Exercise and Running Update

Two years ago I wrote about my exercise and running.  It's time for a generic update.   I have posted some specifics but not an overall summary.

This summer I had more time than I've had in the past.  The weather is better than it has been.  I wasn't injured.   And yet with all that I worked out a lot less than I have in the past.  I was working out 3-4 days a week with one of those days being a double workout.  My goal is 6 but I have to work up to 6 after taking some time off.  Once it hit fall, I started working out more. I would go through spurts of only working out 3 days in a week but mainly  I would workout 5-6 days. I rarely have 2 rest days in a row too. Once January hit, I joined 24 hour fitness and was able to attend Body Pump classes and use better machines so that made it easier to actually workout.

I keep track of everything I do in a google doc (screen shot above). I started this type of file over 2 years ago when a friend and I had a competition of who would work out longer each week.  At first I just had total time and total running mileage but in 2013, I added bike miles.   Sometimes I accidentally go a few days without marking anything down and I have to think about what I did. Sometimes I can't remember exactly so I highlight it. Sometimes I remember what I did but not how long it took so I highlight that. I usually end up with 1 highlighted cell a month.   I use this to create my monthly exercise goals post. I try to fill out those posts as the month goes on but usually go a week or more between updating it.   I try to document my weekly training posts as the week goes on because if I wait then I forget the details that I want to write about. Then later if I forgot, and I go back to reread, I am sad and wish I knew what else went on in my head.  I didn't used to count walking to stores but I realized that was exercise when I started getting sweaty so then I've been counting it ever since.

How do you keep track of working out? Do you have any suggestions for me?

I know I document my exercising in too many places. I also have a separate excel file with a Summary tab for all my runs with distance, time, who, where, when, type, and have it calculate a few things too. Then I have 1 tab for each run with my garmin data copied in. I also created one like that for biking but don't always update the tabs and just update the Summary.  I need to come up with some way to update 1 thing and have it update other files too.  I did create macros for my running file so I just copy and paste the garmin data and then run a macro to get the mile splits, best and worst split, average time, etc. I have to manually put in the date, time, weather but I realize I like that info so I put it in. Sometimes I add notes about what I wore based on weather because at the beginning of every season I seem confused as to what to wear to accommodate the weather so now I can just go back and check.

4.14

Dave and I went biking. We gave Poly a bath.

4.10

4.8

Google for lunch. The Mexican cafe is my favorite. Their cheese is awesome.  They have other foods that vary like burritos but I love the chips n cheese so much.

4.5

I made cut spaghetti. I love that stuff. It's so hard to manually break spaghetti and that is just breaking it in half.

Poly sure loves afghans. I have pictures of her on 3 afghans all in the same day!

Dave ate tortilla chips but left the bag on the end table. Then the wind blew and all the little crumbs came out. :( I of course had to take a picture.

4.2

I had leftover mashed potatoes for lunch.

We ordered pasta on amazon because stores stopped carrying it. Cut spaghetti is awesome. The package has 8 boxes so we have enough for awhile.

Poly likes us to turn on the water to a drizzle in the bathroom sink so she can play with it.

Exercise (4.15-4.21)

Previous Summaries

I haven't figured out what to train for next. I thought of marking this for the triathlon I'm considering in July. But then I thought about races that I might do before then. So I guess this week will be vague. I'm also torn because I've been a huge running slacker because my plantar fasciitis is still bothering me.

Planned Mileage: no specific plan but I kind of hoped for 10 miles before the week started.

Monday: I went to the gym with Dave. We walked there and walked back. I did legs at the gym.  I also did abs. I only did the machines but did 3 sets. I didn't do lunges or squats with the barbell like I sometimes do.  I used the arm bike for the first time since I went to physical therapy in 9th grade. I'm not sure of the official name but it's like an exercise bike but you use your arms instead of your legs. I officially did 7 minutes but I swear it took a couple minutes just for me to figure out the buttons and get the time to go. I did 1.38 miles in 7 minutes. Perhaps if I use it more, I can compare time/distance to see if I improve. When I was almost done but someone was on the last machine I needed, I went to use the rower. I used it for 2 minutes until the machine I needed was free. Total workout time was 54 minutes. (We were gone from home for 61 minutes so I'm not sure what I did that didn't get timed besides punching in but I guess I had to do something)

Tuesday: Dave and I went to the gym again. We walked there and walked back. I did arms at the gym. I also did abs. I didn't have time to do cardio. I'm pretty sure the timer was 1:05 for workout time but as I was stopping it, I accidentally cleared it.

Wednesday: I was so sore, I took a rest day.

Thursday: Dave and I went to the gym again. I did legs again. I also used the arm bike. This time I only did it for 3:30 and did .6 mi. Then I went on a treadmill and ran a half mile in 4:46. I ran at 7.0 mph but it took me forever to get the speed up to 7.0 from .5 because I had to use arrow keys to increase it. I was lightheaded for the 2nd half of the workout (the arm bike and the treadmill were the last 2 things I did). Total workout time 58 minutes. 

Friday: I went for a swim with Hilary. I lost track of my laps so many times. I think I did 40 laps (or lengths but I hear swimmers call lengths laps even though I'd think 2 lengths = 1 lap but what do I know).  It took 40 minutes to do that. Hilary was done a few minutes before me. My goggles hurt my eyes so bad.

Saturday: Dave and I went to Guadalupe River Trail and biked 10 miles. (57 minutes)

Sunday:  I ended up not working out. I did shop around target for over an hour. I woke up at 11 and it was already 77 degrees and felt like 87 so I decided it was too hot to run. I thought I might run in the evening but we went out to dinner so that didn't works o well. 

Total Running Mileage: .5
Total Biking Mileage: 10.02 mi (not counting arm bike mileage)
Total other things: a few walks, 3 weight sessions, 1 swim

Summary: I enjoyed getting back into weights but think I will start running and doing weights and just running less so I have time to do other things. 

4.1

I was afraid to believe anything anyone said or posted on facebook. I hate April Fool's Day.

I had salad for lunch. I had grilled cheese and mashed potatoes for dinner.  I watched TV. I played popping donuts.

3.17

Sweater: F21, Necklace: Lia Sophia, Jeans: Mudd (unsure of store), Shoes: Famous Footwear, Earrings: Target

I wanted to do something fun like go to the beach but we didn't. At least instead of sitting there watching TV, I watched TV and went through a big box that we never unpacked.  It was full of papers. I did a lot of throwing away and a lot of organizing. I had to rewind Saving Grace a few times and sometimes I just stood there watching key scenes but at least I didn't only watch TV.  Poly  helped. Well she got in my way. Close enough.  I found a piece of paper with how many of each kind of candy I made at one point. I wonder when that was from.

I finished the series Saving Grace. Seasons 2 and 3 were better than Season 1. I was surprised how they ended the series.

3.23 Hiking

Top: Soma, Pants: Delia's, Shoe's Famous Footwear, Blazer: NY&Co

Athletic Pants: Target, Jacket: Soma

I knew we were going to go hiking so I got dressed but put on a workout tank. (I can't remember what I did but probably ran to Trader Joe's or something.)

Dave and I went to Racho San Antonio and hiked up a mountain. We didn't hike as far as we originally planned.  Going up was a lot harder than going down. We got lots of cool pictures. (more pics below)

We spent hours hiking but I was sore for 2-3 days from it. I can't believe how much it made my glutes hurt.

On our way home we went to Ike's Lair.  I got meatballs and mozzarella sticks on my sandwich. I think there should have been another ingredient but I asked without it.  It's the first time I had mozzarella sticks on a sandwich but it was the 2nd time in a week Dave heard of it.

Recovery Week (4.8-4.14)

Previous Summaries 

Planned Mileage: none

Monday: I walked to Target to meet Dave after work. 

Tuesday: I took a rest day.

Wednesday: I went to the gym with Dave. We walked there and walked home. I lifted weights for my upper body for 32 minutes.

Thursday: I had another rest day I think.

Friday:  Dave and I walked to dinner. We went the roundabout way so to and from was 1.9 miles 

Saturday: I went for a quick run in the morning. I kept in short on purpose because of my toe and plantar fasciitis. My toe didn't bother me so much but my plantar fasciia did. I tried to run close to a 9:30 pace. 

The 2.33 mile run I normally do was only 2.3 with my old watch so I had to add on at the end to get to 2.33.

It was kind of nice running in the morning and getting it out of the way. It was cooler but still felt warm. It was fun to be home only 5 min after Dave woke up too. 

Sunday:  Dave and I went to Shorline to go for a bike ride. We rode a little over 7 miles. (My Garmin said 7.2 and Dave's Strava said 7.6).  It was pretty windy. Going against the wind was really hard. When the wind was behind us Dave said he was like a sail boat.

Total Running Mileage: 2.33 mi 
Total Biking Mileage: 7.2 mi 
Total other things: a few walks and 1 weight routine

Summary: I ended up taking more recovery than normal because of my pantar fasciitis and potentially a broken toe. I've had my toe wrapped.  It took until Thursday for it to not hurt almost constantly. Then on Sunday we gave Poly a bath and I didn't have my toe taped for about an hour and then it was pretty painful again and I went back to icing it a lot. It doesn't look broken but I'm not quite sure.  I'm not going to be anywhere near my mileage goal for the month at this rate. But I better get healthier now versus keep running and then getting injured for longer. 

3.31

Shirt: Google, Shorts: Unknown but I think Walmart in 2003 or 2004, Jeans: Mudd (2003)

I woke up and went to Daily Donuts. Dave and I walked.

I ate 2 donuts and watched some TV.  At 1, I went swimming with Wes and Hilary.  We went into the hot tub next.

When we were done, I showered then ate my other 4 donuts. I watched TV too.

Then at 7 Dave wanted to watch TV so I watched TV with him for a bit.

We watched Game of Thrones and I fell asleep before it was over. I was asleep before 10 then at 10, Dave woke me up to go into bed and go to sleep. I actually did.

4.4

Shirt: Loft (still one of my favorites after 4 years), Jeans: JCP, Shoes: Famous Footwear, Necklace & Earrings: Lia Sophia, Purse: Target

Because I stayed up until 7 AM, I slept until 11:30. The computer was still broken for playing mythTV.  It reboots automatically at 3 AM but I have learned from experience that if I'm watching TV at that time then it stays broken until Dave fixes things.

I went somewhere. I only know this because I took my picture walking down the apartment steps just in case I forgot to take my daily picture. It's amazing how even after a day I totally forget what I did.

Since I couldn't continue watching Smash, I went into the office and watched Hack while updating different files on my computer.

Dave had a work dinner so I made a grilled turkey and cheese sandwich for dinner. I also got to watch a lot more TV without getting yelled at since he wasn't home.  I thought we'd go to the gym after he got home, but he got home after 8 and I didn't feel like it anymore.

4.7

 

I woke up at 5:25 and got ready. At 6 I left for my race.  Then after I ran, we went for a walk on the pier.  Then we went to downtown Santa Cruz to eat lunch.

We ended up eating at an Irish Restaurant. There wasn't much Irish food since they had a brunch menu. I had pancakes, eggs, and bacon.  I got full and couldn't finish it all. It tasted very good though.

After I got home, I loaded my data. Then I went into bed to watch TV for a bit. I watched a few episodes then finally fell asleep. I took a 3.5 hour nap. I ended up only snacking for dinner. Then I watched more TV and went to sleep by midnight.

I was so tired from running the half marathon and from only sleeping for 2 hours.  Dave had wanted to watch TV with me or do things with me but I was so tired, I didn't do anything with him at all.

3.30

Shirt: NY&Co, Pants: F21, Shoes: Famous Footwear, Flip Flops: Lady Footlocker (I think. In 2003), Necklace: Limited, Earrings: Target

I slept in.  Dave made me get dressed to go to Trader Joe's to buy some food.  While shopping, I got weak and lightheaded.  We bought ingredients for Falafel pitas or something. Dave made it for me. He claimed if I saw him making it that I wouldn't eat it.

I had to rest and watch TV.   Dave and I watched Suits.

We went to Justin's to play games.  We had dinner at 7 PM then played Bang. We ended up staying until about 11:30 PM. That's pretty late especially for Dave.  Dave spent so much time not wanting to go and then he ended up having fun.

Dave had to wind down after getting home so we were both up watching TV until 12:30 or so. Then I watched TV myself until about 4.

Week 16 of Half Marathon Training (4.1-4.7)

Previous Summaries

Planned Mileage: 3, 3, 4, 13.1 (for a total of 23.1 miles) 

Monday: I took a rest day.

Tuesday: I took another rest day.

Wednesday: I went running with Hilary. We ran an easy 3 miles. Well that's what we set out to do but then we were running too fast. Hilary tends to do that. My plantar fasciitis was bothering me so we decided to do 3 miles instead of 4. I didn't tell her my toe was bothering me too. When we were at the traffic light waiting for the walk sign near the end of the run, I got lightheaded. 

Thursday: I had another rest day.

Friday:  I rested yet again. 

Saturday: I took another rest day.

Sunday:  I ran my half marathon.  Then I walked about a mile or so. (My Garmin said 13.06 but it was 13.1 on other people's Garmin's so I'm using that for mileage total.)

Total Running Mileage: 16.21 mi 
Total Biking Mileage: 0 mi (sad times)
Total other things: 1 walk

Summary: I was a big slacker. I wasn't a slacker because I was lazy. Well maybe because I was partly lazy. I rested a lot because my plantar fasciitis is bad. My foot is very swollen from that.  In addition to that, my left pinky toe is constantly painful. I wanted to be able to make it through my race as best as possible. 

3.29

jeans: JCP, Sandals: Kohl's, Shoes: Famous Footwear, Jacket: JCP, Shirt: Express, Necklace: Charlotte Russe, Bracelets: Gift from Sachi from India, Purse: Target

pics from before and after feeding cats

I watched a few episodes of Hack.
I had PB&J for lunch.
I walked to Target. It was the worst experience ever. There was so much traffic. It was so hot. I got so sweaty. I wanted to die. While crossing El Camino I did get whistled at twice.

I changed into my swim suit after I got back since I was so sweaty. I decided to check my email first. Well next thing I knew I was going to nap for 15 minutes. Then when that timer went off, I reset it for another 15. Repeat until it was 2 hours later. I got out of bed and changed into my running clothes then got back in bed.

At 5, Hilary and I went running.

I got home and messed with my Garmin. I showered then was out the door.

Dave came home and then we went to feed two of his coworker's cats.

Then we went to dinner. We went to a place that had fried zucchini. It looked more like mozzarella sticks.

We got home at 9:30 and Dave went right to sleep.  I messed with my Garmin more and couldn't get the data to upload at all. I manually typed in all 41 splits from the run. It'll probably eventually upload but I was afraid I'd do a hard reset and loose everything. I did a hard reset but then none of the buttons worked again so I couldn't tell what was what.

Running 10 miles sure makes me exhausted.  But I'm pretty sure I felt like the walk to Target was tougher on me than the 10 mile run.

3.28

I woke up and got my laptop and then just kept falling back to sleep dreaming about Chicago Fire.  I noticed a hole in my hoodie. I must have a sharp elbow because that's the second hoodie that's gotten a hole in the left elbow.

I got up to do some things on my to-do list. Too bad I didn't get out of bed until 10. I was using my computer all day. At one point I turned around and didn't even notice Poly until I got u. She was sleeping on Dave's chair.   At 11, I almost had lunch.  Poly even ended up back on the chair after leaving the chair for a bit. Then at 2 PM, I realized I hadn't eaten lunch.

I made a Stampin' Up card, I made collages from some pictures, I updated my word file for my Stampin' Up party, and dug in the closet to find the Stampin' Up Designer Series Paper.  I must have done more because it sure took a lot of time.

I ate macaroni and cheese for lunch. I love the TV dinner Trader Joe's macaroni and cheese.  I watched Monk while eating. It was the episode I started about 4 days earlier and fell asleep while watching.

At 4:15, I decided to watch some TV and decided to watch Psych. Then I watched Glee. Dave was home minutes after Glee ended.  We had McD's for dinner. We watched one episode of Suits. I wanted to watch more. Then we watched Rachel Maddow. Then American Idol.

We didn't to see who got voted off. Playing the recording kept pausing and it was too annoying. So we stopped and played on our computers.

After Dave went to sleep, I started a new TV series, Hack.

Santa Cruz Half-Marathon (4.7.13)

Well it started with only about 2 hours of sleep. Which is never good. It wasn't even good sleep.  I even said leading up the race that if I didn't sleep enough, I wouldn't run well.   I did try for more than 2 hours of sleep. I watched TV a little late but then was in bed forever trying to fall asleep. Races always stress me out.

Wes and Hilary picked me up a few minutes after 6 AM.  We got to Santa Cruz close to 7 AM.  It sure was nice not having to drive myself. When we got close, we had to sit in traffic because they were incredibly slow taking the parking lot fee.  I was originally trying to get Dave to go to the race but then I knew if I did, he'd complain a lot, make me drive, and then I'd also have the stress of trying to meet up with Hilary before the race so I stopped bugging him. I did tell myself that now I can get him to go to another race at some point.

By the time we walked to the start, we only had about a half hour to kill.  We picked a meeting place for after the race so we didn't spend forever looking for each other.   It was a bit chilly in the morning.

Hilary and I were running the half marathon that started at 8. Hilary's sister, Emily, was running the 5k that started at 8:30. I wish Wes ran a race but he did not. And he's really good too.

Hilary and I started together. We stuck together until the first water stop. At each water stop, I had to walk to drink water. Hilary would jog to drink the water so she'd get a little ahead of me.  Then I would  be about 20 ft behind her for what felt like forever.  I think I'd catch up after a mile but then a mile later there would be another water stop.

In total there were 6 water stations. Only 1 had Gatorade. The Gatorade was pink and tasted awful.   I definitely felt like there should have been more aid stations.

The weather was 55-65 degrees. I'm not exactly sure. But it was extremely sunny. I had on sunscreen and still got a sunburn on my face and shoulders. I might end up with raccoon eye tan lines if I keep getting burned like this. I kept hearing people talk about how the weather was great but there was no shade so I hated it.

The middle 5 miles were on trails. The trail wasn't that wide so I didn't like it. It was too hard to pass people or catch up to Hilary. She'd be 10 feet ahead of me but really far away.

The finish was on the beach. Some people talked about how awesome that was but I disagreed. Running on sand is a lot harder. That impacted my kick at the end. But then after you finish, you walk around to get food and water and you just constantly kick sand in your shoes. Then I fight with this sand for weeks and it constantly gets on my socks even though I think I get rid of it all.

I previously went to Santa Cruz to run about 7 miles of the course so we knew what we'd be getting into. Well it felt hillier during the race than when we went last time.

We started running way too fast. I told Hilary that but I didn't want to get behind her so we stuck together. After 3 miles we had 9:00 pace. After 6 we had 9:10 pace.  Each time I'd catch back up to Hilary, I'd give her updates on how much time we had left to run.  She'd tell me how her pace would be so slow and she wouldn't make it.  I would cheer her on.   With 2 miles left, I just couldn't keep up my pace. With 1 mile left, I thought I'd speed up but I ended up not doing that.  It was really tough. It was because I started out way too fast. Wes and Emily said it was nice that we were near each other because they could spot us out easier at the finish.

Originally my goal was 9:30 pace to 10:00 pace. I did do better than that but my recent long runs had a pace of 9:30 and a pace of 9:39. Most people say they do a lot better in races than long runs. I don't. I also get told I'm not exhausted enough after a race so I must not push myself enough.

My Garmin said 13.06. My garmin was right on par with each mile marker except between 7 and 8 it was .03 behind. Then I was .03 behind the entire way until the last .1.  Hilary's Garmin was right on at 13.1. I wasn't even running the tangents. Usually long races my Garmin is long not short so this was weird.

I didn't see anyone taking race photos. I saw a few random people photographing but they weren't photographing everyone. I'm a little disappointed by this. I want some pictures.

My plantar fasciitis was bothering me before we started. My toe was bothering me too. My shins started bothering me in the first quarter mile and hurt until about 6 miles in. I got a side cramp that lasted 2 miles. I wouldn't stop to try to get rid of it because I didn't want to lose Hilary. I was just falling apart. I wasn't sure what was wrong with my toe. I have been wondering if it's been broken but not enough to do anything about it.  When I got home, I showed Dave the bottom of my foot (like I do often) and he said "OH MY GOD!" and later admitted that it was the worst he's seen my foot. I've been showing him my swollen plantar fasciia when it gets swollen ever since I first got plantar fasciitis in June 2003.  I did take some pictures of it but it is really hard to capture. (My left foot is swollen too but not as bad. Note that bulge between my heel and ball of my foot. That isn't supposed to be there. I should have a good foot beside mine for a better comparison.

unofficial results

Well there you have it... my first race since moving to California. I want to do some 5ks but around here most races are longer. I want some local 5ks.

3.27

I watched Chicago Fire almost all day.

I went to Bay Trail to run with Hilary at 5:15.

I picked up Wendy's on the way home.

We watched Suits.  After Dave went to sleep I went back to watching Chicago Fire. I'm pretty sure I stayed up entirely too late. I only say pretty sure because my definition of too late has changed over the past year.