Friday morning my boyfriend went to work but soon got back home again as it was raining and they didn't really have any work. I did the laundry, unpacked the rest of my stuff, went food shopping, had lunch, did my stretches and watched some tv.
On Saturday morning me and my boyfriend went jogging for 40min at Hagley Park. I only wanted to do an easy run as I had a running race the next day.
In the afternoon we went to the mall because I needed a few things. And because the sun was shining we decided to go for a walk at the beach as well afterwards. In the evening my friend came over to watch a movie and sleep at my place, but of course I couldn't sleep again and ended up sleeping for only 2 hours that night.
Sunday morning I got up at 6:30 and got ready for my race. I bused to Hagley Park, got my number and got ready. I did a quick warm-up as I was a bit late and went to the start line. I actually felt pretty good and not tired at all as I was a bit nervous. At the start I didn't go with the fastest girls but ran my own pace. I didn't want to make the mistake of starting out too fast and then running on empty. I saw a group of three girls about 400m in front of me but couldn't really close the gap as they were going as fast as I was. On the first lap (we had to do three laps of 3,3 km) I passed a couple of girls who went out too fast and felt pretty good. The lap didn't feel long either and on the second one I sped up a little bit. If I would have kept going the pace I was going, I would have finished in just 50 minutes. The gap between me and the tree girls got a bit smaller, but I still wasn't able to close it. I was pretty out of breath and wondering, if I'd be able to keep up the pace for another 1,5 laps. On the third lap, about 1 km before the finish, I saw that one of the girls got dropped. I sped up even more and with 400m to go, I was pretty close. I was breathing hard and thinking that I'm gonna pass out, it was really hard. For a second I thought that I won't be able to pass her anyway, but I kept trying. With 200m to go there was a guy watching the race and shouting: "Come on, you can get her". And I thought "Nah, I can't", but then "Oh well, I just try, that's what I always train for" :) so I started sprinting, was behind her, next to her, in front of her and ran to the finish line as fast as I could. Somehow the finish line seemed to move further away and I was like, oh my god, she's gonna pass me again, but when I looked back she wasn't right behind me anymore. I even almost passed the two girls in front of me so I was really, really happy with my finish once again. I was even happier when I saw my time 47:57 (new PB :)). Later I found out that I got fourth and was a bit disappointed as I was so close to third place. But well, you can't have everything and considering that this was only my third 10km race I was pretty pleased with myself. After the race I caught the bus home again, had some lunch and was lying in the sun. Suddenly, the tiredness kicked in and I went to bed for a nap. I felt pretty bad and had a huge headache, so after an hour I got up again, had some pain killer, did the laundry and hopped on the wind trainer for an easy 1,5 hours ride. I was still so tired that I went to bed at 9pm already.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
a week at Mount Cook Village
As usual my long run was scheduled for Thursday. My boyfriend came with me on the bike because he didn't have to go to work that day. We headed to Hagley Park and had to dodge a couple of cordoned off roads and closed off buildings as a result of the earthquake, but we made it there. I got a stitch from talking too much and I didn't feel as good as last week, so I tried to concentrate on my running for a while and not to talk so much. It worked and before I could get bored I finished the first lap. It really is way more fun to go on a long run with someone to talk to. I also felt a lot better than at the beginning and the second lap didn't feel too hard either. To get my two hours done, I headed down to the roundabout in the south part and ran back to where I started the lap and then home. On the way home I started to get tired, it got colder all of a sudden and it even started raining. I was glad that we were only about 10min away from home because I started to get cold too. I ran for 2:01 hours and covered 20,82 km. I know, it's not really fast, but long runs aren't supposed to be fast and I think it's not too bad :). Also my heart rate was lower than usual, with my average sitting at 155 (still think something went wrong there, but well…).
Friday morning we went to Mount Cook Village because my boyfriend had to work there for the last week. The trip was pretty long and boring and when we got there just after noon my boyfriend had to start working. Because it was my rest day I just did some stretches and tried not to be too bored in my hotel room.
Saturday
As soon as I got up I went for my run (interval training). It was 7:45 and I was pretty much the only person out there. I started with a 10min warm-up followed by 10 x 400 m (approx. 1 min 50 sec). I didn't feel too good as I just got up and didn't have time for breakfast. I first ran along a path but when it got stony I turned around (didn't want to misstep or something) and headed for the flat road along the valley instead. There was a gravelled path along to the road so that was perfect. I felt pretty lonely because the hotel we were in was in the middle of nowhere and there were only three cars I saw. The hotel is at the bottom of Mount Cook, so all you can see are mountains around you and a few brown fields and that's pretty much it. But at least I found a flat path that I could use for my interval trainings. After I finished the 400s I did a 10min cool-down and some stretches before me and my boyfriend drove to the closest town to get something for his work. We had lunch and in the afternoon I relaxed and got ready again for my second run of the day around 3pm.
I just wanted to go running for an hour so I had a look at the walkways around our hotel. I found one that led to a glacier lake and decided to go have a look at that. It was flat for most of the time but the path wasn't always easy to run on because of all the stones. I made it over the swing bridge and to the lake faster than I thought so I kept running for a bit longer before I turned around. I took photos as well so I had to stop a couple of times. I finished my run with six accelerations and some stretches. Even though it was drizzling all the time, the run was a lot of fun because I could take photos to show my friends and family, so they can see what I've seen on my run.
Sunday
I got up at 7am and did off-skate 1 hour later. I found a patch of grass in front of the hotel where I could do my jumps. Once I was doing forward and side jumps and when I looked to my left I saw all those people sitting there, having breakfast and staring at me. Haha, I didn't really notice them before so it was pretty funny. I'm sure they asked themselves what I was doing out there.
The rest of the day I spent reading and playing games on my computer as it was raining again outside. I was also pretty tired and needed the rest.
At least the second training of the day around 3pm wasn't too hard. I went jogging but integrated the running ABC so it didn't feel too long and I didn't go fast either. The exercises got me quite out of breath though. I ended up jogging for 45min, doing the running ABC for 20min in the middle of the run.
Monday
Hill sprints – I don't know if I should love them or hate them, I think I do both. They are so hard and make me want to stop halfway through, but on the other hand that's why I like them, because I really have to fight through them. I started training at 8:45 am with a warm-up jog and then did 10 hill sprints of 22 seconds (that's how long the hill was). The sun was shining so it was pretty warm already. The first one went ok, after the second one my legs were tired. "Good start" I thought. I fought through the first five and from there it went relatively easy. After every rest I thought that I could easily do another one, but halfway through the pain kicked in and at the end of the sprint I felt like my legs were about to give up and I couldn't do another one, but after the rest I was fine again. After 20min of pure torture, I had to sit down before I could go for my cool-down because my legs were hurting too much. After a shower and some sunbathing I quickly recovered though and luckily I only had to do 90min of upper body exercises in the afternoon which I survived without being in any more pain :).
Tuesday
I only trained once that day so I could have slept in but I didn't. It was raining, it was windy and it was foggy outside so I was waiting for the weather to get a bit better. When it was still pouring down with rain at 10am I decided to do half of my training inside and so I started with my warm-up and 20min of tapping. I then went outside for 30min of skipping and was glad to be under a canopy as it was still raining like crazy. After I was done I went for a 15min cool-down jog and finished with 5min of stretches. Of course it was still raining in the afternoon so I just relaxed, went on the internet, read my book and later watched some tv.
Wednesday
When I got up at 7:10am the sun was shining and I was really looking forward to my interval run (5 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 3 – 3 – 2 – 2 – 1 – 1 – 30sec). Even though I had yesterday afternoon off I didn't feel rested at all. I went running at 9am, did a 10min warm-up jog and then started the interval. I did the first 5min a bit faster than I normally do and felt good. The rest of the interval didn't seem long either and I was having fun. I didn't notice how worn out I was until I slowed down for my cool-down. I had to walk up the steep parts back to the hotel because my legs felt so tired. All I did for the rest of the day was lying in the sun reading my book – it was wonderful. At 3pm I had my next training planned, 1,5 hours of upper body exercises. I felt exhausted though and so not in the mood for a boring exercise session, but in the end I was glad that I did it. After I was done, me and my boyfriend went for a walk and then to dinner. I just lay on the bed for the rest of the evening, watching tv and trying not to fall asleep already.
Thursday
I was still tired when I got up and my legs felt like jelly. I had to do off-skate, but because it was raining and really windy outside, I decided to jump around in my hotel room. I did a 15min warm-up before I started with the main program. My legs felt even worse than when I woke up and I rather would have stopped. The exercises I normally do without a lot of effort felt really hard today. I was wondering if I might have trained a bit too much lately, or better if I trained too hard.
Before lunc my boyfriend called me and told me to pack my bags, we were leaving after lunch. So I packed, had lunch, got in the car, we drove home (stopped in Timaru to see my boyfriend's parents) and when we finally got home around 7pm I hopped on the wind trainer and did an hour worth of "training" on there. I didn't even bother putting on my heart rate monitor as I was still tired from training in the morning and just wanted to do a really easy session on the bike.
Friday morning we went to Mount Cook Village because my boyfriend had to work there for the last week. The trip was pretty long and boring and when we got there just after noon my boyfriend had to start working. Because it was my rest day I just did some stretches and tried not to be too bored in my hotel room.
Saturday
As soon as I got up I went for my run (interval training). It was 7:45 and I was pretty much the only person out there. I started with a 10min warm-up followed by 10 x 400 m (approx. 1 min 50 sec). I didn't feel too good as I just got up and didn't have time for breakfast. I first ran along a path but when it got stony I turned around (didn't want to misstep or something) and headed for the flat road along the valley instead. There was a gravelled path along to the road so that was perfect. I felt pretty lonely because the hotel we were in was in the middle of nowhere and there were only three cars I saw. The hotel is at the bottom of Mount Cook, so all you can see are mountains around you and a few brown fields and that's pretty much it. But at least I found a flat path that I could use for my interval trainings. After I finished the 400s I did a 10min cool-down and some stretches before me and my boyfriend drove to the closest town to get something for his work. We had lunch and in the afternoon I relaxed and got ready again for my second run of the day around 3pm.
I just wanted to go running for an hour so I had a look at the walkways around our hotel. I found one that led to a glacier lake and decided to go have a look at that. It was flat for most of the time but the path wasn't always easy to run on because of all the stones. I made it over the swing bridge and to the lake faster than I thought so I kept running for a bit longer before I turned around. I took photos as well so I had to stop a couple of times. I finished my run with six accelerations and some stretches. Even though it was drizzling all the time, the run was a lot of fun because I could take photos to show my friends and family, so they can see what I've seen on my run.
Sunday
I got up at 7am and did off-skate 1 hour later. I found a patch of grass in front of the hotel where I could do my jumps. Once I was doing forward and side jumps and when I looked to my left I saw all those people sitting there, having breakfast and staring at me. Haha, I didn't really notice them before so it was pretty funny. I'm sure they asked themselves what I was doing out there.
The rest of the day I spent reading and playing games on my computer as it was raining again outside. I was also pretty tired and needed the rest.
At least the second training of the day around 3pm wasn't too hard. I went jogging but integrated the running ABC so it didn't feel too long and I didn't go fast either. The exercises got me quite out of breath though. I ended up jogging for 45min, doing the running ABC for 20min in the middle of the run.
Monday
Hill sprints – I don't know if I should love them or hate them, I think I do both. They are so hard and make me want to stop halfway through, but on the other hand that's why I like them, because I really have to fight through them. I started training at 8:45 am with a warm-up jog and then did 10 hill sprints of 22 seconds (that's how long the hill was). The sun was shining so it was pretty warm already. The first one went ok, after the second one my legs were tired. "Good start" I thought. I fought through the first five and from there it went relatively easy. After every rest I thought that I could easily do another one, but halfway through the pain kicked in and at the end of the sprint I felt like my legs were about to give up and I couldn't do another one, but after the rest I was fine again. After 20min of pure torture, I had to sit down before I could go for my cool-down because my legs were hurting too much. After a shower and some sunbathing I quickly recovered though and luckily I only had to do 90min of upper body exercises in the afternoon which I survived without being in any more pain :).
Tuesday
I only trained once that day so I could have slept in but I didn't. It was raining, it was windy and it was foggy outside so I was waiting for the weather to get a bit better. When it was still pouring down with rain at 10am I decided to do half of my training inside and so I started with my warm-up and 20min of tapping. I then went outside for 30min of skipping and was glad to be under a canopy as it was still raining like crazy. After I was done I went for a 15min cool-down jog and finished with 5min of stretches. Of course it was still raining in the afternoon so I just relaxed, went on the internet, read my book and later watched some tv.
Wednesday
When I got up at 7:10am the sun was shining and I was really looking forward to my interval run (5 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 3 – 3 – 2 – 2 – 1 – 1 – 30sec). Even though I had yesterday afternoon off I didn't feel rested at all. I went running at 9am, did a 10min warm-up jog and then started the interval. I did the first 5min a bit faster than I normally do and felt good. The rest of the interval didn't seem long either and I was having fun. I didn't notice how worn out I was until I slowed down for my cool-down. I had to walk up the steep parts back to the hotel because my legs felt so tired. All I did for the rest of the day was lying in the sun reading my book – it was wonderful. At 3pm I had my next training planned, 1,5 hours of upper body exercises. I felt exhausted though and so not in the mood for a boring exercise session, but in the end I was glad that I did it. After I was done, me and my boyfriend went for a walk and then to dinner. I just lay on the bed for the rest of the evening, watching tv and trying not to fall asleep already.
Thursday
I was still tired when I got up and my legs felt like jelly. I had to do off-skate, but because it was raining and really windy outside, I decided to jump around in my hotel room. I did a 15min warm-up before I started with the main program. My legs felt even worse than when I woke up and I rather would have stopped. The exercises I normally do without a lot of effort felt really hard today. I was wondering if I might have trained a bit too much lately, or better if I trained too hard.
Before lunc my boyfriend called me and told me to pack my bags, we were leaving after lunch. So I packed, had lunch, got in the car, we drove home (stopped in Timaru to see my boyfriend's parents) and when we finally got home around 7pm I hopped on the wind trainer and did an hour worth of "training" on there. I didn't even bother putting on my heart rate monitor as I was still tired from training in the morning and just wanted to do a really easy session on the bike.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
earthquake
I haven't been able to write for the last couple of days because there was so much stuff going on… On Saturday we got woken up by an earthquake at 4:35 am (7,1 on the Richter scale). It was terrifying and of course we couldn't go back to sleep afterwards. The walls were shaking as if we were in a cardboard box and our bed was about to collapse. As soon as it was a bit brighter outside, we started putting back all the stuff that fell down. Fortunately our place is quite new so we didn't have any damage. My boyfriend's dad was supposed to fly in in the afternoon as well, but the airport was closed so we had a bit of organising and researching to do. Training on that day was cancelled, so I ended up spending an hour on the wind trainer, being shaken by aftershocks. On Sunday I did some off-skate and we went to the airport in the evening to finally pick up my boyfriend's dad. We also went to the supermarket to do some shopping and we hoped we'd find some water as well as we're not allowed to drink the tap water, but all the water was sold out.
On Monday the sun was shining, it was 18 degrees at 9am and apart from some buildings which were quite destroyed and the central city which was closed off, nothing really reminded of the earthquake. I headed out for a 40min interval run and got really hot real quick. I did 1 x 200m and 4 x 400m before heading back home again. My boyfriend didn't have to go to work because of the earthquake so he was home with me and I was soooo glad.
In the evening we went to club training and did 9 x 400m which were easier than usual. Last week I couldn't even keep up with Mark and had to do the intervals by myself, but this week everything was fine again and I had no porblems at all to keep up with him. I was pretty glad cos otherwise I would have been pretty worried. That night we had two pretty good aftershocks again and until now I haven't had a night where I could sleep through.
Tuesday I only did some exercises for 1 hour 25 and went shopping with my boyfriend. I also helped him to pack because he had to leave this morning to go back to work up Mount Cook.
Last night we had 12 aftershocks in total, only one woke me up though. As soon as my boyfriend left this morning, there was another huge one and even a few things fell off the shelves again. It was "only" 5,1 on the Richter scale, but it was only 6km deep and closer from Christchurch than the other ones, that's why it felt so big. It really freaked me out and I am so over these aftershocks so I called my boyfriend telling him to come back home. Stupid, I know, he was on his way to Mount Cook and he just told me he'll see what he can do. We had a couple of other smaller aftershocks – freaked me out even more.
I still did my Power-Workout though, trying to keep myself occupied. My legs were still pretty shaky which made it difficult to jump around. I was planning on going to the mall later, but heard that they closed it because of the aftershock. I then texted my friend to ask her if I can stay at her place for the night. I was planning on going there later this afternoon, but then my boyfriend called me from Mount Cook, telling me they're coming home. Thank god! I asked why and he said all his work mates got calls from their girlfriends, wives who are all scared after this morning's aftershock. I'm now waiting until 4:30 pm to see if it will still be dry and I can go to club training or if I have to go on the wind trainer.
On Monday the sun was shining, it was 18 degrees at 9am and apart from some buildings which were quite destroyed and the central city which was closed off, nothing really reminded of the earthquake. I headed out for a 40min interval run and got really hot real quick. I did 1 x 200m and 4 x 400m before heading back home again. My boyfriend didn't have to go to work because of the earthquake so he was home with me and I was soooo glad.
In the evening we went to club training and did 9 x 400m which were easier than usual. Last week I couldn't even keep up with Mark and had to do the intervals by myself, but this week everything was fine again and I had no porblems at all to keep up with him. I was pretty glad cos otherwise I would have been pretty worried. That night we had two pretty good aftershocks again and until now I haven't had a night where I could sleep through.
Tuesday I only did some exercises for 1 hour 25 and went shopping with my boyfriend. I also helped him to pack because he had to leave this morning to go back to work up Mount Cook.
Last night we had 12 aftershocks in total, only one woke me up though. As soon as my boyfriend left this morning, there was another huge one and even a few things fell off the shelves again. It was "only" 5,1 on the Richter scale, but it was only 6km deep and closer from Christchurch than the other ones, that's why it felt so big. It really freaked me out and I am so over these aftershocks so I called my boyfriend telling him to come back home. Stupid, I know, he was on his way to Mount Cook and he just told me he'll see what he can do. We had a couple of other smaller aftershocks – freaked me out even more.
I still did my Power-Workout though, trying to keep myself occupied. My legs were still pretty shaky which made it difficult to jump around. I was planning on going to the mall later, but heard that they closed it because of the aftershock. I then texted my friend to ask her if I can stay at her place for the night. I was planning on going there later this afternoon, but then my boyfriend called me from Mount Cook, telling me they're coming home. Thank god! I asked why and he said all his work mates got calls from their girlfriends, wives who are all scared after this morning's aftershock. I'm now waiting until 4:30 pm to see if it will still be dry and I can go to club training or if I have to go on the wind trainer.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
some skating and an awesome long run
On Monday morning I was away until 2pm and after I got home I had to leave again 10min later to go to a job interview in the city.
Back home again I was so tired that I just watched tv for an hour until my boyfriend got home and we had to get ready to go to club training (it hasn't been raining so the track was dry). I wasn't motivated at all but we still went there, knowing that if we didn't I'd be grumpy fort he rest of the night. Only 7 skaters (including me and my boyfriend) showed up so no one was really motivated. We started with the warm-up and instead of doing starts or accelerations we went straight to the intervals. We did 6 x 1'200m and me and Mark skated together. I had trouble keeping up with him and finally got dropped with 2 laps to go. My ankle kinda hurt as well and I was in a pretty bad mood. I did the next 1'200m by myself because I just wasn't able to keep up with Mark that night. My legs were so sore and heavy, it felt horrible. It might have something to do with the fact that yesterday was rest day (My legs never feel good after a rest day) but I'm not sure… I was about to stop and take my skates off, but I kept skating, leading the first two laps for Mark and then skating by myself. It sucked. After only 50min of training we cooled down, got changed and went home. I couldn't even be bothered doing stretches when we got home.
Yesterday morning I did 1 hour 25 worth of exercises and that was it for the day. We were supposed to go to club training in the evening, but my boyfriend got home late from work and I couldn't really be bothered going there only to do 2 x 5km (they're soooo boring). Instead we went to Burger King and got ice cream afterwards. I think that's a good alternative for training :D. I didn't even have to feel guilty cos hey, it's recovery week, I'm allowed to do things like that. God I love recovery weeks :).
Today though training was gonna be tough. I got up with my boyfriend when he had to go to work, had breakfast and waited until 10am until I headed out for my long run. I prefer to go running in the afternoon when it's a bit warmer, but the weather forecast said it's gonna rain in the afternoon, so I chose to go in the morning. I went to Hagley Park to do my two laps and a bit more to get to 1 hour 50min. When I started it was cloudy but the sun came out after about 30min. I felt pretty good on the first lap, although I got pretty hot and thirsty. Good thing there's a drink fountain 20min away from where I start my lap so I always stop there to have a drink. The first lap felt longer than usual and I wasn't really looking forward to doing another one of those long laps, but I didn't have much choice. On the second lap the sun was gone again and the wind picked up. My legs started to feel a bit tired and knowing that I still had more than 30min to go didn't really help either. I finished the second lap a liiiiiittle bit slower than the first and jogged down Hagley Park South for 5min before I turned around and went home. On my way home I had to stop at the traffic lights again a couple of times (annoying) and it even started drizzling. I had clouds, sun, wind and rain all in one run :). I made it home in 1:50.06 and covered 19,89 km. That's the longest run I've ever done and I'm pretty proud of myself :). My average heart rate was 165 and my average pace 5:32 per km. A bit too fast for a long run, I know, but I just couldn't go slower. I'd be ready for a half marathon right now, but unfortunately there's none around except for one on a 3,3km lap – and I'm not gonna do this to myself. After I got home from the run I was pretty worn out and tired so I took a shower, had something to eat and a sports drink and then just relaxed on the couch watching German tv shows for the rest of the afternoon – there's nothing better after a long hard run like this.
Back home again I was so tired that I just watched tv for an hour until my boyfriend got home and we had to get ready to go to club training (it hasn't been raining so the track was dry). I wasn't motivated at all but we still went there, knowing that if we didn't I'd be grumpy fort he rest of the night. Only 7 skaters (including me and my boyfriend) showed up so no one was really motivated. We started with the warm-up and instead of doing starts or accelerations we went straight to the intervals. We did 6 x 1'200m and me and Mark skated together. I had trouble keeping up with him and finally got dropped with 2 laps to go. My ankle kinda hurt as well and I was in a pretty bad mood. I did the next 1'200m by myself because I just wasn't able to keep up with Mark that night. My legs were so sore and heavy, it felt horrible. It might have something to do with the fact that yesterday was rest day (My legs never feel good after a rest day) but I'm not sure… I was about to stop and take my skates off, but I kept skating, leading the first two laps for Mark and then skating by myself. It sucked. After only 50min of training we cooled down, got changed and went home. I couldn't even be bothered doing stretches when we got home.
Yesterday morning I did 1 hour 25 worth of exercises and that was it for the day. We were supposed to go to club training in the evening, but my boyfriend got home late from work and I couldn't really be bothered going there only to do 2 x 5km (they're soooo boring). Instead we went to Burger King and got ice cream afterwards. I think that's a good alternative for training :D. I didn't even have to feel guilty cos hey, it's recovery week, I'm allowed to do things like that. God I love recovery weeks :).
Today though training was gonna be tough. I got up with my boyfriend when he had to go to work, had breakfast and waited until 10am until I headed out for my long run. I prefer to go running in the afternoon when it's a bit warmer, but the weather forecast said it's gonna rain in the afternoon, so I chose to go in the morning. I went to Hagley Park to do my two laps and a bit more to get to 1 hour 50min. When I started it was cloudy but the sun came out after about 30min. I felt pretty good on the first lap, although I got pretty hot and thirsty. Good thing there's a drink fountain 20min away from where I start my lap so I always stop there to have a drink. The first lap felt longer than usual and I wasn't really looking forward to doing another one of those long laps, but I didn't have much choice. On the second lap the sun was gone again and the wind picked up. My legs started to feel a bit tired and knowing that I still had more than 30min to go didn't really help either. I finished the second lap a liiiiiittle bit slower than the first and jogged down Hagley Park South for 5min before I turned around and went home. On my way home I had to stop at the traffic lights again a couple of times (annoying) and it even started drizzling. I had clouds, sun, wind and rain all in one run :). I made it home in 1:50.06 and covered 19,89 km. That's the longest run I've ever done and I'm pretty proud of myself :). My average heart rate was 165 and my average pace 5:32 per km. A bit too fast for a long run, I know, but I just couldn't go slower. I'd be ready for a half marathon right now, but unfortunately there's none around except for one on a 3,3km lap – and I'm not gonna do this to myself. After I got home from the run I was pretty worn out and tired so I took a shower, had something to eat and a sports drink and then just relaxed on the couch watching German tv shows for the rest of the afternoon – there's nothing better after a long hard run like this.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Southern Regionals
The Southern Regionals flat track races were held at the Pioneer Recreation and Sport Centre in Christchurch on Saturday. We got there around 8:20am and warm-up started at 9:15am. Enough time for me to get everything sorted and changed. During the warm-up I soon found out that my wheel choice wasn't the best as I was slipping in the corners, but someone from the club said that they're gonna wipe the floor before racing starts. No need to worry then… We started with a 300 m time trial and I was the last one to start. I watched all the others slipping around the corners and even Mark who I normally skate with at training slipped. I asked him if the track isn't any better than before and he said no. Yay. I didn't have time to change my wheels or anything, so I just had to put up with it. I started and slid through the first corner. This was no fun at all. I skated to the corner, slid, slid, slid, started skating again and sprinted out of the corner to get enough speed again, got to the next corner, slid, slid, slid and so on. Fortunately I only had to do three laps, but it was still very tiring. I ended up getting second overall (behind Mark) and won my categorie (we were only three girls). Next up was a 1'200 m relay. I was with Vicky from our club and we skated against two other teams but because Vicky was always too late in the changes, I couldn't push her properly so we fell back and ended up being third overall and second in our categorie, but that was ok. We then had a 800 m (8 laps) where we started with the skaters from the intermediate categorie. I was second off the start line but couldn't really hold up with Mark and still slid around the corners, but I comfortably got second. I then changed my wheels and hoped the new ones would grip a bit better. We had quite a long break as artistic skating was on so we had time to go outside for a bit and have lunch. In the afternoon we had a 1'500 m with the intermediates again. My wheels gripped a bit better so me and Mark shared the leads. With five laps to go he sped up though and I couldn't keep up anymore but got second again and first in my categorie. We then had another 1'200 m relay but this time I was with Mark and we won it easily. All the changes were perfect and we just ruled it :D. The last race of the day was a 3'000 m open, so that meant we had 4 categories in one race. I first thought that some of the Juniors might beat me because they didn't look too slow when I watched their races, but when we started and I was second off the start again, I wasn't worried anymore. Me and Mark shared the leads again but my legs got more tired with every lap. We had 30 laps in total and after about 15 laps I couldn't keep up with Mark anymore. I don't know what happened a couple of laps later, but I suddenly fell in one of the corners. There wasn't even anyone around me and I can't remember if I tripped or something, I just fell. However, I quickly got up and started skating again when the guy who skated about half a lap behind me ran straight into me and we both fell again but this time hurt more because of the impact. He got up a bit quicker than me but it only took me two laps to catch up to him again. I then just skated behind him and let him do all the work and with four laps to go I attacked but he couldn't follow me so I finished half a lap in front of him and got second in the race. I asked the guy who ran me over why he ran straight into me (cos there was enough space to go around me) and he just said that he didn't see me. Duh! I'm not that small… The others from my club were pretty concerned though and everyone asked if I was ok. I only had two little grazes on my knee, but it seemed like a big deal to them. It was cute :). By the time all the races and presentations were over it was 6:50 pm and we were all pretty tired from a long day. We drove home, quickly took a shower, got dressed and went out the door again to go to the fundraising dinner for Mark (so that he can go to worlds). By the time we got home it was 11:00 pm and I was so tired that I just fell into bed.
On Sunday we slept in (8 am, haha) and lay in bed for a little bit before I had breakfast and finally unpacked my bag from Saturday. I did a two hours training on the wind trainer and felt pretty good. Racing on Saturday felt more like a training cos there wasn't really anyone who could have challenged me and the races were too short to make me tired (except for the last one). We had pancakes for lunch, I did the laundry, we went to the mall and by the time we were back home it was 5:30pm already. I was tired from walking around so I really couldn't be bothered doing off-skate but I knew I should. So I got ready sometime after 6pm and did my warm-up, 40min worth of off-skate and a cool-down. It was a loooong day again and no need to say that I was very tired again that night.
This week is recovery week so I'm more than happy about that. In the afternoon all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and watch a German tv show or so but it is Monday and that means I had to do some cleaning. I just finished before so I finally have time to sit down for a couple of minutes. It looks like it's gonna rain, so I don't think we'll be going to club training tonight. Either way I'm gonna have to leave soon because we have to go food shopping as well. I also have to change the wheels from my skates, fix my track pants… yes, you're right – it's another busy day :).
On Sunday we slept in (8 am, haha) and lay in bed for a little bit before I had breakfast and finally unpacked my bag from Saturday. I did a two hours training on the wind trainer and felt pretty good. Racing on Saturday felt more like a training cos there wasn't really anyone who could have challenged me and the races were too short to make me tired (except for the last one). We had pancakes for lunch, I did the laundry, we went to the mall and by the time we were back home it was 5:30pm already. I was tired from walking around so I really couldn't be bothered doing off-skate but I knew I should. So I got ready sometime after 6pm and did my warm-up, 40min worth of off-skate and a cool-down. It was a loooong day again and no need to say that I was very tired again that night.
This week is recovery week so I'm more than happy about that. In the afternoon all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and watch a German tv show or so but it is Monday and that means I had to do some cleaning. I just finished before so I finally have time to sit down for a couple of minutes. It looks like it's gonna rain, so I don't think we'll be going to club training tonight. Either way I'm gonna have to leave soon because we have to go food shopping as well. I also have to change the wheels from my skates, fix my track pants… yes, you're right – it's another busy day :).
Thursday, August 26, 2010
ouch! my calf and shin muscles are pretty sore
Yesterday when I woke up I just wanted to go back to sleep and stay in bed all day. My calves were sore, I had a headache and I was still tired. I couldn't go back to sleep though so I got up at 7:30 am and had breakfast. I seriously thought about not going training this morning because I was kind of scared that my body couldn't take it and I'd get into overtraining again (been there, done that). But after being up for a while I felt better and better and the only thing that could have held me back was my calves. I wanted to try a new workout today so I wasn't sure if it would be hard or not. But I did know that my calfs would hurt a lot because it involved a lot of jumping. Well, I wanted to give it a try so I got changed and headed out to Woolston Park at 9am. I used the 10min jog there as a warm-up and when I got to the park I started with 15min of running exercises such as knee lift, jumps, etc. I then did about 10min of tapping. This is supposed to help your muscles move faster. For example you stand in the skating position, both feet next to each other and then tap a line in front of you with the heel of your foot, put it back next to the other foot, tap the line… as fast as you can for 10 sec. The reps are really short but you have to do them as fast as you can. I did 6 different exercises (running on the spot as fast as I could, arm swing, touching line sideways…), each for 10 sec and repeated the whole thing three times. I couldn't do all the exercises I wanted to because my calves hurt too much and I didn't want to get an injury. After this I did some skipping for about 10min (both feet, one foot, backwards, "running"…). All in all it took me a bit more than 40min and with the jog there and back home it took me exactly an hour. In the afternoon I didn't do much. I put some Axa Nova on my calves to make them feel a bit better for training in the evening (didn't work though), went to the mall to buy a few things and watched German X Factor. I wasn't exactly looking forward to go training because I knew it would be tough with my sore calf muscles, but it turned out to be ok. After the 15min warm-up and some stretches we did 2 x 5km. I didn't really feel my calves but with a couple of laps to go in the first 5km, my hamstrings started to hurt. The second 5km was a bit harder than the first one, but we still didn't skate too fast. With about 10 laps to go my thighs started burning and I started to feel really tired (and hungry), but apart from that it was ok.
This morning though I could barely walk when I first got up. My calves were on fiiiiire… It got better after an hour or so though, reason enough to do my long run today. Yesterday night I wasn't too sure if I should do my long run today, but now I'm pretty positive about it even though I know that my calves will hurt like crazy again, but tomorrow is rest day so it doesn't really matter. I just hope they won't hurt anymore on Saturday, cos that's when the Southern Regionals are on and I don't really wanna have sore calves for that as it's already hard enough.
At 1:20pm I went for my long run. The sun was shining and it was about 14 degrees, so I really looked forward to it. But of course the sun got covered by a huge cloud 20min into my run and stayed away for the rest of it and because it was pretty windy too I got quite cold. In other words, it sucked.
I thought my calves would hurt but I didn't really feel them. All I could feel was my shin muscles from yesterday and they hurt pretty bad. However, I kept running and did two laps around Hagley Park. So with the run there and back I covered 18,05 km in 1 hour 40min. It was still a good run even though I didn't feel as good as I did on my last week's run but you can't always feel good so that's ok. I'm gonna rub some Axa Nova on my calves and shins again tonight and hope they'll feel a bit better tomorrow.
This morning though I could barely walk when I first got up. My calves were on fiiiiire… It got better after an hour or so though, reason enough to do my long run today. Yesterday night I wasn't too sure if I should do my long run today, but now I'm pretty positive about it even though I know that my calves will hurt like crazy again, but tomorrow is rest day so it doesn't really matter. I just hope they won't hurt anymore on Saturday, cos that's when the Southern Regionals are on and I don't really wanna have sore calves for that as it's already hard enough.
At 1:20pm I went for my long run. The sun was shining and it was about 14 degrees, so I really looked forward to it. But of course the sun got covered by a huge cloud 20min into my run and stayed away for the rest of it and because it was pretty windy too I got quite cold. In other words, it sucked.
I thought my calves would hurt but I didn't really feel them. All I could feel was my shin muscles from yesterday and they hurt pretty bad. However, I kept running and did two laps around Hagley Park. So with the run there and back I covered 18,05 km in 1 hour 40min. It was still a good run even though I didn't feel as good as I did on my last week's run but you can't always feel good so that's ok. I'm gonna rub some Axa Nova on my calves and shins again tonight and hope they'll feel a bit better tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
training, training and more training = very tired
Training this weekend wasn't too exciting. Saturday morning I did exercises for my upper body for 1,5 hours and by the time I was finished it was 11:30am, we had lunch, did some other stuff and went training again at 2:30pm. I so didn't want to go because it was 6 degrees (felt like 4) outside and windy. I rather would have stayed home where it was nice and warm… My boyfriend insisted on driving me there though cos he knew that I'd be grumpy for the rest of the day if I didn't go. When we got to the Airforce Museum the wind picked up even more and I put all my clothes on that I brought with me. We did the warm-up and I actually got hot so I took off my gloves and one of my two pairs of tights I was wearing. We did 2 x 10km but they were a lot slower than the ones we did a week ago so it didn't even feel too hard and I never really got out of breath. Me and Mark were talking through the whole training, normally we can't talk anymore cos we're so out of breath :). I didn't do a cool-down because as soon as I stopped skating I got really cold so I quickly got changed and we drove home in the warm car (I put it on 27 degrees :). And yes, I was glad that I went training and yes, I had fun and no, it wasn't too bad.
On Sunday morning I sat on the wind trainer for 2 hours watching German tv shows. I had to choose a really high resistance because my heart rate didn't want to go up once again, so my legs got a bit tired in the end. But I was proud of myself because sitting on a wind trainer for 2 hours really is a good effort :). Normally people get way too bored to sit on a wind trainer for that long. I also got hungry so I was happy that my boyfriend made me pancakes for lunch. After I had about 5 big pancakes (just never can get enough of them), we went shopping. My boyfriend wanted to look for some running shoes and we needed a few other things as well. We spent quite a long time at Rebel Sport looking at shoes and trying them on, but he didn't buy any. We then went to Dresssmart where I bought a new running shirt. Well, my boyfriend bought it for me. By the time we got home it was dinner time already and the weekend was almost over again.
On Monday I got up at 6:30am, had two slices of bread and got ready for training. 20min after I got up, I started with a 15min warm-up, then did the Power-Workout for 40min and a 15min cool-down. I really struggled with the workout today. My legs were so sore and I even had to take little breaks during the exercises because I was so worn out. I don't really know why my legs were so sore because training at the weekend wasn't that hard. I managed to do all the exercises though, took a shower, had some muesli, quickly checked my emails and got ready to go to "work". I spent the morning at a day care for people with a mental disability to see if that would be a job for me. It was ok, but more exhausting and tiring than I thought. I was back home again around lunch time and quite tired. I had something to eat and started cleaning soon afterwards. Bad idea. Made me even more tired. After I finished cleaning I had to take a break and just sit on the couch in front of the computer for a while before I hung out the washing and did other stuff again. I was soooo tired. I was planning on going for a run in the late afternoon cos I thought it was gonna rain, but because I was too tired I decided to just do exercises. It didn't rain though and we ended up going skating. The warm-up and the starts were ok and even the accelerations felt ok, but when we got to the 6 x 400m I was suffering. My boyfriend lead the first one so it was damn fast and I couldn't keep up with him and Mark. I also stumbled around the corners because I just can't skate the corners at the bottom when I go fast. Mark lead the second one and at least this time I stayed behind him. It was still hard though. I lead the third one but felt like I was going really slow. In the fourth one it was my boyfriends turn to lead so I couldn't keep up again and it started to really frustrate me. And I felt my calves as well from training in the morning. They were pretty thight and I tried to relax them but it didn't really work. The last two 400's were the worst. I was so out of breath and my legs and especially my calfs were burning and
I was quite grumpy, but at least I always past Mark on the last lap because apparently he was just as worn out as I was and stopped skating with half a lap to go.
Yesterday morning I had my 10km run planned but because I can't go to the running race in three weeks time, I just wanted to run a comfortable pace and not go all out on this one. I still felt a bit tired and my calf muscles got sorer over night as well. I started running, not really looking at my watch and by the time I got to the turnaround, I was 2min slower than usual but not really out of breath. I didn't even feel the need to speed up in the second half of the run, I just couldn't care enough :). I kept running "slowly" and enjoyed the weather (sunshine and 11 degrees at 10am). I finished the 10km in 53:15, more than 5min slower than usual, but I didn't care. I just looked forward to getting a drink and not moving my calves for the rest of the day because gosh, they hurt!
In the afternoon I just watched tv and tried not to fall asleep. I was sooo tired. I eventually got off the couch and did exercises for my upper body for 1,5 hours, went food shopping with my boyfriend, had dinner and got tired again around 8:30pm. Hello?! I managed to stay awake until just before 10pm though, I think that was a pretty good effort :).
On Sunday morning I sat on the wind trainer for 2 hours watching German tv shows. I had to choose a really high resistance because my heart rate didn't want to go up once again, so my legs got a bit tired in the end. But I was proud of myself because sitting on a wind trainer for 2 hours really is a good effort :). Normally people get way too bored to sit on a wind trainer for that long. I also got hungry so I was happy that my boyfriend made me pancakes for lunch. After I had about 5 big pancakes (just never can get enough of them), we went shopping. My boyfriend wanted to look for some running shoes and we needed a few other things as well. We spent quite a long time at Rebel Sport looking at shoes and trying them on, but he didn't buy any. We then went to Dresssmart where I bought a new running shirt. Well, my boyfriend bought it for me. By the time we got home it was dinner time already and the weekend was almost over again.
On Monday I got up at 6:30am, had two slices of bread and got ready for training. 20min after I got up, I started with a 15min warm-up, then did the Power-Workout for 40min and a 15min cool-down. I really struggled with the workout today. My legs were so sore and I even had to take little breaks during the exercises because I was so worn out. I don't really know why my legs were so sore because training at the weekend wasn't that hard. I managed to do all the exercises though, took a shower, had some muesli, quickly checked my emails and got ready to go to "work". I spent the morning at a day care for people with a mental disability to see if that would be a job for me. It was ok, but more exhausting and tiring than I thought. I was back home again around lunch time and quite tired. I had something to eat and started cleaning soon afterwards. Bad idea. Made me even more tired. After I finished cleaning I had to take a break and just sit on the couch in front of the computer for a while before I hung out the washing and did other stuff again. I was soooo tired. I was planning on going for a run in the late afternoon cos I thought it was gonna rain, but because I was too tired I decided to just do exercises. It didn't rain though and we ended up going skating. The warm-up and the starts were ok and even the accelerations felt ok, but when we got to the 6 x 400m I was suffering. My boyfriend lead the first one so it was damn fast and I couldn't keep up with him and Mark. I also stumbled around the corners because I just can't skate the corners at the bottom when I go fast. Mark lead the second one and at least this time I stayed behind him. It was still hard though. I lead the third one but felt like I was going really slow. In the fourth one it was my boyfriends turn to lead so I couldn't keep up again and it started to really frustrate me. And I felt my calves as well from training in the morning. They were pretty thight and I tried to relax them but it didn't really work. The last two 400's were the worst. I was so out of breath and my legs and especially my calfs were burning and
I was quite grumpy, but at least I always past Mark on the last lap because apparently he was just as worn out as I was and stopped skating with half a lap to go.
Yesterday morning I had my 10km run planned but because I can't go to the running race in three weeks time, I just wanted to run a comfortable pace and not go all out on this one. I still felt a bit tired and my calf muscles got sorer over night as well. I started running, not really looking at my watch and by the time I got to the turnaround, I was 2min slower than usual but not really out of breath. I didn't even feel the need to speed up in the second half of the run, I just couldn't care enough :). I kept running "slowly" and enjoyed the weather (sunshine and 11 degrees at 10am). I finished the 10km in 53:15, more than 5min slower than usual, but I didn't care. I just looked forward to getting a drink and not moving my calves for the rest of the day because gosh, they hurt!
In the afternoon I just watched tv and tried not to fall asleep. I was sooo tired. I eventually got off the couch and did exercises for my upper body for 1,5 hours, went food shopping with my boyfriend, had dinner and got tired again around 8:30pm. Hello?! I managed to stay awake until just before 10pm though, I think that was a pretty good effort :).
Friday, August 20, 2010
my favorite interval training
Yesterday I got up early to have enough time between breakfast and my run at 9am. It was quite windy and 8 degrees, but at least it stopped raining 30min before I went for my run. I did a 10min warm-up jog and started with the interval. I did a 5 – 5 – 4 – 4 – 3 – 3 – 2 – 2 – 1 – 1 – 30 sec one, that means 5min fast, 5min slow, 4min fast, 4min slow and so on. It's my absolute favorite one because you go faster the shorter the intervals get and you almost sprint the last one, it's so much fun. The 5min one was a bit too slow though so it wasn't too hard, but I didn't want to go all out in the first interval already. The 4min however was quite a bit faster and I felt tired at the end of it (just how it's supposed to be :)). The last one was the hardest as it was only 30 sec long and I went all out, but it was such a good training. I made sure I got something to eat and enough rest after the run because I had another training in the evening.
The weather in the evening looked ok, it was cloudy but didn't look like it's gonna rain, so I decided to drive to the track for club training even though I would have much rather stayed home. When I got there it turned out that the track was too wet to skate on so I drove back home again (I was gone for 55min only to drive down to the track and back when I could have stayed home in the first place. Yeah well…). I quickly got changed and set up my bike to do an hour on the wind trainer. Just because the track was wet didn't mean I'd get the evening off :). I did a warm-up for 5min, went easy for 10min, harder for 15min, easy for 5min, harder for 15min and easy again for 5min and then did a cool-down for another 5min. It wasn't too hard but not too easy either, so I think it was ok because I was still a bit tired from training in the morning, even though my legs held up a lot better than I thought they would. I had pasta for dinner and went to bed at 9pm already because I was tired and had a bit of a headache.
Today is rest day. I'm really glad about that because my body really needs a rest and training at the weekend is gonna be hard again. I'm not going to do too much today, just rest, relax and eat pizza for dinner :D. My boyfriend is coming home this afternoon as well (after looooong 12 days) so I'm looking forward to that.
The weather in the evening looked ok, it was cloudy but didn't look like it's gonna rain, so I decided to drive to the track for club training even though I would have much rather stayed home. When I got there it turned out that the track was too wet to skate on so I drove back home again (I was gone for 55min only to drive down to the track and back when I could have stayed home in the first place. Yeah well…). I quickly got changed and set up my bike to do an hour on the wind trainer. Just because the track was wet didn't mean I'd get the evening off :). I did a warm-up for 5min, went easy for 10min, harder for 15min, easy for 5min, harder for 15min and easy again for 5min and then did a cool-down for another 5min. It wasn't too hard but not too easy either, so I think it was ok because I was still a bit tired from training in the morning, even though my legs held up a lot better than I thought they would. I had pasta for dinner and went to bed at 9pm already because I was tired and had a bit of a headache.
Today is rest day. I'm really glad about that because my body really needs a rest and training at the weekend is gonna be hard again. I'm not going to do too much today, just rest, relax and eat pizza for dinner :D. My boyfriend is coming home this afternoon as well (after looooong 12 days) so I'm looking forward to that.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
bad weather, good training
Monday morning I went for an easy 40min run as soon as I woke up. I wore my new running shoes but apart from that I wasn't too excited to go for that run. I started running and felt really comfortable in my new shoes. I was also pretty cold and even wore my gloves. It was 6 degrees but a cold wind was blowing as well. 5min into the run it started to drizzle, which didn't bother me though as I was getting warm already. I jogged along the river for 20min before I turned around and jogged home. 10min from home it started raining but I still didn't mind, I like the rain… I was still a bit tired from the weekend and my heart rate was a bit too high, but apart from that it was an ok run. Once home I got changed, had breakfast and tried to get warm again. I tried to get a lot of rest for club training later that day, but I've been cleaning for 1,5 hours and that made me kinda tired again.
As it turned out the track was wet in the evening so the club training got cancelled. That meant I had to do off-skate and go to club training the next day. It even started drizzling again at 5:30pm and it was wet again outside so we wouldn't have been able to skate anyway. I did a 15min warm-up on my bike and some dynamic stretches and then did my off-skate program for 40min. It was way harder than last time and my legs felt sore and tired from the first exercise on. I couldn't just stop though even if I wanted to so I kept going until I did the whole program. Yay for me… :). I then did a cool-down, had dinner and relaxed on the couch (I just looove it :)).
Yesterday morning it was drizzly weather again and the sky was grey. I was glad that I didn't have to go training this morning so I could just stay inside. My legs were still sore from doing off-skate yesterday so that kinda sucked. After it's been raining for about 20min in the afternoon, it dried off again so we could go skating at the track in the evening. We did the usual 15min warm-up and because it was a bit colder than the last few weeks, I wore my winter training jacket. I soon got hot though and put the lighter jacket on that I brought with me (smart me :)). We did starts and they were even more terrible than normal. I think I really have to practice starts! I just have to get better at everything. The concentration before the start, the ability to go when the gun goes off and not to stand at the start line for 5 more seconds before realising that I have to go, it's called reaction, I think that's the worst… Then I have to run the first couple of steps more upright (I tend to bend forward a bit too much) and finally I have to get my legs moving faster. Yeah, that's all I have to work on :).
Anyways, after we did starts we did 6 x 1'200m (which was 7 laps). We took turns at leading two laps at a time so it didn't feel too hard cos we were going slower than in a 400m for example. It was actually pretty easy until two 1'200m to go. That's when it started to hurt, but that was ok, otherwise I would have thought something's wrong. The last one though was really hard. I had to lead the first two laps and the fourth and fifth and I felt like I was going really really slow and just stumbled through the corners and I thought Mark will pass me any second because I was going so slow. He then led the last lap and I thought I wouldn't be able to keep up anymore, but I stayed right behind him. After we were done I asked Mark if he thought that I was going slow in my last lead, but he said no so it must have just felt really slow but it wasn't. Good thing :). When I got home I didn't feel as tired as usual and I wasn't as hungry either so were signs that training really wasn't that hard.
The weather forecast for today said: rain aaaaall day long. Well, I had to swap tomorrow's long run with today and hope it will be dry tomorrow so that we can go to club training tomorrow instead of tonight. It's been raining since I woke up and it didn't look too warm out there either. No need to say that this didn't really motivate me to spend 1,5 hours running around out there. I had lunch a bit earlier so that I was ready to go around 1:30pm. Within 15min I was soaking wet but I felt way better than on my long run last week. I headed down to Hagley Park again and did a whole lap around the park. Normally there are lots of people running or walking their dogs, but today there was barely anyone. I even felt quite alone in this big park. After I did the lap 5min faster than last week, I ran along the south part for 10min before turning around and running home so that I would have 90min by the time I got home. Running through the city was quite funny as well because people looked at me like I am totally crazy running around in the rain. I'm sure they thought: What normal person does that?! But sometimes we sportspeople just have no other choice than to train in the rain. And I really didn't mind because I LOVE RUNNING IN THE RAIN! :). On my way home I went a bit faster but got stopped by all the traffic lights every 500 meters. It's starting to really annoy me, but I think I have no other choice than to stop and wait and get cold… :/. I got home after 90 minutes and 15,5 km. Not too bad considering all the traffic lights. I was pretty hungry and couldn't stop eating muesli bars and cookies, but hey, I burned 1'300 calories on the run, so I didn't even have to feel bad :). Running interval is on the program for tomorrow morning and club training in the evening (if it isn't wet), so it's gonna be another hard day at the office but I'm looking forward to it.
As it turned out the track was wet in the evening so the club training got cancelled. That meant I had to do off-skate and go to club training the next day. It even started drizzling again at 5:30pm and it was wet again outside so we wouldn't have been able to skate anyway. I did a 15min warm-up on my bike and some dynamic stretches and then did my off-skate program for 40min. It was way harder than last time and my legs felt sore and tired from the first exercise on. I couldn't just stop though even if I wanted to so I kept going until I did the whole program. Yay for me… :). I then did a cool-down, had dinner and relaxed on the couch (I just looove it :)).
Yesterday morning it was drizzly weather again and the sky was grey. I was glad that I didn't have to go training this morning so I could just stay inside. My legs were still sore from doing off-skate yesterday so that kinda sucked. After it's been raining for about 20min in the afternoon, it dried off again so we could go skating at the track in the evening. We did the usual 15min warm-up and because it was a bit colder than the last few weeks, I wore my winter training jacket. I soon got hot though and put the lighter jacket on that I brought with me (smart me :)). We did starts and they were even more terrible than normal. I think I really have to practice starts! I just have to get better at everything. The concentration before the start, the ability to go when the gun goes off and not to stand at the start line for 5 more seconds before realising that I have to go, it's called reaction, I think that's the worst… Then I have to run the first couple of steps more upright (I tend to bend forward a bit too much) and finally I have to get my legs moving faster. Yeah, that's all I have to work on :).
Anyways, after we did starts we did 6 x 1'200m (which was 7 laps). We took turns at leading two laps at a time so it didn't feel too hard cos we were going slower than in a 400m for example. It was actually pretty easy until two 1'200m to go. That's when it started to hurt, but that was ok, otherwise I would have thought something's wrong. The last one though was really hard. I had to lead the first two laps and the fourth and fifth and I felt like I was going really really slow and just stumbled through the corners and I thought Mark will pass me any second because I was going so slow. He then led the last lap and I thought I wouldn't be able to keep up anymore, but I stayed right behind him. After we were done I asked Mark if he thought that I was going slow in my last lead, but he said no so it must have just felt really slow but it wasn't. Good thing :). When I got home I didn't feel as tired as usual and I wasn't as hungry either so were signs that training really wasn't that hard.
The weather forecast for today said: rain aaaaall day long. Well, I had to swap tomorrow's long run with today and hope it will be dry tomorrow so that we can go to club training tomorrow instead of tonight. It's been raining since I woke up and it didn't look too warm out there either. No need to say that this didn't really motivate me to spend 1,5 hours running around out there. I had lunch a bit earlier so that I was ready to go around 1:30pm. Within 15min I was soaking wet but I felt way better than on my long run last week. I headed down to Hagley Park again and did a whole lap around the park. Normally there are lots of people running or walking their dogs, but today there was barely anyone. I even felt quite alone in this big park. After I did the lap 5min faster than last week, I ran along the south part for 10min before turning around and running home so that I would have 90min by the time I got home. Running through the city was quite funny as well because people looked at me like I am totally crazy running around in the rain. I'm sure they thought: What normal person does that?! But sometimes we sportspeople just have no other choice than to train in the rain. And I really didn't mind because I LOVE RUNNING IN THE RAIN! :). On my way home I went a bit faster but got stopped by all the traffic lights every 500 meters. It's starting to really annoy me, but I think I have no other choice than to stop and wait and get cold… :/. I got home after 90 minutes and 15,5 km. Not too bad considering all the traffic lights. I was pretty hungry and couldn't stop eating muesli bars and cookies, but hey, I burned 1'300 calories on the run, so I didn't even have to feel bad :). Running interval is on the program for tomorrow morning and club training in the evening (if it isn't wet), so it's gonna be another hard day at the office but I'm looking forward to it.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
1 hour of running, a 21 km skate on a 400m track and 2 hours on the wind trainer - that was my weekend
I set my alarm for 7:20 on Saturday morning, got up, had some bread with jam for breakfast and an hour later I headed out for my run (interval training). The weather didn't loook to friendly when I woke up, but exactly when I put on my shoes the clouds vanished and the sun came out. Perfect. Even though it was 8:40 in the morning and I was wearing 3/4 pants and a shirt, I got way too hot. I started with a 15min warm-up and jogged down to the river. I soon noticed that it wasn't such a great idea to only rest an hour after breakfast (normally I wait 1,5 to 2 hours, but well, I didn't really wanna get up any earlier). I got a stitch, then I felt sick and on top of that I got a stomachache. I tried not to think about it and just kept running, hoping all those bad things would go away again – and they did. I did min/min for 30min. So 1min fast, 1min slow, 1min fast… Because this was my first running interval after my break, it felt way harder than usual. After 15min of min/min I turned around and ran all the way back again so that I got an hour of training. From that point I struggled through the rest of the intervals. I was out of breath and my legs didn't want to go any faster so I just concentrated on still going reasonably fast and maintaining a good running technique. After the 15min cool-down (the run home) and 5min of stretches, I vegetated on the couch, read a magazine and made sure I got lots of rest. 10min after I got home the sun was gone again and the clouds were back, even bigger and darker than before, so I couldn't have chosen a better time for my run. That was pretty awesome :). I had lunch and soon again got ready to go skating, even though it looked like it could rain any time.
I took the bus to the Air Force Museum where we train on Saturdays and got ready. The wind had picked up since the morning so it was actually cold. We started with the 15min warm-up and I got a bit warmer. My ankle hurt pretty bad from the run I did earlier and thanks to the headwind on one straight, it was also pretty hard. We were supposed to do 2 x 10km, but me and Mark decided to do one 20km. We thought it would be easier to just keep going instead of doing a 10km, taking a break for 5min and then having to do another one, because we know how much it sucks to go again after a break when you're already tired. We skated on a 400m lap, so that meant 52 laps and because I had the great idea to do 1km more so that it would be a half marathon, it meant 54,5 laps for me :). I was still tired from the run in the morning, so I knew it was going to be tough. My legs soon got tired and each lap felt like an eternity. We did 2 laps leads but the leads always felt way too long and the ones where I didn't lead felt way too short. After we were halfway through it got really hard. Mark was in a better shape so he asked if I want him to lead more, but no way I was gonna say yes… My heart rate stayed between 172 and 176 (we were supposed to do it with 85 – 88 % of our max heart rate), so that was a bit too high (85 – 88 % would have been 164 – 170), but well… With 15 laps to go the screw from one of Mark's wheels got loose so he had to slow down, get an Allen key and fix it. I pushed him or skated slower to stay with him. And god was I glad for the break! When he was done, we "only" had 10 laps to go and I though ok, that's like nothing, I can do that… But 10 laps can feel very very long and in the last two laps I had to really try not to get dropped. Mark finished and I did 2,5 more laps by myself before I had a drink and did a short cool-down cos once I stopped skating I got really cold. I got changed and tried to get warm again, before walking to the bus station and going home. By the time I took a shower and had dinner it was already 7pm, so the day was almost over and I just relaxed on the couch and talked on the phone or watched tv.
Sunday was another rather busy day. After I got up I did the laundry, checked my emails, had something to eat and left the house at 10:55am to walk to the bus station. I met Vicky and we went to the mall. We walked around the shops for what felt like ages and my legs got quite tired. I think they were still tired from yesterday's training. After we've seen everything, we took the bus again and I went to the shopping mall close to our place to buy some salad. I then had to walk home because there was no bus at that time. When I got home at 3:15pm, I had something to eat and got my wind trainer ready. I watched German tv while sweating on my bike for 2 hours. I had to choose a high resistance to get my heart rate up. It wasn't very hard for my legs but 2 hours is still a long time and I did get tired eventually. By the time I was finished and had a shower it was 6pm already so I started to make dinner (loooots of chicken salad), did my stretches and finally got to relax in front of the tv.
Oh yeah, by the way, these are my new running shoes. Nothing special, but I thought I'd post a photo. They're Brooks Defyance 3. I've only worn them inside so far, but I think I'll wear them for tomorrow's run.
I took the bus to the Air Force Museum where we train on Saturdays and got ready. The wind had picked up since the morning so it was actually cold. We started with the 15min warm-up and I got a bit warmer. My ankle hurt pretty bad from the run I did earlier and thanks to the headwind on one straight, it was also pretty hard. We were supposed to do 2 x 10km, but me and Mark decided to do one 20km. We thought it would be easier to just keep going instead of doing a 10km, taking a break for 5min and then having to do another one, because we know how much it sucks to go again after a break when you're already tired. We skated on a 400m lap, so that meant 52 laps and because I had the great idea to do 1km more so that it would be a half marathon, it meant 54,5 laps for me :). I was still tired from the run in the morning, so I knew it was going to be tough. My legs soon got tired and each lap felt like an eternity. We did 2 laps leads but the leads always felt way too long and the ones where I didn't lead felt way too short. After we were halfway through it got really hard. Mark was in a better shape so he asked if I want him to lead more, but no way I was gonna say yes… My heart rate stayed between 172 and 176 (we were supposed to do it with 85 – 88 % of our max heart rate), so that was a bit too high (85 – 88 % would have been 164 – 170), but well… With 15 laps to go the screw from one of Mark's wheels got loose so he had to slow down, get an Allen key and fix it. I pushed him or skated slower to stay with him. And god was I glad for the break! When he was done, we "only" had 10 laps to go and I though ok, that's like nothing, I can do that… But 10 laps can feel very very long and in the last two laps I had to really try not to get dropped. Mark finished and I did 2,5 more laps by myself before I had a drink and did a short cool-down cos once I stopped skating I got really cold. I got changed and tried to get warm again, before walking to the bus station and going home. By the time I took a shower and had dinner it was already 7pm, so the day was almost over and I just relaxed on the couch and talked on the phone or watched tv.
Sunday was another rather busy day. After I got up I did the laundry, checked my emails, had something to eat and left the house at 10:55am to walk to the bus station. I met Vicky and we went to the mall. We walked around the shops for what felt like ages and my legs got quite tired. I think they were still tired from yesterday's training. After we've seen everything, we took the bus again and I went to the shopping mall close to our place to buy some salad. I then had to walk home because there was no bus at that time. When I got home at 3:15pm, I had something to eat and got my wind trainer ready. I watched German tv while sweating on my bike for 2 hours. I had to choose a high resistance to get my heart rate up. It wasn't very hard for my legs but 2 hours is still a long time and I did get tired eventually. By the time I was finished and had a shower it was 6pm already so I started to make dinner (loooots of chicken salad), did my stretches and finally got to relax in front of the tv.
Oh yeah, by the way, these are my new running shoes. Nothing special, but I thought I'd post a photo. They're Brooks Defyance 3. I've only worn them inside so far, but I think I'll wear them for tomorrow's run.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
two long 5 km and a long run
Yesterday after lunch I headed to Hagley Park to meet Vicky for some off-skate. We went to the helipad and started with skipping as a warm-up but soon got distracted from an ambulance. They asked us to move because they were about to pick someone up from a helicopter. So we moved and soon saw the helicopter landing about 200m away from us. It was pretty cool and I LOVE helicopters! :). We continued with the actual off-skate program that Vicky brought along. We weren't supposed to take breaks in between the exercises, but did it anyway. When we were half way through there was another ambulance arriving and soon after that another helicopter. When we were finished with, what I call and easy-peasy training :), we walked to Vicky's place to hang out. At 3:30pm I had to rush home though because I had to do the laundry before training. I ended up getting changed and hanging out the washing in a HURRY and hopped in the car to drive to club training. Once there I got changed and we started training with a… no, not a 15min warm-up, but with a 8min warm-up :). We did stretches and then 2 x 5km (2 x 32 laps). The first one felt pretty easy because we didn't skate as fast as normally. With about 10 laps to go my hamstrings started hurting, but I wasn't too tired. We got a 5min break before we did the second 5km. That one was a little bit harder but we still didn't go all out. It was a good training and apart from my hamstrings and my back I was in no pain.
After the Skype session with my mum yesterday, I had another one with my best friend today. Yay for Skype :). My morning was rather boring though and I spent a lot of time in front of my laptop looking up things. 1,5 hours after I had lunch, I headed out for my long run. Because I had a three week break, I started with a 1 hour 15min run this week and increase it every week.
I ran my normal long run course to Hagley Park, around Hagley Park and back (that's 12,36 km). It takes me 20min to get from my place to Hagley Park. I have to run through half of the city and cross about 10 traffic lights which miraculously turn red as soon as I get to them so that I have to stop. It doesn't really bother me anymore though as I just use these 20min as my warm-up (yeah I know, it's a bit long for a warm-up, but as long as I keep telling myself that I don't get too pissed off about all the traffic lights). Once at the park I do the south part first. I run along the netball and rugby courts, cross the main road, then run around the north part underneath all those big trees, along the river and past the museum and hospital, cross the main road again and run back to the south part where I started. This normally takes me 35min (that is if I don't run too fast). I then take the same way home again. When I do longer runs than "only" a 1 hour 15 min one, I just run around the park twice or do the south lap twice or whatever. I'm pretty happy with that course for my long run so I'm gonna stick to it.
As soon as I got to Hagley Park I started to get tired. I thought: yeah well, my body isn't really used to this anymore, but I just keep going, it will get used to it again :). I know that most times I get to a point where I recover again and then I'm fine. I passed a big group of guys (from a nearby school) and as soon as I passed them they all started running. Because I didn't want to end up running in the middle of these guys, I picked up the pace. Unfortunately so did they. They thought it was funny to follow me and keep up with me. I heard one guy saying to another "You're going too fast, slow down", but apparently he didn't listen cos I could still hear them right behind me. I moved to the left, down from the path to run in the grass and guess what – so did they. It started to really annoy me so I stopped at the next traffic light, crossed the street, ran on the other side of the street (and finally got to slow down again :) and went back onto the path once they turned. I kept running in a steady pace for the rest of the lap. On my way home I had to stop at every single traffic light and wait which made my legs go all sore and tired. However, I got back home in 1 h 20min (didn't stop the watch at the traffic lights). I was so thirsty and so glad that there was a diet coke waiting for me (I don't know what it is with me and diet coke after running :)).
Now I'm just relaxing and resting my legs. I'm glad that I have a rest day tomorrow because Saturday's trainings are gonna be hard.
After the Skype session with my mum yesterday, I had another one with my best friend today. Yay for Skype :). My morning was rather boring though and I spent a lot of time in front of my laptop looking up things. 1,5 hours after I had lunch, I headed out for my long run. Because I had a three week break, I started with a 1 hour 15min run this week and increase it every week.
I ran my normal long run course to Hagley Park, around Hagley Park and back (that's 12,36 km). It takes me 20min to get from my place to Hagley Park. I have to run through half of the city and cross about 10 traffic lights which miraculously turn red as soon as I get to them so that I have to stop. It doesn't really bother me anymore though as I just use these 20min as my warm-up (yeah I know, it's a bit long for a warm-up, but as long as I keep telling myself that I don't get too pissed off about all the traffic lights). Once at the park I do the south part first. I run along the netball and rugby courts, cross the main road, then run around the north part underneath all those big trees, along the river and past the museum and hospital, cross the main road again and run back to the south part where I started. This normally takes me 35min (that is if I don't run too fast). I then take the same way home again. When I do longer runs than "only" a 1 hour 15 min one, I just run around the park twice or do the south lap twice or whatever. I'm pretty happy with that course for my long run so I'm gonna stick to it.
As soon as I got to Hagley Park I started to get tired. I thought: yeah well, my body isn't really used to this anymore, but I just keep going, it will get used to it again :). I know that most times I get to a point where I recover again and then I'm fine. I passed a big group of guys (from a nearby school) and as soon as I passed them they all started running. Because I didn't want to end up running in the middle of these guys, I picked up the pace. Unfortunately so did they. They thought it was funny to follow me and keep up with me. I heard one guy saying to another "You're going too fast, slow down", but apparently he didn't listen cos I could still hear them right behind me. I moved to the left, down from the path to run in the grass and guess what – so did they. It started to really annoy me so I stopped at the next traffic light, crossed the street, ran on the other side of the street (and finally got to slow down again :) and went back onto the path once they turned. I kept running in a steady pace for the rest of the lap. On my way home I had to stop at every single traffic light and wait which made my legs go all sore and tired. However, I got back home in 1 h 20min (didn't stop the watch at the traffic lights). I was so thirsty and so glad that there was a diet coke waiting for me (I don't know what it is with me and diet coke after running :)).
Now I'm just relaxing and resting my legs. I'm glad that I have a rest day tomorrow because Saturday's trainings are gonna be hard.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
hard time at training
My week started at 6:20am when my boyfriend woke me up because he had to get up and ready for his trip to Mt. Cook where he'll be working for the next two weeks. And because he thought it's boring to get up that early all by himself he thought he'd wake me up too. I appreciated it :). I did my ankle exercises, unloaded the dishwasher, did the laundry and had breakfast, all before 7:10am. That's when my boyfriend got picked up. After he was gone I was on the internet and thought about what I was going to do for the rest of the (really long) day. I did some very extensive cleaning which took me a little bit more than two hours so that was good. After that it was already time for lunch. In the afternoon I typed my training schedule into my computer, watched a German tv program and because it was raining ALL day long again, I decided to do off-skate (normally we would have club training on Mondays, but we can't skate on the track when it's wet). I did 15min of warm-up on my bike, did stretches and started with the program. It's a different one than the one I've done until now because each preparation phase has a different off-skate program. This one is the toughest with burpees, single treadmills, wall-sit and frog jumps and so on. I felt pretty good though and my legs didn't get too tired (Well, I've had a break for three weeks, so no wonder my legs feel fresh :)). The main program normally takes me around 45min and after that I do a cool-down on the bike for 10min and stretch for 5min. After I finished training I turned on the tv because yes, it was very very quiet at home and I don't like that at all.
Today the sun has been shining all day. I didn't have anything planned for the day, but I made sure I enjoyed the sun. I also went for a ride on my bike to take some photos and walked to the mall to buy a magazine. In the evening I drove to training (yes, I drove, I haven't been driving for quite a while and that was the first time since I've been in New Zealand that I drove by myself). After we were all ready (it normally takes AGES until everyone is ready), we started the warm-up. It was slower than normally and I thought I felt pretty good. We then did accelerations and starts, both went ok as well. Up next were 9 x 400m, so that's 2,5 laps. Mark was leading the whole first 400m and I was leading the second one. After the second my legs felt tired and we decided that one only leads 1,5 laps and then the other 1 lap. It helped a little bit, but my legs were just too sore. I stumbled through the corners and felt like a beginner. Seriously, it was bad. We also only had 90sec of rest in between, what didn't really help either. The last three 400m were the hardest. I was so out of breath, in one 400m I got a stitch and in another one I just felt sick. And in the last one I almost couldn't lift my feet anymore. I was soooo glad when we were finally done because that was the hardest training in a long time. We did a cool-down, got changed, I dropped a girl from skating off at her place and drove home where I had dinner and watched some tv.
Today the sun has been shining all day. I didn't have anything planned for the day, but I made sure I enjoyed the sun. I also went for a ride on my bike to take some photos and walked to the mall to buy a magazine. In the evening I drove to training (yes, I drove, I haven't been driving for quite a while and that was the first time since I've been in New Zealand that I drove by myself). After we were all ready (it normally takes AGES until everyone is ready), we started the warm-up. It was slower than normally and I thought I felt pretty good. We then did accelerations and starts, both went ok as well. Up next were 9 x 400m, so that's 2,5 laps. Mark was leading the whole first 400m and I was leading the second one. After the second my legs felt tired and we decided that one only leads 1,5 laps and then the other 1 lap. It helped a little bit, but my legs were just too sore. I stumbled through the corners and felt like a beginner. Seriously, it was bad. We also only had 90sec of rest in between, what didn't really help either. The last three 400m were the hardest. I was so out of breath, in one 400m I got a stitch and in another one I just felt sick. And in the last one I almost couldn't lift my feet anymore. I was soooo glad when we were finally done because that was the hardest training in a long time. We did a cool-down, got changed, I dropped a girl from skating off at her place and drove home where I had dinner and watched some tv.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
general preparation phase
Like I said, I finished putting together my training schedule for the next 12 weeks. Of course things can change due to bad weather, training camps etc. but the amount of training stays about the same. And here's an overview of my training hours during the general preparation phase:
week 1: 9,5 hours
week 2: 11,25 hours
week 3: 13 hours (skating race on Saturday)
week 4: 7 hours (rest week)
week 5: 9,5 hours (running race on Saturday)
week 6: 10 hours (running race on Sunday)
week 7: 14 hours
week 8: 6,5 hours (rest week, maybe running race on Sunday)
week 9: 10 hours
week 10: 12,25 hours
week 11: 14,5 hours
week 12: 6 hours (rest week)
Training over these weeks looks pretty much the same every week. I have skating, running, cycling, exercise and off-skate sessions. For example week 7 looks like this:
Monday morning: exercises (upper body 1,5 hours)
Monday evening: skating (Intervals 1,5 hours)
Tuesday morning: running (Intervals 1 hour)
Tuesday evening: cycling (1 hour)
Wednesday morning: off-skate (1 hour 15min)
Wednesday evening: skating (1 hour)
Thursday afternoon: long run (1 hour 40min)
Friday: rest day (stretches 40min)
Saturday morning: skipping and tapping (1 hour)
Saturday afternoon: skating (1 hour)
Sunday morning: off-skate 1 hour 15min)
Sunday afternoon: cycling (2 hours)
It looks like a lot – well it is, but I just have to make sure I get enough rest between trainings, get enough healthy food, drink enough and sleep enough (at least 9 hours a night). And it's also very important that I have a rest day once a week where I try to move as little as possible. Sounds funny but that's the way it is. I even know a trainer who tells his guys to take the lift instead of the stairs on rest days. I don't exaggerate that much, but I do make sure I get a lot of rest on these days. Plus I'm allowed to eat whatever I want on my rest days.
week 1: 9,5 hours
week 2: 11,25 hours
week 3: 13 hours (skating race on Saturday)
week 4: 7 hours (rest week)
week 5: 9,5 hours (running race on Saturday)
week 6: 10 hours (running race on Sunday)
week 7: 14 hours
week 8: 6,5 hours (rest week, maybe running race on Sunday)
week 9: 10 hours
week 10: 12,25 hours
week 11: 14,5 hours
week 12: 6 hours (rest week)
Training over these weeks looks pretty much the same every week. I have skating, running, cycling, exercise and off-skate sessions. For example week 7 looks like this:
Monday morning: exercises (upper body 1,5 hours)
Monday evening: skating (Intervals 1,5 hours)
Tuesday morning: running (Intervals 1 hour)
Tuesday evening: cycling (1 hour)
Wednesday morning: off-skate (1 hour 15min)
Wednesday evening: skating (1 hour)
Thursday afternoon: long run (1 hour 40min)
Friday: rest day (stretches 40min)
Saturday morning: skipping and tapping (1 hour)
Saturday afternoon: skating (1 hour)
Sunday morning: off-skate 1 hour 15min)
Sunday afternoon: cycling (2 hours)
It looks like a lot – well it is, but I just have to make sure I get enough rest between trainings, get enough healthy food, drink enough and sleep enough (at least 9 hours a night). And it's also very important that I have a rest day once a week where I try to move as little as possible. Sounds funny but that's the way it is. I even know a trainer who tells his guys to take the lift instead of the stairs on rest days. I don't exaggerate that much, but I do make sure I get a lot of rest on these days. Plus I'm allowed to eat whatever I want on my rest days.
you CAN skate with a strained muscle
When we woke up on Saturday it was raining, even though the weather forecast said rain in the evening, but well… I even considered going skating with my strained muscle – I know, it's not a good idea at all, but that's me. I always have to try first before I give up. After I had breakfast and did the laundry we went to the mall. My boyfriend wanted to buy an XBOX for when he's away (he has to go away for 2 weeks for work) and get a haircut. I had a look for a new running shirt, but didn't really find anything I liked. I also had a look for a calendar of 2010 because I need one where I can write things on, one of those family planners, but didn't find that either. It was already 12:20 and I was starving so we went home and had lunch. Of course my boyfriend had to try the XBOX and I was just on the internet until we got ready for training at 2:15pm. We got there just before 3pm and got ready for skating. I didn't know if I'll be able to skate but I wanted to try anyway. We started the warm-up and I felt pretty good, my strained muscle didn't even hurt. After the warm-up we did a 10km and my boyfriend, Mark and me skated together and took turns leading. In one corner I slipped and stumbled pretty bad but at least I didn't fall or strain my muscle even more. The pace didn't feel as fast as normally and when we were finished I felt like I could have gone faster or done more laps so that was finally a training where I felt really good again. The cool-down was a bit short as I started to get really cold, so I got changed, did stretches and we went home. After training my strained muscle felt a lot better than before, so skating actually helped. We had yummy sweet and sour rice and watched a movie on tv and then went to bed.
The second day of the weekend was 6 degrees cold and it was raining the whole day. While my boyfriend was happy about that (it meant that he could play XBOX and Cycling Manager all day) I wasn't too happy about it because I would have liked to go for a walk or something. We went food shopping in the morning and were on the internet. For lunch we had pancakes, I was sitting at the table eating yummy pancakes and looking at the rain outside… I just loved it. In the afternoon I finished putting together my training schedule, watched tv, relaxed, did my stretches and helped my boyfriend pack. So all in all it was a pretty boring day.
I'm so looking forward to starting training again, even though I'm sure that after a couple of weeks I'll feel like I need a break again, but well… I'll be fine :).
The second day of the weekend was 6 degrees cold and it was raining the whole day. While my boyfriend was happy about that (it meant that he could play XBOX and Cycling Manager all day) I wasn't too happy about it because I would have liked to go for a walk or something. We went food shopping in the morning and were on the internet. For lunch we had pancakes, I was sitting at the table eating yummy pancakes and looking at the rain outside… I just loved it. In the afternoon I finished putting together my training schedule, watched tv, relaxed, did my stretches and helped my boyfriend pack. So all in all it was a pretty boring day.
I'm so looking forward to starting training again, even though I'm sure that after a couple of weeks I'll feel like I need a break again, but well… I'll be fine :).
Friday, August 6, 2010
off-skate on a slippery helipad = strained muscle
Thursday was supposed to be my day off from training, but Vicky, a girl from skating asked me if I come train with her. I got up pretty early again (before my boyfriend left for work), had breakfast and talked to my mum on Skype for two hours. After that I did the laundry, checked my emails and then it was time for lunch already. I only had a couple of slices of bread so nothing fancy, shaved my legs and got changed. I rode my bike to Hagley Park where I met Vicky and we did 40min worth of off-skate. We didn't do the whole program though cos she isn't used to it and the breaks were longer too (too much talking…). We did some of the jumps on a helipad which was covered with moss and I was a bit concerned that I might slip and guess what happened?! Yes, of course I slipped and strained my thigh muscle. It didn't hurt too bad so I kept going. After we finished doing off-skate we put our skates on and skated a few laps on the netball court. I showed here some basics (technique) and she tried to do it. Because of that she didn't go fast so when a stone got between her wheels, she fell and broke a piece of her fake tooth off. She also had a graze on her leg but that wasn't too bad. So we stopped skating after 15min already and she went to the dentist to make an appointment and I rode my bike home again. When my boyfriend got home we got ready to go to a Pizzeria in town for our anniversary dinner. It was yuuummy, only did I have a bit of a stomachache afterwards because I ate so much. I also started to feel my strained muscle so I put some axa nova on it.
Today I finally got around to organise my first week of training for the general preparation phase. I am going to start with a 6,5 – 7 hour week to get used to all the training again. On Monday I want to set all my other trainings for the next 2,5 months (that's when the general preparation phase is over). When I woke up, I felt quite a few of my muscles thanks to yesterday's off-skate session and it wasn't even as long and hard as it normally is… So I really do need some time to get used to it again :). I used the day to relax and take care of my muscle. I didn't even do anything interesting, I just wrote emails, looked for jobs, finished watching "Lie To Me", surfed the internet and did some other stuff.
When my boyfriend gets home we have to go to Countdown to buy salad and bread for the weekend. I think we'll go to The Eastgate because I need a new agenda or a day planner or something like that.
Today I finally got around to organise my first week of training for the general preparation phase. I am going to start with a 6,5 – 7 hour week to get used to all the training again. On Monday I want to set all my other trainings for the next 2,5 months (that's when the general preparation phase is over). When I woke up, I felt quite a few of my muscles thanks to yesterday's off-skate session and it wasn't even as long and hard as it normally is… So I really do need some time to get used to it again :). I used the day to relax and take care of my muscle. I didn't even do anything interesting, I just wrote emails, looked for jobs, finished watching "Lie To Me", surfed the internet and did some other stuff.
When my boyfriend gets home we have to go to Countdown to buy salad and bread for the weekend. I think we'll go to The Eastgate because I need a new agenda or a day planner or something like that.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
club training onTuesday and Wednesday
Even though it stopped raining in the late afternoon and the sun was shining for about 30min on Monday, the track didn't get dry so we stayed home and watched tv (all the shows we normally miss because we're at training :)).
On Tuesday I got up and was on the internet for quite a long time. I wrote emails, downloaded some new songs, checked the results from the skating europeans and did some other stuff. In the afternoon I finished reading my book and started putting together my new training plan for next week. Because it seemed pretty hopeless I gave up and try again tomorrow :).
At 5pm we left to go to club training and because we normally train on Mondays and not on Tuesdays, there were only three other skaters apart from my boyfriend and me. We did the 15min warm-up and because the slow skaters weren't there, we picked up the pace after 5min. After a few more minutes there were only me and Mark left so we picked up the pace again and the last four minutes felt really hard and long. All I thought about was how stupid it is to go that fast in the warm-up already because I'm going to be dead for the rest of the training. After we finished the warm-up, we took quite a long break to have a drink and I got a stomachache and would have loved to just stay there and not get up anymore because it hurt so much. But I'm not someone who just quits training because of a bit of pain or whatever, so I did get up and was ready to do the starts. We didn't even stretch because no one could be bothered and of course I felt it after the first couple of steps I took, it hurt my adductors pretty bad and I had to be careful. I made a mental note to always do stretches before we do starts in the future. We did four starts in a group and I ended up either becoming second or third. It was one of these days were I missed pretty much all the starts (again). The guys told me we were going to do 12 800s today and I half believed it, but when I heard that we only have to do 6 I was glad. I could do 6 with my stomachache… The first one went ok and my boyfriend led the first two laps, then I led two and Mark led the last one. Even though my stomach didn't hurt anymore, my legs did. In all the six 800s we did, my boyfriend led the first two laps, then stopped and either me or Mark led the next two and then one of us led the last one. I wasn't skating at my limit, but I struggled quite a bit. And because one of the corners was a bit damp, I slipped and got a bit scared so I always skated a bit slower in that corner and had to catch up again. Mark told me that I do faster leads than him, but I just said: Hell no, you do way faster leads! I really don't know why he had the feeling that I did the faster leads... However, we did all 6 800s and because it started to drizzle before the last one, we only took a 1 min break instead of 2 min so that we could finish training before the track got wet. After the cool-down (only 2 laps) we got changed and me and my boyfriend dropped Vicky off at her place and went to the ice skating rink to see my boyfriend's friend. We stayed there for about 10min and I did my stretches there but I started to freeze and was glad when we got out again where it was warmer. Back home I took a shower and made sure I was warm because I sure don't wanna get a cold. My boyfriend cooked a pasta bake and I could just sit on the couch, watch tv and wait for the food to get ready so that was nice :). Because we didn't go home straight after training we ended up having dinner at 8:45pm so that was pretty late.
Yesterday when I got up at 7:45am it was wet outside and it looked like it was going to rain again. I thought well, it's either gonna be club training or rest day today, I don't care which one it is :). After being on the internet and having breakfast, I had to go to a job interview at 10:30am. I took the bus to the City Exchange and then the next one to Papanui Road. I didn't really know where I had to get off the bus but luckily I got the right bus stop and only had to cross the road to the place where I had to go. The job interview was ok, it was a bit weird but they were nice. After the job interview I went home and by the time I finished lunch it was 1:30pm already. I watched my German tv program, looked some things up on the internet, got changed and went to club training. The track was almost dry and we started with a much slower warm-up than the day before. The starts went okish and after that we did the 5km. It was only me and Mark skating at the front because my boyfriend was worn out from work, so after a couple of laps and my lead I wanted to get behind Mark but when I looked back I saw that he was behind. I wanted to wait first, but then decided to just skate a steady pace. He even caught up on me again after a while and with the help of his brother. We then skated about five laps together when he dropped off again. I was pretty worn out already at this stage so I wasn't surprised when he caught up again and we skated the last two laps together. I wasn't too happy with it though because I should have stayed at the front and not let him catch up, but well... It's only training, right?! :).
It's my last rest week and I'm looking forward to start training properly again, but somehow it's also nice and relaxing not to train all the time and be able to just stay home if you don't feel like going training…
But it's time to get back, my next skating race is going to be at the end of August (Southern Regionals) and I have two running races in mid September, so I have to get in shape again.
Today is also me and my boyfriend's anniversary, we've been together for four years now, so we'll be going out tonight, looking forward to that...
On Tuesday I got up and was on the internet for quite a long time. I wrote emails, downloaded some new songs, checked the results from the skating europeans and did some other stuff. In the afternoon I finished reading my book and started putting together my new training plan for next week. Because it seemed pretty hopeless I gave up and try again tomorrow :).
At 5pm we left to go to club training and because we normally train on Mondays and not on Tuesdays, there were only three other skaters apart from my boyfriend and me. We did the 15min warm-up and because the slow skaters weren't there, we picked up the pace after 5min. After a few more minutes there were only me and Mark left so we picked up the pace again and the last four minutes felt really hard and long. All I thought about was how stupid it is to go that fast in the warm-up already because I'm going to be dead for the rest of the training. After we finished the warm-up, we took quite a long break to have a drink and I got a stomachache and would have loved to just stay there and not get up anymore because it hurt so much. But I'm not someone who just quits training because of a bit of pain or whatever, so I did get up and was ready to do the starts. We didn't even stretch because no one could be bothered and of course I felt it after the first couple of steps I took, it hurt my adductors pretty bad and I had to be careful. I made a mental note to always do stretches before we do starts in the future. We did four starts in a group and I ended up either becoming second or third. It was one of these days were I missed pretty much all the starts (again). The guys told me we were going to do 12 800s today and I half believed it, but when I heard that we only have to do 6 I was glad. I could do 6 with my stomachache… The first one went ok and my boyfriend led the first two laps, then I led two and Mark led the last one. Even though my stomach didn't hurt anymore, my legs did. In all the six 800s we did, my boyfriend led the first two laps, then stopped and either me or Mark led the next two and then one of us led the last one. I wasn't skating at my limit, but I struggled quite a bit. And because one of the corners was a bit damp, I slipped and got a bit scared so I always skated a bit slower in that corner and had to catch up again. Mark told me that I do faster leads than him, but I just said: Hell no, you do way faster leads! I really don't know why he had the feeling that I did the faster leads... However, we did all 6 800s and because it started to drizzle before the last one, we only took a 1 min break instead of 2 min so that we could finish training before the track got wet. After the cool-down (only 2 laps) we got changed and me and my boyfriend dropped Vicky off at her place and went to the ice skating rink to see my boyfriend's friend. We stayed there for about 10min and I did my stretches there but I started to freeze and was glad when we got out again where it was warmer. Back home I took a shower and made sure I was warm because I sure don't wanna get a cold. My boyfriend cooked a pasta bake and I could just sit on the couch, watch tv and wait for the food to get ready so that was nice :). Because we didn't go home straight after training we ended up having dinner at 8:45pm so that was pretty late.
Yesterday when I got up at 7:45am it was wet outside and it looked like it was going to rain again. I thought well, it's either gonna be club training or rest day today, I don't care which one it is :). After being on the internet and having breakfast, I had to go to a job interview at 10:30am. I took the bus to the City Exchange and then the next one to Papanui Road. I didn't really know where I had to get off the bus but luckily I got the right bus stop and only had to cross the road to the place where I had to go. The job interview was ok, it was a bit weird but they were nice. After the job interview I went home and by the time I finished lunch it was 1:30pm already. I watched my German tv program, looked some things up on the internet, got changed and went to club training. The track was almost dry and we started with a much slower warm-up than the day before. The starts went okish and after that we did the 5km. It was only me and Mark skating at the front because my boyfriend was worn out from work, so after a couple of laps and my lead I wanted to get behind Mark but when I looked back I saw that he was behind. I wanted to wait first, but then decided to just skate a steady pace. He even caught up on me again after a while and with the help of his brother. We then skated about five laps together when he dropped off again. I was pretty worn out already at this stage so I wasn't surprised when he caught up again and we skated the last two laps together. I wasn't too happy with it though because I should have stayed at the front and not let him catch up, but well... It's only training, right?! :).
It's my last rest week and I'm looking forward to start training properly again, but somehow it's also nice and relaxing not to train all the time and be able to just stay home if you don't feel like going training…
But it's time to get back, my next skating race is going to be at the end of August (Southern Regionals) and I have two running races in mid September, so I have to get in shape again.
Today is also me and my boyfriend's anniversary, we've been together for four years now, so we'll be going out tonight, looking forward to that...
Monday, August 2, 2010
jogging with my boyfriend
Club training on Saturday wasn't too windy and it was even quite warm. I left at 1:40pm to walk to the bus station which was 1,1 km away. I then took the bus through the city and walked to the airforce museum where we train. We got ready and started with the warm-up. We did 3 x 1'000m (2,5 laps) and a 10km (26 laps). The 10km was hard, just like the 5km on Wednesday, but this time I lastet until lap 13 until I got tired, so I count that as an improvement :). I also had a few shocking moments when I stumbled twice in the corner and almost fell. After training me and Vicky went to town to have some dinner as it was already 5:30pm. We went to KFC (I know, healthy, isn't it?!) but I didn't eat too much. I got home around 6:30pm, took a shower, put my stuff away and then my boyfriend got home and I read my book until we went to bed to watch "Lie To Me".
On Sunday my boyfriend wanted to go jogging (another shocking moment as he never wants to go jogging :) so after we had breakfast we drove to Hagley Park. We started in the north part and my boyfriend did really well. He didn't even complain and everytime I asked him if he's ok or if he wants to walk, he said he was fine, he wants to keep going. We even did the whole Hagley Park lap (north and south). With about 3min to go he stopped though and walked back to the car for his cool-down. I kept jogging until I clocked 35min and made it exactly to the point where we started. I was really, really worn out though. It took everything from me to even finish those 35min and not to walk. That's the thing with running. If I don't do it for a while, I'm completely out of shape and it takes me a couple of weeks to get used to it again and get back to my old shape. It sucks. We drove back home, had a shower and some lunch. In the afternoon we had to go food shopping and it was the first time I drove a car in New Zealand. Even if it was only a 5min drive to the supermarket, I was proud of myself. And so was my boyfriend :). I think he thought I'm quite a bad driver, but he was surprised. When we got home from shopping we were hanging around on the couch before we went to Sumner for a walk and ice cream. It was really windy but because it was a north wind, the temperature rose to 17 degrees so it was a nice day out. Because it was the first time after a long time that my boyfriend came jogging, he was knackered so when we got home we watched a tv show and had pancakes for dinner.
I think today is gonna be another rest day. We're supposed to go skating tonight, but the weather forecast says it's gonna rain in the afternoon, so we'll see. I got up quite early this morning. Even though I was really tired I couldn't go back to sleep. So I got up and checked my emails and looked at the photos from my mum's and sister's holiday. I did the laundry and after I wrote this, I'm going to write applications and then clean the appartment. After lunch I'm probably just going to relax, watch a German tv show and read my book and maybe do my nails... Sounds like an easy afternoon.
On Sunday my boyfriend wanted to go jogging (another shocking moment as he never wants to go jogging :) so after we had breakfast we drove to Hagley Park. We started in the north part and my boyfriend did really well. He didn't even complain and everytime I asked him if he's ok or if he wants to walk, he said he was fine, he wants to keep going. We even did the whole Hagley Park lap (north and south). With about 3min to go he stopped though and walked back to the car for his cool-down. I kept jogging until I clocked 35min and made it exactly to the point where we started. I was really, really worn out though. It took everything from me to even finish those 35min and not to walk. That's the thing with running. If I don't do it for a while, I'm completely out of shape and it takes me a couple of weeks to get used to it again and get back to my old shape. It sucks. We drove back home, had a shower and some lunch. In the afternoon we had to go food shopping and it was the first time I drove a car in New Zealand. Even if it was only a 5min drive to the supermarket, I was proud of myself. And so was my boyfriend :). I think he thought I'm quite a bad driver, but he was surprised. When we got home from shopping we were hanging around on the couch before we went to Sumner for a walk and ice cream. It was really windy but because it was a north wind, the temperature rose to 17 degrees so it was a nice day out. Because it was the first time after a long time that my boyfriend came jogging, he was knackered so when we got home we watched a tv show and had pancakes for dinner.
I think today is gonna be another rest day. We're supposed to go skating tonight, but the weather forecast says it's gonna rain in the afternoon, so we'll see. I got up quite early this morning. Even though I was really tired I couldn't go back to sleep. So I got up and checked my emails and looked at the photos from my mum's and sister's holiday. I did the laundry and after I wrote this, I'm going to write applications and then clean the appartment. After lunch I'm probably just going to relax, watch a German tv show and read my book and maybe do my nails... Sounds like an easy afternoon.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Does it make me happy or not to take a break?! I still don't know...
The cool thing about taking a break is that you don't have to train after a schedule. You can wake up in the morning and just do what you feel like. If you don't feel like training then just don't go. If you feel like going jogging, then go jogging…
On Thursday I was planning on going jogging if the weather was nice again, but when I woke up it was cloudy and I couldn't even see the sun. So I just spent some time on the internet and read my book. After I had lunch I decided to go jogging because the sun was finally shining. I went down to the river but soon noticed that I'm not too fit. I felt tired and my legs were sore and it really annoyed me. I turned around after 20min and had to tell myself not to stop and just walk home. When I finally got home I felt like I just did a long run or an interval training, but it was only 40min of slow jogging.
I think that's the thing that sucks the most about taking a break, you feel like you're a beginner, you feel out of shape and struggle to keep up a pace or to run a distance that you can normally do easily. I find it hard to find the right mix. Not to do too much and really take a break, but still do enough to not have to start from zero again after the break. It's also weird that I always think it's going to be hard not to train a lot anymore and that I'm gonna be bored and everything, but once the break started, I have to watch out that I train enough because somehow I just get lazy and can't be bothered going training anymore, so I even have to motivate myself :).
Because I don't train so much anymore, I'm also not as hungry so I eat less what is a good thing because otherwise I'd quickly gain weight. And I'm less tired, that means I wake up earlier in the morning and don't get tired during the day – also a good thing :).
Friday was rest day (again), but at least the sun was shining all day. I used the morning for writing emails and applications, doing some strength exercises for my ankle and reading my book. In the afternoon I did some sunbathing while I was reading my book. Later I went for a walk (I had to do at least some sort of exercise :)) and did 50min worth of stretching – that's a loooong time! :).
I can't wait to get back to my normal training routine again, this just isn't doing it for me. I'd much rather be outside running some intervals or some hills and get sweaty and tired. Or do off-skate in the park, or… just something. Anything is better than sitting around feeling kind of guilty and thinking about what I would feel like after a hard training session (I loooove this feeling).
After we got up today, my boyfriend left to go to Timaru for the day (I didn't want to go with him cos that would have been soooo boring) so I stayed home. I wrote some emails and prepared my mum's birthday present. After I wrote this I'm probably going to read my book, have lunch and go to club training. I'm going to have to walk to the bus station for about 20min, so yay. The weather forecast says it's gonna be pretty windy and cloudy the whole weekend so that won't be any fun at all. Why on earth does it always have to be windy when we go skating on Saturday?! And why is it always cloudy or raining at the weekend after the weather has been beautiful all week long?! Like I said, no fun!
On Thursday I was planning on going jogging if the weather was nice again, but when I woke up it was cloudy and I couldn't even see the sun. So I just spent some time on the internet and read my book. After I had lunch I decided to go jogging because the sun was finally shining. I went down to the river but soon noticed that I'm not too fit. I felt tired and my legs were sore and it really annoyed me. I turned around after 20min and had to tell myself not to stop and just walk home. When I finally got home I felt like I just did a long run or an interval training, but it was only 40min of slow jogging.
I think that's the thing that sucks the most about taking a break, you feel like you're a beginner, you feel out of shape and struggle to keep up a pace or to run a distance that you can normally do easily. I find it hard to find the right mix. Not to do too much and really take a break, but still do enough to not have to start from zero again after the break. It's also weird that I always think it's going to be hard not to train a lot anymore and that I'm gonna be bored and everything, but once the break started, I have to watch out that I train enough because somehow I just get lazy and can't be bothered going training anymore, so I even have to motivate myself :).
Because I don't train so much anymore, I'm also not as hungry so I eat less what is a good thing because otherwise I'd quickly gain weight. And I'm less tired, that means I wake up earlier in the morning and don't get tired during the day – also a good thing :).
Friday was rest day (again), but at least the sun was shining all day. I used the morning for writing emails and applications, doing some strength exercises for my ankle and reading my book. In the afternoon I did some sunbathing while I was reading my book. Later I went for a walk (I had to do at least some sort of exercise :)) and did 50min worth of stretching – that's a loooong time! :).
I can't wait to get back to my normal training routine again, this just isn't doing it for me. I'd much rather be outside running some intervals or some hills and get sweaty and tired. Or do off-skate in the park, or… just something. Anything is better than sitting around feeling kind of guilty and thinking about what I would feel like after a hard training session (I loooove this feeling).
After we got up today, my boyfriend left to go to Timaru for the day (I didn't want to go with him cos that would have been soooo boring) so I stayed home. I wrote some emails and prepared my mum's birthday present. After I wrote this I'm probably going to read my book, have lunch and go to club training. I'm going to have to walk to the bus station for about 20min, so yay. The weather forecast says it's gonna be pretty windy and cloudy the whole weekend so that won't be any fun at all. Why on earth does it always have to be windy when we go skating on Saturday?! And why is it always cloudy or raining at the weekend after the weather has been beautiful all week long?! Like I said, no fun!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
not much happened the last couple of days...
On Monday I got up early to talk to my sister and mum on Skype. After that I checked my emails and looked at the latest job ads but didn't really find anything. At 10am I started cleaning so that I was finished around 11:30am. After I finished cleaning our place, I cleaned the bearings and changed the wheels of my skates, had the leftovers of the pasta bake for lunch and lay in the sun reading my book for about 1,5 hours. I then went for a walk and when I got back I watched some German tv. By the time I was finished my boyfriend got home and we got changed for skating (club training).
Fortunately it was rest week so we did a 15min warm-up, 4 accelerations out of the corner, starts and "only" 6 x 800m. I felt good until the 800m when my boyfriend led the first one and went way too fast for me. Me and Mark struggled to keep up and eventually gave up :). We kept going though but Mark was dead so it was me chasing my boyfriend. The second one was a bit slower as I led the first two laps. Every time my boyfriend got to the front though I had problems keeping up. I made it through all the 800 and in the last one it was only me and Mark because my boyfriend had a sore knee, so that one was easier. Mark led the first two laps and went pretty slow so it was more of a rest for me :). Then it was my turn to lead two laps and I went a bit faster. In the last lap I went to the back to let Mark lead but he slowed right down so I passed him again and finished by myself. I was pretty worn out afterwards and it was really hard on my legs.
Tuesday was rest day, so I could have slept in but got up at 8am. I had breakfast and checked my emails and went for a job interview at 10am. They were looking for someone who can work weekends and I wouldn't have been allowed to take holidays between September and April so that's not even possible for me with the races. I got home shortly after lunch, did the laundry, had lunch, looked for more jobs and surfed the internet until my boyfriend got home and we went for a walk down at the river, had dinner and watched some tv.
On Wednesday morning I talked to my friend on Skype for two hours, wrote applications and called some people about jobs, had lunch, went to a job interview for a 6 weeks job, did some other stuff and went to club training as soon as my boyfriend got home. We did the warm-up and four accelerations and I could tell that training is gonna be hard. Normally the accelerations are easy, but this time it just hurt my legs. The starts didn't really help either and I felt worn out after each one of them. Then we had to do a 5km. I was struggling to keep up with Mark from the beginning and every time I was leading we slowed down. He could even tell that I was tired because he noticed that we went slower. However, I managed to get the 32 laps done and keep up with Mark even though my hamstrings really, really hurt at the end. When we got home I took a quick shower while I boiled the water for the pasta and stretched and cooked at the same time. It sounds easier than it was, trust me :).
Fortunately it was rest week so we did a 15min warm-up, 4 accelerations out of the corner, starts and "only" 6 x 800m. I felt good until the 800m when my boyfriend led the first one and went way too fast for me. Me and Mark struggled to keep up and eventually gave up :). We kept going though but Mark was dead so it was me chasing my boyfriend. The second one was a bit slower as I led the first two laps. Every time my boyfriend got to the front though I had problems keeping up. I made it through all the 800 and in the last one it was only me and Mark because my boyfriend had a sore knee, so that one was easier. Mark led the first two laps and went pretty slow so it was more of a rest for me :). Then it was my turn to lead two laps and I went a bit faster. In the last lap I went to the back to let Mark lead but he slowed right down so I passed him again and finished by myself. I was pretty worn out afterwards and it was really hard on my legs.
Tuesday was rest day, so I could have slept in but got up at 8am. I had breakfast and checked my emails and went for a job interview at 10am. They were looking for someone who can work weekends and I wouldn't have been allowed to take holidays between September and April so that's not even possible for me with the races. I got home shortly after lunch, did the laundry, had lunch, looked for more jobs and surfed the internet until my boyfriend got home and we went for a walk down at the river, had dinner and watched some tv.
On Wednesday morning I talked to my friend on Skype for two hours, wrote applications and called some people about jobs, had lunch, went to a job interview for a 6 weeks job, did some other stuff and went to club training as soon as my boyfriend got home. We did the warm-up and four accelerations and I could tell that training is gonna be hard. Normally the accelerations are easy, but this time it just hurt my legs. The starts didn't really help either and I felt worn out after each one of them. Then we had to do a 5km. I was struggling to keep up with Mark from the beginning and every time I was leading we slowed down. He could even tell that I was tired because he noticed that we went slower. However, I managed to get the 32 laps done and keep up with Mark even though my hamstrings really, really hurt at the end. When we got home I took a quick shower while I boiled the water for the pasta and stretched and cooked at the same time. It sounds easier than it was, trust me :).
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Weekend
On Saturday morning I got up, had breakfast, did the laundry, bought some Velcro for my wobble board and my boyfriend bought a Bonsay, got home, did my nails and fixed my bracelet, had lunch, read my book, got changed and went training to the old airforce airfield. It was 7 degrees but with the cold wind it felt like 5. After the 15min warm-up and some stretches we did 3 x 1'000 meters (2,5 laps) and then a 10km. It was hard because we had this strong head wind on one straight. It felt like we skated way slower than normally, but I couldn't have skated any faster.and at the end of the 10km I was pretty dead. I also slipped pretty bad in one corner because my wheels are worn out, so I'm gonna have to change them before the next club training on Monday. After we finished skating I got changed quickly because I started to get really cold and when we got home it took me a while to get warm again. Even though I didn't want to go training first because it was so cold, it was good and it was fun and yes, I was glad that we went there :). When we got home it was 5pm already, so I checked my emails and facebook, cooked pasta bake for dinner (yummy) and when my boyfriend played Pro Cycling Manager on my laptop I called my dad for an hour. I love talking to my family, it always makes me happy and it feels a little bit like I'm there too. After I finished talking to him I had an apple (I was hungry again but didn't want to eat cookies :) and unloaded the dishwaser. Then we went to bed to watch "Lie To Me" on the laptop and went to sleep.
This morning I woke up quite early again. My boyfriend wanted to go to a bike race in Prebbleton (25min away from here) so I woke him up around 9am. We didn't know if it was gonna rain or not because the weather forecast said "chance of lunchtime shower", but we went there anyway. Some people from skating were there too so after my boyfriend and all the other grades started (A - F), we hopped in their car and caught one grade after another up to see them all race.
After a while we turned around and went to the finish. The A-grade just finished when we got there so we got out to see my boyfriend finish in the B-grade. He did very well and finished third, yay :). After we watched Mark finish as well who rode in the D-grade, we drove back to the start again to go to the prize giving.
When we got home it was 1:30pm already so we had a quick lunch and relaxed on the couch. Even though I only watched the race I felt as tired as if I raced myself. Around 4pm I could finally move my lazy bum and go for a jog. It was really nice and reminded me of one of those summer evenings where it's starting to cool down and you feel the fresh air and hear the birds chirping... Even though it is the middle of winter and 9 degrees, but who cares :). I turned around after 15min because I felt like it. For the first time in a long time I didn't tell myself I had to run for 40min or so like I normally do, because I don't have a schedule at the moment so that was really nice for a change. When I got home I took a shower and me and my boyfriend went (food)shopping. We got home, had pancakes for dinner, watched some TV and made sure we went to bed early because we were both quite tired.
This morning I woke up quite early again. My boyfriend wanted to go to a bike race in Prebbleton (25min away from here) so I woke him up around 9am. We didn't know if it was gonna rain or not because the weather forecast said "chance of lunchtime shower", but we went there anyway. Some people from skating were there too so after my boyfriend and all the other grades started (A - F), we hopped in their car and caught one grade after another up to see them all race.
After a while we turned around and went to the finish. The A-grade just finished when we got there so we got out to see my boyfriend finish in the B-grade. He did very well and finished third, yay :). After we watched Mark finish as well who rode in the D-grade, we drove back to the start again to go to the prize giving.
When we got home it was 1:30pm already so we had a quick lunch and relaxed on the couch. Even though I only watched the race I felt as tired as if I raced myself. Around 4pm I could finally move my lazy bum and go for a jog. It was really nice and reminded me of one of those summer evenings where it's starting to cool down and you feel the fresh air and hear the birds chirping... Even though it is the middle of winter and 9 degrees, but who cares :). I turned around after 15min because I felt like it. For the first time in a long time I didn't tell myself I had to run for 40min or so like I normally do, because I don't have a schedule at the moment so that was really nice for a change. When I got home I took a shower and me and my boyfriend went (food)shopping. We got home, had pancakes for dinner, watched some TV and made sure we went to bed early because we were both quite tired.
Friday, July 23, 2010
gray sky - somehow I'm glad I don't have to train outside at the moment
Yesterday morning the sky was gray and it was raining. After I got up I did the laundry, put some things away, checked my emails, wrote applications and downloaded some new songs for my ipod so that I won't get bored next time I go training :). I didn't really care about the weather because I didn't have to go outside.
I had scrambled eggs with toast (or the other way around) for lunch and did the power-workout in the afternoon. I soon found out that jumping exercises one hour after lunch wasn't such a good idea because I felt sick from the first exercise on and got a side stitch. My legs felt pretty good though and the workout was over quickly. I took a shower and then my boyfriend got home already. Because it was still raining we spent the rest of the afternoon inside.
Today was rest day and it was another unfriendly day. After I got up I did what I normally do, had breakfast, checked emails, wrote applications… and started reading my new book I ordered online. For lunch I wanted to cook Semolina. I actually found it in the supermarket here, but when I cooked it it got thick within a couple of seconds and it tasted like rubber so that landed in the rubbish bin and I had some bread instead. After my more or less unsuccessful lunch I watched my German TV program, read some more and started setting up my new training schedule. There's still a lot of work to do though because I have to work out when I want to train what and how much and I have to make sure I don't have two hard workouts on the same day and the various trainings are spread over the whole week... but I think I'm getting there :) Later I wanted to do some stretching but just couldn't be bothered so we had dinner, watched some TV and went to bed quite early.
I hope it won't rain anymore tomorrow so that we can go skating in the afternoon. If it's still wet though I'll go for an easy jog in the park. I don't really know what we're gonna do this weekend, but I hope it won't be too boring.
I had scrambled eggs with toast (or the other way around) for lunch and did the power-workout in the afternoon. I soon found out that jumping exercises one hour after lunch wasn't such a good idea because I felt sick from the first exercise on and got a side stitch. My legs felt pretty good though and the workout was over quickly. I took a shower and then my boyfriend got home already. Because it was still raining we spent the rest of the afternoon inside.
Today was rest day and it was another unfriendly day. After I got up I did what I normally do, had breakfast, checked emails, wrote applications… and started reading my new book I ordered online. For lunch I wanted to cook Semolina. I actually found it in the supermarket here, but when I cooked it it got thick within a couple of seconds and it tasted like rubber so that landed in the rubbish bin and I had some bread instead. After my more or less unsuccessful lunch I watched my German TV program, read some more and started setting up my new training schedule. There's still a lot of work to do though because I have to work out when I want to train what and how much and I have to make sure I don't have two hard workouts on the same day and the various trainings are spread over the whole week... but I think I'm getting there :) Later I wanted to do some stretching but just couldn't be bothered so we had dinner, watched some TV and went to bed quite early.
I hope it won't rain anymore tomorrow so that we can go skating in the afternoon. If it's still wet though I'll go for an easy jog in the park. I don't really know what we're gonna do this weekend, but I hope it won't be too boring.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
club trainings
I thought my legs would be a lot sorer after the race on Sunday, but club training on Monday evening went surprisingly well :). We started with the normal 15 min warm-up, did four accelerations out of the corner, four starts in groups and then… 9 x 800 meters (5 laps). Nine of them. We used to do six so far and that was already enough, but I gave it a try. The first one we did with my boyfriend in the front and he went crazy fast so there was no way me and Mark could have followed him. And because I know him and knew he's probably only gonna do a few and we had to do nine, I didn't even try to keep up. He did one more with us but didn't lead and then stopped so me and Mark did the others by ourselves. We alternated so that I was once leading the first two and the last lap and once he was leading them and I only led the third and fourth lap and everytime he was leading, I could rest a bit because he wasn't going really fast. He told me he was tired from his bike race, but well, I had a race as well… Right after we started the second last, Nathan (Mark's brother) shot past us but I skated a comfortable speed and knew he wasn't going to last for the whole five laps. when it was Mark's turn to lead, he sped up to catch him what he did with one lap to go. He stayed behind Nathan who was going way slower now so I went past them and they couldn't keep up anymore. In the last 800m I was leading the first two laps and when I wanted Mark to pass me, he just stayed behind me and couldn't pass. He said he can't so I went by myself. After the five laps he was half a lap behind already, so he really was dead. But for me and my ego it was a really good training :).
Yesterday I decided to have a rest day. I could have done some exercises but I just couldn't be bothered. I spent the morning looking for hotels on the internet (a birthday present for my mum), writing applications and emails. In the afternoon I was rather bored and watched a German TV program on the internet and did some other stuff. So yeah, it was a boring day for me…
When I woke up today it was wet outside and didn't look friendly at all. I had muesli for breakfast, checked my emails, wrote some applications and walked to the dairy to get the newspaper (to check the job ads, what else?!). Around lunch time the sun started to shine and I enjoyed the warmth while I was eating my pasta. I thought it might get dry and we can go skating – and it did. But the closer it got to 5pm (that's when we leave for training), the more it looked like it was gonna rain again.
We did the warm-up what ended up being way faster than normally as we were playing games and trying to lap each other, then did four accelerations and because it started drizzling a bit we skipped the starts and did the 5km. Me and Mark took turns leading and my boyfriend was sitting at the back because he was tired. It felt like we were going slower than normally but we had about the same speed as always. Mark reckoned my leads were the fastest but I think we were about the same. I really like training with him because we both have about the same level (even though he's younger, but hey, he's a guy :)) and I like his skating style. As soon as we were done with the 5km it started drizzling harder and we quickly did our cool-down, got changed and went home (where we had pizza :D).
Yesterday I decided to have a rest day. I could have done some exercises but I just couldn't be bothered. I spent the morning looking for hotels on the internet (a birthday present for my mum), writing applications and emails. In the afternoon I was rather bored and watched a German TV program on the internet and did some other stuff. So yeah, it was a boring day for me…
When I woke up today it was wet outside and didn't look friendly at all. I had muesli for breakfast, checked my emails, wrote some applications and walked to the dairy to get the newspaper (to check the job ads, what else?!). Around lunch time the sun started to shine and I enjoyed the warmth while I was eating my pasta. I thought it might get dry and we can go skating – and it did. But the closer it got to 5pm (that's when we leave for training), the more it looked like it was gonna rain again.
We did the warm-up what ended up being way faster than normally as we were playing games and trying to lap each other, then did four accelerations and because it started drizzling a bit we skipped the starts and did the 5km. Me and Mark took turns leading and my boyfriend was sitting at the back because he was tired. It felt like we were going slower than normally but we had about the same speed as always. Mark reckoned my leads were the fastest but I think we were about the same. I really like training with him because we both have about the same level (even though he's younger, but hey, he's a guy :)) and I like his skating style. As soon as we were done with the 5km it started drizzling harder and we quickly did our cool-down, got changed and went home (where we had pizza :D).
Monday, July 19, 2010
Sri Chinmoy 10km race in Sumner
On Sunday I got up at 6:40am to have breakfast and get ready for the race. We drove to Sumner which is a nice beach here in Christchurch and where the race was held. I got my number and watched some surfers who were crazy enough to go out into the water at 8:15 in the morning. Soon it was time to get changed and do my warm-up, even though I never warm up for long. I decided to run in shorts and a light jacket and went to the start. The kids (2,5km), the 5km and the 10km race started together, so there were 181 runners in total. The "gun" went off and I started running, trying not to go too fast from the start. The kids were kind of annoying as they were all over the place, running from the left side to the right, but fortunately I left quite a few of them behind :). We had to run a 2,5km loop along the ocean, so I had to do 4 laps.
The first lap went ok, I passed a few people but still made sure I didn't go too fast. It was really hard to figure out the right pace as there were no kilometer marks. When I got back near the finish line, I started looking for my boyfriend who was taking photos. It was good to know he was there…
On the second lap I started suffering a little bit. I got a side stitch that went away again after about 4 minutes thanks to my breathing technique (I learned how to breathe a side stitch away :D sounds funny but it works). The second time I crossed the finish line, I logged 24 minutes, so I was quite happy about that – anything that's under 25min after half of the race is good. On the third lap I started passing some girls who were way in front of me at the start of the race but started to fall back because they started out too fast. When I got to the next girl and was about to pass her, she sped up. I was like, ooookay, that was weird and stayed behind her. She got slower again and I once again wanted to pass her but she sped up again. I didn't want to play games and wear myself out, so I just stayed behind her and let another girl try to pass her…
This 10km race was definitely harder than the first one I did, but of course I kept going. It wasn't like I was all out, I just felt like I can't go much faster even if I wanted to. The view was way more beautiful though, I saw the ocean, a few surfers and the mountains covered with snow. When I crossed the finish line for the third time, knowing that this was my last lap, it gave me a bit more energy. I was running with the same two girls for the last 3 or 4km so my goal was to pass them of course :). On the last kilometer we even caught another girl who was in front of us and when it was about 400m to the finish, one of the girls started going faster. I went faster as well, suddenly running in the front of all of them. I looked back and saw them all running fast and just thought "I don't know if I can run that fast until I get to the finish", but I tried anyway. We went around the turn, 150m to go and I sped up even more, but when I looked back I saw that the other girls couldn't follow me. I finished in a time of exactly 48 minutes and got 7th out of 61 women and 24th out of 104 in total (male and female). I was so proud of my finish that this was all I talked about after the race :). After all, the interval training and sprints payed out. I thought I got 9th though, but when I saw the results I knew better :). My average heart rate during the race was 180, so that's pretty high… I also have a new max. heart rate of 191. After I had something to drink I quickly got changed as it wasn't too warm (about 6 degrees) and went to get my post race breakfast :). We watched the prize giving, we went home, I took a hot shower and lay around on the couch for a while, after all it was quite a hard race. In the afternoon we went to the mall where I looked for a new running jacket but couldn't find one.
The race was so much fun that I would like to run the next one in a week or so, but unfortunately there are no races near where I live for another 2 months. Plus I have 3 weeks off and then start with my preparation phase, so I'll see how that goes and if I'll enter another 10km race in September or October (it's just sooo addictive :).
I really don't look forward to those three weeks off. Well, it's not like I won't train at all, but still...
This week I'm planning on training about 6 hours - no more. I really hope I can stick to it because my body could really use some rest.
The first lap went ok, I passed a few people but still made sure I didn't go too fast. It was really hard to figure out the right pace as there were no kilometer marks. When I got back near the finish line, I started looking for my boyfriend who was taking photos. It was good to know he was there…
On the second lap I started suffering a little bit. I got a side stitch that went away again after about 4 minutes thanks to my breathing technique (I learned how to breathe a side stitch away :D sounds funny but it works). The second time I crossed the finish line, I logged 24 minutes, so I was quite happy about that – anything that's under 25min after half of the race is good. On the third lap I started passing some girls who were way in front of me at the start of the race but started to fall back because they started out too fast. When I got to the next girl and was about to pass her, she sped up. I was like, ooookay, that was weird and stayed behind her. She got slower again and I once again wanted to pass her but she sped up again. I didn't want to play games and wear myself out, so I just stayed behind her and let another girl try to pass her…
This 10km race was definitely harder than the first one I did, but of course I kept going. It wasn't like I was all out, I just felt like I can't go much faster even if I wanted to. The view was way more beautiful though, I saw the ocean, a few surfers and the mountains covered with snow. When I crossed the finish line for the third time, knowing that this was my last lap, it gave me a bit more energy. I was running with the same two girls for the last 3 or 4km so my goal was to pass them of course :). On the last kilometer we even caught another girl who was in front of us and when it was about 400m to the finish, one of the girls started going faster. I went faster as well, suddenly running in the front of all of them. I looked back and saw them all running fast and just thought "I don't know if I can run that fast until I get to the finish", but I tried anyway. We went around the turn, 150m to go and I sped up even more, but when I looked back I saw that the other girls couldn't follow me. I finished in a time of exactly 48 minutes and got 7th out of 61 women and 24th out of 104 in total (male and female). I was so proud of my finish that this was all I talked about after the race :). After all, the interval training and sprints payed out. I thought I got 9th though, but when I saw the results I knew better :). My average heart rate during the race was 180, so that's pretty high… I also have a new max. heart rate of 191. After I had something to drink I quickly got changed as it wasn't too warm (about 6 degrees) and went to get my post race breakfast :). We watched the prize giving, we went home, I took a hot shower and lay around on the couch for a while, after all it was quite a hard race. In the afternoon we went to the mall where I looked for a new running jacket but couldn't find one.
The race was so much fun that I would like to run the next one in a week or so, but unfortunately there are no races near where I live for another 2 months. Plus I have 3 weeks off and then start with my preparation phase, so I'll see how that goes and if I'll enter another 10km race in September or October (it's just sooo addictive :).
I really don't look forward to those three weeks off. Well, it's not like I won't train at all, but still...
This week I'm planning on training about 6 hours - no more. I really hope I can stick to it because my body could really use some rest.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
slow run on the day before the race
After yesterday's rest day, it was time for some training again. I headed out for a slow run around 10am but felt really worn out and my shin was still sore. Even though I only jogged really slowly, my average heart rate was 160. I jogged along the river for 20min before I turned around and went home again. On my way home I did five strides to pick up some speed and it felt good to go faster :). After I got home I had a shower and did some stretching.
I remember feeling tired and worn out during my last run before the 10km race but the race went really well, so I hope it will be the same this time.
I won't train again today though, I'm gonna have lunch soon cos I'm starving and then we'll go walk around the shopping mall, see if I can find something to buy :). Later today I'm gonna pack my stuff for tomorrow so that I don't have to wake up even earlier and that I won't be too stressed. And of course I'll have pasta for dinner like always before a race :) – hope it will help.
I remember feeling tired and worn out during my last run before the 10km race but the race went really well, so I hope it will be the same this time.
I won't train again today though, I'm gonna have lunch soon cos I'm starving and then we'll go walk around the shopping mall, see if I can find something to buy :). Later today I'm gonna pack my stuff for tomorrow so that I don't have to wake up even earlier and that I won't be too stressed. And of course I'll have pasta for dinner like always before a race :) – hope it will help.
Friday, July 16, 2010
training of the last two days
The day before yesterday I wanted to go running right after I woke up but my shin muscles hurt so bad that I decided to ride my bike instead. I did 30min on the wind trainer and that was my training for the morning. I didn't want to do too much, I want to be able to give my best on Sunday, so I don't want to use all my energy for training. Plus we had club training again that night.
When we arrived at the track, we saw that half of the back straight and the first half of one of the corners were wet. We started our warm-up and used it to see how slippery the track was. And it was very slippery. But we were ok as long as we stayed at the bottom of the track when we went through the corners and didn't go too fast so that we didn't drift into the wet. After the warm-up we did 4 accelerations in the corner that was only wet in the first half so we could go full speed from the middle. After these we did starts (in which I of course sucked again) and then the 5km. I asked my boyfriend not to go too fast because of the wet, but he went so slow it wasn't funny anymore :) so when he went to the back I sped up and he complained and stopped skating with us cos he found it too dangerous. So it was only me and the other guy (who's name is Mark by the way) who skated at a steady pace. It was a bit scary when we had to pass people, especially in the corners, but we always slowed down a bit for that so we were fine and there were no crashes. We finished the 5km with me still feeling pretty good, but it wasn't as fast as normally because of the wet.
During the cool-down I got really cold and felt the wind blowing through my jacket, so that was no fun at all and I made sure I got changed quickly after training.
Back home I was still freezing and after taking a hot shower and having dinner (self-made chicken burgers, yummy) I was sitting on the couch under my blanket and in front of the heater, but it still took me quite some time to get warm again.
Yesterday morning I did exercises, none for my legs, just for my waist, abs, back and arms, but I felt tired and I could still feel my legs in every single exercise I did. After I was finished, my legs felt like I've been doing off-skate instead of exercises. I don't know why my legs were so sore and I was tired because yesterday's training sure wasn't too hard, so who knows…
In the evening I rode my bike on the wind trainer. I find it really hard to get my heart rate up on the wind trainer. I once read that training on the wind trainer will only be effective if your heart rate is over 130. I normally have 120 or even less! So yesterday I did a 5min warm-up, rode for 10min in a steady pace, then did 10min of 30sec standing and 30sec sitting (that brought my heart rate up to about 137, but every time I sat back down the heart rate went down as well. Then I rode 10min in the second biggest resistance and did the 30sec standing and sitting thing again for 10min, then rode in the second biggest resistance for 5 more mintues and did a 10min cool-down. And guess what?! My average heart rate for this training (without the warm-up and cool-down) was... 130 :). I think it was quite a good training and my legs didn't get too sore.
I would have a lot of time to rest today though because it's rest day. That means no training at all. I'll do 40min of stretching but that's all so I try to enjoy the no training day as much as I can. I always tell myself that I can sleep in on my rest days and that it's ok to stay in bed as long as I want to, but I'm always awake earlier than normally. Today for example I got up at 7:45 am, so the whole sleep in thing doesn't really work for me :).
When we arrived at the track, we saw that half of the back straight and the first half of one of the corners were wet. We started our warm-up and used it to see how slippery the track was. And it was very slippery. But we were ok as long as we stayed at the bottom of the track when we went through the corners and didn't go too fast so that we didn't drift into the wet. After the warm-up we did 4 accelerations in the corner that was only wet in the first half so we could go full speed from the middle. After these we did starts (in which I of course sucked again) and then the 5km. I asked my boyfriend not to go too fast because of the wet, but he went so slow it wasn't funny anymore :) so when he went to the back I sped up and he complained and stopped skating with us cos he found it too dangerous. So it was only me and the other guy (who's name is Mark by the way) who skated at a steady pace. It was a bit scary when we had to pass people, especially in the corners, but we always slowed down a bit for that so we were fine and there were no crashes. We finished the 5km with me still feeling pretty good, but it wasn't as fast as normally because of the wet.
During the cool-down I got really cold and felt the wind blowing through my jacket, so that was no fun at all and I made sure I got changed quickly after training.
Back home I was still freezing and after taking a hot shower and having dinner (self-made chicken burgers, yummy) I was sitting on the couch under my blanket and in front of the heater, but it still took me quite some time to get warm again.
Yesterday morning I did exercises, none for my legs, just for my waist, abs, back and arms, but I felt tired and I could still feel my legs in every single exercise I did. After I was finished, my legs felt like I've been doing off-skate instead of exercises. I don't know why my legs were so sore and I was tired because yesterday's training sure wasn't too hard, so who knows…
In the evening I rode my bike on the wind trainer. I find it really hard to get my heart rate up on the wind trainer. I once read that training on the wind trainer will only be effective if your heart rate is over 130. I normally have 120 or even less! So yesterday I did a 5min warm-up, rode for 10min in a steady pace, then did 10min of 30sec standing and 30sec sitting (that brought my heart rate up to about 137, but every time I sat back down the heart rate went down as well. Then I rode 10min in the second biggest resistance and did the 30sec standing and sitting thing again for 10min, then rode in the second biggest resistance for 5 more mintues and did a 10min cool-down. And guess what?! My average heart rate for this training (without the warm-up and cool-down) was... 130 :). I think it was quite a good training and my legs didn't get too sore.
I would have a lot of time to rest today though because it's rest day. That means no training at all. I'll do 40min of stretching but that's all so I try to enjoy the no training day as much as I can. I always tell myself that I can sleep in on my rest days and that it's ok to stay in bed as long as I want to, but I'm always awake earlier than normally. Today for example I got up at 7:45 am, so the whole sleep in thing doesn't really work for me :).
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
off-skate
Today the sun was shining and it was a bit warmer than the last couple of days (11 degrees). I decided to go training in the afternoon and used the morning to write applications and put the laundry away. After lunch though it got cloudy and the sun was gone for the rest of the day. I still wanted to go outside though and it was only a little bit cooler, so I headed out to the park and used the 10min it took me to get there as my warm-up. I did 45min worth of off-skate (some skipping, frog jumps, stride jumps, imitation jumps, pulsing, sprints and low walking). When I did the 6 sprints, my shin muscles really hurt again and I noticed what a good idea it was to do sprints with sore shin muscles, haha… I still did all 6 sprints though and jogged home after training. After sitting on the couch for a little bit, my shins didn't hurt as much anymore, but I'm still not sure if I should go jogging tomorrow morning or sit on the bike and give my shins a rest, but I'll decide that in the morning.
Monday, July 12, 2010
interval trainings
After I had another rest day on Saturday and we went to the hot pools, I had some interval training on my schedule for yesterday.
It was about 5 degrees in the morning and my boyfriend came with me on the bike. We went down to the river because there are (almost) no cars and after the 10min warm-up I did 7 x 2min fast with a 1,5min rest jog in between. The first two intervals didn't feel too great and I felt a bit tired, but I felt way better after the third. I did the last two pretty fast and finished the last one with a sprint. As soon as I finished the sprint, I felt really sick for about 30sec but was good again afterwards. So I jogged home and stretched and had a diet coke :)
In the afternoon we went for a walk in the park as the sun was shining (it was still only 7 degrees though) and bought scales. I haven't weigh myself since I moved to New Zealand so I was pretty curious about my weight. Not that it would have changed a lot, my clothes still fit me and I don't feel fatter or thinner, but I just wanted to make sure :). So as soon as we got home I quickly stood on there and it read 65 kg, so that's my normal weight. But I'll stand on there again tonight without my clothes so it should be around 64kg and I would be more than happy about that as I just ate what I felt like for the last couple of months and didn't count calories or anything, but I think that's the bonus you get if you train that much...
Tomorrow starts the last week of training before the break so I'll make sure to enjoy it, I might even have to start counting calories again because somehow I always eat more when I don't train because I get bored easier and instead of being out training I'll be at home with all the cookies and the chocolate :)
Today I got up at 7:30 am and didn't feel too great. I had breakfast and went out for my interval training at 9:20 am. It was cold (2 degrees) but I was wearing 3/4 pants and a light jacket and still got too hot after the warm-up. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I think there hasn't been one single run so far where I didn't get too hot. Anyways, I did some minute/minute, that means 1min fast, 1min slow for 20min, but didn't go really fast. I made sure that my heart rate was more than 170 during the fast minutes though. I felt my shins (I think I've got shin splints from running on hard surface all the time) and was tired after 30min already. I would have rather walked than jogged the 15min back home but yay, I still made it home :).
After I had a shower and a snack, I wrote applications, had lunch, cleaned the appartment for almost 1,5 hours and because I was tired afterwards, I got comfortable on the couch and watched a German TV program. Liiiiike that! :)
When my boyfriend got home around 5pm it was pretty cold and windy and I had a bit of a stomachache but we still went to the track for club training.
We did a warm-up, followed by some exercises in the corners for 10min, some starts and 6 x 800 meters. I was doing ok in the first one as it wasn't too fast but I started to struggle after the second one. My stomachache got worse as well but I didn't want to stop so I kept going. At the end I was alright and did all 6 800 meters and kept up with the guys. I slipped a couple of times though because the track was a bit wet so that was quite scary, but at least I didn't crash.
After training I was so looking forward to just going home, sit on the couch, be warm and watch tv and that's what I did. I watched Desperate Housewives, had pasta for dinner and snuggled up in my blanket.
It was about 5 degrees in the morning and my boyfriend came with me on the bike. We went down to the river because there are (almost) no cars and after the 10min warm-up I did 7 x 2min fast with a 1,5min rest jog in between. The first two intervals didn't feel too great and I felt a bit tired, but I felt way better after the third. I did the last two pretty fast and finished the last one with a sprint. As soon as I finished the sprint, I felt really sick for about 30sec but was good again afterwards. So I jogged home and stretched and had a diet coke :)
In the afternoon we went for a walk in the park as the sun was shining (it was still only 7 degrees though) and bought scales. I haven't weigh myself since I moved to New Zealand so I was pretty curious about my weight. Not that it would have changed a lot, my clothes still fit me and I don't feel fatter or thinner, but I just wanted to make sure :). So as soon as we got home I quickly stood on there and it read 65 kg, so that's my normal weight. But I'll stand on there again tonight without my clothes so it should be around 64kg and I would be more than happy about that as I just ate what I felt like for the last couple of months and didn't count calories or anything, but I think that's the bonus you get if you train that much...
Tomorrow starts the last week of training before the break so I'll make sure to enjoy it, I might even have to start counting calories again because somehow I always eat more when I don't train because I get bored easier and instead of being out training I'll be at home with all the cookies and the chocolate :)
Today I got up at 7:30 am and didn't feel too great. I had breakfast and went out for my interval training at 9:20 am. It was cold (2 degrees) but I was wearing 3/4 pants and a light jacket and still got too hot after the warm-up. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I think there hasn't been one single run so far where I didn't get too hot. Anyways, I did some minute/minute, that means 1min fast, 1min slow for 20min, but didn't go really fast. I made sure that my heart rate was more than 170 during the fast minutes though. I felt my shins (I think I've got shin splints from running on hard surface all the time) and was tired after 30min already. I would have rather walked than jogged the 15min back home but yay, I still made it home :).
After I had a shower and a snack, I wrote applications, had lunch, cleaned the appartment for almost 1,5 hours and because I was tired afterwards, I got comfortable on the couch and watched a German TV program. Liiiiike that! :)
When my boyfriend got home around 5pm it was pretty cold and windy and I had a bit of a stomachache but we still went to the track for club training.
We did a warm-up, followed by some exercises in the corners for 10min, some starts and 6 x 800 meters. I was doing ok in the first one as it wasn't too fast but I started to struggle after the second one. My stomachache got worse as well but I didn't want to stop so I kept going. At the end I was alright and did all 6 800 meters and kept up with the guys. I slipped a couple of times though because the track was a bit wet so that was quite scary, but at least I didn't crash.
After training I was so looking forward to just going home, sit on the couch, be warm and watch tv and that's what I did. I watched Desperate Housewives, had pasta for dinner and snuggled up in my blanket.
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