I'm on Stage 2 of The New Rules of Lifting for Women. One of the exercises is holding a plank for 60 seconds. Since that's a bit easy for me, I've been doing a harder version. I'll hold a plank with my toes on a bench and my forearms on a stability ball.
I did this on Saturday and a lady saw me. She came up to me all impressed and asked, "Other than having amazing balance, what does that exercise do for you?" So I told her it was a great exercise for the core and I showed her the normal plank that she can do on the floor.
Heh. That made me feel good about myself. I'm actually going to try the next harder version (lifting one leg up) the next time I do them.
In other news I've been tracking my calories since I would really like to get down to the one-teens by marathon day. I have been eating close to if not exceeding 3000 calories a day! Yikes! So I've been trying to keep it down to 2000 calories s day and I can see the scale starting to move. Hooray!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
30 days!
In 30 days I will be toeing the line to run the farthest distance I have ever run in my life - 26.2 miles.
Up to this point, that was all I could think about - crossing the finish line, getting my Tiffany necklace, being able to say, "I am a marathoner."
However, it's more than that, much more. If I complete that distance, kudos to me. But the thing is, I love everything I already am doing. I have love training for it - planning out a training schedule, testing various fuels, dreading long runs, looking forward to long runs, training races with a friend, scribbling on my now wrinkled schedule runs and workouts completed.
I was talking to Martin on the phone earlier, telling him that I was only going to run 10 miles tomorrow. Heh. Never before would I have put "only" and "10 miles" together in the same sentence.
It's the rainbow, kiddies. The pot of gold will be nice, but I am seriously loving this rainbow.
Up to this point, that was all I could think about - crossing the finish line, getting my Tiffany necklace, being able to say, "I am a marathoner."
However, it's more than that, much more. If I complete that distance, kudos to me. But the thing is, I love everything I already am doing. I have love training for it - planning out a training schedule, testing various fuels, dreading long runs, looking forward to long runs, training races with a friend, scribbling on my now wrinkled schedule runs and workouts completed.
I was talking to Martin on the phone earlier, telling him that I was only going to run 10 miles tomorrow. Heh. Never before would I have put "only" and "10 miles" together in the same sentence.
It's the rainbow, kiddies. The pot of gold will be nice, but I am seriously loving this rainbow.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
20 lovely miles
I think the treadmill is spoiling me. Easy to keep pace, nice fan right above me, water at my fingertips. Ah, well, I'll deal with the road when I come to it
I took the past three days off because I was feeling under the weather and wanted to make sure I'd be better for my scheduled 20 mile long run today. How sick is that? It was actually all I was looking forward to yesterday. And when I look forward to my runs, that's when I know it's going to be a good one.
There were plenty of things to keep me distracted while I ran at the gym today.
Miles 1-5
Incline: .5
Speed: 5.1 (11:45/mile pace)
No Galloway method for me today. I wanted to see if I had it in me to run the whole way, well, except for the short breaks I'd need to gobble some gummy things and drink my water every 30 minutes.
About 2 miles into my run, I felt something on my butt. I thought maybe I had something in my back pocket and it was falling down. Turns out it was just a friend tapping my butt to say hello. That cracked me up. Is it weird that I want to ask her how my butt felt?
Miles 6-10
Incline: .5
Speed: 5.1 (11:45/mile pace)
My friend finished up her run on the treadmill and returned with 5 other ladies who all hopped on a treadmill each in front of me. I guess my friend was teaching some kind of class and each lady would sprint for a little and then slow down. The lady closest to me was doing 5:45/miles and making it look so easy! She was really pretty and thin, too. I hate her.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a lady on my right watching them, too. The interesting thing about her is that she was running on an incline and her boobs were damn near hitting her face with each bounce. It was hard not to stare. It looked pretty painful. It almost made me glad that I'm flat-chested. Almost.
Miles 11-16
Incline: .5
Speed: 5.1 (11:45/mile pace)
There is this super hot guy whom I always seeing doing various weights when I strength train. I am in love with this man's arms. For the first time ever, I saw him on the treadmills. He was walking on an incline, something crazy like 15. I secretly commanded him in my mind to run, because I don't think there is anything sexier than a guy running and I wanted to watch this man move. But alas, I guess I still need to work on my ESP skills, because he didn't run. He did take his cap off, though. And I noticed he had a little bald spot on top of his head. Oh. So I forced myself to concentrate on his arms and what little of his back was peeking through his tank. I didn't care if other people saw me blatantly eye-raping this guy for the 20 minutes he stayed on his treadmill. Love me some muscles in motion.
Miles 17-20
Incline: .5
Speed: 5.3 (11:19/mile pace)
That's right, world, make way for The Flash! Hehe. I wanted to do my last 4 miles at marathon pace. Man, just tiny changes in speed makes a world of difference in effort, but not too much in time. It still felt doable, but it required me to focus.
A lady walked over to me around Mile 17. I thought she was going to make a comment on how long I've been on the treadmill. Instead, she asked me if my name was Coco. WTF? I smiled and told her no. That was random. Maybe it was her pick-up line. She did seem to linger for a bit on her treadmill. But I still had about 40 minutes left. She eventually left.
20 miles
Approximately 3:54:30
Average pace about 11:44/mile
I actually felt pretty good for the whole run. It was something I knew I needed, and a great challenge for me.
My legs feel a bit tired. And my left foot, left knee and right hip flexor are screaming at me right now. But I'm feeling good!
I took the past three days off because I was feeling under the weather and wanted to make sure I'd be better for my scheduled 20 mile long run today. How sick is that? It was actually all I was looking forward to yesterday. And when I look forward to my runs, that's when I know it's going to be a good one.
There were plenty of things to keep me distracted while I ran at the gym today.
Miles 1-5
Incline: .5
Speed: 5.1 (11:45/mile pace)
No Galloway method for me today. I wanted to see if I had it in me to run the whole way, well, except for the short breaks I'd need to gobble some gummy things and drink my water every 30 minutes.
About 2 miles into my run, I felt something on my butt. I thought maybe I had something in my back pocket and it was falling down. Turns out it was just a friend tapping my butt to say hello. That cracked me up. Is it weird that I want to ask her how my butt felt?
Miles 6-10
Incline: .5
Speed: 5.1 (11:45/mile pace)
My friend finished up her run on the treadmill and returned with 5 other ladies who all hopped on a treadmill each in front of me. I guess my friend was teaching some kind of class and each lady would sprint for a little and then slow down. The lady closest to me was doing 5:45/miles and making it look so easy! She was really pretty and thin, too. I hate her.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a lady on my right watching them, too. The interesting thing about her is that she was running on an incline and her boobs were damn near hitting her face with each bounce. It was hard not to stare. It looked pretty painful. It almost made me glad that I'm flat-chested. Almost.
Miles 11-16
Incline: .5
Speed: 5.1 (11:45/mile pace)
There is this super hot guy whom I always seeing doing various weights when I strength train. I am in love with this man's arms. For the first time ever, I saw him on the treadmills. He was walking on an incline, something crazy like 15. I secretly commanded him in my mind to run, because I don't think there is anything sexier than a guy running and I wanted to watch this man move. But alas, I guess I still need to work on my ESP skills, because he didn't run. He did take his cap off, though. And I noticed he had a little bald spot on top of his head. Oh. So I forced myself to concentrate on his arms and what little of his back was peeking through his tank. I didn't care if other people saw me blatantly eye-raping this guy for the 20 minutes he stayed on his treadmill. Love me some muscles in motion.
Miles 17-20
Incline: .5
Speed: 5.3 (11:19/mile pace)
That's right, world, make way for The Flash! Hehe. I wanted to do my last 4 miles at marathon pace. Man, just tiny changes in speed makes a world of difference in effort, but not too much in time. It still felt doable, but it required me to focus.
A lady walked over to me around Mile 17. I thought she was going to make a comment on how long I've been on the treadmill. Instead, she asked me if my name was Coco. WTF? I smiled and told her no. That was random. Maybe it was her pick-up line. She did seem to linger for a bit on her treadmill. But I still had about 40 minutes left. She eventually left.
20 miles
Approximately 3:54:30
Average pace about 11:44/mile
I actually felt pretty good for the whole run. It was something I knew I needed, and a great challenge for me.
My legs feel a bit tired. And my left foot, left knee and right hip flexor are screaming at me right now. But I'm feeling good!
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
The quickest gym visit in the history of mankind
I went to the gym around 11 am this morning, because I had 5 hard miles on tap for the day. I was feeling super tired before I left the house. I could feel the exhaustion in my shoulders. That's when I know it's bad. But I figured maybe I would feel better if I ran.
I set the incline to .5 and the speed to a nice 5.8 to warm up. Yeah, no. I made it to .35 miles before I had to stop and walk. I forced myself to walk to at least the half mile mark before calling it quits and leaving. I think the treadmill read 6 minutes.
When I got home I felt all achy and yucky. Aha. The flu!
I set the incline to .5 and the speed to a nice 5.8 to warm up. Yeah, no. I made it to .35 miles before I had to stop and walk. I forced myself to walk to at least the half mile mark before calling it quits and leaving. I think the treadmill read 6 minutes.
When I got home I felt all achy and yucky. Aha. The flu!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Summer Breeze Half Race Recap
The nitty gritty:
Chip time: 2:19:41
17/27 - Age group (Females, 35-39)
251/339 - Overall
My friend, Steph, ran with me on this one. It was her very first half-marathon. I went by her house around 6:15 am. She was still asleep!
We made it there about 30 minutes before the race started, hit the restrooms, picked up our bibs and checked in our stuff with zero time to spare. I ate a Snickers as we made our mad dash around getting all that done. Yum.
Looking at my pacing, I saw that I was walking super slow for my walk breaks in the middle of the run. I think this is when I was pacing the older gent and just had a "just keep moving forward" attitude, instead of the "Go!" attitude that I needed and got later.
Chip time: 2:19:41
17/27 - Age group (Females, 35-39)
251/339 - Overall
My friend, Steph, ran with me on this one. It was her very first half-marathon. I went by her house around 6:15 am. She was still asleep!
We made it there about 30 minutes before the race started, hit the restrooms, picked up our bibs and checked in our stuff with zero time to spare. I ate a Snickers as we made our mad dash around getting all that done. Yum.
At the start line!
I love this course because it's all flat, no hills. Hooray! Beforehand, I wasn't sure if I was going to try to run the whole way through or Galloway it (run/walk). As we started, I figured I would try the Galloway method to see what kind of results I would get.
I used a 9:1 ratio (run 9 minutes, walk 1 minute) to take any kind of thinking out of it. Every time my Garmin's time ended in a 0 minute (e.g. 0:10, 0:20, 1:40, etc.), I would walk for one minute. It was kind of funny at first. I would run, then pull over to walk and watch all kinds of people pass me by. Then when my minute was up, I'd start running again and catch up or pass the people who went by me earlier. They probably thought I was annoying. I know I would have.
Steph spotted the first photographer up ahead around the 3 mile mark maybe, and we started giggling like crazy as we checked out clothes to smooth out any muffin tops.
This one cracks me up because you can see us behind these ladies laughing and trying to look for the camera. I swear, you'd think we were 8 years old.
I ate about 4 Powerbar gummy things every 3 miles and sipped from my handheld, which had Nuun in it. I was feeling pretty good for the first half of the run. The walking breaks were doing me good and I felt energized when it came time to run again.
Things changed after the halfway point. :(
I started feeling tired and was trying to keep pace with an older gent (he's 64 and finished about a minute after me! How kick ass is that!). I would catch up to him, then it was time for my walk break and I'd watch him pull away, then it would be time for me to run again, then by the time I caught up to him, it would be time for my walk break again. Ad naseum.
After a few miles of that, I realized that I wasn't really pushing myself. I was just trying to keep up with him and cursed myself for not doing what I knew I was capable of. I passed the older gent and tried to step up my pace.
Going from focused...
to cheeseball at the sight of a photographer.
This was probably around Mile 10. The lady in the pink tank behind me eventually passed me. I remember seeing her and thinking, "Whoa! Where did she come from?!" I guess I'm pretty oblivious when I run.
I pushed through and managed not to veer off the 9:1 ratio, even though I really wanted to.
About a mile or two left.
I was actually starting to feel okay towards the end of the run, tired, but felt like I could still run more miles if I had to. I was a bit scatter-brained, though. During the very last corner before the finish, I saw a photog who pointed that I should run to his left. I nodded at him and continued to run straight. What the hell, me! When I realized I was stupid, I curved around him and just watched him stare at me. How embarrassing. Yeah, there was no pic of me there because I went the wrong way.
And the sprint to the finish.
I thought it was awesome that there were fellow runners cheering and clapping at the finish line for those still finishing. It totally made me smile. I will have to do that, too, at my next race.
Steph, and her no-training ass, finished in less than a minute after me. I think I hate her.
With the run/walk method, I finished in my best time ever for this course and just a minute over my all-time half-marathon PR. How crazy is that?
My splits from last year, when I ran the whole way.
My splits for this race doing a run/walk.
Anyway, I think I really like the run/walk method. Sure it's not running non-stop (or actually "cheating" like my husband says, insert stink-eye at him here). But my splits are more even, my overall pace was faster and I wasn't as fatigued towards the end like I normally am.
I'm excited to see how this will pan out for my marathon next month. Yikes!
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