9/30/09

WHOOT!

Where did today come from?

When I thought about my schedule today, and how to fit training in, I noticed that (at a time I had available) the treadmills that I can use were available to me, followed directly by the pool opening for open swim right after.

I decided to be ambitious. I wanted to do a good, long, solid run, and then go swimming.

Before I left to go, I had a bit of a headache, and a bit of a scratchy throat. I attribute this to mild allergies that I have flare up from time to time. I took some meds about 20 minutes before I left, and went over there with my determined face on.

On the treadmill, I had one of the BEST runs I have had since starting to run again. I ran for approximately 22 minutes and for approximately 2 miles. Yes, as far as I figured from the numbers, those are right. I had the speedometer up past 5.2 the entire time, and had it up to 5.7 towards the end. My knee was sore for a little bit right at the beginning, but once I got into my groove, it felt a lot better. SOOO SO happy with this run!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. :D Then followed it up with 100 crunches, just to be badass.

I got in the water about 20-30 minutes later. Did 8 laps (a quarter mile), of mixed breast stroke and freestyle. I felt pretty good, was somewhat tired at the end, but totally endorphiney and overall feeling aw-some.

Very very happy with today's training.

9/29/09

I rode into work today - was somewhat slow, but felt pretty good overall.

I have been having insomnia problems this week, which is not good for training. I was way too tired (and feeling hypoglycemic from lack of lunch) to swim during the chunk of time I could go.

I found out this morning my parents are coming to the 5k I'm signed up for at the end of next month. EEEK!

Tomorrow, I plan a treadmill run, then swim. I need sleep first!

Strategy

Today, I wanted to try to run as soon as I got up.

This, traditionally, has been tough for me. I have a hard time keeping things quick (even the "get ready" and "get cleaned up" portion of the workout), and my muscles tend to feel pretty tight in the morning. The way my schedule is right now, though, it's MUCH better for me to do things that way, so I'm working on it.

Today, I did run first thing, and it went well. Some things to consider:

- Make sure warmup is decent. Stretching this morning really, really helped me loosen up from getting out of bed.
- Stack stuff - (brace, shoes, clothes) - the night before, so I don't have to walk around looking for them in the morning.
- Keep small pieces of fruit and protein bars around for a small snack if I need some pre-workout fuel when I don't want a full stomach.

Okay, GO.

N.B. - The cool running gadget I got (the MP3 player) has proven a bust so far. :/ I have yet to figure out how to get music on it. (Yes, I'm following directions, no, it's not working right. Yet). Must figure something out, as it would be much easier to carry than the one I currently listen to on runs.
P.S. I was thinking on my bike ride today how sad it is that MP3 players don't mix well with water, and aren't safe on bikes. Music tends to make everything better when working out. :)

9/28/09

This blog has been quiet over the last week because my training has been going very slowly, unfortunately. Last week, work spit up on me, and I was drafted into doing massive amounts of cleaning. I guess that in and of itself was a physical activity, but nothing I specifically saw as training, unfortunately. Then I realized. Halloween 5K is in 4 weeks. Oh boy.

So, the things I have done -

Saturday - Went canoeing, actually! Hey, I figured at *least* it was a good upper body workout (and it definitely was that, considering how my arms have felt the last couple of days!), and maybe even had some cardio value. Three hours. Not bad.

Sunday - Rode my bike the 6ish miles into work. This ride is mostly downhill. I was extremely sleep deprived and sore, so I figured it was okay not to be *too* hard on myself. The ride took 40ish minutes, not too bad.

Today - I am feeling somewhat badass and focused today. I got up and ran for 16 minutes. (HA HA! I know, 16 minutes, but I'm happy with it!) 1.3 miles. Ok! I felt extremely sluggish at first, and my left (bad) knee in particular felt pretty sore. I was wearing the brace, and it didn't feel too unsound, just sore. So I kept going, and after a few minutes felt like I had a much better stride going. 26 training days left. AY!
I also rode my bike the 6ish miles into work again today. I was pretty tired by the time I was done, but I feel like I put in a good days work.

Constant Vigilance.

9/22/09

I haven't ridden my bike in awhile, so today was a bike day. I didn't go far - just about 6 miles. But it was a tough six miles. A lot of it is uphill, and I was dehydrated and *tired*. I just tried to keep moving.

Lesson learned - DRINK MORE WATER.

Goal - Kick the CRAP out of this hill near my house. Every time I ride up it, it feels horrible. It's way harder than it should be. I will continue to work, and that hill is mine.

I did get my speedometer, lights, and basket connected to my bike. I also got a small MP3 player today that will be great for running since it's really tiny.

I'm thinking about a run for tomorrow....

9/21/09

Yesterday -

I walked the Susan G. Komen for the Cure race, a 5k. It took about an hour and twenty minutes, which is slow, but considering how many people walked, not bad.
By the end, I was very sore and tired overall. I didn't sleep a lot Saturday night, and between that, running (on Saturday night), and walking Sunday morning, I was beat. I came home, rested for the rest of the day, and felt a lot better.

Today -

I wanted to keep it low impact, since I was so tired and sore yesterday. I decided to swim. I swam 24 lengths, 12 laps. I *think* the pool is 25 meters, which makes for a total of 600 meters. I felt like that was a pretty good start, and I felt pretty good during it. If I was timing correctly, I swam for approximately 25 minutes.

Swimming workouts are going to be interesting. The hard part is going to be swimming in a small space for long periods of time - I wonder if the lack of change in scenery is going to make swimming boring. Especially towards the end, I also felt like I was in an odd space mentally, just because of how weird it is to be underwater for long periods of time - it's a different world. :) I'll have to play with ways to keep engaged during swim workouts. I don't want to get bored since exercise - wise, swimming feels awesome, and is the best kind of workout for my upper body. It's too bad things that play music are not conducive to getting really wet. :D I also shall be doing research as to proper swim form, since that will keep me healthier and faster.

It's been awhile since I've biked, so that's the plan for tomorrow.

9/19/09

36 Days until 5K!

Yesterday -
I finally DID get to go swimming! Huzzah! There was some logistical crap going on, so B couldn't come, unfortunately. Thumbs down.
I did get to swim for .... maybe 20 - 30 minutes, I think? I will keep better track on future swim workouts. I did around 8 laps, which is a quarter of a mile. I did mostly freestyle, with a smattering of breaststroke. I also did a half lap of backstroke. My main goal was to get in the water, and get moving, which I definitely did. It's been awhile since I've swam, and it felt really good.


Today -

Since I haven't run since the 14th, it was so important to me to get out and hit the road today. When it came time, I really didn't want to go. I was tired, and I was feeling a good deal of muscle soreness. I made myself go out, and I am very happy I did.
I wanted to make it at least a mile, if not a mile and a half. In terms of time, I was shooting for 16 - 20 minutes total. I did make it about 1.5 miles, which is longer than I've run in a long time! The run took around 18 minutes. No stops. Goal for today met.

During the run, I felt pretty good for the most part. Actually, much better than I expected to feel when I left on the run! Towards the end, I tanked pretty quickly. I feel okay about that, since this is the longest run I've done since starting up again (both time and distance), and I did meet my goal.

Right now, I feel pretty tired, and like I had a pretty good workout. I still feel the muscle soreness, but no pain. Thumbs up! I feel good about the day's work.

Tomorrow: 5k Walk - Susan G. Komen for the Cure!

9/18/09

Yesterday, I woke up and felt beat to crap. My ankle and wrist were feeling very sore, which worried me. From all the moving, I also had normal muscle soreness in my arms and back. I had intended to run yesterday, but I figured something less impact might be on the cards.

Sooo....I went down to the school gym. I did a really good stretch out, then tried to do the elliptical. I got 6 minutes down, and ended up stopping. The frustrating thing is that I was actually feeling pretty good. I wasn't breathing overly hard, and I definitely felt like I was doing okay in terms of endurance. The problem was the ergonomics. The stride of this particular elliptical was short, and at the front of the stride, my feet tilted forward. Also, the handlebars were so high (and I am so short), that I had to grab much lower on them than was normal, cutting my arm strides in about half. It was annoying.

I then decided that I felt good enough that I would try to run a bit, but stopped very quickly once I realized I didn't have my brace. I'm not at the point yet that I want to risk that one. So, I called it quits, and now I'm a bit annoyed with myself for doing so. I need to be tougher, and think more outside the box. I should have done the bike, I think, something to get some movement in. Lesson learned.

Overall, it was a very frustrating workout. The 5K is coming up fairly quickly, and I don't want to feel like a tool doing it. I want to feel like my body can handle this, but I'm worried. I don't want pain to stop me, but I don't want to exacerbate problems by overtraining. It's a really fine line, and I don't really have anyone to go to to dissect this stuff and help me figure out what's going on.

Speaking of the 5K, I talked to Super Cool Neighbor (SCN) who runs, and he is planning on doing the race too! He will kick my butt, but yay!! Someone to meet up with down there! He also showed me a neat little gadget both he and his wife have, they're called Sansa Clips. They're tiny (and fairly inexpensive) MP3 players that are perfectly designed to use while working out. I'm pondering getting one, since it's a pain trying to carry my IPod on runs. Not sure if I should just get one, use the idea as a carrot for the 5K, or wait until Christmas. I need clothes (particularly for colder, wetter weather workouts), and running shoes too. I didn't think this endeavor would end up being expensive, but I'm wondering now.....

Today, B and I are doing our first swim workout. I'm stolked! My goal is to be sure to get my heart rate up at least somewhat, and to be gentle on the wrist today.

P.S. Bike stuff came yesterday! I can now gauge how fast and how far I go, which will be great on training rides. AND I can carry stuff on my bike in my nifty new basket. This will be AWESOME and increase greatly the chances of me running errands on said bike. I just need to get the stuff installed at this point. :P

9/16/09

I had hoped to run today, no go.

I spent 5+ hours moving stuff at school, though, so I figure that's a workout in itself. My arms are pretty sore, which is good, because I need more strength in my arms.

I feel tired, wrist still a bit sore, but feels better than it did last night.

I wore my boots today, and that really helped my foot, so that feels good.

I think a run is in the works for tomorrow. I'm going to try to get some sleep as to be in good shape.

9/15/09

I ran yesterday - 10 minutes running, 5 minutes walking, 6 minutes running - so today was an "off" day. I did want to get in some good exercise, so I walked downtown, which is an approximately 6 mile walk that I did in about 2 hours.

I'm not feeling great today. My legs felt tight (from the run yesterday, maybe), my wrist is really sore right now (in part from trying to move furniture around, and yes, I was being careful, yes I feel like an ass right now for doing it), and I tied my shoe so tight that I crushed the tendons on the top of my foot, so that is sore too.

The good thing is that I met my goal - walk downtown.

A little bit in ways of introduction...

This is a training log. It'll consist of descriptions of various workouts, how I felt during them, thoughts and plans regarding training, and possible nutrition thoughts as well.

As of today, I'm 28.25 years old. A bit overweight, not in great shape, but not a total couch potato either. I ran cross country in high school, and came in last almost every single race, but that was okay, because being faster than the other kids wasn't what I was there for.

I've had some injury problems, and so I haven't really felt comfortable running in a long time:
The main issue is that I had a subluxation of my kneecap 9 or so years ago. This type of injury can be re-occurring and means that my knee is weak. Wearing a brace helps, and the best way to prevent my knee from "going out" is to keep my legs strong.
I'm recovering from a substantial wrist fracture from last Spring. It's feeling good for the most part, but it'll take a bit more time before it regains all of its strength. I wear a brace when biking, no push-ups for awhile.

I spent most of the summer hiking up and down mountains all day, meaning my legs are fairly strong. I figure this is it, the time to get back into things.

I signed up for a 5k the weekend before Halloween. Right now, I can run 1+ miles fairly consistently and am running about 12 minute miles. The goal for that race is to finish, run the entire race, and come across the finish line in 36 minutes or less.

Yes I'm nuts, and have a couple somewhat insane long-term goals. There's a race here on St. Patrick's Day this coming Spring that I want to do as a 10K. I'm thinking the intervening months will be enough time to prepare.
And yes, I want to do a triathlon next summer (sprint distance), so a good number of swimming and biking workouts will be logged here. I may have lost my marbles.....

If I can stay feeling good (uninjured) and can really make this a part of my routine once school starts, I can do this. I have an awesome training partner, and that helps. :)

Here we go.