Half Marathon Training: Week 3

I decided to reduce my spam onto the interwebs and switch to reporting weekly workouts. Here's the recap for the week:

Monday I did pull ups and weights with my legs, and then did a wimpy 0.89 mile at 10'37" minutes per mile on the treadmill. Treadmill=boring.

Tuesday Michelle and I ran through the Cornell Plantations at a brisk pace of 10'09" minutes per mile for a total of 4.30 miles. Could have gone faster but my stomach was full of undigested cookies.

Wednesday Salsa dancing! I couldn't convince anyone to take a salsa class with me, so I went by myself. That's something I never would have done a year ago, but I've had to become a lot more independent since I started training for triathlons. It was a lot of fun, and I'm counting it as cross training. It's a surprisingly good workout.

Thursday I no longer have to harass people to run; now they volunteer. Annie, Michelle, and I went for a run after work. We did our Game Farm Rd. loop that takes us on the East Hill Rec Trail at a slow speed of 11'45" minutes per mile for a total of 3.64 miles. Afterward, Michelle and I went to the gym to work on our arm and abdominal muscles.

Friday and Saturday rest! I spent all day Saturday working and was too tired to bike when I got home.

Sunday I used to think people who ran when it was 15F (3F with windchill), snowy, and windy outside were crazy; now I know they are. Michelle, Brian, Annie, and I ran 5.66 miles through the Cornell Plantations. My pace was 10'50" minutes per mile. I never want to spend an hour running at that temperature again.

Not quite a perfect week, but I achieved the balance of meeting most of my goals without being too exhausted to work and have a social life.

Lastly, my Nike+ challenge with my sister and brother has come to an end. Vikram was the first to reach 50 miles of running this month and I was second with 33 miles. For next month's competition, Poonam and I are teaming up against Vikram. If the two of us together can't beat him, then we might as well give up.

Half Marathon Training: Week 3
Week of 2/1/10 red=incomplete; green=completed

stretch & strengthen

3.5 m run

2 m run or cross

3.5 m run + strength

rest

40 min cross

5 m run

Yurting

Ever since the triathlon, I have developed a predilection for timing everything. I like to know precisely how fast I run, walk, bike, and swim. My sleep schedule is relatively fixed, it takes me the same amount of time to get out the door every morning, and I eat my meals at set times throughout the day. If I didn't stick to a schedule, I would never be able to balance work, life, and exercise.

I forget that not everyone lives in my strictly regimented world. My obsession with timing everything has apparently overflowed into my personal life. I made the mistake of taking my watch when camping with friends in a yurt in the Adirondacks. Apparently one of the joys of being out in the woods is being able to eat and sleep without a schedule. (I disagree, but I was outvoted on this point.) Lesson: watches are good training tools, but are not to be worn on vacation.


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Overall, the week was bad for exercise but good for fun. I skipped two runs, but we did go for a long hike while camping. Hiking for 2+ hours on snow definitely counts as cross training.

Half Marathon Training: Week 2
Week of 1/25/10 red=incomplete; green=completed

stretch & strengthen

3 m run

2 m run or cross

3 m run + strength

rest

30 min cross

4 m run

Brrrrrrr

Best run time yet!!! Michelle and I did the same route to Game Farm Rd that we did last Tuesday but this time in reverse. The temperature plummeted into the teens today and it was extremely windy. I think that helped motivate us to get to my car, which was parked near the end of the trail, as fast as we possibly could.

Afterward, we met Brian and Melissa at the gym for some more weight training. This time, we focused on our chest, tricep, and leg muscles. I didn't push myself as hard as I did on Monday because I'm going camping this weekend and I don't want to be in pain before the trip starts. Highlights from today's lesson included a debate on whether building chest muscles in women leads to perkier breasts or to a manly chest and an argument over whether it's acceptable to dance between sets while you're waiting for a machine to be free. I don't think Brian will be joining us for weights again, which is too bad because our lessons were fun!

Nike+ run stats: 3.97 miles, 40'12" minutes, 10'07" minutes per mile

Half Marathon Training: Week 2
Week of 1/25/10 red=incomplete; green=completed

stretch & strengthen

3 m run

2 m run or cross

3 m run + strength

rest

30 min cross

4 m run

Spinning

I'm not on track to finish my goal for this week. Work and life have been busy, and for just one week, I'm letting that take precedence. Although I was still exhausted and sore from weights on Monday, I managed to go to spinning with Michelle and Melissa. It was tiring but felt good.

Half Marathon Training: Week 2
Week of 1/25/10 red=incomplete; green=completed

stretch & strengthen

3 m run

2 m run or cross

3 m run + strength

rest

30 min cross

4 m run

Weight training demo

Michelle and I got a free private lesson from her boyfriend on strength training. When Brian heard how we did our strengthening exercises last week, he was amused/appalled and decided a tutorial was in order. Here's what I learned:

• Quality over quantity. Last week, we went around to each machine, did 8 reps, and then moved onto the next one. Today, we did 3 sets of 10 reps with free weights and at a few machines that worked our upper arms and backs. We'll go back on Thursday to work on our lower bodies.

• Rest between sets. It's better to work at your upper limit of weights and allow yourself to rest between sets.
  

• Less talk, more work. Apparently engaging in conversation when you're lifting weights means that you're not working hard enough.

• Girls are different than boys. Michelle and I can't do pull ups. We already knew that, but it was an educational experience for Brian. ("But.... but.... just pull yourself up with your arms.") We then discovered that the machine was weight assisted and gives you a little "push" if you need it. Someday soon hopefully I'll be able to do pull ups on my own.

• Remember to breathe. Sounds dumb, but this is something I'm terrible at in yoga as well. It's easy to forget to breathe when you're focusing on contracting muscles.
  

It was fun to get advice from someone with more experience, and Brian put a lot of thought into putting together a good workout for us. As we were leaving, we got into a debate about which muscle groups we should be concentrating on. He thought we wouldn't want to work on our legs since those get exercised with running. I thought that we wanted to build our leg muscles to improve our running. Unless I'm proven wrong, I'm sticking with my approach.

Half Marathon Training: Week 2
Week of 1/25/10 red=incomplete; green=completed

stretch & strengthen

3 m run

2 m run or cross

3 m run + strength

rest

30 min cross

4 m run

South Hill Rec Trail

Annie, Michelle, Brian, Melissa, Nori, Jen, and I met at this morning for a Sunday run. It turns out that the South Hill Rec Trail is not plowed in the winter. Running on packed snow was a great workout, but it's a little hard on the knees and ankles so I think we'll avoid it in the future. I guess we'll need to look for a different spot to do our 4+ mile runs. We ran out and back on the trail so we were able to split up and run by speed.

Nike+ run stats: 3.84 miles, 45'40" minutes, 11'52" minutes per mile
(I think I need to recalibrate my pedometer. According to the trail markers, we ran 4 miles.)


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Half Marathon Training: Week 1
Week of 1/18/10 red=incomplete; green=completed

stretch & strengthen

3 m run

2 m run or cross

3 m run + strength

rest

30 min cross

4 m run

climbing + weights + bike trainer

I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I'm no longer working at Cornell. The gym is next door to my building, the climbing wall is across the parking lot, and the indoor track is across the street. Today I took advantage of that and went to both the climbing wall and the gym. I did a little bit of bouldering and then went to the gym to work on my upper arms. It's interesting-- my fear of heights is not a problem when I'm harnessed and on ropes, but it quickly becomes apparent when I'm climbing without ropes.

After a full Saturday at the lab and in the gym, I headed home and spent 30 minutes on my bike trainer. After all, today was supposed to be a cross training day.

Half Marathon Training
Week of 1/18/10 red=incomplete; green=completed

stretch & strengthen

3 m run

2 m run or cross

3 m run + strength

rest

30 min cross

4 m run