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Showing posts from July, 2010

C25K: W4D2 Completed

Attempted to begin the run today outdoors. It’s 95 degrees outside with a real feel of 99. Ugh. Midway through my warmup walk I knew I was not going to be able to handle the heat/humidity so I moved it indoors to the treadmill at the gym. Pushed the incline up to 1 and the speed to 5 mph to attempt to compensate for the ease of the treadmill. Completed 2.84 miles and consider the session successful, although I did feel a bit dizzy/nauseous at the very end again when my HR was hovering in the 180s. Still waiting for runner’s euphoria to kick in. When is that supposed to begin exactly? Here are my stats for the run: Garmin Stats

C25k: W4D1 (repeat) Done

Friday morning in Seattle (look for an upcoming trip report post soon!) I made time to tackle W4D1 again. As you may remember  I attempted but did not complete D1 earlier in the  same week, falling short by one minute and 30 seconds of the total run time. My run began a bit stiff – perhaps because it felt cooler than back home in northern VA and my muscles were not as loose - but I made it through the full session (16 minutes of running total) without a problem. I didn’t enjoy it though. I’m going to be really bummed if I finish the c25k program and discover that I actually don’t like running. I’m hoping it was just  a bad session. I should have completed both d2 and d3 prior to today, but I let my soreness from hiking 10 miles up some challenging trails on Mt Rainier over the weekend and then my exhaustion from the redeye flight home on Monday get in the way of finishing the week. Cannot let my discipline continue to slip! I will run c25k: W4d2 today. Here are my stats for

Striving, Always Striving

One of the benefits of marriage and the deep emotional intimacy that accompanies it is that our spouse, in a loving and supportive environment,  may be able to surface and challenge ideas that we hold. Often we may not even realize that we are clinging to these deep set thoughts or how much they are shaping our worldview until we are questioned and prodded and challenged to explain our way of thinking. One night not that long ago my husband and I had a long and lively discussion on competition. I am very competitive, always striving to be the best at things that are important to me. After much discussion he helped me reach the conclusion that my striving is directed toward receiving a particular kind of favor from God. Not salvation mind you, but love.  (I’ve always been quite suspect of Christians who are obsessed with heaven and salvation. We should love and obey God because he is God, not because there is a cookie in it for us via the afterlife.) Love is what I strive for – I’d ce

C25K: W4D1 (failed)

Today’s run was as follows per the c25k training program: 5 min warm up run 3 min;walk 90 sec run 5 min;walk 2.5 min run 3 min;walk 90 sec run 5 min;walk 2.5 min 5 min cool down Compare that to last week: 5 min warm up run 90 sec;walk 90 sec run 3 min;walk 3 min run 90 sec;walk 90 sec run 3 min;walk 3 min 5 min cool down So it is a full 7 minutes more of running this week than last, with less rest time in between. I’ll go ahead and cut the suspense and announce now that I failed. Bummer. I needed a 2 min walk after the second 3 minute run as my heart rate was getting too high to recover in just 90 seconds. Then, with 1.5 minutes left in the final run I lost my steam and started to get dizzy/nauseous. Looking at my HR on the Garmin it was 185. Too high for sure. i let myself walk for 30 seconds, heard the training guy break into the music to say “congrats” and thought I had only stopped 30 seconds early until he finished his statement: “congrats…you’ve on

C25K: W3D3 Done

Although I am scheduled to run on Tue/Thu/Sat, I was unable to squeeze in my 3rd run of week three in on Saturday. This was due to the 6.8 mile hike I referenced in my previous blog post   that I lead on Saturday morning in the Shenandoah mountains. I wasn’t in the mood to get up at 6am and run before the hike since I’d stayed up past mdt on Friday at Literary Elly May's birthday party and I was too tired to complete the run after returning from the 5 hour hike in the afternoon. I promised myself I’d tackle the run Sunday. Was that the dumbest idea ever? (Answer: YES).  I was SO SORE from the hike due to the constant inclines/declines that I could barely move on Sunday morning or afternoon, much less run. Late in the evening I realized that a derailment in my running program based on my “feelings” (no matter how legitimate) could snowball into giving myself permission to skip running for whatever lame reason I managed to come up with in the future. I struggle a lot with self-dis

Weekend Activities

It was a very full weekend around our household. Friday I prepped and executed a birthday party for Literary Elly May . It was her 27th and we employed a zombie theme for the event. It was nice to have all her friends join us to celebrate. Saturday I led my walking meetup ( NoVA Walkers ) on a moderately challenging 6.8 mile hike in the Shenandoah Natl Park. We hiked Piney River Falls with a group of 8 and stopped for lunch once we reached the falls. The trail configuration is out-and-back, with a 3.4 mile decline down the valley to the falls and likewise 3.4 mile incline return. My recent running program has dramatically improved my cardio so I had no difficulties on the return section with breathing. However, despite my  muscle building (also thanks to running) it was clearly not enough to prepare me for a trail with this kind of protracted incline because although I was fine during the hike, I was very sore all day Sunday. Still, it was great to get out there and rise to the chal

C25K: W3D2 DONE

Had a pretty good run this morning, despite some distractions for Julia on the trail in the form of other dogs+owners passing by. I pushed myself during the last 50 seconds of running again  and got up to 7mph. Not sustainable of course but a good sprint push to end the workout. I am running these days on the trail at Jennie Dean park and i really enjoy the wooded scenery plus the rolling hills built into the trail. I don’t want to be the girl who trains only on flat surfaces that gets shell shocked when a 5k course has some hills involved. Trying to still pay attention to fitness indicators like HR (and my numbers show my cardio fitness is improving every week so that’s awesome), but also now looking to improve running efficiency by monitoring not only speed/pace but also cadence. According to this article: http://www.rungearrun.com/resources/cadence.php the closer one can get to a cadence of 85-95, the more efficient and less injury prone the running stride is. I’m currently run

C25K: W3D1 DONE

I can scarcely put into words how great I feel about my run this morning. I was pretty intimidated at the thought of running 3 minute intervals, especially since just 3 weeks ago I couldn’t run 90 seconds. The week 3 sessions consist of  this entire series twice: a 90 second run+90 second walk+3 minutes run+3 minute walk. I put myself out there on the trail and went for it. I used my Garmin FR60 to keep my pace below 12 minute miles so I wouldn’t tire prematurely (I had been running 10-11 minute mile pace previously) and it wasn’t difficult at all. I have even finally reached the point of passing the talk test (you should be able to hold a conversation without being totally out of breath during your cardio segments). I got so excited at the conclusion of the first 3 minute interval that I kept chanting to myself “Oh my gosh I did it!” and burst into tears of joy. FAT GIRL CAN RUN! I nailed the second interval without problems as well and all the way home I alternated between crying

Cross-Training

Today I took a 22 minute cycle ride around the neighborhood in an effort to satisfy my body’s push for an aerobic workout without overusing my running muscles. A fellow jogger suggested either cycling or swimming as an appropriate cross training exercise on my non-run days. The ride was ok. Biking has never been my favorite sport because I am averse to major muscle work and nothing makes my legs ache the next day like biking. With my recent running workouts, I no longer feel any burn in my calves when cycling but the strain on my quads is still there. The muscle burn during the ride prevents me from getting above 80% of my MHR, so at least I don’t need to worry about anarobic overkill while biking. According to Garmin, most of my workout was in the 60-80% MHR zone, which is great for cardio conditioning and fat burn. Today’s Garmin stats: Garmin Connect Here is my route: Map My Route

Thoughts

I read the comment below on this page and it spoke me:   (68) Mark , April 23, 2010 The Inner Conflicts We Are Left With Do abusive parents run out of 'credit' as a pschologist once suggested to me? Do we owe abusive parents anything especially in their old age? Are they sick or just bad or a mixture of both? Can we hate them and love them at the same time? Can we really honour/love the person whilst forgetting the behaviour? Abuse of a child by a parent, IS rejection of that child and as such does the parent really have a right to expect anything in return when they get old? and should we feel obligated to them? Parenting is a two way street, just giving birth to someone and sharing your genes with them does not automatically give a parent a right to anything where there has been abuse. Yes we are probably programmed genetically to take care of aged parents with an unwritten rule of reciprocity. But where the risks to survivial of the victim and their genes hav

C25K: w2d3 DONE

This morning I woke up ready to run and found it was pouring rain outside. While I welcome the precipitation (should bring down temps which have been over 100 degrees this week) I did not want to run in a downpour. I decided I’d run at the gym on a treadmill for today’s session. When you read the agonized account of indoor runners that progress outside or outdoor runners that feel like champions if they migrate indoors, it’s no joke. Running on a treadmill, even with a 1% incline as suggested to mimic outdoor running is so easy compared to street or trail running. My Garmin tells me that I run outdoors at 5 to 5.5mph and to get even close to that feeling indoors I had to bump it up to 6.0. I only did that on the last interval though, preferring instead to enjoy the easygoing feel of 5.5mph on the treadmill. I felt like a million bucks running easily at 5.5mph. Surrrrrrrre it’s only for 1.5 minute intervals (I like to write 1.5 minutes because it seems more impressive than 90 seconds)

c25k: w2d2 DONE

Can I just write again how much I love having the Garmin FR60 as a ‘partner’ for my sessions? It is really exciting to track HR (especially as my cardio fitness improves), calories, distance, speed, and pace. Midway through the week of workouts and my peak and avg HR during the workout has gone down, despite an increase in running time over last week. My heart is getting stronger! I am beginning to feel as if I can hold a conversation during the jogging segments, which is great cardio progress. Here are my technical stats for this session: Garmin Connect I ran this morning’s session in haymarket at 7:30am, making laps around the fields on the grounds of an elementary school across the street from Literary Elly May’s home. One more session for w2 to go (on Sat) and then I graduate to week three which means 3 minute runs. Truth be told I am a bit panicked about increasing from 1.5 minutes to 3, but will give it my best shot. This is probably my first go in all my life with sti

c25k: W2D1: DONE

W2D1 of the C25K program consists of a 5 min warm up walk followed by 6 intervals of 90 second jogs and 2 min walks. Total run time is 9 minutes, or 1 minute greater than W1 intervals. Today I had the idea to walk to the local highschool track to perform my workout there. It’s a 1 mile walk to the school, so my 5 min warm up walk turned into a 20 minute walk and my cool down was therefore also a 20 minute walk. When I arrived at the track I found all the gates locked, which was very disappointing.  The school ought to allow local community residents the ability to use the track, especially off season in summer. Our property taxes pay for the equipment after all. Without access to the track I ran my intervals on the soccer field which worked out well as long as i avoided the damp spots from the sprinklers. I did not find the intervals any more or less challenging than the W1 intervals. My heart rate was relatively similar to W1 numbers (shown here: Jenni's HR log on Garmin Conne

Listmania: Essential Running Gear

Put this together for my readers; thought it might be useful and motivational: My List of Essential Running Gear

June 2010 Weight Training Log

Exercise Visits Reps Sets Avg Wt(lbs.) Total Wt(lbs.) Cybex Eagle Abdominal Ab Crunch 5 189 11 65 12,285 Cybex Eagle Arm Curl 5 130 10 30 3,900 Cybex Eagle Back Extension 5 144 10 90 12,960 Cybex Eagle Chest Press 5 150 10 30 4,500 Cybex Eagle Hip Abd / Add Hip Abduction 5 139 10

C25K: W1D3 DONE

  Went out this morning to tackle W1D3 and did it successfully. No knee pain during the run, a little during the walk as I'm still recovering from hurting the knee on thurs. Overall a great session! I dragged hubby out with me to watch my form and pace and his feedback was mostly SLOW DOWN. He said i was going at least 1/3 faster during the first 4 four intervals versus the last. So I will work on pacing better next week. My exciting news to report is that I got a Garmin FR60 watch with chest strap (foot pod to measure distance, speed and cadence should be here next week) to track my HR and the gadgetry is really cool to use! Here is what I learned from the tracking today which you can see at this link below: My Garmin Stats 1. I learned that even though I wasn't running as fast during the last few intervals, the workout for my heart was cumulative and so my hr kept getting higher each interval, and it wasn't able to dip as low in recovery during the walk intervals

C25k: W1D2 (repeat)

It seems that lowering my blood pressure meds did the trick. I lowered my dosage starting on Tues evening (I take my pills each evening) and found that my blood pressure went up a bit (now up to 112/70) and my resting heart rate went down to 75 (from 91). My heart doesn't have to beat as many times since my blood pressure is a bit more normal. Yay. This is really a super double yay b/c the whole reason I needed to lower the dosage to begin with was because I am getting more fit and so my BP is naturally dropping. Perhaps one day, with many running days under my belt and probably weight lost in the process I will be able to wean off the meds entirely. A girl can dream. Anyway, with the lower resting heart rate and more normal blood pressure, I was able to clear all 8 intervals without feeling dizzy/pukey. That was my mark of success for W1d2. It wasn't easy though in that I came down wrong on my leg off a curb and my knee is hurting, plus I really wasn't feeling the run th