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.

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.

Spring Half Training Week 19

Almost there!

Monday
10.5km in 1hr16 (7:16/km) Humid!
60 minute Moksha Yoga Class - the instructor went pretty easy on us. I was dripping with sweat before we even got started. Monday was generally a sweaty day for me.

Tuesday
Strength Training - I started off with my Chalean Extreme DVD, but pretty quickly had some pain in my quad. Perhaps changing up my strength training three weeks before my race was not a good idea? Switched over to some upper body exercises instead to give my legs a rest. Did some foam rolling later in the evening.

Wednesday
5.42km in 38 minutes (7:02/km) - Leg started out alright, than really started to hurt than got better again at the end of my run. Cut run a bit short and headed home for more foam rolling.

Thursday
Strength Training - upper body, core and more foam rolling. My foam roller and I were very good friends last week.

Friday
6.51km in 45 minutes (6:53/km) No pain! Leg back to normal! 10/1's X 4

Saturday
Rest day

Sunday
12.17km in 1hr28 (7:13/km) Beautiful morning! Bit chilly to begin. Was wishing I was running Ottawa or TO Women's Half instead of Niagara Falls Women's Half cause next Sunday is going to be HOT!

This week: tapering, resting, foam rolling, watching the weather forecast.

Spring Half Training Week 18

Almost there! Two more week until Niagara Falls Women's Half  and than I can take a break! No structured workouts for three weeks!!!!

Monday
Chalean Extreme. Taking a break from P90X and going back to my buddy Charlene Johnson for awhile. Workouts are shorter and include lower body moves with upper body. Burn Circuit 1 - lower body, chest and shoulders. Followed by Ab Burner.

Tuesday
6.08 km in 42 minutes (6:56/km)
Almost continuous. Took 2 little walk breaks and stopped at an intersection.

Wednesday
Burn Circuit 2 + Ab Burner. Legs, biceps, triceps, back, abs.

Thursday
8.56 km in 1hr 2 min (7:11/km)
10/1's except when I completely zoned out on a walk break - that turned into a 10/3.
Followed by Detox Yoga #2

Friday
Burn Circuit 3 & Ab Burner - lower body, shoulders, ab

Saturday
5km continuous in 35min. (6:59/km).

While I enjoyed switching up my strength training workouts, beginning to think that changing things up three walks before a half marathon might not have been the best idea. My legs were exhausted by the end of the week and I'm having some muscle pain today. Think I'll go into taper mode this week and next to rest up a bit.

Spring Half Training Week 16 & 17

Week 16

Taper Week

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 5K's at what was supposed to be race pace, but ended up a bit quick (6:58/km instead of 7:07)

Wednesday: Bob Harper Yoga

Thursday: 4K's at 6:58/km Last race prior to last Sunday's half marathon. Followed by Rodney Yee AM Yoga - Forward Bends

Friday & Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Half Marathon!



Week 17

Monday: Rest. Limped around.

Tuesday: P90X Chest & Back. Getting back to it, but gave the legs another day to recover.

Wednesday: 5K at 7:04/km. Getting the legs working again.

Thursday: Bob Harper Pure Strength. Ouch. Legs hurt the next day.

Friday: 6K at 7:06/km. Rather humid out. Saw quite a few people wearing Sporting Life shirts from various years. I had my 2012 shirt on too.

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Sporting Life 10K. Race recap coming soon.

Spring Half Training 2013 Week 15

Last real week of training!

This week I got back into my yoga, did some extra strength training and tried something new with my running.

Monday
P90X Back & Biceps, Bob Harper Totally Ripped Core (10 minute workout), Rodney Yee Ultimate Power Yoga - Power Foundation.

Tuesday
4km run, continuous. Decided to skip the usual walk breaks and just run at a comfortable pace - which turned out to be my goal half pace (adding the walk breaks back would bring it up to 7:07). I'm going to do at least one continuous run a week with a goal to be able to run 8K continuous by the end of the year. Followed by Ultimate Power Yoga - Sun Salutations

Wednesday
P90X Chest, Shoulders & Triceps - making some good progress on push ups. Followed up with some core work on a ball and a bit of yoga.

Thursday
6K run. Beautiful morning out. Saw a couple of rabbits.

Friday
Three quarters of Bob Harper Pure Burn, Super Strength. This video is over an hour long so I didn't have time before work for the whole thing. This might have been a mistake as my legs were sore for the next two days.

Saturday
Vinyasa yoga class at The Yoga Sanctuary. Really good class - challenging yet doable. This is the first time I've ever had Wheel Pose explained in such a way that I could do it. 

Sunday
This was supposed to be 10K, but my legs were still sore from Friday's workout and my hip was bothering me so I cut my run short and ended up doing 7.5 instead. Followed up with some yoga.

This week, I'm focusing on giving my body a rest before Sunday's race. I have two pre-race runs planned (8km and 5km), some yoga, maybe some Core Synergistics. Staying away from Bob Harper dvd's. 

Spring Half Training 2013 Week 14

Week 1 of tapering.

Monday

Rest day. Monday was tough. I had been extremely busy at work all day so even though I had heard the news out of Boston, I didn't have a chance to fully digest things until I got home. Than I stayed glued to the TV for the rest of the night.

Tuesday

8.9 km. Had to run. Not my best run of the week or even the last 3 months, but needed to be done.

Wednesday

P90X Back & Biceps, Nike Training Club core. Back to my buddy Tony Horton. Pain.

Thursday

5K on the treadmill with updated version of Zombies, Run! Definitely makes treadmill running a bit more interesting.

Friday

5.44km at roughly half marathon goal pace.

Saturday

P90X Chest, Shoulders & Triceps followed by some core work on the ball. Still feeling this today.

Sunday

10K on the Belt Line . Beautiful day for a run. Lots of people and dogs out. I stopped on the bridge to cheer on the Yonge Street 10K

Looking forward to running this soon.

I pretty much stopped with my daily yoga last week and I'm feeling a difference. My hamstrings definitely feel tighter and I was a bit achy during Sunday's run (might have also been the heels I wore the night before at work). Going to get back to it this week.

Looking forward to a new week.

Spring Half 2013 Training Week 13

Bit late. I should be posting about week 14 soon. I just haven't felt like blogging this week until now.

Monday (April 8th)
Half of P90X Chest & Back , Nike Training Club - Paula Radcliffe workout (mostly legs and core), little bit of yoga.

Tuesday (April 9th)
10km at race pace (or there abouts - bit faster). I spent most of the run staring at my Garmin to keep on pace. Pretty happy cause I ran 10.2km in 1 hr12 and my 10K PR is 1hr13. Things are looking good for Sporting Life! Followed up with a Rodney Yee yoga work out - restorative poses.

Wednesday (April 10th)
5.74km followed by Hip Opening Flow 2.

Thursday (April 11th)
Bob Harper Total Body Transformation. I got this from library and really like it. Bob keeps saying "it's the toughest workout ever!" and it was pretty tough, but I think Insanity beats it. Good mix of cardio and high rep/low weight strength training. Think I might need to buy this one.
Followed up with Lunar Flow after work.

Friday (April 12)
Treadmill run - was supposed to do 6K but I slept in so did 4.9 instead. More Rodney Yee yoga.

Saturday (April 15
Bob Harper Yoga for the Warrior. I'm on a Bob kick for some reason. I've had this DVD for a while, but had never really given it a real chance. I wasn't able to get to a class, so this was a good substitution. Challenging but left me feeling relaxed at the end - exactly what I want from a yoga class.

Sunday (April 14)
20K LSR

Now it's taper time!

Spring Half Marathon Training Week 12

What happened to weeks 1 to 11?? Well, I wasn't blogging and really, I don't feel like going through all of the previous weeks. Let's just say I did some running, did some P90X and some yoga.

Week 12 recap

Monday
P90X Chest & Back, Chalean Extreme Ab Burner. Followed by Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga. Not my favourite DVD by any means. Too much chatter.

Tuesday
Before Work: 5K Tempo Run on Treadmill. Aiming for a 7 minute/km pace, came in at 6:57/km. Ran 15 minutes, walked 2, ran 18 minutes. Doing what I can to make 10/1's feel more comfortable.
Yoga for Runners: Post Run

Wednesday
Bob Harper Pure Burn Super Strength - I've had this for awhile but first time I've done the workout. Very challenging.
Yoga for Hips, Hamstrings and Back

Thursday
6K in nice weather! Followed by Rodney Yee Ultimate Power Yoga - Sun Salutations. DVD had just arrived from Amazon. Quickly becoming my favourite yoga DVD.

Friday
Yoga for Runners - Pre Run. Other wise a day off.

Saturday
Harry's Spring Run Off 8K
60 minute Moksha class

Sunday
90 Minute Hatha Class

Overall a good week. Not much in the way of overall mileage, but as it was a race week, took things a bit early. Lots of yoga. Also think I'm going to start deviating away from P90X and start switching up my weight training a bit.

Week So Far

After the half marathon on the 16th, I took things easy the rest of the week. I did a couple of short runs but my hip was bothering me. I ended up going out of town on the week-end to visit my parents and purposely didn't bring any workout gear with me so I would take a rest break.

That seemed to be exactly what I needed. Sunday I came home and went out for a run. One of my goals for the year is to lower my 5K PR to 38 minutes. I did run/walk intervals of 3/1. My run intervals were between 6.26min/km and 7.25min/km and I hit 5km at 37 minutes and 59 seconds. Hopefully I can repeat this at Saturday's race.

When I got home, I did 40 minutes of stretching which seemed to help work out all of the lingering kinks.

Monday evening, I went back to my buddy Tony Horton and did P90X Back & Biceps and followed up with Ab Ripper X. Ouch. I've been neglecting my weight training in the final weeks of half marathon training so I was quite sore afterwards.

Pouring rain when I got home last night so I hung out with my other Beach Body friend Charlene and did Fire 30 followed by more stretching.

So back into regular workout routine and feeling good.

Week Recap May 2 - 7

Busy week! Haven't had time or energy to blog.
Last Week:
Monday: Push Circuit 1 & Ab Burner Done.
Tuesday: Run 5K Was raining and chilly so did Fire 45 instead.
Wednesday: Push Circuit 2 & Ab Burner Done but started Extreme Abs instead of Ab Burner
Thursday: Yoga Ran 5K
Friday: Run 5K My birthday! I did Push Circuit 3 & Extreme abs instead of running (raining - again).
Saturday: Push Circuit 3 & Ab Burner I had to work and forgot I was going to a stag n doe in the evening, so no workout.
Sunday: Run 6K Did 5 instead.
I'm loving Push Circuit. I prefer doing one move at a time rather than say bicep curls with squats. I can focus more on the movement. And I love lifting heavier weights. I have a bit of joint damage in my wrists, so I need to be careful but so far, so good.
This week's plan:

• Monday: Push Circuit 1 & Extreme Abs
• Tuesday: Fire 55 EZ
• Wednesday: Push Circuit 2 & Extreme Abs
• Thursday: Run 5K
• Friday: Push Circuit 3 & Extreme Abs
• Saturday: rest
• Sunday: run 6K

Week Recap (Apr 25 - May 1)

Been a bit of a crazy week.
Found out I'm getting a promotion in July. Busiest week of the year at work. Royal Wedding on Friday (loved every moment of it - may have watched it twice on PVR).
Ran my first 10k!!
I'll write more about this later. My goal was to finish at 1hr20 (8min/km pace) and I finished at 1:20:39! Super close! This was the biggest race I've run (15,000 runners). I'm super proud of myself for completing this.
Last Week's Workouts:
Monday: TF Sculpt 30 & Core 20 Check
Tuesday: Rest Done
Wednesday: Run 5K Did Fire 45 instead
Thursday: Fire 55 EZ Did Tone 30 & Core 20 instead
Friday: TF Tone 30 & Core 20 (this might be skipped though to watch the royal wedding) Actual: Completely skipped for royal wedding watching.
Saturday: Some form of yoga Rested. My joints were a bit flared up so wanted to rest them.
Sunday: My first 10K!!
On tap for this week:

• Voting! (Federal election time in Canada - we seem to do this every 2 years).
• My 31st Birthday! (on Friday)

Workout Plan:

• Monday: Push Circuit 1 & Ab Burner
• Tuesday: Run 5K
• Wednesday: Push Circuit 2 & Ab Burner
• Thursday: Yoga
• Friday: Run 5K
• Saturday: Push Circuit 3 & Ab Burner
• Sunday: Run 6K

Feels Like Spring (Finally)

Feels like spring!! Yay! Hopefully no more snow.
I lost two pounds this week so maybe I've broken through my plateau. Eating a bit more seems to have helped.
I finished the Burn phase of Chalean Extreme. I'm looking forward to moving onto the Push phase. I might write a bit more about my experience with the Burn phase later.
My 10K is coming up next Sunday so I'm going to take things a bit easy this week. I won't be starting Push phase until the first week of May as I don't want to try anything new prior to my race.
Last week:
Monday: Burn Circuit 1 & Ab Burner
Done
Tuesday: Rest
Took the rest day - I was feeling antsy, but rest is good.
Wednesday: Run 10K
Ran 9.5K. So close.
Thursday: Burn Circuit 2 & Ab Burner
Check
Friday: Run 6K
Did 5 instead
Saturday: Burn Circuit 3 & Ab Burner
Check
Sunday: Run 5K
Ran 6 instead.
Next Week's Plan:Monday: TF Sculpt 30 & Core 20
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: Run 5K
Thursday: Fire 55 EZ
Friday: TF Tone 30 & Core 20 (this might be skipped though to watch the royal wedding)
Saturday: Some form of yoga
Sunday: My first 10K!!

Week-End

- Had a non-tracking food day yesterday. I ate whatever I wanted all day and didn't track anything. Surprisingly, I didn't eat anything horrible other than 4 butter tarts (so good) and more cheese than I would normally eat.
- Attended a yoga show that's happening here. Nothing too exciting - if I go next year, I'd bring my yoga mat and do some of the included classes. I did pick up a Passport to Prana card which gives me access to a lot of yoga studios for a year. I need more yoga in my life.
- Did Fire 55 EZ today which was such a nice break from long runs.
Last week's Plan:
Sunday: Fire 30 EZ and Stretch 30
check
Monday: Burn Circuit 1 & Ab Burner
check
Tuesday: Rest?
Actual: 43 minutes of running.
Wednesday: Burn Circuit 2 & Ab Burner
Actual: did Burn Circuit 2 but didn't have time for Ab Burner. Ran for 43ish minutes after work (calibrating my nike+)
Thursday: Fire 55 EZ
Actual: Rest Day
Friday: Run 10K
Actual: Ran 8K
Saturday: Burn Circuit 3 & Ab Burner
Actual: Burn Circuit 3 & Core 20 to mix things up a bit.
This week's plan:
Sunday - just finished Fire 55 EZ and a bit of yoga
Monday: Burn Circuit 1 & Ab Burner
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: Run 10K (dependent on weather - it snowed again today so who knows what'll happen later in the week)
Thursday: Burn Circuit 2 & Ab Burner
Friday: Run 6K
Saturday: Burn Circuit 3 & Ab Burner
Sunday: Run 5K