Olympic Fever and Big Time Game Planning!

I love Track and Field.

Seriously, I really, really love Track and Field.

I am sitting here with goosebumps despite the 80 degree weather.  I've been watching the Olympic Trials events I missed this weekend and I am getting SUPER excited for the Olympics!  The end all be all of Track and Field is just 40 days away!

I'll be wrapping up a trip to Lake Michigan the day the running events start (Aug 3), so while everyone is out on the water, I'll probably be a stones throw of the tv.

All this T&F made me think about how little I have been running.  And when I say little, I mean- not at all!

I have two races on the books- a 5K on July 4th and the Detroit Free Press Half Marathon on Oct. 21st.  I'm not too worried about the 5k.  While I have not been running much, I have been spinning, so hopefully that helps.  I plan to run with the Royal Oak Area Runners on Tuesday and that's a pretty fast run for me.  I'll  finally try out my new Garmin!

Now, I am starting to worry about the half marathon.  I ran it last year- or I should say I completed it last year, as I did do some walking, for sure.  My time completely sucked and I was sore for days!  This is probably because I didn't train much.  I started training, it was going great, I increased mileage and that plus a improperly fitted shoe (yes- I did get fitted at a running store and they gave me a shoe a full size too small), I ended up with a stress fracture in my foot.

I had to take 16 weeks off.  I did, and never really got myself back on track.  Before the race, my longest training run had been 5 miles.

This year I not only want to destroy my time, I want it to be, well..kind of easy. I don't want to suffer and struggle for 13.1 miles.  Yes, I expect to be uncomfortable, but I don't want to be miserable. I also don't want another injury.

I am injury prone, I always have been.  When I ran years ago, it seemed that the only way to get better at distance, was to run, run and then go run some more. That always led to injury.

I have felt that there has to be a way to train less, yet get faster and stronger.  I stumbled upon Run Less Run Faster .  In a nutshell, you run 3 times a week plus cross train two other days.  I saw that and was intrigued.

I looked to see what other bloggers had written about the book, read reviews and finally decided to buy it.  It was less than $10.00 on Kindle, so I gave it a shot.  I just started it, but I think it's going to work out perfectly!  There is a 16 week half marathon schedule, so I officially start training Sunday July 16!

Anyone want to join me?

On to my fitness plans for this week:
Sunday: Rest
Monday: Spin- "GoChubChub"
Tuesday: Go Barbell AND ROAR 3 miles
Wednesday: Go 60
Thursday: Go60
Friday: GoBarbell and GoCycle Abs
Saturday: Spin
Sunday: Peanutbutter Finger's 1000 Rep Workout

If you are wondering what these new "Go" workouts are, there are classes at GoCycle.  I bought a summer unlimited pass, so I'm working out there a lot! I plan to describe these classes more on Tuesday.

Speaking of the upcoming week, the blog plan is:
Monday: New Egg Cups and Muesli recipes
Tuesday: Planning my vacation workouts and talking about the new classes I'm taking
Wednesday: Craft Room Reveal and some talk about getting our house ready to sell
Thursday: How to pack for vacation and house hunting
Friday: Swimsuit shopping. What a difference a year makes.
Saturday: Book Review: End of an Affair; Race Music; New books (new to me): Fit to Fat to Fit and Skinny Rules


Have a great week and see you tomorrow!

Week One, part 2.

I'm sorry I am just returning! I feel weird saying sorry, because that would mean someone is out there- and it tuns out, someone is.;  I actually got some "views".  No comments though, which I think is a good thing!I'm not ready to fully accept that others read this!!


It's now Friday and things are going pretty well. Let's recap my week so far:


Monday,  I headed to the gym.  I didn't have as much time there as I had wanted.  This is sad, since I had three hours of free time, yet spent only 1 hour working out.  The other two were spent watching Justified.  I am watching it via Netflix and just finished Season 1.  I love it- but that's a whole other blog (not really, I barely do this one!).


As I was saying, I worked out for an hour Monday.  It wasn't one of my better workouts.  I planned to do a 10000 meter interval workout on the rowing machine and was aiming for 600 calories.  I did row a 10K, I did do it in under an hour and I did intervals but I just couldn't get my heart rate up.  The strap on my left foot kept coming off, weird men kept coming near me and I just could not get in the groove, so to speak (as if I speak like that, oh well).  I burned 450 calories in 50 minutes.  If I had more time, I would have gone on the elliptical or ran for a bit, but I promised my my husband I'd go get the kids.


(Which reminds me, don't I need to come up with some clever and endearing nicknames for said husband and kids? Yeah, good luck with that...)


It wasn't a terrible workout, but  I certainly felt like I had more in me, I just couldn't get there with the rowing machine.  I'm not giving up on it though.  I think next Monday I will start with a 1.5 mile run on the treadmill to get warmed up and get my heart rate up, then try to row 700 meters in 40 min.  Well see what kind of "burn" that gets me. I will take some notes and come up with a share-able workout.


On a good note, I liked my new gloves.  A few days prior I had done 5000 on the rowing machine and been rewarded with some pretty nasty blisters.  I covered them with New Skin and picked up some gloves. This time went much better- no new blisters.


Tuesday was much, much better.  I started with a 5:15 am strength training class. It was great.  The instructor found that perfect balance- she kept our heart rates up high enough to burn calories, yet not so high that we had to reduce weights or had crappy form.  My HRM said that I burned 430 calories in 45 minutes.  I have to be a little suspect of that, as it seems so high.  Then again, my HRM is not known for being too high- so I'm taking the 430!  Later that day I took the kids to the gym.  I put them in the kid care and headed for the treadmills.


I had a rocky start, as my HRM was going crazy! It kept saying my heart rate was like 220, before I started.  Initially I was up front.  I get there, wipe down the machine (I finally realized that wiping down the machine after I work out only protects those who use it after me. It does nothing for ME! Now I wipe it down before AND after! Genius, I know.). I set down my water bottle.  I adjust my ipod, arm strap and earbuds. My towel is just so.  I begin. And then I see 220.  What the....


I begin reaching up my shirt, trying to adjust the chest strap without flashing my raisin like midriff at my fellow gym goers.  I think it's all set.  I start again. Re-adjust my ear buds.  Start running and BAM 230.
I fidget, push buttons, adjust straps and so on.  No luck.


I become convinced that it interference with from the tv right above me.  I get all of my crap and head to the opposite corner.  I start my rituals all over and sure enough- 220.  Are.You. Kidding. Me?


I stop and approach one of the staff members, who looks at me like I am crazy. No, no one has ever complained of interference with their HRM.  Really. No one? Ever? Now, I don't believe this, though I do find some solace in the fact that she looks me up and down and says, "no, your heart rate is not 220 (see , I can't be completely crazy)  Could it be from someone else?".


Of course I had considered this from the start, but had quickly dismissed it.  I humored her. We looked around at the other four people there.  Now let me say, I have no issue with older people and I love seeing them at the gym, but I have to say the other four people at the Y that Tuesday morning at 10 am were all, yes, ALL over 70 and I don't think any had broken a sweat.


"Yeah, maybe" was my response.  Internally I cursed her, then I cursed Polar and vowed to buy a Garmin.  I accepted that I'd have to rely on the unreliable results from the machine and if my HRM was junk, I may as well move back to where I started.


I gather my stuff and perform my rituals again (though I skip wiping down the machine this time, screw germs!). I have now managed to waste about 20 minutes and everyone in the place thinks I am certifiable.  At least I still had 90 minutes till the child care people came looking for me to force my kids back on me.


Turns out, I didn't need 90 minutes, just 50.  I had a great run.  I did 5.5 miles. Yes, that statement deserves it very own sentence. Be glad I didn't give each word it's own sentence.  It's a really big deal for me.  The first 3.5 were classic intervals with incline for most of it (2-3)( I'll try to insert a chart later.)  Then I eliminated the incline for the last 1.5 miles and worked on endurance speed by going between 7 and 8.3 (ok, it wasn't really speedy, but it was fast for me).


I felt great and probably could have gone another couple of miles, but that's how I usually end up getting injured, so I stopped it there.  I burned apx 600 calories, which sounded about right when you take into account that most of it was done on an incline.


So- Tuesday was a success- over 1000 calories!


Wednesday was pretty good.  I went to "the Class" at 6 am and burned 450 calories.  That was with increased speeds and weights.  I think my body is getting too comfortable with this workout.  I used to burn 500-550 calories just a few weeks ago.  I'm really beginning to think that the price increase is a blessing.


Although I had an extra 450 calories to eat and ate pretty well during the day, I ended up going over by about 400 calories! I had dinner and drinks at a friend's and one piece of pizza and one bread stick were 420 calories.  Add my drinks and there you have it.  I just cannot get over how many calories were in that small piece of pizza and tiny bread stick.  I used to eat 3 x that in one sitting- that would exceed my base calories for the entire day!  I love pizza, but I'm not sure it's worth it.  I think I'm going to have to work on a home made version....


Thursday was exciting. Myself and a few girlfriends hired a personal trainer to do a "bootcamp" at our houses.  Our first bootcamp was Thursday afternoon.  I was a bit worried that I would not burn enough calories, being that we'd probably waste a lot of time getting to know eachother and figuring things out- and this turned out to be the case.  Fortunately I went to the gym that morning and tested out some of my interval workout plan.  At they gym, I ran 5 miles and burned 450 calories.  Good thing, since I only burned 150 with the trainer. 


I not only wanted to burn off some of the calories from the day before, but we go to a local Brewery every Thursday.  This means I needed a cushion so I could have a couple of beers.  While I didn't make much of a dent in Wednesday's calorie deficit, I didn't go over on Thursday.  That includes the TWO mini cupcakes I had for my son's "pretend Birthday" at preschool. Unlike the pizza the day before, these were worth it.  They were from a cupcake bakery in my town called cup.cake.  I don't know if you say "cup cake" or "cup dot cake". I forgot to ask. It really doesn't matter- however you say it, they are amazing.We got these one's and chocolate ones. 

This brings me to today, which is Friday.  I have been fighting a cold for a few days and this morning I was feeling pretty crummy.  I also had a crummy day at work.  In the past, this would mean I'd go home and sleep- or go shop (it is payday, after all). I might take a little nap or I might run to the store, but I WILL workout.


Now I have to decide what kind of workout to do. This is the plan: 20 minute interval workout on the elliptical and then 40 on the treadmill.  I know if I start on the treadmill, I won't ever switch to the elliptical (I don't like it very much) and my legs really don't need 60 minutes of running.