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.

Day 2: Whoops...Poor River

Today I was up and ready for a nice easy 4 mile run and then some core work.  It has been cool in the mornings so I decided to take River.  She loves to run and makes a great partner.  Running with her causes my posture and foot strike to be different and she helps me vary my speed.  She was excited to go.  I got her water bottle and travel bowl ready and we headed out.

She was ready to go and didn't want to wait for her picture to be taken.

 

We started out at a pretty good pace.  She always starts out fast and hard.  I have to get her to slow down a lot of times because I just can't keep up.  We held a good pace for about 2.5 miles.  Then she needed some water.  It was a good resting point for her.  I figured that it wasn't that much longer and we were really making good time.

Then the run seemed to be going longer and I couldn't figure out why our time was so slow.  When I run with her, I usually do right on my best times.  Today it was just really slow.  We made our way back home with 2 more water stops for her.

When we got home and I double checked the route I found out that it was my 5 mile loop not my 4 mile loop that we just did.  For some reason I had it in my head that it was only 4.  No wonder River was beat and really slow at the end.  I made her run an extra 1 mile.

She was tired when we got home.

She's now sleeping on the couch.  She did get on the floor with me when I did my core and stretching.  I think I wore her out for the morning.  Poor girl.

Tomorrow it's speed and some core work.  James wants to do this with me, so we'll walk to the field by Sobey's and do some sprinting there with core work in between sets.  River will go with us to keep us on track.

Day 2 is in the books and I'm off to have a late breakfast.  I only had a protein bar before I ran and I'm hungry!

Happy Canada Day! AKA...The Start of My Half-Marathon Journey

I have been very lax in writing in this blog and I apologize.  Everything got crazy and I just let it slide.  I'm back now and I'm going to be sharing my journey to my first half marathon.  I'll be running the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon.  Today was my first official training day.  Race day is October 20th.

Being Canada Day, I kicked off my training with the Green Germann Sakaran Canada Day 5K in Burlington.  The past 2 weeks I've been taking it easy to make sure all nagging injuries and soreness was healed up and ready to hit the training this week.  I was expecting anything great, so I was surprised with my time.  I guess all the miles I've been putting in walking the dogs helped me maintain some level of fitness.  The course was flat and along the lake.  It was a cool day and I had a good run.

Here are a few pictures from the race.

After the race, Mike and I came home and took River to the dog park.  She loves going and running around and barking.  It wore her out for the rest of the afternoon.

We went to the University of Waterloo for their Canada Day activities.  It wasn't what I was expecting, but we had a great time and there were some cool kites.

Then we went for a walk in Waterloo Park. We hadn't been there in quite awhile.  It was fun to see the animals and walk along the water.

When we got home, I took River out for a long walk so she could sleep through the fireworks.  It's been a great day and I'm gearing up for tomorrow.  I have a 4 mile run in the morning and since it's been cool, I can take River with me. 

I'm nervous about running my first half-marathon, but I'm also excited.  One of the reasons I'm doing this is to show James that even when things scare you, you can still get out there and try them.  He's been shying away from things that scare him or things he's afraid he won't be good at right away.  I keep telling him that this half scares me and my time won't be super fast, but I'm still going to train and put the work in to do my best and be proud of what I accomplished.  Plus all these training miles will add money to the Disney jar. 

James wants to train with me so we will be doing some running and speed work.  I'm also adding weights and a couple of core classes to my workout.  Wednesdays we will go to the big field by our house and do some speed work and core work.  We'll take River so that will make her tired as well.  Two other days I'll be doing some interval distance running with him after my training run.  He wants to do well in our 5k in August.  I told him he has to train to do that.  I think if he sees me working hard, he will as well.

So I'm off to bed so I can get up early for a run.  Tomorrow will be Day 2 of my journey.  I'm excited, nervous, scared, and ready for the challenge.

Day 4: Run March Challenge

I'm on a roll!   Got up this morning and hit the gym.  Since today was a scheduled cross training day, I broke up my workout.  I did just over 2 miles on the treadmill and then did 8.6 miles on the bike.  I took it easy on the treadmill.  Just a nice easy run. 

When I got home I got a very quick shower and then got James up for school. River knew she was going to daycare so she was bouncing off the walls.  She loves loves loves going to daycare!  This week she gets to go 3 times so she will be one happy and tired dog.

I'm now at the pool getting ready to finish up some work and write some workouts.  Next week is March Break and it will be nice to have some time off.  I still have to coach Masters, but it's not as bad.

Tomorrow I have to get up a bit earlier to make sure I'm at the gym early.  I have a 6 mile run plus weights.  I can't wait for it to warm up to melt some of this ice so I can run outside again.  I'm not a fan of running on the treadmill.  It really sucks.  I'll get through it though.  Hopefully by the end of the month I can be outside for my long runs and River can run with me.

Enjoy your Monday!

Day 3 of the Run March Challenge

Today was a bit rough for me.  I just wasn't feeling the treadmill at all.  I only did 2.75 miles.  I then did 8 miles on the recumbent bike.  I thought that was a good comprimise.  Plus I did weights today.  A full body circut was on the schedule.  It went well.  I am going to have increase the weight on 6 different exercises next week.

I did look at my training schedule and talked with Mike.  On my rest days or cross training days, I'm only doing a mile of running so I don't get reinjured.  I want to stay on schedule, but meet this challenge.

My next goal race is the Chocolate Race 10k on Mother's Day.  In between now and then I have a 5k race on Saturday, a 5k on Good Friday, a 5k race with James at the beginning of April,and  the Toronto Yonge Street 10k on the 21st of April.  Then I run the Chocolate Race.  I'm running more 10Ks this year so I really don't want to be injured at all.

Off to enjoy the rest of the day!!!!!

Day 2 of Run March

Woo Hoo!!!!!!  After getting up at 3:30 in the morning to do 3 swim practices, I still managed to get to the gym.  I did 5.5 miles in the same time as my 5.2 miles yesterday.  I had no hamstring soreness at all.  It felt so good!  Now I just need the ice to melt so I can run outside with River again.

I also got new shoes yesterday.  I LOVE them!!!!!!  They are Saucony ProGride Guide 6.  They are the update version of my old shoes and I loved those.  These are much lighter and plus they are a cool color.

They match all my bright running clothes.  I think the new shoes will help with the hamstring soreness as well.

I did hit the wall around 2:30 this afternoon.  I ended up taking a nap to make it through the rest of the night.

Tomorrow I'm hitting the gym around 7am and hopefully going 5.75 miles plus doing full body weights.  It feels so good to be back at it.  I will be scheduling a massage though to help with the recovery.

I am so glad I'm on the mend!

Happy March!

Wow...things have been busy busy busy at our house.

My running took a huge hit when I strained my right hamstring.  I was on rest for over a month.  I'm just not starting to ease back into my running.  In fact, I started a new challenge for March.  I am running at least one mile every day in March.  Today I did 5 very easy, very slow miles and felt pretty good.  I'm hoping I'm on the mend.

I have been taking a Learn To Draw class.  It's been going pretty good.  Here are a few things I've done.  First is a cabin drawn with charcoal.

 

Then we did a rose.  I did this using oil pastels.

 



Currently I'm working on a face using charcoals.  I'm almost done with it and I think it looks pretty good.

I have also been doing a lot of cross stitching lately.  I did more towels for my sister-in-law.  I have been working on a set of holiday towels that were for her bridal shower, but they have taken me a little bit longer.  I still have one more to do.

I'm also working on a big poster for my nephew.  It's going to be the Star Wars poster.  Here are the first two pages of the pattern completed.  I'm almost done with the third page.

My goals for the new year were altered a bit.  I have been making little homemade items for my friends and family to brighten their day.  I have mailed out several already.  There have been little cross stitch ornaments, soap, and magnets so far.  I have enjoyed making these things and James has helped as well. 

I'm hoping to be able to keep up with the blogging as well.  I think I have everything settled and organized.  Things have slowed down and I'm ready to roll.

Here's to a great March!