NO I WILL NOT BE SICK

this morning, I did something I've never done before and may never do again.



Attended a 6am session at CFCC.

So, here's the thing. This week I'm tapering for tomorrow's Hybrid competition. Last week, I worked out six days, and between messing with strongman stuff and the fact that I've been fighting off a cold (GODDAMMIT), I was absolutely exhausted come Monday. So, I took Monday off. I was planning to go Tuesday, but had to stay home and prep for a deposition that night. And then I went Wednesday and planned to go last night, but - thanks to a text message from my brother at 5:30 - remembered that I needed to meet my future sister-in-law at 7 to try on bridesmaids dresses. So...last night was out.

That would have left me with one workout this week, and even for a taper, that's just not going to do it. So, since I'm leaving for Stamford tonight, and since the competition starts bright and early tomorrow morning, it left me with no choice but to wake up at butt o'clock and get to the gym for the 6am session.

Honestly, it wasn't that bad - but not something I'd want to do regularly. Now it's 7:30 and I'm in the office, eating an omelet, nice and awake, having done a bunch of deadlifts already. Meh.

This cold, though. This is some bullshit. It probably explains a lot about my lackluster performances at oly on Sunday and Wednesday, but, you know...probably also suggests I'm in for a lackluster performance tomorrow morning. Which I'm not having. As soon as I started feeling the cold coming on earlier this week, I chugged water with oil of oregano, made it a point to be in bed real early, made sure to eat well, and generally did everything I could to stave this shit off. Like staying hydrated and drinking my veggies.



That brown concoction includes kale, celery, parsley, carrots, beet and (I think) an apple - which was the first fruit I've had in a while.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow. I'm coughing and I have some congestion in my throat and swelling in my sinuses, but I don't FEEL shitty...so there's that. The tapering is fucking with me, though - I went from feeling really strong and really happy with my body composition to feeling like "AH! you're not ready! you cut too much weight last month and haven't trained hard enough to recover your strength! you're not going to be able to move anything! you had chocolate three times this week and should have had chocolate ZERO times this week and you're going to end up gaining ten pounds and having to move up a weight class!" Mentally, I know it's how these things go - I had the same struggles before every double-digit race I trained for - but it's still hard not to let that shit take over. So...WISH ME LUCK! And strength enough to lift that atlas stone.

Logging:

Saturday 2/18 - strongman stuff. Unloaded yoke walk (~175lbs), yoke walk attempts at ~355 or 365 - couple steps. 125lb farmer's carry, felt good once I got stabilized. Atlas stones - 43-63-93-115 up easy, several fails with 135. Later that night, about 30min of dumbbell clean and push press with a pair of dumbbells - apparently, the dumbbell ground to overhead at Hybrid will only be a single, so I feel good about that. 30-35-40-45F, followed by 4 or 5 successful cleans and failed presses with the 45s. I got them overhead but couldn't lock out both arms at the same time.

Sunday 2/19 - intro to oly. Snatch, warmup with 53; 53x2, 58x2,63x1, 68x1, 68F, 68x1. Felt OK - tired. Clean and jerk - 73(1C, 2J) - 83(1C2J)x3 - 93(1C2J) - 103(1C2J) - 103(1C2J) - 108x1 - 113F (didn't commit at all - for some reason I went into this assuming it was a given, which is silly since it's 5lbs under my max) - 113x1 (real ugly. ELBOWS DAMMIT. jerk was fine). I was very tired after this and my elbows were unusually sore, so I iced them when I got home.

Wednesday 2/22 - intro to oly. Snatched 53x2 warmup, 53x2 loose/sloppy, 53x2 high but better, 53x2 F, then high; 63x2, 68x1, 73x1F, 73x1 (pressed out), 73x1 (pressed out - HEAD THROUGH!) - 73F. Clean & jerk: 73C&2J, then switched to kilograms. All sets of one clean, two jerks: 42kg-45kg-49kgF/49F/49F/49 (YAY) -57kgF (OOOPS)-47kg-47kg. So, funny story - after several fails at 49kg (about 108lbs - so ten pounds UNDER my max), erin told me to back down to 47kg (about 103). I loaded up the bar and then went to clean, and was absolutely shocked at how heavy it felt - I pulled it fairly high but was so surprised at the weight that I didn't even try to get under it. Um...I accidentally loaded it with 57kg, not 47kg. That's about 125lbs instead of 103lbs. Uh, yeah. This was an ugly night.

Friday 2/24 - sumo deadlifts, fast peak of 5 - required to rep every set out, no dropping from the top. 95-115-135-155-175. My last set didn't really feel heavy, but I did feel myself rounding a bit, which Tim confirmed. I feel it in my upper back now as I sit here in my office. Meh. Skipped the metcon, which involved a lot of rowing.

Brief Whining, No Pictures

you've been warned.

Today is day 5 of the current CFCC BCCC. After today, I have 25 more days to go. I know - intellectually, at least - that it will fly by, that I will be strict and consistent, and that on day 31 (or whenever I measure and weigh in), I will be really fucking happy about it.

BUT.

Today is day 5. And on day 5, I am not happy. And it's ridiculous - this is only day three of no cream in my coffee, for chrissake. (Somewhat coincidentally, it IS day 5 of no chocolate.) But...gah. My little Sophie has been sick since Saturday - I suspect it might be because I gave her a piece of fat off of the edge of my t-bone steak, which may or may not have wreaked havoc on her otherwise-cooperative little puppy digestive system. Anyway, last night she woke me up at 12:30, 4:30 and 5:45 to go outside. Poor girl. And poor me, because I was really feeling it when I got up for good that third time.

Standing there in my kitchen just before 6am, ALL I wanted was cream in my coffee. I had no interest in drinking it black. I was miserable and bitter about it (not to mention miserable and bitter about the fact that I am a much lighter sleeper than PhillyGuy, who snored right through all of Sophie's emergencies - I woke him up and sent him out with her the first time, but it just felt mean). Not surprisingly, actually DRINKING the black coffee made me somewhat less miserable and bitter...especially when I added some cinnamon and nutmeg.

An hour and a half later (grumble), when I was making my breakfast, I opened my pantry to find TWO precious, unopened chocolate bars staring me in the face. One is my usual favorite - Green & Black's 85% - and the other is a new one to try - Theo's 70% with mint. I'm not throwing them away, since that's about $14 worth of chocolate, but GOD am I bitter that I can't have them.

BAH. This too shall pass (and quickly, since a good 95% of the time I feel perfectly content without these little indulgences). Eyes on the prize. Eyes on the prize. Eyes on the prize, dammit.

Training:

Wednesday, off - I had planned on going to class to push cars (!!!) but didn't feel comfortable leaving Sophie stuck in her crate with her questionable tummy any longer than I needed to. Did a couple pull ups and called this one a night on the couch.

Thursday - back squat. Yes, again - this time for a peak of one, so heavier than Monday's set of three, without maxing. 85x3 to warm up, and then 105-125-145-160-170. I was still a little sore from Dae Han, but felt pretty strong. Feeling better about my goals for the total next weekend. Metcon was "Diane" - 21-15-9 of deadlifts (225/185) and handstand pushups, with a 10:00 cap. If it weren't for the time cap, I'd have done the RX'ed weight, but I knew my pushups would be slow and I wanted to finish the workout. 8:00 even, with 155lbs/regular push ups. Repped the first ten or so deadlifts and then started dropping them from the top to keep my pace consistent.

training note...I hope we focus on HSPU's soon, because I'd like to start doing at least partial ROM in metcons. I feel like it might be easier for me to do partial ROM HSPU's than regular push ups. I'm much stronger at pushups than I was six months ago - I'm happy that I managed to rep out ten to start with, and that I only failed two pushups in this metcon, both in the last round - this is a huge leap from when I first started and had to do them on my knees.

Whining over. Back to work with me.

Broad Street Training!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

really, it is. I love signing up for a race and planning a new challenge. I even love the first couple weeks of training, where I'm all inspired to achieve my new goals and all of my runs are fun.

And then the novelty wears off about three weeks in and I'm in the middle of a tempo run on the treadmill thinking to myself "WHY? I mean...WHY? This isn't fun and no one is going to care if you stop!"

Oh well.

So, in 2010 I got a new race distance under my belt, and I overcame my knee issues enough to train consistently. But lately I've been running shorter and quicker - instead of nine or ten 10:20 miles, I'm doing three or four 8-something or 9:00 miles.

And you know what? I've missed it. A bunch. And I think I'm ready to try to get 2011's Broad Street time down to my 2008 "debut" time of 1:30.59.

I'm nervous about it, but also excited. I have 15 weeks to train, which is plenty of time for me to start off with building a bit of a base and then ramp up the speedwork. If 2010 taught me anything, it's that (i) I can add distance without aggravating my knees if I don't do speedwork or junk miles, and (ii) if I don't do speedwork or junk miles, I will add plenty of distance but will never get faster.

And I'm ready to get faster.

I'm kind of scared, too. I don't want to burn out and I don't want to hurt myself. But most of all...I don't want to fail. I don't want to talk a big game (to teh internets, nonetheless) and then start trying to come up with excuses in five or six or fifteen weeks when I don't deliver.

oh well. Here goes nothing.

No Supervision

You know...I love my job and I really love my boss. I lucked out, for sure. But I can't lie...I still love those days when I know she's not coming in.

It's not like I do anything differently, really. I guess I could. It'd be tempting to come to work in yoga pants, for example. I truly don't think anyone would notice, because when she's not here, I may not need to interact with anyone else at all, except my secretary. Who isn't going to judge me. (At least, I don't think she'd judge. And if she did, she'd still be nice to me, so whatever.)

But there is just something freeing about knowing that I don't need to get X done by Y time. Which means I can blog at 9am and not feel guilty about it.

Distance Run/Rock & Roll Half training is going...OK. I had a 7-miler this weekend, which was also my first ever run with my brand-new Camelbak. PhillyGuy was away, so I couldn't take pictures for you, but I dig it. I bought the Annadel:



Not too big, not too tiny. I filled it about 1/3 of the way the night before and laid the bladder flat in the freezer overnight. In the morning, I filled it the rest of the way with lemon-lime Gatorade. Since the ice was in a big sheet, it took longer to melt and kept my Gatorade nice and cold.

I got a later start than I wanted, and didn't hit the road until just after 9am. I ran a nice out-and-back on Kelly Drive and the Schuylhill River trail. As I was running out, I started thinking about how I should build in a cooldown period. Oh! Wouldn't it be great to make it so that I wrapped up my seven miles just as I was exiting the trail back onto Locust Street? Then I'd have a nice half-mile walk home to cool down, instead of running straight back to my house and having little to no walking time. Great! I'll just run an extra half mile out before I turn around.

Are you better at math than I am? Because I was AWFULLY surprised when I hit my 7 mile point when I was still on the trail. Not just still on the trail - I hadn't even made it to the steps at JFK/Market Streets. Oh...DUH. An extra half mile out before you turn around is NOT an extra half mile. It's an extra mile. And I am a total moron.

Oh well. I had a nice mile long walk home with the Garmin turned off. Splits:



Eh. Those splits are a little deceptive, to be completely honest with you, blogworld. I took a couple of "stretching breaks" between a few of the miles. Like between miles 2 and 3...and again at mile 3.5. And again at mile 4.5. And again at mile 5. And then I just straight up walked a bit during mile 7 - but, of course, that's actually reflected in my time. So even though my Garmin tells me I covered 7 miles in 1:08.52, it actually took me more like an hour and twenty minutes, because I paused the garmin during my stretching breaks.

I need to stop doing that. Breaks are OK, don't get me wrong -- but it's not helpful to me to look at my time and say "oooh, I did 7 miles and averaged a better-than-10-minute pace!" when, well, I didn't.

Ok. Moving on. Another side effect of my training? My poor toenail, which bruised and eventually fell off after Broad Street, has not been able to grow back properly. Brace yourselves for gross feet pics:



Oh, you poor thing. It doesn't hurt or anything, it just looks...well...busted.



I've been telling my pedicure ladies to just leave it alone. They don't seem to mind. I'm afraid to paint it, like somehow the nail polish might inhibit the regrowth process and I'll be doomed to have a busted toenail for the rest of my life.

Meh. Now, who's ready for food pictures??????

Monday dinner:



Mexican crockpot chicken. I throw mushrooms, onions and peppers (usually -- I didn't have any on hand this week) in the crockpot with a bunch of chicken breasts (frozen works too if you forget to thaw them), black and pinto beans, cumin, paprika, chili powder, salt and pepper (or a packet of taco seasoning for the really lazy), and dump a jar of salsa over the entire thing. Cook on low for 8 hours. Come home to delicious chicken that falls apart when you stir it.



I like to serve it with hot sauce, black olives, green chiles and plain Greek yogurt.

Breakfast today:



I treated myself to a delicious DiBruno's whole wheat bagel with their lox spread.



SO GOOD, even if I did have to scrape 2/3 of it off. And it took about four hundred times longer than usual, because I scraped it off and then performed surgery to dig out the lox pieces and put them back on the bagel.

I suppose I should get to work now.

Anyone want to join me for an 8-miler this weekend? Assume a 10:00 pace. And assume that I will actually run the entire time, which I generally do when I have someone with me.

Holla

You guys, I had the BEST RUN yesterday.

Not the fastest or the furthest or anything remotely like that. I mean, I ran 4 miles in 37:01 -- as my "long run" for the week. At this time last year I'd have been sort of embarassed about that time. But not this year -- definitely not yesterday.

I've switched from my "usual" Runner's World training program (one short easy run, one tempo or speedwork run, and one long run) to Hal Higdon's novice plan.

That kind of thing isn't easy for me, since I've been running regularly for about 7 years now -- I'm not elite or anything, but I wouldn't consider myself a novice. But after a couple of weeks of my RW plan, I started noticing a pattern -- I was NOT looking forward to my runs. I was never sure if I'd be able to handle them, I was worried about injury, training was feeling like a job, and worst of all, I was really starting to regret registering for the Distance Run.

I really didn't want to admit it, but I had to: between my knee and hip injuries and my spring of basically zero training, I really wasn't at the level I was "pretending" to be at. I had made the mistake of plugging into the RW calculator some stats that I WANTED to be at (a recent race time of 2:00 for a half, for example, when I barely (BARELY!) finished Broad Street this year in the 1:47 range, and 11-15 mile weeks when I hadn't even cleared double digits for months) instead of where I REALLY was.

So I swallowed my pride, printed out Hal Higdon's twelve-week novice plan, and went with it.

And um, wow. You know, I had started to think of "just cover mileage" as kind of garbage runs. Just getting in miles for the sake of miles? What's that going to do? Certainly not make me faster. But duh...I don't need SPEED right now. It's OK if I run the same pace for every mile, because holy crap, I can barely get the miles in right now.

So anyway. This week called for a couple of two and three-milers throughout the week, plus a "long run" of four miles. My two and three-milers were as one would expect. Perfunctory, let's get it done and move on to lifting. But Sunday, I went for my "long run." I opted for the treadmill since it was pretty late in the morning (since I stayed in bed watching the Hills for two hours). First mile was nothing special. Second mile, I started to get a little bored and, as usual, found myself thinking about dropping out of training. After the third mile, I stopped very briefly to stretch my IT band and hip flexors, and then hopped back on.

I did my first three miles at 6.5mph, so I bumped it up to 6.7mph for mile 4. A couple of minutes into that mile, the magic started to happen. Oh my god -- ENDORPHINS! I had forgotten about those! I started smiling, and BIG -- I'm sure I looked like I had lost my mind. I was feeling invincible and I bumped the speed up to 7.0 at 3.5 miles, and did the final quarter mile at 7.5mph. I seriously felt like I was flying and I didn't want to stop...but hey, I'm listening to my training plan. So I stopped and stretched and smiled my big dumb grin and rocked out to my music.

I don't want to get too excited, since there's obviously a great chance that I'll have another exhausting crappy run or two this week...but it had been a LONG time since I remember feeling as amazing as I did on Sunday.

In other news, I STILL don't have my camera cord replaced. I went to Best Buy on Saturday and bought a card reader...for the wrong card format. DOH. I'm going to try to get out and get it exchanged this week, because I've got a ton of pictures to share and no way to get them uploaded!

How was everyone's weekend?