Group ride

Got 30mi in this morning. I wanted to meet up with the group that rides out of britton's bikes but they don't get out till 8:30. I need to be home before 10:30 so that I can take over the kids so i went out for an hour before on my own.
The group ended up riding an out and back that turned around about a mile
From my house.
So I just popped home at the turn around. It was the difference between coming home early and coming home late.
After some fun with the kids and domestic duties I tried to wod in the garage. But my joints were stiff, I didn't warm up well and the weight felt really heavy. I figured after the longish slow cruise on the bike I would do a short sprint of a wod.
I settled on a 7min for reps:
10gto @95lbs
20kbs
10 t2b.
Got 65 reps or so. The bar work felt really awkward. I wanted to hit it hard, but I just felt rusty and sluggish.
Tomorrow should be an easy day.
I might try a slow jog and a swim.

Hard day then easy day

I read on a bt forum the other day that the way to string training days together was to alternate between hard days and easy days.
Yesterday was hard. Today was easy.
In the morning I had arrosti. That hurt like hell. But he doesn't think I will need to go back.
Then I swam at lunch.
500m warm up and drill then
3rnds with 1 min rest between Rnds of
4x100m on a 2:15 send off. Times were 1:56 to 2:04.
Them 4x50 on 1:30 send off.
Then 4x25 on 1min send off.
Good swim. And I feel ready to hit the bike hard tomorrow. This weekend I want to get 2 bikes and a Crossfit in at some point.
Tomorrow I am going to ride solo for an hour then try and meet up with the group ride from britton's bike shop.
Should get 2.5hrs in.

Forward and back

I woke up this morning singing the praises of my arrosti guy.
My Achilles was improved and I was walking without a limp. I was amazed. Given how slow my recovery was going prior to the visit and how bad it hurt a day prior I was amazed.
So I went to Crossfit. And Hirt it a bit.
The wod was 8rft with 1 min mandatory rest between rounds.
The goal was to go all out each round knowing that you would have time to catch your breath between rounds.
Each round was:
5 thrusters at 95lbs
10 pullups
200m run. Time was 21:12.
I dogged it on the runs because I did t want to hurt myself. But I was entry gassed anyway. This was a really great workout. I really felt like I was working.
Afterwards my achilles stiffened a bit and I am back to limping.
I think that the lesson here is that I cannot go easy in a group setting. I tried to do it at the track and I tried to do it in class and failed both times.

Tomorrow is supposed to be swimming and Crossfit. But I am supposed to host a lunch meeting at work meaning I only have the morning slot and perhaps another after the kids are in bed.
So I will swim before work and hit a garage wod before bed.

Swim and spin

Did cf last night in the garage. Great pair of wods for tri folks.
10x2 squat cleans on short rest. @95lbs, touch and go 2 squat cleans. Rest 10sec, do it again.
4rft
15 push press
30 Situps
15 Ohsq @75.
Got to Ohsq in rnd 4 and capped out at 20 min.
Today I swam 2000m including a 600m Tt pr of 12:30.
Then I took spin class at lunch. Good day. Gonna get some sleep tonight!

%%^^%%+=*^%*

Back to track. Back to rehab.
Achilles was good for 800 easy meters but as soon as the 100's started it flared up as bad as ever.
So I shut down. Gotta get to Arrosti.
Shit.

Back to Ormond beach

50mi ride back.
A little wobbly at the start but I had no problem putting lots of 20's together. Too many stops to really tell anything about my fitness for sure but it was a confidence building trip.
I can see a century happening next month. And I can see a 3hr bike split in June or October depending on the hills. And I can see a full iron bike leg.

It will be interesting to try and run again next week. I am walking without a limp today for the first time in a couple of weeks. I figure rest tomorrow (Monday), then swim and Crossfit Tuesday, then try and run on Wednesday. Hopefully I will be able to rejoin my track group by the following week. But I want to have a couple of pain free runs first before I get competitive.

Or I could ride again...

Did feel up to the cfg redo. Felt a little flat after yesterday's ride.
So instead I went rising again.
And killed it.
32.5mi 1:46.
The first 16mi took 45min. It was just impossible to go less than 20mph. Felt great.
Then we turned around to come back and I realized why. Tailwind...
So we got beaten up on the ride back but still made good time. Mi 25 to 29 I decided to go all out and got back up to 20 avg.
All in all it was a good confidence builder. It will be interesting to see how I feel tomorrow on the way back.

Road trip

Since swim day, I have done the Crossfit games 12.5 wod. Didn't go well.
The workout is 7min Amrap of 100lb thrusters and chest to bar pullups.
I got 42 reps in my garage. Got 48 last year.
Today, I rode from Ormond beach fl to st Augustine with my stepfather and some of his friends. It was too slow with too many stops along the way.
But Florida is a great place to ride. Super flat and really smooth roads.
Big step up from san antonio.
This was a test trip for a couple of upcoming rides. First, a century next month. Pretty sure I will
Be able to do that ok. Second the 70.3 in canada in June. I packed and unpacked the bike fine.
So from that standpoint the trip was a success.
I found a place that will let me redo the games wod tomorrow. Hopefully I will feel fresh enough to do some thrusters.
There is also a pool here so I will get a swim in as well.
My achillies has improved a lot. I am pretty much walking without a limp. I am hoping to return to running next week.
once I am back on my feet running it will be time to get committed to Canada race prep again. The water up there will be 65 so I need to get the wetsuit on and get I to some cold water ASAP.
Looking forward to the season!

1750m

Swam this morning.
1750m on way to 2k per session.
I am thinking now that ideal would still be 2 swims. Just 1 short and 1 long.
In order to hit 2k per session I will have to do longer sets or less rest.
That is fine for endurance and pacing but I won't get faster that way. Ideally I would have a 2nd short session of 30min that would be higher intensity.
I could put it together with a short run session of intervals and get the whole thing done in a lunch hr. something to consider.
My main set was 12x100 on 15 seconds rest. For average time.
My total time was 25:36 but there were 11 rest sessions or 165 sec which is 2:45. So figure my swim time was just under 23min.
That seems a little fast for me. I might have missed a 50 or 100 in there somewhere.
I was reminded of what I learned swimming last season: you reach the point of maximum suck about 400m in. Then it gets better.
With 400m of warm up and drill and 150 cool down, I swam 1750. Adding another 250 will be easy enough over the next few weeks.
I could see swimming in this short rest paced style as long as I had that Hirt intense day as well to work on speed.
This week is going to be messy. U have work commitments that will get in the way of a bike and two crossfit sessions. But I have a 3+hr ride on Friday. And I am on a week of run rest.
So I will get 3hrs of bike, 2hrs of swim and 2 or 3 hrs of Crossfit. It is what it is.

Ok. No running for 1 week.

Ran 5mi this morning. First 2.5 felt ok then the achilles pain came back. I ran 1mi a little hard 8:15 pace and after that I had to run/walk the test of the way in.
I need to lay off and let this heal. So I am officially dealing with it.
Ice and massage and no running, jump rope or box jumps for a week.
There will be plenty to do with swim bike and Crossfit to keep me busy.
No running. None.

Sure didnt see that coming.

Well, I have still never been on a group ride.
I got there at the right time but no one else showed. So I tore around some new roads. 30mi in 1:40 is fast for me.
I'll take it.
A few hrs later it was Crossfit time in the garage. I went with Dianne. A benchmark workout that I had not done in a little over a year.
It is: 21 15 and 9 reps of
225lb deadlifts
Handstand pushups
Last feb I did it in 29 min. Today I finished in 18:05. The round of 21 reps was slow but the round of 15 flew.

So someone explain this to me. Because yesterday I went in rested and came up with nothing. Today, I felt great and had the results to back it up.
Who knows.
The big question is do I run tomorrow or not. Right now I think I will buy in my nikes and a bit slower. Maybe 6 or so at a 9 min pace. A few pickups if I feel froggy on the way back. Gotta go easy on the achilles.
Between sessions I took Ellie and Charlie to get Starbucks and dog food.
Here is proof:

Yet another post about a difficult workout

Got crushed by the Crossfit games open workout #4 yesterday.
It was a 12 minute sprint through 150 Wallball shots, 90 double unders and 30 muscleups.
In looking at the workout, I was nervous but excited because I can do muscleups. At least a few. And most people can't.
But I was worried about the double unders because of my achillies pain. That kind of jumping really hurts right now.
As I watched the early scores come in, most folks were getting to the muscleups and just stopping dead.
So I was excited because I felt like I had a chance to redeem my poor showing in workout #3.
For the uninitiated, a Wallball shot is a movement done with a 20lb medicine ball. You pick it up, do a complete squat with your hips below your knees then drive out of the squat and throw the ball like a free throw to a target 10ft off the ground.
Since I started cycling, I had noticed that these were getting easier.
My plan was to hit the first 50 or so unbroken and just kill myself to get through them as fast as I could do that I could have extra time on the jumprope. All I would need would be 45 sec after that to gather myself, dry my hands and bang out a couple of muscleups for a good score overall and a bit of personal redemption.
20 wallballs in I knew I was in trouble.
I couldn't hold on to the ball. I got "no rep'd" (rightly so) a bunch of times for either not throwing the ball high enough or squatting before first standing up when I picked the ball up.
By 60 it was clear that I would not finish. By 70 I was so discouraged that I wanted to quit. I actually walked away to quit and came back. There were so many people I knew watching and I was performing so poorly. It was an excruciating 12 minutes.
I ended up with 134. A really poor score.
The only validation I feel this morning is the pain in my quads. I feel like I ride 50mi. It is crazy how much damage you can do in 12minutes if you do it right. I have spent an hour in the weight room or jogging and not done the muscle damage that I did in 12 min yesterday.
I am heading out for my first group ride in 30minutes. At least I think I am. I have never net this group before an I am hoping they really exist. It is supposedly a 25mi no drop ride. Sounds about like what I am up for today.

I am really hoping that my poor showing the past couple of Fridays is that the workouts were just really hard and not that I am having some sort of post marathon recovery problem.
On a positive note, not getting to the double unders means that I didn't do the extra damage to my achillies. And my ankle is slowly improving as well.
I will stick to my heel striker shoes for my run tomorrow but I am optimistic that I will be able to move farther forward in my foot in the next couple of weeks.

Tough run

Still waiting on my run mojo to return.
My track session became a 6mi jog then morphed back into a 3mi run with some surges before I even got out the door.
My brain is producing a few excuses. Here they are for your enjoyment:
1) I am less than 3 weeks from my marathon and all the training that led up to it
2) I am ramping up bike and run day is coming right after
3) my achilles really hurts. Really.

all true. 1 and 2 will pass. 3 is gonna take some time and attention. And no more box jumps. And maybe pt.

Put in a full day.

I made it back to the 5:30 am Crossfit class for the first time in months courtesy of Charlie our 15 week old mastiff pup. Charlie is learning to wake me up when he has to pee at night. This morning the wake up bark came at 4:45. Right when my alarm should be going off. Thx Charlie.
We did "300" today. The workout used as a benchmark by the actors in the movie. It is done for time as follows:
25 pullups
50 deadlifts at 135
50 box jumps at 24"
50 pushups
50 kettlebell swings at 24kg
50 floor wipers at 135
25 pullups.
A general beating. Did it in 23:40. I am guessing the Spartans were faster.
At lunch I went to spin class. It really is a good class. It will be interesting to see if it helps.
Planning to run at the track tomorrow early. My ankle is still hurting so that might become a swim. I need to get past this injury.

Fiesta texas beat my butt.

Today was supposed to be a track session and a wod.
But i was also supposed to take Ellie to fiesta texas.
So I skipped the workouts.
Good thing too. Because she pulled me from one end of that park to the other for 7hrs. Roller coasters and rides that pretty much made me sick. She was all over it in between icecreams and cotton candy and face paintings.
I am feeling pretty fatigued. I am not sure why. If it keeps up a few more days I will start to get worried.

Dude. I am slow.

Today was supposed to be a run day. But we got a break in the rain so I got to take the new road bike out on the road.
I can see what the fuss is about. It is just more comfortable and I feel like I am using more leg on the road bike.
But the wind is tough.
I went towards Helotes for 40min then raced back and tried to negative split.
I was 2min slower but it is a good workout.
Over all about 23.32mi in 1:22. Which is pretty slow. I feel like I have some wood to chop. I feel like I have been working hard but that my speed in all 3 sports is lacking.
Now that I am going shorter in training I am hoping things will improve.
I did DT yesterday afternoon. Still feeling that in my hams and lower back...
The swelling is going down in my foot and ankle. I hoping to cf and swim tomorrow and cf and run on Tuesday.
Then cf bike Wednesday and rest Thursday. But it is spring break and my schedule will be messed up. We will see what happens.

Good day

Raining and cold today.
So I put the road bike on the trainer and did the crit race DVD.
Hr got up into the upper 150's. I will know I am in. Ike shape when I can do that DVD without dropping out from time to time to regroup.
Then after lunch I hit the garage. I realized that I had the components for a decent garage stereo around the house and spent a little time putting that together. Very nice.
Then I did the cf main site wod dt. Scaled to 95.
5 Rft
12 dead lifts
9 power cleans
6 push jerks
8:56
Just for fun I took my pulse at the end: 180. Yikes. 220-age turns out to be kinda close.
Tomorrow should be a run day. It will depend on my ankle.

Ok, new goal.

Did cfg open wod 3 today. Got my ass beat. Can't say it was my ankle. It was the damn 115lb push presses.
18min Amrap
15 24" box jump
12 115lb push press
9 toes 2 bar
4 Rnds, 17 reps.
This was about all I had too. The push press was just too many reps with too much weight for my bad form and lack of flexibility.
But it was a great workout.
So now I am forced to change my goal for the games this year. Cuz my old goal of beating my friend Dominic is looking like an impossibility. He is 6'2" and 240 and the workouts are just not falling my way. Unless the next 2 wods are pullups, muscleups, and 13.1's, I won't catch him.
But I can catch my score from last time. Last time I was 597 out of the 624 who did all the wods in the south central region. Which really means I was just too stubborn to quit when it became clear that I would not move on.
But now I have a new goal- get out of the bottom decile. Getting out of the bottom 1/3 would be a stretch. We shall see. But at least I am motivated to go for it on the last 2 wods.

6 sec per 100m

So yesterday I swam 4x400m with 2 or 3 min rest between. I was pressed for time, wanted to get my mile in and figured fewer longer sets would mean less rest time.
My times were 8:32, 32, 51 and 40.
My 400n pr is 8:08.
So was 24 sec slower over 400m than last fall.
Know what? I don't care.
If all I do is hold that deficit, then I will be 2 min slower over a 70.3 swim.
I expect that with a 3rd bike session per week that I can make up 5 to 10min easy on my bike split.
A 2min change on a 45min swim is about 4.5%. A 4.5% change on a 3hr bike is 8 or 9min.
Now, let's go see if it really plays out like that.
The cfg 12.3 wod is up. I am going to give it a try today at lunch. I rolled my ankle hard yesterday. We will see how it holds up to a bunch of box jumps.
Dom did 6rnds 21 reps. I have to get as far past that as possible to make up for the beat down he put in me in the heavy snatches. I should be able to get past him. My only concern is that the 115lb push press will get really heavy really fast...

Spin class

Went to my first spin class yesterday.
It was fun. And they can be as hard as you make them.
Out class was an interval class. We even hit Tabata at one point. The teacher knew Crossfit. I have bandages on my shin from last week's box jump massacre. After class she asked me about them. I tried to explain box jumps figuring that they would be totally foreign to her. She said "Crossfit?"
Anyway, I can see my new schedule coming together for the run up to Canada. It might look like this:
Monday cf / spin at lunch
Tuesday cf / run
Wed cf / spin
Thursday rest
Friday cf / swim
Saturday cf / ride
Sunday run
The weekend cf will be in the garage and could be either day.
I don't like the schedule shake up that I am in the middle of. But it is the time that I try new things.
The next 2.5 weeks my focus is on the Crossfit games open. Wod 3 is tomorrow so I am resting today with a possible swim.

Eating junk

Two days ago I ate a shit ton of muffins that Terri made. The day after I ate a bunch of gummy bears. Today Terri made chocolate chip cookies.
I have eaten junk daily or the past few days. It really needs to stop.
Wod today was right up my alley.
6rft 200m run, 50rope jumps and 25 Situps. 12:20.
Next games wod comes out tomorrow.
Looking forward to it.

Feeling like myself again.

Yesterday I brought my bike to work and snuck off at lunch for a quick ride. It was great. The road bike is so much more comfortable!
Today I went back to Crossfit class for the first time since the marathon. I had to answer all of the questions about how it went. I hate that part. Glad it is over.
I am looking forward to going at the Crossfit games 100% for at least the next few weeks. I will still SBR but I don't feel like I need to do too much vol for the month of march.
I have a couple of long rides scheded but they are fun rides not races.
Mostly, it is nice to have a few weeks that are not scheduled!

Lots of breakage

Been away for a few days. Dropped my phone while taking the kids swimming and destroyed it. It is funny how much damage a nominal force can produce when applied at the correct angle.
Along those lines, I am out of the pool for another week because I ate it again doing box jumps in Crossfit. Same spot on the same shin the same way. It kills.
Got a good ride in on Saturday. 28mi and I tried to push a bit. I lost some bike fitness over the winter but it will come back. Bike fitness is the spring focus. I want 2 to 3 rides per week. I figure at least one on the weekend and 2 during the week. Even if they are spin bike or trainer sessions.
1 to 2 swims and 1 to 2 runs. 4 to 5 cf sessions with 1 rest day.
So cf m tu thu fri sun
Swim mon thurs
Bike tues fri sat
Run thur sun
At least till after the century in April.