Boo Legs

I should have known, "later today" almost always means never. Lunges and abs didn't happen yesterday but I'm glad to report they showed up in today's workout.

I was ADD at the gym today. All of it was random but the totals came to this: 2 treadmill miles, lunges, abs, jump squats, 2 min wall sit, side shuffles, 30 min on the elliptical. I was sweaty so I know it worked.

I attempted a "tempo run". I put it in quotations because it was only two miles of tempo running. It was so much harder than I anticipated. I really haven't done much faster running in the last two months and....this is the consequence of that. Here are the stats.

1.5 warm up at 8:40 min/mile, 2 miles at 6:53, 1.5 cool down at 8:30.

Its hard to believe that a few months ago I had worked my way up to a 8-9 mile tempo miles. Crazy how fast it leaves you. I need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable again. I really haven't felt too uncomfortable in my work outs lately and surprise surprise, I got a reality check today.

Longer run today. 10.27 miles. AP 8:40.

Made my way up from 2300 east and 2700 to wasatch drive and about 4500 over to tanner park and back down. One hill after another and another and another. I suck wind on hills. Temps felt awesome this morning. 

3.25 easy treadmill miles followed by a total body weight lifting class at the gym. Can I just complain for a minute? I'm not a fan of Saturday mornings at the gym. It seems that some people are there to be seen...and not necessarily sweat. That is all.

My first workout was 5 treadmill miles. AP 8:27. Followed by 10 min cool down on the elliptical. 

Second workout was 123 minutes long, watching the women's semifinal soccer game. USA vs. Canada. Holy crap...such an exciting game. My son was wondering why mommy was yelling at the TV. Go USA. Now I have to get caught up on everything I should have been doing for 123 minutes.... 

1 mile warm up, 3 miles @ 7:00 min/mile, 2.25 miles @ 8:30 min/mile.

Lunges and push ups.

When I was done, my face was all red/blotchy/sweaty, reminiscent of my 8 year old self on the playground at recess.  

Again, all over the place at the gym today. I won't even try to explain it. I didn't spend more than 10 minutes on each machine but it worked out to 3 treadmill miles, 20 min elliptical, 10 min stair stepper, 10 min on the stationary bike.

Worked a night shift and it was a serious fight in my head to get out the door and run in the heat this afternoon.

I ran without the garmin. For a couple of reasons really, I didn't know how much of a charge it had, I didn't want to feel pressure to keep a certain pace considering it was so blasted hot and I was running on little sleep. I'm pretty sure my pace at the beginning was close to walking but after about 4-5 miles, I finally woke up and got after it. My energy level at end was so much better. I love that running usually makes you feel better, even though its sometimes a battle to get out the door.

I did a tabata workout on the treadmill today. It certainly got the ol ticker ticking! It went like this.....

2 mile warm up

8 rounds of tabata sprints (4 mins). 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off. Incline 1.5% Speed 9.5 mph (6:19 min/mile)

2 minute recovery. Incline 10% Speed 4 mph. 

8 rounds of tabata sprints. Incline 1.5% Speed 10 mph (6:00 min/mile)

2 minute recovery

8 rounds of tabata sprints. Incline 1.5% Speed 10.5-11 mph (5:43-5:27 min/mile)

2 minute recovery

2 mile cool down.

Wipe up the sweat. 

7.15 miles. Average pace 8:20. 

2 minute wall sit. 

Easy miles. Average pace 8:25. Pushups. Weak sauce arms.

This may not make sense to anyone else out there, but to me it does and I want to remember how I did it. This was uncomfortably hard but I felt I still had some left in the tank when I was done. It took a while for my legs to agree with my mind in that yes, indeed, we are going fast(er, its a relative term) today...

All fast miles (full mile, 1/2 mile, and 1/4 mile) had 1/2 mile recovery jogs in between.

1 mile warm up, 1 mile repeats @ 6:35, 6:30, 6:27, 1/2 mile repeats @ 3:05, 3:02, 1/4 mile repeats @ 1:30, 1:27, cool down.

 I got in a little cross training today. My favorite spinning teacher is back. Oh how my legs and lungs have missed her.

1 mile on the treadmill, Spinning class, 2 miles on the treadmill.

Major props to those of you who do triathlons. I only did two miles after being on the bike and my legs felt like jelly. I can't imagine trying to run much more than that after biking AND swimming.

Such a fight to get out the door today. I worked a night shift last night and every part of me didn't want to go run in the heat of the day. ...BUT...my child fell asleep at Grandmas house so it was either run in the heat of the day or don't run at all. After several rounds of convincing myself I could do it, I embraced the heat and accepted the fact that I was going to be a sweaty mess. The first three miles felt surprisingly good, average pace around 8:15. Then it seemed like my body realized how hot it was and how little sleep I was running on and my average pace dropped and dropped as my perceived effort increased. Ended up with a 8:45 min/mile average. Not great, but considering my lack of sleep and the blazing sun, I'm grateful I got my run in.

I did a treadmill class at the gym today. It was a mixture of some serious hills (8-10 incline) and speed (5:45 min/mile, no worries, I didn't do a full mile at this...) I wore my heart rate monitor and at one point I was at 190! On the verge of puking,...such a good workout.

This class ALWAYS kicks my butt. I love the teacher. I feel like she pushes me beyond what I think I can do. Not that I'm some super star, but in about 6 months, I knocked off 12 minutes from my half marathon time and I totally give credit to this running instructor. She is so good at motivating me to dig deep and go faster than I think I can. This is something I tend to struggle with, mental confidence. I talk myself out of a lot and mentally give up. 

8.1 miles, Average pace 8:20. 

Another day, another run. 

Running=Therapy 

8.6 miles. Average pace 8:16. I wasn't planning on running this long today but I had some frustration/sadness to get out. Someone made a comment to me about my (2 year old) child yesterday at church that left me feeling so incredibly stupid, insecure about my mothering, and really small. I'm usually an easy going person but for some reason this comment hurt my feelings and affected me way more than I wanted it to. I was hurt/bugged about the comment but I was really bugged that I let it affect me so much. Needless to say after a good cry, a good nights sleep, and especially after a good run, I feel much better. I (and everyone else around me) love(s) that running does that for me.

Tempo run today. 1 mile warm up, 4 miles tempo, 1.2 mile cool down. Tempo miles went like this 7:13, 7:03, 6:55, 6:50. Does anyone else find it hard for their legs to wake up? It seems like it takes forever for my legs to get to where it feels good to run fast. That first tempo mile is always the slowest and the hardest.

I inherited a treadmill. Not a nice one but its a free one and that makes it great. I'm thinking of throwing a few afternoon runs in while the "hurricane" is sleeping in the afternoon. Anyone have any advice on this? Obviously I'm going to ease into it but for those of you who do two a day runs, here are some questions...

1. How far apart are your runs?

2. How many times a week do you do two a days?

3. Do you run twice day just on easy run days? Or do you do a faster workout in the morning followed by an easy couple of miles in the afternoon?

What's the best way to do this? I'll take all the advice you've got, I'm just trying to switch it up a little and slowly increase my weekly mileage.... 

Afternoon run 2.5 miles on the ghetto fabulous free treadmill.

1 mile, Spinning class, 2.5 miles after. Done and done.

I wasn't planning to cross train today, but that's how it happened. I was a chatty cathy with a friend on the elliptical and a 10 minute warm up turned into 45 mins. I ran 3 easy miles on the treadmill after.

I did a copycat workout today. I've seen a few of you (Rachelle, Julie, Kelli) do this workout and tried it today. 10 minute warm up, 35 mins of 1 min on, 1 min off alternating between about a 6:15-30 min/mile, and 9:00 min/mile, 5 min cool down. Average pace 7:45. It was a good mix of speed and recovery, switching it up so often certainly made the time go by fast. This is why I'm loving this blog, you get great workout ideas and advice...so, thanks everyone!

Afternoon nap= 2 super easy miles on the treadmill. My legs were feeling tired today. 

10.55 miles. Average pace 8:30. Nice morning, I'm jealous of everyone running races today. It was a great morning.

A hot humid "easy" 8 miles this morning. "Easy" is a relative term. If by "easy" you mean lots of effort to maintain a 8:30 pace, then yes it was "easy". I think my legs are feeling the higher mileage last week? Perhaps they are tired from the extra evening runs last week? Maybe my legs are wussy?

Afternoon run was 2.5 easy miles. The legs actually felt better on this run.  

I think I've got ADD when it comes to speedwork. I can't handle the same thing for too long. I was all over the place. I did a descending ladder that looked like this. 

1 mile warm up

1 mile fast, recover, 1/2 mile fast, recover, 1/4 mile fast, recover and repeat descending ladder.

1 mile cool down 

The fast miles looked like this for round number one 6:35, 3:06, 1:23  and round number two (no surprise here, my legs finally got used to going fast, you can tell I felt better the second time around) 6:31, 3:03, 1:21.

Cross training today. 1 hour spin class. 

AM: 5 miles easy. Average pace 8:35. I was planning to do the whole 8 miles in the am but I had some serious stomach issues and decided to cut it short, hoping I'd get a chance to finish it up later.

Afternoon: 3.5 miles easy. So much better this afternoon! Average pace 8:20. Happy that I didn't talk myself out of finishing the run. (cuz lets face it, I'm good at that.)

6.1 easy miles. Average pace 8:27. That first mile was about a 9:40 min/mile. It took a couple miles to get the lead out. I definitely felt better the last few miles.