Sunday, July 27, 2008

The weekend is almost over and I have to say it wasn't too bad. I did run my normal course Friday night so I didn't completely rest but it was a well needed little workout. I ran the course in 44:02, the course is about 5.15 miles, so I guess a little over 8 min pace. I don't stop my watch when I have to stop at crosswalks I have to cross so probably maintained a 8 minute mile.

Saturday I went out to Crossfit Dulles-Loudon for their 8am class. My friend Lauren went with me. It is her third crossfit workout and I must say it seems like she is starting to drink the kool-aid. She is a great athlete but primarily a runner. I think Crossfit will do wonders for her marathon and triathlon training. We worked on a some skill work, which was deadlift. Lauren was a natural and I talked to her about the benefits of the lift and worked on convincing her to do deadlifts more often. The workout was AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) of the following in 20 minutes.

5 L Pull Ups
10 Box Jumps
15 Knees to Elbows

I had told Tom at Crossfit Dulles-Loudon that I was still injured so he modified it for me and Kari, another injured fire breather. We did the following AMARP in 20 minutes.

5 Box Jumps
10 Walking Lunges
15 Sit-Ups

Kari is a great competitor and we pushed each other really hard. We got done with 21 rounds in exactly 20 minutes. I didnt realize it until Sunday when I woke up and my abs killed that we did over 300 sit-ups. Wow! Lauren completed the workout and acknowledged how tough it was. Even though I could tell she was exhausted, I could tell she was starting to get hooked.

The rest of my Saturday involved running errands with my roommate Monica and then heading out to the OAR concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion. Great concert! I ended up meeting Monica at a house party afterwards. At the party, this guy came up to me and just said 'How do you do it?" I asked him what? He said get my physique. I joked and said I inject steroids in my ass every night. This is not the first time I have had someone approach me but I admit that it is a little embarrassing and humbling. I figured out he was not hitting on me and told him a little bit about Crossfit. Some times I feel like a walking billboard, but I have to admit I get excited talking about it and really started looking forward to the Sunday 9am class at Old Town.

Sunday's class started with Jerry making a important announcement. He found his own location for Crossfit Old Town in North Alexandria which would probably open in mid October. He has been using the mat rooms of Capital Jiu Jitsu (where I train) for about 18 months. I couldn't be more excited for Jerry, he said it is approximately 3,700 sq ft and used to be a furniture store, it is going to be awesome. Ok, the workout. A team workout of 4 people per team

800 m run
100 pull-ups
150 push ups
200 situps
250 air squats

2 rounds for time! I was paired up with Andrea T., Lynn, and my good buddy Harold. Real quick the rules were only 2 people at a time could be working and you must complete the exercise before moving on. Jerry knocked us down to 75 pull-ups because of my injury and I would do 1 arm 50# kettle bell swings while my team completed the pull ups. Harold busted out on the run as Chris and I followed him. I ended up coming a few seconds behind Harold and Chris and headed up to the Blue Room. I knew from the beginning that our team wasn't going to win it all so I simmered the fire and wanted to really be positive and encourage my team and help them through the workout. We came in last but we worked our butts off, I was really happy about how the team performed, we finished in exactly 39 minutes. As we were doing squats Jerry let me know that I was rounding. I definitely feel like my lower back is week and definitely needs to be a focus point to work on. I think it may be a flexibility issue so I am going to try and stretch some more. Easier said than done.

After the workout, Andrea and Chris were talking about the 100 Day Burppee Challenge that Crossfit Santa Cruz was doing. Basically, everyday you add another Burpee so Day 1 - 1 Burppe,e Day 2 -2 Burpees and so on. I check out Santa Cruz's website regularly and have been thinking about buying in, I think I just needed the extra motivation that someone else was doing it so I joined them. Adrienne also joined us. The buy in was 104 burpees today since today was Day 14. Wow, I came really close to puking. Doing 100 Burpees on Day 100 is going to be really tough! I missed a trail run that some friends were going to do this morning but it was nice to hang out after the workouts with my fellow Crossfitters. Too little time. Here is to a great weekend and a great week. 5 Days til I leave for the beach!