Slloooogggg

Yep. Slog. A.K.A. SLOW jog today. I'm still having some serious discussions with my hip flexors about what is actually expected of them. They're pretty interested in being wadded up balls of tight muscles, and I'm hoping that they'll be nice, loosey-goosey, happy little power houses. I'm pretty sure I'm going to win the battle in the end, but it appears as though they're going to mount a serious challenge in the short term...
Carlo and I still managed about 30 minutes of a nice, easy jaunt through Whatcom Falls Park. (Right in my backyard, by the way. I'm just sayin... YAY BELLINGHAM!!!!!) It was a beautiful night, and puppy sure was excited to be a part of it, which always makes things a bit easier.
I'm now planning to stretch the night away. And drink water till I can drink no more. Or at least till I go to bed. Oh, and swallow another 800mg of my drug of choice, ibuprofen. Such a happy night planned!! :)
Happy Stretching!

Here we go again

So, we're basically starting week two of the fitness blogging. Everything's feeling like a routine again. That can be a good thing. It can also be a bad thing. I'm going to do my best to continue to think positively, although I did not enjoy my workout much tonight. I think I'm just crabby because I was told by one of the trainers to downscale the workout, and I really wanted to try the prescribed routine. But, I'm not really sure why I'm complaining, because it was still 27+ mins of all out, hard exercise:
3 rounds, as quickly as possible, of:
30 Air Squats
30 Box Jumps
30 Jumping Pull-Ups
800 meter run

(This is a modification of the Crossfit Classic Badger.)

I'm now off to eat & hydrate! Us Orcas need LOTS of H2O!!

Choices Choices Choices...

Man, am I ever spoiled here in the old 'Ham!! I woke up this morning, knowing that I wanted to go for my four mile long run for the week, and I shuffled through all of the different trail systems I had to choose from. What bliss!!
I ended up choosing the Larabee Park Trail that leads into the Interurban Trail. I actually didn't know that the first 0.4 miles of the trail was Larabee instead of the Interurban until I got online to figure out distances this morning. Turns out, if you start at the dog park down in Fairhaven, then run along the Interurban to the road crossing right before Arroyo park, and come back only as far as the 10th & Donnovan trailhead, then you've gone four miles on two different trail systems. With your puppy. On a trail that's just muddy enough to not be sloppy for footing, but just muddy enough to get your puppy's underbelly & legs nice and juicy. Which then gets transferred to your car on the way home. Especially if you forget to bring a towel to dry him off before he gets in the car. Oops...
It was a good run with a really slow start. I'm still struggling with some left hip flexor/adductor pain, so it takes a few minutes to get it loosened up enough to run. Then it feels great during the run. Then it tightens up as soon as I get done. A lot. Ouch. But the run itself was great, and I spent a lot of time along the way looking forward to the many, many more runs I'll do along the Interurban in preparation for the RnR in June. Kind of intimidating, but much more exciting!!

On another note, Welcome Welcome Welcome Bouncing Bear!! We'll try to talk some tomorrow about getting you all set up so you can have a profile and make changes to the site and stuff. So excited to have another long-distance workout partner!!

Happy (many!) Trails (and pools)!!

Finally!!

Yesterday I finally got back into the pool. Last weekend I had a dog/ice accident and blew up my knee again, so no weight bearing this week. It felt so goooood to get back to exercising. I am so happy. I only managed a very slow 30 minutes, but celebrated all day, just thinking that the time has come back.
Volcano ash is headed our way, already hit south Anchorage so it is just as well I can't be outside anyhow!
Thank you ladies for the comraderie!!

Momma Meg

Bionic

I was able to escape from work just in time to make it to Crossfit tonight. I was not able to do it yesterday, and I was all sorts of crabby last night. Don't you love it when you realize your addiction has returned?!? Well, I suppose that's usually only good news if it's an addiction to exercise...
Anyhow, we did a workout called the Bionic at Jogo. You were to do 5 rounds of the following as fast as possible:
6 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls - 65#
6 Burpees (It's important to note that I do not do them as quickly as the video shows. And I don't do muscle-ups at the end either...)
6 Front Squats - 65#
6 Kettlebell Swings - 16kg (~35#)
6 Snatches or Overhead Squats - 65# (I only did this at 45#)

It took me 15:10, which left plenty of time for stretching afterward. So lovely! It was also a really satisfying workout because it's the first time I've ever done the snatch. Always fun to expand your horizons!
Now off to rest to gear up for a four mile jog tomorrow. Happy Friday!
~The Orca

Moooohhhh-Joooooohhhh

Wednesdays at Jogo is "Mojo" day. It's designed as an active recovery day. I generally do the core workouts on these days, which has always been a weak point for me. The core routine at Jogo has recently changed, and today is the first day that I did the new one. It's a Tabata workout with the ab wheel. Tabata is 8 rounds of 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, with a goal of reaching the same number of repititions each round. The ab wheel is a wheel that you attach to your feet, then do movements like bridges and knee tucks aimed at strengthening all of your core muscles.
So, I did four different Tabata Ab Wheel exercises (super hard work!), then spent the second half of class doing some muscle rehab on a foam roller, which basically gives you a really intense deep-muscle massage feeling. It's called myofascial release, and it hurts sooooo good!
I then skipped away from Jogo, into the beautiful spring sunshine, with a big happy smile on my face. I definitely got my mojo back!!
Happy exercising, ladies!!
~Outrageously Content Orca

Lake Padden

This was the first time I've returned to jog around Lake Padden since moving back to Bellingham. Always such a lovely run! Pretty short, but a really nice mix of flat & hills. I felt pretty good most of the way, which I didn't expect, since I'm still so sore from yesterday. So, my time was a lot slower than I've done it before (29:29 today, and I think my fastest time was around 25 mins for the 2.6 mile loop), but it was nice to feel good while I was doing it. Encouraging.
Of course, then Carlo was sure to humble me by sprinting around the dog park for 45 more minutes after our jog together...

~The Ornate (-ly covered in mud) Orca

Filthy. But Back!

My first day back to Crossfit in about 3 weeks was a doozy!!
We did a classic workout - the Filthy 50:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 16kg
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

I had to modify several of the exercises (I can only do an 18" box jump, I did half the kettlebells with 16kg then went down to 12kg, I did a swinging grasping version of knees-to-bows, I only used a 14# ball for wall ball, and I did tuck jumps instead of double unders). It took me 35 mins, 32 secs. Isn't Crossfit grand?!?!!

~The Ouchy Orca

i am so excited to

i am so excited to start training...if only i wasnt sitting in an airport. liz are you starting back at crossfit tonight? yay!

North Shore Lake Whatcom

This morning, the rambunctious Roadrunner and I had a jog along the North Shore of Lake Whatcom. It's a lovely 6 mile out-and-back trail. We jogged the first 3 miles out, then turned and alternated walking, jogging, and running (a faster version of jogging) at random intervals for the trip back. Puppy Carlo joined us for the fun, and was a fabulous off-leash partner until he spied another dog getting to fetch sticks in the lake. He was then completely lost to us, and forced to remain on-leash for the remainder of the trail. Now he's at home, basking in his stinky wetness. Happy puppy, and very happy Orca. A pleasant way to begin the blogging!
~The Opulent Orca