Monday, January 30, 2012

Just another Pilates Monday

Whoa, whoa...I wish it were Friday...whoa, whoa...cause that's my rest day, an "I don't have to run day"...whoa, whoa.  Incidentally, I realized the other day, playing Words with Friends, that I've always spelled whoa as woah and didn't even realize I was spelling it wrong until WWF wouldn't let me play the word.  Things WWF taught me...And apparently I made up a real word the other day too.  Azoth, it's real, play it on WWF.  Just make sure the Z is in the right spot like a TL or that you hit a TW or something because I didn't and it really didn't net me that many points.  If you're going to make up a word as impressive as Azoth it should at least be a 30+ pointer.

Anyway, I digress.  Today was a Pilates day.  I'm loving Pilates on Monday.  The time is perfect (10am), which is late enough that I'm not rushing and I can usually get a load of laundry thrown in and/or load/unload the dishwasher before running out the door, but it's early enough that you get home (~11:15am) and it's still pretty early and there's lots of the day left.  Plus there's an open gymnastics on Mondays at 3pm, so that's a perfect window of time to get lunch together and also get a bunch of chores done around the house without feeling too guilty because the kids still have open gymnastics to look forward to (and get all their spaz out - thanks open gym!)

I paid attention to my odometer on the way to/from the Y today and realized it's ~4mi.  Despite the fact that I just ran that distance yesterday and that it's a relatively short drive, it still seems like a super long distance!  And it really freaked me out!  Like running from home to the Y isn't even close to HALF of the half marathon.  Christ!  What was I thinking??  But at least I just figured out a new route to try this weekend if it's nice out.  I mapped it out on the Dailymile website and titled it "YMCA to home" before realizing that when you create a running route it's not kept private on your profile, it goes into the public route log.  So you're welcome serial killers and rapists!  You've got a map straight to my house now!  (I did change the name to something a little less "here is a map to my house, my husband travels for work generally 2 out of 4 weeks each month, so please come have your way with me" instead, but having a public map with a line drawn straight to my house does make me feel a little icky.  I wish there was a "keep private" option!  I know, I know, drama queen, but still...

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Wash, rinse, repeat

Another Winnekenni Trail run, hopefully I can find some new trails this spring because I think Winnekenni is going to get old fast.  But I'll get to my run later.

This morning when I woke up, at 9am (the hubs let me sleep in this AM, although I'm not sure there was actually much option involved), despite the fact that I got a really good night's sleep (finally!), I felt totally worn out when I got up.  I was dreading going out running more than anything.  It felt like every one of my limbs weighed a million pounds, so I was definitely lazy for a while.  I was impressed with the hubs this morning though, he was feeling quite motivated and even took the kids to the babysitting room at the gym to get a workout in.  That gave me the opportunity to hit up Kohl's for some new sports bras sans kids (it's the only way to get your Kohl's on).  I went a little giddy in the fitness section and ended up buying a bunch of sports bras, some new running tights, and a new outer layer (w/ media pocket & secret car key pocket on the arm).  I'm such a sucker for secret pockets!

I finally got out for my run around 3ish and literally wanted to quit about 10 steps into it.  I decided to run the opposite direction around Kenoza Lake at Winnekenni today than I did yesterday so that I wouldn't make the 2.58 mile marker mistake again.  It was supposedly ~40deg again today, but it was really windy so it definitely felt a LOT colder, and the wind made it feel like I wasn't even moving forward.  Really kind of regretted running "backwards" today too because the sun was totally in my eyes and there was a lot of glare off the water and ice on the trail and I felt a bit foolish for attempting a trail run in those conditions.  Really had to be super careful going over the ice today, there was a lot more than yesterday.  I also decided to try to run a different way and completely follow the trail on the edge of the lake instead of the mapped out route on the Winnekenni website (which has you run on the road for about a 1/2 mile or maybe 3/4 and I hate that part).  I guess they have you run that way for a reason because I ended up in an area with all these No Trespassing signs up and had to run around a building at the water reservoir just to get back to the road (whoops!) Lesson learned.  That definitely added some distance that I wasn't expecting though!

Despite the wind and how much I was NOT enjoying the run, I didn't look at my iPhone until I was already at 2.68 miles though and I was psyched!  Progress!  By then I'd gotten to an easier part of the trail more in the woods than on the water's edge and the wind was more blocked, so I kept running for a while longer.  Still hated every step, but I just really wanted to see how far I could go.  Didn't look at my phone again until 3.92 miles!  (I had a little internal goal, once I knew I was near 3 miles to make it to these benches I had remembered along the trail) and I guess they were further than I thought because I was NOT expecting to get to 3.92 miles!  So then I stared at the screen for another 0.08 miles just to make it to an even 4 and the time was 47:20.  So that means I got under 12:00/mile average for the run!  Holy crap!  I was pretty shocked.  And I'd have been more pleased except that the run sucked so bad I'm afraid I will never want to get back out and run again!  Also, I realized I had a giant blister on the arch of my right foot and I still had to walk all the way back to my car (almost a mile).  Ugh.  I'm glad it's over anyway!

I got another donation today, so I'm up to $200 now I think.  I really need to remember to send out some thank you emails soon to the people who have already donated, but not now because it's WAY past my bedtime!  G'night!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Trail Run - Winnekenni

Today was a run day, and the weather was particularly beautiful for January (sunny & ~40deg), so I decided to run outside at Winnekenni instead of on a crappy treadmill.  Technically I was supposed to log a 3mi run today according to the half marathon training schedule I made for myself, but since I've been feeling really crappy running on the treadmill (and barely able to make it 1 or 2 miles) I decided to just try to "have fun" (as much as that is possible for me when running is involved) and just see how far I could go.  Was pretty psyched about how good I was feeling.  It was super muddy (way more than I was expecting) and there were actually tons of large icy patches that I had to stop and carefully walk over.  There were also a few streams to jump over, but this is why I prefer trail running to road running.  At a certain point on the trail, I kind of knew I was in the neighborhood of 2.5mi (from having run around Winnekenni before), and I made the mistake of looking at my iPhone with the Nike+ GPS app tracking my run.  I was right, 2.58mi, so at that moment I knew that I had just short of 0.5mi until I actually made my (non-goal) goal (no matter how hard I try to convince myself I can have no goal, I always actually do have one).  Of course as soon as I realized that I only had half a mile left, my legs turned to complete stone and it was like the worst half mile of my entire life.  I checked the phone again at 2.61mi, 2.63, 2.68, 2.73, 2.75 (at which point I was like "ok, a quarter of a mile left, that's like once around a track, I can totally do that - I'm not looking at the phone again until I'm definitely over 3mi") so I ran and ran and ran and decided that whenever I hit another super bend in the trail I'd look at my phone again...and I did, and I was at 2.91 - seriously??  At that point I essentially stared at my phone until I hit 3mi and stopped and stood still for a few seconds so I could try to log a "stop" in the GPS tracking and get my pace for the run part later on after I stopped.  Of course, I can't seem to view the nike+ website on Safari, so I'm guessing it's not supported, but that's a real bummer because I'd love to know my real pace.  I think I remember seeing that it was 37+ mins when I stopped, but I had a technical snafu at the beginning and started the run on the nike+ app before I was ready (maybe about 30 seconds or so) and I also had to stop a lot to avoid the glaciers, but I'm guessing I was still only about a 12:00min pace and I'm a bit disappointed by that because I swear I was running faster than that.  I really tried to pick it up in places just to see how fast I could get my pace, but according to the app my fastest pace was 10:32 and I'm sure I only kept that up for a few hundred yards at best!  Oh well, I'm not really that disappointed overall because I never thought I was actually going to be able to run 3mi non-stop today, so YAY for that!  That last half mile sucked big hairy balls, but that's ok.  I hope it's nice for my run tomorrow too, so I can run outside again because the one thing that today clearly indicated is that I loathe running on the treadmill.  I know it's all mental, but it's SO much nicer to have scenery!!  (and obstacles to make it fun).  Wait, did I just suggest that running could be fun??  What is wrong with me??

Anyway, when I did start walking back to my starting point I was feeling pretty darn good about myself.  And I can't wait to go out to dinner tonight for Michele's birthday and order whatever I want because I totally deserve it now!!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Not so rest day

Considering I've totaled about 3 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours (Pickle, you did NOT live up to your end of our deal.  Can I sue?), it definitely took a LOT of effort to get through today - and that's without any workout!  I actually did hit the gym for a little while, but only stretched in the stretching area for about 30 mins (SO SORE today!), and it was really just to offload the boys in the babysitting room for my own sanity.  I realize I must sound like Mother of the Year in these first several posts here (italics being the "official" sarcasm font), but in my defense this has been one trying week.  Greg has been away since pretty much Monday (technically he came home Tuesday night, but essentially just to crash in bed and he was up and out for his trip before the next day even started), but he travels a lot and I'm pretty used to it, so that wasn't even really it.  The big one has entered a phase where he literally doesn't listen to a word I say and just laughs at me or collapses in a giant temper tantrum if he doesn't like what he hears, and the little one is in that "I'm going to drag anything I can pull to stand on to reach the" [fill in the blank - hot stove, sink full of dishes, knife block, sharpies in a pen jar to scribble on the fridge, giant scissors in the clutter drawer, etc. etc. etc.] phase - (big enough to accomplish huge physical feats, and independent enough to hear you say "No!" and completely ignore you), so you just have to chase him around the house 24/7 to keep him from killing himself.  Anyone who's had a pre-2 year old knows this phase all too well.  And I'm thinking I might want another one some day?  Really, what am I thinking?

So the day started off with a trip to Babies 'R Us to take advantage of their trade-in sale.  Traded in the stroller part of my Chicco travel system that hasn't been used in 2 years.  And I think that the infant car seat part of that travel system would actually expire too soon if I did, in fact, want to use it for a potential third baby, so I probably wouldn't have use for the stroller anymore anyway.  I feel slightly guilty not donating it to charity, and I admit I have no idea what Babies 'R Us does with all the trade-ins.  But I managed to score a new Sit 'n Stand stroller and saved almost $60, so despite the fact that I almost let my kids get rides home with strangers for misbehaving so badly, I considered it a successful trip.

After Babies 'R Us we went to the Y, the boys went in the babysitting room and then they went crazy in open gymnastics.  Went home for lunch.  My MIL came to take the big one to the library, and I attempted to put the new stroller together (although Pickle made that VERY difficult).  After the library, my MIL offered me a little time to run out by myself (angels singing in unison - AHHHH!!! "alone time"....) to buy some new sports bras (really need them!) only as soon as I park, I called the hubs to find out his ETA and he informs me that he lost his car keys.  We don't have a spare.  Great.  So my running errands time turns into driving to Chelmsford to pick up the hubs and trying to come up with a workable plan on how to get everywhere we need to be separately over the weekend with only one car.  The hubs makes a million phone calls to everywhere he could have possibly left his keys and also to local dealerships to see if he could have a new key made STAT.  Turns out the car would have to be present at the dealership, so it appeared a tow was going to be in our future.  Ugh.  But then, just as I was a few minutes away from his office, lo' and behold, he locates his keys after checking his bag for the umpteenth time.  Angels singing again because we don't need to pay for a tow.  I don't even care about missing out on sports bra shopping (really need to though!) and the wasted drive (almost) all the way to his office.  I got a little quiet time in the car and that was pretty worth it.

It's 9pm and the hubs is already snoring like a chainsaw.  Poor guy had a pretty tough day.  He spent the morning at the spa relaxing, reading his book, and getting a massage and then had a grueling 2+ hour drive home from the Omni Mt. Washington Resort in the afternoon.  Geez, no wonder he can't keep his eyes open long enough to finish our episode of The Mentalist.

I'm beyond exhausted though and already dreading that I have to run tomorrow.  Ugh.  I despise running. What was I thinking???

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Holy Bootcamp Batman!

Well, there were only 3 of us in bootcamp tonight and Tom totally kicked our butts!  I actually didn't mind though.  Tomorrow is my rest day and now I feel like I deserve it!  Plus, my kids were driving me beyond bonkers (do I detect a theme here?) and I would have pretty much endured anything to have a few moments to myself!

Took the kids swimming before bootcamp, so I pretty much rocked it today.  Perhaps this will become our normal Thursday afternoon plan.  It was pretty awesome to see them having so much fun, and I was very impressed with how much they've been getting out of their swim lessons.  (I guess I should sign them up again next session and get them back into it!)  Of course all the enjoyment experienced with them in the pool quickly flew by the wayside when they turned into crazy little hell raisers in the locker room and I vowed never to take both of them swimming by myself ever again.  Of course I'm sure "Momnesia" will kick in by next Thursday and we'll be back in the pool again.

I am happy to report though, that although I had no dinner plan yet again after bootcamp (and had to leave so early for swimming that I didn't have time to prepare anything ahead of time), I did avoid Burger King (which I heard Kyle refer to as King Hamburger).  I opted to cook omelets with raisin toast instead.  Not exactly the healthiest dinner I suppose, but a hell of a lot better than King Hamburger!  By the by, blogger is refusing to let me spell omelet o-m-e-l-e-t-t-e, which is how I would normally spell it.  And a quick google search shows me that Wikipedia agrees with me, so it must be right!

Oh, I definitely regretted my o-m-e-l-e-t-t-e decision though, when I turned my back for ONE second and my rascal of a 20-month-old got hold of the leftover eggs and smashed them on the kitchen floor and then proceeded to stomp around in the raw egg before I could reach him.  Awesome.  Oh well, sleep through the night Pickle and all will be forgiven.  Ok?  Crap, it's 10pm already?  Where oh where did my night go??  Blog out!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

First 2-in-1 Training Day

Granted, it was barely 2-in-1, but I love a catchy headline!  So I decided to offload my kids in the babysitting room for a little while before Pilates (just needed a little extra time to myself!)  They were driving my bonkers today!

Decided to super take it easy on the treadmill though and set the treadmill to 2% incline and 13:02 min mile.  Only had time to run 1 mile, but at that pace I probably could have gone longer (quit while you're ahead!)  My big toe on my right foot did start aching pretty quickly again though...really need to address that - don't want any injuries!

Went to Pilates after and was still super sore from bootcamp yesterday, so I had to do a lot of the exercises in the "modified" positions.  I don't care though, still feel like I'm getting something out of it!

Really wasn't psyched about not getting home with the boys until almost 8pm, but at least I was smart enough to put out their jammies ahead of time!

Officially doing another race!

Today I officially signed up for my first half marathon!  I've been considering it for a little while now ever since I knew I'd be signing up for the marathon, and today I decided to stop hemming and hawing.  I think it will be the best way to make sure I really start getting my butt in gear and start training for the full marathon (since it's all the way in October and knowing myself, I KNOW I would totally keep putting it off since October is "forever away").  So by May 6th I need to be ready for 13.1 miles.  That's less than 15 weeks away.  Whoa.

Of course now I'm hemming and hawing over my training schedule.  (Apparently, I always have an internal debate going on about something...)  Before the marathon ever became a reality, my workout routine was Mon/Wed Pilates and Tues/Thurs Bootcamp, and I get so much out of both of them I really don't want to give them up.  I figure I'll run both days of the weekends too.  So, to get a third run in every week I either need to double up on a Pilates or Bootcamp day (most likely Pilates, since the idea of going on a run before having to endure bootcamp makes me break out in hives!) or give up my one rest day (which means running 3 days in a row...)  The second option doesn't really seem like the best idea because I feel like I need to spread my runs out a bit more, but in theory, today would be my 'add in a run' Pilates day because doing that on Mondays would still mean 3 days in a row of running.  Honestly though, my body is really feeling my recent workouts today - just about every muscle is screaming out in soreness.  I hope I'm not getting in over my head here!  Maybe I should rethink it, but this is what I'm planning for training after cross-referencing a bunch of suggested training plans:

Monday - Pilates 1hr (stretch & strengthen day)
Tuesday - Bootcamp 1hr (cross-train day)
Wednesday - Run & Pilates 1hr (stretch & strengthen day plus run)
Thursday - Bootcamp 1 hr (cross-train day)
Friday - REST DAY
Saturday - Long Run
Sunday - Run

I'm most nervous about having a run day in between 2 bootcamp days, and I kind of feel like it will have to be a short run day, but then that means I have my medium and long runs 2 days in a row...Ugh, maybe I'll have to rethink whether I can continue with both Pilates & Bootcamp 2 days a week...

I wasn't going to add my midweek short run in yet, but my kids are driving me bonkers today.  Perhaps I'll bring them to the Y with me early and run on the treadmill for a bit to get a break from them!!!

Here are the websites I used to research training plans for the half marathon:

Hal Hidgeon's Novice Half Marathon Training Program

Jeff Galloway's Half Marathon Training Schedule

Runner's World Ultimate Half Marathon Training Plan

Marathon Rookie Half Marathon Training for Beginners

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Bootcamp

Today was bootcamp day.  Surprisingly (given how little sleep I've gotten the past few nights), I felt really good during bootcamp!  Sweet!  I was actually still sore (abs and triceps) from Pilates yesterday - abs I understand, but triceps?  From planks?  -that's the only thing I can think of.  It was a pretty hard bootcamp today too.  Lots of pushups, squats, TONS of kettle bell, some sprints, and core until I thought my abs were on fire (and they were already sore!)  Had to put the boys in the babysitting room because Greg's away all week and had nothing prepared for dinner after, so I was awful and stopped at Burger King drive thru on the way home.  Awful!  And I'm surprised that I'm not really losing weight with all this hardcore exercising??  I'm so tired now I can hardly hold my arms up to type.

Oh and, Michele, if you're reading this, Happy Birthday! :-)

Monday, January 23, 2012

First post - Wow, I'm back into blogging!

So I signed up (officially!) to run a marathon in October and decided to keep track of my training progress in a training blog.  I guess that means I'm back into blogging again!  First step, HIDE old blog from view. (It's far too embarrassing now!) - check.  Start training so I have something to blog about - check.  So here goes!

Today:
1 hour of Pilates.  It's my stretch and strengthen day.

Yesterday (Sunday):
Did 30 mins on the treadmill including 2 mins of walking warmup/cool down (4 mins total).  Set the treadmill to 2% incline, 5.3mph or 11:32 mile pace for the running part.  Had to walk a section in the middle and end.  Set it to 5% incline, 4mph, 15:00mile pace for the walking.  (Only narrowly avoided a potential MEI -marathon ending injury- when I was being a good samaritan and assisting the woman next to me with her treadmill and drifted too far to the side of the belt and caught the edge of the treadmill.  Almost went flying tits over ass, but luckily managed to grab the handrails, sadly not before looking like a complete a-hole on a treadmill in the gym in front of everyone behind me on the elliptical machines though!  Damn ellipticizers - thinking they're all cool cause they've got poles!  Note to self: Pause exists for a reason!)  Overall felt better than Saturday, but still feel like "What the F am I doing?" about training for a freaking marathon.  After 30mins on the treadmill I felt even more wiped out than after an hour of bootcamp.  Evidently, I really need to work on my cardio!  Today I remembered my armband and used a new pair of headphones.  Still find the cord for my headphones super annoying and distracting though.  Wore my Asics and custom orthotics and the toes of my right foot rubbed against the side of my shoe - if I'd gone any longer I'm sure I would have gotten blisters.  Got a migraine in the afternoon - totally sucked!  Lost vision, nasty lingering headache (even after 4 ibuprofen) and felt very nauseas.

Saturday:
Breaking the training cherry.  Had only 15 mins to jump on the treadmill, but I really just wanted a starting point.  It totally sucked and I hated every second of it (ugh!).  Set the treadmill to 1.5% incline and 11:32 running pace, but walked the first 2 mins for a warmup and last 2 mins as a cool down.  Made it just over a mile.  Forgot my armband for my iPhone and used an old pair of headphones, which kept falling out of my ears.  Wore my (new) New Balance running shoes and non-custom orthotics and had pain in the joint of my big toe on my right foot.