Recap: HM5, Week 5 Training + Week 3 of Fit Abs

Let me start by saying, I had written 90% of this post and through some act of clumsiness, I hit the right combination of keys to"undo" what I typed, twice, leaving me with a blank form.  I tried to exit out quickly before saving, but it was too late and the blank page had been auto-saved.  So frustrating!

Week 5 of half marathon training.

7/18-24

3-5E

bike  +arms

core

1E/2F/1E

10 mi

17-19

I am glad this was supposed to be an easier week, because it was a hot one (as I'm sure everyone experienced for themselves or read about on facebook/twitter/blogs).

Actual:

7/18: 14.01 mi solo Bike Ride.  Easier to bike in hot weather than run.

 glamorous crooked helmet shot

Tried my first Honey Stinger waffle, I've heard a lot about them.  Tasted good...

but not really sure why they are worth eating while cycling, they seem to consist mostly of fat.

7/19: Arm stuff. 5 pound weight in each hand for all of the below (except pushup)--

• 2x20 chest press on stability ball
• 2x12 overhead tricep extension laying on stability ball
• 2x8 push ups on toes
• 2x12 lateral raise
• 2x12 deadlift --> upright row
• 2x12 bicep curl, each side
• 2x12 shoulder press

7/20: 1 Easy/3 Tempo/1 Easy (run I didn't get in from previous week). 5.44 miles
Goal pace for tempo miles was ~9:30-9:50; my pace for those 3 miles was 9:25-9:51.

7/21: 5.22 mile easy run in 97% humidity. blech.

7/22: 4.48 mile easy run.  Overnight low had been around 80. It was 84 when I ran at 7am.

7/23: Does pool volleyball count for something?  I felt it in my calves the next day after bouncing around the pool on my toes.

7/24: 6.95 mile bike ride w/hubs

I postponed my long run for the week until Monday 7/25 when it was supposed to cool off more.

Total Miles Run: 15.14
Total Miles Biked: 20.96

In case you missed previous half marathon training posts: 
Week 4 Recap
Week 3 Recap

Week 2 Recap

Week 1 Recap 

The Plan 

 Fit Abs Challenge -Week 3 Recap
(Fit Abs weeks run from Friday - Thursday)

July 15: 50 bicycle crunches, 40 oblique crunches, 30 v-sit twist w/5lb weight = 120 reps

July 16: 50 stability ball crunches, 1 minute plank, 20 insanity leg/ab reps (10 per side), 50 bicycle crunches = 130 reps

July 17: 50 oblique crunches, 50 regular crunches, 30 crunches with knees to the side (15 per side) = 130 reps

July 19: 75 stability ball crunches, 40 tucks = 115 reps

July 20: 50 stability ball crunches, 50 oblique crunches (reach for opposite knee), 60 v-sit twists with 5lbs & feet off the floor.  = 160 reps

730 reps for the week

2110 reps for Week 1 + Week 2 + Week 3

You Rule!

That's Yogurtland's motto.

After reading about Yogurtland on several blogs for quite some time, I looked them up online to see where the closest one was, expecting it to be states away.  Or at least up in NYC.

Imagine my surprise when I saw there was one not too far from my work!!  (By the way, the next closest one to New Jersey is South Carolina).

I made immediate plans to check it out.

Stalker photo from my parked car:

Upon stepping inside, I was instantly offered sample cups.

There were so many options!  You put whatever flavors (there were probably 20?)/ and how much frozen yogurt you want in your cup,  then you pick and scoop your own toppings from probably about 40 choices, anything from fruit to nuts to cereal to candy.  Then you weigh your cup and pay per ounce.

Back to the frozen yogurt-

I was drawn to the toasted coconut.  I tried the taro out of curiosity.  And I sampled dutch chocolate.  The taro was described as being similar to sweet potato flavor.  It wasn't bad, but it didn't wow me and I was already set on the coconut.  I paired the coconut with the dutch chocolate.

I added some almonds, coconut shavings, Oreos because they called to me, and strawberries so I could say I ate a fruit.

Five days later, my second trip.

I sampled the mango, the key lime tart, and strawberry.
I chose half mango, half strawberry.  Key lime tart was good, but very tart, and I wasn't feeling it.

For toppings, I added a variety of fruit including pineapple, kiwi, blackberries, and raspberries.

Delicious.  I'll be baaa-acccck!

Do you like frozen yogurt?

Have a frozen yogurt place near you?

Been to a Yogurtland before?

Recap: HM5, Week 4 Training + Week 2 of Fit Abs

This week was not quite according to my plan.

Plan:

12 mi  mid 4P

arms

1E/4F/1E

bike  +core

1E/3T/1E

away

away

23

Actual:
*Ended up not going away Friday-Sunday night as we had originally planned.

Monday July 11: Hills workout that I missed last week. 6 of them. It was hot.  There was much walking between the uphills.  It was in the 80s and sunny because I was lazy and waited til mid-morning to get off my butt.  I was supposed to find 6 hills that would take a bout 1 minute to run up. 

I spent anywhere from 1:07-1:45 running up 6 hills at a 8:49-9:24 pace.

Recovery was supposed to involve walking/jogging down the hill. I walked more because it was hot, and the distance of recovery was longer because I moved to a parallel hill for each uphill (I didn't want people to think I was wacky running up the same hill 6 times in broad day light.  I only run up and down the same hill repeatedly in the dark).

= 5.08 miles.

Tuesday July 12: sooo hot, wasn't thinking about running.  It was still 85 when I went to bed at 11pm the previous night.  No chance of getting cool enough for me to run even early in the morning.
(Note: These were my thoughts at the time...however at the time I posted this, it was even warmer :-p)

Thursday July 14: 12 mile long run including 4 pace miles (goal HM pace ~9:50).  The weather was PERFECT.  It was 65 when I started my run with low-ish humidity, and only 75 at the end, 2+ hours later.  Here are the numbers. and my explanation.

I really waffled on when to have that Espresso Love gu.  I had a banana before my run, and the first time I took a walk break just past 7 miles, I felt like I should have a gu, but didn't feel like I needed it.  After running for a little bit, I decided that I should probably have the gu after all, before I felt like I needed it since I'd be running for another 5 miles.

I was pleased that my running after the pace miles felt easy, but was actually faster than the first part of my run.  Sub-11:00 is faster than my typical easy miles.  I attribute it to the abnormally cool weather.

=12.27 miles

Friday July 15:
Super quick 2 mile bike ride to test out my tire pressure.

+ Arms
2x12 reps w/5# in each hand:

• lateral raise
• shrugs
• shoulder press
• deadlift to upright row
• tricep kickbacks, both sides
• forward raises <-- really hard!
• chest press on stability ball (also working glutes & hamstrings!)
• tricep extension on stability ball (also working glutes & hamstrings!)

2x14 w/5#:

• one arm row, both sides 
• only because I realized I went above 12, and I'm anal, so I did 14 for the second set.

Note: I wasn't nearly sore enough the next day, so I really should have done more reps or more exercises.

Saturday July 16: 3.76 mile hike with husband & pup.

Sunday July 17: 1 Easy/4 miles including 3x[4 minutes Fartlek, 3 minutes Recovery], 1 Easy

2 Easy miles.  Then my three little 4-minute bursts were .45-.46 miles each and at an 8:41-8:53 pace, according to my Garmin.  Recovery periods involved walking for 1-2 minutes, then easy run until it was time to run fast again.  1.2 easy miles for cool down.

= 5.17 miles.
 

Total:  Ran 22.52 miles

In case you missed previous half marathon training posts:
Week 3 Recap

Week 2 Recap

Week 1 Recap 

The Plan 

Fit Abs Challenge -Week 2 Recap!

July 8: 25 ab moves with legs (lay on back, legs straight in air perpendicular to ground, bend knees to chest extend legs out flat, parallel to ground, bring knees in to chest, extend back up in air) = 25 reps

July 9: 50 reg. crunches, 50 oblique crunches, 1 minute plank = 110 reps

July 11: 120 tucks = 120 reps

July 12: 50 v-sit twists w/5#, 50 reg. crunches, 50 oblique crunches, 40 insanity leg/ab moves = 190 reps

July 13: 100 stability ball crunches, 30 tucks = 130 reps

July 14: 1 minute plank, 45 crunches w/knees to left, 45 crunches w/knees to right, 45 regular crunches = 145 reps

720 reps for the week

1380 reps for Week 1 + Week 2

PS, I found out I won a prize from Week 1 of the Fit Abs Challenge!  Each week there is a prize for a randomly drawn participant of the challenge, and prizes were volunteered from various bloggers.  I won a Bondi Band from Toni at Running, Loving, Living.  I have never tried a Bondi Band, I'm excited to get it and give it a shot!

PPS, I changed the background of my blog to a lighter color.  It's nothing final: the birds aren't really relevant, but I wanted to at least test out the lighter background.  Only problem I have found is that the font color in some of my training charts is not visible as the font color did not change over in some of those pasted items.  Please feel free to comment on if that has improved readability, if you like it/don't like it, etc.

Why You Should Clean Your Camelbak

If you are like me, you may have seen this Camelbak Cleaning kit before and thought "why would I waste money on a a set of brushes to clean this thing."

Except one day when using your Camelbak, you might notice some funk in the middle of the tube.

It turns out funk is hard to photograph. 

But I digress. 

The funk made me think twice about that Cleaning Kit (the fact that I still had a credit at backcountry.com, and that they were offering free 2-day shipping for 4th of July weekend didn't hurt either).

The mouthpiece detached from the tube easily.  Once I got past the hard part (pulling the tube off of the "bladder"... needed the man of the house to do that for me.  Or, I just loosened it up for him.  Either way)  --the cleaning part was quite easy. 

 But also quite disgusting.

The above funk was obtained from the "delivery tube."  I ran hot water through both ends of the tube first, before swabbing it with the brush.  I stuck the brush in from both ends several times, washing the brush off in between, until the brush was finally clean when I pulled it out of the tube.

Ta Da! A clean delivery tube. 

(That's just water inside).

And that, my friends, is why you should clean your Camelbak.

(I used the larger brush to scrub out the bladder/reservoir but I think I have done a good job of opening it and allowing it to air dry in between uses and therefore did not produce any gross-ness from that cleaning).

Recap: HM5, Week 3 Training + Week 1 of FitAbs

5th Half Marathon, 3rd week of training.  Here was the plan:

7/4-10

10k?  or   11 mi

bike  +arms

1E/4T/1E  +core

1E/3H/1E

away

away

core

17 or 22

Here's what happened:

Sooo Monday, 7/4 it was really humid and had POURED the previous day, and after driving 8 hours back from Cleveland, I didn't want to get up at 7am, so I didn't go run the 10k.  I didn't run my 11 mile long run either.  But I did meet my friend from work for an easy run (which allowed us to take our time walking around the muddy spots from the down pour). = 6.34 miles

Tuesday, 7/5: I did not bike.  But I did do my Tempo Run that day since I didn't kill my legs the day before.  It consisted an easy mile for a warm up, then 3 tempo miles at 9:36, 9:35, 9:28, with .25 mile recovery periods, then about 1.2 miles cool down.  My goal pace range had been 9:30-9:50, so: success!
= 5.99 miles.

Yes, 5.99.  My Garmin died during my cool down.  Had I known, I would have run an extra .01 mile to make it even.


Wednesday 7/6  Just an easy 1.9 mile easy run with the hubs.  So easy, my average HR was 146.  That's low for me.  Especially when it's 75 (which actually, is pretty cool given the recent temperatures).

Then I did arm stuff:
All of the following with 5 pounds in each hand.
3x12 Deadlift --> Upright Row
3x12 Lateral Raise
2x12 Tricep Kickbacks (both sides)
2x12 Tricep Overhead Extension
2x12 Bicep Curl
2x12 Shoulder Press
10 chest pushups on toes.  I forgot to do more on knees.


Thursday 7/7: I did my long run for the week, 11.11 miles in 2:07.

I didn't love running 4 days in a row (but I was not in pain from it either) but I prefer to sprinkle in some rest days.  However, we left town at 7am Friday morning and returned late Sunday night, so I did that to get all my runs in.

Total: Ran 25.34 miles.

Fit Abs Challenge - Week 1 Recap

July 1: 75 reg. crunches, 25 v-sit twists w/3# weight = 100 reps
July 2: 60 bicycle crunches, two 1-minute planks, 30 oblique crunches = 110 reps
July 4: 5 Brazil Butt lift sequences from Ashely's Vlog, 50 v-sit twists with 5# weight, 60 bicycle crunches = 160 reps
July 5: 50 Tucks from Ashley's Vlog, 1 min plank, 30 reg. crunches, 30 oblique crunches = 120 reps
July 6: 40 oblique crunches, 30 bicycle crunches, 20 reg. crunches, 10 tucks, 1-min plank, 2-30 sec side planks = 120 reps
July 7: 30 crunches, 20 tucks = 50 reps

Abs Total: 660 reps

In case you missed previous training recap posts: 

Week 2 Recap

Week 1 Recap 

The Plan 

First (and Second) Green Smoothie

 A couple weekends ago I asked for suggestions on how to make my first green smoothie.

Spinach was my planned green, as we already had some in the fridge.  Thanks to those who responded!

Here's what I had on hand:

Sooo I started off with a handful of spinach.

I added most of a 6 oz container of Dannon plain Greek yogurt.

I topped it off with a handful of sliced strawberries.

To give my immersion blender something to work with, I threw in a splash of skim milk.

Verdict: a little too bitter.

I added 2 more strawberries, and a handful of blueberries.

Still a little bitter for my liking, I added 2 more strawberries and a splash of almond milk.

Not bad!  Not green either, but I promise it contains greens. Looks kinda like chocolate milk.

Final contents:

1 large handful of spinach
6 oz Dannon greek yogurt
1-2 oz skim milk
2 oz almond milk
1 handful of blueberries
8 strawberries


On Tuesday (July 5th) I made my second green smoothie which included:

-one overflowing handful of spinach
-two handfuls of blueberries
-about one small banana (frozen, cut into pieces)
-6-8 oz almond milk

No adjustments needed!  This one came out way more green than the last, but did not taste much like spinach at all.  It did taste very much like almond milk, blueberries, and a little bit banana (in that order).

 

While there are tiny flecks of blueberry skin and spinach bits, they didn't get stuck in my teeth (hooray!)

I feel like I eat enough leafy greens anyway, but this is a great way to squeeze some more into your diet.  Word on the street is that kale is good in smoothies too, maybe I'll try that next...

Have you ever made a green smoothie?  

If not, would you try one?

What's your favorite combination(s)?

Recap: HM5, Week 2 Training

A little overdue, but here was my plan for last week:

6/27-7/3

1E/2T/1E  +arms

5 mi PRO

bike   +core

10 mi    mid  2P

away

away

core

20

Monday - Tempo Run + Arms

Goal: 1 mile Easy, 2 miles Tempo @ 9:30-9:50, 1 mile Easy
Actual: 1 mile Easy, 2 miles Tempo @ 9:43, 9:06, 1.19 mile Easy = 4.19 miles

Arms:
3 sets of 12, Deadlift to Upright row, 5# in each hand
3 sets of 12, Shoulder Press, 5# in each hand
2 sets of 12, Lunge with Right Leg in front, with Bicep Curl (both arms), 5# each
2 sets of 12, Lunge with Left Leg in front, with Bicep Curl (both arms), 5# each
3 sets of 12, Lateral Raise, 5# in each hand
2 sets of 12, Overhead Tricep Extension, 5#
8 Chest Pushups on Toes; 2 sets of 10 chest pushups on knees

Tuesday - 5 Mile Progression Run

Goal: Start easy, build to about race pace (9:50ish) in second to last mile, easy final mile.
Actual: 12:10, 11:33, 10:42...half a mile @10:01, took a .1 mile walk break, half a mile @ 9:17, Easy/Cool Down of 1.27 miles = 5.42 miles

The brief walk break killed me.  But I had a serious cramp under my left rib cage and had been sucking it up for the previous mile.  If I hadn't walked it out, I wouldn't have been able to do that last half mile faster at all.  And I apparently overcompensated for the walk break!

Wednesday - Skipped the Bike, did Core Only

50 sec plank, 55 sec plank, 60 sec plank on forearms
3x12 back extension on stability ball
2x25 stability ball crunches
3x25 v-sit twist w/5lb dumb bell
2x50 bicycle crunches

Molly helped me by sitting on the end of my mat:

Thursday - Long Run

Goal: 10 mile progression run with 2 pace miles (9:47-9:55ish) in the middle
Actual: 4.34 easy miles, 2 Pace miles @ 9:21, 9:44, 4.12 easy miles = 10.46 miles

Then I didn't run/bike/etc. over the weekend.  While there was a lot of driving and eating and drinking, I wasn't completely sedentary: I did get in some walking and did random crunch-type things while we were out of town for Brother-In-Law and fiancee's bachelor/bachelorette outings.

 Alyssa would love this place.

 Coconut macaroon martini!  

Banana cream pie in the background.

In Other News: July 1st started the Fit Abs Challenge - 3000 reps in 35 days!

Friday

100 reps (various crunches) for the #Fitabs challenge

8 hours in the car

~1-1.5 mile walk

Saturday

110 ab reps: 60 bicycle crunches, 2 one minute planks, and 30 oblique crunches. 

~3 miles of walking

Sunday

~2 mile walk after sitting in the car for 8 hours. Surprised my legs still worked.

Week 2 Running Total: 20.07 miles

In case you missed previous posts:

Week 1 Recap 

The Plan