Crossfit workouts...Success, Cleanse...NOT!!

I have finished up my third week of using the Crossfit Endurance info to guide my workouts.  I am enjoying my early morning crossfit strength workouts.  Many mornings I go outside and do them in the moonlight.  To give you an idea of what these workouts are like, last Friday I did 5 rounds for time of 5 Jerks/5 front squats/12 later jumps over a bar/12 pushups.  These 5 rounds took me 13:29.  On other days I am jumproping, doing lunges, power cleans, pullups, rows with dumbells, burpees, and one morning they had me do 30 front squats and then run a mile for time.

Then in the afternoons, about four days a week, I am focusing on my running.  Shorter and faster workouts!!  Doing a lot of tempo work and interval work.  I seem to be making some progress on my running...

Yesterday I went out for a 10 mile run and felt GREAT!!  I picked a hilly route.  It was a beautiful morning, cool and breezy.  And I just felt like with an effort just above easy, the miles were flying by.  Most of them were sub-9 minute pace.  My longer runs usually are at close to 9:30 pace.  I ended up with 9:09 average pace, with mile 2 being at 10:05 because you climb the entire mile.  And I didn't feel totally spent at the end of the run.  I am very happy with how the run is beginning to feel.

We have our local 9 mile race this Saturday.  I am hoping to be able to run at 8:20 pace.  It is fairly hilly, so that is a pretty hard goal for me to reach.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

NUTRITION:
This is constantly a work in progress for me.  My kids think I eat the healthiest of anyone around.  And for the most part I do.  But as far as having a perfect 21 day cleanse, that is NOT going well.  In fact I have started it twice, on August 16th and then again on September 1st and both times fallen off quickly.

I have decided that I will eat as clean as possible. But getting the gluten, caffeine, and an occasional glass or wine or bottle of beer out of my diet is not going to happen.

On a more positive note, my husband had his yearly physical last week and his cholesterol was about the best the doctor has seen.  He also has cut down his blood pressure medicine to 1/4 of what it was a year ago.  I credit this to the changes that we have slowly made over the past few years.  He takes salads for lunch everyday rather than lunch meat sandwiches.  He is almost vegetarian, with meat at 2-3 meals per week.  He makes a fruit smoothie almost every morning after his morning run.  And in general makes much better food choices.

I made an "Indian Feast" for my family last week, which consisted of Indian Red Dahl (Lentils), Coconut Rice, Mango Salsa, and Tofu Saag.  All the recipes were out of the 30 Minute Vegan Cookbook.  It was delicious.

Last night I made Vegan Meatloaf and it was delicious.  My entire family loved it.   Here is the recipe:


VEGAN LOAF

1 pkg. Tofu (crush with fork)
1 pkg. (12 oz) of Smart Crumbles Vegetable protein
1.25 cups of instant oatmeal

2 celery stalks and 1 small onion diced and microwaved for 1.5 minutes

1/2 t. rosemary, sage and thyme
1/4 cup of chopped walnuts
3T of soysauce
2T of ketchup
1T of brown mustard

Mix it all together VERY well, put it in a meatloaf pan, and put some more ketchup on top.  Cook for one hour at 375 degrees.

It tastes very much like meatloaf without all the grease.

I am having trouble finding time to post.  I am back at school teaching and Megan and Lizzie are in cross country.  Matt hasn't gone back to Ohio State yet.

My goals for the week:
-Keep the SUGAR low
-Stretch every night
-Drink more water every day
-DON'T EAT WHILE PREPARING DINNER (this is my downfall)
-Blog more than once every two weeks!

Crossfit Endurance and Cleanse...the first week!

There have been some Ups and Downs this week.  Some days and workouts that I am proud of and some that I wish I could have back.

We will start with Crossfit Endurance. 
Basically, for six mornings per week I kill myself doing functional strength work for what comes out to be approximately 15-20 minutes.  Then in the afternoons 3-4 times a week I am focusing on a run workout and 1-2 times a week a bike workout.

I was skeptical about whether this morning workout could possibly be hard enough with it being that short.  After all, I have been through numerous rounds of p90x and p90x+ and Chalean Extreme.  That was skepticism was quickly over after my Monday morning workout left me sore for two days.  As an example of this morning workout here is what I did last Monday....3 rounds for time of 15 kettlebell swings, 15 ring rows (I don't have rings so I did dumbell rows), 15 Power Snatches (which I had to look up how to do on the internet) and 15 toes to bar (I did the best I could and ended up with hand blisters by the end even with gloves).  It took me 15:30 to do.

Other things that have shown up in my morning routines include: Power Cleans, Pullups, Pushups, Deadlifts, Double Unders with the jump rope (which I can't do but am working on), box jumps, Good Mornings, Press, Wall balls, Lunges  All in one week. 

These are tough workouts, but I feel like it is a great way to start the day and I have loved the variety and loved trying out new moves.  I can't testify to how it may or may not improve my performance or overall strength, but I plan on giving it quite a bit of time so that I can give it a good review.  (Looking at doing it mid-August through mid- November)

In the afternoon for my run workouts, which can be swim/bike/run/ or row workouts I have done... 
*a 60 minute tempo run,
*2 by 5 minutes with 2 minutes recovery and then 5 by 1 minute with 30 seconds recovery,
*a mile run time trial (it was a total of 3 miles with warmup and cooldown)  I ran a 7:05.11 and hope to get under 7 minutes next time and that HURT!!
*10 by 30 second hill repeats

*bike workout of 22 miles (I added extra miles from the given workout)  with 6 by 3minute pickups in it.

I do have a longer run on tap for this week.  I was a little sore at the beginning of the week from my Sunday OLY race and so did not feel great for the early runs, but with a little extra rest I felt very good for my mile time trial last weekend.

The 21 day Cleanse
I am on my second round of my 21 day cleanse after doing the first round in February.  I am to eliminate animal products, alcohol, gluten, added sugar, and caffeine.
I am struggling more this round than I did the first round.  I think in February going meatless and all the different foods that came into my life were so new that I really embraced it more fully.
I did very well through the week last week.  Stuck to my plan, didn't have any of the eliminated foods and actually dropped quite a few pounds.  Then the weekend struck.... and this was NOT good.

I won't say I fell off the wagon, but I Lizzie had a cross country sleepover on Saturday and 9 pizzas were ordered, and I was hungry and did not take time to prepare myself a meal.  So 3 pieces of olive pizza later, I was not very proud of myself.

There were also snickerdoodle cookies in the kitchen on Saturday and Sunday...need I say more (although it was only 2-3 cookies).

Other than that, it has gone pretty well.  Meg had a softball picnic yesterday, so I packed my own food to take so that I could avoid the cupcakes, pizza and chips.
We had a birthday party on Friday and so I packed my own food because chicken was served. 

My day usually consists of:
Breakfast: steel cut oats/blueberries/ground flax/sliced almonds/low sodium V8
snack: almonds/cashews/dried apricots
lunch: big salad with lots of veggies
snack: Larabar
dinner: see below

Two dinners that were very tasty and followed the cleanse are pictures below:

quinoa with sun dried tomatoes (Tosca Reno's clean eating) sauted vegetables with beans, and peaches from the local orchard

cauliflower with tomatoes, apple salad, scrambled tofu

One of the keys to being ready for the week is preparing my salads for the week on Sunday.  I also try to plan the meals for the week and then go grocery shopping.

I am hoping to have a great week this week, and then at the end of the 21 days I won't be changing much.  I miss bread, and I miss the occassional glass of wine. 

Congratulations to Jon, Mandy and Mary who all raced at Timberman this weekend!!  All bloggers that I follow.

I have officially signed up for the Columbus HALF marathon on October 17th.  John is doing the Full and Matt is also doing the Half.  I am glad to NOT be training for a fall marathon after running one in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009.  I WILL be training this winter for Boston marathon 2011, which I am already qualified for!!  We booked our Boston hotel this weekend.

How is your nutrition plan going?  Are you at a place that you feel comfortable?