Okay - it has been way to long since I last checked int. I have gotten off course and have not been as consistent as I should have been. The last coupl of weeks before the Bay and the Bay race knocked the stuffing out of me and I guess I needed some downtime.
On March 28th I ran the 30K Around the Bay Road Race in Hamilton. ATB's claim to fame is "older than Boston". It is the oldest road race in North America and is so full of tradition.
My goal was to go sub 3:30 and feel strong thoughout the race and not cave on the hills. This is a tough run that some people will say it is tougher than a marathon. The first part is flat and there is one over-pass around 10K and then flat again until about 19.5K and then the rollers start. Some long tough hills with gradual grades are in there and then you get a small flat section before "the hill". Valley Inn Road Hill is steep and tough and it shows up at the 26.5K mark of the race. On the way down into the valley tradition holds that you hi-five the midget (sorry - not politically correct). He is there with We Are The Champions pumping out of huge speakers and gives everyone a lift before you hit the hill.
Once you make it up that hill you have about 3.5K to get down along York street and there is a Grim Reaper waiting to catch the runners that are failing. There are tombstones along the road leading up to him and it appears the tradition will continue for years to come as there is a "shorter" version there too which appears to be the reapers son who I am sure will be taking over one year. Future runners will get to enjoy the continued tradition. AWESOME.
I had a great race. I ran with Heather and our plan was to average less tahn 7min/km which would give me the 3:30 finish. Our splits were almost identical. For the 10K, 15K, 20K, 30K splits they were 6:45, 6:46, 6:47, 6:46. Identical pacing through the whole race. how cool is that.
My chip time was 3:23:59. I surpassed the 3:30 goal and I got a PB by 8 minutes. :) I felt strong through the whole race and ran all the hills (not all of Valley Inn Road) and I was able to run strong down York Street - something in the 3 previous years I have not done. Looks like those tough CrossFit workout are paying off.
Since then my friend Marlene and I decided running should not interfer with our drinking this summer. haha. I am going to concentrate on shorter distances and see if I can work on my speed. Since the bay I have been working on a simple 3.25K route around home and pushing it some days for a tough tempo. I have averaged a 5:30/km on a hard hard tempo and on a fast run but not sucking wind I am able to go approx 5:58/km so I have to keep working on it. I wonder if I can get it to sub 5:30/km???
My goals for a 5K is sub 28 minutes and I would love to be able to go sub 60 minutes for a 10K. Not sure if I can but lets see where this summer's training will take me.
Here is what Jason had to say about today's WOD:
Maybe not a full week but there are quite a few bench mark workouts this week. Today is a strength portion followed by a short metabolic conditioning effort. Our strength part today is MAX OVERHEAD ANYHOW....meaning after a good warm up, especially on your shoulders, you are going to progressively load the bar with weight to determine the maximum amount that you can move from shoulder to overhead for 1 rep. This overhead lift can be done out of a rack and can be a push press, push jerk, split jerk, rack jerk.....whatever works best for you to move the most amount of weight. Lifting something overhead is a great measure of overall strength as it takes a huge amount of strength in the core to support the weight a well as explosiveness in the legs and hips to get it moving........Exercises like the seated dumbbell press are pretty much the most useless thing you can do...any exercise done while sitting down is a waste of time as it takes out all of the core muscles in an attempt to isolate small muscle groups......exactly the way our body DOESN'T WORK!!!!
WOD
STRENGTH:
MAX 1 REP OVERHEAD ANYHOW
METABOLIC CONDITIONING:
"ANNIE"
Double Unders
Sit ups
Reps of 50-40-30-20-10
My previous Max overhead was 100lbs but I haven't been working out lately and I wasn't sure what was going to happen. I worked with Marg who was also back from a week off. She is really strong and can lift heavy.
I went from 95lbs to 105lbs and managed to lift it. I then tried 110 and couldn't get it up but I took a couple extra minutes rest and got 110lbs up!! I tried 115lb and came REALLY close but could not straighten my arms. So - 110 is where my MAX stands.
There were 2 new (young) girls working next to us. One girl is amazing - she had 160lb maybe 165 for her max. Maybe one day huh?!?!?
Annie = such a simple workout if you can do double unders - consecutively - but I can't. I do one then a single skip or 2 skips then another DU....The option is tuck jumps instead and I figure staying in the rhythm of the skipping is easier and one day I am going to get 2 in a row for the DUs. This adds up huge on my time but the more practice with DUs will help me get it. An example - someone did it sub 6 minutes today - they can do double unders - one after the other - I wasn't even close to that.
Time: 11:48
Gotta love Benchmark workouts.
Let's see what tomorrow brings.....
