Repetitive Workouts

I'm thinking waking up early is going to become a thing for me.. not sure if I'm too excited about it.

Warm-Up

Recover

Yesterday, I woke up around 8:30am, and walked down to our apartment gym to conquer the Beginner Get Lean Hurricane. It was nice to get it out of the way at 10am, but I'm just not sure the workouts are being effective enough since I'm half asleep. I guess it's just something I have to get used to?

The only equipment the workout required was a jump rope, which fortunately I had. I had to use it twice. One thing I don't really like about the NTC workouts is that they're quite repetitive. For example, I did the Plank Row 3 times, the Single Leg Deadlift 3 times, the Cross Back Lunge 3 times, everything else twice, except for the Toe Touches. It just seems a little inconsistent.

Confession time: I was supposed to wake up early this morning and run, but I didn't. Oh well! It's okay- I'll just do it later. Sometimes things don't work out exactly the way you want!

Do you enjoy repetitive workouts, or circuits?

A Dragon Run, some Deer, and a Puppy

Another 7 miler down the drain in the bag! (It's been a long day.)

I woke up EEARRRLLYY this morning (re: 6:00... so not early at all, I know, I know-) and quickly made myself a pre-run meal of a whole wheat English muffin and almond butter. I don't know if it was because it was 6:30 in the morning, or because I hadn't eaten since 7pm the previous night , but that muffin was the BEST muffin I had ever tasted in my whole life. That snack gave me LIFE, y'all.

I really wish this was my photo. But it basically looked exactly like this. Source.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the best pre-run meal that I could have had. I had a few cramps at the very beginning of the run that I was a little worried about, but they went away right around the halfway mark. I ate a Clif's Shot Blok around mile 3, and it seemed to go down okay.

I think it kinda looks like a dragon. See the horn, and the two nostrils?

So elusive!! Stupid 3rd mile.

I may have gone so fast on the last mile because I saw a family of deer crossing the trail right in front of me. A FAMILY. OF DEER. This adds to my animal count on this run: two bunnies, and a flock of geese that I was sure was going to kill me if I didn't run super fast through them. Bunnies and geese are a given, but DEER?? I wish I had gotten a picture, but a) it was on the last mile and I wanted to finish strong, and b) I wasn't exactly sure Papa Deer wasn't going to assault me with those antlers if I lingered too long.

Trying to find pictures of the breed of deer I saw is turning out to be pretty icky - hunting pictures and such. Ugh. Moving on...

Much better.

I wore my new sports bra - review forthcoming, as soon as I can get a decent picture of it without me sweating all over it - and my yoga pants, with a cotton shirt. For some reason cotton really doesn't bother me on long runs as it does for some people. I liked it just as much as the new Nike tee I keep taking pictures of. Who'd a thunk.

What I looked like right before my shower. I know, you were dying to see.

After I got home, I quickly took a shower and put on my compression socks (I took a Snapchat picture of them.. and forgot to save it. **headdesk**) and immediately took an hour nap. IT WAS GLORIOUS. I think that's the best part of morning runs - the fact that, because of the flexibility of my job, I can go home and GO BACK TO SLEEP.

Hm. Did you know if you Bing (I'm so trendy, I know) images of the word "sleep" you get some really freaky shock pictures? Yikes. Never doing that again.

Here's a picture of a sleeping puppy.

Now we all feel better, right? :)

This day is begging to be over with - so I will end it here. Happy running!

A Cider-Fueled Worm Run

Y'all.

Y'ALL.

I did it - I did a morning run.

My plans changed - AGAIN. No judging. It got to be around 5:00 yesterday, and I was thinking, you know what? Rather than try and get in the run on a Friday afternoon, why don't I just put it back a couple more hours than I usually do and start getting into the habit of morning runs? So that's exactly what I did.

Last night, we went to a going-away party of two of our good friends. They're moving to Las Vegas for school, and this was their last weekend in Seattle, so we celebrated with them at a place called Von Trapp's. It was a lot of fun- they had Bocce ball, which I had never played before!

Bocce Ball courts!

So many people came to see them off that it ended up being quite the party. I had 44oz of cider (that's about 1.3 liters...) at Von Trapp's, and then we all went to Manhattan's and had a tequila shot. Wooo!

MONSTROUS tequila shot.

We got home at 1 and I still woke up at 6:30am so I could finally start morning runs. I RULE.

I call this a worm-run.

Great weather - 58 degrees! It felt amazing! I started out the run decidedly slow. I would NOT let fast starts be a habit with me! Of course, since I was tired, it worked. I felt like I was running around a 10 min/mile pace, but in reality it was only about 9'40''!

Allllllmost!!!

I was SO CLOSE to that elusive negative split! I cannot BELIEVE how fast I was going. This is really new to me - as I said before, I'm usually always in the nines. But since I had a nice warm up, didn't feel too much pressure since it was early, and wasn't expecting much, I ended up just running to RUN and it felt amazing. I am so proud of myself!!

Apparently this is my favorite running shirt now? I promise I wash it all the time.

I'm really happy that Mile 1 was my slowest - even Mile 5, where I faltered a bit, was still faster than Mile 2. Consistency is key! And, I am MOST proud that my last mile was my fastest. I felt like I was flying! I resisted the urge to make effort-noises in the last few seconds - it was so hard! But worth it :)

I drove home, took a shower, put on my compression socks, and went to sleep for another 2 hours. It was the best sleep I've had in weeks! I woke up again at 10:30 and felt ready to start my weekend. Morning runs are the best!

Do you ever make noise while you run?

To those of you who have thanked me on our engagement, THANK YOU! I will make an engagement post very soon - the ring is getting re-sized and appraised right now, so I want to take more close up pictures of it before I post anything about it :)

A Stinger and Change of Plans

Last night (late, AGAIN) I completed my last NTC workout of the week - this one was a real killer. It was the Intermediate Get Toned Stinger, my first Intermediate NTC workout ever. It was 45 minutes long and HARD.

(Warm-up)

1

2

3

Look at how many side planks! I did a 1 minute side plank on each side 3 different times - ow!

(Recovery)

I need to remember to bring my yoga mat when I'm doing a lot of exercises on the ground, otherwise my back really hurts.

This morning as I was writing this post, I had a pretty full day planned - a voice lesson at 10:15, a dance callback at 5:15, and a going-away party at 7:30. The problem was that I had a 6 mile run scheduled today as well. When was I going to fit that in? With an early voice lesson, I could have tried to run early like I've been meaning to - but since I did my NTC workout really late last night, I wasn't really sure that I wanted to tire out my legs that much. Plus, all before a dance audition?

I decided I wasn't going to let my run be a burden and that I would just do it on Saturday. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) my dance callback was rescheduled for Sunday, so now I can run! Yay?

I'm a planner, so I don't like it when my plans change the day-of. But I'm happy that I'm not being forced to change my marathon training plan so early in the game.

I can't believe I'm almost done with week 3! How am I already a fifth of the way through my marathon training?

How do you decide when to put off a run?

A Lamp Shaped Run

I've read that your training runs need to mirror the conditions of race day as closely as possible. The closer, the more prepared you are for race day. Well, let me just say that I apparently SUCK at this. I'm used to running at night, and on a treadmill.... The marathon is at 6:30am, and is outside. At least California and Washington are in the same time zone? Bleh.

Anyways. Last night's was another run that I kept putting off and putting off - it was a busy day at work, and I was trying to return e-mails and generally return to normal after vacation. So, I ended up running around 8:15pm... ick. 

I fueled the run with a Luna Protein bar, in the Cookie Dough flavor about an hour and a half before I went out.

http://www.lunabar.com/products/luna-protein/cookie-dough/

Sometimes I like to make pretty pictures with my map - what do YOU think it is? (I've gone to so many museums this week that now I tend to think anything is art.) (I've decided that this is a lamp, with Pacman at the base.)

I also wore my new Sports Bra from Panache - review coming up soon. And, I wore my new Pro Compression socks! I felt very spiffy in all my new running gear. Unfortunately it didn't make me suddenly faster... damn.

I think my demise is always the second to last mile - I know I have that much more to go, but it's still so far that I just can't push myself like I want to. My main goal for right now is to make sure that I finish the last mile faster than the mile before. I mean, if I can't get negative splits for all the miles, I just have to make sure I finish strong!

Do you have gear that suddenly makes you faster? Do you like to make "art" with your running map?

An Engaged & Miserable Run

Lemme give you only the important updates, meaning workouts... and THIS:

:D :D :D :D I'M ENGAGED!! <3 <3

To read more about our engagement, visit these two posts: Part 1 & Part 2

The engagement was the highlight of my wonderful rest weekend (only two more of these until I start doing Saturday runs!)

Monday

I ran my first 5 miler on Monday, unfortunately on a treadmill. Womp-womp- it was still so hot, and I had another late night beforehand, so I figured the treadmill would be fine. My goal is to stop treadmill-ing it for the rest of the training!

I watched the first 50 minutes of Les Misérables, which I thought was a GREAT idea whenever the music swelled and everyone was singing in those perfect harmonies and it was LOUD - but then I thought it was a terrible idea when it was really quiet or only one person was singing.

If anyone was wondering, "I Dreamed a Dream" is not a great running song. 

Although, having something visual always helps me when I run on the treadmill -typically I watch a Conan episode - so it helped. I didn't feel like pushing myself, but ended up with an average 10 minutes/mile. Walking around NYC all day and then running the next morning really tires out your legs!

Tuesday

My NTC workout on Tuesday wasn't as early as the other ones were - this one was the Beginner Get Toned Energizer workout, and was 45 minutes long. I really hated it- there was NO recovery time. Who does that?! Who makes a 45 minute intense strength and cardio workout with no water breaks factored in? I refused to go all the way through without stopping -call it wisdom or stubbornness- and paused it throughout to take my much needed breaks.

The workout was really difficult, and not one of my favorites since I didn't have anything to cushion myself against the floor of the gym. Although the workouts themselves were pretty entertaining and there wasn't much repetition, every time I repeated an exercise I got a little annoyed. That's the reason why I can't really get into circuits: I know each round is exactly the same and I know exactly how many more times I have to do a certain move.

I'm anxious to continue running outside and going to our regular gym!

Desserts from NYC

I'm back from a whirlwind vacation in NYC!

The good news: I didn't stray from my workout routine! The bad news: I still gained about 5lbs from all the desserts I ate! Lemme tell you.... they were worth it.

Cannoli from Grimaldi's

The Devil's Food Cake Cheesecake

Don't miss the GODIVA truffles surrounding the cheesecakes! :D

The day after vacations is always hectic, so I'm taking a few minutes out of my workday to write out this post so I can avoid my pile of laundry, the trash that needed to be taken out before we left (oops), and the junk that needs to be cleaned out of our messy apartment.

Coming up: a continuation of the summary of my workouts in NYC! It's good to be back :)

A Devil's-Food-Cake-and-Gin Fueled Run

Another early morning in NYC to work out! I decided to go to the gym to run, since there's a Texas-like heatwave coming through. Good thing I worked out, too- here's a little taste (hah) of what I've been eating:

Devil's Food Cheesecake at Junior's Cafe - that's cheesecake surrounded by Devil's Food cake. Yep.

So, even though I was on the treadmill (second official treadmill run of training!) it was still pretty difficult. We stayed up pretty late last night visiting with one of my friends at a club, and I'm pretty sure I burped up some gin this morning. You're welcome.

Yeesh- so early!

at least I'm consistent?

Running on the treadmill really annoys me because I always feel like I'm going SUPER fast, but I'm only doing a 10 minute mile. It feels like when I make the same effort outside, I'm doing 8s and 9s. Who knows. I suppose it's all about perceived effort anyways, and not the time - it's not like I'm going for a particular time. (I admit, I have a number in my head that I don't want to write down, lest it be ridiculous for a first-time marathoner.)

SO HOT.

I'm thankful that I'm a Texan, so I'm technically used to this heat, but damn. I hope I don't melt today!

NTC in NYC

Helloooo from NYC! We had a great day yesterday, and even better since I got my run out of the way at midnight-thirty, so today was the first day that I tried out the gym in the apartment we're staying at.

This NTC workout, the Beginner Get Lean Fighter Fit, got me nice and sweaty. It didn't require any equipment, but I went ahead and 1) got on the treadmill at 4.0 for my "light jog", and 2) grabbed a mat so I could lay down when it wanted me to do things on the floor. I can't believe I did all this at 7am, but hey, you have to MAKE time, right?

I would have made that collage MUCH prettier, but I'm not on my computer right now and for some reason can't edit pictures... oh well!

I really loved this workout - nothing was too terribly long, so I never got totally bored with what I was doing. I always seemed to look down right as there were only a few seconds left of the workout. I love it when that happens!

my crazy face in the under-construction hallway - excited that my workout is done for the day!

How do you get in a workout while you're on vacation?