Repeats

Today the workout from Will (6 to 9 × 400 @ 90 seconds with 90 seconds rest) came while I was already running what ended up being practically 400s anyway, so I didn't feel too bad about missing his workout (I'll do it some time, probably over the winter while I'm still trying to increase my speed). Instead, I tried to do some fast (but short) intervals; I tended to start out too fast and not be able to hold the pace I was at. And when I started to slow down, I stopped.

Then I tried something different. I went back to the car, grabbed my watch, and set the timer for 41 seconds, repeat at end. I hit the trail again, which is marked every 10^th of a mile. If I could run between each marker in 41 seconds, and make it through all 10, I'd finish the mile in 6:50 (410 seconds). I didn't make it through all 10 because this was my fourth attempt and not only did I start out tired, I became more tired as the intervals passed, but the timer thing definitely worked for me. If I got to the marker a little early, I'd try to slow it down a second or two. If I got to the marker late, I'd know I was off my pace and would stop, rest, and try again so that I would learn to run at a certain pace. Next time I'm setting my watch for 40 seconds and stopping/restarting the timer as soon as I hit the marker. That way I wouldn't know how early I was and I would stay at or under my pace. But doing Will's thing of running a certain distance for 90 seconds would have been about the same. He must finally be realizing how I like to train and what makes me feel like I'm improving.

It was kind of funny talking to him about it afterward, though, because he recalled how at this time last year, he had to fight with me to make me think I could even run a 7-minute mile, much less anything faster. Now I realize I'm not all that far away from my goal of a 6-minute mile and then adding more of the same to the end of that. I finally believe it, now I just have to achieve it and then build on it. Maybe I will have another breakthrough this winter when I won't be racing and it won't matter whether I'm ridiculously tired!

Easy

My body has been so tired lately and Will's been altering the workouts, I think. At least, he's been letting me ask for something different and maybe or maybe not acceding to my requests. Today he told me to do 100 altitude drops. I asked about substituting standing ham for GHR, and he said to do GHR. After my attitude-dripping reply, he said he'd meant standing ham. I was significantly happier about doing those. It wasn't necessarily that GHR is hard, which it is, but I was already so tired and it would have been like doing 100 GHR and 100 push ups, and I just didn't think I'd be able to handle it.

• Lunge
• Standing ham
• Bench, 30lb
• Curl, 24lb (couldn't do it all with this weight, so I lowered the weight. Will said later don't lower the weight, even if you can do only one rep at a time; do them all with the same weight and do them well)

For fun today, Lauren, her friend Virginia, and I went to McDougal's for lunch of chicken fingers and ice cream and then headed to MFY for fun in the sun at the pool. It had been cloudy and rainy most of the morning, and there was hardly anyone at the pool. That was great because the girls had fun playing in the pool, I could see them most of the time, and I didn't mind doing my workout while they were playing.

Lauren had made a cake during one of her art camps, so we took it to the pool with us to enjoy during one of the rest periods. It tasted great, and she did an awesome job decorating it!

Thursday

Today didn't go exactly as planned, but it ended up being OK. No AM workout meant that I could sleep in a little, no lunchtime walk with Valerie meant lunch at the Marriott with a couple coworkers, and a supposedly relatively easier workout ended up being pretty tough. It was 3.5 minutes extreme slow:

• Bench press, 55 lb
• Bench press, 45 lb
• Seated preacher curl, 30 lb
• Preacher curl, 20 lb
• Lunge L, R
• GHR
• GHR

I took about 3.5 min rest between each one. Bench press with 55 was OK, bench with 45 was a struggle. I think I worked really hard on the first (well, and on the second too) that I could really no longer do a controlled lowering of the bar. It was either hold it up at the top or hold it at the bottom; there wasn't much of an in between. The same was pretty much true for them all. By the time I got home at 6:30 I wanted to go straight to sleep. I managed to stay up for a little, just enough to chat with Will about tomorrow and think about next week's plan.

Toned Down?

What $1.27 plus good Qs and sales can get you at Publix

If this is Will's idea of toning it down a little, I wonder what it would have been!

• 200 phasic impulse reps:
• Standing lateral delt
• Leg extension
• Standing row
• Leg curl
• Bent-over row
• Repeat the following two 6 times:
• GHR, 3 reps, to top
• Squat, 3 reps, 55lb
• Russian twist, 5×3 each side
• Preacher curl, 90 seconds, 15-lb dumbbells, 2 times
  

I ran 3 miles at lunch, when it was 99*/feels like 110*, and it felt like 110! It didn't help that my legs were tired, but my few 1-minute intervals weren't very fast. Here are the sad stats: 30 minutes, 3.03 miles, 9:55 pace (6:19 best), 338 cal. Warm up: 1:23, 0.10 mi. Mile 1: 8:16. Mile 2: 9:47 (this was run 1min, walk 1min). Mile 2.92: 10:32 (more of the same only obviously slower).

The afternoon workout was similar to the morning one but slightly different:

• 200 phasic impulse reps:
• Standing front delt
• Hip flexion
• Biceps curl
• Hip extension
• Repeat the following two 6 times:
• 1-min standing extreme hamstring
  
• 3 russian lunges
  
• Push up, 90 seconds, 2 times
  

What $10.64 can get you (my second transaction wasn't quite as good as the first)

Here's what I got at Publix tonight:

• $1.89: Mott's applesauce
• $0: Publix applesauce: 1.59 – 1.59 (Buy theirs, get our promo)
  
• $4.09: Purity Chocolate milk: 4.79 – $0.35/1MQ doubled
  
• $2.39: Oreo Cakesters: 3.39 – $1/1MQ
  
• $0: Oreos: 2.99 – 2.99 MQ (buy 1 gal milk & 1 Nabisco cookie, get another Nabisco cookie free)
  
• $0.02: Velveeta cheese ×2 (1.99): 3.98 – 3.96 (Publix penny item)
  
• $2.09: Publix eggs
• $1.58: Ronzoni pasta ×4 (1.79): 7.16 – 3.58 (BOGO) – 2×$1/2MQs
  
• +$3.99 (overage): EAS bars ×2 (1.99): 3.98 – 0.98 (sale) – $3/2 PQ – 3.99 MQ
  
• $1.29: Nestle cookies ×2 (2.79): 5.58 –2.79 (BOGO) – 2×$0.75/1MQ
• $9.36 + tax
  

All this cost me $10.64 out of pocket (oop), and it should have cost me $39.34. I saved 73%, got some food (not just snacks, tho there are a few!), and had fun impressing the cashier.

Two Days in a Row

I cannot put together two good training days in a row, and it is very frustrating. Yesterday was great; this morning felt like a complete bust. The fact that Will said, "recover, stimulate your quads and hamstrings by visualizing," contributed to my initial angst at the workout, and then my attempt at doing so made it nearly pointless to even try. I can't recover if I'm trying to stimulate, and I can't stimulate if I'm trying to visualize, and I can't visualize if I'm trying to recover. His, "It's going to be awesome," didn't help at all. Basically I ended up setting my timer for 30 seconds, waiting, then continuing the altitude drop legs. For the altitude drop bench, I took 3 deep breaths and continued. The other three went OK because I tried to make myself have a better attitude about them since they were not as mentally taxing.

• Altitude drop legs, 10 sets of 4, visualizing recovery and stimulating the muscles between each set
• GHR, overspeed, 5 sets of 5
• Russian twist, 5 sets of 3 each side
  
• Alt drop bench, 10 sets of 4, visualizing recovery and stimulating the muscles between each set
• Crate crunch, 5 sets of 40 with 5-lb weight in crate, 30 seconds rest between sets

For the afternoon, half of which I did outside:

• Lunge, 45 sec, R leg forward
• Phasic leg curl, 75, L leg
• Repeat the previous two 5 times
• GHR, 5 sets of 10
• 1-arm-elevated push up, 45 sec, L arm on ground (lasted through all 5 R, then 1 L, before I couldn't hold myself up any more)
  
• Phasic row, 50, L arm
• Repeat the previous two 5 times

My goal for the afternoon was to finish with enough time to maybe run home for supper for definitely get to Healthways for the Harpeth Bike Club ride. Nothing better than a hard ride with sore hamstrings! I managed to finish in time to run to Publix for some sample food and a Snickers bar, arrive at Healthways with just enough time to pump up my tires, and then hit the road with a surprisingly huge crowd (it was nearly 100—the regulars thought that would have kept the others home).

A large crowd also means a fast pace, and tonight did not disappoint. Well, it seemed super fast until I looked at the stats and realized that it was 30 seconds slower than last time. I'm not sure how we lost time, because it felt like we were flying the entire ride!

Usually I can stay with the lead group until I turn off, but tonight I got dropped and was already a minute down on the pack when I turned off. Thankfully, three guys turned with me, so I had a little company and was less worried that the group might beat me. One guy was strong and took some good pulls, but he let me lead a lot, knowing that I am a triathlete. Of the other two, one was super strong downhill and on the flats but not so on the hills, and though he dropped us a few times on the downhills, we always caught back up and eventually left him behind; the other was strong but I think stayed back with the downhill rider so that neither of them was alone. I had been hoping that Downhill Man would get back on at least for a little so that I could help him understand that if he'd pull us downhill or on the flats rather than trying to drop us, we'd pull him up the hills and it would benefit all of us; no such luck. Maybe he'll be out again next week.

The guy who stayed with me (or did I stay with him?) would pull me some, and as soon as he let me lead I'd ride him off my wheel. I couldn't figure out if he was letting me go or if he just couldn't jump on and stay on. It confused me the entire time, but I kept going regardless, and we ended up coming in together and beating the fast, long group by 2:12.

8-04-10, 7-6-10, 6-29-10, 6-22-10, 6-15-10.

• 1:05:16, 20.92 miles, 19.2 avg (35.6 max), 1266 cal, 171 HR (192 max);
  1:04:46, 20.86 miles, 19.3 avg (34.4 max), 1318 cal, 166 HR (192 max);
  1:35:50, 28.26 miles, 17.7 avg (35.5 max), 1763 cal, 150 HR (189 max) (rode from home);
  1:02:01, 20.01 miles, 19.4 avg (34.9 max), 1249 cal, 172 HR (191 max);
  1:05:37, 20.69 miles, 18.9 avg (34.4 max), 1291 cal, 164 HR (190 max)
• 25:49, 9 mi, 21.2 avg, 162 HR;
  25:04, 8.87 mi, 21.2 avg, 161 HR;
  24:06, 8.91 mi, 22.2 avg, 145 HR;
  21:45, 8.01 mi, 22.1 avg, 171 HR;
  27:43, 8.81 mi, 19.1 avg, 160 HR
  
• 39:26, 12.02 mi, 18.2 avg, 180 HR;
  39:41, 12.0 mi, 18.1 avg, 170 HR;
  39:34, 12.0 mi, 18.2 avg, 172 HR;
  40:16, 12.0 mi, 17.9 avg, 174 HR;
  37:54, 11.88 mi, 18.8 avg, 168 HR

Working Hard

Today's workout is going to make me sore, but I decided I don't care. The harder I work, the stronger and faster I'll be. So I worked hard and hope I feel OK tomorrow. We'll see! 100 altitude drops:

• GHR (from arm's length)
• Legs (jumping off a 24-inch box)
• Lunge L, R
• Bench w/45 lb
• Bench w/20 lb (seemed so easy!)

I know I worked harder because when I had to stop to breathe (something I frequently forget to do on these exercises), I didn't stop on an even number--I kept going until I felt like I couldn't any more and frequently paused on uneven numbers (like 33). Normally I would stop at 30, but not today!

• 45-second lunge R
• Phasic leg curl L, 75 reps
  
• Repeat the previous two 7 times, then switch legs.
• GHR 10×10 quick-style
• 45-second 1-arm elevated push up on knees, L arm on ground (lasted through 7 R, then 3 L before I couldn't hold myself up any more)
  
• Phasic row L, 50 reps
• Repeat the previous two 7 times, then switch arms.
• Bench press, 7 sets of 3, 65-75 lb

Team Belladium Ride

Mmmm, these women make some delicious treats!

And this is what we do while waiting for coach Todd to show up—sit in the shade and chat!

My mango flower

I got to ride with Team B today and loved it. I wasn't the strongest but I wasn't the weakest, and I loved being out on my bike with fantastic women (and coach Todd). We also got to celebrate Lisa's birthday.

Last weekend I learned how to cut a mango, so I decided to try my hand at a few. They weren't as ripe as I'd thought (next I'm going to have to learn how to determine whether they're ripe), but I didn't mess anything up while cutting them! And although they looked like cheese, once the girls realized they were mangoes, everyone enjoyed them.