Easy Day

This morning I did P90X+ Kenpo Cardio+.  I burned about 265 calories.  I have no idea why today I burned 10+% more than the previous couple times.  Maybe because I was still tired from my long run yesterday?

I didn't do much of anything else today, as we drove back home from our vacation.

Easy Trails

This afternoon, Bill and I visited the Hilton Head Audobon Preserve for the first time.  It is a cute little preserved space, with several nicely-mulched trails and a pond.  It's small, though.  We walked pretty much all of the paths, and it came to about 1 mile.  We then went to a park area nearby at Haig Point and walked a little less than another mile there.  Just enough to shake out our legs a bit and enjoy the area here before we drive home tomorrow. It was also still really humid, which did not inspire us to be too energetic.

High-Humidity Run

Yesterday morning, I did P90X+ Kenpo Cardio+ and burned about 240 calories.

After breakfast, we played a round of golf.  I did reasonably well.  Later in the afternoon we took an easy 3-mile walk.

This morning I did a 10-mile run.  I ran 10.02 miles in 1:46:21.  I had intended to run at my goal pace of 6.0 mph, but ended up with an average of about 5.7 mph.  I did manage not to start out too fast.  I took a lot of breaks, which added to my time, as RunKeeper doesn't always detect a break right away.  Besides that, two things that slowed me down.  First, I haven't run that far in almost a month, and not outside, so it was just hard.  Second, the humidity is so, so high.  I was dripping almost instantly, and I felt like the water I drank by-passed my stomach and just popped right back out as sweat.

For this vacation, I got a hydration pack for my long runs:  the Sidestream Running Hydration Pack .  I've used it twice now.  It's OK.  I like that it's not a backpack, which is why I got it.  It only holds 45 ounces, and in practice it's more like 36 ounces or so, but that was OK with me.  The most annoying thing is that the drinking tube, which sticks out on my right side, is in the right place for my right arm to hit it.  Every time I swing my arms, I bonk it.  It's not hard, so it doesn't really do anything - it's just a bit annoying.  I'm also not sure how well it's going to dry out and store, since I don't think I can take the bladder out of the pack or remove the end of the tube that you suck on.  We'll see.

Tempo Run & Biking

This morning I did a 6-mi tempo run.  My goal was to run at about 6.2 mph.  I'm still having problems getting the right BPM for my pace on Pace DJ.  I am starting to think that the problem is that I run too fast for the beat when the beat is slower.  I did run 6.04 mi in 58:48, which averages to 6.16 mph.  However, my 1-mi splits were crazy:  6.18 mph, 6.74 mph, 6.57 mph, 6.55 mph, 5.51 mph, and 5.68 mph.  I really worked hard on the last mile to slow myself down to the actual beat.  I was going way too fast in the first miles, and I could feel that I was, but I couldn't seem to keep myself slowed down.

My leg didn't stop my run this time, but I started feeling it 3 - 4 miles into the run.  Hopefully it will recover before the long run I want to do on Friday.  I also hope I can not run so fast!

After breakfast, Bill and I biked around the condo complex.  We biked about 20 miles in a little less than 2 hours.  It was pretty leisurely, but fun to do.  I cut it a little short because I felt my leg hurting a bit more.  It seems to be OK a few hours later as I write this.

Tennis

This morning I did P90X+ Kenpo Cardio+ again.  I burned about 245 calories.  I felt a little more energetic doing it today.

This afternoon, Bill and I played some singles for about two hours.  I definitely had a lot of energy after the relatively easy day yesterday, but that doesn't mean I played better.  It was about 100% humidity, so we were just dripping sweat almost immediately, even though the temperature was in the low 80s F.

Easy Day

This morning I did P90X+ Kenpo Cardio+.  I only burned about 240 calories.  The room here that I use for exercising is kind of small, so I'm always worried that I'm going to run into something.  Also, the thick carpet is hard to move around on.  But it's certainly better than nothing!

Later in the morning we played a round of golf.  I didn't do too badly, which is good.  We barely finished before some thunderstorms came through.

Later in the day, after the thunderstorms, we went for a 3-mi walk.  It was a pretty easy day.

Shorter Run Than Planned

Yesterday was a travel day for our vacation, so I didn't do much except sit in the car.

This morning I had an 8-mi goal-pace run planned.  It was to be my first outside run of more than 7 miles.   It was also my first run with my new insoles and shoes.

Well, it didn't quite go as planned.  First, I started off too fast, despite adjusting Pace DJ downward.  So I kept stopping every half miles to adjust it.  It turns out that you need to change the BPM a lot to get a relatively small pace change.  I think that 125 BPM will be about 6.0 mph - I had started at about 147 BPM!

My adjustments on Pace DJ kept going through about 6 miles.  By then, my IT band and calf were starting to hurt.  I stopped for a break at 7 miles, and when I started to run again, my leg was very unhappy.  I decided it would be better not to push it and walked the rest of the way back.  So I did 7.13 miles in 1:10:46.  I did end up averaging right around my goal pace.

In good news, I did not have any problems with the new insoles and shoes.  Sadly, they did not magically fix my IT band.

This afternoon my husband and I planned to play tennis (against each other).  I was a bit wary of this, since my IT band did hurt so much after the run.  I had less than 5 hours between the run and tennis.  I put my new insoles in my tennis shoes and wore my knee brace.  I took the tennis a bit easy in the warm-up and first games to make sure my leg was warmed up, but it didn't end up bothering me much at all.  And afterward, no serious pain or limping.  I really can't figure out what the problem is.  Originally I thought it was lateral movement from tennis since it developed while playing tennis, but now it seems like maybe its overuse from running.  I don't know!  Overall I think it is very slowly improving, so hopefully that will keep up.

I was also happy during the tennis that I managed to keep my energy level up until really the last 15 minutes or so of the two hours that we played - even though I'd ran 7 miles that morning!  Good to see my stamina is still good.

Lots of Exercise

Yesterday evening I had a practice with my tennis team.  I played pretty well, going through two rounds of doubles and a round of singles.  We only had 20 - 25 minutes per round, so I told my ladies to imagine we were finished up a timed match, and we had 20 minutes left to win.  I'm not sure that really influenced how anyone played.

This morning I did Insanity Core Cardio & Balance.  I was not really in the mood for any workout this morning - a little tired, I guess.  But I got through it and burned about 190 calories.

This afternoon I did a tempo run.  I ran 6.0 miles in something like 57:46, which averages out to about 6.24 mph.  That average speed was my goal for the tempo run.  However, I unfortunately achieved it by going out pretty fast (more like 6.5 mph) and then having to walk some at the end.  I was using Pace DJ, which definitely kept me at a specific pace, but I think I had my BPM a bit too high.  The run felt a lot like my 10K race in Columbia, which was not really what I'd been aiming for.  Also, it bothered my IT band again.

Today I went to Road Runner Sports to do a gait analysis and get some new shoes.  It turns out that I have very high arches, which I didn't know.  I also don't pronate as much as I thought I did; I don't pronate at all on my left foot, but I do a bit on my right foot.  I had some custom insoles made.  Unfortunately I had to go home and do my run and make dinner before I had a chance to try on some shoes.  I went back after dinner and bought Saucony Guide 7 in 7.5 wide.  I really felt quite a difference running in them with my custom insoles.  I'm hoping the new shoes (a stability type) and insoles might help with my IT band/calf problems.  I'm planning on moving the insoles into my tennis shoes when I play tennis, too.  We'll see.

There is the possibility of a new meteor shower tonight:  the Camelopardalids. One of the comets discovered by the LINEAR survey had a gravitational encounter with Jupiter, changing its orbit enough so that now the Earth crosses it.  There's no danger of impacting the comet, but the comet's dust along its orbit may make a good meteor shower.  It's still uncertain how many meteors will be seen.  Unfortunately my house is one of the worst places to try to see a meteor shower because of the city lights and the trees surrounding our backyard.  I might have tried to get somewhere out of town to see it, but we are leaving early tomorrow for vacation, so that didn't really work.  Hope we don't end up regretting that!

Tough Run

Yesterday afternoon I did my first run in awhile because of my calf and IT band problems.  I could feel that it had been awhile.  I did 6.0 miles in 60:00 minutes at my goal pace of 6.0 mph.  I had to take some extra breaks in the second half, as my IT band was starting to bother me.  It was pretty sore afterward, but seemed to recover faster than it did this past weekend.

This morning my IT band is feeling mostly better.  I did P90X+ Kenpo Cardio+ and burned about 250 calories.  Funny that it was about 30 calories less than on Tuesday.  I guess I was taking it easy a bit.

NOVA win!

Last night I played a doubles match in my NOVA league.  My partner and I won #3 doubles 6-1, 6-0.  One of our opponents couldn't move at all, so we really didn't have much of a challenge.  We finished in a little less than an hour.  Then my partner and I played another doubles pair from our team for about 25 minutes, which was much more competitive and fun.

This morning I did Cathe Friedrich's 4 Day Split Kickbox workout, an old favorite of mine.  I burned 225 calories.

Doubles Loss

Yesterday morning I had to be to work extra early, so no workout.

Yesterday evening I had a 3.5 match.  Whitney and I played on #1 doubles - which is not usually a spot I put myself in, being a 3.0.  However, all three of our 3.0s were playing, and so I had placed one on each doubles court.  Even so, we had a really fun, competitive match.  We lost the first set 6-3, but felt like we could've done better.  And we did.  In the second set, we got ahead 4-2, and then 5-4.  Then we could not win the last games to take the set.  We lost the set 7-5.  It was such a fun match, though.  There was a lot of strategic ball placement; lobs to short balls to net play, and it really made you think as well as run and hit.  Too bad for the loss, though, since it meant that we lot the overall match.

Fortunately my leg did not bother me.  I wore my brace, but I did not feel it being a problem.  It's a little bothersome today, but hopefully it will shake out before my NOVA match tonight.

This morning I did P90X+ Kenpo Cardio+, one of my favorites.  Again I wore the brace and the leg did not bother me.  I burned about 280 calories.  Maybe it's silly, but it feels good to get a good burn in first thing for the day.

Careful Boxing

This morning I went to my usual boxing class, even though my IT band was still really sore.  I put on an old knee soft brace that I had in order to give it a little more support.  I also foam rolled before I went to boxing.  I did most of the drills in boxing, but there were a few things that hurt, so I didn't do them.

Because of my IT band, I did not do the run in the afternoon that I had planned.  I did some yard work and did an easy walk.  By the end of the day today it's feeling better to go down stairs.  Hopefully it'll be better tomorrow, because I have a match tomorrow night.

Lots of Tennis

Last night, my 3.0 team had a match against the #1 team.  I had planned for Joan and I to play #1 doubles against them to have the best chance of winning.  Unfortunately it didn't workout.  We lost the first set 6-2.  In the second set, we changed sides (me playing deuce) and started lobbing more, which won us the set 6-2.  Unfortunately we both double-faulted once in the match tie-breaker and made some other errors, so we lost the match tie-breaker.  The team only won one court overall; sadly, this is not unusual for us when we play this team. They are are good!

This morning, my teams had practice.  I played OK.  Jill and I tied our opponents in the first round 4-4.  I played singles in the second round against Fran and won 6-1.  In the third round, Susie and I lost 3-4, which wasn't too bad.

The bad thing was that my right calf started to feel tighter and tighter throughout the practice.  I don't know what was going on, because I did not do anything that I felt as an injury.  When I got home, I stretched more and foam rolled it.  It seemed to kind of work itself out.

I had a NOVA match this afternoon.  My partner and I won on #3 doubles: 6-2, 5-5.  The match timed out, so we won because we won the first set.  My partner was a lefty, which was interesting.  Our opponents hardly played at the net at all.  In the first set in particular, we moved them around a lot and played really well.  They adjusted a bit in the second set (and we made more errors), but it was not enough for them to win.

Unfortunately, my right calf started to bother me more and more throughout the match.  By the end, it was all I could do not to limp.  Going down stairs in particular is really bad.  I iced it a bit at home.  I think that it might not be my calf - I think it may be that my IT band is really tight.  I'm going to go foam roll it some more.  I wanted to do a run tomorrow, so I hope it will feel better.

Last Body Beast for Awhile

This morning I did Body Beast BUILD Back/Bis and P90X2 Ab Ripper.  For some reason, this did really have me sweating this morning.  In P90X2 Ab Ripper, I feel like lately I've been able to straighten my legs better in the v-hold types of moves, which is good.  I burned about 180 calories. 

I had originally planned to do another week of Body Beast, but I'm just getting too antsy with it.  I don't burn that many calories with the workouts, and so it feels a little wasted.  Maybe that's silly, but there it is.  These four weeks were a good strength block, though, and they also fulfilled their purpose in not being horribly strenuous before and after my half-marathon.

I think that next week I'll be doing some of my random favorite workouts.  Then I am away for a week on vacation.  I think I'm going to get FOCUS T25 Gamma to work on after Memorial Day.  It's also strength, but with more cardio involved.

NOVA win!

Last night I played doubles in my second NOVA match.  On #3 doubles, my partner Amy and I won, 6-3, 6-2.  Our opponents were older ladies that had limited mobility.  Sometimes that means they'll be really good with spin and placement, but in this case they weren't.  One of them had a rather good serve and a good down-the-line shot, but it wasn't enough to get them the win!

This morning I did not work out, since I had to get up extra early to give a final exam.  As it turns out, my tennis practice tonight will be canceled because of rain, so today will be my rest day this week.

Speed Intervals

Yesterday afternoon I did some speed intervals on the treadmill.  I did 9x2 min at 7.2 mph, alternating with 90 sec at 3.5 mph.  I did 5 min of warm-up and cool down at 3.5 mph.  Overall this took 41:30 and 3.53 mi.  Fortunately even though my calf was still a little sore, it didn't bother me too much with this running.

This morning I did Body Beast BULK Shoulders.  I increased my weights on the alternating arm raises.  I burned about 120 calories for the workout.

Monday Doubles

Last night I played my usual Monday night doubles.  I did OK.  My calf was still sore from the sprinting on Sunday, so I definitely did not have my normal speed and movement on the court.  My partner, Donna, and I lost our first round 6-4.  My partner, Andrea, and I won our second round, 6-2.

This morning I did Body Beast BUILD Chest/Tris and P90X2 Ab Ripper.  I increased my weights on the inclined presses, although the highest weight was really hard.  It wasn't the press that was so difficult, it was getting the heavy weight into the correct position to press it.  I burned about 210 calories overall.

Golfing!

I was so busy yesterday that I didn't get a chance to blog.

Saturday afternoon, I didn't do any "real" activity.  I planted a bunch of flowers and cleaned the house.  Certainly kept me busy.

Sunday morning I was back to my normal boxing class.  I've missed it the past couple weeks.  It was so nice outside that the instructor took us outside for some sprinting.  I really pushed it.  Unfortunately, I pushed my left calf a bit too much, and now it's quite sore.

Sunday afternoon, Bill and I played our first round of golf for the season.  The round only took about 15 minutes longer than it should have, but it still seemed like forever.  At least it was a really beautiful day to be outside.  I had a couple good holes but overall did not play very well.

This morning, I did Body Beast BUILD Shoulders.  I burned about 120 calories.  My shoulders were definitely a little sore from the golf yesterday as well as some shadow-boxing with weights yesterday.  My calf is still sore.

Saturday Practice

This morning I had practice with my tennis team.  I thought we were going to get rained out, but fortunately the rain was delayed.  In the first round of doubles, Whitney and I won.  We had good placement, and I was working on coming to the net more.  In the second round, Cora and I won, for pretty much the same reasons.  In the third round, Julie and I lost pretty badly.  We definitely made some unforced errors, and our opponents really picked it up.  It was all fun, though.

First NOVA Match

Last night I played my first NOVA match.  This is for a 3.5 Northern Virginia tennis team.  Something happened with the formal USTA league, so we are playing a "fun" league that does not count toward ratings.  My partner, Joy, and I lost on #3 doubles, unfortunately: 7-6, 6-0.  In the first set, we were always within 1 game or even with our opponents and got to 6-6.  Then we lost the set tie-breaker 7-0.  I'm not quite sure what happened with that.

Unfortunately, whatever adjustments our opponents made to beat us in the tie-breaker, they kept it up in the second set.  I felt like I kept ending up in the wrong place and screwing up, although Joy had her share of errors, too.  We lost the second set really fast.  It was fun to play, but frustrating to have the second set go by so quickly and not be able to win anything.

Today is my rest day.  This morning, I did my shortened version of P90X2 Recovery + Mobility.  My right calf had tightened up last night during the match, so I'm hoping the foam rolling helped with that.  I'm not feeling it right now, so maybe it did.

Easy Run

Last night I did my first run since the half-marathon.  I did a goal pace run (6.0 mph) for 3.0 mi, which took 30:00 min.  It wasn't too hard, but I didn't really feel like I wanted to do more.  The biggest problem was that I did it after dinner, and even 2 hours later my stomach just felt too full.  I normally try to do my runs either after breakfast (not a problem for some reason) or before dinner.

This morning I did Body Beast BUILD Back/Bis and P90X2 Ab Ripper.  I increased my weights for the one-arm rows and for the regular bicep curls.  I burned about 190 calories in total.

Evening Practice

Last night my teams had an evening practice. The weather was beautiful.  I was still not playing very well, but I was moving a bit better, at least.  I lost my first round with my partner, but won the second.  I have to attribute that mostly to my partner.

This morning I did Body Beast BULK Shoulders.  I burned about 120 calories.  My legs are only slightly sore today, which is good.  I want to get started with my training for my next half-marathon!

Tired Doubles

Yesterday morning, I did my shortened version of P90X2 Recovery + Mobility.  I knew I was going to be really tired and sore after the race, and I was.  The soreness improved throughout the day, but it really slowed me down.

I did play my regular Monday night doubles, but I did not expect to do well at it.  I did not.  I just did not have my usual pep.  I'd start to run for balls, and just did not move as well as I usually do.  Oh well, at least it's just for fun. 

This morning I did Body Beast BUILD Chest/Tris and P90X2 Ab Ripper.  My legs were not as sore, but it's a good thing I didn't really have to use them in the workout.  I increased my weights on the regular chest presses, maxing out at 33 lbs per hand.  Overall, I burned about 205 calories.

Finished the Half-Marathon!

Today I finally ran the Frederick Running Festival half-marathon!

The weather was beautiful and sunny but not too hot.  The race started at 7:00am.  I started out with the 2:10:00 pace group.  This worked out so, so well!  The three women pacing the group hit the mile-markers within about 20 sec of their goal times each time.  I don't know how they did it so well.  They kept me from going out too fast, so I didn't get tired out too fast.  The women also chatted a bit and cheered and did a lot to provide some mental distraction.  In addition, I chatted with another woman in our group for the first 4 - 5 miles, until I think she had to stop for a bathroom break.  Too bad I don't remember her number to know how she ended up doing.

I stuck with the pace group until we hit the mile 9 marker.  I was feeling pretty good at that point and decided that it was time to move up, if I could.  It still amazes me to think that after running 9 miles I can say "I felt pretty good and wanted to go faster".  A year ago I had just started running!

So, I pulled away from the 2:10:00 group.  I figured that if I got tired and had to fall back, I could join back up with them.  But I didn't need to.  I managed to keep going a little faster and a little faster.  However, the killer was after 12.5 miles, when the course goes uphill back to the Frederick fairgrounds.  Ouch.  I'm not sure if I even maintained my pace at that point, but I did manage to keep going.  No walking except to drink the water!

I am very happy with how I finished.  My time was 2:07:16 - I crushed my original 2:15:00 goal, and even did well compared to the 2:10:00 group!  I finished 1809 out of 4109 runners.  In my 40-44 women's age group, I was 122 out of 377.  I am happy to have finished in the top half.  Not bad for my first one!

I am hoping to do the Montgomery Parks Half-Marathon in September.  I will have to see if I can get under 2:00:00 in that one.  A good goal to work for!

Training Runs for Frederick Half-Marathon

I got my basic plan for training for the Frederick Runner's Festival half-marathon from Oxygen magazine some months ago.  This plan called for running three times per week, which I couldn't do.  I doubled the length of the plan and modified it to have two runs per week.

Here are the runs that I did (all interval runs have the same number of 90 sec rest intervals at 3.5 mph and include 5 min of warm-up and cool-down at 3.5mph):

1. Nov. 6, 2013, 12x1min at 7 mph, 3.04 mi, treadmill
2. Nov. 10, goal pace 5.8 mph, 6.00 mi, 1:02:29
3. Nov. 13, tempo run 6.2 mph, 4.01 mi, 45:00, treadmill
4. Nov. 20, 15x1min at 7mph, 3.65 mi, treadmill
5. Nov. 22, goal pace 5.8 mph, 6.05 mi, 1:08:05, treadmill
6. Nov. 27, tempo run 6.5 mph, 4.00 mi, 44:24, treadmill
7. Dec. 5, goal pace 5.8 mph, 3.00 mi, 39:24, treadmill
8. Dec. 7, goal pace 5.8 mph, 5.00 mi, 59:15, treadmill
9. Dec. 11, 17x1 min at 7mph, 4.07 mi, 52:35, treadmill
10. Dec. 14, goal pace 5.8mph, 7.00 mi, 1:19:59, treadmill
11. Dec. 18, tempo run 6.0 mph, 5.00 mi, 56:18, treadmill
12. Dec. 20, goal pace 5.8 mph, 6.02 mi, 1:00:24
13. Dec. 22, 9x2 min 7 mph, 3.48 mi, 41:30, treadmill
14. Dec. 24, goal pace 5.8 mph, 8 mi, 1:30:00, treadmill
15. Dec. 26, tempo run 6.2 mph, 5.0 mi, 56:35, treadmill
16. Dec. 28, goal pace 5.8 mph, 6.0 mi, 1:08:45, treadmill
17. Jan. 2, 2014, 7x3 min at 7mph, 3.8 mi, 41:30, treadmill
18. Jan. 3, goal pace 5.8 mph, 8.0 mi, 1:28:46, treadmill
19. Jan. 8, tempo run 6.5 mph, 5.0 mi, 53:04, treadmill
20. Jan. 10, goal pace 5.8 mph, 6.0 mi, 1:04:22 treadmill
21. Jan. 28, 7x3 min at 7 mph, 3.65 mi, 41:30, treadmill
22. Jan. 31, goal pace 5.8 mph, 8.0 mi, 1:28:32, treadmill
23. Feb. 2, tempo run 6.5 mph, 5.0 mi, 54:40, treadmill
24. Feb. 6, goal pace 5.8 mph, 6.0 mi, 1:07:35, treadmill
25. Feb. 12, 8x3min at 7.1 mph, 4.05 mi, 46:00, treadmill
26. Feb. 14, goal pace 5.8 mph, 10.00 mi, 1:49:53, treadmill
27. Feb. 19, tempo run 6.5 mph, 5.0 mi, 51:41, treadmill
28. Feb. 22, goal pace 5.8 mph, 6.05 mi, 1:00:21
29. Feb. 26, 8x3 min at 7.1mph, 4.12 mi, 46:00, treadmill
30. Mar. 1, goal pace 5.8 mph, 9.0 mi, 1:36:46, treadmill
31. Mar. 3, tempo run 6.0 mph, 6.0 mi, 1:00:00, treadmill
32. Mar. 5, goal pace 5.8 mph, 7.0 mi, 1:12:26, treadmill
33. Mar. 8, goal pace 5.8 mph, 7.0 mi, 1:12:25, treadmill
34. Mar. 12, 8x3 min at 7.2mph, 4.13 mi, 46:00, treadmill
35. Mar. 13, goal pace 5.8mph, 6.0 mi, 1:02:04, treadmill
36. Mar. 15, goal pace 5.8 mph, 10.0 mi, 1:43:25, treadmill
37. Mar. 18, tempo run 6.1 mph, 6.0 mi, 59:01, treadmill
38. Mar. 20, goal pace 5.8 mph, 7.08 mi, 1:08:02
39. Mar. 22, goal pace 5.8 mph, 12.0 mi, 2:04:10, treadmill
40. Mar. 27, 17x1 min at 7.2mph, 4.12 mi, 52:30, treadmill
41. Mar. 30, goal pace 5.8 mph, 6.0 mi, 1:01:54
42. Apr. 2, tempo run 6.1 mph, 6.04 mi, 57:43, treadmill
43. Apr. 4, goal pace 5.8 mph, 10.0 mi, 1:42:46, treadmill
44. Apr. 8, 9x2 min at 7.2mph, 3.54 mi, 41:30, treadmill
45. Apr. 13, Columbia 10K Race, 6.2 mi, 56:36
46. Apr. 15, 6x3 min at 7.2mph, 3.28 mi, 37:00, treadmill
47. Apr. 20, goal pace 5.8 mph, 13.0 mi, 2:14:30, treadmill
48. Apr. 22, 4x2 min at 7.2mph, 1.89 mi, 24:00, treadmill
49. Apr. 27, goal pace 5.8 mph, 3.03 mi, 29:42
50. Apr. 30, goal pace 6.0 mph, 3.0 mi, 30:00, treadmill

I had a gap in mid-January when I had my gallbladder removed; I repeated some runs in the sequence after that.  These runs total 288.3 mi.  Not bad, but certainly not what a lot of runners training for half-marathons get in.  I've been counting on my tennis and other activity to help keep my fitness up, which seems to be true so far.

Prior to my "official" half-marathon training, I had some additional runs.  I didn't record the mileage for all of the treadmill runs, but the total with these runs and the 50 runs above is about 450 miles!

Morning Practice

This morning I had a practice with my tennis team.  I played three rounds of doubles.  It turns out that my various partners and I won all three rounds, which was nice.

I'm not doing anything else strenuous today in order to rest up for my half-marathon tomorrow.  I went to bed about an hour early last night, so I got almost nine hours of sleep.  Tomorrow I'm going to have to get up at 4am, so even though I'm going to try to get to bed early, I may not get all that much sleep.

I'm getting nervous for the race, but I have to trust in my training.  I know I can do it.  I'm more nervous about getting a decent time.  I guess we'll see.  At least the weather is supposed to be good in the morning.

Doubles Win!

Last night I played #1 doubles on my 3.0 team with Fran.  We won 6-3, 6-4.  We probably should've won by more, but we made a bunch of unforced errors.  Our opponents hit with very little pace, and so we were tending to hit out a lot.  Our team won all of the other courts except one, so it was a good overall victory.

Driving home from the match last night, the Moon looked really neat.  It was partly cloudy, so the clouds kept partially obscuring the Moon.  It also was waxing crescent - my favorite phase - so the clouds were sometimes making the crescent part vs. the Earthshine-lit part look unusual.

Today is my rest day.  This morning I did my shortened version of P90X2 Recovery + Mobility.  The foam rolling felt good.  Sometimes it seems like when I'm taking it a little easier (less running this week, for example, and less intense morning workouts), I actually feel more sore.  Maybe it's that the soreness is not masked by just being tired.

Short Run

Yesterday afternoon I did a short run at my (new) goal pace of 6.0 mph.  I ran 3.0 miles in 30 minutes.  This is my last run before my half-marathon on Sunday.

This morning I did Body Beast TEMPO Back/Bis and P90X2 Ab Ripper.  The slow tempo pace can be really boring, bit I did get some quivering muscles.  I can't do pull-ups (unassisted, or with a chair) at the tempo pace, so I just did them regular-style.  I burned about 150 calories.