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!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
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.
Friday, July 9, 2010
race split times - here I come
Today is rest day, that means it's quite a boring day but it gave me time to calculate my split times for next weekends run. I am not sure if I'll be able to beat my PB from the last race, but I'll give it a try. It's quite risky though as it's only a small race where I could place between 3rd and 5th if I get lucky (With the time from my last training run, 49:04, I would have placed 4th).
I calculated that I have to run the first 5km somewhere between 23:28 and 24:29 to finish between 46 and 48 minutes. I know, 46 minutes is ambitious, so I don't think I'll be going for that one because I don't want to get to 5km and be totally worn out already. Plus, I've never done it at training before either, so I'll rather go for the 47, 48 minutes one. I think I'll just start running and see how it goes and hope I'll be at the 5km mark a little bit before 24:30 :), but we'll see.
My legs feel surprisingly good today, after yesterday's training I thought I'm gonna have sore muscles today – but nope :)
I did off-skate in the afternoon which was hard. I did a 15min warm-up on the wind trainer, 45min worth of off-skate, that means jumping around and doing mean exercises for your legs :), followed by a 15min cool-down. Of course my legs felt tired after that, but I loooove this feeling :).
So today I'm gonna do exactly nothing apart from 40min stretching and tomorrow I'll have another (unplanned) rest day as me an my boyfriend are going to Hanmer Springs to lie in the thermal pools all day long :) It's gonna be so nice… But on Sunday I'm gonna catch up on training and do what I wanted to do on Saturday.
Next week I'm gonna have one more week of hard training and then the race on Sunday and after this I'm gonna take a little break and only train 6 hours max for 3 weeks. It really sucks because I don't feel like taking a break at all, but I know that it's the best thing to do. I've been training non-stop since November 2009, so I do need a break sometime. And because I have to prepare for next season soon, now is the best time. I just wished there were other things to do, I have no idea what I'm gonna do with my time yet, but I hope I'll find something. And if I get really bored I can still go for an easy jog or something :).
I calculated that I have to run the first 5km somewhere between 23:28 and 24:29 to finish between 46 and 48 minutes. I know, 46 minutes is ambitious, so I don't think I'll be going for that one because I don't want to get to 5km and be totally worn out already. Plus, I've never done it at training before either, so I'll rather go for the 47, 48 minutes one. I think I'll just start running and see how it goes and hope I'll be at the 5km mark a little bit before 24:30 :), but we'll see.
My legs feel surprisingly good today, after yesterday's training I thought I'm gonna have sore muscles today – but nope :)
I did off-skate in the afternoon which was hard. I did a 15min warm-up on the wind trainer, 45min worth of off-skate, that means jumping around and doing mean exercises for your legs :), followed by a 15min cool-down. Of course my legs felt tired after that, but I loooove this feeling :).
So today I'm gonna do exactly nothing apart from 40min stretching and tomorrow I'll have another (unplanned) rest day as me an my boyfriend are going to Hanmer Springs to lie in the thermal pools all day long :) It's gonna be so nice… But on Sunday I'm gonna catch up on training and do what I wanted to do on Saturday.
Next week I'm gonna have one more week of hard training and then the race on Sunday and after this I'm gonna take a little break and only train 6 hours max for 3 weeks. It really sucks because I don't feel like taking a break at all, but I know that it's the best thing to do. I've been training non-stop since November 2009, so I do need a break sometime. And because I have to prepare for next season soon, now is the best time. I just wished there were other things to do, I have no idea what I'm gonna do with my time yet, but I hope I'll find something. And if I get really bored I can still go for an easy jog or something :).
Thursday, July 8, 2010
investigation run and track training
Yesterday was one of these days were I just couldn't be bothered going training. I set my alarm for 7.45am to have enough time between breakfast and my run, but I so didn't want to go. But I knew that I just have to get started and I'll be fine, so around 9am I got changed and headed out for what I call an investigation run. I tried a new route because I wanted to find a hill where I can do hill sprints. It was pretty cold again (around 4 or 5 degrees), but after a while I got warmer and rolled up my tights. I jogged along the river nice and easy, trying to jog on the grass as much as possible to go easy on my joints and muscles cos always running on pavement sure doesn't help them. I like running on grass when I do my easy runs, not when I do Intervals though because then I have to concentrate on other things and the possibility of a misstep is higher. After about 23min of running I found my hill, actually I found two hills, both steep and with a sidewalk. I think there are lots of cyclists going up these hills because I saw a few and I also saw a sign that said "watch out for cyclists", so I won't be the only one racing up these hills :). After 25min I turned around and jogged back pretty much the same way I came from so that I got back after 50min. I did some stretching and noticed that my ankle even hurt when I didn't put pressure on it, so I don't think that's a good sign. But after sitting on the couch for a while, the pain went away.
In the evening we went to the track for club training. We started with our 15min warm-up, did some accelerations out of the corner, 2 starts by ourselves and 4 in groups (I missed the start completely twice and always got 2nd) and after that we did a 5km (32 laps). My legs felt pretty sore after 10 laps but I kept going and finished so I was quite happy with my performance. When we got home my left leg was really sore. After training on Monday it was a bit more tense when I stretched so I was like, ah well that's from all these corners because you put more weight on your left leg, so I wasn't concerned, but yesterday it hurt when I didn't even move it. It was really annoying and I couldn't really tell what it was because I've never had anything like that before so I hoped it would be gone in the morning and it was so that was really weird. I just hope it will be fine when I do off-skate later today and the pain won't come back.
In the evening we went to the track for club training. We started with our 15min warm-up, did some accelerations out of the corner, 2 starts by ourselves and 4 in groups (I missed the start completely twice and always got 2nd) and after that we did a 5km (32 laps). My legs felt pretty sore after 10 laps but I kept going and finished so I was quite happy with my performance. When we got home my left leg was really sore. After training on Monday it was a bit more tense when I stretched so I was like, ah well that's from all these corners because you put more weight on your left leg, so I wasn't concerned, but yesterday it hurt when I didn't even move it. It was really annoying and I couldn't really tell what it was because I've never had anything like that before so I hoped it would be gone in the morning and it was so that was really weird. I just hope it will be fine when I do off-skate later today and the pain won't come back.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
kicked butt at training :)
Yesterday was another busy day. It started with having breakfast and checking emails (that was the fun part). After that I did exercises for 1,5 hours, wrote applications and had lunch (scrambled eggs on toast, I needed some protein). After lunch I started cleaning. It took me a bit more than an hour and when I was finished I was tired. It was like a workout :). So I decided to relax and watch a German TV Show. After it was over it was almost time to go training again and I got changed and packed my training gear. We were a bit late but the others weren't ready yet either so I quickly put my skates on and we started the 15min warm-up. We did a passing exercises but it didn't really work with the younger skaters so it was a bit of a mess. After this we did stretching and started with the real training. First we did four accelerations out of the corner, which I did pretty good because I was the fastest out of us three (me and two guys). I still don't feel comfortable in the corners though. I just can't pick up speed and that means that I always struggle to keep up. I always catch up on the straight though but it costs a lot of energy. Next were starts with half a lap of skating. We did four of them in a group of five. I won the first two and one of the guys the last two and of course he had to act like he just won the World Champs, he doesn't like being beaten by me :). After the sprints we did 6 x 800 meters. I hate them, they're just too long for me. But because my boyfriend wasn't skating and the guy who normally beats me didn't look too strong, it was going to be a bit easier than last time we did them. I led the first two laps, then the other guy led two and I did the last one (that's how we normally do it). I felt good and in the next one I passed him on the last straight when he was leading just to show him that I was in better shape than he was :). We had to do four more and I always tried to push a little harder when I was in the front and he kept asking me if I'm trying to wear him out, which I of course denied :). It was fun beating him though and I did alright through the whole training. After the cool-down and we got changed and hopped in the car to drive home. My boyfriend started annoying me about going to Burger King for dinner. I really didn't feel like Burger King but he really wanted to so we went to the Drive Thru and got our dinner. At home we ate in front of the TV (ok, I admit, I liked it :). I'm already looking forward to the next club training on Wednesday. I just hope it will be dry so that we can skate.
Monday, July 5, 2010
morning jog
Yesterday was quite a busy day. Even though it was Sunday, I got up at 8:15 and went for a jog at sunrise. It was about 0 degrees but I was wearing my winter clothes, so no problem for me :) I did a 40min easy jog because my legs were still a bit sore, it was early in the morning and I didn't have breakfast, so not the time for an interval. But the atmosphere was soooo nice. I jogged along a river and there was just me, a few ducks, the sun and the cold. It was beautiful. Check out the photos and you know what I mean.
They aren't great because they're from a video I took with my iPod camera and then took a print screen of, but I like them a lot. When I headed home again and got away from the river back to the main road, it was like coming into a whole different world. All of a sudden the calm atmosphere was gone and it was noisy and busy again and there were lots of cars. I think I'll never get used to living in a city…
After I got back I quickly took a shower, got ready, put my muesli into a box and hopped into the car. My boyfriend had a bike race at 11am so we drove there and while he got ready I did some sunbathing cos even if it was only a couple of hours later it was a lot warmer already. He raced for about an hour and I went for a little walk and enjoyed the nice weather. After that we went home and had lunch. We had some other things to do like mowing the lawn and putting stuff away from the morning and after that I wanted to do off-skate outside, but I was so tired and my legs were sore and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So we went shopping instead and after we got home I prepared dinner and did the Power-Workout. It was hard but at least I wasn't so tired anymore. When I was finished my ankle hurt a lot so that sucked. It seems that my ankle gets worse every day cos half a year ago it only hurt sometime, when I went jogging for example, but now it hurts all the time. When I go jogging, when I go skating, sometimes even when I sit on the bike or when I just walk around. I'm going to do some strength training for my ankles more often and hope it will get better, so we'll see.
They aren't great because they're from a video I took with my iPod camera and then took a print screen of, but I like them a lot. When I headed home again and got away from the river back to the main road, it was like coming into a whole different world. All of a sudden the calm atmosphere was gone and it was noisy and busy again and there were lots of cars. I think I'll never get used to living in a city…
After I got back I quickly took a shower, got ready, put my muesli into a box and hopped into the car. My boyfriend had a bike race at 11am so we drove there and while he got ready I did some sunbathing cos even if it was only a couple of hours later it was a lot warmer already. He raced for about an hour and I went for a little walk and enjoyed the nice weather. After that we went home and had lunch. We had some other things to do like mowing the lawn and putting stuff away from the morning and after that I wanted to do off-skate outside, but I was so tired and my legs were sore and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So we went shopping instead and after we got home I prepared dinner and did the Power-Workout. It was hard but at least I wasn't so tired anymore. When I was finished my ankle hurt a lot so that sucked. It seems that my ankle gets worse every day cos half a year ago it only hurt sometime, when I went jogging for example, but now it hurts all the time. When I go jogging, when I go skating, sometimes even when I sit on the bike or when I just walk around. I'm going to do some strength training for my ankles more often and hope it will get better, so we'll see.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
10km test run
In two weeks I'm running my next 10km race and because of that, I wanted to run a test race today. I have my course along a river which is exactly 10,11km long. And the best thing is that there's barely any traffic and I don't have to cross any intersections with traffic lights so I can concentrate on my running. After a 5min warm-up I picked up the pace a bit and started my 10km run. I got a stitch after a couple of minutes and didn't feel great either. I thought if the stitch won't go away within the next 5min I'll slow down and only do 40min of training, what would have really annoyed me. Fortunately, the stitch went away and I kept going. It was harder than normal though and I struggled to keep up the pace. I don't exactly know why, if it was because I didn't have a propper breakfast (a couple of slices of bread), or because I did my long run the day before yesterday or because yesterday was rest day, or… yeah, it could be anything. I made it to the 5km mark in 24:52, so I was glad to stay under 25min cos I wanted to stay under 50min. Normally when I get to the 5km mark, I'm still quite relaxed and have the feeling that I can speed up a bit in the second half – not today though. I felt tired and couldn't bring my legs to go any faster. I tried some pep-talk, it helped a little bit but not much because I was just too worn out. After about 30min I would have loved to just stop, but I thought I already made it that far and put all that effort into it, I won't just stop now cos otherwise all that would have been for nothing. I don't like break off a training anyway, it always makes me grumpy, but sometimes there's just no other way and it's better if you do and just get over it. But I kept going, breathing heavily and stumbling cos my legs were so dead. However, I made it to the final straight and saw the traffic lights (that's where the finish was), but couldn't go much faster. I wanted to get there before the 49min mark, but the time stopped at 49:03.5. After I got my breath back I was happy with that time, considering the fact that I really did not feel good from the start and still stayed under 50min, it was a good effort and I'm even proud of myself for pushing my body through this whole run.
Today's run: 10,11km in 49:03.5min (12,37 km/h), avg heart rate: 174, max heart rate: 190
In the afternoon we went to the beach and had some ice cream (yuuummy) and in the evening I rode my bike on the wind trainer for a little bit (1 h 15). Nice and easy, I didn't even bother putting my heart rate monitor on because my heart rate would have been way to low and I didn't even want to know how low. But it felt good for my legs and that's the main thing.
Today's run: 10,11km in 49:03.5min (12,37 km/h), avg heart rate: 174, max heart rate: 190
In the afternoon we went to the beach and had some ice cream (yuuummy) and in the evening I rode my bike on the wind trainer for a little bit (1 h 15). Nice and easy, I didn't even bother putting my heart rate monitor on because my heart rate would have been way to low and I didn't even want to know how low. But it felt good for my legs and that's the main thing.
heart rate zones
Yesterday I found this page where you can calculate your target heart rate zones. I think it's pretty cool because a computer does it for you and you don't have to do it yourself :) it also gives you a good overview. Here's my one with a rest heart rate of 49 and a max heart rate of 190.
If you want to calculate your own heart rate zones, go to http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/hrzones.php
If you want to calculate your own heart rate zones, go to http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/hrzones.php
Thursday, July 1, 2010
18 kay run
Even though I felt really good during my interval training on Tuesday, I had to give my body some rest yesterday so I did 1,5 hours of exercises for my waist, abs, back and arms. I like doing exercises cos it gives the legs a break but it's still a training. In the evening I wanted to go skating, but my boyfriend was too tired so we stayed home. What doesn't mean that I didn't train :) I sat on the wind trainer and did a 5min warm-up. Then I went a little harder to get my heart rate up and did 10 x 30sec standing with 30sec easy in between. After this I rode in a steady pace for 10min and then did 10 x 30sec fast with 1min easy in between. After this I rode in a steady pace again, did a 10min cool-down and 5min stretching so I did 1 h 10 worth of training.
Today the sun has been shining since I woke up, so I was really looking forward to my long run today.
I was planning on doing 18km (on my long run last week I did 16km), so I was a bit nervous because I think that's the longest distance I've ever run.
It's supposed to be winter here, but it was 11 degrees and with the sun out it felt a lot warmer. I was dressed in my shorts and a long sleeved shirt, but got hot after about 5min. After 20min of running I got to Hagley Park and did one lap around the whole park. I felt really good and went faster than last week so it didn't take me as long as I thought it would and I decided to do another lap around the park. On the second lap I started to feel a bit tired but that's normal. I was just glad nothing hurt and I could run a good pace. After the second lap I headed home, took a shower, did some stretching, had a diet coke, some sports drink to compensate the minerals I lost, toast, an apple and a muesli bar, made myself comfortable on the couch and watched some TV. When I had to get up again I felt how tired my legs really were, but I love this feeling so I didn't really care. My feet hurt quite a lot from rubbing against my socks/shoes and I got some hard skin, but I guess you just have to deal with things like that when you run for that long.
Tomorrow is gonna be rest day, so no training apart from some stretching which isn't exactly training so I'm glad to get some rest.
Today's training: 18,05km in 1:41.40 (10,65km/h) burned calories: 1559 (I just had to put that there cos I think it's cool :)).
Today the sun has been shining since I woke up, so I was really looking forward to my long run today.
I was planning on doing 18km (on my long run last week I did 16km), so I was a bit nervous because I think that's the longest distance I've ever run.
It's supposed to be winter here, but it was 11 degrees and with the sun out it felt a lot warmer. I was dressed in my shorts and a long sleeved shirt, but got hot after about 5min. After 20min of running I got to Hagley Park and did one lap around the whole park. I felt really good and went faster than last week so it didn't take me as long as I thought it would and I decided to do another lap around the park. On the second lap I started to feel a bit tired but that's normal. I was just glad nothing hurt and I could run a good pace. After the second lap I headed home, took a shower, did some stretching, had a diet coke, some sports drink to compensate the minerals I lost, toast, an apple and a muesli bar, made myself comfortable on the couch and watched some TV. When I had to get up again I felt how tired my legs really were, but I love this feeling so I didn't really care. My feet hurt quite a lot from rubbing against my socks/shoes and I got some hard skin, but I guess you just have to deal with things like that when you run for that long.
Tomorrow is gonna be rest day, so no training apart from some stretching which isn't exactly training so I'm glad to get some rest.
Today's training: 18,05km in 1:41.40 (10,65km/h) burned calories: 1559 (I just had to put that there cos I think it's cool :)).
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