Friday, January 21, 2011

Freebie Friday!

Thought you might like this...

Get a free full-sized package of PowerBar Energy Blasts! These are perfect before or during moderate and high-intensity exercise. You need to register on their site to be able to request the sample. You will receive the full-sized package, valued at $1.99! You will also receive $1 off coupons towards any future purchase.

http://www.powerbar.com/freesample/

Check it out!

Happy Friday!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Long Run and Crappy Weather

Saturday is supposed to be my long bike day and Sunday is supposed to be my long run day. But sometimes Mother Nature is a witch and decides not to cooperate. Saturday and Sunday were perfect examples of this...

My tri buddies and I were planning on a 7 am bike ride - 30 miles. We're gradually upping the mileage. At 5:52 I received a text message from tri buddy, Kelly, asking if it was raining at my house. Apparently, it was raining at her house. Even though she only lives about 10 miles away, it wouldn't be the 1st time it was raining at her house but not at mine. But, I went to look out the front door and sure enough, rain. Drats! And, since it was 45 degrees, a rainy bike ride would not be fun. We decided to postpone the ride, especially since it was supposed to rain off and on all day. And, Sunday's forecast looked even worse - 100% chance of rain. All day. Ugh.

By 8 am, it looked as if the rain was going to let up a bit. I decided that I should go ahead and get my run out of the way, especially after seeing Sunday's forecast. I'll be honest, I really didn't want to run. I am used to being done by 8 am, so to start my run at 8 am...well, it was just weird. But off I went....around the neighborhood. It was in the low 50's and I totally overdressed - Nike Capris and a long sleeve Under Armor shirt. I know better. I started out feeling awkward and stiff. It took seveal miles to really feel good. It seemed like I felt every bit of those miles. I made it back to my house at 8 miles, used the bathroom, changed into a short-sleeved shirt, grabbed some Gu and headed out once more. Finished 4 more miles at a much faster pace that the previous 8. Overall run - 2:04, or a 10:21 pace. Not too bad considering I had no intention of running, did not want to run and was pretty damn negative the entire 12 miles. If I maintain this same pace for the 1/2 in 2 weeks, I'll have about a 5 minute PR. Now let's just hope the weather cooperates!

Sunday, it was a nasty mess all day- about 58 degrees and non-stop rain. Yuck. I should have gotten out my trainer for a long bike ride, but I opted to watch movies with the kids instead. Lazy. We did get out to get the kid's haircuts taken care of and had dinner with my parents. I am so used to this being Houston Marathon weekend, that it seemed weird to be having birthday dinner with my parents without being able to celebrate running. Oh well...two more weeks! And the Golden Globes are tonight...can't wait! Hoping that Mad Men and The King's Speech pick up a few!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

More of the same..

Here I am. Blogging used to be so easy to squeeze in here and there. I'm not sure what happened, but it's slipping farther and farther down the priority list. To those who still come here from time to time, I apologize. But, I do want to keep this site going, so here's an update....

Monday, 1/10 - Run, 2 miles
Normally, I'd get out and run my miles in the wee hours of the morning. But, the temps were in the 30s and it seemed like such a waste to get out in the cold for 2 measly miles. :-) I ended up running my 2-miler on the indoor track at the gym on my lunch break. Funny thing - I usually wear my ipod on the indoor track and the treadmill. I forgot my ipod, so I was dreading this run. But, I found that this was one of my better runs on the indoor track. Everything "clicked" and I wanted to do more. Honestly, I think that using my ipod screws up my stride...I try to get the bpm for the songs to be in the same range, but it can be hard. I think I speed up and slow down depending on the song. I really like running without the music better!

Tuesday, 1/11 -P90X Chest and Back & Spin Class & Ab Ripper X
After doing P90X for the past 6+ months, I decided to step it up a bit. Instead of using bands for the chin-ups, I finally bought this....



Sorry for the crappy pic from my phone - that's a chin up bar. Time to stop being a wimp! :-)

At lunch I headed to spin class. The instructor stepped it up a bit - a lot more tension, lots of intervals and hill climbs. Good stuff!

Once the kiddos were tucked into bed, I did P90X Ab Ripper X. Gotta work that core!

Wednesday, 1/12 - Run, speedwork - 10 miles 8 miles
The Hubby was out of town starting on Tuesday for a hunting trip. What does this mean? It means that if I want to run, I have to do it either during lunch or after the kiddos are in bed. That doesn't really leave time for 10 MILES. Right? Now, I did consider taking the baby monitor outside and running loops around my backyard just to get in a few miles after work.

Really, I did.

But, I decided against it. Why? 1) My backyard is not that big... it probably would have taken me 25 laps to equal 1 mile (can we say monotonous?) and 2) it was going to be the coldest day of the winter thus far (26 degrees...stop laughing you Northerners, that's cold for the South!). So instead, I ran 5 miles at lunch on the indoor track - 1 mile warm up, then 3 miles of intervals (3 loops fast, 2 loops slow), then 1 mile cool down (total time - 49:47). Then, after the kiddos were tucked into their beds, I ran 3 miles on the treadmill (29:27).

Thursday, 1/13 - Rest day
'Nuff said.

Friday, 1/14 - P90X Shoulders and Arms / Spin
4:15 wake up call for P90X! I know I've said this before, but this is my favorite P90X workout.

I was going to try for lunchtime spin class, but shiznit happens, right? Decided to work through lunch. Maybe I'll wait until after the Houston 1/2 to pick up a 2nd spin class....

Have an AWESOME weekend, ya'll!!!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Decisions, Decisions

On Saturday, I had to make some decisions about what I was going to do as far as my workouts were concerned. Lately, I have been biking on Saturday morning and then doing my long runs on Sunday. I used to have the opposite schedule – run on Saturday/bike on Sunday, but it’s much easier to start a long run before dawn and be done in time for Church. The problem? The weatherman warned of monsoon-like, storms ALL DAY on Sunday. And, I was really hoping to have one really good, quality 12-13 miler on Sunday. The last long run before the taper…

As luck would have it, I had a friend who is training for a 100-miler and she was looking for some support during her 40-mile training run on Saturday. I was excited to have the chance to help out and have someone to run with for a change!

If I was smart, I would have skipped the bike ride and concentrated on the run. But, I apparently am not that smart and insisted on going ahead with the bike ride – my bffs Kelly and Jenn came along too. The ride was supposed to be 25+ miles. However, there was an issue – I couldn’t find my freaking bike helmet. Yes, the same one I wore just last week. After about 15 minutes of looking, I decided to make do with the Hubby’s helmet. Ugh. By the time we got going, we only had time for about 20 miles. But, it was a fun ride and I loved catching up with friends.

Next, it was on to an informational meeting about a local tri group that I am thinking of joining. I love the idea of being part of a team, having group rides/runs/swims and actually being coached for once. I have been just “winging it” with my tri training for two season now and if I am going to attempt the 70.3 in April, I definitely need some coaching.

I finished up at the tri meeting just in time to meet Karen and her support team! I was also fortunate to finally meet fellow blogger, Holden, who was part of that support team. I was completely amazed at Karen’s energy level – she had already run more than 30 miles and was going strong. I could barely keep up with the 9:30-ish pace she was keeping…lucky for me, she was doing 8:2’s and trust me when I say I enjoyed every second of that 2. Of course it helped that we had some good conversation going on - makes the miles go faster. After running 7 with Karen and then going back to my car, I decided that I should run more…just in case the weather was really that bad the following day. I made it to 10 (and kept the pace at sub-10!) and called it a day – I was beat either because of the bike ride earlier, the faster pace, the fact that it was warming up and I had on capris (dumb move) or a combination of all three.

So now I am torn – I didn’t do my 12-13 miler this weekend. I did get in a quality 10-miler, though. So now I am trying to decide – do I run 12-13 this weekend, but keep it at what feels like an easy pace and then taper? Or, do I proceed with the taper? Honestly, I don’t feel like I need that much of a taper for a ½ marathon. And, I think one more 12-13 miler would be a good confidence boost. What do you think? Decisions, decisions!

Oh and it did rain on Sunday…until about 10 am. It was still nasty outside – cold and damp – but not too bad for a run. Darn weatherman!

Sunday, January 09, 2011

Taking Care of Business

Part of the reason I have this blog is to track my training. Obviously, I have been a slacker in this area, so the purpose of this post is to play catch up. More fun posts to come....

Friday, 12/31 - Quickie morning 2 miler - Way too warm and humid for December! I had to work, but fortunately it was a 1/2 day. Spent NYE with the hubby, the kids and friends. Had a great time watching intoxicated neighbors causing meyhem with fireworks!

Saturday, 1/1 - 20 miles on the bike - Met up with Tri BFF, Kelly, for a morning ride. Great way to kick off the new year!

Sunday - 1/2 - 9 mile run - My very first run with the hubby! Avg pace - 10:34


Monday - 1/3 - 2 mile run - Short run on the schedule. Also, went back to the pool...swam 850 yds before getting kicked out of the pool by the Aquafit class. I had the day off from work, so I went to see "The King's Speech" with my Mom. GREAT movie - I highly recommend it!


Tuesday, 1/4 - P90X Chest and Back in the am, Spin class during lunch - the music in spin class was much better this week!


Wednesday, 1/5 - 9 mile tempo run on the schedule - 6 mile tempo run in the morning, 3 miles on the indoor track at work. Hate to break up mileage, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I finally saw the infamous cows that are rumored to come into our neighborhood - four of them!

Thursday, 1/6 - rest day - decided after 11 days of workouts with no rest day, it was time to take a break

Friday, 1/7 - P90X Shoulders & Arms - intended to try out the Friday spin class during lunch, since it's a different instructor. But alas, work was busy and a spin class just wasn't in the cards.

More to come! Have a great day!