Fall Half Training Week 3

Bit late with this.

Monday (July 8th)
- 45 minute lunch time yoga class with co-worker who just recently completed her teacher training. Outside in the courtyard, so a bit hot, but really great.
- strength training cut short due to power outage (which lasted 3 hours)

Tuesday
-4km's on the Belt Line. Couple of downed trees along the way

Wednesday
- Push Circuit 3: chest, back, legs and core. Making up for Monday's workout

Thursday
- 3.44km in 24 minutes (6.50/km) with running room clinic

Friday
- 6.21 km in 43 minutes (6:57/km pace)

Saturday
- REST DAY! So enjoyed this. I didn't even do any yoga, just ran some errands.

Sunday
LSD with Half Clinic - 9.04km in 1hr8 min (7:32/km)
I stuck with a small group of other 2:40 half marathoners. Great run - having company made the time go by.

All in all, a good week despite the weird storms/power outage.

My Garmin mysteriously has stopped beeping (when I plug it in, for intervals, splits, etc). Can't figure out why and have yet to fix it. Must call Garmin support this week.

Fall Half Training Week 2

Monday
Chalean Extreme Push Circuit 1 & Extreme Abs - biceps, triceps, lower body, core.
Followed up with Rodney Yee AM Yoga - Twists

Tuesday
5.58km, including 4K Tempo. 38 minutes (6:51/km)

Wednesday
4.34km including 3K Tempo. 29 minutes (6:42/km)
I couldn't make it to the Running Room for the group run, so did this on my own. I'm not sure if I'm doing the tempo runs correctly still but I'm definitely increasing my pace (this was my third fastest run ever according to Garmin Connect).

Thursday
3.08km in 22min (6:58/km)
2nd week with running room clinic. Nothing too exciting. I am enjoying running in a new neighbourhood.
Followed with a 4K walk home to cool down. Way too sweaty for the bus.

Friday
Chalean Extreme Push Circuit 2 & Extreme Abs - shoulders, lower body, core.

Saturday
75 minute Hatha Flow class. I really enjoy this class, but sadly will be the last one for awhile. As part of a "save money" plan for a fall trip, I'm cutting out a lot of extra spending and yoga classes is one of the things to go. I figure there are a lot of really good free yoga options available (dvd's that I already own or from the library, websites) so I can still get my yoga in without paying $15+ per class. I do also have access to a $5 class at work that just started up so I'm going to give that a try.

Sunday
7.8km LSD in 57 min (7:18/km)
Sunday morning clinic run which also happened to be Tune Up Run for the Waterfront Marathon. I won a shirt! Yay swag! I stuck with the slow poke group. Great run, good company, beautiful route. I felt really good, even with a couple of hills thrown in.

Stride Box Review

Confession - I'm a beauty product addict. Last year, I was getting monthly sample boxes from a variety of different companies (Glymm, Top Box, Glossy Box). I've noticed a couple of bloggers talking about some subscription boxes for runners so decided to check out StrideBox.

StrideBox is a monthly subscription box. Cost is $15 which includes shipping in the states - there's an extra $5 charge for shipping to Canada. Generally I get my box about a week after they start arriving in the states. The boxes ship automatically (charging your card) every month unless you cancel.

I've received two Stride Boxes so far, May and June. 

May's Box

The box is packed full of goodies - a mix of accessories/gadgets and nutritional products.
In May's box, I received the following:

• Just Great Stuff Bar (not a fan)
• A vanilla flavoured gel (VFuel Endurance Gel)
• Vanilla Protein Powder (Perfect Fit)
• Sport Beans (used for a training run)
• Cherry Cola Honey Stingers - Yay for new flavour. Very tastey.
• Bonk Breaker Bite (Peanut Butter & Jelly flavour so gave to my husband. I'm one of those weird people who don't like peanut butter).
• Blister Bands (2). Really should use this so I stop making the blister on my big toe worse.
• Water Bottle Cleaner Tablet
• Footwear clip for attaching your shoes to a bag. (Not sure if I will use this, but could come in handy).

June's Box:

• Skratch Labs Sports drink mix
• Almond Butter "Pocket Fuel" (I do like almond butter, just not peanut). I can't see eating this on a run. Think I'll save this for travelling.
• Electro Delytes Energy bar
• Power Ice Frozen Refereshing Ice Bar with Electrolytes! Such a good idea. Post run freezies!

• Blue Steel Sports Anti chafe cream with tea tree oil
• Lock laces
• Foot Rubz Massage Ball 

I kind of love this thing.

So far, I'm pretty happy with StrideBox. Lots of fun things to try out. July's box started arriving last week in the states, so I should get mine this week.

Fall Half Training Week 1

And so we begin again...

Three weeks away from any sort of training plan was nice, but I like structure in my workouts so happy to get going again.

I'll be running the Scotiabank Waterfront Half Marathon in October for the third time. I have a bit of nostalgia for this race as it was my first half in 2011. Signed up a week or two after running my first 10K and my friend was all like "I'm going to start training for a half!" and got me excited. Two years later, I've run 6 halfs and he has yet to do his first (I try to peer pressure him every year).

As anyone who's been following my blog this year will probably know, a 2:30 half has been my goal for a bit. I came close at my last two (2:33 and 2:34) so it's most likely very do-able this fall. As added insurance, I just began my first running room clinic to keep me on track and to make sure I'm getting quality training in.

Thinking back to my spring training, the things that worked well for me:

• increasing my run/walk ratio from 5/1's to 10/1's 
• running 4 times per week instead of 3
• decent tempo runs
• yoga and quality post-run stretching

Things that need to be changed:

• incorporating hills and speed work (especially the hills)
• maintaining 10/1's on all long runs. This really falls apart for me when I get tired and start taking extra walk breaks.
• keeping up with lower body strength training. I dropped it early in my training because my legs were tired all the time (perhaps P90X Legs and Back was not the best choice). My hips/quads don't bother me when I've been doing squats and the such so I'm going to keep on with the lower body work. I'm currently in phase 2 of Chalean Extreme so will keep at that, switching from three strength training sessions per week to two.

The running room clinic will keep me on track with the first two changes and I kind of love strength training, so I'm fine with the third. My weeks will look something like this (providing work/life doesn't get in the way):

Monday - strength training

Tuesday - run (tempos by the looks of my training plan)

Wednesday - run either with clinic whenever possible or on own. Tempos, speed, hills.

Thursday - run clinic 

Friday - strength training

Saturday - rest day or yoga 

Sunday - long with with clinic

6 days per week is my usual workout schedule so this seems manageable. I'm not 100% sure about the three running days in a row but we'll see how that goes.

Onto last week's training:

Monday

Chalean Extreme Push Circuit 1 & Extreme Abs. I love Push Circuit - heavy weights, 6 to 8 reps. I feel bad ass. Biceps, triceps, lower body and core. Followed up with a bit of Rodney Yee yoga.

Tuesday

Tempo Run. 6.05K in 43 minutes (7:02/km)

Wednesday

Push Circuit 2 & Extreme Abs. Shoulders, lower body, core.

Thursday

Running Room Clinic - tiny little run. Was supposed to be 3K but Garmin said 2.78. 19 minutes = 6:53/km. Decided to walk to and from Running Room which was 8K in total. Might not do that anymore.

Friday

Push Circuit 3 & Extreme Abs. Chest, back, lower body, core.

Saturday

Hatha Flow. Went in expecting an easy class, but the levels at the new studio I'm going to seem to be different than my old studio. This class was pretty much exactly at my level, so I could focus on my alignment and breathing. Challenging enough though to get a sweat going.

Sunday

First LSD with running room (took the bus this time - no walking). 7km in 51 minutes, 7:17/km. I really enjoyed running with a group and that kept me with my 10/1's, no extra walk breaks. Thinking now that maybe this wasn't as slow as needed since my best half marathon pace is 7:16/km, but I'm sure we'll slow down as the distance increases.

Yin Yoga - I have a month long unlimited pass so I'm trying some classes that I might not normally go to. This was super boring. 75 minute class, we probably did 12 poses - held for longer periods. I'm sure it was super beneficial for my body, but really not my thing.   

All in all, a good first week of training.