Happy Thanksgiving Everyone , hope it was a great one spent with family and friends. had a great time with my Sister and her Family, it was wonderful spending the day with them since the last time was 2011, normally out of town with my Husband's family.

The day went pretty good and the eating wasn't too bad and we got a decent amount of workout in, the weather was beautiful which made it easy to get out and get a run in. Woke up got the turkey going in the oven and the mean greens going on the stove and went out for a 5 mile run, I felt really good on this run and decided on a progressive run, I dressed way too warm and was burning up by the end of the first mile but the blowing wind kept the chill on in some areas.

The plan was to do 5 miles by mile 4 I was running straight into the wind and the deal was if I can make it back to under 10 min/mile once I make the turn away from the wind I can run home and not worry about getting to 5 miles, did mile 4 @ 10:09 and mile 5 @ 9:34 so call it done at 4.8 miles, although I probably did 5 miles since I started my GPS later in my run due to no signal.

Got back home peeled and put potato on stove and sweet potato in the oven and went over to the basement to get in Xtrain Cardio Legs due to time and I was also getting tired, decided on the Timesaver Workout 7-12 routine, this is pretty hard since it is mainly step but was able to hang in there till the end.

My Sister, her son and I, 2011/2015

Friday, I was off from work so was able to meet Shelby for a run and was happily surprise to Sheila join us for a trail run since I know this is not her favorite thing to do. We picked our favorite spot Egbert, not sure Sheila understands why we love it since she is a city girl but she did great and we even went further that expected, weather again was just perfect.



Skipped the extra cardio on the schedule today since I was feeling run down, DH has been coughing and sneezing keeping away from him as much as possible.

Only made it to Michael's and JoAnn Fabrics to pickup some stuff with their 50% coupon, no other Black Friday shopping can't think of a single thing that will require a early morning stampede.

Today was the first Hill Repeats of the 2015/2016 racing season, I love doing this just because I learn to run hills with ease and build some serious leg strength if I stick with it. Met up with the group at 9am and we ran from the parking lot to the top of the hill and I did a 1 repeat slow hill warm up



It was nice to have a clear path on the trail, so I was able to run faster than normal on the downhill and slowly make my way back up, my legs felt pretty good on this and pace was decent. I kept the repeats at roughly 1 hr being that I am only in week 3 of marathon training.



The saying never trust an ultra runner that says a loop is short, met Julie today even thou I have seen her around, she was also done so I decided to head back with her, she suggest the back trail which was a "short" loop back, I guess I should have been more precise because after my Garmin click 2 miles I asked Julie, how long was this loop any way, she said something like, oh not quite sure, most people said about 4 miles. Normal route back was only 1 mile, I cut the heat repeat short to save the legs and here I was doing a short loop, luckily it ended up being only 3miles.



I do have to say I felt fine during the run, and actually glad Julie took me outside my comfort zone and I got the extra miles in.

Had lots of errands and things to do with the kids coming home for Thanksgiving that I skip the trip to Winking Lizards for Beer and Food.

It will be great to see to the boys for the Holiday, been awhile.

Thanksgiving 2011 with my sister and her youngest.

Sometimes the darkness is overwhelming but running helps.......


Got in 8 miles with Mandy and Shelby on the Egbert trail today, it was so beautiful getting the first snow trail run it, need to switch out of the Puma just didn't work in the snow, I could feel the cold in my right foot. Shelby took a hard fall really hope she will be okay, will know better tomorrow.

Afterwards add on D2S P3 Complex Metabolic use the 16kg KB except for the push press, form wasn't great so drop down to the 12kg for those, then finish off with exhale wk1 day 1 this routine pack quite a bit of a heavy punch.

I guess thanksgiving is fast approaching and so is the 5k, not sure I can pull off 25mins but will try my best, this short distance just suck the joy out of running.

Amaze at all the Christmas stuff in the stores and just about everyone I went to today was playing Christmas song.

Finally Spring

Weather was much better today, finally feels like spring, still a bit cool in the morning but the afternoon temps got to 70+.

Seem to be getting my training groove back, will have to start waking up maybe a bit earlier so as to get to work early which may give me an opportunity to ride my bike after work and not be too late getting home to make dinner and spend time with my husband.

Today's workout was great still some serious DOMS in my chest, thanks to Chalene.

Push 2 -only 8 slow reps so tried staying heavy
1 Standard Overhead Press -20#
2 Single-Leg Lunge - 20#
3 Standing Reverse Fly - 20#
4 Standing Arnold Press -20#
5 Single-Leg Dead Lifts - 20#
6 Bent-Over Lat Raise - 12#
7 Frontal Shoulder Press - 20#
8 Single-Leg Tap Lunges -20#
9 Lateral Delt Raise- 12# a bit of a struggle with the right arm probably need to drop to 10# for better form.

Chalean Ab Extreme - pure tourture

Jennifer Kries Yin Yang Yoga - tend to open emotional doors that may be better off shut.

After work met with Paty to get in our weekly trail run



Didn't see any bluebells, once we realized seeing them involved going up and down another big hill, not today.

Buzzards Day 25K

Had a great time, it was cold and the creek crossing was freezing, sun came out during the 2nd loop and all that ice turn to mush. Love the course and the volunteers were amazing. Finish in 3:11 and came in 1st Master, awesome and a nice surprise. 1st race of 2013, great way to start the racing season.

Weekend Review: Tough Love

Did Tough Love on Saturday since I couldn't get any run in, had to wake up early to get Son#2 to a Jazz Festival, poor kid was so jazzed out when he came back, you can imagine the torture to a teenage kid on a Saturday to play/listen and discuss Jazz from 9am to 9pm. Back to Tough Love, watched 2 movies on my laptop (netflix) while TL was playing on the TV and I think it went so much better. In trainer road most of my TSS(Training Stress Score or TSS is the amount of training stress generated from a workout. The higher this number the more potential fitness you earned from a workout) for the other workouts I have been around 60-80 with a max of 117(1st 2 hours of HC100), TL clocked in with a TSS of 178. Actually ended up riding 3:12 since TR lost signal and I didn't know and I wanted a complete 3hr graph. Felt really good after this ride, got in S90 Ultimate Ball (30mins) before hitting the showers and going out to dinner with hubby. Splurge on french fries needed something salty.
Sunday went out for the St Patty's Day Fat A$$ which was a 25k or 50K, did about 10miles trail run and called it a day, it was cold and I already went through 3 water crossings that I still need to go back across. My legs actually felt better than expected, got back home, shower and took a 3 hr nap.

Great weekend

Chapin Forest

Great run today and the weather was perfect, met up with 4 of my BGR sisters to preview the Outrun 24 loop since they are planning on signing up for it. I love the location Chapin Forest is another one of those hidden gems of the MetroPark Systems. I mean it has a real working bathroom.

1 hour of swimming with Coach Tim at the Twinsburg Rec, got a bit more confident today and got further down in the deep end, they have  an adult swim class starting April 3 in Twinsburg, I think I am going to sign up for it.

Made  a quick stop at the Grand Opening of Portage Cyclery, it is now a one stop swim, bike run stop, great times, wishing them the very best, they did an awesome job with the remodeling.

Boston Store to Jaite–Trail

I really can understand how people in Ohio can easily get depress, after a beautiful sunny blue sky day yesterday, I woke up to the usual 30 degrees and grey sky, what happened to the Sun and blue sky. Oh well.

I decided to join the Fleet Feet Northfield Trail group for a run at 8am, I have never ran with them so want’s sure how fast they are and if they will be accommodating to my slow pace neither was I sure what my legs was going to do since this is a difficult hilly trail run. The group was great to run with, yes they were fast but they stop/slow in front to let us catch up before taking off again, but since we were running on the buckeye trail I wasn’t really concern, know I wasn’t going to get lost.

This is one of those runs better explain in pictures, yes the trail was still muddy.

Boston Store, side view coming back after the run.

Following the blue blaze as you can see on the right.

Nice downhill, which of cause we climb on the way back.

Lots of steps and when you are not doing that

you were doing this

and more of it, or trying to figure out how to get around this

and run across this

But at the end of the day the view makes it all worthwhile.

 

 

Happy Days to Pine Hollow and back

Met the group today at 8am to run part of the Fool's 50k route, the goal was to run the purple, orange and then yellow rout. We met at the Happy Days Parking lot and yes it is named after "The Happy Days are Here Again" song.

 We set of around 8.05am, there was quite a bit of a turnout, due to snow on Friday, we weren't sure how bad the trails are going to be.

The Ledges is one of my favorite part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the rock cliffs are amazing and there are just so many unique things to see

One of the most spectacular view is at the Ledges Overlook, this is the joy of trail running.

I ran by myself at the beginning since I was taking pictures and didn't want to slow any one down, also it takes my body at least a mile to warm up on the trail and most initial starting pace is always too much for me.
I eventually caught up with Wild Bills group around mile 5 but the race director had been nice enough running back and forth making sure I didn't get lost. Unlike the buckeye trail, there is no tree marking on this side of the trail and with most of then being a loop, you can end up going loopy all day.

Just like any trail, this run had it's share of uphill and downhill

Another great feature of this run was the Kendall Hills (Sound of Music Hills), there is always that challenge  of can you get all the way up without stopping. Yes I did

Heading back to Happy Days, this is the other side of the Ledges

Even though I ran on tired legs, I actually felt very good, my starting nutrition seems to be working out good but still working on making sure I pay attention to nutrition while on the run. I need to work on strengthening my ankle and feet so more trail runs. We ended up no doing the cross country trail since Bill the leader wasn't feeling great and we were all concern about getting lost.

Nice hilly trail run with the Crooked River Group and Jackie from Church came again so it was a slow and easy run for me since I have to run her pace and she was pretty fatigue today since she did heavy leg workout yesterday. The falls was beautiful with the water cascading down the rocks and the trees were already changing color with lots of leaves also already covering the trail. Just a beautiful trail run. Am always amaze how good my legs feel after a trail run compare to running on asphalt. Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 713 ft Location: Peninsula, OH Elev. Gain: +3 ft Date: 10/08/09 Up/Downhill: [+613/-610] Time: 06:36 PM Difficulty: 2.9 / 5.0 Weather: Light Rain 53 F temp; 83% humidity 53 F heat index; winds S 3 Performance Distance: 4.75 miles Time: 0:58:56 Speed: 4.8 mph Pace: 12' 24 /mi Heart Rate: 146 bpm (Avg) Calories: 472 173 bpm (Peak) Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Heart Rate Zones Zone Range (bpm) Time In Zone Distance In Zone Zone 5 184 - 204 0h 00m 0% 0.00 mi Zone 4 163 - 184 0h 05m 8% 0.53 mi Zone 3 143 - 163 0h 34m 58% 2.74 mi Zone 2 122 - 143 0h 20m 33% 1.46 mi Zone 1 102 - 122 0h 04m 7% 0.14 mi (none) out of range 0h 00m 0% 0.01 mi Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 28 -1' 56 5.7 +0.9 152 +20 ft 2 15' 32 +3' 08 3.9 -1.0 150 +108 ft 3 16' 48 +4' 24 3.6 -1.3 135 -46 ft 4 10' 40 -1' 44 5.6 +0.8 145 -118 ft end 12' 23 -0' 01 4.8 +0.0 145 +10 ft Versus average of 12' 24 min/mile

Posted from bimlog.com Data from Garmin Connect with the stops taken out. Split Minutes per MileAvg Speed Minutes per MileMax Speed Beats per MinuteAvg HR Beats per MinuteMax HR CaloriesCalories Summary 12:24 05:55 145 174 472 1 09:57 08:02 155 174 111 2 15:05 07:29 149 162 91 3 14:06 09:35 134 155 81 4 11:16 08:11 145 164 108 5 11:24 05:55 146 154 81