Stephanie's Training - Week 7

Training Day 20, July 5, 2010

BOOO-YEAH! Let’s DO this! Feelin’ PUMPED today! Four days off and I’m READY TO GO! YEAH! WOOO! So today, I’m that pumped up “body builder” ready to get down to business! Don’t know where the energy has come from, but it’s to my EXTREME advantage. Right?

This week I’m on my own. Megan is on vacation. That means I have to be extra motivated or this fanny ain’t comin’ off the couch. :) So I guess THAT’s what has me so pumped up.

As I had mentioned previously, I needed to up my weights. Today, I increased my pounds on all the weight machines but lowered my reps back down. It felt really good and I could tell my muscles were ready for a new challenge.

After the weights, I headed to the treadmill. Today, I had them all to myself. No one to keep me company. Hmmm? I wonder how that’s going to go. :)

Before I left this morning, I checked on my “Couch to 5K” site to see where I should be at for this week. Well, I forgot that this is week 7 and so thought this was the beginning of week 6. Goodness, the time has flown! Anyways, the Week 6 interval has running for 5 minutes/ walking for 3 minutes. So let the challenge begin!

I started off with our 5 minute warm-up walk. Feeling good. OK, time to start running. I had my MP3 player going and some Keanu Reeves movie going on TV for visual distraction. My main focus today was to NOT STARE AT THE TIME! I wanted to run, not wait for “10 minutes” to flash across the screen.

I made it through the first 5 minute run! WOO-HOO! Feelin’ gooood! Now, 3 minutes of walking. Recovered pretty well! Now time to run another 5 minutes. OK. This is a little more challenging! I kept looking down waiting to reach the 18 minute mark. Gonna….make….it! 18 MINUTES! WOOO…..time to walk.

Now is the time I start analyzing to see if my time is going to come out right. Nope. OK, gotta adjust the run/walk time. Walked to 21 minutes, then ran for 4 minutes. I’ve reached the 25 minute mark. OK, let’s walk to 28 and then I ended with running. I didn’t succeed at ignoring the timing screen….blasted thing!

Wait a minute……my distance didn’t increase. CRAP!!!!!! What a run….feeling very proud of myself, but disappointed my distance didn’t increase. Oh, well……

Training Day #21, July 7, 2010

Monday was such an ego boost! I’m really proud of myself and look forward to the challenge again today.

Today, my oldest had basketball practice again, so I took advantage of the time and ran.
There were three other people working out upstairs, an older gentleman (who was on one of the treadmills) and a mother/son combo. As usual I worked on weights. When I’m working out by myself, I usually only work on the weights for about 10-15 minutes.

Today I figured out how much time I could input into the machine to run/walk even intervals. So, with a 5 minute warmup, 5 min. run/3 min. walk, my total time to enter is 34 minutes.

Now, its time to saunter over to the treadmill. Let me just note, that when the 4th and 5th grade girls are practicing down below, the noise level is increased. Well, as I’m approaching the treadmill area, the TV is at a DEAFENING level. O.K. I grab my MP3 player to drown out the TV and as I’m loading the settings, the older gentleman increases the volume to its HIGHEST level. I guess to drown out the young ladies downstairs. This prompts me to increase my MP3 player to a volume high enough to COMPETE with the TV.

So there I am, starting my run with enough noise to drown out a 757, when I notice the gentleman gets off his treadmill and heads to the weights. HELLO! Turn the darned TV down!! You see, there is only one remote that floats between three treadmills. Did he hand the remote over to me?! Heck no!

After about 15 minutes from him stepping away from his machine, the guy pulls a fast one on me! Remember, I’m jamming to Will Smith’s “Summertime” at an insane volume level….you think I can hear someone coming up to me. NO!! This guy comes, quickly I might add, up to the left side of my treadmill and gets about 6 inches from me and loudly announces that it is “………thundering outside. And if the electricity goes out I’m going to slam right into the front of my machine!” AAAAHHHHH……geez, dude! I’m surprised I didn’t stumble and fall off the stupid machine from being scared to death. Don’t you know, you don’t sneak up on someone…….on a treadmill…….with earphones in……that can’t see you coming up beside them!!!!!!

I guess he at least jump started my adrenaline to push me through the rest of my run. :)

After it was all said and done, I ran/walked 2.59 miles and burned 257 calories. Whew! I made it…hurting a little, but I did it!!

Training Day #22, July 9, 2010

Yea! Megan’s back today. :)

I’m going to make this log short and sweet, as I’m writing this on Saturday morning and have some things to get done today.

I noticed quickly Thursday morning, the day after my last run, that the tops of my feet ached like crazy. What’s that?! That’s a first, usually its my knees that throb continuously. Hmmm…..

Today, I repeated my 34 minute routine from Wednesday, therefore introducing that to Megan. I sucked wind pretty hard today, but pulled through to a 2.59 miles, again. :) I think I’m going to have to check into some sort of knee braces to help with the ache. I had a terrible night’s sleep with sharp pains shooting through my left knee. Glad to have the weekend to recuperate!