Chilly Half Marathon Training: Day 2

This morning it was speed work and weights.  I was at the gym bright and early.  I hate the treadmill, but for speed work I can tolerate it.  I did the following:

5 minutes warm-up
10 rounds of 1 minute at my long run pace
                    45 seconds at my 5k pace
                    15 seconds at a full sprint
5 minutes cool down

I then did leg weights.  It's been since July that I've lifted weights.  I know I'm going to feel it tomorrow on my run. 

It felt good to be back in the gym and pushing myself like that.  I was tired and I was dripping because I ran inside, but I felt great!

 

This morning I got to go watch James narrate as his school's Remembrance Day assembly.  He did a great job! He was so excited to be the only 4th grader to get asked to do this.  It was a nice assembly and all the kids did a great job!

I then got to spend the rest of the day sitting at a desk figuring out coaching assignments for the next session of Swim Academy.  Whew...that's tough!

Tomorrow will be Day 3 and River and I are out for a 4 mile run.  Thursday morning I'm back in the gym for some cross training and weights and Friday is my long run.  Once I get in the swing of things, it won't be so hard for me to get out the door.

Day 2 is done!

Day 38: Speed Work and Weights

I had to get up really early this morning to hit the gym.  It was hard to get up for some reason.  Normally I'm pretty good about getting up, but today not so much.  It was tough.

I don't mind speed work on the treadmill as much.  My only complaint is the gym always seems really hot even when the air is on.  I just sweat so much.  So today I did a 5 minute warm-up at an easy pace.  After 5 minutes, I did 10 rounds of 45 seconds sprint and 1:15 recovery.  The I was going at a pretty good clip.  On the recovery, my goal was to get my breathing back to a slower rate.  That got tough at the end, but I did it.  After my sprint rounds, I did a 5 minute cool down at a comfortable pace.

Then it was weights.  Today was upper body and I increased weight on half the exercises.  Between the increased weight and the 2 rounds of 12 that I do on each machine, I was beat!  My body is tired today, but I still feel pretty good that I did it.

I was telling Mike afterwards that even though I really wanted to sleep, I knew I had to get up and go.  It's getting harder to talk myself out of my workouts.  And after the past 2 days, I need the stress release.  I'm having to rearrange some things I promised James we would do and possibly have to cancel them due to some coaching changes at work.  I don't really mind usually, but this time it bugs me.  I got the summer schedule out super early so people could make plans to take some time off, but there has been 2 monkey wrenches thrown into the works.  I'll pick up the practices and cancel on James, but I hate to do that to him.  It's really not fair to him.  I just hope he understands.

Tomorrow is a cross training and full body weights day.  I'll hit the gym after my morning practice and then come home to give River her long morning walk.  Then I have to finish the Cyberman costume.  I feel like I'm spinning my wheels.  I really need some time to just relax, but it looks like that might happen around Christmas now.  Oh well...that's the way it goes.  At least it's Wednesday!  We're on the downhill now!

Day 29: Speed Work and Weights

Whew...my legs are toast today!  After yesterday's long run I woke up stiff.  Once I got moving I felt better.  I switched speed work from Wednesday to today.  It was tough, but I did it.  I started with a  10 minute warm-up at a 12:00 pace.  Then I did 10 rounds of 30 seconds at a 7:30 pace and 1:30 at a 14:00 pace recovery.  Then I did a 10 minute cool down at a 12:00 pace.  It felt good.  The sprint was tough.  After the first round my legs were not happy, but as I got into it they got better.

After my work on the treadmill, I did a full body circuit.  I increased the weight on some exercise from Saturday and next week I'll be increasing some more.  The leg weights were tough.  I thought I was ready to increase weight on some of those, but after today I think it may be next week. 

When I got home I took River for her long walk.  We got about 10 minutes into the walk and it started raining.  We swung back by the house and picked up an umbrella and finished our walk.  She was looking for rabbits the whole walk.  There haven't been too many out lately and she looks so sad when she doesn't find any.

Tomorrow River and I are up early for a 5 mile run.  I really hope this weather holds as it has been GREAT running weather.  Only 83 more days until I run my half marathon!  It will be here before I know it!

Day 3: Speed Work and I Had Some Great Company

Today was a speed work/core day.  I normally do speed work on the treadmill, but James wanted to run with me so we did it in a huge open field near us.  I mapped out and figured the field was a tenth of a mile from one of the paths to the sidewalk on the other side.  That was where we sprinted.

We walked over to the field as our warm up and of course River was in tow.  We would sprint the tenth of the mile and walk back to recover.  Once we got back to our water bottles we did some exercises for our core.  It gave us a short rest and got us ready for the next sprint.  We did 4 sprints that were the tenth of a mile and 2 that were about .08 of a mile.  River sprinted right along with us and drank her water while we did our exercises.  On the last sprint, James beat River.  River was dragging after her last sprint.

My legs were still a bit sore from my run yesterday, but it was nice to get out and get some good sprint work in.  The plyometric exercises felt good, but were hard.  I have to do more of them.

We got some stretching in and then used our walk home as our cool down.  River is now crashed on the bed and James is vegging out to cartoons.  We won't be sitting for long though.

James said that he had a really good time and gave River a big hug to thank her for helping him sprint faster.

He's excited for next week and the training we will be doing then.

Tomorrow it's a cross training day for me.  I'll be doing the bike and weights after I coach the morning Masters practice.