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
Showing posts with label cross-training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cross-training. Show all posts
Thursday, April 14, 2011
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!!!
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.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Everything hurts
I forgot to post my training schedule for the week:
Monday: 5k steady run - Oops, my bad - I skipped this one. Life got in the way of my run on Monday
Tuesday: Cross-training (Reverse workout) - Completed! Sandra + I had a fabulous (painful) reverse workout on Tuesday night. The first half was weight training and the second half was a high-intensity bootcamp style workout. According to our instructor, the body burns through its glucose during the weight training component and then it switches over to burning through its glycogen during the last half, which is why the cardio portion feels so hard. That sounds feasible to me, although her insane weight training workout might be causing some muscle fatigue which could also contribute to the reason why the cardio portion = pain. I know its a hard class and I have been slacking off in strength training, so I dropped down my weights to 5lb dumbbells and 9lb bodybar.
Wednesday: 6 Hill repeats - Sort of completed. We were in the middle of a 10 cm snowfall and the roads and sidewalks were a mess. So I moved my workout inside - I did a 5km bike ride to warm up in the building's gym followed by 6 repeats of 5 flights of stairs. In total, I did 30 flights of stairs -- Hmmm, maybe I should keep it up and try to do the CN tower climb in April. Stair repeats are a good workout. But, they are shorter and steeper than hills - hopefully next week, I can do actual hills so I can get in some running on the longer distance/gradual gradient. At the end of Wednesday, my body was killing me. All of my muscles were sore and tight.
Thursday: Cross-training (Cardio/Weight intervals, Yoga) - On Thursday, I was in pain - my muscles were so fatigued and sore and everytime I moved it hurt. I was very tempted to skip my workout, however I had a really yummy pre-workout snack that I was looking forward to eating all day, so I just ate my snack and then hit the gym. Cardio/strength training - I stuck to mostly low impact cardio in the beginning since my muscles were burning in pain. After warming up, they felt a bit better but I still stuck to the lower intensity workout. Strength training was done with resistance tubing - I used the mid-resistance tube. Yoga was great. All of my sore muscles got a good stretching. I'm definitely going to have to keep it up, as I felt fabulous afterwards. And I have my own yoga mat now! It's pink and pretty :)
Friday: Rest - I thought I'd still be really sore, but I was feeling back to normal. I still gave myself the day off though.
Saturday/Sunday: 19-20k slow and easy run. It'll probably be on Sunday, since John and I are heading out in a half hour. My pace has improved a bit, but not by that much.
Note: I think all of the muscle soreness is due to the fact that I haven't been doing any strength training since December. I'm going to keep up the schedule for the next few weeks, but if I'm feeling like I'm on the verge of over-training, I'm going to scale back on the workouts.
Monday: 5k steady run - Oops, my bad - I skipped this one. Life got in the way of my run on Monday
Tuesday: Cross-training (Reverse workout) - Completed! Sandra + I had a fabulous (painful) reverse workout on Tuesday night. The first half was weight training and the second half was a high-intensity bootcamp style workout. According to our instructor, the body burns through its glucose during the weight training component and then it switches over to burning through its glycogen during the last half, which is why the cardio portion feels so hard. That sounds feasible to me, although her insane weight training workout might be causing some muscle fatigue which could also contribute to the reason why the cardio portion = pain. I know its a hard class and I have been slacking off in strength training, so I dropped down my weights to 5lb dumbbells and 9lb bodybar.
Wednesday: 6 Hill repeats - Sort of completed. We were in the middle of a 10 cm snowfall and the roads and sidewalks were a mess. So I moved my workout inside - I did a 5km bike ride to warm up in the building's gym followed by 6 repeats of 5 flights of stairs. In total, I did 30 flights of stairs -- Hmmm, maybe I should keep it up and try to do the CN tower climb in April. Stair repeats are a good workout. But, they are shorter and steeper than hills - hopefully next week, I can do actual hills so I can get in some running on the longer distance/gradual gradient. At the end of Wednesday, my body was killing me. All of my muscles were sore and tight.
Thursday: Cross-training (Cardio/Weight intervals, Yoga) - On Thursday, I was in pain - my muscles were so fatigued and sore and everytime I moved it hurt. I was very tempted to skip my workout, however I had a really yummy pre-workout snack that I was looking forward to eating all day, so I just ate my snack and then hit the gym. Cardio/strength training - I stuck to mostly low impact cardio in the beginning since my muscles were burning in pain. After warming up, they felt a bit better but I still stuck to the lower intensity workout. Strength training was done with resistance tubing - I used the mid-resistance tube. Yoga was great. All of my sore muscles got a good stretching. I'm definitely going to have to keep it up, as I felt fabulous afterwards. And I have my own yoga mat now! It's pink and pretty :)
Friday: Rest - I thought I'd still be really sore, but I was feeling back to normal. I still gave myself the day off though.
Saturday/Sunday: 19-20k slow and easy run. It'll probably be on Sunday, since John and I are heading out in a half hour. My pace has improved a bit, but not by that much.
Note: I think all of the muscle soreness is due to the fact that I haven't been doing any strength training since December. I'm going to keep up the schedule for the next few weeks, but if I'm feeling like I'm on the verge of over-training, I'm going to scale back on the workouts.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Yoga is hard
A couple of training updates from the last few days:
Cross-training:
Cross-training is coming along - I did a cardio/weight training interval class followed by a yoga class at the gym. There was actually another lady wearing ballet flats in the cardio/weight class - I wonder if this is becoming a new "thing"? Maybe I've just been spending too much time at the Running Room and I've become out of touch with the latest gym trends and fashions.
The yoga class was my first one in almost 5 years. I've been meaning to give it another try since yoga is supposed to be good for runners. Yoga is HARD. I'm used to high-impact, high-intensity cardio workouts and I found the slow, gentle and controlled movements to be quite difficult. It was still a great workout and I will do it again. I kinda want to get my own yoga mat, since rolling around on the communal mats grosses me out a bit.
Running:
On schedule for this weekend is an 18k run. I'm going to do it tomorrow since I'm still feeling sore from all of the warrior poses at yoga. I have an issue with hitting the wall at 16k, so I've been told that taking gels/chews on my long runs might help. I'll be experimenting with different gels/chews over the next few months to see what works for me and what doesn't. I took my first eload gel on my long run last week, it was green apple flavoured, the taste was inoffensive and my stomach tolerated it pretty well. I feel like it helped, since I didn't get that tired/hopeless feeling I usually start to get at 15k. My only problem was that I just couldn't get the technique down. I tore off the top and then squeezed...and got nothing. I squeezed a bit harder...and still nothing! I had to squish it slowly up, the way you try to get the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube. Everyone else in my running group just tears off the top and slurps it down in less than a minute. Anyway, it seems like this is going to have to take a bit of practice. This week I'm taking a break from the gels and I'll try a chew - cliff shot bloks (strawberry).
Cross-training:
Cross-training is coming along - I did a cardio/weight training interval class followed by a yoga class at the gym. There was actually another lady wearing ballet flats in the cardio/weight class - I wonder if this is becoming a new "thing"? Maybe I've just been spending too much time at the Running Room and I've become out of touch with the latest gym trends and fashions.
The yoga class was my first one in almost 5 years. I've been meaning to give it another try since yoga is supposed to be good for runners. Yoga is HARD. I'm used to high-impact, high-intensity cardio workouts and I found the slow, gentle and controlled movements to be quite difficult. It was still a great workout and I will do it again. I kinda want to get my own yoga mat, since rolling around on the communal mats grosses me out a bit.
Running:
On schedule for this weekend is an 18k run. I'm going to do it tomorrow since I'm still feeling sore from all of the warrior poses at yoga. I have an issue with hitting the wall at 16k, so I've been told that taking gels/chews on my long runs might help. I'll be experimenting with different gels/chews over the next few months to see what works for me and what doesn't. I took my first eload gel on my long run last week, it was green apple flavoured, the taste was inoffensive and my stomach tolerated it pretty well. I feel like it helped, since I didn't get that tired/hopeless feeling I usually start to get at 15k. My only problem was that I just couldn't get the technique down. I tore off the top and then squeezed...and got nothing. I squeezed a bit harder...and still nothing! I had to squish it slowly up, the way you try to get the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube. Everyone else in my running group just tears off the top and slurps it down in less than a minute. Anyway, it seems like this is going to have to take a bit of practice. This week I'm taking a break from the gels and I'll try a chew - cliff shot bloks (strawberry).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)