Thursday, March 31, 2011

Mutha f-ing hills

Oh hell that was hard. So with backing off on the frequency of runs in the interest of continuing to run injury free... I've starting following, loosely, a training plan.

Basically on Tuesdays and Thursdays I do speed and tempo runs or a hill run. Saturdays or Sundays I do a long easy run. Cool right?

So I started sort of last week. This week I started the bump up. Tuesday's speed work made me ill. My warm up and recovery pace was 6.2 mph, the speed pace 7.2 for .5 miles, recovery .5 miles.

Last week I made 4 sets before doing a 1 mile cool down at 5.5. This week the added speed was hard enough that I made it 3 sets, did a mile cool down and a mile walk. Basically it kicked my ass.

My plan for next week is to do the same pace again, but replace that walk with one more set. Same miles, much faster.

Today's plan was to tackle this monster hill. It's not long, just .13 miles but with a 20% grade. I don't actually like even walking down it. So I ran the 1.5 ish miles down to the base of the hill. There is the steep side and the long gradual side a little less than .5 miles long with a 13% grade.

Well it kicked my ass. I did one loop up the gradual side and ran back down and around to the base of the steep side. I ran up the steep side and made it 3/4 of the way up. I thought my lungs would explode. It was really the first time in ages where my lungs have hurt from running. I walked the last 20 feet and ran down the gradual side, heading back for another try.

The third lap and second attempt at the big hill was of course worse. I made it half way up before I thought I might loose it, then walked the 100 or so feet to the top. Geez Louise that is some hard shit.

And of course the run home was all up hill. It was hard. It was really hard. But I finished strong, and even an hour later, my lungs are still feeling kind ill. Next time my goal is to finish one lap on the killer completely. At least 3/4 of the second lap and add one more gradual lap. Yeah me!

Good:
Ran 6.35 miles

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

HR is still a bitch

You know it's funny. If you act serious and professional, everyone assumes you must be pissed off. Hmm. Whatever. If being HR means sounding like a bitch, then sure, I'm a bitch. How annoying is that.

I personally hate being Head Ref. You have to run everyone and tell them when they are slacking on something. Most everyone hates feedback that isn't "You rock!" Which I always include a lot of.

But again, I say "Whatever". I'm not here to get your personal approval. I'm here to do my job and make sure you do yours. I've always hated being management, but I always end up doing it.

Tomorrow I will jam ref again. Hopefully I'll get it down well enough to jam ref the up coming bout. We shall see. If I'm not ready, I'm not ready. There is no way around that. And honestly I don't really care. If not this bout, then the next one, or the one after that.

Good:
Swam 45 min
Upper body weights 30 min
Tomorrow is a hills workout. Kind of excited about this. If I do what I plan, you all should be impressed.

You know what I like about running? It's just me. No bitches, no bitching.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

I'm already tired

This is going to be a tough week. I'm sore from yesterday, I'm tired from everything. My run today was really hard and I have three practices this week. Uggg.

But I know I'm getting stronger, ie I'm lifting heavier weights. I'm running faster, today's speedwork was at 6.2 and 7.2 instead of 6 and 7. And I will rock the jam reffing this week.

It's just hard. Apparently improving doesn't come easy.

Good:
Ran 2.5 miles at 6.2
1.5 miles at 7.2
.5 mile at 6
.5 mile at 5.5
1 mile walk at 3
It was really hard to go that fast. And yes I am that slow.
20 min core with weights

I feel awesome! Jam reffing was way better tonight! Still tough with the whole lead change thing. But my skating is so much better! Yeah!!!

Monday, March 28, 2011

A new week

Ok starting over again. I will rock the core this week. I will do some awesome hill and speed workouts.

I will taper back a mile for two weeks to let my body adjust to the increased mileage. (This is me assuming that the training programs know what they are talking about)

Good:
Upper body weights
Swim 1 hour
20 min core with weights

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Sleep!

I work nights. And today my man took the kids out by 9am so I actually got to sleep in. Yeah! Well sort of. I like the idea of sleeping in, but I really just feel like it's a waste of time and I don't feel that much better for the few extra hours of sleep. But whatever.

I had toyed with the idea of going on a recovery run, but my knees are still a little sore from yesterday and I didn't really want to go outside yet. I had thought about taking another day off, but was bored and couldn't think of anything better to do. So biking and Scrubs it is!

Good
Biked 42 min
Core and weights 20 min

Saturday, March 26, 2011

10 miles!!!!!

Gratuitous exclamation points abound!!!!

So today's run gets a play by play as it was some serious accomplishment. The day started crappy. I kept falling back to sleep. You know the sleep hole where you try to wake up but you're just dreaming that you're getting up.

Anyways I was tired. The whole body did not feel up to it. But I was determined. I got suited and headed out. Knees felt weird, legs felt heavy. Was not a good start to my run. The thing that kept me going was the thought that I may not have a great day at the half marathon. I may feel heavy and tired. I may not have one of those awesome days. But 13.1 miles is not that much so suck it up and keep going. Well today was a 10 mile goal, which is even less, so suck it up even more.

First two miles I was breathing kind of heavier than usual. The thought of being warmed up after mile 2 and that most of the remaining miles would be downhill really helped keep me going.

I debated back and forth about how far I would go. 8 miles was the goal and 10 would just be awesome. I settled on the thought of I will decide when I get to the end of each goal on how I feel.

Made it to the 2 ish mile turn around (yeah mostly downhill!) and started to feel better. I also think about how I want my quads to burn, though I didn't really ever get there. My knees felt great, then sore, then great.

I had to add to cut in's where I turn on a street and do a little loop to make sure I got the right number of miles. By the second cut in I was feeling great. I made back to the turn off for my house at mile 5 and sailed by quite happy.

Cruised down the next 3 miles and waved at the bakery, where I would have coffee later, and happily headed down for the next 2 miles. I felt great and it was soo on!

Mile 8-9 was a challenge, but not too bad. Knees were definitely sore by this point, but my breathing was great and my muscles were totally happy.

Mile 9-10 was a little bit of a challenge but a great one. I had gone faster and slower the entire time and I wanted to finish strong. I had to stop at one point to wait for a light and stretched. After stretching my knees felt awesome! Note to self, stretch more often!

The last mile definitely was a push in terms of cardiovascular effort, I was breathing heavy the whole way but smiling. My legs, knees, muscles, everything felt great!

I cruised to my personal finish line and happily stopped as the rain started to set in. Yep 10 miles.

Good:
Ran 10 miles
1 hour 45 min

Friday, March 25, 2011

Rest day

After the third morning of waking up exhausted and sore as hell I've decided to take another rest day. Apparently Fridays are the days where I just can't be useful. There are worse things in life.

Long run tomorrow! Hoping for 10 again, but will be happy with 8!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Hi! My name is sore!

Still from those freakin lunges! Today I've sort of hammered out my running career and I'm pretty stoked.

Tuesdays and Thursdays will be 5-6 mile hill work and speed work. So like 1-ish mile warm up 3-4 miles of speed pace or going up the hills, and 1-ish mile cool down.

Saturdays or Sundays will be the long run. Currently at 7 miles, long term goal to do 10-15 easy miles on the weekend run.

I'm feeling pretty darn close to these goals. Honestly I don't have the drive or interest to do a marathon and more importantly I don't have the knees. I can work hard, take care of myself and still run a half no problem. But that's really all the goals I have.

Cross training including 3 times a week swim, 3 times a week weights and a couple times a week biking. I'd like to up to 5-6 times a week biking and will start adding in after I adjust to my increased mileage.

Someday I'd like to also add another easy 4-6 miler in the week.

Oh and skating. Clearly I'm doing ok on the conditioning end. Skills need work. Jam reffed tonight. I still love it.

Good:
Ran 2 miles at 7mph, 2.5 miles at 6mph, and 1.7 miles at 5.5mph
Core 20 minutes

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Tired and sore

I decided to try to do some at home weight lifting yesterday and it has apparently kicked my ass. It didn't seem hard at the time, but holy hell I am sore and tired.

Really really really want to go do a hill run tonight. Really want a drink too. Which will win out?

Good:
So far... 45 min swim
30 min mostly upper body weights
maybe some running tonight?

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Jam Ref!!!!!!!!

So February 2010 I joined the Tilted Thunder Rail Birds referee group.
My long time dear friend Brick Howitzer convinced me to do it. I said what the hell and joined.

I had never really skated. (There were a few skate parties in grade school. I never got off the wall) But I bought a pair of skates and learned to roll in the hallway, the driveway and at the local tennis court.

Fast forward to 1 year and 1 month later.

Skate Tool, our skate trainer, comes up to me at scrimmage tonight and says you're going to jam ref at the next bout. I saw "hell no I'm not". He persists and I persist for a few minutes.

The scrimmage starts with the first quarter and me as Head Ref, which at this point I am getting the hang of. Quarter change and Skate Tool and Hateful both give me the "yes you are" and there I go to line up with the jammers.

So first jam I get lead, but I don't call it out. When the jammer called it off I just watched until someone else whistled the jam over. Ooops! I did count the points though.

Next jam same deal, but I call lead. Points, no call off, no penalties? What the hell is going on? Who is my jammer. Am I lead? A lot of missed shit. Thankfully points was not one of them.

Everyone helped me. They gave me tips, encouragement, reminders. I was so happy with how nice and supportive everyone was. I really couldn't have asked for a better intro in to skate reffing much less jam reffing.

You see I've done non skating stuff, and non skating Head reffing which calls penalties, but standing still. I've practiced skating and penalty drills. I've done OPR a few times on flat track, but I've really never done the whole real deal on banked. Tonight I did.

Each jam I did something right. Then did something wrong. But it wasn't the meltdown I thought it would be. It was fun. Like really fun. Like when Hateful asked if I wanted to go back to HR I said no way!

This is what I've been working towards for over a year and tonight it happened. I'm so happy that I nearly cried.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Better swimming

I'm starting to do a proper crawl stroke with the whole breathing on both sides deal.
Cool.

Good:
Swim/water running 1 hour
Full body weights 50 min

Sunday, March 20, 2011

I'm happy

I ran 7 miles today. The farthest I've I ever run. Ever. It felt good, it was a hard push, but not a killer. I could do more. But not today.

Good:
Ran 7 miles
10 min core. So far.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Bummer

Well today was going to be a long run, but the knees disagreed.
I felt ok, but knees started out weird and got weirder.
Oh well, there's always Monday.

You now what? I'm running tomorrow. Don't care. Knees feel fine now and need some serious burn in my quads.

Good:
ran 4.8 miles

Friday, March 18, 2011

Rest day

Looking like today will be a rest day.
Knee is a little funky and tomorrow is my long run.
I'm aiming for 9 miles, but will be happy with anything past 6!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

How to be a bitch

Or not. It's a fine line. When you are in charge and are a female, authoritative often sounds bitchy.

I'm trying though, and I think I'm getting better.
Being a Head Ref to crew of excessively smart and well educated people is remarkably annoying.
They're smart, like really smart. And they know it.

Telling them what to do can be hard, and sometimes I'm not sure they always want to listen.
But I think they throw me a line and go along with my requests. Maybe just out of kindness.

Either way I appreciate it.

Good:
Biked 40 min
core 20 min

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Head ref

Dude, being head ref is a bitch. For those of you not familiar with our league functioning, head ref is a position the same as any other position during a bout. It is not status symbol or indication of power within our league.

That being said, when you are head ref during a bout/scrimmage, you are running the inside crew with the penalty calling crew. Everyone is doing their jobs and you are keeping things flowing. When people are not doing their jobs you give direction to keep things flowing.

Needless to say nobody ever is "at fault" for their mistakes. It's always someone else's fault. Whatever. So annoying.

Fortunately though, when I'm running the crew, I get a lot of say of how things run. So suck it up and do it your own way when you are head reffing.

Good:
30 min weights
swam 45 min

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Rock and Roll Half Marathon

Next paycheck I'm signing up.

Breaking through

So going from a 2-3 mile run average to a 5-6 mile average is pretty freakin cool. I ran outside today and towards the end of 5 miles I felt like I could keep going for quite a while. I'm pretty freakin pleased.

Good:
Ran 5.58 miles
20 min core

Monday, March 14, 2011

Post Race Day

So I went to work after the race. Hoo! I was some sore and tired! Work was slow again so I went home early. Yeah!

Picking up another shift tonight and am less sore, though still really tired! But am already sooo looking forward to the next race!

I've registered for one in May. Top Pot doughnut dash! Run for doughnuts! It's a 5 k, so no biggy!

Good:
Swam for an hour and finally started doing the crawl stroke. Having goggles makes a world of difference.
Full body weights.
20 min core

Sunday, March 13, 2011

First Race!

I did it! Ran the race! Got up after 4-5 hours of ok sleep and got my race on!
It rained, no big surprise, but was still awesome!

I ran really well, cruised up the hills, they were small, and flew back down them! Flying for me that is. According to the mapmyrun thing I ran less than a 9 min mile! 8:54!

Woohoo!

Good:
Ran 4 miles
Core 20 min

Saturday, March 12, 2011

The day before my first race

There may have been some poor decisions made regarding tomorrow's race.

Today I got up early and biked for 50 min. Then later ran 5 miles to meet friends for brunch.
In an hour I'm headed to work for the swing shift, which gets off at 2am. And unfortunately tonight is daylight savings, so when I get off it will be 3am.

None of these things would be bad if I didn't have to get up at 7am to be downtown and ready for the St Patrick's day dash by 8am. 4 hours of sleep if I pass out seconds after to leaving work, which is difficult as I still have to drive home.

Erm. Poor planning. Oh well. I can always walk it.

Good:
Biked 50 min
Ran 5 miles
20 min core

I love swimming

I cannot express how cool it is to discover swimming. How it makes me feel in my core, sore, achy and well used. How nice it is when I get dressed, all warm and fuzzy. I'm totally loving it.

I ordered goggles, cap and nose plugs which I'm hoping will make actual swimming easier. Right now I do a lame breath stroke and the back stroke. I know it's great to learn to swim without the nose plug, but that's always been one of the reasons I don't. I get water up my nose, no matter how I blow out. It's ok. Not everyone has to be perfect.

Good:
Weights 30 min
Swim 45 min
Useless the rest of the day.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Get Up!

Trying to get up in the morning. It's not easy. The whole working nights on the weekend make it even harder. Anyways the goal is to get up with the hubby and bike for an hour or so and do core before the kids wake up. Oh and to do the whole away before 10 am thing.

Today I managed to get up by 8:30. It's an improvement and I didn't bike. The kids were up and needed adult company.

Going lower carb again. Apparently when you binge on pizza and eat 2-3000 calories of trail mix a day you gain weight. Who knew? So low carbing (lower), ie no pizza or trail mix, and happily I have kicked it back off.

But it makes for a little lower energy with the run. Ah well.

Good:
Ran 3 miles, walked another 2 miles. 1 hour 15 min total.
Bike 40 min
Core with weights and push ups. Yeah!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Sick day

Baby girl was sick all night long. I got home from practice and took over sick kid duty. Puke as far as the eye could see. So sadly I could not go to the gym today.

But all is not lost. Biked and core. And am thinking about doing some weights.
I'm also toying with the idea of getting up with David in the morning and biking while the kids sleep. It just gives me free time and more workout time.

Good:
Biked 40 min
400 each back/sit ups
10 pushups.... so far.

Practice night!

So no gym on Tuesdays, home with the kids. I tried to bike but only made it 26 minutes. My daughter kept coming in and complaining that I should finish and snuggle with her. What you gonna do?

Had practice last night and it was a total mess, but somedays that happens. We had all new people in new positions, including me, and it got sloppy. I was HR and ended up being too "team roll with it". Live and learn.

Good:
Biked 26 min
400 each sit/back ups
Yeah!

Monday, March 7, 2011

Good Knee

Tried out the knee again. It still feels weird but did just fine running! I'm still avoiding lower leg weights to try and baby them a little.

After weights I burned out in the pool. It wasn't as hard today but man am I wiped out. Yeah swimming!

Oh and in between weight sets I practiced side surfing, just standing still obviously. I think I must have looked a little weird, but who cares.

Good:
Ran 3 miles, 30 min
Weights, mostly upper body except for calves and add/abductors
Swam/water jog 30 min
WILL DO CORE!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Rest day!

I love rest days. No pressure to work out, but I still can if I want!

So today I biked because I was bored, didn't want to clean, didn't want to go back to bed, had an hour to kill before work and can't stand to watch tv without doing something else.

Good:
Biked 40 min

Off to work!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

So Glad!

So glad I took a running break and discovered swimming!
So glad I took a break and knee is much better!
So glad that I'll probably be able to run on Monday!

Injuries are like smacks upside the head, or knee, that tell you to stop being an idiot and take of your body!

Good:
Biked 40 min
Core/stretch 20 min
Sore as hell from swimming!

Friday, March 4, 2011

Swimming is really really hard

I am a coffee addict. Like full on, drink 10-12 cups a day, switch to decaf around 3pm and drink another 10. It could be an issue. I know this has nothing to do with swimming.

But I am sitting here on the couch, so freakin exhausted from swimming that I haven't been able to must the energy to go get a cup of the miracle drink I brewed an hour ago in the kitchen. Sad state of affairs.

Though good to say that even with my knees on the fritz (right knee is better, just a smidge painful in a squat, and the left is not so tight but still screwy) I can still get a really good workout.

Only 45 minutes of alternating kickboard, water running, and lap swim. That was as far as I could go. And now everything hurts. My shoulders, back, hips, legs, butt. Geeze louise.

Good:
45 min swim
20 upper body weights
too sore for anything else. holy smokes.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Stiffy

Of course I wouldn't take the whole day off! I biked until the knee felt weird. It's almost like I need to stretch as the stiffness almost feels like pulling.

But stretching and rolling don't seem to be making any difference. Oh well.

Core and stretch, biking and Scrubs. Not so bad.

Good:
Biked 35 minutes
15 Core
10 stretch and roll.

Hey I'm trying to change up my core routine, as it's boring and too easy. If you have to go to 100 to get a burn it's time to try something new. Any suggestions?

I have a rolly wheel, I've tried using it and am working up to doing more. A foam roller, an exercise ball, and exercise bands.

Moderation

I'm moderating. And I'm not happy about it. My knee is rebelling and it's not quite injured yet, but if I keep pushing it most assuredly will be.

I know I'm going too fast. Trying to add on too much mileage at one time. I need to slow down and run less days each week to give my knees a break and a change to rest. This is really hard.

Since I've become active over the last year I've had a tendency to work out daily and not take rest days. To be super uptight about diet. And push through everything. My biggest fear is to lose my stride and fall back onto the couch and bad eating.

Moderation is a hard line to walk.

So today I may take a day off. I'm a little sore from weights, which is great because I've been getting stronger. I need to spend today stretching, doing some core and eating well.

I'm reworking my schedule for now. Only 3 days a week running. Saturday will be the long run, hoping for 6 miles again! Monday will be a moderate run, 45 min max. And one other run during the week, maybe Thursday for an easy 3 miles. I'll spend the other days lifting weights, biking, doing the elliptical and finally get into the pool!

It'll be ok and it will probably be a lot better. And maybe I'll do a little time on the bike anyways.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Rough going

My knees are rebelling again. Stomach better, but the increased mileage is still not sitting well.
I know I need to slow down a bit and let my body adjust, but it's hard.

So I guess it's time to try some swimming in between runs.

Good:
Ran and walked a pitiful 2.5 miles. At least half was running, but not very fast.
Full body weights. On a positive note, I am getting stronger!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

My stomach is rebelling.

Did my run today, made it through 2 miles and was just fine, knees ok, no wishing it was over, but I still ended up having to walk for half a mile cause I was having stomach cramping. And while we all say "stomach cramps" we all know that's code for "I'm going to lose my shit" literally on the treadmill. Or vomit, or both.

Things settled and I eeked out another mile. It's annoying when my whole body is doing really good, but the GI is causing problems. Lame

Anyways I got through another 30 min on the bike at a pretty low tension. Pushing too hard just really brought on the cramps again. Anyways. I decided against the core work, there was no way that would be a good idea.

Good:
Ran 3 miles, 3.5 miles total
Biked 8.5 miles, 30 min total.