Week 5 of Half Marathon Training (1.7-1.13)

Previous Summaries

Planned Mileage: 2, 5, 2, 10 (for a total of 19 miles)

Monday: I did a tempo run. I almost didn't do it but went at the last minute before daylight and before I had to get to dinner. I have been a real slacker lately and haven't done a long run in probably a month. The tempo run said to do 5 miles so I set out to do it. I wasn't sure if I'd make it. I wanted my warmup and cooldown miles to be roughly 10 minutes. Then the middle 3 miles should have been at 9:04 pace. I thought there was no way that I would meet that. Well because my third mile was a lot quicker, I was able to do it in 9:06. That's pretty close. I can't believe how sore my legs were all evening after. I started out trying to get 9:04 or slower instead of making my normal mistake of doing the first mile in a tempo run insanely fast then being insanely slow on the third mile. 

After dinner Dave and I went for a short walk. A few hours later I did an ab workout.

Tuesday: I woke up bright and early to run with Brian. We met at 8:30 and ran at Bay Trail.  It was so foggy that he never got to see any of the nice views. I guess we have to go back next time. Brian is in town from Texas to give training so we felt like we had to run together.  Normally Brian runs with a running group at an 11:30 pace. 

We walked at 2 miles so Brian could take off his jacket and we walked a few extra steps.  We ended up walking .09 because of that. But not bad for the 6 mile run. The app Brian used on his phone said we ran 6.11 miles.  

My legs were feeling it from my tempo run the day before. I'm not used to speed. I'm not used to running two days in a row. And I'm not used to running 5 miles or more so it was all a bit of a challenge. 

Wednesday, 1/9: Since I did Body Pump Tuesday, lifting was out. Dave and I went to the gym and I did 30 minutes on the elliptical. Running was also out because I ran 3 days in a row and needed a break. I didn't go all out on the elliptical because I didn't want to fatigue my legs too much. I'm shocked at how little I was sore throughout the day; I thought Body Pump would have made me super sore. 

Thursday: I took a rest day. I mainly did that because my BodyMedia Fit armband wasn't working and I couldn't handle not having data. But I also did need a rest day. (I ordered a new armband. I have had this one for over 3 years.)

Friday:  I ran to Hilary's, then ran 3 miles with her, then ran home.  Our pace wasn't even that fast but it was a struggle for me. I had trouble keeping up.   A few hours later we biked to google and walked around and had smoothies then biked home for a little over 14 miles.

Saturday: Dave and I went to Bay Trail to bike the loop and take some running pictures.  We only stopped once for pictures and didn't do the entire loop. It was too rocky so we decided to go elsewhere.  Then we went to Guadalupe River Trail and biked 8.8 miles there. 

Sunday:  Dave and I biked to and from the trail opening for a little over 4 miles.  Since this was a different spot to get on the trail Dave wanted to bike it before he had to do it for work.  Then a few hours later I went for a run. I wanted to run 8 but all week figured I'd just do 7. Then as the day went on and I didn't run, I thought I'd just do 4.  Then I curled up in bed when I was about to go so I figured maybe I'd just do 2 before it got dark.  I ended up squeezing 3 miles in. 

Total Running Mileage: 18.66 mi (I actually had to limit running because I would have gotten way too many miles.)
Total Biking Mileage: 30.56 mi
Total other things: a few walks, biking 3 times,  2 core workouts, Body Pump once.

Summary: The weekend was a lot for me. My legs were constantly tired. Biking feels easy while doing it but since I'm not used to it, it's tiring out my legs more than I ever imagined. After Tuesday, I was limiting my running knowing I'd run Friday with Hilary and run on Sunday. I was afraid I'd get too many miles and also get injured for increasing too much. I still may. But this mileage should be closer to what I'm doing. Also 3 miles was the shortest which is pretty good for me. I really slacked off with the weight lifting this week. I should have done arms and back. I'm glad I didn't really do legs besides Body Pump. Now that I have a bike, it's so much easier to get multiple workouts in one day. Also now that I have a bike we leave the house to go biking instead of leaving the house to go to a restaurant so it's better for our health. 

1.4

Poly woke me up. She wanted me to scoot a little to my right to give her some room to sleep to my left.  I did but then I was stuck there with her. I read emails on my phone for a bit. Then I managed to reach my iPad and I played games.  Finally she got up so I went and got my laptop. I don't know why but I climbed back in bed. I think I liked the warmth of the afghans.  Well next thing I know, Poly is back cuddled up with me.

I finally got out of bed at 1 and made toast and had spaghetti sandwiches again. Now I'm out of leftovers.  I cleaned  up the living room. I put in laundry. I cleaned the bathrooms. I read facebook. I was mostly productive. (The top picture is from January 2.)

As soon as I put the load in the dryer, I headed to the gym. I specifically didn't plan to run because my calves are still bothering me.  I read while using cardio equipment. I didn't even finish a chapter. I don't like long chapters.  I thought the dryer would be done so I was only gone for 45 minutes.  The dryer wasn't done. I continued to read.  I started with 10 minutes on the elliptical. I was thirsty and it doesn't have a pause so then I decided to switch to the bike. I did 20 minutes on the bike. I was surprised how sweaty my tank top was when I was done with that. I decided if I ran on the treadmill for only a half mile that would help my mileage goal for the month a little but not kill my calves and if I was reading, I'd be running slow so I decided to run a half mile.  Granted with that half mile now I've run 7.2% of the miles I need for the month but we are 12.9% of the way through the month.  I added 2 new columns to my excel spreadsheet to keep track of those percentages. OK actually I added 4 columns. 1 with the running total of the miles I ran, one with the day in the month because I didn't a better way to do it, then the two with the percents calculated based on the other new ones.

I used my computer until Dave got home. We were about to head to the gym when my mom wanted to know if we wanted to do a Google+ Hangout with my aunt. We did that. I think we were talking over an hour. Then we headed to the gym.  The gym was way less crowded.  It took us 10 minutes to walk over. I lifted weights for 39 minutes. After Dave said we were done and I was leaving, I hit split and realized it was 39 minutes. I should have just gone another minute to make it an even 40.  We sure walked slower on the way back. Dave was exhausted.  I continued to time it. I stopped the timer when we went in Boudin's to get Dave a sandwich. Man they took FOREVER. We even saw his sandwich done and sitting there for many minutes before they even looked at it to get it to him.  I also stopped the timer when we went in Trader Joe's. We went for Cookie Butter but also got pub cheese. They only had crunchy cookie butter. Dave asked someone there and they are out of it and don't know when they will get it in.The guy in front of me bought 3 gars of the crunch cookie butter. The cashier knew we were talking about the blue lid cookie butter when we mentioned they were out of the normal one. She seemed shocked.  I guess everyone loves Cookie Butter. Perhaps it was my post raving about it :) (Probably not since that post only had 35 hits but I can pretend.) Our walk home took 11 minutes so my second workout was an hour.

We watched TV when we got home and finally had dinner. I made Jack Daniel's BBQ pork. I love that stuff.   Poly hung out with me while we watched TV.

1.3

Sweater: Limited, Pants: JCP, Boots: DSW, Earrings: Target, Necklace: Gifted (NY&Co.), Belt: Kohl's
Jacket: Armani Exchange, Purse: Target

Tank: Target (I got too hot after shopping)

I was getting my camera set up to take my daily picture and Poly climbed up on the counter. I yelled at her and instead of getting down she just rubbed her head off the counter. She showed me who was boss.

I walked to Safeway because I had no bread to be able to eat spaghetti toast. I had a list but it only had 5 things on it. I wanted to buy more but I just didn't know what to buy. I spent some time updating my files for 2013 and entering outfits in my clothes database.

Between taking my daily photos without and with a coat Poly sure wanted to go back out with me.

My calves were still bothering me but I still wanted to get a run in before dark.  I also wanted to nap.  Somehow I found myself under 2 afghans. I decided to play some donut popping but set the timer on my phone just in case I napped.  I set it for 30 minutes then reset it for 10 more after the timer went off.  I never did nap and I actually went for the run just before dark. I got in 4 miles and probably had 3 more minutes of it being light enough outside to run without it being dangerous.

Dave said it was rest day so we weren't going to the gym so I decided to do abs, foam roller, and some body weight exercises for my legs. I stopped doing that when Dave came home with dinner.  We had McDonald's.  I wanted snacks after but nothing we had was appealing so I didn't snack.  Then I spent all evening cropping pictures, blogging, photo editing, making collages, and reading facebook.

Poly was quite the annoying cat once it got late. I think she tries to tell me it's bed time.  I went in to bed a little after 1 and played Donut Popping and then Solitaire until after 2:30. (oops)

1.2.13 - Cleaned

Dave woke me up after I fell asleep on the couch. I had enough sleep for a full nights sleep but still went back to sleep. Poly slept with me. When Dave woke up, she visited him. Then he left, and she came back and we slept for 2 hours.  I got up and my calves were so tight. I knew that calf machine that I never used before would do me in.

I took some pictures of our messy apartment before cleaning to actually show what the difference was.  Usually Dave doesn't notice.

I cleaned up the kitchen (see bottom right picture in collage) and did a few things on my computer. Before I knew it, it was 4 PM. The day sure flies. I had all these intentions to actually get stuff done once Dave went back to work but I slept past 10AM so that took up a lot of my day. Also I woke up and was replying to emails and that took until 11 AM.

While Dave was home, the kitchen and entire apartment became a mess. When he's home, I clean less and it gets messier. He makes a mess too and I don't feel like taking the time to clean it up when he's there.

As soon as Dave got home we headed to the gym. We walked over and back even though he wanted to drive over. While leaving there were many cars in the turning lane to get into the parking lot. We would have been stuck waiting if we drove.  We only did weights because our leg muscles are sore from yesterday.

On our way back we stopped at Boudin's so Dave could get dinner. I had leftover spaghetti.  We watched Rachel and Lawrence. Dave was exhausted after the gym. (Just look at him sit in that chair.) Then it was computer time. I sporadically jumped between cropping pictures, blogging, and making new 2013 exercise files. Oh and playing some games like minesweeper randomly in the middle there.  After I was done at my computer, I played games on my iPad in bed. I stayed up too late but by comparison it is nothing like how late I was staying up back in September and October.

1.1.13

Jeans + Sweater: Limited, Boots: Famous Footwear 

(I got dressed in real clothes because I thought we'd leave the house but then we didn't.)

I started off the new year with Dave waking me up early. Not only did he just wake me up early but he woke me up to go to the gym.  He went to sleep at 10 PM on NYE so he was up early just like any other day.  We headed over to the gym. I barely wanted to go since I had a cold the day before. I sort of still had it. I ran a half mile on the treadmill. He used the elliptical. Then we both did weights for our legs. I documented what I did in notepad on my phone. I spent 29 minutes lifting and then said I should have gone another minute to make it an even 30.  We walked there and back even though Dave was going to drive. It took us 8 minutes to walk back. We went in Panera for bagels but I paused the timer during that. (Poly poses for a daily picture when she sees me setting up my camera.)  

Since I didn't get to do a core workout there I did that as soon as I got home. I like to always do a core workout each time I lift weights. I also have to do a minimum of 5 minutes of abs or it doesn't count.

I wanted to load my data from my BodyMedia fit and realized my armband wasn't collecting data for 2 days. I was so disappointed by this. (I was using my computer and after awhile I looked away from exactly at the screen and realized Poly was there staring at me.)

After we ate our bagels, we went for a bike ride.  We rode to google and back for a little over 14 miles.  We were slower closer to our house since that is where the traffic was. Around google there were no cars and in the middle we were on a trail so that wasn't bad.  Dave's legs got really tired by the end. I said when he bikes to work he will have 8+ hours in between his rides so he gets time to rest. We only stopped for 2 minutes.

We watched some TV after we got back and looked at our data.  Then I made dinner.  I made Dave raviolis and me angel hair. I love angel hair and he does not. He likes sausage raviolis and I do not so it works out well.

After we ate, Dave and I watched Fringe for awhile. Then he was done with TV and I watched for a few more hours. I got caught up on Private Practice (2 episodes), Parenthood (1 episode), Mob Doctor (2 episodes) and New Girl (1 episode). I played Donut Popping almost the entire time. I did end up falling asleep on the couch. I didn't quite want to go in to bed so I put on Pawn Stars just to play a little more on my iPad and guess I ended up falling asleep. Usually if I fall asleep on the couch, I'll wake up after a couple hours but here I did not. I ended up not waking up until Dave woke up for work and came walking out of the bedroom wandering what was up. He woke me up and turned off the TV then.  I went back to sleep. Oh Poly slept cuddled up with  me the entire time.

2012 in Review

My friend, Jen, did a 2012 in Review post and I liked it, so I decided to do one.

In January, I had a Christmas party with my friends.  I got my first root canal. The tooth was fine until the dentist claimed it needed to be filled. When he did that, he ruined my tooth and I'd be in so much pain. The root canal helped though. I blogged about how I blog for me. I fell down trying to get up my snowy driveway and then had Dave take my picture. I made a post on life and things I wanted to do to better myself and I still haven't done them. I also ran 2 5ks.

In February, I toured Beaver Valley. My hip and knee also started hurting just like they did in Spring 2011. I was told by a physical therapist to rest and I said that wasn't going to happen because I had a 20 mile race that weekend. He told me I had Trochanteric Bursitis. I also ended up running the 20 mile race. I was going to stop at 10 miles and then stop at 15 miles but I ran it all.  I even ran the following day.

After laps 2, 3, 4, and 6

In March, I ran a 50k. Man that was so exciting. Now looking back, I find it even more impressive. I didn't train like I should have and I still did it.  And I was still injured during it all. Then a few weeks later I did a 30k. I did so much better than in 2011.  I also bought my first pairs of skinny jeans. (This may not seem like a big deal but it was for me.) I also took race photos at a race since I was running so many races and didn't want to run yet another. Some people even complimented me. One person thanked me on her blog. The race director actually emailed me asking if I could take photos again this year.

In April, my stress and weight loss started.  Dave and I traveled to California for Dave to interview at Google. Jen and I had professional running photos taken in Erie.

In May, I ran the Pittsburgh Marathon while still injured.  I wrote and gave a speech on how running changes you. I not only ran the Mars Band on the Run 5k but I organized about 20 NA-YGN members on teams for it. Dave and I both gave our notice to work. My last day was May 31. We also put our house on the market. My parents had a nice going away party for us.

In June, we traveled to California to find a place to live. I ran a leg in the Laurel Highlands Ultra Relay. I got an award at work for all my hard work volunteering. We moved out of our house and to California but into temporary housing. Poly hated flying. Dave started at Google. Dave and I tried a lot of new and mostly scary restaurants.

In July, we moved into our apartment. I can't believe I live in California. I spent forever unpacking and trying to fit a big house full of stuff into a tiny apartment. I spent some time applying for jobs. I ran for the first time at Bay Trail.

In August, I missed out on a friends visit because I no longer live in PA (so I photoshopped myself into the picture). I had dinner with relatives of relatives. It was so fun to get out of the house and talk to someone besides Dave. I started doing nerdy things with my running files but didn't really think they were nerdy.  I finally got an interview. Too bad I thought it went better than those interviewing me did.

In September, I started watching TV nonstop. I started staying up all night and sleeping for about 2 hours starting after Dave woke up for the day. I'd go through an entire TV series in a week. I pulled a couple all nighters and I had only ever done 1 before in my entire life. I started gaining weight.

In October, I continued to gain weight and watch a lot of TV. I also continued to get yelled at by Dave for constantly watching TV. He even threatened to make it so Netflix wouldn't work in the middle of the night so that I would actually sleep. We found buyers for our house. (Well the realtor did.)

In November, I finished gaining weight but didn't seem to lose any of it. We closed on our house. We had to close later than expected because of Hurricane Sandy causing PA to be a state of emergency. I went rock climbing and had so much fun even though it was scary. I crocheted a baby afghan for my friend, Jen. I became far less depressed. My other friend, Jen visited.

In December, I bought some new jeans because I got too fat for most of my old pairs. I got pretty good at lugging a lot of groceries up to our apartment. We bought bikes. I couldn't afford to visit home for the holidays because plane tickets got insanely high. I started entering clothes in my new clothes database.

You can also look at my running in 2012 or my weight graphs posts for other information.

What are some highlights to your year?

I forgot to linkup last week so I'm linking this up to Katy's a week behind.

December 2012 outfits

12/7/12

Necklace: Charlotte Russe, Shirt: Ann Taylor Outlet, Blazer: NY&Co, Belt: Target, Jeans: Express, SHoes: Famous Footwear (I think. Mudd)

I have a few days I actually got dressed but didn't blog about the rest of the day so I figured I'd share those outfits.  These are from December.

12/13/12

Jeans: F21, Shoes: Famous Footwear, Shell: Express, Blazer: NY&C, Necklace: Lia Sophia, Purse: JCP

12/27/12

Necklace: Lia Sophia, Earrings: Target, Jeans and Sweater: Express, Shoes: Gifted

These outfits are nothing to write home about but they could be worse.

12.31

Poly slept at the foot of the bed... hogging. I stayed in bed a bit.  I used the computer a little.  I didn't feel well so I went to the couch. I was also freezing.

I covered myself in two afghans. Dave got out a hat and gloves for me. We watched some TV and I finally started to warm up.  Poly napped with me. I mean she napped beside me while I watched TV. I thought I might be getting a cold. I was sneezing almost nonstop and my nose wouldn't stop running.  I thought maybe I was getting sick to make it even worse that I was missing out on normal NYE fun.

We watched some more TV. I played some Donut Popping.  Dave went in to sleep at 10 PM!

Close to 11, Callie called me using facetime. We talked a bit. We played Catch Phrase. I look forward to NYE every year and love playing Catch Phrase. I like that they play without teams so you can guess whenever. This year they attempted to have teams. That was awful. Callie and I just guessed whenever. Granted I couldn't hear everyone and it'd blank out all the time and I'd loose video and sound for a few seconds every little bit. It was still fun.  Once Callie's phone died, Timmy called on his phone. But his speaker phone was awful so I couldn't hear anyone in the room... not even him. So we finally got off the phone. I think we were on a little over 2 hours. Apparently I was loud on the phone because it woke Dave up but then he went back to sleep.  I was playing Donut Popping most of the time I was on the phone.  I still got a couple Catch Phrase answers even though I couldn't hear most of the clues.

12.30

Outfit 1: To the mall and dinner
Shirt: Christmas gift, Pants: F21, Boots: Mudd from Famous Footwear, Earrings: Target (I got asked if I was a Steelers fan. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have left the house like that if I wasn't.)

Outfit 2: To Target
Sweater: Limited, Jeans: JCP, Boots: DSW  (I'm in different clothes because I was already in my PJs and then I didn't want to put on the same boots because I didn't want to try biking in heels the first time I bike on streets.)

Poly slept with me in the morning. She gave me quite the look when I attempted to get up. I did climb out of the bed on Dave's side of the bed to try not to disturb her. I got up when Dave woke me up to watch the Steelers.

Dave and I went to the mall and I went shopping. It took us forever to find a spot to park. I was rather intrigued to learn that the top floor of the parking garage connects with the roof of the mall and you park right over different stores. I'm not used to that. Even with that it was almost impossible to find a place to park. I think we spent 20 minutes.

We went to BJ's after shopping. Dave got a salad as an appetizer and I got mozzarella sticks. I let Dave eat one. Then we got our standard pizza but I forgot to take a picture of it. I did take a picture of how I dipped crust in extra sauce to try.

After Dark we went to Target. Dave needed to buy some connector thing. He claimed we had to ride our bikes.  That was an ordeal. We bike slow since we're new. It took us time to get them from our balcony to outside. I think it would have been quicker to walk. Plus when we walk, we can just bolt right across El Camino instead of going down to the corner. Then when we walk, we get to walk mostly on less busy streets. Man was I scared to death. I don't think I'm cut out for a bike.

After we got home, we watched some TV and then I used my computer. Poly was bothering me and bothering me. I put a blanket on the ground and got on the floor and she was loving it and me. She got so comfortable. I'd get back up to go to my computer and she was not happy so I decided it was bedtime. I took her into bed and put her down on it. I was going plugging in my phone and such. I expected her to move but she did not so I slept crunched up then finally squeezed my legs in. She slept that way the entire night. I finally got to stretch out when Dave woke up. I cannot believe she didn't get up.