10k!!!!!

Despite not being able to get my 30 minute interval run in on Wednesday due to rain, I went out for my long run today. I was aiming for 6 miles.

It was a sunny, 48F morning. Rather chilly for shorts, but perfect for a run. I warmed up rather quickly and really enjoyed the run. I tried a different path today. I noticed I reached the track at almost exactly one mile. That was helpful for the end of my run. At the track, I ran a few laps, synching my Garmin's laps. It was right on. 0.25 miles per lap. As I was running the loops, I was reminded of PE class in high school. My first teacher wanted us to run 1.5 miles around our track. I decided that was something I didn't want to do... COULDN'T do. I certainly couldn't at that moment, but I thought I just couldn't. I wasn't made to run and no matter how hard I tried I wouldn't be able to do it. So, I switched PE teachers! Looking back, that was probably a bad idea. It would have been great if I could have challenged myself and worked up to the 1.5 miles. There were two problems: 1) I was self conscious about how I looked when I ran, so I didn't want t try and 2) the teacher didn't want us to take any walking breaks. How could I have worked up to 1.5 miles without using walking breaks or starting at a shorter distance? Anyway, I completed my 1.5 miles (6 laps) this time and continued on!

On part of the run, I ran in the grass. In the morning, grass is WET. So, now my feet are, too. I find that unless the grass is freshly cut, it tends to be too long for me to run in. I have to pick up my feet so high, especially due to the dew. Also, the ground is very uneven in places and I have to watch out. My ankles are pretty weak and I'm afraid of injuring them. Some of the grass had tracks worn in, though, which kept the grass short and the ground more or less level. That was nice. I chose that over the asphalt when possible.

As I was nearing the track again, I decided to run a lap or two until I was at 5 miles, so the mile home would put me at 6 miles. As I rounded one end into the sun, I looked up and about 30 yards in front of me were three deer grazing and watching me. Wonderful!! As I looped around a second time, they were still there. I must not be too scary.

Right as I got home, I hit 6.2 miles and came to a stop. It took about 1:12! Well under my goal of 1:30. A very satisfying run!

I had been worried that my knee would give me problems. It has been feeling slightly funny for the past several days. But, no problems at all. My joints and muscles weren't as sore this time compared to last week's long run.

Just under a month until the 10k race!! I definitely know I can run the distance if I don't go too fast!

Stage 5B2

This time the 5B workout felt a bit better. Maybe it was because I actually did the intervals? I don't know. I feel it in my hams and glutes and a bit in my calves. That's good. My heart rate still tended to peak about 20bpm lower for this B workout than the A workout.

Not much to say. I subbed the partial squats with single leg presses. That was an exercise my physical therapist used for my rehab and since squats seem to be aggravating my knee, I'll sub with evil leg presses for now. I did 8 reps each leg on them rather than 4. My PT had me doing 25 at a time.

rdl/bent over row - 4@90# - I think I might be able to bump these next time!
single leg press - 2x8@110# then 1x8@136#
wide grip lat pulldown - 3x92# - still can't increase, but did feel improvement
back extension - 2x40# then 1x45#
YTWL - 3x10#ea
swiss ball crunch - 1x30#overhead then 2x35# overhead
rev crunch - 3x on 30deg incline
swiss ball side crunch - 1xbw then 1x20# overhead then 1x25# overhead
prone cobra - 2min then 1:20 because I got spooked by someone coming into the gym (did this in the weight room rather than the open room for a change)
intervals - on upright bike 4 sets of 1min hard 2 min easy

Total: about 1.5 hours!!

Stage 5A2

Not as much resistance from the devil on my shoulder wanting me to not work out this morning. I still don't know how it takes me half and hour to get out the door, though.

I made some decent progress today. Some of these lifts are probably not going to increase for a while, though!

I measured my 45# plates and they are only about 9" in radius. I wonder if that is normal. I'll have to research a bit. The lowest pins were around 13-14" off the ground, so using these 45# plates would not have them touching the floor.

1 arm db snatch - 2@30# then 1x3reps at 35# on left and 1x4reps at 35# on right
db single leg RDL - 2@40#ea then 1@45#ea - wow, those are some heavy dumbbells!
bb bentover row - 3@90#
db 1-arm overhead squat - 3@12#/25#
db incline bench press - 3@30#ea
plank - 3@2min
rev woodchop - 1@43# (86# on stack) 2@ 45# (90# on stack)
BWM - 3:56 wait 7:52 then 3:59 - the last bit probably didn't get as low, but I needed to get out of there!

Total time: 1:27, including a few BW squats for warm up

Another run down, biked yesterday (!?!!)

This morning I got out and did my planned 30 minute run. Nothing spectacular. I ran 2.62 miles in 30 minutes. Not great. I was still feeling Saturday's long run. Next time I think I'm going to use the Virtual Partner on my Forerunner to help me pick up the pace. It was a nice 55F and calm. It didn't even seem all that humid. Towards the end, mother nature started calling, but I was able to eek out the rest of the 30 minutes. I hope I don't have that issue during the race.
Update: I forgot to mention I tried something new today. Instead of keeping track of the number of bunnies spotted by counting on my fingers, I hit the lap button instead. That way I also record where I saw them! Today, it was 8!

Yesterday evening, we went on a family bike ride. My 2.7yo daughter insisted on riding her balance trainer bike (I blogged about it here and here) so we let her. My husband still took the trailer in case she got tired. We fully expected her to bike for a while then ride in the trailer. The darn girl refused to give up and ride in the trailer. Although parts were slow, sometimes because she was tired, but more often because she found something interesting to look at, she ended up riding close to 4 miles!! I can't believe it. That is a long trek for such little legs. By the way, apparently dog poo on the path is extremely interesting.

When we got home, she ate and ate and ate. She hadn't had a lot for lunch and had a lot of catching up to do.

5.5 miles!!

I set out this morning for a 5.5 mile run and completed it!

When I got out, it was foggy at 54F. Not bad at all. The nice thing about long runs is that I can get farther away from home and see new areas. I did run a route that I had basically run before, but changed it up a little bit. A lot of it was on a straight path, which I haven't liked in the past. It got boring pretty quickly. But today it was fine. Maybe it helped that the wind was barely blowing. It's an exposed area, so the wind really catches you when it's strong.

Along the way, my path led me by a school track. It's a dirt track with a little bit of tiny gravel. I don't know what that is called. I thought that it would be very level, but it wasn't really. I guess when it gets wet, it gets uneven. There were dog prints in it and a couple places where there had been puddles. This track is only a couple years old, too. Anyway, I circled that a couple times and continued on.

Before I got to the track, on the path was a small dead racoon. Yuck. Its entrails were on the path. Pretty fresh from the looks of it. I assume it was a dog or fox or something that got it, because there was no street nearby.

I decided that I was going to time my 5.5 miles to end by a cafe in my neighborhood. That way I could "reward" myself with a coffee! I had to run past for about 0.2 miles, but it was worth it.

Overall, a nice run.

I didn't run fast, of course. But my heart rate stayed in the 170-180bpm range, so I don't think I could have sustained anything much faster.




I had a comment recently asking about the holder I use for my phone. It's really nothing special. My husband had bought it and wasn't using it, so I commandeered it. I'm guessing it was rather cheap. It says "Bally Fit Gear" on it.

It has a velcro strap that goes around your upper arm. There is an access area on the top to put your headphone cord through. And there is a small zippered pouch to keep a dollar or two in. (Just enough for a cup of coffee!)

I've found that if I run my cable out of the holder under my sleeve and up through my neckline, the cord doesn't bother me much. I also clip it to my sports bra and it stays in place.

Hope that helps!!

Motivation.....

Well, I did the LIFTING part of 5B1 today. I know I should do the intervals, but I just couldn't do it after 1:11 in the gym. I know they don't take long, but.... whatever.

I was prepared to do them when I got home, but my son was waiting for me on the couch and that tipped me to not doing it. It's annoying how weak my resolve is at times.

I guess I should give myself credit for getting up at 4:00am when the alarm went off.

I am especially annoyed at myself because this B workout just doesn't pack the punch of the A workout unless I do the intervals. *sigh*

RDL/bent over row - 1@80#, 1@85#, 1@90#
partial single leg squat - since I didn't like these last time, I tried on a bench, better but I still don't like them 1@BW, 1@15#ea, 1@20#ea
wide grip lat pulldown - 3x92#
back extension - 1@35#, 2@40# (45deg setting)
YTWL - 3@10# ea (wanted 8# again, but one was upstairs, so I used 10# ... hard! but it worked)
swiss ball crunch - 13# overhead slowly
jackknives x3
swiss ball crunch x3
prone cobra 3x120sec

Starting Stage 5!

Again, I didn't want to get out of bed. While I was getting ready to head out the door, I was questioning why I wanted to do this, anyway. Not working out is much easier, at least presently. But, then I fought back and reminded myself how great I feel after lifting.

Today's workout took almost 1.5 hours! And that was even doing 3 sets of each exercise. (The book said 3 to 4 for most of them, 3 for the last two.) The timing called for 2 minute breaks between exercises. I didn't think I would be able to rest that long, but I tried. In those breaks, I read New Rules of Lifting (the original book, not for women). I actually waited the full time each time. A few times I even went over!

My lifts:
1 arm db snatch - 2sets @ 25#, 1set at 30# - I had to backtrack so I could get the hang of these again. I ended up at 35# in Stage 3.
db 1-leg Rom. deadlift - 2sets @ 35# ea hand, 1set @ 40#ea hand
barbell bentover row - 3sets @ 90#
db single arm overhead squat - 1set at 15#/30#, 2sets @ 12#/25# - I decreased the weight to improve my squat form and get deeper.
db incline bench press - 4sets @ 30# ea hand - It was hard to get that weight overhead! 30deg on the bench
plank - 3sets of 2 minutes
rev woodchop - 3 sets @ 41# pulled (82# on cable)
body weight matrix - 4:41, wait 9:22, 5:12

This was the first time for the bwm since I started physical therapy. I think I'll ice today just in case! My time definitely went down. My legs are now equivalent to spaghetti.

Yay for me for getting back to the gym after a couple weeks off. I'm going to be sore! I was sore this morning when I got up from the running yesterday.

Back to the streets

I had a week off while at a sailing regatta then I lazed around a week without much movement. So, this morning, my brain was trying hard to get me to sleep in. Luckily, I didn't let it. Although, it did manage to delay my run a little.

All I did was run slowly for 30 minutes. In fact, I ran at what is now for me a slow pace of 11:53 minutes/mile. So, in 30 minutes, I only went 2.53 miles. Ack! Oh, well. My goal was to break my two week hiatus, and I did. The temperature was a beautiful 65F with a very slight breeze.

During the run, I kept thinking about the 10k I signed up for. At first, I was kind of scaring myself. There are also a marathon and a half-marathon being run at the same time, so I will be running with around 3,000 of my closest friends. A friend who used to run in lots of races was mentioning how pushy and crowded these runs can be. I don't like huge crowds. I have somewhat of a phobia of being trampled!

So, I started thinking about how I was going to keep from falling during the race. I'm sure it's mostly at the start that I have to worry about really tight crowds. Hopefully, they will have pace designations, so I can correctly group myself and not be behind too many slower people or in front of too many faster people. My guess is the former is more likely. Not because I'm fast, more because I underestimate myself.

It's kind of bad that I had that 2 week break right now. This Saturday is a 5k race. In fact, it's the one that I ran as my first 5k last year. It would be cook to run it again, but I'm not really prepared. We'll see how I feel when Saturday rolls around. Maybe I'll sign up on site if I feel up to it.

Bunny count: somewhere around 12