Saturday, January 30, 2010

Fran



So I went to checkout the new facility at CrossFit Central CT on Newfield Street on the West Hartford/Hartford line. They have a nice new box there!

I walked in and asked if we could do Fran today and they looked at me like I was nuts :)

WARMUP
Row 500m
3 sets of:
dynamics
mountain climbers
slamball
shoulder triplets
squat jumps

Fran

21-15-9 reps
35# thrusters & pushups*
8:58

Squatted down onto a medicine ball at the low point of the thrusters because we all know that friends don't let friends squat shallow! I have a really hard time getting back onto/pushing up through my heels and especially yesterday after running the 10% incline, my quads were super dominant and hammys were tight.

*I subbed pushups (knees) because my hands were a leaky, blistery mess after a kipping pullup lesson by Duffy & Deavon.

Off to a funeral mass now for a childhood friend who took her own life. She was a junior snowboarding olympian and the first female snowboard instructor at Ski Sundown back in the day. RIP Amy Rose.

Bike 60 min TT later to come!

Friday, January 29, 2010

I'm Back Baby! I'm Back... (George Costanza)

Yesterday I first did the 5x5 deadlifts.

Three sets at 135 and then tried 155. Too much; it compromised my form. Back to 135for the remaining sets (no pun intended). Felt great to be back and didn't even notice that my hands were nearly a bloody mess by the end.

Later on to the trainer. Stand, sit intervals - 2 min up, 1 min off x 10. Distance traveled 6.19 miles - fun workout!

Today the treadmill workout was 10% incline, 1 min on, 1 min off at two min slower than 10K pace. That ended up being 4.6 MPH and 13:02 min miles. Hills are fun! Right hip is a little achey afterwards, though.

HeyHo! Let's Go!! Stoked to be back in action and the start of the legislative session is next week; I'm ready.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

24 Jan I'm Sick!

I have a head cold and am not up for 10k after skiing yesterday. I hit Suburban Pharmacy for some nasal spray, instead. A hot shower can only help so much. A humidifier is in my near future-that or moving the bed so my head's not near the heat vent.

Don't worry, Max, my sister is all over me, saying I should be out there, but I have a few 10k's in my future soon enough.

22 Jan WOD

Row 500m, run .25 miles (400m) 5x for time: 25:14

Felt good despite cold coming on.

Rested a little while then did the next day's thrusters since I knew I'd be downhill skiing with a few friends from Conard High School. Did various weight amounts since the prescribed 45# was just too much. Broke the 30 reps into sets of 5's; the entire set of 30 probably took about 2-3 minutes. Settled on a few sets with the 35# bar and then a few sets with the 30# bar. Thrusters are such strong movements and are very empowering~love them!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Ladies Goggle Review

I've had issues with leaky goggles since I was a kid.

I'm probably just a wuss, but whatever. I wear contacts and it's a real pain when turning your head to the side and a gush of chlorinated water rushes into your contact lense.

http://www.swimoutlet.com/product_p/17687.htm

This femme-specific, small swim mask is it! There are no more excuses to stop and empty out the goggles. I recommend it highly.

Happy lap counting

20 Jan WOD

20 Box jumps, 20 pushups, 20 situps, run 1 mile ~ TWO TIMES*

All of the treadmills were being used by the second round so I rowed 10 mins. (because I run about 10 min. miles and that came out to 2,096 meters). TOTAL TIME 18:03.

* forgot to do the 20 squats so I banged those out at home separately.


SWIM 500M ~ new goggles are awesome! No leakage. About 14 minutes...pool was crowded and I actually used my lifeguarding skills and saved a little girl who wandered off the step during her swim lesson.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

I'm In The Zone


This is pretty easy! Definately will take some Sunday prep for the week, but I am used to doing that anyways.

I am going to like being in THE ZONE!!

Here is my refined block schedule....

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Four One-Mile Repeats

NYSC has two new treadmills, called the Woodway http://www.woodway.com/index.html which is supposed to be for "the long run". I was only doing my four one-mile repeats the other day but decided to use this new equipment anyways. It did have more give than the regular treadmills so I'll run on it a few times and see how I like it.

Results of Mile Repeats, resting 8 mins in between:

1st Mile: 0.5% Incline, 10:05 mins
2nd Mile: 1.0% Incline, 10:57 mins
3rd Mile: 1.0% Incline, 10:44 mins
4th Mile: 1.0% Incline: 11:06 mins

Incline kills!

I went skiing the yesterdat at Stratton in VT, the day after the mile repeats. We did lots of hard runs and my quads were screaming! My hips (especially left hip) was really sore after running, then skiiing, but feels 100% fine today, so that's good news.

Zone Nutrition



Max emailed recently and said if we really wanted to get the full experience, we'd (Team TriMax athletes) better commit FULLY to the Zone lifestyle of eating. Proper nutrition is my weakest discipline of triathlon, even more so than running! Again, it's really just a mental block (no pun intended). It's really pretty simple, if I plan accordingly.

I've struggled with my weight for most of my adult life (always a skinny kid), being about 35lbs overweight currently. I am also a yo-yo'er, which means I have several sizes of pants in my closet ~ not cool. Lost 30lbs last year on Weight Watchers, just to gain it all back. Super frustrating and not healthy. I am a former Weight Watchers gal and counted "points" which is why I think I have this perverse aversion to counting Zone blocks. I think in my mind it is too much like a diet and not something I'll be able to do forever because it seems so high maintenance, doing all of this measuring and counting of units.

All it really takes for success on the Zone, I think, is planning ~ planning out the next days meals. I've done it before on WW, and I can do it again. This time I have a very important end goal (Timberman!) so why am I not as committed to the Zone as I am to my WODs? This is important!!! I have a four-day weekend ahead of me, so I am going to plan out my meals for the week ahead and not look back.

Training, Recovery AND Nutrition are all equally important and I've been putting all of my efforts into training and recovery. Ignoring the third factor of the trifecta will not help me be the best person I can be on August 22nd. Plus, who will want to look back on all those pictures in that unforgiving tri-suit?! Good luck to anyone trying to incorporate the Zone or perfect their blocks!

The plan seen here is for the first month, Jan 16th through Feb 16th.








Monday, January 11, 2010

I Love Deadlifts

They are so empowering and make me feel strong! Love lifting heavy weights with the big boys!!

Sooo Little Time!

So I haven't updated my blog but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing my training!!

I barely get on the computer ("devil box") over the weekend (I use weekends to unplug) and I really shouldn't be blogging at work, so that will leave me very little time to blog. I barely have time to fit in all off my WOD's, pack the gym back, pack the day's meals, etc. that this is going to prove VERY difficult to keep up with.

I will blog when I can, but rest assured, when I am not blogging, I am WODing and plodding through the life of a triathlete.

Stay tuned!

Friday, January 8, 2010

Jan 8 WOD

4pm at NYSC - Blue Back Square - any other Team TriMax members workout here? Would be fun to CrossFit together and roll some heads!


Anyways, the workout was run .13 mi, rest for that time, run .25 mi, rest that time, run .5 mi, rest for that time and back down. 100% effort and 1% incline.

This was certainly not boring on the dreadmill (at least I scored one at the gym-the resolutioners take Friday off)! I rocked out to the "running" playlist on my 1st Gen iPod and with my lime green Pearl Izumi's, away I went! Everything felt great (right pirformis, too!) and I even tried to incorporate some gravity and CrossFit running technique. My MPH cranked up to 7.0 for a while and the workout/rest was over in 19:13.


I'm going to hammer out tomorrow's 12.4 mi bike tonight too, because I'm headed to the bike shop in the 'morn with a gift certificate from John and I'll probably need to leave her there. I've also decided today to sign up for the Hyannis 10K at the end of February. We're going to bring the dog and make a little weekend out of it. It's a little soon to be doing this distance, but what the heck! It's hard to find 10k races...why is that?

2010 Race Schedule

February 28 Hyannis 10k http://www.hyannismarathon.com

March 20 5 Mile Shamrock Run, Bristol http://bristolct.net/roadraces/shamrockrun.asp

April 3 Greater Hartford 1/4 Marathon (6.55 Miles), http://hartfordtrackclub.org/quarter_marathon.shtml

May 30 IronHorse Half Marathon, Simbury http://www.hartfordmarathon.com/

June 19 Pat Griskus Olympic Tri, Quassy http://www.patgriskustri.com/oly.htm

August 22 TIMBERMAN!

Jan 7th WOD

"Max" Deadlifts - Took it a bit easy at 145# for all reps - back STILL a bit sore
Tabata Bike - :20 secs on/:10 secs off x32 distance traveled 3.55 miles

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Daily Food Log

Thurs 7 Jan

8am ~ Steel cut oats, tsp. honey; black coffee; water
12pm ~ salad: baby greens, pork roast, slivered almonds, dried cranberries, olive oil
12: 45 ~ clementine
Going out to Wood-n-tap with work at 3pm. Must plan ahead! What to order?
http://woodntap.com/menus.htm
3pm ~ sweet potato fries, one pale ale
6pm ~ Grilled pork chops, steamed green beans

Friday 8 Jan
8am ~ 2 eggs with ham & green peppers, 1/2 c. steel cut oats
12:30 ~ Cosi Cobb salad, sherry shallot vinigrette, slice multi-grain bread
6pm~2 tacos: ground beef, tomatos, lettuce, lots of water

Jan 6th Migraine

On Tuesday Jan 5th, I left the office early for the vet's office for meds for my lab's IBD. As I approached my exit (exit 43 WH Center) on I-84 there was a rollover accident right in front of me. I found myself sprinting down the slow lane in my high heels towards the overturned truck. We managed to help the lady out of the vehicle and I left the scene as EMS arrived. I continued onto the vet's office, then to run errands with my sister, and then finally to the gym without having proper nutrition.

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-web-west-hartford-crash-0106.artjan06,0,1779952.story

For breakfast that day I had steelcut oats around 8:30am, lunch was a salad with eggs for protein and olive oil for dressing around 2pm. Not smart! I arrived at the gym with plans of completing the 5k run that I never did from a few days before and ALL 35 or so treadmills were in use by the New Year's Resolution crowd! So annoying!!! Being so proud of myself that I had my swimsuit in my bag, I hit the pool for the next day's planned 800 swim. I completed the swim with goggle issues and stopped a few times to fix the eyes. Again, very annoying and I need to solve this goggle issue so it doesn't become an excuse to stop. Since I wear contacts it is something I cannot ignore.

Yesterday I was totally out of commission with a nasty, nasty migraine and was in bed virtually ALL day. It was horrible. This migraine may have been precipitated by the severe stress of Tuesday's car accident, poor nutrition, and poor swim warm up. Recognizing these triggers is half of the battle, but I was very bummed to miss the kettlebell, rowing workout as that is my favorite!! Anyways, I will keep going forward and today will tackle the deadlift and tabata bike. Also nursing a very sore neck which I think is residual from the migraine and for being horizontal for so long yesterday.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Fundraising

I'm fundraising for the Mirgraine Research Foundation as part of my Timberman journey.......http://www.firstgiving.com/marcypicano

I've had migraines for over 10 years and it can be really distruptive to everyday life and training.

Is My Bike Computer Right?!?!

Last night on the bike trainer, I actually got off and checked all the wires on my new Cateye computer to make sure there weren't any glaring malfunctions. Is everything hooked up correctly? Am I reading the correct output unit for distance covered (although I need my headlamp on to read the damned TINY display)? Did I really only just travel the equivalent of seven miles in my dark, dingy basement? Time seems to pass so slowly down there! I do have my iPod on; maybe it's because my eyes have nothing to focus on. I must conjure up some mental fortitude and grow a pair and stick out my prescribed time/mileage if I am ever going to finish this race in the allotted time. I can't just get off the bike and quit because I'm bored. Like Max said, I should be writhing in pain, not just cruising along for a Sunday ride in the country. Must....pick....up.....the......pace!!

Am I Crazy? Am I Good Enough for a Coach?



Am I nuts for only having completed sprint distance triathlons before (not even any Olympic distance tris) before signing up for a half-Ironman? To add to this craziness, I work for the legislature, and when we're in session (this year February until early May) I may be working 15 hour days! When will I fit in the training? A lot of days call for a morning workout AND an evening training session!! Oh well, I signed up for this - I WANT to do this, so I guess it'll all fall into place.

Am I even good enough to warrant a real coach? This guy, Max, is a top-notch professional who coaches WINNERS in full distance Ironman events.


Who am I to be in the same email distribution lists as these powerhouses? I am *so* not worthy! Thanks, Max, for taking on the underlings such as myself and giving us the power to believe. Anything is possible! Even making the cutoff time at Timberman and possibly not being THE very last person to cross the finish line come 8*22*10.

Stuck Indoors

January is upon us in Connecticut and that means short hours of daylight, icy streets, and very cold temperatures. I don't know why that seems to be a problem, however, because I complain when it's too hot also.

Today's WOD calls for a 5k run. Since I have errands to run after work with a friend, it'll have to be the dreadmill tonight at the gym. I emailed Max today that I've been struggling mentally with all of this indoor training and he reminded me that I should be exerting myself so much that I shouldn't have the time or energy to get bored. My quads are still sore from a gazillion box jumps the other day that this run will be interesting. The incline on the treadmill always seems harder than the natural incline of the street but if I want Timberman enough, I'll make tonight's dreadmill workout HAPPEN! Of course, I could have gotten up early and then I'd be done already......I used to run 3.1 miles like it was nothing but these days, I am just struggling a bit. Sore back from shoveling out of the first snow storm (a week before Christmas), and just sore all over from CF WOD's but thankgod for the hottub at the gym!

Today's 5K Time: _______
Treadmill Incline: 1%

So I've Started a Blog......


My triathlon coach, Max, suggested I start a blog to track my half-Ironman journey; the Timberman 70.3 which will be held in August of 2010 at Lake Winnipesaukee, NH.

Here's a few acronyms, terms, and some "industry" lingo that the casual reader will need to navigate this highly exciting blog and world of tri:

WOD: "Workout of the Day" ~ A CrossFit term that generally means any given day's workout. WOD's generally kick the shit out of you and leave you on the floor in a pool of your own sweat and sometimes defeat and sometimes tears.

70.3 ~ the cumulative distance of the half-Ironman {1.2 mile swim; 56 mile bike; 13.1 mile run}

CrossFit ~ constantly varied, high- intensity, functional movement. CrossFit increases work capacity across broad time and modal domains —the “sport of fitness.” http://www.crossfit.com/
CrossFit gyms, like http://www.crossfitcentralct.com/ usually reside in nondescript, box-type, non-frilly environments. There are no mirrors, egos, or meatheads trying to pick up chicks. There is just alot of really, really hard work and enthusiasm for fitness. You run with sandbags around buildings, jump up on giant truck tires, and do old school moves like pullups, pushups, and situps. CrossFit is the fundamental strength conditioning method my coach has me using for my half-Ironman training.