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Thursday, July 25, 2013

Back to life

Well, once again, I'm behind on my blogging. I'm not going to go back through and recap all of my workouts since I last posted. But I've been diligently running on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings, and lifting weights twice a week.

I did do my first 6 mile run on July 13! Well, it was actually my first 6 mile run since May. And we went more like 6.5 miles, so it really was my longest run! Training in the heat and humidity of Florida is difficult, but I'm committed.

Last Thursday I hopped on a plane to visit my brother Brad, sister-in-law Kari, and 2 nephews (Braden & Keaton) in Ohio. I got in late Thursday night and on Friday we headed to Columbus to pick up our packets for the Color Run on Saturday! Yay! We got there bright and early on Saturday morning and met Kari's friend and her little boy. So it was me, Kari, Braden (8 years), Keaton (4 years), Sheri, and Sam (5 years) racing together. Braden named our team "The Bullets." Shirts designed by Braden & Kari.

It was a blast! Of course, it was different and interesting with 3 kids, but we had so much fun getting all messy and colorful! I carried Keaton in my arms for part of the time, carried Braden on my back, shielded little eyes from color, protected little bodies from pouring rain, and stuff like that.
Braden & me around mile 2
It poured on us for about the last half mile and set our color in really nicely. :) It was crazy! And then we got in the crowd and got even MORE color after we were finished racing! It was an awesome day.

The whole team!
I ran a couple more times while I was in Ohio. It was so nice to run without all the humidity! I got home yesterday and got right back to it today, with a 3:30 wake-up time and on the track by 4:45. We did 3 miles, and then I did 1 more mile on the track. During that last mile I was able to sustain a 10:00 pace - what?! Who am I?! LOL! I was quite surprised.

On to weights this afternoon with Bruce, and that sums it all up, I think!

Monday, July 8, 2013

A new hobby!

Workouts:

Thursday - July 4 - rest day!
Friday - rest day!
(I may have eaten like crap those two days...)

Saturday my group was off, so I ran at Crane's Roost with my friend Barbara. We did 4 miles - it was our last 4. It only goes up from here, folks! All of the rest of the Saturdays in July, we'll do 6, and then it starts going to 8 and above! It makes my stomach hurt to think about it, so I will try not to won't worry about that yet!

Sunday, Brian and I were talking before church about exercise and fitness and health and such. He wants to get in shape, but right now, he's on deadline at work. Brian works for EA Sports. If you're familiar with the life of a game programmer, then you'll understand what it means that he's in Alpha right now. Crazy hours, high stress, and the company brings in food - BAD food. He's surrounded by temptation and stuck in an office chair all day.

He also has a bad back, so he can't really run. We thought biking might be a good form of exercise for him, so we headed to our local bike store after church. The owner recommended a bike for Brian to try out. He rode it around the parking lot and liked it. Then we realized that they rented bikes by the hour, so we decided to go home and eat lunch and change clothes, then head back for a bike ride.

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!

Biking is comfortable even in the heat because you get a great breeze! There's a nice little trail that goes right by the store, so we hopped on and rode for almost 4 miles, then turned around and rode back. It took us about 50 minutes. I honestly have not ridden a bike for more than about 5 minutes since childhood. I wasn't even sure if I would be able to go for very long - the last time I tried to ride around our neighborhood, my legs just couldn't do it! But that was years ago...and I had no problem this time! I had an absolute blast!

Brian's back and shoulders started to hurt partway through. But he was a trooper - he hung in there! Here's a very appropriate picture of how we both felt afterward! Haha!
Yes, we had Rita's Italian Ice afterward - it's right next door to the bike shop!
We're pretty sure his pain was a combination of his being a little out of shape and also his handlebars being too low. We'll adjust them and whip him into shape in no time! Of course, we bought the bikes! They're being looked over by the bike mechanic and we can pick them up on Tuesday. I can't wait!!

So - local friends - let me know if you ever want to go bike riding, k?

Something else for me to be obsessed with! Yay! ;)

I went to the gym today for my cross-training workout with Bruce. We did plenty of weights, some old and some new moves, and he made me do those blasted single leg squats! They are HORRIBLE! We haven't worked hard on legs in awhile, since I'm running without him now and since I've upped my mileage. But I guess he thought I needed it today! 

Afterward I went to lunch with Brian - a HEALTHY lunch at Subway - (did I mention I gained 2.4 lbs? Another gain! That's almost 5 lbs in 2 weeks!! I don't know what's going on!!) - and I realized I'm going to be doing like 7 days of exercise, or maybe more, with no rest days! Crazy. I don't know how I can be working this hard and gaining weight. But starting today I'm only allowing myself 1200 calories a day (and I will eat the calories I burned while exercising too) - so hopefully we'll see a difference next week.

Here's the plan:
Yesterday - 7.5 mile bike ride
Today - Weight training with Bruce
Tomorrow - Running on the track - speed workout
Wednesday - bike ride with Brian
Thursday - 4 mile pace run - hills
Friday - Weight training with Bruce
Saturday - 6 mile run with Marathonfest group
Sunday - ?? maybe another bike ride!

And there's more after that...but we'll just see how I feel after that many days with no rest! :D

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

40!!

Well, I've done it again...waited too long to blog. Now I have to recap all of my workouts!

Thursday 6/27 - 3.2 miles, heat and humidity!

Saturday 6/29 - couldn't sleep the night before. At 2am, I was still awake! Brian said, "It might be time to think about sleeping in a little and running on the treadmill." I decided to go ahead and TRY to run with my Marathonfest group, but when the alarm rang at 4:15, I knew I would NOT have a good run on 2-ish hours of sleep. So I ran 4 hot and boring miles on the treadmill.

Sunday 6/30 - I TURNED 40! Insane.
Notice the giant cup of water behind me. There's always one nearby!
Strawberry shortcake with a ridiculous perfect amount of whipped cream!

Oops. I may have eaten out for lunch and dinner on my birthday and had dessert both times. (I also may have eaten out the night before...)

Monday 7/1 - weights with Bruce. We did lots of upper body and core. I am really starting to see some definition in my arms! :)

Tuesday 7/2 - my first workout on the track. We were to do 6 to 8 sets of 400s, walking or jogging a 200 in between each; then a 4-minute water and rest break; then another set of 6 to 8 400s. I did two sets of 6. I actually enjoyed it! It was nice knowing I only had to run around the track once before I got to walk a half lap!

According to my half marathon goal (2:30), I was supposed to be running my 400s at an 11:20 pace. Amazingly, I averaged about 10:25-10:35! I think the walk breaks helped, though - I know I couldn't maintain that pace right now. But it was nice knowing I was almost a minute faster than I was supposed to be!

I did have a few giggles about my eclectic running playlist. I ran my second set with a friend, but during my first set I heard songs by Cake, Afro Blue, Harry Connick Jr., Jody Watley, Pentatonix, The Allies, Beyonce, Maroon 5, and more that I can't remember right now. :)

OK! Today I'm going to do weights with Bruce again. I usually do Mon-Thurs with him, but tomorrow is a holiday and I'm actually taking the day OFF! It will be weird not to run, but I know it's good to rest my legs. My group is also not running on Saturday, since it's a holiday weekend. But I'll definitely be meeting up with someone somewhere to get my 4 miles in. Next weekend it goes up to 6 - look out!

(I've done 6 a few times, but never more. What will I do when it gets to 8?!)