Saturday, July 30, 2011

Longest distance yet

So I had a hard week this week and it ended up being a rest week where I didn't do anything. That is until today. Today I had a 7 mile workout planned. I got up at 7:20am and was determined to do it. So I got ready and was out of the house by 8:30am. The plan was to walk 4 miles and then run the last 3 miles. However, my body was not having that. It was hotter than it was supposed to be. I just checked the temp and it is 86 degrees. Too HOT! That and both my hips decided they wanted to be tight. So I had some time to think while walking most of it.

I think I will be changing my expectations. Each week I hope to do a 3 mile speed run, half of my long distance tempo run and then my long distance walk. At least until it is time to start the Jeff Galloway plan. So I will still be up to 5 miles of running by then. At least I hope so. Then I will loosely follow the Jeff Galloway plan until after the race. That should get me in the right kind of shape by the race. And I should be starting my longer running distances at the beginning of Sept. So the temps will hopefully be generally lower. Now to just get out and run earlier to keep it as cool as possible.

So, I did 7.15 miles today with a total time of 1:50:37.06 and an average pace of 15:29/mi. At least I was still under the slowest average pace allowed for the half marathon. Looks like I got a few more blisters than usual but all of them seem to be small. Only one blister bothered me during the workout and once it got filled enough it stopped being a sharp pain. I tried some new taping for one of my toes. Now my middle toe is completely taped as well. I may end up doing that on all of my toes. At least until I get a pair of double layer socks. That just might happen next week. Less tape will be better if the socks help. The problem I have is adding an extra layer might make me sweat more and the wetter my feet are the worse my blisters get. But it will be worth a try.

Not a great workout but I did the whole thing with a decent average pace and it was the longest distance I have done yet. So that felt good. My poor joints just don't like super long distances. Of course, they have been abused this week by crazy thunder storms rolling through too. But all is good. The tightness seems to have mostly eased already in my joints. So slowly upping my mileage while walking will be more low impact on them. At least I learned something.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Eh

I should have known today's workout was going to be bad. I woke up at 6:30am like I wanted to but felt awful so I didn't get out of bed until after 7am and didn't start getting ready for my run until around 7:20am. When I looked at my route it went on a road that doesn't have a side walk and is a fairly busy road. Mike doesn't like me running there....for some reason it makes him nervous. So I decided to change my route. That took me forever. All this meant I didn't leave until almost 9am. And then I almost got out of the parking lot without my iPod. Went back to get that.

I think I pushed a little too hard at the beginning and it got too hot at the end. I managed to keep a respectable pace but wasn't happy in the end. The first 3.5 miles were just fine. The next mile and a half was okay and then I got a horrid side ache and started to get a headache from the heat. So I decided to walk a run interval. I ended up walking the rest of the way because I couldn't get rid of the side ache. I ran out of water because I was so overheated.

I did 6.63 miles in 1:36:18.62 with an average pace of 14:32/mi. So not happy but at least I finished the whole distance. I did get one blister in a new spot. It is on my middle toe on the bottom. Just above the edge of the tape.. Looks like I should look at those double layer socks to see if they prevent blisters on the bottom of my toes. That would reduce my taping at least.

So I did 6

Thursday

Still battling insomnia so I didn't end up running on Thursday or working out on Friday. But I did walk 2.5 miles with Mike in the evening. It was a really slow pace because we were just enjoying ourselves and exploring a park.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

EA Active

Workout done! Though I may do one more LimberUp workout today. I must be doing some of the workouts wrong, my back is bad sore. Not a good workout, muscles are tired and worked sore but an overextended, painful sore. Perhaps I will avoid the leg lifts and flutter kicks for now. The reverse crunches don't hurt as much and I haven't done any regular crunches or crunches with punches yet. EA Active just hasn't been giving me many crunches. I wish I could give it things I would like left out of my workouts. For some reason the stride jumps hurt me (though maybe not as bad now that I have been running...may have to try them again).

Yesterday

Yesterday I worked out on EA active. It was good. I busted my butt on an upper body workout. Felt good. Today I was supposed to run but both Mike and I had a hard night sleeping. Poor guy! So I decided to do another EA active workout today. I will do that this afternoon and switch my run schedule to tomorrow and Sat. I may have to switch my run schedule to Tues, Thurs and Sat again. It just seems to be easier. Mike get's up super early on Saturdays for his running team so I can do my long walk/run then. Or maybe I will make it a slightly strange schedule. Mike likes running with me on Monday nights. So perhaps Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays for running. And Tuesday, Wednesday and Fridays for working out. It might work.

Monday, July 18, 2011

1/1 ratio

Well, I tried a 1/1 ratio today. Mike and I did my normal 3.1 mile loop and we tried 1/1. I got a side ache and pushed through until I couldn't but that was okay because I set my Garmin to too few intervals anyway. So for what I set it at I only missed one run interval. So I walked my normal 3 minute warm up and then did 1/1 intervals until 2.3 miles where my weird side ache (it was under my right ribs near my stomach instead of in my side) caused me to decided to skip a run interval. Oh course that was my last programmed interval so I we ended up walking the rest of the loop. But still I feel good. I probably should have reduced my walk time by 30 seconds instead of 1 minute but oh well. Mike said it was a good recovery run for him.

So we did 3.13 miles in 41:00.86 with an average pace of 13:05/mi. Not my best time but I can't expect that when I end up walking the last 2/3 of a mile. Still all in all it was a good run. Oh yeah, and it was much hotter than I liked. I thought I would be okay with it being in the 80's but with no sun. So not okay. I do not do well in hot weather. My feet did great though. I did learn that you can put too much baby powder in your socks. EW!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Another feet update

And I totally forgot to post about my feet. I have some sore spots and one spot I made the mistake of taping. There is one spot on my left foot that get's little tiny blisters and I tried taping them today but that just made more tiny blisters. My left ring and pinky toes are sore so I need to get the tape over more of the top of the toe. I have a sore spot on the ball of my left foot too but that might be partially from the rock I picked up for the last .3 miles.

My right food is doing awesome. Soreness is not skin soreness but muscles. I figured out how to better tape my right pointer and middle toes so the edges don't pull up. Now just to figure out how to repeat that tape job. It was a bit my accident. I think the key slightly more tape than I was using.

6.1 miles

Okay, now that I have spent 5 minutes peeling off all the tape on my feet. I am not sitting here gulping my chocolate milk and thinking of what to type. Well, I did 6.1 miles today. I walked the first 3 about about a 14 minute per mile pace or two. Maybe a little slower than that. Then I did my normal run/walk for the last 3.1 miles. Or at least I did my 12 sets of run/walk that I would do in a normal 3.1 mile run.

Oh man is it hard to do the run/walk as the 2nd half of the workout. I had to pep talk myself a decent amount until around mile 2 when I hit my 2nd wind. But it is good training for pushing myself at the end of the half in Jan.

So I did 6.1 miles in 1:22:53.94 with an average pace of 13:36/mi. Not too shabby. I talked to my dad this week and my parents are still planning on being there for my first half. My dad is planning on doing the half with me and we talked pace some. But it dawned on me while I was walking the first half that I am training at a much higher altitude than he is. So he should train for a slightly faster pace than me, since running at sea level is going to be much easier for me. I think about the weirdest stuff when I am alone on my walks.

I planned the circuit so I would hopefully get the most shade for the 2nd half of the run. It also helped that at the 3/4 of a mile or so the sun was going in an out behind clouds and a breeze had picked up. The beginning of my circuit also had a nice breeze. I was just blocked from a breeze for a good part of the running part unfortunately. I also bought a white hat to run in. I hate the look of white hats and for some reason it didn't dawn on me that the white keeps your head cooler than a colored hat. So after a few runs where my head was just way too hot under my bright blue hat, I decided I needed a white hat. I can't wear a visor because my hair is so thin I would burn my scalp. At least with my hair this short I will. When my hair is long enough to pull back into a pony tail I can get away with no hat or a visor. Anyway this is turning into a stream of consciousness instead of a well thought out post. Back to my run.

My legs were a little fatigued this morning from doing EA Active but it was mostly muscles I don't use running. They warmed up during the walking portion and didn't feel fatigued again until the running part. All in all it was a good 6.1 miles but I am definitely at the point where I need to up my mileage by a half mile every week from now on. That is fine as that is what I planned on. Well, off to do my EA Active Limber Up workout to stretch out (dynamic warm up stretches and then cool down stretches).

Friday, July 15, 2011

Another workout

I was supposed to do a 6 mile workout today. But the boy was very warm in bed and I was working hard to convince him to stay home. So it got too late. That and I tweaked my neck working out yesterday. It was still sore this morning and I would hate to be out on my 6 mile circuit and tweak my neck more. So I decided to stay in and do an intense EA Active workout. I did a core workout and it was crazy. Then I found probably the best workout ever on EA active. I may have to do it every day. It is a Limber up workout. All warm up and cool down exercises. Very refreshing. So I may do that everyday or even twice a day. Just to keep limber as I have issues with tight muscles.

I highly recommend EA Sports Active 2. I just wish they had an EA Sports Active Yoga and Pilates that used the leg and arm sensors. All the Yoga and Pilates games I found use the Wii motion and/or the Wii fit board. I don't want to do yoga moves on the Wii fit board. After years of doing them on a flat wood floor I just can't do them as well on the fit board. It also focuses more on keeping a specific line of balance and not so much on grounding, breathing, stretching and relaxation. Not the kind of yoga I love. Please...please...please EA Active make a yoga and Pilates game that is focused on being limbered, relaxed and grounded. I swear I would use that one every evening and alternate my running and EA Sports Active 2 in the mornings. That would be my perfect workout schedule.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Crazy workout

Today was a little crazy for my EA Active workout. Half way through my game generated upper body workout I get distracted by my scheduled interview today. I was agonizing about if I should email and confirm my interview since they had me down for the wrong day so they thought I missed my interview and then didn't let me know that the person I would be interviewing with on the right day was sick. After I finished discussing it with Mike over GoogleTalk and was just getting back to my workout, I get a call. I let it go to voice mail and then get the dings from my phone meaning I got multiple texts. Which means my Google Voice got a voice mail. So I stop again and check it since Google Voice means job stuff. The company that screwed up called to tell me they had filled the position and I didn't need to come in for an interview. But they would keep my resume on file in case this other person doesn't work out. I am thinking the assistant who screwed up didn't own up to her mistake and blamed it on me. Costing me the job, seeing as how I didn't even get a chance.

Anyway, I finish my workout with the game bugging me that my sensors are running out of batteries. I fill out all my surveys and such for the last several days. Then I set up a good long boxing workout to work off some of my frustration. I start the workout and my arm sensor batteries die completely. I back out of the workout and the game chastises me for it. Then I walk to the store buy some batteries and other supplies. Come back and finish my workout. So I start around 9am and don't finish until almost 12pm. Next time I am just not letting anything but an emergency distract me from my workout. Oh well, at least I got a bunch of workout stuff done. Felt good to exercise.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Feet update

I just realized I haven't been adding in updates about my feet. They are doing great! Only minor blisters in the normal spots and sometimes I don't get any blisters in the normal spots. The climbers tape seems to be working like a charm. Although for some reason the way I am wrapping the tape on the pointer toe of my right foot causes the edge to come up. But it only comes up so far and then just sits there. So as long as the rest stays wrapped I just don't care.

*GRUMBLE*

Got out for my run late this morning. Got most of the way through feeling great and my right thigh tightened up just before 2.5 miles. I tried to push through and then decided while I could push through the pain that I had an interview today and didn't want to be limping in that. So I took a bail short cut and cut out only a little. But it helped that I could see home and knew I was close to being done.

I did 2.92 miles with a total time of 38:28.32 and an average pace of 13:11/mi. Not my best ever. But I think Friday will be my last day of consistent 1/2 interval ratio. Next week I will try two speed days at 1/1 and do my long run with 6.5 miles. It would be nice to be at my 1/1 intervals when I start my new plan Mike and I came up with. A way to work on distance and increasing my run time at the same time. Each week I will have a speed run, tempo run and then distance walk/run. So on my speed run I will keep it to 5k for now and as each interval ratio get's easier I will up my run time. My tempo run will be increasing by a half mile every two weeks to be half of my distance walk/run and will either stick to my 1/1 ratio or the ratio that is the last one slower than my current speed ratio. I haven't decided exactly how I will do it yet. And then my distance walk/run will increase a half mile each week and I will walk the first half and run the 2nd half. The run part will be at the same ratio as my tempo run. I am not sure when I will switch from walk/run on my distance workouts to just run. I am thinking after my 10 mile walk run I will drop back down some and start running all of it. I guess I will cross that bridge when I get there. I want to be able to run 14 or 15 miles before the race and have taper time right before the race.

Just talked to Mike and he said Sept or Oct I should start trying to run my long runs. And I looked at the Jeff Galloway Disney World Half Marathon training plan for finishing upright. It looks like the last weekend in August and first week of September is the 18 week mark. So I guess that is when I will run 5 miles twice that week and then up my mileage from there. Perhaps I will start following the Jeff Galloway plan at that point somewhat. Although he starts at a lower mileage that I will be at by then.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Sigh

I can't wait for these afternoon thunder showers to be over. Yesterday, Mike and I were supposed to go for a 6 mile walk after he got home from work. But it was pouring so it was a no go. So I guess Friday morning will be my 6 mile walk. Tomorrow I have an interview so I gotta keep it to my normal 5k and keep from risking injury. Today I was supposed to do some EA Sports Active 2 but we had a carpet guy come over to fix a bump in our carpet. Only problem was he called last night and had a cancellation so he wanted to come over earlier in the morning. Which made it a little tight to do my workout, cool off and shower before he came over. So I missed my EA Active workout.

BUT, I decided to walk to the store tonight so I would have milk for tomorrow's run. It is less than a mile there and back. And the last half I did with a gallon of milk on my back. Glad I did. I do feel less in a funk and am pumped to go for my run tomorrow.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

YAY!

So I missed my run yesterday due to waking up at 2am and not falling back asleep till after 5am. This meant instead of getting up at 6 or so to go run I slept in (so I wouldn't feel cruddy on my date with my hubby) until 7:30. I had to be ready for the air conditioning guys to show up at 8:30 so there was just no time for a run. But last night Mike and I bought a new Wii instead of getting our old one fixed. It was only $60 more to buy a new one and it just wasn't worth it to send our old one back and wait 6 weeks. That and I watched a friend's cats for a week and she decided to pay me for it. So what all this means is I got to do an EA Sports Active 2 workout today. It kicked my butt but felt good. Tomorrow Mike and I are supposed to hike.

Now I won't have any days off from working out. A hike on Sundays, run or walk Monday, Wednesday and Friday and EA Active on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. But the EA active will mostly be cross training. So we will see how I do with all that. I will wait to start my official EA active 9 week program for a bit just to see how I do working out everyday. That way I can chose full body, core or upper body for workouts and skip lower body and cardio workouts for now. Though I might try some cardio if I can find one that isn't all running and lower body. Something with kick boxing would be nice. That way every other day I am mostly resting half my body. Hopefully I don't kill myself. We shall see. I am very excited!

I may switch my EA active days and my running days. That will depend on if I get a job soon. If I do get a full time 9 to 5 job I will need to do short workouts on weekdays and leave my long walk/run for Saturday. Still very excited for getting really back in shape! Oh yeah, and I weighed myself of the Wii Fit board today (which I haven't done for 29 days) and I was 2 pounds lighter even though I was so bad yesterday on food. *BOUNCE*

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Whew!

I started a vegetable garden yesterday. Basically, I left the house after 9am and didn't stop working (either repairing my cedar planters, prepping planters, transplanting plants or running out to get seeds and more dirt) until 5pm. I did take a couple of short breaks when it rained. And lunch of course. This just meant that I went on a run with tired legs today. Lots of up and down getting my porch set up. Hopefully, I have a good late crop of vegetables and it all pays for it self.

Anyway, my run. It started out perfect. The hot air balloons launched this morning. They launch less than a mile from our house so it always brightens my day to see them when they launch. You have to be up early to see them and I haven't been getting up early enough since I lost my job. Morning running is good in that way I guess. It got a bit hot to run about half way through. Guess I need to try for an even earlier start time. I struggled a bit today having tired legs. That and my left shoulder tightened up really bad about mile 2.5.

So I did 3.13 miles in 40:25.88 with an average pace of 12:56/mi. I am pretty happy with that. I did struggle with walking fast enough so my walking pace isn't even enough for my liking. But once I get to an easy run with an even walking pace I will need to switch to 1/1 interval. So I guess that means I am not ready to switch yet. All in all a decent run today.

Monday, July 4, 2011

5.1 miles today

Mike and I got up first thing this morning and walked 5.1 miles today. Feet did fine. The tape came up a little but I was a bit fussy when I put it on so I wasn't that careful. It may be that for much higher mileages I will have to figure something else out. Who knows.

Anyway. We did 5.1 miles in 1:28:03.01 with an average pace of 17:17/mi. We weren't too worried about speed. Just distance. We did stop for coffee and chai near the end and I forgot to hit the timer stop button. So we might have been a bit faster than that. I love walking with my hubby. We have great chats.