Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Hill repeats today with the running club. They were great until I was jogging downhill after the last repeat. My knee crunched. I'm not in pain, but it caught me off gaurd. It hasn't done that since last July. I am positive it was due to the pivoting motion of my leg going down hill and pushing off for the next step. I'm going to put some heat on it and take easy the rest of the day. No 10km race this weekend and no leg weights this week, just in case. I think I'm fine though, despite this annoying mechanical problem, it's not near as dibilitating as it used to be. My two knees are the same size, which is a positive sign. Now it seems that it happens, and I am fine later that day/the next day. *fingers crossed*

so.

1.3 mile warm up
6 x 100m hill repeats (run up, jog down)
1.3 mile walk back to the school (CD)
Total: ~ 3.25 miles

Did some weights back at the school.

Bench press (in the Smith): 3 x 10 @ 40 lbs
Chest flyes: 3 x 10 @ 20 lbs
Lat pulldowns: 3 x 10 @ 70/70/50 lbs
Seated rows: 3 x 10 @ 40/30/30 lbs
Hyperextensions on ball: 3 x 10
V tucks: 3 x 20
Medecine ball twists: 3 x 40
3 x 30 second planks

Monday, March 27, 2006

outside | 4.25 miles | 40:22 | 9:30 min/mi (6.3mph)

3 degrees, feels like -2, winds 24 km/hr with gusts 37km/hr

I will consider this a tempo run since I was running with my sister whose pace is a bet faster than mine (at times..). It was windy, and there were 2-3 long hills on this route. One was grotesque. I never noticed how hilly it was around here until I started running again!

Sister and I are both unhappy that we were so slow. I felt good on the hills, I kept my pace .. sped up even.

I hope the Garmin will help me work on speed, I'm sure it will. I can't wait to try the interval work outs and design some of my own. C'mooonnn Garmin, hurry up and get here!

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Upright rows: 3 x 10 @ 30 lbs
Shoulder press on ball: 3 x 10/10/8 @ 15 lbs
Rear lat raises: 3 x 10 @ 20 lbs

Dumbell curls: 3 x 10 @ 20/17.5/17.5 (some GUY stole the 20's :p)
Concentration curls: 3 x 10/arm @ 12.5 lbs

Skull crushers: 3 x 10 @ 30/30/20 lbs
Tricep dips off a bench: 3 x 12

Twisted incline situps: 2 x 10
Leg lifts off decline: 1 x 10
Lever crunch: 3 x 10 @ 70 lbs

30 minutes Cybex, hill intervals, level 7

Can't wait for the Garmin to get here!!

Hip is still a little sore from yesterday's run, knee is fine and foot is 95%.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

New techie toy

After a day of deliberation and research, I decided to make a purchase today.

I bought a Garmin Forerunner 301.

I have wanted a GPS speed & distance system for years. I remember oggling at the Timex GPS system when it first came out but know I'd never afford it. I guess I wasn't thinking about the fact that technology decreases in price as soon as a new and improved model is released. Which is what happened here.

The GF301, which tracks speed, distance, heart rate, and elevation was replaced by the GF305 earlier this month. Much to my advantage! Unwilling to fork over $430 CAD for the 305, the 301 seemed like a steal for $230 CAD.

Mind you, it's not perfect. The Polar S625X surpasses the 301's HRM capabilities- but not enough for me to consider spending an additonal $100 on the Polar.

There has been debate over which is more accurate- GPS technology or Foot Pod inertial technology. I can't see myself being comfortable with wearing the foot pod, so again, GPS won out here.

I may be spending a lot more time running once I get this gadget. It's a runner's dream. I think it also appeals to us scientific runners- the analytical type. I am super excited to be able to monitor all this stuff, excited beyond words. Like, I can figure out from my time and heart rate which type of fuel source I am burning. I can design interval runs customized to my own heart rate. There are even sample work outs that come with the computer software!

Did I mention it comes with computer software? Yep, well you can read the website for a full list of what it comes with.

I can't wait to run with it!
outside | 7.25 miles | 1:18:22 | 10:54 min/mi

Weather network said 0 degrees celsius, 4km/hr winds. I think it was warmer, maybe 3 degrees.

So. This morning we meant to run 10km and then ended up messing up the route, taking a detour and adding an extra mile on to the route, so this is my longest run ever! Probably also one of my slowest too, but still far. That's like 800+ calories. Not that I care, but that's a lot. It was a nice run, down along the water and through the city. I ran with Beth and Lindsey.

I also went to the farmer's market and got some chicken curry and rice for lunch. Mmmmmm.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Legs
Standing hamstring curls: 3 x 10 @ 25 lbs/leg
Walking lunges: 3 x 10 @ 20 lbs
Leg extensions: 3 x 10 @ 60 lbs
Calf press: 3 x 12 @ 90 lbs
Adductors: 3 x 10 @ 130/130/150 lbs
Abductors: 3 x 10 @ 130/130/110 lbs
Plie squats: 3 x 10 @ 10 lbs

Abs
Side bends: 3 x 10/side @ 22.5 lbs
Medecine ball toss/sit-ups things with a partner: 3 x 10 @ 3/4/5 kg
Bicycles: 3 x 20

Out of curiosity today, I took my measurements- which I never do, but with all this strike business I've been pretty bored.. so I did. They are the exact same from when I was 16. I'm not sure how this is possible. For one, I have been working out more in the past couple of years than I ever have in my life. No change? Weird. As well, last time I took the measurements I weighed 7-8 pounds less than I do now. Also weird. I'm not complaining, it's not a bad thing to have maintained my size over the past 4 years. In fact, it's a good thing. It's kind of cool that my body is the exact same size as it was 4 years ago. Go consistency!

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

6 km fartlek with the running club this morning. 1 min fast, 1 min easy, 3 mins fast, 3 mins easy, 5 mins fast, 5 mins easy, 3 mins fast, 3 mins easy, 1 min fast, 1 min easy. Beth and I stopped following the pyramid after the 5 mins easy. We were pooped, there were hills. Good run!

outside | 3.6 miles | ~34 minutes (maybe less) which would be 9:28 min/mi

Winds 15 km/hr, -1 degrees celsius, felt like -6


Note to self: Bring iPod next time do you can time the run.

Aiming for 6-7 mile endurance run on Saturday, knees permitting.

Monday, March 20, 2006

outside | 3 miles | 28:57 | average pace: 9:39 min/mi

With the wind chill it felt like -11 degrees celsius with winds 30 km/hr. COLD.

My time includes a 2 minute stop at a traffic light, which when deducted, gives me an average pace of 8:58 min/mi which seems more accurate since I was going fast so I could get home and out of the cold!

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Chest flyes on the ball: 3 x 10 @ 20 lbs
Chest press on the ball: 3 x 10 @ 30 lbs
Lat pulldowns: 3 x 10 @ 70 lbs
Seated rows: 3 x 10 @ 40 lbs
Stability ball passes: 3 x 8/8/6
Crunches on stability ball: 3 x 10 w/ 2kg med ball

20 minutes Cybex, hill intervals

Saturday, March 18, 2006

First race of the season!

Woke up early this morning after a night of drinks and dancing (oops..) to go to my first race since injuring my knee in July 2004.

I got to the UPEI student union builing, met up with Erin, registered and got my bib number put on, and then we chatted with Julie until it was time to go. The sun was shining, it was -6 degrees celsius and only a light wind.

We all lined up, the gun went off, and away we went. It had snowed over night so the sidewalks had a light dusting of snow over them. The first mile felt easy, so I pulled in behind another girl who was keeping the same pace as me. I kept with her for the next mile but she took off at the last half mile or so. I trudged up the final kilometer (uphill) and picked up my pace for the last 200m or so (again, could have done this earlier). I felt wasted as I was going up that last km but immediately after I stopped I felt fine, which leads me to believe I could've pushed harder. But all in all, it was a good run, I finished 39/63 and 16th overall female with a time of 30:19 for 5.4km (3.4 mi)

Here are my results:
Pos. Runner's Name Sex # Age Race Time Pace (Min/Mile) Pace (Min/km)

39 Bria Brown Female 219 20 30:19 9:02 5:36

Friday, March 17, 2006

Dumbell shoulder press: 3 x 10 @ 25 lbs
Upright rows (bar): 3 x 10 @ 30 lbs
Rear lat raises: 3 x 10 @ 20 lbs
Tricep dips: 3 x 10 @ 50/70/70 lbs
Tricep kickbacks: 3 x 10 @ 20 lbs
Dumbell curls: 3 x 10/10/8 @ 20 lbs
Concentration curls: 3 x 10/arm @ 12.5lbs
Twisted incline situps: 3 x 20

treadmill | 1 % incline | 2.00 miles | 20:04
treadmill | 1% incline | 10 minutes walking

Did intervals on the treadmill.. pretty sporatic. First 0.25 miles at 7.5mph (8:00/mi), then various 1 minute intervals at 7.5mph or 7.0mph (probably 6 or so). Walking and light jog in between.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

My weight routines have been pretty disorganized lately. I am going to change things up, I think a 2 day split would be most feasible for me right now. Running outdoors is awesome, but if means I don't go to the gym as often and therefore don't lift weights as often. I am at the University gym Wed & Saturdays for running club so lifting weights after those runs is also an option. I think I will try a 3 day split, and if it doesn't pan out, I can move to a 2 day split.

Day I - Chest & Back
Bench Press
Chest flyes on stability ball
Lat Pulldown
Seated Rows
Hyperextensions
Crunches w/ medecine ball on the stability ball
Stability Ball Passes

Day II - Legs
Leg Extensions
Calf press on a step
Walking Lunges
Standing Hamstring Curls
Plie squats
Hip Adductions & Abductions
Weighted Side Bends
Bicycles

Day III - Shoulders & Arms
Dumbell shoulder press on stability ball
Upright Rows
Rear Lat Raises/Rear Lat Row (forget if the gym has one of these machines)
Tricep Kickbacks
Skull Crushers
Dumbell Curls
Concentration Curls
Twisted Incline Situps
Lever Crunches

As well, since I am in prime procrastination mode right now, the road runners just released their 2006 race schedule, so here is a list of races I hope to run this spring/summer/fall.

March 18th (Saturday) - St. Paddy's Day 5K
April 15th - Dairy Queen Bunny Hop 10K
May 6th - Proude's Shoes 5K
May 20th - Colonel Gray SAAD Run 10K
June 3rd - PEI Parks Trail Run 10K
June 24th - Deltaware Systems 5K
August 5th - Mt Edward Grocery 5 Mile Run
August 18th - Gold Cup 5K Trot
Sept 9th - Banks Financial Group Inc. 5K Charity Fun Run
October 15th - PEI Marathon??? I'm hymming and hawing, we'll see how my knee holds up. It is the day before my birthday and I always wanted to run a marathon before I turned 21........

So that looks like a lot of races, but they're all small so it's okay. :)
Another run with the running club this morning, Erin and I were the trailers and I eventually went on ahead of her.

outside | 3.4 miles | Time = I have no idea, 32 minutes? | 1 degree celsius, FL -4 | winds 20 km/her

We ran the route for Saturday's 5K race. It was pretty good, but my legs took a little while to get warmed up and the roads had a lot of icey patches. There is a hill at the last kilometer, which was fine. I picked up my speed for the last 200m or so, and I think I could do that earlier during the race. We'll see!

Monday, March 13, 2006

outside | 3.1 miles | 31:58 | winds 38km/hr with gusts 58km/hr | 5 degrees celsius, sunny

That was a windy one, but a good one! I took it slow and it was very enjoyable, I had mroe energy this time when I got to the big hill at the end of the route. Slow time overall, but I was treating it as an endurance run, it was windy, and there were hills so overall, I'm pleased. I'm hoping that running all of these hills will make for a satisfying time at Saturday's 5K race.
Total mileage for last week = ~14 miles

That is 4 miles more than the previous week, which is okay, but I really want to stick with only increasing my mileage by 10%/week so I don't hurt my knee. My knees were feeling a little sore yesterday after Saturday's 5 miles but I am confident they will be fine.

This week looks something like this:

Sunday - XT, upper body weights
Monday - 3.1 mi
Tuesday - Off
Wednesday - Running club endurance run (slow 5K, about 40 minutes)
Thursday - XT (aquafit?), leg weights
Friday - 2 mi, upper body weights
Saturday - 5K race

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Shoulders
Shoulder press (lever); 3 x 10 @ 25 lbs
Upright rows: 3 x 10/10/8 @ 30/30/40 lbs
Front raises: 3 x 10 @ 7.5/7.5/5 lbs

Chest
Bench flyes: 3 x 10 @ 25 lbs
Bench press: 3 x 10 @ 50 lbs

Abs
Side bends: 3 x 12/side @ 22.5 lbs
Stability ball passes: 3 x 8/8/6
(I did ball crunches and bicycles yesterday but didn't write them in here)

Cardio
25 minutes bike, level 11
20 minutes elliptical, random, level 11

Saturday, March 11, 2006

5 mile endurance run today, outside, 50 minutes (3 large hills) | 5 degrees celsius, NW winds 25km/hr with gusts 40km/hr

Great run. We kept the pace slow (I thought we were running slower than we actually were), and I felt very comfortable throughout the whole run, no problems. This was our first running club weekend run, so all of the groups met at the Univeristy gym and then we headed out on our separate routes. Erin, Lindsey, Beth Ellen, Bethany, and I all ran a route that I had mapped out on mapmyrun.com. We were fighting the wind for the first 1/4 of the run but it wasn't too bad.

Now it's fruit & yogurt time. Yum yum.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Lat pulldowns: 3 x 10 @ 70/60/60 lbs
Dumbell curls: 3 x 10 @ 20lbs/arm
Tricep kickbacks: 1 x 10 @ 12.5lbs/arm
Lying overhead tricep press(bar): 2 x 10 @ 20 lbs

Cardio

treadmill | 1% incline | 3.0 miles | 29:04
treadmill,walking | 1% incline | 0.3 miles

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Today was our first running club workout, it was really fun! There were 7-8 of us running, and I was challenged, so it was good. We ran 5-6Km (3.1-3.5 mi), that went something like this:

5 minute warm up *stretch*
5 minutes run
3 minutes slow jog
5 minutes run at a slightly faster pace with 3 * 10 second surges
3 minutes slow jog
5 minutes run at a slightly faster pace 2 * 20 second surges (I only did two, rest of the group did 3)
5 minute cooldown

I was pretty fatigued by the end, but that leaves me room for improvement. Adjusting your pace while running in a group is always a challenge because we tend to want to run together. I had a really good time though, and I'm really excited because I know running like this will help me improve my pace and endurance.

We're going to be running as a group again on Saturday, which will be more of an endurance fun run.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Legs
Walking lunges: 3 x 10 @ 20 lbs
Standing hamstring curls: 3 x 10/leg @ 25 lbs
Calf raises: 3 x 12/leg
Leg extensions: 3 x 10 @ 60/50/50 lbs
Tibia press thing: 3 x 10 @ 20 lbs
Plie squats: 3 x 10 @ 10 lbs

20 minutes Cybex hills, level 7
10 minutes treadmill @ 4.0 mph

Sunday, March 05, 2006

looks like a good day to run, wide open down a two lane highway, it's about time that some things went my way*

First outdoor run of the season! Today was the perfect day, a great temperature for running. I did a new route and it turned out to be much hillier than I had anticipated, so I was happy with my time considering that factor. About 75% of the run was uphill, with the steepest hill being about 1/2 mile at the end of the run. I felt like I was running up the canyon. I am running a 5K race next Saturday, and the weather looks like it will be above 0 degrees for the rest of the week so I will get another outdoor run in on Wednesday most likely.

Outside (3 degrees Celsius)| 3.13 miles | 29:34 | 9:27 min/mi (6.4 mph).

Saturday, March 04, 2006

60 minute spin with leg work on the bosu & squats

Friday, March 03, 2006

Back
Lat pulldowns: 3 x 10 @ 70 lbs
Seated rows: 3 x 10 @ 40/40/35 lbs

Abs
Lever crunch: 3 x 10 @ 70/70/50 lbs
Stability ball passes: 3 x 6
Stability ball side bends: 3 x 10/side

Biceps
Concentration curls: 3 x 10 @ 12.5 lbs

Triceps
Overhead press: 3 x 10 @ 12.5 lbs

Chest
Bench press: 3 x 10 @ 50 lbs

Cardio

treadmill | 1% incline | 4.0 miles | 39:34 | 9:50/mi. (6.1mph)
treadmill cooldown | 1% incline | 5 minutes walking | 2.5 - 3.5mph

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Still not feeling 100%, so did a slow run.

1 | 8:38
2 | 12:24 | 21:02 *Forgot to hit "lap", this time accounts for 2 laps into mile 3
3 | 9:17 | 30:19 *time for 7 laps
4 | 9:57 | 40:16
---------------------------
track | 4.0 miles | 41:16 | 10:05/mi. (6.0mph)
treadmill, walking | ?? | 5:00 | 4.0mph

Weights:
Hammer curls: 3 x 10 @ 15 lbs
Tricep overhead extensions: 3 x 10 @ 10 lbs
Planks: 1 x 60 sec, 1 x 30 sec, 1 x 20 sec