Country Music Half Marathon & Hero for Heroes CrossFit Competition

I haven’t written anything in over 2 months because that time has just big one big cluster of suck. You know how your momma taught you “if you can’t say anything nice …”? Yeah.

On April 27th, I completed my 21st Half Marathon in Nashville at the Country Music Marathon and Half. You might remember that last year I did the full marathon and had an amazing experience. I felt great, I did great … I was looking forward to having a blast again this year minus the extra 13.1 miles.

In reality this happened:

Cold, blindingly hard rain from the very beginning through the very end that never let up. I couldn’t even lift my face up without being absolutely pelted.

From the start of the race I could tell that due to my previous injury and recovery time, that I hadn’t quite built back up my cardiovascular and respiratory endurance. It was taking more effort than is typical for me to run a very modest race pace. At about mile 6.5 I started having similar pain that I experience in my calf at the Georgia Half, but it was in the opposite leg. THIS DOESN’T EVEN MAKE SENSE!

At that point I was frustrated, but refused to be defeated. I walked and ran back and forth between the two and was able to ultimately cross the finish line, with a time of: 1:54:35! My worst half marathon time to date.

The good: I got to spend the weekend hanging out with one of my best friends, his girlfriend and my family. Lots of fun was had!

I left Tennessee with a sense of not knowing where I stood with running though. And I didn’t like it.

Over the next several weeks, I cut way back on my running which was causing pain and stuck to only doing low impact cardio such as the elliptical and biking. I also continued to do CrossFit up to 3 times a week.

On May 18th, I took part in my very first CrossFit Competition called Hero 4 Heroes.  The first workout of the day was called “Danny”: As Many Rounds as Possible in 20 minutes of – 30 box jumps, 20 Push Press, 30 Pull-Ups (or Ring Rows).

 

It was INTENSE!

The 2nd WOD (only a few minutes later) was out on the field. “Brenton” is 100ft bear crawl, 100ft broad jumps back – for every 5 broad jump do 3 burpees. All of this x 5 rounds.

Even more intense. Maybe. I still can’t decide.

I had a great time at the competition even though it was very intense, I enjoyed pushing myself and being around super competitive but supportive people.

I tied for fourth place in my division.

The next morning after the competition, I woke up and could barely walk. Not only because I was so sore, but because my left calf was swollen to almost twice its original size. The muscle and even the skin on my leg hurt to touch. I spent most of last week resting, going back and forth to doctor’s appointments and popping Ibuprofen.

Things have settled down now, my leg pain is gone (hopefully for good, but we’ll see) and I’ve started working my running mileage back up. I started with only 1 mile at a time, did that twice … then went up to 2 miles, etc. Now I’m back up to 3 miles and hoping to increase a little faster from here. Chicago is still 5 months away, but its time to start getting serious about training!

I’m looking forward with positivity and excitement!

Whole30 – Day 9

I feel like I have not sat down today at all.

This morning I rushed around to get the little man ready for school and then I headed off to the gym for an elliptical session. I did an hour on the machine while watching a documentary on Netflix called Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America’s Greatest Threat. If there is one thing that will keep your ass on the elliptical for an entire hour its a documentary about being fat. Eye opening.

Lincoln begged to go to his grandma’s house after school, so I had the whole afternoon to play on the internet clean the house. Lately I’ve been turning cleaning into “WODs”, if you will. I call this one – AMRAIT. As many rounds as it takes. I set the kitchen timer for 30 minutes and I clean as hard as fast as I can for 30 minutes, when the alarm goes off I reset it for 5 minutes and take a break. It took me 6 rounds to get the house completely clean from top to bottom. … That’s right … 3 freakin’ hours.

I should log that shit in my WOD book.

Speaking of …

That was my real WOD tonight.

The loop runs are basically running around the parking lot of the building. I estimate that its between a quarter mile and a half a mile. One day I’ll have to take my Garmin and find out for sure.

I finished in 13:41 (Rx).

Several people have asked me what “Rx” means. It just means that I used the prescribed weight for the exercises instead of scaling down to a lower weight.

I’m pretty sure that would have been a killer workout even if I hadn’t already done the elliptical and my AMRAIT …

That’s what I think of that.

Eats today have included:

Breakfast – 3 scrambled eggs topped with sautéed spinach and smoked salmon. I have to admit, this one was even a little too weird for me. I absolutely adore smoked salmon, you might even say I’m obsessed with it … but not on eggs. Oh well, you win some – you lose some.

Lunch – Waldorf Chicken Salad with Homemade Olive Oil Mayo. I used 2 leftover Mustard Sage Chicken Thighs and added:

• 1/4 cup mayo
• 1 celery stalk – chopped
• 1/4 red onion – chopped
• 15-ish red grapes – halved (yes, the picture below says 35, I was overestimating)
• 1 oz chopped walnuts
• salt & pepper to taste

Dinner was the spiciest thing I think I’ve ever put in my mouth.

Beef and Butternut Squash Cocoa Chili – from you guessed it, Practical Paleo.

This is the first time I’ve ever made chili with cocoa powder and cinnamon in the ingredients list. It also featured a tablespoon of chipotle powder in addition to the chili powder and paprika.

I would have killed for some sour cream and a beer to go with it. Instead I settled for a dollop of guacamole to cool it off a bit.

Do you play any games or have any tricks when it comes to housework to make it more tolerable? What is the spiciest thing you’ve ever eaten?

CF Total, “Helen” and Days 6&7

I’m totally tired tonight, so this will most likely be short and sweet. Tonight’s benchmark workout at CrossFit wore me out!

We did “Helen” which is 3 rounds for time of: 400m run, 21 Kettlebell swings and 12 Pull-Ups. This was actually the first benchmark WOD I ever did. My results tonight aren’t really comparable with my previous results though because of my increase in weight in the kettlebell and decrease in bands for assistance with the pull-ups.

I completed the WOD in 12:22. I used the Rx weight Kettlebell (35#) and used red & blue bands (not sure of the resistance). Whatever. Sounds simple, but was killer.

This will be one of the WODs that we will repeat at the end of our challenge in 6 weeks. Right now I’m not looking forward to it 🙂

Yesterday we did our CrossFit Total, which is the sum of a 1 rep max on backsquat, strict press (no assistance from the legs) and deadlift.

My total was 410 … Backsquat 135#, Press 70# and Deadlift 205#. All new PRs!

Yeah!

Eats lately:

Tomorrow I attempt to tackle running. Today I played it safe and did an elliptical workout in light of my recent hip pain. No hip pain at all today though, so I’m feeling optimistic.

Whole30 – Day 3

Did you know that red and yellow bell peppers have 3 times as much vitamin C as an orange? Crazy, huh?

As a matter of fact I’ve found out in the last couple of days that there are lots of foods that have more Vitamin C than citrus fruits, like broccoli, brussel sprouts and cauliflower.

My cold symptoms hit me with full effect yesterday and I was feeling miserable, especially after I spent the entire morning out in the cold, grocery shopping with my 4-year old. So I’ve been making myself these “Feel Better Juices” …

I pulled out my handy dandy juicer that I bought last December after I watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead …

1 1/2  Yellow or Red Bell Peppers
1 Orange
1 Grapefruit
1 inch of Ginger

Makes 2 servings.

I actually left out the grapefruit today and liked it a little better, but its still totally a “chug it! chug it!” kind of drink.

Here’s hoping it works. I do think I’m feeling a little better after my homemade concoction remedy, some healthy food and some rest time.

Tomorrow I’ll be back at it either way. My Health & Fitness Challenge at CrossFit Intrigue begins tomorrow. I’ll be weighed, measured and body fat percentaged <— totally technical term there. And then I’ll perform one timed WOD.

On Monday, I’ll perform a CrossFit Total which is the sum of the amount of weight for a 1 rep max deadlift, back squat and strict press.

On Tuesday the participants will do another timed WOD.

Six weeks from now we will repeat the CrossFit Total and both of the WODs to measure improvement. We will also be re-weighed, re-measured and re-body fat percentaged. (Yeah, I’m gonna keep saying that).

These change in numbers in addition to our daily food log and our accountability by signing in to class when we come will help the judges determine the winners for the challenge.

I’m kind of excited. I obviously like challenges.

Aaaaanyway, speaking of bell peppers and oranges and vitamin C and such … I had a double dose today because they were also a part of our dinner.

Garlic Grilled Flank Steak with Peppers and Onions and Baked Beets with Fennel & Oranges from Practical Paleo.

I’ve never cooked or eaten fennel before, mainly because my husband told me it tasted like licorice. But it was on the meal plan for tonight, so I decided to give it a try. I actually really liked it! The mixture of the beets, fennel and oranges just screamed to be on a salad though so I put it on a bed of spinach with a drizzle of Balsamic Vinaigrette.
Ah-mazing!

One of the things I really love about the Practical Paleo book is that it has several 30-day meal plan options that you can choose from for different focuses …

(source)

I thought this time around I’d try out one of the meal plans to help me branch out and get a good cross-section of some of the recipes in the book. I had a hard time choosing between Squeaky Clean Paleo and Athletic Performance, which incorporates much more starchy veggies. Ultimately I decided to start with Squeaky Clean and if I’m feeling like I’m dragging on my runs or at CrossFit I’ll change.

It’s kind of nice to be able to look ahead and see what I’ll be eating soon. In addition, there are printable weekly grocery lists for each plan online at Balanced Bites as well as a printable pantry item list.

It made my grocery shopping in the cold, sick and with my 4-year old a little more bearable than it would have been otherwise. 🙂

Killer, Fun and Meh

I’ve been watching entirely too many re-runs of the CrossFit Games on ESPN2 the last couple of nights before bed. I’ve had some crazy dreams because of it.

Our workout last night was a “fun” one. I’ve pretty much decided that CrossFit workouts fall into 3 categories: “Killer”, “Fun” and “Meh”.

Killer = OMG, that effing sucked it was so hard.

Fun = I worked really hard but I didn’t feel like I wanted to die, and it was kind of fun.

Meh = That didn’t challenge me enough today.

Obviously, fun is my favorite. I rarely meet a “meh”, but it has happened once or twice.

Strength:

Back Squat: 2 x 10 (I did 75 lbs)
2 x 5 (did 95 lbs)
1 x Max Effort Reps @60% of 1RM (Did 85 lbs, 17 reps)
Dips: 5 x 8-10
*the dips are to be performed between each Back Squat Set*

I’m getting so much better at my back squats, and I even think I might like them.

WOD:

90s ME KB Swings (35#, Did 44)

-rest 1 Min.

4 Min. AMRAP
15 Hand Release Pushups
10 Situps
(Did 3 rounds)

-rest 1 Min.

4 Min. AMRAP
15 Squat Jumps (weighted if possible)
10 Pullups
(Did 2 1/2 rounds)

-rest 1 Min.

90s ME KB Swings (35#, Did 40)

I’m thinking maybe Tim didn’t find this one “fun”.

Nothing in the Fridge

I can tell that I’m really starting to get used to Paleo cooking when I can make decent paleo meals without a recipe and with bare minimum ingredients. In other words, nothing in the fridge.

I woke up this morning and realized that I really don’t have any fresh ingredients on hand. I’m trying to wait until atleast Friday before I go grocery shopping. Buying gifts is taking up all my extra dough.

I’m pleasantly surprised with what I’ve been able to throw together today with pantry and freezer ingredients only.

Breakfast:

Roasted Butternut Squash, Pork Breakfast Sausage and a Sunny Side-Up Egg.

Lunch:

This is probably the one I’m most impressed with. I had a tiny bit of my leftover Chicken & Sausage Spaghetti Squash from a few days ago, but not nearly enough for a serving. I cooked up some frozen brussel sprouts, some extra sausage and threw it all together with some Zoe’s Kitchen Spice of Life. Bomb diggity!

And then dinner:

Mustard Sage Baked Chicken Thighs, Sautéed Green Beans w/ onions and Moroccan Pumpkin.

Frozen green beans. Canned pumpkin.

To the canned pumpkin I added a Moroccan spice blend called Ras El Hanout and a mashed banana and topped it with a bit of finely shredded coconut. A perfect balance of savory with a touch of sweet.

It should be interesting to see what the next couple of days produce until I go grocery shopping again.

Tonight’s workout at CrossFit was a good one. I especially enjoyed the strength portion tonight which was 5×4 back squats:

The reason I enjoyed it so much was because I’m notoriously bad at squatting. These runner hips just don’t like to do that. I warmed up really good tonight doing Hurdler Stretches, Ham/Hip Swings and Wall Balls.

My third week at CrossFit when we first learned back squats I fell on my ass with only the 35 pound bar.

Tonight I was able to squat 95 pounds, 20 times! This is not a lot by most people’s standards, but it’s awesome for me!

Our WOD was:
10 Minute AMRAP – 10 front squats (55#), 10 pull-ups, 10 lateral burpees.

I finished 3 full rounds + 10 squats, 10 pull-ups and 3 burpees. Soooo close to 4 rounds!

And I remembered to log all of my food today. Yay!

Whole30 – Day 15

Woohoo! Half-way there!

At this point I really don’t even know what that means. I’m not planning on changing my eating habits after the 30 days are over, so I’m not exactly sure what I’m so excited about.

Wine. Thaaaat’s right. Now I remember.

This was breakfast today:

Stuffed Bell Pepper topped with a Sunny Side Up Egg and a sprinkle of dried sage.

I had a few leftover peppers from dinner a couple of nights ago, and in a moment of brilliance I remembered a burger I saw on a restaurant menu recently that was topped with an egg.

Today I got to do something that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. I finally got a new Driver’s License! I’ve certainly been looking forward to this day as my old license still says that I weigh 225 pounds. I feel like a fraud whenever I’ve been carded and have to hand over that thing. Take a look at the difference:

I don’t even care that it almost looks like I’m topless in the new picture.

I’ve been working on my Thanksgiving menu the last couple of days. My family is tricky to cook for because we have vegetarians, gluten-free, dairy-free and now Paleos who will all be gathering together. I decided to come up with several Paleo options to make for the hubby and I and a couple of things that don’t include meat but are still paleo friendly as well. This is what I came up with:

1. Stuffed Baby Bella Mushrooms
2. Deviled Eggs
3. Stuffed Cabbage Rolls with a tomato/cranberry sauce
4. Butternut Sage Soup

While I was out shopping for all the ingredients to make these dishes I got overwhelmingly hungry and decided to stop for lunch.

Another salad from Earth Fare.

I decided that Well Fed and I are going on a break. I’m going back to Practical Paleo.

Tonight I made the Lemon & Artichoke Chicken with some roasted cauliflower. Deeeee-lish!

And yes, the color scheme is horrible. I’m choosing to ignore that based on the flavor factor, but next time I’ll definitely make a more brightly colored side dish for the chicken.

CrossFit tonight was pretty hardcore. We learned how to do Thrusters and did 3 of them EMOM (every minute on the minute) for 12 minutes. I used 55 lbs.

Then the real WOD started:

40-30-20-10 Wall Balls & 10-20-30-40 Sit-Ups. 1st round is 40 WB and 10 SU, 2nd round is 30 WB and 20 SU, etc.

It was harder than it sounds. I think the rest of the night shall be spent sitting on my ass, watching Food Network and drinking wine tea. See you tomorrow!

Whole30 – Day 4

Today has been a loooooooong boring day. I’m kind of tapering for the Chickamauga Battlefield Half Marathon that I’m running on Saturday, so I didn’t do any kind of exercise this morning. I spent most of the day catching up on the ridiculous amount of laundry that I’ve gotten behind on since our Disney trip.

I was also in “use it up” mode in the kitchen today. I don’t like going out of town and leaving fresh veggies in the fridge for days so I was on a mission to use up the odds and ends for our meals today so that I can start fresh when I get back home. Therefore my meals seemed a little bit repetitive today of other meals I’ve had recently.

Meal 1:

Scrambled eggs with zucchini, mushrooms and onion, roasted asparagus and more sweet potato/banana mash.

For Meal 2 I literally took every vegetable I had left in the refrigerator and roasted it together in coconut oil:

Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, red & yellow bell pepper, a little onion and butternut squash.

I cooked up some balsamic spinach and a chicken apple sausage to go with the veggies:

The leftovers will be breakfast tomorrow.

After a day around the house I decided to go to CrossFit even though I knew the WOD probably wasn’t conducive with running a race on Saturday since it was mostly leg work.

I don’t give a shit. It’s fun. If I’m sore I’ll just have to be sore.

Tonight’s WOD was my 2nd Benchmark, “Nancy”. Nancy is 5 rounds of: 400m run and 15 Overhead Squats. The prescribed weight for the squats for females is 65 pounds, I scaled it down to 35. That’s a freakin’ lot of squats after all.

I finished in 16:29.

I’m about to show you what I ate for Meal 3 … be prepared. It’s ugly.

Tuna salad with squash “chips”, beets and kalamata olives. I love beets, but they sure aren’t photogenic.

Day #4 in the books! And going strong!

This weekend out of town will be the real challenge.

Whole30 – Day 1 & 2

Two official days of Whole30 in the books! I actually started on Sunday, but just counted that as a “practice” day to get my grocery shopping and meal plan made for the rest of the week.

Yesterday’s meals were:

Breakfast: Bacon & Egg Cups with Sautéed Balsamic Spinach
Lunch: Paleo Tuna Salad – eaten in the carpool line, which is becoming a regular thing lately. I like this recipe so much though that I think it will be a while before I get tired of it. I definitely need to figure out a few portable meals that I can easily eat on the go.

Dinner: Sausage & Cauliflower Stuffed Peppers w/ Roasted Asparagus from Emeals.

Last night the Hubby came with me to CrossFit for the first time, I was so giddy to be back at the Box after missing all of last week. It was a little silly how happy it made me. He loved it and ended up deciding to join also!

I’m paying for my week off today though, I’ve been sooooo sore after last night’s WOD which was:

Every Minute on The Minute (EMOM) x 12 – 5 Goblet Squats, 5 Kettlebell Swings. Didn’t sound very difficult, but my quads were on fire after about 7 rounds. Oh and that was after we had already done 30 burpees for time. Gah!

I was able to do a very easy 5 mile run this morning, but as the day progressed so has my level of soreness.

One thing that I learned from reading It Starts with Food is that it’s a good idea to forget about typical breakfast foods in the morning and start thinking of your day as Meal 1, Meal 2 and Meal 3 instead of Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Otherwise its easy to get in a slump of eating bacon and eggs every morning. So today I kept that in mind when planning my first meal.

For Meal 1, I had a leftover pepper and mashed sweet potatoes:

I steamed the sweet potato in a Zip & Steam bag in the microwave and mashed it together with 1/2 of a banana, added a little cinnamon, nutmeg and coconut oil.

Meal 2 was more Tuna Salad eaten in the carpool line, but this time I rolled it into a “wrap” to make it more portable:

Kinda brillant I think.

I knew I’d be out late again tonight at CrossFit so I got Meal 3 going in the crockpot early this morning. Chicken Cabbage Curry Stew. I was so excited about my first stew of the season that I bought these awesome soup bowls especially for the occasion:

2 cans of Coconut Milk, 6 Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs, 1/2 a head of Chopped Cabbage, 1 chopped onion, 2 Tbsp Red Curry Paste, salt, pepper, minced garlic.

Everyone in the pot on low for 6-8 hours. Then the finishing perfect touch … 1 Tbsp of Ginger. I use the squeezy kind in the tube.

“Damn that’s good” was repeated quite a few times at the dinner table tonight. This one is going on a weekly or atleast bi-weekly rotation for sure.

Now off to watch Peter Pan with the fam. Have a nice night!

My 1st Paleo Day

Today kinda rocked, I have to say. I was worried last night after eating steak for the first time in forever that my stomach would be upset. No problems whatsoever though. And actually I have to say that I felt great afterwards, I wasn’t sickly full after I ate like I normally feel but yet I ate enough volume that I felt completely satisfied. I’m a volume eater for sure. I don’t care what I’m eating, as long as there is a lot of it.

I got up before the sun this morning and headed out for an easy 5 mile run at Fort Toulouse. It was beautiful and chilly. I was almost too cold the first couple of miles, but I dare not complain. I finished my 5 miles in just over 43 minutes and then headed home to make breakfast.

I had lofty plans to make sweet potato hashbrowns, bacon and eggs for the family for breakfast but Lincoln had already eaten and Tim was too busy to eat. So I made a quick breakfast for myself …

2 Chicken Sausage Links, 2 Scrambled Eggs and Sauteed Spinach w/ liquid amnios. Scrambled eggs are so un-photogenic, don’t ya think?

I was really surprised at how long I stayed full, or maybe un-hungry would be a better word. Normally I get hungry at about 11:00, and I might can hold off until 11:30 if I push it. Today I didn’t make lunch until almost 1:00.

I made a simple Tuna Salad that ended up rocking my whole world.

I ate it as lettuce wraps.

In the mix:

• 5oz can of Wild Caught Albacore
• 1 whole avocado
• Diced Red Onion
• Cherry Tomatoes – Halved
• Capers
• 1 tbs olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Fresh Cilantro –chopped

Stir and stir and stir until the avocado becomes smooth.

I used the Pinterest method for halving the tomatoes.

How come I never thought of that?

Anyway, the tuna salad lettuce wraps were ridiculously delicious. I definitely impressed myself with that creation.

I took Lincoln to the playground to get his wiggles out this afternoon and while he played I practiced my box jumping. It was bad.

That tiny thing is what I practiced on. And it was major scary. No wonder my 4 year old was making fun of me. This just straight up terrifies the shit out of me.

This is just not something that I’m going to easily overcome. But I’ll keep trying.

Our WOD tonight at CrossFit was definitely the most intense one I’ve done so far:

Warm-up: 400m run, 10 ham swings, 10 air squats, 10 PVC passthrus, 10 KB swings (26#), 10 KB DLHP (26#) and 10 burpees. I was sweating already.

Skill: Head/Handstands Walk-ups – I almost turned around and walked out when I saw this. If there is something that (I thought) scared me more than box jumping it would be handstands. Turns out it wasn’t so bad. Whew.

Strength: 5 x 4 Deadlifts – I did 125# tonight.

And then … the WOD …

AMRAP (As Many Reps as Possible) in 6 minutes – 10 Push Presses (35#) & 200m run —  I completed 4 total rounds in 6 minutes.

then …

AMRAP in 6 minutes – 5 Sumo Deadlift Highpulls (35#) and 6 Lateral Burpees. Kill me now. I did 7 rounds. That’s 42 burpees if you are like me and can’t math.

I ripped my shorts. I grunted and groaned like a wild animal, or a woman giving birth for all my L&D friends out there. It was intense. And awesome.

I’m sure in 6 months this will (hopefully) seem like not much of anything, but tonight I’m proud of myself. 🙂

Dinner was Sesame Salmon (is sesame oil Paleo? .. I don’t even know), Bok Choy and Roasted Rainbow Carrots.

What a great day! It’s the little things that amuse me.