Jack is a Hero WOD. For those new to the CrossFit lingo, hero WODs are extremely grueling, butt-kicking workouts named and performed in memory of fallen soliders in the line of duty.

Given that it’s the week leading up to Memorial Day, I have a feeling that a lot of our workouts this week are going to be Hero WODs.

Jack is named in honor of Army Staff Sgt. Jack M. Martin III, 26, of Bethany, Okla., assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, Fort Lewis, Wash. He died September 29, 2009, in Jolo Island, Philippines, from the detonation of an improvised explosive device.

Army Staff Sgt. Jack M. Martin III

The workout named in his honor is probably as kickass as he was.

The full Jack workout is a 20-minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible):

• 10 push presses
• 10 kettlebell swings
• 10 box jumps

Last night’s mini version was the same movements for 10 minutes instead of 20.

And trust me when I say 10 minutes was plenty.

In 10 minutes, I knocked out five rounds + 10 extra kettlebell swings.

For push presses I got through three rounds at 45 pounds and dropped to 35 pounds for the last two rounds. I stuck with a 16 kg kettlebell for the swings, but probably could have gone higher. Compared to everything else, the swings felt a little too easy.

But since the box jumps and push presses were complete butt-kickers, the respite during the kettlebell swings was much needed.

Hero WODs are hard, but they’re also awesome, and I’m really looking forward to tackling more of them this week.

Rumor has it we’ll be doing Murph on Friday. I am equal parts excited and terrified.

The post Jack – My First Hero WOD appeared first on Jess Runs.

It’s a lollipop-course 10K that takes you past some of the gorgeous homes on the Hill before looping you out around RFK stadium and then returning you to where you started in front of Stanton Park.

The weather on race morning was overcast and frankly, pretty disgusting, threatening to spit rain on us at any second.

View from the metro on race morning

It was chilly, but weirdly humid and I debated for a while what I should wear to run, eventually deciding on shorts and a tank top (definitely ended up being the right choice.)

A few weeks ago, I had convinced Megan to run the race, and she had then convinced a few friends to sign up too, so we had a nice little group.

Jen, Alex, Megan, me

Alex was running her first race and Jen was running her first 10K.

My only goal for the race was seeing what I could do speed-wise on the course. My 10K PR was from 2009, so I figured I could shave some time off. (Then again that’s what I thought during last year’s Lawyers Have Heart 10K and that definitely didn’t happen.)

I almost never race 10Ks. They’re a weird distance that I don’t love because I don’t know how to run them well. You can’t push as hard as you can in a 5K or you’ll burnout too quickly, but you can’t pace them like you would a half marathon or you’ll finish too slowly with way too much left in the tank.

So my pacing plan for the race, was too push myself to an uncomfortable place from the start, and see if I could hang on. The course helped me a bit here because you start running on a downhill. Actually the whole first half of the course is a nice downhill before you climb steadily back to the start.

I knew that going in and figured I’d try to bank some time in the early miles.

I clocked my first miles in 8:08 and 8:14 respectively. Thank you downhill!

The course flattened out a bit then through the lollipop loop, but I was still pacing pretty well until we hit the first big uphill on the way back.

Mile 4 was the first time one of my miles was not a sub-9 pace. I think it clocked in around 9:11.

But I battled up the hill, and the course leveled out for a smidge so I could pick up the pace again.

By mile 5 I was hurting pretty bad, but I knew I didn’t have too much farther to go, so I just tried to hang on. The rain had started to fall a bit more steadily, and it was actually a welcome relief and did a nice job cooling me down a bit. Plus there was a little bit of crowd support here, which was nice and something you don’t see a ton in smaller races.

When I saw the mile 6 marker, I knew I had a new PR in the bag, it was just a matter of how much of a PR it would be. I kicked hard across the finish line, crossing in 53:25, good enough for nearly three minutes off my previous PR.

Whoop!

Turned out that all of us had a pretty good day. Megan was happy with her time and Alex and Jen set automatic PRs!

Overall, I really enjoyed this race. Other than a minor blip at the beginning of the race with packet pick up delaying the start by 15 minutes, I thought the race was well organized and well run. It’s definitely a race I’d recommend and certainly one I plan to run again.

The post Capitol Hill Classic Review and Recap appeared first on Jess Runs.

This is Jon, one of my closest friends and coach of our team

I’m sure Jon wanted to wring my neck.

Softball pretty much signals the start of summer for me, and it was so good to be back on our field playing under the lights last night.

Most rec league sports teams in DC have to send an intern to squat on the Mall all day long to reserve a small patch of grass to be used as a field, but luckily, we have a permit for a real field down in Southwest that has lights for when they sun starts to set.

We got to work pretty quickly putting a hurting on the other team. The final score was something like 16-3.

Team mascot Marley watching from the sidelines

I played a so-so game. My first at bat was awesome. Got a really solid hit – a two-run RBI single I believe.

My second at bat was pathetic. I was getting annoyed at the pitcher’s inability to throw a hit-able ball and started swing half-heartedly at a lot of really, realllllly bad pitches. And third at bat I reached on a fielder’s choice.

I pitched relief in the 6th inning and threw pretty well. Glad to see my pitching managed to not get rusty in the off-season. (Then again, it’s a slow-pitch league, pretty much just need to lob the ball over the plate.)

And of course after the game, we headed over to the Tune Inn for our traditional post-game celebration.

Our team Tune Inn jerseys

So glad softball is here and thrilled summer is unofficially here too!

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I’ve heard stories of people yakking during CrossFit classes, but I’ve never once felt even close to that in class. Yes, we work hard, but that doesn’t mean it results in a bunch of people puking all over the gym. (That would just leave a lot of gross clean up.)

Last night though, I was pushed right to the verge of the puke threshold, where I could sort of feel the bile rising in the back of my throat.

The Sweat part of the class was three 500 meter sprints on the rower. Ewww.

I knew this workout would suck. I did not know it would almost make me ill.

I got through the first sprint fine. Finished in 2:02, not fast, but not horribly slow (kind of like my running).

Tackled the second sprint, finished in 2:03 and then felt my stomach get kind of unsettled. I took a beat to catch my breath. Chilled on the rower until I could pull myself together and calm my stomach.

Then tackled the third sprint in 2:05 and felt like death afterward. Not pukey death. The stomach stuff went away after the second interval, but I pretty much wanted to collapse on the ground and never move again after that last sprint.

My quads were on fire. I was gasping for air. Sweat was pouring down my face.

Rowing just straight up sucks. It’s a killer workout and I know it’s making me stronger and all, but it just plain sucks, especially when it makes me feel like I might puke.

The post Finding the Puke Threshold appeared first on Jess Runs.

I’m pretty picky about my running socks and don’t really like messing with what I know works, but the team at Powersox sent me a pair to try out, and I have to say, these socks are making me bench my usual pairs. They’ve got that thinner band around the center of my foot with a little more cushioning in the heel and the toe and they’re the perfect height on my ankles.

My BostonStrong Bic Band

In all the Boston aftermath, this was the only fundraising item I purchased. I’d heard good things about Bic Bands from other runners, but had never tried one myself, plus I loved that all the money was going to the One Fund. Ever since the band got here, I’ve been using it nonstop. It doesn’t slip and slide on my head at all, and I have really, really thick hair that sometimes makes it hard to keep head bands in place. This is a definite winner.

Box Jumps

Now that I’ve finally got the hang of them, I think box jumps are a ton of fun. They used to scare the crap out of me because I didn’t want to bite it on the box, but not so much anymore. Now they’re just a good buttkicking.

Getting Faster

CrossFit and a few rounds of treadmill intervals are definitely starting to pay off in the speed department. I can definitely tell that holding faster mile splits is getting easier and easier.

Warm Weather Maybe Finally Showing Up

This one hardly needs an explanation. Bring on the summer sunshine!

What are you loving this week?

The post Stuff I’m Loving Right Now appeared first on Jess Runs.

My Senate league softball team starts on Thursday night (picture above is from last year’s Senate league season), and I’m beyond excited — in part because I love softball, in part because I’m just really excited to see everyone after a long off season.

Because my love of softball is getting mildly out of control, I also picked up a second softball team this year. When the weather’s nice, you really can’t play too much softball.

My new team is UMD’s alumni team, and I had my first game with them on Friday night.

Boy was I rusty.

I hadn’t picked up a bat since July, and it definitely showed. My first at bat, I struck out. Oh the shame, striking out in slow pitch softball! I don’t know if it was nerves, or what, but man, I was embarrassed for myself.

I got progressively better as the night went on. I walked and got a hit in later innings, and my fielding wasn’t too terrible.

We ended up beating Pitt in a pretty close game.

And now hopefully I can count Friday night’s game as my warm-up so that I’m in much better form on Thursday night.

Or else coach might bench me

I’ve been counting down to Thursday for a few weeks now. If it would just hurry up and get here a little faster that would be wonderful.

The post Softball is Back! appeared first on Jess Runs.

And this morning, I woke up thinking that I can’t believe it’s over. I have so many mixed emotions about my first semester as a teacher.

There were days when I absolutely loved teaching and days when the thought of grading another paper wanted to make me pull all my hair out.

Sometimes the semester seemed like it was flying by, sometimes it seemed like it was dragging.

Some days I wondered if it was worth it, if I was actually successfully teaching anything at all, and other days, I knew it was 100 percent worth it when a concept I was teaching just sort of clicked for one of my students.

A lot of times I worried I was a horribly inadequate teacher and my students would have been better off in someone else’s class. My biggest fear was failing them –that I wouldn’t teach them what they needed to learn to successfully move forward in their classes.

On top of all that, balancing teaching with my full time job was hard. A lot of times, I felt like I was spread too thin. My social life and training definitely took a big hit because hey, there are only so many hours in the day.

But the experience was really rewarding.

I was lucky that I got a great group of students. I had 18 kids who all seemed eager to learn. They asked questions, they were engaged and they seemed to care about the stuff we were talking about. I really looked forward to spending Monday and Wednesday evenings with them.

Last night, when one of my students was handing in her final, she also handed me a thank you note card. Inside were two messages from two of my students thanking me for teaching them and telling me how much they enjoyed the class and looked forward to coming every week.

I was so touched reading their messages, in part because I had these crushing doubts that I wasn’t actually a very good teacher and no one was really learning anything. But I guess all along they were.

So as much as I’m looking forward to summer and going back to only working one job for the next several months, I’m really going to miss my kids.

This semester was a huge challenge for me, but at the end of the day, it was an amazingly rewarding experience.

The post Thoughts on My First Semester as a Professor appeared first on Jess Runs.

To put it mildly, yesterday kind of sucked for me.

It was a chaotic day at the office, new things kept popping up pulling my attention from things that needed to get done, I was stuck in meetings for what seemed like forever. By the time I left the office, I was a frazzled ball of stress feeling like I got absolutely nothing of value accomplished.

Oh and plus while I was in the office, I tried to relieve some of the stress by thoroughly enjoying some leftover cake from a retirement party and a few Oreos. Yeaaaa, go me.

So when I got home, I wanted to feel like I had accomplished something of value, and I wanted to stop thinking about all the stuff I did not accomplish at work.

Enter running. The perfect way to really shut your mind off for a bit.

I was torn between a long slow distance run and some grueling, heart pounding intervals.

Can’t decide if I want to run so hard I can’t think (intervals) or run so long I can’t think (distance). Ether way just don’t want to think

— Jess Milcetich (@jessmilcetich) May 7, 2013

Since the weather was rainy and gross, I opted for treadmill intervals.

The plan was to do about an hour of intervals, but by that point in the workout, I was feeling good and didn’t want to stop. So I kept pushing.

And eventually I knocked out something like 10 miles of intervals (including warm up and cool down).

Sweat was literally pouring down my back, dripping out of my hair and falling into my eyes by the time I was finished. I was an absolutely disgusting mess, but I felt so good.

My shirt was so drenched with sweat I could have wrung it out.

My mind was clear, and the work stress seemed like a minor blimp on the radar. I felt calmer and happier, and most importantly, I felt like I had accomplished something worthwhile.

The post The Mind-Numbing and Healing Power of Running appeared first on Jess Runs.

UA has hosted this challenge twice before and I’ve been involved both times and loved it. There’s something extra motivating about having a group of women working together and pushing each other to go after their individual goals.

Version 3.0 of the challenge kicked off just last week, and the timing really couldn’t be any more perfect for me.

With nothing on my training calendar except a few smaller races, I felt like I was a floundering a bit in fitness land and I wasn’t sure where my focus should be.

I know I’ve wanted to focus on shorter races for the summer, but I wasn’t totally dedicated to any one goal around them. Running for fun seemed like a good idea.

But then I thought it would be more fun to go after some PRs this summer — specifically in the 5K and 10K races.

After coming off a monster PR at the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in DC two weeks ago, I’m all fired up to see what kind of speed I can muster in shorter distances.

And just like that, my What’s Beautiful goal was determined:

Set a new PR in 5K and 10K this summer. #IWILL

The great thing about this newest version of the What’s Beautiful challenge is that you can set up a team of people working toward similar goals so you can all work together. Last night I created team PR Smashers for anyone looking to crush some of their PRs in the coming months.

Doesn’t matter the distance you’re running, if you’re looking to set a new time goal, you’re a perfect fit for the team!

So if that’s you, go sign up for the What’s Beautiful Challenge and join our team!

I’m looking forward to drawing on motivation from all of you and seeing us all set some major new PRs this summer.

The post It’s Baaaaackk appeared first on Jess Runs.

My last long run of the past training cycle

But with no long runs on the schedule for several months, I decided to mix things up this weekend. I hit the gym Saturday morning and did a short and speedy run on Sunday.

Saturday’s Gym Workout:

During the lifting portion of the workout on Saturday, I focused on pull-ups and handstands. Pull-ups are definitely one of my weaknesses, so it was good to dedicate some time to them. I’m still using a resistance band to help on the pull-ups. I think I’m really going to need to dedicate more time to pull-ups if I want to graduate from the band.

For the handstands, I started by focusing on 30 second holds. (These are supported handstands against a wall, I don’t have the balance to hold a handstand for more than a few seconds without support.) By the end of the lift session, I had worked up to holding each handstand for one minute. During the last one, my arms were a little shaky and I kicked off the wall before I ended up falling on my face.

Saturday’s sweat portion of the workout was intense:

• 800 meter run
• 40 pushups
• 400 meter run
• 40 kettlebell swings
• 200 meter run
• 40 ball slams

All those sprints definitely reminded me that I am a distance runner, not a sprinter.

Sunday’s Run:

On Sunday’s run, I was feeling a bit speedy (I was after all wearing my “fast shoes”) and though I didn’t take my Garmin with me, the 5K I ran was fast.

My “fast shoes”

I felt like I was flying across the ground and that the hills were nothing. I pushed myself hard and finished panting, gasping for breath, hands on my knees. It was a good endorphin-boosting run.

It was fun mixing things up this weekend with a slightly different workout routine, and I’m looking forward to keeping up some of that variety throughout the summer.

Do you vary your weekend workout routine when you’re not in training?

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