Wow, it's been almost two weeks since my last post. Its sad to say, but there's really nothing very exciting to report, as I've slipped into a routine with all of my training activities - and they are all just kind of ongoing. Not to worry my faithful readers, that will not stop me from rambling on in detail :)
The green smoothie challenge is still going. We've started making double batches at night and saving the extra batch for breakfast in the morning. Combinations that we've enjoyed for the past week have included: baby spinach or red leaf lettuce plus an assortment of bananas, ananas (pineapple), kiwis, apples and/or pears. I've also been adding some fresh ginger into the smoothies lately and I've been finding it tres delicieux. I tried making a smoothie with grapes, but sadly my little 700W blender had a hard time with the grape skins, thus the texture of the smoothie was very fibrous. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you're supposed to be able to chew your smoothies?
I ran out of chews for my runs, so I picked up a couple of packs of GU Chomps and Clif Shot Bloks from the Running Room. Since I had a gift certificate and a store discount, I also picked up a cute little pair of black capri tights and a black racerback tank top with fluorescent pink trim. I loooove the capris, but I'm not sure if I can wear them on long runs, the spandex might not be powerful enough to rein in all of the jiggle :(
My training is chugging along - I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with all of the different cross-training activities (i.e., weights, biking, step + yoga classes) and also going out and doing different types of runs (i.e., hill +/or speed intervals, steady +/or slow runs). I had rolled my ankle back in February just before the Chilly half and thought that I might have re-injured it during my long run this past weekend, since it was throbbing in PAIN on Sunday and Monday. But I've been taking it easy for the past 3-4 days and it's feeling a lot better. Possible injury aside, my long runs have also become rather uneventful, my mind has been a lot quieter on these runs and I've just been enjoying the nice weather/scenery and the way I've been feeling.
Random thoughts from my 21.06 km:
- Hot and sour soup, coffee and chocolate Easter eggs (that's right I said EASTER EGGS, not spring spheres) are bad pre-run foods. I was feeling dehydrated for most of the run
- Donald Trump should shut up and go away. He's such an idiot.
- Why do politicians think we want to see their pictures on their campaign signs? It's not like we're going to suddenly be like: "Wow, you look like an upstanding citizen, I think I will vote for you after all". The same goes for real estate agents. I'm bringing a sharpie marker on my next long run and drawing mustachios on everybody!! (LOL, OK probably not...I know I'll be too lazy to hold a pen on my run and it'll totally mess up my time.)
I'll be winding down the workouts soon, since my half-marathon is about two weeks away! So I'll probably stop blogging about training and start blogging about fascinating topics such as: "What to wear" and/or "Music for my ipod" :)
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Warming up for 2012
It appears that Mother Nature is also training, she seems to have amped up the insane weather patterns, in preparation for the end of 2012 when she will kill us all. Today there were 80 km/h winds along with rain, snow, hail and flash white-outs. Ever the cautious runner, I decided to take my workout indoors today and use the dreaded treadmill for a two hour workout which tested my sanity to the limit. Since I despise the treadmill, I decided to do intervals - 30 mins on the treadmill, 30 mins on the seated bike, 30 mins on the treadmill and then 30 mins on the spinning bike. Mother Nature is both a cruel and spiteful mistress, as the weather cleared up when I was an hour into my workout. The beautiful sunshine was taunting me, while I tried to complete the workout that just would not end.
Thoughts from poor me stuck running/biking without actually getting anywhere for 2 hours:
- OMG, I HATE THE TREADMILL!!
- OMG, I HATE STATIONARY BIKES!!
- I hate the way the treadmill at the gym ends fairly abruptly at the end of the workout. Would it not make sense to have a taper period at the end, so the person doesn't go from running full speed to a dead stop within 10 seconds? For me, I get a little dizzy after running on the treadmill, so I like to spend a minute walking before hopping off
- I get motion sickness from reading too much closed-captioning on the TVs when running on the treadmill. No TV makes the mind-numbing boredom even worse.
- That being said, I was so happy for NHL playoffs! I ended up watching 2 periods of the Caps/Rangers game. I could ignore the CC and just watch the boys playing hockey.
- I didn't realize how young Ovechkin is.
- I don't like the Rangers but I just can't help cheering against the Capitals
- There was a guy wearing cargo shorts and a Hilfiger skull cap on an elliptical. He was really cut, so I guess he knew what he was doing, but I couldn't help but judge him anyway.
- Why the hell is Donald Trump thinking about running for president?
- I feel bad for the poor little rodents stuck with nothing to do except running in those wheels stuck to the side of their cage.
- Having mutiple slices of pepperoni pizza and gulps of delicious coke a half hour before a workout is a bad idea. Felt so sick for the first hour of the workout.
The green smoothie challenge is still going on. We've had our first disaster - celery, parsley, lemon, tomato and onion. YUCK! I think I'm happy with sticking to the fruity green smoothies for now...
Thoughts from poor me stuck running/biking without actually getting anywhere for 2 hours:
- OMG, I HATE THE TREADMILL!!
- OMG, I HATE STATIONARY BIKES!!
- I hate the way the treadmill at the gym ends fairly abruptly at the end of the workout. Would it not make sense to have a taper period at the end, so the person doesn't go from running full speed to a dead stop within 10 seconds? For me, I get a little dizzy after running on the treadmill, so I like to spend a minute walking before hopping off
- I get motion sickness from reading too much closed-captioning on the TVs when running on the treadmill. No TV makes the mind-numbing boredom even worse.
- That being said, I was so happy for NHL playoffs! I ended up watching 2 periods of the Caps/Rangers game. I could ignore the CC and just watch the boys playing hockey.
- I didn't realize how young Ovechkin is.
- I don't like the Rangers but I just can't help cheering against the Capitals
- There was a guy wearing cargo shorts and a Hilfiger skull cap on an elliptical. He was really cut, so I guess he knew what he was doing, but I couldn't help but judge him anyway.
- Why the hell is Donald Trump thinking about running for president?
- I feel bad for the poor little rodents stuck with nothing to do except running in those wheels stuck to the side of their cage.
- Having mutiple slices of pepperoni pizza and gulps of delicious coke a half hour before a workout is a bad idea. Felt so sick for the first hour of the workout.
The green smoothie challenge is still going on. We've had our first disaster - celery, parsley, lemon, tomato and onion. YUCK! I think I'm happy with sticking to the fruity green smoothies for now...
Thursday, April 14, 2011
10.0 km plus a few other things
Not so random thoughts.
Sunday:
- I love running in the rain, but not in thunderstorms. I cut it short since the thunder and lightning scared me. On the plus side, that was probably the fastest 10k I've run in awhile (possibly ever)
- I wore my Lululemon capris for the first time (I bought them on-sale last year just before it got really cold). They are a much tighter fit than my other capris. I glanced at my reflection in a bus shelter when I was speeding by...my freakishly muscular calves are getting even more freakish :'(
- After the storm cleared out, it was the nicest day ever!
- Had a lovely workout in the park with Jamette & Katherine. 6k run + "breaks" for drills = good times :)
- Pushing a jogging stroller while running is harder than I thought. My arms + shoulders were killing me the next day.
- All workouts should end with a smoothie run!
Green smoothies:
- I finished reading Green for Life last night. The book was very interesting and made some good points regarding nutrition and healthy eating. Plus, there are tons of yummy green smoothie recipes at the end! However, I remain skeptical about the last 1/3 of the book which was filled with stories about people being miraculously cured of various ailments (including cancer) from drinking green smoothies. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed the book and I'm now onto reading the Green Smoothie Revolution
- John and I are on Day 4 of the Green Smoothie Challenge (30 days of smoothies). The first few days were interesting... Without getting too graphic, I had to skip hills yesterday because my poor little stomach was feeling WRONG. But today I'm finally feeling back to normal and did my hill repeats (9!) and took a yoga class.
- So far we've enjoyed: strawberry/kale, salad mix/blueberries/mangoes, red leaf lettuce/celery/bananas/mangoes, baby greens/blueberries/strawberries/banana
Schedule for the upcoming week:
Weekend - 20+ km run
Monday - Steady run and/or Cardio-weight training class
Tuesday - Rest! (Rush concert!)
Wednesday - 10 hill repeats. Last week of hills
Thursday - Cardio-weight training and/or yoga
Friday - Rest
Weekend - 20+ km run
Sunday:
- I love running in the rain, but not in thunderstorms. I cut it short since the thunder and lightning scared me. On the plus side, that was probably the fastest 10k I've run in awhile (possibly ever)
- I wore my Lululemon capris for the first time (I bought them on-sale last year just before it got really cold). They are a much tighter fit than my other capris. I glanced at my reflection in a bus shelter when I was speeding by...my freakishly muscular calves are getting even more freakish :'(
- After the storm cleared out, it was the nicest day ever!
- Had a lovely workout in the park with Jamette & Katherine. 6k run + "breaks" for drills = good times :)
- Pushing a jogging stroller while running is harder than I thought. My arms + shoulders were killing me the next day.
- All workouts should end with a smoothie run!
Green smoothies:
- I finished reading Green for Life last night. The book was very interesting and made some good points regarding nutrition and healthy eating. Plus, there are tons of yummy green smoothie recipes at the end! However, I remain skeptical about the last 1/3 of the book which was filled with stories about people being miraculously cured of various ailments (including cancer) from drinking green smoothies. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed the book and I'm now onto reading the Green Smoothie Revolution
- John and I are on Day 4 of the Green Smoothie Challenge (30 days of smoothies). The first few days were interesting... Without getting too graphic, I had to skip hills yesterday because my poor little stomach was feeling WRONG. But today I'm finally feeling back to normal and did my hill repeats (9!) and took a yoga class.
- So far we've enjoyed: strawberry/kale, salad mix/blueberries/mangoes, red leaf lettuce/celery/bananas/mangoes, baby greens/blueberries/strawberries/banana
Schedule for the upcoming week:
Weekend - 20+ km run
Monday - Steady run and/or Cardio-weight training class
Tuesday - Rest! (Rush concert!)
Wednesday - 10 hill repeats. Last week of hills
Thursday - Cardio-weight training and/or yoga
Friday - Rest
Weekend - 20+ km run
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Green 4 Lyfe
A few notes from the week:
Wednesday: I was NOT in the mood for hills on Wednesday, so instead I went to the gym and jumped on a spinning bike for a ...umm... spin. I did 11.5 kms of intervals (1 min on max resistance, 1 min on min resistance). Afterwards I ran up 17 flights of stairs in the condo. I might have pushed into my maximum limit on Wednesday because I was right at my vomit point for about a half hour after my workout. My theory is: Working out is a lot like all-you-can-eat sushi, if you don't feel like you're going to puke at the end, you're just not doing it right.
Thursday: Cross-training + yoga. The weight training classes aren't as challenging as they were a month ago, I think it might be time to increase my weights by a bit. I'm starting to thoroughly enjoy my yoga class. I just feel super relaxed afterwards and my body is happy with the nice long stretch. On my runs, I'm starting to hear my yoga instructor's voice saying "inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale...feel the cool breath flowing in and the warm breath flowing out..." Ahhh, what's happening to me? I'm turning into a hippie!
Presents for me: Last week, I ordered the following books online:
They came in this week! I'm reading Green for Life right now. I can't wait to start making my own green smoothies, but I think I'll have to pick up a new blender. My immersion blender is starting to die, the blades are bent and it may be shedding metal shards into my fruit smoothies :( I've been doing some research over the past few days and have my eye on a couple of blenders, although what I really want is a Vita-mix blender!!!
Wednesday: I was NOT in the mood for hills on Wednesday, so instead I went to the gym and jumped on a spinning bike for a ...umm... spin. I did 11.5 kms of intervals (1 min on max resistance, 1 min on min resistance). Afterwards I ran up 17 flights of stairs in the condo. I might have pushed into my maximum limit on Wednesday because I was right at my vomit point for about a half hour after my workout. My theory is: Working out is a lot like all-you-can-eat sushi, if you don't feel like you're going to puke at the end, you're just not doing it right.
Thursday: Cross-training + yoga. The weight training classes aren't as challenging as they were a month ago, I think it might be time to increase my weights by a bit. I'm starting to thoroughly enjoy my yoga class. I just feel super relaxed afterwards and my body is happy with the nice long stretch. On my runs, I'm starting to hear my yoga instructor's voice saying "inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale...feel the cool breath flowing in and the warm breath flowing out..." Ahhh, what's happening to me? I'm turning into a hippie!
Presents for me: Last week, I ordered the following books online:
They came in this week! I'm reading Green for Life right now. I can't wait to start making my own green smoothies, but I think I'll have to pick up a new blender. My immersion blender is starting to die, the blades are bent and it may be shedding metal shards into my fruit smoothies :( I've been doing some research over the past few days and have my eye on a couple of blenders, although what I really want is a Vita-mix blender!!!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
20.12 km
Thoughts from my long run on Saturday morning:
- I've been running in the winter for so long, I forgot that running in 10C weather on dry sidewalks is so much nicer than running in -20C and sliding around on the ice and snow
- It's getting too warm for a jacket, therefore I need to figure out a better way to carry my itouch on runs
- I'm done with gels, I should have known that I'd prefer chews aka the more candy-like option
- Listening to a mix of rap/hip-hop, musicals and classical music - and I've started to break out into song periodically on my runs. That damn Wicked soundtrack, why is it so catchy?
- Excluding my 20k walk, I've been beating my Chilly time consistently by at least 15 minutes, hopefully I can keep it up
- So many traffic lights in the city, they keep messing up my groove, man
- I ran through two ridings on Saturday, if the signs are to be believed, it looks like these 2 liberal strongholds might be in trouble - there was at least a 50/50 split in liberal/conservative lawn signs
I've noticed a subtle shift in my longer runs over the past month. Previously, near the end of any 16+ km distance, my body would feel like its had enough. As in, I'd feel pretty much like I was running on empty. My legs would feel like lead and refuse to keep going and my mind would feel completely exhausted. When I finally get to the end of my route, I'd stop and think "OMG, I'm finally finished, I could NOT go any further than that" and I felt completely and totally spent. Lately, at the end of my runs, I've been feeling different. The tail end of my runs haven't been as exhausting as usual. Not to say that I'm not getting tired/sore, but I'm just not feeling as drained and exhausted as I used to, since I still feel somewhat energetic and upbeat. Not sure how this happened (is it because my body is getting used to the longer distances? gels and chews? cross-training? Wicked soundtrack?) but its a good feeling :)
Schedule for this week:
Monday - 6k run (oops...I mean rest)
Tuesday - Cross-training (Bosu bootcamp - my muscles are still burning)
Wednesday - 8 hill repeats
Thursday - Cross-training + Yoga
Friday - Rest
Saturday or Sunday - 20-22k run + Rest on the other day
- I've been running in the winter for so long, I forgot that running in 10C weather on dry sidewalks is so much nicer than running in -20C and sliding around on the ice and snow
- It's getting too warm for a jacket, therefore I need to figure out a better way to carry my itouch on runs
- I'm done with gels, I should have known that I'd prefer chews aka the more candy-like option
- Listening to a mix of rap/hip-hop, musicals and classical music - and I've started to break out into song periodically on my runs. That damn Wicked soundtrack, why is it so catchy?
- Excluding my 20k walk, I've been beating my Chilly time consistently by at least 15 minutes, hopefully I can keep it up
- So many traffic lights in the city, they keep messing up my groove, man
- I ran through two ridings on Saturday, if the signs are to be believed, it looks like these 2 liberal strongholds might be in trouble - there was at least a 50/50 split in liberal/conservative lawn signs
I've noticed a subtle shift in my longer runs over the past month. Previously, near the end of any 16+ km distance, my body would feel like its had enough. As in, I'd feel pretty much like I was running on empty. My legs would feel like lead and refuse to keep going and my mind would feel completely exhausted. When I finally get to the end of my route, I'd stop and think "OMG, I'm finally finished, I could NOT go any further than that" and I felt completely and totally spent. Lately, at the end of my runs, I've been feeling different. The tail end of my runs haven't been as exhausting as usual. Not to say that I'm not getting tired/sore, but I'm just not feeling as drained and exhausted as I used to, since I still feel somewhat energetic and upbeat. Not sure how this happened (is it because my body is getting used to the longer distances? gels and chews? cross-training? Wicked soundtrack?) but its a good feeling :)
Schedule for this week:
Monday - 6k run (oops...I mean rest)
Tuesday - Cross-training (Bosu bootcamp - my muscles are still burning)
Wednesday - 8 hill repeats
Thursday - Cross-training + Yoga
Friday - Rest
Saturday or Sunday - 20-22k run + Rest on the other day
Friday, April 1, 2011
7 weeks left to go!
There are 7 weeks left before my next half-marathon! .... Umm, should I be worried that "slacking off" is my blog tag with the most entries?
This week, I've somewhat stayed on schedule:
Tuesday - Cross-training (reverse workout): completed! I kept my hand weights at 5 lbs each and resistance tube at medium and increased my body bar weight to 12lbs. I only felt a little bit like puking + passing out this time around.
Wednesday - 2.5km light run to warm-up + 7 hill repeats: completed! I always feel like I'm not going to make it when I approach the top 1/3 of the hill, but by the time I make it to the top and then head back down for my next repeat, I am fine again. My arms and shoulders are usually sore after doing hills, when the lower body starts to get fatigued, my upper body tends to pick up the slack. Ahhh, teamwork at its finest.
I spotted my dear friend Robin(s) on my Wednesday run. Yes, those little tiny blobs are robins. :) Yeay, spring is finally here!
Thursday - Cross-training: ... Skipped my work-outs and my eating plan was derailed, due to baby celebrations. I ended up having spicy salmon rolls + salmon pizza for lunch, a huge piece of delicious tuxedo cake (marble cake with chocolate/vanilla mousse and cream cheese frosting covered with tiny delicious dark/milk/white chocolate curls...omg, just thinking about it is activating my salivary glands) and then out for lovely dinner with the girls. I was feeling a bit guilty about not eating any fruits/veggies all day, so I had a greek salad + garlic bread. Hey! Life is all about balance - a girl can't just workout all of the time.
Friday - Rest + more sushi tonight :)
Notes: I wasn't feeling as sore on Wednesday as I did last week. I think my body is starting to adapt to weight training again. Unlike last weekend, where I was just not in the mood to run, this weekend I'm actually looking forward to my 2ok. I have 1 tiny pack of chews and 1 random gel kicking around, so I'll be seeing how the gel/chew combo works for me.
This week, I've somewhat stayed on schedule:
Tuesday - Cross-training (reverse workout): completed! I kept my hand weights at 5 lbs each and resistance tube at medium and increased my body bar weight to 12lbs. I only felt a little bit like puking + passing out this time around.
Wednesday - 2.5km light run to warm-up + 7 hill repeats: completed! I always feel like I'm not going to make it when I approach the top 1/3 of the hill, but by the time I make it to the top and then head back down for my next repeat, I am fine again. My arms and shoulders are usually sore after doing hills, when the lower body starts to get fatigued, my upper body tends to pick up the slack. Ahhh, teamwork at its finest.
I spotted my dear friend Robin(s) on my Wednesday run. Yes, those little tiny blobs are robins. :) Yeay, spring is finally here!
Thursday - Cross-training: ... Skipped my work-outs and my eating plan was derailed, due to baby celebrations. I ended up having spicy salmon rolls + salmon pizza for lunch, a huge piece of delicious tuxedo cake (marble cake with chocolate/vanilla mousse and cream cheese frosting covered with tiny delicious dark/milk/white chocolate curls...omg, just thinking about it is activating my salivary glands) and then out for lovely dinner with the girls. I was feeling a bit guilty about not eating any fruits/veggies all day, so I had a greek salad + garlic bread. Hey! Life is all about balance - a girl can't just workout all of the time.
Friday - Rest + more sushi tonight :)
Notes: I wasn't feeling as sore on Wednesday as I did last week. I think my body is starting to adapt to weight training again. Unlike last weekend, where I was just not in the mood to run, this weekend I'm actually looking forward to my 2ok. I have 1 tiny pack of chews and 1 random gel kicking around, so I'll be seeing how the gel/chew combo works for me.
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