Triathlon Tuesday

Today was a good day. Clinic was good - I spent most of the day watching a knee replacement surgery, which was just crazy. It was so much more violent of a procedure than I expected...it just never registered that, in order to put hardware in your body, there's gotta be some bone crunching. Yikes yikes yikes. I definitely have a new appreciation for what my patients go through to get to the point that I'd be seeing them. Yikes.

So today started early, with a 30 minute run:

I've been running for distance for a while, and every couple of miles I find myself bored into stopping. This morning I decided to just go for time and told myself half an hour was all I needed to do, but I needed to do it. I brought a book (Warm Bodies, in case you're curious) and read while I ran, which helped a LOT.

I did it.

I know after seeing all these races this seems like no big deal, but if you look at the Nike+ logs, you'll see that there's usually at least one dip in there. Translation: I haven't actually run a full 5k. Every one of them has had at least a short break, somewhere in the middle. So for the race this weekend, my goal is to knock that off - I want to run the full 5k without stopping because, in the end, I can. I just get bored.

So that was this morning.

Tonight, I caught the 6:30 spin class. It was meh. Not my style I guess. But I got it done, so that's that.

After spin, I hit the pool for a while and put in half a mile (which Log n Blog counted as a full mile, so I'll be back in the pool later this week to make up the difference). I was a little bit kicking myself for quitting at half a mile, but then I went to get out of the pool and ate it and knew that was the right choice. My poor knee has some minor road rash now, courtesy of the pool deck.

Ah well.

I think today's going to be the start of a tradition though - Triathlon Tuesdays. I'm going to aim to run in the morning, then bike and swim in the evenings. We'll see how long that keeps going once classes start up again next week.

On that note, I'll leave you with the music video for the song that got me through the last few laps:




 Possibly one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. "Ladies, you just lay there while we look rich on a boat with sweet dance moves. Yeah, just like that."

Double or Nothing: Frost Giant 5k/10k Race Recap

It's a Sunday, so I must be running.

Today's training schedule had me running 9 miles. A couple months ago I found the Frost Giant 5k/10k race, which conveniently had an option to run BOTH races for a measly $33.

Umm...yes please.

SO I signed up and hoped for the best. The race took place up in Estes Park, CO.

As you can tell, this is just the armpit of Colorado. So ugly, right?

But seriously, today could not have been a better day to race. 45 degrees and sunny the whole time. Perfection. I'm not sure how well I'm going to be able to handle summer races at this rate...my poor thermostat is calibrated for "winter" running by now!

The 5k started at 11 AM (god bless them for not making it earlier...I slept until 8 and still had time to take my time getting up there) and looked like this:


 It's hillier than it looks on a map. Also, it's at 7500 feet, which is NOT sealevel. It was basically a giant hill out, then down it back. There were cow pies and dirt to be had, and it was probably 2/3 trail run, but it was fun. Slower than my usual (my official time was 28:34 I think), but that's to be expected.

After the 5k, I had about half an hour to kill, so I sat in my car to keep warm. 45 isn't that cold, unless you're already soaking wet. Then it starts to be an issue.

The 10k looked something like this:

A lot more cow patties on this one. Also, a lot more hills. The first mile or so was pretty much all up hill...and it started snowing. Granted, it looked more like someone had thrown glitter over us than actual snow, but still. Principle remains.

Once again, my time was pretty lacking and my pace was abysmal. But my official time was 1:06:10, so at the very least I beat my time from the 6th grade Battle Road Run fiasco (I don't want to talk about it).

But here's the best part...

I ACTUALLY PLACED!!

Now, granted, they were giving prizes to the top 5 in each age group. And the 5k had roughly 150 runners, while the 10k had only about 80. And the age group was 26-32 so I wasn't competing against all those kids fresh out of college (or still in it). But still! I placed!!!!

The ribbons are totally the same ones you used to get for placing during Field Day in elementary school. Love it. I've never been so proud of a piece of cheap fabric in my life.

It was a good day.

Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

It's a known fact that I don't like choosing the easier path.

Pretty much by definition, if there's a harder way to do something, that's probably the way I'll do it. Sometimes it ends in disaster (see: first anatomy exam) but sometimes it ends in awesome (see: Tough Mudders 1-3). In this case, at the very least it ends in funding for the American Lung Association of Colorado.

Last night I signed up to run the Run the 'Rocks 5k in a few weeks. It's at Red Rocks park/amphitheater and seems like a normal 5k at first...except that the end is UP the amphitheater.

Please note: The last mile of the course has a steady incline and finishes by going up the amphitheater stairs.  Please train appropriately.  

My lungs are crying just looking at that. My legs are excited. For now.

If you're interested in contributing to the cause, you can donate here. Please note that the text there is prefab. The real reason I'm running it is because it sounds hard. It's a bonus that it goes towards a cause that helps a friend breathe easier so she can laugh at me while I struggle up that last hill.

A mile of incline. Sheesh.

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Aside from that lapse in judgement, it was a good weekend. We (hubs, bro, dog, and I) went to Red Rocks on Saturday morning (hence the inspiration) to meet up with my classmates who'd hosted some Japanese exchange students over the weekend. We doinked around the amphitheater, then went and had lunch at the Blue Cow Eatery. Good food, snotty staff...it balanced out to an acceptable experience.

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So that's what's up.

Oh and there's some rumblings about running a marathon next year. Probably the Denver Rock n Roll marathon. There's a reasonable chance I'll do another triathlon again too, after seeing pics from a friend's race this weekend.

Probably means I should start running/biking again at some point. Dang.

Warm It Up

So this morning I had another training session with my mentor, to be able to teach strength/bootcamp classes at my gym. It went really well.

She'd asked me to come up with a warm up routine to show her...I...flailed around some. Marched in place. Didn't really know what the heck I was doing, but did it with a smile and braced myself for the eye rolling.

You know what happened next?

She didn't roll her eyes. 


You read that right. I, white girl extraordinnaire, in capable of keeping a rhythm even when electrically shocked to a beat, did not get an eye roll from a woman who's been teaching this stuff for over 15 years. I respect the hell out of this woman, and got embarrassingly panicky last night when I realized I really had no idea how to come up with a freaking warmup. Seriously. Lame.

But, after flailing around a bit, she said "ok, why don't we start with marching and go from there. What other moves did you want in there?" And we built a pretty solid warmup. God bless her, she patiently took me through the whole thing, explaining transitions and how to make sure everyone can keep up with what I'm doing. (It's cute that she thought I could keep up with what I was doing.)

In any case, here's my new (trademark pending) warmup routine for strength/bootcamp:

March in place.

For extra challenge, lift your knees higher!

Single side step.

For extra challenge, add the arms!

Double side step.

Grapevine.

I know grapevines are one of those things that you either love or hate...I love them. They're one of the few things that look like a cartoon dance, that I can actually do with out falling, 9 times out of 10. 

Grapevine with hamstring curl.

You'll notice my hamstring curls got silly, and quick.

Hamstring curl.

V step.

Out, out, in, in. Boom.

Wide step.

Like the march, but wider. 

Squat.

Keep your arms in front, to force your butt back, to make sure you have good form. 

Knees shouldn't go past your toes - save your knees. Squats can be half squats at  this point.  

Back Stretch.

I can also throw in some arm movements, to warm those up:

I got lazy with the picture sizes, sorry.

So that's it.  Class, you are now warmed up and ready to get bootcamped. Huzzah!

Next week, I need to lead her in that, then I'll probably teach half a class, then I'm (gulp) on my own! Fun stuff!

What are your favorite group ex moves (minimal choreo, please)? 
What are your favorite songs in group ex classes?