Aspire. Strive. Thrive.

New Respect for Planks

2012-01-27T14:00:00.001-08:00

I love (hate) side planks with my feet elevated on a bench. I've got slightly noticeable DOMS all around from front planks and side planks. As I'm typing this, I realize I did the fronts "wrong". There are so many progressions and variations, it wasn't truly "wrong", but it wasn't what I was supposed to do yesterday. I should have had my feet up on the front ones too, but I had my elbows on the bench. Doh! Oh well. Next time.

The NROL4A workouts are taking me about 50 minutes, instead of 40. Well, B did. I haven't really timed A. The dynamic warmup is only about 5 minutes long so *ahem* to someone who said they wouldn't do them...it's only the first 5 minutes and you're done! ;)

Rest day today! Was going to go do some sprints, but woke up TIRED and SORE. Will do NROL4A "A" tomorrow, and a long run on Sunday.

Are You Wearing Squishy Pants?

2012-01-24T13:58:00.001-08:00

I'm working at client's offices a lot this week, and am on deadline crunch for W2s etc, so I don't have much time to post right now. Rest assured, the workouts are getting done. NROL4A workout A1 yesterday. 35 minutes of 1:2 sprints today.

I went to wipe my hands on my sweatpant covered butt last night after finishing the dishes, and I noticed how different my butt feels. It's really tightening and lifting again. YAY!

This morning, P asked me if I was wearing squishy pants (I think he meant like runners compression tights), because he couldn't pinch my butt. LOL. They were just Nike workout pants, no compression to them. "It's the deadlifts!" I said. :)

That means the belly fat is going away next. Must. Stay. The. Course.

Something Better Came Along

2012-01-21T11:44:00.001-08:00

Remember how I lined out my plan and said it was my plan until I came up with a better one? Introducing better plan: Alwyn Cosgrove's New Rules of Lifting for Abs. (If I knew how to underline that, I would.)

I guess this actually was published in 2010, but I somehow missed it or ignored it. I "liked" Cosgrove on Facebook the other day, and that's how I discovered it. Having a bunch of gift card money left on iTunes, I downloaded it.

The co-auther, Lou Schuler, begins by explaining how he changed his own workouts following an injury from carrying fire wood. Being in great shape, he was surprised he could get hurt this way. It basically exposed weakness in his core. He had to really modify his workouts, and due to decreased time and intensity, he should not have improved his fitness level. But he did. Funny thing is, Cosgrove had noticed, on his own, similarities in his clients he was training. He changed his own program design for his clients and himself, and the changes were very much like those Schuler had made (but better, says Schuler, since Schuler is an author and Cosgrove is a workout design God).

While the book says it's an "Ab" book, it's really a "Core" book. His definition of core is expanded from what I'm normally accustomed to seeing, including the lats, even. Make no mistake, this is not a book on crunch variations. (Not a single crunch in it. Crunches have been "outlawed", because they no longer want to train the core by bending the spine. No leg lifts, either.)

And while it's a "Core" book, it is also a total body metabolic workout, including my greatest love of all (in the gym, that is), deadlifts. And since it's done 3 days a week with a day off in between, I can get my 3 runs per week in as well.

So I started today. When you buy the book, you get a link to a website that has workout logs all filled in with the exercises, sets, and reps for you to download and print. What a time saver. In typical Cosgrove form, there are Workout A and Workout B, so Week 1 would be A, B, A and Week two would be B, A, B. Unfortunately, as a follow up to my failed attempt to sync music I bought on my iPad to my laptop's iTunes for syncing with my iPod, I grabbed the workout log for the B day instead of the A day. Thank God I had read ahead and knew what the exercises were. Still, being a Type A attention to detail kind of person, it bugged me to no end beginning with B instead of A. But I did. So the next four weeks are committed to being backwards. LMAO. I know it doesn't matter. It just bothers my sense of order.

Without further ado, here is today's workout:

Dynamic Warmup (this was fun):
Bent-over thoracic extension and rotation
Squat to stand
Forward/backward jump
Crossover walking toe touch
Lateral jump
Lateral cross-behind lunge
Seal jack
Reverse inchworm
Forward-backward hop
Curtsy lunge
Straight leg run
Side shuffle with arm cross
Butt kick

Core Stabilization:

Anti-rotation static hold: 30# X 30 seconds, 20# by 20 seconds, each side.
(30 was too heavy, my outside knee wouldn't stay planted; 20 was too light)

Elevated Plank: Arms on stability ball (SB) - 10 sets, 10 seconds each
(too easy, should have raised a foot)

Elevated Side Plank: 5 sets each side, 10 seconds each. Arms on SB.
(these suckers made me sweat! keeping the ball from rolling was a real and unexpected challenge. Weakness exposed!)

Strength:

Alternating Sets:
DB Single Leg Romanian Deadlift: 3 sets, 25's X 12
DB Alternating Shoulder Press: 25's X 3, 15's X 12, 15's X 12 (there was a young boy using the 20's)

Overhead Squat: Dowel X 12, 20#bar X 12 X 2
Cable Kneeling Pulldown: 90 X 12, 100 X 12, 110 X 12
(seated, I top out around 100 on these. Next time I'll start at 110 and see how high I go in 3 sets.)

Phase one doesn't have sprints or anything at the end. Before I started, I went in with the mind of doing some sprints. After I finished, I was sweaty and wasted and decided maybe there was a reason there were no sprints written at the end.

I have peeked ahead, and it's 10 minutes of burpees, in one minute sets, that get added on in Phase Two. Oh boy.

Another Rest Day?

2012-01-19T13:33:00.000-08:00

I have not entirely ruled out going to the gym after work. But I don't have my clothes with me, and I have a bad habit of not being to get back out of the house once I've been sucked inside its doors.

It's STILL snowing here. Our good friend had to go to SEA to pick up her husband last night. He works in Alaska, 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off. His flight came in at 11:15 p.m. When the roads are bare and dry, we live 2.5 hours from SEA. Long story short, we didn't want her driving there by herself. P drove her and I went along.

The plan was to eat at The Crab Pot and then go get him, so we'd leave around 6 pm. Luckily, I called them (and subsequently every restaurant we could think of [that we knew] in the greater Seattle area, only to find that they were all closing at 5:00 due to weather.

Silverdale, the town 1.25 hours from here that has a mall, was mostly open. We ate at Olive Garden. I almost ordered my favorite, Capellini Pomodoro [all pasta and tomatoes, no protein], but ended up going with "Mixed Grill" which was basically beef and chicken shishkabobs with peppers and onions, yellow and green squash on the side. And homefries, but I didn't eat many of them. There was too much protein to scarf. (I ended up at 137 grams of protein yesterday, Go Me!)

Anyway, we made it to the airport and home, slipping and sliding quite a bit, and got home around 3:30 a.m. So I took the liberty of sleeping in until 8:00 and heading straight to work.

I've downloaded Alwyn Cosgrove's new book, The New Rules of Lifting for Abs, which they say still covers the whole body, but has an emphasis on core work. I only got thru the first chapter and why they re-wrote/revised the original workout plan they had (people getting better results in a shorter period of time, basically), so I haven't hit the actual program yet. The more I think about it, the more curling up on the couch with this book sounds like a better plan than venturing to the gym tonight. I'll go there tomorrow with a better plan.

Forced Rest Day

2012-01-18T12:16:00.001-08:00

It's the blizzard of 2011! Parts of town have 6 inches of snow. Other parts have over a foot, once again because we lie "where the mountains greet the sea".

They announced last night that Yoga-Pilates would be canceled today. Running club hasn't made an announcement, but the track is in higher elevation and it would be pointless (in my opinion) to show up.

Instead of going to the gym and doing my own thing, I slept in. Til 7:00! It was wonderful! But has left me feeling like today needs to be a low calorie day to make up for my inactivity.

Upper Body Fun

2012-01-17T10:35:00.000-08:00

More snow. Enough so that when we got up at 5:30, P asked, "Are you SURE you want to go to the gym?" Yeah. I'll be fine.

Had the place to myself for half my workout! Love that!

3 Minute warmup on rower.
A few rounds of T/Y/W's with 3 pound dumbbells to warm up the shoulders.

Barbell Clean and Press: 45X8X3

Neutral grip pullups with band assist: 5, 5, 3

Seated Arnold Presses: 15's X 8, 20's X 8, 20's X 6

Seated Row: 90 X 8, 100 X 7, 100 X 5

French Press: 20X8

Triceps Press Down: 80X8X3

Seems like I did one more thing. Like I didn't finish with that. But I can't remember.

Lifting PR?

2012-01-16T09:23:00.000-08:00

Not sure. I *think* my previous PR was 138, but I really can't remember.

No one was in the gym this morning. It snowed yesterday. Like an inch. Maybe an inch and a half. We get snow maybe once a year. So no one knows what to do. (The roads were FINE. I went to the gym yesterday during the height of the storm and it wasn't bad.) So no one showed up this morning. I took that opportunity to load the 45's onto the trap bar. That way, if I couldn't budge it, no one would see me have to immediately unload the 45's and replace them with 35's.

Up it went! 141 X 5 for 5 sets. It's easier if I release the bar at the bottom and start all over again, than if I hover the bar at the bottom. I think that's a grip issue more than anything.

I was pretty damn excited about that! :) So much so, I went over and dug out my phone and sent a text home about it, lol.

That was followed by:

BB Stationary Lunge, front foot elevated: 53 X 8, 63 X 8, 73 X 8

Around the world step-ups: 6 times around

Walking Lunges with 15's, across the gym and back (12 steps each leg, each way)

Leg Press: 200 X 8, 240 X 8 X 2

X Band Walk: 8, 8, 8

Then 5 thirty second sprints at 9 mph on the treadmill. I FINALLY overcame my fear of going 9.0 on the treadmill. And on leg day, to boot. I took a couple 15 second rests, then switched to 30 second rests.

A good stretch, and out the door.

I'm down 3 pounds. Not bad for 15 days of concerted effort.

Friday Fun

2012-01-13T15:11:00.001-08:00

Do you think I can remember what I did this morning? I know it was upper body with an emphasis on chest and tri's. Followed by 20 minutes of intervals on the bike.

DB Chest Press: 25's X 8, 30's X 6, 30's X 5
DB Pullover: 35 X 8 X 3
Assisted Dips: 80 X 8, 70 X 6, 60 X 4
DB Flys: 15's X 8 X 3
One Arm Row: 35 X 8 X 3
Rope Pulldown: 70 X 8 X 3
Decline Abs with 8 pound medicine ball: 15, 15,

Then the bike. Just 'cuz.

I'm hoping to hike tomorrow, but it's supposed to be 39 and pouring. 39 and drizzle I can handle, especially under the trees. Pouring, not so much.

Sunday is run club, 5-10 miles with hills. I haven't done a 10 miler recently enough to feel good about just taking off and running 10 miles. 5-6, yes.

Wednesday Night Track

2012-01-12T08:33:00.000-08:00

I met the running club at the track last night. Only 5 or 6 of us were there to brave the breezy 34 degree night. After running a couple of warmup laps (8:30 m/m as a warmup pace. The leader didn't have a pace watch.), and doing sets of high knees, butt kickers, Frankensteins, walking lunges, foot cradles, and cariokes, we were off for 4 X 400's.

1 - 8:12 m/m pace
2 - 7:03
3 - 7:39
4 - 7:27

Cool down lap 9:41.

It was hard, but I felt strong last night. I kept up with the two fastest runners for the first 2 laps, but they pulled a wide gap on the last 2. I had asthma for the rest of the night after that, due to the cold.

Once We Figure Out What We Want...

2012-01-11T09:42:00.000-08:00

Sometimes we have to go full circle to have that "A-ha!" moment. We fall in love with things, which lead us to other things, on and on until we have so many interests it's hard to fit them all in.

I fell in love with weight training in 1990 when I saw what it could do for my body. Around 2004, I learned that lifting heavy (swapping the 10 pound dumbbells for the 35's as strength increased) was really good at producing a small, very tight body for me. No fears of "bulking up" here.

Then I fell in love with running. (Actually, in between, I fell in love with dirt biking, hiking, and mountain biking.) I gave up a lot of time in the gym to get better at running. To have a shot at being competitive in races. Not so much beating the other guy, but beating myself and seeing where I ended up overall.

I ran off a bunch of muscle I had put on. First in my upper body, ironically enough, then my lower body. Even when my body got smaller, it got softer. In my eyes, this is not a good thing. To each their own.

I started hitting the weights again a few months ago, a couple times a week, fitting it in where I could around running. Then after my last race in December, I started lifting heavy again, 3-4 times a week and doing "cardio".

I miss running. But I love how my body is tightening back up again. I think I finally have the motivation to do both. To make both work. 3 runs a week, 3 lifting sessions a week, hard and heavy, DOMS be damned.

For now, my schedule will look something like this:

MON AM: LEGS/GLUTES
TUE AM: UPPER BODY
WED AM: YOGA/PILATES
WED PM: SPEED RUN with running club
THU AM: (service organization meeting)/TOTAL BODY WORKOUT
FRI AM: TEMPO RUN
SAT : My day for hiking/biking/etc
SUN AM: LONG RUN

Thursdays are tough with that service organization meeting in there. I hate to schedule anything for PM (evening Wed evening with the running club), because I'll soon be working until 8-10 at night for tax season. I can do what I can do up until then, but ultimately I need a plan that doesn't need much tweaking. Mornings are safe.

I've figured out what I want. Finally!

Intervals

2012-01-10T11:39:00.000-08:00

Done Tabata style, 40 seconds on, 20 second off:

Jump Rope
Reverse Lunges w/Medicine Ball
Mountain Climbers
Alternating Side Step Ups
Jump Rope
Medicine Ball Wood Chops
Mountain Climbers
Pushups
Jump Rope
Lateral Walking Planks
Mountain Climbers
Get Down/Get Ups

Then 15 minutes on the bike, random speed intervals, resistance stayed same.

It was a'ight.

Yesterday and Today

2012-01-09T12:37:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was the first group run of the new year with the running club. I had decided I would do about 5 miles only, since I've taken 3 weeks or so off from running. I have friend who is about 20 years younger than me (how is that possible??!?? Not that I have a friend, but that she could possibly be that much younger than me?) who wanted to come along, but she hasn't run since the last time we ran together...early June, 2011! I told her I would walk with her as much as she needed. So it ended up being almost a mile run and 3 miles of power walking. But it was good conversation and girl bonding time. :)

Today was leg/glute day again:

Deadlifts: 121X8, 131X5, 131X5
Pull throughs: 90X8, 80X10, 90X10
Goblet Squats: 30X8X3 sets
SLDL's: 30'sX8, 35'sX8, 35'sX6
Hyperextensions: 8, 8, 8
X-Band walk: 8, 8, 8
Hanging Leg Raise: 8,8,8

I've designed a 30 minute conditioning workout for tomorrow morning. Then Wednesday will be Pilates/Yoga in the a.m. and running club at the track in the evening.

Over the weekend, I also calculated out my training paces for the Buffalo HM. It's an 18 week schedule, and I'm about 24 weeks out right now. I'm going to add about 2 weeks to the training schedule, because I know I'm going to lose a week when we drive across country to get Pete moved.

The more I think about that race, the more excited I get. I want to break 2 hours. Even 1:59:59 is acceptable. I'm going to lose 10 pounds between now and then. A quick Google (for whatever that's worth) tells me that losing 10 pounds should make me 4:22 faster in a HM. (It cited a Runners World article and claimed to have science to back it up.) My first HM was 2:06. So with intense training and some excess baggage gone, I should be able to break 2 hours as my "Welcome to NY" run. :)

Tentative Plan

2012-01-06T13:45:00.000-08:00

There are no guarantees on where I will be when, but it's a pretty safe bet that I will be in NY by June 30. I found a half-marathon that finishes on the Buffalo Bills 50 yard line! Now THAT is exciting.

The elevation profile shows the first 6 miles of the race are uphill. But it's only a 200-and-some foot gain, and I gain that here over 3/4 of a mile. While gradual, it's still "up". But I want to do it anyway.

I *think* I'm going to figure out my paces under the FIRST training plan, but alternate weeks of speed intervals with hill repeats. This is my plan, until I come up with a better plan.

I'm Tired Today

2012-01-06T09:46:00.000-08:00

I think tomorrow will be a rest day. Sunday will be the first 2012 run with the running club. As for today, I didn't go back to bed, like I wanted. I did an upper body workout:

Clean and Press: 45X8X3
Bentover Barbell Row: 53X8, 73X8, 73X6
Barbell Bench Press: 53X8, 63X8, 73X4
Negative Chins: 3

My benchpress is the one lift I have never been able to get above 100 pounds. Every time I start to get close (93 was closest), I lose interest in that goal. I don't know why.

At this point, it is looking very doubtful that I will be here 6/3/12 for the half marathon. I was just about to write that I wanted to start getting ready for the Rhody Run 12K on 5/20. But then I realized I may not be here then, either.

RIPPED

2012-01-05T07:27:00.000-08:00

So I went and tried RIPPED today. It totally confirmed that group exercise is not for me. I mean, I knew that anyway. When I joined my gym 3 1/2 years ago, they didn't have any classes. Classes were just added in 2011. Classes weren't important to me.

It's a good class for people who won't, for whatever reason, do any weight training on their own. Or haven't, and don't know where to start. For me, it was a flashback to 1990 and The Firm. Which was great for me, in its day. That's when I was new and didn't know what to do. So I'm not knocking the class at all, it's just that I'm not its target audience.

I look forward to going in tomorrow for some heavy lifting. RAWR.

Yoga, Pilates and Biking

2012-01-04T09:25:00.001-08:00

Strange combo. I went to Yoga/Pilates class this morning. It's an hour long class, and is very easy. To the point where I think my time may be better spent with a harder yoga DVD at home.

After class, I did Cardio Coach #2 again on the bike, but cranked my hills up steeper. It was good.

More Leg Training

2012-01-03T11:11:00.000-08:00

I supersetted bodyweight exercises with heavy lifts today:

1A)Deadlift: 121X8, 131X4, 131X5
1B)Squat Jumps: 8, 8, 8

2A)Stiff-legged deadlifts: 73X8, 83X8, 93X8
2B)Reverse Lunges: 8, 8, 8

3A)Hyperextensions: 8, 8, 8
3B)Single Leg Glute Bridge on Stability Ball: 8, 8, 8

I warmed up with X-Band walks again, but forgot to put them in as a finisher. Doh! They continue to amaze me with how they wake up the medial glutes!

About Those Hills

2012-01-02T08:10:00.000-08:00

About those hill repeats I wanted to run Saturday. It was 34 and clear at 10:00 a.m. YAY! I headed out. I made it 405 feet round trip. I just turned on my Garmin to see, lol. The sidewalks and shoulders of the road were so icy, I had no traction. Bummer.

So off to the gym I went and I did Cardio Coach #2 on the stationary bike. I'm half tempted to try Cardio Coach on the treadmill and see if that holds my interest.

Pete and I went out Saturday night with 3 other couples to ring in the new year. We had a lot of fun!

We got home around 1:30 a.m., and got up at 6:30 on Sunday morning to go for a New Year's Day street motorcycle ride. Only my bike wouldn't start. And he spent so much time working on it, that he didn't have time to still meet the people we were supposed to be riding with. So while we missed the scheduled group ride, when my bike did start about an hour later, we went on a shortened version, meeting the group at their lunch destination. It was about 55 miles there and back and in the 40's. We both were wishing for one more layer on the way out, but it was warmer on the return trip. It felt good to get out on the bike again. I hadn't realized how much I missed it.

I went back to the gym today, expecting to have to fight my way through and around the Resolutionaries. But they weren't there. I guess since today is a holiday for most, they slept in?

Today was chest and back:

DB Bench Press: 25'sX12, 30'sX5, 30'sX4, 30'sX4

DB Pullover: 30X10, 30X8, 30X8

Gravitron Dips: 90X12, 80X8, 80X8

Pulldowns, underhand grip, bar to chest: 90X8, 90X7.5, 90X5

Seated Row: 90X6, 90X7, 90X6

Oh, and I found out the trap bar weighs 51 pounds, so my deadlift is already over 120 for reps. Returning to bodyweight+ deadlifts should happen soon. YAY!

Another Leg Day

2011-12-30T09:29:00.000-08:00

Blogger just ate my write up of today. Boo hiss! Suffice it to say, I'm training legs twice a week for now, and I'm pretty sure my deadlift is already back up over 100 pounds. I'm waiting to hear back on how much the trap bar weighs. For my last set, I had 70 pounds on it for 8 reps.

I want to run hill repeats tomorrow, if I can catch a break between downpours.

In Honor of My Birthday, I took the Day Off.

2011-12-29T16:29:00.001-08:00

Not from work. Unfortunately. From working out. Honestly, I wanted to go to the gym. Especially for my birthday. But I have DOMS throughout my whole body and thought I should give it a rest today. I even slept in the extra hour.

And then I wished I hadn't. Pete and Jaguar surprised me with the most amazing birthday gift. Pete got me an iPad2 and Jaguar got me the cover for it. To quote (loosely) National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, "I couldn't be more surprised if I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet!"

As much as I REALLY, REALLY wanted an iPad (and was going to settle for a Kindle Fire on my own budget), the "getting" of the iPad was not the amazing part. I'm not one to typically post "what I got". I really do enjoy giving more than receiving. This year was hard on me, not being able to give as much due to my current financial situation. But I digress....

I finally have a man in my life who loves me enough to get exicited about my birthday, even though it comes a quick 4 days after Christmas. He makes a big deal about it, including starting the day by singing Happy Birthday to me. Non-familial relationships have pretty much been the same my entire life, "Oh God. It's your birthday too? But I just got you a Christmas present!" Not this man. I'm so fortunate to have him in my life. That, not the iPad, is what made this birthday great!

He also came by to hang up the shelf he made me for Christmas. I had casually mentioned that I still wanted to buy "one of those shelves with the pegs underneath it" for my office, so I could display my running medals and dirt bike trophies, etc. (They are good conversation starters with new clients looking for common ground.) He went to Home Depot, bought a board and some knobs and turned it into a beautiful shelf with routed edges.

And of course the photo gets chopped in half because of my blog border. But you get the idea!

I'm a lucky, lucky girl!

Cardio

2011-12-28T09:14:00.000-08:00

I took a break from Pilates/yoga this morning, in favor of getting in some old fashioned cardio. I did intervals on the treadmill for 20 minutes, varying the incline and speed, 30 seconds on, 15 seconds off. Then I pedaled steady state at 98 RPM on the bike for 10 minutes.

After that, I spent about 15 minutes stretching. My whole body is sore from the weights, but it's the good sore, the kind that tells you are hitting all the right spots.

A Couple of Pics from the NY Trip

2011-12-27T10:58:00.000-08:00

Out on the dance floor. NO IDEA what the song was that garnered this reaction from us.

Me, red from dancing. Him, handsome as ever.

Yesterday and Today

2011-12-27T09:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was leg day. More X-band walks in the warm-up and as a finisher, and I already can't remember what was in the middle. (I journal it to track it, but don't have that handy.)

Today was shoulders and triceps. Clean and press the 45 pound bar for 3 sets of 8 reps (that felt good!), scare crows, 30 second planks while walking hands on and off a 6-8 inch step (3 times), triceps push downs, and pushups.

It feels good to be lifting again, but I'm already starting to miss running. So much so that I may go for a quick 3 miler after work today.

And Since My Lower Body is Fried...

2011-12-23T09:13:00.000-08:00

Today I did some shoulders, triceps, biceps, and just a little back.

DB Snatch: 20X8X3 each arm.

Triceps rope pulldown: 70X8X3

Facepulls: 80X8X3

Dips on Gravitron with 80# assist: 12, 9, 8

Skull Crushers: barX8, bar+10X8 X2 (short, ez curl bar, no idea what it weighs. 20?)

Seated Row: 90X8X3

Biceps Curls: 12'sX8, 15'sX8X2

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mission accomplished on frying my butt at the gym yesterday. I have DOMS in every square inch of my butt, and in my lower quads as well. Nice!

Leg/Glute Day

2011-12-22T07:38:00.000-08:00

Warmup:
2 minutes on rowing machine
Knee huggers across the gym
Butt kickers across the gym
X-Band Walk

1A)Deadlifts 30'sX8X3
1B)Box Jumps 8,8,8

2A)Reverse Lunge with jump back to start 10'sX8X3
2B)Kneeling Squats 33X8, 53X10, 73X10

3A)Bodyweight ATG Squats 12, 12, 12

4)X-Band Walk, 3 sets of 8 each leg

This was fun and I worked up a sweat. The deadlifts and box jumps were a tough combo. As my strength returns, those should get interesting. I mean, it wasn't that bad only DL 60 pounds. Once I trust myself to get up over 100 pounds again, it will be a lot harder to jump up onto a box immediately after.

I liked the kneeling squats. Google them.

The ATG squats I did by holding onto a bar about rib height for support. That's how I will work my flexibility until it gets back to where I'm able to do "real" squats again.

The star of the show was the X-Band walks, and I have to thank Wendy for introducing me to them. It really does set the medial glutes on fire, and worked great as both a warmup and a finisher. I'll be keeping those in the mix for sure!

And I'm Back!

2011-12-21T07:34:00.000-08:00

Last week, when P came down with this crud that's going around, I ran into one of his friends at the grocery store. He told me it was going around and only lasted 3 days. Sure enough, I had it Sunday-Tuesday, and started feeling better last night.

I stayed home from work Mon-Tues, too, so I had a pretty good case of cabin fever last night. DONE with TV; DONE with books; I needed to MOVE. So I did some light housework for about an hour or so.

Today, I made it to 6AM Pilates/Yoga again. I didn't have to blow my nose even once during class! I'm going back to work today, and am contemplating a run tomorrow night, if they are still doing the Thursday night group runs at the Tap Room. I'm a little hesitant, because that will be an outdoor run in the cold. Maybe I should stay inside (ie, gym, lifting weights) instead. I'll see how today goes and decide from there.

And.......I'm Sick

2011-12-19T21:05:00.000-08:00

I could feel it coming on Saturday afternoon. I took it easy yesterday, and this morning I had it full force. Mostly a head cold at this point, even tho it started in my throat. I stayed home from work, drank fluids and slept. And watched daytime TV (ugh).

P called to check on me around 2:00, asking if I needed anything. "No, I'm good." He went shopping anyway, and brought me green tea, honey, and ice cream. He made dinner and made me the tea, and hooked up the humidifier in the bedroom. He's the best!

I found out I was 4th in my age group for the race, and 12th woman overall. :)

Reindeer Run

2011-12-18T16:03:00.000-08:00

Conditions were perfect: 43 degrees, dry, well rested, well fed, well hydrated. I felt good!The course was the same as the one in October, when I PR'ed at 26:57. I forced myself, finally, to NOT go out too fast. I told myself to not run faster than 9:00 m/m for the first mile, then go from there. And I stuck to it!

I ran hard. So hard that during the last half mile, I was afraid I was going to have to walk. I glanced down and saw 8:37 m/m. I ended up running 28:27, a full minute and half slower than my PR. I STILL don't know how I ran that fast that day. Was it the FIRST training? Should I not have switched plans and not cross-trained so much? Who knows?

I'm not disappointed by the race at all. I did everything I could, and that's where I was that day. It is still my fastest Reindeer Run ever. But it has grown to the point where my medals for 2nd place in my age group with 29's are no more. My 28:27 didn't earn me a medal. I don't know if I was 4th or lower. I should find out tomorrow.

At this point, I think my next race will be a 12K in May - The Rhody Run. I've run that once before, but missed this year due to injury. It has a one mile long hill near the beginning. I have the perfect hill here to train on. I won't start that until mid-February or so. Until then, I'll be running a little and cross-training a lot.

Friday Cross Training

2011-12-16T07:39:00.000-08:00

15 minutes on the rower.

16 minutes on the bike doing 40 seconds intervals.

That's about all I have to say about that. :)

Final Training Run Before Race

2011-12-15T08:00:00.001-08:00

3.43 miles @ 9:57 avg pace. It felt slow and heavy, so I'm surprised I averaged out under 10:00. Barely, but still. So far, the cold isn't settling in. I didn't feel like I could get *quite* a full breath, but it wasn't bad enough to be restricting.

Last night's light tour was fun, but not as "wow" as I was expecting. Lots of very average displays, and only about 3 WOW ones. But now we know where they are hiding.

Tonight is the CG Christmas party. Depending on when we get home, I may hit Zumba in the morning for active recovery. If I'm too late, I'll do something else light at the gym.

There is Sickness in my House!

2011-12-14T10:12:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, I, um, had an extended period of time coming into close contact with my significant other's germs. Which, ordinarily, is not a problem. (Far from! Ha!) But on Monday, he woke up with a sore throat and fever. By yesterday, it had blossomed into a full-on winter cold. He "never" gets sick, unless he catches it from me. (Let's pause a moment and remember The Great Sickness of Christmas 2010, in which I got him sick and it lasted so long it ruined my birthday and New Year's Eve and one more weekend after that. Because, Lord knows, you cannot mention sickness in my house without having this come up again. lol)

So he went to get tested to make sure it wasn't strep, and it's not. It just "ick". I used to be the kind of person that only needed to hear that someone in the same room with me had a sniffle, and I would catch it. My immune system seems to have become stronger in recent years. Still...I'm freaking out a little on the inside. Because the Reindeer Run is Saturday! And I don't want to miss it!

I can run with a head cold. I can't run with it in my lungs. So far, so good. Yesterday afternoon, I could feel it coming on. That tingle at the base of my throat every time I inhaled told me I was doomed. That, and my nose dripping all day. I grabbed some Zicam on the way home from work. I think that stuff got recalled because it was killing people, but I figured if I died from it, I still wouldn't have the cold to deal with, so it was a win-win.

So far, so good! It hasn't progressed past what I felt yesterday, and my nose isn't dripping anymore. I'm taking the Zicam like clockwork. I even woke up 2 minutes before my alarm went off, and it was set early so that I could drive to the gym in time to make the 6:00 a.m. Pilates class. And I did. And I loved it! Mostly because it was more yoga than pilates and I received some good one-on-one instruction.

I need to get in one more training run before the race. Tomorrow? Tonight? Oh...not tonight. We are taking a 2 hour bus tour of Christmas lights and it's a booze cruise. I'm making Face Plants to take: hot chocolate, shot of rum, shot of Bailey's, shot of peppermint schnapps. Definitely not running after that! :)

Treadmill Success at Last!

2011-12-12T09:56:00.000-08:00

I FINALLY had a successful day on the treadmill. Instead of doing a training run, I was doing more traditional "weight loss" sprints. I found that these are so short in nature, it's much easier to stay focused mentally and stick it out for all of them.

5 minute warmup
5 minutes of sprints, 8 mph, 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off
5 minute rest at 5 mph jog
5 minutes of sprints as above
cool down

I used the "jump your feet out to the side for 10 seconds, then jump back on" method, rather than wait for the treadmill to ramp the speed up and down. I should have jacked up the incline to make this more difficult, but I don't want to risk shin splints this close to race day.

I through in 3 sets of 15 triceps dips on the gravitron with 100 pounds assist for the first set and 90 pounds for the other two sets. Then a good stretch, and out the door.

It was 28 degrees and took my car nearly 15 minutes to heat up enough to clear the windows to drive to the gym. Heavy frost was stuck to the roads and I was SO GLAD I don't have a run scheduled for outdoors until tomorrow.

Leg Day!

2011-12-11T11:09:00.000-08:00

I figured if I wanted to work legs one last time before the race, it had better be today so that I have time to recover fully. I love that my gym has 24 hour access every day of the week, for just occasions. (Every time I drive past The Y, I notice how often they are closed, like Sundays.) In addition, my gym (Anytime Fitness) has a website that includes an activity and diet tracker in the membership price, and a mobile app for that site. I started using that yesterday to log meals.

Leg day went down like this:

2 minute warm-up on rower.

Tri-angle lunges, 3 sets of 9 each leg, holding 20 pounds.

Single leg DB deadlift, 3 X 12 X 40

Pistol Squats (TRX), 2 X 5 each leg

Ab Rollouts, 2 X 10

Planks, 45 sec, 30 sec, 30 sec.

I kept the weights super light with the upcoming race in mind. Also, I'm just getting back into weights consistently, so it doesn't take much to feel it. I'm looking forward to seeing those numbers increase again.

A Good, Confidence Inspiring Run

2011-12-10T09:35:00.000-08:00

Today I ran for the first time since before I went on vacation. When I was on vacation, I was on vacation all the way. I didn't even take my running shoes, despite my last 5K of the year being next weekend.

My training program prescribed my last long run pre-race: 10 miles. That didn't sit well with me, having taken about 2 weeks off. Instead, I felt like I just needed to run. And 3 miles would be plenty.

I set out on a loop P found for me quite a while ago. It's very scenic, and includes a mile up hill on the way home. 3 miles running on flat ground wouldn't have been enough. In my mind, 3 miles with one of those miles being all hill sounded right. I got to see a cruise ship going by and the submarine escorts, too. (I have YET to see the submarine. Just the escorts that protect it when it surfaces. Surface! You damn illusive sub!)

I didn't worry about pace. Fast, slow, I didn't care today. No goals, other than run. But old habits die hard. I couldn't resist sneaking peeks at Garmin. I was running sub 9:30 on the way out. It was 34 degrees, and by the time I had run 1.25 miles, I was glad I didn't wear a hat, only a headband/ear warmer. It was soaked through with sweat when I got home.

The biggest victory of the day was not walking one step of the hill. I "ran" the whole thing, even if my pace did slow to the 11:00-12:00 minute mile range. I've finally accepted that jogging a 12 minute mile is still faster than walking a 15 minute mile. Time to just slow down and tackle the hills slower, but steady. (Unless it's just hill repeats, of course. Push all out for those, still.)

With the hill, out for a training run, I crossed 5K at 31:XX. This is the confidence inspiring part. I was running "comfortable". Not "it's a race, I'm gonna die at the end" pace. Maybe, just maybe, I can PR again next weekend. I have to beat 26:57 for that, so I don't know. But it feels within the realm of possibility! :)

The run ended up being 3.43 miles in 33:51, with a 207 foot gain in elevation. I averaged 9:36 for the first 2.15 miles, and 10:21 for the remaining 1.27. (Thank you lap button!)

In other news, I have lost my squat. I suspect my entire posterior chain is too tight from all the running, but I think the main culprit is tight hips. I'm pitching WAY too far forward in the squat, and have to start from scratch on getting it back. After the race next weekend, I'm looking forward to decreasing my mileage a lot (10 miles per week instead of 20) for about a month, or so, and renew my love of lifting. Around the end of February, I will start training for the NODM - half marathon.

We'll see if I'm actually successful in decreasing my mileage. I really enjoyed today's run! :)

Weights

2011-12-09T07:36:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to meet a friend at the gym for 6 AM Zumba, but she was ill. I decided to do weights instead:

2 min warm-up on rower
1A)DB Incline Chest Press 20's X 12, 25's X 12, 25's X 9
1B)DB Row (single side at a time) 25's X 12 X 3

2A)DB Snatch 20 X 12 X 3
2B)DB See Saw Press 10's X 12 X 3

3A)Pullups on Gravitron 80# assist X 12, 90# assist X 12, 90# assist X 9
3B)DB Pec Flys 15's X 12 X 3

This was enjoyable. Not too hard, not too soft. Juuuuuust right for today.

So I'm Back From Vacation

2011-12-08T10:24:00.000-08:00

Nine days of non-stop GO! It was so much fun! We took a red eye from Seattle to JFK, leaving Seattle at 9:15 p.m. and getting into JFK around 5:00 a.m. We had a 4 hour layover for our flight to Rochester, NY, and that was only a 45 minute flight. We looked for places to lay down and take a nap, but there were none. I thought how I could make a fortune renting out recliners by the hour.

We made it into Rochester around 11:30 a.m., and were picked up at the airport by P's mom. We made a couple of stops on the way home to see some relatives and friends of P's, then home for a 2 hour nap. Then we were up and at 'em for the hour + drive to Buffalo for the Sabres game with his parents. They are season ticket holders, with AMAZING seats, right on the glass, right on the blue line. Literally, you can't put your beer on the rail in front of you, because when guys get checked into the glass, your beer goes everywhere. We also had access to the Harbour Club, which meant a fantastic buffet dinner before the game and drinks/snacks/desserts between periods. Spoiled rotten, I was. I'm a "general admission" kind of girl. This VIP stuff was better than I can describe.

The next day, we shopped for things we needed for the wedding we were attending on the weekend, and met up with friends for "trash plates" for dinner. Trash Plates are a Rochester thing. They were featured on "Man vs. Food" not long ago. The locals hail it as drunken/pre-hangover food. It's mostly a college thing. I have yet to see P's parents indulge in a "Plate". They mostly cringe when it's brought up. I first tried them last year, and didn't see what all the fuss was about. I got a half plate this year, and again, I don't get the fuss, but when in Rome.... A Trash Plate is basically a plate covered half with macaroni salad and home fries on the other half. (You can substitute baked beans for either of those.) Then it's topped with your choice of meat: hamburger, cheeseburger, hot dog, I'm not sure what else. Then you can get hot sauce on it. "Hot Sauce" was also featured on "Man vs. Food". Nowhere else makes hot sauce like this. It's a meat sauce. And it's amazing. So it's not like putting Frank's or tobasco on your food. It's almost like the chilli on a chilli dog, but much finer. I topped my plate with a white hot (a white hot dog, spicy, made from pork. I love them so much, we bought 5 packs at the airport to bring home, because you can't get those here either) and hot sauce. After that, we met his parents at a bar right near their house and we closed the place.

That brings us to Thursday. Thursday was low key during the day. I think I stayed home while P went to pick up his tux. That evening, his mother and I went to a ladies event at the golf club while P and his dad went to another part of the club. After two hours or so there, we were meeting all of his friends plus bridal party plus extras at a bar. Again, we closed the place. Four of us ended up going to Denny's, because this girl was HUNGRY. We got home around 3:00 that morning.

On Friday, I went to lunch and did some shopping with P's mom. P had a groomsmen's lunch and after party. He and I went to the rehearsal, then rehearsal dinner, and I think we actually made it home and into bed by 11:30 that night.

Saturday, P's dad made a birthday breakfast for P's mom, and the four of us, plus his sister, had about an hour to enjoy that before it was off to the races to get ready for the 1:00 p.m. wedding. I have to say, after attending several casual weddings on the West coast, it was so nice to see a little pomp and circumstance surrounding a wedding. It was a traditional Catholic ceremony, with abbreviated Mass. There was a 3 hour gap between the ceremony and reception, while the bridal party took pictures around the city. We all met back up at the reception, and we danced all night long! So much fun! Home and in bed my midnight. Up early, BECAUSE....

Go Bills! The Bills game (again in Buffalo, over an hour away, and I think closer to an hour and a half) started at 1:00 and we had tickets! We also had a date to meet a buddy of his for tailgaiting beforehand. So we left the house around 9:30 a.m. A friend of the family gave us incredible seats in a private level of the stadium (still a few thousand in there, I guess, but you had to have tickets to get into this club level) and parking right next to the gate. SCORE! We made it home by 6:30 p.m., chilled with the family, and got to bed early.

Monday was our last full day. Just before we left, P received orders for next year. He will be stationed in Youngstown, NY at the Niagara base. So, we took yet another drive to that area, so we could look around and get a feel for it. It's beautiful, but a loooooong way from here.

Tuesday we flew home. Left the house about 9:30 a.m. and got to our house about 8:30 p.m. I actually thought I was going to get up and do speed work yesterday. Today, I thought I was going to get up and go to the gym. I'm not sure what I think I'll do tomorrow, lol, but I should probably do something!

9 Mile Thrasher

2011-11-26T16:15:00.000-08:00

I did a 9 mile easy run today, average pace 10:39. And I learned an important lesson: don't run your long run the day after leg day!

Yesterday was walking lunges with 20 pounds, Bulgarian split squats, goblet squats, and reverse hyperextensions. I could feel the DOMS this morning before I left for the run, and I did some sun salutations to warm up.

The first 6 miles went great. The loop I chose would have me running mostly downhill on the way out and mostly uphill on the way back. I think it was the hills on the way back that got me. My muscles were so tight, and my IT band on the right side started barking around the 6th mile. I made it up all of the hills without walking at all, even on the back to back hills near the end. But after that, now on higher, level ground, my pace slowed to long 11:00's. The up side to that was full cardio recovery while running. It was the first time I ever stopped running when I got back to the house, and immediately resumed nose breathing. :) No "walking it off" for a minute or so.

But the after effects of being so tight, even after stretching for nearly an hour, make me say No! to running that long after leg day.

Try, Try Again?

2011-11-23T08:31:00.000-08:00

My plan alternates speed weeks and tempo weeks. Today was to be a 5 mile tempo run, with the middle being 3 miles at 9:12 pace. You may seen on the news that all of Western WA is under water right now. Not FEMA level, but traffic advisories like "Turn around, Don't drown!" LOL. I saw that slogan on the news this morning. So......I went to the treadmill. Again.

I made it thru the warmup mile and the first mile of the tempo. A mile at 6.5 mph was easy, physically, but I struggled mentally from 1/2 mile on. I played with my music, I played with the tv on the treadmill...that passed a few tenths. I quit, stretched and went home. 2 out of 5 miles done. Maybe it's ~20 minutes that's my treadmill limit. I wish I could stay engaged on that thing!

A Good Day for the Gym

2011-11-22T07:42:00.000-08:00

Today I was thankful to have weight training and not running on the agenda. I lay in bed and listened to it POURING outside. It did warm up during the night, and was a balmy 45 degrees at 5:45. That's nearly a guarantee for rainfall, around here.

I pulled out a workout from the Summer Prep Plan from Precision Nutrition:

1A)Scarecrow
1B)Face pulls

2A)Standing DB shoulder press
2B)Pullups

3A)Renegade Rows
3B)T-pushups
3C)Wood chops

It was fun! I did 3 sets of 8-10, and had a good stretch. Need. More. Stretching.

Rain, 36 degrees, and 2 Miles

2011-11-21T07:50:00.000-08:00

Today's run was only supposed to be 2 miles at 10:50. I don't understand the logic in that. You quit, just when you're warmed up. I ran it at my own pace, which was 9:36. 2 miles was enough in the pouring down rain. I didn't notice how wet I got at the time, but now that I sit to write this, I feel it. My shower should go a lot quicker since my hair is already wet, lol.

What Runners Want

2011-11-20T08:38:00.000-08:00

I wish I could post this somewhere for all the nonprofit organizations hitting the 5K fundraiser trail to see. At least this will get it out of my system.

But before we get to that, let me set the scene. I live in a small town of about 19,000. In some ways, we are pretty isolated. We are 2.5 hours from the Seattle airport. We are 1.25 hours from a mall. (And not a GREAT mall, at that.) But we are a ferry stop to/from Victoria, BC, Canada. So we get a lot of tourists. Not only because of being a gateway to Canada, but also because Olympic National Park is our backdrop, the Strait of Juan de Fuca is our front yard, and it's just plain beautiful here.

But a running community it is not. Which is kind of strange, because the weather, in the broadest of senses, it perfect for it. "Never" too hot or too cold. Yes, you will hear me gripe how I didn't want to run because it was dark and 34 degrees. But really, after the warmup, dressed appropriately, it's not that bad. And it rarely makes it to 80 degrees here. July 4 is sweatshirt weather, every year.

I guess before I moved to town (4 years ago), there was a running series put on by the (yes, The)athletic store downtown. But they stopped. Each year I've been here, the city has put on The Reindeer Run 5K/10K Fun Run/Walk. And they do it right, but more on that later.

Our one running claim to fame is the North Olympic Discovery Marathon (and Half Marathon, and 5K/10K, all held on the same day). It is capped at 2500 entrants, and people come from all over the country and Canada to run it. It is BEAUTIFUL. And it is a "real" marathon, a Boston qualifier, chip timed, and the whole deal. Medals to all finishers, awards to winners. I did the Half in 2010 and hope to do it again in 2012, having missed 2011 to injury.

Back to that Reindeer Run the city puts on. They have spoiled me. They don't have chip timing, but they use a very effective manual system. They have a timer, complete with digital reader board. They blast an air horn to start, so you want to be near the starting line to get the most accurate time (since you're not crossing a pad that a chip timer would read). This generally isn't a problem, as maybe 50-70 people show up for this run.

They pin a ribbon to your chest that has your name and age group on it. As you cross the finish line, you hand your ribbon to an attendant, and they put it on the board. So ribbons go on the board in order of who crossed first. It can get a little messy when a group comes across the line at once, but I've been lucky enough to cross by myself every year.

Since the ribbons are put up in order, it's very easy to check results right away and see if you need to stay around for awards. Because it's cold out! And now you're sweaty and cold. Every year, I catch a cold this day, LOL. I'm learning to pack better, and leave a backpack at the start/finish so I can layer up more when I'm done. I've won second in my age group for 2 years straight. I really want that winners medal. But each year this race is growing as word gets out, so we will see.

So...back to what runners want. I've now run in two new 5Ks put on by charitable organizations. Good causes. They are figuring out that you can get $20-$25 a head by putting on 5Ks for not a whole lot of work. Concentrated effort, of course. But much less planning than a fundraiser "event" like a dinner/auction. What they haven't figured out? Yup. What runners want:

1)We want to know our time. Bottom line. Not only do we want to know our time, we want to know how that time compares to our peers. And overall. It would cost these agencies maybe a teensy bit more to put a ribbon system in place on a manual board, like the city does. (I can't believe I'm saying the city gets something right, LOL!)

In each of the two races, the timing system was nearly nonexistant. At the first one, they used an iPhone. The runner then had to go find the person with the clipboard and give them his/her name, which was written down in order of who found the clipboard person first (not who crossed the line first). They said they would write the times down later and put the results in the newspaper. I don't think this ever happened. If it did, it only went in the print version and not online (the way I read the paper). I asked on their Facebook page if the results were available anywhere, and in response I only heard crickets chirping. So I'm pretty sure their timing system was an epic fail.

Yesterday was the Turkey Trot. At least they started a stopwatch at the beginning and had a person at the finish line calling out, "28:51, 52, 53, 54....". I crossed the line at 28:57, having not had the desire to "race" at all, once I saw there were no results to be had at the end. Nothing written down, nothing to compare to peers/overall.

Really, this is the most important. Just tell us how we did in relation to the field. I wear a Garmin, so I always know how I did, and I can track my own performance and whether I beat myself. But I sure would like to know where I stand overall and in my age group.

2)We do want the T-shirt. I thought we didn't. But we do. And it would be nice if you could spend a few dollars and get one that will last a while. Really, I only wear them for gym shirts. I generally don't sport them around town. (Probably because they aren't female specific, they are unisex and boxy which makes them OK for the gym but not an attractive look while out and about.)

The Reindeer Run gives quality t-shirts. I can't tell the one from my first race 3 years ago to the one from last year's race. Wash after wash, it still looks brand new.

The iPhone timer race I did this year gave a t-shirt that may last a year, if I'm lucky. It's practically see thru. BUT it did have a logo on it to match the race, The Crabby 5K. And it's a cute logo! This was my first clue that we care about the shirt. I was disappointed in the quality, but liked the logo.

My second clue that we care about the shirt came yesterday. The flyer said there would be one. (At that point, it hadn't really sunk in that I care so much about the shirt.) I picked up my race packet, and having accidentally arrived a half hour too early, I went to sit in my car, and to pass the time I opened the packet and pulled out the shirt. I could see it was a pretty blue color. I could just picture the turkey trotting across the front of it. But no! What I got was a generic t-shirt with the logo of the agency the race supported. No mention of an event. No mention of a 5K. No turkey!

No timer. No turkey trotting across my shirt. Who knew my will to race would vanish so easily, LMAO? Did I mention it was 34 degrees and a mix of snow/rain/ice on and off? It was off during the race, but the bridges were icy and there were wet leaves on the course. Road conditions guaranteed already it wouldn't be a PR day. Top that off with no timer and no turkey, and I'm running a training run (a short one at that) and it cost me $15 to do it. Hmmmmm. But I supported a good cause, so I'm OK with that.

3)We don't really care about the medals, but if you happen to use a timing system, we would love to see age group awards. And age group awards don't have to be medals, if you can't afford them. But just so you know, you could spread the cost of the awards over the number of entrants and bump up your entry fee a tad and we would still run. Or instead of raffling off your sponsors donations, give those as age group awards. We really aren't picky.

Zumba and More

2011-11-18T10:08:00.000-08:00

First:

I've been growing out my bangs for a year. I'm the type to make it half way, then cut bangs again. This time, I stuck it out. I ALWAYS pull my hair up for work. Not to be professional, but because that way I only have to dry the front, I can twist the back up wet and let the ends curl, the ends dry, and I'm ready for work in 1/2 the time.

Today, I fixed my hair because I'm venturing to the mall at noon. (The mall is 1.25 hours away, and in civilization.) I'm actually having a good hair day! I finally have what I envisioned a year ago! YAY!

Back to fitness:

I went to Zumba this morning with an acquaintance that I think could be a friend. She's new to my gym, and I suggested the class as motivation to both of us to show up for it. It was fun! It's not a "workout" for a runner, but it's really fun active recovery.

It was a good day for it. I went out to find my car iced in 2 inches thick, with even the doors frozen shut. The roads were icy too, so it was definitely not a day for running. Apparently, it snowed, then froze last night. I only wish I had realized this about 5 minutes earlier. I went out to warm up my car and found it that way. I didn't have any time to spare, so I was 2 minutes late getting to class. Turns out, she and I were the ONLY ones in the class this morning. She's originally from Wisconsin, so I knew a little ice wouldn't keep her away. But no one else braved it. lol. So much for hiding in the back!!

I'm SO Not Running Tonight

2011-11-17T17:06:00.000-08:00

An easy two miles on the schedule. Good intentions...check! Now that I'm home...nope.

Active recovery in the a.m....meeting a friend for 6:00 a.m. Zumba. I expect it to be fun, but not a workout.

Better Than a No Show

2011-11-16T11:23:00.000-08:00

I got PLENTY of sleep. 9 hours, to be exact. I woke up before the alarm, but didn't want to get up. I looked at the temperature, which is conveniently located on the face of my phone. 34 fuh-freezing degrees. I didn't want to run.

For now, the camper is parked in the driveway. Even though we have a 2 car garage, one of the bays is full of motorcycles (6 of them, between the two of us). So one of us gets to park in the garage, and one parks on the driveway. But since the camper is there, the one who parks outside has to park directly behind the one in the garage. Who parks where is decided by who is leaving first in the a.m. Sometimes that is me, either driving to a running location, or driving to the gym, or to my service organization meeting. On the days I run from home, I'm parked in the garage.

The reason I bothered to write all of that is to explain that this is a conversation that occurs each and every night. "What are you doing in the morning?" I'm asked. So P knew full well and good that I was driving to a running location this morning. Until I woke up and said I didn't want to go. "It's 34! I don't wanna! {waaaanh}"
"Fine, so don't. Be lazy. Or go to the gym and run on the treadmill. Or just give up running altogether. It's not like it makes you feel good, or anything."

Ugh. The treadmill. It actually sounded appealing. And he had pushed just the right amount. (He did check with me before I left, asking if it was just enough, or if he went too far, because he knows sometimes people in training need to be pushed, but he also doesn't want to strain our relationship. I assured him it was a Goldilocks moment.)

So, the treadmill. How did I forget so quickly? UGH! LOL. I didn't last. It was supposed to be a one mile warmup (check!), 4 half-mile intervals at 7.2 mph with quarter mile jogging recoveries, and a one mile cooldown.

I did the first one! The second and third ones, I backed the speed down after 1/4 miles to 6.5 or 6.0. (I think I did 6.5 one time and 6.0 the next). On the fourth one, I just plain quit after 1/4 mile. I walked to cooldown, just long enough for my heart rate to recover. A (very) quick stretch, and I had to book it home to try to get to work on time. (10 minutes late! Doh!)

I have thermal running pants. I have a stocking cap somewhere. I have performance layers. It's only cold the first 5 minutes. I just need to get outside and suck it up.

The Gym

2011-11-15T07:52:00.000-08:00

When the alarm went off, I didn't want to go. But I knew I needed it for my disposition as much as my back side. So I went. I worked legs, triceps, and chest, which seems like an odd combination, but it's what I thought of on the fly. Step ups supersetted with triceps dips on the bench I was stepping on; SLDLs supersetted with incline DB bench press; Bulgarian split squats supersetted with DB flyes (only one set of these); and a set of goblet squats just for fun. Then a nice, good stretch.

I was absolutely tortured by a new dentist yesterday. I've never had a bad experience at a dentist. Discomfort? Sure. But not bad. Yesterday was HORRID, and it was just a cleaning. It's too long a story a to get into, but to add insult to injury (yes, injury!), I think he gave me a cold. I heard him sneezing before I went in. Today I have a runny nose. It could be allergies. But I am suspect and still mad about the whole experience so I'm blaming him.

In other news, my newest guilty pleasure after runs and workouts is orange juice. Simply Orange, to be specific. God, I love it. 110 calories (well, that's for 8 oz and my glass is probably more like 12-14 oz!) of pure sugar in liquid form. YUM.

Easy 3

2011-11-14T07:43:00.000-08:00

At 6:45 a.m., it's dang near daylight! I ran an out and back twice to get my 3 miles. It was supposed to be an easy pace of 10:50. My route drops 100 ft in elevation in nearly a mile (.91), so you don't really notice you're running downhill. But somehow you really do notice the uphill, lol. Even so, I averaged out at 10:22 pace. I don't know if that's good or bad. That felt easy, so I'm assuming I should keep it there, and not intentionally drop back to 10:50?

Unrelated:

The latest we've heard on the house is that their loan has been approved, they are just waiting on a bank official to return to sign the check. But that was over a week ago. And sounds fishy. I've forwarded all the paperwork to the title company and requested a closing date so we can approach the buyer with that date and see if it will work for them. I was hoping that would be by the 20th. Fingers crossed.

No word yet on the transfer. He could find out any time between now and March. It's usually in the spring, but because the type of job he's going for had an earlier deadline, he was hoping for an earlier response.

Another deadline day! I have to finish my last fiscal year end 990 today for tomorrow's deadline. THAT is the last tax deadline of the year.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

2011-11-13T20:05:00.000-08:00

I missed my long run this week. :(

Friday morning it was POURING and WINDY. I get off work at noon on Fridays (until the first of the year), so I figured, "no biggy...it'll pass and I'll go this afternoon. Jag and I." But it was worse when I got off work!

I had a bunch of things to do, like clean my barrel racing saddle for sale, because we were going to Yakima on Saturday to get my remaining belongings out of the house in case that damn thing sells this month. We left at 5:10 a.m. on Saturday and got home at midnight. 10 hours of that was driving, but P had an additional 5 hours of driving because he ran my saddle to sale and a bunch of stuff to the dump for me. LOOOOOOOOONG day.

Today, I did chores and made snickerdoodles. :) It was still raining and windy. When I'm highly motivated, I don't let that stop me. But I'm kinda over that level of dedication right now.

Tomorrow morning, hell or highwater, I'm starting a new training program. I only have to run 3 miles at 10:50. That's easy peasy. I need to get registered for the Turkey Trot on Saturday too!

The Running Buddy in Training

2011-11-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

I do have a potential running buddy. Meet Jaguar:

He is every bit as sweet as he looks in that picture. But walk him on a leash into a crowd, and the crowd parts. I think it's the black face hiding the eyes that make him look menacing. Well, that, and being 90 pounds of German Shepard. I think he would spring into action to defend me should anyone be stupid enough to try anything while he's with me.

We have a lot of work to do. He does not lead well on a leash. He pulls. He can change my direction so fast I hardly know it happened. We're working on it. I have a harness like the one Diane uses coming any day now. That should help a lot.

So while he won't solve visibility issues, he will be a very good safety companion. And he loves it!

Two Things

2011-11-09T07:27:00.000-08:00

1) It's official. I'm not at the Rx paces in my training plan. Which is OK...gives me something to work toward.

2)My days of treadmill running are OVER. At least until such time as I find myself running in an area that gets snow measured in feet or some other reason why I cannot run outdoors.

Today should have been easy. 1 mile warm-up, 3 miles at 8:58/6.7 mph, 1 mile cool down.

I jogged a mile at 5 mph.

I ran .87 of a mile at 6.7, then it was too fast to maintain. I backed it down to a jog of 5.5 to recover, then back up to 6, 6.5, 5.0, etc. up and down for the remaining mileage. But I gave up at a total of 3.5 miles. I had a nice stretch, ran into yet another client, then came home.

The gym is for weight lifting. Note to self.

The Dreadmill Report

2011-11-07T07:38:00.000-08:00

Ugh.

The end.

Ha, just kidding. Actually, the treadmill had it's advantages:
1)It's in a well lit room. It was nice to be able to see! (compared to running in the dark outside)

2)It was warm. I thought ahead, and wore summer clothes.

3)It's easier to hydrate with a nice little cubby to hold my water in front of me while I run.

The intervals, though....I think I do better outside.

I was supposed to run 3/4 mile intervals at 8:20 pace, or 7.2 mph, with 1/4 mile recoveries. 4 times. Not a hard number like 10 or 8, only 4.

I did the first one! I was wanting to decrease the speed after 1/4 mile, but I toughed it out. I was really wanting to decrease the speed after 1/2 a mile, but I toughed it out. Finally 3/4 of a mile passed, and I slowed to a walk.

I recovered well before the 1/4 mile was up. I started the second one totally refreshed and ready to go. And the start of the second one felt better than the first one. Until 1/2 mile in. I just couldn't hang in there anymore. I walked the next 1/2 mile. That was like watching paint dry.

OK. 3rd one. It is ON. Yeah, it was on until .4 of a mile. I walked a quarter mile and tried again for the last one, bound and determined to go 3/4 of a mile again. Right up until I called it quits at a 1/4 mile.

I had even turned on the TV monitor so I wouldn't stare at the distance clicking off. I had music from my iPod. Still not enough. I just felt like my feet weren't keeping up and I didn't have what it took to make them keep up. But I think it was mental, not physical. I just didn't have the drive.

But I do still like numbers 1-3 above. So I may try again next week.

What I don't like is having to do business networking during "my time". This portion of the day is just for me. I have clients at the gym who respect that. We mouth "hi" to each other and smile and that is it. But there is a gentleman who is very nice and knows what I do, and he was giving me a referral this morning. Which is great, but not while I'm running. Pretty please? In this economy, I should be thankful for any referral. And I am. But I'm protective of my "me time", because I get so little of it.

Slowest Run Evah!

2011-11-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

Today was one of those days when I just couldn't go faster. I had one speed: turtle in molasses. Molasses in 38 degrees. It was supposed to be 7 miles at 9:28 m/m. I mapped out a route in my head, expecting it to be 6 and change. I ran from the house, knowing that what goes down, must run back up. But I did it anyway.

The route is not a bad route. Once I saw 3.5 miles click by, I knew my mileage estimate was off. It was going to be too long. I opted to turn back up a much shorter, but much, much steeper hill to get it out of the way, and shorten up my run some. Good thing. It still ended up being 8 miles. So, ta-da, now I know a new 8 mile route.

8 miles at 11:18 average pace. Talk about watching paint dry. Even on the flat part, I couldn't muster more than 10:20! Even on the initial 2 miles down hill, I was STILL in the 10's. I just could not turn over my feet today. But I got the miles in. Doing it today instead of tomorrow frees up tomorrow for the road trip we're taking for bike parts. And gives me 2 days of recovery before my date with the treadmill on Monday. Lord, give me mental strength!

My knee is really ugly, but functions fine. It pales in comparison to most of my dirtbike injuries, so I count myself lucky that I'm used to sucking those up and continuing on. lol. It was good training for this. Glad I don't have to wear a dress right now.

If It Weren't for Bad Luck....

2011-11-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

I swear, I'd have no luck at all.

So Monday, I came down with pink eye. I left work at 2:00 to come home and rest my eye, not really knowing what it was, because usually I only get pink eye when I have bronchitis. Pete took one look at me, diagnosed pink eye, and had me do 20 minutes on/20 off with a warm compress, his family cure from when he was a kid.

I went to my eye doctor yesterday to confirm. Yup. Viral and contagious, expected to last 2-3 weeks, could get worse before getting better, yadda, yadda, yadda. He gave me drops for comfort, but since it's viral and not bacterial, no antibiotics. A good thing. Except for the waiting it out part.

But here's the thing. It was already so much better yesterday than the day before, I had a feeling it would go away faster than he thinks. I came home, did more 20 on/off compresses, but not as militant about it. I fell asleep with it on once, would go longer than 20 without, etc.

This morning, the swelling is gone around my eye, and my eye was merely pink, instead of blaze red. Yeah! I'm going running!

I had a 7 mile run on the docket, with a 2 tempo sections of 2 miles each at 8:58 pace. It was 36 degrees and I couldn't find my gloves. "Use your dirt bike gloves", came a suggestion. I followed it. Good thing I did, because....

One mile into it, I moved over to get out of the way for a car, didn't see that the pavement had a 4 inch drop-off, rolled my good ankle and sprawled out on the pavement. I rolled off into the grass to avoid the cars. Either they didn't notice, or weren't about to stop for someone strange enough to be running in pitch black dark (with headlamp and neon yellow jacket, mind you) at 6 am in 36 degrees, lol. G started the count down buzzer to my first interval, but I was scared to run out 2.5 more mile and not be able to run home. So I turned around, walked it off and jogged home.

My knee has a goose egg and bloody scab. My ankle feels mostly OK, but on the jog home it would turn over the smallest of rocks. I felt my elbow hit the gravel and was worried about my pretty, new jacket, but it is unmarked, thank goodness. I seem fine, for the most part.

This is making my boring route look better and better, because at least I don't have the traffic issue, and it's actually making the treadmill look more like an option. UGH. No treadmill til Monday! lol.

I'll probably do my long run on Friday, because on Saturday we have a road trip to make to buy some motorcycle parts for P.

6 X 800

2011-10-31T07:50:00.000-07:00

Today's speed work was supposed to be 6 800 meter (half mile) intervals at 8:12 pace.

I'm not at that level yet. I'm going to have to work toward the prescribed paces, treating them as goal paces. Maybe my last 5K time was a fluke, because I used that time to calculate these paces. I know as long as I work hard, I'll still improve. So I'll just have to go with that.

8:33, 8:33, 9:07, 10:42, 10:24, 9:50.

I had a fantastic tail wind on the first 3 (really 2.5, as I had to turn around during the 9:07 one). Coming back, I really did feel like I was running with the same stride and effort, but the head wind was incredible. The difference between the 10's and the 9:50? I was around the corner, shielded from the head wind for at least half of that. I run out onto a very narrow peninsula called "The Hook" for my speed runs. It's just wide enough to have 2 lanes of traffic, tiny beachfront access, and boulders to help keep the road from eroding. When the wind blows, it can really BLOW out there. It was a new kind of resistance training. :)

Meh.

2011-10-28T17:17:00.000-07:00

That's my assessment of the beer run. I will probably go again next week, just to give it another chance. But if it's like yesterday, that will be it for that.

It was supposed to start at 5:30. It was 5:50 before we got going, because "so and so" said they were going to come, so we should wait. And, of course, they didn't show. 7 people did show. I was expecting 25. With 7, there was no group aspect to the run. I hung with the fastest people for the first mile, then let them draw a bigger and bigger gap from me. A girl I recognized from running club caught up to me, and we decided to turn around 2.5 miles, to make it a 5 mile run. The girl who was leading it since the leader didn't show up had said she just wanted to do 5 easy miles at about 10:00m/m pace. She was one of the ones who went on ahead of me. I'm pretty sure they went all the way to the CG gate and back, which had to be at least 7 miles, and they were varying from 8:30-9:15 pace when I was hanging with them.

I ended up running my 5 at an average pace of 9:50. Running at night is a lot harder for me than running in the morning. My body is so used to mornings, I was TIRED. I was wishing I had some of Nyna's sports beans with me!

I was hoping that would be close enough to my long run for the week that I could call it good. But my long run is supposed to be 8 miles at 9:28 m/m. Since the trail is closed for repairs, I'll run the same boring route we ran yesterday, but more of it, lol. I think I will DEFINITELY need my iPod for that one.

On a brighter note, no pun intended, I received my Brooks Night Life II jacket today. It is BRIGHT neon yellow. It's very similar in design to my blue one, but this one has soft inner cuffs with thumb holes and is super comfy! Now I won't have to wear my "can collector's" vest. Woohoo!

Oh, and I DID make it to the gym today. Warm-up on rowing machine, DB deadlifts, walking lunges, triceps extensions on the cable machine, leg press, and a good stretch. And I checked to see if I could still do unassisted chins with a little jump from the floor. NOPE!

November 19th Turkey Trot

2011-10-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

I received a flyer for this 5K fun run/walk yesterday. Same route as all the other 5Ks, so another chance to beat my PR. And that's all this would be...just a chance to see if I can beat that last time by even a second. That was hard, not sure I can match it, and it's only about 4 weeks away. So no huge goals for this one. :) The entry form asks for age and gender, but no mention of divisions/prizes. After the last one, I've come to expect disorganization. ;)

As I write this, I realize I can pick up a second just in my turn around. It's an out and back, marked with a cone in the trail. I took a wide, slow arc around the cone last time. A pivot would be more efficient. ;)

Inaugural Taproom run tonight, if I can get home at lunch to pick up my running gear. Too rushed getting out the door this morning.

Tempo Run

2011-10-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

I need new batteries in my head lamp. I couldn't see the holes! I ran a different route that was not a good selection. I kept having to jump into the bushes because the shoulder is not wide enough and the cars and buses were not moving over for me. Eek.

There was a long, low hill too. Garmin kept barking at me to pick up the pace, because I was trucking up it at 10:21 and I was supposed to be at 9:12. I reminded the legless bastard that I could leave him on the side of the road and let him see how fast he could do it on his own. Of course he ignored me, so I ignored him the rest of the way.

Ended up being a 4 mile loop. Was supposed to be a 4 mile tempo run in the middle of warm-up and cool-down miles. So I got the warm-up mile, plus 3 miles of the tempo run, and then I just "walked it off" at the house and came in to stretch and foam roller. Which was OWIE the first go around, but much better the second time.

I ended up at 9:49 instead of 9:12. I did see 9:15 a LOT. Even short 8's at the end, trying to make up time from the hill and the ditch diving. Maybe now I can finally remember to change the batteries in my light!

So I Went to the Gym for Leg Day...

2011-10-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

After walking lunges across the gym, 3 sets of step-ups holding 40 pounds, a set of box squats and a set of SLDLs, I realized that my legs were just too tight to continue on. So I stretched. A lot.

I've abandoned my stretching routine. I didn't mean to, it just happened. I have GOT to get back to it. I mean, don't get me wrong, I stretch after every run. What I've abandoned is my daily 20 minutes of deliberate stretching. I used to be able to sit on the floor with one leg extended and not only hold the middle of my foot, but put a yoga block behind my foot to deepen the stretch. Right now I'm lucky to reach my toe! Oh no!

Use it or lose it, people.

I Never Wanted a Drink of Water So Bad

2011-10-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

I restarted my training program again today, which meant repeating the 10 intervals at 8:12 pace. In my rush to get to work, I didn't compare them to last time. But there is probably no need.

Rather than adhering to the pace, I was a rebel. I just wanted to get out and run, and I would run the running parts faster than the resting parts. The idea of 10 intervals made me want to stick a fork in my eye instead, so I thought of it as a 5 mile run, run with intervals. That was a good mental trick.

I did pretty good on the way out, averaging short 8's, though not quite 8:12. If I'm going to whine about the head wind on the way back, I'd have to give credit to the tail wind on the way out, and that's no fun, lol. My times were in the short 9's on the way back.

My old nemesis, my right IT band flared up around mile 4. I haven't felt that pain in a very, very, very long time and was surprised. By the end of the last mile, I could feel it all the way up into my hip. Time for new shoes? I have my order form completed, but left it on the counter at home. Doh! I will foam roller tonight. No time this morning. Rush, rush, rush.

I didn't take water, because it was only a 5 mile run. I had cotton mouth from the beginning and wished I had brought my water. I had a bottle in the car for the drive home. I filled my 24oz bottle at work, and sucked down half of it without even trying. Water never tasted so good! I think I'm dehydrated from being out at the motorcycle race track yesterday. I rode on the track on a borrowed bike. Supermoto: basically a dirt bike with racing slicks (tires) on it. I wasn't fast, but it was fun. Not so much that I want to take it up (crazy people en mass going fast!), but Pete probably will. I think he's hooked.

I Did...

2011-10-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

1)I did get my blood work results back yesterday. Drum roll please..... practically nothing is "wrong". Which is good, because I'm healthy, but is bad because it doesn't explain why my hair is falling out. At least it has slowed back down to normal. Now to figure out how to grow it back!

I'm not anemic, and I'm not even low on iron. But I do have a low-ish reading on the way my iron binds to the "vehicles" that transport it in the blood. It's like my buses are running, but not all the seats are filled. That's what popped into my head as he was reviewing them with me.

2)I did want to start running again today. I woke up to a 50 degree morning that was socked in with fog and pouring rain. I didn't have THAT much motivation to run, but I did want to do "something". So I went to the gym.

I've been debating on canceling my gym membership. I'm just not using it enough. But I can't bring myself to cancel. Yet. So. I'm going to FORCE myself to use it. And if I don't, I will cancel it and sock $42 a month into my savings.

So I went and I did chest and back. I've lost a little strength, but not as much as I would have thought.

Still Taking Time Off

2011-10-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

Today is my deadline, and THANK GOODNESS to get it behind me. I'm feeling better, even if my business partner did tell me I look worn out today. Nice. I told him I thought I looked more rested than I have in days, lol. I get my lab results back Friday, so I'm debating on chilling out until then. So far I'm not going stir crazy. It feels good to rest.

I got an email today letting me know that the trail I run on for my long runs is closing from Thursday until the middle of December. It suffers a lot of landslides, so they are shoring it up. Which is good, but leaves me without my favorite long course. Where on earth to run 7-9 miles now?????? Soooooooo boring to run through town.

Sickly

2011-10-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty tired for a long time. I usually still manage to get my training done, but not today. I've been cold, tired, and my hair has been falling out in handfuls for about 8 weeks. So naturally, I suspected my thyroid. I went to see my doc on Wednesday and got 3 vials of blood drawn yesterday. He suspects iron deficiency, which makes total sense. 1)I had it before in my 20's, to the point where I had to take iron supplements. 2)My diet has included practically no red meat for the past 18 months (steak once a year, instead of twice a week when I was married, with other forms of red meat on each other day). 3)I've increased my frequency of giving blood from about once a year to every time they are in the area and I'm past my 53 days, or whatever it is. I'm on their email list and how do you ignore "we have less than 3 day supply of your blood type"? Well, I may have to choose more carefully if this turns out to be the case.

And, of course, as life goes, this comes on top of my financial stress and work deadline stress, as if that alone weren't enough to make me tired and bald.

So this is my once in a blue moon pity party post. Hope you enjoyed! LOL.

Striving.

2011-10-12T06:13:00.000-07:00

First of all, did I mention that it is COLD here? It was 50 degrees on race day. Perfect running weather, until you're done and soaked with sweat and freezing your buns off waiting for results. My hair was as wet as if I had just showered. I had on my warm up jacket AND a winter coat over top of it and I was still freezing. This morning, it was 48 and I got rained on. Ahhhh, the Olympic Peninsula in Fall.

Lessons learned today:

1)The big part of learning new paces is learning what they feel like. In my mind, 8:02 sounds FAST. So I ran HARD. I saw I was going 7:15 and told myself to slow down. 7:40. 8:30. I couldn't really find 8:02. Plus, I ran at 5:00 a.m. and sunrise here is around 6:30, so I had to hit the light on G to see what I was doing, and to be honest, that was a pain in the neck. It will take a little time to learn what the new paces feel like.

2)Not being able to run a new pace right away is not failure. It's part of striving to get better. It's not so much that my program says "Run 8:02 for a 1/4 mile." What it really says is "Work at being able to run at 8:02 for a 1/4 mile. And oh yeah, do it 10 times."

I can run a tad faster than 8:02 for a 1/4 mile. I cannot (yet) do that 10 times with a minute:thirty rest interval. The first 4 went OK. I would walk the first 20-30 seconds of the 1:30 rest, before taking it back up to a slow jog. The next 4, I broke down to a walk before finishing the 1/4 mile. The last 2, I managed to run the whole 1/4 mile, but not on pace.

So I have room for improvement, which is the whole point, right? It looked like this:

10 minute warmup
7:50/11:28
7:47/11:45
7:58/12:09
7:54/14:02
10:01/13:03
9:35/11:17
9:14/14:32
8:54/15:10 lol
9:09/13:07
9:14

It ended up being only 5 miles, and thankfully I had parked in my usual spot which is precisely at 5 miles.

That was HARD. But I feel good about it, even though I could only do half of it "right".

The Next Six Weeks Begins Tomorrow

2011-10-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

I took 3 rest days. I thought I would take a week off, or at least a week of something different. That thought lasted 2 days. I was ready to run this morning. However, having taken a Benedryl at 9:30 p.m. and having been up at 3:00 a.m. that morning, sleep sounded much better when I heard it raining this morning. So tomorrow it is!

I calculated my new training paces based on my race results. Um....yikes? Instead of speed work at 8:47, I'm at 8:02. Instead of long (7-9 miles) runs at 10:10, I'm at 9:28. My short tempo pace went from 9:40 to 9:13. I'm excited. And I'm scared. LOL. I'm more excited than scared, but we will see how it goes.

Tomorrow's (Wednesday 10/12) speed work is TEN 1/4 mile intervals at 8:02 with 1:30 rest in between. I need 21 intervals, including warm up and cool down, but discovered that Garmin only wants to give me 20. So I have to cool down without it being "in the program". Which is fine, really, but slightly annoys me. Or more than slightly, else why would I be writing about it? lol.

I'm expecting this to be about 6 miles? 10 minute warm up, 10 minute cool down, 2.5 miles of speed, with 15 minutes of rest intervals. I hate it when I calculate wrong and end up too far from the car. ;)

About That Crab....

2011-10-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much for all the congrats! Having the support of all of you is a pretty amazing thing. I feel blessed. :)

Crab Fest happens once a year, for the past 10 years. Not only can you get a whole Dungeness crab dinner, several of the local restaurants participate and make special crab dishes. We typically bypass the traditional crab dinner (honestly, it's cheaper to go buy a Dungy crab at the grocery store if you wanted), and go for special crab dishes. A favorite is the crab bisque from Toga's. YUM! We had that and crab sliders. We were making a point to eat light, because we were going out to dinner with friends, and we would be eating a lot earlier than usual.

We walked thru the vendor tents on the pier and saw some amazing art. But the best part was the NW Raptor Center had demonstrations going on. They rescue wild birds in distress, nurse them back to health, and when appropriate, release them back into the wild. Yesterday, they had several birds that can never be released out for demonstration. One was an enormous female red tailed hawk. She was gorgeous! But because she was fed by humans when she was young, she now will land on the shoulders of random humans to ask for food, rather than hunting. That's how she was found. Over the phone: "Um...I'm not sure if you'll believe me, but a hawk just landed on my shoulder, and I don't know what to do."

Soon, Pete's duty phone went off and we had to leave so he could get back to work. He told me I needed to be ready to leave for dinner by 4:30. I knew which friends we were going to dinner with, but didn't know where we were going. He had been very vague.

When he got home, he wondered if jeans were OK to wear to dinner. I couldn't help, because he wouldn't say where we were going. So we both wore jeans, so at least we would match. We parked the car downtown, and set off on foot. This wasn't overly odd, because traffic was a mess due to Crab Fest. We were heading toward Dairy Queen. "Are we going to DQ?" "NO!" He finally told me we were going to Downriggers, since we hadn't been in a while. Hmm. OK. Hardly seems worth all the secret keeping. As we walked, they announced over a speaker that they were about to begin boarding for the Sunset Crab Cruise. "Oh, that's that dinner cruise I sent you the email link on!" "It is?" "Yeah, the one you said 'EEEEEEEEEWwwwwwwwwww" about." The loading area for the cruise is right beside the restaurant he said we were going to. But it was really the cruise we were going on! He managed to keep a secret! And a good one! I was so excited!

At the beginning of the year, the passenger-only ferry service to Victoria, BC, went out of business. Instead of being a ferry, they were going to do eco-tours and other bookable sailings. This was their first crab cruise. They took us around the harbor and pointed out a lot of local sights that you don't get to see from that perspective. Like the Atlantic salmon that are being raised in our Pacific harbor (contained, so they can't cross breed with the Pacific salmon), so that Costco and other vendors can sell fresh Atlantic salmon.

For dinner, they served crab cocktail and crab lasagna. It was AMAZING. I drank too much wine, but had a very, very good time. :)

I Thought I Was Gonna Die!

2011-10-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

I made a deal with myself today. "Do NOT run the first half faster than a 9:00m/m pace. Run the second half as fast as you want. Do NOT go under 9:00 in the first half. Do NOT get caught up in race adrenaline."

I started out at an easy pace. I felt fantastic. I could run all day. I looked at my Garmin. My pace started with a freakin' 7, not a 9!! No matter how much I told myself to slow down, I couldn't get it over 8:something. I knew I would peter out. "Slow down, slow down, slow down, slow down...".

At the half way point, I saw I was 13:30 into it, which was just about perfect for the 27 I wanted. Damn. No slowing down now. I've got to RUN. I was so. hard. The last mile, I thought I was going to die. "OK, I'm going to just slow down. I can't walk, but I can slow down." So I did. And G said I was at 8:30. WTH?

G lost me for about a minute. I was under heavy clouds and an overhang of trees. But the timer keeps ticking, even when the pace is unknown. I told myself I would have to settle for a 28. I got a stitch in my side, way up high, at 2.36 miles in. Here is where training pays off. I got that same stitch on a training run not too long ago, and I just ran through it that day and it passed in about 2 minutes. Sure enough, it passed today too!

At the last quarter mile, I figured out I could get a 26. I had to push it. It hurt. I was tired. I kept telling myself how great I felt, and wasn't this fun? But I wasn't buying it.

Still, I crossed the line at 26:57. YES!!! 8:48 average pace. I ran the first half at 8:44 and second half at 8:52 average paces. The overall female winner appeared to be a teenager, but could have been early 20's, I suppose. I saw something like 16:53 written on her prize envelope! The over 35 female ran it 1:10 faster than I did. That's all they announced, and didn't post, so I don't know my placing (or official time...I was 26:57 by my Garmin). I think they said the results would be in the paper.

And now that it's over and I've quit asking myself why in the hell I do this, I want to do it again, and go for a 25. I think I'm only 6 weeks out from the next opportunity, and I don't think that's enough time to shave a minute off. But I should be able to get it by the annual Reindeer Run in December. I always take second place in that one, for my age group. I want first!!! :)

Yesterday's Run

2011-10-07T07:31:00.001-07:00

Legs of lead. Cardio system was fine, but my legs felt like lead. What a very difficult "easy run". Just over 4.5 miles at 10:43 average pace. BUT I did "run" every hill...even tho' my pace slowed to 12:00m/m on the steepest climbs.

I'm excited for tomorrow. Mostly for the crab dinner following the race. I LOVE CRAB.

Last Speed Workout Pre-Race

2011-10-04T07:43:00.000-07:00

Today's plan called for a 10 minute warmup, 6X400 @ 8:47m/m, with 1 minute rest intervals in between, then 10 minute cool down. I drove down to the flat land for this, so as not to screw it up. It went like this:

10 minutes @ 10:42

Work/Rest:
8:12/11:55
8:20/11:32
8:15/12:14
8:19/12:30
8:18/12:31
8:13/11:24

It felt really good!

I also had the opportunity to upload my run from Saturday. I laughed when I saw the elevation profile. It explained why it felt so hard. I started out at 15 feet above sea level and climbed to 411 feet in the first mile, then went down to 167 feet before turning around and climbing back up to 411, then down again. I'm OK with 12:12 now!

One more pre-race run to go: a 5 mile easy run on Thursday.

Technology Fail!

2011-09-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

I was supposed to:

Warmup 10 min

1 mile @ 9:10
1 minute rest
1 mile @ 9:10
1 minute rest
1 mile @ 9:10

Cool down 10 min.

Garmin checked out during the warmup. I was so mad at him. I'm having issues with the cable that connects him to my laptop, and he didn't recharge. :( So I ran the approximate distance, but have no clue at what speeds. I know it was too fast to hold for one mile. But I got in 3 speed intervals and jogged in between.

I was debating on doing this run over on Wednesday, but my Wednesday run is 3 miles @ 9:40, with a warm up and cool down. I don't want to miss that one either. So today was an "oh well" day.

What a Difference a Week Makes!

2011-09-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

Today was my last 7 mile run. It's the last time I'll run the same route the 5K runs until race day. (Next Saturday I have a 6 miler scheduled, but will be out of town, so I get to run in unfamiliar territory.) This is the same old 7 miles at 10:10 pace as each of my last several Saturdays have been. Ho-hum. I was tempted to run a different route, but it's so easy to just "go" for 3.5 miles and turn around that I decided to just stick with it. Last week, this run was a disaster. This week, I hit it out of the park!

One big change: I slept in until 7:00 a.m. today and was HUNGRY when I woke up. So I took the time to eat a bowl of oatmeal and raisins before I left. Yes, I admit I usually run on an empty stomach. I know, I know...can't run without fuel in the tank, etc. etc. I'm the type to always do my lifting on an empty stomach too. Not because I believe in fasted work more than non-fasted work. It's for no particular reason other than I don't have time to eat and digest before running/working out on work days. (Side note: I always eat a little oatmeal before a race. I don't go into races unfueled.)

Today I just decided to run at a pace that felt like work, without worrying about trying to stay at 10:10. I tried not to look at my Garmin, but of course I snuck glances. Every time I looked, I was 9-something. Short 9's. I didn't figure I would be able to hold that pace for the whole 7 miles, but again, I just wanted it to feel like work.

I saw 3.1 getting near, so I watched and hit the lap button at that point. 3.1 in 0:28:45. 23 seconds better than my best 5K time, but still a long way from 0:27:08. Race day is going to have to hurt a lot more.

I saw 6.2 getting near, so I watched and hit the lap button. 6.2 in 0:57:45. That's exciting to me.

I was within the last half mile of the total 7 miles and was glad to be nearly done. I looked down and found I was going 8:33 m/m pace. I finished the 7 miles in 1:05:14, averaging a pace of 9:18! And I feel great!

I'm so excited by this run. There is still a lot of work to be done to prepare for race day, but I can see how far I've come. I'm not only back to where I was in 2010, before taking all that time off, I think I'm better! I know my 12K time is better. I think I could give my HM time a run for its money, too!

9 Mile Tempo Run?

2011-09-21T07:48:00.000-07:00

Who puts a 9 mile tempo run in a 5K training plan? FIRST does.

Who puts hills in a 9 mile tempo run? I do.

9 miles in the middle of the week is hard for me. It meant I had to be on the road at 6:00 a.m. so I could hope to be home and getting ready for work by 7:30. Close. It took me 1:35:27.

It was supposed to look like this:
1 mile warmup
2 miles @ 9:40
1 mile easy
1 miles @ 9:40
1 mile easy
2 miles @ 9:40
1 mile cooldown

It actually looked like this:
1 mile @ 11:00

2 miles @ 9:20

1 mile at 12:02 (I walked a portion of this, as I got off a text to home letting P know where I "hid" his uniform when I put laundry away, took off my jacket and got a drink, resituated iPod after jacket removal.)

1 mile @ 9:40

1 mile at 12:15 (Luckily, I hit the worst of the hill on an easy mile. I jogged most of it at 11:30, but walked the very top.)

2 miles @ 9:59 (I'm just happy it had a 9 in it, lol. The last little bit of hill was at the beginning, and I was running sub-9 for a bunch of this to make up some time. It was hard.)

1 mile @ 11:22

And THAT is the longest run in this training program. I have my 7 miler on Saturday, then rest of them are 4-6 miles. I'm over the hump!

Speed Work

2011-09-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

Mistake number 1: Not getting my stuff ready the night before, including loading my program into my Garmin. This made me late.

Mistake number 2: Deciding to forgo the drive time to flat land and just run from the house to save time. The flattest run from the house isn't as flat as where I drive to, and this put a hill in my 5th repeat. Bad choice.

Planned: 5X1000m (.62 mile)@ 8:57 with 400m (1/4 mile) rests, 10 minute warm up and cool down.

Actual:

Warmup, 10 minutes, .92 mile, 10:52 avg pace
Interval 1: 8:55.9
Interval 2: 9:00.4
Interval 3: 8:54.1
Interval 4: 8:53.0
Interval 5: 12:16.7

I'm happy with the first 4. I run off-road a lot because the shoulders are small and traffic is heavy-ish. So between the rolling up/downgrades and the uneven terrain, I feel good about holding those average paces.

On the 5th one, I gave it all I had to get up that damn hill while still maintaining pace. I had to walk after about half of it. Overall, the 1/4 mile recoveries (my shortest yet) weren't too bad. But having the last speed interval fall where it did was a bad thing. From now on, I drive to the flat on speed day.

A Harder One

2011-09-17T16:52:00.000-07:00

Where was the version of me who ran this same course last week, 2 minutes ahead of pace? I don't know, but she wasn't here today. This was a mentally tough run. 7 miles at 10:10, again on the same trail as all of my recent Saturday runs.

This time I *did* include the hill. It's only 3 tenths of a mile, but gains 110 feet in those 3 tenths. I made it farther up than I ever have, even though my pace slowed to 11:30, before I walked the last little bit. The flat bit at the top, then the run down a hill beside it make up .8 of mile. More on that later.

My calves were KILLING me today. I've noticed over the past 2-3 weeks that they don't seem to be recovering. I stretch after every run, but it must not be enough. I sucked it up and plodded along, but my speed wasn't their.

I turned around 3.5 miles to head back. Since I wasn't going to do the hill on the way back, I'd be missing .8 in my total mileage. I just didn't feel like I could make it up. On top of my calves hurting, my dinner last night didn't agree with me. I had an icky stomach and running wasn't doing it any favors. So I ended up calling it quits at 6.2 miles. My pace averaged out to 10:18. It's not that horrible, especially with the hill. It just wasn't a feel good run. I stretched twice as long as normal once I got home (and even the stretch I do at the car before I return home was longer), and my calves feel better. I think I just need to pay more attention to them.

Short Tempo Run

2011-09-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

I made it through my 9/15 deadline, even if it did screw up my training schedule. I didn't make it to the gym at all this week, but I will get in all of my runs. I was SO STRESSED this week, it wasn't funny. I finally got to Wednesday's run today, which means I'll be running my long run tomorrow with no rest in between. It's either that or run my long run up against my speed repeats and that doesn't sound any better.

So today was 1 mile WU, 3 miles at 9:40, 1 mile CD. I ran from the house a route that is flat overall, but has some significant up/down grades. 3/4 of my 1 mile cooldown ended being "up", so it wasn't much of a cooldown, but whatever.

My times were:

1 mile @ 10:41

3 miles @ 9:32

1 mile @ 11:13

The inner voices were not so quiet today. This was a hard run, and I was thinking how all of the FIRST runs are hard runs. Well, they have to be, right? The goal is 3 quality runs, not running miles for the sake of running miles. So in a way, each of these runs is just as hard as a hard leg day in the gym. It's work. And the feeling of accomplishment afterwards is a very real reward.

The 3 miles at 9:32 took 28:38 so I've beat my 29:09 that is my 5K PR. (I'm sure it wouldn't take 30 seconds to run that last .1 ;) ) BUT, that 29:09 included that huge hill. So this is not as "good" as it looks, I don't think. Goal for upcoming 5K is still 27:something.

4X1200's

2011-09-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

Late again...here's the gist:

Supposed to run 4X1200 (3/4 mile) @ 9:01, with 400 (1/4 mile) rest in between.

They actually came in at:
Run/Rest
9:10/10:44
8:54/11:01
8:53/11:01
9:01/11:06

Hey, I finally found 9:01 on the last one, lol.

I screwed up the math when I wrote this one down. With the 10 minute warm-up and cool-down I had written down 7 miles instead of 6 miles. So I was still about a mile from the car when the run was finished. Doh! I ran it in the 10:00m/m zone.

7 Miler

2011-09-10T09:00:00.001-07:00

Gotta get to work...BOO! Deadlines on Thursday.

I didn't expect this to be a good run. It felt hard. I had to work at it. But at the same time, it was just "work". I wasn't talking myself out of it. I just simply had to focus on pushing on.

I was a half hour later than normal. It was hot (for here), at 66 degrees. The tide was the lowest I've ever seen. And big gnats were so thick in the shade I had to put my hand over my mouth and nose, and when that failed (I STILL ate some bugs) I had to put my T-shirt over my nose for a filter.

I figured out somewhere along the way that 7 miles @ 10:10 should mean a finish time of 71+ minutes. At the halfway point, I saw I was right on track for that. So I pushed just as hard on the way back (as I fought my way through bicycles heading out on the annual Olympic Bike Adventure).

Oops. I finished over 2 minutes early. :) My average pace was 9:50, instead of 10:10. 9:58 on the way out, 9:42 on the way back. I'm starting to believe that if I stick with the training program, I'll shave those 2 minutes I want off of my 5K time. Yay!

7 Mile Tempo Run

2011-09-07T07:23:00.000-07:00

But first....yesterday I went to the gym for a 20 minute TRX workout. I came away feeling like it was more of a waste of time to drive the 10 minutes each way to the gym. Hrm.

Today's tempo run was...GOOD, now that I'm home and endorphins have kicked in. Sense of accomplishment? Check! Thoroughly worn out? Check! While I was running it, it was difficult, but not OhMyGodI'mGonnaDie difficult. And the voices in my head were pretty darn quiet. I chose a route I haven't run before, but have ridden many times on my motorcycle. It's way easier on the motorcycle, LOL!

Planned:
1 mile warmup, 2 mile short tempo pace of 9:40,
1 mile easy, 2 mile short tempo pace (9:40),
1 mile cool down.

Actual:
1 mile @ 10:57
2 miles @ 9:45
1 mile @ 11:04
2 miles @ 9:51
1 mile @ 10:44

I'm actually OK with the 9:51, because the return trip had a hill at the end. But what was funny was that I was reading my Garmin wrong most of the time! If you have one, you know you've got MULTIPLE choices of what info displays. And that on some of them, the words "pace" or "time" can be teensy tiny. The whole first tempo I was thinking, "man...I've finally found a pace I can hold! 9:43 is a natural speed for me."

On the second tempo, no matter how fast I felt I was running, I seemed to be stuck at 10:03. THAT'S when I realized I was reading "Lap Pace" and not simply "Pace". I was running at 8:23 while thinking I was running 10:03. LMAO. What a maroon, as Bugs Bunny would say.

Next run scheduled for Saturday, a 7 miler at 10:10 pace.

An Internal Dialogue

2011-09-05T10:04:00.001-07:00

First, thank you SO MUCH for your encouragement via comments. If today is any indication, I'm going to need it. I started to get a bad attitude around the 4th repeat, lol. Of course now that I'm done, everything is fine. But it went like this:

7:15 AM: Wow. I slept WAY in. I've got to go run. I'm kinda excited about seeing how my Garmin works to track repeats. I'm even kinda excited about the repeats. This is going to be a good run! I'll drive down to the flat for this. NO WAY am I going to the track.

6 X 800 m (1/2 mile) repeats at 8:55 pace. 10 minute warm-up; 1:30 minute rest intervals at a slow jog. 10 minute cool-down. Let's do this!

Warm-up jog: I wonder if I need to hit the lap button so my repeats will segregate the time out, or if it knows? I better not touch it, just in case. What's the worst that could happen? True. It's not that big a deal to find out.

Repeat 1: Damn, I fast! You better slow down! these are 1/2 mile repeats, not 1/4 milers. Yeah. It's going to get hard soon enough. Garmin keeps chirping "Slow Down...Slow Down".

Rest period 1: {I hit the lap button. Doh! That makes it skip to the next segment, so I lost a rest period AND a work period to get it back to a rest period. Now I have to make that up in the end. Should've left it alone!} Not bad! 11:00m/m jog...I could do this all day.

Repeat 2: Damn, I am FAST! You DO remember this is going to get hard, right? There's no use in wearing yourself out now, you've got 4 more after this one. I know, I know. A half mile IS a little longer than I keep thinking it is.

Rest period 2: OK. Time to jog. 4 more to go!

Repeat 3: See? I told you this was going to get harder. Yup! Still not bad, though. Definitely work.

Rest period 3: Screw jogging. There, I jogged for about 30 seconds. I can walk the remaining minute. WTH?

Repeat 4: You know...maybe I don't need to run my 5K any faster than I have already. This sucks. Once again, I've taken something that I enjoy, and made work out of it. This is dumb. Run faster! Speed up! Whatever!

Rest period 4: I'm walking here! Agreed!

Repeat 5: OK. Look ahead. Where do you think a half mile ends? Don't look at your distance until you get past that pole after that sign post. Hey. This is the 5th one! Only one more to go. I've got this! Ugh. I told you not to look at your distance! Now I probably have to go until that building up there.

Rest 5: Walking! One more to go. Doesn't it seem like I've been walking too long? Oh yeah. I've entered the 10 minute cool-down, but I've got to make up that one work interval I messed up by hitting the lap button. RUN! ONE LAST HALF MILE!

Repeat 6: This really isn't so bad. And I don't have to do it again til next Monday, and it won't be 6X800. No, it's probably worse, lol. Probably. But at least it's only once a week. And the next run is a tempo run.

Cool down: OK. That wasn't the worst. Nah. I can do it again next week.

Please tell me it sounds similar inside your head? LMAO. On rare occasion, the chatter is just too much. Usually it's just a dull roar like above.

Now that I can see my results, I can see that Garmin tracks each programmed segment without me having to hit the lap button for splits. The only one I can't see is the one that entered the 10 minute cool-down period. As for the rest, I was shooting for an average pace of 8:55 and did: 8:47, 8:38, 8:44, 9:05 and 9:10.

Looking ahead, next week's repeats are the most brutal on the entire schedule. 4X1200's (3/4 of a mile) at 7:41. 7:41? WHAT? I'm hoping I read that wrong...looked at the wrong line on the table or something, ya know?

On another note, I wore myself out entirely yesterday. We dirt biked over 30 miles/4 hours. I did REALLY well the first half. Then I had a few spots where I had to pick my bike up, which is similar to deadlifting 265 pounds. I can only do that so many times before I just don't have the energy to ride anymore. Yet I still had about 15 miles to go. It was very, very hard, but very, very fun. The first half more than made up the second half. I was having bike issues (bad battery, forcing me to kick start, but the kicker didn't want to work either), which lead to me being scared to stall it, which lead to me stalling it, then dropping it. lol. We left at 7:30 yesterday morning, drove nearly 2 hours to get there, rode, stopped for some brief shopping (shotguns, TVs, and ice cream, ice cream being the only one we actually bought), and got home around 6:00ish. I fell asleep in the recliner around 9:00, moved to bed at 10:00, and woke up at 7:15 this morning. Wowza. Now I'm trying to get motivated to wash my car, after a PBJ. :)

ETA: Oh, and yes, my foot is fine. I don't know what that weird little episode was. That hasn't been an issue since. I did feel that old, familiar stitch in the bottom of my right foot on Saturday, so I started "towel scrunches" again last night on it. But the left ankle/foot has been just fine. Whew!

On Trying to Hold 10:10

2011-09-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

I spent about 2 hours of life last night writing out a training program for the upcoming 5K. It turns out I did indeed have that FIRST book, so I took their plan and mapped it out by date, distance, pace, etc. Not only that, I figured out how to load it into my Garmin software and have that upload into my Garmin 305. So I'm all set for next week.

I have to say...I'm surprised at the training distances for a 5K. 7-9 miles pretty consistently. Which is fine. I proved to myself last week I can still run 8 miles pretty handily. It's just that most programs I've seen top out at about 6 miles. This training program, on top of my weekly 7:00 a.m. meeting, have forced me to change my training schedule for the next 5 weeks. Gone is the MWF gym, TTHS/S run. Now it's MWSa run, TuF gym.

Today's run was to be 8 miles at long tempo pace, or 10:10. I've told y'all I can't hold a pace to save my soul! I saw way more 9's than 10's, and constantly told myself to slow down. Then I'd see 10:20 or worse, and bark "speed up!" It was a constant accordion of speed changes. I really expected to average out at 10:00 or less. I saw 9:15 and 9:30 THAT much. But there are enough places where the trail trends upward (can't really call them "hills") that I knew I would lose some speed along those. But overall, I worked hard the entire run. I averaged out at 10:13, running the first half in 10:21 and the second half in 10:04.

It was a GORGEOUS morning for a run. I put on a long sleeved performance T from my HM a couple summer's ago, because we are already at 47 degrees in the a.m. My hydration belt wasn't tight enough, and that dang bottle kept coming around to the front of me, sliding on my T. Other than that annoyance, it was a really good run.

Sunrise over the water:

The halfway point:

My most consistent running partner. She doesn't run in the rain with me, but she's there for every sunny run:

Leg Day and 1/4 Mile Repeats

2011-09-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

I had written out a leg program, traditional style (ie, no supersets, just straight sets), with about 5 exercises to do. Then I lost that sheet of paper. lol. I could remember 4 of them, but I forgot how long this style of training takes, so I only had time for 3 exercises, if I wanted to do my 1/4 mile repeats.

Trap Bar Deadlifts: I have no idea how much the trap bar weighs, but it's at least 30 pounds, if not 40? I stuck 50 pounds on it and did 4 sets of 8.

Bulgarian Split Squats: 4 sets of 8 each leg, holding 15's.

Reverse Hyperextensions: I did these with a stability ball on top of a bench, 4 sets of 20 reps, 1 second hold at top. By the 4th set, I was feeling these!

Then I hit the treadmill for my repeats. 1/4 mile jog at 5.5 mph, 1/4 mile run at 6.7 mph/ 9:00m/m pace. I did 4 repeats, so I jogged a mile at 5.5 overall and ran a mile at 6.7 mph overall.

I can't say it was "hard", but I was glad when each of the 1/4 miles were up. This seems to be right about where my current fitness level is. So should I go for 6 intervals next time, keeping the speed the same? Or should I keep it at four and increase the speed? Remember my goal is a faster 5K time, shooting for 27 minutes.

ETA: I really need to update my picture! Or add more, or something. Maybe this weekend I can get around to that.

OH! And let's talk about my clothes! I recently posted (I think?) how shirts I haven't been able to wear all summer are now fitting. Thank God! For the most part, I always still fit into my pants. Snugly. But not so bad to render them unwearable. With one exception. I have a favorite pair of cargo pants that no longer fit, until the week my mom was here. I wore them to Victoria. They were still a little snug, but not distastefully so. I put them on to wear to work today and they are quite loose. :) And the belt is in the next notches down, too. :) YAY!

Sleeeeeep

2011-09-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

I slept an extra 20 minutes, instead of doing my short speed run today. My service club resumed meeting at 7:00 on Thursdays today. I have a plan for that, no problem. Except that for the month of September, a committee I'm on is in charge of bringing breakfast. I remembered this around 6:00 last night. Too late to go to the store to buy something (and there certainly wasn't time to MAKE something), because we had 8 people over doing a live draft for fantasy football. So I had to get up early enough to get to the store AND get to the meeting 15 minutes before it started, which is when breakfast is supposed to be delivered by.

The clock went off, and I shut it off entirely. Intentionally. I'm whooped today. I *might* do some treadmill speed stuff after my workout in the morning, but tomorrow is leg day so we will see.

Conditioning Circuit

2011-08-31T07:54:00.000-07:00

30 seconds on, 20 seconds off, for 20 minutes. This was challenging, but I think I can shorten the rest periods down to 10 seconds to make it brutal. It wasn't brutal.

Box Squats
Burpees
Step Up with Knee Up
Mountain Climber
Running Step Ups
Get Down/Get Ups
Triceps Dips
Squat Thrust

We did it ladder style, starting over at the bottom, so squat thrusts twice in a row, then at the top box squats twice in a row to start down again.

There is a new 5K in town this year! They just announced it yesterday. It's in conjunction with Crab Fest, and will be on 10/8. The course is the same course they always run the 5K's on, I just don't know if they are including the hill or not. I will train as if the hill will be in there. I had a 29:09 last time. I want 27:00 or better this time!

5K

2011-08-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

Today I ran that same route I did last Thursday, except I ran it backwards so that I could run the Big Hill. And I added a few footsteps somewhere along the way, because it ended up being 3.1 exactly, instead of 3.08 like Thursday's run.

The hill wasn't *that* bad. I was SO close to making it without walking any of it. It runs from 5th Street to 18th Street, and I made it past 15th, almost to 16th, before I had to walk for about 20 seconds. So close. Darn!

Still, somehow, my time ended up being 58 seconds faster than last time. My average pace was 10:17. I'm getting my running legs back! :)

Upper Body Workout

2011-08-29T07:17:00.001-07:00

I'm happy to say that I suffer no ill effects from yesterday's 8 mile run. I was afraid my plantar faciitis might flare up, because my sole started talking to me towards the end. But everything seems A-OK!

Today was an upper body circuit for 3X12:
Face Pulls
Pushups
Reverse Pushups
See Saw Press

Followed by hanging leg raises, ab coaster, and dragon flags, one set each to failure.

8 Mile

2011-08-28T13:41:00.001-07:00

Friday I went to the gym and did legs and core. It was a dumbbell complex of step ups, SLDLs, rear lunges and ab rollouts on the stability ball. 3 sets of 8. My workout partner was a no-show again.

Today I drove down to the flat land to run 8 miles. I did it in 1:21:47, or 10:13 average pace. It was easy, after running 3's and 4's of rolling hills. I wore my iPod, which I almost never do. Today, I thought I might need it. 1/4 mile from the car, Fergie was singing, "I can't go any further than this...." and I was saying, "For real? Because I CAN!" lol.

It's been a good weekend. I went for another long ride on Friday, which I need to write up. Friday night we went to a friend's wedding and Saturday I did the first oil change in my motorcycle and checked the air filter (which requires removing the seat to raise the gas tank to get to it). I bought the maintenance manual, read it, and did it myself, with P there just in case I ran into problems. He did assist by getting me the torque wrench and filter wrench, but I did it and I was pretty darn excited about that! :)

Today was the 8 miler, a short ride just to make sure everything is sealed up good after the maintenance, and now I'll wash it. May wash the car. May not. May nap. ;)

Peterbuilt

2011-08-25T09:28:00.000-07:00

Today I was trying to map out a route that was 5-6 miles long. I get bored easily on pavement, and wanted a new course. I came up with one that was probably right about 5. But Pete came up with one for me that looked more interesting. It was a loop that had no repeating portion to get back home, and it had some (very) short trail sections. I chose his route.

It was GREAT. I got to see the water and hear waves crashing. I had to carry directions in my hand, and it was mentally stimulating not knowing where I was going. It could easily be made harder by simply reversing the direction of the loop. That would put a half mile steep hill at the end.

The problem? It was only 3.08 miles. The bright side? That got me home in time to make turkey burgers to bring with me today.

Posting from my phone. Sorry for any typos.

A Short Run

2011-08-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

I chose a different route today that could either be 5.1 miles or 3.25. The decision point is right by the house, and I waited to see what I wanted to do when I got there. I ended up stopping at 3.25 because I was HOT. It had been raining, so I put on the only baseball cap I could find. Unfortunately, it was a winter hat with little ventilation. Even though we are relatively cool here, it was still too warm for that hat!

So I went 3.25 miles at a 10:35 average pace.

Monday Lifting

2011-08-22T07:35:00.000-07:00

I made sure I wrote out a plan for today at the gym. My workout partner was a no-show today, but I got there early and got it done, and had time to do some chores around the house when I got home. Good start to Monday so far!

1A) One-arm DB snatch
1B) DB Vertical Thrust
1C) DB Iron Cross

2A) DB Renegade Row
2B) DB T-Pushups

It was 4 sets of 6-8 for superset 1, and 3 sets of 8 for superset 2, so I was in and out in 30 minutes. Perfect!

Trail Run

2011-08-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

I went back to the Olympic Discovery Adventure Trail today. I only made it 3.1 in before realizing I wasn't sweating as I should be and I didn't have water with me, so I turned around. I tried to hydrate well before leaving the house (I had half a gallon of water in me), but last night's trip to the fair and all it's sugary and fried goodness took its toll.

I wish I could post the elevation profile from the run. It's all uphill about the first 2 miles, so it's more of a hike/run combo on the way in and run on the way out. I would like to start doing this trail weekly, but we'll see.

I had my phone along for emergency purposes, so here are a few pics I snapped on hike breaks.

It cut the pictures in half! You miss the snow capped mountains. On Facebook, they are posting tiny, on here they are so large they are truncated. I give up! lol

I Showed Up

2011-08-19T07:34:00.000-07:00

I was out too late last night to plan my workout for today. (We rode the motorcycles 130+ miles roundtrip to dinner.) So I showed up at the gym planless. Which normally isn't a problem, but today two of my long lost friends were there and I had some catching up to do.

One is my friend who looks just like the girl from bodyrock.tv, sounds like her too, but comes wrapped in a package that is 5 years older than me. She's amazing, and training with her is brutal and fun.

The other is my friend who is SEVERAL years younger than me, and a lot of fun to workout with just from the perspective that she will try anything. Right now, she's just using the treadmill while she gets over new gym jitters (which I will help with on Monday), so I hopped on a treadmill next to her and showed her sprints without adjusting the speed on the treadmill (hop feet off to side for rest periods, hop back on). It was WAY too hot in there. After a few sprints and social time I called it quits. Not a stellar workout, but Monday will be better. I'll go armed with a plan.

Same Run, New and Improved

2011-08-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to the gym and did chest and back. My glutes and hams were still fried from Monday's workout.

Today I did the same run I did on Tuesday. I had considered doing a little bit bigger loop, adding on a mile or so, but then just thought I should keep it the same. Being the competitive little soul that I am, I wanted to do it faster than Tuesday. I was much more well rested, but not so well hydrated and unfed. So I told myself to just do the mileage and accept being slower.

Well you know that lasted right up until the point where I saw I could beat Tuesday's time, lol. I ran it 55 seconds faster than Tuesday. And I took 3 twenty second walk breaks. But that last quarter mile I was running as fast as I could to make sure I beat my time. It's flat as a pancake right there, and I can see the house, so I hauled. And I'm a sweaty mess. We never got a summer here, and now it feels like fall already. 46 degrees Monday morning. 53 degrees this morning. My hair is soaked with sweat and now that I've cooled down, I'm freezing. Time for a hot shower!

4.67 Mile Easy Run

2011-08-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

I mapped a route I thought would be about 5 miles, with rolling hills. It turned out to be 4.67 miles and took me 49 minutes, with an average pace of 10:34. I'm pleased with that.

The hills were MUCH easier. I haven't been consistent enough in my weekly hill repeats to give too much credit to that, other than teaching me that it IS possible. Plus, with the rolling hills, I had nice recoveries on the downs.

I had a moment of running nirvana this morning. I was running along a flat stretch, and suddenly became aware of my stride. I had a nice long stride, landing mid-foot with a nice push off of my toe. I was running very "flat", gliding, not wasting a bunch of movement going up and down. I had the perceived exertion of a 10:30 pace, but I knew I was going faster simply due to the longer stride. I glanced down and saw I was at 9:30 pace. And then I concentrated on it too hard, and it was gone. I tried to get it back, but couldn't quite get there. Too much thought, too much "trying". I hope it's something I can develop over time.

Thanks for the comments on yesterday's workout. That little workout left me SO SORE. LOL. I have DOMS everywhere, but my butt and quads are the worst. The renegade rows and wood chops really attacked my core, too. It's a good feeling, but owie. :)

Monday Circuit

2011-08-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

Medicine ball squat with press overhead on the way up
Tri Lunges (forward, side, reverse)
Renegade Rows
Medicine ball wood chops
Single legged DB deadlifts

5 times through, 30 seconds on/30 seconds off.

Followed by 5 "sprints" on the treadmill. They weren't sprints...more like running/jogging intervals. 7 mph run for 30 seconds/5.5 mph jog for 30 seconds.

Thoughts:

I made this up myself, so I liked the exercises I chose. It didn't get hard until the 4th circut. I think shortening the rest seconds to 20 seconds would up the intensity. OR going to the treadmill after each complete round of a circuit and doing a sprint then, before doing the next circuit.

I felt stiff, so I didn't want to trust the treadmill for speeds greater than 7.0 today. I should have upped the incline in that case. It was so much easier than the hills I've been running, it didn't feel like work. Not that it ALWAYS has to be HARD. Meh. Whatever.

Tomorrow I will run, but I don't know what yet. I'm leaning toward 5 miles easy.

Dunno How

2011-08-14T09:26:00.001-07:00

I don't know how I did it (because I was NOT diligent), but I dropped those 2 pounds I set as my goal for the week. Maybe it's fake dehydration weight and will be back tomorrow. So the goals for the week starting 8/15:

Gym M, W, F
Run T, TH, S

Which hopefully lead to:
Maintain the 2 pound loss I saw this week. We shall see.

My Old Friend Cardio Coach

2011-08-08T11:41:00.001-07:00

I've decided I'm not too excited about that workout plan I bought. I came to this conclusion because I'm going to the gym, but finding other random stuff to do. LMAO. Today, I just wasn't into it AT ALL, but went just to solidify the habit. I found Cardio Coach #2 on my iPod and got on a stationary bike. #2 is the one with the hills. I can remember when it was HARD. It's not that it was "easy" today. I worked hard and got a good sweat. But it wasn't like it used to be. I remember it being a killer.

I'm wanting to focus on my lower body, but my knees are killing me right now. It's just inflammation. It started after some chicken noodle soup I had on Thursday that must have had MSG or just too much salt in it. Then I spent the whole 3 day weekend on my motorcycle, so my diet was far from stellar. And I don't hydrate enough while on the bike. I want to get a tank bag that has a Camelbak insert in it (or space for one) so I will drink more while riding.

I have a goal of losing 2 pounds this week, by paying attention to my diet. That would put me within 4-6 pounds of goal, depending on what it looks like. But mostly it would just cement that I'm going in the right direction.

Short Run

2011-08-04T12:23:00.000-07:00

Everything that could go wrong did this morning, so I went out for a quick 1.76 mile run only. I averaged 8:15/mm pace on the way out, but slowed signifcantly on the way back, bringing my average pace overall to 9:24. It was a flat course that wasn't. Slight downhill all the way out (which explains the 8:15! ha!) and corresponding slight uphill all the way back.

Stroke! Stroke!

2011-08-02T11:22:00.001-07:00

I don't feel good today. Not sick enough that I need to stay home, or anything, but I just feel kinda "blech". I was on track to be a little early to the gym, but when I walked outside, I saw my gas light flashing on my motorcycle (which was warming up) and I decided to fuel up on the way there. No longer early!

Once there, I just got on the rowing machine for 25 minutes and called it a day. I hadn't even planned to stay that long on it, but good music kept coming up in the shuffle of my iPod, so I kept staying for "one more song".

A Break

2011-08-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

So I took a break while my mom was here. I didn't even run. And since I got up at 2:00 a.m. yesterday to drive her to the airport, and went for a long motorcycle ride yesterday, getting home at 9:00 p.m., I didn't go to the gym this morning either.

I thought I would. I reviewed my training plan last night so that I would know what to do today. But when the alarm went off, I decided to stay in bed. "I'll run a little later, instead." But then it was too late to run, too. So much for that idea. I'll resume tomorrow. :)

This Week on 'The Hill'

2011-07-26T07:37:00.000-07:00

I went back to the hill for repeats this morning, deciding to do only 4 (compared to last week's 6) in an effort to do them sub 1 minute.

Last week's times:
1:19
1:07
1:06
1:05
1:10
1:09

Today's times:
0:56
0:53
0:54
0:59

BARELY squeaked in there on the last one! I was willing myself to keep going, telling myself it was the last one, but the legs were done. It felt so slow, I was sure I was well over a minute. Whew.

A Week Off(ish)

2011-07-25T11:13:00.000-07:00

I went to the gym this morning for what is possibly my only weight training workout this week. My mom is coming to visit from Wednesday - Sunday (YAY!). It's about a 2.5 hour drive to the airport, so I won't have time to do Wednesday's workout before I leave to go get her. She gets in early, and I'm going to take her around Seattle a bit before we come back over to nomansland. I'll likely get in some running while she's here, though.

Today was pulldowns and squats, then high incline bench press and deadlifts.

Yesterday was about 4 hours on my motorcycle, because the weather was gorgeous so I headed west until I ran out of road. Literally. I rode to Cape Flattery again, the northwestern most point of the contiguous US. It's a beautiful ride with lots of twisty turns.

Saturday we drove about 4 hours to Washougal to watch the professional motorcross races. It was a blast! We stayed the night, so we got to go for a swim after the races, then dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory. YUM! I had crab stuffed ravioli with pesto alfredo. Again, YUM! :)

So I've Started a 12 Week Plan...

2011-07-22T09:51:00.000-07:00

I bought the Superhero Workout by John Romaniello on Wednesday. It's a 12 week plan to build muscle and lose fat...standard fare. It's 3 days a week of lifting, and progresses through a few different phases (forgive me, I've only skimmed and don't have the outline memorized). I haven't yet found the word cardio, energy systems work, sprint, etc. anywhere in the program. Again, I've only skimmed. On the surface, it doesn't appear to address cardio at all. Which is fine by me, because I'll be running and sprinting on my own. I basically wanted a weight training outline to follow. It was "only" $47 and good thing. It is RIDDLED with typographical and grammatical errors. OMG. Not a professional presentation at all. Which is part of the reason I've only skimmed. It turned me off.

BUT. I did the first workout today. Phase One focuses on building strength, so it was 10 sets of 3 of BB bench press and snatch grip deadlift (I used the trap bar instead, because I love it); then 5 sets of 6-8 pullups and DB split squats with front foot elevated. I omitted the pullups, much to my dismay, because when I got done dirt biking last night, I could barely raise my right arm. I pulled something in my lat/shoulder. It's better today, but pullups were ill advised.

I never have reached the coveted 100# bench press. I think I'm re-establishing that as a goal, because I pressed 93.5 for one rep today. Boy was I excited about that! I settled in at 88.5 (again, the max rack bar is 33.5 pounds, so there's the odd weight) for 3 reps for the last 7 sets. And that was taking me close enough to failure that I was searching for the hooks that catch the bar. I would have to hunt high and low to find what my previous highest bench press was, but I don't think I ever crossed 85. I'm just not sure.

The scale is finally starting to catch up with the visual results I'm seeing. :) Time to keep on keeping on.