Tuesday night WOD

Today's workout was rough. First of all, I went in intending to increase my deadlift one rep max from 200 to atleast 215. I was fine lifting 205, but nearly broke my back trying to lift 215. Needless to say, it didn't happen for me tonight. My trainer pointed out, and I agree, that I started the lift with my chest two far forward which doomed me from the start. He argued that I would have had no problem lifting the weight if I had been lifting properly. He's probably right, but my back was sore and I was in an early onset bad mood.

Once that was finished, I had to do tonight's WOD (workout of the day). It was a 21/15/9 (on the first round you do each exercise 21 times, second round you do each exercise 15 times, etc.) consisting of hollow body push ups, bar facing burpees and 45 lb clean squats (85 lbs. was recommended but I was a wimp). Hollow body push ups are like regular push ups except you end in a hollow body position where your back is arched and your abs are engaged. What we did was very similar to this video only we started with a regular plank and pushed up into the hollow body position (he is in the hollow body position throughout the entire movement). Also note that crossfit push ups are a bit different, and in my opinion much more difficult, than a regular push up (This video shows several different types of push ups, the one we traditionally do is the one with the hands and elbows in tight, it's shown about 21 seconds into the video). The second exercise was a bar facing burpee (the ones in this video look terrible but you get the idea). These are just regular burpees only you jump over a bar after each one. The final exercise in the set was a squat clean. I was frustrated because my trainer insisted on modifying it after my interesting deadlift performance. At first he wouldn't let me do the squat, but I refused to omit that because my squats are only starting to get good. I really wanted the practice, so he decided I shouldn't start from the floor. That was fine with me.

There was a 25 minute cap and I finished in just over 22 minutes. I was kind of pissed that it took me that long, but out of five people only three finished. Also, I was the only girl in the group and I finished second so I guess that's something to be proud of.

As for running, I didn't do any of that today and I should have. I conquered an 11 mile run this past weekend and I plan to undertake a 13 miler this Saturday. That being said, I haven't decided how to lay out my mileage for the balance of the week. I'm thinking a longer run tomorrow (maybe 8 miles), a track workout on Thursday, and a shorter/easier run on Friday (3 - 5 miles). I want to keep my weekly mileage above 20 and steadily progress towards 30 as I train for the marathon in October. I've been reading a book on marathon training which has some interesting suggestions regarding weekly mileage. Among other things, the author argues that an individual can easily train for a marathon without exceeding 30 miles per week. Hopefully he is right because I don't see myself going much over that. He also argues that the longest training run should not exceed 20 miles. I'll create a second post with more information about my ever evolving training plan.