A week off

I didn't work out for a whole week since my husband was on a business trip. I could have worked out in the basement, but I didn't. I goofed off instead.

This morning, I got out and got to the gym. Ran on the treadmill. It was just ok. I didn't use an incline because I forgot. I went a tad faster than normal, which still isn't fast. Morning TV is boring, but I didn't have a magazine to bring with me. Maybe I'll listen to a fixed bpm podcast next time. The TV on the treadmill is just so novel right now, I don't think about it.

I also stretched and lifted weights. I tried the Smith machine today. A nice way to do weighted lunges.

Maybe I need to drink more water

I ran at the gym today. It was a struggle this time to make it to 30 minutes. I wanted to quit, but I didn't. I think it was mostly because I was a bit dehydrated. I hadn't had much water today. It didn't help that the programs on TV were not very interesting. My left foot seemed a bit tight during the run. I guess I should try to stretch that a bit.

After the run, I got a good stretch in and then lifted weights.

Another nice run with a dog

Before heading to the airport, I took my brother's dog out for another run. Nice run. about 30 minutes or so, around 2.6 miles.

I saw several birds unfamiliar to me. One was a white crane-type bird and others were a blue bird of sorts. Anyway, a nice run. It was good to get some movement before having to sit all day.

California running... with a dog

I'm visiting my brother and his family in California and went for a run today. I really needed it due to the milkshake I had yesterday. (Wait, there is some left in the fridge... hmmmm....)

They have a large lab/German shepherd mix that I took on the run. She actually was really nice to run with. I wouldn't mind having her to run with at home when it's dark out! The only disturbing thing about running with this dog is that I'm out there kicking my own butt and she's just trotting along, looking at this and that.

We went for about 3 miles. I could have gone longer, but it was getting dark and I don't know the area that well. I listened to a 151bpm Podrunner podcast called Pocket Apocalypse. Enjoyed it.

OMG - I ran for an hour!!

Since it's starting to snow here, I had my first run using my new fitness club membership. I picked one of the treadmills, the one near the fan. At first it was cold, but I was really glad later on that I had the breeze! After walking for 0.2 miles, I upped the speed to 5.0 miles/hr with 1% incline. The machine picked up my HRM right away and it worked the whole time. I appreciate that. Over the run, I changed the speed up and down between 4.5 and 5.2 miles/hr. As I got close to 3 miles, I felt like quitting, but then I figured I should at least do 3.1 miles (5k), but when I got there, I realized I felt great and decided to keep running. Plus the guy running on the treadmill to my side quit right about then and I didn't want to seem like I was quitting because he was. (I'm silly, ok?) So, I kept running. I had Comedy Central on and some good shows were on. Before I knew it, I had run for 51 minutes. I figured, I was so close to running for an hour, why not keep going? I guess the treadmill is set to only work for an hour, so at about 56 minutes, I had to make it keep going. I made it to an hour!! It probably wasn't a good idea, but it's done. I'll give myself the proper rest, I swear. In that hour, I ran 4.75 miles! That's the farthest I've ever run. Sure, that's not fast, but for me it's far! I kept my heart rate between 172 and 175 for most of it.

Afterwards, I had a good stretch. They had a stretching machine. It was pretty good, especially for back stretches. I think I know now what I was doing wrong for the leg stretches. I'll have to correct it next time.

No bunnies today ;)

Nice cool run with the hubby

After my husband got home tonight, I mentioned that I was going to go for a run. He asked how long I'd be out and I said less than an hour (including warm up and cool down). The surprising thing is that he was asking because he wanted to come along! His father is visiting right now, so it was a rare moment for us both being able to be out of the house while the kids are sleeping.

Although, when running south, there was a strong cool headwind, it was overall very pleasant for running at 60F/16C. It was the kind of day where you could get by with very little sweat compared to normal. Even if your face got sweaty, the wind dried it off!

After a brief warm up walk into the cold breeze, we ran for 30 minutes. It was a fairly leisurely run, which was good, since I wanted to keep my heart rate lower.

bunnies: only one

Nasty muscle spasm and Indian summer

Friday, I went and joined a fitness center so I have a place to run inside when it gets cold out. I know I can run outside in the cold, but I don't want the cold weather to end up as an excuse for not getting out to run. I haven't yet used the membership for two reasons:
1) the Indian summer we've been having
2) this nasty muscle spasm in my back.

The day I signed up for the gym was a beautiful day. My car was in the shop, so I rode my bike to the gym instead of driving. Instead of working out at the gym, I chose to get another outdoor run in. Wow. Since we've already had cold weather this fall, including freezing temperatures and below, we're in an official Indian summer. I love this part of autumn. It's not lasting long, though. Later this week, the temperature will be dropping and it will be freezing over night again. Just in time for my trip to Sacramento!

I've been running for time rather than distance lately, 30 minutes this time. I tried taking it slower, but it was hard. I think I used a 145bpm mix. It was hard at first not to walk. But, I stuck it out and still got plenty of workout. I didn't have my HRM on, but I'm sure I still had a heart rate higher than I should be at. I'm not sure what to do about that. I want to train at a lower heart rate so that I can improve, but that's just so annoying.

Saturday morning, a nasty pain in my upper back woke me from my sleep. I tried shifting position to get rid of it, but it wouldn't go away. I took some ibuprofen, and was eventually able to get some more sleep. The muscle pain stayed with me some all day and gave me problems Saturday night. During the day Sunday, it got worse and early Monday, I was almost in tears from the pain. So, I made an appointment to see the doctor (actually physician's assistant since my doc was out). My pain was being caused by a muscle spasm that was making a portion of my back cramp up. It took me forever to find someone available on short notice on a Monday, but I managed to book a 30 minute massage appointment that evening. I was a bit miffed because I didn't think the masseuse gave the problem muscle enough attention and focused too much on my lower back. However, this morning the spasm seems to be totally gone. I don't know if the massage did it or if it would have gone away on it's own. But, at least I got a massage out of the deal!

I wanted to hang low while the back pain was happening, but now that it seems like it is gone, I'm going to get back on a steady workout schedule.