Week Thirteen: Disney Princess Half Marathon Training

Week Thirteen

Monday – yoga stretching

I got a yoga bolster pillow for Christmas so I used it to do some lower back and leg stretching. It felt great!

30 min

Tuesday – butt workout

After a long day, I had along drive home, so I used the time wisely to do butt clenches in the car on the way home! Multi tasking!

30 mins

Wednesday – walk/jog with the dog

Took the dog for a walk/jog around the neighborhood. It was too cold to run. It was windy, and horrid. My dog was scared of the wind. Every time it blew, he got skittish and tried to burst away from me. Needless to say, it made the jogging part difficult. I also used this as an opportunity to do the crazy walk with him. So not sure how accurate the mileage/gps is. There were lots of twists and turns and circles and stops and sits.

30 mins – 1.42 miles (21:17/mi pace)

Thursday – wii sports

I planned on 30 minutes of wii tennis, but I got bored with it after about 15 minutes so I moved on to baseball and bowling. Both bored me more than the tennis. So I went back to the tennis for the last 10 minutes or so. I need to bust out the other wii workout “games” that we got for Christmas and see how those fare.

30 mins

Friday – run

5 min warm up walk
2.103 in 30 mins running speed intervals - from 4.5 to 6.5 with 3.0 walk intervals (14:15/mi pace)
5 min cool down walk
A few pains in my left hip/knee area. First run in a while where I didn't wear my compression socks and it felt okay. Looking forward to wearing my new Tommie Copper calf sleeves for the rest of the afternoon!!

30 mins

Saturday – arm workout

Arm workout with wood instead of weights. Yes wood. I'm in the back woods of New Hampshire and I used some firewood instead of hand weights to do an arm workout.

30 mins

Sunday – long run – 9.5 miles

I was dreading this one all weekend. The gym was closed for New Years and I knew I was going to have to do it outside. I went out on the Cotton Valley Trail that I usually bike on and as expected, it was covered in ice.

Luckily it wasn’t too much, just sections here and there where I could walk off to the side before I got onto solid ground again. But it was enough to make me cautious and slow down when I needed to.

The trail is about 3 miles long, so I planned to go out 2 or 2.5, come back, refill my water bottle, then go back out for another 2 or 2.5 then head back again. I figured it would break it up nicely. Instead I went out 3 miles, then turned around and only had to go back out for 1.75 miles then back again to finish off the last 3.5 miles. My iPod died at mile 2 so I had a lot of time to think and talk to God and make up my own songs and appreciate the scenery for the last 7.5 miles.

Partially frozen lake

Not gonna lie, I spent a large part of those last 7.5 miles praying. I kept telling myself that if God brought me to it, He’d bring me through it. It made my run a little more peaceful. The last 3.5 miles were tough. I was exhausted and in pain physically and I had to rely on myself mentally to finish it. There was mostly walking, but I did it. 

When I got home, I took another ice bath. But I didn’t videotape it this time! You’re welcome.

Total: 9.5 miles – 3:00:40 (19:00/mi pace)

I feel like I’ve fallen off the running wagon so to speak. Through the holidays I found that I lacked motivation to run. I did other things, but running was the toughest. And yes, I completed 9.5 miles this week, but the pace was SO slow! I could never complete the half marathon at that pace without them sweeping me off the course. I’m pretty sure if I had walked the entire thing and not run any of it, I could have had a faster pace. My pace at certain points was a 14 min mile pace and a few times I hit 10 min mile paces – briefly. But the when I started hurting, my walking became so ragged & slow that it pulled my pace way down. It’s discouraging and doesn’t make me like running any more either. I still hold firm to be belief that running isn’t for me. I can do 2-3 miles and survive it and not hate it, but this long distance stuff just isn’t for me. After this half, I’m done.

Dec 26, '11 - Jan 1, '12

55 days until the Disney Princess Half Marathon!

Week Twelve: Disney Princess Half Marathon Training

Week Twelve

Monday – chair squats

I went to a rally with my new Tupperware team (YES I'm a consultant now!! If you need/want anything...call me!) and we were standing up to clap for people every 10 seconds. I'd say that worked out to at least 30 full minutes of chair squats!

30 min

Tuesday – house cleaning

Vacuuming, rearranging furniture and hosting a Tupperware party for a few hours. Lots of moving around!

30 mins

Wednesday – walking/jogging/chasing kids etc.

Running on 3 days of little sleep, I was exhausted and close to coming down with something. I didn't want to over exert myself so I decided to get my 30 minutes in by walking around the gym in my school during our "outside time" (it was raining). I walked in a oval around the gym for 30 mins, but also jogged, chased kids, ran away from kids, danced to Christmas music, kicked soccer balls, threw basketballs and I'm sure more - all while still walking my loops.

30 mins – 1.5 miles est. (20:00/mi pace)

Thursday – calf raises

 I had some work to do at home, so I did seated calf raises while I was sitting at my computer and standing calf raises while taking the dogs out or waiting for something to come out of the printer. If I had to stop for any reason, I'd jog in place. There were also a few trips up and down the stairs. I made sure I was constantly moving for the entire 30 minutes.

30 mins

Friday – walk

Was supposed to run, but I forgot about it because I lost track of time and I was so exhausted from serious lack of sleep this week. I was so busy the entire day, so I didn’t even have time to do this until 11:30pm. Because of that, I walked for 30 mins instead of a run. I walked at a 2.5 speed at 2.0 incline for 5 mins, then upped the incline .5 every minute up to 10, then came back down again until I hit 30 mins. I wasn’t wearing my heart rate monitor, but I checked it a few times with the hand monitors on the treadmill and I’m pretty sure my heart rate was just as high during the incline walking as it is during my runs! Good to know!

30 mins

Saturday – wrapping presents

Man, what an arm workout! The reaching, the pulling, the carrying to the tree, etc. This should be a weekly workout, not a yearly one!

Sunday – long run – 3 miles

After a week of no running and barely getting in my 30 minutes of exercise each day, I finally ran. It wasn't pretty. Thank god I only had to do 3 miles. I was tired, lazy and wiped out from lack of sleep this week! Hopefully next week I can get back on track and kick it up a notch! Only 9 more weeks til my half marathon!

Total: 3 miles – 53:25 (17:46/mi pace)

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!! I had another crazy busy week! I need a nap! I can’t wait for the New Year! This next week is going to be just as busy! I hope things settle down in “the twelve”.

62 days until the Disney Princess Half Marathon!

Week Eleven: Disney Princess Half Marathon Training

Week Eleven

Monday – stretching, foam rolling, light yoga

After my ultimate leg workout plus run/walk this past weekend, my legs were really sore. I needed to stretch and foam roll things out. I also did a few yoga positions to loosen up my hips.

30 min

Tuesday – run

I decided I needed to amp up the treadmill work since I've been relying on it for easy workouts and not really benefiting from it. Put it up to 2 incline to mimic outside running. I used http://www.hillrunner.com/training/tmillchart.php to see how that measured up. 

I did run/walk intervals and realized that this incline stuff isn't fun. My left calf felt so tight, I had to hop off the treadmill several times to try and stretch it out. I started getting chills and decided to end it at 30 mins instead of my usual 40. I need to hydrate better!

30:00 mins – 1.78 miles  (16:51/mi)

Wednesday – butt workout

After a long day and night, I was crazy tired and I didn't want to do a strenuous workout that would wake me up and make it tougher for me to get to sleep, so I did butt clenches while checking e-mails. My butt hurt the next day, so it worked!

30 mins

Thursday –run

I didn't want to run. I was too tired. Getting dressed was half the battle, so I got dressed and told myself to at least walk. Then I wrote out my run/walk interval plan. And I ran. I started at a 2% incline, but after the warm up I put it down to 1% since I was planning on doing a speed pyramid. I didn’t even notice the incline! I guess when you bump it down from 2%, 1% doesn’t seem like anything. It really isn’t, but when you add it after months of no incline, you feel it! This was also the first run that I almost threw up. (not counting the 5K I did after being sick all weekend.) I took too much water on a walk interval and had to cut a run interval short. Guess I know how hard I need to push myself in future workouts to kick my own ass!

30 min run time: 2.05 miles (14:38/mi pace)

40:00 mins – 2.52 miles (15:53/mi pace)

Friday – wii tennis

I needed to get my 30 minutes in for the day and I started playing wii tennis and I couldn’t stop! I made it to the PRO level!

50 mins

Saturday – walk

I went to the Wrentham outlets with a friend and we went shopping. I tracked the distance with Runkeeper on my cellphone. I paused it every time we went into a store so I’m sure we walked way more than what was tracked, especially since we were out there for about 1.5 hours and we only tracked 32 mins

1.52 miles – 32:02

Sunday – long run – 8 miles

I was doing the Somerville Jingle Bell 5K today and knew I wouldn’t want to do 5 miles after the race, so I decided to do at least 2 before the race. We all met at a friend’s house that was about 1 mile away from the race. I did 6 laps around the block at my friend’s house to get me to 2 miles. Then we walked about a mile to the race. By that time I had already done a 5K. I knew after the race, I’d only need to do 2 more miles! One mile walking back and one more mile around her block. I was set.

3.29 miles – 1:00:06 (18:17/mi pace)

Somerville Jingle Bell 5K – Race report coming soon. I promise. But it was awesome. They did a great job and I will most definitely support their races in the future!

Official time: 50:08

3.18 miles – 50:12* (15:46/mi pace) *(Garmin)

We walked home and I was surprised to find that I was at 7.5 miles and all I needed to do was .5 miles around the block. I had been taking it easy on my legs for the week so I wasn’t so dead on long run day. I started hurting around mile 7, but compared to my last long run, where I was whining and limping at mile 5, I consider this a success!

1.57 miles – 31:27 (20:05/mile pace)

I also learned that although it’s horrendous, an ice bath is actually pretty helpful. My legs didn’t hurt at all the day after my ice bath, but this time, I didn’t partake in cold ice torture, and my legs hurt me for 2 full days.

Total: 8.01 miles – 2:21:51 (17:39/mi pace)

What a week! I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to even post this! I’ve been keeping track of everything on dailymile, so I can go back and fill in the blanks. In just a few days I’ll be posting THIS week’s update!

Dec 12- Dec 18

69 days until the Disney Princess Half Marathon!

(as of Monday, Dec 19th)

Week Ten: Disney Princess Half Marathon Training

Week Ten

Monday – swim

Went swimming for the first time since September. More specifically the last time I swam was during my triathlon! After a few laps, I took the time to stretch out my hips while I was in the water. I also noticed that the breaststroke worked my hips out in a different way since most of my exercise has come from running and it’s the same motion over and over. Must keep swimming in the mix!

1150 yards – 32:30 min

Tuesday – run

Kept pretty good pace considering I was outside. I've been running slower outside than I do on the treadmill so I was surprised to see this pace.

I had a magical moment: I was powering up a hill, listening to "Friday" by Rebecca Black (don't judge), and I got beeped at by a guy with a Red Sox sticker on his car. I don't know for sure, but I'm going to assume it was a beep of approval. And I approve of his choice of sports team. Call me.

39:01 mins – 2.38 miles  (16:22/mi)

Wednesday – Wii tennis & bowling

Why don’t I play this more often? It’s really fun and you can work up a sweat if you really get into and don’t just stand there. Downside. All the work is done with my dominant arm, so that gets worked out, sore & tired while the other gets nothing. I should switch it up sometimes to see if I can play left-handed.

40 mins

Thursday –run clinic & Wii tennis

I attended a run clinic at my gym. There was more talking than there was running. The coach told us a lot of stuff that he learned over the years of being a runner and a coach. Also watched us run short distances and told us how we could improve. I got something out of it and if he created a running club, I’d join so I could get more advice on how to get better at this thing I call running.

Then I came home and played Wii Tennis again.

30 mins

Friday – Mall walking

Yup, that happened. I went to dinner with my mom and a friend and we walked 3 loops around the mall after dinner. Not gonna lie, I might do it again. It’s a fairly good walking workout – better than the treadmill – and I don’t have to be outside in the cold! Too bad I can’t run inside. Although I suppose that’s what the track at my gym is for.

35 mins - 1.3 miles

Saturday – Jonathon’s Fitness workout

I did @jonathonsfitnes's favorite total body workout - 10 min legs, 10 min arms, 10 min abs. The arms one was too easy, I obviously need heavier weights. But I can see this being a staple to my workouts! It made me sweat and I could feel the burn! I loved it!

Sunday – long run – 3 miles

This was a clusterfluff of 3 miles. I did the Winter Classic 5K, my first DNF, and I don’t even want to talk about it anymore. You can read the race report if you haven’t already.

0.85 miles – 12:50 (15:05/mi pace), 

Came home from the race and took the dogs for a walk to finish the 3 miles for the day. Jogged a few times when the dogs wanted to go faster, but when they started to get crazy and pull, I walked again.

2.34 miles – 43:50 (18:45/mi pace)

Total: 3.19 miles – 56:40 (17:45/mi pace)

This race was the icing on the cake. This was the 3rd race where I’ve gotten no support on the course as far as directions for which way to go or water stations and one of them was even starting to take down the finish line area as I crossed and there were still people behind me – and that was the race that not only accepted, but welcomed walkers and their dogs.  I started a campaign called No Runners Left Behind because races need to be aware that not everyone who registers for a race will finish before 30 minutes or even 45 or even 60 (gasp!). If races have time constraints, they should post them on their registration page and let people decide if they can achieve that time before registering, not after the race when they get lost because all the volunteers have gone home. I'm hoping to get more race directors and organizations on board with this campaign so more people will enjoy races and not feel excluded in something they are doing to make themselves healthier.

Dec 5 - Dec 11

76 days until the Disney Princess Half Marathon!

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 Eight: Disney Princess Half Marathon Training

Week Eight

Monday – yoga rest

I don’t even remember this day. I know I definitely didn’t go to yoga though. Next week.

Tuesday – run

The confidence boost from last Sunday's run carried over to this run. Being a short work week, I was thinking I was doing a speedwork run. But it was only Tuesday so based on my longer intervals of running on Sunday, my intervals were run 5, walk 2. I sort of did speed work, starting at a faster speed to begin with, then went down slowly until I found a more comfortable pace to finish out the intervals. I probably could have done longer intervals at that comfortable pace, but I had a 5K planned for Thursday and I didn't want to push it too hard. Sometimes confidence is all you need to have a good run.

Entire workout 40 mins – 2.36 miles (16:57/mi)

30 mins – 1.901 miles  (15:46/mi)

Wednesday – rest

I think last week passed in a blur. I don’t remember this day either.

Thursday – long run – 3 miles

I did the 5th annual Gobble Wobble 5K road race. I did the walk last year with my mom. This year, I went for the 5K. Of course, I only did it for the pie.

3.11 miles – 51:20 (16:30/mi pace)

Friday – rest

Slept in, recovered from Thanksgiving festivities (i.e. to much wine) and didn't leave the house until the afternoon for a movie. I don't do that Black Friday shopping business. 

Saturday – run walk

This was supposed to be my run day. My friend texted me and asked me if I wanted to run the Central Mass Rail Trail with her. I agreed and she said “Bring the dogs!” -- that’s the last time I ever listen to her!!

I have 2 boxers. My girl is 11 years old. My boy is still a puppy at just over one year. My friend took the girl. She’s very flexible wen it comes to following along and not really paying attention to what’s going on around her. Meaning, she’ll run nicely. The boy? Not so much. I had him. He was going crazy and flipping around the second we got out of the car. He’s not a great leash walker, but he’s still learning. Needless to say, I couldn’t run with him. He was way to excited with all the people around and it was easier, and less stressful, for me to just walk with him and do my run later. When there’s no one else around, he’s not too bad running with me. So, we need to work on that obviously. Practice makes perfect!

At least they're cute.

Sunday – run

I need to work longer intervals into my running more consistently. I obviously can do it; I just get lazy. I need to push myself now. I pushed myself for the last 10 minutes and instead of doing the run 3 walk 2 intervals for the last 2 cycles, I ran the entire 10 minutes. I really only started to struggle during the last 2 minutes. And normally I’d have just slowed down a bit, but I decided to push it and keep going at the same speed. Pushing myself felt good. I know I can do it, it’s just a matter of not letting myself give up.

Entire workout 40 mins – 2.42 miles (16:33/mi)

30 mins – 1.97 miles  (15:12/mi)

I’ve been itching to get more activities in my schedule in addition to running. Starting December 1st, which is in two days, I will be exercising for 60 days straight in a 30 for 60 challenge. The idea with to get in at least 30 minutes of exercise for 60 days. No rest days. My “rest” days will be spent doing something active, but low impact. I really need to get my cardiovascular endurance back up to where it was when I was training for the triathlon. I’m hoping some elliptical and spin classes and weight training and maybe some swimming will help. Any other suggestions?

Nov 21 - Nov 27

According to dailymile, I am 3 miles away from running, elliptical-ing biking or swimming 500 miles in 2011!!

90 days until the Disney Princess Half Marathon!