Jeff surprised me by getting tickets to Ben Folds playing at Progress Energy! It was an amazing concert, and I’ve been listening to the Ben Folds catalogue whenever possible. Yup, I’m listening to “The Luckiest” right now.
The bulging discs dilemma has returned, and my left arm is once again tingly to numb. I also have a difficult time sleeping, as I can’t seem to get comfortable. I’m taking pain medication, but only at bedtime. I could never become addicted to narcotics, as I feel like I lose all control of speech. Me no likey.
Epidural scheduled for Monday evening. If this continues I’m going to have surgery.
WED SEPTEMBER 14, 2016 | BASELINE PLUS
2 RFT
Row 500m
40 goblet squats (26#)
30 wall sit-ups
20 pushups
10 pull-ups
This is the first WOD in the Lurong Living Championship Challenge, and it was surprisingly quite challenging. I worked out at noon (my least favorite time of day to do so) and was judged by Debbie.
My goal was to complete all activities, with the possible exception of pushups, in unbroken reps. I came nowhere close to achieving this goal!
I rowed the first 500m in under 1:50, completed 40 unbroken goblet squats, 30 unbroken sit-ups, and 20 pushups in reps of 15 & 5. Goal already not achieved. Ha! I did complete 10 unbroken pull-ups.
The second row was miserable, just miserable. I did row in under 2:00, but it was a struggle. I picked up KB, completed 5 goblet squats, and set down the KB. WTF? I completed the remaining reps in sets of 10, 10, & 15. At least I had a strong(er) finish. Thirty unbroken sit-ups presented little challenge, but pushups were a struggle. I ended the rounds by completing 2 or 3 sets of 2 reps. I finished with 10 unbroken pull-ups.
Time = 10:40
THU SEPTEMBER 15, 2016 | 75s
AFAP (40-min time cap)
75 calorie row
75 C&J (95)
75 deadlifts (185)
75 burpees
I coached at 6 and then stayed at the box and completed the WOD. Wow. Just, wow.
My goal was to complete in 30 minutes. I may or may not have achieved this goal.
I wisely focused on rowing a calorie per stroke. Whilst I wasn’t able to do this for all 75 calories, I did row a calorie per stroke for the first 37 reps. Yay! I completed the entire row in 79 strokes. Again, yay! I rowed 75 calories in about 4:45.
Seventy-five clean & jerks @ 66% of bodyweight should be difficult. And it was. I’m still nursing a sore shoulder and tingling arm, so I intentionally dropped each and every rep once a I stood to full extension. I completed 5 reps at a time, and this worked well. There were many times, however, when I just wanted to quit.
And then it happened. “Was that 45 or 55? How long has it been taking me to complete 5 reps? I can do the math. Shit, I can’t remember, nor can I do the math. Forty-five it is!” I’m 99% certain I had completed 55 reps; thus, I’m also certain that I completed 85 instead of the required 75 reps. Dammit.
Deadlifts felt heavy! I began with a mere 4 reps, did 6 reps the next set, and then completed in sets of 5.
I knew that if I were to come close to achieving my time goal that I’d have to complete 75 unbroken burpees. So that’s what I did.
Time = 30:40
I had every intention of doing some speed work Thursday. Sadly, I did not. I can’t wait until my epidural.
FRI SEPTEMBER 16, 2016 | NIKES
Sumo Deadlift (3 X 8 @ 70%, 2 X 7 @ 80%, 1 X 6 @ 90%)
Coach Evelyn led the 6 am session, so I got to work out during my favorite time of the day!
I completed 3 x 8 @ 225, 2 x 7 @ 260, and 1 set @ 290#. Lifts felt good!
Metcon (AMRAP – Rounds and Reps)
12-min AMRAP
15/leg mountain climbers
10 burpee pull-ups
10 burpee toes to bar
5/leg pistols
What a fun metcon! I completed 3 rounds + 15 mountain climbers and 3 burpee pull-ups. Uhm, I squatted below parallel for pistols. (It pisses me off when folks get more concerned with score and let form go to shit. If you didn’t squat below parallel, you didn’t complete the workout as prescribed. It’s that simple.)
Harris Park Trail Run
I honestly can’t recall the last time that I went for a trail run, and I was excited to do so. I had forgotten how much I enjoy the solitude or single trail running. I had also forgotten how unreliable the Garmin GPS.
I wore Altra trail shoes (success) and trail socks (fail).
I ran hard, breathing consistently every third step. I know my pace, and I’d estimate I was running no slower than 8:30 mpm. The Garmin clocked mile 4 at 11:53. Uhm, I’ve never run a mile that slowly, and I can assure you that I didn’t run that slowly this run.
I ran out and back 3.5 miles according to Garmin, yet I ran 1:12:45; thus, my pace was 10:16. Uhm, those of you who know me can rest assured that it would be challenging for me to run that slowly. I ran at least 8 miles, and that would put at 9 mpm pace. Uhm, I know I was running faster than that, because I was hauling ass! It’s likely that, again, I ran no slower than 8:30 mpm pace, and that’d put me right about 8.5 miles. I honestly think it was closer to 9 miles.
It certainly felt like I ran at least 8.5 to 9 miles! As I had originally planned on running 5 or 6 miles, I didn’t carry a water bottle. Dammit. When I had run what my Garmin said was 2.5 miles I thought, “A half mile more.” When I had run what my Garmin said was 3 miles I thought, “A half mile more.” I was wise enough to turn around when Garmin said 3.5 miles.
I was exceedingly thirsty for the last 30 or so minutes of the run, and even began to imagine what it would be like to take a sip from the toxic lake. I resisted the temptation.
I didn’t run across a single soul until the last 5 minutes of my run! The solitude was welcome.
When I finally arrived at the parking lot, I was surprised to discover that I hadn’t locked the Renegade. Oops. I rapidly consumed a bottle of water and then stumbled and almost passed out. Yup, I had become quite dehydrated. I should know better.
I posted a selfie on Facebook and Instagram. I was surprised by how many people liked the post. This included many people who typically don’t reply to many if any of my posts. Why is it that so many people like that I’m running again? Is it because I’m once again enjoying running? Perhaps.
It’s September, and that means that I fall into a bit of a funk. Xander and I would often run at Harris Park, and I thought about him often during the run. I remembered him running ahead of me, coming when I called, and running by my side. I miss him terribly, and there hasn’t been a day since he died that I haven’t thought of him. No one was there to see my tears.
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