Spring-a-ling!

Finally got out for a lovely run! 10 degrees in the NCC today, so I decided to check out the trails. They were still snow-covered, but not too icy to tackle.

It felt great (ie: I didn't feel either pregnant or like I hadn't run in a long time), and I managed a fair-ish clip. Ran for 28 minutes and think I covered close to 5K. Looking forward to doing this much more regularly. I'm hoping that by quitting frisbee early (last game was this week, though we didn't actually get to play it), I won't screw up the cartilage that kept me from running through to nine months last time.

Also backpacked Tim both ways to nursery school, for a solid 9K of mileage today. :-)

Might also take up walking as a sport, to get me through those lower-energy days that are bound to happen. (Um, currently they are occurring every 3th day. But JesusMurphy is the 2nd trimester ever an improvement over the first. I'm actually capable of staying up until 10 pm now! Whoop!)

Prime day for a run

It seemed so beautiful out when I walked Tim to school this morning that I couldn't resist a run outside. I ended up with wet feet and cold ears. Ah well. It wasn't so bad, and I'd have gone further if I didn't have stuff to do (hosting book club here tonight: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Book club and wine club always seem to land on the same weekend!)

Anyway, it was an easy 5K (30 minutes), with 120 (slippery and precarious) walking lunges -- in sets of 20 with a few steps of rest between each.

If the snow keeps coming, my trails will be impassable -- for running shoes, anyway. In actuality, my Gatineau Park running trails will be transformed into ski trails. Maybe I should ask for x-country skis for x-mas? Or snowshoes?

Another rowing circuit

I think the title describes what my winter will look like, workout-wise. Luckily, aside from the rowing part, the possibilities are (almost) endlessly variable.

Today, four rounds of:

500 m row (average 2:08 min)
10 thrusters (45#)
10 sort-of-goblet squats (35#)

(I think with goblets you're meant to hold the dumbbell at your chest? I let my arms hang so the weight was between my knees - necessitated by the fact that I was using weights on a stick rather than an actual dumbbell. Likely reminiscent of the gym in Dar).

Finished with a set of 10 45# presses and an easy 2000 m row (< 10 min).

I didn't time the circuit (lost the g-damn watch again!), but worked through it all as quickly as possible (not counting the finishers). Rested about 20-30 seconds at the end of each round.

Yesterday, I opted for an hour of kid-free Christmas shopping rather than a workout, but had squeezed in a Sunday 5K (24:55 min) to make up for it.

We've also been playing a lot of Boing-Boing -- a game consisting of holding Tim under the arms and "bouncing" him from floor to ceiling (or off various pieces of furniture) seven or eight times while walking through the house before finally throwing him on the couch and collapsing there with him. That's gotta count for something, right?

migration

birds by the thousands. i assume from northern europe. mesmerizing... until the rains came. before all that, i ran another 5km in another 30 mins and it felt great.

did an hour of yoga - mostly twisting poses - wrung out those organs before bed.

Why? Why? Why?

I'm kind of starting to hate the fast 5K, but I keep doing it anyway. I figure at some point I will get better at it. Surely?

Also, it's a fair compromise between "run in the woods" and "hard workout". I'm doing myself no favours (pleasure-wise) by sticking to this godawful hilly route, but that's where the woods are.

So, 5K = 23:58 minutes.

A minutes and a quarter faster than last time. Interestingly, I did get seven hours of unbroken sleep last night.

Not getting better at this

5K = 25:16 minutes. And I was trying. Ugh.

(Maybe I'll improve when I start getting more than six hours sleep each night? Say, in five years or so?)

Plus 60 lunges (3 x 20), even though we played a long game in the rain last night.

Spousal 5K

Hubby and I were clearly on the same page Friday -- 5Ks all around, without even planning it. (Overunder's unknown time: Tim found, played with, and misplaced/hid our family Ironman. If you find it, let us know. Meanwhile, I've figured out how to make the iPod timer work. Phewf.)

My run was that hilly one, and I came in at 24:40. I'm gonna run this route for a few months, then plan a nice flat one and see how that impacts the time. (Is that cheating? Or smart training?)

Finished with 60 walking lunges and two sets of 10 bench push-ups*.

Meanwhile, I'll keep hoping that this hacking cough that's been keeping us all up at night for the past week does not turn out to be pneumonia. (No fever yet and we did a 7 km stroller run this morning, so that's a good sign.)

* I'm starting from scratch on my push-up training after reading this. As of now, I can two exactly TWO push-ups the way they're "supposed" to be done. Grrr.

Sunny day!

Its beautiful out. And my anniversary with my beloved! (#4)

5K, 22:01. Then 3 x 20 push ups.

no heat wave in calgary

despite our keen desire, though makes the running more bearable.

just over 5km today, 30 mins flat. 16 out, 14 back.

took a break at the turn around point to do 3 sets of:
25 situps, 30 sec planks. 30 second break in between sets.

do i have to go back to work?

Hilly 5K

I surprised myself today with a sub-25 minute 5K. Just barely sub -- it was 24:57, but I'll take it. It's been ages since I last timed a 5K. (Last October.)

Especially since I mapped a hilly route along the Gatineau and Lac-des-Fées parkways, rather than my usual tactic of trying to find the flattest 5K possible. (It's actually my usual stroller route, tweaked at both ends to meet distance requirements.)

Apparently running with 40 pounds of rolling stroller

Finished with Overunder's prescription of three rounds of dumbbell snatches -- 10/arm with 20 lbs. Next time I'll use 25 lbs.

Running with the wind

Er, more like running against the wind. I would describe the gusts off the Minas Basin as halfway between "seabreeze" and "gale".

We each did the following:
 Run 5K
100 walking lunges
100 push-ups

Results...

Overunder 5K = 24:23; 36:02 total
Hedda 5K= 24:07 (PB!!); 38:52 total

Ms Hedda only did 5 standard push-ups; the rest were bench push-ups (easier than regular; harder than knees).

Hedda nearly puked in front of the Canning post office. Homestretch, looking like she might beat hubby's time, givin' it her all, and ...ugh... But managed to push through the last couple hundred metres.

running while my wine waits on the table

5k. 27:15.

running at lunch

not fast and not far but sure is nice to get the legs moving outside again!

today: just over 5k in just under 33 mins. Pace is slow as I am chatting with my new running partner (a fellow egd'er from toronto thrown into corp hq's) but we plan to pick it up a notch on our next (post vacation! :) run.

friday: 4.5k about the same time.


Yesterday:
Deadlifts included 3 @ 105lb until I freaked out that I was losing form and scared I might ruin my back.
Cleans: 65 x5, 75 x1 (note same fear as above mixed with utter exhaustion - this weight lifting gig is hard work. SO SO happy to have my own personal trainer!)

Father's Day Fun Run

Actually, it was a hot, humid, and hilly run. But I found a nice loop through the woods that offered some respite from the hot and humid, if not the hills.

5K = 25:50 min

Followed by:

100 walking lunges (set of 20, then 10's)
50 push-ups (sets of 10)

No blood but there was sweat and tears

After a brutal end to last week (sick, frustrations mounting, and much disappointment) I decided to take it to the mat - and leave it all there. Found a challenging yoga class on saturday morning, on an outdoor patio facing the ocean no less. What was particularly pleasing to me, was my noticeable improvement on poses and movements which involved arm and core strength. I even managed to hold crow pose for a good 20 seconds.


On sunday I decided to try out the brutal crossfit the lovebirds did a couple of weeks back:

-21 right handed Turkish get ups (11lbs for the first 10, but had to switch to 5.5lbs as couldn't hold the weight up anymore and i knew my wimpy left shoulder wouldn't finish the workout at that weight)
-50 DB swings (22 lbs)
-21 Left handed overhead squats (11lbs - holy hard to keep good form)
-50 DB swings
-21 right handed overhead squats
-50 DB swings
-21 left handed Turkish get ups (tried to start with 11 but I was correct - I managed 3 and I was done, even with the 5.5 i was doing sets of 3)

total time 17:32.

Today, a 5k run with determination. Done in 28:35.

oh, and 100 situps. in sets of 20.

another lazy 5k

31:05 (it sure takes a while to get up to a good cruising speed in the early hours)

followed by 50, 50 standing lunges.

morning run

5k - 31:26 (started slow, ended fast)

3 x 30 crunches
side planks
11 push-ups (little shaky so avoided more sets)

like the early morning run, the gym doesn't feel like a sauna at that hour. may try to adopt this schedule while the weight training is on hold (ie, until I return to Calgary and join the Y).

Five Kay for Realsies

5K, 25:45. Yay!

I added four blocks to make up the missing distance on my 5K route, and then completed it faster than the cheater route. Excellent. Finally seeing some progress here!

A few metres shy

A 5K for time. Took Overunder's word on a route and was amazed at my sub-25 min time. A mapping showed the route to be about 200 m shy of 5K.

However, nobody's a stickler here, so I'll extrapolate to include the missing distance and report:

5K, 26 min. It felt good.

Still more than a minute better than the best I've done in a long time. The new route has the downhill part at the END of the run, rather than the beginning, which is a big help.

Six by eight

Last Friday. Early morning. Pressed for time.

6 x 800 m runs. Rest (walk/jog 120m) @75 seconds in between. Time for each 800m ranged from 3:35 to 3:50 min.

Total: 5.4 km in 28:37 min.