New training plan

Well the derby season is coming to a close.

We have a bout next weekend, then a final championships August 20th. After the bout will likely be a hiatus for the rest of August and a bit of September. Our next season won't start again until January, so I'll be able to focus on more training!

My plan will be as follows:

Mon: weights, 1 hour bike
Tues: 1 hour run, 1-2 hour skate
Wed: weights, 1 hour bike, 1-2 hour skate
Thurs: 1 hour run, 1-2 hour skate
Fri: weights, 1 hour bike
Sat: 2 hour easy run
Sun: Sleep!

Breakfast; coffee, carbs and some protein
Lunch: protein and veg
Dinner: protein and veg, and optional low carb drinks!
Snacks: more coffee

Legs legs legs!

Skated last night, ran speed stuff today, more skating tonight!

Good:
Ran 5.8 miles 8.48 pace, (average)
walked another 1.8

Pull ups! Sort of..

Finally did pull ups. Not dead hangs of course. That would be remarkable. But if I jump up and don't fully extend my arms I can do about 10.

But now I have a goal. Oh yes, they will be mine.

Good:
total body weights 1hr 15 min

Happy sore..

Yeah! My butt is sore! And a lot of other body parts. Anyways, still have a bit of the chest cold, which made today's run really really hard. But I plugged away and still made ok time.

Yesterday's weight were highly effective and my back is tired today. Very nice to see all the work is paying off!

Good:
Ran 5 miles, 10:20 pace.

Monday's are great!

I love starting the week with a good weight workout!

I didn't get sore much last week, so either I'm in good enough shape that my body is handling the workouts, or I'm not pushing enough. Kind of feeling like the latter.

Today's I spent a lot of time trying to make my body feel like a noodle, and I think I did a good job. My shoulders were aching pretty much the whole time.

Good:
Total body weights 70 minutes.
Tomorrow run!

Short and shorter

Nice short run, even shorter weights. Now for work!

Good:
3.7 miles 10:30pace
30 min total body weights

The gym was closed!

Lame! Whatever, we headed home for the old studio workout. I actually did some new exercises that really hurt and fairly well killed the legs. Practice tonight should be challenging.

And of course cause I'm at home, well, the workout was a little shorter than usual.

Good:
1 hour weights.

The trashed legs live!

Yeah yeah yeah!!! Killed the hills run today! Maybe I just needed to go run outside and not on the treadmill.

Anyways.. Did a hill workout. Ran a mile there, did 1 mile hill loops times 3. Walked most of the way back. Total 6..8 miles! Yeah!

Good:
Ran 6.38
kind a slow, but who cares!

Kinda glad...

I'm kinda glad now that I've finally made the decision. Not to run the half, that is. I was going to have to cut back on weight training so my legs would be fresh on Saturday. But now I can wreck em as hard as I want.

Today was successful. I actually feel like I didn't work my legs hard enough. But I can always make up for it tomorrow.

My arms, on the other hand. Fairly well noodled.

So I have a milestone. A proverbial mountain to climb. The pull up bars at the gym. I don't think I can actually do a pull up without assistance. And even if I could it'd only be 1 or 2 pull ups. But I want to start doing those, and knee pull ups.

The hitch being, I hate to try something at the gym that is totally beyond my skill level. Even though I know no one is paying attention.

I almost did it today. But there were people using that area when I was ready. Maybe tomorrow.

Good:
70 minutes total body

Facing the facts

When I signed up for the half marathon it was over 3 months prior. So I really can't complain. In the future I really need to sign up for smaller events that are still open closer to the date. But whatever.

Things that are thwarting me:

-Past 5 weeks have not cooperated with my running plan. Which really is ok.
-Back injury 3 weeks ago. Feels much better now.
-Head and chest cold this weekend. Almost gone.
-Pickup for packets is the industrial district and I have at least 2 small children and up to 5 kids with me at all times.
-Working til 2:30am the night before the half marathon.
-Working at 4pm til 2:30am the day of the half marathon.
-Need to watch the kids so husband can demo concrete and lay new concrete under the kids room the day of the marathon.

I think there is a point where you need to just let go of doing a race. Sadly I already paid for it. This is a lesson learned when it comes to planning a big race. My life right now does not work with big races. And really, the smaller races are more fun anyways.

"B" Fit

So I follow this blog http://bonitafit.blogspot.com/ about this awesome lady who does all sorts of fitness and crossfit stuff. Anyways she is great and looked like a good resource to ask questions about my own training.

I'm super duper getting into the weight lifting and specifically the crossfit style of lift that incorporates a series of moves in an exercise that hits lots of muscles instead of the super specific weight machines. It's rocking my world and kicking my ass.

Anyways my legs are pretty much constantly trashed and it's hard to run on super sore legs. I inquired to the B fit superhero what she thought about it and I'm glad I did. Her suggestion was to back off the running for a month and get my body stronger. Specifically doing hip flexor leg exercises. Then reintroduce to running.

With stronger legs my running should see some significant improvement. On the few weeks where I haven't lifted as much I've noticed how much faster I am when I run, so I'm hoping to really see improvement in the next month or so.

It's amazing that running and swimming are such great exercise but still don't do squat when it comes to lifting weights.

Yeah for crossfit and lifting weights! And stronger running!

Oh why couldn't the rock and roll be at the end of July or August so I could rock it properly! oh well.

Further derailement

Apparently I will be lowering my expectations for next weekends half marathon. Today is my rest day... Yeah. Oh and I'm sick.

Moderate head cold. That's fine. It's the lungs that are not ok. When I cough I feel like they will bleed. Awful!!!

I'll probably be fine by Saturday, except that I will likely not be doing a long run tomorrow like I planned. This whole month is seriously cutting into my running and it's bull.

Whatever. I can walk it with a cold. And I'll still get the shirt. That's the whole reason we sign up for them right?

And..... sick

Yep. He did me in. Lame.
Got the sick.

Oh and it's the totally stupid kind. Sore throat, cheesy cough, headache, sleepy, foggy. Bad enough to make you miserable but not bad enough to call in sick when you only work part time and just came back from vacation....

One more night shift though! Part time really is the best schedule ever.

Good:
Rest day, thought about cleaning. Read a bunch of weight training blogs.

Just as hard as I remembered...

OMG running after weights is still just as hard. Eeked through a little over 5 miles.... And I'm a little worried about a head cold. David is sick and may have shared the wealth!

Good:
sort of ran 5.2 miles

Back in the swing

So nice to back to normalcy! Went to the gym to torture my arms and shoulders with weights!
Did a great routine, burnt out quickly and lifted heavier! Yeah!!!

Good:
Weights 1hr 10 min

I'm back!!!

Yeah! Back home!

Went to a banked track derby tournament in Phoenix and had 4 days of great derby with a lot work and even more great people.

Sadly I did not get a lot of exercise in. Last weekend I hurt my back moving track pieces. And the 2 weeks before that were so heavy on the weight lifting that my running really suffered.

Yeah this is not a huge deal, except.... that I have the Rock n' Roll half marathon in two weeks!
Arrrggghh!!

But I have a plan. Today I ran a really slow, like 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, 5.5, 4 miles on the treadmill and walked another 1.75 miles.

Friday I'll aim for 6 to 7 miles. Maybe a little faster. Then Sunday or Monday do 9-10 easy miles. I'll fit one more 6-7 mile run before the race and should do fine. It won't be fast and I won't be making the time goal I originally had.... But who cares? If I run the whole thing I'll be happy!

Better back..

Well the past couple of days spent resting were annoying and enjoyable at the same time. It really is nice to lay around do nothing. I remember when I used to do that every day!

Anyways my back was feeling a little better this morning and I needed to get some exercise in before tomorrow's trip!

I did a little walking on the treadmill, then some weights, and then a 30 min run. Felt good.

I'm not bringing my skates to Arizona. I think the potential to screw my back worse on skates is pretty significant. And really there won't be that many opportunities anyways. So I'll do some running and see what kind of equipment they have in the hotel gym.

Hmmm. Maybe I'll bring my lap suit and do some water workouts.

Tomorrow I leave very early for the airport and off to Arizona! Banked track roller derby tournament!

Good:
45 min treadmill
45 weights

still out of commission

Lame back. Guess it's all arms for me today!

Oops rest day

Yeah so no big surprise after lifting some 30 pieces of track yesterday, I've strained my back. Guess today will be a rest day!

Post bout

I woke up at 1:30pm. That's like 10 hours of sleep!
Ran super short couple of miles, hoping to do more tomorrow.
Headed to the warehouse to unload the track. Holy shit that stuff is heavy!
Got a really good workout lifting!

Good:
Ran 2.5 miles 9:11 pace
Lifted about 35 several hundred pound pieces of track for 1 hour. Yeah, probably will be sore tomorrow!

God damn!

So bout day! Today's bout was brought to you by rough and crazy!

First half of 4 halves. I know that sounds weird but that how it ran. 2 games staggered.

So first half I was head ref. Each bout I ref has been a sharp learning curve. Since the track was finished we have had 4 bouts, 2 of which (including tonight) that I have head reffed. Needless to say I am lacking in experience. And weird shit happens. Sometimes I am quick thinking and handle things. Other times not so quick. It's part of learning and I'll get better. But at this point, well most everything is new territory.

Anyways I learned a lot tonight. I made some good decisions and there we somethings that I would do differently next time. All in all, it went well.

But oh yeah there was the crazy shit!

So sometime during the second half of the 4 halves one of our refs broke her leg. Yeah in case there was any question, roller derby is a tough sport. Shit happens and people get hurt. So they wheeled her off with a leg that had two breaks and a dislocated ankle. So now we do not have enough refs. We dropped the head ref position and between myself, Able C-Man and the infield team we work it out.

Things start getting confusing. The head ref deals with any weirdness. There is a lot of weirdness in derby. Making sure everything gets done and on time. We handled it. But boy did it make the game harder. So I jam reffed the next three halves. With no head ref, me sort of doing it, Able sort of doing it. And the girls were crazy.

There were flying skaters left and right. They barely seemed to be able to stay on the track! The hits were hard and ruthless and we had to dodge the casualties. I normally "go down" like 3-4 times in a game. And by go down I mean go down on one knee to avoid collision. Tonight's game I went down over 30 times. And the lead changes were freakin constant.

What I'm getting at is that it was a crazy, confusing and often hairball game. But on the bright side all my strength training has been paying off. I skated like I have never skated before.

Day 1

The next 48 hours goes like so...

Get up and out with two children, one infant to school by 9am.
Go to the gym with one child, one infant by 9:30
Get home and take shower by 11:20
Go back to get first child from school. 12:30
Get home, feed all three children, clean house, make food for tonight.
Leave to pick up teenager at 3:20
Drop off teenager, children and infant at house by 3:40
Get to work by 4:00
Work until 2am
Get up late! Thankfully the husband is not working today, so I can sleep in!
Get ready for Sat nights game and be at Everett by 3pm
Head ref the first bout, Jam ref the second! (For those who are non-derby, jam reffing is skate really really fast!)
Finish the bout hopefully before 10pm
Go home and super fast change into work clothes.
Get to work as close to 10pm as possible!
Work until 2am.
Go home, pass out and pretend it was all a dream.
Geez freakin Louise.


Good:
Super light workout today, a little weights a little walking and super little running. Need the legs to work for tomorrows bout. Still currently walking like I'm riding a barrel. Those sumo squats killed!!!

Damn!

Man these weights sessions are kicking my ass! Or more to the point, my legs! Running the day after weights is soooo freakin hard!

Barely made it through this one.

Good:
1hr 10 min running 5.8 miles yeah, slow!
finished off the legs with 6 miles of the super painful biking!

I can no longer sit down or touch my toes. Yeah legs!
Oh and I'm thinking of going skating tonight!

We love diets

It's like they are trendy. Low carb, gluten free, high protein, low fat, high fat, fruit fast, la la la

I will admit I am a victim of the feminine need to constantly f with my diet. I'd like to say it's because I want my body to feel strong and clean and whatever, but the reality is I'm just trying to lose more off my backside.

Low carb is not working for me. It makes running really really hard. I don't need running to be any harder than it already is.

So I'm doing my favorite hippie diet. Ah the college days. Brown rice, brewers yeast, veggie stir frys, and lots of raw stuff too. Why do I like this one? The food is yummy, but not so yummy that I want to over eat it.

Yeah, whatever it takes right?

Sick

I thought it might just be a hangover. Still achy and tired today. Thinking I gots the sick.
Strangely I feel better when I work out.

Good:
1hr 20 min total body weights
upped from 10 pound weights to 15.