The Lowdown

I literally sighed before I started writing this.  I feel like so much has been happening, but it's all been the same boring stuff and I just didn't feel like writing about it.  So, to recap, I've still been watching what I eat and trying to work out more than I was before.  Last week was a bit of a slip-up, but that was mostly due to work factors beyond my control than anything else and this week I'm back on the bandwagon.  See? 

That's a screen shot of my Daily Burn calendar listing my exercise calories (calories out) and eating calories (calories in).  I've still been losing weight and I've got less than 10 pounds to go now until I reach my "goal weight".  It seems to be a slow, but steady, process, but I'm thrilled to see the scale keep going in the right direction.

So, if you look closely at Monday, February 7, you'll see that I only burned 36 calories.  That's because I've started something new!  A Hundred Push-Up plan!  Which is crazy to me.  In the initial test, I did 10 push-ups.  Drew estimated that I'd be able to get 4 and when I got to 6, he announced that he was officially surprised.  I kind-of wanted to die after those first 10 and it made me think that there is no way that I'll be able to do 100 all in one sitting.  However, I know that every time I've ever followed a plan, I've made it to the finish line, so I'm hoping that this will be just like that.  I even downloaded the fancy iPhone app to record my progress.  Yesterday I did 35 push-ups (in 5 sets), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get there.

I also found out on Monday that I got a spot to the NYC Half-Marathon on March 20!  Which is soon, but I'm not too worried.  Somehow all these races seem a lot less daunting now that I've done them once already.  I've figured out a fairly loose training plan that will ensure that I get my long runs in and I'll sort-of wing the rest of it.  I'm not an injury-prone runner, so I don't forsee any issues with upping my mileage although now I can really see a new pair of shoes in my future.

Last Saturday Drew and I did a challenge that his trainer, Billy, gave to him.  It was to run one mile on the treadmill at an incline of 10.  Which doesn't sound too hard until you're actually doing it.  Drew finished his mile in about 10:30 and I finished mine in 12:57.  I did a mix of jogging and walking because I knew that there was no way I'd ever be able to run the whole thing and stay on the treadmill, so I alternated back and forth.  I was a sweaty disaster by the time I finished.  I'm hopeful that the next time I try it that I can get a little bit faster.

I've also been going to Pilates on Thursdays with Nicole.  I decided this morning that it's getting easier and harder at the same time.  Harder in the sense that I feel like Nicole keeps pushing me to do more difficult exercises, but easier because I'm getting the hang of things now.  I'm also 100% sure that the Pilates that I've been doing helped me with my push-up quest.  So, in that regard, I don't imagine giving up on Pilates any time soon!

I know I've been a bad blogger recently.  I'm struggling with the monotony of going to the gym all the time.  I either need to toughen up and get outside or the weather needs to get better.  Or maybe both would be ideal.  I just haven't felt like writing about going to the gym.  I think it's boring.  Mostly because it seems like when I'm outside, I notice something interesting to mention or have a conversation with a stranger.  I've realized that no one talks at the gym.  Ever.  It's a world of headphones, which is sort-of sad, in a way.  The weather is looking up for weekend, so I'm hoping that means that I can get outside again!

Weight Lifting Alone

I've been trying not to get too burned out on doing any one thing every single time I go to the gym.  I'm hoping that this makes me want to go more often since there will be more of a variety.  I'd like to do some spinning one of these times, but with our current gym still in the remodeling process, that's not the easiest thing to arrange at the moment, but I'm keeping my eye out for when it gets better! 

Since I had run and stair-milled yesterday, I decided to get my elliptical on tonight.  It wasn't that exciting.  I read my book and tried to push myself harder than usual.  Mostly I do this by making the resistance really high while doing intervals of varying resistance.  I have to say that it's a little disheartening when I feel like I'm working really hard, but going slowly because of the higher resistance to look over at the people next to me who are going really fast, but only at resistance level 1.  I like to tell myself that my workout is harder than theirs, but I'm not sure that's true.  I only think that the varying levels of resistance keep me from dying of boredom on the elliptical. 

After the elliptical, I decided that I'd venture to the weight room and do some weight lifting on my own.  Normally I'd wait until I was with Drew, just because I like it better when he's there, but since he's traveling for work, I was left to my own devices tonight.  However, I did most of the same things that we did on Saturday together, except I threw in a seated row because I actually really like that lift and I've been wanting to do it for a while now.

I was a little nervous while doing the arm curls alternating with the jumps because another guy had put his water bottle and towel on the jumping box while he was using the cable machine.  So, I had to ask him to move it in order to get my jumps in.  I'm sure he thought that no one would use the box, so I can't be too upset, but is it really that hard to just keep your things on or beside the piece of equipment you're actually using? 

The worst part was that when I was doing my first round of jumps I noticed in the mirror that I was wearing my shirt inside out.  Sigh.  I was wearing a shirt I don't even like and the fact that I didn't even notice when putting it on that it was inside out made me like it even less.  Might be time to just go ahead and get rid of that one? 

I felt pretty good doing the bench presses.  I didn't want to add too much weight since I didn't have a spotter, so I just used the bar.  By the third set, I was really feeling it and could barely get 6 reps out.  All in all, not the worst weight workout in the world for doing it on my own, I think. 

Stand up shoulder presses
3 x 10 @ 12.5 lbs per arm

Arm curls
3 x 10 @ 12.5 lbs per arm

Jumps
3 x 10 (short box)

Bench Press
2 x 10 @ 45 lbs
6 @ 45 lbs

Seated row
10 @ 40 lbs
10 @ 50 lbs
10 @ 60 lbs

So, I realized that I haven't mentioned how the weight-loss is going, even though I've been doing a lot of talking about the workouts.  This past Saturday I weighed in and had lost just about 5 pounds from my max weight, so I've got just over 10 pounds to lose to meet my goal weight by April.  I have to say that I've been doing a really good job of eating right and making good decisions, with the small exception of having splurged on Saturday night.  But, truly, one night out of the month isn't going to make or break me.  Plus, it was tons of fun and totally worth it.  In an ideal world, I'd work out 6 days a week, but it truth it's been more like 5 days a week.  Which I'll take.  Even on days where I don't work out, I still seem to have a calorie deficit for the day, so I think I'm still on the right track.  Hopefully as long as I stick with it, the rest of this weight will come off! 

Elliptical
Time: 34:58
Distance: 3.00 miles
Calories: 262

Weight Lifting
Time: 16:29
Calories: 100

Switching Rest Days

Normally I like to take my rest days on Mondays, but this week it worked out better for me to switch and take Sunday as a rest day and work out on Monday.  (In truth, that means that it worked out best for me to stay out late Saturday night, brunch on Sunday and then be lazy the rest of the day Sunday!  But it was a really fun weekend!).  Of course, I had to make-up for some of that over-indulgence at some point and today seemed like the perfect day. 

I ended up going to the gym after work tonight.  Normally I'd leave work, walk to the gym by our apartment and then go home, but today was so cold that I opted to go to the gym in our work building and then take the subway home so I didn't freeze while walking home.  Turns out that Monday nights are quite popular at the work gym around 6 pm.  Noted for future reference. 

I ended up starting out on the only available cardio machine ... the stair mill.  Hey, works fine for me!  I love that thing!  I spent a sweaty 30 minutes on the stair mill on Level 11.  Truly, the only reason I bumped it up to Level 11 (from Level 10) is that I've been annoyed that I couldn't get over 3 miles in my 30 minutes of stair climbing.  I wanted to see how far I could get if I bumped it up one level.  Turns out that gets you to 3.2 miles.  Whoo hoo!  Maybe after a few more tries at Level 11, I'll have to bump it up some more...

After the 30 minutes on the stair mill, I walked around trying to find something else that was open, which wasn't easy.  I actually started stretching thinking that I might have to just give up and go home when a treadmill opened up.  I checked to make sure that no one else was waiting for it and I hopped on and got going.  By that point, though, I wasn't 100% into it and was thinking that I might cut it a bit short.  Especially since right after that a very long line formed of people waiting for the treadmill and I felt bad that I was on it and they were all waiting. 

I ended up doing 2.5 miles, which was really 2.0 miles running and 0.5 miles walking.  I have to tell you that I felt like people were staring me down with death rays when I was walking and doing the cool down, but since I hadn't exceeded the 30 minute time limit, I tried not to let it bother me too much (or any more than it already was). 

I couldn't believe how crowded the gym still was at 7:30ish on a Monday night.  Must still be a lot of January joiners.  Which I'm glad to see them at the gym, but maybe I'd be more glad if they didn't come all at once?  

Stair Mill
Time: 30:48
Distance: 3.20 miles
Calories: 275

Running
Time: 27:56
Distance: 2.50 miles
Calories: 251

One-Legged Jumping Super Star!

This morning I went to the gymnasium with Drew.  We had a lot of stuff to get accomplished today, so we got to the gym pretty much right when they opened at 8.  I started off on the Elliptical as a warm-up.  After that, we went to the weight room and did some weight lifting. 

I wanted to try to redeem myself after last week when I dropped the bar on the bench press and my trusty spotter saved the day.  I think I definitely did that today.  I even managed to go up 5 pounds from last week.  The 1.5 reps is because I did the first one all on my own and then Drew said that he thought I could get one more.  I brought the bar about half-way down and realized that there was no way, so I pushed it back up on my own, so it was really only half a rep.  Anything is better than dropping the bar, right? 


Bench press
10 @ 65 lbs
5 @ 75 lbs
1.5 @ 90 lbs

Butterfly
10 @ 60 lbs
6 @ 60 lbs
8 @ 70 lbs

Stand up shoulder presses
3 x 10 @ 12.5 lbs per arm

Arm curls
3 x 10 @ 12.5 lbs per arm

Jumps
10 x 3 (short box)

I actually did the jumps while alternating the arm curls.  It was a really good way to keep my heart rate up.  However, as I've mentioned before, I'm really NOT a good jumper.  Or, more specifically, I'm not a good two-legged jumper.  As Drew said, "You're a one-legged jumping super star!".  Which is sort-of true.  I'm just missing some sort of balance or something that makes me able to be good at jumping with two legs, but I gave it my best effort!

After that I finished up with a run on the treadmill.  Between the frigid temperatures and the snow we keep getting here, it seems almost impossible to run outdoors (at least to me).  My hat is off to those of you who are doing it!  I decided that in the spirit of keeping up with this speedy 5K plan, I should do some pick-ups during today's run.

I ran the first half-mile at 5.4 (11 minute pace) and then bumped it up to 7.5 (8 minute pace) for the next 0.25 miles.  I then went back to my slower pace to recover.  I ended up doing a total of 4 pick-ups throughout the run.  Two of them were at 7.5 (8 minute pace) and two were at 8.5 (7 minute pace).  All four pick-ups were for 0.25 miles.  It wasn't always easy, but I'm pretty proud of myself for hanging in there!  I ended up doing the 3.1 miles in 29:20 and then walked for another minute to cool down. 

I know I need to get some longer runs in, too, but the thought of doing them on the treadmill is slightly daunting/boring/annoying, so I'm holding out for better weather...


Elliptical
Time: 33:59
Distance: 2.80 miles
Calories: 269

Weight Lifting
Time: 26:43
Calories: 148

Running
Time: 30:58
Distance: 3.20 miles
Calories: 307

Gym, Gym, Gym

That's all I ever do anymore, I think.  Well, that's not really true.  But it's all I seem to be doing in terms of working out.  I'm not the biggest fan of the gym, but if going there will help me reach my weight loss goal by April, I'm going to keep on going.  Of course, I'm secretly hoping the weather will magically get more spring-like, but I don't think that's really going to happen anytime soon.

Tonight I went to the gym after work.  I did what is quickly becoming my fall-back routine there.  But that's okay because I don't hate it (or at least I don't hate it yet).  It lets me read my book while I'm there and I'm all in favor of more reading time in my life.  I read a lot (even outside of the gym) and if you're really curious about what I'm reading, I could start posting it here, but I don't give book recommendations because they make me nervous.  I mean, how do I know what kind of books you like to read?  

So, at the gym today, I did 30 minutes on the stair mill followed by 20ish minutes on the elliptical.  I tried to hang on for as long as I could on the elliptical, but truthfully, I was hungry and wanted to get home and make myself some dinner.  I forced myself to stay on until my heart rate monitor said I had burned 200 calories during that part of the workout, which I thought was a good compromise.  A lot easier than a time goal, I think.

I've noticed that I actually don't mind going to the gym after work.  Even if it is more crowded then.  However, I don't really like getting home later and still having to figure out some sort of dinner.  I also feel even less motivated than usual the next morning to get up and go to the gym in the morning, so it's like some sort of really bad cycle I've got myself on.  I know I should just suck it up and get up earlier.  I'm a work in progress, what can I say?  

Stair Mill
Time: 30:57
Distance: 2.95 miles
Calories: 265

Elliptical
Time: 24:40
Distance: 2.20 miles
Calories: 200

A New Max

This morning Drew and I went to the gym together and that meant that I'd have a spotter in order to try to test out my bench pressing abilities.  The last time I tried, I felt like I maxed out at 80 pounds.   A couple days ago I was able to do 90 pounds on the chest press machine, so I was hoping for something around there.  But I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it, since I always think the machines are easier. 

We started out with 30 minutes on the stair mill before hitting the weights.  I was pretty nervous, but we started out at 65 pounds and that was fine.  Then I moved up to 75 pounds and it was definitely getting harder and my right pectoral muscle was a tiny bit tired.  I decided that we should just go for it and try 85 pounds.  I did one really easily.  The second one I managed to get up and then that was it.  My right pectoral muscle had had enough.  I can't say I really blame it.  And, um, as a result, I dropped the bar.  Right into Drew's hands.  Lucky thing I have such a great spotter, huh?  It's not quite as bad as it sounds.  I kept my left hand on the bar the entire time and I'm sure I just surprised Drew more than anything else.  Thanks to him, I was never in any real danger.   

After that, we finished up with some more weight lifting, which looked a lot like this: 

Bench Press
5 @ 65 lbs
5 @ 75 lbs
2 @ 85 lbs

Skull Crushers
3 x 10 @ 25 lbs

Butterfly
6 @ 60 lbs
8 @ 60 lbs
7 @ 60 lbs

Shoulder Press
2 x 10 @ 12.5 lbs (per arm)

I have to say that I'm pretty proud that I beat my previous best.  Especially since I really haven't been lifting weights all that consistently (or at all) recently. 

We finished up our day with some time on the Arc Trainer.  I still don't understand the appeal of that machine.  Drew loves it, probably with a capital L.  And I think it's super boring.  His response?  "Yeah, but I go faster and push myself more than you."  After thinking about that for a while, it's probably the reason I love the stair mill so much.  Because the machine pushes you automatically.  Plus, it's really easy to read a book on the stair mill.  Which probably makes it the best machine of all time.  Maybe I don't like the arc trainer because I don't automatically get pushed in the same way? 

Stair Mill
Time: 30:00
Distance: 2.95 miles
Calories: 275

Weight Lifting
Time: 32:05
Calories: 144

Arc Trainer
Time: 30:00
Distance: 0.70 miles
Calories: 248

Baseline 5K

So, Friday I ended up taking as a rest day.  I know I've mentioned it a million times, but I really don't like to get up in the morning.  So, I slept in instead.  And Drew and I had dinner plans after work, so I skipped working out then, too.  Which brings me to this morning! 

Drew had left for the gym earlier than me, so I just went and did some running on the treadmill.  I thought I would try to do some other stuff, but when I got to the gym, I wasn't all that into it and wanted to go home rather than hang around the gym all day long.

I decided to run a 5K on the treadmill and just see what my base time would be without any real effort on my part.  Basically, I wanted it to be an "easy" run.  As opposed to whatever my "speedy" time will be for this race in March.  I thought it would be good just to have some sort of baseline when starting out to see what I'm working with. 

I started out running at 5.6 MPH and just kept bumping it up little by little as time went on.  I ended up sprinting to the finish, but that seemed pretty realistic to me.  I finished in 30:49 (or 9:56/mile pace).  I feel good about that.  Especially since I compared this to the last time I ran this 5K course and ran at a 9:48/mile pace.  And it's a fairly hilly 5K course! 

I really think I've got a good start and I can only go down from here.  I'm going to have to start incorporating more speed work into my routine, but I'm okay with that.  I also keep having some calf soreness in my left calf, so I'm really wondering if it's time for a new pair of shoes.  I'm going to give these that I've got now a couple more tries, but it seems rather suspicious to me.

I ended up cooling down and running one more mile around a 10:20 pace before heading home.  And as far as being hardcore?  I weighed myself yesterday and there is no change.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a tiny bit disappointed by that, but I'm just going to keep on going.  No change is better than going in the wrong direction!

Running
Time: 41:09
Distance: 4.10 miles
Pace: 10:02/mile
Calories: 365

7 Days

Today marks one week of counting calories and starting to be more regular in my workouts.  I have to come clean and say that today's blog post title was brought to you by this video:

I don't know if I've seen any difference on the scale yet.  I'm waiting until tomorrow to weigh myself.  I'm feeling more in the groove, so even if there isn't any loss, I'm just going to keep going with everything as I have been. 

Yesterday after work I headed to the gym to do some more cardio.  My left calf was still a little iffy from last weekend (I think that today it finally feels back to 100%), so I decided to skip running again and just go for the "other" types of cardio.  I ended up doing a half an hour on the stair mill and a half an hour on the elliptical.  I definitely burn more calories on the stair mill, but I'm not sure I could stand doing that for more than 30 minutes. 

I ended up going to the gym on the ground floor of the building that I work in.  The gym I belong to has branches all over the city and with the membership that I have, I can go to all of them.  I'm pretty sure my membership is up in March and I've really been toying with the idea of switching gyms.  And then something like yesterday happens and I remember how nice it is to be able to go to the gym anywhere I want.  It's really something to consider.  It's just so gosh-darn expensive!  Being healthy should be cheaper! 

This morning I had pilates with Nicole. Pilates is not a huge calorie burner (not shocking), but I really like it.  A lot.  It is sort-of fun because I never really know what Nicole will throw at me on any given day.  This morning we sort-of had to shuffle around the studio because there was a very full house, but it worked out just fine. 

We started out on the reformer using a foam roller, but not in the typical way. I was laying on top of the foam roller and then had to balance on that while doing some other exercises.  There was a moment where I was sure I was going to roll off the reformer, but I guess my ab muscles caught me, because I was fine! 

We ended up working on the tower and I realized today that Nicole has a thing for my hamstrings.  As in, she likes to torture them.  Or maybe she's trying to make up for the fact that I tortured them myself while marathon training.  Either way, they definitely get a lot more (and better) stretching on these pilates days than they do on a regular day.  It's both good and ouchy at the same time. 

I've got one more day of waking up early before work and then three days in a row when I can get up as I please!  Hooray for long weekends!  I'm just a little too excited about this one coming up.  I'm planning on trying out running again tomorrow and also doing some more weight lifting.  Last Saturday when I did some weight lifting, I had to use the plate-loaded machines instead of free weights and I was doing the chest press at 80 or 90 pounds.  I really don't think I could do that on the bench press, but I might want to test it out just to see if I could do it once (or maybe even twice!).

Stair Mill & Elliptical
Time: 1:00:42
SM Distance: 2.80 miles
Elliptical Distance: 2.50 miles
Calories: 500
Max HR: 176 (83%)
Average HR: 158 (75%)

Pilates
Time: 54:00
Calories: 115
Max HR: 118 (56%)
Average HR: 90 (42%)

Being Hardcore

I might not have been keeping you perfectly up-to-date on my workouts, but I can assure you that they're getting done and I'm actually glad to be back at it.  I'm sticking with my plan of working out 6 days a week and having one rest day.  I've also been working on keeping my eating in check, which is a little bit easier when you're not on an extended vacation at Drew's mom and dad's house where they keep feeding you delicious food all the time! 

I've decided to try to keep up my new (and slightly improved) eating habits until April.  My goal between now and then is to lose 15 pounds.  Or, technically, 12, since I think I'm already down 3.  In April we're going to San Francisco and going to the Giants opening day and then on to wine country for 5 days and I want to be able to do wine tastings and eat yummy vacation food without worrying about anything else! 

I'm eating probably 85-90% of what I was eating a week ago, but this time I'm counting calories (using Daily Burn).  I've used a couple of Basal Metabolic Calculators to figure out that my BMR is probably somewhere around 1475 calories a day, so my calorie goal is to eat more than that and is somewhere in the 1500-1700 range each day.  I've successfully done this for the past 4 days and I have no reason to think that today would be any different.  I don't feel like I've denied myself anything, I just don't need to eat as often as I was when I was training for a marathon and I got sort-of used to the extra food! 

The good news for me is that I eat pretty well no matter what.  Now I'll just be a bit more tempted to cook at home (which, if you saw our counter space, you'd wonder how anything was possible) and have leftovers for lunch than I will to go grab something at the myriad of options within a 2 minute range from my desk.  But, that will be good for my wallet as well! 

Drew and I have called what we're doing (because he's in on this, too) until April "being hardcore".  This involves me actually getting up and going to the gym, which is a huge change of pace for me over the last month or so.  I think I'm doing pretty well so far.  Here's the quick breakdowns of all the workouts:

Saturday, January 8
Drew and I went to our "old" gym.  It's the one I was used to going to and it has a pool, which is nice, since not all gyms in NYC have one.  However, it's been undergoing renovations for the past couple months, so we haven't been going there (or, really, I should say that Drew hasn't been going there).  I wanted to go and see how everything looked.  It seems like they're still about a month away from being completely done, but it's looking pretty nice so far.  Of course, I should mention that the equipment hasn't changed and Drew managed to break a treadmill while we were there, so it looks fancier, but I'm not entirely sure it is fancier. 

I started out on the elliptical to warm-up before heading to the treadmill.  I only did two miles on the treadmill before going to do some weight-lifting.  I feel like these gym workouts are a little scattered because I don't do any one thing for very long, but if this is what it's going to take to get me to keep going, so be it.  I finished up the weight lifting with some ab work before going back to the treadmill for another round of cardio.  I was going to try to do some intervals on the treadmill the second time around, but after the first one, I felt really pukey.  I could have lived through that if I hadn't gotten a big side stitch.  I took that as a sign that I should ease back into this whole thing and so I spent 15 minutes doing some stretching and more ab work.  All in all, a pretty good workout for the first day of being "hardcore". 

Sunday, January 9
In my original plan, I had wanted to run three days a week, so I figured I might as well start now!  I've got this Speedy 5K plan in my head for March and I thought that I'd try to incorporate a little speed work into my run today since it hadn't worked out so well the day before.  I put on lots of warm clothes and a hat and gloves and my new Garmin and headed out the door to the Westside Path.

Wow.  It's cold out there in January.  Luckily, it didn't take me too long to warm-up.  I ran two miles down to Chelsea Piers and then turned around and headed back home.  I figured that my muscles were probably warmer now so I could try to run a faster mile for mile three.  And I totally did!  It was pretty hard, though.  I also think I need to change some of the settings on my Garmin because right now I have the auto pause feature for when I'm totally stopped.  I had to stop a couple times today to blow my nose and I noticed that each time, it took at least 10 seconds to register that I'd stopped.  I can't really blame it, I'll just change some setting and then I'll feel better about my times not being skewed by nose blowing or stopping for a traffic light.  But, I can include these fancy mile splits for the very first time:

Mile 1:         10:17
Mile 2:         10:28
Mile 3:           9:36
Mile 4:         11:02
Mile 4-4.10:  1:14

Monday, January 10
Rest day!  Mondays are going to be my "normal" rest day, so I figured I should just go ahead and get into the routine early! 

Tuesday, January 11
This morning I managed to get up and out of bed, even though Drew said "you could just go after work", but I wanted to make sure my workout was done and over with.  My left calf muscle has been a little sore, which I'm sure is the result of running too fast (oops).  That meant that I wouldn't be doing any running today.  Instead, I did 30 minutes on the stair mill and 30 minutes on the elliptical.  Not a riveting workout, but a workout nonetheless.  And I feel great about it.  Mostly I felt great that I'm still sticking with it.  It's a lot easier to get up and go to the gym at 9 or 10 on the weekend than it is before 6 on a weekday! 

Tomorrow it will likely have to be after work unless we end up with another huge snow accumulation in NYC tonight/tomorrow morning.  I am planning on a dentist appointment at 8 am before work and since the gym doesn't open until 6 and there should be a lot of snow on the ground, which would make working out outdoors dangerous, I think I'll stick with the after work option! 

Saturday
Elliptical: 15:25 / 1.25 miles / 145 calories / 179 max HR (84%) / 172 avg HR (81%)
Running (Treadmill): 20:49 / 2.00 miles / 200 calories / 198 max HR (93%) / 180 avg HR (85%)
Weight Lifting: 22:24 / 155 calories / 166 max HR (78%) / 143 avg HR (67%)
Running (Treadmill) 2: 10:00 / 1.00 mile / 93 calories / 181 max HR (85%) / 172 avg HR (81%)

Sunday
Running: 42:37 / 10:23 pace / 481 calories / 192 max HR / 173 avg HR

Tuesday
Stair Mill: 30:48 / 2.53 miles / 245 calories / 166 max HR (78%) / 155 avg HR (73%)
Elliptical: 31:40 / 2.75 miles / 270 calories / 172 max HR (81%) / 162 avg HR (76%)

Christmas, Yoga & An Extended Holiday Break

So, as I did last year, I traveled to Wisconsin on December 18-19 to make cookies with Drew's family.  I'm pretty sure we made even more cookies than we did last year, including mixing in our new Star Wars Cookie Cutters to make some non-Christmas themed cookies!  Somehow we were much more efficient this year, even given the additional cookies made, that we made it to yoga class on December 19 and after baking for a few more hours that day, I even helped Drew's parents decorate their tree! 

It must have been the season for yoga, because I ended up going back to yoga on Christmas Eve Day and the day after Christmas!  And then there was a blizzard in New York City.  Which meant that instead of flying home on December 26, we were going to be extending our vacation by a few days!  So, I made the most of it by enjoying hanging out with Drew's parents and living the retired lifestyle.  This entails having fancy lunches, getting mani/pedis, knitting, and more yoga!  I'm happy to say that I made it to yoga a total of 5 times when we were "stuck" there over the Christmas holiday.  And I even went to the local Y with Drew one morning, too! 

The only downside to being in Wisconsin longer than planned was that it was sort-of like doing the Wardrobe Challenge all over again!  Having so few outfits that you have to then spread out over 10 days is a little interesting, but I managed to make it work with some help from Drew's sister!  We spent the New Year in Chicago, which was always the plan and managed to make it home on January 2. 

It's been great to be home, but other than doing Pilates with Nicole yesterday, I'm totally slacking in the workout department.  I didn't even take my running shoes with me to Wisconsin, which meant that doing a marathon tomorrow is totally out of the question.  So, I'm bowing out of that one.  Which is probably okay since I got an e-mail today saying that the trail is a little iffy due to all the snow we got before and the snow that we got today! 

Now that it's 2011 and I've read blog post after blog post about resolutions or goals for the New Year, I figure I should take a long look at my own fitness (or lack thereof, currently) and get back on the wagon.  I'm feeling like I'm in a bit of a slump and I need to get over this in order to get back to the shape I'd like to be in.  Which also means that I need to pay a bit more attention to what I'm eating, too.  I don't know that I have the discipline to take a photo of everything I eat (and, frankly, I eat a lot of boring stuff, so I don't think you'll want me to anyway), but I do think that I might post some sort-of progress along the way so that I can keep myself more accountable. 

In terms of racing goals for the new year, I still want to have a speedy 5K race in March.  I even printed out a plan on how to get there.  I think that for the rest of this month, I need to work out some sort of a "plan".  I think it might look something like running 3 days a week, pilates 1 day a week, strength + other cardio 2 days and resting 1 day.  Or something sort-of similar to that.  The biggest goal for 2011 is the NYC Marathon.  I've got no triathlons on tap as of right now, but I think that'll change eventually.  I just need to get my act together and really look at the calendar before I make any decisions. 

I'm going to be posting more regularly once I get back to it.  Drew and I are going to San Francisco in April and our goal is to be "hardcore" until then.  Just to see what kind of shape we can get ourselves into in the next three months.  Should be a fun ride! 

Too Much T.V.

Apparently watching TV at the gym isn't my strong suit.  Last night after work I headed to the gym to get a couple quick miles in.  Except that instead of just listening to my iPod as usual, I just happened to end up at a treadmill where ESPN was playing on the TV.  I was happily running along going nowhere watching the ticker scroll by with all sorts of interesting sports news when all of a sudden ... I had to get off or risk barfing.  It pretty much came out of nowhere, but all of a sudden, I felt really sick to my stomach.

I started walking for a minute to see if I could start running again, but it just wasn't in the cards.  I only really had 45 minutes at the gym and wanted to use them wisely, so I went to check out the other cardio equipment.  I thought maybe I'd do the elliptical, but they were all taken so instead I did the Arc trainer for all of 15 minutes.  I still wasn't feeling that great, so I ended up using my last 10 minutes for stretching.  Which is probably something I need to do more of anyway.

I was really bummed that I wasn't feeling so hot, especially because Drew and I had tickets to the Knicks/Raptors game last night, which ended up being a really exciting game!  After eating some pretzels and drinking lots of soda, I finally was coming around and feeling back to normal.

All of that was probably a big sign that I need to get out of the gym and back outside!  Even though it was 24 degrees outside this morning (with the windchill, felt like 13), I got up and went for a run.  I finally got to test out my new Garmin, which was exciting.  Although it did take a while for the satellites to find me.  Or me to find the satellites.  I'm not sure which way it works.  Finally, after telling the Garmin that I was not indoors or hundreds of miles away from my last location, it started working!

It started working at just about the perfect moment, too ... right as I was walking into Central Park (I started walking instead of running in the hopes that the satellites would find me more easily if I was moving slower).  I decided to run on the Bridle Path for a number of reasons.  First, because this marathon I'm signed up for is partially on a bridle path, so I thought I should get used to it.  Second, because I've never been sure how far it is since Gmap Pedometer is lacking the Bridle Path route in Central Park. 

The funniest thing about today?  Turns out I've been properly guessing the miles all along.  Who needs this fancy technology?  Either way, I think I liked the watch.  I still need to upload the software to my computer and see all the fancy stuff it can tell me, but I liked it.  I had set it to auto-lap after each mile, so it was nice to have that beep at me.  I did notice, however, that it's not so great at auto-pausing when you're totally stopped.  It takes it a while to catch up to the fact that you're stopped.  Which isn't a problem unless you're running on streets (like from the Park to my apartment) and you get caught at a lot of lights.  I'm wondering if I change the auto pause from stopped to a very slow pace if it'll catch on more quickly? 

Either way, I've got a lot of tinkering around to do still before I can really say what I think.  For now, I'm glad I have it and I'll leave it at that!  The one very basic thing that I've forgotten the last two times I ran outside is my Road ID.  I'm wondering if I shouldn't just strap it to my shoe so that I can't forget it!  Something about not having it on my wrist makes me more nervous when I'm running.  But I never remember until I'm already far enough away from home that I can't just go back and grab it. 

Wednesday Gymnasium
Running: 2.0 miles in 21:30 (10:45/mile)
Arc Trainer: 15 minutes

Thursday Central Park Running
Time: 56:09+5:00 = 1:01:09
Distance: 5.06 + 0.50 = 5.56 miles
Pace: 10:59/mile

They Don't Make A Tennis-Ball-Head Size

Since this second marathon is only 6 weeks away, I don't really know how to prepare for it.  I'm sure that some people think it's awfully soon after my first marathon, but I'm really just doing this for fun.  There is a good chance that this marathon could be on a snow-covered path.  As far as the path, part of it is bridle path and hard packed and the other half is single-track and more technical.  Should be a good mix, I think. 

As far as having a "plan", my plan is to do the last 6 weeks of the first marathon training plan that I used.  Which is basically three build weeks followed by three taper weeks.  I figure if it worked the first time around, why mess with success?  

I've been on the fence for a while now about whether or not I need/want a Garmin.  And tonight I'm biting the bullet and buying one.  I'm assuming that this marathon course won't have mile markers, so I think that I'd like to know how it's going during the race.  Technically, it's a Christmas present from my mom, I'm just getting it for myself early!  So, let's hope the quick Amazon shipping will get here soon!  I'm really looking forward to seeing how I like it and I'll be sure to report back. 

Tonight I headed to the gym after work.  I had forgotten my own headphones at home, so I asked Drew if I could borrow his.  He was gracious enough to say yes.  He can't use the iPod headphones because they fall out of his ears.  I never really understood that.  He has the other kind of headphones.  You know, the ones with those little rubbery things on the end? 

Well, my ears are quite happy with the iPod headphones.  Those little rubbery ones?  Not so much.  In fact, I wanted to quit running after 0.10 miles today because I was so annoyed with those headphones.  I also knew I'd never make it on the treadmill staring at a white wall at the gym (really, there should at least be a mirror) without the headphones.  That meant that I spent 55+ minutes pressing the headphones back into my ears.

Let me be the first person to tell you that pressing headphones into your ears for more than 50 minutes is not fun.  And starts to make your ears hurt.  I really wanted to quit, but I also knew that I wanted to run 5 miles today.  If I wasn't so gosh-darn stubborn, I would have given up earlier, but I toughed it out.  It wasn't really all that fun, but when is the treadmill ever that fun?  It sure was sweaty, too.  I've got to get back to running outside! 

I met Drew when I was done at the gym to return his "defective" headphones.  He said that the problem was that they don't make a tennis-ball-head-size headphone.  It's true.  I have a child-sized head.  It's really small.  I have a lot of issues with hats.  But who knew it translated to my ears, too?  Either way, I'm glad that the free iPod headphones work marvelously.  I'm going to have to remember not to leave home without them. 

Running
Time: 55:05
Distance: 5.00 miles
Pace: 11:01/mile

It's Like You're Missing A Digit

This morning I was telling Drew that I had a 4 mile run on tap and that this weekend's run is only 8 miles.  He said that it sort-of sounds like I'm missing a digit in all the runs for this week.  I have to say that I agree.  Running only 4 miles seems like it should be a piece of cake.

Except it wasn't.  I ran at lunch again on the treadmill and I sort-of hated it.  Which made me question the whole marathon thing.  I have to say that I really really wish that this tapering stuff didn't make you a crazy person.  So far I haven't had any phantom aches and pains (thank goodness), but I'm left questioning whether or not I can actually complete a marathon, which isn't the best feeling.

I know that it's all silly and I'll get to the finish line one way or another, but I can't help questioning things when I'm running on the treadmill.  I will say that I wasn't able to use my favorite type of treadmill at the gym today and somehow felt all thrown off as a result of that.  Normally I take a photo of my final stats so I can remember my time, but today's treadmill didn't want to show you your final stats.  So I don't even really remember my final time.  I think it was 43-something, but I'm unsure on the something.

The other reason I don't think that today's run was so great is that I've actually been running pretty quickly (for me, at least during marathon training) on the last couple runs, and today's was slower.  I've got to remember that is okay and more likely my marathon pace and I absolutely cannot go out too fast during the marathon!  On my remaining runs this week, I'm going to try to remember that and run accordingly.

Also, I found out my bib number and corral for the marathon today.  Of course, I had to look it up on active.com myself (they haven't sent out an informational e-mail to race participants yet), but it makes it all more real!

Running
Time: ~43:30
Distance: 4.00 miles
Pace: 10:52/mile

A Fake PR

I was really going to get up this morning and go running.  Really.  Except I didn't.  So I brought stuff to run at work during my lunch instead.  The funniest part?  I actually got to work earlier than usual so that I could take a slightly longer lunch if needed.  Why I couldn't get up early to go running instead of getting to work early is beyond me.  Sometimes these things just don't make sense. 

When I started running, I sort-of had it in my head that I'd do 4 or 5 miles and then go back to work.  Except I started running and something about that hour-long treadmill limit was just taunting me today, so I figured I should go ahead and see if I could do a 10K in less than an hour.  I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I thought I would be able to do it. 

I started out running at 5.8 (10:20 pace) and held that for about 2 miles.  Then I just kept bumping up the pace from there.  Of course, I had to finish with a bit of a sprint and I kept getting really nervous that I had somehow not sped up early enough for it to come in under an hour, but somehow, I did it!  

Basically, I shattered my two previous standalone 10K times.  I shaved 1:15 off my last time of 1:01:11!  Except that I don't really think that this counts as a PR because it was on the treadmill and not in a race.  Doesn't mean that I'm not happy about it all the same, though! 

Truthfully, maybe wasn't the best idea to run this speedy 10K today, but it's done and I'm actually really happy about it.  Of course, on the flip side, all I could think about today while I was running was that I will have to run 20 miles and then a 10K in order to complete the marathon. Which seems crazy.  And really made me doubt my decision to sign up for this race at all.  I think tapering has already started to get to me and make me a little bit loopy. 

The other big news is that I signed up for the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge.  You can click on the button on the right side of my blog for more info -- and think about signing up yourself!  The more the merrier!  It starts on November 20 and runs through January 7, so it's 7 weeks of keeping yourself active through the holiday season.  I'm actually pretty excited about it.  I think it'll be what I need to not give up entirely on working out after the marathon.

However, I have to say that I feel like I'm cheating a little bit with this whole challenge.  I mean, it starts the day before my marathon.  Which gives me an early lead on the competition!  Living in NYC also means that I walk at least two miles every day (walking to and from work).  All those points sort-of seem easy to me, but I'm sure that there will be a lot of stiff competition, so I'm really eager to see how things pan out after 7 weeks.  Just because I have an easy go of it on Day 2 of the challenge, doesn't mean I'm a guaranteed winner!  (I also cannot believe that I just typed that running a marathon would be "an easy go".  Tapering really must have made me loopy!)

Running
Time: 59:56
Distance: 6.20 miles
Pace: 9:39/mile

The Blame Game

I had a feeling that this morning would be a bad weather morning and I was right.  It was pouring rain.  Which meant that it was probably a good thing that Laura and I had made plans to meet at the Columbus Circle Equinox and use some free passes that I had gotten when Drew and I did the Gay Pride Run.  They were three day passes, but I knew that there was no way we'd actually use all three days since we weren't going to go back tomorrow.  We also have several other passes from our Fitness Book that we need to use up before 2011! 

Laura called ahead and found out that they didn't have a hot tub, so that was a bit of a disappointment.  We had planned to meet this morning at 7:15 and this was our text exchange before we even met: 

Amy - 6:34:  I hate you.
Laura - 6:47:  I hate you too.  And I almost canceled.  Twice.  First just because it's too early, and then due to the rain.
Amy - 6:48:  Oh, I know.  Really don't want to go outside.
Laura - 6:49:  I hate your job too.  This morning thing was never a good idea.  We should live in a world where we can hit the gym at lunch or after work.
Amy - 6:50:  You should just come to our apartment instead and then we can all go back to sleep.
Laura - 6:52:  Don't tempt me.  I'm seriously tempted.
Amy - 6:52:  Do it.  It's a way better idea anyway.
Amy - 7:03:  Yup, I hate you.  This weather blows.
Laura - 7:10:  I blame you for this.
Amy - 7:13:  No!!!  You!!!

I'd just like to say that while all of this was going on I was slightly concerned that Laura wouldn't be on time since she obviously also had cell service (which doesn't normally happen on the subway), but we both got there at the exact same time, so she must have some sort of secret.  When we met in person, Laura said that she not only blamed me for getting up early, she also blamed me for the weather.  I thought that was taking it a bit further than necessary. 

The gym looked nice.  I'm not sure it was nice enough to justify the costs involved with Equinox, but it was nice.  They had very fancy Kiehl's products in the showers, which was a nice touch.  The pool was just okay.  Three lanes and it could have easily been five with the traffic that they had for the pool.  But I know that they're a big expense and it's nice that gyms have them at all. 

I started out sharing a lane with one other person, so we split the lane.  I liked the first 50 yards and then hated the next 100 and remembered that swimming is hard work.  After that, I sort-of settled into a bit of a rhythm and just kept swimming.  With about 5 minutes left of our pool time, a third person got in our lane, so we started circle swimming.  I wasn't too excited about this fact since I was in the fast lane, but it was nice that it actually pushed me a little bit more because I didn't want someone to come up and tap me on the toes! 
I wanted to keep my place in the lane, so it worked out pretty well. 

We cut our swim a couple minutes short to go in the steam room, which we ended up not loving.  Then we sat in the sauna for a couple minutes before heading to the shower.  Why couldn't they just have a hot tub instead?  We headed off to work and I got this text: 

Laura - 8:47:  I still blame you.

Swimming
Time: ~25:00
Distance: 1200 yards / 0.68 miles
Pace: 36:45/mile

I'm Being A Wimp

It got cold here in New York.  And I don't like it.  I'm really being a big wimp about it and don't want to go running outside in the cold.  It's just the idea of putting on so many clothes, going running, getting hot, coming home all just seems like too much effort.  And extra laundry.  I know that I have to get over this ... quickly.  I mean, I'm running a marathon outdoors in two and a half weeks and I'm pretty sure it's not going to get any warmer. 

So, in the spirit of being a wimp, I didn't get up this morning and go running outside.  Instead I packed a bag to go running at lunch at the gym.  Totally wimpy, I know.  I'm not overly proud of it, but I have to say that I'm glad I at least went running instead of skipping it all together, which was what I actually wanted to do. 

I started out running at 5.8 pace for a mile, then 5.9 pace for a mile, then 6.0 pace for a mile and then I played around with the speed, getting up to 8.0 at the end for the next 0.75 miles.  I decided to use the last 0.25 miles to try to cool down a bit, so I walked at a 4.0 pace. 

Really, I think the lesson from today is that not all runs have to be a big deal, but I'm really glad that I didn't wimp out and skip it entirely.  And I really am going to get out there and brave the cold ... maybe even tomorrow! 

Running
Time: 41:07
Distance: 4.00 miles
Pace: 10:16/mile

The Breakdown

In the last 72 Hours I have spent my time as follows:

35.5 Hours At Work
3 Hours Commuting to and from work
3 Hours Getting Ready For Work
22 Hours Sleeping

2.2 Hours Running
3 Hours Watching TV


That left me with 3.30 hours that I've somehow wasted not blogging, so I apologize for not getting this up sooner!  I'll just do a quick run down of the past three days and then hopefully we can get back to regular around here.

Monday was my usual rest day and of course the whole Marie Claire article discussion.  Tuesday morning was awfully dreary and I didn't feel like getting up, but knew I couldn't let last week's bad running schedule follow me into this week.  Enter the lunch-time run!  This is only possible because there is a branch of the gym that I belong to in the lobby of my work building.  I did a quick change, hopped on the treadmill, pounded out my 5 miles, and was back to work in just over an hour.  I was embarrassingly red-faced when I got back to my desk, but I got the run in and that was the most important thing!

Wednesday was another lazy day in the running department.  Thinking more and more that I might not be cut out for running 4 times a week and that 3 seems to be working well.  I might want to kick myself in the face about that come November 21, but I think that I'm doing okay overall.  I had lunch plans for Wednesday, so I couldn't squeeze in another lunch time run and working from 9:30 to 9:30 doesn't leave you a lot of other free time to hit the gym if you don't go before work.

This morning, I got back in the game.  I'll admit that it took every ounce of willpower to actually get up and out of bed.  And even once I did that, I still got back in bed to eat my pre-workout breakfast before hitting the road.  But, eventually, I did in fact hit the road.  I ran down the Westside Path, which was actually really nice.  I've never really run there on a weekday morning before and I was worried that it would be a bit desolate, but there were a lot of people out there.

The most exciting things I saw?  A cruise ship being pulled into dock by some tug boats and a rainbow.  Apparently this rainbow was more exciting than I gave it credit for because I noticed it and forgot about it 5 minutes later.  About 20 minutes after that, a guy came up next to me on his bicycle and told me I should look at the rainbow.  Which I did, again.  I mean, it was nice, but it wasn't a double rainbow or anything. 

I definitely felt like I was pushing myself more than usual today and it showed in the numbers when I got home, so that was nice to see that it wasn't a mis-perception.  Actually, both my runs so far this week have been faster than usual.  Maybe it's that I was trying to get them over with faster?  I am, however, looking forward to a nice long and slow run this weekend! 

Tuesday Running (Treadmill)
Time: 50:33
Distance: 5.00 miles
Pace: 10:06/mile

Thursday Running
Time: 1:23:26
Distance: 8.40 miles
Pace: 9:55/mile

Wardrobe Challenge has still been going along just fine. 
Tuesday, Day 16: Blue sweater, black pants, belt and silver and black earrings worn with high-heeled black mary janes (these seem to be the default shoe of this challenge!). 

Wednesday, Day 17: Black v-neck sweater, gray skirt, black suede boots and worn with my new necklace that Drew got me from Germany (which I didn't take a close-up of).  Just means I'll have to wear it again!

Thursday, Day 18: Gray shirt, black mini-skirt, tights and black flats.  Worn with three silver bangles and silver earrings.  The bangles are from my grandma and the earrings are just cheapies.  I was actually planning on wearing pants today, but I seemed to have tweaked my knee (this actually isn't running related, I noticed it yesterday evening and think I must have been sitting oddly at work) and thought I should wear flats instead of heels, so mini-skirt it was! 

Heavy Rain / Wind

I had this really great plan for this morning.  But I woke up to this weather forecast on my telephone: 

Right.  That looks bad.  It wasn't even so much the rain, it was the 30+ MPH winds that had me worried. But, I couldn't afford to skip another day of running this week, so I got up and dressed and went back to the gym.  Which I had pretty much vowed never to do again.  But, I sucked it up and got on a treadmill and started running.

I have a speed issue on the treadmill.  Meaning that I think I need to run really fast on them.  But, the truth is, I don't. I just need to run.  So, I set the treadmill at 5.5 (which is a 10:54 mile) and started running.  And running and running and running some more.  It was totally mindless.  The TV on the treadmill next to me was stuck in the on position and it was also stuck on ESPN, so I watched more of the Ryder Cup's rain delay from this morning than I ever would have otherwise and I obsessively watched the ESPN ticker to see if any new sports information would show up. 

Even though this wasn't my plan for today, I'm glad that I just got up and did some running.  I know I'll end up coming up short this week in the running department, so it was good to get any miles under my belt.  However, I don't understand how the treadmill told me that I was running a 10:54 minute mile and when I add up the times (the treadmill times out after an hour), I end up with an 11:01/mile pace.  Not that it's a big difference in the long run, but it's still perplexing. 


My current plan for the weekend is to go running again tomorrow morning before work, do the duathlon on Sunday (4 miles running) and see where I end up.  If I have to work on Sunday after the race , that'll be all I can do.  If not, I might consider adding some more onto that duathlon, but it's sort of a wait and see thing at this point. 

Running
Time: 1:10:36
Distance: 6.40 miles
Pace: 11:01/mile
Calories: 722 (according to treadmill)

Because of the rain, went with a skirt today.  Day 12 outfit: Gray skirt and green turtleneck, pearl earrings and black suede shoes.  The earrings are actually the bridesmaid gift from my friend Ann's wedding and the shoes were not worn outside in that monsoon that we're having today!  They were carried in my bag to work for safekeeping!  (But, obviously, I couldn't be bothered to put them on for the photo...sorry!)

Hideous Horrible Treadmill

I found myself working out at night again tonight.  I have to say, even though I really liked it yesterday, today wasn't the best.  I truly only have myself to blame.  I woke up this morning at 4:50, put on my clothes to do the Terrier brick, realized that I had a horrible stomach-ache and crawled back into bed, fully dressed in workout clothes.  I slept like that until 7:30. 

Truthfully, I wasn't really feeling that much better today after work, but since last week was such a low running week, I knew that I have to keep going with the plan and suck it up.  I was smart and packed clothes to take with me so that I could head to the gym right after work.  I only went to the gym because I knew it'd be raining.  I also knew that if I came home after work, changed clothes and tried to convince myself to go running in the rain, chances were slim that I'd actually go running. 

So, there I was at the gym at 7:30.  I told myself that I would not get off the treadmill before it hit 5.03 miles and I also would only give myself an hour to do get there (the treadmill time limit).  The 5.03 is important because that running ticker over there on the right is annoying me.  I'd like it to be at a rounder number than it was before! 

I have to say, I was reminded once again that I do not like the gymnasium.  I don't like going there, I don't like working out there.  If I hadn't found endurance sports, I'm pretty convinced that there is no way I would ever be working out because I think the gym is hideous.  And horrible.  And they have hideous horrible treadmills there. 

While running today, I was really trying to talk myself through it.  The thing is, I normally can convince myself to keep running outside, but there is something about the treadmill that is just mentally defeating for me.  I know that some people, like Brie, prefer running on treadmills.  Frankly, I think that's a bit loco, but I do sort-of wish that I could like it. 

All I did on my run today was either (a) force myself to run faster to get it over with or (b) wonder why I hate it so much.  I actually think that it's sort of like running laps to me.  I don't see a lot of forward progress while on the treadmill or running laps.  Running really far away from home and then realizing that there is only one way home seems to be better mentally for me. 

So, in truth, I only ran 4.03 miles today.  I forced myself to stay on for the full 5.03 miles, but the last mile was a combination of walking and really slow jogging.  I finished the 4.03 miles in 39:28 (9:47 pace).  I don't know why, but somehow at the gym it seems more important to worry about speed than it does outside.  Probably because outside it's easier to just go along with your body and not worry about the setting the speed like you do on the treadmill. 

Overall, I finished the 5.03 miles in 52:12, which was still pretty good overall and faster than a lot of my outdoor runs.  About the only positive thing I can say is that I did exactly what I set out to do today - complete a five mile run.  Now tomorrow will be all about resting up in preparation for this weekend's long run!

Running
Time: 52:12
Distance: 5.03 miles
Pace: 10:22/mile

Volunteering, Biking and Swimming

Saturday morning found me up early to complete my final task in order to qualify for entrance into the New York 2011 Marathon (gulp!). I've already run the 9 NYRR races, but I needed to do my part and volunteer for a race. My friend, Lisa, suggested that being a bike marshal was the best way to go. I signed up for Saturday's Dash & Splash 10K race (with the splash being in Lasker Pool after the race was over).

Of course, in typical fashion, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to bike quickly enough and the lead runner would pass me by, so I did some research on the fastest 10K times and quickly realized that I should have no trouble at all finishing ahead of the runners. Which is good, because I know that some people are really fast runners, but I'd be a little embarrassed if they could run faster than I could bike.

It ended up that there were 5 of us bike riders on Saturday morning. We went out in teams of two ahead of the lead truck (which stayed in front of the lead male runner). I was in the second wave of bikers. We were given whistles and told to clear all runners/walkers/etc. from the course in advance of the race. I have to tell you, it's not that easy to whistle and yell at people while riding your bike and trying to pay attention to everything else.

However, I had a ton of fun! Something about blowing a whistle and waving frantically at someone and telling (okay, I was yelling!) them to move out of the way was really fun. It was crazy to me how oblivious people are while wearing their headphones. Of course, some people were a little bit nasty when I was asking them to move out of the way, but I guess that's to be expected.

After finishing up with the volunteering, I did some more biking in the Park. I hadn't started my watch for the race and since I had such a nice time, I decided to just do the same thing for the rest of my ride and not be worried about anything other than spending some time on the bike. I ended up doing about 20 miles total, which I think seems like an okay number for the day.

Sunday I finally made it to the Terrier swim practice. I haven't been "real" swimming in a really long time. I figured maybe I should get one good swim in before the triathlon this coming weekend. I actually dropped my bike off at Toga to have them give it a tune up and also put a second bottle cage on (since mine fell off in San Francisco) and picked it up after practice, so it was really a two-for one kind of afternoon.

I got to practice a little bit early and was worried that I was going to end up with no coach. I knew that I'd get in and swim either way, but I was glad when Julia showed up a couple of minutes late and gave us a pretty good workout! Here's what we did:

300 Swim Warm-Up
2 x 150 Kick / Drill / Swim (50 of each)
2 x 50 Build

450 (Done as 9 x 50 with bilateral breathing on the 3-5-7, no rest in between 50s)
8 x 25 Breath control 2 x 4-3-2-1
4 x 200 race pace (:20 rest)

100 Swim Cool-Down

The 450 set wasn't easy. I sort-of hate bilateral breathing as a general rule, so I wasn't overly excited to do it today. I know that it's good race practice, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. On the last 50 where were were supposed to be breathing every 7 strokes, I definitely had to cut it short twice and only go 5 strokes. Oh well. Not the end of the world. I still took my breath on the left!

On the last 25, Julia told us that if someone could make it with taking no breaths, we could skip the 4 x 50s fast that she had written into the workout. I have to tell you that I was fine with sacrificing that 200 yards for the one 25. There actually only ended up being 4 of us at practice (it was during the World Cup game) and three of the four of us made it without taking a breath. Thank goodness!

I actually did the same thing that I did yesterday at the bike ride and didn't turn on my watch. Since we started a little late and ended about 2 minutes early, I'd guess that we were probably only swimming about 50 minutes today. Still, it felt great to get back into the pool and I'm glad that I got one good swim workout in before the race.

Biking
Distance: ~ 20.00 miles

Swimming
Time: 50:00
Distance: 2350 yards = 1.33 miles
Pace: 37:35/mile