Category Archives: Fitness

In Training: Shamrock Half Marathon

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After almost two months of my no-plan-training-plan, I must say I’m very excited to be starting a regimented plan again. I know both my body and my mind needed the break as I was pretty burned out after an up and down year of racing. It also gave me the chance to get a whole lot of spinning and strength stuff in that I sometimes let slip when I’m running more often. Still, my motivation was pretty low so I just wasn’t getting out there and running nearly as much as I would have liked, so now it’s time to change that.

I’ll have my race calendar up soon, but my target spring race is the Virginia Beach Half Marathon that is part of the Shamrock Marathon weekend. It’s also the site of an Oiselle team meet-up, so I’m super pumped to get to fly fast with a bunch of my fellow birds!

I’m back to training on my own without a coach, so as usual I’ve been doing obsessive research into the best possible training plans for me for this race. I settled on my old favorite – the Hal Higdon Advanced Half plan. I’m a big fan of Hal’s plans and have had success with them in the past.

Hal Higdon Training Programs

 

While I have a goal of getting in as many of the planned workouts as possible, I also want to make sure I stay flexible. By that I mean a few things including being smart and knowing when my body might need a break as well as not missing out on group workouts/runs because it’s not the exact mileage I have on tap for the day.

In addition to my runs and strength training built into the plan, I’ll be spinning at Revolve when I can fit it in, stretching A LOT and becoming good friends with my foam roller!

I don’t have a goal time for the race yet, but I do have a PR in mind knowing it’s a very flat course. After I have a few more weeks of training under my belt I’ll have an update for you on my race goals.

Have you used the Hal Higdon plans before? How’d it work out for you? What other training plans do you like?

 

 

 

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

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OK, well I’ve officially ruined my Run Streak with more missed run days, but it was still a pretty good work out week. I got a few good strength workouts in, which is something I’ve really needed to incorporate more into my workouts and plan to stick with it regularly. Ian is joining me at the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays now to help keep me accountable – and because he enjoys strength workouts a whole lot more than cardio ones!

Here’s the day-by-day breakdown:

Monday: Quick treadmill run and core workout.

Tuesday: Body ride at Revolve in the AM. Ten minutes on the treadmill followed by a leg workout and core work Tuesday night.

Wednesday: Core work.

Thursday: Today I tried to make up for my missed run by running to and from my spin class in the morning where I got a great Real Ride in at Revolve. Thursday night I hit the gym for a quick treadmill run, more core work and another tough leg workout – this one included a lot of lunges!

Friday: I got home from work and picked up a package from the office to find the new Mizuno’s I won on Ashley’s blog, Running Bun, so I immediately changed and hit the gym to test them out! I also got some core work and upper body lifting in too.

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Saturday: 10 minutes on the treadmill followed by 20 on the elliptical and my full P90X ab routine.

Sunday: Another no run day, but I did get in an early morning Real Ride at Revolve before heading out and about all day running errands.

Resolution Check-In

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During my mini hiatus from blogging last week, I missed my usual beginning-of-the-month resolution check-in. I swear I was just writing those resolutions and now the end of the year is just about here. Crazy!

I didn’t hit everything I was hoping for, but overall it was a pretty good year filled with a lot of fun races, a couple PRs and a couple more challenging ones!

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Last month my focus was cross training and recovery. I mixed it up a bit before starting up with the Runner’s World Run Streak on Thanksgiving giving myself just the break I needed. My legs feel completely recovered and strong, and ready to get back into racing.

For this month I’ll focus on strength training and slowly building my mileage again, so I’m ready to start a new training plan in late December for the Shamrock Half Marathon!

How did you do on your resolutions for 2013? Have you started thinking about 2014 yet?

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

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Sorry for being MIA on the blog last week. Last week was a busy and tiring one to say the least, and it shows in last week’s workouts too. I missed a day on my run streak already, but am still going to finish it out with hopefully no more days off!

Anyways, here’s the day-by-day breakdown:

Monday: After getting in around 1 AM Sunday night and still having to get my run in, it was not too easy waking up Monday morning. I slept right through my alarm and fortunately woke up in time for work meaning my run would wait till later. I made it to the gym for just a mile and some core work.

Tuesday: Still recovering from lack of sleep, Tuesday was another one mile and limited core work day.

Wednesday: Wednesday was more of the same – just over a mile on the treadmill and a little bit of core work.

Thursday: Thursday is when the wheels started to come off. I was supposed to have a work-trade shift up at Revolve in the AM, but woke up at 6 to an email that I needed to be in to work by 8. Knowing I wouldn’t get my ride in I ran the half mile too and from Revolve to still help out with set up and cleaning before class…in jeans. A late night at work too meant I didn’t get to enjoy the beautiful 70-degree weather, but oh well, there will be more days like that…eventually.

Friday: Today is when my run streak came to an end. I didn’t get in my core work either. I slept in as late as I could before work and traded in the gym for four hours of playing Nintendo with Ian and an early night. Waking up well-rested for the first time all week on Saturday made this totally worth it.

Saturday: 20 minutes on the treadmill. P90X ab workout. 20 minutes on the elliptical.

Sunday: I got in a quick mile on the treadmill and a core workout followed by a great barre ride at Revolve.

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I’m Going STREAKING!!

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Runner’s World run streaking that is.

I’m taking part in the Runner’s World third annual holiday running streak by pledging to run at least one mile every day from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day.

Running to the Finish

Running to the Finish

This is the first time I’ve done the holiday run streak, and I’m really looking forward to it as I’ve taken a solid running break since my marathon. Too often the holidays get used as an excuse to put off getting in shape until the New Year. This is such a great way to stay fit – and maybe even get fitter – even through holiday parties and extra sweets.

I kicked things off with chilly runs in Maine the last two mornings. I’ll be tweeting my progress with the hashtag #RWRunStreak.

I’m also doing a core streak too. I figured since I started the year off with more than 100 consecutive days of my P90X ab ripper workout – why not end with a decent streak too?

Have you ever done a run streak? Are you joining the RW Run Streak this year?

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

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I had some really good days and some really lazy days last week. The nice thing is, I’m not training for anything so I’m okay with that. I really enjoyed the workouts I got in and I took it easy when I was tired.

Here’s the day-by-day breakdown:

Monday: P90X abs and push-ups.

Tuesday: Rest Day.

Wednesday: Today was a busy one. I was up right away when my 5:30 alarm went off and got in my P90X ab ripper workout before heading into D.C. for my second week with the November Project. We ran the steps of the Lincoln Memorial mostly nonstop with quick “breaks” where you found your group of four and did five push-ups and five burpees. I book-ended the day with another tough workout doing a late evening Barre Ride at Revolve DC.

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Thursday: Rest Day.

Friday: Rest Day.

Saturday: I started my weekend off right with a tough one-hour Body Ride up at Revolve. This class was awesome and seriously kicked my butt. My arms were shaky all day from the weight portion!

Sunday: I was up early, but ended up spending a lazy morning on the couch before running errands making Sunday another rest day.

Meeting a Running Idol

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On Sunday I volunteered to help out at the U.S. National Road Racing Championships right here in Alexandria. The day started with a 5k followed by the 12k women’s championships and the 12k men’s championships and community race.

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I checked in at the volunteer tent at 5:30 in the dark and jumped at the chance when they asked a few of the volunteers to staff the elite/masters area. Shalene Flanagan, Abdi Abdirahman, Molly Huddle and more amazing runners were going to be there! Ahh! I also spotted Oiselle Haute Volee runner Caitlin Comfort!

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Naturally I was too nervous to go up and say anything to any of them – not to mention I didn’t want to mess with anyone’s pre-race prep, so instead I wandered around in awe and tried to do my assignment of keeping people who weren’t supposed to be in the VIP area out. I probably didn’t do a very good job of this, but I was a bit better at running checked bags to masters finishers after they crossed the line and worked their way through the finisher’s chute.

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It was such a cool day. I got a front row seat at the finish line to see Molly Huddle beat out Shalene Flanagan and set a world record in the process finishing in 37:50. Aaron Braun nearly broke an American record in the men’s race as he coasted to the finish in 34:28 waving to the crowd.

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To top it all off, Deena Kastor was at the race. It was her record that Molly broke. She holds the American records for the fastest marathon and half marathon among others and is one of my running idols! I was so excited to get to meet her and talk for a minute, and she graciously took the time to take a picture with me too totally making my day!

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Weekend Adventure: Hiking

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Over the weekend Ian and I got an invite to go hiking with some friends. I’ve never been hiking with the exception of once as part of a project adventure class I took my sophomore year of college. Yes, that was a real class. I didn’t really remember much about it though, so I googled the Billy Goat Trail in Great Falls to see what we’d be getting ourselves into.

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I quickly skimmed through the page and told Ian it sounded fun and would probably be like a nature hike. I should have looked deeper into it though – or maybe tried to find out what rock scramble meant. This in fact, was a legit hike that would take four or five hours and a whole lot of effort.

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It was so worth it though! We had a really good time and got to take in some amazing views!

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After just a 30-minute drive, we checked out a scenic overlook area near the falls before making our way to the start of the Billy Goat Trail. It’s split into three sections with a bit of walking along the C&O towpath in between. We started with section A, which was by far the hardest part involving a bit of rock scrambling and climbing a 50-foot traverse!

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My pride over completing this was only hurt by looking around at the many young kids who seemed to be having no troubles with any of the trail.

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We skipped past section B to do C first. This section was a bit more my speed. Lots of great views, mostly easy walking around the trail and just a few challenging parts. I nearly landed myself in the water crossing over one creek when I stumbled mid-crossing and instantly started laughing. Luckily I was able to pull myself together and didn’t end up splashing in!

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The rest of the group soldiered on and made it through Section B too, but Ian and I decided to call it a day and meet them back at the car. We took our time along the 3 mile walk back along the towpath enjoying some snacks we packed and snagging a few more pictures. It was a great day and something I’d definitely do again… at least once I forget how exhausting it was!

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It’s so amazing to me that there is this huge place full of nature and beauty so close to the city. If you live near the D.C. area and haven’t been to Great Falls, this needs to be on your list.

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Footprints: Workout Recap

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I’m a bit behind with my Monday morning recap, but better late than never. Last week was a hodgepodge of activities as I get back into working out, but don’t have anything I’m training for.

Here’s the day-by-day breakdown:

Monday: 75-minute hot yoga class at Dancing Mind Yoga.

Tuesday: P90X Abs and push-ups.

Wednesday: I tried out a November Project group workout at the Lincoln Memorial. It was legit. Check out my recap if you’re not familiar with it.

Thursday: Body ride spin class at Revolve.

Friday: Rest Day.

Saturday: Hiking – 8ish miles at Great Falls along the Billy Goat Trail. More to come on this, but it was one heck of a workout day for me!

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Sunday: Rest Day – although I was on my feet for a few hours in the morning volunteering at the U.S. National Road Racing Championships followed by an afternoon of vacuuming the car and apartment, laundry and other cleaning. Sometimes I feel like that kind of stuff should count for working out!!

Just What I Needed

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For the first week after Marine Corps Marathon I went into recovery mode and exercised very little. I spent a lot of time stretching, foam rolling, icing and heating. Then another week went by and I still hadn’t gotten myself out for a run. I did do plenty of spinning, yoga and strength training though, so I wasn’t too worried about it.

At the start of the third week I felt fully rested and recovered, picked out some winter/spring shorter races and was ready to get back into full-on working out. For some reason, though, I still didn’t feel like running.

Lingering disappointment hangover from MCM? Fear I’d lost my fitness during my two-week run hiatus? Just being lazy? No more daylight after work? I don’t know. Whatever it was though, I was in a funk and I needed to bust out. An early-morning Wednesday workout with the November Project did just that!

Last Wednesday I saw a tweet about the November Project and clicked through to learn more. It sounded awesome. Then I saw that a DC group had started up. Even better! Over the weekend my latest issue of Runner’s World arrived featuring the November Project on the cover. Read the article if you haven’t already, you won’t regret it. Now I had to try this out.

The November Project is a free, grassroots workout group started in Boston by two former college athletes looking to stay in shape through the winter. Now it’s blowing up. It’s roughly an hour filled with a hard workout, hugs and a few curse words.

I showed up at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday morning at 6:30, and it was everything I expected and more. An obvious newbie, I was greeted with a hug and introduced myself to a few others there…more hugs.

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Close to 40-50 people showed up to sweat, shared some hugs and dropped a few F-bombs. About 10 people were given tennis balls that instructed them to do push-ups, burpees, squats or sprint to Abe! If you didn’t have a tennis ball, you started running what they call Lincoln Logs – up to the top of the steps and back down to the reflecting pool. When you finished your tennis ball workout, you started running, handed off your tennis ball to someone while introducing yourself and they were off to do the workout.

Doing some push-ups... photo stolen from the Nov. Project DC Facebook page

Doing some push-ups… photo stolen from the November Project DC Facebook page

I had a blast and found myself smiling through parts of it even when I was exhausted. I lost count, but I think I completed 12-13 Lincoln Logs, 30 push-ups, one sprint to Abe and about 30 burpees. We wrapped things up splitting into teams for a relay race and taking a group picture. It was so much fun and just what I needed to start enjoying running again!

Post-workout Group Photo from November Project DC Facebook page

Post-workout group photo from November Project DC Facebook page

If you live in D.C., check it out for yourself next Wednesday, 6:30a.m., on the steps of the Lincoln. I already can’t wait to go back. Hope to see you there!