Tag Archives: spin

Footprints: Monday Recap

Posted on by
Reply

Wow, so this is my 200th post! It’s hard to believe I’ve written that many since starting. Hope you’re enjoying reading along with my journey. Let me know what types of posts you enjoy and what you’d like me to write more about!

Now, on to the recap! Last week was another strong week along the way to training for Marine Corps Marathon. I had to make up a couple of the previous week’s workouts at the beginning of last week, so I again pushed some of last week’s into this morning, which worked out well since I had the day off and plenty of time to work out. More on that in next week’s recap though.

Here’s the day by day breakdown…

Monday: Spin Class – Real Ride at Revolve. Core Workout

Tuesday: I split my longer mid-week run from the previous week between an easy 3.5 miler in the AM and a tougher 6.6 miles after work. I also got in a morning track workout, which felt great. My goal was 5X1000 with a 4-minute jog recovery at 4:16 each. I was tight on time so I cut the recovery jogs down to 3-3:30 each and still nailed all my splits: 4:13, 4:16, 4:11, 4:12, 4:12.

Wednesday: Rest day for my team bocce playoffs. They did not go well. Fun season, but lets just say, I will not be missing a workout next week for round 2.

Shopping Spree! So much new Oiselle goodness arrived this week!

Shopping Spree! So much new Oiselle goodness arrived this week!

Thursday: Rest day today because I hit snooze one too many times meaning I had to hit the track early the following Monday before spin to make it up.

Friday: I was out of work early, so I met up with new friend/Oiselle teammate Stephanie on Friday afternoon so we could get our long run out of the way before the weekend really started. We put in a great 18 miles despite the heat and humidity.

Saturday: I tried out a new yoga studio for a 75-minute hot yoga class. I really loved this class and boy was it challenging.

Sunday: I again set out in the midday heat and humidity (I’ll never learn) and slogged along for 10.1 miles along the Custis and W&OD trails. I stopped at a water fountain to fill my bottle at one point with another 4-5 miles to go still and found myself so sweaty I couldn’t grip the bottle well enough to open it. Thankfully a biker on his way by was able to help me out, so I didn’t have to go without water for the second half of my run!! I always appreciate when random people are kind.

Footprints: Monday Recap

Posted on by
2

Last week felt great. I didn’t get all of my workouts in that I wanted to, but did a pretty good job of playing catch up after putting in a lot of miles Friday through Sunday the previous week when I was struggling and recovering from a cold. Talk about a turnaround when it came to my long run. Last Sunday I set out in the rain sore and tired and struggled through 17 slow miles in 2 hours and 50 minutes. This week’s run was the same time but a couple miles further!

Here’s the day by day breakdown…

Monday: Spin Class – Real Ride at Revolve.

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: 7 hilly miles in an hour on the Custis Trail after work.

Thursday: Today was a track workout fail. I didn’t heed my running coach’s advice to avoid W&L in the fall as there are too many events and halfway through a great workout where I was nailing my splits I got kicked off the track for a football game. I’m planning to make up all of the reps next week!

Friday: I got in two pretty speedy treadmill runs today – 4 in the morning and 6 at night, plus a strength workout! Great way to kick off the weekend!

Saturday: I felt a million times better on my long run this week which took me 19.2 miles along the Custis, W&OD and Mt. Vernon Trails plus along Hains Point and over both the 14th Street and Memorial Bridges before tackling the hill back up to Court House. I even attacked the final hill of the MCM course at mile 18 to get some practice in there! I’m hoping to continue to improve on these as marathon day gets closer!

Sunday: I ran out of energy Sunday and took a rest day to give my aching muscles a break.

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on by
Reply

Last week started off pretty rough as I was fighting a cold and despite sleeping 10 hours a night still felt exhausted and missed a few workouts as a result. I came back strong over the weekend though to get myself back on track. I’m hurting pretty good today from all the weekend miles, but here’s hoping lots of stretching, rolling and some cross training today will help take care of that.

Here’s the day by day breakdown…

Monday: Spin on my own – 25 minutes, Elliptical – 35 minutes, Full-body strength workout

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: Rest

Friday: I hoped to get my track workout in today, but ran over to the W&L track to find an event going on, so I just kept going and got about 45 minutes in. I felt great on this run, but was just wearing a regular stopwatch so I have no idea how far I went.

Saturday: I put off my run for most of the day wasting a really beautiful August day in D.C. and landing in the gym that night for 12.3 treadmill miles.

Sunday: Not my smartest move… after the 12 treadmill miles the night before I got up early to get most of my long run in before meeting up with a few of my new Oiselle teammates for a few miles along the Mall. It was a bit of a rainy morning, but still warm enough out that it felt good. I got 12 in on my own running through Arlington, Georgetown and Hains Point and was so relieved to have some running buddies for the last 5 miles along the Mall. I’m not sure I could have kept going on my own!

Rainy Run with some members of the Oiselle flock!

Rainy Run with some members of the Oiselle flock!

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on by
Reply

Last week was a pretty solid training week featuring a mid-week track race and a long run that included some trails that I don’t run on nearly often enough. I’d like to start speeding things up, but am happy with the mileage base that I have.

Here’s the day by day breakdown…

Monday: Spin Class at Revolve – real ride.

Tuesday: I ran home from work again – this week it was “only” 90 degrees out when I set out and I got an entire extra mile in in the same amount of time. I finished up with 10 miles – love being able to hit double digits during the week.

Wednesday: DC Road Runners Track Championship! I ran the mile in 6:21 for a 3rd place finish in my heat. Check out the full recap.

track

Thursday: Rest Day

Friday: Strength training – core and upper body.

Saturday: 16.5 mile long run. I got myself going a bit earlier this week and was on the road before 8. I took a route I’ve only done once before and even mixed in some trails along the Glover Archbold Trail before running through the zoo and home via Rock Creek Parkway. I don’t run trails very often so it was a pretty challenging run for me, and I’m probably a little too proud that I didn’t fall this time and I only got lost once!

Sunday: 45 minute treadmill run.

Back on the Bike

Posted on by
Reply

Well, sort of – by back on the bike I mean a spin bike, not my road bike. It’s funny that I much prefer running outdoors in any kind of weather to running on a treadmill, but I’m the complete opposite when it comes to biking. This is probably cause I’m not the best biker and I get nervous on the roads around D.C., but as I’ve mentioned before, spin is my favorite kind of cross training.

I made my first trip to Revolve, a dedicated spin studio in Arlington, at the beginning of this year and was instantly hooked. Their classes are super intense, the instructors are phenomenal, the playlists are always great and I love that you can mix it up with the different style rides. I was there almost every day during my unlimited intro month and then bought 20-class packages to get me through my cross training days for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler and Nike Women’s Half Marathon.

revolvestudio

Between travelling every weekend in June, starting the new job and all the expenses involved with moving, it’d been awhile since I’d been to Revolve. They were kind enough to comp me a few rides this month and boy has it felt good to be back. One of the classes I went to was even a request ride where riders got to submit their song requests beforehand. I love that they mix it up with fun rides like this and was pumped that my request got played during class! I’ll be buying another 20-class package very soon as I incorporate spin as my main form of cross training to get ready for the Marine Corps Marathon and go after my BQ!

On top of the great tracks pumped through the speakers during class, I now to get to enjoy music from Revolve anytime I want with the launch of RevolveSounds on Spotify. I’d actually always been on the fence about trying Spotify and am so glad this gave me the push to finally check it out. It’s amazing! I’m already thinking about upgrading to the premium version. Let me know if you’ve tried the premium one and think it’s worth it.

You can follow RevolveSounds on Spotify and check out their various playlists. I love the 2013 Summer Edition playlist, which has a lot of the songs they play during class. My favorite playlist of theirs though is Rethink Office. When I need to focus at work and block out some background noise I’ll pop in an ear bud and listen to this station. It has some fun songs that keep me going throughout the day without distracting me from work. If you like to listen to music at work, definitely check out this playlist.

revolvestudio2

They also have a Revive: Sunday morning playlist that’s a bit more mellow and fun to listen to while I’m doing things around my apartment. I don’t listen to music while I run outside anymore, but I’m looking forward to listening to the Revolve Run mix the next time I hit the treadmill at the gym.

Are you a spin class fan? How important to you is the music during spin classes?

 

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on by
Reply

Yes, I know it’s Wednesday night. I had great intentions of getting this post up on Monday, especially since I haven’t posted anything in forever. I’m behind…on everything. I have a bunch of unanswered emails in my inbox, which is a huge pet peeve of mine and a to do list a mile long that has way too many things not crossed off. After my four trips in four weeks exhaustion started to catch up to me at the same time I was moving, starting a new job and new car shopping. Needless to say it’s been a busy but awesome couple of weeks, and unfortunately I’ve fallen behind on the blog. I’m hoping to turn that around and get going on things again though, so let me know if there are any posts you want to see this month!

Now on to the weekly recap! I missed posting this last Monday, but there wasn’t much to report. I only got 3 runs in for about 11 miles all on treadmills, but was sorer than ever from moving. I did not realize the new place didn’t have an elevator – thank goodness we’re only on the second floor! Last week was a lot better although this heat wave has not been helping my speed any! Still, I got some quality runs and strength training in.

Here’s the day by day breakdown…

Monday: I got in an easy one-hour run on the treadmill for a little more than 7 miles followed by a 20-minute strength training workout.

Tuesday: Tonight I did an hour boot camp style strength training workout.

Wednesday: I ran home from the new office for the first time. It’s a bit further run commute than the old 3-mile one that I used to have to add loops to. This ended up being 9 hot and hilly miles with the last couple miles especially being a tough uphill route. Despite the heat I really love this run and look forward to doing it more – this will be a great one for my longer weekday run each week.

Thursday: Rest Day.

Friday: Rest Day.

Saturday: Spin Class followed by a track workout. This was a bad idea and I instantly regretted sleeping in to late so that I couldn’t do the track first. It was great to be back at Revolve though – had been way too long. I walked from there to the track for 2X2 mile repeats with a 2 minute break that were supposed to each be 14:50. The first one I hit dead on, but then the spin class caught up to me and I locked up on lap 4 of the second set struggling to finish it in 15:23. Not surprisingly my Coach recommended that I don’t do my track workouts following another workout from now on after I sent in my recap.

At the track realizing this was not such a great plan! Next time track first, then spin class!

At the track realizing this was not such a great plan! Next time track first, then spin class!

Sunday: I split my long run into 2 runs today – the first about 55 minutes and the next just under an hour. I’m glad I made it outside for them both, but am looking forward to a true long run this week.

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on by
Reply

I only ran 20 total miles last week, but it was a great week of training. I put in short interval and tempo runs along with my cross training before running in the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler on Sunday. Here’s the day by day training breakdown…

Monday: Spin Class

Tuesday: 3 miles easy – run home from work.

Wednesday: I’ve been trying to do all of my interval workouts outside this training cycle, but just couldn’t work it in today. I did find a quick time slot to get down to the treadmill though, and put in 4 miles total including a 1/2 mile warm-up followed by five 1/2 mile intervals at a sub-7 minute pace with 90-second recovery jogs before cooling down.

Thursday: Rest Day

Friday: I put in a short 3-mile tempo run Friday morning on the treadmill starting at a 7:30 pace and working down to a 7:18 pace.

Saturday: Rest Day

Sunday: Race Day! I had a great day at the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler setting a new PR for the distance with a finish time of 1:15:54. I’ll have a full recap out tomorrow, but I was thrilled with the PR and only 54 seconds behind my goal for this race leaving me very optimistic that I’m on the right track for the Nike Half Marathon at the end of the month.

IMG_2894

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on by
Reply

Other than a missed workout on Saturday I had a pretty solid training week. It’s hard to believe Cherry Blossom is coming up this Sunday and the Nike Half is less than a month away now. I ran 28.64 total miles last week. Here’s the day by day training breakdown…

Monday: Spin Class

Tuesday: Another blister as a result of Sunday’s long run was really bothering me, so I didn’t want to do my speed workout today and make things worse or cause another injury by compensating for it. I did get in 3 easy miles on a run home from work followed by a lower body strength workout.

Wednesday: With my feet feeling much better on Wednesday and very thankful for the easy day Tuesday, I had a strong speed workout back at Hains Point again. I was able to get out on my lunch break and enjoy some sunshine and pretty decent weather for it too. I ran 6.25 miles total with a 1.5 mile warm-up, 3 mile repeats with 400 meter recovery jogs and a 1 mile cool down.

Thursday: Not wanting to do back to back speed workouts I moved my usual Friday rest day to Thursday this week.

Friday: I got in a tempo run around Hains Point after work. The best part about this run was it was my first in shorts and a tank! OK, so I had arm warmers and calf sleeves on too, but spring has to be getting closer. I got in 6.36 miles at an average 7:53 pace including my mile warm-up at an 8-minute pace. I was a little disheartened by the pace as I was hoping for a 7:30 average during the tempo portion. It was a particularly windy day and I really struggled keeping my pace into the wind. It knocked me down to an 8:30 pace at parts and when I checked my watch if the wind would momentarily die down I realized I was going at a 6:40 pace at the same effort level. Seeing that I was running on parts of the race course, I really hope it’s not too windy on race day.

Saturday: Unplanned rest day. I don’t remember doing it, but I turned my alarm off without getting up this morning. By the time I woke up I had to rush off to a meeting about joining a triathlon team (because clearly I don’t have enough on my plate already), and then Ian and I headed into D.C. to watch Syracuse play in the elite 8 at the Verizon Center. Running is pretty important to me, but I definitely wasn’t missing that game! I contemplated doing a double session on Sunday, but I knew that just letting this go and not beating myself up about it was the smarter decision to make.

Sunday: After a beautiful day Saturday I was really upset to see a lower temperature, gray clouds and rain, so it took me awhile to get myself out the door for my long run. I finally headed out around 2 in the afternoon and was really glad I did. I definitely felt better after the fact. I put in just more than 13 miles over the Key Bridge, through Georgetown to the Mall, around the Capitol Building, through Hains Point, over the Memorial Bridge and back home. It was dreary and rainy the whole way, but I kept a steady long run pace. Later that night I got in a lower body strength workout as well.

valvanoquote

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on by
Reply

Despite feeling a bit under the weather and dealing with more winter-like weather (where are you spring?!), I felt like I had a pretty solid training week last week. I know it could be a lot worse than it is here, but I am so sick of the cold. I’m over winter weather, layering up and bitter windy days. Spring needs to get here – and soon! One thing I did not do last week is my strength workouts, which is not acceptable and I will really focus on making sure that happens this week. I ran 33.57 total miles last week. Here’s the day by day training breakdown…

Monday: Spin Class

Tuesday: I did my speed workout at Hains Point again this week and fared pretty well with my half mile repeats. I did a total of 6.1 miles with a 2 mile warm-up, 4 800-meter repeats with 400-meter recovery jogs (this was too long) and a 1 mile cool down.

Wednesday: I was up early for an endurance spin class up at Revolve and wrapped the day up with a fun run with a friend after work around the Mall and the Jefferson Memorial for about 5.75 miles.

Thursday: I don’t know what it was, but I had the hardest time getting myself to the gym this morning. I came up with every excuse in the book and almost got back in bed a few times even after getting into my gym clothes and doing my ab workout. I got to the gym and saw all the treadmills in use, which rarely happens at my gym, and I almost turned around. Then someone hopped off and I knew I had no excuses left. I’m so glad I did this run. I did a 6.05 mile tempo run for an average pace of 7:26 including my warm-up and a top pace of 6:48. It felt great!

Friday: Rest Day

Saturday: I ran the Run Rogue 5k this morning. It wasn’t a great race for me, but it was a great cause so I’m glad I did it. Full recap to come tomorrow.

New Nike Half Zip from Pacers, Race Bib Pinned and Ready To Go

New Nike Half Zip from Pacers, Race Bib Pinned and Ready To Go

Sunday: Still not feeling well, I almost bagged my long run on Sunday. I got a second wind late afternoon though and decided to head to the gym and just see how long I could make it on the treadmill. I figured that way if I wanted to drop at mile 6, I wouldn’t be 6 miles away from home. It ended up going great though and I made it for the whole 1 hour and 45 minutes I had planned. I kept it at an easy 8:27 pace with a 1.0 incline for the first hour and 20 minutes before starting to up the pace every five minutes. For the last five I upped it each minute so I could reach my goal pace of 7:30 – even if it was just for a minute I felt good to end the run at that pace. I finished up with 12.55 miles for an average pace of 8:21.

Footprints: Monday Morning Recap

Posted on by
1

Last week was week 6 of my training program for the Nike DC Women’s Half Marathon and it was also a fall back week so it would be a bit easier. Admittedly I should have done a little more this week, but I did get some quality workouts in as well, so I felt good about those. I ran 14.87 total miles this week. Here’s the day by day training breakdown…

Monday: Spin Class in the morning followed by a strength workout.

Tuesday: I didn’t make it to the track in the morning so I did my speed workout around Hains Point. Battling the wind there made for a tough workout, but it felt great. Altogether I ran just under 7.5 miles with roughly a 2 mile warm-up, 8 400-meter repeats with 100-meter recovery jogs, and about a 3-mile cool down.

Speed Intervals around Hains Point

Speed Intervals around Hains Point

Wednesday: Early morning endurance spin class.

Thursday: Rest Day.

Friday: I took my tempo run outdoors this week in Hoboken since I was staying up there with my brother for the Big East Tournament. The wind was brutal, but the views were awesome running with the New York City skyline in sight for most of my route. I did 4.3 miles for an average 8 minute pace including my warm up and cool down, so it was a bit slower than I’d like and my legs were feeling very heavy, but I was glad I pushed through and did it.

Saturday: I had great plans of getting up early and meeting up with the Hoboken running club, but I let a late night out after watching Syracuse beat Georgetown in OT at Madison Square Garden foil those plans. I still got myself out for another run along the river and put in an easy 3.1 miles followed by a strength workout before getting ready to go back into NYC for another game at the Garden.

Sunday: Rest Day.