3rd Bout!

We had our 3rd bout last night! Yeah! Everything went really well. We had a ton of really crazy scenarios that tried to throw us for a loop but everyone reacted and took care of business in a surprisingly well thought out manner.

One of the deals with reffing is that most of the time the skaters and fans have no idea what we are doing. This makes it easy for them to doubt our skill level. Which is kind of a whatever. If you haven't reffed you really can't criticized it. It's some crazy shit!

Anyways the refs really rolled with it, we worked everything out and ran a great bout.
Next bout I'm hoping to do some different positions. We shall see about how training goes and how well my skating is! Stay tuned!

Running was great again today. I've managed to fairly well kill the 3 mile hump. Now it's no biggie and I'm always hoping that there are free treadmills so I don't have to get off at 30 minutes!

Good:
Ran 3.25 miles
Full body weights
Still slacking on the core, hoping to get back on track by tomorrow.

Long run

So I'm reading one of the running books on how to get moving in the running world, ie increase miles, stamina, ect...

Anyways my schedule is Saturday is my long run. Easy pace, aim for an hour. Build up to it. Sunday will be the rest day, Monday longish easy run like 45 min, Tues through Fri are the speed and hills days.

Today I went in thinking I would probably be able to handle 4 miles. I hadn't done it yet, but with yesterday being so awesome I've been feeling good! I was actually really excited last night to see how far I could go.

So I hit the gym, and do the first 30 minutes at a 6 mph. Easy, but not the super easy. I didn't hit the wall at all. I never really even thought about when I could stop. It helps to be looking farther ahead instead of counting down the minutes.

When I hit 30 I walked for a minute and reset the machine at 5.5. That's a really easy pace for me. I wanted to just see how far I could go on it. And..... I went another 3 miles! Yeah! Total of 64 minutes. I never hit a wall. Never felt awful. If it wasn't for my left knee getting sore I could have gone for way longer! Woo hoo!

So now I am icing my knees. And hoping that this really is the beginning of some real running. What an awesome day.

Good:
Ran 6 miles 64 minutes

Awesome day!

My knees have been a little on the skeptical side of this whole 3 mile thing. They felt weird, a little bursa swelling, a little tightness. Today I was actually thinking I might want to skip running.

But I started to feel ready around noon and headed to the gym. I decided to do sprints, 30 sec sprint with 3 minute recovery. Super easy and distracting.

So I hopped on the mill and got going. It went great! I never really got to the point where I was pushing to keep going. I was faster, 29min 30 to get to 3 miles instead of 30 min. Yes I know it's not much, but it's huge for me!

It was so easy that I'm feeling like 4 miles is going to be a pretty easy transition! Will I try it tomorrow? Or wait until post rest day? Hmm. I'm feeling super stoked at how much easier today was in compared to Wed and Thurs.

Anyways!

Good:
Ran 3 miles
Total body weights
Been a slacker on the core... I'll get back on the bandwagon soon... I always do!

Tough!

So today's run was harder than yesterday. I'm assuming it's cause as the week progresses I get a little more tired. But whatever. I walked for .1 of a mile so I had to make up for it at the end by sprinting an extra .1 of a mile.

This is totally fine, just need to do it! Tomorrow I expect to be even harder, and then Saturday. But that's a big part of the challenge.

Good:
Ran 3 miles
Biked 8.5 miles 30 min
Elliptical 10 min, totally petered out!

3 miles of accomplishment!

So this whole 3 mile thing is a major accomplishment for me. I started some 8 weeks ago and here I am, running 3 miles 6 days a week.

I ran again today and while physically it was a challenge it wasn't hard. Mentally it was a challenge, but it wasn't hard. I've stopped having the "when can I stop" conversation. Just keep ticking down the minutes. And when I'm finished I feel such a sense of accomplishment. It's really cool.

So my big goals that I want to accomplish this year:

Run at least 3-5 miles 6 days a week.
Run 5-10 miles 1-3 days a week.
That's it. Next year I'll look at doing more, faster, racing, whatever.
But for this year, that's pretty darn good.

Good:
Ran 3 miles, 30 minutes
Total body weights

Cardio!

Another great day! 3 miles was harder today. I know that it's not a long run for most people, but it's all new to me. I felt nauseated near the end.

I had to work to keep going and kept saying to myself "just another 7 min, just another 6 min". When I break it down to just a few more minutes, it's much easier do.

Good:
3 miles
30 minutes bike
30 minutes elliptical
400 each back/sit ups
didn't get the push ups in today. oh well.

3 miles again

Doing good on the new base miles. 3 miles went just fine today. Yeah!
Also I finally got the bike trainer and bike up and rolling. Freakin awesome!

Good:
Ran 3 miles
Bike 30 min
Total body weights
400 each back/sit ups
100 push ups
Still hoping for planks and monsters. They seem to be the hard part of the day! I'd rather bike another 30 minutes than do them!

Rest day

Rest day! Yeah!
Tried to go for a ride outside, but it was waaay tooo cold!!

Good:
Indoor trainer bike ride, 60 minutes

3 miles

My new base goal for daily running. Did it just fine today!

Good:
Ran 3 miles 30 minutes
400 each sit/back ups
100 push ups
don't think I'll make it to the planks and monster walks today cause I'm feeling lazy. But whatever! Tomorrow is my rest day, normally I would run a mile, but I'm thinking I may start taking the entire day off on Sundays just so I don't burn out.

Yeah for rest!

Time to move on

Yeah so you know how to tell when you need to pick up the speed on the treadmill? When you keep hitting into it because you are running too fast. Well that's where I'm at, I'm picking up some speed. But what that means is I'm getting to 2 miles faster and spending less minutes overall running.

Time to stop agonizing over the 2 mile mark. Funny how I really have a hard time with the last half mile. I start thinking about stopping, about how hard it is, la la la. The reality is I need to stop the conversation and start adding minutes, and by default the miles.

I've done 2 miles for 6 weeks. I can do 2.25 now. So I did and it was fine. I still do longer runs, but my base run needs to up it a bit. I'd like to get up to 3 miles by the end of February. This is very doable and not going to hurt. I just need to buck up a bit.

Anyways lazy day.

Good:
2.3 miles run, 3 miles total
full body weights, a little light today
400 each back/sit ups
no push ups or monster walks or planks yet. Still working up to those tonight.
100 push ups, now to just do the last bits!

Cross training!

With the whole running thing I've been taking it a little easier on the other cross training stuff just cause I've been so tired!

Anyways got a good one in today.

Good:
Ran 2.5 miles, 3 total
Biked 12 miles
Stairclimber 10 minutes
400 each sit/back ups
100 push ups/monster walks
10 minutes of planks.

tread lightly

One of the best crossovers from skating to running and back is the light stepping. In skating you want to take lots of quick steps, moving from one foot to the other to keep you more stable and able to take a hit or stumble.

The same seems to be fairly true for running. The whole 180 steps per minute thing seems to keep you lighter on your feet and stops you from over striding. But it also keeps you more stable on your feet and prepared to deal with whatever the road throws. Both activities seem to cross train each well.

Anyways. Good day.

Good:
Ran 2 miles at 6 mph. 2.5 total
full body weights
400 each back/sit ups
100 push ups/monster walks
10 minutes planks

Registered!

Couple of things today! I officially registered for my first race! It's a fun run thingy called the St Patrick's Day Dash. It's about 4 miles, which is technically farther than I've ever run in one go, half uphill and half downhill. Err. I'm in the slow group, joggers and walkers.

Oh and I'll be running it at 8:50am after working until 2am the night before. Yeah it should be slightly sucky, but exciting right?

Tonight we're having a ref potluck dinner at my house. And of course today is the day my daughter decided to put toilet paper down the sink in the only bathroom and plugging it up. Yeah.

Tried hills again today. Well... made it through 2 hills. Oh well.

Good:
Ran 2 miles, 2.5 total
400 each back/sit ups
100 push ups
100 monster walks
10 min planks

By the way I've been running daily for 6 weeks now. I sometimes go as far as 3 miles. I always do at least 2 miles. They've gotten easier, but it's still tough. My knees, ankles, legs in general no longer have random or concerning pains. But it's still hard. I still want to stop when I get to 2 miles. Except for the random days when I go 3 and it feels great. It get's easier right?

Trip up

So yesterday I was recuperating from the stomach flu. I ran great on Saturday, went to work and about 8 hours into my shift starting feeling sick, like puke sick.

I came home a little before midnight and spent the next 8 hours in terrible pain from cramping stomach to horrible body aches. I sweated the bed soaking wet and finally feel asleep after calling in to work.

The next 24 hours I spent sleeping, feeling nauseated and exhausted. By midnight Sunday I was back to normal though still tired. Obviously I didn't run and it was hard. I wanted to. I kept thinking maybe I felt well enough to run and though go to work a little late. But it never happened.

I think one of the reasons I like streak running is that if I do it every day I don't have to worry about "falling off the wagon". I get really freaked out about losing momentum, not exercising and gaining weight again. It's hard to have faith that I'll get up the next day and go to the gym, like any other day and probably even feel better about it.

So today, fully recovered, I went to the gym, had a great workout and went on with life.

Good:
ran 2 miles in 21 minutes, 2.5 total. So I ran a good portion of it at 6.5 which is a new level for me!
Weights
400 back/sit ups
100 push ups, monster walks
10 minutes planks

Funk and bitches

So I've been in a little bit of a funk the past week or so. No gym last week and that was ok. And this week I slacked on the non-running stuff like core and push ups and monsters. Which of course is fine. But I want to get back to the beginning of the cycle again. Where you want to work out all the time and consider 2am sessions cause you're soo excited!

Well I've been having some annoying feedback from friends of late. At first it was cute and flattering. You're too skinny! You're loosing too much weigh... lalala. Well at first you don't take it seriously, just a cutesy jab at your new found body shape. But then it gets less cute, less flattering, and less kidding. Then it becomes jabs at your new body.

Some people mean well. Some don't realize it gets frustrating. and then some people say it because they are more comfortable when you are fat and not a contender. The joke is I'm not contending for anything. But if you've ever worked with a large amount of women, there are those that are threatened by women who move up the classic female valuation scale. If you are attractive you take a step up, smart a step up, popular several steps up, trim even more steps up.

I work with competitive women, it's a competitive sport. And I accidentally stepped up. The reality is I could care less about moving up, I'd like to just move away please. I'm married with kids, I'm not interested in negotiating the social playground that called derby.

Anyways fuck them. And if I hear another person say "you're too skinny" I'll tell them they are too fat and see how they like it.

So it spurred my motivation to get back on track.

Good:
Ran 3 miles outside
400 each back/sit ups
100 push ups, monster walks
10 minutes planks
Suck it bitches.

Core?

So my usual pattern of good eating and exercising is about 3 months long. I'm way over due for a lazy relapse so I'm trying to work around it.

I'm still doing my usual, but if I have a day where I'm not feeling it, it's ok if I don't get around to the whole workout. My goal is to always do a minimum on 1 mile running. That's it. If I get awful lazy I can eek out the minimum for months and still be ok.

I'm not feeling that un-enamored yet, but I don't want to burn out. So today i haven't done any core work, push ups or monsters. I may still do them. But I'm not worried about it.

Good:
Ran 2 miles, 2.5 total
weights
Yeah added 8 minutes of planks. maybe more before bed!

Oh I'm stopping following a lot of the food pages I was following. I can't stay on a diet and read about food all day! Sorry guys, I love your posts, but they are hell on my appetite!

Wallace and Gromit and intervals

I tried intervals today. Basically 2 minutes of an easy pace and 30 second sprints. I did it easier than I should have. Ran the 2 minutes at 5.5 instead of 6, but it was my first time!

They are great! Easy to get through cause the sprint is so short. I went farther than I usually do 2.6 total and ran 28 minutes instead of stopping right after 2 miles. Yeah!

Oh and I put a mirror up on the wall, took like 30 minutes of f-ing around, so I could watch the tv while I ran. Wallace and Gromit are always a good choice!

Good:
Ran 2.5 miles, 2.6 total
250 sit/back ups
still waiting on another 40 pushups, planks and monster walks. Thinking about adding some squats and lunges in.
Did the rest of the push ups, so 100 total
10 minutes of planks
100 monster walks, I'm growing to loathe them!
Did some squats and lunges with weights to pass the time and keep warm!

Month get it together!

Man I am having the super slacker week! Last week there were no weights with the kids sick so it was only running and floor work. This week I finally made it to the gym, but I still haven't done any floor work!

Some weeks are like that. It's ok.

Good:
Ran 2 miles, total 2.5
Weights.
That's it! Yeah I'm a slacker.

Month 2 better hills

I decided to do hills again today. I figure if I'm stronger on fake hills, I'll run longer on real hills!

But they are kind of hard, and make me want to stop sooner. So I only got through 2.5 of the 4 X.25 miles. Oh well, it's an improvement.

Good:
Ran 2 miles, total 2.5
250 each sit/back up
10 minutes planks
no pushups or monster walks yet. Hopefully!

Month 2 great run!

Today did not go according to plan, or the plans were enough that I couldn't do my normal Monday thing.

Lunch with my mom and aunt. Then a meeting at work...... So no gym. It's ok though. I saw an old friend and we got on the topic of running. She said she had been at 3 miles for a couple of years, which would be just fine for me! Anyways, she said to take a break every few days and it'll help increase your miles.

So yesterday was a quick and easy 1 miler and then I walked another mile. Today in between lunch and the meeting I went out for a run and went much farther and easier than I thought. When I got back and mapped it, I had run a whole 3 miles! Yeah!

No core work today. Apparently my schedule is calling for other breaks as well.

Good:
Ran 3 miles!
That's it.

Month 2 easy sunday

Ran a mile, walked a mile. Did the usuals and had some pancakes.

It's Sunday.

Good:
Ran 1 mile, 2 miles total
100 push ups all in a row!
250 back/sit ups
11 minutes of planks
no monster walks yet, too tired. But we'll see if I sneak them in before work.

Month 2 awesome knees!

Knees were perfect! No warm up pains. Twice there was a 15 second ache and that's it! I'm working on some conscious form exercises. This helps me to focus on using muscles that improve my form. And it seems to work great!

Tired though, and not much energy. Alas skipping the 3 bowls of cereal before running do tend to slow me down.

Good:
Ran 2 miles, 2.5 total
200 each back up/sit ups
10 minutes of planks
100 pushups
100 monster walks

Month 2 sucky

Today was a just barely day. I haven't been to the gym all week as the kids have been sick and I'm pretty sure they would not be cool with that at the Y.

I'm trying to figure out the food thing. I hate dieting as it knocks me out of my groove and makes me obsess about food. So I'm a little tired. And for whatever reason I just did not want to run 2 miles today.

Everyday around noon I start to get the itch to run, so I head to the treadmill or wherever I'm running that day. Today was another hill day. I started out good, made it 2 minor incline .25 mile sections and totally pooped out. I ran at a 6mph, which is great, but couldn't convince myself to do another hill. And I had to use all my will power to keep going to 2 miles.

Lame. I actually walked a tenth of a mile, but then added it back on running again. I hate running short, especially when it's such a short distance. I want to own the 2 miles and I'm not there yet. Oh well.

Good:
ran 2 miles 2.5 total.
200 each back/sit ups
8 minutes of planks
100 push ups
100 monster walks

I like to do it backwards

Backwards skating. It will be mine.

Today's skate practice was very nice! We have a skate trainer who is an amazing skater, very good at verbalizing, a good listener and extremely good at giving feedback and positive support. This makes a world of difference for someone like me. Ie someone still learning.

My big focus right now is skating backwards and right sided transitions. For whatever reason I'm ok with transitions to the left, but hanging a righty doesn't seem to work so well.

I also did some side surfing. Not well, but better than the last time I tried. I'm really liking skating backwards. Oh yes, it will be mine.

Month 2 no braces

So the knees are getting better daily. I'm really focusing on my stride to step and push correctly. I haven't needed any nsaids the past two days, which is great! And today I forgot to put on my knee braces and did ok. While I'll probably continue to use them, especially for longer runs, it's to know I don't need them.

Today I did hill work. Well sort of. The plan was hill work. I did 2 of the 4 hills. I've been reading a lot of running blogs that talk about training. I'm not working towards a marathon or competition, but it's always good to get stronger. So .5 miles at a 4 and 5 incline was fine. Next time I'll do 3 of them, maybe all 4.

Good:
ran 2 miles 2.5 total
200 sit ups/back ups
8 minutes of planks. I'm switching up the core stuff to try new things
100 monster walks with the exercise band wrapped twice instead on once.
100 push ups

month 2

Another day.

Good:
Ran 2 miles, 2.5 total
400 each back/sit ups
100 push ups, monster walks.

Month 2 kicking the IT bands

Ran outside today with the jogging stroller and only one kid in it. It is beautiful and sunny, though cold, and absolutely perfect! I'd never run with the stroller and it wasn't too bad after getting used to it. Definitely need to get a leash for it.

I ran half of a 6 mile loop. Most of it was downhill so it was really easy. I ran 2.8 miles of it with no knee problems at all. I got to the loop around part and started to feel fatigued. Real fatigue and not dying lungs, aching knees or other "I'm out of shape" ills. Well the fact that 2.8 miles mostly downhill fatigues me is still an indication that I'm "working on it". But whatever.

Anyways, super happy with today. Smiled the whole way and walked the way back, uphill. I like having set routes that I can work on. Little bit longer next time. Go to the next block, next driveway, ect.

Good:
Ran 2.8 miles, walked another 3.2
400 back/sit ups
100 push ups- starting to look slightly more like the real deal!
100 monster walk/exercise band knee/hip things.