Last Week's Runs

I already described Sunday's run in last week's post. But the rest of the week went like this:
Monday - 56 minutes, 3.58 miles. Walk 10 minutes, run 1 mile, walk 5 minutes, R 3 W 3 R 6 W 1 R 6 W 11. It should have been walk a mile, walk 5 minutes, then 3 repeats of R 6 W 1. It was definitely a day when my mind was telling me that I couldn't do the 6 minutes. I had to spend about 3 minutes telling it to shut up.
Thursday - 61 minutes. 4.16 miles. Walk 10 minutes, Run 1 mile, Walk 5 minutes (R 6 minutes, W 1 minute) x3, Walk 12 minutes.
Friday - 68 minutes. 4.1 miles. Walk 10 minutes, Run 1 mile, Walk 5 minutes, Run .7 miles (should have been 1 miles), Walk the rest. I went for a trail run in the hot (around 90-92 degrees) and had a lot of trouble with it. I also really felt like I need to get some trail shoes.

My foam roller came on Friday afternoon. It's quite awesomely brutal. It feels wonderful on my back, great on my legs (mostly), and torturous on my IT bands. I never thought I had much tightness on my IT band but it's so hard to use there. Ouch.

Saturday I went and tried on a pair of New Balance Minimus Trail shoes. They felt great. They were like wearing a pair of slippers. Still, I balk at the $99.95 price tag (both MSRP and the price at the "outlet" where I tried them on). Do I really want to pay $99.95 for a pair of shoes that I can only wear when running trails? They're not a road shoe and I do most of my running on the road. I left without getting them. I may end up going and getting a Trail Shoe but not the Minimus ones. There are some pretty decent feeling trail shoes at Academy in the $49-$69 price range. We'll see...

Last Week's Runs

I finally feel like I'm starting to get back to my previous level of running. Maybe I've been slacking not to be more advanced than I am. On the other hand, this time I want to really build a base for running to help myself run faster and longer.

Tuesday - 1:01 4.29 miles. W10, (R5 W1) x 6, W15.

Wednesday - 1:01 4.7 miles W10, (R5 W1) x 6, W15.

Friday - 1:39 6.33 miles W10 (R6 W1) x 5, the rest walking. I went running at Walnut Creek and it was just lovely and beautiful. I saw two different women walking dogs and 2 bicyclists and that was it. There were more people at the park which I could tell because of the cars in the lot but I didn't run into them.

Friday redux - 46 minutes, 2.49 miles. I needed to kill time between not making the iron cutoff to donate blood platelets and picking up my nephew at school. I planned to park and walk at Town Lake but I could not get parked due to the Reggae fest so I just parked and walked downtown.

Sunday - I set out to do some Yasso 400s. If you google Yasso 400s or Yasso 800s you will find about 20,000 links (no exaggeration) - mostly to blogs. Either is an interval workout that theoretically predicts marathon time (800s) or half-marathon time (400s). For the 400s, you run a 400 at the pace you want to run the 1/2 in (but minutes:seconds rather than hours:minutes), then you walk 200 meters. If you're starting your training you might be able to do 4 400s at pace and you work up hoping to get to 20 by the time you're nearing race day. I went to the track at my neighborhood elementary school. Now I called the school last year and spoke to the P.E. teacher who said that the track is 1/4 mile. It's a trail type track - dirt and gravel but doesn't look like 1/4 mile.

After walking 10 minutes, I set down my water bottle which I intended to use to mark my starting/finishing points for each lap, hit start on my watch, and started running. Lo and behold, my first 400 was 1:50. Well, since I was hoping to do at least 4-6 400s at 2:20 that seemed sort of fast. Very fast. I walked my 200 and then hit start again. Another 1:50 lap. Third lap - I hit my timer but also hit the button on my Nike+ to find out the distance. Guess what? The track is .18 miles long, not .25. So 1/6 of a mile. I did 5 more 400s at 2:20 by running about 100 yards past my water bottle, then walking back past it and then some more. The 10 minute walk and then 7 400/200 intervals took 35 minutes and covered 2.4 miles. I walked another 1.69 miles in 33:20.

It's definitely a workout I'll do again (Yasso recommends doing it once a week in addition to all other training) but I think next time I'll use a "real" track or mark off a true 1/4 mile on this one.

In other news, I put on a pair of shorts that I haven't put on in about 3-4 years or more this weekend. It fit great. Actually it was a little baggy. I could probably wear a 1 inch smaller size. I have two pairs that are the same khaki & blue and I wore both during the weekend and both fit great.

In other other news, I ordered a foam roller this weekend. I've heard very good things about using them to stretch and loosen muscles so it seems worth trying.

Last Week's Runs

I had a better week running last week but still feel like I'd like to be getting out there more. The baby keeps being sick and coughing and no one is sleeping well. We've had a few nights where everyone slept well but not many. Still, that's an excuse.

Tuesday - 3.61 miles. 51 minutes. Walked 10, (R4 W1)x6 Walked 11.

Friday - 3.91 miles. 54:48. Walked 10 (R4 W1)x6 Walked 14.

Saturday - 4.78 miles. 68 minutes. Walked 10 (R5 W1) x 5 Walked the rest.

Saturday - Friday ChocolateSon had told me that he wanted to run with me Saturday so when I left the park, I texted ChocolateWife and said that I was leaving if he wanted to run. He was waiting for me when I pulled up and off we went. We ran 1.86 miles in just under 30 minutes and most of it was running. It was the most excited he has been about running in probably 9 months or a year. I loved it and we had a great time together.

I've kept to my schedule with my leg exercises and crunches. ChocolateDaughter loves to help me do my crunches and she does some as well. She also likes to count for me when I do my leg exercises. I feel like I'm losing some size if not pounds. My clothes are fitting looser and I just feel like I'm improving my fitness.

ChocolateWife is getting more and more clients which is pretty wonderful in terms of our finances although it doesn't do much for our seeing each other. But one thing I makes me wonder is if I want to get a cardio machine of some sort for the house. Once I get the kids to bed, I could do a workout if I had something. Of course, I could also do some plyometrics or yoga I guess. I'm waiting and considering on it. So far we haven't really seen a huge increase in the income but ChocolateWife really wants to get a new lawnmower and tablet PC for herself and one for ChocolateSon to do his school work on so I'm hesitant to buy something right off (even from Craigslist).

Last Week's Running

I again had a better week running last week. My biggest barrier right now is that ChocolateDaughter is sick with horrible allergies and she's up for at least a portion of every night. Once she wakes up coughing or itching or both she doesn't want to go back to sleep in our room which she says is too dark. Usually R takes her out in the living room but sometimes I do and I usually wake up when the shower is on or when ChocolateDaughter is coughing and restless. Of course, it would kind of suck for me to complain that my lack of sleep is keeping me from running when R is way more sleep deprived than I am. Monday - 3.29 miles, 49 minutes. W10, (R4, W2) x 4, W 15. Monday (lunch walk) - 2.91 miles, 55 minutes. I needed to work until later so I took a long lunch and walked around downtown checking in at lots of spots on Gowalla like a tourist. Tuesday - did the leg exercises (x2) and abs. Thursday - 3.53 miles, 52 minutes. W10, (R4, W2) x 4, W 18. Saturday - leg exercises and abs. Sunday - 5.59 miles, 1:26. W10, (R4, W2) x5, W rest. This should have been (R4 W1)x 4 (or maybe 5) but I didn't double-check the plan before heading out. I logged around 45 miles in March which is a pretty low level for me. My 2011 miles are around 200 so that's not terrible but I would like to be logging more. I'm less than 100 miles from my next level (blue) so that's exciting.