Friday, March 30, 2012

I am just 'not feeling it' this morning and did NOTHING!!! Worried about this mood.......

Thursday, March 29, 2012

'Circuit' work today - spin 10 min, then 50 sb crunches, 15 knee pups, and then some weight repetitions. I did 3 cycles of this.
This really did not feel like much of a workout......

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Today i did a tribute run for a dailymiler who died on Monday, apparently at his local track. I was not internet friends with him, but those who were said he was a great motivator and a great friend. It was an unexpected and sudden death, i am not sure of the cause.
3.1 miles today.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Just a tired treadmill run today. 4.5 miles, 50+ minutes. I forget now how long, but it was pretty slow going. But i got the miles and minutes in, Yay!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Today was a short easy 'wog' jogging + walking for 2 miles to loosen up my legs after the long run yesterday.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Today was a long run day. My Half Marathon training by John Bingham only said 6 miles, but the other plan i have said 9 for today. I went with the 9.
I wanted to practice down hill and knew i had to finish uphill with that plan. So i ran 4.4 around my neighborhood, then went downhill. The down hill was .5 to the road, and 2 miles down the road, then turn around and come back up.
Except for the 2 miles downhill, i kept to a 4/1 run/walk interval. The run ended up being 9.5 and my time was 2 hours. that was about a 12:36 pace. Hopefully my marathon pace in October.
The St George Marathon has a descent for the first 7 miles and then an incline for 4 miles and then is basically a descent for the next 15 miles. I am hoping if i practice finishing with an uphill for a couple miles at the end of my long runs once a month, i will be prepared for the course.
YIKES!

Friday, March 23, 2012

Running done in splits again today. 
Just a note to self, no oatmeal for dinner, it doesn't agree with you for running in the morning.
First run, 1.5 miles on the TM (staying close to home)
Then because of extra time from not running further, Yoga Sun Salutations with Rodney and Family. 
Blinds, and windows open to listen to the birds, feel the breeze blowing in and watch the sunrise.
Nice morning yoga.
Then in the evening after work, finished my miles with 2.5 on the treadmill. 
Total time for both runs was 43:40. Only pace i remember was the last .5 ran at 10 minute pace - Yay!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Today was a spin and core. 25 min spin - 7.1 miles. 175 stability ball crunches, and weight repetitions with a 2 pound weight. Not much on the weight, but i am trying to strengthen my left arm, it has something causing a lot of pain in my upper arm with any strength efforts.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Today was a mixture of short runs when i could get them in.
Started early with a blurry eyed tread mill run: 1.5 in 17:41.
Then after i took my son to school, i went ahead and got another mile in running one lap around my neighborhood. It was a chilly very pretty morning. I wore shorts and an old ratty sweatshirt and it felt great. Using my MapMyRun App, it was 1.1 in 11:18.
Then after work i finished my miles with a sunset run. Very pretty again. 2.03 in 21:29.
Total of 4.63 for the day, i feel good about the days total!

Monday, March 19, 2012

4.25 mile run in 46:30 minutes. 1 mile of spinning, a w/u and c/d with 16 lunges after everything!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Saturday, March 17, 2012

St Patrick's Day Run! This was the Spectrum 10k in St George, Utah.
This race starts 3.5 miles up Snow Canyon, which requires you to take the provided buses up to the start.
That is always kind of fun because you can talk to other runners, but today, the temps were in the 40's in St George with cloudy gray skies and windy!! The buses dropped my load of runners off at 8:10, so we had about 50 minutes to move around to try to stay warm and have a last visit to the porta potties.
This race tops at 800 runners, and they had that many plus a couple more sign up. Of course the shirts they gave out were green, and many people wore those shirts, and a lot of others, myself too, wore some form of green in honor of St Patricks Day.

When the race finally started, i started near the back of the runners, about 800. Going down the canyon i could see ahead a road filled with a sea of runners, most of them in green. It was a very pretty sight. This canyon has red walls, and the landscape is mostly covered with sage brush and small desert type plants. They contrast with the red dirt and dark red cliffs that make up the entrance to Snow Canyon.
As you near the opening, you can see across the valley that spreads out to the next mountain range.
It's a very pretty sight, even with the gray clouds above threatening to rain, which never fell till later that nite.

I finished in 1:12:?? - an 11:41 pace. This put me 23rd in my age group of 28 ladies, and 679 overall out of 778 runners.
It was a fun race, pretty route, but i was definitely out classed with these serious runners, many who were talking about Ultra's they were training for, or their sub 20, 5k's.
Oh well, we all ran the same route, saw the same sights, and had a good time.

After the race, i still had to get 2 miles done for my 1/2 training schedule. So i drove to the Confluence Trail. On the way there i saw a sign at the restaurant Kneaders. It read: all you can eat french toast $4.99!
Well, that about did me in. I parked at the trail and used my running App to measure 1/2 mile running, then turned around and went 1 mile, then turned back to the 1/2 mile back to my car. This was torturous!
I was exhausted, and STARVING!! I had to do some walk breaks and at the 1.7 mark, i couldn't run anymore, i just walked back to the car. But my mantra for this entire 2 miles was : french toast, french toast..... that was all i could think about!! So yes, after my run, i changed into non sweaty clothes i had brought to the race with me, in case of an emergency such as this. Then went to Cracker Barrel which was right by the running trail, and ate french toast to my tummy's delight!!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

I have been slacking on posting, so it is now Wednesday March 21st, and i am going to catch up:
I keep all my workouts and schedule on my ipad, so i am getting the workouts from there.
Wed 3/14 - treadmill min 4.1 miles 45:30 min + 50 sb crunches.
Thursday 3/15 Two spins a) 20 min - 5 miles b) 20 min - 5.2 miles.
3/16 was my race in St George so i am going to give that it's own post.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Spinning day today - 7 miles 25 minutes, followed by 100 sb crunches.
Tonite was our weekly weigh-in: i broke even. That means with all the running I have been doing, I must eat 3,000+ calories a day to not lose any weight!!! I think it is all those  quick couple crackers, or quick couple cookies, or just a couple bites of ice cream. That kind of 'quick' grabbing a snack or bites must really be adding up.
This week i am vowing to curb that snacking and see how i do by next week. Yep, i am.....

Monday, March 12, 2012

Today was a black hole day.
Day light savings time, and being worn out from our mini vacation, i had absolutely no motivation nor desire to run today. Even considered dropping out of the running world all together. I know i gained weight from vacation food, and snacks.
But i took my own advice i gave someone else: Just put in the miles so that when you do 'feel it' again, you will still have the miles under your belt.
But i couldn't get enough motivation to run in the gusty wind, so i hit the treadmill.
4.5 miles in 50:33 - No walking breaks.
So, on paper, it looks fine, just hoping to get over this black funk soon.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

This morning's run was down in St George, Utah. Commonly referred to as Utah's Dixie.
We are down here for a high school baseball tournament. So my 20 year old son accompanied me this morning.
 The sun was shining brightly, the air was about 40, with a chill. We ran from the hotel towards the Confluence Trail, but the underpass under the freeway was closed for construction. So we walked towards the overpass, right along the river and were able to run along till we came to a temporary chain link fence on the other side. But tromping through the bushes and shrubs, we were able to circle around the fence and connect with the trail. We crossed the river on a wooden bridge and continued on till we hit 2 miles. We stopped and enjoyed the peaceful scenery from a second wooden bridge, then headed back towards our hotel. We stuck to the roads and crossed the freeway on sidewalks, and even increased our pace about .25 from the end of our run.
Miles and time were 4.17 miles in 53 minutes. But this included stopping to check out a route under the freeway, tromping through bushes for a minute, contemplating the scenery for a minute, a bathroom stop (for me) and waiting at 2 signals. So i guess the time was acceptable!
But it was great to have Chris run with me!!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

I did today's workout in segments. Busy day, here i am posting at 11:30 pm!!
 First, a 1 mile spin warm up for 4 minutes. Then my TM run, which was supposed to be 45 minutes, but i ran out of time and did 3.5 miles in 40 minutes. Then after work i got the inspiration to finish my miles, so i hit the treadmill again and decided to make it a quick mile. I kept upping the speed, running the entire last quarter mile at a 10:00 min pace. My whole mile this evening was averaged to a 10:30 min pace. That is what i am going to make my goal, to run this pace on my runs this summer.
I think i would find everything about this adventure much more fun and more obtainable if i could just get past my biggest obstacle - rolling out of bed in the morning!!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Today was a running day. Legs were tired from 2 spinning sessions yesterday, but the schedule said 44 minutes, so that is what it did! 4 miles in 46 minutes with 1 walking break. I accidentally hit the wrong button while trying to turn up the volume on my ipod. The button i pressed instead stopped the whole treadmill, miles and time, so i took a drinking water walking break then. I did the first mile in 12 minutes, then tried to go just one click faster each mile. I did finish the last half mile faster, 11 min pace then started the very last .25 at 10:30 pace and slowly increased it till the last little bit was at my dream pace, 10:00 min pace.
Tonite was weigh-in nite at the W J Biggest Loser - well it appears that the cookies brought on by those little green monsters, Girl Scouts, caused me to gain 1.2 pounds. I just can't seem to get this dieting thing under control!!!!

Monday, March 5, 2012

Today i did spinning. 7 miles in 25 minutes in the morning with 170 stability ball crunches. Then in the evening i did another 10 miles spinning in 38 minutes.
Another visit to the chiropractor because my back side hurt alot on Sunday. Can't tell if this trip helped or not!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

I was intending on going to the track to run 7 today. Wanting to keep with my chiropractor's advice of running on a level surface and be outside in warmish weather. But life had different plans today. My daughter-in-law asked if i could babysit for the afternoon while she worked. And the temps early in the day were still in the low 30's. I just could not bring myself to get out early to the track, so i opted to run this on my treadmill. Long Miles for a treadmill!
It ended up being a good choice, as i needed a bathroom break at mile 1.5, and i also was able to keep a steady slow pace. 7.25 miles in 91 minutes - 12:34 pace. Only one walking break at mile 5.8 for 75 seconds to drink some bottled water. I cannot drink while running and swallow while gasping. So i always slow to a walk while drinking during runs, and it adds a short break so it's fine.
I have lost my running motivation lately. My confidence that i can actually run outside, Life has been throwing stressful buckets at me, and it is affecting me not just emotionally, but physically too.
I am trying hard to get stronger as a runner, and hoping that will help me also become stronger as a person.
13 days to my 10k in St George, and while nervous, i am also getting excited about going out of town without anything to do but have a nice and enjoyable run down in Snow Canyon!

Friday, March 2, 2012

One of my dogs woke me up at 4:00am today, and i could not get back to sleep, so i decided to get my run in early. 4:20am. That is 1 1/2 hours earlier than my alarm is set for.
Nice and slow, I got 4 miles done in 48:08 minutes, with NO walking breaks today.!!
I tried to do strides, but i only managed 1 for 40 seconds at an 8:00 min pace, and was doubled over gasping. So my breathing is still undergoing recovery from my flu earlier this week. But an early run with 20 lunges afterwards felt great!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

My sister complained to me that i have not been keeping up with my blog. Well, i have not been keeping up with my training and therefore nothing to write about in my blog.
The fluish thing i caught wiped me out, not 'sick' just exhausted and it hurt to breathe deep, so i did not have the energy to do much for the last 2 days.

Good news though: this week at the weigh in I lost 3 pounds!! Yay! Except it was probably because i   did not feel like eating - that one day. I also went to the chiropractor on Tuesday for my sciatic nerve pain. He did electric impulse things, pressing on my back and dropping half the table things, and those twist your body sideways and he smashes you twisting you farther. The things they learn in chiropractic school!!
Anyway my backside does feel somewhat better today.
And today i got a spin and run in!!! 2 mile spin and 3 mile run. I wanted to run farther, but this 3 required a couple walking breaks, so i left it at that. Then 20 lunges and 55 sb crunches.
The chiropractor also said my hips are tilted, not permanently, almost 3/4 inch difference. So he wants me running on the treadmill or a track till i get straightened out. Waking up to snowplows today... the treadmill was the only way i was going to be able to run - brrrrr.