Becca Borawski’s Blog

10:15am – IndoRow, at Revolution

So glad I went to rowing today, even though, or actually BECAUSE it crushed me.  I was excited I was seated between Jay, a fellow firebreather, and Chris, the instructor, today, as that meant I’d be going hard.

Here’s what we did today (and I’m trying to write these out in a more logical way from now on, so it’s more clear what we do in these classes):

Warmup – review of rowing technique and our “pressure test” where we determine for ourselves what split times we’re going to hold ourselves to for easy, medium and full pressure (think jog, run, sprint).

Wave #1 – 12 minutes:
1 minutes easy pressure
2 minutes medium pressure
1 minute easy pressure
2 minutes full pressure
1 minutes easy pressure
2 minutes medium pressure
1 minute easy pressure
2 minutes full pressure

Wave #2 – 6 minutes:
3 minutes easy pressure
3 minutes full pressure

Wave #3 – 5 minutes:
5 rounds
20 seconds easy pressure
40 seconds full pressure

Relay Race:
6 members per team
50m, 100m, 50m, 100m

There was an awful lot of full pressure today!  Yowza.  Particularly, a lot of long intervals of full pressure.  This was actually perfect for me and my focus on mental toughness.  Really trying to keep pushing and not give myself any “outs.”

The fact that we row in sync definitely helps—you get a sense of energy from the people around you and it also reminds you to stay in rhythm and not abandon your form.

On the relay race I made it down to 1:26 on my intervals.  I may not be able to maintain it, but I can do it for 100m.  It’s a start!

This was a really hard class today and I also felt in better shape cardio wise than I have the last couple weeks.  Hard work is starting to pay off!

12:00pm – Run On My Own + CrossFit, All Levels (Cookie Only)

Today was one of the heavy back squat days for Wendler and since I’m totally off schedule on that, I decided to use it as a chance to get one of my weekly runs in.  I ran for 30 minutes and felt REALLY good.  I felt fast and worked on some Pose elements.  I wasn’t any faster on my route, which was a little frustrating, but I also picked the hottest part of the day to run.  So I think it probably evens out.

After my 30 minute run I joined the CrossFit class for the “cookie” at the end of the workout.

15-12-9
Burpees
Dead Hang Pull Ups (mini band)
Pistols
10:20

This was my first time doing burpees again and they were fine.  Pull ups were supposed to be weighted, but I’m not totally back up to speed on these so I did dead hang with the mini band.  Pistols I always love, so that part was awesome.

10:00am – IndoRow, at Revolution

Back to my normal hour of IndoRow – the 10am Sunday class, led by Chris T.  Jay is one of the other firebreathers in this class and I always know it’ll push me to go hard if I sit next to him, which I did today.  Still getting my lungs back, so I knew this wasn’t going to be a “fun” class today, but it felt really good in a horrible way.

I don’t remember all the specifics about the waves we did.  I remember the first was 13 minutes and there was a lot of medium pressure, but we started and ended with some long sections of full pressure, which was hard.  We also did a 6 minute and a 5 1/2 minute wave I think.  It’s all a blur.  Usually I’m better at remembering all this and committing it to memory between the waves.   I think I lost focus due to the extreme cotton mouth happening between waves today.

I do very much remember ending the class with a 500m sprint.  Which made me very unhappy.  I hate 500’s.  Nowhere to slack off and hide!  You’re just committed to 2 minutes of total unpleasantness.  BUT, this is also why rowing and running is great for me—getting okay with being miserable.  Working on mental toughness!

I tried not to “fly and die,” as Josh would say, and went hard but controlled in the beginning.  For the middle third of the sprint I got in sync with Jay’s stroke rate and really felt like I was flying there.  After a while he picked it up even further though and I can’t handle a stroke rate upwards of 35 without compromising form/efficiency beyond what’s acceptable to me, so I stayed put.  In the end, I did the 500 in 1:48.  Not bad at the end of an hour of rowing!

10:00am – Pose Lesson

Today Andy and I met with a Pose running coach, named Daniel, who gave us both lessons.  I worked with him for about half an hour.  He said I had a lot of the basic elements, but he worked with me on my “pull” of my feet.  I was kicking out behind me too much instead of pulling straight up.  We did some drills standing in place – hopping drills and footwork drills – and he also had me run back and forth across the room a few dozen times.  He gave me some tips on my lean, also.  So, I will work on remembering these things while I’m out on my next run – I find I can do Pose for short distances alright, but at longer distances it gets harder.  I am going to keep working on this!

8:30am – Run, On My Own

I went out for a run again today, and despite being tired and low on sleep, I felt pretty good once I got going.  I felt faster the whole time and lo-and-behold when I finished the same loop I had done last week, I was two minutes faster.  That was nice to see.  I don’t know how long the loop is, I should Garmin it or Google it or something, but last week it took me 31 minutes and this week it took me 29.  Getting my lungs back!

11:00am – IndoRow, at Revolution

Back to IndoRow today!  Normally if I go on Sundays I go to the 10am, since that’s when the IndoRow Firebreathers usually come out.  But, I couldn’t get into that class, so I went at 11am instead.  On a normal day I would say it wasn’t my preferred scenario, but in truth, for my first day back there, it was probably perfect.

There were a bunch of people brand new to rowing in the class and a few that had clearly been doing it a while, but I’d never met before.

I got a seat right next to Chris, the instructor, and tried do match my hands to his exactly the whole hour.  I’ve taken a little bit different things from each instructor there, but after taking his classes on and off for a long time now, Chris has definitely made an impact on me getting my hands in the right spot.

We did 3 waves and then a relay race.  The 2nd wave was a long recovery wave, mostly at easy and medium pressure, with some bursts of 10 full pressure strokes here and there.  The 1st and 3rd waves were really intense.  They were 6 minutes in length.  Both started out at full pressure, went down to medium, then easy, and then back up, at different intervals.  On the 3rd wave we finished with 2 minutes of full pressure.  That was mentally tough.  I tried not to look at my monitor much at that point and just pushed through.

My numbers weren’t stellar today, but they weren’t bad.  My muscles felt pretty okay, but my lungs were not up to speed.  Which is exactly why I wanted to do this today!

We finished the hour with a relay race.  We had five people on our team and each did three 100m sprints.  I got down into the 1:20’s on these, so that was a nice way to end the class!

7:00am – Run, On My Own

First run since surgery. Exactly 2 weeks post surgery today.  I ran for about 30 minutes.  Don’t know how far exactly or how fast, but it felt like a pretty good pace actually.  Only that hurt was my lungs!  It felt really good to be out there and I missed it a lot.  Who knew?

I was just flat out feeling feisty today, as it turns out…

9:00am – CrossFit, All Levels

Today we were working on heavy sets of three jerks.  I realized it has literally been a couple years since I have worked on heavy jerks.  The jerk is one of my favorite lifts and I used to do it much more often.  It became very apparent to me today that I was stronger than I was two years ago, but the lack of practice took a neurological and mental toll that I couldn’t overcome.

Split Jerk
3-3-3-3-3
1. 3 x 105#
2. 3 x 115#
3. 3 x 120#
4. 1 x 125#
5. 2 x 120#

After that I did some more practice back down at 95# to end on good form.

My 1RM from a couple years ago was 125# and I remember at the time thinking I could probably do like 5-10# more.  So, I know I was strong then and am stronger now, the difference is just a lack of practice.  More than once I lifted the bar off the rack, stepped back, and then stepped back in and put it down.

I also was committed to doing split jerk today, knowing that at a max weight it’s the best bet for a good lift.  But, that being said, what I’m used to doing at this point when it comes to jerks is high volume lower weight workouts and I almost always do the push jerk for efficiency of cycle time.  So, all in all today just felt weird—I love this lift and need to do it more!

10:15am – Run, On My Own

I was craving going for a run. Yes, that’s right, I said I was craving going for a run.  And please, don’t ask me what has happened to me—I have no idea either.  It’s weird and I’m just accepting it.  I now love running.

I ran for about 38 minutes – only 2 stops, once for about 30 seconds at a stop light and once at about 25 minute in for about a minute.  I felt faster today than I did on my last run and I think I ran farther, too.  I’m really enjoying just running for running’s sake, not timing or measuring, so I’m sticking with that for now.

I do try to focus on landing on the ball of my foot and standing up straight.  It’s not Pose but I am working on not abusing my body at least, so I can keep doing this.

7:00pm – Fencing Lesson

Yes, activity number three today!  I told you I was feeling feisty.  I was feeling quick with my hand/sabre in my lesson tonight.  Learned some new movements, too.  I felt like my reaction time was really quick tonight…although my right leg was really tired by this point, so oh my that lunge position starts burning after a while.

9:00am – Run, On My Own

I ran again today!  I was actually really excited to run and kind of craving it.  I find that very confusing! lol!  But I think I’ve finally realized why people who love to run, love to run.  There’s something mental about it that’s really amazing and I feel like a switch just flipped this week in my head and now I want to run all the time.  It’s very odd!

I ran for almost 40 minutes today.  No idea how far or how fast.  At about 30 minutes in I walked for a minute and a half.  Need to charge up my Garmin so I know what I’m doing, but I’m not too concerned – just sticking with enjoying it!

7:30am – Run, On My Own

My plantar fasciitis has been feeling considerably better lately and this morning I felt like I wanted the mental pleasure of running.  Yes, that’s right, I said mental pleasure.  There’s something really refreshing about checking out and running and I’ve come to enjoy it more and more, even if I’m not the best runner.

I ran for a little over half an hour. I’m not sure how far I went or how fast I went because my Garmin wasn’t fully charged and was acting funny.  I ran up Centinela and around the golf course, then on the way back instead of turning back on Centinela, I was feeling so good I kept running and went up to Amherst and then over to Wilshire and back down.

I DID, however, at one point totally wipe out.  Near the beginning of my run, when I hit the dirt around the golf course I must have hit a root or something and I totally bit it.  I was covered in dirt for my whole run, but I didn’t care!  This run felt really good and I plan to do it again later this week.