Hurray for Hills!

The start of my week is going good so far. Now that it is Tuesday night, the two longest days of class are now over and done with for the week! Monday, I was able to find the energy to get to they gym and run for 3 miles. Afterwards I went to yoga for an hour which felt great after my run. Today, I did a short 20 min hill workout outside because the weather was absolutely gorgeous. The hill that is near my house is a steady incline and took about 45 seconds for me to climb. Even though it was super nice out, the wind was an issue. I felt like every time I climbed the hill, the wind was literally blowing against me. If anything I guess it made it harder so that is good in a way. I really tried to sprint up the whole hill and jog on the way down. I was able to complete this series about 12 times before I felt like my quads were going to give. I took a few min to stretch and ended up going to my gym to lift some weights. I lifted for about 30 min and got another good sweat going. I came home and relaxed and ate, and then went back over to the REC center to do some extra cardio before my basketball game started. I ran on the track about a mile and a half and then biked for an additional 25 min. Once I was done I was super tired. I was playing with the boys this game so I was really hoping they would not need me to play much this game which is what ended up happening, thank God. I warmed up and probably played only about 8 min. So today was a really long day of a lot of different physical activities. I feel pretty good though, my muscles are not too sore so far, but we will see how I feel tomorrow. Tomorrow I am done with class at 11 am so I am planning on lifting, running, and playing in my women's basketball game for the evening. I really should fit some studying into my workout schedule lol, but I really feel like I don't have much to study for yet. I am sure things will change soon. I am really looking forward to my Alumni basketball game this Saturday!

Fun Friday and Easy Saturday- Sunday

Friday ended up being a long day for me. I had a lot of time to kill since I only have class until noon. So I was able to get in my long run relatively early. The run went well. I completed my 6 miles, in about 55 min. I wish I was my running time was a little lower but I tried by best. I tend to struggle during my run the most around the 30 min mark. This is the hump that once I get over, the time usually passes quicker. Anyway I was able to go home and relax before Zach came home and he wanted to go lift. I wasn't sure if I was up to it but I decided why not since I wasn't doing anything else. I ended up lifting for about 40 mins with Zach and did a full body workout of high repetitions and lower weight. I am trying to be toned rather than try to increase my strength. After we came home and relaxed again for a while. I again had nothing better to do so I decided it would be a good idea to go to yoga to get a good stretch. Boy was I wrong. I have been going to yoga again for the past two weeks and this class was by far the hardest! We did a lot less stretching like we normally do and did a lot more endurance/strengthening exercises. I was so freaking tired. I literally wanted to leave because I felt so exhausted. So I admit it, I think I went a little overboard and probably should not have gone, so I took Saturday and Sunday off this week to recover. This week looks to be another good week. I have three basketball games scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, plus an alumni game on Saturday. I also plan on running 7 miles for my long run this week on Friday. I will hopefully implement some yoga into my week as well. This week I am planning on trying to get my travel arrangements set for staying in Charlottesville. The next couple of week are going to be when my training really starts to kick in because I will increase my mileage to about 15 miles per week rather than 11 or 12 miles a week that I have been doing.

Basketball vs training

Today I ended up attempting to run after playing two games of basketball. I didn't last long. Today I ran for about a mile and a half before giving up. I did an extra 12 min on the crosstrainer to make myself not feel as guilty for not running as long. Either way I wanted to save some juice for tomorrow because tomorrow is my long run which is up to 6 miles this week. I know that I should be putting my training first but I find it hard to do when I love playing basketball so much. Its almost the weekend and I am excited to see how my long run goes tomorrow.

Tired

Today I found myself pretty exhausted. This semester, my classes are less demanding than they usually are so I find myself having a lot of more time to do things. So now that I have extra time, I have been going to hot yoga classes at a studio in town. I think this type of yoga is awesome for training because I can get a really good stretch and It helps a lot with core strength. I have been going to these classes on and off since last year and I have really enjoyed it. I also started playing intramural basketball this week. I know that this is risky, considering the fact that I am training and I really really do no want to get injured. But I am too competitive and too in love with the game to stop. I have about three games per week because I am playing in the girls and in the guys league. These two factors are making my training a little more strenuous than planed. Today was the first day that I realized this. At 430 I went to an hour long yoga class which I didn't think was terribly challenging. Right afterward I went over to the REC center to play in one game of basketball, in which I played the majority of the game. During the game I became very winded. I consider my self in pretty good shape in the sense that I can run long periods of time without stopping, but when it comes to sprinting up and down the court, I wasn't as trained as I thought. I found myself very exhausted. It was a very intense game though so maybe that is something I have to consider. (we won by 1 point by the way). So after the game I found myself wondering if I could even walk on a treadmill let alone run. So I changed out of my sweaty clothes to change in to new ones. I dragged myself up to the cardio room and got on a treadmill. I only lasted 10 min before I felt like my legs were dead. So I at least ran about a mile, then opted to go to the elliptical machine for another 10 min. I was pretty tired at the end of the day today. To make matters worse, tomorrow I have two basketball games because the men's team I am on and the women's I am on both have a game. So now I have to decided if I should workout before I play two games back to back or after... judging by today, I should probably workout first and just suck it up for the games. We will see how this goes.....

Getting Back on Track

Now if you have not noticed already, The National Half Marathon did not end up working out. I found myself pretty broke until I received my student loan money at the beginning of this month, and around that time, the race was sold out! Monika and I had a quick freak out but found ourselves excited for a new opportunity to run in Charlottesville, Va. So now instead of running on the 17th we are running April 4th. I decided to take two weeks off from blogging to give myself some time to settle into my new school schedule and to offset the time difference between races. The past two weeks I have been maintaining my training program but not progressing because of the date change. So now, this week puts me back on track to where I was in training for the National Half Marathon. Yesterday, I ran 3 miles and a very steady pace. I have been doing excellent injury wise (knock on wood) and I have not into many major set backs which is always good. This week I am planning on running 6 miles, which is the most I have ran in since beginning my training after Christmas. I will do that at the end of the week. For now, I am glad to be blogging again and I am glad to be back on track with my 12 week training program (with two maintenance weeks thrown in due to the race semi-crisis). Today, I am not running, It is one of my days off! So instead I am heading to work after a long day of class!

Back to School

Today marks the last day of my winter vacation. I feel like my break went well and was long enough. Although I am not looking forward to the stress that comes with a new semester of school, I am looking forward to getting on more of a routine. The first two weeks of training have not followed my set schedule that I want to follow because I have either been out of town, or I had things planned so I could not stay on the schedule. Either way I did every workout that I wanted to, I just did not do it in the order that I had it written down. For example, This week I worked out 5 days in a row, and took yesterday and today off rather than taking two days off in the middle of the week. Now that school is starting tomorrow, I am going to stick to the plan that I originally set for myself.  I am glad that I took this weekend to rest and rejuvenate before this busy week begins.

This is this weeks schedule

Monday- 5 x 400m runs/ lifting
Tuesday- OFF
Wednesday- XT and Lifting
Thursday- 3 miles (Hard)
Friday- 5 miles (long run)
Sat- OFF
Sunday- 2 miles (Easy)

The nice thing is that I have the liberty of switching around the days if something comes up. This week doesn't look too bad, I feel like I may add in a couple of workouts just because I am feeling a little un-challenged with my runs so far, but that is okay. Things do not get too challenging until the later weeks, and when that happens I am sure that I wont be complaining.

As for injuries, I am happy to say I am currently injury free. My back has not been bothering me much anymore and I have not experienced any other significant problems. I am continuing to take the time to do a good 5 min warm up and 10 min cool down, in order to prevent future injuries. I also stretch for at least 5-10 min before and after the workout. This week, I am planning on doing some lifting with Zach in the weight room. The type of lifting we like to do is cardio based. We set up about 10 stations that include upper and lower body lifts, abs, and some agility work and spend 45 seconds doing the activity. After the 45 seconds we spend the next 15 seconds taking a break while switching to the next station.  So it ends up taking about 10 min to do the whole series and we usually do the series about 3-4 times. It is a pretty good workout and its nice that there is a cardio component to it to help with my training.

On another completely unrelated note, Zach and I went to a bridal show together on Saturday. It was pretty nice, but a little disappointing. The show was held at a hotel that does weddings, so a lot of the show was trying to sell us on having the wedding at that hotel. They didn't allow a lot of other food vendors to come. We also already have a photographer, and it seemed like every other booth was another photographer. We did have some really good conversations with some DJs that gave us good insight in how much we should budget for that. Zach and I both decided that a DJ is something we would be willing to spend more money on because, the DJ really determines how much fun the party is! They had a couple of jewelry booths there showing wedding rings, and we spent a while looking at ones we liked and disliked. Although we didn't win any prizes, we did get some good information from the event. This weekend I am going to another show with some of my girlfriends. Hopefully there will be more information on venues and food at this one!

I should probably get ready for bed! I have school in the morning!

Fun Friday

Today I ran 4 miles to complete my long run for the week. I woke up this morning and my back felt a lot better! I am excited that it wasn't bothering me at all, but we will have to see how I feel tomorrow because of my longer run this afternoon. I struggled through my run, to be honest I think it was because I didn't drink enough water this morning in preparation for running for a longer period of time. I need to plan my day better so that I am better hydrated. During the run I did have some pain in my side develop. A good way to get rid of side cramp or pain is to breathe. I was taught this trick during one of my undergrad exercise science classes. If you start to have a cramp in your side one of the best ways to get rid of it is to focus on slowing down your breathing. Take deep and longer breaths. Every time I try this trick, the pain normally goes away pretty quickly! This type of pain can make you slow down or even ruin your run so it is important to try to get rid of it as soon as it starts. Well today was another busy day. I got a lot done and now I get to spend the rest of the night at Calamaris working! Hope I can make some money! Tomorrow I am taking a day off, Zach and I are going to a Bridal Show during the day which I am super excited about. Then later I am going to the Gannon Women's basketball game with some of my old teammates who are coming in town! After we are all going out to the bars to have some fun! I am very excited for my well deserved day of fun!

And the training continues

Today I realized that its already Thursday and I have not yet taken a day off.  I am currently not in school and I did not work today, so I was considerably bored. Zach was going to the gym anyway so I decided not to take the day off, and to just do a 30 min bike and lifted my legs for only 15 min. I was feeling good, so I figured that it wouldn't hurt. Tomorrow I am excited because I am going to be running my long run for the week. My back was still bothering me today, I am not sure what is going on, its just a soreness that won't seem to go away. I think that if it continues through the weekend I may sneak into the Physical Therapy department and beginning doing some treatments on myself (the benefits of being a PT student). I am still trying to do everything that I can to avoid this type of injury and I don't feel like I am doing anything differently like I normally do. So far I would say the training is going well, I am feeling good despite my back, I am excited to increase my mileage next week. Once I get back to school I will feel more on schedule, since I have been traveling and not going to school, I have had the luxury of deciding day by day what I want to do with my training.

On another note, Zach and I decided to join Weight Watchers again. We did last year and had good success with it. I like weight watchers because its a good balance of just eating right and not depriving yourself. Last year when Zach and I joined we were not living together. So I feel like this year since we are living together, we can truly do the plan together which will be really nice. I have to be careful with this because, as I increase my energy demands for running, I will have to eat more in order to keep my body fueled. This is only my second week of training so its really not an issue now, but in my last few weeks of training I will need to eat more than Weight Watchers technically allows me too because I have higher demands for my body.

X training day

Today was my first official cross training day. I did about 20 min of lifting before heading over to the elliptical trainer. I spent about an hour on the elliptical just because I wasn't busy and I felt pretty good. It went well. I do have to say, I am experiencing some low back pain. I am not sure what is causing it, but it has been bothering me the last day or so. I am hoping its just my back being sore from driving over 1000 miles a few days ago. Either way it is a little annoying because It makes me just worry that its going to get worse. Hopefully this is just a little issue that will go away soon. Either way, I am making sure to stretch before and after every workout to try to prevent injuries like these. Sorry for the short blog today! I worked for 6 hours and I am super tired! Night!

MORE SNOW

Today was my first day home, so I spent the majority of my day getting my apartment clean and filling up my fridge with food! I woke up early, looked out the window, and saw more snow! We had gotten another 2-3 inches overnight and it made me not want to get out of bed. I ended up getting out of bed and going for a run at the REC center. Today, I ran 3.5 miles. It was a higher intensity run, the majority of the time I was running at 6.8. I was able to run this fast for about 31 min. After I did a good cool down and stretch then I was out the door to proceed with my busy day! It was a good quick run. I have to keep today's blog short because I am working tonight at 6 and I need to make dinner!

My new best friend.... The treadmill!

Today I continued my Florida to Erie road trip and unfortunately, this is what I saw. The snow started in West Virginia and continued off and on until we reached Erie. Zach and I drove a total of 17 hours the past two days and totaled over 1,000 miles, pretty crazy huh? Well despite the long drive, I was able to drag myself over to the Gannon REC center when we got back to meet up with an old friend, the treadmill. It has been about 2 and a half weeks since I have ran on the treadmill and what a differences it makes! I felt great running, since I was used to running outside where there are hills and nothing to keep my pace. The treadmill just gives you self motivation to keep going, because it does the motivation for you by keeping you at  certain pace. The treadmill felt better on my knees as well, I didn't feel like I was constantly pounding while running. A smart training tip that I learned from a friend who runs races like 5ks, 10ks, and half marathons is that while training on a treadmill it is important to run at a 1 percent grade, in order to make it more like running outside. So this is an excellent way to train on a treadmill and make it not completely different than running outside.  I mean lets face it, running outside is a lot harder. This is an important fact to consider because most of my runs will have to be done on the treadmill because of the bad weather around Erie. It is suppose to warm up this weekend, so my hope is that I may be able to sneak in a run outside  sometime. But as for now, its just me and my friend the treadmill. I know my knees will be happier for it!

We are headed north

Day one of traveling home to Erie. Today, is a day off for me due to the circumstances. But its good because it gives my knees another opprotunity to take a break. And what better way than a 9 hour car ride? We are soon arriving in Apex NC, which is really close to where zach used to live. We are staying the night with his old high school football coach. The trip has been good so far, the traffic really hasn't been too much of a problem considering its new years day.  Zach and I have been taking turns driving and taking turns napping as well!

On the way up we did a lot of talking about what our new years resolutions were and what we were going to do differently in 2012. Both zach and I decided that we are going to eat healthier together and try to workout together at least once or twice a week. It is nice living with someone who is such a positive influence. Zach loves to cook and wants to look for some new healthy recipies. Food is something that I will have to focus on during my training. My plan is to try to eat whole grain carbs for lunch (which will serve as my biggest meal of the day) and to have a lighter dinner like a salad. I also plan to eat high protien snacks before and after my runs in order to fuel and re-fuel my body. Because of zachs experience with football and "bulking up" he is really good a recognizing what foods are low cal, high in protien, and high in fiber. So it will be nice to have zach be on board with me when it comes to eating healthy to pursue both our fitness goals! As for today, we stopped at bojangles and pigged out on fried chicken and biscuits. Diet starts when we get back to Erie lol! And I think calling it a diet is stupid, diets rarely work. We are just making an effort to eat better and I think if we look at it that way, it will be a more sucessful change rather than putting the "diet" label on it. Well I am signing off from my mustang! We will be arriving in Apex in about an hour!