Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Now on to week 3!!!!

Yesterday I started week three of my half marathon training and I am learning a very important lesson....Flexability!!!!!  With my kids being home from school for the summer it is not always easy to fit in my workouts, but I am finding ways.  For example, this past weekend we went to my families lake house for the weekend and I brought my bike with me to get in my cross training day.  The roads are very hilly and my bike doesn't seem to be working right (it is a 20 year old mountain bike) but I got out there and got in my workout.  I felt great afterwards!  It was totally worth it! 
Today was supposed to be a 3.5 mile run but I switched it with tomorrow's workout of 2miles or cross training...I chose the cross training and did the Jillian Michael's 30 day shred while my kids slept.  Worked out perfect.  Tomorrow my husband does not have to leave for work early so I will be able to go out and run 3.5 miles.


 

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Following in Mom' footsteps


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Opps!  That is supposed to say Mom's footsteps...don't know what happened to the S!
 This photo is of my daughter at a local Fun Run series that the Greater Derry Track Club puts on.  It is a seven week series of  runs for kids of  all ages.  My daughter has done them now for a few years and loves them!!!!  She is not a very fast runner and almost always comes in last and she is totally o.k. with that.  This year in the first run she was excited because she was not the last!  

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

DVD review

I just signed up for Netflix and my first DVD to come today was Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred.    So, since I did not get in a run this morning, I popped it in and got to work.
So the workout started out nice and easy with some swinging of the arms to warm up the muscles and then BAM!  The intensity kicked up pretty quickly (and this was just level 1...more about that later).  The workout is broken up in to segments...three minutes of strength training, two minutes of cardio, and one minute of ab work.  There are three different circuits each with these segments....am I making sense?  It ends up being a 20 minute workout with a warm up and cool down.  I think the biggest thing I would like to stress is that if you don't like jumping jacks (or if your bladder can't handle them) then this is not the DVD for you.  Jillian is huge on jumping jacks.
The DVD has three different levels, but within each level there are modifications so if say you can't do a full push up, then there is one person who you can follow to make the workout more do able for you.
Overall I give this DVD a rating of:
                                                                                                  out of 5......Couldn't quite give it all 5 because I do not like jumping jacks :)



Sunday, June 20, 2010

Week One- Finished!!!

Today I finished week one of my Half Marathon Training!!!  I have to say, week one was pretty easy, but I feel like I worked hard since the program I am following incorporates strength training and cross training.  In adding in these new elements into my workout routine it is probably a good thing that my mileage for the week was low.  So now on to week two and feeling great!!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Beating the Treadmill Boredom

Today since it was raining out I decided to run on my treadmill at my house (I was so lucky to get it for free from a neighbor) so that I would get in today's workout in my training schedule.  Running on a treadmill for three miles can be very boring so I wanted to share how I manage to get through it.
I started out running at 4mph for one lap (or 1/4 mile).  Next lap I changed the speed up to 4.5mph.  Next lap I went up to 5mph.  The next lap went down to 4mph to recover (yes, 5mph is fast for my short legs).  So basically each lap was a different speed and I threw in one lap where I increased the incline.  Probably the toughest lap was the lap where I put the treadmill up to 6 and ran at that speed for as long as I could...not the full lap.  Let me tell you, I was dripping with sweat by the end of the work out and felt great!!!
I followed up my run with a strength training video I downloaded from itunes that came from Exercise TV (I don't have on demand).  I highly recommend you check these videos out as they are good.  I found it very easy to follow and the instructor was not annoying at all!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Less of me to move......

On May 20th I set a personal record by finishing the Concord Rock n Race in 32:25.....6 minutes faster then my slowest time from this race.  How did I do that?  Well, after the race a friend of mine shared this factoid with me:

If you're already trying to shed some pounds, here's more incentive: Research has shown that, on average, runners get two seconds per mile faster for every pound they lose. So, for example, a 10-pound weight loss would shave about one minute off your 5K race time.

I can honestly say I believe this since I have recently taken off 24 pounds!!!  

Day two of training

Today was day two of my training....an easy three mile run.  Yesterday was day one and was nothing special...just some pilates. 

Here I Go!!!!!

Welcome to my new blog!  While on my three mile run today it came to me that now would be a perfect time to start this blog so that once I complete my half marathon I will have all this to look back on.  I hope I don't bore anyone to tears with it!