Catching up...and learning something new

I've been away from the blog for a few weeks, and one of my New Year's Resolutions is to be on a consistent blogging schedule, so why not start early.  Since the Trenton Half, I've been focusing on cross training and keeping up the regular runs to get ready for 2014 starting with WDW Marathon weekend where I'll be running the 10K and Half Marathon.  This is my first Disney race and our extended family is making the trip there...so there will be a lot going on that weekend. So what have I been doing since the last race?

My husband, daughter and I did a Turkey Trot 5K Thanksgiving Day, where my husband and I took turns pushing kiddo in the jogging stroller.

Kiddo and I are in our matching Sparkle skirts

At the very cold start, kiddo has the best seat in the house.

The view from the first hill 

My favorite part of this race was seeing my kiddo so happy to run the final part of the race by herself.  I hope I instill a love of exercise and running as she grows up.  

I've also been running without tracking the data which has been nice, just go get out there and run and not necessarily be constantly thinking about how fast (or not) I've been going.  I haven't completely stopped using data, I'm just using data for check-ins to mark my progress every once in a while. 

I've also started running with my dog, which is definitely an exercise in patience as she would rather sniff everything than run with me.  Once we get going, she is definitely a happy camper and good to run along. 

Mid trot.

Yesterday I did a double workout, first with the trainer in the morning and then a 6 mile run in the afternoon.  The weather has been unseasonably warm after the snow last week (like 66 degrees yesterday) so my usual running path is now muddy and icy.  The good news about this is that it forced me to find a new trail, which is always good to have a backup place to run.  

Late afternoon sky at the end of the run yesterday

So, since it was so warm out yesterday, I decided to put on my warmer weather running gear (which also happens to be extremely bright). I put my keys in the back zipper pocket and as soon as I start running I realize my pants are falling down (I've never had a problem with these pants before).  I take my keys out of the pocket and stick them in my bra hoping that'll solve the problem...which solves the first problem. Now I have a new problem, my keys are poking me. There is no drawstring on the pants so I can't make them tighter, I also know there isn't enough daylight to go back in the house and get another pair of pants and run 6 miles before the sun goes down, so I try to fold the top over on the pants to keep them up...that doesn't work.  I then try to hike them up really high so that hopefully they stay up, which doesn't work either.  I finally realize that my shirt covers my pants so I'm not exposing myself and I can focus on running instead of my clothing.  Lesson learned: wear pants that have a waistband (and retire these pants from my running rotation).

Post run 

Have you had any running mishaps?

Weekend activities & a long run do-over

Yesterday, kiddo came with me to see the trainer where she watched me (but she had to make sure I was only an arms distance away) at first.   Slowly she started to become more interested in the equipment and what I was doing.  After we were done, she wanted to check out the equipment.

She really wanted to do the row...

Since I didn't get my long run in last weekend, today was my 10 mile run day.  As I was preparing to run, I was thinking a lot about the last 10 mile run I did last fall to prepare for the Princeton Half Marathon (which was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy).  That 10 mile run did not feel good at all, my right started to hurt at mile 6 and I miscalculated my route so when I finished my run, I had to walk a mile home.  Limping home is never a good time especially after a run that didn't feel good. Fast forward to this run.  I decided I was going to work on a couple of things: 1-not start out too fast 2-work on negative splits and 3-finish under 2 hours. This run felt a lot better than last year's run.  I was able to run without feeling like I needed to walk and my hip didn't hurt at all. So I checked my stats for this run against last year's run to see the difference:

10/06/12

Today!

So I managed to meet all my goals for this run!  I had enough energy at the end to push the pace to finish under 2 hours and I shaved over 12 minutes off last year's 10 mile training run.

How did your weekend run go?

Trying new things this week

I'm continuing my training for my upcoming fall races, but there's always room to change some things up.  After I ran my 10K last Sunday,  I took my dog to doggie yoga. Because why not.  The challenge of doing yoga with your dog in a room full of other dogs is making sure that all the dogs will be relaxed enough to make the class enjoyable for everyone.  Luckily once everyone got to smell each other and feel each other out, we were good to go. 

The Happy Girl-Photo courtesy of Four Paws

I'd say our class was a success.  

This month has been hectic with work and traveling schedules, so I had to take my daughter to the appointment with the trainer.  I thought she might want to sit and watch, but she instead surprised us that she wanted to do the workout with me!  Although I pick her up regularly (as toddlers ask to be picked up a lot), doing targeted exercises while holding her in various positions definitely made it more challenging and fun. Getting to workout with my daughter and her seeing me being active is hopefully  setting a good example for her to be active as she gets older.

Bench presses with my 33 pound little one (feeling the burn)

Today was my long run day, so I had 8 miles on my schedule.  I downloaded the Road ID app but hadn't used it yet.  Since I was running solo, I figured this would be a good day to try it out.  It was incredibly easy to set up and I was glad to have found this app.  

Especially on solo runs, it's always a good idea to let someone know how far & where you'll be running.  

I felt pretty good on the first four miles and my splits were comparable to last week's 10k splits so I figured  I would be able to keep up that pace. I was feeling pretty confident about my pace, until I got 6 1/2 miles in and my legs started to tighten up.  What kept me going was knowing I was not far from home and I really didn't have much further to run.  

Another training run in the books.

I have a couple of weeks left before my next half marathon so I have a few more longer runs left before I begin my taper and packing to enjoy Boston.  I'm definitely feeling more confident about the upcoming races, in part because I have a half marathon under my belt. I mostly know what to expect and although every race is different,  I feel less apprehensive about upcoming races..

How is your training going?

Weekend Recap & Challenge(s) Accepted

Being an Military Spouse (in my case Army Wife) means sometimes you have to be commander-in-chief of your house for a couple of days/weeks/months while your partner/spouse is doing military things.  This time around it's only for a short time. For me, it also means I have to get creative on when to do workouts when the dog needs to get walked and our toddler needs everything (and sometimes at once).  To meet all of our needs, I nixed my long Sunday run to do a 4 mile walk with the two of them.

And we're off

Four legged friends need exercise too and they both enjoyed the fresh air on a beautiful day.

The fun part of walking with a dog is you never know what adventures await you.  For example, the gaggle of geese on the path.

Geese + dog = needing all your arm strength to keep doggie away

My pace must have been a little fast for her, because at 3 miles doggie decided she was done with the walk.

Over it.

I had to coax her to get home so our last mile took a little longer than I planned but everyone got some exercise.

And now the challenge...

There are a lot of challenges popping up for August.  One group of friends are doing a full body workout challenge so I said I would join them, when another friend asked if I wanted to take on a squat challenge with her. After looking over them both, I decided to combine the two.  I was on schedule with the squat challenge but was already 3 days behind in the full body challenge so I decided to combine Day 1 and Day 2 on Friday and do Day 3 on Saturday.  

Day 1 & 2 combined (Friday):

35 sit ups

13 crunches

13 leg raises

23 second plank

21 push ups

55 squats

Day 3 (Saturday): 

25 sit ups

10 crunches

10 leg raises

15 seconds plank

12 push ups

60 squats

Sunday was a rest day on the challenge and today was 70 squats (Day 5).  Things I learned today: don't do squats right after drinking coffee. No bueno. My stomach was not happy for the rest of the day. 

In addition to the squat challenge, I'm challenging myself more by trying different things in my cross training.  I went to extreme sculpt at my gym tonight (I did not do the full body challenge today) instead of my typical body pump class.  It was extreme alright.  We did at minimum 60 pushups & dips in addition to squats, rows, etc.  I left there feeling like I was going to throw up, but stronger. I'm going to be sore tomorrow (I already feel it now).  It might be hard and seem borderline impossible in the moment to try something new, but you may discover something about yourself in the process.

What would you like to try?

More muscle, check!

The gym I belong to offers free health assessments with the nurse every 6-8 weeks, and I finally booked my appointment with the nurse.  Since the fall, I've put on 3 pounds of muscle and lost 2 pounds overall.  My body fat percentage has dropped 3.1%!  

Since I began training and running again last July, I've lost approximately 15 lbs (I didn't do an assessment when I first started so I don't have a full data summary of where I was). I feel better and my clothes fit better. 

In addition to any workout routine, nutrition plays a huge role in your results. A quick search will bring you a plethora of information on what to eat and what to avoid you can start here and here.  

For me, the added bonus of seeing results is also not being complacent about where I currently am. I like the challenge of figuring out what to do next to continue to build muscle and strength while keeping up endurance and avoiding injury going into the fall racing season.  My racing goals are always 1. Finish and 2. Don't lose any toenails but now that I've done a Half Marathon, I want to challenge myself to see how much faster I can become.

This summer I will be doing a lot of cross training in addition to runs to continue to build muscle and strength.