A little heavy

Me. Not the weights. Came in at 164 on the scale today. Up from 161 in early October.
I have been eating pretty poorly so it isn't really a surprise. I need to clean up my food intake between now and christmas because I know that I will hit the pies over the holiday. Then Jan 1 it will be time to eat clean for the 7 weeks leading up to the cowtown.
Today was a shoulder lift and a rep count wod. The lift was 3 push jerk, 2 push press, 1 shoulder press foray weight. 3 rounds. Worked up to 125 which is about right given I did a 1 rep max sp at 130 a couple of weeks ago.
The wod was 2min of work, 1 min rest of rope climbers, shoulder to overhead @95 lbs, hollow rocks, 12" box jump squats. Did like 230 reps.
At lunch I ran intervals. Did 1mi wu, then death by 10m. Completed 16 Rnds then ran 1 mi cool down. This was a little disappointing as I scored the same in dec 2010. It was hard to maintain focus in the last few minutes.
Tomorrow is a rest day. I have a time trial run and grace to do this week.

Back to work

Back to work and regular schedule after the thanksgiving holiday.
I am reminded how much I rely on my routine to keep nutrition and training in line.
Crossfit was 3x5 inverted burpees then 4rft of 400m run, 45lb Ohsq while your partner runs. For max reps.
Swam at lunch. 400m drills and warm as 25m fist, 25 free, 25 underswitch, 25free. Then 100m free. Then rest and the main event: 500m Tt. My time to beat was 10:33. Swam a 10:12. Fastest 50 was 53 sec. Lots of laps at 1:03. A good time was had by all. Swim will alternate between intervals one week and a time trial the next.

Santa stole my bike ride.

No ride today. Put up the tree and did some decorating instead. Weather was bad anyway. I have a feeling that I will be getting a trainer for the holidays. Then there will be no excuse.
I have also eaten like crap the past few days. I need to clean my act backup starting tomorrow. Back to work, back to class and back to the pool. Last big push of the year at work.

12 the hard way

Today was long run day. 12mi at marathon goal pace was on the agenda.
Terri and I actually got to go to the movies last night so it was about 11:30 before I got to sleep.
6:00am came early. But, it was raining.
Rain on a long run day makes for an interesting experiment in stress management. All of a sudden, I was dying to get out there and run. It became clear that I would get my shot but not till the afternoon. Terri took Ellie to a birthday party. Cc went to her grandparents and I had my green light at about 3:30.
And. Now that I could run, I of course really didn't want to.
It was windy and getting cold. I did the 12 in my neighborhood which had about 600ft of climb and 600ft of descent. Much more fun on a bike.
I really wanted to quit on this one about 9mi in. Running into the wind, uphill.
I did my best to not think.
I ended up 90 seconds behind my target time of 1:48. Close enough.

This and that

Another garage wod today. It is the Friday after thanksgiving and I sneaked into the garage between kid feedings and christmas light stringing.
5x3 then 3x5 dynamic deadlifts. The idea here is to take a lighter weight up explosively.
I used 45lb db's and a resistance band.
Then 10 Turkish getups with a 25lb fb.
Then a 10 min Amrap of 10 double unders and 10 step ups to. 20" box with 2x25lb db's (7.5 Rnds).
It was all ok, but not near as good a workout as an actual class.

Countdown wod and 5mi run

Yesterday I took the day off. It was supposed to be a rest day but with today being thanksgiving I figured I would get a wod in.
Did some double under work. Got a bunch of 5's and 7's. I think15 was my longest string.
Then I did a wod that I last attempted in August of 2010. It was one of my first Crossfit classes that I logged.
30 25 20 15 10 of pushups, box jumps and burpees with a 20 min cap.
In 2010, I got into the round of 20's and ran out of time. Yesterday I finished in 19:30. Nice.
Thanksgiving day was to be a 5 mi Tt.
But when I woke up, Ellie wanted to play. So I played with her. Then we had thanksgiving dinner at noon. It took till 8pm for me to feel semi normal again so I did the 5mi at night. But I was really slow. 44:30. That is ok.
I think that my plan is going to be to keep stretching the weekend run without rest till 2 weeks prior to the race. That will get me to 22 mi. I will keep one interval session as well. But the mid week run is going to get modified. I will go hard one week, then add a mile and go tempo the next week. So the mileage will increase every other week. Otherwise I don't think I will be ready mentally to really go for it when I am supposed to.
Today will be a garage wod. maybe a bike wod.

Heavy day

Crossfit was 3rep max pushpress. Got to 145. 1 rep max 165.
I think I built weight too slowly on the 3 rep.
Then is was a tough wod.
7tft
10 wall balls
10 ring rows
10 handstand pushups
25:30.
Interval runs tonight. 5x800m on 3 min rest. Times were between 3:28 ( last rnd ) and 3:34.

Faster than January.

I have it in my head that I am slower than I was at the start of the year. Back then I felt more intensity during workouts and just felt faster.
So today, our first wod was the 1 mile run for time. I really wanted to skip it. I had plenty of excuses. Long run over the weekend, marathon training, etc.
But the reality was that I put down a really good time for me back in January and I didn't want to confirm my suspicion that I was getting slower.
At the starting line I told myself that I would just run a solid mile and not worry about my time. Then coach said "go" and of course it became a race.
The exact time isn't important because the course isnt a mile. My guess is it is .8 mi. What does matter is that November 2011 me is faster than January me by 17 seconds.
Guess I might not be coming apart after all.
Wod 2 was 12 min Amrap of 5 sumo DL @225, 10 jump squats, 15 kettlebell swings at 32kg and a 200m run. 3 Rnds, 11 reps. Swim at lunch.
Swim from the Crossfit endurance website was 5x200 on the 3:30. Since it takes me 4:00 to swim 200m, I went with 5x200m on the 5min. With a goal of identical times.
Warm up was 400m of fist drill and ti drills. Cool was 4x50 for 1600m total.
Times were 4:05, 06, 04, 03, and 3:59.
Could have been a hair tighter on rnd 2. Also could have shot for a pr on rnd 5. My current pr for 200m is 3:57.
I'm thinking I need to see the doc. I get lightheaded when I stand up, do heavy deadlifts or go on long runs or rides.
We shall see. I am going to find a way to check my blood pressure could be low.

Children are great motivators.

Rode about 35mi in about 1:55. Bike feels much better on the legs. And I like the change in the shoulder angle as well.
Today, we had both kids at home. Ellie decided that she did not want to spend the night at grandma's house. Much to our horror. But with Ellie, you can't make a big deal about it or she will never spend the night out again.
So instead of watching football after a nice ride like last weekend, today I covered the kids from 10 till 1:30 while Terri worked out and did the shopping
By the time she got home I was going crazy. It was hard to find things or the 6 year old to do that the 2 year old could also do.
When Terri got home and settled, I was out the door like a shot. So when I say that kids are motivators, it isn't that I am training for them, it is that I am training to keep my sanity.

10mi at marathon pace

After a rest day yesterday it was hard not to push the pace. But I took it easy. Ended at about an 8:50 pace. Nothing that should keep me from being recovered to ride tomorrow.
I guess I will just keep adding a mile for the next few weeks. At least till it hit 16 or so. I need to look at a calendar and see how many weeks I have to get ready. I want to get a 22mi in a few weeks before the race. If I can succeed at 22, I can gut out 4.2 for sure.

When to say when

So after yesterday's Tt in the morning, the banded box squats and metcon at lunch and my second bad night's sleep in a row, I'm resting today.
It is the right thing to do. I need to recover after the work. I knew it when I was starting to get sore last night. Then George woke me up at 1:30am. Then Terri started snoring at 3.
Cc was crying for someone to come get her at 6 and it was clear that the right thing to do was rest today. I can always hit a garage wod this evening if I feel better. Maybe a 21 15 9 of push press and banded pushups. Give the legs a break.
Here is George. When a Great Dane asks to be let out to go to the bathroom, you let him out.

Space between thoughts

Mike charmical was written up in one of the tri mags this month. The subject was mental toughness. He said that he learned to race in the space between thoughts. Rather than pumping himself up with positive ( because they run out of power) or fighting off negative thoughts, he remains in the space between.
I brought this idea out to the track today for a 4mi Tt. The Tt workout is the toughie for me. ESP in the cold at 530 am.
My time was either 30:08 or 30:49.
Or somewhere in between. Garmin said I ran long and that my 4 mi time was 30:09 which would be a pr. But I hit the stop button a little after I crossed what I thought was the line and that time was 30:49. Why does it matter? Because my old pr was 30:17 from 8/11. Either way I turned what I thought was a bad run into a very good result. Good for me.
The whole workout almost got cxld before it started. As I was trying to get out the door at 5:00am I hear cc standing up in her crib crying and calling for me. So I rocked her back to sleep. Great way to start a day!
Gonna hit some heavy dynamic lifts later today. Either at lunch or at home.
Afternoon update- did some banded box squats today. Dynamic sets. Started with 10x1 at 135+2 60lb bands then moved up a little. But I need a form check. I don't think I had my feet far enough away from my body. Pretty fun though. Gonna hurt tomorrow.
Then I jumped in with the class on a wod of 10 Rft 20 split squats, 10 sit ups and 5 handstand pushups. 11:15 best time of the day!

A "new normal" day

Cf in the morning. 5:30 am class
50/25/10 40/20/10 30/15/10 20/10/10
Of squats, 24kg kettlebells and pullups.
10:17. Good time. Paced well. I kept looking at the guy next to me and trying to keep up. Turns out that he was the rabbit of the day and he was using a lighter kettlebell.
We also did 3x5 overhead squats. I was only moving 105. I think my grip is too wide.
Tonight is 2 mi Tabata. After a warm up you sprint for 20 sec, then rest for 10 seconds. And you keep going till you cover 2 mi. Tomorrow is rest!
I still need to go heavy at some point this week. Thursday would be a good day.
I am going to move some workouts to the evening instead of at lunch. I really need to put in a little more time at work. Interval runs are easy to do at night. And with a trainer interval bike could be at night. Will have to be flexible...
Yesterday was Crossfit and an evening swim. My goal was to swim a mile in whatever intervals I felt like. Did 400m then another 400. Pr'd my 400m at 8:08! Then did some 100's and a really slow 400 to round it out. Good to see the times coming down in the off season.

Feels like a new bike!

Got out for 90min on the bike today. My position is really different. Feels good. Did not break any time trial records but it felt good to be out there again.
Cc is really sick. She has been throwing up for a couple of days. Last night Ellie spent the night at Terri's parents house so I dragged her mattress into cc's room and slept on the floor. Cc woke up every couple of hours with dry heaves and I would rock her for a while. It was really nice to not have a race looming that I had to worry about. I will most likely be sick in a few days. Gratefully, it does not matter. Today I spent most of the afternoon holding cc while she dozed. Poor kid. I am taking tomorrow off from work to stay home and help with cc. Looking forward to it!
Today was the san antonio marathon. I usually run the 13.1 as a dust off for the cowtown. Don't need it this year. This year will be more focus on fewer races.

Mostly easy, sometimes hard.

9mi run at marathon pace 1:21.

Over at beginnertriathlete.com, the mantra regarding running is: run often.
Mostly easy, sometimes hard.
That pretty well describes this morning's run. The first 4.5mi was down hill. The return was uphill. Tried to be attentive to form and just trot along and wait for it to get hard. No problem.
Last night, our 2 year old cc came down with a stomach bug. She is throwing up often. I'm waiting for symptoms that I have it too. Nothing yet. Today was Ellie's 6th birthday party. She had a blast. I am glad I decided to skip the san antonio 13.1 race tomorrow. It made it easier to be helpful at the party and not concerned about registering, expo, etc.
Running on tired legs was a great idea. Gonna keep that up. No rest before the long runs.

Sure hope I recover!

Wod was a chipper:
Row 500m
30 strict pullups
100 air squats
50 ground to overheads of a 45lb plate
50 lift hand pushups
20 each leg split squat jumps
Time: 14:16.
I sure hope I recover. I have 9mi at marathon pace this weekend and I would like to do it tomorrow so that I can bike a bit on Sunday.

Tough 3mi!

I am continuing to recover and find more intensity during training.
Yesterday I went to the 5:30am Crossfit class and had one of those "inside out" moments. It had been a while.
Inside out is that point in a cf workout or interval session when your brain tells you that you really really need to stop. Just for a second. Just to regroup. That if you dont stop right then something is going to go wrong. And you keep going anyway. To me, it is the goal of every cf workout to chase that experience.

Wods were: 40 overhead squats (30@65, 10@95) 30 Bsq at 125 20 front squats at 125. The lifting shoes move the load from quads to glutes. I felt much more stable in the front squats. I need to do some mobility work somewhere because it is hard to get set and balanced in the overhead squat.
The next Wod was where the inside out moment came. It was 4 rounds for total reps of 30 seconds work/30 seconds rest. We did wall balls, 95lb push press and double unders. In either round 3 or 4 I really needed to drop the bar during the push press. I had almost failed the rep before and wanted a rest really bad. But I went for one more. It wasn't anything huge but it is that pushing of my own perceived boundaries that this thing is all about.

In the veining it was time trial run time. 3mi for time. Took 24 min. Which is pretty slow. About 3 min off of pr. But, I know that I went at it as hard as I could. And that is what matters. Last season, I would run in the morning then Wod later. This season I am going to flip that. Which will mean that I won't be running fresh but that might be good. We will find out in feb.

I got my bike back last night. It looks fast! But it is begging for new wheels. I am trying to ignore it...

Feeling better

Made it to the 530 am cf class today. I'm really glad I did.
Every Crossfit gym has that one class that everyone knows about. The one with the extra intensity. At mission Crossfit that class is the 530am.
I haw not been to that class since the 70.3 16 days ago. I just wasn't up to it.
Well, I was up to it today.
There were 2 wods. The first was 23 burpees and 46 single leg box bounds. You step one leg up on to the box, drive thru the heel, pull the other knee high and jump up off the box. It took 3:31.
The next Wod was a 12 min Amrap of the bear complex. I went kind of heavy for me at 115lbs and got 15 complexes.
This was day 2 with the lifting shoes. They really change the squat movement. It moves load from the quads to the glutes. Good stuff.

Today was interval run day. 1mi warm up with a focus on pose form.
3x1200m on 1/2 rest. Times were 4:55 4:49 4:51. Pretty tight. Sure felt like I was in quicksand by the end!

Lessons from coach drew

Today was heavy lift day.
Rep scheme was 555322 back squats
Weight was 135 165 185 205 225 205.
225 got shallow so I went back down.
Then a 6min Amrap of 10wbs 10 pushups and 10 24kg kbs 4 Rnds 6 Wbs.
In talking to drew I learned a few things and am going to change my programming:
If long run is Sunday, dont look for max on Monday. Do a dynamic lift on Monday or wod. Move heavy day to Thursday. After rest. Also, more variety in the lifts. Only do the exact same lift every 6 months or so. Squat to diff boxes, use bands etc.
I am going to run this week on the old schedule then move next week's heavy day to Thursday.

Swim main set was 3x300m on 1/2 rest. Went 6:05 6:03 6:05. Good times and tight grouping. Swam 1600m total with drills and cool down. Good swim for me and best relative workout in a few weeks.

Bike fit

Yesterday I spent 3 glorious hours with the retul/fist fitter from soler's in Helotes.
By the end we had raised the seat, moved it forward, put on a shorter stem and cut down the bars. I feel like I have a new bike.
Which is good because the money that I had squirreled away for a new bike just went to car repairs...
Still, the biggest $250 upgrade I can imagine.

Today was 8mi at marathon pace. Done. Still not feeling confident as a runner bit that is ok. As long as I hit the times.

I am thinking about bagging the Austin 13.1 warm up race. Save the money, not lose the training time for taper and recover and not have to deal with the mental consequences of either doing well or doing poorly. Right now I pre inclined to just keep my head down and train. Seems like the right call. I don't think I would regret skipping the 13.1.

Still waiting...

For my motivation to return. Today was supposed to be Crossfit early and bike intervals at lunch.
The alarm went off and I thought, "all I ever do is work out. Is it really time to train again???
So that is no good.
Am Crossfit turned to lunch Crossfit and bike didn't happen.
Crossfit was a teams wod of handstand pushups, chest to bar pullups and 45lb walking plate lunges.

This lack of motivation will pass.
Right??????

Didnt wanna.

Today was 2mi Tt. Bad news first: 15:02. About 50 sec slower than august.
The good news is that I followed marathon training rule #235: just do it.

Went out last night wit terri to entertain clients. Had fun but was out late. Then overnight a front came in and dropped the temp by 25 degrees with a stiff wind when the alarm went off at 4:50.

Got up and wet to the track anyway. My brain was working me the whole way trying to negotiate it's way out of the run. I just let it chatter on as I drove, parked the car and did the run.
4miles continuous as:
1 mi warm up 9:09
2mi hard 15:02
1mi cool 9:31.

I think that I am still recovering from the half iron in austin 11 days ago. Between my ears at least. I always get a little low after a big race. It always passes.

Here is a random picture of cc:

Triathlon rule #2375

Reads: control what you can.

Yesterday i could control very little. Tuesday was supposed to be 4x1000m repeats at about 4:00 each plus or minus a few seconds. Then Crossfit at lunch.
Got to the track at 5:30am ready to go. But I couldn't hold the pace. After 3 repeats with times ranging from 3:58 to 4:14 it was clear that I needed to shut it down. So I jogged another mile and went to work.

Work has been a mess lately. Markets have been ugly for 11 years and clients are getting sick of it. A little before 11am we were meeting as a team to plan for a review with a grumpy but important client set for the following day. Just then, he shows up. Fire drill.
Needless to say I did not get to Crossfit at noon. Later classes were out as well. Terri needs me home with the kids by 5 at the latest. So it didn't happen.
So that workout got pushed to Wednesday which was supposed to be a rest day. Here is what I did:
After warm up jog I did Cindy with 24" box jumps in place of pullups.
Cindy is a Crossfit workout. It is 20 minutes of time in which you complete as many rounds as possible of:
5 pullups
10 pushups
15 squats.
It is a lung burner. By minute 12 the pushups get really hard to rep out.
I didn't have access to a Pullup bar at home so I subbed in box jumps on a 24"box.
17 rounds in 20 min.
Tomorrow morning is 2miTt...

1st post!

So this is my first ever blog post.
I am putting this together to document my journey towards completing an ironman in 2013. My hope is that this will serve as a record for me and as a source of information for others who plan to train via the cfe method.
A bit of background first. I have been active for most of my adult life. A few years back I got the bug to complete a marathon. I read and followed "the non-runner's guide to marathons" and completed my first 26.2 at the Cowtown marathon in feb of 2009. I felt good for the first 16-18mi then muscle cramps got the better of me and I did a good bit of walking. Time was 5:08.
After the race I crossed 26.2 off of my list and looked for something else. But I kept coming back to running. So I decided that I would see if I could run a better race and improve my time. In 2010 I ran 5:04 then in June I ran 4:56.
At that point I was frustrated. I couldn't figure out how to improve in a meaningful way.
Enter Crossfit. It was suggested by a stranger. I showed up to class with my marathon ego and was promptly whipped by some soccer moms. I was totally hooked.
Crossfit led to Crossfit endurance which led to me dropping 25lbs, running 4:20 and 4:30 marathons this year and seeing big 13.1 improvements as I dropped from 2:20 to 1:45.
I still cramp at around mile 18...
This summer, in an effort to stay in touch with endurance sport and engage in longer events, I took up tri.
I worked up to and completed a 70.3 in Austin about 9 days ago. Here is proof!
Going forward, I have 3 main goals for 2012
Complete a sub 4hr 26.2
Complete a sub 6th 70.3
Sign up for a 140.6.

For the marathon, I am taking only 1 shot this year. The cowtown on feb 26.
For the 70.3, I have 2 set up. One in Canada in June and Austin in October.

Right now I am on my marathon prep schedule which is as follows:
Monday cf strength, swimming
Tuesday interval run, cf
Wed rest
Thursday tempo run, cf
Friday interval bike, cf
Saturday long slow run
Sunday long bike.

This year I going to log more longer runs, experiment with walk breaks on the long runs, and make sure that my long runs are at or above race pace.