroe. Drop in at the Box by my brothers house.
Warmup: run 400m, bunch of sprints: high knees, butt kicks, side shuffles, duck walk, skips, etc etc. Don’t remember what else. Some other stuff.
Saturdays at this gym are “Partner WOD’s”. Pretty fun. K was my partner, his weight was 135lbs, so he had to walk with his 40lb weights and put them on the bar after I did my 100m walk. (it was out-and-back)
3 rounds:
42 wall balls (12lb for female)
36 box jump
24 burpees
100m front rack walk (95lbs)
Time: 20:56
One person working at a time. It was BRUTAL! Love it. My quads are FRIED. We did these same exercises on Thursday at my Box and I was already a little tired. Now…they hurt. Oh Rhabdo!

None of the pictures from the workout came out (blame the photog), so, you get ones of me playing on the rope swing! Let me just say again, that WOD was BRUTAL! Also, it’s not my fault that races give out neon shirts. I do have other colors, promise. I guess I just don’t wear them.

Day 55 (feb 24): Yoga. Stretching. Two different ‘stretching’ times. Drove back home from my brothers, then had a family party for my late grandmothers birthday.
Yoga: 20min. practice poses, splits work, handstands.
Stretching: focused on hamstring stuff w/foam roller.

Day 56 (feb 25): Swim. Run. Stretching.
Swim: 850m. 15min. 1:46/100m.
Fast swim! My 50’s were 40-45sec, my 100’s were around 1:40! I don’t think I’ve been this fast…ever.
100 warmup. Mostly setting up lane ropes for the lifeguard, she didn’t want to get in the pool.
2 sets of:
50, 100, 200. Rest same amount of time each set took.
50cd
Run: 1.47miles. Sprints.
30 sec sprint, 2-3min rest (walking back to the start). Usually around 3. I think I did 8 sets.
Felt great!
Made or exceeded my distance on every set.
Stretching: nothing special. Just stretching.

Day 57 (feb 26): Walk: 1.5hrs. 30min sets throughout the day.
Not feeling well. I’ve been having “major” digestive issues. Felt exhausted and never confident to do a hard workout without having bad side effects!

Day 58 (feb 27): Walk. CrossFit.
Walk: 1hr 40min on the treadmill.
CrossFit: Warmup: 20 lunges, 50 jumping jacks, 20 GHD situps, 10 air squats, 10 squat jumps
WOD: 175 box jumps. Oh dear. This was horrible! Well, it was fine really, but mentally very hard to get excited about just doing box jumps. Probably how many people feel about just doing a 5k for time and such.
Time: 11:29

ALL CAUGHT UP!!!! YAY! I still need to write some food posts and a race report. Eeek! I should do that before my next race…

Day 34-44. Procrastination & race recovery.

Posted on February 14, 2013 by HaleyComet

Feb. 3-13
I knew I wouldn’t blog for a while after my 50miler, as the week would be focused on rest & recovery. Very light workouts, thus, a boring blog entry. Well, then I just never felt like writing it up since it was so boring.

Now, I *have* to write this or I’ll be too far behind. So, sludge through it if you like, or don’t. It’s pretty boring! I purposely skipped writing day 33, as I’ll be following this up with my Rocky Raccoon race report (Feb 2) and another food entry.

Day 34: (feb 3) home CrossFit & foam roller
Day 1 post race! My body is TIRED.
Tabata KB swings, went light, 25lbs
Tried a couple pushups, could only do about 3! My body wouldn’t let me do them.
10min of foam roller. OW!

Day 35: Swim.
600yds, 13min, 2:10/100. Kept my 100’s under 2:00. 450 pull, 150 kick board.

(driveway recovery-proven method, post-swim hair. walking the dog)

Day 36: slow jog & walk.
1/2mi jog in my Luna sandals! They feel good. Then, walked the dogs for 20min. Legs felt good after I loosened them up with the jog.

Day 37: Swim & massage* (I am not counting “massage” was a workout, FYI, just logging here as part of recovery)
700yd, 16min, 2:17/100.
Post massage swim. Felt pretty good.
100wu, 450pull, 150kickboard.

*massage with feet. She walked on me. Stood one me, while holding those bars. Ouch! Felt fabulous.

Day 38: CrossFit @ home, Walk & “dancing” at the parade!
CF: tabata snatch, alternating arms each set, 25lbs (4min)
Walk: 30min walk with the dogs. Jogged about 1/4mi in there too.
Dancing: danced my butt off at the Muses parade. Carried kids on my shoulders for a couple hours too. Definitely a fun ‘workout’!

Day 39: Walk & foam roller (stretching)
1hr walk at the park w/the dogs. Lovely day!
Stretching & foam roller in the evening.

Day 40: Run
1mi, 9:26. In my Luna sandals!

Day 41: CrossFit @ home
4 rounds:
15 kb swings
300m run
20 air squats
Time: 9:38
+ 20 more squats to make it an even 100
end time: 10:06

Here we have my lovely outfit: bright green shoes, black & hot pink calf socks, bright orange compression shorts under purple shorts, a maroon race shirt, AND a gold sequin headband. Classy, people. Classy.

Day 42: CrossFit @ home
20min
Didn’t feel like driving to the Box since we don’t have school this week.
Warmup: bar & low weight squat cleans
WOD:
6min AMRAP, 1 min rest, 6min AMRAP (13min total)
6 squat cleans (75lbs first round, 65lb second round)
6 pushups
7 situps
Never, ever think “Oh, those are low numbers, that’s not very long, this will be quick and easy.” NOT. No. No.

Day 43: Walk & stretching
Didn’t feel good today, I slept SO much! Made myself walk the dogs.
30min, usual 1.5-2mile loop.
Foam roller.

Day 44: (feb 13) RUN. I ran to get my moms car from the repair shop. I *LOVE* running to run errands. It feels so free and with purpose. One of my favorite things rather than just get in the car!
5.52mi, 55:43, pace: 10:05
Splits
1: 11:00
2: 10:26
3: 9:58
4: 9:48
5: 9:34
.52: 8:55
I didn’t feel great, but I am pleased with my negative splits. Started to feel better after mile 2.

Ran to the levee, the Mississippi River levee, 4 miles to the next town to the repair shop. Here we have one of the several plantations in our Parish (the only state to call counties, parishes) and the river. It was a nice afternoon.

THANKS! and Workouts Jan 28-Feb 1

Posted on February 2, 2013 by HaleyComet

Wow. I felt SO much love from my FOOD post. I’m totally floored. The biggest thanks goes to Dallas & Melissa @ Whole9 for linking my blog in the Jan. Whole30 wrap up. Just…wow. Because of the overwhelming response and the feedback, I’m going to start doing a weekly “what I ate” type post. Like the rest of this blog, I’ll see what form that takes.

Lets talk workouts shall we? I don’t want to get too far behind and it’s 4am so I might as well do something productive. Since I need to get moving, no pictures today. Sorry. There will be more next time.

Day 28: CrossFit & Walk. And again, I’m not recovered from my marathons. I felt it during this workout. Tired, slower times than normal, had to use little weight on the thrusters. Took a walk in the evening!
Warmup:
run 400m
20 air squats
20 push press (bar)
10 squat jumps w/bar
run 300m

WOD: thrusters & run
15 thrusters, 200m run
20 thrusters, 400m run
30 thrusters, 800m run.
Time: 12:20
UGH. Brutal!
WALK: 22min, 1.6mi around campus after I did my taxes. Yay!

Day 29: Walk & Stretching. Since I felt so tired yesterday, I’m listening to my body and taking an “off” day today. Need my legs to bounce back for this weekend!
Walk: 30min. Walked the dogs after dinner. Probably close to 2 miles. Was over 1.5 based on my running routes.
Stretching: Foam roller & hamstring work.

Day 30: Swim. This was ridiculous. The track team took over the pool midway during my workout and had sweat, grease/oil and cologne/perfume that permeated the pool. They obviously didn’t rinse or shower before getting in. Was so gross, made me nauseated.
CrossFit Endurance swim.
3x: (50y + 100y+ 200y)
50warmup, 50 cooldown

Day 31: Run. Late afternoon jog. Felt pretty good!
2.11mi, 22:33, pace: 10:41
mile 1: 11:59
mile 2: 9:35
Ran around campus. The perimeter. It’s small!
First mile, walk/jog. Took pics. 2nd, found my groove.

I MADE IT ONE MONTH!!! ONE DOWN, 11 TO GO!!!

Day 32: (feb 1) Easy short run/jog.
1.12, 11:09, pace 9:58
Ran around the hotel grounds & perimeter trying out my race shoes & skirt. Day before my ultra.

So. There it is. I’m attempting an ultra today that I have NO BUSINESS doing. Don’t follow my lead people. I’m not trained for this. I have not put in the miles. However, I registered in July and have friends coming from around the country. So, I feel the need to at least show up and try.
We’ll see how it goes!

(I am not attempting this Paleo. I will eat what I feel my body needs to get me through today, as much as it disappoints me to do so.)

Meh. Days 21-27

Posted on January 28, 2013 by HaleyComet

It’s been too long since posts. I guess I felt that nothing was spectacular this week as I’ve been trying recover from the 2 marathons in 2 weeks. Thankfully I did rest and fuel myself enough in recovery to keep from getting sick. Success! Since my workouts felt lackluster, I didn’t take many worokout pics this week. If you hang with me, there are puppy pictures! PUPPIEEES!!! Puppies are always fun. Oh, anyway…the only thing new this week was that I started yoga class again, and I’m not taking pictures in there! I finally got to use my hot, new yoga mat though! Schaawiiinng!

Oh yeah, I hate that gyms give out free junk food! As you can see above, mine was giving out chocolate “smoothies”. WTF. We’ve all seen the Krispy Kreme donut gym pic, right?

That said, I’m also tapering for an ultra this coming weekend. I’ll post about it later in the week, but I don’t have high expectations and am actually *almost* terrified. I am NOT prepared. I have not put in the mileage. So, I’m doing what I can to go into it as fresh as possible.

Day 21: Walk & Stretch (foam roller)
30min walk with the dogs + 10 min of stretching and/or foam roller. Really worked my hips & ITB.

Day 22: Run. Legs felt like LEAD. I felt so spastic, like a puppy who can’t find his paws. I’m sure I looked terrible. After 1/2mile I felt normal and got an actual stride going. Whew. Still need several days to recover.
1.66 miles, time 14:35, pace 8:47.

Day 23: Swim, CrossFit, & Yoga! Like I said in day 22, I still need recovery time and I felt it today. However, I took each of these 3 pretty easy. For me anyway.
Swim: 500yds, 10min, 2:00/100yd’s. Quick swim before class. Pool is only open for a short time at lunch.
Ummm, do NOT post pics of yourself in your swimsuit on the interwebs? Should be a rule, no?
CrossFit: 15min.
Modified/shortened the workout (and warmup) to keep recovering/resting/tapering.
Warmup: 200m fast walk, stretching
Strength 4×4 ‘heavy’ dumbbell push press. 25lbs each hand.
WOD: 50 push press with just the bar (45lbs) Plus some other stuff I didn’t do.
Mini WOD: 3 rounds of 10 slamball (20lbs), 10 abmat situps
Yoga: Back to classes since the semester has started. The class was PACKED and she made it super hard to “punish” us for being gone so long. I did a lot of down dog to recover! My legs just couldn’t hold some of the poses. Fried!

Day 24: CrossFit & Swim.
CrossFit
Warmup:
1min run in place, high knees
20 slamballs
20 monkey F*ckers
10 burpees
50 sun gods

Strength: practice Zercher squats (I only did the bar, probably could have done 90-95lbs)
WOD buy in: 10 Zercher squats
WOD:
4 rounds
4 Zercher squats
10 burpees
10 kb swings (25lbs)
Time: 7:50
This was not the real WOD, but the modified for me so I wouldn’t trash my legs. Still worked up a sweat!

Swim: Crappy swim, had to hurry because there were only 2 lap lanes, aerobics in the main part of the pool, and swim lessons were kicking us out of the 2 lanes. I really hate this–very small–pool, the hours & the policies.
500yds, 9min, 1:48/100m

Day 25: Walk & random play at the park
Walked over a mile at the dog park on the walking path. 4 loops on the path that’s over 1/4mi long. Not a stroll, a purposeful walk. Then walked a little over 1/4mi to the “exercise area” at the park: they have outdoor pullup bars, balance stands, stair stepper(!?)squat machine…and an elliptical! Right next to the walking path! WTF!?!

(not criticizing people who use ellipticals, however, I’m a big believer in walking, or fast walking for healthy people are able to use their own feet to propel them…Hey you, 20year old college student. Get off the elliptical that has a tv and get outside! Or lift weights!)

Annnnnnnd here’s the money shot. The elliptical is so hard:

Day 26: CrossFit at home. (saturday)
3 rounds:
20kb swings (44lbs)
10 burpees
200m run with 25lb plate (ooof)
Time 12:09

Day 27: short Run. I was so tired today. I’ve been busy all weekend, moving furniture & deep freezers & refrigerators. Also, I’ve been up since 0345 with no downtime! I felt terrible & had some pain the first .3mi, but after that I felt a lot better, and even good after the first .75.
1.3mi, Time 12:17, pace 9:27

Here’s the puppy picture I promised! Rascal found his doggie-twin at the dog park! They were so cute.

Day 20: marathon day! Again.

Posted on January 22, 2013 by HaleyComet

I had decided on Thursday or Friday that I was feeling good enough after the Mobile marathon last week (day 13) to go to the expo & register for the Baton Rouge marathon. Hard to pass one up thats about 30min away!

I was a little nervous as I was going to try out some new nutrition again, and last week didn’t go that well. I’m a real-food eating proponent and after the last couple of marathons (last year), I decided to try to stop using “sports food” during races. I never feel good eating/drinking them, and my stomach usually gets upset. If I’m going to feel bad anyway, I can at least try it eating real food.

The short version is, I felt GREAT the whole time, even after doing one last week. No dizziness, no pain, and I was able to actually tolerate my food. Success! Not fast by any means, but within my normal “average” times. Now, if I just start to run train more, I could get faster again. 🙂 However, I just love CrossFit too much to want to put in that many run miles. My strength carries me through a couple marathons a year, I’m ok with that.

Of course, here’s some pictures. My FAVORITE aid station was the Duck Commander theme. You’ve seen Duck Dynasty, right?! They’re my people. They were all in cammo, using duck calls to cheer people on. They were SO much fun!

For all you Marathon Maniacs out there, this was a GREAT race (Louisiana Marathon). Smaller than RnR series (ugh), but the course support was GREAT, the scenery beautiful and so many community members out with their own aid stations in their front yards. The post race jambalaya cookoff was fun, the big bands…truly a top-notch race, even with less than 5k people! The race org did a great job. HIGHLY recommend.

Here is what I wrote where I log my workouts:

“I don’t know if I was overly cautious, but I was so worried about going to the bathroom before I left home and filling my ultra pack with coconut water, that I forgot ALL my energy bars/balls that I made (the same from last week)! I only had 4 packs of baby food, 3 sticks of pork jerky (no nitrates, no sugar, local…) and 3 pieces of bacon with me. Yeah. When I realized that at the start, I was so mad at myself. NO way was this race going to be better without my Paleo food! WTF. Sure it was hot & I didn’t have salt last week, but those baby foods are only 60 calories…not enough to sustain a 5-6 hour effort! WTF! So thankful my sherpa went to Whole Foods after the start, and met me at mile 11 with extra baby food packets & emergency (not paleo) energy bars just in case. I didn’t end up needing them though! It was so much better than last week, to have help if I needed it.

New Plan (since I forgot my bars): every 45min-1hr alternate a baby food or jerky/bacon. Every even # mile, have coconut water, every odd, have water.

My primary goal was “a better race than last week”, meaning I didn’t want to feel as horrible during the race. I just wanted to feel better.

Second, if things were ‘ok’ I wanted to not be slower. Which I anticipated would be possible if I didn’t feel as bad.

Third, if things went great, I wanted to beat the time, even by 5min.

As the race went on, 5 miles, 8, 10…I said to myself, “by 10 last week I was feeling really horrible, feeling good today!”…so I kept the walk breaks to the aid stations and kept on. I kept reevaluating and I kept waiting for the wheels to fall off…they never really did! So I kept moving my “goal” up.

maybe I can finish in 5:30! 20min faster than last week…
then, maybe I can do 30min faster…
THEN…maybe I can break 5:15!
THEN, by mile 19, I figured I could and maybe 5:10 was possible…

15,16,18…no wall. I was running (slowly) without breaks consistently between aid stations. By mile 19–the end, I was just cruising past people.

Sure things got tight. My hamstrings were hurting a little, my ankle (the one I broke in 2008) was giving me sharp pain (strange, that never happens) and my hips were sore. BUT, I was still ‘running’ at mile 25. No wall…no cramps…no dizzy…

SO. There it is. 100% Paleo (even Whole30!) marathon. No added sugars. On no training. BAM.

Even K gets surprised by this. He just keeps saying, “do you know how good you could be if you trained? How many people go and do that? Just decide on a Friday morning to do another marathon, and beat your time from last week?” As we were walking to the car and I said, “I easily have another 5-10miles in me!”

Sigh. Sport specific training is just so…boring. BUT, if I can continue to get in better shape…my marathon times will drop like they did several years ago. I’m getting there. AND in a ‘healthy’ (real food based) way. Doing marathons isn’t really healthy, I know this. But, I love them.”

Days 14-19

Posted on January 21, 2013 by HaleyComet

I feel so behind! Well, I guess I am. This past week we decided to head over to Houston to help some friends out for 2 days and see an aunt and cousins. It was post race, so I was taking this week a little easy, so I didn’t feel bad about missing my normal CrossFit or lifting routine.

Day 14: RUN. Day after the marathon! The first time I’ve run the day after (I think).
2.03 miles, time 19:02, pace: 9:23. Legs felt great! Absolutely no pain and really no soreness. Amazing.

Day 15: CrossFit @ Universal CrossFit in Houston. At first I thought I wouldn’t do the strength work for the day, and just do the WOD. Then I felt like a loser watching others lift weights and a nice girl asked if I wanted to share a bar with her…so I did. After that, I decided not to do the WOD since it was a ton of double unders, and I didn’t want to stress my legs that much, given my tender calf. That bottom right is my other half, doing muscle-ups.

Strength: 5×5 back squat & snatch.
Squats: 115. did all my sets @115. My body was tired and too soon to go heavy post-marathon, so I kept these easy.
Snatch: did the bar & 65lbs. Again, not going heavy.

Day 16: CrossFit @ CrossFit Cypress (northwest Houston)
WOD:
3 sets of Tabatas:
kettlebell snatch (25lbs)
hollow rocks
double unders

This was fun. I don’t remember the warmup and I skipped the strength work because I wanted to do the WOD. 3 different sets of Tabatas, with no rest in between each. I really enjoyed this, I’ve never seen Tabata sets stacked like that before. Very friendly facility, just like Universal.

For those who don’t know, Tabata sets are 8 sets of 20 seconds of work, 10 sec of rest. It comes out to only 4min of work, but really less than that because every 20sec, you get to ‘rest’. The idea is that you’re going super hard in those 20 seconds. You can make almost anything a Tabata workout: running on a treadmill, jump rope, situps, pushups, burpees…it’s a great workout that you can do anywhere, with our without equipment!

Day 17: 2 Tabata sets, walk.
We were traveling back home, so I did a Tabata treadmill set & Tabata burpees.
Tabata treadmill: 7% grade, 8min/mi pace.
Tabata Burpees: that kind of sucks!
Walk: 1/2mi speedy warmup, 1/2mi cool down (1mi).
After, I played around doing dips on the treadmill. This is how I hurt myself. Doing stupid stuff because I think I can. I didn’t hurt myself this time, but he was ready with the camera in case I did!

Day 18: Yoga. Did 25min of yoga at home. Found tons of yoga OnDemand on the tv! Pretty neat. The one I picked had some pretty hard poses (for me) and I fell over during ‘toppling tree pose.’ Appropriate, yes?

Day 19: Walk the dogs! Day before another marathon, so I’m taking it easy. No pre-race run like last week! Walked 30min, 15min for each of the dogs. Lovely day!

Sorry for the crappy yoga pic, it was night and my form sucks too. So, there is no way that picture would have come out looking good. Aren’t my puppies cute?! They were both aggravated with the pictures. Leashes on = WALK NOW!

haleycomet365

365 days of workouts, Food, and hopefully some fun!

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