Today's workout was...

[Jeremy Colwell]

Wow, with everyone being sick, good job trying to make time to get the exercise in. I admit, that is my number one excuse for not working out some days. If I'm not feeling really well, I find all kinds of reasons not to go. Working on that dedication, though. You guys are an inspiration--physically and creatively.

[Laura]

John is WAY better at not letting sickness (or life in general) interfere with workouts. I'm sloppy about it, need to get on the ball again.

I might go for a solo hike this afternoon -- I'm one of the lucky few who isn't affected by pine pollen, which is at record-breaking levels right now.

[John Rauch]

I missed four or five days because of the flu, and now with a sprained wrist, I suspect I'll be a little less active than normal as well. The last time I felt that bad, it was because of that brown recluse bite. So much for vit. C and a clean diet keeping me healthy... I haven't decided if this is a good thing yet or not, but I dropped about 8 lbs. from being sick and my appetite still isn't back to normal. Hello abs, goodbye t-shirt arms.

[Laura]

Workout 5 out of 16 for March (man, I am so not gonna make 16 workouts this month):

Started out with warmups, then, I did 2 sets of 12, except where noted, broken down into groups of 2 exercises each.

1A Russian Twist with 8-lb med ball
1B Prone Cobra (75 sec each)

2A Overhead Squat, no weight, heels on plates
2B Lateral Raise with External Rotation (8s, 8s)

3A One-Leg Romanian Deadlift (15-lb kb, 20-lb db)
3B Standing One Arm Cable Pulldowns (20, 20) -- only did 10 of these each set; very difficult

4A DB Bulgarian Split Squats (10s, 10s)
4B Standing Cable Rows (25, 30)

[John Rauch]

I hate overhead squats. I don't have the mobility for them.

Today's workout: 10 sets of 10 80 lb. log press w/30 meter overhead carry on the last rep. 10 ring pull-ups.

I've put a couple pounds back on since being sick and I'm feeling much less flat now, so that's reassuring. I'll put up a vanity pic in my personal thread.

[Laura]

I hate overhead squats. I don't have the mobility for them.

I have my heels raised up on the edges of two plates to give myself a little more mobility. I still curl my back slightly at the lowest point; can't seem to shake that movement. Also, I'm not holding any weight, just a plastic measuring stick.

[John Rauch]

It's just such an awkward lift for me. I have to have my arms extremely wide on the bar to get it behind my head as I go down and I'm still fighting to keep it there, rather than it just "locking" into place like it seems to do for others.

[Laura]

After a crappy deadline week, I got back in the gym today. FBB Base Phase A again. 2 sets of 12 unless otherwise noted.

1A Bird Dog
1B Forward Ball Roll
2A Step-up - used the high step today. On the first set, I did 6 step-ups with 10's, then 6 step-ups with BW. On the second set, I did 10 step-ups with 5's. DAMN these exhaust me.
2B 3-pt DB rows (25, 30)
3A Partial Co-Contraction Lunge
3B Incline Pushup
4A Hip-Thigh Extension
4B Bent Over Reverse Fly (2 sets of 10 with 10s)

...plus I jogged to the gym, and walked back. Just now I walked to and from Starbucks (total 1.91 mi), where I got a nonfat, sugar free, half-caff frapp. Yeah, you know I totally counted those 130 calories!

[John Rauch]

I switched up my strength program this week to something a little lower volume than I have been doing. Hopefully, that will allow me to do more CrossFit style workouts without burning myself out. The new program is Madcow 5x5 and yesterday was my first day on it. So far, so good, I guess. It didn't feel like much work compared to what I'm used to, but hopefully I'll see steady strength increases. I also played basketball last night for a couple hours. Between being sick and the warmer weather or something, I'm down about ten pounds right now. I'm not sure what I think about that...I guess it could be a good thing for the Spartan Race next month.

[John Rauch]

Did some more running today. Just over 10k in 47 min. I also did a little circuit with snatches and toes to bars, then finished with 100 GHD sit-ups. Tomorrow is strength again.

[Jason Robinson]

Did some more running today. Just over 10k in 47 min.

That's my speed for a FIVE-K run.

[John Rauch]

I did some stuff over the weekend. 6.5 mile run with my 7yr. old son beside me on his bike. Towards the end, he struggled a bit, so I had to help him up hills and we stopped a couple times. I also ran the last .75 mi or so backwards. It took 49 minutes, I believe.

Sunday was training with the Spartan Race team. We mixed it up and did some low rep strength work for squats, deads, OHP, and weighted pull-ups and push-ups (the bench is part of the squat rack, so we couldn't do that). I was helping more than working out, but I did manage to get a 485 lb. deadlift about 80% of the way up. Would've been nice to lock it out, but no big deal. It's still, more or less, a record for me. Or at least an indication that I'll be hitting a new record very soon. I also matched my old record of 90 lbs. on weighted pull-ups and came very close to getting 100. After all that, we worked on rope climbing technique, which I was happy to realize I've gotten much better at since implementing regular grip training into my programming. I had been avoiding the rope because of how frustrated it made me, but I zoomed right up it yesterday. We also did some relays carrying logs above our heads, which was fun as well.

Today was a more normal strength training day for me, with the exception that I'm not even trying to do pushing moves with a barbell because of how long my wrist has been taking to heal and how painful/awkward it is. So, I did some squats (which were lackluster) along with push-ups and pull-ups with a 20 lb. vest. Also, I have basketball in about an hour. Tomorrow looks like a rest day.

[Laura]

Yesterday was a good, long hike that one would probably qualify as moderate to difficult. Quite a lot of hilly, uneven terrain; one stretch that required holding onto scrabbly little bushes to keep from falling into the river; and one scramble up a hill, when the almost-nonexistent trail we were on finally disappeared. Luckily, there was a trail at the top of the hill, but it took some work to get up there.

And then I ate a burrito the size of my head.

Today was supposed to be strength, but it turned into, "Let me get as many pages colored as possible" day.

[John Rauch]

Today, I broke my record for the 4.38 mi. route I run. It's a bit hilly and today was a bit windy too, but I decided today was the day. 30:46 total -7:01/mi., 4:22/km. I feel pretty good about that, considering I'm 200 lbs.

[Laura]

Wow, nice. When you run, do you run on the balls of your feet? My friends and I had a discussion about this yesterday and I'm just wondering. I haven't quite gotten to the point where I run on the balls of my feet, but I'm definitely not striking the heel like I used to. I guess I land pretty flat-footed and immediately roll forward and off the toes.

I did my first 5K on Saturday, a fun run called the Color Run, where supporters throw colored cornstarch at you at each kilometer. It wasn't timed, and it wasn't serious. I just tried to run in between each color station as best as I could, and then stopped at the color stations to make sure I got coated in color. After all, what kind of colorist would I be if I didn't get totally coated in color?

Color Run - Before

colorrun_before.jpg (109.33 KiB) Viewed 173 times

Color Run - After

ColorRun_After.jpg (95.07 KiB) Viewed 173 times

Note: the color washed out of all of the wicking clothes, but hasn't washed out of the cotton bandanas yet.

I am definitely interested in resuming the Couch to 5K training because I DO want to run a whole 5K, and then work up to doing a 5K in less than 30 minutes. That would pretty much be the end of my running goals right there; I have no desire to run further. But it would be nice to be able to say, "Hey, I'm gonna go run a 5K," and walk out the door and do it, and not be the last person to cross the finish line.

This morning was my first time back at strength training since the week before last. I took a week off to ease my tennis elbow. It's still bugging me, but I'm doing PT and icing to help it, and I'm trying to avoid doing a lot of dumbbell stuff where i have to bend the elbows. So this was a modified and simplified workout.

Warmup: half-mile jog to the gym, then stand-to-squats, heel-to-butts, plank-to-lunges, side lunges and rainbow-arms. (These probably have official names but that's what I call them.)

Workout: 2 sets of 10

group A: ab wheel roll-outs
BB deadlifts (65, 75)
Incline pushups
Bridges with leg extension

group B: Russian ball twist (12-lb med ball)
lat pulldowns (62.5, 62.5)
step-ups (high bench w/ 5-lb dbs)
reverse flyes (10-lb dbs)