Goofy Here I Come

So hard to post when I am not running...

After the last post at Thanksgiving I did Crossfit a few more times and really injured myself.  In only a few months of doing Crossfit I was able to hose up my shoulder and re-injure my back.  I know this will come as a surprise to most of you but, I don't actually need any more injuries.  Needless to say the Crossfit experiment is over.  I don't know if it was because I was going to hard at the workouts and not listening to my body or, if the workouts and exercises themselves are flawed but it just didn't work for me.  Don't get me wrong I was feeling super strong with the workouts but, they were destroying me at the same time.  With Crossfit there isn't much flexibility to work around injuries and it was really a sport in and of itself.  I have been doing some Tabata style interval work for cross training and that seems more my speed.  I can pick exercises around my current injuries and I don't need any extra equipment. 

And....back to that back injury well as you all know I have a history with my poor back and it doesn't take kindly to punishment.  So once I felt the tell tale signs of it herniating again I actually backed off this time.  I know I know....I am shocked myself....almost got an elbow injury patting myself on the back for that genious move.  I stopped running.  I have done some easy interval workouts and you know what?  It feels totally better.  Wahooooooooooooo!!!!

Welllllllll, that Wahooooo!!!! is sort of like a wahoo.  Because while I am super happy that my back doesn't hurt and although my foot still does hurt my biggest problem at the moment has to do with some dude named Goofy.  Yes, I managed to get a free entry into the Goofy Challenge this weekend.  I signed up two months ago when I was feeling strong and thought it was a brilliant idea to run a 1/2 and a full in one weekend.  Now I find myself not having run in a month with 5 days to go till the Challenge and I am a tiny bit scared.  Oh who am I kidding I am SUPER DUPER worried about how frickin bad this might SUCK!  I know I can finish both races but, I mean, come on, I haven't run in a month.  Some of you wise folk out there might say: screw the race, enjoy your weekend at Disney.  The rest of you know me well enough to not even mention the smarter choice. 

And so with that I will sign off my first post of the new year and report back on the suck factor of two races back to back after a month off.

Happy Running Everyone and enjoy a New Year full of AWESOME running!

Another Week of the Crossfit Experiment

This Crossfit experiment is so insanely hard. It isn't the workouts, although they are ridiculously tough most days it is having the patience to not put in the miles. It is trusting that the Crossfit workouts will do their thing and make me a better runner even though; I am not necessarily running during them. I try to go balls to the wall in every workout, to make sure I am getting the most out of every second I am at the box (gym in CF speak). But the patience... the patience... ahhhhhhhhhh!!!

On Tuesdays I do my long run. I have been trying to get in a 20 miler each week and then the rest of the week I don't worry so much about mileage I just get in some short ones. But, the last few weeks those 20 milers have been hard, I am dragging by mile 15 and well that is sort of scary for me. 15 miles should be an easy run for me and lately it has been a chore. Today I wanted to show my legs who was boss (what was I thinking?) and I did a 27 mile run. OMG! It was hard; it wasn't a little hard it was A LOT hard. I did manage to crank out the last few miles at around an 8mm pace but the struggle to get to mile 27 was ridiculous. I am left wondering...

Is it the Crossfit? Is the less running ruining my endurance? Are my muscles so tired that I shouldn't expect them to put in a long run? I just don't know. I don't have the answer. My gut tells me that I am strong; I am stronger than I have been in over 15yrs but am I a better runner? Should that matter?

All I know for sure right now is that, I am exhausted, smashed, destroyed, etc... from my run today and my arms hurt so badly it is stupid (from Saturday and Monday's CF workout) so, ummmm... I guess that means I am doing something right, :).

Happy Thanksgiving All!

This Week

This week I decided next year I would do 3 ultras: Mississippi 50 in March, VT100 in July and Heartland100 in October.  I plan to use Mississippi as a gauge as to how well Crossfit is working for me. 

I am now going to Crossfit 3 times a week.  Which is about 3hrs of cross training which, I am translating to 18 miles of running.  So, if I would usually run 80 miles on said week now I will run 62 miles along with Crossfit.  I am super excited to see how this works out for me.  There are some things I am already noticing.  Last week on Tuesday I was out running a 20 miler, my endurance is definitely starting to fade in the off season and it should a little.  This is supposed to be a down time but, I was a little scared when at mile 12 I was feeling tired.  At around mile 17 I realized something was up with my route and I was going to get back to the car at 19 miles and I could either run in circles to get another mile or just drop the hammer and make the last two miles count.  I decided to go all out and I mean all out.  I stood up straight, concentrated on having my legs rotate under me, I pulled in my core, and hot damn my old sticks took off.  When I peaked at Garmin she said I was running a 7:05, then I hit a hill and I dropped to a 7:15, what the heck...7:15 going up hill, me, Tara Tosta... whose legs were these?  Then I hit the down hill dropping below the 7mm mark.  Holy Crap! I was flying and I felt awesome.  Ummmmm....I guess Cross Fit is working for me.  Those boys may have hosed my shoulder for a few weeks but in return they are giving me speed. Wahoooooo!!!!

I am going to have to make sure I keep my long runs up in order to preserve my endurance but,  I am loving the feeling of being stronger over all.  There are days I walk into the gym and think...WTF! But then, I actually do said work out and am so dang proud.  One day this week I walked in to see ropes hanging from the ceiling and I thought, oh no, because you know the boys didn't hang them there for decoration, you know before they even say it that they are going to want you to climb to the top of those suckers but you know what...I did it.  I climbed the rope, like a little kid, I climbed that rope not like Phil my monkey friend who took to rope climbing like a gazelle takes to running but, I did it!  I used the first method described here but you should know if you do that method with running shorts on you are going to get a rope burn on your ankle, ughhhhhh.

On Thursday I walked into Crossfit to see that Austin (one of the two trainers that run our sessions) had come up with some frickin nutso workout for us that included Wall Climbs.  Wall Climbs????? I scratched my head and thought "OH NO."  If it sounds odd it is never good.  I am including a video of a Crossfit Wall Climb.So Austin's idea of a good time was: 2 x (1 wall climb, 25 burpees, 1 wall climb, 25 push ups, 1 wall climb, 25 box jumps, 1 wall climb, 25 air squats, 1 wall climb, 25 kettle bell swings).  I don't know if you noticed but the whole wall climb, burpee, push up combo, well it is a ton of arms.  I was so wiped out I was crouched gasping for air and praying I could get up the wall.  Yes I skinned my knees on the wall, you can do that if you are exhausted and your legs just fall down the wall as your arms give out.  Who knew? 

So to summarize the week: rope burn + wall burn + one long run = good week of working out.

45 miles this week, wooot wooot!!!!

Now to try and work in time to fix up this house.

New Training Plan

Yesterday I posted I am toying with a new training idea.  The plan isn't solid yet but, it is close enough and already in action.  I am doing an experiment that hopefully won't hose up the next ultra season.  I love running there is no doubt about that.  I love long races, I love love love a race that cuts you to your core and makes you question everything and then that awesome feeling of climbing out of that pain cave and finishing the race.  100 miles hurts, there is no way around that.  But, maybe I can train different, eehhhhhhh, goes against my whole "you have to run to be a better runner" saying but, maybe just maybe I could use some cross training :).  Ok for sure I could use some cross training, my core is ridiculously week, my arms are useless sticks and that leaves me with over sized legs and glutes.  So, I could definately use some cross training but, how far do I take this cross training?  That is the question right?

Da da da...and here comes my adventures in Crossfit Training.  I have only been at it for a little over a month but dang I am already feeling stronger.  I can already more easily bound up hills.  The classes are downright humiliating some days, humbling others and kick ass every day.  I pretty much suck at the workouts and have to scale them down to weights I can actually lift while the little 100lb girl next to me whips the prescribed weight around like it is a paper sack.  Nahhhh, that isn't embarrassing at all.  I have to keep in mind that I am competeing with myself and that I haven't lifted in over 20yrs.  At the end of the workouts I always feel like my heart is going to pop.  The Heart Popping is what made me think the new plan could work.

What if...I cut down mileage and include Heart Popping crosstraining?  The experiment is to decrease mileage to 30-50 miles a week and add in crossfit.  I plan to sign up for a 50 miler in March.  That will be my measuring stick.  If I can run around a 9hr, 50 miler then the crossfit is working, if it is a struggle then I will go back to more running and less crosstraining (I won't cut it out all together but it will have to decrease a ton to make time for running).  I am not sure you can really train for 100 miles running only 50 miles a week, that sounds nuts but the CF people swear by it.  I guess there is only one way to find out and it seems like a fun experiment.  If nothing else maybe they can make my arms strong enough that I can run on my hands when my legs get tired, lol. 

I have met some awesome people at Crossfit.  One of them is a triathalete.  I feel like she really gets where I am at and the whole ultra running thing.  Laura is helping me figure out how to use CF to supplement/replace some of my running.  I love having someone to bounce this plan off of.  I will keep you posted on how us old ladies do with this whole Crossfit thing.

Crossfit

I haven't been on here much lately.  I have been running but, just haven't felt like writing about it.  I went to the Doctor after the last race and got an MRI of the foot.  Well...my sesamoid has chondramalacia.  SAY WHAT?  Yep, that little sucker got so pissed off about all the pounding it was taking that, it up and turned to moosh.  That might not be the technical explanation but, it is the reality.  In some cases if it is caught early this condition can be turned around.  Who here thinks the year I ran on it constitutes taking it easy and catching it early?  Yah, I suspect I hosed that sucker up good.  I now have orthodics to help relieve some of the pressure but most likely this isn't going to heal fast if at all.  So, I did what any normal runner would do.  I found something even more insane to do while I have downgraded my mileage.  I joined Crossfit.

Somehow I thought that my ability to run 100 miles meant I was in pretty good shape but Crossfit has made me see the light.  These workouts make me feel like a super wimp and totally exhausted.  I love it.  Well, I don't love getting my ass handed to me each day but, I do love pushing myself.  I also love seeing what these amazing women (my class is almost always only women).  There are little ladies in the class doing pull ups in a piked position, I kid you not, it is insane and phenomenal all at the same time.  I don't see me getting to the level I can do those I do see that already I am getting stronger and my trail running is reaping the benefits. 

This week I was running Pine Mtn to get to my crossfit workout and I basically bounded up the mountain, these workouts are totally making my climbing legs stronger.  I am keeping my mileage low for the winter (30-50 miles/wk) and am going to turn up the heat on some cross training.  Wooot wooot!  So, if you are looking for a super awesome workout I recommend trying a crossfit workout.  They are completely awesome.