March 17- Week Recap

Sunday: Swim for 1.6 Miles. Ah. Its so hard to get myself in the pool, but once I am in, I remember how much I love it. Seriously, Such a great workout that leaves you just feeling awesome later. 

Monday: Yoga

Tuesday: 3.1 Mile run on the treadmill. 

Duration: 34:28
Calories Burned: 266
Distance: 3.51 miles
Distance Climbed: 169
Average Pace: 9:48

Wednesday. 5 Mile run on the treadmill. 

Duration: 45:16 
Calories Burned: 401 
Distance: 5:02 
Distance Climbed: 265 Feet 
Average Pace: 9:00 (did not do the cool down after!)

Thursday: Body Sculpting class + 3.71 mile hill run (outside! WOOT!)

Distance: 3.71
Duration: 32.42
Pace Per Mile: 8:52
Calories Burned: 345
Elevation Gain: 147 Feet.

Mile 1:  8:38 
Mile 2:  8:35 
Mile 3:  8:59 
Mile 4:  8:45

I been running a lot of hills in preparation for this race. I joined the running group again for a run around a college campus hills. It really is such a good workout! I wont be able to do this week because I am going to he Bruins game, but I look forward to doing it in the future.  Jon and I had Friday off so after my run I had the best type of beer, post run beer.

Friday: off

Saturday: Long run: 11 Miles on Comm Ave.

Comm Ave as become Kensie and I new running stop. Its just so fun. Its challenging, a lot of runners, ect.  Anyway. This run was not one of my finest. Turns out ordering Crab Rangoons at 11:30 at night and trying to run at 8:00 the next morning is not a good mix... live and learn haha... (yes I know that's obvious).

Distance: 11.20 Miles
Time: 1:41:53
Avg Pace: 9:06 min/mi
Elevation Gain: 495 Feet I think its a 140 feet climb if I understand all this stuff correctly.
Calories Burned 9:23

Mile 1: 9:13
Mile 2: 8:23
Mile 3: 10:10
Mile 4: 9:00
Mile 5: 8:58
Mile 6: 9:48
Mile 7: 9:26
Mile 8: 8:42
Mile 9: 8:39
Mile 10: 8:56
Mile 11: 8:56
Mile 12 (.20 miles): 8:56

I started off feeling good, then I felt my stomach hated me and told me with cramps, then I got rid of said cramps. I didn't feel great during this run at all. BUT at the end I was glad I could push through regardless finish strong with all under 9 minute miles. My number one goal for the half marathon is to have all my mile under 9:00 expect maybe the first one.

Last long run this weekend! 12 miles!!

Green Stride 10K Race Recap

Ah its been awhile...  This weekend was awesome. Well Saturday, the weather was so nice, and involved a 10K and some beach bars. Can't really go wrong with that!

First the boring stuff... I am still inside training on the treadmill so its not exactly interesting. Last week my workouts went as followed:

Sunday: Rest: Ug after I moved my long runs to Saturdays I been using Sunday as a rest day. This past Sunday I actually got my ass to the gym for a swim. I think I like this schedule for the next few weeks leading up to the half marathon. Long Run Saturday, Swim Sunday and then Yoga Monday.

Monday: Yoga:

Tuesday: 3.51 Miles including warm up and cool down in 34 minutes.... Climbed: 168 feet at an average of 9.59 pace.

Wednesday: 5.00 Mile run in 46:52 with an 9:22 pace. Climbed 671 feet and burned 434 Calories. (I been using the hill interval training on the treadmill a lot more. The trail for the half is suppose to be hilly, so I figured its good for me, also keeps things interesting...)

Thursday: Body Sculpt class + 3.51 Mile run in 34 minutes with a 9:43 pace, 260 feet climbed and 284 calories burned.

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 10K Race!

This past weekend my friends Ann and Kensie and my boyfriend Jon signed up for the Green Stride 5K/10K St. Patty's Day race. It was so much fun!  Ann and Jon did the 5K race and Kensie and I did the 10K race. The course was really flat, pretty much no hills. However... the wind was nuts! The first half wasn't that bad and then when you turned the corner it was like hitting a wall.

Pre race... I need to learn how but my bib on straight! ha-ha

Ann got this picture... I thought it was pretty cool... 

I think as normal I got different times for on my watch then the race had. My watch was off about .20 miles the whole time. So when I finished I jogged out .20 miles so it would record as a 10K on garmin. Anyway here where the results on both... 

My splits on my watch were as following: 

Mile 1: 8:03 m

Mile 2: 8:06 m

Mile 3: 8:01 m

Mile 4: 7:51 m

Mile 5: 8:29 m

Mile 6: 8:08 m

Mile 7 (.20 miles): 8:40

I won first in my age group so I won something... $25 gift card for a pair of running shoes at Greater Boston Running Company. I will definitely have to check this out. I want to get fitted for a pair of new running shoes once I have maxed out the ones I have now.


Of course it was the St. Pattys day weekend so their was a bar crawl after for all the runners. Yum Yuengling.

              


Decided to climb the snow bank to get to the beach after...Ya!! Soon enough we will be back here in our bathingsuits.. soon enough!

This week I really hope to get a few shorter runs outside then 11 Miles on Saturday. I can't believe how close this race is! I am getting more excited than nervous though. After running 10 and feeling good and running the 10K this weekend I am confident I can finish.  My goal is to finish under 2 hours but I would like to get under 1:55. Not sure of that's possible... But always can try! 

Newton Hills

This weekends long run was one of the best I have had in a really long time, and dare I even say ever? I am not really sure what got into me.  There are some physical factors that I could add it....

I was wearing my running shoes that I love....and not my pair that are not really good for running! When I bought my first pair I didn't really know what I was doing. Luckily I won a second pair on Fit Foodie Finds from Under Armor that I love. The shoes make the world of a difference!

I was running comm ave.  What motivation! There were so many people running and all different ages... so awesome.  This is part of the Boston Marathon route, and known to be one of the hardest parts and hardest marathons. I ran the Newton Hills to Boston College. When I started running I noticed that people volunteer their time to had out water, and sports drinks to runners training for their races. Like how awesome is that? This is the group that was doing it. Anyway... Thank you!! It saved me when I thought I couldn't go any further!!

My running path was pretty much clear.... no side walks really needed for Comm Ave. Its a one way street that goes along with comm ave.

I ate before I ran, like woke up 2 hours early just to eat! I had a 1/2 whole wheat bagel, low fat cream cheese and banana. I think it really helped!! I think equally as important to what you eat before a run is when you eat, I think that was one of my problems.




Also It was SOOOOOOOOOOOO nice out on Saturday.  Almost perfect running conditions. My Garmin says it was 46 and sunny, yeah perfection.


Newton Hills.

The Stats.

Mile 1: 9:02

Mile 2: 8:11 * I saw this after mile 2 and was like crap! That was fast! I was worried I wasted a lot of energy 

Mile 3: 8:28 

Mile 4: 8:39 

Mile 5: 8:19

Mile 6: 8:38 

Mile 7: 9:16 *Side stitch returns. I feel like this is going to be my "hit the wall mile". 

Mile 8: 8:30 

Mile 9: 8:47 

Mile 10: 8:50

Mile 11(.10): 10:00 

I am not really sure I understand the elevation charts but here it is.. Elevation gain: 428ft

So yeah, a lot better then I have been doing! This Saturday I have a 10k. I hope to get a personal record. This weekend I set a PR for 10k my running it in 53.12. I been hoping to break the 55 mark for awhile now. I am not sure If I will be able to beat that, but always can try right? I also beat my personal record of a 5K with this run, and ran 5k in 26:09. 

Goals: PR in 10K and get under 26 minutes in a 5K. 

Training Week: March 3 2014

So training is stating to ramp up, I got 10 miles this weekend, and must I say I am actually kind of excited for it?

Anyway... this week was a good one.

Monday: Yoga.

Tuesday: 3.0 Miles on the treadmill. (I am thinking for real, this will be my last week on the treadmill!) 9:42 pace with a 5 minute cool down included. (3.51 run/walk)

Wednesday: 5.1 mile run on the treadmill. 9.37 pace with cool down included. (5.41 run/walk)

Thursday: Body Sculpt class + 4.0 Mile run on the treadmill. Okay has anyone every tried the hill runs the treadmills offer? I was going at a 7.3% incline for a good quarter mile.

When I got on the treadmill I wanted to do 3.1 miles. For some reason, and I think I am wrong on this but I thought you had to set a time, so I set it for 30 minutes then changed it to 35 because I didn't think I would get 3 in at 30 with some walking I had to do. As I was going I had to walk some after trying to do a 7 plus incline at a 8:57 pace. BUT what a good freaking work out. I was sweating so much by the time I got off the treadmill. Sometimes I don't mind the treadmill, for short runs, that are challenging, it can actually be do I dare to say fun?

Anyway not much else to update. I am happy its Friday. Near 50 on Saturday! going to be a great day for a long run. 

Yoga.

While training I felt that Yoga needed to be a part of it. In the training plans I follow Monday's are strength and stretch days. With that being said I am not much of a "Yogi" at all. The worst part of it for me is the nap time at the end. I am not one who can just lie there and find that yoga mediation thing. BUT I believe that some yoga can be really challenging workout, and also really good stretch for Runners.

Back in the day when I was training for my 10K I went to a Yoga for Runners class in a sounding town and I LOVED IT. It was one of the best yoga classes I had taken. BUT unfortunately I never went back. It was at 7:30 about 20 minutes away, so logistically it was kind of a pain. When Half Marathon training started, I was going to suck up the shitty logistics and just sign up for 10 class pass or something. BUT the class was no longer being taught. Bummer.

Then I went to my gyms "gentle yoga" held on Monday nights. That was a bore for me. Gentle yoga and me are not meant to be.

Around the same time people at work all pitched in to do yoga after work. I did these classes for a few months, and they were great, but I couldn't commit to doing them 2 days a week, which was the offering. I live 45 minutes away from work. The class ended around 6:30 after all was said and done. Getting home late 2 days of week were just blah. Got in the way of cooking a decent meal at home, and way to easy to say "lets just order out" if I did that.

So I found myself on groupon and I found Waltham Yoga, which is a grand total of 7 minutes away from my house. I took the Vinyasa Flow-heated. We did did some core work, I was sweating, it was great.  It also felt great the stretching moves. Although the Pigeon Pose will never be nice to any runner, ever.

The instructor made it better, she had me laughing. She took it seriously but made it fun.

Anyway I am happy to report I found a yoga class I really like!

Also side note. I  tried to calculate "calories burned" and I kept getting like 400-600. Which seems very high. but maybe?

They also offer heated power yoga on Friday mornings... that kind of intrigues me....

Tour of Waltham

I decided to do my longer run on Saturday this morning starting at 8:30. For a couple of reasons. 1. I thought it was going to be warmer (turns out I was wrong, Sunday was like beautiful) According to garmin it was a whopping 12 degrees out for my run.  2. Jon and I were going into Boston Saturday to watch the Bruins and the Cuse game and hang out with some people, so I wanted Sunday to rest up.

Anyway the 9 miles went fairly well. I still felt like crap starting mile 9. At this point I think its all just in my head, every weekend now will be a running record of longest run. Next weekend? 10. I am pretty pumped about that one.

For my run I decided to take a little tour of Waltham. Although I was so disappointed where I came across one of my favorite places to run and it was not plowed, like at all. I tried to go down the path a little to see if it would clear up, but no such luck. It was still a pretty run with no views.

Waltham Common...

Eventually the Charles river will not be frozen over.... eventually.

The stats...

Mile/ Pace: 

Mile 1: 9:22 

Mile 2: 9:04 

Mile 3: 8:47 

Mile 4: 9:11 

Mile 5: 9:09 

Mile 6: 9:51 

Mile 7: 9:25

Mile 8: 9:29 

Mile 9: 10:07 (walking & running due to running stitch and ice. I am so mad at myself I missed being all under 10:00 minute pace by 7 seconds!!) SO CLOSE. SO CLOSE.  Although the last few miles were all up hill. So I will give myself a little break. 

Mile 10: (.20 miles): 

I really like this chart...

So running goals and questions I have to get answered for myself during my next long run. 

1. Running stitches, where are you coming from, because it hurts! Always the last mile on my long runs. I think its because I have eaten before the last two runs. Although I feel like I should before burning 800 calories plus by running so many miles. Theory. To be tested. So far waffles and toast with almond butter and 1/2 of a banana are ruled out. I also may want to think of fueling during my run? Or having water on me?

2. Running shoes, I have a pair of probably two shoes. One is tight sturdy pair. I have been wearing thiese because they are better on the ice and snow that has been around for the majority of my training. However they are not my favorite pair which are my minimalist shoes. Are minimalist shoes okay for longer runs? I am not going have to do some research. 

3.  Goal: all miles to be under 10:00 with an average pace of under 9:20. I can do this.