A new adventure...

Starting January 2, 2010, I will be starting a plan that will (hopefully) prepare me for a fitness bikini competition in late April or early May. I used to say that I would never do this, that I wouldn't have the willpower or I could just workout enough to maintain my weight. However, things have worked out to where really, if I am going to try a competition, now would be the perfect time to do it. I am lifting really hard at the moment, training for the Arnold Classic Pump and Run on March 7th, so I am already working towards increasing my muscle mass and trying to lean up for the 5k. So... why not? I'm going to give it a shot. If I don't do well, I won't try it again... and I'll try a triathlon instead. At least I will be able to say that I tried it.

Taper week

Monday before the Saturday race: I am ready to get it all overwith. Nerves are starting to kick in, second-guessing my training, regretting the wine that I drank over the weekend... I guess it's too late to go back on anything now and just be confident in what I've done so far. I KNOW I'm in a better place this year than last year, so hopefully that removes the concern that I will end up walking at some point during the race. IF I don't have to walk at all, that alone should shave 10 minutes off my time.

I would love to qualify, don't get me wrong. After I finished my last LONG run (21 miles), I realized that qualifying would be great, but it's not a realistic goal. Last year I walked all of Mile 18 and interval walk-jogged the rest of the way through 26.2. The more REALISTIC goal for me is to try and RUN the entire way. Hopefully that will put me somewhere around 3:45... and IF I can find the strength in the last 1/3 of the race to push myself, that should be just enough effort to get me to 3:40. We will see...

Back to the grind

So apparently even though I ran both at the beach AND at Dale Hollow Lake, the fact that I really haven't lifted in two weeks plus apparent lack of hydration really made today's 15 miles a killer. Here's me today just after I finished up. I did manage to keep a good pace to finish in 2:17, but it was all I could do to not puke my guts up afterwards :(

I can't believe there's only one 20-miler left, the rest is all shorter stuff to taper down to the big day. At this point I just want to get it overwith...

Cramming it all in

This week marks the start of two weeks of inconsistency: leaving Wednesday afternoon for the beach until Sunday night, then the following Wednesday we leave for Tennessee to the lake until that following Tuesday night. Needless to say, it's pretty unrealistic to think I'm going to get every scheduled run in as planned out by the FIRST program.

The past two weeks I've been substituting the speed workout for a run with Rocco. After all, running with Rocco did prep me to place in the overall female winner category in a recent 5k race here, so I figure continuing this method can't hurt. The problem with "Rocco runs" is I don't get a very good warmup, so I'm trying to stretch a lot on Monday nights. I have to hit the ground running, literally, when I run with him. The obedience training is a secondary goal at this point, don't judge my dog-discipline skills in this blog :)

Tomorrow I plan to split up an 18-mile long run into two segments. Wednesday, if I'm lucky, I will get in the tempo run before we leave.

7/2 "20"-miler

So yesterday I was slated for a 20-mile long run. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, so I had that going for me. HOWEVER, after teaching my ninth Pilates class of the week that morning before the run, I had a gut feeling that the run was not going to be as good as the previous week. There's a reason why people say go with your gut... it's usually right.

I bought a fuel belt that morning to try and experiment with something other than leaving my water bottle along the running path behind random inanimate objects. Needless to say, I had something to keep my mind occupied the first half of the run purely based on the awkwardness with which I was trying to simultaneously run and adjust my belt. To add, I used Gatorade instead of Accelerade (HUGE mistake) and ended up with upset stomach through mile 17. It was then that I decided to finish my run indoors...

It was a pretty terrible run in general, but a few major lessons were learned:
1- Gatorade (undiluted) is not conducive to fueling my runs
2- The fuel belt is more comfortable with bottles distributed around my waist, not all packed around my lower back
3- Run earlier in the morning. Even at 10:45am on an overcast day it got REALLY humid by mile 14 or so.

Now a week of off-scheduling, not sure when I will fit my runs in but of course I will be bringing a set of clothes, socks, sports bra and shoes wherever we go. Happy Anniversary to us! :)

Week 2 Run 2: Tempo

So today's workout was a tempo run: 1 mile easy, 4 miles at 7:50, one mile easy. I think all the extra group exercise I am teaching this week is catching up with me because the first mile and a half of the tempo pace was pretty rough. Even though the 7:50 pace isn't all that fast, it definitely felt like it. The good thing that is consistently happening with all of my workouts thus far is that by the end of the run, I feel like I can keep going longer and faster. By the time I hit the fourth mile of the tempo pace, I felt fresh and strong, albeit somewhat tired.

I find it challenging not to sprint through the end of runs or run a faster pace at the end of a workout if can sense some extra "energy". I have to keep reminding myself that training will only get harder and I should enjoy the "slower" pace now because in several weeks, it's going to suck.

I think my breakfast was problematic this morning as well. I've been eating mostly Ezekiel 4:19 products for bread, tortillas, pitas, etc. These are great for the rest of the day, but for fast-release carbs, this is not so good. I felt pretty lethargic at the beginning of my run even with the usual black coffee serving. I've had better luck with regular english muffins in the past so I think, for the sake of immediate energy, I will take the lesser quality grains and make up the nutritional void later.

Still loving the Accelerade supplement that I chug immediately after the workout. I've been lifting legs after every running workout and thus far (knock on wood), I have yet to experience severe DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). I think after today's quality workout I earn a nice class of cab sauv :)

Week 2 of FIRST training

So... as most of you know I am in the midst of training for my second marathon coming up September 19th, 2009. I was originally NOT going to try again, however my good friend Marie motivated me to give Boston another shot, so that means qualifying sometime in the next six months. I picked September because of the training plan: I could do the bulk of my training over the summer while not working full-time, then the taper would pretty much overlap with my return to full-time teaching the end of August. Despite the good timing work-wise, there couldn't BE worse weather to run in than high humidity and temp's in the 90's on most days. Alas, training must go on.

I have integrated Marie's running plan with that of the FIRST program, created by exericse physiologists at Furman University, one of the top running schools in the country. Basically, you only run three days a week and the rest is cross training. Great news, right? Well let me tell ya, they may be less frequent, but they are brutally hard. It fully embraces the saying "quality over quantity". Yeah, three days a week of running may not sound like much, but when you do run, you gotta have your game face on.

I just finished one full week of the FIRST plan: I had one track workout, one LT run (will explain later) and one long run. One day I swam, the other two "off" days I biked and lifted. I can say with confidence that this plan is revolutionary in the running world. I was able to finish my long run last week (17 miles) in a dead sprint for half a mile which, for me, is a huge accomplishment. To have that much energy saved after more than two hours of running is pretty amazing, so I am fully invested in the FIRST program now!

Yesterday I had the track workout: 10-minute warmup, then 5 repeats of 1000 meters in 4:16 (each), followed by a 10-20 minute cooldown. Oh, and you do get a 400-meter rest interval (RI), so that's nice. 4:16 may not seem like that fast a pace, but if you don't learn how to pace yourself so you average that 4:16 time, you are SPENT by the last repeat. This is a great lesson for runners though, because if you start out too fast in a race, you can build up lactic acid in the muscles too quickly and in essence deplete glycogen stores much faster than you would at a slower, more consistent pace.

Today's workout was cross-training, so I biked for 30 minutes and am going to lift this afternoon after teaching two sessions of Pilates, ugh!

Introduction to Infinite

Welcome to my new blog, which WILL be updated daily because it is going to hold me accountable for my training plan. I will continue to update my other blog, but with less frequency, as this will be more of my personal journal and the other will be more of a weekly "educational" tool. I hope that by sharing my personal experiences with this training plan, diet, etc., I can motivate you and others to set your bars higher and become more goal-oriented all around.