Are we in California yet?

My blog has been given a makeover as inspiration for California.

It has been a COLD few weeks here in Boston. Because of that, the majority of my training has been treadmill-focused. Here was my prescribed training plan for the past two weeks and how things have been going:

Dates	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
1/13-1/19	Rest	3 m run	3 m run	3 m run	Rest	3 m run	60 min walk
1/20-1/26	Rest	3 m run	3 m run	3 m run	Rest	6 m run	30 min walk

Tuesday 1/14
Track workout at Tufts. I met up with a couple Crossfit friends for an early morning speed workout at Tufts. In our workout we did a 800m warm up,  then 3x200 with 100m walking breaks in between, 3 times, then some bodyweight stuff between each round. This is what is looked like:

800m warm up
track warmups: broad jumps, butt-kickers, high knees
3x200 max sprint, 100m walks in between
20 jumping squats
1 minute plank hold
3x200 max sprint, 100m walks in between
20 pushups
1 minute plank hold
3x200 max sprint, 100m walks in between
20 jumping squats
30 second side plank each side
800m cool down

I was surprised with how fast I went on the 200m sprints. My garmin says my top speed was 4:55 on the sprints and my overall averagepace was 6:47. zoom! I didn't do the total 3m as prescribed, but this speed work felt great.

Wednesday 1/15
AM: 3 mile run on treadmill, easy 9:20 pace

PM: Crossfit!

Shoulder Press (3 RM)

12 Minutes to hit a 3RM

Metcon

Sweet Pea (Time)

2 rounds for time
- 1K row
- 50 DU
- 20 TTB
- 1 rope climb
rest 5 minutes between rounds

Woof.

Thursday 1/16
3 miles on treadmill, easy 9:15 pace. Right knee feeling a little weird but not bad. I also developed a pretty bad cold for the next few days so i took them off from working out.


Sunday 1/18
3 miles on treadmill, 9:00 pace with some speedwork in the middle. first day back from feeling sick,


Monday 1/19
MLK Jr day so off from work! Had the chance to go to the noon WOD which was nice:

Weightlifting

Press Complex ( 5 x complex ascending)

2 Push Presses + 1 Push Jerk without putting bar down.

Metcon

The Ants Go Marching (2x 2) (AMRAP – Rounds and Reps)

Alternate with a Partner
2 Minutes on, 2 Minutes off (x 5)
- 10 Pullups
- 20 Double Unders

I did pretty good at DUs.My longest sets were ~10, but I didn't whip myself too much which was a small victory.

Tuesday 1/20
3 miles on treadmill, hill work. did a 3-5% incline every other song

Wednesday 1/21
3 miles on treadmill, Tempo run
mile 1: warm up (6.0-6.9 every minute increasing)
mile 2: 8:27 pace
mile 3: 9:00 pace

Thursday 1/22
3 miles on treadmill, 9:20 pace. Right knee hurting the whole time. My knee continued to hurt throughout the day, especially when walking down stairs

Friday 1/23
 Rest!

Saturday 1/24
Long run day! For breakfast I had oatmeal made with vanilla almond milk, banana, and a scoop of Teddy's PB. Eaten about an hour before the run:

I met up with Olga for this run and it was great. We were going to run on Sunday but Saturday ended up being the warmest day in recent history, a whopping 25 degrees! I parked at my gym, ran the 0.5 miles to her house, then we did a 5.5 mile course around the river. We ended at my gym and she finished her 6 miles by running home again. Here are the splits:

Mile 2 was a little slower since we had to cross a couple streets. Overall, I'm super impressed with these times.I know these are no record breakers, but are definitely way more consistent and fast than I used to be.

My knee didn't hurt at all during yesterday's long run. A couple hours later (after eating lots of food and sitting on a couch at a Crossfit brunch), it bothered me a bit. This morning when I woke up, my right knee felt fine but my whole left leg was super tight: glute, hammy, calf, knee. 

Sunday

75 Minute All levels yoga class at the Corner Studio. The stretching felt so gooood. I'm going to keep doing some lunges and glute stretches this afternoon to try and work out this left side. Here's me now! Icing away the knee and relaxing with a book. Can you spot the pup? Hint: stairs.

Goal this week: go to crossfit more than twice. Definitely haven't been getting my money's worth this month but I have stuck 100% to my running plan so I don't feel too bad.4 weeks down, 18 to go!

San Diego Training Week 1

Oh hey! Since the last time I posted, a lot has happened. Mainly, Olga and I have decided to run the 2014 San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon on June 1!

That gives us roughly 6 months to train, and we're going to take it nice and slow. My goal only for this race is to make it there. And by that I mean, not get injured. I found a nice Hal Higdon novice plan that builds the mileage very gradually so we have high hopes. We already bought the plane tickets to at least we have that much going for us.

This past week kicked off week 1 of marathon training. Here is what was prescribed:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Rest	2 m run	3 m run	2.5 m run	Rest	5.5 m run	30 min walk

and it was a success! Which is really exciting considering I was in Cancun Monday-Thursday on a work trip.

Monday-Wedesday

I did my short runs on Tues and Wed at the hotel treadmill at the Fiesta Americana in Cancun, which overlooked the Caribbean Sea. Very Nice.

Thursday

rest

Friday

Thursday was an exhausting travel day so I ended up doing the 2.5 run on Friday. I actually ended up doing 3 since my legs felt pretty good. i did that one as a speed workout on a treadmill at the gym, this one to be precise:

Saturday

Double workout! Saturday morning I woke up planning to go to crossfit. I was feeling pretty tight though so I decided to first go to a 75 min vinyasa yoga class at the Corner Studio, followed by crossfit. The WOD yesterday was a good one, filled with lots of different movements.

Metcon

1/11/14 (Time)

With a Partner, 4 rounds of 4 minutes of work, 1 minute rest between rounds. 1 Partner works at a time

Round 1
- WallBalls (Min 1 and 2)
- Partner Medball situps (6′) (Min 3 and)

Round 2
- Thrusters (95, 65)
-OH Squats

Round 3
- Air Squats
- Burpees

Round 4
- Pullups
- Toes to Bar

For round 2, I did shoulder to overhead and squat lunges since my left hip has been really fussy when I squat lately. I just finished up 4 weeks of physically therapy on it, but I'm pretty sure i have a hip impingement that will cause deep squats to hurt forever. yikes.

Friday

First long run! Today was great, my first long run of the training, with almost all negative splits! 

 

I was supposed to do 5.5 today, but the route I chose ended up being close to 6.5. I went all along the Charles and it was gorgeous. I decided to run to the 6 mile mark, then walk the rest of the way as a cool down.

I want to do a better job of tracking and experimenting with what i eat pre and post long runs. I've had stomach issues in the past with running, and want to rid them once and for all. Today actually went really well! I had a little bit of cramping around mile 2, but nothing too bad. Here was breakfast, eaten about an hour before the run:

2 Kashi 7 grain waffles with Teddy PB and a banana. I considered only having one, but I had so much energy throughout this entire run that 2 might have just done the trick.

Post run: Fage 2% plain greek yogurt with a chopped apple and kashi cinnamon wheat squares

And that's all! Now for some pics of pups:

Olive before I left on my run. She's mad I"m not taking her.

And this BEAST of a pup at the dog park in the afternoon::