Weekend Workouts!

Thursday before my flight I had some time to play at the gym.   I spent some time on the elliptical, feeling better and better from the crap in my lungs.  I got on the rowing machine for some quality time too.

Friday I did my "long run" of the week.   Read all about it. 

Saturday I only had a few miles left for the week so I did 3.5 miles with an abbreviated hill run.  I love the last mile is all down hill. 

Sunday I hit the wall metaphorically.  I just had no energy to exercise.  Ultimately I took a walk with Mom. 

After the walk I did a short, but quite challenging workout.  Two minutes of each of the following exercises:

• Hip Bridges alternating between single and double leg.  Single legs always make my ham strings cramp.
• Walk Out Planks. Those I've actually made peace with.
• Squats with arms raised over head (most of the time)
• Lunges - two minutes on each leg. Oy.
• Side Lying Leg Series: all the exercises here plus leg circles forwards and backwards. The leg circles were the hardest. Each exercise is clearly not meant to be done for two minutes at a time.
• One leg dead lift - a great way to wrap up.

Wordless Weekends - Party with Grandma!

Worldess Weekends - Flowers and Parks

Hill Running - the for real version

This morning I went for a long hill run.  And I found some hills that are for real.  I didn't realize just how for reals they were until I was sucking wind to get up them.

This was pretty much how I felt about getting up this morning.  Sadly I'm entering the period where I actually have to start training for the marathon, and that meant doing a seven miler today.   I worked out a route that was actually 7.5 miles and had quite some hills.  One up-down section I'd driven but never really run.  Hills are always smaller in a car.

The profile should be pretty clear.  That up down business before and after mile 3?  Wow.  Hard.  When I was at the bottom of that hill looking up it, I was getting that "I'm afraid of heights feeling".  Oy.

I'm still recovering somewhat from the sinus infection and crap in my lungs so I did take a couple planned walk breaks and one unplanned break when I just couldn't take the hill anymore.  As always, I love that the last mile is all down hill.  That makes everything else easier.  (Oh, just go a bit further, then it's all down hill.)

It was a nice sunny day and very cool.  Perfect for running.

Me: after the run.  Still breathing.

I love Pansies.  Living in a cold climate, I have a whole new respect for them.  Those were the last thing I saw before I headed back inside.

PS - God Bless whomever left coffee in the pot for me!

Congratulations to Qat Lady - My day in sound and pictures

530am - I do not have an alarm sound.  Sorry. I hit the gym (finally) and had a nice Water Running workout.

800am - I wound up at work.  I love it when people come visit me in my office. 

1200pm we had a team meeting.  It went like this:

Shortly after the team meeting, we had a webinar.  It was so, um, well I started to take pictures of the other people in my webinar room.  The only one that won't get me in trouble (meaning I swore not to post the rest on the internets) is here:

I used my time wisely and learned to use the exposure program and built in filters on the camera on my phone.  I'm having more respect for it becuase the camera on my iPod is such a POS.

4:50pm time to leave.  I had a very important date.
Song blaring on my car stereo Imagine Dragons - It's Time.  It sure is time!  And Mary J Blige - Aint Nobody.  Yeah you are!

5:30pm Qat Lady - Congratulations!  I'm so proud of you. 

Followed by "let's go get cake!" and the reception.  The sun was setting and it was all very pretty.

Then we headed back to our cars to go to the restaurant.  Song blaring on my car stereo: Macy Gray feat Velvet Revolver - Kissed It and Mates of State - Second Hand News.  

We had enough food for ten people at Buca; very nice!

Inching and crawling my way back to humanity

So - I'm still sort of sick.

Working out on Sunday was a mistake.  Big mistake.

Sunday night - I did not sleep.  Boo!

Monday I went to work late, but not so late that I would get in trouble, then I left an hour early.  (An hour early was an 8 hour day instead of 9.)  There was no exercise.  I was so tired. 

Monday night I made a concerted effort to sleep.  Harry Potter audio books on the iPod are wonderful!

Today I'm feeling much better.  Sort of.  I had three visits today which is a lot (almost had four).  I got Thai Food for lunch which is the biggest win ever. 

Then I had to go deal with my eye clinic.  My eye clinic could be it's own blog post.  They were overcharging about $200 for my contacts.  I do get a lot of them, but they're not that expensive.  Eventually everyone agreed that I was being charged the wrong price and we did some math (8 X 35) and then I reminded them I get a discount for purchasing in bulk.

Best part of my day was sitting on my patio for the last two hours of my work day.  I was actually quite productive.  I had to do a mountain of paperwork before the end of the month and I was much more productive where no one could knock on my office door.

The sun setting was very pretty and I snapped a few pictures:

Sunday workout - This crap is still in my lungs

For quite a while my workout schedule has been:

• Sunday - whatever I felt like at the moment, pray for a long run if I didn't do one Saturday
• Monday - Circuit Plus (that means a longer class) and Pilates
• Tuesday - hopefully running, sometimes resting
• Wednesday - High Intensity Water Running.  It's sick that I use that class as a 'recovery' day.
• Thursday - Circuit and Zumba
• Friday - Supposedly running, but that was mostly determined by the availability of a running buddy.
• Saturday - Maybe a long run, usually resting, sometimes Pilates and walking.

Since I'm supposedly training for another marathon oy I decided I needed to revise the schedule to include some actual running.  I also had an honest talk with myself about long runs.  I have always been most successful at doing long runs on work days and not on weekends.  I do the lions share of long runs alone, meaning I don't need to wait for the weekends to run with friends.  I do better if I have some scheduling motivation to haul myself out of bed at 5am and get going.  (Get this run over with so you can go to work!)  I imagined a new schedule for myself that looks like this:

• Sunday - Speed workout; Core workout; stretching
• Monday - Long Run (morning) and Pilates (evening)
• Tuesday - Recovery Run, backup for long runs in case of bad conditions
• Wednesday - High Intensity Water Running.  Maybe I'll take off the water belt sometime.
• Thursday - Run (morning), Circuit and Zumba (evening).  Zumba is fun and I can go as hard or easy as I want.  It's like it's own recovery run.  Plus, Friday I can sleep in.
• Friday - Not sure how I want to use this day.  I will run with my running buddy on days we're both free.
• Saturday - Also not sure how I want to use this day.  There is a Pilates class on Saturday and I love the teacher.  Maybe one last run if I need more miles for the week.

 My first Sunday Speed Workout was rough because this sinus infection from hell got into my lungs and is still there.  I read this article from Runner's World to help me pick a speed workout.  Most speed workouts are done on a track and most tracks are either 200 meters (1/8 mile) or 400 meters (1/4 mile), and most speed workouts are done in intervals that can be easily measured on those tracks.  Yeah.  I run on a track that is 1/6 mile.  Suck it. 

I chose the "tried and true" Option 2 because it was the most accessible to a track that is 269 yards around.  I "sprinted" (I use that term loosely) 1 lap and slow-jogged 1/2 lap.  I walked between laps 3,6 and 9 instead of jogging.  Because I couldn't breathe.  I'm thinking that's actually a sick thing and not an out of shape thing.  Trust me, it feels different than just out of shape.

Here's the sound track to my workout:

• AC/DC - You Shook Me.  Good steady beat helped me keep a steady pace.
• Flo Rida ft Sia - Wild Ones.  I love the opening.
• White Zombie - More Human Than Human.  I tell iTunes to start this song around 0:58 and skip the intro.
• Shinedown - Sounds of Madness came on while I was stretching.  Awesome.

After the speed torture was over, I then did several laps of drills.  2 foot hops are from the devil.  Lunges are hard.  High knees - oy.  I did all the hard ones first.  Then I did a lap of cross overs, a lap of 'kick butts' and ended with a lap of running backwards.

Next up was the ab workout.  For fun I threw in the side lying leg series.  I also got the idea that I could still do a gymnastics bridge since I spent most of my childhood in that position.  Turns out I am not that strong.  I thought it would be my arms that were too weak but it's actually my core.  I got an exercise ball and used that for support and then I was good.

Wordless Weekends - Optimism

There's only two in all of Minnesota. Wahoo. 

Having fun at the Birchwood. I just came for pie. 

Holdover from winter. 

This is a color picture. Just so you know how the weekend went. 

Lilies of the Valley loved all that wet crappy weather though. 

Minnesota closet switch over from Winter to Spring/Summer clothing. Closet in process. 

All my clothes in process. 

Closet after. One bag of clothes will be donated to Good Will as a result of this purge. 

After a very hard workout. This crap is still in my lungs.