Monday, February 27, 2012

Still sick and still needing running done.
I did a warmup spin for 20 minutes, 5.7 miles.
Then some treadmill running. 22:40 - 2 miles. My legs liked this run, but my throat and lungs were a bit painful when i tried to breathe deep.
But i got some exercise for 2 days now!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Was sick for the last couple days and did not run, but I know I need to keep up a schedule so i tried running this morning. Since I am sick and it was 25 degrees outside, i opted for the treadmlll.

I wanted to try for the whole 6 that was on my training plan for the Salt Lake City 1/2, but 1.5 miles into the run my son called to see if i could babysit my little 6 month granddaughter while he took his wife to the instacare for her illness - it ended up being a bad case of the flu.
I finished up to 3 miles then got off to go babysit. Not a great 3 anyway, gasping for breath, i added a couple walking breaks here and there.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

just a spin today. 35 minutes - 9.2 miles. then 120 stability crunches and 18 knee pushups.
But tonite I feel fat. I need to make time at nite to do a spin or walk. Treadmill while it is so cold and windy outside would be good. I just need to add a second exercise session.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Did a mini brick today. Warm up was a short spin, 2 miles in 7:20 seconds.
Then went out in the morning. Pretty warm for February, 41 degrees. The sky was getting lighter at 6:30, and it was a great morning to run outside.
Had to call it short, 2.15 miles, and had to add walking breaks, 27 minutes total, due to a bad choice for dinner and GI issues.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Regular scheduled run of 45 minutes. Today 45:44 and 4 miles. Tried to pick up the pace a bit today, but i got out of breath and had to walk for 45 seconds during the last mile. but I still got the miles done.
Finished with a little core: 10 squats, 15 lunges, 10 pushups (knee) and 75 stability ball crunches.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

This started out with the intent of being an easy 2 mile run, but things turned out differently when i some how got Lost!!!
Started out with an easy walk with my husband for 1/2 a mile then he returned to the hotel and i started off on my run. The air was chilly, so chilly that my legs were numb in my shorts and my hands got numb also.
I was slowly running along and realized that somehow i had turned off the road my hotel was on. I have been in this exact area and gone running a number of times, and it really is pretty hard to veer off the main road, but i managed!! So i kept running at a comfortable pace and at 1 1/2 miles i realized where i was and turned onto the main road again and walked 1/2 mile until i found a restroom. Then i ran the remainder back to the hotel. It actually really felt great to get this cold morning miles run in!
Total miles - 4 including the warmup 1/2.
Total time - 47 minutes, including the warm up time.
I think i run faster in this lower elevation.

Saturday, February 18, 2012




Sand Hollow Reservoir 5 mile run!
The weather was beautiful, 38 and clear, crisp and sunny. The water was dark blue, the rocks surrounding the small reservoir were deep red. Beautiful.
For this race there are two distances you can run, 10 miles or 5 miles. Both distances start at the same time in the same place and all runners head out across the damn and turn onto the road that circles the reservoir. There are 2 turnaround locations, one at 2 1/2 miles and one at 5 miles. It's an out back course so you cross the damn twice.

Very fun race, organized by local runners in Hurricane, Utah. A couple hundred people from  all over Utah come down to St George to run this race. I plan on doing it again next year.
My goal was to finish and not be last, hopefully in under an hour,  and not get passed by too many people doing the 10 mile race.
Well my time was 57:41 - Yeah!! I was 3rd out of 5 in my age group - Yeah!! And the first person to cross the finish line out of the 10 mile racers, finished 30 seconds behind me - Yeah!!!!
So it was a great finish for me, and my second race is done for the Runner's Series for the Marathon.
That was all i needed, so my spot should be officially reserved - Yeah!! and Yikes!!!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Down in St George today, this was just a .6 mile walk to test the 'MapMyRun' App i downloaded to my phone, and it looks like it works well.
Baseball tournament today so there won;t be time for running and our hotel does not have a fitness room! But i have a 5 mile race tomorrow! Yikes!!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

i did not get a run in yesterday, it just did not happen. I was pressed for time today, as we are traveling out of town later and i still had to pack, so i did a nice quick and sweaty 30 minute spin for 8.1 miles.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Yesterday was a rest/walk day, so i did a 5 min spin for 1.3 miles, then a 1 mile walk.

Today was a 45 min run. Slowly made it to 4 miles in 48:20.
Finished with 20 lunges, then 4 sets of 25 stability ball crunches.
I got the run done, but it was not a great day.

At the biggest loser weigh-in, i GAINED .4 of a pound. So of course i weighed my pants and they weighed 7 ounces more that last week's pants, so i guess this week i broke even.
 I really need to learn to 'Just Say NO!!'

Sunday, February 12, 2012

All week the weather has been a bit warmer than normal, so i wake up today on my non-work/long run day, and yep, cold and drizzly. I could probably handle cold, I have even run in drizzly, but the combo with the cold being in the 30's, was too much to get me out of my warm bed.

So, a cup of coffee and peanut butter toast later, i opted for the Treadmill because i needed a 5 mile run today. Hallelujah, I did 6.1, but at a snails pace, 73 minutes, 20 seconds, which is a 12:01 pace.
I keep telling myself that a 12:00 minute pace for my half is being Over Optimistic, but on runs 6 and under it feels slow. I did allow myself 3 one minute walking breaks, one at 2.5 miles, one a 5 miles, and one at 6 miles. I need to find the right pace for my half, before it gets here in April!!

The miles for this week are done!

Friday, February 10, 2012

Today i realized that 3 days of running in a row is too much for me right now.
I got up this morning and stumbled around bleary eyed putting on my running clothes. I decided to run on the treadmill, because going outside just sounded like too much trouble!!
The run was 4 miles in 46:20 minutes. I took one bathroom break during mile 2. It was a struggle today, just plain tired legs. I was also too late to do my strides, but i got the run in.

I looked up my marathon training plan, and the weekday running is Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday. With the long runs on Sunday. So i am going to start next week doing my half marathon training on that schedule, running Tues, Wed, & Friday during the week instead of Wed, Thur, Friday, and walking Mondays, cross training Thursdays. Then maybe my Friday runs will be better runs, and not just struggles.
I finished with just 45 crunches today.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

This morning i did a spin for my warm up. 9 min, 3.2 miles.
 Then when i checked outside to see how light it was, i noticed it was not completely dark, just a cloud cover. But there were a few slices of almost light blue peeking through the clouds. The temperature was 34, so i decided to go out in the still dark chilly morning.

The sidewalks were covered with ice crystals that crunched under my steps, but the streets were ice free. It was a peacefull morning out as i carried a flashlight and ran a figure 8 route through my hood to finish off 2.1 miles in 24:10.
I felt very happy that i finished this run without any walking breaks today! Yay!
Finished up with 116 stability ball crunches.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Last night was the weekly weigh in for WJ Biggest Loser and I was down 1.6 pounds, which is great until i realized I had worn jeans the first two weigh ins and last night i wore track pants in anticipation of going on their weekly walk. Well, i just weighed those two pairs of pants and the difference is 1 pound, that means i was only down .6 of a pound!! I will excuse myself this week because it was super bowl Sunday, and lots of fattening foods, but now, i need to exercise a little self control here!

Todays run was 4 miles in 44:45 min. on the treadmill. I did a one minute walk break at the 2.25 mile mark. Then some stretches for my sciatic nerve pain, which has been bothering me a lot this week.
That is why i did not go on the walk last nite with with Biggest Loser group - too much pain.
Can't wait for the sun to rise a little earlier so i can go do some of my morning runs outside.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

I just did a little spinning last nite - 26 min, 6.79 miles, and 104 stability ball crunches, because my sciatic nerve was very painful yesterday. Today is also a painful morning. I need to be more dedicated to doing the exercises i have for it.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Sunday's long run was a bit of a tough one. It was a 5 miler outside.
All thermostats said that the temperature was 24 degrees, but it seemed warmer. I wore tights and one long sleeved cold weather shirt. One with a 1/4 zipper in front, thumbholes in the sleeves and soft moisture wicking on the inside, a regular baseball hat and no gloves. I was already sweating by the first mile, so I stayed on the shady side of the streets as much as possible.
I started with 8/1 intervals, but by the mid point of this loop, i was already running out of steam, so i shortened my running intervals to 6/1 and continued that for the rest of the way. 6/1 works out much better for me right now, although i have 2 long term goals: running halfs at an 8/1 interval for a while, then i really want to be able to run the whole 13.1 without walking intervals at all.

This 5.1 mile loop started at Bingham Creek Library in West Jordan, running up a bit of a hill for the first .5, then it flattens out for the rest of the distance. There never seems to be downhill, so somewhere it must do a gradual slope back down. This loop has 4 streets i can run down to turn around, each being 1/2 mile apart so i can do loops in distances of 3,4,5 or 6 miles from this same starting point. That is convenient. I do pass 6 churches on the 5 mile loop, and if i am running on Sunday at a time close to 9:00am or 11:00am, it can get dangerous as there are always people late for church who do not want to wait for a runner on Sunday and they will cut me off if i am crossing their path. I have had to stop in the crosswalks or by driveways on a number of occasions to avoid being plowed down.

My time on this run was 58 minutes, for 5.1 miles. Not impressive, but definitely not my worst.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Third day in a row, and it was a struggle, but i got it done, and, as always, I feel much better for having got my run done. 3.5 miles, 41 min. Then 4 strides: 8 min pace for 50 seconds each with a one minute cool down in between.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

I'm trying to add light runs on Thursdays, to get 3 running days in a row per week, hopefully to get stronger. Todays run was 2 miles in 23 minutes. Then i did a short spin of 2 miles in 9 minutes.
I found another half marathon training plan and have decided to follow this one. The website is not listed on the printout, so i am not sure where it came from.
It follows this pattern:
Mon - rest or walk
Tues - cross
Wed - run
Thurs - cross (and i will run short this day too)
Fri - run
Sat - cross (but this is probably going to be rest or short cross session)
Sun - long run

Looks good to me!!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Yesterday was a rest day, and there is not a lot to say about today's run.
It was a treadmill run for 40 min, 3.5 miles. I had to do a one minute walking break during miles 2 and 3.
Finished off with 20 lunges and 55 stability ball crunches. My sciatic nerve pain makes the crunches a bit painful.
My plan this week is to run 3 days in a row, today, tomorrow, and Friday.
I am still perusing other 1/2 marathon training plans.... in search of the perfect plan!!

Tuesday nite was our 1 week weigh in for West Jordan's Biggest Loser Competition.
I lost 1.2 pounds, but i think it was because i wore lighter clothes this week.
Some people lost a lot of weight for one week, one man even lost 14 pounds. I am beginning to think that he and possibly others wore hidden ankle or wrist weights on the initial weigh in. That is a lot of weight to lose in one week!!