Apple picking, some wine tasting, and a little thing called Fight Gone Bad....

So, although yesterday should have been an "active rest" day, I didn't do a run. I've just accepted the fact that my half marathon will, by definition, suck, and the only thing that is going to get me to that finish line will be sheer grit and determination. I have no doubt in my ability to finish, I mean, I could walk the whole damned thing, but I'd really rather not do that. I know I can do 6-8 miles ok... I've trained up that far, but the last 5 will be brutal. I understand that this is not the best way to train for something like this, not even remotely close. But somewhere between the 5 days a week at CF plus working 12 hours a day, plus working a second job on the weekends, things have gotten a little, well hectic. The marathon training took a nose-dive but I'm still going to do it, and do the best I can. I think I need to prove to myself that I can do it. I think I may surprise myself... but we'll have to wait and see in two weeks.

So instead of doing a run yesterday, the pirate and I woke up early and headed out towards Winchester, VA to go apple picking. The drive really wasn't that bad, it only took about an hour, and we got a gigantic bag of apples for $10. We also bought some honey with the comb in it, and a little thing of homemade apple cider. I was tempted to buy apple butter but I knew that if I did that, I would also buy bread so that I could make toast and put apple butter on it... me + bread= bad idea... so I nixed the apple butter thing. But then as we were about to drive back, we kept seeing all these signs for wineries. And we figured we had some time so we stopped. The first one we went to used to be called Stillhouse, but is now called Philip Carter. The women who were there were very nice and joked with us while we did the tasting. We wound up buying a dessert wine for me (I like sweet wine) and a red for the pirate that he can drink with his steak (yay for meat!) LOL.

The nice women at the wineries gave us a pamphlet of all the wineries in the area, and on the way back, we decided to stop at one that was right off 66. We didn't have the time (or the money) to visit all 13 (!!!!) that were in the area. So we decided to stop at one called The Three Fox Vineyard. If you like Italian wine, and a Tuscan theme, this is your place. The winery itself was beautiful. Lots of potted flowers, and a great view of the vines. I literally could take a book, drink a few glasses of wine, and stay out there the whole day. The only problem would be the whole you know, getting back thing. :P We bought two more bottles of wine, and our tasting glasses. That place was beautiful and I wanted to remember our little adventure. Call me a sucker (or a hopeless romantic). You'd be right on both accounts, but it was a great day, and it was a souvenir. It was great to be able to do two things I'd never done (but kept saying I wanted to do) with my pirate. It was a fun day.

We raced back on 66 because we were going to go watch some rugby, but as soon as we got to the metro to head into DC, it began to downpour. Literally, we were both soaked and knew that going into DC was pointless. We would have been miserable and probably wound up sick. So we settled for going home and watching some football. :) I was ok with that. :)

So last night was a pretty uneventful night, what with that whole, you know crazy night on the town... :P Really... we were so far from being wild and crazy it was ridiculous. We stayed up to watch Bama beat the CRAP out of Georgia and PSU take a W from Illinois, and then we passed out. But of course, there was CF today. Oh yes, that whole little Fight Gone Bad thing. My pirate wasn't very happy with his last FGB score, and since I understand him a little better than most at CFOT, I decided to partner up with my pirate.

One thing that you need to understand is that the pirate and I both agree that CFOT is not the place to play lovey dovey kissy face. We try to keep relationship and CF separate. So the choice to partner up was... a good one because we understand each others styles, but I had to try to remember not to call him any silly little pet name I may have given him. :P It's hard sometimes to do that because you have to be thinking about separating the way you normally are with the way you need to act now, and when you're trying to do that while doing FGB and dying, it's a challenge. We showed up early and gave ourselves plenty of time to stretch out. I was awfully sore after those jumping lunges the other day, and I really needed the extra time. So we jumped into the 930 class as partners, and away we went.

I decided to go first because if I stand around and watch, I tend to get the whole case of the nerves thing going on. So I just jumped in and had at it. Really, the only gaming I did was to come up with my strategy for rotation. I know that going from the row to other exercises is hard for me, and I know my push presses are my strength. So, what I did was start with the push presses on the first round, so on the last round, the very last thing I would do would be the row. I think that this strategy worked well for me. I banged out 30 push presses on the first round, which may have been a bit much, because I slipped then on the next two rounds. But aside from that, I kept my calories the same at 14, my wall ball, and my high pull all to within 2. So, overall I was pretty pleased with my output, except for box jumps, which slipped a bit. I used the prescribed weights (55lb presses and 50 lb high pulls) and ended with 280. That was a personal best for me, although I was really hoping to hit 300 today. But, seeing as how last year for FGB I used 35 lb high pulls and 35 lb presses, and barely passed 200, I will take nearly 300 with rx'd weight.

Now, after I rolled off the rower (no joke, I unhooked my feet and rolled left onto the mats), I laid there for awhile before it was my pirate's turn. He really wanted to hit 300 so we were gaming it that he would hit 20 reps on each exercise. He did really well with 113 his first round, maintained at 103 the second round, and fell just shy on the third. He ended with 294, which is still pretty darned good. He was upset that he didn't land the 300 mark, but all things considered, he was happy with the improvment he made over his last FGB.

So FGB is said and done, and my pirate will be leaving today. I'm sorry to see him go, but will be happy when he returns in two weeks to come watch me run my marathon. It's been a great weekend. Tomorrow it will be more CF and back to the grind. Ah yes. :P But until then, the feast is mine! Yikes... and away! :P