Week 1 Wrap-up!!

Last week was an interesting one. I was lazy on Monday, so I didn't start my exercise week until Tuesday. That's okay though. I feel that I was pretty productive despite the small setback. 

Instead of trying to post a daily blog or even a few times a week, I think that it is more practical to do a weekly recap.  I outlined Tuesday's workouts, so I'll continue with Wednesdays! 

I was introduced to the idea of fatiguing my muscles (to become stronger) by doing two-a-days.  I'm only adding in one two-a-day per week right now, and MAN did it kill me.  I realized that I need to make sure I take in plenty of calories before my second workout to guarantee that I have enough energy to get through it with a mple energy.

Wednesday

AM: 3.6 mile hilly run in the neighborhood- Usually this is a pretty effortless run for me, so I thought it would be a good start. 

PM: 45 minutes weights, 10 mile elliptical warm-up, 4.4 mile treadmill run.  I was EXHAUSTED after the 45 minutes of weights.  The 10 mile elliptical warm-up wasn't bad, because I completed it at an easy pace.  The 4.4 mile DREADmill run was pretty hellish.  I recently lost my heart rate monitor that attaches to my Garmin watch, so I have no clue how hard I was really working. 

Thursday

I was SORE from Tuesday & Wednesday's workouts, but trucked away anyhow.  It was only my 3rd day working out this week, so I was determined to have a strong workout.

45 minutes weight training

20 minutes elliptical warm up

2 mile dreadmill run 

20 minute elliptical cool down

Friday & Saturday: OFF! I had intended for only Friday to be my off day, as we took a day trip to Tahoe.  We weren't planning on spending the night but after putting $3 into the slot machine I won $70 and we decided to get a room.  We had a few cocktails and drove home Saturday afternoon.  Unfortunately Kevin got called into work, so we skipped the 4 mile run that we had slated since it was EXTREMELY windy when he got off work and the gym was already closed.  That's okay, sometimes the body needs more rest so it was probably for a reason

Sunday: 10 mile run around the hilly neighborhood.  I did a REALLY good job keeping it at a slower pace (9 min mile).  It is advised that you do your "long run" 60-90 seconds slower per mile than your "race pace," so that is exactly what I was aiming form.  Anywhere from 9-9:30 min miles.  For some reason anything slower than 9 min miles feels like I am FORCING myself to run slooooow, and I feel like my form starts lacking.  Well, right at mile 4.2 I rolled my left ankle (this has been happening way too often which means I need to start paying attention to my form).  I yelled some obscenities, shook it off, and finished the remanining 5.8 miles.  Probably wasn't the best idea, but I was DETERMINED to get my 10 miler in as we have a half marathon coming up on February 5th.

My weekly total was only 25 miles this week, but that's okay because I know that I will have much stronger weeks in the near future. :)

Happy trails!! 

New Year. Fresh Start!

ALRIGHT... I know that I have been extremely lazy about keeping a blog. My only excuse is that school started.  I went through a lot of hurdles in the end of 2011- and am ready for a fresh start, and year.

A friend (a fellow runner whom I look up to very much) challenged me to run 1500 miles this year.  Since I am about to purchase a road bike, and my next BIG goal is to completely a triathlon (and eventually a Half Ironman) I think that this is a very good goal.

I am keeping track of my runs this year on runkeeper.com... the link is http://runkeeper.com/user/Nicolie83

I TRACKED about 800 miles last year, and a lot of my miles weren't tracked at all so I am quite confident that I surpassed 1000 miles in 2011, which makes me very happy.  There's no reason that I can't step it up to 1500 this year.

I am also going to be more cognizant about tracking my workouts for the week.  My first workout of the year (today, January 3rd) was:

45 minutes weights

10 minutes elliptical (warm up) 

5 mile run (~45 minutes)

More later :)