Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Workouts 5/21 - 5/27

Monday - You are your own Gym Week 5, Day 2. Legs Supersets. This workout was much harder than the ones before it.

Tuesday - 3.5 miles 47 minutes (13:25) plus walking warm up/down. I felt rather sluggish but did it anyway.

Wednesday - Yayog Week 5, Day 3. Arms/pulling supersets. A good workout but I couldn't bring myself to try the pull-ups on the top of the door.

Thursday - 3.4 miles 40 minutes (11:45) plus walking warm up/down. I ran up and around campus including hitting a seam in the pavement and falling and cutting my palm. Then I went around the track for a while. It was quite hot. Thursday - 2.8 miles 48 minutes walk.

Sunday - 6.25 miles in 1:20 (12:48) plus walking warm up/down. Trail run at Walnut Creek Park. A very good and fun but sad run. We had to put our dog to sleep on Friday and this run constantly reminded me of her and how much she loved this trail and swimming in the creek.

The month has 3 more days and I should hit 100 miles after one more run. It will be my 3rd 100 mile month this year.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Workouts 5/14 - 5/20

Monday - 1.75 in 32 minute walk. I went for a lunch hour (half-hour) walk. It was quite lovely.

Monday - You are your own Gym Week 4, Day 1. Basically Arms Interval training (12 of each push exercise). The program is the same as Week 3 Day 1. Then I did 18 minutes of the core workout at the Pre-Dawn Runner's site. It's a hard core workout but I know it would help me if I can do it consistently.

Tuesday - 4.1 miles in 47 minutes (11:27 mm) plus the walking warm up/down. A really nice run right after it rained. The streets were wet but the air was clear.

Tuesday - Yayog Week 4, Day 2. Legs intervals. A really good workout. With the exception of the one-legged romanian deadlifts, these are all very doable exercises for me.

Wednesday - Yayog Week 4, Day 3. Arms (pulling) intervals. A good workout. I didn't quite finish it because I got an important phone call after 11 of the 12 sets but still very good.

Thursday - 3.9 miles in 47 (12:03 mm) plus walking warm up/down. It was warm out 77-82 but mostly I just felt really tired. I got it done and sort of shrugged that any run is better than no run.

Saturday - 4.78 mile walk in 1:13. Lovely morning for a walk. As I was coming home after 3, the family met me so we went a bit further. The only bad thing is that my feet started to get a bit hot-spotty from walking further than I intended in my Vibrams on concrete. Always lovely to walk/run with the family though.

Sunday - 12.1 miles in 2:35 (12:48) including walking warm up/down. What a great run. I wore my new shoes for the first 4 miles and last 4 miles. It felt really great. By the formula my long runs should be around 14:30 but since I'm just running 10-12 on the weekends, I'm working to go faster than that.

Sunday - Yayog Week 5, Day 1. Arms/Supersets. This is a short workout. It's basically 6 sets of 2 exercises.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Workouts 05/07 - 05/13

I had another good workout week:

Monday - You Are your own Gym, Week 3 Day 1 - This arm workout was different. Rather than ladders (1 then 2 then 3 etc. for 7:30) this was intervals so you tried to do 12 reps 3x. It was 4 different arms "push" exercises.

Tuesday - Yayog, Week 3, Day 2 - Legs intervals. Very good and hard workout.

Wednesday - 4.0 miles, 46 minutes (11:30 mm) plus the walking warm up/down. Lovely run in the rain. Stiff to start but really got smooth toward the middle/end.

Wednesday - Yayog, Week 3, Day 3 - Arms (pull) intervals. Some new exercises and a good workout.

Friday - 11.15 miles 2:16 (12:11 mm) including walking warm up/down. Had no pre-run food available so I just went out with 3 gels in my pack. Had a fantastic run. Perhaps my best run ever. Did a 1:00/1:00 ratio but much faster than my usual LSRs. This pace may be better than my pace at the Austin 10/20 where I ran 2:30/1:00 and 2:00/1:00. I wouldn't trust the distance but I measured using both Nike+ and GPS. At about 9 miles I got chased by dogs and one jumped up and scratched me. I'm glad he didn't bite and that I didn't fall down (he was big!).

Friday - Yayog, Week 3, Day 4 - Core Intervals. A good workout and not that hard although it felt good.

Saturday - 4.25 miles 50 minutes (11:45) plus walking warm up/down. A nice recovery run. Ran through a lot of mud but very fun run.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Obama and Gay Marriage

Yes, this blog is about running and sometimes crochet but this is important enough to just say: President Obama just said that he supports gay marriage. ... or as I like to call it. Marriage.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Exercise 4/30 - 5/06

Another good workout week this week:

Monday - You are your own GYM (Yayog) Week 2, Day 1 - Arms Ladders. A repeat of the workouts from the week before but I've added strength. On the modified pull-ups I got up to 4 3 different times.
Monday - Lunch time (half-hour) walk of 1.72 miles in 27 minutes.

Tuesday - I switched my hours again so I'm back to my early morning running. Upside: cooler, very little auto exhaust, and I don't have to pack a bag and take two showers a day. Downside: running in the dark and no long break during my work day. 3.77 miles in 47 minutes (12:28) plus the walking warm up/down. I did a 2:00/1:00 ratio because my legs were still a bit tight.

Wednesday - Yayog Week 2, Day 2 - Legs, Ladders. A good workout and I did a few crunches and a plank as well.

Thursday - 5.17 in 59 minutes (11:26) plus walking warm up/down. I did some gliders and really concentrated on my pace. Great run.
Thursday - Yayog Week 2, Day 3 - Arms Ladders. I did the first 2 exercises while cooking dinner and the last two after eating. I got as high as 7 on one set of pull-ups and 6 on the next.

Friday - Yayog Week 2, Day 4 - Legs ladders. Very good strong workout. I was going to walk at lunch but work got a bit too crazy.

Sunday - 10.14 miles 2:09 (12:43). I planned to go for a run at Walnut Creek but the rain made that unwise so I just ran on the sidewalks and streets from home and back. Nike+ distance may be up to half-mile high but should be close. I was sore in my lower back and legs for most of the first 6-7 miles in that way that you are sore if you sleep wrong. Ran a good part in light rain which was lovely. 1:00/1:00 ratio and this includes walking warm up/down.
Sunday - Yayog Week 3, Day 1 - Arms. Strength training. Rather than ladders this workout has you do 3 sets of 4 exercises either 6-12 reps or to exhaustion. I had to modify the first (push-ups) because my toe is really sore after my run. Other than that, I was able to do all 12 reps of all but one set. I have to admit that I think the time provided (3 minutes per set) is excessive. I put away my laundry, got out my work clothes for Monday, and still started most of the sets early.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Baby Blanket

I finished this blanket this week. Our friends and mekhutonim (sister-in-law's brother) are expecting their second baby next month. I made the Labyrinth blanket for the big brother and this blanket for the baby. I found the pattern on Ravelry. It was a fun but very stitch intensive and yarn intensive blanket. I used some remnant yarn but also bought 5-6 skeins of yarn for some base colors. It was a fun blanket to make but I also think that I made more mistakes on this blanket than any other. For some reason I kept forgetting to attach with a slip stitch between the bottom halves of the circles, particularly on the corners. Nonetheless, I think it is a beautiful blanket and will be appreciated.