Birthdays, WODs, miles and more!

Ok, I am really far behind on posting this week which is sad because there have been so many awesome things going on!

I’m going to back track to Saturday, August 11. We did the 31 Heroes WOD (Workout of the Day) to commemorate and remember the 30 service members and one dog who were killed in the Chinook helicopter crash on August 6, 2011.

This was a partner workout so I teamed up with Ms. Alicia who is a certified bad a**!

Alicia knocking out box jumps while I’m getting ready to transition to them

Here’s what we tackled:

31 minutes AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible)

8 Thrusters (move a bar with weights from the ground up to your shoulders then over your head, bring the bar back down to your shoulders and up over your head) 75 lbs.
12 Rope Climbs (we modified this so we lowered ourselves to the ground by going hand over hand until our back reached the floor)
11 Box Jumps (20″ box)

Modified Rope Climb

While one person was doing the weight workout, the other partner was doing a 400 meter run around the block with a 25 lb sandbag on their shoulders. Once the person was done with the run, we transitioned and picked up the weights section where the other partner left off.

We made it through 7 full rounds plus I got in 5 thrusters at the end! 

Thruster

We were pretty wiped out afterwards but we still got in some group shots!

Saturday night we celebrated the birthday of a fellow CrossFitter and enjoyed dinner at Marker 32 in Jacksonville.

We clean up pretty well!

Sunday morning I rolled out of bed, no seriously, I had to roll because my shoulders were so sore from Saturday and Thursday’s WODs. I made it to the beach and met up with a new group to do an ocean swim. The weather was perfect and the waves were calm but my shoulders just didn’t have much left in them. I enjoyed the swim as much as I could but I was trailing the group the whole time and started to feel alone out in the water. I swam 1350 meters, shy of about 300 meters for the whole swim. I kept about a 2:00min/100 meter pace but I would like to see that come down some. Maybe once I stop beating up my arms the day before!

Monday was a tough day so I tried to release some tension with a hard 5k run around 6 pm. It was brutally hot and humid. My first mile after a quarter mile warm up was 8:04 (just shy of that 7 min barrier). After the first mile, I stopped in the shade to cool down as I was burning up. I did a second mile around 8:15 and had to stop again and then finished off the run at 8:4o ish. I wanted to run the full 5k at a hard pace but the weather was just not going to let my body do that.

Now onto the fun stuff! My birthday was Tuesday and yes I really wanted to blog that day but I ran out of time! I started the morning off with a CrossFit WOD at 6 am. The WOD was good, nothing too crazy.

Tabata Mash Up 

There are three sections and for each of those sections you do 4 rounds of each movement for 20 seconds at an all out pace. After each 20 seconds, you then have 10 seconds to rest transition to the next movement.

ball slams (14 lbs)
Ring Dips (purple band)

1min Rest

Double Unders (get the jump rope to pass under your feet twice during one jump)
wall balls (deep squat with 15 lb large ball and explode upwards to the marked spot on the wall. Catch the ball and return into a squat position)

1min Rest

plate facing burpees 45# plate (Burpee: squat, shoot your legs out to the plank position, do a push up, bring your feet back underneath you, stand and jump to the 45 lb. plate in front of you, do it all over again)
sit ups (self explanatory 🙂 )

To score this WOD, you take the lowest number you were able to complete of each movement and add all of them together. It is important to stay at a higher number and I soon realized this as each round definitely counts.

Score: 48

I then headed into work for the day and was greeted with a decorated cubicle, some cards, and a Starbucks latte!

After the workday ended, I headed home, changed into my bike gear and took off for Jacksonville Beach. Luckily, a storm had already passed through the area and I was given the all clear by the almighty weather gods.

My goal was to do 27 miles for my 27th birthday. I think it would be pretty cool if I keep up this tradition every birthday. There was a very strong head wind on the way out. I was averaging around 15 mph! My legs felt good though. I knew I would be cutting it tight to get back in time to shower and headed to my birthday dinner but I pushed on. Once I reached the turn around on South A1A, I was able to literally fly home! I pushed my bike hard, harder than I’ve pushed maybe ever. I was reaching up towards 22 mph at some points. I was in the 2nd to last ring so I don’t know how I could have gone any faster plus my chain was rubbing and making noise, must get that checked out.

1st 13 miles: 15.1 mph/average

2nd 13 miles: 18.7 mph/average

Total: 25.74 miles     I know I didn’t make 27 miles but I literally ran out of time and got ready for dinner in a record time!

I had dinner with friends from work and CrossFit at Taco Lu…my favorite place!

We ate, we drank, and we wore sombreros! I had a great birthday and was so happy to have so many people help me celebrate it! I wouldn’t have done anything differently.

I’d like to see who else does crazy things for their birthday, take the poll below to share!