See Jane Ambassador

It's officially official.  I'm an ambassador for See Jane Run.

June 8th in Alameda will be my first half marathon of the year and another race on my quest to finish 13 events in 2013.

And who doesn't want to run a race with chocolate and champagne at the end?  Join me, there's also a 5k option.

100th post

This is my 100th post.  I can't believe I'm still posting to even get to 100. 

And today we're talking about crossfit.  I'm currently signed up on a plan to attend 2x a week.  This past week, I had to teach on Friday instead of attending my favorite women's WOD.  So I asked if I could come MWF of this week to make up for missing that one day.  I'm a little nervous about 3x this week, as I haven't done 3x a week for quite some time now.

Even though yesterday was a holiday, there was no resting/slacking/relaxing at crossfit. 

Our WOD was this:

Why yes, that does say 10 burpees with a 25 lb plate.  And yes it was as insane as it sounds.

My backsquats felt heavy but were good.  I went with my 3RM of 185 and did these weights: 135, 155 and 160.  I did calculate my % but for math sake, I always round.  I'm sure that's bad but it's easy :)

My time for the WOD of 3 rounds was 10:27 which I'm quite pleased with.  I wasn't sure how much time it would take for those awful burpees with that extra weight. 

After crossfit, I headed to San Jose to go on a hike with my friend and her dog.  It was a great adventure as we went off trail so he could run around off the leash.  I'm sure we walked anywhere between 3-4 miles.  The first half was all up hill and I only used the dog to guide me up for a little while.

Motivational Friday

Being in fitness, I know that people (and myself included) sometimes have a tough time finding the motivation to actually put on your workout clothes and get out the door.

And being the Pinterest fan that I am, I'll share my favorite recent motivational posters. 

2013 events

As the year started, I made a goal of running so many miles in a week.  And yet that goal feel at the waist side as I found myself in a break up and finding a place to live. 

The only reasonable thing to do at that point was to sign up for events.  The first was a 10k in April.  Then I found the 5k Drenched in LA in July.  Yes it'll be a fun little road trip. 

Then last night in my stressed and sad state, I registered for the 408k in San Jose in March and the NWM 10k the same weekend.  Yes I'm running a 10k on a Saturday and then a 8k on Sunday.  It'll be a good weekend.

I'm still considering Tough Mudder.  I want to run at least 1 half marathon, maybe 2.  And many more 5ks and 10ks.  This will be my year of running.

I'm hoping once things settle down, I'll be ready to run on a weekly basis.  Right now, I'm biking about 40 - 45 miles a week with spin classes.  I'm doing crossfit 2x a week.  I'm not being lazy, just prioritizing other things. 

I've found an apartment and will be moving this week.  I don't know how long it'll take to move as I have to buy a new bed and get it delivered.  And a couch. 

This list is a list in progress so I'll be updating you as the year goes on.  For now, my first race is March 9th and 10th.  Here goes nothing!

WOD catch up

I feel like I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off.  If I'm not teaching a class, I'm programming for another or I'm working out myself.  Or I'm looking for an apartment.  Or cultivating friendships b/c at a time like this, all you need is your friends.

It's so hard to put into words how some things make you feel.  The mere thought of burpees makes me cringe and then seeing it on a WOD at crossfit really makes me not feel so well.  I know how great burpees are for you.  I get it.  They are not fun though.  I know I program burpees into workouts-they are great full body workouts.  You can't go wrong with them.

I'm about 2 weeks behind on my workouts.  So without further ado, here are the last two weeks of workouts.

Another great workout.  I am so bad at pull ups that I was sore for days.  My weights for the olympic lifts were 65#, 75#, 85#, 75#, and 75#.  I realized quickly that the 85# wasn't a smooth transition for me and I wanted to work on form.  I finished the WOD in 8:49.

This was a great workout.  We didn't keep time as we had a lot of girls using 2 tires.  I couldn't believe how much this hurt even with taking a rest to make sure we were all on the same round.  My cleans were 65#, 85# and 90#.

A 7 minute WOD was no joke. I got to the round with 12 reps but only 9 pull ups.  The strength portion of that day was modified to 5 sets of 10 chin ups.  My lats were sore for days.  Still are!

Such a great Friday workout.  I did 135# on all 5 sets of deadlifts.  It was heavy enough that I wanted to take weight off but coach told me to push through.  And I'm so glad I stuck with it.  The WOD was killer.  We had a head wind on the 2nd part of the 400m.  I finished in 14:11.

This past week, we switched from Tu/Fr class schedule to a MWF class schedule.  I teach on Mondays, so I'll be going every Wednesday and Friday.  However, I have a spin class 30 mins after the end of my crossfit class.  It was an interesting transition to go from lifting and sweating to pedaling and more sweating.  I know that I can program less standing on the bike as my legs are normally shot from crossfit.  Wednesday was no exception.  Though I'll see what results I start getting from these 2 a days.

Now that it seems to be getting warmer, I've got to start incorporating some running into the mix.  I have a hunch I'll be signing up for some more events in the near future.  Stay tuned...

Monday Spin

Today was a looooooong day.

I started with being an assistant coach to a 5:30a bootcamp class.  My next class was at 9a and I usually will come home and nap.  Today I couldn't  nap as I had to put some finishing touches on a presentation I had at 10a, right after my class.  So I powered through the morning and got it done.

I'm looking for a place to live and seem attached to my email at all times.  Either emailing new places or anxiously waiting to hear back about the million places I've already emailed.

I'm also teaching tomorrow at 5:30a, 6:30a and 11a so I had to make sure my programming was done prior to me crashing from exhaustion.

I've been teaching spinning on Monday nights for a while now.  I'm transitioning into a regular spin teacher into one that has a tri club doing their brick workouts during my class.  They will ride for 15 minutes, change their shoes and transition to their run for 7 minutes before getting back on the bike.  I'm learning so much about triathlon training while figuring this all out.

Today was one of those Mondays where I felt that I couldn't keep my head above water.  Everyone needed something.  Not everyone was nice about it.  And I was plain exhausted by the time my class came around.  However, I did manage to knock out 25 miles in my class tonight.  I was super stoked that I was able to get that many miles in with the exhaustion I was feeling.  I did come home and eat and work some more.  I must say, it's early to bed for me as I have that early class again tomorrow morning.

Friday's WOD

Today's WOD was tough. 

Starting with the warm up.  Tire flips, push ups and mountain climbers into a hip stretch.  3 rounds.  These definitely warmed me up and I was removing my long sleeves off.  Next we had deadlifts.  I lifted 85#, 105#, 115#. 

And then came the WOD.  a heavy push press.  We did 75#.  And then we did rowing.  Keeping track of the calories for the whole WOD.  So the way the partner WOD worked, I started with the push press and she started on the rower.  Once I was done with the push press, I went to the rower and rowed until she completed the push press.  There were some push presses that lead to failure, not getting over my head.  I didn't give up though.  I rested for less than a minute and picked that barbell back up.

Though it was good to be pushed hard and heavy.  We completed in 12:07 and for a total of 125 calories on the rower.