Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Yeah Jam Ref!

So last Thurs was my first night jam reffing since the last bout. So about 6 weeks ago. And it was a train wreck! Heavy weights on Wed and 6 miles on Thurs morning do not make for a good come back!

Tonight however was delightful! I pretty much did nothing physical all weekend so the legs were just dandy. The drinking all day yesterday probably did not help, but it was still ok. A lot of sweat!

Anyways I love jam reffing. I still have a ways to go to be a good jam ref, but currently, I can hold me own.

Oh yeah, did I mention our next bout is on Saturday? Yeah, probably a good idea to get some skating in!

Slow start

Well the weekend was pretty sleepy. I worked both Sat and Sun night. The shifts were fine, but I'm very tired lately.

I didn't get a single workout in over the weekend. And Monday was spent hanging out with friends eating bbq, drinking and watching movies. Generally a very nice way to spend Memorial Day.

Today I had planned for a long run. And once again I'm feeling very tired. I have just a touch of sick lingering, throat, achy, ect. Makes it easy to not workout.

I geared up for a run and the rain, which has been alternating with sunny and warm about ever hour, decided to come down hard for a while.

I tried out the treadmill for half a mile and just wasn't feeling it. I decided on an episode of Glee while biking. It was like the hardest 9 mile trainer ride ever! My legs are like lead and I sweat more than I usually do when running!

The drinking all day yesterday probably is not helping, and I had the once every three months "lady visitor" which really dragged too. Now my legs are soo freakin stiff and I feel like I'm pumped with fluids and turning into a sausage. Yay.

Tomorrow will be a better day.

Good:
Eeeked out 9.58 miles on the trainer.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Keeping on...

Was gonna go light today and seriously considered taking the day off.... but those Gorilla Girls keep me inspired!

Good:
Weights 1hr 20min

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Jam Reffing on trashed legs

Yeah, so yesterday's weights killed. Then today's run re-killed. And tonight's jam reffing was to say the least a bit dicey. Skating on noodles is really not very easy.

Errrph

Ok lots of new sore today! So yesterday was a new day in the world of weight lifting. I'm trying to replace the machines with more full body exercises and I believe it has worked!

I started with this little number:

Burpee-esque move with 15 pound weights.
Start with 15 pound weight in each hand, on the ground in a pushup position. Do a full push up. Bring your feet to your hands in a squat position. Lift the weights to your hips and straighten up. Make sure you are using your butt and legs and not your back. Take one step to the side so that your feet are shoulder width apart and finish with raising the weights to your shoulders then press straight up over your head, kind of like a clean and press type move. Engage your core like mad!
Repeat 20 times. 3 reps. I find I start to die towards the end of these and finish with like 5 instead of 20.

Push up rows plank thing. Get back in the push up position with the 15 pound weights. Engage your core and lift one weight to your chest. Return to the ground and repeat with the other side. When you get fancy you can raise the lifted weight straight up and rotate to your side so you are in a side plank. Or raise the lifted weight out in front of you. This is very hard too!
Repeat 20, 3 reps

Kettlebell swings with no kettlebell. Stand with feet shoulder width apart and swing a 25 pound between your legs and up over your head. If you do it slow if uses different muscles than if you straight up swing.
Repeat 20, 3 reps

Anyways today my upper back and chest are sore as all get out and I can't really sit or squat down. Good sign I think!

Today's run was painful and difficult.

Good:
Ran 6 miles, 2 warm ups, 2 speed sets of .25 @7mph and .75 @ 6mph recovery, and 2 cool down miles. Oh how they were hard and painful!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Crossfit inspirations

I've been reading a bunch of crossfit type blogs. I was first turned on to the Team Gorilla page by Rose @Eat drink and be Meri.

So inspiring seeing these incredibly strong women. And I like that it's heavy weight, low rep oriented. My kind of workout.

Today I skipped almost all the machines and did exercises that worked the same muscles as the machines but included multiple muscle groups. I like the whole "not isolated" workout. Kill 6 or 7 birds with one stone. So to speak.

Wonder what will hurt tomorrow.

Good:
Total body weights 1hr 20min

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Lazy

My foot started hurting halfway into a lazy run. Oh well.

Good:
Ran 5 miles
20 min weights, hoping to up that later!

Monday, May 23, 2011

Weights, weights and more weights

Want to do weights 5 days a week. Started today!

Good:
1hr 25min total body weights

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Longer run

Saturday was a sit and screw with the stupid computer and not get out for a run day. Yeah. So today I did my long run. It was nice.

Good:
Ran 10 miles
9:55 pace

Yeah!!!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Weights, weights and more weights

Friday once again spent at the gym lifting weights. I'm kind of getting into this weights thing. I think I like being sore.

Good:
Full body weights 1hr 25 min

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Holy F

Yes well if you were impressed by yesterday's numbers, so were my muscles. Once again I am so sore that I cannot easily sit down to pee.

So today's tempo run.... well let's just say I was struggling to keep up with a 5mph pace. Yeah 5mph! Do you know how long it takes to run 5 miles when you are going that slow?! Well an hour, not a trick question.

Anyways, my tempo pace was a whopping 5.5 1mile and 5.6 half mile. Oh yeah I'm bad ass like that.

Good-ish
Ran 4.5 miles and walked 1 mile in 63 minutes
Oh and I can sit down even less easily now.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

By the numbers

I want to lay out the old weights routine, so here you go!

Machine weights, 3 reps of 10 each

Butterfly press 100lbs
Reverse butterfly 40lbs
Upright bench press 100lbs
Lat press 100lbs
bicep curl 60lbs
shoulder pull down 80lbs
forearm press down 40lbs
shoulder press (up) 70lbs
back row 110lbs
calf press 70lbs

I take about 30 minutes to do all those guys. I've been reading a lot about body building and those guys say to do the hardest weight you can for the minimal reps. If you can do 15 reps, then you need to up the weights.

Then I go to core land. I can't tell you how incredible my back and core feel from these workouts. I used to do regular sit ups and back ups but i had to do hundreds to get them worked. So now I use weights and do waaaay less.

I get two 10lb dumbbells and one 20 pound dumbbell on a mat.

Weighted sit ups: Laying on my back I hold the 20 lb weight resting on the floor behind my head, knees bent. Then I do 20-30 of lifting the dumbbell up above me and pushing up to the ceiling while raising my torso up into a full sit up. These are hard and I can only do like 30.

Twisty side sit up: 20-30 each: First I do crossover sit ups with a 10lb weight in each hand, reaching for your opposite knee.
Then weighted twists. I do two kinds. The first I hold the 20 pound weight and move it from side to side while doing a sit up. So like three movements from side to side to make a full sit up.
Then a full twist, where I sit up with knees bent and touch the 20 pound weight to the ground on either side.

Lower ab weighted: 10 sec or more each. these are hard. Lay down with a ten pound weight in between your feet and the 20 lb on the ground above your head. Hold onto the 20 with your hands and lift the 10lb weight with your feet and count to 10 or longer. I do one set, then shift up the weight to my shins, then knees, then thighs. Totally hard to hold the weight and lift your legs.

Roll over! 30 sec at least! Do the same thing but on your stomach. Hold the 10lb weight between your feet and lift as high as you can while holding the other 10lb in your hands off the ground. You want as much of your body off the ground as possible and hold for 30 or so sec. I alternate this with no weight on my feet, feet spread wide and lifted up, holding the 20 pound weight on my shoulders off the ground. This really uses your hips. Hold for 30 or more. Repeat as many as I can!

Weighted knee dips and lunges. 10 reps, 2-3 sets. Holding the 10 lb in each hand at your sides do 10 lunges forward using the rear leg as the majority of the power as you lower curl the weights and engage your core. both sides. Knee dips: These are really useful in derby, when you start to fall being able to touch your knee and step right back up really helps. Hold the weights at your sides and dip down on one leg. You other leg should only be touching for balance and using the forward leg for all the power, curl the weights as you lower. I have to take breaks in between each set, these are hard.

Weighted squats: Feet wide and toes and knees in alignment, squat down with 10 lb weights in each hand. Hold for 30 or more sec. I do burn outs on these, starting with a 1-2 minute hold, then going for as long as I can until I collapse!

Finally I end the shebang with burn out crunches. With all the weighted stuff I do I don't even bother counting crunches. I just do continuous crunches for 5 minutes or 2 full songs on the ipod. I can barely even feel them!

Good:
1hr 20 min weights
20 minute walk on noodle legs.

I hate diets

Yes it's true. Generally when i'm trying to lose I do it hard and fast and painfully. But it's quick.

Well my first of two roller derby trips for the summer are coming up and I plan on spending ever minute of it not in stripes, in a bathing suit. Which means it's time to lose the gut.

So no more ice cream, pizza, cookies, and junk food in general. I may be crabby and you may want to avoid me for the next 22 days.

Today is day 1, I have until June 9th. I least I can still have coffee.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Plan deviation

Well I wasn't really on a plan. I just happened to read a plan and loosely based my running life on it. The whole run 3 times a week, tempo, speed or hills and then a long run.

I didn't actually follow the plan beyond that. But I'm not really racing. So here's my new plan.

Today and the past few weeks, I've been faster. And I like that. I would like to stay faster. So instead of running a long distance and hoping to get faster on it, I will be staying on the faster speed and slowing increasing the miles.

Yes this may seem like the same thing, but it's not.

I have been following the increase your distance and the speed will follow plan. I think. But I like how fast I felt today. So I'll add a little onto that and see where I'm at in 5 weeks.

Yeah 5 weeks til the Rock and Roll half.

Totally not worried at all.

Yeah again!

Today was a long run day, but I really haven't felt the urge to push the distances much. I've been kind of just enjoying improving in the semi longish runs. I think I just may do more runs with slowly adding distance.

But regardless of distance today rocked! On my last few runs I have really felt the urge to push my pace and have been surprised by the results. Each time I get about halfway in I feel like I could have run much faster the whole time, instead of holding back to make sure I get in mileage.

So from the beginning I decided I would push. Not terribly hard, but go a faster comfortable speed. I did it the whole way. It felt freakin awesome!

I did a loop that is mostly uphill the first half and on one stretch of downhill I was sprinting (for me) and it felt so good. I never got tired, I felt like I could go forever. I was nearly laughing it felt so good. The winding was blowing at me, it was raining, but still warm. I almost put my arms out beside me to catch some air.

Anyways back to reality. Today rocked.

Good:
Ran 8.5 miles
9.16 min mile average pace. Yeah!!!!!
oh yeah, that's better than a 10 min pace!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Yeah!

Today was speedwork day. And I'm pretty low expectations with all things running so that included the speed stuff too.

.25 mile at 7 mph recovery at 6mph for .75
3 repeats
warm up at 5.8 1 mile, 6.0 1 mile
cool down at 6.0 1 miles and 5.0 1 mile

I usually walk the last mile but I thought I'd try just a slow jog. It was great! I could run at 5 mph for ages! I'd like to up it 5.8 or 6.0 and I think that'll happen soon.

Big goal for my up coming half marathon is to get sub 10min/mile. Anything sub 10, like 9.59 would be just great! Just single digits!

And I'm starting to think I may just get it!

Good:
Ran 7 miles
1hr 11 min

Friday, May 13, 2011

Tempo noodles

Combo post with blogger being down.

Ran a tempo run, which again is slow in the grand scheme of things, but was great for me!
Warm up at 5.8 for mile, then 6.0 for a mile, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, recovery at 6.0, walk for 1 mile.

Weights again today and I am the noodle!

Good:
Ran 6 miles
walked 1 mile
1.20 min full body weights.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Noodles

I am made of noodles. Today the weights were long and heavy. Today I am a noodle. I think tomorrow I may be sore.

Good:
Total body weights 1 hour and 20 minutes

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Another beautiful day

Burke Gilman! Great to run on. Beautiful scenery. Shaded. Flat as all get out.

I'm noticing that flat is not always that much easier. You know the whole up hill part, well it's usually accompanied with a downhill. Which is really easy!

Anyways, it was a really nice run.

Good:
10.6 miles
1 hour 50 min

Monday, May 9, 2011

hrrm hemmm

Family in town has made for a not regular exercise program.....

But I've been thinking about a few things.

I'm not really into the longer runs. Or at least, the 'I have to do a long run' runs. I don't mind doing them if I'm just out for a run and I do an extra lap.

Also I'd like to run more often. The 3 times a week thing has been nice for getting the old legs in fighting form, but I'm ready to add some more on.

Maybe if I do a longer run of 8-10 miles once a week I might do 3 or 4 runs of 6ish miles.
I like the shorter 6 mile runs and I just want to do more of them.

All right?

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Beautiful day!

After working a night shift I managed to sleep into 12 noon. Yeah that was good! No kids, no husband. Just me and a silent house.

I had 3.5 hours before I had to leave for work and really didn't want to sit around reading the computer. So out for a run!

The weather was great!

Good:
Ran 6.8 miles

Thursday, May 5, 2011

It's working

My quads to hell, that is!

Yeah so good weights yesterday, makes for some sore today. Which makes for a slow and short run. Technically today was a speed workout and it was just a run instead. 5.5 miles of actual running and a mile and a bit of walking.

Good:
Ran 6.3 miles 1.13 hr

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Quads!

Today was a wonderful day of weights! I upped a few upper body weights on the machines. And did a better routine with weighted core stuff and squats and lunges.

Let's just say by the end I had to sit for 5 minutes to recover and catch my breath!

Good:
Weighs and core 1 hour 15 min
hoping to be very sore tomorrow!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The sloth!

Do you ever panic when you unexpectedly take a day off? My mum came up for lunch which totally threw off my schedule. How lame is it that I would have rather worked out than gone for lunch?!

So now is the only time I could work out, but I have to leave for practice soon. I used to panic at the thought of missing a day. Like it would keep happening. I think I'm past that stage now, but I still don't like it.

Tomorrow will be a nice killer day. I can feel the sore muscles already.

Good:
Watched Harry Potter Deathly hallows 2 times
Ate at Blue C Sushi
Ate my kids toffee candy

Monday, May 2, 2011

Trashed

Well my legs are pretty trashed. The new weights routine and the 5k have killed the old quads.

Today was a long run day, which I almost skipped entirely, but I wanted to get out and get some miles in. I figured I'd decide along the way.

It was difficult in terms of just having very fatigued muscles, but not much of a challenge cardiovascularly. Now my legs are even worse!

But I'm feeling like I'd like to add another run to my week and do 4 times instead of 3. And maybe some super shorties on the other days as well. It feels nice to have legs that are cooperating!

Good:
Ran 6.5 miles
1:10

Sunday, May 1, 2011

5k Results!

What a weekend! Work Friday and Saturday night until 2am!

I got home this morning at 2:30 am, crashed, got up at 7am. Headed for the 5k. Ran! Ran well!
Came home (man those 5ks are short!).

Recrashed. Got up and cleaned a bit, went to the gym. Killed the remaining muscles. Came back home to clean some more and now I'm ready for a shower and a drink!

Good
Ran 5k 29:42 minutes!
Weights 1hour 1o minutes.
Tomorrows long run may be a little dicey!