First work day of 2016 and of cause Mother Nature with her sense of humor thought this was a good day for some snow and very cold temps, grateful to be alive so no complains.

Haven't been out of work for more than 2 weeks, going to bed when I want and getting up when the mood strike today was interesting. Alarm was set for 4:30am, and I did go to bed early but didn't really fall asleep until about 1130pm, which means a 4:30am alarm was a very rude awakening, it took a couple of seconds to figure out what the sound was which I did turn off and promptly fell back asleep, only to wake up at 5:30am, after morning bible study and prayers, made it to the basement with only about 50mins to workout sine my goal this year is to start getting to work about 8am with an eventual goal of 7:30am.

Am hoping with getting off work by 4pm, I will have some time to work on my side hustle before having to head home or work on jewelry making when I get home, most of this does mean limiting social media time unless it has something to do with side hustle
, too many big goals this year and no point waiting time online.

With the limited workout time, I did Xtrain Bis and Tris Time saver for 26mins and then jump on the treadmill for 2 miles easy run, it's going to take a while to figure out how to fit everything in but as long as I am getting the quality runs (speed - Tuesday, Tempo-Thursday and Long/Hill Repeats - Saturday) in I will be happy, I figure out all the extra runs, yoga, strength and cross training should make me well rounded.

No worse for wear this morning despite how tough the race conditions were yesterday, slight pain on the top of the 2nd toe on both foot, I think the brown puma will be out for any more cold and water runs. Decided to take it easy, concentrating on the upper body and yoga.

So pulled out Kelly Coffey-Meyer Muscle up workout #1, love this since I can go quite heavy.


Warmup

Super set - 3 rounds, 8 reps
A:
Bent over Row - 25#
Chest Press - 25#

B:
Dumbbell One arm row - 35#
Dumbbell Fly - 25#

C:
 Pullover - 25#
Pushup on my toes

D:
Shoulder Press - 20#
Abdominal Crunch - 16reps

E:
Toe Press - 16 reps
Lateral Raise -15#

F:
 Bendover lateral raise - 15#
Superman

Found another Fightmaster yoga on you tube and gave it a go, I do like the way she instruct, so will look into rest of her program

The cold tundra of Ohio continues, woke up to -6 this morning after spending the night being chase by a bear, so slept in a bit to recover from all the running in my sleep.

Eventually got out of bed, which was later than expected but I did complete the running workout, just no time Lift Leg workout.

4x1.5miles with 800m recovery- the treadmill is really on it's last leg the changes I made last year to get it back running maybe running it's course since the incline goes up(2%) and down(1%) and the speed requires a bit of a banging to get up. I guess need to start looking for another since I cannot imagine not having one, even when the weather warms up, just easier to get up at 5am to get a run done instead of waiting till daylight.

Looks like I am fighting the virus bug going around, didn't get a good night sleep but feel rested and chugging lots of vitamin C.

Warmup from Cathe's Ripped with Hiit Lift with Legs + the first set of squats using 20# dumbbells, then after that move over to the treadmill started out with 800m @4.2mph then 2x3miles@6mph with an 800m recovery@4mph all at 2% grade. After the run move back to the weight room to continue the Lift workout, did it up to the 20mins mark then fast forward to the stretch section. Even thou the legs were spent, they responded pretty well to the strength workout with cardio blast.

I have been back now to using Pacific Health Accelerade Hydro during my morning double workout and it continue to work great for me, use it during and for recovery and body is responding fine , since I realized I was getting sluggish since all my workout are in the fasted state so this has helped put some gas in the tank to finish strong.

With all the ice and snow, I have basically stayed on the treadmill,  even for me this is a lot, I have always been able to get the long runs done outdoors and the hit and run death of a local runner in the next city on Saturday just makes this the right decision for now.

Heard back from the HR guy, he will bring it up in their review mtg next month, he wasn't aware that the result are readily available and can be use as prove for repayment. It will be so nice if they start covering race fee.

Saturday: 11.2 miles
Sunday: Cathe Plyo 1, had no issue, was worried I won't be able to do this barefooted.
Monday:Cathe RWH Upper Body circuit + 7 miles easy
Tuesday: Cathe RWH Lower Body Circuit + 3x2miles/800m recovery

Booking is all done for Little Rock Marathon except for the Sunday night that I added, same hotel I booked for Friday - Sunday is now coming up double the price. 

Thinking of registering for the Hall of Fame Half Marathon, as a way to keep running after Paris since I still have Flying Pig to do and 2 of my favorite running group BGR Cleveland and TORN are using it for the spring race. Also thinking of RNR New Orleans 2016, great price right now at $50

Recovery

My running schedule called for yoga or pilates yesterday and this is rest week/do your own thing on the cycling schedule according to Coach Troy while we wait for the last phase in the Super6 program. Woke up yesterday with very tired legs + pain in my right foot again and I kept on telling myself I need to run abit or bike then it became maybe go to the gym to swim to work the kinks out but the schedule didn't call for either of that so actually for the first time in a long time stuck with the schedule and just did yoga last night. Did Yogamazing 389: Yoga for Bed which was just perfect to stretch everything out and calm the mind.

Woke up this mornign well rested and feeling better, legs were still quite heavy and sore which is to be expected due to running in ankle deep snow on Sunday. On the schedule for today was 45mins recovery run then bike and strength. I did about 50mins on the treadmill since it took almost 30mins for the legs to feel ok and the heart rate to stay under control, HR kept on spiking at 180bpm so I will walk a bit to get it back down to the 130s based on the pace I was running I expected it to be low. After 5 miles got on the bike and just did some free cycling while watching Mission Impossible, legs felt much better and HR stayed low, 45mins later got in abot 10+ bike miles and called it a day.

For strength today, it was Cyclo-core 2.0 Endure, this really felt great, yoga + slow strength training I started out with 8# dumbbells but once I realized this was going to be a slow count 4 down, 2 hold, 4 up I iincrease the weight to 20#, I think for the next time I will go to 25#.

No pain in the right foot today, happy about that, so glad I paid attention and took the 1 day off. Not sure if i am going to make it to the pool today again, not really doin gvery good on the 3/week swim. oh well

Woke up today feeling off, not sure what is going on bodywise except that I know my sleep pattern is still off am hoping I can get things back on track by this weekend. Woke up at 3:30am but then went back to sleep and snooze the alarm at 4:30 waking up at 5:45am, decided to run outside since the weather looked beautiful, I had 6-7miles on my schedule but was thinking I was only going to get in 3 then called it a day but even though I felt yaky nothing really hurt, my pace wasn't the greatest since it reflects how I was feeling but there was no reall reason to stop after 3miles so kept on going and got in a 10k before calling it a day, no strength workout today but I did get in pushups and squats yesterday.

So I found and android app yesterday for pushups and squats, it have you perform pushups and squats till you are tired then design the program for you. Pushups all on my toes was 26, squats 110 holding 8# dumbbell, you also have a choice of 50-200 straight pushups or squats, I chose 100 for pushups and 150 for squats. Based on what I input and indicating I was female had to do the following

Pushups: 11,10,12,12,11 for 56 total all on my toes
Squats: 32,24,30,30,32,26,24 for 198 total holding 8# dumbell

Back on Track

After a long holiday weekend with visit from my in-laws, 11 guest altogether who all stayed at my house, which included lots of food and late nights even though I was able to sneak in some runs, it was nice to get back to a normal routine. I had a great time with them and always love seeing them so it was a small price to pay.

Monday was hard, even though awake couldn't roll out of bed, my body just wasn't moving so laid there dreaming of running, then of course it was time to get up and get ready for work. Had a hard time at work was really just fatigue, got back home and attempted to do my scheduled 7 miler and try as I might it just wasn't happening and after 3 of the longest miles of my life called it a day and did the Upper/Lower Body of the Prevention Turnaround DVD and 6 mins of Tai Chi. Glad that is over time for bed.

Tuesday, oh boy whay a difference 24 hours make, I woke up more energetic, schedule called for 20*200meters @ 1500m pace with 200meters recovery. Can I really do that after how I felt yesterday, one way to find out, off to the basement , program the Garmin and it was time to start I felt great and was able to get all the intervals in, 9 miles later felt like a million buck and added in the Total Body plus Core workout. After work, I dropped my son off at Drivers Ed and with the perfect weather and being close to a runnable trail with running gear in car decided to sneak in a quick run and was able to get in 4 miles of pure bliss before heading home.

Bringing us to today, wasn't sure how I was going to feel based on the double run and the restless night, my hubby always thing if he can't sleep that means I can't sleep too when I was perfectly fine asleep. Oh well, instead of getting out of bed at 4:30am sleep till 5:45 then rolled out and got dress since it was later than usual, decided to run outside instead. It was a great morning, I had 7 on my schedule but knew I was running late and was not going to get that in, lots of runners and walkers out and I was able to get in 6.5miles before having to call it a day, hopefully can get in a strength workout after work.

Racing wise next on the agenda is one of my favorite race Kathleen Neitert Race For Hope 7.5 Mile / 5k on August 5 then I have a 50k on August 25. What I haven't decided about is if it is wise to do a 12hour run a week before the Akron Marathon. Akron is not really a goal race just doing it because this is their 10yr anniversary and I wanted a 10 year bling so I can go out as slow as I want and it was already paid for before the 12 hour run was added as an option to this race. Decisions Decisions

Quieting the noise

Great workout today, although I had to really quiet the brain/mind and just trust the leg to get it done. Looking at the schedule it calls for 5x(5mins@5k pace/3mins mailto:recovery@maintenace pace) the brain's first reaction was that yep that is going to hurt do you really want to do this, I did briefly considered changing it to 3mins @ 5k with 90secs recovery but decided to keep as is and adjust the pace if I am struggling. Entering the info into Garmin for a workout interval, off I went to the basement to get the workout in, even though this is one of my longest running stretch without a rest day I felt fine but did notice some tightness in shin and ITB, the only change I made was instead of running the whole 3 mins at maintenance pace I rolled into it just to give my body enough time to recover before moving on to the next interval, felt it was more important to nail the 5k.

Goal: 8:36
1-8:19
2-8:21
3-8:17
4-8:17
5-8:00

Recovery was 11:18 - 14:14 even though I was suppose to be at 10:00

Added on Upper & Lower body Prevention 2 week turnaround program been doing this for about 2 weeks now not really for the weight loss, but I love that the strength workout are done mainly standing on one leg and this is helping with the imbalance on my right foot can now, feel much better so going to continue for 2 more weeks.

Treadmill Love

I know most people hate the treadmill, calling it dreadmill or hamster wheel regardless I love mine, and on days like today when I am tired and do not feel like getting in the required mileage I can always convince myself to get on treadmill. Got on it, thinking I was only going to do 3 just to zap the zero but ended up getting in the required 7 miles at a 9:59 pace. Based on the fact that I have pushed myself a bit the previous week was really happy that the legs felt fine.

I have really been working hard on improving the imbalance on my right leg, yes quite aware of it since I can stand on my left leg till the cows come on home but can barely last 10 seconds on my right, so a lot of my strength training the last couple of weeks has been done 1 legged and I am beginning to be able to do move with mt right leg off the floor, the goal is to continue this through the month of July.

Group Run

I went out today with the North East Running training Group, I always have miss feeling about group runs, since I am not very fast will there be someone to run with, it is kind of hard to drive 40 mins only to end up running by myself. Well, I did most of this run by myself, had a couple of problems it started snowing when we started running and since I had a beanie on and not a cap, the snow was building up on my glasses which means I couldn't see(no wiper on glasses to remove snow) and with everything I had on being wicking I couldn't even clean my glasses. I was running behind a group until about mile 3, when I noticed a restroom, but someone was in it so waited for about 3 mins for her to get out so I could get some toilet paper to use in wiping my glasses, which means now the group was completely gone and I was definitely on my own, I know it was an out and back, I just have to get to 5 miles and turn around. I was concern about the last 2 miles since that was in a residential area and I wasn't sure where to turn but once of the runners came back to bring me back since he knew I was new and didn't know the area.

The run back was miserable, since now not only was it snowing it was also windy, I ended up taken my glasses off since I could see a thing, at least with them off I could see right in front of me. the neighborhood roads weren't plowed so it was like running through mud I was just ready to be done. I did enjoy meeting the group but not sure if it was worth the 1 hour 20 mins trip to run by myself.

We do take a lot of things for granted by running through the neighborhood in Concord today with so much snow on the roads, I realize how lucky I am that the Solon City Snow crew takes cleaning the side streets as important as the main street.

Got in 10.1 miles in Concord, OH

PM

10mmins on the spin bike to warm up

Exercises in the Shoulder workout

• Pike Push-up-n 15/15/15
• Band Front and Lateral raise Combo-using Reebok light band 12/12/12
• Band Reverse Fly's - Reebok light band 15/15/15

5 mins on the Stepper

Exercises in the Leg  workout-using 15# dumbell

• Forward Lunge-10/10/10/10
• Side Lunge-10/10/10/10
• Back Lunge-10/10/10/10
• Seated Calf Raises-30/30/30/30
• Standing Calf Raises30/30/30/30

Sun Salutation A - 6 rounds

No Excuses

I needed more sleep this morning so I skipped working out, today was the first time I got out of bed since my trip back from Arizona that I didn't wonder if I slept or not. Today I was in such a deep sleep, my body felt great so I slept with that said the intention is to get in my workout after work which is hard since I am currently very busy and I climb up and down a 4 story building all day, but the real problem is not to loss time in front of the computer.

The plan was get home, make/eat dinner, pay bills, change then workout, I am so proud of myself that yes I did things in that exact order ignoring the computer pull.

Today's Workout.

1 min jump rope
50 prisoner's squat

 5x12 30 secs rest between sets, 1 min between exercise
Bent Over DB Row 20/20/20/20/20
DB Bicep Curl 20/20/20/20/20 last set was a struggle
Exercise ball DB Press 20/20/20/20/20
Triceps Kickback 15/15/15/15/20
Plie Squats 44/44/44/44/44  16kg KB
DB Shoulder Press 12/12/12/12/12  Kept the weight low due to pain in right shoulder not sure from what
Straight leg deadlift 20/20/20/20/20 last time I used 25# but I felt too much pull in my lower back so dropped the weight, 20 was perfect.

Flexibility
Sun Salutation A
Bent Leg Seated Twist

From Here

Workout Club with Peter Carvell

I have been hanging with Peter now for about a year, although I still don't have a 6 pack but that is no fault of Peter, but with a offer of the Workout Club I couldn't pass it up since I love his workout routine, they are normally short and to the point and I believe will complement running quite nicely. The intention is to be a day behind so I always know what to do the day before so I got today's workout yesterday and this is absolutely free, so maybe I may achieve that 6 pack abs this year after all.

Below is the email for today's workout

Workout

 

 

Warm-up

5 minutes progressive cardio (Click Here to learn more about different types of Cardio )

Full Body Dumbbell Workout

Click here to see a video of today's workout ( Note: We are not going to do the ab exercises at the end and the workout structure will be different so look at the structure at the bottom of the workouts ): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCyhYkljIMw

·         Exercises in this workout

·         Bent Over Row ( Back )

·         Dumbbell Bicep Curls ( Bicep )

·         Exercise Ball Dumbbell Press ( Chest )

·         Triceps Kick Back ( Triceps )

·         Plie Squat ( Quads )

·         Dumbbell Shoulder Press ( Shoulders )

·         Straight Legg Dead lift ( Hamstrings )

 

Workout Structure

·         You will do 8 exercises, one for each body group.

·         Do 4 sets of 12 reps of each exercise.

·         Do all 4 sets of one exercise before moving on to next exercises.

·         Rest 30 seconds between sets and 1 minute between exercises.

 

Cool Down

·         Today I want you to do a nice stretching session for around 5 to 10 minutes.

 

Tip of the Day

·         Make sure your dumbbells are heavy enough so that you can only do 12 reps. If you can do 20 reps for example this workout won't be effective.

 

And that is it for today! Tomorrow you are going to do Cardio and Abs!

Have a great workout and leave a comment below on how it went!

Your Trainer and Coach

Peter Carvell Health Disclaimer: Due to the physical nature of the exercise regimes contained in the following presentation, it is highly recommended that anybody considering any exercise regime or diet plan consult a Doctor or physician before embarking on any workout, training or eating plan.

What I did today

Warmup

50 Jumping Jacks

1 min Jump rope 

100 high knees

Kettle Bell Swig 16kg - 25 per hand

50 Prisoner's Squat

Workout  (4x12)

DB Biceps Curl  15/15/20/20

Exercise Ball DB Press 20/25/25/25

Triceps Kick Back 12/ 12/15/15/20* failure at 11 for 20#

Plie Squat 20/25/25/25 use bigger KB

DB Shoulder Press 12/12/12/12

Straight Leg Deadlift 25/25/25/25

Finisher

1 min jump rope

50 hand to hand kettlebell swing-16kg

Flexibility

Sun Salutation A 5 round 

Three legged tabletop ( Ardha Purvottanasa)

picture from here

but instead of both feet on the ground ,one feet is off the ground and across the other knee, so your left ankle is on your right knee, repeat on other side.

Starting things off right

Using iTread 9 60 mins I did a 10k on the treadmill, I am really coming to enjoy using the iTread workout, initially when I bought them it was such a struggle to use them and keep up that I hardly do them but now they are such a nice workout to do on the treadmill and sneaky add in speed/hill workout when doing a steady state run. I still keep the pace at my already determined pace which is close to what Grace have for the joggers. I probably need to invest I some new ones.

After the run did a kettlebell total body circuit, can't remember where I got this one from

double hand KB Swing 10x - 20kg
Double KB Press 10x - 15pounds
double hand KB Swing 10x - 20kg
Double KB Row 10x - 16kg
double hand KB Swing 10x - 20kg
KB Squats 10x - 20kg
double hand KB Swing 10x - 20kg

 then the Leg Matrix - 1 round



2x50 Mountain climbers

For Flexibility did 5 rounds of Sun Salutation A



or this site has a great poster version  the intention is not to stress myself out with yoga but to do either Sun A or B and then shuffle the Baron Baptiste yoga deck and pick a card. Today's card Ardha Virabhadrasana
(deep hip lunge)

From here

So for about 90 mins, got in cardio, strength and flexibility, then I drank a glass of my amazing meal mixed with unsweetened Almond milk that I won from Molly, shower, changed and went to get my mammogram.

Week 14

Took yesterday as a rest day, just felt run down and tired, was even dozing at church, came back home avfter church and took an hour nap before I was woken up by work. Since I spent all weekend dealing with work issue, I went in late today and was able to get 7 miles base run in under cool conditions outdoors.

I pushed the pace a little bit today trying to see if/how my body will respond, the weather was cool but still humid and it took a while for me to catch my breath and control my breathing.

Mile 1 10:22     157bpm
mile 2   10:23    149bpm
mile 3   10:26    151bpm
mile 4  10:40     153bpm
mile 5   10:17    146bpm
mile 6   10:18    151bpm
mile 7   10:06    155bpm

7 miles average pace 10:22 , 151bpm

I finished off doing 5-10/10secs for the fun of it, came back in and did some glutes and upper body workout for 20mins from exercise TV. the run felt great and you can see that the pacing is much better than Saturday's run.

I placed an order with Hammer Nutrition for some Recoverite and some gels, just feel like I need something more during training. Even thou I have ran 1 marathon and 2-50k, I never really trained properly for them, the longest for the marathon was 14miles + the 50k and the longest for the 50k was one 4 hour run. I really am trying to do things right this time around and be injury free.

Still working on dropping the 10 pounds just seem to be hungry all the time, so trying to at least make wise food choices.

Stepper -42 mins
CIA 2301 - Strength Toolbox with Mindy - tubing

Trip to the Dr. today for MRI review, not sure what is really causing a lot of possible things but nothing definite, so we decided to do multiple things to see if any works by reaccessing in 4 weeks. Get blood work done to check for multiple things including vitamin D deficiency (done), get fitted for orthotics since I have really flat feet and my PF is really tight (first phase done going back in 2 weeks), try about 3 session of the graston technique (need to schedule)

7 miles mixed intervals today average pace 9:55, the run felt great really wanted to do 10 miles but was running out of time.

1 mile warmup @ recovery pace
2k@half marathon pace / 3 mins recovery
1 mile @ 10k pace/ 3 mins recovery
1k @ 5 k pace/2 mins recovery
1 mile mixed pace 5k - marathon
1+ mile cool down @ recovery pace

Weight workout:
Split Squat using 20# dumbbell-12 reps per side
Pushup on toe - 20 reps
rest 60 secs repeat 2 more times

Bridge with band around thigh 12 reps
Chinups - 10 (can get to 5 okay, have to do up and hold for the rest of the count)
rest 60 secs repeat 2x

Dumbbell curl to a shoulder press-15#-12 reps
rest 60 sec, repeat

12 spiderman crawl on each side
Crunches'
Reverse crunches

Jari Love Ripped to Core (total pounds used, dumbbell only)

Side Squat + Backwards Lunges 24#
Spider + Push ups
Chest Press with Hip Raise 24#
Bent Leg dead lift + Bicep Curl 24#
Wide Squat + Upright Row 24#
Stiff Legged Dead lift + Lateral Row 24#
Squat with lateral raise + narrow squat with anterior raise 16#
Step ups + overhead press 16#
Triceps push ups + kickback with core work 8#
Abs
Stretch

Brain Training for Runner Core Workout 1
Lying Hip Abduction 15# -15
Lying Hip Abduction Advanced 15# - 15
Cook Hip Lift -15
Kneeling Overhead Draw in-15
Knee Fall-out-15

Squat Jumps -15
Tuck jump - 15

20 mins IClimb on the aerostepper

14 mins stretch using Istretch 9c

Did a quick workout today Kathy Smith Ultimate Sculpt before ending off to Solon High School to help with the Science Olympiad competition. I always enjoy hanging with the kids and it was wonderful seeing all the seniors from the other schools this year since I have known most of them since 8th grade.

Barry Fat Blaster Upper Body + Mission Specialist Abs Advanced

Chin up 2x5
Inverted Row 2x15

Band Attached to door
Chest Flye 2x15
Triceps Pull down 2x15