Just Breathe

Despite a late meeting on campus today, I was able to rush home via the bus and make it to St. Paul in time to watch the 6 PM class start the WOD. Fortunately, Jake was running class and he's pretty lenient - so I got to warm-up on my own and then join in. Today's workout was pretty basic, just running miles.

Today we ran a mile, rested five minutes, and then ran another mile. Easy stuff...except if you're not a runner, i.e., ME! I really don't like running, but today actually wasn't too bad. The weather was great because we've been having some rain up north, so it was that perfect coolness and fresh grass/rain smell in the air. Only problem is that I've been suffering from pretty bad allergies the past week, so I had a little trouble breathing. Fortunately, I've tried running while using my "power yoga" breathing technique which requires just breathing in and out of my nose. Weirdly enough, it does make me feel a little bit more controlled in my breathing and less tired during a run. My times broke down to 8:17 and 8:53 - faster than my "personal record" from middle school and the Presidential Fitness Test.

After the WOD, Jake led an Olympic lifting skills session. We've been working on snatches and clean and jerks, but this was his last week so we did something a little different and more "roundabout" to building strength. Snatch balance and front squats to jerks. On both of these lifts, I felt pretty solid and strong, mainly because I was focusing on breathing in at the top of the lift and holding my breath during. It really helps a lot and makes me think of tightening every muscle in my body - key component to heavy lifts. I was reminded of how in dance, the hardest thing for me to do was get a triple turn. My captain used to tell me to inhale on the preparation and then hold my breath for the turn or say a word with the same number of syllables as the turn (like "Ste-pha-nie") to control my exhale. And it worked, probably because it focused my core-tightening muscles. Same thing for lifting.

I haven't really been keeping track of PRs for snatches and C&Js, but tonight I got a 68# snatch balance EASY and a 93# front squat to jerk pretty easily. Going to keep working on those lifts and being more aggressive/explosive getting weight overhead.