Get Fit Monday - a workout week in review

It's been awhile since I updated you on my weekly activities.  I've been making some changes to my routine, adding in a bit more cross-training and a few extra workouts.  I switched up my routine again this past week and I think it worked out really well for me.

My workout week starts on Tuesday.  Tuesday morning I get up at 4:50am in order to get to the gym for a 5:30 barbell strength class.  I am loving this class. It's very hard, it hits all the major muscle groups, and it's fun.  Tuesday night I've been participating in Big River Running's speedwork sessions.  They are hard but I love the structure of it.

Wednesday nights I'm starting to meet up with another runner for a hot evening run. It's the worst time of the day to run but we both want to run with somebody because 1)it's fun and 2)it keeps us motivated.   This past week we did just under 3 miles.

Thursdays I get up at 5:30am for a morning run, usually 4 miles.  I then take a yoga class at 7:15pm.  The instructor is a bit weird..it's definitely a different type of yoga than I'm used to.  I like it..I think I just need to get used to it.

Friday's I get up at 4:50am for a 5:30 spin class.  I'm loving the spin class! It's so hard, I really push myself, but it's so much fun.  I love that it's a great workout and it's something different from running.  A girl just needs to mix it up sometimes.

Saturday is my swim day.  This is the workout I'm the worst at but it just takes practice right?  This past week I ended up doing a total of 500 yards but I had to take a lot of rests, usually after only going one length.  I only did 8 full laps of freestyle. I know I need to increase that but I'm happy that I did more laps with modified breaststroke and other swimming forms.

Sundays are my long run days.  The last two weekends I've run with a group of other runners and I love it. It's just more enjoyable running with others.  This week my goal was 8 miles but I decided to do two full loops of the course we run, which is 9 miles. I could have stopped at 8 but when I hit 8 I knew it wasn't much further to the cars and I felt like I could do more. I'm so happy with this!  It feels good to get in that many miles.  I have switched completely to a minimalist shoe now and this is the furthest I've gone in them.  My calves are still sore and I doubt I could have done much more since they were really hurting that last mile, but I'm glad I stuck with it.

Monday, today, is my rest day.  Ah....I love rest days. I feel it is well deserved this week.  

Get Fit Mondays - Week of May 1st

I'm finally back to workout out regularly..and boy does it feel good.   I went through a several week period of eating like crap and barely working out. It always feels good to get back in track.  I'm still not eating 100% better, but I'm doing better than I was.  My problem? Easter candy.  I didn't buy any, but I had some given to me.    While I'm back to working out regularly, I haven't been doing much running.  I want to run, but I also wanted to start working towards a sprint triathlon so I've been doing other cross-training.   I sat down a couple nights ago and created a weekly workout schedule so I can get in runs and still cross train.  It won't totally go into effect until later in the month but I have my fingers crossed it will work.

So here's what I did for the week of May 1st:
Sunday - swam - roughly 10-12 lengths - I don't remember
Monday - This was a rest day although I did have a fitness assessment done at my gym so I did walk on a treadmill for 15 min.  The end result of all the testing..I have the body of a 21 year old.   Go me!
Tuesday - Ran 2 miles..you read that right..I only ran 2 miles
Wednesday - Spin class - loved it! Lots of intervals.
Thursday - Soccer - Technically I did sprint and run a lot so I guess it counts for running
Friday - more swimming - There was an old guy walking in the lane next to the one I was swimming in. I don't know if I should be embarrassed or impressed...because he was lapping me.   lol!   I did a total of 10 lengths.
I did 2 easy lengths of what I call a modified butterfly, then freestyle for 4 lengths, 2 lengths using a board and kicking, 2 lengths of combined freesyle and modified butterfly.   This is nowhere close to where I need to be if I want to do a sprint triathlon. I think I've come to the realization that I won't be able to do one this year...so I need to just work on getting better at swimming and focus on running for my next half later this year.
Saturday - run! I finally got out for a run.  I did two runs, roughly an hour apart.  The first run was 2.7 miles and the second was 2.6 miles.


You want to know the best part?  I did all of this..all those workouts, with a cold!

One change that I'm excited about is that I signed up for Big River Running's speed workouts. Big River Running is a local running store and favorite running store in STL.  They put on a lot of the races that I love (such as the Castlewood Cup)   Plus, another reason they are my go to store, they are locally owned. Love supporting the locals.  I have decided not to play soccer anymore because I think it's causing some of the issues I've been having with my back and my IT band.  I used soccer as speedwork (because I'm too lazy to do it on my own).   Since no more soccer after a couple more weeks I knew I would need to do speedwork and since their program is free, it was perfect.  I had to sign up, so I feel like I'm accountable.  Since I signed up I know I'll make myself go even if I don't feel like it that day.  I'm nervous, but I'm excited.  The speed sessions Start on May 10th and are every Tuesday until August 2nd when there is a timed 5k on the track to see what our pace is and how much we've improved.  My goal is to get under 25 min or an 8:06 min/mile.

Get Fit Monday - April 10th - 16th

Last week was, for the most part, a recovery week for me.    On Sunday the 10th I competed in my first ever half marathon.  I'm working on a longer post about that one (keep forgetting to add pictures to it).    I had decided to take the rest of the week off, for the most part.   

I did go to yoga on Monday and at my request (heck..the instructor asked for suggestions) we did a lot of leg work and it felt awesome.   

Tuesday and Wednesday I took off.  

Thursday I started playing indoor soccer again. I had been playing it for, oh, 6 months until my team couldn't find enough girls and had to stop in January. I found another team though and I'm back to playing for at least 6 more weeks.  Depending on how friendly the people are and how comfortable I am playing with them will determine if I play the next session.  Or if the husband agrees to let me join a gym I might have to take some time off from soccer since soccer and the gym would both be costing some $$$$$$. 

Friday I attended a spin class and Saturday I took another rest day.  Ok, so I had planned to run Saturday but it was freaking cold and I couldn't get up enough nerve to go running outside in that darn cold weather!

So there you have it!   Didn't do to much, but it was just what I needed to get my head back on track and my body ready to get back in the swing of things.

Get Fit Monday - week of March 28th

Sorry everyone, I sorta skipped doing my post last week.  Never fear...you get my fitness babble this week.

As far as getting in workouts..that went well.  I just didn't feel awesome with every workout.

Monday - I took my first yoga class in something like 7 or 8 years.  It was ok.  Felt like we spent too much time meditating in the beginning and not doing enough poses.  But..first class so we'll see how it goes. I think I need to do yoga so I'll stick with it for awhile and if I need to find another place, I will.

Tuesday - Ran 4.23 miles in 36.3 minutes.  I did a surge for the last .23 and was super tired but think it will help in the long run.

Wednesday - I did a strength training workout, P90X Shoulders and back

Thursday - I did the same loop as Tuesday and this time in 37 min. A tad longer but still good.  I also did the surge at the end again and felt proud of myself for doing it.

Friday - spin class!  That's the thing I missed telling you all about.  The week before I started taking a spinning class.  So far I'm loving it!  It's tough and I can't do all the standing cycling but when I can't stand and cycle I increase my resistance and try to peddle faster.  I definitely see myself continuing with the spinning class for a long time. 

Saturday - threat of thunder storms on Sunday so instead of resting on Saturday I went for my long run.  My planned 6 miles turned into 4.  At first I was upset with this but my ankle and heel were hurting and I was tired.  I felt it best to stop at four and let my body rest. I think doing all the workouts with no rest really effected my run.

Sunday - rest!  Finally!!!

What's up for this week?  Well, my first ever half marathon is on the 10th!  Yikes! I'm nervous, scared, and excited all at the same time. 

Get Fit Monday - week of March 14th

Hosted by Journey To Green

Lats week was not a good workout week.  I'm not sure exactly why. I don't know if I was pushing too hard and my body was telling me to back off or if I was just mentally not with it.  

I ran on Wednesday, I did 4.1 miles in 35.3 min.  I didn't run again until Friday.  I didn't really want to run on Friday but knew I had to. I ran 3.5 miles in 30.4 min Friday.   I did an Insanity workout on Saturday, didn't push myself too much because it was a lot of cardio and leg work and I didn't want to be fatigued for Sunday.

Sunday...was a disappointment.  I had planned to do 12 miles in preparation for my first ever half marathon.  12 turned into 4.   I wanted to stop within 10 min of starting my run.  I don't know if it was because of the heat (I think it was around 80 when I was outside...and to think I woke up to snow on Monday).  I don't know if it's because I'm freaking out about my upcoming run. I don't know.  All I know is that I wanted to stop almost right away and pushed myself to finish 4 miles without walking.  I did the 4 miles in 39 min.  

Of course, now I'm freaking out that I can't really do 13.1 miles and what if it's warm on the day of the race, etc.  Lots of mental anxiety right now.  I tell myself that if I can do 12 this coming weekend, then I'll be ok.  I'm really nervous about doing that 12.  eek!

On a brighter note, I decided attending regular yoga classes would probably be a good thing. Hopefully this will help solve a lot of the injuries I keep having (issues with my back, pulled muscles, etc).  I researched it and found that a local sports complex offers a class pass that's $50 for 10 classes.  It was the cheapest I found and the closest location, it's only 1.5 miles from my house.  They have a yoga class at 7:40 pm on Tuesday nights and I plan to try attending that one weekly.  We'll see how well that goes.  My husband asked if they had spinning classes and suggested I take one of those. He thinks I'll like it.  He also said it would be a good way to start building up my biking ability if I plan to do a short triathlon.  The pass will count towards spinning classes and there are two each week in the morning, 5:45 am, that I could take before I actually go to work.   So...I'm going to plan on trying one of those too. I haven't decided if I'll try one this week or wait until after my race. 

Get Fit Monday - week of 2/28 - 3/6

Get Fit Monday is hosted by Journey to Green

Last week was back to normal for me. I was off of my racing high and back into freak mode. I've officially started training for my first ever half marathon. Just call me crazy.

I didn't do anything Monday or Tuesday, still recovering from the run the previous Saturday.

I finally got out and ran on Wednesday and then again on Friday. Light runs, only 4 miles each.  I was working on transitioning to a minimalist shoe and that's causing my calves to be sore. I have since decided to wait until after the half though since there is no way I would be ready to run 13.1 miles in the minimalist shoe by April 9th.

Thursday I did the Insanity upper body workout.  Definitely disappointed in it. I like the p90x upper body workouts a lot better so I'll start using those again. I felt like I didn't work very much. Due to the moves we were doing in Insanity, he combined a couple different moves to do together, so I had to use a lower weight for all of it.  If the moves had been separated, I could have used my normal, higher weight, for one move and then gone to the lower weight for the move that I needed it for.  

On Saturday I worked out with Husband and he selected the Insanity Max Interval Plyo workout. It was a killer! I wasn't happy with his choice though, I had to do a long run Sunday and didn't need to do that kind of leg workout the day before. I told him that from now on, until after the half at least, no more plyo. 

Sunday I attempted 10 miles..and did it!  Woohoo! I am right on schedule with training for the half.  I ran at a different local park than my normal due to the rain we had Friday, I knew my local park would be too muddy. I ran at Queeny park and still got in a bunch of tough hills.  I did 10 miles in  1hr 33 min, a pace of 9:18. I'm very excited about that. My goal for the half is to do it with (or under) a 9:30min/mile pace. The route is mostly flat..so if I keep working on hills and keep my pace where it was on Sunday..I think I'll be fine. 

Get Fit Monday - Castlewood Cup edition

This Monday, instead of telling you about everything I did last week I'm going to focus on one thing, the Castlewood Cup.

The Castlewood Cup is a 15k (9.3 miles) trail run held at a local state park, Castlewood.  I live right by the park and tend to run there on the weekends, so I knew just how tough it was going to be.  There are a some wicked hills.  Lucky me, the 3 worst hills were all included in this course.

I had signed up for this one last year knowing that it would be tough, take a lot of training, and would be just what I need to force me to go outside in the cold weather and run.

Unfortunately, I had several set backs that kept me from training like I wanted to.  I did a 10 mile race the end of November and my heel (I have a heel fracture that still gives me trouble) hurt for over a week after that.  Then I had a cold that lasted about 2 weeks in December.   Then the end of January I had an op surgery that kept me from doing anything for a week, and then once I did start to run again I had to take it easy and could only handle low mileage.   So coming up to the race..the weekend before I ran 7.1 miles on the course, but before that the most mileage I had done was almost 5 miles.  Nowhere close to the 9.3 needed.

So I was very nervous about race day and my goal was to complete the race without walking and not to be last.   One of my friends was running it with me and I knew that if I was able to stay with him for most of the race, I wouldn't be tempted to walk.

So how did I do?  I'm happy to announce that I didn't walk!  Nor did I come in last!  In fact, I was 192 out of 322 people, and I was the 45th female to finish.  Woohoo!  I completed the 15k trail run in 1 hr and 36 minutes.  This gives me an average pace of 10:32/min mile.  That's a somewhat slow mile for me, but considering the hills and the length of the course and my problems training, I'm ok with it.  I'm happy with how I did.  In fact, my last mile was mostly flat and it was 9:06/min.  I still can't believe I was going that fast, I thought I was dragging.     The race was very hard and had it been much longer I'm not sure how long I would have lasted.  It truly was a challenge for me and I feel incredibly happy with myself for doing it.  Oh..did I mention that we had a lot of rain last week and the trail was very muddy.

My husband went along and snapped some pictures.  I thought I would share, even though they aren't the most flattering pictures of me.  You've been warned.

This is roughly 2 miles into the race, I'm in black with the blue shirt.  And my friend is behind me in white.  and yes..we were talking. lol 

Towards the end of the course there was a creek crossing, which was somewhat high due to the recent rains we had.  Husband got a picture of me before I got in the creek.  There was a photographer taking pictures of everyone crossing the creek though, so I hope to get one of me in the creek soon.

This is me almost at the finish line!  I'm incredibly tired and as you can see I'm barely picking my feet up.

This is my friend and I after the race..once we had gotten something to eat and drink.  It was sooo cold..we were standing by the heat lamps and shaking. I was holding the cup with both hands because my hands were shaking uncontrollable. 

Get Fit Mondays - workout week of Feb. 14th - 20th

Hosted by Journey to Green

Last week was wonderful..we had such nice weather!  I went from running in my coldgear to running in capri tights and short sleeve shirts and even shorts!  

So let's see how I did this week.  

On the 14th I did an Insanity workout when I got home from work. Husband didn't think I could do the whole thing and wanted me to try it...I took that dare and completed the workout much to his surprise. Lol!   I had been worried too since I did two runs that weekend and was worried my legs would be fatigued.

I came down with a cold on Tuesday, which totally threw me into stress mode regarding the race.  Luckily the symptoms haven't been too bad and I continued to workout.

I ran on the 16th, Wednesday.  I ran after work and did 5.32 miles in 48:03.  I averaged a 9:02 min\mile.  Slower than normal..but I had a cold.  The first 3 miles were under a 9 min mile but the last two I was feeling it and they were slower.

I ran on the 19th. I actually ran 7.1 miles in 1hour 19 min. I averaged 11:11 min\mile.  I ran at Castlewood and did all the hills that will be part of the upcoming race.  The only parts I didn't do were part of the flat part.  Fingers crossed I won't have a problem doing the full 15k on race day.  This is the most miles I've done since, well, November I think. So I'm rather happy with this workout.

I ran on the 20th.  I ran at Castlewood again but didn't do any of the course for the race.  Husband wanted to see if he could run 1 mile so he went with me.  We ran the first mile together, at his pace, and then I continued and he went back to the car.  I only ran 3 miles in 30:44.  I averaged a 10:14 min/pace.  I really felt fatigued. I think I should have taken the day off after the long run yesterday.

My big race is on the 26th, fingers crossed I won't have any issues.   After the run on Saturday I'm pretty confident I can do it. I just hope this cold goes away. 

Get Fit Monday - on a Tuesday

hosted by Journey to Green

I totally flaked on posting my workout update yesterday.  Ooops.  It wasn't anything special either.  I'm still not doing full workouts, was still taking it easy after the surgery.  I had actually pulled something or gave myself a hernia or, well, something that was really bothering me last week. Heck, it was so sore just my pants touching it was painful.   So I didn't do any cross-training, I didn't want to chance making it worse.  I did, however, go running.

I ran on Wednesday, I did 4.08 miles in 36 minutes, had an average pace of 8:49 which is close to what my normal pace was.  I was really happy about that.

I ran at Castlewood on Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday I went by myself and attempted two of the hills that are in the trial running coming up soon. I had to walk up the last part of the second major hill. I wasn't happy about that but since I haven't been working out as often as planned, there wasn't much I could do.  I was also still running on a lot of ice and snow.  I ran 4.64 miles in 49:01 minutes. My average pace was 10:33.  On Sunday I ran with a friend who is doing the trial run with me.  He hasn't run on the trails before so it was a way for me to show him the trails and to run one of the hills.  He was just getting back from vacation so we took it easy, we are both out of shape! lol!   We did 4.08 miles in 01:03:07.  Our average pace was 13:09.  This is slower than normal for me, but it was a great pace and we talked and had fun.  Yes, I said it, we had fun running.

I've been really nervous about the upcoming trail run.  I'm still having trouble with all the hills and the mileage.  The good thing is that when I was finished with the run Sunday I felt like I could have kept going, I felt like I could have easily ran several more miles.  We also ran up all the hills, although we only did one major one.  After Sunday, I'm actually feeling confident that I can do the race. I might be slow but I'm confident I can do it.  I have one more weekend to train and I plan to tackle one of the hills I have only run up twice. I think it's the longest and hardest. If I can do it, I'll feel really good.

So that's it.  I only ran 3 times Monday - Sunday.  How did  you do?

Get Fit Monday - 2/7/2011 update

I don't have too much to update for today, seeing as how I was still taking it easy last week after my OP surgery.   I did reach a breaking point where I knew I just had to get off my butt and try something, I was going a bit nuts.  Yes, it's nice to sit around and be lazy and not work out, but I'm stressing out over the 15k trail run I have later this month.

On Wednesday, I had a snow day from work and decided to attempt a run. I put on my yaktrax and ran in the subdivision.  My plan was to go easy, go slow and take small steps so as to not bother the incision right above my leg.   My goal was to try and do 30 min of exercise.  I made it 20 min before my stomach started to hurt (I have an incision in my belly button and right above my right leg).  I ran a couple more minutes, then turned around and headed back to my house.  I ended up doing 3.04 miles in 31 min.   Unfortunately, I should have rested a couple days longer because my stomach was really sore the rest of the day and Thursday.

I had planned to try another slow, short job on Saturday but woke up to 3 inches of snow so I worked out with my husband instead.  We now have the Insanity dvd's and we did the Cardio Sports Circuit.  I had no set plan as to how long I wanted to work out, I planned to stop if I started to hurt. I made it 40 min.  I only stopped at 40 because the exercise they were doing really used your core and husband thought it best I not do it and I agreed.  The the dog threw up and I cleaned that up while Husband finished the workout, which was just over 50 min.   I was a bit achy the rest of the day, but not bad at all.

Sunday I decided to try another run.  Once again I planned to just run in the subdivision. I was tempted to run at Castlewood but felt it best to stick close to the house in case I started to hurt.  I had planned to take it nice and slow like on Wednesday and once again my goal was 30 min.   I ended up doing 4.04 miles in 35 min.  I didn't realize I was going as fast as I was! I thought for sure I was just poking along.  It was somewhat nicer out, kinda warm actually.  Warm enough that after about 18 min I ran back to the house and removed my jacket, hat and gloves.  At 20 min I wasn't showing signs of hurting, realized I was running close to my normal speed, and decided to set a goal of 4 miles.  It was tough, I wanted to stop after 3 miles but luckily was far enough from the house that it took me about .7 miles to get back to my street, at which point I decided I could handle the extra .3 to make it to 4 miles and ran past my street.

While I'm not achy today, there is one part of my stomach area that if I touch/push it, it hurts like there's a bruise there..although you can't see anything.  I only noticed it because I hit it getting dressed, otherwise I wouldn't have noticed since it doesn't hurt to move around.  So I'll take it easy the next couple of days and then we'll see what happens.   Stay tuned for an update as to what I end up doing next Monday. 

  

Get Fit Monday

One of the green blogs I follow, Journey to Green, has a Get Fit Monday feature.  This is one of the blogs that gave me the idea to do my own workout update's on Mondays.  I asked Journey to Green if I could snag her tag and link back to her blog and she readily agreed.


As for my workouts, how did I do this past week?  Not so well, but I have a good excuse.

I did work out last Monday and Wednesday.  I ran both days and did pretty good.  My pace on Wednesday was back up to my normal pace, below 9min/mile and I was really happy with that.

However that's all I did.  It was a bummer, too, because this past Friday and Saturday were actually warmer than normal for St. Louis and would have been wonderful running days.  Saturday would have been a wonderful day to go to  Castlewood and work on increasing my miles from 6 to 9 on the hills. I think I could have done it, although it would have been slow.

I did have a good excuse though, I had an out-patient surgery performed on Thursday morning.  No worries, I'm ok, it was just something that had to be done.  I'm feeling ok, a but achy, but ok.  I just can't lift anything heavy for several weeks and had to take several days off from running.  I hope to run later this week, but we'll see.  We are expecting a horrible ice and snow storm starting today and ending on Wednesday.  If we get the snow they are calling for, I won't be able to run outside.  My hope is that I will feel good enough to run at the park this weekend, slow going and low mileage.