Saturday, May 17, 2008

I go absolutely CrossFit psycho and hit day #6.... plus the return of the draft horse...



Dude, I seriously need to stop drinking the CrossFit Kool-aid. Despite the fact that I hit 5 days straight this week, I decided to get up and hit a workout today. Now, you have to understand that part of my reasoning was because that I made a workout and the name was so cool that I just had to do it. :) Isn't that a great reason to do a workout? :)

So, I nearly got killed (AGAIN!) on the way to go workout this morning because people don't seem to understand that when you go down Diagonal Lane, the left lane is a turning lane and does NOT proceed through the intersection!!! GRRRRR... anyway, I was a little loopy from the near accident miss when I rolled up to Jungle's and the thought of turning around crossed my mind several times. But I really needed to run again this week, and I really wanted to hit this workout, so determination prevailed over the rest of my body, which really wanted to take a rest day. So, here's what my fun looked like today:

"Miami Vice"
Warm-up
Tabata wall ball

WOD
4X800 Meter run
25 Lunges (each leg)
4X400 Meter run
Tabata squats

So, this sounds like a lot of legs right? Well there is a theory to my madness and a logic to why I called this Miami Vice. See, here's the thing. What do you do when you break the law? Well, you ditch the stuff over the fence (wall ball), then you run like hell, (running), you sneak through the bushes (lunges), then run like hell some more (running), and then dodge the bullets (squats). Now, if I would have had the ability, I also would have put some sledgehammer hits at the beginning to to simulate the breaking and entering, but, sadly, I cannot do sledgehammer hits. I think they would be fun though. I guess I could have subbed some jumping slamball but eh, I think I did enough.

The wall ball felt a little tight, I think just because of the other workouts this week, but I was able to hold 9's. I started with 10, but I was trying to focus on form, and stop popping my knees. I'm really conscious of that now that Jerry pointed out my MHF (muted hip function). Gotta work on that. After that, I got myself set for my 4X800's. I was a little disappointed as these weren't as fast as last time, but they were still not too shabby. Round 1- 4:16 Round 2- 4:14 Round 3- 4:10 Round 4- 4:22. Same thing happened as last time. Pretty consistant on the first 3 rounds, round 4 slipped a bit. But still, not too bad. In fact, my fourth rounds were nearly identical. Round 4 two weeks ago- 4:21 Round 4 today- 4:22. Can't get much more consistant than that. I rested as needed between rounds, and held the rest to 2 minutes. I started to cramp up towards the end, and noticed a twinge in my shins. I hope it's not the start of shin splints.

After that I hit my lunges. The lunges were part of my master theory behind this workout which I'll get to in a minute. But I learned another very valuable lesson about working out outside. When you do lunges outside, it's advisable to do them over grass and not pavement. Smashing the crap out of your knees on pavement kinda hurts. This goes well with my former valuable lesson about not doing burpees on pavement as it tears the crap out of your hands. Remember these lessons. :)

After the lunges it was time to run a little more. My 4x400's looked like this. Round 1- 1:43 Round 2- 1:42 Round 3- 1:40 Round 4- 1:37 Hellooooo draft horse. It looks like even with being sick for the last week or so I haven't lost my touch. I'm proud of the fact, not that I'm the fastest, but that I can find that pace and hit it, and continue on it. This bodes well for me. I kept the rest the same at 2:00, but feel like maybe since it's a shorter distance I should have dropped it to 1:30. Eh, maybe if I do this again I will.

After the 400's I was debating about the squats. My legs were twitching. You know what I mean. When your twitch fibers are just firing on all cylinders and your legs are shaking. I thought squats would be too much, but I figured with my theory that I've compiled, it would work well. So, my finisher was Tabata squats. I started with 12, ended with 11. Not great, not terrible, but I felt the knee bounce. I was tired, and I wasn't being as good about form as I should have been. Boo on me. Not too bad though after everything else I put myself through.

Now, as for my theory. My theory for this workout was this, push your legs to the limit, then keep going. Why? Because 13.1 miles is not going to be user friendly. I am going to want to quit. My legs will burn. They will feel like Jello and I will have to keep going. If I can push my legs to their limit now, I will thank myself immensely in October. Now, you can completely disagree with my theory. That is ok. But this marathon will be just as much mental as it will be physical. When my legs turn to Jello, I'm going to have to find a way to keep going. I'm going to have to force myself to run. If I can push myself through 800's, then 400, plus lunges, tabata squats, and tabata wall balls, I figure my chances of finishing this 1/2 marathon increase greatly. So, here's to pushing the limits and killing myself. Hopefully it will help in the long run.

Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.~Horace

4 comments:

georgia said...

"...so determination prevailed over the rest of my body, which really wanted to take a rest day."

Katie - you are working towards a huge (and awesome) goal. Be careful and listen to and respect your body on this journey. You don't want to train yourself into injury and never get to race to the finish line. Rest is just as important as a pedal to the metal workout.

That said, cool workout. My only beef with it is that if I'm going to go through the hassle of stealing, I want to try and keep my booty. So instead of ditching the merchandise how about you call wall ball tossing as much of the goods to your partner in crime and then wear a weight vest to run with and protect whatever loot you couldn't get onto the boat (because in Miami, you've got boats). Can you imagine all those runs, lunges and squats with a weight vest? OUCH!!!

Katie said...

I know... I just really wanted to do Miami Vice... it just sounded so cool! :) And who doesn't love pics of Don Johnson? :) I knew I wouldn't have an opportunity to do it this weekend (traveling) or next (CHICAGO!!!) so I really just wanted to get it in.

But on a good note, it proves that I can push my body that hard, and my legs especially and still come out ok, which bodes well for the non-user friendly 13.1 miles. :) I'm going to get to the finish line even if I only have 1 working arm... yes I know running has nothing to do with arms... that's why I said it. :)

As for the weight vest, you are even crazier than me!!! When you do that workout... I want to come watch... :P LOL. As for the new theory... I like the idea of partners... partners in crime... hmmmm... sounds like a partner worktout... I go you go? 3-2-1...idea time... Georgia, I'm roping you in to a new Katie workout... entitled... "Partners in Crime"... oh! It's totally going to have tug of war... ahahahahahahahahaahha :)

georgia said...

HA! I will lose the tug of war. As was severly highlighted in class today, pulling objects is not my strength. :(

Katie said...

Don't get upset with the high pulls. I read your blog. We all have exercises that are our strong points. If the high pull is not a strong point, work on your form until it becomes stronger for you.

Don't beat yourself up about the that. I don't do pushups well, or for that matter KB swings. I'm guessing my MHF probably has something to do with that. My hips don't pop fast enough. No speed. But I keep working up. You kill those things. We all have our good points and our areas to work on, so don't sweat it. Remember, it's small stuff. Georgia, you are strong, and you can actually lift the KB. There are people out there who can't do that. They don't have the strength of will or body to do what you do in the blue room everyday. Remember to give yourself credit for the things you CAN do, and don't worry so much about the stuff you can't. If everything in CrossFit were easy, it'd be boring. Thrive on the challenge of improvement. :) Now... SMILE BIOTCH! :) Tehe...