Workout Wednesday

I started my after school workout class on September 11 and here I am a month later finally posting a Workout Wednesday post...life is so busy!  I didn't even get a workout up on Instagram until the 3rd week of the class and usually Instagram is something I don't have trouble keeping up with.  Unfortunately we missed week 4 because everyone was too busy, and we missed week 5 this week because we all had parent-teacher conferences after school.  But hopefully we'll be back next week! 

I got ambitious this year and printed out the first two workouts on a double sided sheet and then laminated them and put them on binder rings.  I somehow found the time to do the same thing with workouts 3 and 4.  Hopefully I will be able to keep up this trend all year...  It has been super helpful so far, because now each participant can have their own exercise list right next to them instead of trying to read the little iPad screen as we go along. Also, they can take home the workout list if they'd like to do the workout again later in the week. 

For weeks 1 and 2 we started out easy with 30 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest, 3 rounds, 2 minutes between rounds.  On week 3, we increased the work to 40 seconds.  

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This week, since I had no school on Monday and knew we wouldn't be able to work out on Tuesday, I did my own workout at home on Monday.  I designed an 80 countdown circuit for myself, and somehow managed to complete 5 rounds.  I was a puddle on the floor by the end of the 5th round, but I was able to complete all the exercises without failure until the push-ups in round 5, so I felt pretty good about it! 

10 seconds of rest between exercises, 1 minute of rest between rounds. 

I turned one of my mirrors sideways and leaned it against the wall so I could see my form on the plank.  This really helped me to make sure I was holding proper form during the duration of each plank, as I was able to see when I started falling, and then could correct myself.  I have two mirrors in my  workout room, and they have been super helpful in helping me identify and correct problems in my form with various exercises!

Workout Wednesday : Circuit Training

This was the 15th circuit workout that I designed for my workout group at school.  In the 16 weeks I've been doing the class, I've only repeated a previous workout once, and that was because we were coming back from vacation and it seemed like a good time to revisit the beginning!  Each week when I design the workout, I do my best to find a new exercise to add, while also creating a good mix of previous exercises.  Other than starting with jumping jacks and ending with plank, I try not to repeat any exercises too many weeks in a row.  Gotta keep it interesting!

Each exercise was 50 seconds, except for the Side Plank which was 1:00, to allow 30 seconds on each side. The single-leg exercises were done 25 seconds on each leg (calf raises, lunge).

This week I had two new exercises and one modified exercise.  The new exercises were the hammer curls and the side crunches, and the modified exercise was the lunge with balance : I added the weight. 

Step backwards into the lunge, then drive back leg forward and up while raising the weight. Hold for a few seconds before stepping back into the lunge. 

Back to Running!

After 7 weeks of 0-2 runs per week, most of which were Pub Run jogs, I decided it was time to try again.  The last two Pub Runs have been a bit faster and longer, and have felt good.  So on Wednesday, I decided to go for a run.  I kept the pace easy, and planned to head straight home if my foot started hurting.  It never started hurting, so I went for 7 miles.  On Friday, I decided to run again, thinking I would probably stick to 5 or 6, but again, my foot did not hurt.  It felt so good to be running, I gradually picked up the pace as I went along, and I ended up with 8 miles.  I am trying to hold off on running two days in a row or on running too fast quite yet.  We'll see how long I can hold out...

This week:

M : sweatfest 40 min/10.1 miles

Pub Run 5.2 miles / 8:04 pace / 118 ft

T : bike 23.2 miles / 17.8 mph / 1683 ft

W : run 7 miles / 8:08 pace / 492 ft

R : bike 24.7 miles / 19.4 mph / 1640 ft

F : run 8 miles / 7:39 pace / 571 ft

Su : bike 25.1 miles / 15.5 mph / 2556 ft

total run miles : 20.2 

total bike miles : 83.2

June strength training

I came across an ab-workout challenge schedule for the month of June and briefly considered it, because I definitely need to be doing core strengthening.  But then I had to admit that I need to be doing a lot more than core strengthening.  I need to be doing full-body strength training if I want to be healthier and stronger. So naturally, I had to make my own challenge schedule for the month.  I tried to start it out pretty easy, and build from there.  I don't feel that it's really even too difficult at the end of the month, but we shall see...

I was proud of myself for sticking to the first week.  I have been telling myself for a too many weeks to count that I will do squats/lunges/situps/pushups after each run/ride but I rarely manage to "get around to it." I have stuck to this schedule though, so clearly I just need to write things down if I want them to happen.

here's the first week:

The first day was something random I just happened to do that day.  I made the schedule that evening, and I made it to have 4 days on, 1 day off.

I thought it was going really well, and feeling easy enough, but on my two rides so far this week, my legs (mostly quads) have been hurting and it's been hard to put any effort into my rides.  Maybe these small workout are harder than I thought...pretty sad. Then again, 10+ squats a day is a lot more than zero...

Another great week of running.

First, some photos that I captured on the way home from Mass this morning.  I love catching the fog rising off the river!

Super happy with how my runs went this week.  Still a little giddy with happiness about being able to run again, and about the fact that my runs are longer than they used to be.  Can't wait to race again!

This Week : Rides & Runs

M : Bike 12.3 / Bike 7

T : Run 8.6

W : rest day

R : Bike 21.9

F : Run 11.3

Sa :  Hike

Su : Run 8.5

Run : 28.4 miles
Ride : 41.2 miles

On Monday, Hill and Holler organized a shop ride.  It was supposed to be a 20 miler, followed by dinner and GVBC beer, followed by a movie called "Pantani : The Accidental Death of a Cyclist."  I wasn't really interested in spending my Monday night watching the movie, but I did want to join for the ride and the beer.  The brewing company has been in the works for awhile, and their beers only just made it into the local bars in the last few weeks.  Six of us headed out on the ride.  We were of varying abilities, and ended up going pretty slow.  Some of us did the occasional speed ahead and then stop and wait.  Since the others were trying to get back in time for the movie, the 20 mile plan was abandoned.  I joined them for a burger and local beer downtown, then when they headed to the movie, I got back on my bike.  The 12 miler hadn't been strenuous enough for me to feel like I really got exercise, and I needed more.  I was racing the sunset at that point, so I just did a quick 7 mile sprint.  

Mothman Black IPA

I don't have anything exciting to say about Tuesday's run or Thursday's bike.  Friday's run was really, really, awesome.  The recap can be found here.  The recap for Saturday's hike (it's lengthy and involves a lot more than just hiking) can be found here.  Today's run was pretty good.  I wanted somewhere around 8 miles.  I decided to do an out and back on Fairview Rd, which is where most of the Lewisburg 1/2 is run.  My plan was to run out 4 miles, turn around, and add more once I got back to downtown if I felt like it.  It was a bit cool out this morning, so I didn't try to push the pace at all, just kept it comfortable.  I hit 4 miles in the middle of a gradual uphill, so I continued to the top, and then turned around.  About a mile and a half from town, I was heading up the little incline towards the bridge over the interstate.  I felt good, so I lengthened my stride a bit and powered up it.  That felt really good, so I decided to keep increasing the pace.  I didn't go as fast as I possibly good, but I put a good bit of effort into the run into town.  As I was nearing downtown, I decided that while I was pushing it, I may as well run the finish of the Lewisburg 1/2, just for the heck of it.  So I kept the pace up until I crossed the finish line, and then I jogged the few blocks back home.  

Here are my splits, just for fun.  I joined Strava when I started biking, and quickly became addicted.  I recently bought a strava-compatible running watch* so I can track my runs as well.  I like that in addition to the splits, it shows you the elevation gain/loss, and shows you what your split would have been if you put in the same effort on flat ground.  

I never used to use a GPS watch unless I was going on a really long run, but now I am hooked.  My other wasn't made to upload runs to a computer, so there wasn't much incentive to use it for anything other than making sure I got enough miles in on long runs.  I really like being able to upload my runs and track them through Strava, and the GPS watch will probably be an essential part of my running gear from now on.  I know running shouldn't be all about the numbers...but I've always been obsessed with tracking/recording my runs, and Strava makes it so much easier!

*Fun fact about my watch : A bought Soleus GPS watch through Amazon.  It was pretty and turquoise and compatible with Strava and I loved it.  It also turned out to be defective.  It got harder and harder to get it to connect with the USB cable and upload my runs.  I contacted Soleus support, and they sent me various trouble shooting options, none of which worked.  So, they sent me a brand new watch...for free!  So far the new watch works great, and I am very satisfied with their excellent customer service!  They requested that I mail them the defective watch so they can figure out what went wrong with that, and I will be putting in in the mail on Monday.  It's the least I can do, in thanks for the new free watch!

I went for a run and I didn't die

I was holding off on running as long as I could, to give my foot as much time to heal as possible. Yesterday marked 75 days since my last run. As of yesterday, I had biked 80.6 miles that week, and only taken 1 day off. I usually take 2 days off per week, but I also usually bike closer to 120 miles a week. Last week I did shorter rides because I'm trying to get my back to stop hurting. I've been feeling pretty good with the shorter rides, and could have done another yesterday, but I wanted to save my back for a longer ride. The real deciding factor, was the weather. I had given my bike a thorough cleaning after a wet ride on Saturday, and the weather was similar yesterday. I really didn't want to get the bike filthy right after I cleaned it. So, I decided it was time to try a run.

There is ONE loop I can do straight from my house that is relatively flat terrain. So that is what I did. The main loop is about a mile long, and By looping through downtown (also pretty flat) at the end, I ended up with 2 miles. I kept the run as slow and steady as I could. I didn't have trouble breathing, but I could feel that if I tried to go any faster, my lungs would protest. It will probably take them awhile to get up to speed. My legs on the other hand, were ready to race and begging for speed. As for my foot...I think it was ok? I think there was a tiny bit of an ache during parts of the run, but I was so focused on looking for it,  i'm hoping I just imagined it. I iced it afterwards just in case. And stretched it. And rolled it on a hot water bottle later in the day. 

Oh, and I ran that 2 miles in 15 minutes. So relieved I can still jog below an 8 minute/mile pace! 

I'm still not sure exactly how I'm going to go about this return to running...but I think I'm going to try to start by doing that 2 mile loop every other day and see what happens.

Wheels of Hope Metric

I'm still not running...and will probably be taking off another month before I attempt running again.  And since I've been biking so much (I'm now up to 110-120+ miles per week) I had no excuse not to ride in the  Wheels of Hope event yesterday.  There were 4 different distances to choose from.  The 18 and 31 mile options were too close to my normal daily mileage, and the 112 option was definitely much too long for me.  So I chose the 63 mile option.  I had never ridden more than 50, but thanks to my new yoga-ish 10 minute morning stretching routine, my back has been doing better.  And I'm always up for a challenge when it comes to exercise.

Lewisburg has been suffering from a drought all summer.  We have been in need of rain for awhile now.  The rain picked yesterday to finally show up. (Also, it was barely 60 degrees out...not my ideal weather!)  Running in the rain stopped bothering me a long time ago, but I had not yet gotten brave enough to really ride in the rain.  However, I had signed up for this thing, and I had paid for it, so there was no way I was going to let myself wimp out.  There were some changes made to the course because of something wrong with a bridge somewhere on the course, so the course was shortened to 58 miles.  I had no complaints about that.

When I run races, I am used to starting at the very front and doing my best to stay ahead of the pack so I don't get pushed around or boxed in.  I had no such delusions with biking, so I tried to start near the back.  It was still a miserable traffic jam at the beginning.  Being boxed in on a bike with people swerving all over the place and rain spraying off of tires into my face was not a pleasant experience.  It was rather terrifying.  I had to deal with that for the first 2 miles or so before I could finally get around the craziness and find a nice empty stretch of road between packs of people.  It meant riding faster than I had planned, but at that point all I cared about was feeling safer.  And getting the ride over with so I could get out of the rain.

After a lot of back and forth with the local bike mechanic (mostly me pulling ahead on climbs, and him pulling ahead on flats/descents), we ended up riding together.  We still had some back and forth with climbs and descents, but whoever was behind always caught up to the other eventually.  It was really nice to have someone to ride with and complain with about the weather and our various aches and pains.  My back held up remarkably well, didn't really start bothering me until somewhere around mile 40.  By mile 50, I was beat.  My neck and shoulders got really cramped, and my legs were worn out.  There were a few small climbs in those last miles, that normally wouldn't be a big deal, but I'm pretty sure they caused my legs more pain than I have ever felt before while on a bike.  I really wanted to give up and lie down on the side of the road until someone came to get me.  But of course I just get spinning the pedals and eventually the ride was over.

We finished the 58.3 mile ride in 3:41.  There was 4,538 feet of elevation change in that ride.  There was a 2.5 mile climb somewhere in the middle of the ride.  Thankfully, I had ridden that part of the ride once before, so I knew what to expect on that hill.

Overall, I'm really happy with how the ride went.  It was cold, wet, and miserable, but I didn't wreck, and I didn't get injured.  Aside from the cold/wet part, I actually felt pretty good throughout the ride.  I thought I would be really sore today, but there's just a little bit of stiffness in my shoulders.

Cycling Explorations

Since I need to take time off from running, and I can't stand to not exercise regularly, I have had to embrace this whole cycling thing.  It was frustrating at first, because I didn't have the right muscle to ride with the same intensity that I was used to putting into my runs.  But after a few weeks, I have gotten much stronger, and am able to get a satisfying workout out of a bike ride.  It can still be hard to find the time for bike rides of a decent length, but I seem to be finding it.  I thought I was busy when I was running 30-45 miles a day, and now I find myself biking an hour or two, often longer on weekends.  Somehow it seems to fit in.  And on the days when it doesn't, I ride hard for 30 minutes or so.

My favorite part about cycling is that it takes me places my runs don't.  I am seeing parts of the area that I have never seen before, and since spring time has finally arrived in the Greenbrier Valley, the scenery is gorgeous, and often breathtaking.  The one-lane roads through farmland have very little traffic, but lots of cows and beautiful green fields.

I don't like stopping in the middle of a workout, so I don't have pictures of any of the scenery, except for today.  Today, the road I took turned unexpectedly into a dirt/gravel road.  Having already been chased by two different pairs of dogs, I really didn't want to turn around and backtrack.  So I took my chances that the map was correct and that the road would in fact continue to the next road I planned to take, and I stuck with it.  Parts of the road were decent, parts of it were very rutted and rocky and muddy.  But thankfully, my tires handled it beautifully.  I was rather angry about the state of the road, and desperately hoping I wouldn't end up lost, but as I looked around, it was so peaceful.  And every now and then I would get a glimpse of a breathtaking view as I wound my way up and down a mountain.  I had to break my no-stopping rule to snap a few pictures.

This was a part where the gravel road was relatively smooth.  

I love green trees and blue sky, such perfect weather!

Almost Heaven, West Virginia. 

What a view.

Eventually, the dirt road came to a T with a paved road.  With no street signs.  So I had to guess...up hill or down hill.  It wasn't how I remembered it looking on the map, but it turns out I hadn't looked closely enough at the map.  I knew that the place I was headed was most likely downhill, since it's near the river, so I chose downhill.   It turned out that where I had thought the road I started on continued straight and I needed to turn off to the left, it actually didn't go straight. The road I was on continued to the right, the one I had planned to turn off onto, was to the right.  I have no idea why that intersection wasn't labeled, but good thing I have a decent sense of direction! In the end, the road I took spit me out on a two lane road that was also unlabeled, but which I knew had to be the next road I wanted, Highway 63.  So, I made it home without actually getting lost, even though I felt lost for about half of the ride.  Adventuring is fun on weekends when I have the time for it!  Especially when the weather cooperates.

Yesterday, I went for my longest ride so far.  40 miles.  It didn't have any significant mountain climbs, so it wasn't particularly difficult, just long.  I actually felt like I could have kept going.  The only reason I didn't, was because the skies opened up and it started pouring when I was about 7 miles from home.  So, I got drenched.  It stopped raining right around the time I got back into town, which made it tempting to continue riding, but in the end the desire to get warm and dry won and I headed straight home.

Last week, I rode 90 miles, which I felt was pretty impressive for a busy person who has just picked up this new cycling hobby.  This week, I made a goal of hitting 90 again.  And then I hit a grand total of 118.9 miles for the week.  I would continue this quest to see how many miles I can ride in one week, but this coming week is looking pretty busy, so I suspect it will be a lower mileage week.  Time will tell.

15 days off

This poor blog has been getting neglected.  Because it's primarily a blog about running.  And I haven't been running.  Today I ran for the first time since my race on March 22.  That's 15 days off.  The longest amount of time I've taken off, on purpose, probably in...forever.  I thought the 12 days I took off in January was long and arduous.  I realized this time around, that 10 days is really the most I can take off from running before it begins to damage my emotional stability.  (I realized this around day 13, when I was starting to wonder why I couldn't shake an in-explainable bad mood).  But, I made myself wait until today before I ran again.  I have a race on Saturday, so I need to run a few times before then!

As I started out on today's run, my legs felt really weird.  Like they weren't really sure what was going on.  "What is this strange running-thing we're doing?!"  But, it only took a few minutes to settle in and love the run.  I did my standard 4.7 mile loop. I didn't push too hard, but I wasn't just jogging along either.  I ended up with a 7:07 average pace, which is pretty stellar after 15 days off!

Of course, I didn't just spend the last 15 days sitting on the couch.  That would have been unbearable.  The 12 days I took off in January taught me that I have to keep my cardio up somehow while not running, or my lungs get really weak.  So, I needed a cardio alternative to running that didn't involve a gym membership, because I don't have money lying around to spend on that.  I decided it was time to start biking.  Naturally, it snowed the day I planned to start biking.  And it snowed for the next several days.  But eventually the snow melted and I was finally able to get out on my bike.

Biking is not my favorite form of exercise. (obviously) It's not terrible, but it's so easy to just coast along, I've always had trouble riding hard enough to get a good workout.  Obviously, coasting along would not keep my lungs in shape.  Thanks to Strava, I found a way to motivate myself to ride a bit harder.  Using my phone, I can track my rides on Strava, and it ranks me on various "segments" of roads created by users.  Fastest guy/girl on each segment are the king/queen of the mountain.  There aren't too many people riding consistently here who use strava, but there are a handful.  I didn't get QOM on all the segments the first time I tried them, but I got most of them pretty quickly.  There are only a few segments left that I have ridden on not gotten QOM on.  So my real goal is to get as high on the leaderboard with the guys as I can.  Because being competitive is the main thing that helps me stay motivated during rides.

My longest ride so far was yesterday.  I rode 29.2 miles.  I still felt pretty good at the end of it, so I am planning to push for closer to 35-40 soon.  Also, I biked 85 miles last week.  Not too shabby for my first full week of biking. Way better than the 18 measly miles I got the week before...

My main frustrations with biking right now?
a) The wind.  It has been really windy here lately.  And riding into the wind is ridiculously not fun.  Especially when your quads are already sore from previous rides.  Ouch.  Also, riding into the wind makes my back hurt.
b) Biking is shredding my quads and doing NOTHING for my calves.  I developed restless leg in one of my calves just a few days into my 15 days off, and biking barely alleviated it.  Because it was too busy making my quads feel like they were being stabbed by knives.  On the bright side, my quads are getting really strong...
c) So time consuming.  Sure, I can go for a 30 minute ride and ride as hard as I possibly can, and it's a great workout.  But, back to the quads issue...I can't ride that hard every day.  I have a high pain tolerance, but it's not that high!  Especially not when I'm also fighting the wind.  But in order to get a good workout out of a slower ride, I have to be able to devote at least an hour and a half, preferably more, to the ride.  That's a lot of time out of my day. a/k/a not gonna happen most days.
d)  I thought since I was exercising regularly, I would be able to maintain my sanity.  But then I discovered that biking does not relieve stress for me like running does.  That was a sad and disappointing revelation.  Luckily there's not too much stress in my life right now to begin with, so I'm still able to do pretty well.  But my frustration-threshold is definitely lower right now...  I think biking is not working because my quads hurt too much before I am able to ride hard enough/long enough to get the same workout I get from running. Maybe once my quads get into bike-shape it will be different.

Another week gone by

This week:

M: off

T: 4.7 / 41:02 / 8:43 (AM)

W: 4.7 / 40:31 / 8:37 (AM)

R: 6.75 / 48:17 / 7:09

F: off 

Sa: 12.04 / 1:37:00 / 8:03

Su: 6.75 / 54:05 / 8:00

week total : 34.94

I was going to take Thursday off this week because I didn't feel like getting up that morning, but then our weekly faculty meeting was over sooner than usual, and I felt energetic, so I decided to go for a run.  I started out slow, but my legs were begging for speed, so I picked up the pace about a mile in and pushed it for the rest of the run.  My lungs had a bit of trouble keeping up, but my legs felt great, and overall it felt really good to push the pace and work hard.  On Friday, I got home at lunch since we were having conferences at school and my only one was at 8 AM.  So I headed to Babcock State Park to take pictures.  I ended up doing quite a bit of un-planned hiking while I was there, so I got a good bit of exercise.  (Enough hill climbing to make my legs a bit sore the next day!)

exercises

T: 20 squats, 20 lunges

W: 20 squats, 30 lunges

Sa: 10 squats

Not so stellar on the exercising this week.  For some reason I always remember when I run first thing in the morning, but very rarely remember when I run in the afternoon.  Then again, I don't need the squats to warm me up for an afternoon run because I'm already warm from moving around all day.  

I had a busy but good weekend this week!  Saturday I hardly got a moment's rest between grocery shopping, running, soup-making for the Pub, taking Cheerleading Photos for a friend, and babysitting.  Today I caught some Fog Photos on my way home from Mass early this morning, and took Family Photos for a friend this afternoon.  I played with special effects on quite a few of the photos from this afternoon, it was entertaining.  And necessary on some of the photos...early/mid afternoon is a bad time to take photos, the sunlight was pretty harsh!

Oh, and dinner tonight was some delicious PB Beef & Broccoli.  Scrumptious.  

And I even managed to eat it with chopsticks without making too big of a mess. 

Interruptions

Things were going pretty well.  I wasn't getting super high mileage, but I was at least running consistently, and I felt like I was on track for a decent 20 miler this weekend.  Then, Monday morning, I caught a cold.  And then my back decided it wanted to start hurting for no apparent reason.  By Thursday, I felt like I would throw my back out at any moment, and I had a terrible nasty cough, so I had to call it quits on the running.  This also happened to be my first full week of classes at school.  That was fun, since every time I talked for too long, or had to raise my voice at all, I went into a painful and nasty coughing fit.

So, I had to call off the 20 miler.  Technically, I don't mind at all since I didn't actually have any desire to run 20 miles.  However, I feel like it would be a good idea to get a 20 miler before I run a marathon in November.  I may try to do it this coming weekend, but if not, I'll just have to run the marathon without the training run.  I am not going to run 20 miles too close to my October half marathons.

Monday thru Wednesday I ran at 5 in the morning.  Thursday I almost went for a run but convinced myself to stay inside and do a light workout instead.  Sunday, after 3 days off that made my back neither better nor worse, I decided to try to get some mileage in, so I did a nice slow long-ish run.  I kept it slow enough not to strain my lungs and induce coughing, and I avoided steeper hills so as not to aggravate my back.

This week's runs:

M: 6.3 / 51:05 / 8:05

T: 4.7 / 42:44 / 9:05

W: 5.54 / 47:39 / 8:36 

R: mini workout

F: off

Sa: off

Su: 7.8 / 1:05:24 / 8:23

total : 24.34

This week's "workouts":

M: 10 burpees, 10 squats, 12 lunges

T: 10 squats, 10 lunges, 10 push-ups

W: 15 squats, 12 lunges

R: 4 rounds: 12 squats, 50 boxer twist w/10 lbs, 12 lunges, 10 leg raises, 30 sec plank, 5 push-ups

On Saturday, I did some office work at the bike shop, and then got to take pictures of this:

pretty cool.

I love playing with my camera.