Tuesday

Quads and upper body was a little sore from the previous day.  Specifically, lower back.  I don't think it enjoyed those last couple reps of 135lbs thrusters.

Got to the gym at the usual time, somewhere around 1:45ish.

Because I would be rowing for a workout today, I warmed up with 5:00 on the elliptical before 10:00 of stretching and foam rolling.

First:
CrossFit 131023
AMRAP in 15min:
Row 250 (10/10 resistance)
25 Push ups

First time trying this, although I've done one with the same exercises but as many rounds in 20min instead of 15.  Still pretty tough.  One of those rowing wods where I nearly fall off the machine at the end.  I don't know if this screwed me, but I tried to set a PR for 250m in the first round.  I think it made the rest of the rows uncomfortable.  Averaged 50-55 seconds for each row, not sure how much for each set of push ups.  I did the first 4 sets of push ups unbroken, but then had to start breaking them into 12/6/4/3.  Finished with 7 full rounds completed, and I had finished the 250m row and I was 13 push ups into the 8th round.

Second:
Runner's core wod.  Core muscles were still feeling it from yesterday and the rowing earlier, so this was not as fun.

Third:
Shoulders.  Started with standing barbell military press, then a recovery set of agility and balance drills, then a max rep set of crunches and seated V-ups.  Then back to shoulders with shrugs, followed by another recovery set of agility and balance drills, and a max rep set of flutter kicks and scissors with a 45lbs plate on my chest.  Then finished up with the shoulder range of motion wod.

Fourth:
Changed into my VFF and headed out to the soccer fields.  Ran 4 barefoot laps around the field at about 6:45/mi pace, totaling about 1.5mi.  Then did my form drills back and forth across a 30m field.

Tuesday

Legs were sore still.  Kinda figured that would happen after yesterday's workouts.

Dropped off my medical records from my broken leg (which happened 23 years ago) at the Army recruiting office.  Lord only knows why they would care about that.  I decided to be snarky and included a picture of all of my race bibs (34 and counting) to help push the point home that my leg is fine.  The recruiter got a kick out of it, and I think she's going to send it along to the doctor's office.  While she was on the phone, another recruiter sitting at the next desk turned around and looked me up and down, then said "Hm, looks like you probably want to go Special Forces."  I laughed and asked him how he knew that.  He said that I "had the build for it."  Nice.

Headed to the gym after that, getting there about 1:45.  Padawan Josh is on fall break from school so he worked out with me the whole day.

5:00 rowing warm up on 10/10 resistance followed by 10:00 of stretching and foam rolling.

First:

SealFit 121019

Tabata Jump Lunges

Rest 1min

Tabata Dips

Rest 1min

Tabata Bear Crawl

Rest 1min

Tabata Sit ups

First time on this one.  Tabata is a type of interval workout where you do 8 rounds of 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest.  The first few rounds are usually easy, the last several are not.  Because there isn't really a goal or anything to shoot for, I think this is more of an effort based workout, than a numbers based.  The jump lunges were tough, I went unbroken for them up to the last couple rounds where I had to take a break around 15sec before getting the last few reps.  Dips were hard after the first round.  Bear crawls were hard after the second round.  That's a lot of shoulder, arm and back immediately after doing dips.  And then sit ups were easy at the end.

Second:

Runner's core workout.  This was the first time Padawan Josh had done this.  He complained of the same issues I did the first couple times I did it.  I think that just shows that it is a good workout and it challenges the muscles that runners often ignore.

Third:

CrossFit Test 1

Find your 1 rep max (1RM) on flat bench press.

Within 30sec of finding 1RM, do max reps pull ups.

First time trying this.  Its from a series of "tests" that CF put out a while ago to judge someone's overall fitness.  You score it by multiplying the total weight from your 1RM by the number of pull ups you do.  They have a chart for figuring out how you did.  Padawan Josh worked up to benching 225 and did 23 pull ups, I worked up to benching 235 and did 30 pull ups.  I'm sure both of us could lift more if we were rested.  Our shoulders and arms were still pretty burnt from the dips and bear crawls.

Fourth:

Padawan Josh wanted to do some more stuff.  So he did sets of 45lbs weighted pull ups while I did my switch grip pull up workout counting from 5-4-3-2-1.  Then moved to the dip bars and we both did weighted dips with 45lbs.  I did 15, 10, then 8.

Fifth:

Padawan Josh said he wanted to run with me so we changed and headed over to the soccer fields.  Ran the usual 4 laps totaling 1.49mi at a decent pace.  Then did the back and forth form drills.

Thursday

Back and arms were a little sore this morning, otherwise everything felt alright.  Left elbow is still improving.  Left shin still bothers me from time to time.

Got to the gym around 1:45.

Usual 5:00 rowing warm up on 10/10 resistance followed by 10:00 of stretching and foam rolling.

First:
Another weird day.  Wanted this to be the sort of stuff I normally do on Wednesdays.  Started with 20:00 of hard effort on the Stairmaster, starting on level 8 and bumping to level 9 at the halfway point.

The plan was to finish and then immediately get on the rower and row 1km.  But, naturally, with only a few minutes left to go on the Stairmaster, an older guy gets onto the rower and sits on it for 30min.  This meant that after I finished my 20:00, I stood around looking impatient for a while before he finished and I could get on it.

Second:
Rowed 1km on 10/10 resistance.  Pretty tough, as my legs were already gassed.  First 500m was somewhere around 1:45, but then I slowed down quite a bit.  Finished in 3:38, which isn't terrible, but not really near my PR of low 3:30s.

Third:
Back onto the Stairmaster for another 20:00.  Again, started on level 8 and bumped to level 9 at the halfway point.

Fourth:
Changed into my VFF and headed over to the soccer fields.  Ran 4 laps around the big field, which totaled about 1.48mi.  Good pace too, something like 6:04/mi.  Recovered for a few minutes, then did my form drills back and forth across a soccer field.  In case I haven't mentioned what my form drills are, they are just drills that help reinforce good running form or work muscles that help with good running form.  Its stuff that most people have either done when they were kids before soccer/football/basketball games, or seen college or pro athletes do before games.  Butt kicks, high knees, jogging backwards, lateral bounding to each side, and forward bounding.

Monday

Shoulders and upper back were a little sore this morning.  More than likely from the shoulder work out yesterday.  Legs felt good though.  Got to the gym around the usual time, something like 1:45.

Usual 5:00 rowing warm up on 10/10 resistance followed by 10:00 of stretching and foam rolling.

First:

Unknown 025

4 Rounds, for time:

50 Squats

5 Muscle ups

First time trying this one.  Figured I could do the muscle ups unbroken, but I knew I'd have to break up the squats.  Started with 40/10, then 30/20, then 25/13/12, then the last one was crap, something like 20/10/8/6/6.  Elbow felt good the whole way through the muscle ups though.  Finished in 6:43.

Second:

Did the runner's core wod.  Planks are getting easier I think.

Third:

Flat dumbbell benchpress.  Started with 80lbs DBs, then bumped to 90, then 100.  Tried with 105 and got stuck halfway.  Then dropped back down to 80 for a burn out set.

Fourth:

Changed into my VFF and headed over to the soccer fields for a barefoot work out.  Ran on the grass about 1.5mi then did a series of barefoot running form drills.

Friday

Everything felt alright this morning.  I was a little delayed getting to the gym because I had to stop and pick up more endurance Sport Beans from Fleet Feet.  Ended up getting there a little after 2:00.

Usual 5:00 rowing warm up on 10/10 resistance followed by 10:00 of stretching.  Couldn't foam roll because an older guy grabbed the one foam roller before I could get to it.

First:
I'm thinking about doing a mountain trail race in November, so I want to start doing a Stairclimber work out each week.  Figured this was a good day to start.  Got on it starting at level 8, bumping it to level 9 after 10:00, and then bumping it again to level 10 after 20:00.  Totaled 30:00.  I was disgustingly sweaty.  Like pools of sweat on the machine.  Gross.  I would guess that has something to do with the lack of airflow on that machine but who knows.  Quads felt good though, no issue there.  Going up steps feels like you're using more calf than anything.

Second:
Runner's core wod.  Two rounds of 45 seconds on each of 6 exercises.  Everything felt pretty good.

Third:
Decided to try a 1000m rowing time trial.  Ugh.  Did not feel awesome.  Set a goal to get as close to 3:30 as I could.  That meant averaging 1:45 per 500m.  My PR for 500m is 1:31, so doing a single 1:45 is easy.  Doing two 1:45/500m back to back is not so easy.  Came very close to falling off the machine at the end.  Woozy, arms hurt, shoulders hurt, legs did not want to stand.  Finished  with a PR of 3:32.8.

Fourth:
I was debating whether or not to do this, but then I put on my big boy undies and went and did it.  Just a short, but quick, 1.5mi barefoot run on the grass soccer fields in my VFF.

Tuesday

Everything felt pretty decent this morning.  Nothing overly sore.

Got to the gym about 1:45.

5:00 rowing warm up on 10/10 resistance, followed by 10:00 of stretching and foam rolling.

First:

SealFit 130916

As many rounds as possible in 30min:

5 Burpees

10 Pull ups

15 Sit ups

First time trying this one as well as it being very new.  Didn't know what to expect.  Initially hoped for maybe 20 rounds, but after seeing my first round time of 1:30, I knew 20 rounds wouldn't happen.  Guessed I would get 18 rounds and sure enough, that's what I finished with.  Did every round unbroken for all exercises.  Started to get tough on the pull ups around the 10th round but the sit ups and burpees acted as a recovery for my arms.

Second:

Did the runner's core wod.  Felt better than the first couple times I've done it.  Think I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Third:

Dumbbell flat bench press.  Started with 75lbs, then 85, then 95, then back down to 80.  Felt good.  May have been able to get one or two reps with 105.

Fourth:

Changed and headed to the soccer fields for a barefoot run.  Ran 4 laps at a pretty good pace, I think it was 6:48/mi average.  Then did some running form drills across a 30 or 40m soccer field.  Stuff like lateral bounding to each side, forward bounding, running with high knees, running with butt kicks, and running backwards.

Monday

Ow, quads are still pretty bad.  Tried icing them all morning, we'll see what that does.

Got to the gym a little earlier than usual, somewhere around 1:45/

5:00 rowing warm up on 10/10 resistance followed by 10:00 of stretching.  Forgot to foam roll because I have no idea.

First:
SealFit 120914
5 Rounds, for time:
50m Bear Crawl
30 Squat Jumps
30 Push Ups
30 x 4ct Flutter kicks (basically 60 x 2ct flutter kicks)

First time trying this one.  Went upstairs to the large group fitness room which is always empty during this time of the day.  Did some measurements using my shoe size and I think the room was ~25m across, so I just went down and back for the full 50m.  Did the first 50m bear crawl without stopping, but had to break the rest into groups of 25m, 15m, and 10m.  Broke the squat jumps into sets of 15 for every round, that seemed to work pretty well.  Did the first 3 sets of push ups unbroken, then had to break them into groups of 20 and 10.  And the flutter kicks were all over.  I think I did them unbroken on one or two rounds, but the rest were 30+20+10 (for 2ct obviously).  Finished in 22:34.

Second:
Abs.  Did a max set of scissors, then a set of decline sit ups, then seated V-ups, then another set of decline sit ups, then finished with a set of side bends.

Third:
Shoulders.  Hadn't done a dedicated shoulder workout in a little while.  Started with seated DB press, then did a set of balance and stability drills, then standing DB shoulder shrug, then another set of balance and stability drills, and finally the shoulder range of motion mobility workout.  And just randomly did a set of decline sit ups before heading to the locker room.

Fourth:
Headed over to a nearby soccer complex and put on my Vibram Five Fingers (toe shoes).  I was thinking about starting this up again over the weekend and today seemed like a good day to do it.  When I was focusing more on just running, I was doing at least one barefoot (wearing VFF) workout each week.  And during that time, I really didn't have any issues with shin splints.  But several months ago I stopped doing them, and what do you know, now I have shin splints.  So I'm going to slowly work barefoot runs in more and see what happens.  Ran a little over 1mi on the grass field.  Then moved over to a shady part of the field and did running form drills back and forth.