Early Monday Workout

Sooo today was definitely a challenge.... I decided to go to the gym and spin with the 5:30 am class.

First off, who does that? Only psychotic people. Well I was one of them, as well as the third person through the door. So I got on my spinning bike and rocked out in that class. Now the instructor was OK. I have others that are my favorite, but that class will work for me. My biggest issue with the class was that the instructor was not super talkative or motivating ... For spin, I feel like you need that. ESPECIALLY at 5:30 am. The music wasn't bad so that was certainly a plus. Once class was over I rushed home, showered, changed, ate and ran straight to work. Overall, very productive workout day.

Now, I got forwarded this link and decided to share. It's very cool: 51 Fastest Fat Burners. Heres the link: www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/12/28/fastest.fat.burners/index.html

Are there some things on this list that you didn't know?

Tested my Bike!!

So today is my "biking" focused day!

The weather still has been crappy for riding, which sucks. Now the weather is not necessarily "bad" weather but the wind gusts make it completely miserable for me to ride in, and so I am a weenie and avoid riding outside all together. Instead, I set up my trainer in the house and decided to ride for an hour and a half. I bought my indoor trainer months ago (Bell Indoor Bicycle Trainer- from Amazon for like $80), but the trainer didn't come with something to hold it stationary and leveled. Soooo I finally bought the front piece to the trainer (Cycle Ops- Amazon $22) and WHAT A HUGE DIFFERENCE! My riding experience was much more pleasant. However, this could also be attributed to my snazzy new bike :)

Now, I changed out the seat to my bike, but the pedals are the ones that came with the bike. I do have other pedals (but when I sold my bike I couldn't take them off- so the girl who bought it from me was going to take them off and bring them back). However, I must admit pedaling without clips on was kind of nice. It made me wonder whether or not I wanted to put my old pedals in....I might want to get old school regular pedals and install those. That way I don't feel like I'm going to bust my butt when I brake.

After biking on the trainer, my husband wanted to go biking in the park. He just got a new bike too (Motobecane) and wants to start biking more which is fabulous. We didn't go too far, maybe 8 miles, but it was absolutely amazing!! Taking my bike on the open road for the first time was GREAT! I feel so much more comfortable and confident on my bike and absolutely love it. I'm not too sure on my speed because my bike computer wasn't up, but I just felt great riding. Overall, I am extremely pleased with my new bike! Who knows, maybe I'll turn into a biker...

Changing It Up

So I failed to post Friday... but no fear I will recap my workout.

My Friday workout ended up consisting of Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred Video - Level 2.. let me tell you something no matter how fit I am that woman can still kick my ass in 27 minutes. I really like this video and instantly felt sore once I finished it- its 3 circuit training loops with 3 mins of strength, 2 mins of cardio, 1 min of abs.

After the video I decided to eat something healthy... One thing that I think I have failed to mention in my blog is that my biggest problem with being healthy is my diet. However, with that being said I have been on the road to a "healthy living diet" One of my favorite morning breakfast items is a two egg omelette with green onions and fat free cheese and also chocolate mile (chocolate milk is really good for runners):



Also... I PICKED UP MY BIKE!!!! Here is a picture:



I was originally supposed to pick it up on Wednesday but they didn't have it right. I'll admit I was a little annoyed because I paid a lot of money for that bike and it had already come in on Monday. Since I sold my old bike, I was bike-less and thats not okay for my training routine. Oh and one more thing!! I bought new Sauconys online!!! They are the Sauconys Progrid Guide 3! They have really good reviews and I am excited to trade in my New Balances... News Flash there are some shoes I really like to run in. New Balances and Nikes are definitely not them.

Saturday's workout consisted of a 10 mile workout in under 1 hr and 40 minutes. Not a bad pace but I do want to get a tad faster before the half marathon. I felt absolutely amazing and was quite entertained on my run. I got to see ROTC working out and they cheered me on during my workout, my friend E and her husband riding bikes, and a woman asked me what mile I was on after passing me twice on her run. I must say I really do have the most random encounters when I run.

Random Tip of the Day: When training for races, have two pairs of shoes. One pair of shoes are "heavy clunkers" that consists of your everyday training shoe. The other will be your light race day shoes. Not only will you be faster, but you'll feel like you're running on air. Plus, your shoes should always have 24 hours to recover from your workout (odd huh) so having alternate shoes is always beneficial if you are running 24 hours before your last run.

Why Hello Tri Season :)

So today I officially converted back to working out with my triathlon group. You see I decided to do the half ironman after training with the group. When winter started up they reverted to a running club, but I kept training for triathlons. So today was like a reunion.

Spinning Workout: 45 minutes of hill workouts. About 5 hills at about 85-95% exertion with 2 minutes of recovery between each set. It kicked my butt a little bit.

Entertainment of the night: Some girl who was obviously racing instead of participating in the workout.

Tomorrow is going to be a bit of a change up for me as far as working out. I'm going to do 30 Day Shred Level 2. As far as I'm concerned that is a pretty serious workout.

Good Morning World :)

So I woke up this morning early for my early morning run. However, early did not mean 4:40 a.m.....but that was the time my body decided to wake up at and become restless. Since its still dark in the morning I had another treadmill workout.

I decided that Wednesdays will always be a standard 3 mile run. So thats what I did. Since my body was tired, I did a slower pace, but longer time... Now I would love to tell you my pace, but since my treadmill sucks and the pacing is off, I will never know my pace "exactly". After all my years of running, I can guestimate the pace and would say I was doing about a 10:30 pace. I still ran for 33 minutes.

The one thing that really sucks about Wednesday morning workout is that my hair is up for the rest of the day... Booo

****Random Treadmill Info: If you've been doing a treadmill workout for some time, don't increase the speed but the incline.

Tornado Warning- You won't ruin my workout

Well today was exciting weather-wise. All day they've been preparing us for tornado watches and warnings tonight. But fear not- I worked out on my treadmill before the real excitement began...

Speed Work total: 5 miles
Mile 1: 10 min/mile prace
Mile 2: 8 min/mile pace
Mile 3: 10 min/mile pace
Mile 4: 8 min/mile pace
Mile 5: 10 min/mile pace

It wasn't too bad of a run...but definitely a harder workout...  The plus side was my husband making me lobster for dinner :)

On another note:I'm so excited for tomorrow. I get to pick-up my bike tomorrow :) More pictures to come once I get it! Also, I'll give you the low-down on how it rides!

Taking a Day Off...

So after having a rough weekend... I decided to take the day off- well that and the fact that I "thought" I had class tonight and it threw my schedule off completely... So heres a quick synopsis of my workout this weekend:

Saturday- Half marathon on the treadmill.... It sucked but when I woke up that morning, I looked outside and it looked no bueno... I didn't want to no NOT run ...so I ran on my screwy treadmill... I ran for 2 1/2 hours... which is longer than what my half marathon time is... I felt ok afterwards... my muscles hurt...

Sunday- Windy and not good riding conditions = spinning on my indoor trainer for 2 hours and a 30 minute run afterwards.. Not going to lie my butt was sore from it.. I decided I am going to buy baby butt cream.. You may be laughing but I'm telling you it will all be worth it if my butt feels fabulous...

So yeah.... I can't believe how close its getting.... I'm starting to feel the nerves...

Sorry Myron!!


Ok so I got scolded for not updating my blog so let me summarize my latest workouts...

Saturday: I ran 12 miles with one of my friends. She hasn't done more than 10 miles, so I was prepared for a struggle...lol.. She was a good sport and actually didn't stop that much. The biggest thing that people have trouble with is timing walks in their long run if they need to walk. What I mean is.. if you plan on walking some of the half-marathon, then start walking from the beginning and get used to that.. because if you run about 7-8 miles and then decide to take a walk- you'll be miserable trying to get yourself to run again.

Sunday: I slacked and instead of doing an outside biking excursion, I spun for about an hour and a half on my trainer at home... The reason why I justified being on the trainer... brace yourselves.... I GOT A NEW BIKE... thats frickin right... a new bike. IT's a Motobecane Immortal Pro... check it out..

I should get it by this week or next week so I am like on Cloud 9. Hopefully now I will stop my whining and be faster..

Monday: Since my husband and I had the day off he came with me to the gym :) Before the gym I did P90X Ab Ripper. I went to the gym and spent about 30 minutes on biceps and triceps. Then at home I spun on my trainer for about 30 minutes. It was nice to time everything out and do more than my usual monday morning workouts.

Tuesday: I thought my dog's agility classes were Tuesday night but I was mistaken.. therefore I made plans to switch my sprints to Tuesdays. One of my friends wanted to workout with me so we went to the gym to do treadmill work. For speed work, I did 5 minute warm up... then I did 400M sprints uphill on a 5.0 incline (with a 400M recovery). My pace was about 7.0 (8:30ish mile).. After doing two, I figured it was going to rip my calf apart so I took the incline down to 4.0 and increased my speed to about 7.5. My last one I wanted to flat out fly.. so I did :) I took the incline down to 0 and my speed to 8.5 (under a 7 minute mile). I cooled down and then did abs afterwards and inner/outer thigh weights...

Wednesday: I did my 3 mile run... sigh... I got about "2.5 miles" done.. This is wrong seeing that my treadmill isn't calibrated...

So now I'm all caught up... tomorrow.. spinning at the gym....



My Day off..

So today is my day off :) It feels good to have a day off. Yesterday I did sprints and it wasn't too shabby. Again it was on my lame treadmill so who knows my actual distance/speed.

I decided to warm-up (I'm notorious for not warming=up) for about 5 minutes. At the 5 minute mark, I started picking up the pace at about 5.1 (I started at 4). After I completed a 400M I would go into a 400M sprint at 7 (thats what I started with anyway.) I did 40 minues of sprints which equals out to a little over 4 miles (without the warm-up). I ended up getting the treadmill to over 8 and keeping it there for 400M. I also put the incline to 2.0. I read somewhere that for treadmill workouts, increasing the incline does better for your performance then just increasing your speed all the time. Oh I forgot to mention the other shocker- I cooled down lol...for 5 minutes!! What is this world coming to?

Morning Runs

So I woke up pretty early and got my run on this morning. Now I did 3 miles (well I probably did more but whatever). Anyone who has heard about my treadmill knows that it effing lies. It'll say I am doing a 12 minute mile when I'm probably doing a 10 minute mile. Needless to say I'm 100% sure it is off but don't want to spend the time or money to do it.

So I did more than 3 miles.. Something nice and easy :) Tomorrow is sprint day!! I must say that I worked out with the boys yesterday and I feel sore... We'll see how bad it is tomorrow... I must say I'm excited to have a 4 day weekend...

Weekend Insanity

So this weekend I may have overtrained... Saturdays are my long run and I had planned to only go 10 miles (I had run 9 the week before). Well next thing I know, my legs took me 11.5 miles. I felt ok but I'm still pacing about a 10 minute mile (not ideal for me.) I want to PR my last race time which was 2:06. I need to pace under 9 min/mile. Ugh.. I'm almost ready for my half marathon. I have to admit I'm pretty excited to dress up my friend's dad in a tutu for the Disney Princess half. On the down side, I found out the other girl I was going to run with is injured and won't be able to run it. :(

On Sunday I ran 15 miles and then ran 2. I wasn't super excited to run so I ran on the treadmill, yeah I punked out. Whatever...I hate biking. I had trouble and I hope it was because I was an idiot yesterday.

Today I "spun" for 40 minutes...I totally clipped out of my 45 minutes but whatever... Again, I think it's because of my hatred for biking. I did weights at home and let me tell you those 3 lb weights kicked my ass. I know it seems like a small weight, but well I don't do weights often. I did arms today and I kid you not my arms hurt. It might also be because I haven't done weights in months and I'm a weenie, but I figure that it will benefit me in the long run.

That sums up my three days I missed :)

PS I am researching thigh compression sleeves. I am willing to try everything and anything to improve my biking, so let the research begin....

Random Strangers

The type of people that you pass when running can be quite interesting. Some of you know I either get yelled at by strangers from cars, bikes, other runners, etc. Sometimes it's cat calls, sometimes random things like "This is a great way to start new year, huh?" and the list can go on. Today was another sort of interesting though.

I ended up switching my sprint day from yesterday to today because I ate out for lunch and felt pretty gross. You want to get your workouts done on days where you know you can give it your best effort. Regardless to say, I dreaded the "hill" that I was going to be doing my sprints on. (The fact that it's called a "hill" is quite amusing seeing that 95% of the hills in Florida are probably like small mounts in others states).

So I get to the "hill" stretch and mentally prepare for what I am about to do. So I start my first sprint (about a 200M distance) and as I'm rounding the corner I see a girl running towards me. No big deal, seeing that I pass by runners all the time. So I head back down jogging slowly to prepare for my next sprint. As I start my second sprint, I see her round the corner mimicking my work-out for the day. I kind of played it off, seeing that she might be finishing her run, but when I turn back from my second sprint, I see her coming back. Regardless to say it's bizarre that someone would be doing the same work-out on that hill since in all my years of running I've only since track teams or other small workout groups do that hill. Well needless to say she only did the hill twice and disappeared. I ended up doing 6X200 and I felt like death. I hope this sprinting up the hill thing gets easier lol

Running in the Morning

So today was my usual three mile run in the morning. It feels nice to get a workout done in the morning, but my hair sucks for the rest of the day. Totally worth it though... My run felt good but it wasn't great. Tomorrow will be my sprint day (totally not looking forward to it) but it will be my last workout day before my day "off" Hurray :)

Bring It

Today was a great workout.. I wanted to take spin at the Y because I push so much harder with her than on my trainer. So to save time AND to guarantee a bike I went to the gym early and saved a seat before going on my 2 mile run.

I anticipated going early and saving a seat since the gym seems to have an increased attendance in the beginning of the year. Now I don't have a problem with new year resolution people, but when you start taking my spot in the gym then it's on. I think its bull that 75% of the people who have these new year resolutions usually give up a couple months out... so don't try to ruin my workout because I'll actually keep it up. Okay there's my two cents on new year resolution people... Now I hope they prove me wrong because if you can keep up the workout then that is amazing..

So my 2 mile run made me super happy. I almost hit my old college times. Now I know it's a treadmill but to run a 15:24 two-miler is pretty effing awesome. Afterwards, I took spinning. Now spinning was hard but I brought it... and I felt amazing. I want to conquer this bike more than anything in the world... and I will.. Tomorrow will be an easy 3 mile run.. I'm ready for this half iron. and I want to kick it's ass more than anything in the world.

Bike Bike Bike

So I biked again today... as we all know it's not my favorite. However, I need to get as much practice as I can. It sucks because it gets dark so early... so I pedal my little heart out and tried to get in 10 miles before it got pretty dark.. Not going to lie it was kind of scary at the end... At some points there was no really out there.. so I think that I might either cut the bike ride short or take a different route so it's not so scary.....

Today I felt good which is a giant improvement from my regular feelings....Let's see how this progresses... I would like to attribute my improvement to my bike fitting, but we shallll seee....
 
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