5-Minute Push Up

5 minutes of work, along with 3-minute or 5-minute extreme slows, are my favorite workouts. They are some of the toughest, but afterward all I want to do is go out and run. Today's 5 minutes of work has been spread out through the day, and every one of them has gone great. I just wish I had a race this weekend so I could go out and go fast!

• Scap pull up
• Crate crunch
• Push up
• Curl (8-lb dumbbells; should've probably done 10 or 12 lb)
• Lunge (1:24 R, 1:34 L—how did I go longer on the L, second, leg?)
• Standing ham
• Wall squat

The big news is that I did the entire push up without falling. I was working super hard the entire time, just focusing on using my muscles right and thinking about swimming (yes, visualizing, really), and didn't even look at my watch until I had only 55 seconds left. Then I knew I could do it. It was super hard and felt so good! A good swim yesterday, a good push up today, it must be all the softball throwing I've been doing lately. :-)

Here's my run from the afternoon. I should really quit looking at elevation profiles, because they never look like they feel, nor do they represent wind resistance.

After this quick run, I finished my 5 minutes of work by doing the wall squat that I didn't have time for earlier. I'll be honest—this was close to the hardest wall squat I've ever done; it seemed harder than the 5 minutes after the 10 minute z squat I did back in February. Then I had to repeat 5-min standing ham to give my quads a break and make my hammies work.

Swim Times Revisited

The last time I recorded 100 times was way back in April: 8×100@5sec RI: 1:42.5 average, 1:38, 1:41, 1:43, 1:44, 1:44, 1:44, 1:42, 1:44.

I recorded a few again today during my 1,200, which I did as 300 pull then 100 normal, 3 times total. I actually can't believe I missed only 1 split (500), since there was a guy on my right and a guy on my left who were stopping frequently and talking over me. It was distracting to say the least.

• 1:36, 1:46, 1:48, 1:39, 3:19 (1:39.5?), 1:48, 1:38, 1:38, 1:43, 1:43, 1:35
• 1:41 average (I didn't include the tenths in my calculation)

So my first and last were the best, but my average was fair and I felt great. Considering that I kept missing the wall and pulled 75% of the time, I'm encouraged by how I swam.

I got out on my bike after work and had a great mostly recovery ride. It was just over 18 miles, took me just over an hour, and was super windy. Even though the first part was mostly downhill, it was slow. And even though the second part was mostly rolling to up, I FLEW south down Wilson Pike. I almost didn't want to turn back toward home because the wind felt so good, but I knew if I kept going I'd eventually have to turn around (then into the wind).

The hazard mark indicates road construction on Galleria Boulevard. I usually take the long way back because it's also the safest and the best place to cross (over) the highway. But there weren't any warning signs up that the road was closed, so I went thinking I'd make it through and ended up having to turn around and modify my route slightly.

Extreme Slows

Is it sad that I'm pretty excited that I might have slept through the night last night? I frequently wake up, move around, check the time, etc. I always go back to sleep, but I always wake up, too. Last night, I don't remember waking up at all. Not only that, but I had my clock facing me all night and didn't notice it. Usually I turn it around because then I don't look at it and I can sometimes forget that I've been sleeping for only an hour or that I have only 15 minutes before my alarm goes off. The first time I remember waking up this morning was at 4:19, and my alarm was going to go off at 4:30 so I could meet Anna M at the Y, so I just got up (feeling quite refreshed, actually). If my memory serves me, I sleep through the night maybe once a year, so it is kind of a big deal.

We met at MFY to do one of my favorite workouts: Extreme Slows. I hadn't done this particular workout before, but we needed something modified that wouldn't cause her knee pain. The hour flew by!

• Leg extension (sitting on a bench)
• Leg curl
• Hip extension
• Hip flexion
• Push up on knees
• Curl (12-lb bar)
• Plate front delt (10-lb dumbbell)
• Crate crunch

The benefit to having a new workout, and having a new workout partner, was that I really had to focus on what I was doing so that I didn't lead her wrong. Plus Will refreshed my memory on all the stuff I should be focusing on, like curling your hamstrings into the ground for natural balance, not leaning back, not tensing, and standing up/sitting up straight the entire time. Anna was so good at doing all this stuff and even got the "engage your glutes the whole time!" thing down right away. I was very impressed at how well she did! Her positive attitude made the hard work not seem so hard.

My run after work went OK. My legs were definitely still tired from Saturday, but I got in a good 3 miles and jogged the next 2 so that I could get back to my starting location. I'm going to have to practice running on tired legs to get ready for the Ragnar Relay in November, so this was a good start.

Tired Legs

My legs are feeling quite tired today. After the half marathon yesterday, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, and considering that my longest run before yesterday had been about 8 miles, I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm not more sore than I am. Really it's not so much soreness as it is tiredness. I went out to ride (short) with Lisa and Parri, and thankfully they pulled me halfway or I probably wouldn't have made it even the 19 miles (1:05) that I did. I could move easily, my legs just wouldn't respond quickly.

I was supposed to do 3×30sec heavy, and even though I'm sitting at the Y, I won't be doing it today so that I have a little energy for my softball games. So of the 12 workouts over the last 4 weeks, I've gotten in 11 and might or might not skip the 12^th tomorrow depending on whether I take tomorrow off or not. We shall see how I feel when I wake up in the morning.

 Rebekah, Brian, Mellissa, and Ken mid-game

My legs reacted much the same way in the softball game—basically, I had trouble getting out of the box and it hurt me once, when I got thrown out at first on a hit that should have been a clean hit. I just couldn't get moving! I did, however, find my effective stroke for most of the games and ended up batting 3 for 6 (should have been 5 for 6 but I got thrown out the time I just mentioned, and another time, I hit right up the middle at/toward the pitcher—in this league, that's an automatic out because they don't want batters killing pitchers). My fielding was pretty solid, and I'm getting less and less action out in left center because if the batters have the ability to hit elsewhere, they do.

Women's Half Marathon

This was what I looked at (on both wrists) during the entire half marathon. When I would get tired (and I did), I would look down and then remember that "The joy of the Lord is my strength!" Then I would keep going, as fast as I could. It worked well, me playing games with my mind, to help me remember that it is God who gives me strength and that my running not only brings me joy but brings Him joy as well!

So much pink! For a women's only race, I guess everyone decided pink was the color of the day.

Today's Women's Half Marathon was the longest distance I've run in quite a while. But I was determined to do it and do it well. I had a few different goals for this race:

• Finish around 1:40:xx.
• Run fast for as long as I can.
• Don't walk at all.

Here's the outcome of each:

• I finished in 1:48:30. This wasn't the 1:40 I'd been aiming for, but it was a 1.5-minute PR and I felt great the entire time. I ran mostly by feel, rarely ever looking at my watch (of course, there were mile markers and a clock at every mile).
• I saw the leaders for the first 2.5 miles. Honestly, this was 2 miles longer than I'd even considered possible. Then, not only that, I saw them only about a mile out from the turnaround, which means I was about or less than 2 miles behind them. A great day indeed!
• I didn't walk at all except through 3 aid stations (necessary walking in order to get some water and gatorade).

Team B in their Swiftwick kits before the race 

Overall, I'm thrilled with how I ran and how I felt. I was close to the middle of the front the entire time, not even close to the front of the back, and not anywhere near the middle of the pack. Hooray! My overall pace was 8:17. My miles weren't really that consistent at all, but it turned out OK in the end. If I could have cut out my couple 9-minute miles or run the others just slightly faster, I would have been right on an 8-min/mile pace. Eventually I'll get there, but this was definitely a hilly course and my times show where some of the worst were!

• 1:48:31, 13.11 miles, 8:17 pace (6:13 best), 1,577 cal, 154 HR (190 max)
• 7:43, 7:14, 7:58, 8:21, 8:34, 8:10 (48:04 around 10K); 7:51, 8:57, 8:34, 8:06, 8:04, 8:51 (50:26 around 20K); 9:09, 00:51 (1:48:31 at end)

The start line—more pink!

The Tennessean has a great article about the race. Here are the official results. If I had raced, I would have placed 17th in my age group of 554 (including me, the unregistered) (the largest age group was 30–34, at 740!) and 111 overall out of 4,393 finishers (according to the Tennessean; 3,883 according to Active.com). Team Belladium was out there as bike support, and Lisa said they were out there for at least 4 hours. That's a long time to be out for a half marathon!

The rest of the day, I pretty much took it easy. Kept my compression socks on all day, ran errands, cooked a little, went to church, watched a movie, all that fun stuff. We'll see how my legs feel for a ride and our softball games tomorrow.

Here is the route from today's race:

I don't think the elevation chart is particularly accurate, especially considering the Korean Veterans Boulevard that we had to traverse during the last mile of the race (which still doesn't look correct in the shortened route's graphic below):

Sunrise Ride

Shelly and I hit the road super early this morning—before sunrise! We rode to meet at the Factory in Franklin and then headed out to the open road. There weren't many other people out, and it was a great little ride. It was so nice to have a bike ride in before 7am.

At work, we had a nice little potluck breakfast. Kelson cooked omelets, Lisa and Kelly made eggs and sausage, Delana made waffles, someone made coffee, and we had lots of other breakfast treats that everyone could enjoy. Yum! This made me even more happy that I had already gotten a ride in, especially since I ate a huge breakfast.

For lunch, I headed to DHY for a short swim--1,000 only. Yesterday I swam at MFY, which is a 50-meter outdoor pool. DHY has a 25-meter outdoor pool, but it's closed for the season so I was in the 25-yard indoor pool. It's amazing how much faster I feel in such a short pool. I really do feel like I'm getting faster now that I'm trying to stroke and breathe right, so that's very encouraging.

At MFY in the afternoon, I did my 10-6-3 EDI, 2 sets, workout:

• Lunge with RL (first set: first 6; second set: last 6)
• GHR to top (did standing ham instead)
• Squat with stick
• Bench w/ 30lb
• Curl w/ 12lb (Will said light bar, just like he said light bar for bench; light for bench and light for curl are quite different! Also had Anna M to help me with this!)
• Plate front delt w/ 10lb
• Crunch (1 set)

As you can see, I ran into my teammate Anna, who did a couple  of the exercises with me. It was great to have someone to train with. Hopefully we'll be able to do more of this during the winter and also get out on our bike to practice cornering and crits. It will be great experience for both of us—we definitely need the "doing" rather than only the "thinking" (i.e. mental visualization!), so we should work well together.

Short Lunch-Time Run

I had intended to swim again today (just like yesterday), but it was so nice that I couldn't stay inside. So I threw on my shoes and did a quick (relatively) 5K. Not my best time, not my worst. The 26:08 (8:26 pace) includes my initial walk across the parking lot to the start of the trail, so the first mile was significantly longer than it should have been, thus throwing off my pace. But I wasn't out to run super fast, I was out for a little jog before the half marathon (or 5K) on Saturday. And I was out to enjoy the sunshine, and enjoy I did! It means that I have more inside work to do this afternoon, but it was worth it.

My little bit of work this afternoon was little but fun. I swam for a few minutes, just to get myself in the pool. I'm trying to work on my stroke and any time in the pool, short or long, is beneficial. Then I headed inside for my 10-6-3 EDI workout. I didn't do it in the correct order and I modified it a bit, but I still worked hard.

• GHR (did standing ham because the backs of my legs would not cooperate under the bench; how I wish I had a glute ham stand!)
• Lunge w/ RL (did only the final 3 of each set, both legs, as RL; did all the rest as regular reps)
• Curl w/ 30 lb (I don't think I did this; I don't think it was on the list because I can't remember doing it, but I don't know what else I would have done)
  
• Bench w/ 30lb
• Plate front delt w/ 10lb
• Crate crunch

Spent some time at the grocery store(s). There were some things at Publix and a few good deals I had to do Kroger, and I tried to make someone's day by giving him a Q. I only wished I'd gotten to the woman ahead of me sooner, because I'm sure I could have helped her bring down her $199 total. I know that's probably what my mom spent when she was shopping while we were all at home, but now that I know how to spend less, I cringe when people spend so much.