whoa!

Updated goal #1 for the Shuffle:
Don't break anything.

Gremlin out.

2.5

Yay! I finally stuck to my training calendar it was the first time in almost a week. It appears to have paid off, because my pace was great. Went 30 laps, that’s 2.5 miles, in 22:55… that’s a swift 9:10 pace. Yes, faster than I plan to “Shuffle”, but that’s ok because it was only half the distance. Have I shared my Shuffle goal? I think not. And since I like to be held accountable for my training (hence the blog) I will do so now.

For the Shamrock Shuffle I aim to finish in 49:42 (10 minute pace), that’s called the “let’s be reasonable I can do this goal #1”, for goal #2 (the if I can do it I’m gonna be happy goal) is 47:13 (9:30 pace) and goal #3 (the I don’t think it’ll happen but if the gods are willing and I do manage to haul my ass around the course fast enough then woohoo! goal) is 44:44 (9:00 pace) Got all that?

Up next: supposed to go 2m tonight, we’ll see how that goes.

better late than never?

went 4.5 miles tonight. yes it's true that I was supposed to do that yesterday and that today would be cross training...but there's something funny about weekends lately; i'm quite lazy and don't want to run, I just want to lie in bed and chase cars ;-) so, I made up for missing my sunday long run, but not for missing friday's run.

I'm sorry that there haven't been many crazy photos lately, i've been posting on the run and as amazing as my fancy-pants phone is it doesn't like surfing image heavy sites.

2 miles

yesterday was another nice day. since I over ran on tuesday I decided to only go 2 miles on wednesday, and i'm pretty sure I did.

my ankle is still wonky though, so i'm gonna go see a sports med doc about it. the nice thing is he's a runner.

up next: gonna rest a day early.

4.5 Miles, cross train, and 3.1miles

This past Sunday was a great day. We finally got some sort of break in our nasty Chicago winter. The weather warmed up into the high 30s. Yeah, I know high 30s doesn't sound like much of a break, but it was all I needed to get outside and run.
Sundays are my long run days. Since the Shamrock Shuffle ocurs on a Sunday, it makes sense that my schedule should prepare me to run long on Sunday. And since I havent run consitently in such a long time, when I say long run, I mean I top out at 6 miles before the Shuffle. This past Sunday was supposed to be a 4 miler, but with the great weather and my meandering route past Bakers Square, it turned out to be 4.5 miles in 42:30 (about a 9:30 pace). Nothing intentional about it, I just kept going and by the time I looked at my GPS I had already gone almost 3.5 miles and I knew to get home would be more than just a half mile.

Now then, Monday was reserved for cross training. I had the day off work, so I rested my legs from the previous day's long run. Some may call this being lazy, I call it important recuperative methodology. Since it was warm out, I did bike that evening, about a half hour in all. Lifted upper body only, chest x2, back x3, obliques, abs, tris, and bis.

Today continued the trend of beautiful weather. I went for a little run during lunch, the temperature was 39 degrees Farenheit (that's 4 degrees Celsius for you Canadians). I thought I went for about 2.25 to 2.5 miles. But the time of 27 minutes didn't jive with how it felt. So I visited GMaps Pedometer http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ to get a better idea. Just as I had thought, my GPS wasn't recieving a signal while I was weaving around foot traffic in downtown Chicago. This is a known shortcoming of GPS devices, they tend to lose signals in urban areas, thanks to all the tall buildings, and in heavily wooded areas, thanks to the tree coverage. As it turns out, GMaps tells me I went 3.1 miles, in a time of 27 minutes, that's about an 8:45 pace. Based on that, I'm gonna call today a speed workout. I think that sounds better than admiting how poorly I pace myself.

Up next: 2 miles Wed and 3 miles Thurs.

2 miles

According to my Shuffle Training Schedule I was supposed to run 2 miles today. So I ran 2 miles today. Lapped the Bally's track 24 times (woof). Only thing is, I was going too fast. Total time 16:56, that's about an 8:30 pace. Could it have been that Miami girl who was cruising, despite holding her arms rather high and stiff? Was I actually trying to keep up? Maybe, I dunno, I just know that it went by really quickly. Too much too soon they tell me, and they are right. For that reason, the next workout will hopefully be done on a treadmill, where a machine can govern my speed since I obviously can't.

In addition to the run, I lifted. Hit pecs times 3, rest of the upper body, and legs too.

up next: dinner, no workout ;)

mo-bile post

I didn't run this weekend. no good reason for being that lazy. I just wasn't motivated to leave the apartment.
did get to watch the Superbowl, why is that significant? simply because of the almost half a chicken, 6 beers and tons of other food I consumed. oy, after that celebration I needed to workout.

For that work out I ran a short 1.5 miles (my left quad has been a little wonky lately), then lifted upper body and hips.
up next: time to make a training schedule for the Shuffle.

Hurts so good

Ok, I am down to 158 now (which does not include shoes, so add an extra couple of pounds there). That makes my to-date weight loss a whopping 2 pounds; or does it? This is a somewhat interesting situation I find myself in. In a previous post, I weighed in at 162 with gear, but before that post, when I began the countdown, I actually weighed 157 (less than I weigh now). So, it seems to me that the impact on my body has not yet really started to take shape, in fact I continued to go up for a while. Sure tc says my arms look more muscular, but that can’t account for what my scale is telling me.

It is a little frustrating to think that I’m putting a lot of effort into it, but I am not yet seeing tangible results. I know better than to give up at this point, it’s just like learning to run, where the front end is the most difficult. Once things start happening, it’ll get even easier, until then it’s a bit depressing. I feel like I just need more cardio, need to burn that fat that I have accumulated.

Last night I did the bike for 30 minutes and it felt good, tons of sweat and maybe even a little stink. I noticed that my RPMs were generally around 105-115, more than double the lady next to me, who was, not coincidentally, not sweating at all. Also fit in a bunch of lifting, mostly lower body (lying hamstring, leg extension, seated leg press, seated hamstring, bench press, and seated row), then hit the abs, real focused, real effortful, definitely real painful.