Working out after baby

So now that I got this whole pregnancy thing out of the way, it's time to hit the gym again.  I never thought that I would have missed the gym more than a glass of good wine on the deck or even being able to see my own feet, but I sure did.  I was warned by my Dr that I needed to ease back into things and he was right.  I can't believe how much I have digressed since September.  
Going back to the gym today I felt intimidated like it was my first time in a weight room and embarrassed at how little weight I was able to manage and at how easily I became winded.  A 10 minute jog on the treadmill was enough to leave my calves feeling as though they were filled with fire ants.  Of course I couldn't resist a visit to the weight room.  After all, my Dr told me that I couldn't start power lifting for another 6 weeks but he never said that I couldn't start girly lifting right now.  Yeah I said it....too many girls out there lift like, well, girls.  Stop that.  That's for another blog though...
I'm already feeling the effects of the minimal workout that I did today.  It's amazing that I have fallen so far back.  I only hope that it doesn't take me as long to get back to where I was.  I need to keep reminding myself that if I rush into this I'm most likely going to injure myself.  It didn't help seeing my trainer today and how ripped he has become since Sept.  He looks amazing.  He also started a new weight training class, which I cannot wait to be a part of, and of course they were meeting tonight.  I felt so left out.  It was like being back in middle school gym class all over again. I had to drag myself out of there before I beat myself up too badly.
I have to do some thinking and come up with a new fitness goal.  Obviously I want to get rid of all this baby fat that I still have clinging to me but I feel like just having a weight loss goal is lame and stereotypical of being a female.  Plus it's not something that is easy to measure when weight training since I will be putting on muscle at the same time that I am reducing fat.  Maybe I should start with the goal of being able to button my pre-pregnancy shorts.  That should be easy enough.  I feel like I need a big goal though with little ones along the way.  This is going to take some thought.
I would really like to participate in the Muckfest in Philly again this year but I'm not sure that I will be ready in time.  I'm pretty much back to square one as far as running is concerned.  I wasn't running much when I was lifting last year but I still did an occasional jog and was fit enough to be able to hit a 10 min mile, which for me is perfectly fine.  I'm no where near being able to do that right now and I'm not sure my body will allow me to do the training I need to in order to be back up there in a months time.  The other problem is that the race includes obstacles and requires upper body strength which I am also lacking at the moment.  The risk of injury seems like it might be higher than I am willing to risk at the moment.  Who knows though?  Maybe after a month of training I will decide to do it anyway.  I wouldn't be running it competitively anyway, only for charity) so it may be a great chance to get out and play in the mud with a little jogging in between.
There is also a 5K (the Rattlesnake Run) in Jim Thorpe at the end of June that I am planning on registering for.  I'm not expecting to be able to match my time from last year but it's an easy course and it will give me a better idea of how I am progressing. 
While being at the gym today made me realize how out of shape I have become, it also made me realize how much I love being in the weight room and working out.  It's the form of exercise that I get the most enjoyment out of and honestly I never thought of it as exercise.  I looked forward to my training sessions and loved the improvement that I was seeing. 
I'm very excited to be back at the gym and love the fact that there is a child care area for when you are working out. I'm hoping that this is a very exciting and productive summer.

I need to be accountable for my training since I'm not back with my personal trainer yet so I will be posting what I do.  In addition to the gym, I take lots of walks, at least 2 a day with the baby as long as it's not raining.  

This is a small start but I have to start somewhere and see how my body reacts.  It's a good thing that I kept a journal of everything I had done and what my weight was like as I was training last year.

11 min of alternating walking and jogging on treadmill
calf raises  40lbs  3x8
leg extentions/curls alternating  30lbs 3x10
burn out curls  15/10/5lbs x10
step-ups  body weight 3x8

Labor Day

Today's workout punched me in the face. It's a new crossfit.com workout called "Wood." Let me stop you before the bad jokes start flowing because it was named after a member of the Australian special forces, Brett Wood, who was killed by an IED in Afghanistan. The workout was the the following:

5 RFT (rounds for time)

400m run
10 burpee box jumps
10 SDHP (50 lbs.)
10 Thrusters (50 lbs.)
1 minute rest

Time to complete: 36:33

Apart from the recent triathlon, this was the most grueling thing I've done in recent memory. I've been done for the better part of an hour and I still feel like I just finished. I wish I could put a timer on how long it has taken me to write this post as I have to keep stopping because my arms are shaking so much. I'm supposed to go on a bike ride with my fella in a few hours, we'll see if that happens!

EDIT: I made it through a 9.5 mile bike ride. It was mostly trail and  there were a few hills. I kinda wish we had kept going. :)

Tomorrow: AM run, PM crossfit.

The first day of classes

So I'm seriously starting to freak out about the races I have coming up because I have not been working out nearly as much as I should be. Races are a blessing and a curse because they are so much fun, but the lead time can be stressful (a blessing in disguise, I suppose, because it gets my butt off the couch).

Anyways, due to my schedule it's looking like I'm going to have to go the gym at 8 AM on MWF. I have an 8 AM class on Tuesday/Thursday so it would be nice to maintain a consistent schedule (we'll see if I can pull it off). I've also decided to bike to and from school as much as I can. This morning was day one and my bike basket broke and my bike chain slipped. Not only did it add several minutes to my bike time (making me almost late to the gym), but my stuff spilled into the street and a nice gentleman had to help me pick it up. I was very thankful for that kind stranger. Anyways, the ride to the gym took about half an hour and the ride home took around 24 minutes. We'll see if I can get that time below 20 (no I'm not competitive!).

The workout today was pretty awesome. We started with a crossfit warmup, which I won't go into, and then overhead press (5 x 40 pounds, 5 x 45 pounds, and 6 x55 pounds). My trainer gave me some excellent tips to improve my overhead press. As I got tired, my back started to arch so he told tighten my abs and squeeze my butt. He said something like "protect yourself like a prisoner in a shower." A bit crass, but it definitely helped. After that, we worked on form for the olympic squat (aptly timed, given some of the more recent posts). It's amazing how much form really matters. I love my gym because we focus on different aspects of form each week. Little things like grip, bar placement, and timing. It seriously makes a difference.

Then came the workout. The workout was in two parts. The first part was the baseline. The baseline consists of a 400m run, 40 air squats, 30 situps, 20 pushups and 10 pullups for time. My previous time was 5:32 and I got it down to just over 4:50. a 40 second improvement! I was happy with that, though I felt like crap. The second part was one minute each of burpees, sumo deadlift high pulls, american swings (16 pound kettlebell), push press (45 pound bar), and double unders for max reps. I lost count of how many reps I did at about the halfway point, but it was a killer workout.

We closed with 3x10 overhead press at half maximum and 3x10 sets of up GHD sit ups. It was a good day at the gym! :)

I'm going to try and run 13 miles this weekend and I'm planning to run 7.8 on Thursday with a group of people. I'll try to squeeze some other runs in as well. We'll see!

A Needed Change

There are so many things that I have learned about myself and about training over the last few months.  It felt awkward to just start blogging in the middle of my journey so I decided to post on some general ideas before I get into specific workouts and weekly updates on my training.  It will give a better picture of what I have been through on my way to met my training goals.  Plus...I don't know how to do those awesome flashback dream sequences, so you're just going to have to put up with this.

I started taking classes at the local YMCA a few months ago after moving to a new area.  I would go a few times a week and either run on the treadmill or prance on the elliptical.  I wasn’t really seeing any benefit or improvement in my fitness.  I seemed to have hit wall and couldn’t progress.  I was also getting bored with working out alone and not really knowing how to vary my workouts. 

I was always skeptical about paying someone to stand around and tell me what to do at the gym.  I’m smart.  I’m sure I could figure this out.  I mean…if those meatheads can figure it out surely I must be able to.  I can pick up weights.  I can make intimidating looks in the big mirror.  I can grunt.  Then I looked at the meathead.  Studied him and his fellow comrades.  I didn’t want to look like that.  They all looked like upside-down triangles.  Like a turned over Christmas tree…with tiny…ornaments.  *sigh* Back to prancing on the elliptical it was for me. (If you are confused about what exactly a meathead is please click here)

I then decided to come to some of the classes that were offered at my Y in the evenings.  I don’t normally like working out in groups because I am always self-conscious about how I am performing compared to the other people in the class.  The classes turned out to be pretty fun.  It was always the same small core group of women that would be there for each and every class.  I was able to see improvement after just a few weeks, which was really motivating after having been seemingly stuck in one place for such a long time.  I also found myself unable to slack off or cheat while in class because I knew the trainer would call me out on it.  I didn’t really know this guy all that well, and I shouldn’t have cared all that much about what he thought.  For whatever reason though, I was afraid to let him down and felt like I had to push myself when I was there.  It was as if he could read my mind and knew that I really wasn’t giving it my all.  Like a trainer with Jedi mind powers….

I  also really respected the fact that in spite of him having classes that were exclusively comprised of women, he didn’t treat us like it.  He corrected our form, pushed us to keep going, called us out for quitting before he knew we had reached our end point, and didn’t pay any attention to complaining.  It wasn’t that he was putting us down for being weak little women,  he wanted to give us a quality workout and to show us that we were capable of these things and improving each week.

That’s when it clicked.  He was the one.  The one that I needed to help me push myself.  The one to help me develop a new workout program and to set me on the right track in my fitness journey.  He was going to be my Jedi…errrr…trainer.

I learned that you really need to find someone that you trust and feel comfortable around when searching for a personal trainer.  You’re going to have be honest with them about your goals, your body, and what you are feeling physically, mentally and emotionally.  They need to be supportive of you but also firm.  Tough love.  If a trainer is really into his job and wants to be there, you will be able to tell very easily.  You are not just extra money in their pocket.  As much as you are invested in paying for a personal trainer, they need to be invested in you as a client.  Honestly, I don’t pay him to stand around a look pretty (I’m not sure that anyone would), I pay him to be that jerk that makes me curse when I try and roll myself out of bed the next day.

Running Plan (11 weeks out!)

I've never been particularly good at organizing and following a set training plan, but as the marathon draws near I'm started to think that I should. As I mentioned in the previous post, I've been reading a book on marathon training which suggests the following training schedule for novice runners:

Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
1	rest	3 miles	3 miles	3 miles	rest	6 miles	cross
2	rest	3 miles	3 miles	3 miles	rest	7 miles	cross
3	rest	3 miles	4 miles	3 miles	rest	5 miles	cross
4	rest	3 miles	4 miles	3 miles	rest	9 miles	cross
5	rest	3 miles	5 miles	3 miles	rest	10 miles	cross
6	rest	3 miles	5 miles	3 miles	rest	7 miles	cross
7	rest	3 miles	6 miles	3 miles	rest	12 miles	cross
8	rest	3 miles	6 miles	3 miles	rest	13 miles	cross
9	rest	3 miles	7 miles	4 miles	rest	10 miles	cross
10	rest	3 miles	7 miles	4 miles	rest	15 miles	cross
11	rest	4 miles	8 miles	4 miles	rest	16 miles	cross
12	rest	4 miles	8 miles	5 miles	rest	12 miles	cross
13	rest	4 miles	9 miles	5 miles	rest	18 miles	cross
14	rest	5 miles	9 miles	5 miles	rest	14 miles	cross
15	rest	5 miles	10 miles	5 miles	rest	20 miles	cross
16	rest	5 miles	8 miles	4 miles	rest	12 miles	cross
17	rest	4 miles	6 miles	3 miles	rest	8 miles	cross
18	rest	3 miles	4 miles	2 miles	rest	rest	race

This week would correspond to week 8 on the schedule, which means I haven't done too bad. My actual schedule will be slightly different because I usually crossfit on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. My plan moving forward is to sacrifice crossit on Saturday for a long run and I'd like to try and do yoga on Sundays (offered at my gym). As I typed up this schedule I noticed that it contradicts the notion that one can train for a marathon without going much over 30 miles in a week. I guess there isn't much one can do when the long runs start to approach 20 miles. 

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.

Trial run and Foot Numbness

Kait and I hit up the firecracker 4k course for a practice run in preparation for race day (July 4th). Our time was a blistering 28:48 which wasn't too bad given that we were both pretty tight and the course pretty much sucks (certainly not one of my favorite). There is no doubt in my mind that we can shave a couple of minutes off of that on race day. I'd like for us to get under 26:00, but that might be pushing it for a 4k this early in our training.

Kait experienced some numbness in her feet towards the end of the run which isn't uncommon, but is a serious pain in the butt (and feet). For me, I find that this generally occurs when I first get back into running, get a new pair of shoes (especially when I get new shoes), or run on the treadmill (less frequently). I've read numerous articles that suggest that it may be due to feet swelling during a more intense workout. I've run with quite a few new runners and they all seem to have this problem at some point or another, which leads me to believe that it's a combination of swelling feet, tight tendons in the feet and shoes that have not fully broken in yet. As the article suggests, it's common, but something worth keeping an eye on.

In other news, I'm starting to think about a training diet and will be posting my suggested diet in the next couple of days (if not later tonight). I think it's important to start tracking meals sooner rather than later. Ideally one would plan all meals in advance based on the desired caloric intake and distribution. A good website for such planning or on the fly assessments is fitness pal . You can make an account and get the nutrition information for individual food items or recipes. It's a great place to store foods that you commonly eat and it even allows you to track your workouts. It has a lot of nifty features, more than I've ever used. It even has an app for your phone!! Oh the world we live in...

Jess

Baseline 1 - First Attempt

Today, we did a two mile baseline run (what I like to call baseline 1....yes there will be others) with a time of 24:38:45. The idea being that we'll run it again periodically to measure our progress.Our time was def. not bad for less than a week of training (in my opinion). The course is a 2 mile loop which includes a decent downhill at the beginning and a wicked hill at the end (the last .8 miles)! We def. need to do some hill training at this point and maybe some upper body as well. Perhaps over the next few days. I expect that we can shave a few minutes off that time pretty easily, but we'll see. It's a difficult baseline, so progress might be a little slower than it would be on a flat course.

I'm looking forward to the firecracker 4k next week. I also just remembered there is a triathlon in Hollidaysburg on August 4th. It would be my first tri. I think I'm gonna do it!

Jess