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nashville 2012: week 8

It’s hard to believe that 2/3 of my training for Nashville is done. I really wish I could say it’s going better, but it most definitely is not. Here’s my run down of my workouts this week.

Sunday: Yoga Body Bootcamp™ + 9 mile bike ride
Monday: 3 mile run in the morning + workout A w/ 1.5 mile block sprints
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 2 mile run + workout b
Thursday: yoga
Friday: rest
Saturday: 20 mile bike ride + handstand workshop

I had a great 8 mile run two Saturday’s ago – I felt good and kept a really good-for-me pace, but something happened in between then and Monday to make my running take a turn for the worst. I’m not sure if my legs just decided not to recover at all, but they felt horrible in the morning and my shins definitely felt like they were splinting. I made it 3 of my planned 4.5 miles and gave up. I walked about a mile back home and immediately started stretching. I was feeling better during the day and was hoping that the morning was a fluke, so I decided to come home and do workout A from Best Body Bootcamp with a 5 minute cardio burst in between each set of exercises. I ran around our block three times which took under 15 minutes overall, the run felt hard but I was keeping a good pace so I figured that was why.

Because of my less-than-stellar feeling on Monday, I decided to take Tuesday as a total rest day. I was hoping to kick my crap feeling, but by Wednesday morning I was no better. I set out with a plan of covering 3 miles running (down from the 4.5 scheduled) – and made it through 2… barely. I was less than happy. That night I figured I might as well get some weights in, so Workout B was done (no cardio – and not too long of a workout).

Thursday was yoga at night. It seemed like a slower and more stretchy/twisty class so it felt really good! Followed up by another rest day on Friday.

I had decided that my body must be telling me something about running, so my scheduled 9-miler on Saturday was put on hold. I figured it would hopefully help my shins/legs to do something different, so I tool the time it would have taken me to run to take a bike ride. I figured I would plan on covering 20 miles in that time and ended up with 20.5 including a little time spent riding alongside Sister when she was tackling her first 20 mile run. I definitely underdressed on this bike ride and was FREEZING both on the ride and when I returned! My toes turned purple when I got back and got in the hot shower way too quickly – never again!

And even though my legs are feeling burnt out, my arms are fine! I signed up for a handstand workshop almost a month ago and it was finally the day for it! It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot – I’m definitely getting there with being able to balance but I’m a ways off! And since this was quite a bit of arm work (I’m actually still feeling it quite a bit today!) I decided to forego workout c, which was mostly arm work.

So what’s the plan for this week? Little to no running to see if that helps during the week, and then hopefully a Saturday run. I still have four weeks until Nashville, so this is a setback, but I’ll deal with it and hopefully come out stronger with a little rest.

nashville 2012: week 7

So I’ve kind of fallen off the blogging planet lately… I just haven’t been feeling into it and why do it if I’m not truly enjoying it, right? Well, at least I’ve been enjoying my workouts, even though they’re kicking my butt ;).

Sunday: Yoga Body Bootcamp™ + 9 mile bike ride
Monday: 4.5 mile run + workout A
Tuesday: workout B
Wednesday: 4.5 mile run + 2 mile walk
Thursday: 108 sun salutations
Friday: REST!
Saturday: 8 mile run + 3 mile bike ride + workout C

The weather this past week has been GORGEOUS. The temps have been between the 70’s and 80’s and the sunlight is finally out for longer since it is officially Spring!

Sunday was probably the best day all week and after my disappointing 10k the day before, I needed a hard workout. I ended up biking to Yoga Body Bootcamp – which was exactly 9 miles round trip. The bike there and back were both so nice and sunny and I could just zone out listening to my iPod (the roads are fairly quiet so I don’t have to worry about too much traffic on my route). So much better than driving! Definitely have to figure out a good way of biking to work instead of driving ;).

My runs both went well. Kept them both at a pretty good pace and was definitely sweaty when I returned!

Workouts A, B and C were awesome from Best Body Bootcamp – it’s the third week, so it was a new set of exercises. Definitely tough, but I loved it!

Thursday’s Yoga was 108 Sun Salutations. We only do this class at the change of every season and since Tuesday was the first day of Spring, it was time! I think this was also the first time after this class I had zero soreness – usually my hamstrings are killing me from all of the sun a’s.

I was going to do workout C on Friday, but I ended up taking an entire rest day instead. Good choice!

Saturday started out with an 8 mile run with Sister. It was the last 8 of her 18 mile run. I ended up finishing this 8 mile run one second longer than it took for my last 7 mile run in hilly Seattle – kind of funny :). When we got back Sister wanted an ice bath but she had forgotten to get ice, so I decided to spin out my legs and bike to the gas station to get some. My workouts for the day finished with workout C and some stretching. The rest of the day was spent driving up to see my friend and seeing HUNGER GAMES! Love love loved it! A perfect Saturday!

race recap: shamrock shuffle 10k

This race was a great learning experience. I did know a lot of them before, but ignored them rather than realize I was setting myself up for failure (or a half assed race).

When I first signed up for this race in December, I was thinking that March was going to be a cold month, so a race starting at 10am would be no big deal. Especially since it was in Madison (over an hour away), and that way we could easily drive there in the morning and not spend the money on a hotel room. About a month ago, it was still cold and Sister and I were in Target and saw some St. Patty’s Day t-shirts. They were lightweight cotton longsleeved shirts. I figured I would end up being cold wearing it, but that would just make me run faster, right?

It ended up being almost 80′.

I still wore the shirt.

Stupid.

The race started out fantastically. I felt good, I felt fast (I even knew I was keeping a good pace due to my Garmin – love this thing). There was a hill early on that took a lot out of me – I walked up some of it but still averaged that mile in a really good time. Most likely too good of time for how my training has been going. My watch ticked mile 2 in a similar, but not quite as fast of time. That’s when I saw Sister. Standing off to the side looking for me and then was just shaking her head. I couldn’t hear what she was saying at first due to my headphones, so I came out of my running zone to find out what was wrong. She was having a really bad side cramp and I tried to motivate her to keep running, making her at least make it to the half way point so she wouldn’t quit out on the race. We ran/walked that next mile and got to a water station and the halfway point. I could tell at that point that I wasn’t going to get my PR in the 10k today anymore, so I gave up. I passed the halfway point in 31:38. Sister said I could go on ahead without her, but she wasn’t looking too good and I couldn’t in good mind leave her on the course that wasn’t too supported. Plus, I was hot, sweaty and not sure if I would have even been able to keep up the pace and would have just been angry that I didn’t set a PR.

I shouldn’t have given up, but things were against me (weather, clothing, lack of water, motivation) and I wasn’t prepared. I also realized that I hate the 10k distance. In my mind it is “only” 6 miles, but that is a long time to keep up a good pace. Will I do this race again next year? Absolutely. But I will only do the 5k. I could have totally sprinted the 5k to make it in under 30 minutes and felt a hell of a lot more accomplished than I do now.

So what happened after the halfway point? We walked back. Yup, walked. 3.1 miles. Crossing that damn finish l line in 1:14:14. My new PR for the slowest 10k race I’ve done. At least I made Sister sprint the last .1ish of a mile to cross the finish line super speedy, passing three people who had been struggling around us. That .1 of a mile I’m kind of amazed about – we ran that in 6:45 pace and it felt great haha.

Even with only running two to three miles, I felt wiped after the race – I think more mentally exhausting than anything else ;). Yes, I was disappointed by not being stronger during the race, but it just wasn’t my day. And now looking back one week later? I’ll be back next year running a kick ass 5k if all goes as planned!

nashville 2012: week 6

Holy cow, my Nashville training is officially half over. Where does the time go?!

Sunday: Yoga Body Bootcamp™
Monday: 4 mile run + workout A
Tuesday: Yoga Master Class
Wednesday: 4 mile run + workout B
Thursday: workout C + yoga
Friday: REST!
Saturday: Shamrock Shuffle 10k

This week can be summed up in one word. SWEATY. I don’t think I have ever had a sweatier week, and it is all thanks to three very sweaty yoga sessions, and weather that is super unseasonably warm. I’m currently typing this wearing shorts and a t-shirt… it’s March 18th. My body is not used to this!

Anyways, yoga was wonderful this week. Tuesday’s Master Class was so sweaty and we did a lot of fun poses that I had never done before – so twisty and balancey – definitely a nice change from the usual flow!

My 4 mile runs were the first weekly runs with my new Garmin. Being more aware of my pace has definitely helped me push myself, and realize my two natural paces are either 10 minutes per mile, or 11:30. My recent runs have been around the 11:30 pace and feeling sluggish, but I was able to finish these both closer to 10 and feel the same, if not better, than I had with the slower pace. It is feeling much better to push myself on my training runs rather than lug along!

Workouts A, B & C for the Best Body Bootcamp were very similar to the first week of workouts, but upped with the intensity and reps – it was awesome! I am already feeling stronger and week 3 and 4 look killer, it should be fantastic ;). Definitely the push I need to get in a weight training routine!

My Saturday race… well, that didn’t go too well but I’ll write more about it in a separate race recap post.

Six weeks down – six weeks to go! Now time to go set out some shorts for my run tomorrow morning… ;).

seattle seven

This past week, per my Nashville 1/2 marathon training plan, it called for a 7 mile run. Usually when I put together a training plan I look at what weeks I have signed up for any races or am out of town and plan accordingly. Well, I definitely did not account for being gone this day so still put “7 miles” on the schedule. I had never been to Seattle so I had no idea what the running would be like there, but assumed it would be okay depending on what area we were staying. I easily could have:

A. Not ran and taken a week off.
B. Run on Sunday instead when I was back home.
C. Run on a treadmill in the gym.

But, I took option D instead – just sucking it up and running outside! I had walked around with my co-worker quite a bit so I was comfortable with the streets surrounding our hotel, plus it was like 5:30am when I set out (on a Saturday no less), so I was close to alone until the later part of my run.

One thing about Seattle that I never knew was that it is SUPER hilly! At least in the portion I was in. I started out heading down one of the Avenues toward the Space Needle since I hadn’t gotten the chance to go there so after a little over a mile, I was standing at the base! It was nice to see it from the ground, but I definitely wouldn’t pay the $19 bucks to go to the top. This portion of the run was mainly downhill.

I didn’t want to run past the Space Needle since I didn’t know what was behind it and it seemed a little more sketchy… but that could have just been the darkness too. I ran back up the same street (UPhill) and ended up finding myself going down a road that took me to the waterfront. Now this portion was nice! So scenic and FLAT – I really enjoyed it ;). I took quite a few walking breaks here however because I wanted to try and soak everything in!

Well I ran down the waterfront and realized I wasn’t sure how to get back across the street and to the downtown area, as there were a bunch of hotels/condos in the way. I saw a huge staircase with a walkway across, so I figured why not – just go up it and across. Man, those steps were tough! 50+ steps later and I was walking crawling across the walkway.

I then tried to find my way toward Pike Place Market and eventually did, after a few turnarounds ;). At this point the run was not so fun anymore. Really hilly and up and back on the same roads since I didn’t want to find myself too far away from the hotel at the end. Needless to say my pace was not ideal – mostly because of the hills and the stopping for red lights thing. It was the first day I tried out my new Garmin as well and I did not have it on the auto pause function. Even though the run was hilly and slow, I just love running in new places! The change of scenery is what I love. I wish there were more than two routes around my house I could go toward and that they looked different from one another…

When I got back from my run I went to the hotel coffee bar for a bananas to have with my instant oats in my room – I must have looked rough because the lady told me I could grab an extra banana or orange ahaha. But I was very sweaty (I had even stripped off my outer later around mile 3 1/2 so was only in a tank top!) and my face was quite red. It probably looked like I never worked out/ I was going to pass out ;). But I definitely took two bananas.

what i ate wednesday #21

Another Wednesday! I know, I should get used to the fact that Wednesdays keep coming and weeks keep flying right on by. I feel like this past week went exceptionally fast since Thursday – Saturday were spent in Seattle, and then I had just one short day as my “weekend”. This weekend isn’t even all too relaxing either since I have my first 10k race of the year – the Shamrock Shuffle! It is nice because it is a Wisconsin race so we won’t have to stay overnight anywhere, but we will have to made our way from Milwaukee to Madison on Saturday to join in the Mad-Town St. Patrick’s Day festivities… not too high of hopes for this race, but only time will tell… ;).

Anyways, back to food! Last week my eats were quite green – and orange! – and I tried to keep up the veggies as green as possible today to go with the theme, but wasn’t quite as successful as last week!

Breakfast/pre-Yoga Body Bootcamp: PB & Banana French Toast – yum! With a juicy grapefruit on the side.

Lunch: Homemade quinoa pita with wilted spinach, tuna, mustard and hot sauce – delicious and filling!

Afternoon snack: Green smoothie (spinach, frozen banana, coconut milk, PB2) and a homemade zucchini muffin.

I also had a couple of these homemade buckwheat crackers – recipe will be on the blog soon! They are tasty. And ended up photographing quite well!

Dinner: This meal was super delicious. Homemade chicken nuggets (chunked up chicken breast coated with egg whites and rolled in sorghum flour, crushed up gluten free pretzels and seasoning), with baked french fries and green beans. All served with ketchup, naturally ;). But not green ketchup, because that was just nasty. Do you remember that? Not sure whose idea it was to strip the color out of red tomato ketchup and add buttloads of green food coloring to it, but they were sure hailed a marketing genius for a few weeks! I’m almost embarrassed to admit I think we bought a bottle of the green variety… I was obviously focused on health as a kid.

After dinner required a couple peanut butter chocolate chip cookies Sister had made when I was gone. They reminded me of bakery peanut butter cookies – yummm.

This entire day was filled with brand new eats, all of which were so good! I will definitely have to be making these foods again soon :). Happy Wednesday, everyone!

seattle

I officially made it through my second business trip! My first one was during my second week of work in Sonoma, CA, so I really had no idea what to expect. This one I have been preparing for since January, so I definitely had a better grasp of what was going on and more personal responsibilities! I’ve been excited for the location since I’ve always wanted to go to Seattle, but a little nervous of the meeting in general. Luckily, everything turned out great and the meeting was a success!

It was a short trip – leaving Thursday really early in the morning, getting to Seattle by lunch and then leaving Saturday morning. My co-worker and I had a few hours free after we got in so it was very nice to get out and enjoy the nice weather and see some of the Seattle sights!

We walked to Pike Place Market.

Unfortunately didn’t see them throw any fish – disappointed!

But we did see the gorgeous mountains in the background. Why can’t Wisconsin have any of these?!?

We walked by the waterfront.

Saw possibly the first (?) Starbucks. It looked old anyways so I’ll say it was the first.

Our hotel was very nice – big comfy bed along with a separate sitting room.

And a view of the water!

And of the other downtown sights.

Thursday was the only day I got my camera out for fun pictures since by the time the meeting was over on Friday it was raining and almost dark. All in all, I am in love with the city and definitely want to come back! I’m thinking a trip that will take me from Vancouver to Seattle to Portland would be a great getaway :). Luckily the plan is for me to keep coming back for this meeting every year – so I should be back soon!

More on my HILLY Saturday morning run in my next post!

nashville 2012: week 5

This past week was crazy! I had a work trip to Seattle on Thursday and got back home last night, so I have had way more than enough time changes within the past few days (since it’s Spring Ahead and all 😉 ).

Sunday: Yoga Body Bootcamp™
Monday: 4 mile run + workout A
Tuesday: Insanity Cardio + Resistance
Wednesday: 4 mile run + workout B
Thursday: Rest/Travel day
Friday: workout C
Saturday: 7m run

Last Sunday’s Yoga Body Bootcamp was by far the hardest class thus far! I was definitely feeling it after the fact for a couple of days… My abs and shoulders were worked well in that hour!

Monday was the first day of the Best Body Bootcamp (obviously I’m loving the Body Bootcamps right now!). In the morning I completed my 4 mile run for Nashville 1/2 marathon training, and then after work I did workout a*. I could definitely feel the burn as I have never been good at keeping a decent weight routine!

Tuesday I did an Insanity DVD at home (not taking an extra rest day again like last week haha).

Wednesday morning I ran the 4 miles for training and then workout B* was waiting for me when I got home from work. This one was very hard to focus on because I knew I still needed to pack and get ready for leaving the next morning!

Thursday was travel day! I woke up at 3am central time (yuck) to get to the airport to leave for my flight at 7. It was my first venture driving to the airport alone and find parking, but I figured it out no problem! The night didn’t end until after 10 Seattle time, so it was a LONG day. But, I guess I should put in that I did walk around the city from our hotel to Pike’s Market as well as to the location of our meeting the next day to set up.

Friday I completed workout c* in my hotel room! Luckily I had a semi-suite that had a long path from the living area to the bedroom so there was enough space for a couple of the moves ;). This one definitely kicked my butt and I was quite sweaty after I was done!

Saturday was long run day. Another 7 miles complete for 1/2 marathon training, but more on that run and the rest of my time in Seattle in another post!

 

*workouts A, B + C are from Tina at Best Body Bootcamp, so I can’t give any information on what the routines were, but they were all fantastic!

 

what i ate wednesday #20

It’s the first GREEN-filled What I Ate Wednesday! Quite fitting as it’s March, and the weather has been truly spring-like the past couple of days – yesterday was a whopping 60*, and for Wisconsin in early March, basically unheard of. I’ll take it! And I think I’ll blame it on Spring Fever, but I failed at documenting a full day of eats, even trying multiple days! Oh well… at least all my eats were green!

Breakfast: These were a hit last time I had them, so I had to make them again! Green eggs (from ground up Spinach!) with chicken sausage, cheese and Frank’s RedHot (my new absolute favorite condiment, even if it isn’t green!). On the side was a Zucchini muffin. YUM.

Lunch: This was my lunch I packed for work on Monday – Lettuce with chicken + dijon sauce with Peas and bread. Someone was not liking that is was Monday…

Also had to balance out all the green with some orange!

Afternoon snack: Keeping up the orange here is a new favorite snack. A baked sweet potato with coconut butter… melt the coconut butter and put a spoonful on top of the sweet potato. Hot or cold, this is an awesome snack that curbs any sweet craving! (Think Sweet Potato Pie almost).

Dinner?: Well this was actually a lunch over the weekend, but it could easily be a dinner! The easiest tuna salad = tuna + pickles + mustard on bread with lettuce on the side. All topped with more Frank’s!

And if this wasn’t a filling enough day, you could end it all with a green smoothie. Mmmm.

Happy 1st Wednesday in March!!!