Feelin’ good…

I just completed 8.0 miles!! Actually, it was a little more…I mapped out the run before hand, but this gives me a very inaccurate distance because:

1. I ran on a trail which is windy and curvy but the lines in the software I was using were straight so tracing my path involved cutting some corners.
2. It’s tought to identify landmarks on the trail so knowing where a specific mile is from where I started is difficult.

I generally map to the distance I want to run and then find a landmark a little beyond that, just to make sure I get the full distance.

My stats:

• Distance: 8.25 miles (my best guess…could be a little more, could be a little less)
• Time: 1hr 23min 54sec
• Pace: 10:10 min/mile
• Average HR: 180bpm

My comments:

Distance was great, I felt good the whole time, I really love endurance runs. My overall time and pace were higher than I would have liked. I generally like to see under 10:00 min/mi as a pace. I know that my distance could have been greater than 8.25, but it’s not likely that it was as high as 8.4miles. I’ll have to work on that. I sense more sprint workouts in my future.:) The number I’m happiest about it my heart rate. I was only over my target heart rate for less than 2 minutes during the whole run! I usually have a high heart rate and spend around 50% of my runs over my target zone. I know, heart rate isn’t everything, but it is great to see this come down.

I had a big salad (lots of veggies, some cheese, dressing), grapes, some nuts, and a cookie in the hour and half before my run. I really thought having that much food in my stomach might sabotage me, but after the first mile, I didn’t feel it at all.

 To round out my workout, I’m going to do some ab and arm work then a little yoga to wrap it up.

Hope you all enjoy your Sunday!

Ramping up…

I’m two weeks into my “official” marathon training for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle Marathon. I’m starting to psyche myself out, though. Any shortness of breath while running, any soreness, any disruption to my training is starting to freak me out.

This past weekend my long run was 7 miles. It was fairly easy, but its unnerving to think that the marathon is nearly FOUR times that distance. But I’ve got over four months to get there, right? And I did 4 miles yesterday, 5 miles today (following my training schedule, of course) and I’m not in any pain, so I’m on the right track…right? And I’m strength training, stretching, and not pushing myself too hard, so I’ll be fine…right?!

What I SHOULD be thinking is that in two weeks my long run is 10 miles, and that will be my first double-digit run. And that’s freakin’ awesome. 🙂

Quick summary

Warm-up: 3 min. walk

Running:

time: 43:05

distance: I turned around where the trail branch Iwas running on ended, which I thought would make it easy for me to find the distance on mapmyrun.com. Not so. Either there was more trail behind that fallen tree, or mapmyrun is wrong. I’m guessing round trip it was about 4 miles.

average heartrate: 177

I also did 12 push-ups, 1 minute wall sit, and 50 sit-ups. Fairly lame, but better than nothing I suppose.

A word about my goals…

I recently saw a complaint regarding the prevalence of slower runners in marathons. I understood where the guy is coming from…here is a guy with a sub 3-hour time, who actively trains and seeks to improve with every race he runs. He puts a great deal of time and effort into his training to run the race fast, not just proficiently. Why should he have to run along side slow people whose only goal is finish, no matter the time? Why should he be blocked by inexperienced running in the wrong location? Why should his accomplishment be diminished by the thousands of other “runners” who simply put one foot in front of the other for 26.2 miles, just happy to still be standing at the end? Well, to him I say “tough cookies!” We all need to start somewhere. While running a sub-3 hour marathon would be GREAT, that goal is not important enough to meet to invest enough time and energy to attempt to achieve it (not now, at least). For now, I’m going to focus on completing the marathon. Then I’ll work on completing it quickly.

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I was searching browsing around runnersworld.com and found this article on marathon training: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244-255-12021-0,00.html

A passage of note:

” ‘Stay healthy’ is the most important piece of marathon training advice, and the most often ignored. It does you no good to train hard, and then get sick or injured. Better to be slightly undertrained, but feeling strong and eager, than to be overtrained.”

How true. What good will an extra mile do me if it causes an injury? I’m sure I’ll need to remember that when I get impatient to increase my mileage or push myself too hard. Slow an steady wins the race, when it comes to building miles and completing the distance. I just need to figure out where the line should be drawn between training hard and over training…

Speaking of which, on tap for today: a run (about 40 minutes), some strength training, and a swim (I’m thinking 30 min.) Then I have a baseball game to attend which will involve a good deal of walking and probably some not-so-healthy food. I better make this workout a good one!

Don’t mind if I do!

I haven’t run since Monday and it’s killing me! Two days of no running make Bethie something-something…go crazy? Don’t mind if I do! At least I managed to fit in some sit-ups, push-ups, and a wall sit. I ❤ wall sits (because I’m crazy!).

My excuses:

Tuesday: I couldn’t sleep Tuesday night. I got less than 2 hours of sleep and developed a horrible stomachache before morning. I don’t think a run would have been a good idea, so this day off was justifiable.

Today: My husband’s birthday. Sure, choosing to make my husband French toast for breakfast over running at 6:00AM makes sense. But not running this evening? I really should have made time for it. *sigh* At least I did something today, right? Right.

Tomorrow most certainly is another day and I’ve promised myself a good, long, morning run. No excuses. I just love morning runs. It feels so awesome to go to work knowing that I have x number of miles under my belt already. It’s as if I’ve already accomplished something so the rest of the day is just icing on the cake.

On a side note, I’m sick of hot dogs and hamburgers. After last weekend’s BBQ, which was lightly attended due to rain, we were left with crudload (plus or minus one) of BBQ meats. Because the freezer is filled with meat, we are unable to freeze the additional crudload of hotdog and hamburger buns. I HATE wasting food, so we have been consuming hot dogs and hamburgers at an alarming rate. I don’t know if it’s the sodium, fat, or tedium content of these dinners, but it’s really weighing me down. However, this does make me all the more excited for my husband’s celebratory birthday dinner this weekend. One thing’s for sure: I will NOT be ordering a burger!

16 laps

I did it! I swam. I was so proud of myself. I went at a down time, which means for 90% of my swim I was alone. Which was nice. And when another lady popped up in my lane, it didn’t really bother me. I should make an effort to go at down times more often…with gas prices and all, I hate to make an extra trip to the gym when I can do cardio right outside my front door.

I felt really good afterwards. A little sore, but it was a good sore. I know it wasn’t a long distance, but I hope to improve! I have a friend who can swim a mile much more eaily that she can run one, so maybe she can give me some tips…I’d be willing to give her some running advice in exchange!

Yesterday was a rest day (but I did get some exercise mowing the lawn with a push mower!). So now it’s time to get my butt in gear, go for a run and write some stress tests (it may be a day off, but deadlines wait for no one!). Hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in a little yardwork as well. Enjoy your day off!

Just keep swimming!

Swimming. I love it and I hate it.

I love how it makes me feel. I love the total body workout I get from it. I love that it’s a change of pace. I love the new challenge it presents.

I hate being seen in a bathing suit. I hate being so slow. I hate being cold, wet, and covered in chlorine.

Yesterday, I had every intention of swimming. My favorite workout involves a good run, strength training, followed by a swim. I did the run. I did the strength training. I changed into my bathing suit. I showered off. I wrapped a towel around myself. I walked to the pool. And…I chickened out. My ideal swimming situation is an empty pool. One without people. People who could (but almost certainly don’t) stare at me, judge me. But it was fairly full yesterday. All of the lanes had at least one person in them, including my good ol’ slow lane. Doubling up is generally accepted, but I just couldn’t bring myself to jump in a lane with a stranger. I wandered around for a minute and then retreated to the locker room. *sigh* I’m so disappointed in myself. I need to get over my fears and just do it! I’m such a coward. Why should I care

I need to run out and get some things for my husband’s birthday. Which requires going by the gym. So today, I resolve to get in the pool. Keep me to it!!

My stomach lining!!

(Get it? Anyone? Teen Girl Squad?)

Week in review:

Two trips to the gym. Both involved some amount of treadmill running (on an incline), strength training (abs, arms, and legs), and failed attempts at swimming. The first time was a result of the pool being closed, the second time was lack of lanes open (that’s my excuse at least…remind me to write an entry on that tomorrow). I also had a couple (really, really lame) early morning, pre-work runs. Nothing to write home about.

I just back from the gym (this would be this week’s trip #2) and boy do I feel good! I love that somewhat-sore-but-not-exactly-painful feeling from a good workout. I’m just disappointed I didn’t get a swim in. I haven’t been going to the gym much recently, I prefer running outside when I can, but since my husband had a work dinner and I had some time to kill before I had to pick up him,  the gym seemed like a great place to spend my time.I don’t know if it’s all the strength training equipment, the other peole there to compete with motivate me, or the workout ambiance, but I always get a great workout at the gym. 

Unfortunately, the last two morning runs were horrible. Running in the morning requires me to get up an hour earlier than normal. That part isn’t so bad. I (usually) don’t mind getting up early. I’m not exclusively an early bird or a night owl, but a weird hybrid of the two that allows me to adapt to whatever my environment requires. But I think a combination of the husband being more of a night owl and me not having a regular sleep/workout schedule makes it hard for me get up an go so early right now. I’ve been experimenting with different workout times (before/after dinner, before work, next week I’ll try during my lunch hour) to see what’s going to work. All of the options have their benefits but none of them sticks out as the best option. I’ll probably continue experimenting for the next week or so, but after that I need at least some semblance of a schedule.

Head for the Hills!

So my run last night got pushed off to a run this morning.

I started my day with1/3cup of oatmeal with a big scoop of peanut butter (probably about 3Tbs, I don’t measure) accompanied by a cup of coffee. Yummy! That adequately fueled my run, which turned into some spontaneous hill training. I had intended on taking the trail near my house for a few miles, but then I started thinking (which can never be good). Another of my favorite running routes is along a river. It has beautiful scenary, well marked half mile distances, a convenient location…but no hills. Great to run on, but doesn’t provide a lot of elevation change. While “training” with my friend for a half marathon we never ran, we did afew hill workouts. And they SUCKED. They were incredibly challenging, and left me sore. In other words, they were great for training. Unfortunately, the hills we started on were incredible steep and long, a little much for a hill beginner like me. I’ve like this new trail near my house, because it does have some change in elevation. When I got to the trail and ran up the first hill, I realized that my pace slowed down significantly. And that it just unacceptable.

So I went down the hill, and went up it again…well, more accurately I charged up it. I attacked it. And then I did it again. And again and again…again 9 times. It was a fairly short hill, and a did take jogging breaks after the 3rd and 6th time I charged the hill. Then I ran back home.

Run summary:

time: 33:55 (yes, with one second of my last run)

distance: again, unknown, but it did include 9 hills along with some flat, sustained running

average heartrate: 167

Arm workout: 2 x (12 push-ups, 15 arm raises with jelly jar, 3 x 10 arm lifts) + 11 arm lifts ( the extra 11 because I wanted125 arm repetitions :-P)

Now it is time for me to do a little post run fueling. I’m thinking tuna…

Getting a feel for things

All right, so here we have my first *real* post. I’m still figuring out how I want to organize things (do want to log all my meals? brief synopsis of workout plan at the beginning of the week? track calories?).

I’ll start off by reporting my run yesterday:

time: 33:56

distance: unknown because it was unmarked trail (somewhere between 3.0-3.5mi, I can run a pretty consistent 10 min. mile, though I had gotten down to about 9 minutes, but this was a pretty hilly run)

average heartrate: 171

I also did some ab work: 2 x ( 25 sit-ups, 20 side sit-ups, 10s side plank, 10 plank dips (per side), 15 leg lifts to work lower abs ). It felt good.

I ate a whole lot yesterday at a picnic, which I thought would affect my running negatively, but I had tons of energy on my run and didn’t feel sluggish at all! I attacked all the hills, and didn’t stop to walk at all. This makes me think when I run in the evenings I should beef up my lunch quite a bit and minimize dinner.

On tap for tonight: another run followed by some arm work. Enjoy your day!