Stephanie's Training - Week 5

Training Day #14: June 21, 2010

Today comes on the heels of a very nice, but physically active weekend. We spent Father’s Day weekend camping off the Meramac River near St. Louis to participate in a Katy Trail Father’s Day bike ride. Shawn enrolled the four of us in a 7 mile bike ride (one way) along the Katy Trail from Augusta, MO to Defiance, MO. The event helped support the Siteman Center for prostate cancer research; and, also celebrated the opening of the Katy Trail Loop in Defiance.

Now I haven’t been on my bike much, but wasn’t too awful concerned about the distance. It was more the sore butt thing that had me a little worried. Shawn, of course, being an avid mountain biker before his illness was totally stoked at the adventure. Charlee, also, was excited! She’s taken after her dad in the “biking” category……has the long legs and ‘drive’ for biking. Remi, on the otherhand, well……she’s a biking “newbie”. She just learned how to ride a single speed bike only about a month ago. To which her ‘bikin groovy’ dad quickly updated her to a multi-speed bike only days before our big Katy Trail ride. She was A LITTLE NERVOUS!! And, I, was concerned about her stamina.

Long story short, we….finally….made….it! Shawn and Charlee could have left us in the dust, but graciously waited on us. I could have kept a little faster pace at times, but had to make sure our youngest kept up. :) We rode 7 miles to Defiance, ate some lunch, filled our CamelBaks, and rode 7 miles back to Augusta. I honestly have to say, I couldn’t have done it, physically, if I had not been training for this 5K. I really felt good on the bike (except for a sore butt!) and didn’t feel too winded until the last few yards.

Remi was never happier to see (through dirt, sweat, and tears) the promising site of our minivan. We were on our last nerve with her, but in the end we were SO PROUD!

Now back to the subject at hand, I knew I’d be somewhat tired today to go run, but wasn’t expecting “illness”.

I awoke as usual with the girls to get them ready for summer school. I noticed, that, yes, I was REALLY tired! Everyone headed off and I started my morning routine. I quickly developed an upset stomach, took care of some business, and coaxed myself out the door. I felt kind of puny by the time I got to the gym and convinced myself that I needed to workout, it would just be lower impact today.

I took it easy on the weights and quickly informed Megan I’d be walking on the treadmill today. And, that’s what I did. It still pushed me a little, but I managed a slow 30 minute walk and was quickly on my way home to collapse on the couch.

I felt queasy the rest of the day and took a nice afternoon nap!

Training Day 15: June 23, 2010

Feeling back to myself today, thank goodness! Not a real action-packed workout today.
Weight training is starting to get a little mundane. Not a lot of options to “switch things up”.

Today, Megan mentioned that our treadmills have a program selection for “5K Loop”. She suggested we select that and see if the machine paces us or whether we have to pace the machine. 30 minutes later, we realized we need to pace the machines. They never increased in speed or changed up at all. So we enjoyed an intense “walking” speed for 30 minutes. (Secretly, I was glad:)….I wasn’t quite ready for the 3 minute run/90 second walk that Megan did on Monday).

Oh, well, it was still a good “workout”!

Training Day 16: June 25, 2010

“Stephanie Schultz, come on down! You’re the next contestant on the Price is Right!!!!!” Thank the heavens for “The Price is Right”. That’s what got me through running today (3 min run/2 min walk). It was good to focus on an awesome game show and not STARE at the minutes S..l…o…w….l….y counting down while I’m RUNNING.:)

Today was great! I was very proud of myself! I RAN 3 MINUTES AT A TIME (well, except for one interval), but still I RAN FOR 3 MINUTES……STRAIGHT! That means in a 30 minute time, I ran for a total of almost half that! Sweet!!!

At first my shins and ankles weren’t ready to go, but they quickly loosened up (Although, 8 hours later, they HURT!). My breathing, well, I still need to WORK ON THAT! But, all in all, I DID IT!!