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!

Past, Present, Future-Fitness, Nutrition, Life

I seem to have a month between posts these days.  I have all sorts of posts go through my mind daily, but here is just a catch up post.  I hope to make some more 'informational' soon.
Fitness:
Past-I feel like it has been a long haul of having very structured workout plans.  In February, I started my official training for the Boston Marathon.  After racing it in April, and about a week or so of recovery I went straight into my workout plan for Steelhead half ironman on July 31st. 

Present-I have made it to the two week taper for Steelhead. 

After a late start on the swim fitness, I am feeling ready for the swim.  I had a lot of open water swims on our vacation in Canada, and have been going to the Hiram pool three times a week since school was out.

I feel VERY ready for the bike leg at Steelhead.  I have done many 50+ mile rides, many of them with a group that was pushing the pace.  I feel comfortable in aero position.  As always, my biggest worry is some sort of malfunction during the race.  For example, two weeks ago the seat bolt broke on my bike during a group ride.  My seat went flying off the bike with no warning.  Luckily, I didn't crash, but it was close. 
I am 'secretly' hoping for a 20mph avg. during the race.  I was at 19.3 last year at Timberman on a very hilly course.  But I will need to find the 'zone' and not have a huge headwind.

Liz and I after her first 30+ mile ride

The leg I am feeling the least comfortable with is the run portion.  I want to run under a 2 hour half marathon, but am having some hamstring/hip issues.  I am just not totally comfortable with my running right now.  I have had some very promising track workouts, and some days feel good.  But there are some days that a four mile run seems hard.  Hoping that this two week taper will help everything feel good going into race day.

Future-
Hoping for a great race on July 31st.  I really want to break 5:30, but it will depend on conditions at the race.

Then, I am planning on two weeks of recovery which will include our vacation in Maine.  I MAY do an Olympic distance triathlon on August 15th with Matt and Liz depending on how the half IM goes.

Then I am looking at keeping things pretty UNstructured for the Fall.  I am going to focus on getting my strength back, using P90x,  P90x+, and other beachbody products that I have.  I will lift heavy a minimum of three days a week.  I will continue to run three days a week and bike at least once a week while the weather is nice.  But I look forward to not training for anything big (unless by chance I make it to Clearwater World Championships in November, which means I have a REALLY good race at Steelhead)


Nutrition:
Past- I have been vegetarian and 'almost' vegan since February 1st, when I did a 21 day cleanse that is well documented in this blog.  In these six months I feel like I flucuate from eating very clean, to having way too much processed food and sugar in my diet.  There are many things I need to overcome.

Present- As the workouts this summer have really ramped up, I feel like the clean eating has gone DOWNHILL.   Too much sugar, too much processed foods such as bread, pretzels, crackers and too much caffeine in the mornings with my coffee to start the day.

Future- I am planning another 21 day cleanse that will begin late in August, after our trip to Maine.  I am not sure if it will be exactly like my February cleanse, or a little more structured following The Swiss Detox.  But it will include NO caffeine, added sugar, alcohol and of course no meat or dairy.  It will include LOTS of fruits and vegetables. 

I have 10-15 pounds on my body that are totally unnecessary and need to go!!

Life:
Past- This has been a great Summer so far.  It is so nice to have Matt home and so my whole family sitting down to dinner many nights.  It started off with the century bike ride which I got to share with Matt and John.  Then went on to my trip to Punta Cana with John which was very restful and fun.  About a week later the family went to our favorite place on earth with friends.  The cabin in Canada. 

the cabin

Megan just finished up a very successful fastpitch softball season.  She is a lefty pitcher and had a great year.

Megan pitching

 

I love so much about my life.

Present-Lizzie is going into her senior year and so is making decisions for post-high school.  She is seriously thinking about Westpoint.  She had her senior pictures taken last week and they are amazing.  Matt and Liz are competing in their first summer triathlon this Sunday.  

Future-
We are heading to Michigan for Steelhead, and then about a week later we are off to Acadia National Park in Maine.  This may be our last full family summer vacation :(  Matt will soon be doing summer internships and Lizzie may be only off a few weeks in summer if she is at Westpoint.

School starts back up early this year--August 19th officially!

getting started

After turning 44 last week, I have committed to making this a GREAT year. A year where I don't just maintain, but move forward. Make progress.

In order to start this off...I am going to do Kathy Freston's 21 day cleanse. In this I will give up:

*caffeine
*alcohol
*gluten
*all animal products including dairy, eggs
*added sugar

There are a number of reasons why I want to do this. #1 I want to get control over my eating habits. I think I can really look at food a different way.


I also want to see how my body reacts to eliminating these things. Do I feel more energy? Do I recover from hard workouts better? Can I sleep better? Do my stomache issues disappear? Can I tell in my knees and hips that there is less inflamation?

At the end of this 21 day trial, I am sure I will reintroduce some of these things into my diet. Maybe all of them, maybe only some of them.

One thing I will not let this experiment do is make my workouts suffer. I am 10 weeks out from the Boston marathon, and need to be running about 30 miles per week. I am hoping that this experiment will help my running. Of course I would like to lose some weight before race day. If I feel like I need to have some calories during my runs/especially my long run, I may have some sports drink at that time.

I am planning on blogging every day. Reporting how I feel, what I ate, what my workouts were...and will probably keep this blog going as I train for Boston, and then train for Steelhead 70.3 half ironman on July 31st.