This Week's Training Plan

We're going for realistic achievement this week. We'll see how this goes!

Monday: Ashtanga yoga class, 12 mile long run from last week

Tuesday: 5 mile easy run

Wednesday: Mysore Ashtanga yoga class

Thursday: Ashtanga yoga class, 5 mile tempo run

Friday: 3 hours of yoga school, including 1 hour of teaching

Saturday: 14 mile long run

Sunday: 7 hours of yoga school

Abysmal Long Run

Things that contribute to an abysmal long run:

• Not drinking water. Literally any. Since yesterday afternoon at work.
• Not setting a route or bringing any sort of device to tell you how long you've run. It doesn't help when you're trying to figure out how fast you're going or how much you've got left.
• Waking up late. And having a time commitment you have to meet, thus feeling rushed.
• Already feeling sore. From three hours of yoga less that ended less than 12 hours before you set out.
• Failing to wear socks that keep your shoes from ripping your feet apart. Basically I just need to get new shoes - my Asics SUCK.

As a result, my 12 mile long run today turned into a slow, dragging 7.86 mile run that took 1:10 to complete. *sigh* Maybe I'll count it as the 6 mile easy run that I skipped earlier this week? I'm completely failing at this whole training plan thing thus far.

This Week's Training Plan

It's Presidents Day and I have today off, but I still got my butt out of bed at 5:30 this morning to head to a 75 minute yoga class. That's dedication, folks (or pure insanity) and now I'm ready to have a productive day all to myself! But anyway, since it's already Monday and I've already fulfilled the first task on this week's training plan, I thought I should probably POST that training plan to keep myself honest!

Monday: Ashtanga yoga class, light cross-training

Tuesday: Easy 6 mile run

Wednesday: Ashtanga yoga class, 5 mile tempo run (2x1600 at 7:21)

Thursday: Ashtanga yoga class, cross-training

Friday: 3 hours of Yoga School

Saturday: 12-mile long run

Sunday: 7 hours of yoga school

A quick run in the park

I finally got off my butt and worked out today for the first time since Wednesday. Rachel and I took off for a run around Plantes Ferry Park in Spokane Valley - I clocked about 35 minutes of run time and made it around the perimeter of the park about 2.5 times. Nothing spectacular, and certainly not the 10 miles on the training plan for today, but sometimes you just have to take what you can get! Plantes Ferry is a difficult place to run because of the short grass - with your regular training shoes you just sink! And it's quite slick if there's any sort of moisture at all. But it's a fun place to go for an easy run because it's so large and so pretty, and the hills provide great training opportunities.

Once again this week, life got in the way of my training goals. This happens a lot in my life - it's not that I don't value training and my goals, just that there are a lot of other things going on right now. BUT, at least "life" was mostly fun stuff this week!

Matt and me in the stands at the Gonzaga game.

Thursday's plan of a yoga class and some cross-training was dashed suddenly Thursday afternoon when I was given a pair of tickets to the Gonzaga vs. St. Mary's game! Those of you in Spokane know - you never turn down free basketball tickets. Matt and I hit up the game and really enjoyed ourselves, and obviously did absolutely no thinking about workout opportunities!

Me with Shalane Flanagan.

Then, instead of my 10-miler today, I hit up the National Cross Country Championships that just happened to be held in my city! As the picture above proves, I turned into a total fan-girl and tracked down Shalane Flanagan (who killed the competition and is the national xc champion for 2010!) and asked her to take a picture with me! Not every day you get to talk to an Olympic medalist after watching her race.

So basically I've been having a lot of fun and getting a lot of inspiration to get my butt in gear and jump back into training! I may never run a 25 minute 8k like I saw a few runners do today, but it's certainly an inspiring image to keep in the back of my mind while putting my miles in on the treadmill.

A sweaty evening of Mysore

I utterly failed at getting up this morning (which is not unusual, as those who know me offline know!) and thus didn't make it to my morning yoga class today. Instead of having a led 75 minute class this morning, I went to a Mysore class at 5:15 and stayed for about 90 minutes. I doubled the number of Surya Namaskar A's and B's because I knew I would only be doing half of the Primary Series, and then went through the flow to Navasana (4 times), and concluded with a really long Savasana - exactly what I needed by the end of class!

My workout schedule for the week is still a little messed up, but I just don't have the energy for any speed pieces tonight. *sigh* I really wanted to be sure I had 2 days off of running before doing my first long run of marathon training, but it looks like I'll have to cut it to one and do my pieces tomorrow. The sacrifices we make for training!

Improvising a little

Even though my workout plan for the week said I needed to be at a 6am yoga class, I turned my alarm off at 5:30 and went back to sleep. Why? Because instead of sticking to the plan I decided to hit up a 7pm Zumba class with Rachel at the gym instead! We've heard awesome things about Zumba from friends for a while now and were super excited to try it. Unfortunately for us, a lot of other people were as well - and by the time we got there the class was completely full! We'll have to try some other time, I guess.

So instead, we improvised a little. I hit the machines for a cross-training workout, and Rachel did a bit of running and some elliptical. I spent a total of 42 minutes doing cardio - 15 minutes on the elliptical at level 10; 25 minutes on the step-mill at 80 steps/minute (this one was different than the one I usually use that has a choice of levels 1-20, but 80 steps a minute seemed to closely mimic a level 10), and a cool down for 2 minutes on the step mill.

The best part of the gym time by far, though, was the 20 minute soak in the hot tub that we indulged in afterwards. I love love love hot tubs - a fact I always forget until I'm in one again. They make your muscles feel soooooo good after working out, especially if you've been working hard for several days in a row. And they're super relaxing, too! I think as the mileage gets longer in my marathon training plan I'm going to have to start soaking a little more often.

To get back on track I'll be hitting a 6am yoga class tomorrow - so this yoga-practicing runner has to get to bed! Goodnight!

A Busy Monday of Activity

My goal is to 100% stick to my workout plan for the week, and so far I've been successful!

This morning I woke up at the ungodly hour of 5:30am to get my butt to the Yoga Shala for a 75-minute Ashtanga Prep class. I learned really quickly that one of the best parts of morning yoga is the warmth of the shala - it was a balmy 30-ish degrees outside this morning, but inside the studio it was at least in the upper 80s. It's basically like walking into a cross between a hot tub and a sauna, with a bit more activity involved. The instructor was great for the morning, too! She was the right combination of happy/perky and calm/collected - not too overwhelming for us morning haters. Plus she did some great adjustments that felt awesome! Further proof that a good adjustment during yoga really can feel like a massage.

This was my first time ever going to yoga in the morning before work. My pre-work workouts have traditionally consisted of either a hard run or hard cardio at the gym, so yoga was a completely different way to start the day for me. And let me just say, it was FANTASTIC. No coffee or anything and I didn't get tired all day! I'm definitely looking forward to another morning of yoga tomorrow.

This evening after work I hit the treadmill for a 6 mile "easy" run. Easy in quotation marks because I (of course) took it faster than I was supposed to! My training plan said 6 miles at 9:15/mile pace, and after a mile of that I decided I just couldn't make it through 5 more miles going that slow. So up the pace went to 8:34 - which felt much more comfortable and like I was GOING somewhere! At mile 5 I threw in a quarter mile speed piece at 7:03/mile pace, and then slowed it back down to 9:15. A quick quarter-mile cool down walk and in 56 minutes I'd completed my easy run.

So overall I'd say this was a successful start to my week of exercise. Now if only I could be as successful with my job, wedding planning, and thesis writing this week, too!

This Week's Training Plan

This week begins the 14-week training plan I've set for myself for the Windermere marathon in mid-May. It's going to be struggle just to get my running shoes on and get out the door with all the things going in my life at the moment, but I know that I won't regret training for and completing this marathon, and that in the end the running will help my mood and make me feel better!

Monday: Morning Ashtanga class; 6 mile run

Tuesday: Morning Ashtanga class

Wednesday: 5 mile tempo run

Thursday: Morning Ashtanga class; short cross-training session

Friday: Cross train

Saturday: Long run (10 mile); maybe a yoga class at the gym

Sunday: Off!

Superbowl Sunday

Today, while everyone else was preparing for the Superbowl and parties and all kinds of crazy stuff like that, I was happily spending 7 hours in a yoga studio learning about anusara yoga and my body and all of the fun things that I can do when I combine the two. It was an interesting day in that we didn't spend many hours "practicing", but I still feel as tired as if I'd just come home from an intense three hour practice none-the-less. Our instructor worked some magic on my shoulders as well, which basically reiterated to me that I need to come up with some sort of long-term care plan to get them taken care of (physical therapy? chiropractics? massage? all of the above?).

Now I'm putting on a face mask, giving my feet some TLC (and a pedicure!), and cheering on the Saints (I suppose) for the rest of the Superbowl. I'm also not super impressed with these commercials. HaRUMPH.

2 weeks off...

I was a cranky-pants this entire week, and it didn't occur to me until Thursday or Friday that I hadn't really exercised in over 2 weeks. Sure, I went to yoga school last Sunday, but it ended up being a lot more lecture than physical movement (which, let's be honest, was kind of nice for once!). So starting this week, with just barely 80 days until the wedding and less than 100 days until my first marathon ever, I've decided to rededicate my free time to training and exercise.

Last night I had yoga school for 3 hours - the first two were taken up by a lively and interesting discussion of ethics in the yoga "business", which was fun, but involved a LOT of sitting. The last hour was a pretty restful practice that involved a lot of holding poses - like child's pose and pigeon, as well as a long savasana. It was a good way to ease back into exercise mode and stretch out my muscles a bit.

This morning I went more for the kick-start approach and got my butt to the gym by 8. It was markedly less crowded than the last time I was there on a Saturday - I guess it really is true that the January rush of people with resolutions only lasts a month. It was nice having my pick of machines for the first time in a while. I arrived at 8am and left shortly before 10am, and while I was there I got in 20 minutes on the treadmill (2 miles at 1.0 incline, 6.5 pace, with a .25 walk afterwards), 20 minutes on the step-mill at level 10, and 45 minutes of yoga (I wanted to stay for the whole thing, but only had half an hour on the meter... oops!). It was nice to be back in the gym, getting sweaty and doing what I do best.

Tomorrow is a day full of yoga school again, and afterwards I'll be watching the Superbowl like everyone else! It's been a busy weekend, but I can definitely tell how much better a little exercise has made me feel about things.