HYC Check In

I don't have much to update since Friday's update. Since it was a pretty busy weekend, I didn't get much exercise other than my runs. I have not ridden my bike since last Thursday (wow), but I intend to ride 4 miles tomorrow.

Weekend and Nutrition
Jason leaves for the BABE Rally soon and we had a send-off party on Saturday. That means I didn't eat the best that day, but I didn't do too bad. I made a tray of veggies and healthy-ish crackers/chips with hummus (never you mind about that slice of pizza and handful of cheese puffs). I am hoping to not eat out again until after Jason returns next week. I also really want to start eating more veggies and fruits and less snacks made by nabisco (even if each pack is only 100 calories), so I went to the farmer's market this weekend and loaded up on all kinds of fruits and veggies. I keep meaning to make a fruit salad, but haven't gotten around to cutting up all that fruit yet. I did get some yogurt that was on sale at Publix last Friday and made some smoothies. Yum! Oh yeah, so I think I like yogurt now :) I think maybe I just had crappy yogurt or something before.

Running
I am up to 28 minutes of straight running and came very close on Saturday to running 2 miles (1.96 mi). I have W8D3 on Wednesday and I plan to run 2 miles regardless of if it takes me longer than the 28 minutes. At this point I am thinking of switching to distance and just increasing it by 1/4 mile each week until I reach 5k. If my calculations are correct, that would match up exactly with th 5K in June with the first 3 mile run being on that Sat.

5K on Saturday
I have a 5K this weekend and I am wrestling with what I want to get out of it. I will be running it alone, so I won't feel like I am competing with anyone. I wanted to try to run the whole thing, but I just don't think I am ready for that yet and don't want to rush it. So is it more important to run the whole thing or to throw a few minutes of walking here and there and try to better my time? I am thinking that trying to make it in under 40 minutes, even if I have to walk some, is an easier goal right now and my body will thank me later. We'll see how I feel come Sat a.m. I am leaning towards running most of it with a few walk breaks after each mile or so (or at water stops).

Goals
So here is a recap of my goals for this week:

• [DONE] Run 28 minutes without walking (C25K Week 8)
• Run 2 miles without walking [Almost there -- reached 1.96]
• Bike a total of 16-20 miles (~4/day)
• Run a total of 6 miles (~2/day) [3.86 down, 2.14 to go -- I'll be a little short, but that's ok]
• Light weights at least 2 days [I've really been slacking on this]
• Yoga at least 2 days [I really need to get in at least one long session, but I'm doing yoga pre and post running to warm up and stretch]
• Kickboxing at least 1 day [I think I may stop trying to fit this in. The running and biking takes up enough time, so I better focus on strength and flexibility training for now]

W8D2

Today's run went much better. It was overcast, so that made it nice and cool. I did not feel out of breath at all; my legs just felt a little tired at the end but I finished strong and didn't feel ill at the end. I didn't cover as much distance today, but that is ok because the run felt great. (I also wonder if the overcast weather conflicted with the GPS and my data today is not quite accurate, but whatever.) I think instead of 28 minutes on Wednesday, I am going to run 2 miles regardless of the time. I think it will only take me 1 or 2 more minutes.

I can't believe I only have 4 more runs before I am a C25K graduate! Of course, I won't be running 3 miles by that time, but I will be running 30 minutes and that is good enough for me! :) I'm hoping it will probably only take a couple of more weeks after that to get to the 5k distance. I have a 5k this weekend, which I am actually not that thrilled about since I'll be going up there alone, but I'll make the best of it. I have another 5k 3 weeks later and I am hoping to be able to run the entire time then.

Stats:

Run Only
Time: 28 min
Distance: 1.9 miles
Avg pace: 14:45
Best pace: 10:16
Cal: 133

Total w/Warm up & Cool Down
Time: 44:13
Distance: 2.76 miles
Avg pace: 16:02
Best pace: 10:16
Cal: 197

W8D1

Everything was against me this morning.

I of course did not want to get up this morning, because what sane person willingly gets up before 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning? I was tired and just wanted to go back to sleep, but I knew I had to get up or else I'd have to skip today because it would be too hot later and we have a party tonight.

So I get up and I can't find my running clothes. Then I get a low battery message when I turn on my watch so it can begin acquiring a satellite signal as I finish getting ready. Crap! I place it in the charger while I do some yoga stretches. Now the time is ticking away and is already past 7:30 a.m. I look at the watch and it looks like the battery is half full. I leave it in for a bit longer while I check my mail and such. I hope that's enough and head out. Then I realize today's workout is not setup right in the watch and everytime I connect it to the computer the damn Garmin software crashes. So I manually fix it and then I am on my way. Thankfully, it does not feel too warm yet, even though is almost 8 a.m. already.

About 8 minutes into the run, I get the low battery warning again. I hit enter and press on, hoping that low battery means it still has enough juice for at least 20 more minutes so it can finish recording my run. Now of course I feel compelled to look at my watch every few minutes to ensure it is indeed still on and recording, all the while worried about what the hell will I do if it dies before I finish because I'll have no idea when to stop.

As I am nearing the end of the run, the watch is still holding up; the distance is slowly nearing 2 miles as the time quickly nears 28 minutes. I really want to make it to 2 miles today, but I am tired and hot and getting slightly out of breath. I give it my all (which is not much at this point) as the watch starts its beeping countdown to alert me this lap is almost done. It finally beaps and I come to almost a complete stop (against my better judgment) because I can't go on and the beep just seems to flip a switch in my brain that immediately makes my legs stop running.

I begin my cool down feeling a bit nauseas--this tends to happen to me lately when I press too hard at the end then stop suddenly, but it passes quickly as long as I keep moving. Of course the watch immediately resets to the cool down lap as soon as it hits 28 minutes so I have no idea if I made it to 2 miles, although I am certain I didn't.

When I get back, I just want to pass out but the cool down has worked and I already feel better and full of energy. I decide to set my watch to charge and download the data before stretching. The damn Garmin software keeps crashing! Arg! I get the data uploaded to motionbased and see that I indeed did not make it to 2 miles! Grr! But the damn website does not give me the avg pace per lap, only overall, so I have to keep fighting with the Garmin software to know this information. It finally works!

Stats:

Run only
- Time: 28 minutes
- Distance: 1.96 miles (so frakin' close)
- Avg Pace: 14:16
- Avg Speed: 4.2 mph
- Max Speed: 5.8 mph
- Calories: 141 cal

Total w/warm up & cool down
- Time: 40:25 minutes
- Distance: 2.66 miles
- Avg Pace: 15:13
- Avg Speed: 3.9 mph
- Max Speed: 5.8 mph
- Calories: 193 cal

Coupled with yesterdays lack of weight loss, and today's challenging run, I am rather frustrated lately. I was hoping to show a loss yesterday and be able to let loose at the party tonight, but now I don't know. I'll just have to play it by ear. Monday will be another day and I will surely make it to 2 miles then.

Fitness Update: no change

I weigh today the same as I did last week. I can't say I'm not disappointed, but at least I did not gain any weight. I did eat out 4 times last week (CPK, Longhorn, Perkins, and Sweet Tomatoes) so I shouldn't be surprised. I was just very active, so I was expecting some change.

Anyway, I took my measurements and I seem to have lost a few inches, so that is comforting. I really hate measurements because I feel I never do them consistently, but I think these are accurate. I was able to wear a pair of size 4 pants from Target yesterday, so that's definitely a win. So let's forget the scale and focus on my goals and accomplishments.

Goals for the upcoming week:
- Run 28 minutes without walking (C25K Week 8)
- Run 2 miles without walking
- Bike a total of 16-20 miles (~4/day)
- Run a total of 6 miles (~2/day - I have a 5k on Sat, so I will only run 3 days this week)
- Light weights at least 2 days
- Yoga at least 2 day
- Kickboxing at least 1 day

Accomplishments this week:
- Workout Log
- Food Log
- Ran 25 minutes--C25k Week 7--without walking (4 times)
- Ran 1.75 miles without walking (3 times)
- Ran a total of 6.95 miles (10.42 miles including walking)
- Biked a total of 21.84 miles
- Lifted weights twice
- Practiced Yoga 3 times

W7D3

Today's run was great. It is amazing how much weather can affect your performance. I got up closer to 7 this morning, did some pre-run yoga posses to warm up, then headed out. It was nice and cool out, which made the run very pleasant and keeping up with my breathing very easy. I am still only covering 1.75 miles, but I felt like I had a good pace the whole time. It actually felt pretty good when I sped up during the last 5-10 minutes.

The way I setup the splits in my watch makes it hard to figure out my overall pace from the online data, but I'll look into crunching the numbers tonight. I think my pace for the first mile was 14-14.5 and about 1 minute less for the .75 miles (last 10 minutes). For my next run I am setting up a custom workout with the whole run portion as one lap; I split it into 2 this time so it would alert me when I had 10 minutes left to pick up the pace a bit, but I can just look at the watch when I think its been long enough. I run about the same route, so this won't be too hard.

I tried the 20 mintue Yoga for Runners from YogaDownload after my run. It was nice, even though there are some poses I can't do yet. I am not sure I will do this after every run because it takes so long, but I'll do it at least on the weekends and try these Post-Run Yoga Stretches for the other days.

Yoga for Runners

I really want to incorporate more yoga into my fitness routine, so I looked into yoga for running and found some links that may interest some of you. I am thinking of doing yoga as my pre and post run stretch. I think it would be more beneficial for my whole body instead of just simple static stretches. If anyone has any other resources, post them in the comments.

• RunnerGirl.com - Yoga on the Run
• Runner's World - 3 Pre-Run Yoga Poses (with Video)
• Runner's World - Yoga for Runners Page
• YogaDownload.com - Yoga for Runners Podcast (also on iTunes)
  This site has tons more yoga podcasts (both audio and video) and most also include a printable pose guide.
• Yoga Basics
  This site is a great resources to look up poses and sequences.

W7D2

I did not want to get up today. I woke up around 6:30 a.m. (same as usual) but I refused to get out of bed because it looked too dark outside. I need to realize that there is plenty of light and that by the time I get ready it will be perfect. It's really just a mind game. So I didn't get to start running until after 8 a.m. which means it was too warm and that makes it harder for me to keep up with my breathing.

I still completed the 25-minute run with about the same distance as last time (1.77 miles). The run itself went fairly well, except for when I wasn't in the shade. Thankfully, I had no side stitches today. I pushed it a little during the last minute and I probably shouldn't do that because then I feel like crap when I stop. I felt a little dizzy, but I was fine by the time I finished my cool down walk. I doubt I'll get to 2 miles in 25 minutes before the week ends, but that is ok. I'll probably finish the program at 2.5 miles and then just add time to the end until I can do 3 miles then work on speed. Still loving the watch :)

HYC Check In

Welcome to all the new readers from HYC! You can read about my journey so far in the archives. My weigh-in day is Thursday/Friday, so I'll post a mid-week fitness update for HYC on Tuesdays. This weekend was very busy and I ate out quite a bit, but I think I made ok choices (if we don't count all that chocolate). I was fairly active though, so I am hoping that will balance things out. I got new street tires for my bike and that makes a HUGE difference. It only took me 13 minutes to get to work today (it's usually 15-16).

Accomplishments so far this week:
- Ran 25 minutes without walking (3 times)
- Ran 1.75 miles without walking (twice)
- Ran 5.15 miles (7.68 miles including walking)
- Biked 12 miles (including the ride home today)
- 10 min weights on Sun
- 45 min of Yoga Sat, 20 min on Sun
- Swing dancing on Sat

Goals to meet before Thursday/Friday:
- Kickboxing at least 1 day
- Lift weights at least 1 more day
- Bike at least 4 more miles
- Run at least 1.75 - 2 more miles

W7D1

Another 25-minute run down, 2 to go! I did a little better than last time and covered 1.75 miles at a 14:17 pace. I am hoping to push it a little more on Tuesday and cover 2 miles, then 2.25 on Thursday. We'll see.

I did 45 minutes of yoga on Saturday and 20 this morning; that really helped get rid of the soreness and made tonight's run much better. I biked 4 miles yesterday, then went swing dancing; I was afraid that would make my legs sore again, but I guess the yoga this morning helped. I really need to remember that and do it more often, especially now that I have increasingly long runs ahead.

I was a bit rushed during this run, and probably did not control my breathing as well as I should have because I got a side stitch on the left towards the end of the run. I've never had one on that side before. I remembered reading that putting your arms up helps, so I was running with my arms in the air because I refused to stop. It did help and I finished the run.

I am really loving my new Garmin watch and all the awesome data it give me.

Bike-to-Work Week & Bike Month

May is National Bike Month. The League of American Bicyclists is promoting Bike-to-Work Week from May 12-16 and Bike-to-Work Day on Friday, May 16. There are events going on all over the country. Orlando & Starbucks are celebrating Bike-to-Work day by offering free coffee if you ride your bike and bring your own mug on Friday, May 16 (see flyer).

50 ways (large PDF) to celebrate Bike Month

Reasons to bike to work:

• Save time: biking the same distance is often shorter because you do not have to sit in traffic or find a parking spot. Taking back roads can often make the distance shorter than driving.
• Save money: you won't be using your car as much, so you won't need to fill up the gas tank as often.
• Help the environment: less driving means less pollution.
• Get fit: Biking to work is a great way to make working out a part of your daily routine and get at least the recommended 30 minutes a day.
• Enjoy the weather: you see more of the world when you are not stuck in traffic and can explore the scenic routes.