In My Head

I've been having somewhat of a writer's block when it comes to blogging. I sat down to update my workout and running happenings yesterday but, for some reason the words didn't come out right. It was much easier to post a picture instead.

Anyway...

Tuesday I opted for the air conditioned gym and their treadmill in front of a mirror, while plugged into my iPod with my 2009 SDRNR Marathon mix. I'm sort of swapping my recovery intervals with my faster ones, meaning a faster overall average time. I was doing a 2 minute recovery time and 30 seconds to one minute top speeds. Yesterday I was able to recover at 1 minute and do top speeds at 2 minutes. The in front of the mirror thing is still necessary, since I have to make sure my right side doesn't tilt while keeping my arms closer to my body. I was toast when I was done and spent a good 20 minutes in the stretching cage after.

Wednesday morning was RU. Since I was pretty sore in both my hips from Tuesday's interval workout on the treadmill, I did most of my exercises with much lighter weights and more stretching exercises and assisted stretching. The assisted stretching just about kills me, but I knew I'd be worse off without it. I was also given the next 4 weeks of a workout schedule, which makes me really happy -- you all have no idea, well, maybe you do. It's not like I can't figure out what to do on my own, but with my particular goals in mind I need to do specific exercises and run plans. My immediate goal is to improve upon my 5k time, which will help improve my half marathon time. Bryan seems to think I can improve upon my 5k PR time of 25:45 from a few years ago. In the grand scheme of things, that particular time isn't that fast, as there are some smokin' fast women in my age group, but I'd love to shave even a few seconds off of that time. We also went over nutrition, such as macro nutrients and caloric intake. For running I do need a little more carbs, but I'm finding that I'm getting in too many carbs and not enough protein. We discussed what ratios (carb/fat/protein) would work best for me and when. I'm pretty much right on the mark with caloric intake between 1600 and 1800 calories per day (for my height of a whole whopping 5'3"), but he asked to see a food diary along with my workout diary. I bought the Fitday PC version a few years ago that has nifty pie charts and graphs to show off the stats, so I'll be utilizing that, and it makes my life easier. I'm also not training for anything further than a 6 mile run, so there is no need to bump up the calories right now.

Yesterday I ventured out to the mall to return a dress that didn't fit quite right. I bought it on line because it I had a couple of internet only discounts plus free shipping. I usually fit into petite sizes pretty easily because of my height, but this dress was cut weird in the petite size, and I never know, exactly how Banana Republic dresses are going to fit me until I try them on. I have 3 of their dresses and all are different sizes. I ended up exchanging it for a regular sized dress but two sizes down. Good thing I went into the store when I did because I received an additional 10% off, even though it was an even exchange. Sweet. The dress is for a wedding we're attending in Ixtapa, Mexico in October, and, more likely than not it will be very warm.

Today

Activity: Run - Treadmill
Date: 07/23/09 12:00 PM
Distance: 3.15 miles
Time: 0:32:00
Speed: 5.9 mph
Pace: 10' 09 min/mile
Calories: 304

Intervals

What it was supposed to look like:
10 minute warm up
1 min easy/ 2 min Hard- race pace (x2)
2 min easy/ 3 min Hard- race pace (x2)
3 min easy/ 3 min Hard- race pace (x2)
1 min easy/ 2 min Hard- race pace (x2)
10 minute cool down

What I actually did:
2 minute warm up
1 min easy/ 2 min Hard- race pace
2 min easy/ 3 min Hard- race pace
3 min easy/ 3 min Hard- race pace
1 min easy/ 2 min Hard- race pace
then did 1 min easy/ 2 min hard - race pace, a few times to fill in the rest of the 30 minutes time on the treadmill
2 minute cool down

Warm up and cool downs at 4.0mph
Easy at 5.0 mph
Race pace at 7.1 mph
20 minutes in the stretching cage after

It was supposed to be 10 minute warm up and 10 minute cool down per my new workout instructions, but there's about a 30 minute limit on the equipment at the gym. I also forgot the "x 2," part of each interval, which would have given me about 34 minutes, and that's doable, but I forgot. Doing the math, if I did the workout as written, I would have been on a treadmill for about 54 minutes.

Aside from the workout, I'm still liking the marathon mix. Today I finished up the last race pace interval with "Fighter" by Christina Aguilera, and that really brought everything home for me, and in a good way. Now the song is stuck in my head.

Yesterday's song:
First I Look At The Purse - The Contours, The J. Geils Band

PEACE