Week Seven: Disney Princess Half Marathon Training

Week Seven

Monday – yoga

I sweat more in this hour & 30 minutes that I have in my entire life. I swear. I hadn’t done yoga the previous 2 weeks due to being sick. I think my sweat decided to band together and compile 3 weeks worth. I probably lost 10 lbs. in that class alone. In past classes, I’ve wanted to do the half pigeon pose to stretch out my hips, but I felt awkward just hopping into my own pose in the middle of the class.

source: womansday.com

The instructor is really cool and says, “This is your yoga class, you do what you need to do, I’m just here to guide you. If you sit in child’s pose the entire class, you are doing yoga”, so I probably could have busted out the half pigeon and it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but I never did. I did it a few times at home, but figured I’d get a better stretch after an hour of yoga and stretching with a very warm room.  And I did! We finally did the half pigeon pose! My left hip is really tight, so I had to use a block to support myself, but overall, it’s a very nice hip stretch!

Tuesday – rest

Wednesday – run

I didn't want to do this one. Spent 10 minutes sitting on my couch whining about doing this. Then finally got up and did it. Intervals of run 3 mins, walk 2 mins.

Entire workout 40 mins – 2.32 miles (17:15/mi)

30 mins – 1.88 miles  (15:55/mi)

Thursday – rest

Got out of work early to head up to New Hampshire to catch Straight No Chaser in concert in Manchester. We decided to make a weekend out of it and go up to my house near Lake Winnipesaukee after the show for a long weekend. I was hoping for their Christmas concert since everything seems to be all about Christmas lately

This was taken Sept 10. The day before my triathlon!

But they started out with a few of the same songs from their show I saw in July in Atlantic City. I was disappointed until they started mixing it up and I realized it was going to be a different show. For the second half of the show, they busted out some of their best Christmas songs and I was happy!

I love a cappella. Especially Christmas a cappella. But they didn’t do my all time favorite Christmas song: O Holy Night. I later heard that they sang it at their show the next night in Boston. Booo. Hisss.

Friday – run

Beginning of the trail

I didn’t want to do the track, and I was in NH without a treadmill, so I headed out onto the Cotton Valley Rail Trail. It was so cold & windy. I hated being outside in this. I tried doing speed work, but to me, it's impossible to figure out speed unless I'm on a treadmill. What struck me as odd was that I went out 20 mins, and then came back. On the way out, I ran 1:30, walked 2:30. On the way back I ran 2, walked 2. I ran more on the way back, yet it took me longer to get back than it did to cover the same distance on the way out. I can only hope that this cold & wind are not foreshadowing for the upcoming winter, because I could not stand it. I hated every second of it. If it’s too cold for me out there, I’ll spend the rest of my training inside on a treadmill and just hope for the best.

41 mins – 2.4 miles (17:06/mi)

Saturday – rest

Got lost on the way to a store and ended up in Maine. Twice. Almost got killed on the way home by an ax murder (maybe) and watched movies and drank wine by the fire. Successful rest day.

Sunday – long run - 6 miles

I did NOT want to do this today. I whined about it for a good hour and even complained on twitter. But after some advice and support from Amanda, Sharon, and Stephanie on the Twitter, I got dressed. That was half the battle. I pouted the entire time I drove to the trail. And pouted during my .5 mile warm up. Then I started my usual run 2, walk 2 routine and pouted through the first interval. Then I got mad at myself. It wasn’t windy, it wasn’t cold, and I had no reason to be a complete sourpuss about everything. So I changed my tactic. I told myself to just run. Even if it was slower that someone else’s walking pace, just run. And don’t stop until I couldn’t take it anymore. Push past 2 minutes, after all I’ve run 20 before. I knew I could do it; I just needed to kick myself in the butt and make it happen. I ended up running for .5 mile, then walking for .25. I continued that pattern the entire 6 miles. Never before have I run that long continually throughout a workout. So, even though I might have been slow as heck, I still consider that progress. Now I know what I need to do on all my runs. Maybe I’ll see progress that way. The downfall of this run was, I ran out of fluids (Crystal Light Pure, of course) at mile 4 (I need better planning) and I could feel it. My legs started to hurt at mile 4.5 but I kept going. By the time I was done, I was dead. But I completed it.

6 miles – 1:48:59 (18:08/mi pace) Average run speed = 4.4 mi/hr

Apparently this was the week of “I don’t wanna”. I had a tough time committing and getting it done. I mean I got it all done. But I complained the whole time and I didn’t want to do any of the runs. I think my problem is, I’m getting so bored with just running and I’m not seeing overall improvement. In fact I feel like my endurance/fitness level is deteriorating. I’ve decided it’s because I’ve been doing nothing as far as cross training. When I was training for my triathlon, I was biking, swimming, doing the elliptical and a little core as well as running. Now with just running, I’m falling into a rut, and fast. So now that I know my downfall, I just have to up the ante and get in some other activities so I don’t get completely bored with this and give up!

11/14-11/20 

So weird to see 6 miles up there as a RUN, and not a bike ride. God, I hope I can do this!

97 days until the Disney Princess Half Marathon!

We are in the double digits now!!

Travel, no workouts, one gross hotel, extreme temps and an a cappella sensation.

Put all that in a bag and shake it up. You've got my weekend:

This weekend I took a very mini vaca to Atlantic City. The day before I left I wasn’t feeling well, so I decided to take a rest day. I knew I probably wouldn’t get a chance to work out the rest of the weekend but if I could, I would. Even so, I didn’t want that rest day on Friday, because it meant having 3 days in a row of no training. However, it was just one of those things that happened and I had to deal with it.

I hadn’t been to Atlantic City in at least 8 years so I was excited to visit the love child of Reno and Vegas. As we were driving down to AC on Saturday, we noticed the temperature in my car climbing rapidly. I wanted to be able to walk my way around AC or try a run if the fitness center at the hotel wasn’t up to par. But seeing the ridiculous temps while driving pretty much told me that it wasn’t going to happen.

This was 10 seconds after hitting 105.

We arrived at our hotel to find that our room was one of the few that had working air conditioning. Score. That alone was the selling point given that our view was of dumpsters outside the building, the ice machine on our floor wasn’t working, 2 of my pillows had something blackish on them and there was a curious looking stain resembling blood on the carpet that we covered with the ice bucket to ensure we wouldn’t step on it by accident. Whatever, it was one night and I had my own pillow with me.

We had an agenda for visiting AC other than suffocating weather and terrifying hotel rooms. We had tickets to see Straight No Chaser during their residency at Harrah’s Casino. And I love blackjack. We left our ghetto fabulous hotel and went over to Harrah’s for the night.

We had dinner at one of the restaurants near the concert venue (which ironically was named “The Concert Venue”. They’re original.) and I noticed our waitress had on a button that said “Ask Me about Straight No Chaser”. So I asked. Then I asked her about her button and she took it off and gave it to me.

And then I put it on.

I have seen Straight No Chaser in concert more than a few times. I love, love, love a cappella and these guys are amazing. Like, amazing times 100. Each and every one of them is filled to the brim with talent. And ladies, they aren’t bad to look at either!

You’ve probably even heard of these guys and didn’t even know it. Around Christmas time their famous 12 Days of Christmas song is on the radio all the time.

Since I just received my Run Around Sara bracelets I figured I could put them to good use and share a few with these guys. I may or may not have fired a bracelet up on stage during the show. You’ll have to ask them if it’s true or not, but as I talked to them after the show they were more than willing to show their support.

My previous blog post talked about why I got these bracelets in the first place and I’m glad these guys were happy to model them for me.

I SUPPORT MY FRIENDS....DO YOU??

I SUPPORT MY FRIENDS...DO YOU??

One of the guys spotted my button and asked me about it. I said that they were some group of guys that could sing. He asked me if they were any good and I said “Eh, they’re okay”. I don’t think he knew I was joking, because he didn’t seem too impressed with my answer.  What I should have said was this right here:

Because they are all that and a bag of chips!

Check them out if you can. You won't be disappointed.

After all that excitement, we blew some money in the slots and decided that people watching was a lot more fun than the slots and we played a little game I like to call “Who needs a mirror?”.  There were a LOT of contestants.

We went back to our hotel to suffer through one night of gross. (Comfort Inn, I’m looking at you here.)  The next day brought us the same crazy temperatures so after a lackluster continental breakfast (though I’m not complaining...it was free!!) we decided to check out the fitness center. If it had a/c we were gonna do it, since there wasn’t a pool on the premises and it was still in the triple digits outside. I asked at the front desk where it was located and was told that it was on the 4th floor, but it was undergoing renovations and we couldn’t use it. But it was there! Hey, thanks.

So we packed up and left. Three days, people. Three days of no working out. I’m guessing I’m going to have to hurt myself at the gym tomorrow to make up for this. I can’t wait.