Weekend Work

For most people, weekend are supposed to be days of rest and sleeping in. Unfortunately, my early crossfit habits don't allow for much sleeping in on the weekends...and with 2 races right around the corner, it is time to get running.

Saturday morning was supposed to be a long (very long) run with my friend Stuart who is training for the Lake Placid Ironman next July. Stuart is an all around awesome guy and amazing athlete! He picked a very very hilly 9.2 mile course. Late Friday night though, I got a call from his wife Tamara...Stuart had crashed his bike on his evening ride. Crashed as in, snapped his carbon road bike in half, hit his head, and face all scratched and bruised. Ouch. Nothing was broken luckily, but there would be no running in the morning. Off to find a route for myself then. Getting motivated to run 6+ miles alone is a challenge. I picked a route that took me down by the pentagon, across the memorial bridge, around the washington monument and back. That was about 7, and I decided I should do one more mile which took me on a lap around the Pentagon City mall...8 miles. I ran it in 1h 14min, an average of 9:15 miles. Not too shabby. I recently wrote about my running slowing down--I think it has, but maybe not as bad as I first thought. I ran the first 5-6 at sub 9minutes, but my hamstring started really hurting so I slowed down on the last 3...really slow. My goal for the Army 10miler in October is to run it sub 1:30, which was my PR in a 10 miler last August in Annapolis. I think it is do able if I can stay injury free.

Sunday's adventure was back to the Bikram yoga box. For those of you who aren't familiar, Bikram is a style of yoga that takes you through 26 poses over 90minutes in a room heated to 105 degrees and 40% humidity. You sweat like crazy, I'm mean dripping, like a faucet, every inch is drenched...it is hard, super hard. Hard, like 2 CF WOD's back to back...I wanted to pass out today even though i was totally hydrated. It has been about 5 months since I've practiced and every muscle told me so. Before Crossfit I went about once a week or at least 3 times a month. Clearly I need to stretch more, with Bikram or otherwise. The bonus was that it toally opened up my super sore hamstring and my back felt super strong. My arms and abs were super sore from Friday's overhead squats so I had some issues holding some of the longer poses. But, that's ok, it I know worked really hard today and my muscles will thank me. The best is after a bikram session. You feel like a wet noodle!