Santa North Pole Dash 5k & Olympic Lifting Seminar

Like I mentioned in my weekly workout recap Saturday I had the Santa’s North Pole Dash 5k AND a 3+ Hour Olympic Lifting Seminar. And I PR’d at both! Woot!!

I was super excited about the Santa North Pole Dash because I was planning on meeting up with Mel and Kim, but it turns out it is REALLY hard to find people in a crowd of 2500 people all wearing the same thing. But I was also excited because this was going to be my first serious timed 5k in over a year. The last 5k I “raced” was the Firefighter 5k back in September of 2011. I had just started training for my marathon and had never really run a “real” official race (Bad idea to sign up for a marathon before ever running in a real race, I know. Another post for another day…) I was also 25-30lbs heavier. I had my heart set to PR at the Santa Dash. Spoiler Alert: I DID!

My amazing husband came along with me since we were planning on hightailing it to the lifting seminar after the race. He dropped me off close to the start and I decided to get in a half mile warm up jog. Mostly because I was freezing. I ran up and down the riverfront for about 10-15 minutes before heading to the starting area

It was getting close to race time and people started to gather around the starting line. I saw someone familiar off in the distance and ran off to get a picture with him…. SANTA!!! I asked him to pace me… he laughed. I love this Santa, he is my favorite. Oh- and check out my outfit!

SweatyBand Green Sparkle Headband// Fleet Feet Santa Shirt (came with race entry)// Green Nike Tank// Red Team Sparkle Skirt// Marika Capri’s// Walmart Holiday Socks// Therafit Shoes

Before long it was time to start. There was no official gun start or anything, it seemed like people just shuffled across the start. It was super crowded and I was anxious for a PR so I got a little frustrated the first half mile. Then I settled into a good pace and tried to just keep at it. There were quite a few hills, but I powered through them. I know 3 miles is relatively short but sometimes I still wonder if it is ever going to end, lol. I was feeling pretty good for most of the race and getting excited towards the end because I was so close to a PR.

I really do love downtown St Charles so it was fun to run through the streets. As we passed the last turn before the finish line I saw the hubs standing on the corner cheering for me. Of course that made me pick up the pace, gotta look fast for my man, right?!

Except I really don’t look fast. Whoops. We rounded the corner and I saw the finish line. I kept my pace strong and finished officially in 36:34 – a 2 minute PR! I’ll take it!

Getting through the finisher shoot and finding water was a little frustrating. I eventually got my water and headed to the truck. On the way I saw my WOD friend Tracy running to a great finish – you go girl!

I tried to stretch out a bit but we jumped right into the truck and headed to CrossFit Chesterfield for our Olympic Lifting Seminar with Lindsay Taylor. This girl is seriously a beast. She started lifting because of CrossFit, she even competed in 2011 NorCal Regionals, but eventually moved into just Olympic lifting and ended up taking third in Nationals after like a year of training. Unreal.

We started the class breaking down the basics of the snatch. For those of you unfamiliar with lifting, here is Lindsay doing an 84kg (around 185lbs… WHAT?!) Snatch

I love that she makes this look so easy. 185lbs is ALOT. My current max is 80lbs. We worked on the different positions of the lift from a standing (hang) position, as well as from the floor. I really loved being able to practice the lift with someone watching and correcting my form and giving me pointers. I learned that I pull really high on my lift, but continue to pull when I’m trying to catch it. That makes it harder than it has to be. If I learn to drop under the bar in a squat better I’ll be able to lift much much heavier. and that is SO motivating. We did an exercise, pictured in the collage above, where one parter stood on the box with the PVC pipe and one of us held on to the PVC in snatch grip as if we just pulled. We practiced dropping under the bar without raising it higher. This is something I am going to practice practice practice.

We also broke down the Squat Clean, and I realized I have the same issue on the clean as I do on the snatch, I pull hard and high but don’t drop fast and low. Once I get my drop down I feel like my max lifts will jump like crazy.

To be totally honest Lindsay’s story has be thinking hard about taking more of a lifting focus. I would love to be able to confidently enter a lifting competition next year. I love CrossFit and plan on continuing with it, but focusing more on my lifting will just make me a stronger CrossFitter. I’m still thinking about it and looking into it. I’m glad that Lindsay lives around here, I may try to hit her up for some one on one coaching. Maybe she can work some miracles and make me into a superstar lifter like her. I was really impressed with her knowledge and willingness to share her wisdom with us. It was worth the time and money invested and I plan on doing it again next time she hosts one.

After a hilly 5k PR and 3+ hours of heavy lifting I was spent. The rest of the day was spent with two of my good friends: my foam roller and my cep compression socks.

How was your weekend? Have you ever taken a lifting class?