week of 6/20-6/26 catchup post aka Up in Smoke

6/20 lift box squat 5x275 close-grip towel bench 6x215 plus dumbell snatch 5x85 3+1x105 pull-ups +55lbs
6/22 lift power clean 2x225 deadlift 2x410
6/22 crossfit consisting of 2 man alternating between burpees and 100lb sandbag run with 10 ring dips each time we switched
6/24 rest last day before the Carolina Super Spartan, although I worked 17.5 hours and slept 1.5 hours..

A few notes on the lifting this week.  My squats are still suffering thanks to the running and added Crossfit.  I pulled off my deadlifts and had some really good snatches.  Had too much work on Friday to get in a lift, but probably for the best with the race the following morning.


6/21 run 54 mins (supposed to be 10x400m) @ ATT soft side in New Balance MT10 Trail Minimus

10x400m
1. 2:00  HR avg 162
2. 1:55  HR avg 163
3. 1:57  HR avg 165
4. 2:06  HR avg 167
5. 2:15  HR avg 169
6. 4:19 HR avg 138 (walked thanks to the smoke and the heat)
7. 2:06 HR avg 166
8. 2:12 HR avg 169
9. skipped (smoke + heat = sad panda)
10. 2:09 HR avg 168

temp 90-94
HR avg 151 max 179 (average heart rate includes 10 min warm-up, 10 min cool-down and 90 second rest intervals)

This was the day the smoke from all the wildfires moved into the triangle.  I remember getting up and looking outside my window and thinking one of the houses on my street must be on fire.  I couldn't see down the road in either direction.  Opening the door to let the dog out brought in the pungent odor of wood smoke.  I decided I would run anyways, in the hopes the air might be a bit cleaner on the side of ATT where I run.

When I got to the Tobacco Trail, it wasn't any better, if anything it worse than at my house.  This was around 1pm and I was just glad the smell didn't give me a headache on the ride over.  On the upside, the heavy smoke blocked out some of the sun's rays.  It was still hot as heck, but at least the sun wasn't beating me down quite as much.  I started off at a good clip, but the smoke really messed with my breathing.  I felt like I couldn't get a full breath and my body would try to settle into it's natural rhythm of breathing only to feel like I wasn't getting enough oxygen.  To make matters worse, this was the day I switched from 400m rest intervals to 90 second rest intervals.  This adaptation alone was going to make my recovery between sprints difficult.  Long story short, I walked one and skipped one, so I ended up only doing 8x400m.  Looking back at my HR and times, I should have been able to push at least a little bit more, but I think the smoke caused my breathing to get out of control.


6/23 run 62 mins @ start of ATT down by Jordan lake in New Balance MT10 Trail Minimus

temp 82ish (around 7pm)
HR avg 150 max 160

This was my last run before the Carolina Super Spartan on Saturday, so my goal was to take it super easy and just work on relaxing and settling in.  This worked out ok, although I continue to have issues where no matter how easy of a pace I start, my heart rate will climb once my body reaches sort of a heat saturation point and it's almost as if I can't run slow enough to bring it back down again.  Overall a pretty good run.  The +1 came along and was complaining about how slow she was going to be before she proceeded to dust me :-)