Week Three Completed

It is here the end of week three and me staying caught up with blogging.  If I wait until tomorrow...then I just know I'm a lost cause again for three more weeks.

This is the week that started out a little off kilter because my original long run had to be changed to the previous week.  I'm a Girl Scout leader and also very active with Scouting and put together our Service Unit's World Thinking Day program and that left little time for a run on Sunday.

Because the week was off I barely hit my runs although they were within my time goals.  One day was a treadmill run which I abhor more than any other type of running.  And I only hit the gym one day.  I tried out a new piece of equipment "Don" showed me.  Not something I plan on trying out again.  Maybe it would be great for some but my legs are short and this particular piece doesn't change in size.  Weight rooms are not designed with the short female in mind.

I weighed in with Biggest Loser at a half a pound of weight lost.  I must remind you my goal in all of this is not necessarily weight loss but getting all fat converted to muscle where possible.  The weight loss just helps to confirm that I'm doing something right.

Ohio's weather this week was record setting high temps hitting in the mid 70's for February!  I know how this shows true global warming and that makes me cringe but at the same time the part of me that loves being outside lives for these moments.

I got my new pair of shoes in!!!

 I know my Adidas are an older model but honestly I don't care!  I love Adidas and haven't found a shoe that fits my foot better!!!  These are the Supernova Glide 8 for women.  I'm not a big pink person so I am glad that the majority of this shoe is black instead.  Overall looks are not the most important factor...it's fit and performance.

As for fit this sock styled shoe (techfit) is a perfect fit.  I immediately felt at one with this shoe when I put it on my foot and didn't even have to tie it for that zen like feeling!  Yes, I am saying shoes can put you in a zen state!  When you put miles upon miles in a pair of shoes they better fit or you will hate life and probably end up injured on top of that hate.

I've been obsessed with the boost material since the first shoe featuring it came out. The shoes hold up long past their running miles suggest.  They tend to become my coaching shoes and then my in the yard shoes.  I can recognize when the return in material is past the running use phase but I still find they hold up for additional use longer than other shoes I've worn.

I got a pair of shiny silver Sketchers as a gift from my mom and outside of looking super stylish those shoes offered no support to my feet and often left me feeling like barefoot would have been a better option.  So there is something to buying a shoe that is a good fit and of quality and of course designed for the purpose you are using it for.

I am at the point now where mileage is going to start racking up and I'll be needing to study my pre-run foods, my mid-run snacks, and my post run recovery foods.  I've been a peanut butter and jelly person before long runs but they never seem to last the way I need them to.  Plus on early morning wake ups I can't hardly get that down.  I'm not a big meal person first thing in my day.

So I've been trying the eating bananas, sucking down the baby food pouches of apple sauces, and today was peach crisp options.  Fruit is more moisture and seems to sit lighter on my stomach.  I'm thinking about using the apple sauce option instead of energy gels/beans/etc... during my runs this training period.

I always stress to my athletes how they need to eat a healthy protein within 30 minutes of a workout and race day.  Today I didn't quite accomplish that but I did try out an energy drink for recovery.  Again I had a long day so I wanted to not fall asleep after hitting my long run to finish up this week.

I tried a zipfizz in fruit punch flavor that I found at Sam's Club.  You add one tube to a bottle of water and drink up.  There is no added sugar and it only contains 10 calories.  Supposedly there is 833% of your daily value of Vitamin C in this product.  And it boasts that it contains 41,667% of your Vitamin B12.  I'm not sure if your body is even capable of absorbing that much of a vitamin at one time let alone if it is healthy.  According to the ingredients list the caffeine ie "Botanical Antioxidant Blend" comes from "Green tea leaf extract, Green coffee bean extract, Grape seed extract, Grape skin extract, guarana seed extract, and Alpha-Lipoic acid.

I wasn't particularly fond of the zippy (bitter) flavor.  But it was tolerable and I was able to chug the drink down.  Did it do anything for me energy wise?  Not sure.  I didn't feel an instant boost like when I drink my drink of addictive choice, Redbull, but I did feel hydrated and never felt a lag of exhaustion after my run.  Of course I didn't have time to sit down and relax so I may have just been going on pure adrenaline anyhow. Would I recommend it?  Not really but I wouldn't say avoid it either.  My daughter liked the flavor and I guess for a 10 year old it's pretty "cool."  But 10 year olds think farts are cool too so I'm not sure her recommendation counts for all that much.  

So I've finished another week.  I'm feeling pretty good.  And I'm talking to myself here on Blogger.  All in all sounds like another successful go at life!

Week Two Hit My Goals

So week two it is...yeah still a little behind in the writing but at least I'm not eight weeks in and just now writing!

Because of the way training plans are designed to have your long run fall on the same day of the week as your end goal race... week two actually starts out with my long run.  The training plan calls for a four mile run and I hit four miles running the main street in Salem; State Street.  And one road behind it too.  I tend to drop my kids off at their CCD program and then hit the pavement during that time.  It's better on the pocketbook then chilling at Marc's spending money in the closeout aisles which I do far too often anyhow!  It was raining during this run but rain to me is like air.  I'm a Pisces and while I don't totally get into all that horoscope stuff I do feel drawn to water.  Rain during a run is usually a good thing.

I hit up the gym on Monday before the kids got off the bus.  I was a bit sore and couldn't understand why except that the day before I hit better times on my run then expected.

Tuesday is almost impossible for me to run because I have City Council to attend, sometimes planning commission, and during the in season this one being track, I have meets.  So I usually take Tuesday as an off day to any for of exercise because I just don't have time for multiple showers.

This week didn't exactly go as planned because the kids ended up sick with that lovely 105 temp flu that is going around.  Thankfully mine didn't get as sick as some and despite a trip to the doctor for an ear infection in the littlest one we were hit pretty mild.  So Wednesday ended up as an extra rest day.

Which actually probably made Thursday the rough day it was.  Too much rest in between runs makes for heavy legs.  And lack of sleep due to sick kids doesn't help either.  I pushed through and honestly didn't do as bad as I thought but my body might have argued with you.

Friday again was a rest day.  So this makes week two another week where I missed some cross training workouts.  The gym can be my friend...but only if I can get there during open hours when I have a babysitter...

Saturday because I knew the next day was going to be too busy I hit up my long run.  Training plan called for another four miler but I like to get more longer distance runs in then the average plan calls for so I bumped this up to a fiver.  I went to the Greenway Trail which is mostly flat to boost my confidence after a long tiring weekend.

My husband went running as well.  But he managed to get a bad cramp, or a pull/tear, or compartment syndrome... we don't know and doctors including specialists don't know.  That's a year long story in the making and continuation and maybe some day I'll get into it but that some day is not this day.  Long story short his eight miler ended up being four miles walked!  I nailed my time and didn't walk.  I was on cloud nine and well the temps in the low 60s in February didn't hurt either!  But I felt horrible in celebrating because of Josh's injury.

As for Biggest Loser this week I weighed in at 147 lbs.  Which means I finally lost a pound.  And believe it or not that was all it took to put me into second place for the week at work!  Little bit of extra motivation.  With my luck I probably just didn't have a whole pile of crap in me and the next weigh in will reflect no further results.

I did go to Second Sole, tried on a couple of pairs of Adidas shoes and because my size was out of stock... I ordered in a pair.  Can't wait until they come in and I'll of course talk about how exciting that is for my feet!

All in all a decent workout week despite the struggles.  I really want to do things right this time and it's been not the weeks of workouts I intended.  Long road ahead and I can't mess around or I won't be ready for the end event!  Here's hoping the next week is a bit better!

Week One and Counting

So week one (I'm actually a few weeks behind in writing!) of my half marathon training plan for Canton Hall of Fame.  It was a successful week as weeks go in measurement.  I ran twice...I lifted twice...  Not exactly a miracle by any means but I knocked a few workouts out.

Played around using the Fitbit and the New Balance watch.  They don't give me the same distance nor the same pace.  But I still like the Fitbit for tracking my heart rate.  I noticed that since I started back in December in getting back into shape that my resting rate dropped from upper 60s to low 60s.  By fitness that means I'm getting somewhere.

Reading my notes in my old fashioned hand written log and I remember that we actually had a cold day this winter.  Most days have been unseasonably warm, hit some record warm temperature, and had barely enough snow to register it all winter.  But on my Thursday run I found myself in a semi-whiteout and very cold windy weather that produced freezing snow pellets.  It's a bit crazy but crappy weather like that sometimes invigorates me to finish a good run.

I've also been tracking my weight every Friday during Biggest Loser with work.  I started at 148lbs  the first week of January...and well as of this week I'm still at 148.

So other than a pretty boring week in training.  I've got nothing! Track conditioning started, I'm still working in the cafeteria, City Council is fighting about chickens, and the winter bugs are staying away from our family at the moment.  Life is good and my new shoes will hopefully be something I obtain sooner rather then later because my legs and feet hurt after running in the old ones.  Let's see how week two stacks up!