Mayday May Day

May Is Over, onto June. But first, let me recount the past couple of weeks for you. As you may have gathered, we had lost some motivation, partly due to Chad's back ailments - they've been pretty darn bad - and partly due to laziness. I'm really hoping that what seems to be Sciatica/Pinched Nerve/Compressed Disc stuff finally backs off and gives him a sense of relief after weeks of discomfort, and sometimes, severe pain. It'd be nice to see him walk normally again. Stretching, drugs, ice, heat, and even our TENS machine haven't made much of a difference yet.

Wednesday, May 21
Nada

Thursday, May 22
Nada

Friday, May 23
Nada

Saturday, May 24
Joined the 8 week RAC Caribbean Challenge (denoted CC), albeit a little late, the goal is to complete it! This challenge goes from May 18th - July 19th and in order to receive the health and wellness goodie bag at the end, one must complete 32 island's worth of work by the end of the program, in addition to a personal trainer demo and a body fat check (yikes!). This entails 5x7 activities: 1 mi run/walk, 3 mi bike, 10 laps/5,000m swim/row, 20 min elliptical/amt/arc trainer, group exercise class, and 100 reps of strength. Definitely a good way to make sure you mix things up, especially in the summertime!

Kate
Run 'n Lift (2 CCs)
3 x 10 of each with a lap after each set: Clean, Push Press, Bench Press, Bicep Curls and Tricep Kickbacks, Tricep Skullcrushers, 2 laps, then Jumping Jacks, :30 plank, Jumping Jacks. 2 miles total.

Chad
Chest, Bis, Tris (1 CC)
500m Row
Stretching

Sunday, May 25
Kate and Chad
11 mi Bike Ride (1 CC)

Monday, May 26 MEMORIAL DAY
Kate
5mi Run in the morning heat (1 CC)

Chad
8.5mi Bike Ride (1 CC)

Tuesday, May 27
Rest

Wednesday, May 28
Kate
Legs (1 CC)
1000m Row (Partial CC)
Hot Tub

Chad
Bis, Tris (1 CC)
Hot Tub

Thursday, May 29
Kate
Swim 10 Laps (1 CC)
Hot Tub

Chad
Swim 10 Laps (1 CC)
Hot Tub

Friday, May 30
Kate RAC
4000m row (1 CC)
Upper Body Lifting (1 CC)
Abs

Saturday, May 31
Kate
7 mi Run (1 CC)

Chad
13.85 Bike Ride (1 CC)

Don't Turn Around

So let me recount the workouts we have done over the past couple of weeks...

Friday, May 9th
Nada

Saturday, May 10th
Gallop 4 the Greenways
Kate PR 25:55.2 and 3rd Place in Age Group!
Chad improvement in time of recent running 32:56.0!!
Also enjoyed a fun party after!
CHEERS!

Sunday, May 11th
Nada

Monday, May 12th
Nada

Tuesday, May 13th - Chad's 32nd!
We redid a wod as an homage to last year's Chad 31 WOD. We had to make a couple of adjustments, however:

Thirtyone.doh
31 Air Squats (we used the exercise ball in light of Chad's back - much harder)
31 Sec Plank
31 Rope Slams (we used barbells as the TRX room was occupado)
(0.1 was 31 bonus squats)
2013 K: 7:52  2014 K 8:25
2013 C: 8:00  2014 C 8:54

Chad came up with this year's bday wod:
3RFT
13 push press (45/135#)
13 push ups
13 lunges
2 laps
C 14:35
K 14:47 *boy, i wasn't feeling it and felt weak!!

32 Burpees (again)
K 3:02 *hot damn, a minute longer than just 5 short days ago!
C 3:42

Wednesday, May 14th
MOM & DAD ARRIVED

Thursday, May 15th
Nada

Friday, May 16th
Nada

Saturday, May 17th
Early morning run. I ran 7 and Chad ran 3-3.5 and walked around 1 more. Felt pretty good, but my feet were bothering me towards the end, and, my sports bra chaffed me BIGTIME. As in breaking skin. OUCH.

Sunday, May 18th
Nada

Monday, May 19th
Nada

Tuesday, May 20th
Nada

Lots of bad sleep, trouble waking up, and lackluster motivation. Excuses, really. We could have made ourselves get up while mom and dad were here, but we didn't.

Gotta get back to it, however, we have to adjust some things on account of Chad's minor bulging disk in his lower back. He needs to take a different approach to working out for a little while and I will go alongside him, but will still continue to run, too. Or should. Need to get back into the lifting. Fallen off the wagon again. Must get back up and keep it consistent again.

32 Flavors and Then Some

32
Born 5.8.82
8 x 4  32

"Thoitytwoo"
4RFT
5 jumping jacks*K did 8 on the 2nd round by accident
8 thrusters (55/95#)
8 lunges
2 laps (1 lap = 210m)
K 13:16
C 13:58

Finisher = 32 burpees
K 2:03 *if i hadn't stopped to adjust my pants I could've tied by 31!
C 2:46

ByeByeBye31

Last Day of 31!

KATE
Bench

10/7/5/2

50/70/80/90# (needed a spotter on the last one and could've done more)

Hang Power Cleans

5/5/5/5

50/60/70/80#

12 push ups

12 dumbbell bench press (22.5# ea)

WOD: thirtyone.oh (reprise)

3.1 Rounds RFT

7 supermans

8 4ct flutter kicks

16 kb swings (American) 30/40#

310 m row

(.1 was superman again)

2013 8:56
2014 9:03 

Transitions were slow, especially when rower-related.

31 Burpees

2013 2:30
2014 2:00
Yesss! Beat my time!

CHAD
Ball Squats – 4 sets of 25

Dumbbell Bench – 3 sets of 20 at 45#

Dumbbell Fly – 3 sets of 20 at 25#

Bicep Curls – 3 sets of 20 at 30#

Tricep Extensions – 3 sets of 15 at 95#

Row – 3 sets of 20 at 90#

YEARLY ROUND UP

I fully intended on keeping this blog up more on a daily basis as I had in the beginning, and certainly towards the end of the first year, perhaps even ending the blog at that point with something meaningful, prolific, profound, thought-provoking, and positive conveying major transformation and change of habit. But alas, I didn't. This blog, my body, and life are all a work in progress. Ebbs, flows, highs, lows, and everything in between. One can always be better, do better. That is the ultimate goal. I will admit that the FB check-ins, in addition to the blog, were going to go away, however, after thinking it over, the accountability factor remains and I (we) will continue to do so...It's an experiment, so perhaps that will still be the end result. With that said, I'll leave you with what I am calling the "yearly round up"; there will be more to come...for now.

APR26
The day of the Blue Ridge Marathon. Far cry from running the Half last year. Went for a 5.25 mi run and felt miserable. My feet hurt and it was hot as we left way too late. I also had my handheld and was not feeling it. Oh, and I wore my Lulu shorts. BAD IDEA. Can we say ride up? Slow and painful. Wished we would have signed up for the inaugural 10k, but alas, we did not.

Chad took Piggy with him on a shorter run/walk. Probably smarter.

APR27
Nada. Recovering.

APR28
Rainy and gross. Not motivation. Exhausted.

APR29
Rainy and gross. Not motivation. Exhausted.

APR30
Back to the RAC. Cannot really remember what we did. Probably some lifting and cardio.

MAY1 - 1 Year at the RAC, 1 Year Blog Anniversary
I have since forgotten what I did at the gym - probably some lifting and perhaps some cardio, but it certainly wasn't as tough as last May 1st's Lifting and WOD.

MAY2
2 mi run at Garst Mill. We went at our own paces as opposed to the last time when we ran it together.

MAY3
Equipped with podiatrist-suggested lateral wedges courtesy of the Shoe Doctor in my SuperFeet inserts and my (opened early!) gift from my parents - the Nathan Trail Mix Hydration Belt - I ran 6 miles and felt really pretty great. Chad ran/walked 4 miles. It was a beautiful morning. Then we went and checked out the new CrossFit Box, Big Lick, and congratulated the Polumbos and our buddy, Kurt. Beautiful place they have and we wish them all the best.

MAY4
Rest.

MAY5RAC'd it up. SPIN CLASS. Sweated our arses off. Good to be back in the saddle, so to speak.

MAY6
Woke up, but did not get moving. Thought about the Pub Run, but got home late. Wanted to grill and just not feeling motivated today. So, back to it tomorrow. Only 1 more day at the age of 31 for me and only 6 more for Chad. Yikes. Gotta start off 32 well, and with a good sweat!! Also need to send off 31 with a good sweat, too. Need to make that happen the next two days!!

CHEERS!!!!!!!!