27.1.15
5 Miles on the Creek
This is a step back week. I'm still running but fewer miles and not at all caring about the speed. Which is good because it wasn't at all fast. Today I did about five miles along the creek. The plan was to 'run' out, and then run back, but on the way back I could take as many pictures as I wanted. I ran outside today with my friend: Global Warming. Also, Sunshine and Ducks came for a visit.
22.1.15
Workout Music - 2015
As always, I typically don't listen to music when I'm running outside. Inside, running circles on the track is a whole other story. I like to have music blaring as loud as possible to drown out the reality of running in circles for an hour. Some new favorites for a new year:
Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk. This is everyone's favorite workout song I think.
Sheppard - Geronimo. I was introduced to this song on The Voice. It's kind of catchy.
Imagine Dragons - I Bet My Life. I think I found this one on Pandora.
Walk the Moon - Shut Up and Dance. My personal theme song. When I'm running I always speed up when I hear this song, even when I'm trying not to.
Foster the People - Call It What You Want. This is a weird video right? That's something to think about when I'm running.
Walk the Moon - Work This Body, discovered after my love affair with 'Shut Up and Dance' led me to listen to the whole album. The title reminds me of this shirt.
Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk. This is everyone's favorite workout song I think.
Sheppard - Geronimo. I was introduced to this song on The Voice. It's kind of catchy.
Imagine Dragons - I Bet My Life. I think I found this one on Pandora.
Walk the Moon - Shut Up and Dance. My personal theme song. When I'm running I always speed up when I hear this song, even when I'm trying not to.
Foster the People - Call It What You Want. This is a weird video right? That's something to think about when I'm running.
Walk the Moon - Work This Body, discovered after my love affair with 'Shut Up and Dance' led me to listen to the whole album. The title reminds me of this shirt.
20.1.15
Two Long Runs
This weekend, global warming showed itself in a big way, and I got myself outside to enjoy it. A big part of blogging for me is about taking pictures when I run, and then having a place to put them. But when I'm forced inside for weeks at a time because it's too cold to run outside, I have no interesting pictures to show, and therefore very little interest in blogging.
Thursday 6.5 miles on the Greenway. This one was not photo worthy because it was mostly at night. Downside of the run were the two bathroom stops. Upside of the run was the speed for the back half of the run. I was feeling so lousy anyways, I decided to forget about the heart rate and have fun with it.
Saturday 8.5 miles on the Greenway and Franklin-Marshal loop along the Mississippi River. I paced myself really well for this run, which had been my main goal. I needed the pacing because I had two friends coming to Zumba afterwards and I badly needed to be able to handle the class. The sun was out for most of this run. All of the runners came out to enjoy it. I had lots of company on the river trails, but not as much on the Greenway.
Monday: 10.5 Miles on the Cedar Lake Trail. I did not pace myself as well on this run, but I had a boatload of fun nonetheless. I started from the downtown gym, and got the Loring Greenway and Loring Park out of the way first. I'm not sure why I hate running through those places, maybe because the paths do not go in a straight line? The Cedar Lake Trail was about how I remembered it, although I went further than I'd gone before. The industrial section at the start of St Louis Park is never any fun. Turns out, there's a community center with amenities about where I needed to turn around, so that made things a bit better at least. I tried to spin after this run, but it was useless. I got off the bike early and went in search of food instead.
Heart Rate: Interesting point about all of these runs is that I can't see my heart rate monitor when I'm dressed for winter running. (The watch is strapped onto my wrist under my shirt sleeves and jacket.) As a result, I tried to 'pace' based on how I was feeling. Saturday morning was all about going easy and conserving energy, so the heart rate is relatively smooth. Monday afternoon, I was having a lot of fun towards the end of the run so I went a bit faster but took more walk breaks. The heart rate is kind of all over the place, which is about how I was feeling.
Thursday 6.5 miles on the Greenway. This one was not photo worthy because it was mostly at night. Downside of the run were the two bathroom stops. Upside of the run was the speed for the back half of the run. I was feeling so lousy anyways, I decided to forget about the heart rate and have fun with it.
Saturday 8.5 miles on the Greenway and Franklin-Marshal loop along the Mississippi River. I paced myself really well for this run, which had been my main goal. I needed the pacing because I had two friends coming to Zumba afterwards and I badly needed to be able to handle the class. The sun was out for most of this run. All of the runners came out to enjoy it. I had lots of company on the river trails, but not as much on the Greenway.
Monday: 10.5 Miles on the Cedar Lake Trail. I did not pace myself as well on this run, but I had a boatload of fun nonetheless. I started from the downtown gym, and got the Loring Greenway and Loring Park out of the way first. I'm not sure why I hate running through those places, maybe because the paths do not go in a straight line? The Cedar Lake Trail was about how I remembered it, although I went further than I'd gone before. The industrial section at the start of St Louis Park is never any fun. Turns out, there's a community center with amenities about where I needed to turn around, so that made things a bit better at least. I tried to spin after this run, but it was useless. I got off the bike early and went in search of food instead.
Heart Rate: Interesting point about all of these runs is that I can't see my heart rate monitor when I'm dressed for winter running. (The watch is strapped onto my wrist under my shirt sleeves and jacket.) As a result, I tried to 'pace' based on how I was feeling. Saturday morning was all about going easy and conserving energy, so the heart rate is relatively smooth. Monday afternoon, I was having a lot of fun towards the end of the run so I went a bit faster but took more walk breaks. The heart rate is kind of all over the place, which is about how I was feeling.
6.1.15
Toothpaste - bleh!
I'm going to be real here for a moment.
I hate the taste of toothpaste. For serious. Cannot stand it. Which, as you can imagine, causes some serious issues for me and dental hygiene.
One night, out of total desperation I finally did a Google search for DIY toothpaste. You should try it sometime. Some of those recipes are really interesting. What is diatomaceous earth anyways? I don't know why it took me so long to figure out I could make my own non-gross toothpaste. I found a recipe a while ago for homemade shampoo that I like, and I've been making my own laundry soap since about forever.
Filtering through way too many recipes with ingredients I can't pronounce, I finally found this utterly simple, wonderful recipe. Baking soda and salt. I know what those things are! I know where to find them in the grocery store! I did use some mint essential oil in mine too, but that was mostly because I had it on hand from making my own shampoo. Best of all, I think this took about thirty seconds to put together. Not like the laundry soap.
So far on day two, I keep running my tongue over my teeth because I can't believe how much better they feel. And I can't believe how much I don't mind brushing my teeth now, knowing I'm not going to get that nasty chemical taste in my mouth. I'm now thinking about how I can carry this stuff while traveling without making TSA nervous for me having white powder in my carry on luggage.
I hate the taste of toothpaste. For serious. Cannot stand it. Which, as you can imagine, causes some serious issues for me and dental hygiene.
One night, out of total desperation I finally did a Google search for DIY toothpaste. You should try it sometime. Some of those recipes are really interesting. What is diatomaceous earth anyways? I don't know why it took me so long to figure out I could make my own non-gross toothpaste. I found a recipe a while ago for homemade shampoo that I like, and I've been making my own laundry soap since about forever.
Filtering through way too many recipes with ingredients I can't pronounce, I finally found this utterly simple, wonderful recipe. Baking soda and salt. I know what those things are! I know where to find them in the grocery store! I did use some mint essential oil in mine too, but that was mostly because I had it on hand from making my own shampoo. Best of all, I think this took about thirty seconds to put together. Not like the laundry soap.
So far on day two, I keep running my tongue over my teeth because I can't believe how much better they feel. And I can't believe how much I don't mind brushing my teeth now, knowing I'm not going to get that nasty chemical taste in my mouth. I'm now thinking about how I can carry this stuff while traveling without making TSA nervous for me having white powder in my carry on luggage.
1.1.15
2014 Fitness Goals - A Year in Review
Running: Continue to run at least one mile per day
Outcome: Great Success! I crossed 800 days on my streak just before Christmas.
Plan for 2015: Repeat this goal for another year.
Total Weekly Mileage: Average 28 miles per week
Outcome: Okay, well this is interesting. My worksheet originally said I'd made it quite handily, but now saying I was close but no cigar. Because math. Average of 27.73 miles/week.
Plan for 2015: Average 30 miles per week. I'm feeling iffy as I'm writing this, like I should've picked 29 miles per week instead. We'll see how this goes.
Total Mileage: 1,450 for the year
Outcome: Great Success! 1,497 miles on the year broken into 1304 miles run, 140.6 miles walked, 52.8 'miles' on the elliptical.
Plan for 2015: 1,560 miles for the year. (Gulp!) Secondary goal of not effing up the calculations like last year.
Cross Training: Add weight lifting, at least one hour per week
Outcome: No joy. Wound up averaging about 20 minutes per week. Honestly, not quite the catastrophic failure I thought it'd be. I did some sessions of Body Pump earlier in the year, and TRX/Kettlebell towards the end of the year. I really liked the weight training, and later in the year also found myself missing Circuit.
Plan for 2015: Modify this goal in some way.
Cross Training: Add stretching, at least one hour per week
Outcome: No joy. Again, I had dreams of doing Yoga once a week or so and it just never happened. But I did do a lot of stretching and foam rolling on my own, to my great benefit.
Plan for 2015: Modify this goal. In 2015, I might like to see this closer to 45 minutes per week. (I meant to type 40, why does it say 45?!?)
Cross Training: Add core work, at least one hour per week
Outcome: No. Just no. Like one Pilates class all year. Some other work that might've been Core Work was listed as a 'finisher' or some other stuff.
Plan for 2015: I miss Pilates but this goal has to go.
Nutrition: no specific goal
Outcome: Well how could I go wrong?
Other thoughts:
I have no idea why I thought I'd come up with three more hours per week to work out for core, weights and stretching. That was silly.
I didn't have a goal about Zumba, but I really enjoy the class and have missed it like mad in December so I may make a firmer attendance goal for next year.
I had no 'goals' about doing finishers after running, and really should have. Especially since I stopped going to Circuit. I'm imaging the weight training/something goal gets modified to include this.
Outcome: Great Success! I crossed 800 days on my streak just before Christmas.
Plan for 2015: Repeat this goal for another year.
Total Weekly Mileage: Average 28 miles per week
Outcome: Okay, well this is interesting. My worksheet originally said I'd made it quite handily, but now saying I was close but no cigar. Because math. Average of 27.73 miles/week.
Plan for 2015: Average 30 miles per week. I'm feeling iffy as I'm writing this, like I should've picked 29 miles per week instead. We'll see how this goes.
Total Mileage: 1,450 for the year
Outcome: Great Success! 1,497 miles on the year broken into 1304 miles run, 140.6 miles walked, 52.8 'miles' on the elliptical.
Plan for 2015: 1,560 miles for the year. (Gulp!) Secondary goal of not effing up the calculations like last year.
Cross Training: Add weight lifting, at least one hour per week
Outcome: No joy. Wound up averaging about 20 minutes per week. Honestly, not quite the catastrophic failure I thought it'd be. I did some sessions of Body Pump earlier in the year, and TRX/Kettlebell towards the end of the year. I really liked the weight training, and later in the year also found myself missing Circuit.
Plan for 2015: Modify this goal in some way.
Cross Training: Add stretching, at least one hour per week
Outcome: No joy. Again, I had dreams of doing Yoga once a week or so and it just never happened. But I did do a lot of stretching and foam rolling on my own, to my great benefit.
Plan for 2015: Modify this goal. In 2015, I might like to see this closer to 45 minutes per week. (I meant to type 40, why does it say 45?!?)
Cross Training: Add core work, at least one hour per week
Outcome: No. Just no. Like one Pilates class all year. Some other work that might've been Core Work was listed as a 'finisher' or some other stuff.
Plan for 2015: I miss Pilates but this goal has to go.
Nutrition: no specific goal
Outcome: Well how could I go wrong?
Other thoughts:
I have no idea why I thought I'd come up with three more hours per week to work out for core, weights and stretching. That was silly.
I didn't have a goal about Zumba, but I really enjoy the class and have missed it like mad in December so I may make a firmer attendance goal for next year.
I had no 'goals' about doing finishers after running, and really should have. Especially since I stopped going to Circuit. I'm imaging the weight training/something goal gets modified to include this.
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