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.)

Finally a food post!

Posted on January 30, 2013 by HaleyComet

I’ve said many times this month I’d write a food post, what and how I eat, etc. Then I realized that I should wait to see how this month went before committing to put my, what conventional people call: crazy, out there for everyone to see. I’m going to show you WHAT & WHY I eat what I do! This is probably my most wordy post yet, but there will be pics, promise! BEFORE & AFTER pic at the bottom, if that’s all you care about. I will be doing this each month (or I plan to) this year!
(I will say, this works FOR ME. If you think it’s crazy, that’s fine. But, I’m HAPPY with my choices, my body and my athletic performance. I don’t have health problems. I did when I was training for Ironmans on SAD: standard american diet. I think this speaks for itself)

Since 2009, I’ve mostly eaten a Paleo or Primal diet. It’s not a “diet” in the (wrong) definition of a fad way of eating with the goal to lose weight. “Diet” does mean the types of food you habitually eat. Anyway. I do not eat this way to just lose weight (although it usually is a nice side effect). The problem is, during various times of my life since 2009, I’ve fallen off that way of eating. Usually during stressful or major life changes: breaking my femur, leaving the military, moving, moving again, moving again…you get the picture.

So, back in Sept. I went back to my beloved way of eating and started getting myself healthy again. Then in Dec I realized I needed another challenge, thus this 365 project was born. AND I realized I needed to clean up my eating habits, and how I look at food, again.

To coincide with my new 365workouts project, I started the year off right with Whole30. What’s Whole30? You can read about it HERE. The short version is that it’s a nutritional, emotional & habitual reset by eating REAL FOODS: meat, fish, eggs, fruit, healthy oils, some nuts! Think you’re addicted to sugar? This is for you. Addicted to junk food? This is for you! I’ve never been a big junk food, soda, fast food eater, but I do enjoy nice rich meals, decadent desserts and, as a native Texan, my beloved chips and queso on occasion. (swoon)

Since today is the last day, yes I know I’m technically posting this about 12hrs early, I thought it would be good to put it out out here for you to read. As expected, I hit the typical withdrawal (not too bad), the anger phase, then it was smooth-sailing for the rest of the month. The only challenges were my 2 marathons (WHICH, is NOT recommended on Whole30 because you’re resetting your body nutritionally, not focusing on working out/weight loss, as outlined in “It Starts With Food” <—link. BUY it. I have no financial interests in it either!). However, this is my 2nd or 3rd Whole30 and I’m not new to this general way of eating, so I wanted to try it. PLUS, if I want to continue this way of eating (and I do/will), I need to see how I can incorporate this into my Marathon Addiction (Marathon Maniac #674!). AND, if you’ve read the other posts…I executed them in perfect Whole30 form! Major props to myself on that.

Ok, who is ready for food? I’ll take you through some of my meals this month!

(preface: I do not eat meals in any particular order. If I feel like having a salad for breakfast or eggs and bacon for dinner, I eat it)
Typical breakfast: Coffee (no cream or sugar!), leftovers of meat/veggies, eggs: boiled, scrambled, salads. Yes, salads for breakfast! Delicious.

I try to make my food as colorful and varied as possible! No brown processed foods.
What we have here (clockwise): black coffee (coconut milk is allowed in Whole30, but I like my coffee black), 2 fried eggs, morning salad, 2 pieces bacon for ‘dessert’, sautéed kale under 2 eggs w/hot sauce, 2 boiled eggs, bacon, Texas Rio Star Red grapefruit (the best grapefruit!).

Lunch: meat and veggies. Or usually a BIG salad, which is usually meat and veggies.

(What we have here: salad w/sautéed shrimp, shrimp hot pot from a restaurant, ground beef & veggie stuffed poblano peppers, another big salad!)

Sometimes I’ll have 2 smaller meals. A smaller breakfast, then something after a hard CrossFit workout. Sometimes, if I’m traveling, I just have to eat what is available. It might just be a piece of meat.
(sausage, chicken & mashed cinnamon sweet potato, pre-marathon steak & shrimp!, bacon wrapped chicken & sweet potato: both chicken & sweet potatoes were post-CrossFit workout)

MORE SALADS. And my dinner last night! Which, I have to say, was SO good. The sauce was a reduction of the pork juices & marinade I made. Out of this world!
(fresh veggies from the CSA, a 3lb container of salad–you will NOT be hungry after that, and my dinner last night, Day29: sausage stuffed pork loin w/broccoli)

Dinner: more of the same as what my lunch looks like. But, here’s some pics of meat! A pot roast I was searing before putting it into the crock pot and a pork belly about to be cured for homemade bacon, and the finished product!

BENEFITS.
I guess I could go through the typical Whole30 benefit list. It reads just like all the others you may have read:

IMPROVED ENERGY! (I wish I could have this flashing!) I rarely have a need for a nap anymore. Sometimes I’ve tried when I know I could use the sleep, but I just can’t. I don’t wake up groggy in the mornings. I *HAVE* to get up and out of bed.
HAPPY. I’m generally happier. Less mood swings. I don’t think this is 100% directly related to the food I’m putting into my body, but important to the whole: I’m happy to be eating good-for-me real food, I’m seeing benefits & results, I’m energetic = HAPPY!
Clearer skin. My skin isn’t perfect, and I can’t out-eat genetics, BUT, I’ve minimized my breakouts (ugh, even in my 30’s) and I get compliments that my skin looks “good.” (meaning ‘better’ than it used to be)
No big cravings. Sometimes I really crave salads. Or boiled eggs. But never deserts.
Body Change. This is what most people usually want to know/see. But, that’s not what Whole30 is about. Sure, it’s a nice side effect, but this is about being HEALTHY. And for some of us, that means needing to drop a few lbs. I have dropped a few pounds (UPDATE: -7.8lbs on Jan. 31). I know my body has changed. My loose belly is dramatically reduced, my boobs are smaller. Just yesterday, my formerly “skinny” jeans that I had to *SQUEEZE* (and not flattering) into last year, were much looser yesterday! As I instinctively went to puullllll the waistband to button it, I was floored to see and feel that there was an extra inch or two of room where my belly used to be. WHOA. What a great feeling! ………

CUE POSITIVE FEEDBACK LOOP = Happy!
I think I would have lost a few more pounds had I not done 2 marathons this month (much added stress & metabolic disruption), but I still saw progress.

So. There it is. If you have any questions about Whole30, I’d say go to their website for more info, as I am no expert. However, I can share with you MY experiences that I’ve had the last several years!

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!

Day 13: marathon day!

Posted on January 19, 2013 by HaleyComet

Marathons are the biggest, and probably only, reason I’m worried about this challenge. The day after, shit, the 2-3 days after a race, one doesn’t really feel like working out. Granted, walks and/or swims are good to help relieve the soreness, but lets face it, when you’ve done a marathon you’ve earned the right to be lazy! So, I won’t even address the stupid notions I have about doing some ultra marathons this year. That should be fun. Not really.

Day 13: Marathon. (Sunday) Mobile, AL “First Light Marathon”
Official distance 26.2mi. Garmin distance: farther than that.
Time: 5:54:01, pace: 13:31

The course was beautiful, through “historic Mobile”, then out through two Colleges, then back to downtown. It was mostly flat for about 5 miles, then the hills started about mile 10-22, rolling.
Funny thing about that jacked up car up there ^^. A guy was running near me as we were crossing that intersection. Cops were holding & directing traffic. He calls out to them “Tell me I’m hallucinating! Tell me that that isn’t a car taller than the trucks!” It was quite hilarious at mile 23. You’re laughing, right? Ok, we were delirious. Whatever.

I was trying something TOTALLY NEW during this race. I like to buck trends (and by “trends” I mean, solid advice & rules by experienced racers) and try completely new nutrition during the race. Without practicing during training (wait, what’s training?), I made tons of homemade ‘energy bars’ and carried them in my ultra racing pack. In my other races, my stomach usually stop tolerating sweet sports drink (Gatorade, Powerade: YUCK!) and gels/shot blocs after about mile 16ish. I just can’t tolerate them anymore. So, I think that since my eating over the past year has been dramatically cleaned up, that I can start cleaning up my race food. While some think it’s stupid to not use these sugar and chemical laden “foods” during a race, many people rely on real foods. Also, these products have only been around for about 30-40 years. Long distance racing has been around for much longer than that. Anyway…that’s enough of my soapbox. It’s an experiment and I’m going to keep tweaking.

Since I’m new to this blogging thing, I’ll say my finish time was…less than stellar. It’s not my worst race by any means, but it is definitely out of my normal 4:30-5:15 finish times. I believe it was a combination of the food, the very hot-for-winter temps (70 at the start, 100% humidity…UGH) and my stupid lack of salt mistake. Yep. In all my bars and carried food, I forgot to salt them during cooking and didn’t carry salt packets or pills. Lovely. (not really)

It was an experiment, but I wouldn’t say I failed miserably. I learned, or was reminded, that no matter how many of these things I do, I can’t get lazy and forget little things like salt! That said, I got a new state and finished my #22 marathon! Until next week…where I try for #23. With salt.

Days 10-12. The last complaints about the weather.

Posted on January 13, 2013 by HaleyComet

Ok, after this post I’ll stop complaining about the weather. Promise. Maybe.
If it stops raining, I’ll stop complaining about it. Until March when summer arrives.

Day 10: Home CrossFit & a walk. Did “Annie” at home, which is 50-40-30-20-10 double unders & sit ups. Pretty easy in the driveway! Earlier in the morning, we went for a mile walk in the storms to check out the flooding in the neighborhood.
“ANNIE”: 16:30 (really sucked on the jump rope today)
Walk: 30min

Day 11: Run. Fed up with the rain, I went and ran in the storm.
5:30pm: 2.1miles, 21:41, pace: 10:22. Ran in ankle deep water on some streets. Wasn’t too bad.

Day 12: Run & pushups: Drove to Mobile, AL today. Walked around downtown (nice little area, pleasantly surprised!). Quick run on the hotel treadmill while watching Real Housewives. Don’t judge. Had to be quick to make my 5p dinner reservation–I’m a senior citizen trapped in a 30something body: have to eat early. Then did 50 pushups after dinner.
Run: 1.59mi, time 14:42, pace: 9:15 (treadmill)
Note: after over 20 marathons, this is the first time I’ve run the day before a race! Ha. I’m usually really lazy.

Until Day 13…marathon day! Ciao!

Day 9 & bad weather.

Posted on January 9, 2013 by HaleyComet

Day 9: home interval workout “home CrossFit” & short jog.

The weather has been crap most of the past week. It’s been fluctuating between warm and cold (today, its 66°), but mostly it’s been raining. When it isn’t raining, it’s been dreary & foggy or drizzling. This southern girl can’t handle it! I need my sun!

So, my standard trail run loop is off-limits. It will be way too muddy and it’s not kind to the trails to run on them with standing water and such. I’m missing running. Oh, and yes, I know it’s possible to run in the rain on the street, but my legs like the trails. They’re more forgiving.

Evening edit: went for a little jog to loosen up my legs & bum. My rear is very sore from CrossFit yesterday. Rural stuff in the mile around the ‘hood.

Run: 1.13mi, time: 12:54, pace: 11:27

Anyway, this is what I did today. A “Spartan WOD“, which I get emailed every day. Sometimes I do them, sometimes I don’t. Today, it was a good home workout to do on a rainy day. I added double unders and an extra sprint in there, that’s what the dashes are for:

10 double unders
—
100m sprint
10 pushups
100m sprint
10 jumping lunges
100m sprint
10 pushups (supposed to be pull-ups, but I don’t have bar)
100m sprint
10 burpees
100m sprint
10 bodyweight squats
100m sprint
30 crunches
—
100m sprint
25 double unders, unbroken.

Time: 10:43

In really exciting news to no one but myself, I am LOVING this new collage-making app: Layout. Please bear with me for a while while as I try out different sites until I figure out the style of workout pics I want here. Thanks to my friend LeapinLizardz for the suggestion!

This is what I have for today. Oh, and see how dreary and gross it is?! Doesn’t seem like it should be warm enough for tank tops and shorts, but it is.

Days 4,5,6,7 & 8. Or, too long between posts!

Posted on January 8, 2013 by HaleyComet

5 days between logging is too long! Boy, I sure am sorry about that. What a pain in the ass!

Day 4: Run: 3.3 miles, Time 31:55, pace 9:40. With Rascal, aka: RunnerDog! We ran to and from the gas station because I needed cash out of the ATM. Not the school (WHOOP! GIG ‘EM!), but the machine that dispenses paper monies.
splits: 10:17, 9:17, 9:16 and 9:47 for the last .3
Then a 1/2 mi walk to/from the Post Office with the dog.

Day 5: Blah day! Overcast, cold. My calf has been bothering me, so I’m taking an ‘off’ day. Did these all together, with purpose, as per my self imposed rules:
Yoga: 15min
Then: assorted practice of handstands, headstands & 3min of planks (sets of 30sec)
Walk the dogs: 15 min

Day 6: ~~RUN!~~ Pure Barre class! Which picture do you like better?
It would help if my paparazzi wasn’t taking the pic from an angle looking down, but I guess he can’t help it that he’s freakishly tall.

Anyway…My scheduled run turned into a barre class because the weather was terrible & I had a Groupon to active before it expired. I’ll admit I was scared, and some parts were definitely hard, but overall it was fun. Different. I have 5 more classes to use this month, so I’ll be doing more of these.
Side note: I love doing Groupon for these kinds of things, I get to try new workouts or places without a major commitment.

Day 7: Weights & a Walk: I wasn’t feeling great, so no CF. Did some clean & jerks and worked on KB: snatch, clean & press, 50 swings.
Walk: 15 min walk, barefoot. I got blisters from wearing dress shoes for our date Friday night! Stupid dress shoes. This is why I stick to Vibrams. For everything.

Day 8: CrossFit! Arrived 10min late, so we missed most of the warmup. Warmup that I did do: 200m run, 50 jumping jacks, warmup lunges w/ assorted weights (15, 20, 25, 35lbs)

WOD: 13min AMRAP (as many rounds as possible)
75m run
10 slam balls (slam a medicine ball down hard, then pick it up, then do it again)
12 walking lunges w/35lb weight in EACH HAND.
Total: 7 1/3 rounds! I was the only female to do it as Rx, and the Mr. was the only male!

So, that’s it. First week done, 51 to go! (ooof) I’d say overall it was good. The blisters and then not feeling good on day 7 kinda messed up my plans for the week, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

Again I say I won’t wait so long between posts, because then I’m sitting here formatting my pictures for several hours and it’s not fun. If I just spent 15min after my workouts doing it, like when I log my workouts, it would be done and easy to upload. Oh well, lesson learned.
See you in a couple days!

Happy New Year! Days 1-3.

Posted on January 4, 2013 by HaleyComet

I’m going to have to get serious about motivation to blog. I’m just not used to it yet. However, I feel like I’ve been pretty successful this week with my workouts! I’m feeling very motivated & started the year off right.

Day 1, New Years Day:

AM: 5.01 mile run on the Spillway Trail. (trail run, obvi) Time: 58:45. It was 70 degrees and 100% humidity. Much warmer than usual, even for the swamp.
PM: CrossFit: Warmup: 500m row, 20 lunges, 20 air squats (jumping), 20 power clean (bar only), something else I forget

WOD, it’s a 2fer!
21-15-9
calorie row
box jumps
—7min rest—
21-15-9
power cleans (75lbs)
dips (I did it on the GHD, can’t do rings)
Time: 25min. Took me forever, those power cleans after the other WOD were hard.

(For those unfamiliar with CrossFit, usually a set of 21-15-9 is the whole workout, not doing it twice! This was definitely a New Years butt-kicker!)

Day 2: “WHAT AM I THINKING?!?! I’m already sore! OMG this is going to be a LONG year! I’m such a dumbass.”

Run: 2.01 run, in between rain storms, about 40°F (cold & wet). Time: 18:39, 9:17pace. 1/2mi warmup, 1.5mi ‘moderate’ intervals (not too hard), 1/2mi cool down.
Weight lifting: sets of deadlifts (135-185lbs), push press (65-75lbs), power hang clean & thrusters (75lbs each)
Feeling fresh:

Day 3: Thursday

CrossFit: Warmup: 1000m row, 15 burpees, 100 sun gods, DL warmup
WOD:
3 rounds
12 burpee jump over box
15 pullups
7 deadlift (135)
After the first round, my ‘jump over box’ became box jumps. I was going to bust my ass.
14:22
Felt tired. My hands hurt, I’m getting blisters. This makes 4 WOD’s this week at the gym, plus weights on my own. More than I’ve done in a LONG time.

This leaves me at today, Day 4. I think I will be going for a run. I should probably do some yoga too. Hoping to have a body comp/weight/measurements/food post sometime in the next couple of days!
Have a good weekend everyone. Work hard!

haleycomet365

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