Monday, December 01, 2008
Are we human or are we dancer?
It's amazing how much time can fly by. So what's been going on... Let's see. The weekend before Thanksgiving I headed down to Iowa for the Living History Farms Race with Valley, Kerin, Berndt, Karl, Anne, Joel, and Joel's buddy from the Corps, Andy. We headed down on Friday night, got there pretty late and had Mexican food for dinner at about 10 PM. All in all, probably not such a good selection. The weather was pretty rough. Very overcast, pretty windy, and mostly just cold all around. The worst part was standing around beforehand. We couldn't do packet pickup on Friday night because we got there so late, so we got to the race site early on Saturday morning. The good news is that our motel was about 3 minutes away. Karl brought some sweet mustaches for everybody. So we wore those as well:
Anyway, it was all good times. See if you can spot any of us in this scrum, it's like Where's Waldo:
All in all, it was a great time. It was actually kind of hard to actually RUN the stupid thing. There were just so many people and the course was very narrow at points. Probably the easiest/slowest 7 miles I've ever run. But that was OK. We closed out the day with cold showers at the motel and then a meal at Cheddar's (??!, some bizarre Iowa chain restaurant). The best part was the next day I wasn't sore at all. I was a little worried about my right knee. I think I developed some tendinitis running the TC marathon. But it wasn't sore at all on Sunday.
I've been sticking to the CrossFit stuff pretty well. It's been 3 days on, 1 day off for the most part. I can definitely tell my endurance is getting better and my strength is improving. The other weird thing is that I think I've kicked my metabolism into overdrive because I am hungry all the time. And all this on 30 minute workouts 5 times a week. Hard to believe. I'm up to about 6 dead hang pullups and I'd like to get that number up a little more. I still would like to maybe join the CrossFit Minnesota gym down in Eden Prairie. It just sucks that it's so far away. They got a brand new space though with a bunch of new equipment. It would be a lot of fun to work out with other people and get the help of their trainers/coaches. I have been practicing some of the lifts and I feel better about them. The biggest issue with Lifetime is the fact they don't have bumper plates for weights. It makes me a little concerned about doing some of the power lifts and presses and whatnot since you can't drop the weight if it's too much. Which kind of sucks because then you're always going to play it a little safe with putting weight on the bar. Ah well. Today's WOD was Helen. I subbed a 40 pound dumbbell for the swings and did jumping pullups since I don't have the kipping technique down yet. I finished in 12:09. That was the closest I've come to puking with a WOD so far. It made me think that maybe I finally hit the intensity level that I need to be reaching every time. Anyway, I'm really loving the whole program. I'd like to start doing some of the WODs from CrossFit Endurance and do some 2 a days. I'll probably wait a little longer till I think my body can handle that. The goal is for me to hit the ground running (literally) next spring when the snow melts. Berndt is wanting to do the TC marathon next fall and probably a half marathon in June. I told him I'd do that half marathon for sure. I'm not real positive I want to do another marathon, but maybe I'll get that bug in a few months. I'd kind of like to do some 5K's and really go for some fast times. I'd love to break 20 minutes.
I've been feeling pretty reflective lately with the holidays. It's kind of funny, it seems like Thanksgiving and Christmas are always times that I kind of think back to where I was at in years gone by. This one is a little weird since a lot has changed for me between last year and this year. Thanksgiving itself was a little rough. I think Zach was in the same boat, so we ended up grabbing a few beers at Mac's last Thursday. His buddy Ted came out and it was good to just hang out with some people and try to get your mind off it. Friday night ended up being pretty legendary. A bunch of us went to the Northeast Palace. They had karaoke and everybody ended up singing at least one song. It started off pretty tame, but ended far from that when last call happened. Definitely good times.
Not a whole lot going on this week, which I'm completely fine with. Last week actually ended up being busy with Thanksgiving and people having a lot of free time on their hands. Tomorrow's my day off from doing WODs but I'm thinking maybe I'll do a CrossFit Endurance WOD since those are less strength based. I do need to hit up the grocery store at some point. Which reminds me, I need to go with a list this time! Otherwise I always end up aimlessly wandering around and never get anything I actually need. Also, Friday is the Lucero show at the Triple Rock! Zach's coming up and we're going to head over to that. I'm pretty excited. Should be a good night for whiskey and some good alt country. Anybody else want to go? I believe there are tickets still. And it's not real expensive, only 10 bucks or so? Also, the beard is getting to be in full effect. It'll be in good shape for the Park City trip in January hopefully.
One thing I realized on Thanksgiving this year is how much I truly appreciate all my friends. The past 6 months would have really sucked if not for every single one.
Listen to:
Lucero - Rebels, Rogues, and Sworn Brothers
Lucero - That Much Further West
Lucero - Nobody's Darlings
The Evening Rig - Never Been'r
Anyway, it was all good times. See if you can spot any of us in this scrum, it's like Where's Waldo:
All in all, it was a great time. It was actually kind of hard to actually RUN the stupid thing. There were just so many people and the course was very narrow at points. Probably the easiest/slowest 7 miles I've ever run. But that was OK. We closed out the day with cold showers at the motel and then a meal at Cheddar's (??!, some bizarre Iowa chain restaurant). The best part was the next day I wasn't sore at all. I was a little worried about my right knee. I think I developed some tendinitis running the TC marathon. But it wasn't sore at all on Sunday. I've been sticking to the CrossFit stuff pretty well. It's been 3 days on, 1 day off for the most part. I can definitely tell my endurance is getting better and my strength is improving. The other weird thing is that I think I've kicked my metabolism into overdrive because I am hungry all the time. And all this on 30 minute workouts 5 times a week. Hard to believe. I'm up to about 6 dead hang pullups and I'd like to get that number up a little more. I still would like to maybe join the CrossFit Minnesota gym down in Eden Prairie. It just sucks that it's so far away. They got a brand new space though with a bunch of new equipment. It would be a lot of fun to work out with other people and get the help of their trainers/coaches. I have been practicing some of the lifts and I feel better about them. The biggest issue with Lifetime is the fact they don't have bumper plates for weights. It makes me a little concerned about doing some of the power lifts and presses and whatnot since you can't drop the weight if it's too much. Which kind of sucks because then you're always going to play it a little safe with putting weight on the bar. Ah well. Today's WOD was Helen. I subbed a 40 pound dumbbell for the swings and did jumping pullups since I don't have the kipping technique down yet. I finished in 12:09. That was the closest I've come to puking with a WOD so far. It made me think that maybe I finally hit the intensity level that I need to be reaching every time. Anyway, I'm really loving the whole program. I'd like to start doing some of the WODs from CrossFit Endurance and do some 2 a days. I'll probably wait a little longer till I think my body can handle that. The goal is for me to hit the ground running (literally) next spring when the snow melts. Berndt is wanting to do the TC marathon next fall and probably a half marathon in June. I told him I'd do that half marathon for sure. I'm not real positive I want to do another marathon, but maybe I'll get that bug in a few months. I'd kind of like to do some 5K's and really go for some fast times. I'd love to break 20 minutes.
I've been feeling pretty reflective lately with the holidays. It's kind of funny, it seems like Thanksgiving and Christmas are always times that I kind of think back to where I was at in years gone by. This one is a little weird since a lot has changed for me between last year and this year. Thanksgiving itself was a little rough. I think Zach was in the same boat, so we ended up grabbing a few beers at Mac's last Thursday. His buddy Ted came out and it was good to just hang out with some people and try to get your mind off it. Friday night ended up being pretty legendary. A bunch of us went to the Northeast Palace. They had karaoke and everybody ended up singing at least one song. It started off pretty tame, but ended far from that when last call happened. Definitely good times.
Not a whole lot going on this week, which I'm completely fine with. Last week actually ended up being busy with Thanksgiving and people having a lot of free time on their hands. Tomorrow's my day off from doing WODs but I'm thinking maybe I'll do a CrossFit Endurance WOD since those are less strength based. I do need to hit up the grocery store at some point. Which reminds me, I need to go with a list this time! Otherwise I always end up aimlessly wandering around and never get anything I actually need. Also, Friday is the Lucero show at the Triple Rock! Zach's coming up and we're going to head over to that. I'm pretty excited. Should be a good night for whiskey and some good alt country. Anybody else want to go? I believe there are tickets still. And it's not real expensive, only 10 bucks or so? Also, the beard is getting to be in full effect. It'll be in good shape for the Park City trip in January hopefully.
One thing I realized on Thanksgiving this year is how much I truly appreciate all my friends. The past 6 months would have really sucked if not for every single one.
Listen to:
Lucero - Rebels, Rogues, and Sworn Brothers
Lucero - That Much Further West
Lucero - Nobody's Darlings
The Evening Rig - Never Been'r
# posted by JT @ 8:23 PM 
