Back on Track.

I ran with Pam this morning. What a change in the weather! We went from 87F this past weekend to overcast and 60's this morning. Never the less, I still ran in my shorts, but I did wear a long sleeve shirt under my regular t-shirt and was glad I did. It's funny that I can almost always wear shorts and the cold doesn't bother me, but if my arms, back, stomach or chest are cold it's all over. Anyway, long story short, it was the perfect running weather and I wore the correct attire which is half the battle.

Instead of just carrying water with me today, I prepared electrolyte drinks and chomps for both Pam and I. Any time we have run 6 miles I have run out of gas half way and struggled to get back, so this morning I ate and entire protein bar (20g protein), drank some coconut water and prepared my running snack. We planned to run 8 miles today and so I needed to be ready.

When we got to our usual turn-around point (for a 6 mile run) we were both feeling strong and decided that we were good  to add another mile before turning around. Once we reached mile four we stopped to stretch, eat and rehydrate for a few minutes. The electrolyte drink really helped to make me feel like I could just keep running. Although I noticed that both of my knees were feeling a little stiff so I focused on stretching them out.

Then we turned around and ran the 4 miles back. I was surprised at how good I felt. We did walk for a few minutes at mile 6 but then ran the rest of the way. We completed the run in 01:34:48 which was really good considering that it was the first time in a long time that we have both ran that far.

My knees were a little achy at the end of the run and it hurt for me to step down, but after my shower and after resting for a while they felt better. Tomorrow I plan to hit the treadmill for 30-45 minutes and do a little bit of strength training. I am hoping to do a long run again on Friday. But I need to remember to listen to my body. I am hoping that this long run has put me back on track for my 10 mile race in a month :)  I know I wont be 100% ready, but I want to know that I will at least finish!

Anyways, Onwards and Upwards fellow runners!

Ahhh now that's why I run!

I had mapped out a 5k run for today. It was on the bike path so I wouldn't have to worry about  traffic lights. The temperature was a lovely 77F, clear skies and a light breeze (I love Southern California). I decided to take Brutus with me as he had been stuck in the apartment all morning and surely had some energy to burn, plus I like the company some days.
The turn-around for my 5k was on a part of the bike path I'd never been on before and according to the map it was marked. Well ... it wasn't marked and we passed it. It wasn't until two intersections later that I realized this and so we turned around. I was timing my run and was, at first, a little bummed out that the time was going to be off, but then realized that it was like a spontaneously longer run. So I settled back into the run and enjoyed the extra distance. I checked the map when I got home and I had only gone an extra half a mile total, so it wasn't that bad. So I completed the 3.7 miles in 00:39:29, which for me is pretty good. That puts my pace at 00:10:38 per mile. Now ... if I could just shave off that 38 seconds!

I didn't walk for any of my run today and boy did that feel good! And you know when you get to that last 100-200 yards and you sprint for the finish and you STILL feel incredibly strong like you could continue for hours? That was my run today. I felt strong, motivated and energized. THAT'S the runner's high I look for on a daily basis. It's been a while since I felt it that powerfully, so I was a happy camper at the end of it all.

Then it was off to Olive Garden for a three course meal with my fiance. I was glad that I had worked up an appetite! Cross-training in the gym tomorrow night  :)   Keep Running!

Okay ... Where is the pie?!

Because today is Thanksgiving, I figured the gym would be quiet, but to my surprise there were quite a lot of people there. The gym closed at 2:00pm today so I guess anyone that wanted to get a workout in had to do so early in the day.
I went in with the plan to just hit the 'quick start' button on the treadmill  and run until I felt I couldn't go anymore. But I didn't want to over do it so I hit 'manual' instead and entered in 60 minutes. I said to myself that as long as I got to 30 minutes I was good.
So I started with a 2 minute warm-up where I worked my way up to 5mph (12 minute mile). I did that for 30 minutes and then upped the pace to 6mph just for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. I then brought it back down to 5mph and continue until I reached 37 minutes. I was getting a little tired but at this point I knew I could reach the 60 minutes, so I did a 2 minutes and 30 seconds recovery walk at 3.6mph and re-hydrated a little.
The last 20 minutes consisted mainly of 5mph with 2 more sets of 6mph for 2 minutes and 30 seconds and a final cool down for 2 minutes.
As exhausted as I was, I felt accomplished. In 60 minutes, I ran 5miles and burned just over 400 calories. Somewhere just before the 30 minute mark I very much wanted to give up, but I am very glad that I pushed past that because it was clearly psychological. I not once felt out of breath and my legs didn't really burn or feel tired so I know for the future to check all those before calling the workout complete because chances are that it is just psychological and I could very much just keep going.
After that I did just 5 minutes of the rowing machine so that I would feel that I got some upper body work done.

So having done all that .... please pass me the largest slice of pie!!!  ;)

Lazy or Clever?

Last night I got maybe 3-4 hours of sleep ... probably closer to 3. I got up at 7:30am to coach gymnastics for 3 hours. I've been feeling like my cold has pretty much passed but having not slept and working 2 jobs today I decided it might be wise to take the day off of working-out to avoid a possibility of getting another cold.

However, this is my second day off in a row and I instantly feel guilty about that because I am afraid that I would keep taking days off and lose all the conditioning that I've worked so hard for. It is much to easy to get lazy, easy to make excuses but I am hoping that I will be strong enough to get past all the excuse making. After all, I did work-out on Thursday even though I felt horrible.

Tomorrow I will probably be taking the day off also UNLESS I get off of work early tonight, get some descent sleep and get up early to work-out before my family arrives. If that can'y happen, I guess there is always the option of doing a late evening work-out seeing how 24 hour fitness is open 24 hours.

Okay, I feel better about my decision to take today off. I need to take care of my body so that it can take care of me. In fact, I've been working pretty hard all week, so two recovery days might prove to do me well.