Fitness: Back to Basics

It's no secret that I was in way better shape last year. I was more motivated, I was eating healthier, and I really enjoyed working out on a regular basis. But this year is just different. We had close to zero snow in Boston last year and were able to run outside well into December and pick right back up by March. Right now? There's a layer of ice on the sidewalks, a layer of frozen snow on my car, and it's close to freezing outside. Talk about no motivation!

So, what am I getting at? Ah, yes. I need to get my act together. And man is the treadmill brutal right now! So I need to slow down and take it little by little. One exercise I really enjoyed back during Best Body Bootcamp was treadmill intervals. I had honestly never attempted intervals before then! So when I got on the treadmill last night, I knew exactly what I needed to do if I wanted to keep myself going for 30 minutes. Intervals. And this particular interval set gives me comfort that my ability to run a 5k road race is not out of the realm of possibility.

I've intentionally left speed off of this interval because it's totally up to you. I try to push myself during the run to an 8-9 out of 10, and take the jog down to a 5-6 out of 10 in difficulty. Bringing my fitness back to basics, I ran these intervals at a slower pace than I was running a few months ago. But I didn't let myself get frustrated, just happy I actually made it to the gym!

Praying this snow in Boston ends soon though so I can get outside for a run. You just can't beat running outside.

How about you, how do you stay motivated to workout in the winter?

Knowing we'll be on the beach next month has certainly made me motivated recently!

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Gym Jams

I'm baaaaack! Whew, it feels really good to be back at the gym. I don't know why I took so much time off, it just sort of happened. And it was incredibly hard to break the cycle of sleeping in. But when J & I sat down for our Valentine's Day meal, we started talking about Lent and what to give up. If I can think of something to better myself, I would rather do that than giving something up just for the heck of it. How does giving up the snooze button sound? Uh-mazing! You are a genious, J.

Sidenote - I am horrible about the snooze button. Legit, I've hit it for an hour many, many times. I don't know why, it just happens. Poor J.

So when I set my alarm for the gym in the morning, I've just got to do it. And damn it feels good (and so sore). 60 days to Florida is also a great motivator for us! 60-day shred baby!

Anyways, what the heck is this post about?! Ah, gym music. I cannot live run without music on the treadmill. Our first workout back at the gym was Monday night. I decided to start out on the treadmill and see how I felt. My goal was to run a 5k. If it was tough, slow down, but no stopping. Honestly, I don't think I could have ran it without my playlist - I felt great, and the upbeat music was the best.

Here are some of my go-to running jams. I should preface this by saying - gym workouts only. Some of this stuff is a bit too intense for me to listen to outside of a good workout, or occasionally when I need to really focus on work. Or the occasional dance party....Oh, and I am loving Calvin Harris lately. His Pandora station rocks my socks when I need a real good pick me up (cleaning, running, focusing on excel for far too long (nerd alert))

• Summit - Skrillex feat. Ellie Goulding
• Set It Off- Diplo feat. Lazerdisk
• Flashback - Calvin Harris
• Thinking About You - Calvin Harris feat Ayah Marar
• Let's Go - Calvin Harris feat. Ne-Yo
• No Beef (Vocal Mix) - Afrojack & Steve Aoki
• Levels - Avicii
• Cry - Bingo Players
• Cracks (Flux Pavilion Remix) - Freestylers
• I Can't Stop - Flux Pavilion

Did you picture me as an EDM fan? I know - crazy. But when running, I need something very motivating, and the beat to electronic music seems to keep me going.

J is awesome at finding new music for me so I have to give him credit for many of these (not my boy Calvin though). Let me know if any of these songs find their way onto your workout playlist!

Half-Marathon Recap

Well, first and foremost, we did it! We completed our first half-marathon.

It was hard, it really took a toll on me, and I hated it by mile 9, but we did it. And I have to thank J for getting me through it.

After all the training we've done for the past 5 weeks or so, I managed to get a nasty head cold the week of the race. I was so congested by Tuesday I really didn't know what to do. Thank you to all of you out there that recommended a neti pot! I used it daily, many days even twice, and it certainly helped clear out most of my congestion. But I was still tired, really tired, sniffling, and even wheezing once we started running.

Should I have still ran the race? Maybe not.

Should I have taken cold syrup before the race? Probably not.

Should I have slowed down my pace from mile 1 versus still trying to go for the time I wanted? Definitely.

We got to the race with plenty of time to wake up, stretch, and get our bib numbers. Although this race does not give medals at the finish line, they did have t-shirts which we were both excited for. They also gave out larabars (which I love!) and all natural fruit strips.

The goods:

While the material used for the women's shirts is light-weight and breatheable, the mens shirt is like heavy duty sandpaper. I have no idea what happened.

I was hoping the photos taken along the race course would be up by now to share, but unfortunately they're not. So you'll have to deal with the limited photos my mom took before and after the race (Thank you!!).

Before the race we were all smiles.

1. My mom made her way through the runners to find us lined up to snap these photos. 2. After the Star Spangled Banner, they played the Black Eyed Pea's I've Got a Feeling. I thought my mom was going to start running with us she was so excited. It was pretty cool though. See, J & I were introduced as Mr. & Mrs. at our wedding to this song. So this is me and my 5 side chins when I smile (what is up with that?!) giving J that look like we are ready to run this. Or maybe it was the DayQuil kicking in, who knows.

Ok, back to the race. miles 1-6 felt pretty good. I felt a little tired around mile 3 and knew I should probably slow it down, even tried to, but the first 5 miles were crowded, and it was too easy to keep a faster pace. Mistake number 1. No matter how many times I told myself this, it still happened: do not start off too fast. We were running right under a 9 minute pace, my original goal was a 9:09 pace.

It was hot Saturday, and surprisingly enough for being a coastal town, there was very little breeze. I was not used to running in weather this warm. It was also hillier than I expected. We were forewarned about the hills, but it was still tough. I'm pretty sure there was never more than a quarter to half a mile that was flat.

We took our first cup of water around mile 5. By mile 6, I was feeling the heat, I was feeling the tiredness from my cold, and the hill I making my way up was just too much for me to handle at that moment. I didn't know what else to do but to take a minute to walk. I figured slowing down now would help me finish out in the end. We took our first set of GU Energy Chews here and then got back to running. By mile 7 I needed more water, and the water station was out! I couldn't believe it. It was hard to not get mad but I knew all the stations were run by volunteers so I so appreciated them being there.

From mile 8 through 13 I really struggled. Full body chills, even on the top of my head at times. And poor J, I would say things like, "I feel like I'm going to pass out, I'm going to walk for 30 seconds, you go ahead without me." Like he was really going to leave me after I just said I'm feeling light-headed! So no, J never left my side. And even though I was getting so frustrated with myself for feeling weak and not making the time I told myself I wanted to finish in. I finished. I had to. I had to do this not only for myself, but for J who has trained with me the whole time, and my parents who were waiting at the finish line. Well, I really didn't have to do it for any of them, but I certainly used that as motivation to get me through it. (Sidenote- my poor dad. He did not want me to run at all, and apparently everytime an ambulence went by with the sirens on, which happened more frequently than I expected for a half-marathon, he feared it was me!).

My parents were waiting at mile 13. 

It took a lot of energy to get that hand up and wave. Ha

As you rounded the corner for the last .1, the announcers were calling out runners names and towns for people to cheer for you. I thought that was awesome. And they picked me, not J to call out! Ha. That could be because I looked like I needed it more....Our official time: 2:12:55, 10:08 pace. Slowest run I've done to date, but given the circumstances, I'll take it.

 

Our "we finished" photo that my mom snapped. Yes, my eyes are only half open. It happens.

By the time we got home I knew I needed to eat but absolutely nothing sounded good. While J was ready for a huge deli sub, the thought of anything heavy made me feel sick. I'm pretty sure it was a bit of dehydration talking because the only thing that sounded really appealing was a smoothie. I whipped a heavy one together using a Chobani greek yogurt, vanilla protein powder, a whole banana, frozen mangoes, strawberries, and spinach, almond milk, chia seeds, and water.

 It was soooo good. Just what I needed.

And unfortunately, guess what my body needs now? Medication, and lots of it. My cold has traveled to my chest, per usual, making it hard to breathe and giving me a fantastic sounding cough....the things I do to run!

Why yes that is an empty bottle cough syrup....that's because this isn't my first rodeo with a chest cold/blocked airways. So while I wait for my new bottle to be filled, I still have the bottle from the last time this happened....ugh.

Sidenote - In the background of this photo is a new love of mine! Have you tried Honest Tea? You really should. The half & half is my original fav but yesterday I grabbed their zero calorie lemonade on my way back from the doctors and it was just as good. And, it's made with stevia, no splenda, sweet n low, etc, which I appreciated as well.

I am so thankful for my amazing husband who took on this endeavor with me. I'm pretty sure I've talked him into running another one with me once I'm 100%, oh and don't have busy plans for the 6 weeks leading up to the race (like here, here, here, here, here, and here). I have to. At this point, I have to do it for myself. I really hope it was the cold that made me feel so sick and weak and not just me! Ha. But next time, I will most definitely be picking a flatter course. Maybe in the fall, we'll see. Stay tuned. :)

HM Training Update

First off- this weeks posts will not be following the blog schedule noted on the right side of the blog. Why? Well, because it's my blog and I want to switch it up. Sound good? Good.

Less than one week until our half marathon! Yikes.

Last Friday was our last long run. As I've mentioned before, we've been following the Hal Higdon Novice 2 training plan. Tweaking it here or there when needed. And last Friday morning, the training took a slight tweak. With a busy weekend planned for both of us, there was no way we were going to be able to fit in a run. So, J & I did our run Friday morning before work. I know, crazy right?

We were up around 4:45 am and out running by 5:30ish. Unfortunately it just had to be that way. I'm really committed to running this half marathon to the best of my ability. So if that means I need to get up a little earlier to fit in some training around our hectic schedule these days, I'm going to do it. And my sweet husband doesn't even complain. :)

With plans almost every night last week leading up to our Friday run, we decided to just run the same 11 miles we ran 2 weeks ago (here) instead of figuring out a new loop. And let me tell you, what a difference it is for me to run in the morning versus after work. I am totally a morning person now! As I mentioned in my last recap here those 11 miles after work were painful. I honestly felt sick after the run.

Last Friday morning though, we both felt great! Cruised right through the 11 miles. The result?

 

Somehow, we knocked 4 minutes off our total time! Pace of 9:22.

I would be totally lying if I said I wasn't pumped at our time and pace. I know, not the slow and steady we're supposed to be running at (discussed here).... But it definitely made me feel ready for next weekend.

The downside? Well, my recent hectic schedule has meant I've totally slacked on taking glucosamine and adding chia seeds to my breakfast. And that deadly formula means my knees have been a bit achy all weekend long. My joints were pretty sore during our run too.

My goal for this week is to eat chia seeds every morning, as well as take my daily glucosamine supplement. And hopefully that means I'll be good to go Saturday!

Part 2 of this post - Nutrition time saver:

I recently read a time saving tip on The Fitenessista. Put all your smoothie ingredients together into the blender the night before so that in the morning it just needs to be blended (why have I never thought of that?!). Well, knowing I was going to be short on time getting ready for work after our run, I placed frozen fruit, fresh spinach, protein powder, and chia seeds into our blender and stuck it in the fridge before we left. It really was great to come back from the run, pour some almond milk in the blender, and have a smoothie ready within a minute or two. Yum!

The next half-marathon post you'll read will be a recap of our race! Wish us luck!!

HM Training

That's right. J & I have decided to run a half-marathon. It's still crazy to think about really. Had you asked me this a few months ago, I would have said never. And even a month ago this wasn't totally on my radar.

So here's a the low-down on our half marathon. I warn you, it's a bit lengthy...

WHY?

Well, at the beginning of March I started to track my workouts. And by doing this, it really did motivate me to get to the gym more often. And the more I worked out, the better I felt. And the better I felt, the more I pushed myself. On the morning of my 26th birthday, I decided I needed to prove to myself that I wasn't getting any older and decided to push my normal 5 mile run to 6 miles. I felt sooooo good after - I think mostly from the accomplishment.

The following week I pushed myself to run 7 miles, and again, I was so shocked that I did it, but felt great! That is what really got me thinking about it. After a little research I landed on HalfMarathons.net. It's a pretty cool website where you can search for races by state and it gives a training schedule to follow. Although I was a little behind on the training schedule, it didn't deter me from considering a local race in mid-May. I'd catch up. :)


There's a funny thing about timing - sometimes it couldn't be more perfect. There is a local running shop, South Boston Running Emporium, that I decided my next pair of shoes would be purchased from. I've been running in a pair of Nike Frees for the past 11 months and it was high time I got myself a better pair of sneaks. Growing up we always bought our sports equipment from a small local shop for two reasons, better customer service and better knowledge on the equipment. It can be hard to find those small shops these days though (thanks Walmart) and so throughout college and into my post-college running career, I began hitting up whichever chain store I was near. And though I always asked about my arches, how I place weight on my feet, etc. I could never get a straight answer. So I stuck to my tried and true Asics (whom I still adore). But when purchasing new sneakers last spring, I got caught up in the Nike Free phenomenon. Disclaimer- I realize many people love these shoes, and I had many great runs in them myself. But they just are not the best pair of shoes for ME.

So with that, I made my way to the SBRE last week to support the local guy, and hopefully take advantage of his running knowledge. Back to my sentence regarding timing, the day I planned to visit the SBRE after work, Life of Blyss posted this blog post. And I found it SO interesting. According to the VDOT tables Alyssa discusses, using the pace I ran last year's Harpoon 5 miler at - 8:50 - I should be running my longer runs at a 10:45 pace. WHAT?!?!?!? Crazy talk. I'd been running around a 9 minute pace outside and just assumed that I should be running all my training runs at the pace I'm hoping to race at.


Well, after Bill (at SBRE) had me walk around his store without shoes on to study how I my feet shift weight on them, checked out my arches, and fitted me in a couple different pairs of sneaks to choose from, I asked him about this pace difference. And although he had not heard of Jack Daniels (whom Alyssa references), he agreed 100% with slowing down your long run pace. As he stated, your pace should be a minute and a half to 2 minutes slower than your race day pace. His formula went a little something like this: the terrible twos = too much + too fast. Your risk of injury greatly increases. (Disclaimer for Bill - please don't treat this as the Bible to training. Do what works for you).

NOW I know why my catch up run in Florida went horrible. :) Old shoes, the ridiculous wind I ran against for the first 3.5 miles, and a too fast of a pace. But, a new pair of sneakers and some running advice later, and I'm back on track.

The goods: Brooks Ravenna 3 for me & Brooks Adrenaline GTS 12 for J

Imagine my excitement when the shoes that fit me best were accented in PURPLE! :)

I have to say, slowing down our pace worked wonders for J & I. Oh, also, please note that J had not been running 7 miles at the gym for a couple of weeks before deciding to run with me. He simply turned to me after we both got fitted for our new sneaks and said, "well, it looks like I'm running a half-marathon." This seriously amazes me. Running is a terrible mental game for me. I can't imagine just deciding to run like that.

Anyways, back to our run. I mapped out 10 miles around our neighborhood, studied it the night before and the morning of to memorize it, and we set out on our slow run.

Pre-run jitters

I have to say, running a slower pace is hard work. I recommend timing your run, and being somewhat aware of the whereabouts of each mile in order to make sure you've kept a slower pace. It's far too easy to get in the zone mentally. We had to remind each other to slow down a few times. I think we were both so surprised to feel good after mile 6 that it was too easy to want to pick up the pace. Before we knew it, we were at mile 8 where we had placed a bottle of water in J's car, but decided not to stop and just finish strong. Our final time: 1:34.18, pace of 9:39 (total run of 9.77 miles)

So maybe it wasn't exactly a 10:45 pace...but it was still 40 seconds per mile slower than a normal run so I was extremely happy with that. And if you don't believe Jack Daniels or Bill at SBRE about running slower...check out this article from Runners World or read below. (or check it out here in a pretty diagram)

Measuring Your Effort
Train at the right pace to make sure you're race ready

Type of Run:
EASY RUN
Pace: 90-150 seconds per mile slower than 5-K pace
Heart Rate: 65-70% of max heart rate
Perceived Effort (1-10)*: 3-4 (easy)
Talk Test: You can speak complete sentences

LONG RUN
Pace: 90-150 seconds per mile slower than 5-K pace
Heart Rate: 65% of max heart rate
Perceived Effort (1-10): 3-4
Talk Test: You can speak complete sentences

MARATHON-PACE RUN
Pace: 45-100 seconds per mile slower than 5-K pace
Heart Rate: 88-92% of max heart rate
Perceived Effort (1-10): 5-6
Talk Test: You can speak short sentences

TEMPO RUN
Pace: 20-40 seconds per mile slower than 5-K pace
Heart Rate: 94-96% of max heart rate
Perceived Effort (1-10): 7-8(hard)
Talk Test: You can speak a few words at a time

SPEEDWORK (800s, 1200s)
Pace: 5-40 seconds per mile faster than 5-K pace
Heart Rate: 95-100% of max heart rate
Perceived Effort (1-10): 9 (very hard)
Talk Test: You...can't...talk...must...run...

*Perceived effort is measured according to the Borg Scale, with 1 being the minimum effort (sitting on the couch) and 10 being the maximum effort.

And how'd I look after?

Ready for more!  

(do you like our wedding invitation display on the wine fridge :)?)

WHERE & WHEN?

Gloucester, MA's Twin Lights Half-Marathon on May 12th. 

HOW?

We have been following the Hal Higdon Novice 2 training schedule with a few *tweaks*. But I am going to save that for next weeks Fitness post. This one is WAY too long already.