Week Nine: Disney Princess Half Marathon Training

Week Nine

Monday – yoga

I didn't feel comfortable during this class. I just wasn't centered, zoned in, etc. My body was aching and I just couldn't get the stretches comfortably and hold them to actually help me. I felt like I was forcing it each time. Spent a lot of time in downward dog or child's pose to rest. But I still sweat like a crazy person, so I guess I was doing something right.

Tuesday – run

I’m working on doing more running and less walking in my intervals. Also working on picking up the speed. I used to “run” at 4.0, so I think this is an improvement.

5 min warm up at 2.8
3 min run x5 (2 at 4.3, 3 at 4.4) with 2 min walks (at 3.0) in between
5 min run at 4.3
5 min cool down at 3.0 

Entire workout 40 mins – 2.42 miles (16:32/mi)

This run pushed me over the 500-mile mark for 2011. 500 miles of running, biking, swimming, elliptical-ing, walking and whatever else I did. Wonder how far I can get by the end of the year!

30 mins – 1.946 miles  (15:24/mi)

Wednesday – rest

This was my last rest day for a long time. I joined the 30 For 60 Challenge and decided to fit exercise into my life every day for the months of December and January. No rest days. I love rest days. I’ll miss them. But I’ll do my best to make my “rest days” active and do at least 30 minutes of something active every day to stay on track.

Thursday –run

Speed pyramid workout in which I got up to 6.5mph as my fast peak. That may seem like a walk in the park to most runners, but that’s pretty damn fast for me. It worked out to one of my fastest paces.

Entire workout 40 mins – 2.608 miles (15:20/mi)

30 mins – 2.132 miles  (14:04/mi)

Friday – spin

I hadn’t been to a spin class since September and this class most certainly kicked my butt. I guess I need to put it on my schedule more often. Though maybe not in between run days next time - my legs certainly got a beating this week.

Saturday – long run – 7 miles

Reindeer Run 5K – 3.14 miles in 51:44

After the race, my friend and I did another larger loop around the 5K course for almost 4 miles to add up to the 7 miles needed for the long run. There was more walking and less running during this portion of my run for today. The last 2 miles or so were really slow and painful. I have to thank my friend Beth for sticking with me for the last 4 miles. They were pretty unbearable and I was hurting towards the end of it.

In the car ride home, I talked crazy talk about taking an ice bath.

And then I did it.

And there is video proof: First Ice Bath

7.08 miles – 2:07: (16:30/mi pace)

Sunday – house work

I had to get 30 minutes in today and I was exhausted from my 7 miles the day before. So I decided to count my vacuuming, floor scrubbing & laundry as my activity for the day.

house work - 55 min

My legs are still a little sore from Saturday’s long run. I’m a little nervous about the next long run of 8 miles and the 9 mile one after that! Here’s hoping I can survive the next 2 months with no rest days!

Nov 28- Dec 4

84 days until the Disney Princess Half Marathon!

Week Four: Disney Princess Half Marathon Training

Week Four

Monday – yoga

Unlike Shakira, my hips do lie. They like to pretend they are okay and don’t hurt, until move from sitting to standing, or standing to sitting, or any combination of moving. My hips were really tight so I asked the yoga instructor for poses that might help stretch out my hips and lessen the tension. She showed me a few moves, but they didn’t really help. Throughout the whole class, I felt uncomfortable, like I couldn’t settle into the pose because I was too tense and concentrating on the fact that I was in pain. I did benefit from the hamstring stretching and some lower back twisting, but I didn’t feel like I got the best workout from this class. Just lots of frustration. Hopefully next week will be better.

Tuesday – rest

Wednesday – run

My first time running at lunch. I ran on the trail behind my work.

It's a very pretty trail

I started feeling pain in my left hip/lower back in my right calf. I think my hip/back pain issues are making me over compensate and causing my right calf pain. I find myself limping and I seem to drag my right leg a little. I need to get it looked at by a different chiropractor because after a year and a half, mine obviously hasn’t helped me.

30 mins - 1.78 miles  (16:49/mi)

Thursday – rest

I took a bicycle maintenance class at EMS in Northborough. It was worth driving through the snow and sleet to get there. (Yes, I know it’s still October.)

Friday – run

Horrible, horrible run. Or lack thereof I should say. My co-worker brought a treadmill into work, which is awesome, because now I don't have to run in the cold on my lunch, OR wait til night time when I'd rather relax.

But for some reason this was just a horrible run. Halfway through, I realized that the treadmill was on an incline. I'm sure that this is better for me when I run, but adding that to my current hip/lower back pain, it hurt. I tried fixing the incline so was that zero, just so I could run. But it would not go down. I put the incline up; it went up. I tried to put the incline down again; it stayed up. There was no winning this battle so I just slowed down and took more walk breaks. It was kind of defeating but at the same time it will make me appreciate the good runs when I have them. Or so they say. Whoever “they” is, I'd like to meet them and push them in the snow.

30 mins - 1.56 miles (19:13/mi)

Saturday – hike rest

Speaking of snow, I was supposed to go hiking with a group of friends, but Mother Nature decided that she had other plans for us. She dumped 6 inches of snow half way up the mountain, with more presumed at the summit, before Saturday. Then she dumped more on Saturday afternoon. Needless to say we did not hike. Instead I went shopping and then came home to snuggle up under blankets and comforters and relax. That didn’t last long. We lost power at 6:50PM and I took the opportunity to catch up on some blog ideas I’ve had. I seem to sit down to write them, and get distracted by other people’s blogs!

Sunday – long run

This was the run the almost didn’t happen.

I got up early (not because I wanted to, but because the damn plows woke me at 1am, 4am and 7am) and decided that since I didn’t have power, I’d head over to the gym, do my 2 miles, shower, then hit up Panera or Starbucks for breakfast and free Wi-Fi. That plan didn’t work out so well.

I had to turn around and go a different way. Then, I had to cut through a shopping plaza because yet another road was closed. Finally, I got to the gym.

No Power

Instead I went to Panera and used their Wi-Fi for blogging purposes. Next thing I knew it was lunchtime. I grabbed lunch, and then headed home. I was thinking about trying to run outside, even though there were tree limbs and power lines down everywhere, but most of the snow had melted in my complex area, and the roads were clear and free of debris and danger. The only thing stopping me was lack of shower. But I was reminded that since our water is hooked up to gas and not electric, the gas heats the water as well and our water stays hot even with the power out! HOT SHOWERS!!! Score! So I decided to suck it up and deal with running in the cold. And I bundled up for a short run.

I can only imagine how much more I’ll be bundled on longer runs. Hell. It was Hell.

This was a “rest week” long run. Thank God. My body needed a break. My back, hip, and calves have been hurting a lot all week. Not the entire time, just whenever I run. Today was no different.

2 miles – 36:11 (18:07/mi pace)

10/24-10/30

118 days until the Disney Princess Half Marathon!

Week Two: Disney Princess Half Marathon Training

Week Two

Monday – yoga

There were significantly less people in this class than there was last week. I assume it was because of the holiday weekend (Happy Thanksgiving to Canada!). I was okay with that; it meant more help from the teacher when I was obviously doing a pose wrong. Happens often. I’m new. I expected the class to be the exact same, in terms of poses, as it was last time, but it wasn’t! There were some new poses in there and we didn’t do a few that were done the last time. Honestly, I’ve never been to yoga classes twice in a row before. Yoga Mondays has never existed before in my life! Cheers to more fun yoga classes!

Tuesday – rest

I went into Boston to meet up with some other bloggers in the area! We had a great time and I can’t wait til the next time we get together!

Wednesday – run walk

I was supposed to do a 30-minute run, but I didn’t feel well all day. When I got home from work, I didn’t have the energy for a run, but took the dogs for a walk instead. I figured it was better than sitting on my butt.

30 mins - 1.27 miles  (23:38/mi)

Thursday – walk

Light the Night walk in Boston. Two laps around Boston Common (about 2.2 miles) with the dogs.

2.2 miles - 1:06 mins (30:22/mi)

Friday – run

This almost didn’t happen. I woke up and couldn’t stand upright. After tweaking my back lifting a chair after work and then being pulled by inquisitive dogs all night during the walk through Boston, my back wasn’t feeling so well. I had to call out of work. Around noon I was finally about to get out of bed and walk a little bit. By 5pm I didn’t have sharp pains anymore, just slight soreness in my back, so I attempted a run.

It ended up being a great run. I don’t know when I’ll ever say that again so savor it. It might be cheating because it was raining so I did it on the treadmill, but I’ll take what I can get! I did a pyramid of speed work – my first speed work run ever! Walking at 3mph for 1 min in between each run interval which I did as follows: 4, 4, 5, 5, 5.5, 5.5, 6, 5.5, 5.5, 5, 5, 4, 4. Each run interval was 1 min. Except the 4 mph ones were at 2 mins. Make sense? In my head I planned the 6 mph interval for 30 seconds. I didn’t think I could do it. But when I got to 30, I was okay and decided to push it to 45. Once I got there, I figured I couldn’t back down now and went for the full minute. I did it!

30 mins - 1.95 miles (15:23/mi)

Saturday – rest

My Goddaughter’s birthday party. There was a bouncy house. I may or may not have bounced the hell out of myself. You can’t prove anything.

Unless there are pictures.

Okay, so there were pictures... 

Sunday – long run

This was my second "long run" of the training cycle. I'm getting more comfortable with this running thing. This was just shy of a 5K distance, and I didn't feel nearly as worn out and tired as I have in the past running 5Ks. I did a run 2 walk 2 interval system the entire time. It seemed as though each time it was time for me to run, it was uphill and every time I was walking, it was flat or downhill. Figures.

I should have gone earlier in the day because starting at 5:30 pm meant it got progressively darker as I went on. I thought ahead, though, and wore a bright yellow shirt. Which, as it turns out, was a good thing. I took a picture of myself when I was almost home and you can barely see me, but you can see my shirt! And I didn’t get hit by a car! Plus one.

Next time I'll bring a headlamp.

At one point during this run, it said I was running at 32 mph. I can promise you that didn’t happen. I wonder how much that threw off my average pace.

3.00 miles – 54:04 (18:01/mi)

Week two, done. I don't know how I'm going to handle 4 miles next week. The longest distance running I've done is a 5K. It will be interesting. I'm doing a 5K that morning anyway, so I suppose I'll just tack on the extra mile after the race. Once the 5K is over, 1 mile won't seem as daunting.


Right?

Oct 10 - Oct 16

Week One: Disney Princess Half Marathon Training

This marks the beginning of my half marathon training!! 

One of my favorite bloggers, Marlene, logs her training for big races by making notes on each day of training and posting that weekly. I need something other than dailymile to help me track my training. Don’t get me wrong, I love dailymile, I just need something else to help keep myself on track. What better tool than talking more about myself? Ha! I also want to be able to look back and see my progress. Since I’ve switched from triathlon training to half marathon training, I decided to use Marlene’s strategy to help keep me on track.

Week One

Monday – yoga

I’m initiating a new thing: Yoga Mondays. I have had my eye on Groupons that have passed through my e-mail for Yoga for a long time. For some reason, I kept missing them. Finally I caught one in time. It was for Metrowest Yoga. I went Monday night and fell in love. It was beginner yoga with no heat. Really? No heat? I sweat in places I didn’t know existed. At one point as I was in downward dog, Sweat went up my nose. UP MY NOSE!

It was my first yoga class in over 5 years and I loved it! It was beginner friendly, thank the Lord, and the instructors were really helpful with modified poses for those of us who couldn't stand on our heads on our first try. I kid, I kid. But at one point, they got us all ready for Crow Pose.

Source

I don't know who they were kidding if they thought I was getting up into that! When the instructor said "It's okay if your crow doesn't fly, some crows like to perch", I was grateful. Only because if I was forced to try to "fly", I'd probably have hurled myself forward and face planted into the ass in front of me. Classy, I know. In case you were wondering, I perched.


I forgot how much of a workout yoga is!! I'm sore all over, but it's a good sore! Starting the week off with Yoga Mondays from now on!!

Tuesday – run

First day back running since the triathlon. Yeah, 23 days off. Not completely “off”. Just off from running. I had been walking to keep myself moving, researching to see what training plan I wanted to do and thinking about how awesomely awesome I was going to come back and get at it by being a runner. Or jogger. Whatever. Don’t judge. I did better than I thought I would. I wasn’t amazing, but I felt strong and like I didn’t really regress during those 23 days.

30 mins – 1.75 miles (17:03/mi)

Wednesday – rest

Sweet, sweet, rest. Not completely though. I had a CRP and first aid class and pushing on those fake dummies is an arm workout!!

Thursday – run

Finally got to run outside on the trail I’ve been wanting to test out. I’ve ridden this trail during the summer a few times, but that’s it.

It's actually quite pretty

It was cold. I don’t like the impending doom of winter and running outside. I will probably be a pansy and treadmill it as much as I can. I realize I’ll be sweating while running and not be uncomfortable cold, but breathing in the cold that heavily, hurts. I don’t need that. I will reevaluate as it gets colder and I complain more. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you updated!

30 mins – 1.77 miles (16:59/mi)

Friday – rest

Saturday – long run

Or as I like to call it...”long run”. My first "long run" of my training program. It felt very weird to be considering 2 miles a long run, especially since my 30 minute runs earlier in the week were about 2 miles with the warm ups. I guess that's why I'm a beginner! :) I followed the rules of the long run and walked/ran slower. My average pace equaled out to close to my regular walking pace! Was a very nice and easy run though! I tested out some new running shoes that I bought a few months ago, but haven’t gotten around to using yet. I didn’t want to try them out until after my triathlon and I wanted to test them on the treadmill so they didn’t get dirty in case they didn’t work out. I’m undecided. They are really light and airy and would be nice in the summer. But summer is over. And while they don’t hurt my feet or legs, they don’t feel amazing. I need to test them out again. Of course by the time I’m done testing them out, I’ll have worn them so much, I’ll be attached to them. Plus, they’re blue. And so pretty!

They are a lot more blue that this cellphone camera picture allows.

2.01 miles – 40:03 (19:54/mi)

Sunday – bike

My first biking expedition since the triathlon! My bike and helmet still had my racing numbers on them! It was time to dust the cobwebs off and get it done!

I biked the Minute Man trail in Cambridge towards Bedford. The entire trail is 9 miles one way. We went about 4.5 miles because we were on a time crunch.

Arlington center at the Minuteman Bikeway

There was a slight incline of the trail on the way out towards Bedford, which was made noticeable on the way back when we flew down the trail about 5-7 mph faster than we had been going on the way out. I really enjoyed this ride because it wasn’t a training ride! It was purely for enjoyment and being outside on an 86 degree October day in Boston. I can’t remember the last time I rode my bike for just fun and not to see how much faster I could push myself or stopping to check my pace every few moments. It was great! I hope it stays warm for at least a few more weekends so I can do this again!!

9.44 miles – 1:05

Good week, I’d say!! I’m proud of my first week. And wicked excited for YOGA MONDAY tomorrow!!! Love.

Oct 3 - Oct 9

Running is the devil. It hurts people.

As I sit here with ice on my shins, I’m reflecting back to the past few months. I’ve been so emotionally drained because I’m pushing myself physically and yet, still, I cannot run for 3 minutes straight. I’ve been doing this since January. Swimming, biking and trying to run. I’ve surpassed my swimming and biking goals easily. Yet I’m stuck on running. I’ve tried the Couch to 5K program in the past and haven’t been able to move past week 3 because I can’t get up to running for 3 minutes straight. So in beginning this triathlon journey I decided to follow a triathlon plan and work on the running that way. It didn’t work. So I switched to other running plans. I tried running drills, I tried short intervals for longer periods of time, I tried everything I could think of, but I just couldn’t get this running thing done. Finally I decided to give Couch to 5K another chance. I worked my way up through week 2 and I felt strong and confident that maybe I could do this. I had been building up endurance and strength in other areas since January, and now I needed to work on the running. Finally, I hit week 3 and even though I knew I hadn’t been able to do it in the past, I felt confident. Until I tried it again. I’ve tried Week 3, day 1 three times now. I told myself I wasn’t going to go past a day that I couldn’t complete and go about it at my own pace, but that I’d keep to the schedule so that I didn’t do too much too fast and get hurt.


Well guess what. I’m hurt. Last night I went for a walk with my mom and dogs, but decided to do a few running intervals up and down the side streets of our complex. I started having shin pain and had to walk most of the time. Tonight, I tried Week 3 day 1 again and couldn’t run for more than 45 seconds before I had to walk due to the pain in my shins. First, I had a hissy-fit and flailed my arms, stomped my foot (which made my shin hurt more) then cried "Why the hell can't I just DO this?". Finn looked at me curiously, probably wondering if I was talking to him or myself. Then I re-grouped, because now I was crying in public and I tried doing a speed-walker shuffle/pee-pee dance run-walk thing. That alleviated the pain and I was going faster than my normal walking, but it’s still not running. And I’m sure I looked wicked cool. Seriously, just try and picture it.


I started thinking about why I’m having shin pain now, after 6 months of trying this running stuff and I think I’ve found the culprit. Pavement. I’ve done almost all of my training up until now on the treadmill. Besides my 5K races, I haven’t been outside at all before Week 2 day 3 of Couch to 5K. Even though I’m completely discouraged, and pissed off that I can’t do this, I’m not a quitter and I will complete this.


I have two options right now. I can continue my training on the treadmill and finish the couch to 5K program on the treadmill and then transition to pavement after I know I can run for 30+ minutes straight. Or, I can start over. Week 1, Day 1 on the pavement and build up that way. I'm seriously torn between the two. Both have pros and cons. Your thoughts?


Either way right now I need to take a few days off of running so my shins can stop hurting. I also need to be stretching more. Maybe take a few yoga classes like I keep talking about to get myself more limber. 


But no matter what I decide, I will never quit. Quitting is a weakness and I’m way too proud for that bullshit.


By the way, don’t forget to check out my “What’s in a Name” contest. It ends on Friday night. Hurry up and enter, because as it stands, Jenn and Richelle are winning by default as they have the only entries! And really with so few entries your odds of winning are huge!