Week 6 of Half Marathon Training
Monday, August 11, 2014 - Sunday, August 17, 2014
22.05 miles completed
114.11 miles completed in half marathon training so far
473.81 miles completed in 2014 so far
Monday, August 11: Strength Training (ChaLEAN Extreme Push 3) + Ab Burner
Not the best night of sleep last night - I had a baaaaad dream that woke me up at about 3AM and I couldn't really get back to sleep after that. I hate when that happens! If I could take a pill that would give me dreamless sleep every night, I would totally do it. I have bad nightmares every so often.
ANYWAY...good workout this morning. Push 3 has some heavy leg stuff! I had two 25s at one point and next time I do this workout I think I'll bump it to two 30s. Yikes!
After my long run yesterday I was happy with how quickly I seemed to recover (thanks to sitting in a bathtub full of cooolllld water for 10 minutes), but one nagging issue I had was that my hips were feeling sore. Well, that soreness was GONE today! That’s a relief.
Not a lot of pictures this week, so I'm scattering in some random Disney ones...
Tuesday, August 12: Run #1 (3 miles on the treadmill) + extreme abs
Last week I did a 4.5-mile run on the treadmill - it felt pretty good both physically and mentally (as in, I wasn't bored to tears from staying on the treadmill for so long). This was a big confidence booster for me because I have a few 5-mile treadmill runs on my schedule for the rest of half marathon training, as well as for a LOT of my upcoming Dopey training.
So today I had a 5-mile treadmill run on my schedule. I got to work and...it just was NOT happening today.

As soon as I stepped onto the treadmill I just was not having it. Arg! I had a 3-miler scheduled for later in the week, so I decided to flip the two and do the 3-miler today, along with some ab work, and then move the 5-miler to Friday. Total time for the run was 33:11, 11:04ish/mile pace (using run 4 minutes/walk 1 minute intervals). Extreme abs was EXTREME-ly challenging, as usual.
I haven't been doing as good a job getting to bed earlier as I did last week, so I'm going to try to do better with that. Tomorrow is my speedwork run and I really don't want to push that back, so I'll need the extra sleep in preparation!
Wednesday, August 13: Run #2 (9x400 @ 5K pace…4.75 miles completed)
TOUGH time getting out of bed today. I did a wee bit better with getting to sleep last night but the week is starting to catch up with me. I had a splitting headache on my way into work this morning and just felt pretty wiped. We've had dark, rainy weather this week too, so that doesn't help.
But man, despite that, pretty great run today! Except for the last 3 intervals (which were okay, just started to feel challenging) I felt really good throughout this run. It helped to wake me up, give me some energy, and even dulled my headache a bit. Overall I went 4.75 miles and it took about 55 minutes.
Only one more speedwork run this year! I think I'll kind of miss them...always nice to have a little variety to break up the running week. And I really do think that the speedwork has helped my pace get a little better this year.
Thursday, August 14: Strength Training (ChaLEAN Extreme Push 1) + ab burner
**WW UPDATE**
Last week I said there are some weeks where I can just *feel* that I lost weight. This week was not one of those weeks. I just haven't been really keeping track of things very well, and I've definitely been a little hungrier than normal...maybe because I'm increasing my mileage a bit more? So I've been having more snacks than normal. It wasn't too bad though - I was up only 0.2 pounds. Hopefully I can do a little better this week - be more consistent about writing stuff down and look into better snacks. Our grocery store was sampling these AMAZING grapes this week - crunchy, sweet and juicy - and I may be addicted to them, so maybe those need to become my new go-to snack instead of, say, Cheetos or Goldfish.
This morning I was thinking about how the weight loss has definitely been slooowwww for me. Really the first two weeks were the big jumps (2.6- and 2.2-pound losses), and since then I would definitely say I have have stalled. It's a little frustrating, but then again, I don't feel like I want to change my habits TOO too much. That's what I did when I was first losing weight for my wedding in 2009 (cut out carbs, desserts...basically anything that tastes good) and I put half of it back on immediately after the wedding. I'm thinking I need to keep doing what I'm doing, but make little changes here and there (see above - grapes instead of Cheetos) and just keep better track of what I'm doing. Hopefully that'll help me to see results.
ANYWAY...another morning with Chalene! Back to the Push 1 workout this morning - biceps, triceps and legs. Great workout! I also did some abs stuff afterward.
ALSO...I sold that Raw Threads Elsa tank top that I bought a few weeks back, the one that I ran in once (and thus could not return) and kept having to yank up.

Someone on the Raw Threads Resale group on Facebook offered me $20...I was asking $25, but I took it. I got to the gym early this morning and was able to get to the post office by work early enough to ship it out. After shipping I really only made $15 on the shirt, but at least I got some of my money back. My other RT shirt I am trying to sell has had zero interest so I may need to look for a different way to unload it, or end up keeping it.
Friday, August 15: Run #3 (4-mile out-and-back) + hot yoga flow
Weather: 64 degrees and sunny, 64% hummidity
Well...I have a problem.
Today I ran in my new PeacockSapphire SparkleSkirt...and I'm obsessed with it.
It actually got me thinking about the other two solid-colored skirts I own (a hot pink one and a purple one) and how they don't get much use because they just don't go with many tops. I have worn each skirt maybe 5 times, and they get passed over a lot. I feel like this newest skirt is way more versatile.
After thinking about it a bit, I looked on the SparkleSkirts website and found the pink and purple versions of the Peacock skirts, and ordered them. They both have more colors (the purple has purple and blue in it, and the pink has pink, lavender, magenta and orange) so hopefully they will get more wear than my solid-color skirts. If I like the peacock ones as much as I think I will, I'm going to sell the solid-colored once on Facebook. It's amazing how well these SparkleSkirts hold their value.
On another note, the SparkleSkirts website had a sale today that they had been hyping for awhile, and personally I found it a little disappointing. It was billed as a "liquidation" sale, but it looked like skirts were only discounted $5-$10...even the damaged ones! I guess they have figured out people have no problem paying full price...or even close to full price for used skirts.
Anyway…
GREAT run today! Not a goal pace run this time...it felt really good.
Splits:
Mile 1: 9:43
Mile 2: 9:51
Mile 3: 10:19 (1-minute walk break at the beginning of this mile)
Mile 4: 9:47
Mile 5: 10:15 (1-minute walk break at the beginning of this mile)
Total time: 49:56, 9:59/mile pace
After the run I had to haul my booty over to the dentist for a filling...so needless to say, that sucked.

Because of this appointment I couldn't go to the yoga class I liked so much last week, so I signed up for a later class. Two weeks in a row of yoga! Gold star for me.
This class was "hot" yoga as opposed to last week's "warm" yoga, meaning that the studio was heated to 99 degrees. Woo! I liked this class, but it was more challenging than last week's so I didn’t like it QUITE as much.

I did feel great when I was done though. And BONUS - there was a sale on apparel so I grabbed a pair of Lululemon Run Inspire II Crops for 50% off.
Never tried these for running before and I feel a little shady buying Lululemon stuff after some of their recent bad publicity...but 50% off is 50% off. I was planning on getting a new pair of crops anyway since my Nikes are sort of bunchy - I guess that what happens when I gain weight/lose weight/grain weight/lose weight. My pants stretch out.

But hey, those Nike crops did last me 6 years. That's pretty good. Originally I'd been thinking of trying the SparkleSkirts crops but with this sale, the Lululemon crops are about $20-$30 cheaper. SS gets enough of my money!
Last shopping update - the Minnie-inspired SweatyBand I have been eyeing for Marathon Weekend was on sale for $9, so I grabbed it. Unfortunately, the shipping was a ridiculous $5. For a freaking headband?! Ugh.
(I got the one on the left.)
Saturday, August 16: Run #4 (15K run)
Weather: 70 degrees and sunny, 49% humidity
Race day is getting closer and closer!
As the plan is written, this 15K run was supposed to be a 15K
race...but I was too lazy to look for 15K races in our area. I bet they are pretty rare...and I can’t say I really wanted to race much anyway this weekend. So a 15K long run it is!
I wore my new Lululemon crops today and I LOVE them. They felt soooooo good. The only bad thing about them is the lack of pockets. I think I am really spoiled by the SparkleSkirts...they have 3 big pockets, where the crops (and most other running bottoms) have one small zipper pocket above the butt and two small open pockets on the waistband (which I personally think are pointless). But overall they felt so good that I came home and searched the sale section of Lululemon's website for more pairs - weirdly enough they aren't on sale online even though they were at the yoga studio. I think I'll keep checking the website to see if they get marked down, though...I wouldn't mind having another pair.
This run was mostly fantastic. I felt great the entire time! I set my watch to run 6 minutes/walk 1 minute intervals and had Gu chomps at the 3- and 6-mile mark...drinking water throughout. Total time for the run was 1:38:58, 10:38/mile pace. Probably the best I have felt on a long run in awhile.
The only bad thing is that I wore one of my new RawThreads tanks for this run...the pink Minnie one. And I think I cannot wear these tanks for long runs anymore, because with about 1.5 miles to go I could start to feel chafing under my arms! Not quite in my armpits, but close.

Not fun. It buuuurrrrned. I actually ended up doing the rest of the run with my arms in a sort of chicken wing-like position - elbows pointed out. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in a window while doing this and it looked about as cool as it sounds.

I actually started to feel the chafing during my 10-miler last weekend as well (wearing the Rapunzel tank) and I have never had that happen before.
So sadly enough, I definitely think I cannot wear these kinds of tops for really anything longer than a 10K. Boo! At least I know now - I most likely will not buy any more of them, and I definitely won't wear them for a half or full marathon. Oh well.
Also! I think I mentioned awhile back that we're trying to do some serious de-cluttering and have been selling stuff on eBay. We're having some really good success - about to transfer maybe $400 to our bank account from PayPal (this is how I'm justifying the new running clothes I have been buying lately

).
One of the things I sold was my pair of 2013 runDisney Minnie shoes I bought at the Wine & Dine expo. They were sort of an impulse buy - they were THERE, so I just grabbed them. I thought I'd use them to do errands and stuff (never to run - Brooks Adrenalines work for me, so that's what I'll stay with). Then 2 things happened - 1. Someone told me they looked like Ronald McDonald shoes, and I just couldn't unsee that

and 2. Even bigger of an issue, those shoes HURT my feet. Like, I wore them maybe 5 times when grocery shopping and thought I hurt myself.
I've seen the crazy price-gouging when it comes to these shoes (selling them for $400 and whatnot) and didn't want to do that. I started the bidding at $25...had tons of watchers...they sold for $47.

And they are in great condition. I am not a happy camper!
Lesson learned, no more runDisney shoes for me!
Sunday, August 17: Rest Day
Lots of errands today. But it started off with amazing, freshly baked doughnuts form a local bakery:
And then grocery shopping, yardwork, etc...typical Sunday stuff. Will goes back to school tomorrow already! Where is this year going?!
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