random 2-a-day

i feel like i havnt posted a workout in a while, heres today.
Noon'ish:
>15mins sauna w/middle 5mins of 30sec split jumps: 30sec jogging (complete HELL)
>10dl-10ghd-R-8dl-12ghd-R-6dl-14ghd (dl= deadlift -increasing weight each round, ghd= full ghd situps)
Around 5:30 pm:
>15mins sitting in sauna w/ Tony (he was running)
>1 mile hard on treadmill w/2.5% incline
>handstand practice (random strength and balance drills)
good day, im looking to do a 10 miler this weekend with some fast(<6:30 pace) miles, along with some squat work and hills within the next few weeks. gota get ready for some real running.

Frozen Buns Run "5k" (~3.55 miles)

race day was somewhat of an organizational letdown, with 5 minutes left before the race was planned to start, i still couldnt get a positive answer of where i would be running. the plan was to run on crushed limestone trails for an out-and-back route if the weather was bad, so with freezing rain and some ice patches left on the trails, many people thought that we were going to plan B and running on the horse track, which i was really hoping for since, if that happened, there would be two two heats and i was planning to run in both. 2 by 5k with about 8-10 minutes of rest would have been a great day!
but about five minutes after the planned start time, we found out the race was to be on the trails and we would be starting soon. so i "got naked,*" only to stand at the start line for another 5 minutes or so in the rain. 33-35 degrees is pretty cool when theres a breeze and rain.
once the race started, i realized that starting behind people wasnt the smartest idea. i felt like a jerk running in an out of people(at a fun run) just so i could get to the front. but the plan was to win, so i needed to find out who i was running against. as i edged my way past the pack, then the fifth, fourth, third, and then the second place runners, i saw who it was gona be. about 400 meters into the race, Steve(i later found out his name at the finish line as we talked about the race) was about 25 meters in front of me as i passed the guy in second. i did my best to match his pace. my body hasnt had enough extended work at lactate threshold levels in a while, so i knew wasting energy to catch him was a bad idea. so i stalked him from 25 meters back until about the 1.25 mile mark(there were no markers, im just guessing), just a bit before the turnaround. its hard to tell if he slowed down or if i sped up, but i think it was a bit of both. as he started to dig into the trail to turn around, i was right on his shoulder, then quickly in front of him. from the moment i passed him, i have very little idea how his race went. i dont even know if he responded to my pass. i just tried my best to drive home the win and put as much ground on him as possible on the way back, especially since my fitness is the most important thing that i get out of racing -i still needed to get a leg-trashing workout in.
the way back felt amazing, i felt "the fear of the front-runner" for the first time in a while, and nothing beats it. since its an out-and-back, i received quite a bit of support from the other runners in the race. -mostly just exclamations of how cold i looked. in reality, i was quite comfortable until i stopped running. but either way, cheers help.
i waited for Steve to join me at the finish line. when youre in first the guy in second always seems like hes right on your shoulder, but it turns out he was almost a minute behind. but i swear i felt him behind me all the way back**. all that adrenaline for nothing i guess.
i dont wana give the impression that i ran the worlds best race or anything. the average pace was just under 6:00 a mile and im sure i had a pretty slow last mile(partly due to the fact that the course was almost half a mile longer than i was told it would be and my internal odometer was telling me i must have taken a wrong turn), but i really enjoyed being back in a short, distance race. im looking forward to running the 10k on the 13th now. there should be plenty of runners ready to give me hell there, and after some tempo work(and after the ice melts) i should have no trouble keeping the same pace or better for the 6.2 miles.
-check back over the next few weeks to see some longer tempo runs and some heavy interval sessions, along with some more heavy lifting and 100s more pullups and pushups.
*3/8" needle spikes on my feet(no socks), Nike shorts(~half inch inseam), and some midweight armwarmers
**Steve: thanks so much for showing up, you made my race, and i hope that i made yours. we really tore it up out there in the sleet and rain.
pictures soon

thoughts goin into the Frozen Buns Fun Run

im getting pretty excited to be running something so short! but its making me pretty anxious to think about how fast its gona be. thats one of the best perks of ultra running: its slow as hell unless your really good.
a few days ago i did a good 5k-prep workout, figuring it would have put my mind at ease a bit, and it did to some extent. here it is:
>10 min WU running on the mill
>5X 2:30on- 1:00 off(straddling the belt), @ 8.5mph w/7% incline*, for a total of 12:30 at about 5k pace
>10-8-6-4-1 snatch, w/last rep at 90lbs
>2X 5 burpee-pullups, very short recovery, just to practice form
>drank two mouth-fulls of water and recovered for a few mins
>20mins running in sauna
*about equal to 5:20 pace on flat ground based on the amount of force(measured in METs) that i was producing
ive dont think that ive ever been in this kind of shape for a 5k before, im lifting more sprinting faster, and running farther than ever (and my mood and energy are pretty insane lately!). but ive havent been doing any significant tempo work yet, and with course conditions looking to be substantially sub-optimum, my time for this one is going to mean very little. so other than winning, recovery is going to be the biggest measurable part this race.
the 5k this weekend and the 10k on march 13th are simply to get my confidence back up and my legs used to running sub-6:00 pace again. the quicker i can recover from those two, the more my training will benefit from the psychological and physiological effect of racing: if i know that i just ran a 36:00'ish 10k, then i will have more confidence in knowing what kind of speed i can maintain during intervals or tempo work.

doin two dirty girls in the same week!

now that i have your attention, Crossfit names their benchmark workouts girls names. these workouts can been done multiple times a year to help you measure your improvement. there are tons of them (like 25'ish that i know of) and they involve almost every aspect of fitness; theyre great.
this week i did two different benchmark workouts, both using entirely bodyweight. first off, i wanted to prep my body for the 5k race on the 20th, and a pretty good way to do that is by exerting myself using my own body weight for 20 minutes: the approximate amount of time ill be running during the race, assuming that theres 2-3 inches of snow on the course. secondly, i wanted to assess where my fitness is right now. as i start looking at shorter races, its gona be even more important that i be strong, not just thin. i have some numbers now, and over the next month, im going to be improving them drastically.
Tuesday: Cindy- 5 pullups, 10 (chest-to-deck)pushups, 15 bodyweight squats. thats one round, and you do as many as you can in 20 minutes
Saturday: Angie- 100 pullups, 100 (chest-to-deck)pushups, 100 (full)situps, 100 bodyweight squats. each 100 before moving on to the next. the time to complete all 400 reps is your 'score.'
after a 5 minute build up on the treadmill to warm up, i got after it. heres the results
>Cindy: 22 rounds+ 5 pullups+ 10 pushups+ 8 squats. so close to 23 rounds, but ill get it next time.
>Angie: 20:30 (mins:secs). my body wasnt really ready for it yet(after hitting Cindy hard a few days before), i wasnt still sore, but my muscles werent strong yet. again, i know im gona do better next time, just a bit faster and ill break 20 minutes. plus, i doubt i will have done Cindy in the same week next time, so thatll help my time as well.
if you try one, or have already tried one in the past, post your results. or just tell me im crazy...

diet... warning: this one got a bit physiologically in-depth...

for the last two months, ive been on a high fat diet, plant and animal fat to be more specific. the main idea behind it is pretty straight-forward: if your body knows that you eat alot of fat, then it will use more fat for energy when you exercise. as a distance runner, especially during any run longer than about 15 miles, its vital that my body be able to use fat as fuel. it cost just under 100 calories for most people to cover a mile, and if those calories are primarily coming from blood sugar, then people would have to stop around mile 10. to put it in perspective, you would have to take a GU at every single mile marker to keep you blood sugar from emptying before you even made it 15 miles.
but the human body never relies purely on glycogen (blood sugar). and the more trained you are, the less glycogen youll use at any speed. and by avoiding the high-carb diet of conventional distance runners, the body can be "trained" to use even less glycogen while running, or doing anything else for that matter. exercise aside, general energy levels between meals and throughout the day will be raise in the absence of "sugar rushes" and the crash that follows.
so its not just runners that can benefit. in addition to more even energy levels, non-runners will see decreased body fat percentages as their body realizes that it has no need to store fat since it gets enough through the diet. also, for people looking to lose weight (and trust me, im a personal trainer, its everyone), you wont be as hungry throughout the day and your meals will satisfy you for longer.
im not saying go on the "fried chicken diet." -plant and animal fats. however, things like real butter, cheese, whole milk, and bacon (possibly the best tasting thing the human mouth is capable of processing) are not off limits by any means. try a google search for high fat diets, and if youre worried about fats because theyre "bad," please read over some of what the studies actually say about the effects of a high-fat diet. heres a great site to start on: http://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-fats.html. look over this page along with some of the others and youll quickly realise that there is a ton information in the nutrition field about fat, and most of it is completely false. it seems the media "knows" a ton about health and wellness, until you actually look at what the research says. westonaprice is a great resorce for anyone, not just nutrition-lovers, because its easy to understand and as close to unbiased as it gets. the bottom line is: fat does not make you fat, it does not cause heart problem, and it IS a good thing.
dang, that was quite a tangent... i meant to talk about my current diet, but that just kinda popped out...
the number one priority for my diet is to avoid insulin spikes. any diabetic will tell you insulin lowers blood sugar. pretty much any time you eat, you blood sugar will rise. once it gets to a certain level, your body releases insulin to suppress it. the more fat you add to a meal, the slower it digests, so instead of all the sugar you just ate rushing into your bloodstream, it leaks into your blood more slowly over the next few hours. -this is how high-fat diets even out energy levels, and also why theyre being researched as a way to help diabetics. so in order to avoid a large insulin spike, i need to eat fat with every meal and avoid as much simple sugar as possible (unless im racing). instead of cereal with skim milk and orange juice for breakfast, substitute whole milk for skim, drink a bit less juice and the calories will be the same, but youll feel full until lunch instead of hungry an hour or two later.
ive tried to put enough information and examples on here to help anyone who might be looking for a new diet, but theres simply too much that goes into a full diet to put it all. but i hope seeing my thoughts about food has revealed the process that my brain goes through when assessing my diet.
any specific questions? -this is obviously something im passionate about, so fire away if youre interested.

the end-of-the-week smoothie

made a kind of strange smoothie...
>about 10 ounces of pomegranate apple cider
>one frozen banana
>7 strawberries
>2 blood oranges
>4 stalks of kale (with some of the stem removed)
>Knox unflavored Gelatine
the gelatin gave it a good texture, a bit more frothy, like the smoothie was whipped.
good stuff.
anyone dare to try it?
-although i doubt most people keep Knox, kale, and blood oranges on hand...

the Windburn Six in the Stix (fatass)

for anyone unfamiliar with ultras: in a 6 hour race, runners compete to cover as much ground as possible in the 6 hours.

quite a few people came out.
-you cant miss me in what i refer to as my "stoner hoodie"-

the course was a 2.28 mile loop through James "Pate" Philip State Park. it was 20-30 degrees throughout the race, with literally 10 seconds of sunlight in two spurts during the 5th hour. -almost perfect conditions to run, except the 6'ish inches of snow on the trail.
loved the Vespa(see my "stuff i use" page for my review), i ate and drank very little during the 6 hours: about 8 ounces of pure water, about 6 ounces of water with some Vanilla Bean GU in it, a 5-hour energy, about 10 chocolate chip cookies, 3 small cups of chicken noodle soup, and some hot chocolate in the last half mile. it sounds like a lot written out like this, but when compared to what most people do (like a GU every half-hour and a liter of water every hour, etc), its almost negligible.
the start of the race was pretty miserable, not meaning that it wasnt fun, just that i covered very little distance with my effort. during the first four or five laps, the footing was absolutely awful. only ultra runners would host a race at a cross country skiing destination! but then again, most people came prepared with yaktrax or microspikes, so im not sure if my road racing Nikes gave me a fair feel of how the traction was for most people. the snow did pack down some, and by the end running was pretty comfortable. i honestly think that i would have been able to cover more ground if i had just run the last five hours and sat in my car for the first hour.
ending the day just over marathon distance was the least i would have been happy with, and thats exactly what i did. about 27.1 miles. not much, but its technically an ultra, and it counts in my book. and im sure i could have got another mile or two had i been really focused on the raw numbers, but i was there for the experience. -and i like to talk: i spent at least two hours walk/jogging with a man named Russell who was 69 years old. its people like that who i envy. if my body lets me run until im 70, thats another 50 years! and thats a crap load of running!
good run, great day. only regret: not owning microspikes...yet.

about 30 minutes in the clothes started comin off; i was actually more naked about an hour before this was taken. im pretty sure that weird smile had frozen on by then.



a well deserved snowbath, and a few others seemed to think i looked like a good idea. misery does like company

you can see more pictures on my slideshow >>>

possibly the greatest perk of training like i do

besides recovering from Windburn in about 36 hours, my training gives me something that most runners cant even imagine. im running a 5k on february 20th! and i expect to win.
since im virtually always at high intensity during my training, i could physiologically run a PR for two completely different races (ie: a 6-hour and a 5k -or even something as short as a 100-200 meter because of my lifting!) within a very short amount of time. the problem is that the 5k im running is going to be on a horse track, and its looking like its going be covered in snow and slush. so a true PR for this one isnt looking too good, but a win is a win, so thats what im going for.
my training for the 5k will be NO different than its has been for the ultras, other than the fact that i wont be taking the two days before the race off. i dont plan on taking any light/recovery days to prep for the race on the 20th, im treating it like a short, explosive workout.
ill be posting a video interview in the next few days with my thoughts about going out of ultras for the next few months, or maybe even the next two years. also, itll have some random thoughts about my training so far and where its going in the next few months.

another workout, from last night:
>15mins running in sauna with middle 5mins of 30:30 split jumps (30 seconds of split jumps, 30 seconds of running)
>10-20-10-8-6-1, narrow-stance back squat (first 10 to loosen up, then going up in weight each set)
>100 bent over rows
>water. thank god.
...my butt is so dead today

push-pull 100's

i got a great workout last night with a good friend of mine thats also a personal trainer. its great to have someone that i can talk physiology with! the time in the sauna passed really quickly as we caught up, and he even joined me running in place for the last few minutes before he bailed and ran to the sink to try to cool off. while we were at NPTI (National Personal Training Institute), he always said that he would love to have me train him someday. he just knows how much i love it, and its almost impossible for me not to get people results when all i think about fitness and program design for most of my waking hours. so he joined me for my lifting*, although he couldnt resist taking a drink after we got out of the sauna. -when i lift after the sauna, i never hydrate during the workout, i feel it helps make the lifting more stressful (in a good way) for my heart. plus the water tastes that much better when im done. usually when you drink water, its because your mouth feels dry or because you know its good for you, but when you do a workout like this i swear you can feel the water giving you life as it goes down. amazing.

>20 mins running in sauna
>100 reps bench press
>100 rows

*and a note about the two of us working out: its pretty funny to see becasue hes a 5'10", 240 pound, MMA fighter, and im a 5'6", 125 pound, distance runner. -we've been compared to George and Lennie (from Of Mice and Men) more than once...