Wk of Feb 26--2007 WISH Walking/Running Club

[TiffJ]

Happy Friday everyone!!! I did my LR today-5miles. I am repeating this week so I decided not to push too hard & go harder next week. So I didnt run as much and I still, including warm up did exactly a 14:00 pace

Today is crazy, I got in my LR & pilates,ate lunch & showered. Went to store to get stuff to make that low fat Jello cool whip pie (going to bday party later & bringing it for grown ups) pick up DS from preschool, came home & made pie, go pick up other DS from school , come home get pie, go to party, DH to pick DS5 up from there to take him to t-ball. AGH! Are you dizzy yet?! I am!

Cam- just shut your door, keep your head down. The drama will pass. Worst case, at least its Friday

Judy-I have had several blah days in the last month. It will pass. The weather isnt helping I'm sure. Hope you have a great weekend!

That's all the time I have for now. Going to hit the roads of Huntsville again

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

Tiff - Wow, way to go on your long run! Awesome pace too! You're really cruising.

It's Friday, and I don't feel like working anymore I had my yoga class today. Did 1 mile on the treadmill to get the muscles warmed up before stretching in yoga. I consider yoga days a rest day, so I only did 1 mile, but I did it fast and ran 2 lapsat 5.0. My time for the mile was 13:30, and I was pretty happy with that. I'd love to get under 10 mpm pace, but it's going to take a while before I can get back down there again.

OK, back to work I guess.

 

[keenercam]

Tiff -- Great pace! Geez, you've been cross-training all day!

Judy -- Don't worry about posting an atypically not post here. We all have those days. I have MANY of those days. BTW, sorry Mist doesn't like snow. :

Dave -- Great workout out, for a REST day!

Sunny -- DS12 was so hooked on those puzzles that I had to give them a try. OMG! Can you say addicted? How about obsessed? And then, I was so thrilled to solve on in his book until I saw that it said something like "soothing" -- a colloquialism for simple, I guess! The funniest thing is, my completed puzzles have all these little pencilled in lists of numbers in the boxes that I cross out as I eliminate and then just write over real big and dark when I am confident of the answer. Then, I look at DS12's completed puzzles and see NO MARKINGS except the correct answers. He is doing them IN HIS HEAD!!!! OMG! Do you think I should teach him how to do it my way? More importantly, do you think there is any chance at all whatsoever that I might learn to do them his way?

Hoping to do strength training tonight. I have decided to lower the weights on a lot of the machines and instead do more reps, rather than the heavier weights. I HAVE to find a way to break through this plateau or I am going to go crazy!

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

Jodi, I bet you won't realy "need" to do a "training" full. Think this way (I did and was so glad too), you will do your first full in the best place on earth. This will be part of your roller coaster of fun this year. Get yourself prepared as scheduled, maybe make that last LR as 22 miles (instead of the usual 20)as many here did (me too since I figured as they were saying, if you can do that you can walk the rest).

I'll have to go back and check my weekly training miles for the Goofy, I really don't think I was putting in 50-60 miles/week. I'll check my calendar and post back those stats. Unless you are racing it, maybe the speed people needed to put in that many. Hmmm, wonder if I really was a "speed people" too? Nawww.

I will be doing 6 miles this weekend. I'm just not sure when exactly. I guess it must be in the "air" b/c I really need this weekend too. Way much going on in life just now and I need some sunshine. I will be on that trail somehow. I need it very badly.

 

[plutosmyfav]

Cam-- I do them both ways! I disovered on the step mill and elliptical that I couldn't do the light little numbers (too bumpy) so I had to do it all in my head.

As promised, here are my cherubs:

DS5

Look at my little tough guy He takes after me!

DD16 (looks like a model-- she doesn't take after me!!!!)

The only picture of DD and me in about 5 years!

Sunny

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

Lily - Sounds like you are having a really rough week. Here's a bunch of good wishes for you. I hope you can have a good run this weekend to give yourself a break and clear your mind a little.

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

Sunny - Great pictures! Thanks so much for posting them!

 

[plutosmyfav]

I just have to add this one!

Small Landscaper for hire!
Area of Expertise: Evenly distributing leaves left in piles by large landscapers (ie, Mom).

 

[AmyBeth68]

Tiff: WOO HOO great pace on your LR! You must be so happy!!! I had one of those "cross training" days. BTW...the pie sounds yummy!

Sunny: Great pictures! Your kids are great looking . I love the leaf-blower picture! And your DD is stunning! You must be such a proud momma!

Lily: (((HUGS))) hope things brighten up for you .

Cam: I've always heard that greater reps with less weight is a good way to build leaner muscle instead of bulk. I think that's what I heard anyway...but it sounds like a plan to me.

Dave: Sounds like a great workout! I love yoga....how many days per week do you go? I'd love to figure out a way to squeaze it into my weekly routine. I think it will do wonders for your running!!! BTW...great pace for "resting". You must feel great about todays activity!!!

Have a great Friday night everyone. My DH has been on a business trip for the better part of 2 weeks and should be home soon. . We get to go out to dinner and hopefully enjoy some quiet time tonight!!!

 

[Minnie]

Hi everyone!!!!

I had a pretty decent week health wise (work wise was crazy - audit time and I feel like this about that and it was also final week for my MBA course and I felt like this over that and maybe a little this too ).

Craig - I had no idea you were a finance professor. I'll definitely give this to you as I just completed a MBA course in finance and wow it was something else. Glad its over

So anyways I think I'm ready to begin working out once again. This has been a several month lay off so I need ideas on how to bet started again without risking injury. My DR said I have a small disk bulge in my lower back but I am clear to go as long as I'm careful.

Any ideas on how to begin again

Minnie

 

[monte]

Walked 30 mins. on my treadmill today.I feel good.

 

[Jen117]

I was going to do a long run today, but since I really can only run in the evenings, I decided not tonight. Instead I just pushed myself on a mile to see how fast I could do one. I am not so fast yet. I really struggle at breathing. Are there are references I can check out on how you should breathe? Is there a correct way? I concentrated on hitting my heal down first and that really helped my ankles, but I am still struggling with breathing and my chest.

Tomorrow I will shoot for a longer run walk. I am going to try for 50 minutes (remember I am new at this!!)

 

[xterratri]

Minnie- walk, elliptical, anything in the pool, cycling. Are you noticing a theme here- basically low impact to avoid stress to the joints and not just your back. After time off, everything needs to be built back up to withstand more stress. On that note, some strength training might be in order too. Strengthen the muscles that support the back and you may relieve some of the pressure on the nerve that transmits the pain to your hip. A good core program could be very helpful.

Jen- where in WI are you? I'm doing Ironman Wisconsin in Madison in September. It's my favorite type of marathon- one preceeded by a swim-bike warm up
Well, that statement just guaranteed that no one harbors any lingering doubts about my sanity, doesn't it?

Jodi- run a fall marathon if you want. Look at the halhigdon.com site and his info on doing multiple marathons in a year. Basically, you would train for the fall one and then use one of his bridge programs to get you to Disney. Another option is just treating it like a really long training run. I did a half this fall because it fit perfectly into the plan. This fall, I'm undecided. If I have a hope in a rather warm place of qualifying for Boston, I will be running a fall marathon. Maybe Hartford or Steamtown in Scranton PA.

whoever asked about the 50-60 miles per week- What!@? Admittingly, the week day runs are on time and long runs on the weekend are on miles but I think I topped out at like 34 miles using the MFM marathon plan.

I've actually been running more miles, more consistently since starting my triathlon training after the WDW marathon recovery. I will openly admit that the 4 runs totally 30+ miles per week, every week, plus 3 bikes plus 3 swims would be breaking me down if I didn't have the fitness I developed training for the marathon. My long runs alternate between 10-11 miles and 13 miles per week and most weekday runs are 7 with an occasional 5 miler thrown in for 'recovery.' I can also tell you that my run miles will drop considerably after Mar 12th when I switch phases. March will be about the same total run miles as Feb but spread out over a longer time, the bike miles will be higher but not too much, and the swim yardage will be about 10000 yds higher. Then in April things get really serious on the bike building up to an 80 mile ride. I will basically be running 1 quality workout, one recovery workout, and either a brick run(right off the bike of at least 40 miles) or a long run(varying from 9 to 14 miles) each week. This will probably be the format for most of the summer but the long run/long ride distances will increase when I switch from half Ironman training to full Ironman training. Not sure when the switch is- sometime in June.

In the past I've been burnt out on racing by September but those seasons I did a late July Ironman and then went back to racing shorter stuff 2 weeks later and generally did 3-4 races in about 5 weeks post IM. I think(hope) that the problem was more lingering lack of recovery from doing an Ironman than not being able to sustain a focus for the length of the season. If all goes well(really well) the season will start Apr 30 and not end until Nov. Otherwise I'm still looking at Apr 30 to Sept 10. Then I will have to switch focus to Goofy prep. Actually triathlon with a long ride before a long run might be fairly good Goofy prep. Run the half fairly well and survive the marathon and voila- Goofy. The kicker will be recovering adequately from fall races AND at the same time not losing fitness.

Okay, enough super long post stream of thought thinking. Back to my lurking spot.

Mel/Chimera- good luck on the Grouper Run!

 

[plutosmyfav]

whoever asked about the 50-60 miles per week- What!@? Admittingly, the week day runs are on time and long runs on the weekend are on miles but I think I topped out at like 34 miles using the MFM marathon plan.
!

I missed the original post on this. I was really concerned about this, too. In my area (Boston) whenever I ran into a marathoner and they got talking I'd discover they did 80-100 mile peak training weeks and I was totally freaked out. It seems to be common practice to run twice a day on week days and then do LRs on weekends. That may be necessary to run the times necessary for Boston, but I haven't seen any novice training plans that come anywhere close to that. My own (made up) plan had a couple of 50+ weeks but mostly ~40s.

I also missed the discussion about weights and bulking up. Here's what I've learned from many people in the know: women won't truly bulk up doing heavy sets. However, increased muscle mass under a layer of fat will look bulky. The advice I've found in research and briefly experienced myself is: losing fat yields definition. I've lost my definition at the moment and my arms and chest look bulky again So I say do lots of sets of low reps at high weights and keep working on losing the fat. HTH It may be a YMMV sort of thing, but I know I couldn't get the psychological benefit (ie HIGH) from lots of low weight reps. Once you've built your muscles up there's nothing like the feeling of total fatigue. At first that feeling is quite unpleasant (much like the first few pushes in running) but it grows on you-- trust me

I am totally loving the Y. Tonight I brought DS to his swimming lesson and was able to use an arc trainer during the lesson that over looks the pool. I waved to him and saw the whole lesson. Then afterwards we wandered into what is supposed to be the teen hang out room but all little kids were in there. DS knew a couple of the kids and they played DDR and a cool x-box like game that required body movement (standing, moving). I just happened to have a Soduko book with me so I got cozy in a chair and let him play until 8PM. Next week I might bring my speedo and do laps during his lesson if a lane is open. How fun!


ETA: I just went back and found Cam's post about weight lifting. I didn't realize you were talking about breaking through a plateau. That might do it. Good luck. Have you considered doing Core? I've heard lots of people have broken plateaus by switching to Core. I keep planning on doing it... but I just love my junky food too much (obviously). to break that plateau. I can't claim to be plateauing. I'm eating like a horse and deserve what the scale gives me

Sunny

 

[MouseDogMom]

I want to respond to so many posts, but I can't remember them all... hope your week gets better, Lily; you made me laugh, Amy; good luck with all the weight loss, everyone who's trying!

My mom died this morning around midnight. My sister was with her but had dozed off, so it was very peaceful. We had just moved to the Hospice home around noon yesterday. We had dinner with old family friends last night and had a wonderful time, and then went in and told mom goodnight. We're very relieved that it's over, but we obviously know the next few days will be very stressful.

I'm thinking that it's a reasonable goal just to get out and walk for a few minutes each day; then worry about seriously training for the Minnie once all the arrangements are over and the apartment is cleaned out, etc. My ankles hurt with every step yesterday, almost like they were afraid I was going to try to run! And I know it would clear my head this morning, but I've had about 3 hrs sleep since 11 last night, so maybe not...

Just wanted to stop in and say I miss hi - I needed to feel connected to something happy this morning!

 

[lizdotcom99]

MDM, I am so sorry for your loss. Many thoughts and prayers for you and your family.

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

MouseDogMom - I am so sorry for your loss. I wish you and your family all the best in this very difficult time. Go easy on yourself, and yes don't worry about training for the Minnie. Just go out, walk, reflect on things, and clear your mind. I wish you all my deepest sympathies.

 

[xterratri]

MouseDogMom- so sorry for your loss.

 

[MelRhoads]

MouseDogMom - I'm so sorry for your loss. You will be in my prayers

 

[AmyBeth68]

MDM...I'm really sorry to hear about your mom . I've been thinking about you all week. My thoughts are with you and your family during this difficult time.