P90X2 Chest, Back + Balance

This morning I did P90X2 Chest, Back + Balance.  This is a good, hard workout.  I modify a lot of the pull-ups to be regular pull-ups, since I can't do many of them.  I can at least generally do the push-up moves.  I burned about 110 calories in this workout.

Wednesday at Home

We were supposed to fly home from the Detroit area on Monday night, but an ice storm came in and our flight got canceled.  Then, we lost power at my in-laws' house.  What fun!  We couldn't get re-booked on a flight any time soon, so we rented a car and drove home, which took all day yesterday.  Blah.

Today at home, I actually did a workout in the morning!  I did P90X2 X2 Shoulders + Arms, followed by half of X2 Ab Ripper.  I burned about 170 calories.  It was kind of nice to get back into some "serious" weightlifting.  This workout has always been one of my favorites.

This afternoon before dinner, I did the next run on my training schedule.  This was 4 x 1 mi at 6.7 mph, alternating with 4 x 0.5 mi at 5.0 mph.  The speed intervals felt hard, so I ended up taking breaks on the rails for them; the backs of my knees were bothering me.  The distance came to 6.0 mi in 1 hour.

Running in Grosse Pointe

My husband and I visited his family in Grosse Pointe, MI, over Christmas.  I really like to run a lot over the holiday to try to offset all the crappy food that I eat.

With the airplane travel we had and family events on Christmas Eve, I didn't get to do any activity.

On Christmas day, it was actually mid-40s F in Grosse Pointe and dry!  In the afternoon, I did a run outside along Lake St. Clair.  I ran 5.53 mi in 59:46, for an average speed of 5.55 mph.  The good thing about outside runs is that I don't take breaks like I do on the treadmill, so it was an hour of continuous running, which was pretty good.

On Saturday, I went to a local fitness club to run on the treadmill.  I did the next run on my training schedule, which was an 80-min easy run.  In the 80 minutes, I ran 7.45 mi at 5.6 mph.  This was a bit tricky, since the treadmill was programmed to stop after 30 min.  And I won't get started on the annoying touch screen!

Sunday morning, I went back to the fitness club for the treadmill, since it was raining.  I ran for 60 min at 5.6 mph, obviously totaling 5.6 mi.

This morning, I went to the fitness club and did a run/walk on the treadmill.  I had planned a run, but my legs were just tired.  I alternated running at 5.6 mph for 5 min and then walking at 4.0 mph for 5 min for 45 min.  The last 15 min, I did all running.  The distance came to 5.0 mi for everything.

Last Exercise at Home Before Christmas

Today was our last day at home before we leave for the Christmas holiday.

This morning, I did my agility HIIT sequence, followed by planks and X2 Ab Ripper.  I burned about 170 calories.  I was tired at first, but the second round of HIIT moves went better.  I really hate working abs, though.

This afternoon I did sort-of a HIIT run on the treadmill.  I did 5 min at 5.6 mph to make sure I was warmed up.  Then I did 10 x 30 sec at 8.0 mph, alternating with 10 x 30 sec at 3.0 mph.  The idea was to do some sprinting, but the treadmill takes about 15 sec to go from 3.0 mph to 8.0 mph, so it wasn't exactly a flat-out sprint.  That sequence took 10 minutes, and then I did another 35 min at 5.6 mph.  In the end, the distance came to 4.65 mi.

A Couple Days

On Sunday evening, I did a run on the treadmill.  I had been planning to run at least 50 minutes, but my legs had a different idea.  They were just sore from the day before, and so I only did 30 min at 5.6 mph, which was 2.8 mi.

Yesterday morning, I did P90X3 Eccentric Lower.  This is not my favorite workout, but at least it's short.  I burned about 135 calories, with a short warm-up and cool-down.  Then I did some foam rolling.  I've had to skip that far too much lately, so it's good to get back to it.

Last night, I went to a holiday tennis party at TCCP.  It was a good thing that I didn't have very high expectations for it, because it was meh.  The first round I played was OK, but the second round was frustrating - one of my opponents was just way too good.

This morning, I did P90X2 Incinerator.  This is a pretty good workout.  With the short warm-up and cool-down, I burned about 120 calories.  Then I did some foam rolling.

This afternoon after work, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a 60-min easy run.  This run felt much better than my run on Sunday.  I ran on the treadmill at 5.6 mph, so the distance came to 5.6 mi.

Race Pace Intervals

Yesterday, I did cardio tennis at TCCP again.  Again I was not overly impressed, but it was OK.  I only burned about 300 calories according to my Basis Peak.

In the afternoon, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a race pace interval run.  I did 8 x 9:30 at 6.3 mph, alternating with 8 x 5:00 at 5.0 mph.  9:30 at 6.3 mph is 1 mile, so these were mile intervals.  The run took me 1:56:00, and the distance came to 11.3 mi.  This run felt harder than I was expecting.  My legs were still tired, despite the day off on Friday and getting almost 9 hours of sleep.

This morning, I did my usual Sunday morning boxing class.  It was fine.  I was a bit tired, but not too bad.  We did some suicide sprints, and my legs didn't like those.

Cardio Tennis

Yesterday after work, I did cardio tennis at TCCP.  The last couple of weeks, TCCP has finally brought back cardio tennis after its absence since about April.   The free class I tried a couple of weeks ago was OK, but there were about 10 people, so it was hard to tell what the normal class would be like.

Well, the "normal" class yesterday had 5 people.  We definitely got more cardio in terms of running and moving.  However, I thought the drills were only so-so.  They were not as well-organized as I would've liked, but maybe that's just because a lot of the participants were confused.  Overall, it was a bit disappointing.  I did burn about 375 calories in the hour, according to my Basis Peak, so that's something.

Today is my rest day.  It's the first complete rest day I'm going to have had in weeks, I think.  When I woke up, I did a bunch of foam rolling and stretching.  I'm hoping to get to bed early and get a good night's sleep.  I feel like even though I've been sleeping a little more this past week, I'm still too tired.

End of the Semester!

Well, my extremely busy semester is finally over!  My last final exam was today, and I'm finished with the grading.  Hooray!  Maybe I can get back to blogging my fitness again.

Yesterday after work, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a 60-min easy run.  This was my first easy run at 5.6 mph on the treadmill.  Obviously, my distance was 5.6 mi.  So far, ramping up the easy run pace every 5 weeks or so seems to be working.  It's gratifying to see that I've gone from 5.1 mph to 5.6 mph and it still feels easy!  However, the run was really boring to me, for some reason.  I watched a TV show like usual, but I just couldn't wait to be done.

This morning, I did my HIIT agility routine - need to find the link for it.  Then I did a 60-s plank and two 30-s side planks, one on each side.  After that, I did X2 Ab Ripper.  That burned about 168 calories altogether.  I was feeling a little sluggish this morning - need more sleep!

Training Runs for MCM 10K

Here's a list of the training runs I did for the MCM 10K, starting right after the St. Michaels Running Festival Half-Marathon I did in mid-May.

• May 21, 2015: 30:00, 2.55 mi, treadmill@5.1 mph
• May 24, 2015: 41:07, 3.46 mi, outside, ave. 5.04 mph
• May 26, 2015: 41:25, 3.25 mi, outside, ave. 4.7 mph
• May 29, 2015: 56:00, 5.6 mi, treadmill, intervals at 6.7 mph, but did not complete plan
• May 31, 2015: 40:00, 3.4 mi, treadmill@5.1 mph
• June 4, 2015: 1:10:00, 5.95 mi, treadmill@5.1 mph
• June 5, 2015: 30:00, 2.55 mi, treadmill@5.1 mph
• June 8, 2015: 50:00, 4.25 mi, treadmill@5.1 mph
• June 11, 2015: 40:00, 3.4 mi, treadmill@5.1 mph
• June 13, 2015: 40:00, 3.81 mi, treadmill, 12 x 1 min @6.9 mph, 12 x 1.5 min @5.0 mph, then 4 x 30 sec @7.5 mph, 4 x 45 sec @5.0 mph
• June 15, 2015: 50:00, 4.25 mi, treadmill@5.1 mph
• June 17, 2015: 40:00, 3.4 mi, treadmill@5.1 mph
• June 18, 2015: 1:20:00, 6.8 mi, treadmill@5.1 mph
• June 21, 2015: 40:00, 3.4 mi, treadmill@5.1 mph
• June 22, 2015: 20:00, 1.7 mi, treadmill@5.1 mph
• June 23, 2015: 40:00, 3.4 mi, treadmill@5.1 mph
• June 24, 2015: 20:00, 1.7 mi, treadmill@5.1 mph
• June 27, 2015: 20:00, 1.7 mi, treadmill@5.1 mph
• June 28, 2015: 44:00, 4.4 mi, treadmill, 3 x 9 min @6.7 mph, 3 x 4 min @5.0 mph
• June 29, 2015: 20:00, 1.73 mi, treadmill@5.2 mph
• June 30, 2015: 20:00, 1.73 mi, treadmill@5.2 mph
• July 1, 2015: 40:00, 3.46 mi, treadmill@5.2 mph
• July 2, 2015: 40:00, 3.46 mi, treadmill@5.2 mph
• July 4, 2015: 1:12:58, 6.25 mi, outside, ave. 5.14 mph
• July 5, 2015: 40:25, 3.48 mi, outside, ave. 5.17 mph
• July 6, 2015: 20:00, 1.73 mi, treadmill@5.2 mph
• July 8, 2015: 60:00, 5.19 mi, treadmill@5.2 mph
• July 9, 2015: 20:00, 1.73 mi, treadmill@5.2 mph
• July 11, 2015: 1:20:00, 8.02 mi, treadmill, 5 x 9 min @6.7 mph, 5 x 6 min @5.0 mph, 4 x 30 sec @7.5 mph, 4 x 45 sec @5.0 mph
• July 12, 2015: 1:00:20, 5.25 mi, outside, ave. 5.22 mph
• July 13, 2015: 40:00, 3.46 mi, treadmill@5.2 mph
• July 14, 2015: 20:00, 1.73 mi, treadmill@5.2 mph
• July 15, 2015: 60:00, 5.2 mi, treadmill@5.2 mph
• July 18, 2015: 1:30:00, 7.8 mi, treadmill@5.2 mph
• July 21, 2015: 1:10:00, 6.07 mi, treadmill@5.2 mph
• July 22, 2015: 20:00, 1.73 mi, treadmill@5.2 mph
• July 23, 2015: 20:00, 1.73 mi, treadmill@5.2 mph
• July 25, 2015: 1:10:00, 7.36 mi, treadmill, 2 x 18 min @6.7 mph, 2 x 5 min @5.0 mph, 2  x 9 min @6.7 mph, 2 x 3 min @5.0 mph
• July 30, 2015: 1:00:00, 5.2 mi, treadmill@5.2 mph
• July 31, 2015: 1:20:00, 7.18 mi, treadmill, 1:10:00@5.2 mph, 10 min@6.7 mph
• Aug. 11, 2015: 40:00, 3.53 mi, treadmill@5.3 mph
• Aug. 13, 2015: 40:21, 3.60 mi, outside, ave. 5.35 mph
• Aug. 15, 2015: 55:00, 4.86 mi, treadmill@5.3 mph
• Aug. 17, 2015: 40:00, 3.53 mi, treadmill@5.3 mph
• Aug. 20, 2015: 50:00, 4.41 mi, treadmill@5.3 mph
• Aug. 22, 2015: 60:00, 5.3 mi, treadmill@5.3 mph
• Aug. 23, 2015: 59:30, 5.12 mi, outside, ave. 5.16 mph
• Aug. 25, 2015: 60:00, 5.3 mi, treadmill@5.3 mph
• Aug. 27, 2015: 60:00, 5.3 mi, treadmill@5.3 mph
• Aug. 29, 2015: 1:30:00, 7.95 mi, treadmill@5.3 mph
• Aug. 30, 2015: 42:11, 3.34 mi, outside, ave. 4.75 mph
• Sep. 2, 2015: 60:00, 5.3 mi, treadmill@5.3 mph
• Sep. 3, 2015: 60:00, 5.3 mi, treadmill@5.3 mph
• Sep. 5, 2015: 1:10:00, treadmill, 2 x 18 min @6.7 mph, 2 x 5 min@5.0 mph, 2 x 9 min @6.7 mph, 2 x 3 min @5.0 mph
• Sep. 7, 2015: 60:00, 5.3 mi, treadmill@5.3 mph
• Sep. 8, 2015: 40:00, 3.53 mi, treadmill@5.3 mph
• Sep. 13, 2015: Revenge of the Penguins 10-miler, 1:47:01, ave. 5.6 mph
• Sep. 15, 2015: 40:00, 3.53 mi, treamdill@5.3 mph
• Sep. 17, 2015: 49:00, 4.97 mi, treadmill, 14 x 2 min @6.9 mph, 14 x 1.5 min @5.0 mph
• Sep 18, 2015: 1:00:49, 5.38 mi, outside, ave. 5.31 mph
• Sep. 19, 2015: 24:26, 2.1 mi, outside, ave. 5.17 mph
• Sep. 19, 2015: Grosse Pointe Run 5K, 27:05, ave. 6.9 mph
• Sep. 20, 2015: 1:00:10, 5.36 mi, outside, ave. 5.35 mph
• Sep. 21, 2015: 57:16, 5.04 mi, outside, ave. 5.29 mph
• Sep. 23, 2015: 60:00, 5.76 mi, treadmill, 40 min@5.3 mph, 20 min@6.7 mph
• Sep. 27, 2015: 56:15, 5.12 mi, treadmill, 50 min@5.4 mph, 5 x 30 sec @7.5 mph, 5 x 45 sec @5.0 mph
• Oct. 3, 2015: 1:08:00, approx. 6.8 mi, treadmill, 3 x 18 min@6.7 mph, 3 x 5 min@5.0 mph
• Oct. 4, 2015: 50:00, 4.5 mi, treadmill@5.4 mph
• Oct. 9, 2015: 30:00, 2.7 mi, treadmill@5.4 mph
• Oct. 10, 2015: 50:00, 4.7 mi, treadmill, 40 min@5.4 mph, 10min@6.6 mph
• Oct. 11, 2015: 30:00, 2.7 mi, treadmill@5.4 mph
• Oct. 14, 2015: 60:00, treadmill, 50 min@5.4 mph, 10 min@6.7 mph
• Oct. 17, 2015: 39:55, 3.65 mi, outside, ave. 5.49 mph
• Oct. 18, 2015: 30:00, 3.0 mi, treadmill, 8 x 2:15@6.7 mph, 8 x 1:30@5.0 mph
• Oct. 25, 2015: MCM 10K, 59:41

The total distance of these runs is 328.1 mi.

MCM 10K 2015

Yesterday I ran the 10K with the Marine Corps Marathon.  It was a cold, damp, rainy day, which wasn't particularly fun to run in.

I wasn't expecting to do very well, because I've been so busy with work lately and really haven't been getting much sleep.  Well, that's what happened.

My chip time was 59:41, which was 14 seconds slower than last year.  Very disappointing, because I didn't walk at all this time and felt like I was doing better overall.  My splits were nearly all positive; my first mile was quite slow - if I'd done better there, I would've at least beaten last year's time, if not done even better.

The race was slow overall.  I was 1954th out of 7770 runners, which is in the top 25%.  In was 793rd out of 4920 women, in the top 11%.  And I was 70th out of 624 women in my age group, again in the top 11%.  I think this is because "serious" runners are generally doing the marathon, if they are doing anything.

I don't think I'll do this race again next year.  With the crowds, it's hard to get a good pace going, and the course is actually kind of hilly with all the highway ramps.

Catching Up

I've been way too busy to post much lately.

Tuesday evening I played my first match of the season with my 7.5 ladies combo team.  I played with Lisa, who is a 4.0.  The weather was horrible, with a lot of rain, and Lisa arrived 7 minutes late, so we lost 2 games off the top.  My playing was all over the place - I'd have three games in a row that were really great, and then some games where I couldn't keep the ball in the court.  Very frustrating to screw up simple shots.  We ended up losing 6-4, 7-5.  I think we should have won, but such is life.  Fortunately our team won the other two courts, so we won the match overall.

Wednesday morning I did my agility workout again, but instead of X2 Ab Ripper, I did the original Ab Ripper X for variety.  It pretty much kicked my butt - I hate ab exercises!  I burned about 180 calories in 50 minutes.

Wednesday evening, I had a practice with my team.  By then, my legs were really sore from the lower body workout I did Tuesday morning, and I just played horribly.  I had no energy.  In the first round, my partner, Jo, and I lost 6-4.  In the second round, my partner Lindsay, and I won 5-0.

Thursday morning, I did my upper body workout pretty much like I did a couple weeks ago.  I don't recall now that I changed any of the weights for any of the exercises.  I burned about 145 calories in 55 minutes.

Thursday evening, I had a match with my 6.5 ladies combo team.  My partner, Lindsay, and I won 6-0, 6-3.  One of our opponents is a 3.0 that I've played before, and she's really just horrible.  Very nice, but makes lots of errors.  We found out after the match that our other opponent, a 3.5 player, was playing her first match after recovering from a broken ankle.  So our very dominant win had a little bit of help!  I did enjoy playing a lot at the net - good practice.  Fortunately our team won one of the other courts to win the match overall.

Friday was my rest day, so I did my shortened version of P90X2 Recovery + Mobility and burned about 80 calories.  I didn't do anything active the rest of the day - in fact, I drove up to PA for my sister's baby shower.

This morning, I went to the Oil City YMCA to do the next run on my training schedule.  It was supposed to be 3 x 2 mi at 6.7 mph, alternating with 3 x 5 min at 5.0 mph.  This turned out to be really, really hard.  The first 2 mi at 6.7 mph was pretty much OK - I took 3 - 4 breaks.  But the next 2 mi at 6.7 mph just got harder and harder, and I had to take longer and longer breaks on the rails.  I knew there was no way I could do the last 2 mi interval, not without spending more time on the rails than on the belt.  So I changed to 5.4 mph and just ran 22 min (2 mi) at that speed.  During all of this, I had a bunch of problems keeping my Kindle propped up on the treadmill to watch and kept accidentally hitting the emergency stop button.  As a result, I wasn't certain what my overall time and distance were.  I think it was about 6.8 mi in 68 minutes.

I'm not sure why this run turned out to be so hard.  It was a probably a combination of things.  I definitely haven't been getting as much sleep as I should be lately.  And I haven't run since last Sunday.  I hit a wall pretty fast in my effort, so I'm also not sure if I bonked - I didn't eat breakfast before I ran.  That's pretty typical for me for morning runs, but I don't usually do race pace intervals.  So I'm not sure.

A nice surprise when I started up Runkeeper today was that it now can connect with my Basis Peak and record the heart rate from the Peak.  This is something I've tried to do in the past, but they haven't been able to connect.  I'm not sure if this was fixed because of an update to Runkeeper or the Peak.  Either way, it's nice.  Ironically, though, I am sure the heart rate my Peak was recording was way too low in the race pace intervals - I'm panting and getting lightheaded, and it's saying my heart rate is like 90 or 110 BPM.  No way!  Usually it doesn't have that problem for so long, but I saw it pretty consistently.

Monday Night Doubles

Yesterday evening I played my usual Monday night tennis doubles at TCCP.  In the first round, my partner, Michelyn, and I lost 6-4.  It was a very good round, with lots of good points.  In the second round, my partner, Cheron, and I lost 6-3 - it was another good round.  In the third round, my partner, Abby and I split the games with our opponents, 2-2.

This morning, I did my lower body workout, with mostly the same weights as a couple weeks ago.  I increased my weights on the wrist flexions to 15 lb each for the first set and 12 lb each for the second set.  For the wrist radial deviations, I increased my weights to 8 lb each for the first set.  In about 55 minutes I burned about 140 calories.

Sea Colony Tennis Tournament

This past weekend, some of the players on my tennis teams went to Bethany Beach, DE, to play in the Sea Colony tennis tournament.  We weren't really going to try to "win big" so much as to play some good tennis and have fun.  We succeeded in that!

We drove out to Bethany Beach on Friday night.  On Saturday morning, my 3.5 doubles partner, Whitney, and I played our first match.  Sadly, we lost 7-5, 6-3.  We were ahead in the first set 5-3, but could not finish the set.  In the second set, we started making a lot more unforced errors.  Our opponents were good, but not unbeatable.  Oh, well.  Donna and Jill also lost their first 3.5 doubles match.  Fortunately we were guaranteed at least two matches, so we were scheduled for the consolation bracket.

After lunch, Whitney played her first singles opponent, who was a 22-year-old former college tennis player who had taken a few years off from tennis.  Whitney won 6-7, 6-3, 1-0, but unfortunately she hurt her shoulder (probably rotator cuff) in the match tie-breaker.  She had to retire from the rest of the tournament.

Jessica and Michelyn played the doubles players that beat Whitney and me, and won 5-7, 6-3, 1-0 (I think).  Michelyn then played her first singles match, and won in straight sets.  During the afternoon, I played a bit with some of our various teammates for fun.  We had a get-together at Joan's beach house in the evening, which was definitely a highlight of the weekend.

On Sunday, Jessica and Michelyn played Donna and Jill's opponents for the 3.5 doubles final.  Jessica and Michelyn won 6-3, 6-3!  Michelyn also became the 3.5 singles champion, because she was supposed to play Whitney, but Whitney had to retire.  So Michelyn got first, and Whitney got second.

The 3.0 doubles ladies played a round-robin on Sunday morning.  Joan and Fran won over Jo and Mary Ann, but both pairs were defeated by the third pair in the round-robin.  That means Joan and Fran got second place.  Whitney and I were supposed to play Donna and Jill for the consolation round, but could not play because of Whitney's injury.  Instead, Michelyn and Jessica took turns playing with me against Donna and Jill, just for fun.  After that, we all drove home.  It was a good time!

When I got home, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a 50-min easy run followed by 5 strides.  On the treadmill, I did 50 min at 5.4 mph, then I did 5 x 30 sec at 7.5 mph alternating with 5 x 45 sec at 5.0 mph.  All of this came to a distance of 5.12 mi.

This morning, I did Insanity the Asylum vol. 2 Agility Tutorial, followed by 10 pull-ups and 2 chin-ups, followed by Insanity the Asylum vol. 2 Ab Shredder.  This sequence got a very good sweat going.  I burned about 180 calories in 50 minutes.

Mixed Match

Last night, my husband and I had our first 7.5 mixed combo match of the season.  We actually haven't played together in an official match in all of 2015 so far, since I moved up to 3.5 and we couldn't play together in the 7.0 league. 

The match went pretty well overall, although we didn't win.  We won the first set 6-3.  We got ahead something like 5-1 pretty quickly, but then in the last few games of the set, our opponents started lobbing to me - I could get them back, but I kept giving them to the tall man, who would put away an overhead.

In the second set, we lost 6-1; I'm not really sure what happened.  I figured out how to deal with the lobs, but we just didn't play as well.  But we turned things around in the match tie-breaker and got ahead quickly.  We were ahead in the score until we got to 9 points; at something like 9-6, we just couldn't get one more point.  We lost the match tie-breaker 11-9!  Frustrating!  But overall, I thought I played pretty well.  It's been a long time since I've played at that level.  Fortunately the opposing man did not have a really hard serve or groundstrokes, so I was able to get the ball back well.  Next time!

This morning, I did my agility workout again, but I didn't do P90X2 X2 Ab Ripper, mostly because of time.  Instead, I increased all my plank times by 50%.  In about 35 minutes, I burned about 160 calories.

Race Pace Run

Yesterday after work, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a 40-min easy run, followed by 20 min at race pace.  I ran the first 40 min on the treadmill at 5.3 mph, and then the last 20 min at 6.7 mph.  The distance came to 5.76 mi.  This run felt harder than it should on the easy part, especially since I just did a bunch of runs outside at that speed.  Who knows.

This morning, I did an old favorite workout: P90X+ Kenpo Cardio+.  I do this one when I need to burn a bunch of calories in a short time.  I also like it.  I burned about 250 calories.

Evening Practice

Yesterday evening, I had a practice with my tennis team.  Cora and I played two sets against another pair that are going to be playing together in the Sea Colony tournament this weekend.  Cora and I won 6-3, 6-1.  That might sound bad for the other pair, but they are both 3.0s.  Hopefully they'll do well in the tournament!

This morning I did my agility workout like last week.  It got a good sweat going.  I burned about 180 calories.  I think that I'm going to take this week off from my strength workouts and just do agility/cardio/core.  Because of my schedule, it's kind of a short week for morning workouts, anyway.

Last Easy Run in Grosse Pointe

Today is my last day in Grosse Pointe for this trip.  I got up early to do a run before the funeral.  I ran 5.04 mi in 57:16, which was an average speed of 5.29 mph.  This run definitely felt harder - like my legs are getting tired or something!  It was nice to see the sun rise over the lake.

Easy Run

This morning I went for an easy run.  It was a beautiful day, but I was expecting for the run to be slow because I was worn out from yesterday's run and race.  However, the run went quite well.  I ran 5.36 mi in 1:00:10, which was an average speed of 5.35 mph.  This is exactly my current "easy run" speed.  The run felt harder at the end for sure, as my legs weren't all that pleased to be running again, but my heart rate stayed pretty much in the usual range.

These past few days of running, with the race, have been very gratifying.  I feel like it really shows that my training plan has been doing its job and that I'm over my anemia.  It's also nice to see how my treadmill training speeds have been translating very well to actual outdoor running and racing.

Surprise 5K Race

Yesterday afternoon, I did a walk around the neighborhood.  I walked at a very easy pace, since I didn't want to get too sweaty.  I walked 2.76 mi in 52:06.

I was out running this morning just to get some exercise in.  Like yesterday, I ran down Lakeshore Drive toward Lake St. Clair.  Well, it turns out that there were some races happening, run by the local Rotary Club.  There was a 5K and 10K race.  So I ran to the start to see if I could do the 5K race.  I had run about 2.1 mi in 24:26 to get to the race start.

The race director very generously let me run the race and pay for it later, since I didn't have any money on me.  The race started at 9:00am, about 15 minutes after I registered.  I decided to really run it and see how well I could do.  I crossed the finish line in 27:06, which is a new personal record for me!  I haven't gotten my chip time results, but it shouldn't be too different.

This was really great, because I really wasn't prepared for a race.  It was rainy and wet.  I had already run over 2 miles to get there, and had run about 5 mi each of the previous two days.  I hadn't eaten breakfast.  So with all that, it was really cool to run the race so well.  My average speed was about 6.9 mph, which is the speed at which I had run my intervals on Thursday.  The race definitely felt hard, and I definitely slowed down in the last mile, but I managed to keep going fast enough to get the PR.

EDIT:  I got the official results.  My time was 27:05, which I'm very happy with, but is not necessarily that fast.  However, I placed really well.  I was 37th out of 170 runners.  I was 8th out of 89 women runners, and 1st in the 40-year-old women's age group!  Pretty cool!  I would've gotten a medal for my age group win, if I'd stuck around, but I didn't.  I really didn't expect to do that well.  It's a good thing I didn't run the 10K, because it was really fast; even if I'd hit my new PR goal time of 55:00, I would've barely been in the top half.  There were only about 110 runners in that race.

Two Runs

Yesterday after work, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was speed intervals.  I did 14 x 2 min at 6.9 mph alternating with 14 x 1.5 min at 5.0 mph.  This added up to 49 min and 4.97 mi.  The first intervals weren't too bad, but they definitely got hard toward the end.  I forgot to do the 4 strides that were on the schedule.

After my run, I traveled to the Detroit area to attend family events around my mother-in-law's funeral.  This morning I did a run on Lakeshore Drive, which goes along Lake St. Clair.  I just did an easy run:  5.38 mi in 1:00:49, which gave an average speed of 5.31 mph.  This was not the easiest easy run - my legs were sore from the strength workout on Wednesday and the intervals last night.  However, I am happy to see that my natural "easy" pace is similar to what I've been training on the treadmill.

Evening Practice

Yesterday evening, I had a practice with my tennis team.  In the first round, my partner, Fran, and I lost 6-1.  We had a lot of good points, but just couldn't win many matches.  In the second round, my partner, Joan, and I lost the first set 6-1, but were winning the second set 5-1 when we had to stop.  I'm not quite sure what the change was, but it was good!

This morning, I did the upper body strength workout, mostly like I did last week.  I did shoulder presses instead of the push-presses and used 20 lb per hand.  I also did 5 more military push-ups, for a total of 70 push-ups.  In 50 - 55 min I burned about 150 calories.  I'm definitely feeling a good tiredness now - I'll be sore tomorrow, I think.

Easy Run

Yesterday after work, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a 40-min easy run.  I wasn't sure how it would feel two days after my 10-mi race, but it went quite well!  I ran at 5.3 mph on the treadmill, for a distance of 3.53 mi.

This morning, I did my lower body workout. I kept the changes that I did last week, but increased the weights on a couple moves.  I did 10 reps of the 8-lb wrist flexions, up from 8 last week.  I did 25 lb for all 3 sets of the calf raises.  I increased the weight on the hip thrusters to 25 lb.  I burned about 140 calories for the workout.

Revenge of the Penguins 10-mi Race Official Results

Yesterday evening, the official results for the Revenge of the Penguins 10-mi Race were finally released.  Even though I didn't run that fast, I placed very well - an advantage of a small race!  My chip time was 1:47:00.9, over 30 sec less than my "gun time", because I started back in the pack - I knew I wasn't going to win the race!

Out of 140 people in the 10-mi race, I placed 56th, which was pretty cool.  That's in the top 40%.  (If I had managed to run at 6 mph on average, I would've placed something like 42nd.)  In my 40 - 49 age group, I placed 6th out of 36, which was awesome - top 17%!  Most races do age groups in 5 year bins, so even with more competition, I did well. 

At any rate, it's fun seeing myself do so well, even though my time wasn't great.  I'm definitely going to do this race as a goal race next fall and train up for it - hopefully I can do maybe 10-min better and really place well!

Now back to my regular exercise.  Yesterday morning, I was a bit short on time and didn't feel like an intense workout, so I did a shortened version of P90X3 Dynamix, followed by some foam rolling.  I burned a whole 40 calories!

Yesterday evening I had my regular tennis doubles at TCCP.  I feel like I played pretty well - I actually wasn't too sore or tired - but my scores didn't reflect it.  In the first round, my partner, Whitney, and I played some really good players and lost 6-2.  In the second round, my partner, Renee, and I won 6-3.  In the last round, my partner, Abby, and I got bageled 3-0.  It was all pretty good tennis, though, so it was fun.

This morning, I did my agility workout like last week, with the added planks.  I got an app for my phone called "Random Timer" that I used to time my split-steps-then-sprints.  I'm hoping this will help with my reaction times. I burned about 180 calories in 45 - 50 min, with the warm up and cool down.

Revenge of the Penguins 10-Mile Race

This morning I ran in the Revenge of the Penguins 10-Mile Race.  It is run on the C&O Canal Trail along the Potomac River.  Because of the park permits needed for the race, it's limited to a pretty small number of runners - about 500.  There is also a 20-mile race that starts and finishes in the same place. 

I haven't run 10 miles in quite a long time, since I've been focusing on training for a 10K, so my conservative goal was to finish in less than 1:50:00, which would be an average speed of 5.5 mph.  Another goal I had was to run the race smart, starting out easily and gradually increasing speed, with a big push at the end.

The day was beautiful.  It had rained overnight, but fortunately stopped before the race.  The path dried off nicely.  It was in the low 60s F, which was great.  The course is mostly shady.  The conditions really couldn't have been any better.

Happily, I achieved both of my goals.  I finished in about 1:47:35 (still waiting on the official time).  That's an average speed of 5.6 mph, which is good.  Also, I had negative splits every mile.  I tried to keep gradually increasing my speed without killing myself, and it worked.  I pushed pretty hard for the last mile and a half, and still had enough to go all-out in the last few hundred yards.  (The finish line snuck up on me a bit, so I didn't start my last push as early as I might have.)

It was a really nice race.  I think that I will make this a goal race for next fall and really try to do well.  The race is small enough that if I improve reasonably, I could place in my age group.

I didn't do any other activity today - the race was enough!  I did some easy yard work and house cleaning.

Walk/Run

Yesterday was my rest day, so I didn't do any other specific exercise.  I did help my husband out with a yardwork project.

This morning it rained, so I had to cancel my tennis practice.  I should take the opportunity to just rest today before my race tomorrow, but I feel like I want to do something.  I did 45 min on the treadmill, alternating 5 min of walking at 3.5 mph with 5 min of running at 5 mph.  This was pretty easy, which was the intent.  This afternoon I'm going to clean the house, so that should keep me lightly active.

Rest Day

Yesterday after work, I didn't do any kind of activity.  If it had been a nice day, I might have taken a walk, but it wasn't.  I decided it was best to get some rest before my race on Sunday, get ahead on some work, and get to bed extra early.

Today is my rest day.  This morning I did my shortened version of P90X2 Recovery + Mobility.  I burned about 78 calories.

Evening Practice

Yesterday after work, I had a practice with my tennis team.  Whitney and I played doubles together, since we'll be playing together in a tournament at the end of the month.  Unfortunately we played against two other good players, and lost 6-2, 6-1.  We just couldn't seem to do anything to get ahead.  It didn't help that we made a lot of unforced errors.

This morning, I did Insanity the Asylum vol. 2 Agility Tutorial, followed by 10 pull-ups, and then Ab Shredder.  This is a sweaty combination.  I burned about 180 calories.  Fortunately my abs are feeling pretty much back to normal - just in time for a lot of plank-like moves today!

Short Easy Run

Yesterday after work, I did a shorter easy run.  I ran for 40 min on the treadmill at 5.3 mph, so the distance came to 3.53 mi.  This run felt a little better, but still not as easy as I'd like.  My abs were still quite sore yesterday.

This morning my abs felt a little better.  I did the upper body strength workout that I did last week.  I kept all the reps and weights the same, except for two changes.  For the standing external rotations (which I do laying down with a weight), I increased to 8 lb for the first set.  For the front raises, I increased to 12 lb for the first set.  I burned about 135 calories, including the warm up and cool down.

Lower Body Workout

This morning I did my lower body strength workout, similar to how I did it last week.  I increased my weight on the calf raises to 25 lb for both the first and second sets.  I increased my weight on the wrist flexions to 10 lb for the first set, but I could only do 8 reps.  Something to work on, I suppose!  My abs are still pretty sore, but definitely better than yesterday.  I burned about 155 calories in about 50 min, with the warm up and cool down.

Easy Run

This morning, I repeated my new tennis agility workout that I did for the first time last week.  After the plyo push-ups, I added in a 1-min plank and two 30-sec side planks (one on each side).  Fortunately, the weird shoulder problem that I had last night was not bothering me this morning.  I burned about 180 calories in just over 45 min.

The combination of the ab work in my boxing class yesterday and X2 Ab Ripper today left my abs very sore today.  I felt them doing pretty much everything.  Not fun.

This afternoon, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a 60-min easy run.  I ran on the treadmill at 5.3 mph, so the distance came to 5.3 mi.  This run felt kind of hard, probably partly from my sore abs and partly because my Saturday run was hard.  I need to get recovered for my 10-mi race this weekend!

Long Walk

This morning, I did my usual Sunday boxing class.  It was a good class, like usual.  I "froze" my boxing membership for a month, since I will be missing a bunch of weekend and won't be able to go to boxing.  I will miss it.

This afternoon, I did a long walk instead of a run.  Yesterday's run was definitely hard, and I didn't think I would get a good run today.  So I did a brisk walk.  I walked about 5 mi in about 80 minutes.  I forgot to start my GPS for the first part, so I don't know the exact stats. 

I did something weird with my left shoulder, apparently standing up from dinner.  It hurts to shrug upward, or to kind of pull back, similar to a scapular retraction.  Very strange.  Hopefully this will be a weird pain that goes away in a day or two, like my weird chest/shoulder pain a couple weeks ago.

Race Pace Intervals

This morning I had a practice with my tennis team.  In the first round, my partner, Anda, and I lost 4-1, but we did have a lot of good, long points.  In the second round, I lost 7-6, 2-0 in singles.  Not my best effort.  In the third round, my partner, Whitney, and I won 5-4.  We need to keep playing together to practice for our tournament at the end of the month!

This afternoon, I did the next run on my training schedule.  It called for 2 x 2 mi at race pace (6.7 mph), alternating with 2 x 5 min at 5 mph, and then 2 x 1 mi at race pace, alternating with 2 x 3 min at 5 mph.  Since my race pace gives about a 9-min mile, I went by time instead.  As a result, the run took me 70 min and the distance totaled 7.36 mi.  This was a tough run.  The first couple miles weren't too bad, but the race pace intervals definitely got hard.

Another Easy Run

Yesterday after work, I did another 60-min easy run on the treadmill.  I ran at 5.3 mph, so the distance came to 5.3 mi.  This run felt easier, but it was really boring for some reason.

Today is my rest day, so this morning I did my shortened version of P90X2 Recovery + Mobility.  I burned about 80 calories.

Easy Run

Yesterday after work, I went to Road Runner Sports and got new insoles.  My old ones were cracking up.  I got ones that were slightly bigger, because I felt like my toes were hanging off the old ones.

After that, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a 60-min easy run.  I ran on the treadmill at 5.3 mph, so the distance came to 5.3 mi.  This run didn't feel as easy as I was expecting. 

This morning I did my upper body strength workout, with the weights I used last week.  I did 5 more push-ups (military version) than last week.  I feel like I really am gaining some strength from this workout, which is good.  It took me almost 55 min, and I burned 140 calories.

Weeknight Practice

Yesterday evening I had a practice with my tennis team.  In the first round, I lost in singles 4-2.  In the second round, my partner, Donna, and I won 4-3.  All of the play was very competitive and a lot of fun.

This morning, I did a new tennis agility workout that I developed.  First, I did the following agility moves for 30 sec each, followed by 30 sec rest:

• Side shuffle back and forth the length of my agility ladder
• Fast feet through the agility ladder
• Sprint, then backpedal the length of the agility ladder
• Quick-step sideways in and out of the agility ladder
• Figure-8 around two weights, facing forward
• Sideways out-and-in through the agility ladder
• Forward and back quick steps in the agility ladder

After about a minute, I repeated the moves again.  This was a pretty good HIIT sequence.  After that, I did 10 plyo push-ups.  Then I did a quick split-step and sprint side shuffle across the room, alternating directions.  I did that 10 times.  I think I need a random timer for the start to make it more effective.  Finally, I did P90X2 X2 Ab Ripper.  With the warm up and cool down, the whole workout took me about 45 - 50 min, and I burned 200 calories.  Not bad!

Monday Night Doubles

Last night was the first night of the ladies Monday night doubles league at TCCP.  We were off for the summer.  In the first round, my partner, Bhanu, and I played a very hard set against some tough opponents, but we managed to win 6-5.  In the second round, my partner, Renee, and I just couldn't seem to get it together, and lost 6-1.  In the third round, my partner, Lindsay, and I won 2-1.  It was a lot of good tennis!

This morning, I did my lower body strength workout.  I did the adapted workout that is in the link, with the calf/Achilles exercises.  I increased my weight on the calf raises to 25 lb for the first set.  I increased my weight on the wrist flexions to 8 lb for the second set.  I burned about 140 calories in 50 min.

Agility Workout

This morning, I combined a few workouts.  First, I did Insanity the Asylum vol. 2 Agility Tutorial, after a quick warm up.  Then I did 10 pull-ups.  Then I did Insanity the Asylum vol. 2 Ab Shredder.  All of this got a good sweat going.  I definitely used to do better on both of these workouts!  I burned about 175 calories in 45 - 50 min.

Really Easy Run

This morning my weight was the lowest it's been since mid-May: 123 lb.  Sweet!  I am sure that's partly from the water weight I lost during my long run yesterday, but I do think my weight is trending down, finally.  It always seems to take me forever to start losing vacation weight.

This morning I had my usual Sunday boxing class.  The class didn't seem that different or more intense than usual, but I burned almost 400 calories in the class, according to my Basis Peak.  Usually it's about 320 calories.

I did an easy run outside this afternoon.  Because it was kind of hot and my legs were tired from yesterday, it turned out to be a really easy run.  I ran for 42:11 and only went 3.34 mi.  That's an average speed of 4.75 mph!  Now I think I might have run a tad faster, but my waits at street crossings didn't get counted quite right, but it was still really slow.  I kind of felt like I was running in slow motion.  I could've run faster, but I was trying to stay at an "easy" heart rate.

Long Run

Since Friday was my rest day, I didn't do any other activity.  I had a lot of work to do!

This morning I had a practice with my tennis team.  In the first round, my partner, Bhanu, and I lost 6-0.  I don't think we played THAT badly, but we just couldn't win any games!  In the second round, my partner, Lisa, and I won the first set 7-6 and then we were tied in the second set 1-1.  In the third round, I played singles and lost 4-3, which wasn't bad.

This afternoon, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a 90-min easy run.  This is by far the longest run I've done in a long time.  I ran at 5.3 mph on the treadmill, so the distance came to 7.95 mi.  The run was definitely long, but otherwise it really wasn't too bad.  I did watch a good, distracting movie - Elysium - which was pretty good.

Easy Run

Yesterday after work, I did an easy run on the treadmill.  I ran for 60 min at 5.3 mph, so the distance totaled 5.3 mi.  This run did feel really easy, and I took fewer breaks than normal.  This was an "extra" run for me this week; my training schedule has two runs per week, but while I'm in between tennis seasons, I'm adding in 1 - 2 more easy runs per week. 

Today is my rest day, so this morning I did my shortened version of P90X2 Recovery + Mobility.  I burned about 100 calories.

Two Days

I've been busy at work, so I haven't kept up with my blogging as much.

Tuesday after work, I did the next run on my training schedule.  Because of my Achilles and a bit of break, I backed up several weeks on the schedule and am repeating them.  I did a 60-min easy run on the treadmill at 5.3 mph.  The distance came to 5.3 mi.

Yesterday morning, I did my lower body strength workout.  I did the same exercises as last time.  I did add in some calf/Achilles exercises, which I alternated with the wrist exercises.  The first one was a single-leg calf raise; I did 15 reps per leg (3 sets) with a 20-lb weight.  The second exercise was an eccentric calf lower:  I stood on both feet on a step, explosive raised up onto my toes, and then lowered my heels below the step level on a count of 10.  I did 3 sets of 15 reps.  With a warm up and cool down, I burned about 135 calories in this workout in about 50 min.

Yesterday evening, I had a practice with my tennis team.  In the first round, I got crushed in singles 6-1, although we did have a number of deuce games.  In the second round, my partner, Bhanu, and I lost 6-1, 1-0; I was not playing very well.  It was a beautiful night, though!

This morning, I did my upper body strength workout.  Since I had a record from the last time, I used all the same weights.  The only change I made was to actually do the push-presses explosively, since my Achilles are feeling better:  I used 12 lb weights.  With the warm up and cool down, this workout took about 50 min, and I burned about 145 calories.

Club Night

Yesterday evening was the last Club Night of the summer at TCCP.  It was fun, but very humid.  We ended up playing indoors, which was good, because a thunderstorm with a very heavy downpour came through.  In the first round, my partner, Jeannette, and I won 6-2.  In the second round, my partner, Donna, and I lost something like 8-2.  In the last round, my partner, Mark, and I won 6-2.  It was fun - a lot of good tennis, even in the round in which I didn't win.

This morning, I did P90X2 X2 Core.  I increase my reps on a couple moves.  I burned about 110 calories.

Easy Run Outside

Yesterday morning I did my usual Sunday boxing class.  Fortunately my shoulder did not bother me.  It seems to be pretty much back to normal.  A very bizarre injury!

Yesterday afternoon, I did an easy run outside, since it wasn't too hot.  I ran on Rock Creek Trail for 59:30.  My distance came to 5.12 mi, so my average speed was 5.16 mph.  Not bad!  I was working hard to not let my heart rate get too high.  In the last five minutes, I really picked up the pace.

This morning, I did Insanity the Asylum Speed & Agility.  I was tired for this.  I burned about 215 calories.

Long Easy Run

This morning I had a practice with my tennis team.  It was a beautiful day - not as hot as it usually is this time of year.  In the first round, my partner, Fran, and I lost 4-2.  In the second round, my partner, Donna, and I lost 4-2.  In the last round, I played singles and won 7-5, 3-1.  I really need to step up my doubles play for this upcoming season!

This afternoon, I did an easy run on the treadmill.  I ran for 60 min at 5.3 mph, so the distance came to 5.3 mi.  This run felt pretty good, but I'm still taking a lot of breaks to make sure I'm not stressing my Achilles too much.

I got new running shoes and wore them for the first time today.  I really need to get new insoles.

Easy Run

Yesterday after work, I did an easy run on the treadmill.  I ran for 50 min at 5.3 mph, which gave a distance of 4.41 mi.  My Achilles have been feeling much better.  I'm planning on getting back to my training schedule and speed work next week.

Fortunately my injured shoulder improved a lot throughout the day yesterday.  This morning it was certainly much better than yesterday morning.  I iced it three times yesterday and once already this morning.  Hopefully it will continue to heal quickly.

Today is my rest day, so this morning I did my shortened version of P90X2 Recovery + Mobility.  I burned about 70 calories.

Shoulder Injury

Yesterday evening I had a practice with my tennis team.  There were only four of us, so we played each of the different combinations of doubles.  In the first round, Whitney and I beat Thedra and Bhanu 6-0, which was pretty surprising.  In the second round, Whitney and Bhanu beat Thedra and I 6-3.  This was a good round, and we almost won several games that we lost.  For the last round, we played a match tie-breaker, and Bhanu and I won it, 10-7.  It was good tennis!

Last night when I got into bed, I hurt my shoulder in what has to be one of the stupidest injuries ever.  I was hitching myself higher up into bed with my left elbow, and I felt something in my shoulder pull and hurt.  I kind of shrugged it off and went to sleep.  When I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, the shoulder really hurt.  I took some ibuprofen.  This morning, it was still really sore - along the left side of my collarbone.  It hurts most when I just let my arm hang naturally.  I think I strained or partially tore part of my left deltoid where it attaches at the collarbone.  How dumb!

I did my workout this morning, taking it easy in case anything hurt my shoulder in particular, but it was mostly OK.  The workout I did was the lower body strength workout that I put together before vacation.  Here's how it broke down today:

• 12 walking lunges per leg; I'm supposed to do this with a torso rotation holding a weight, but that didn't feel good, so I just did it with my arms overhead.
• 16 steps of monster walks in both directions
• hip thrusters: you rest your upper back on a bench, feet on the ground, and with a weight resting on your hips, thrust upwards, like with a glute bridge.  This move is a new addition to the workout.  I did 15 reps with 20 lb.
• I repeated the first three exercises for a second set.
• I didn't do pull-ups or plyo push-ups today because of my shoulder.
• 20 of each of the following jumps: squat jumps, jumps onto a 12" box, lateral jumps onto a 12" box (both directions), split squat jumps, and tuck jumps.  Fortunately my Achilles did not complain about these.
• 15 reps of wrist flexions with 5 lbs per hand
• 15 reps of wrist extensions with 5 lbs per hand
• 15 reps of wrist radial deviations with 5 lbs per hand
• I repeated the three wrist exercises for a second set.

This all took me about 40 minutes and burned a little over 100 calories.  I iced my left collarbone area before the workout, and after the workout, I iced the left collarbone again, along with my Achilles.

Singles Loss

Yesterday evening I had a singles match with my tennis team.  I lost pretty badly, 6-2, 6-1.  My opponent was a very strong singles player.  Her serve was really on, and even when I could start returning that, her other strokes were very good and well-placed.  I had trouble reading where she was going to hit the ball.  Our team only won one court in the match.  However, overall, we finished the season in first place!

This morning I did Insanity the Asylum Speed & Agility.  This is always a hard workout.  I burned about 250 calories!

Upper Body Workout

This morning I did the upper body workout that I've done twice now.  This time I finally have a workout sheet that I created so that I can record the weights I used.  Compared to the link, I used mostly the same weights, with some exceptions.  I didn't do the push-press because I didn't want to do the plyo part, so I just did a shoulder press with 15 lb per hand.  For the biceps curls, I used 15 lb per hand.  For the straight arm row, I used 12 lb per hand.  For the upright row, I used 20 lb per hand.  For the lateral raises, I used 10 lb per hand.  For the triceps overhead presses, I used 12 lb per hand.  For the single-arm rows, I used 25 lb.  I guess I did change things a bit!  I burned about 150 calories in about 50 minutes.

Easy Run

This morning I did P90X2 X2 Core.  I took it easy on the few plyo moves in order to baby my Achilles.  I still can't do the one-footed burpees with the stability ball or medicine ball - I am so slow.  I burned about 105 calories.

After work this afternoon, I did an 40-min easy run on the treadmill.  I ran at 5.3 mph, so the distance totaled 3.53 mi.  This run was really boring to me for some reason.  I guess my Stargate SG-1 episode was not the best.

Sunday Boxing

This morning, I went to my usual Sunday boxing class.  I've missed it for a couple weeks because of vacation, so it was good to be back.  I took it easy on a few of the jumping moves to protect my Achilles.

This afternoon, I played tennis with some of the ladies from my team just for fun, not as an "official" practice.  In the first set, my partner, Andrea, and I won 6-3.  In the second round, my partner, Fran, and I lost the first set 6-0, which was a bit of a surprise.  We continued on for part of the second set, and got ahead 2-1.

Saturday Practice

I traveled back home yesterday.  This morning, I had a practice with my tennis team.  This was the first time I'd played tennis since late July!  In the first round, my partner, Fran, and I won 5-2; this was a bit of a surprise since I was rusty and Fran is coming back from a broken wrist.  In the second round, my partner, Lisa, and I lost the first set 6-7 and were ahead in the second set, 1-0.  In the third round, my partner, Flora, and I lost 2-3 in a very competitive round.

Fortunately, the tennis did not seem to bother my Achilles.  I think they are continuing to feel better.

This afternoon, I did any easy run on the treadmill.  I warmed up gradually by walking for 10 min, and then I ran for 55 min at 5.3 mph.  The distance totaled 4.86 mi.  The run felt pretty good.

With my Achilles problem, I am adapting my training schedule.  Previously, it had been scheduled to complete before the 10-mi race I'm doing on Sep. 13.  However, my target race is really the Marine Corps Marathon 10K on Oct. 25, so I'm backing it up a bit to finish before that, and I'll use the 10-mi race as a long run.  This will give me this week and next week to do only easy runs to rehab my Achilles, and then I'll repeat some of the training schedule before continuing with the end of it before the 10K.  Hopefully this will work out.

Morning Walk

This morning I did a brisk walk on the local bike trail.  I walked 4.09 miles in just under an hour, so I was really walking pretty fast!  It was a bit chilly to start, but once I got going, I warmed up.

Easy Run

This morning I did an easy run on the bike trail here along the Allegheny River.  I ran for 40 min.  The distance came to 3.6 mi, which was an average speed of 5.35 mph.  Pretty good!  Even better, my Achilles did not feel too bad during the run, and I think they felt better after the run than they did on Tuesday.  Hopefully they are really starting to heal.

Easy Bike Ride

This morning I went on a brisk walk on the bike trail.  I had decided that it was probably not a good idea to run again.  I walked slowly for five minutes to warm up my Achilles, and then I started walking briskly.  I walked 4 miles in about 62 minutes.

This afternoon, my mom and I went biking.  I borrowed my aunt's bike.  We went from the Franklin bridge to Indian God Rock, which is almost as far as Brandon.  The round-trip distance was 17.22 mi, in 1:52.  Our average speed was 9.2 mph.  This was a much longer trip than my mom usually does, so she did a good job!

Easy Run

Yesterday after work, I went to a boxing class.  I thought that boxing would be easier on my Achilles than tennis or running.  It did go OK in terms of the Achilles, and it was a good class overall.

This morning, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a 40-min easy run.  I did this on the treadmill, and I did an extra-long walking warm-up (10 min) to make sure my Achilles tendons were really warmed up.  I ran for 40 min at 5.3 mph, which gave a distance of 3.53 mi.  I could definitely feel my both Achilles while running, but it wasn't horrible.  Afterward, they were definitely more sore.

I had been planning to do a number of runs this week to catch up on my training schedule for my vacation last week, but I think that's probably not a good idea with how my Achilles are feeling.  I think I will do some walking and then some running later in the week.  The tendons were definitely feeling better over the few days since the hike that hurt them, so hopefully they'll improve pretty quickly.

Today I drove to Pennsylvania to visit my mom for a few days.  This afternoon, I went with her to Curves to do a routine with extra exercises using free weights.  It was actually a pretty good routine, and I got a good sweat going.  I forgot to check my calorie burn when I started, so I don't know what I burned.

This evening, we went for a short walk with my mom's dog.

Upper Body Workout

This morning, I repeated the upper body workout that I did before vacation.  Since my Achilles are bothering me, I thought it would be wise to avoid jumping and cardio. 

I did the workout pretty much the same as before, with a few alterations.  For the dumbbell push-press, I substituted an overhead shoulder press in order to avoid the plyo part of the move.  I did 15 lbs for both sets of the biceps curls.  For the upright rows, I did 20 lb for both sets.  For the lateral raises, I did 10 lb for both sets.  For the triceps overhead presses, I did 12 lb for both sets, and for the front raises, I did 8 lb for both sets.  I hadn't brought the record of my previous weights with me this morning, so I ended up switching a few things that I really hadn't meant to.  I need to make a chart for myself!

The workout took about 45 minutes, and I burned about 140 calories.

Ireland Vacation!

We returned yesterday from our vacation to Ireland!  We did a lot of active things, like we always try to do on vacations.  If you burn a lot of calories, you can enjoy more vacation food!

Here's a breakdown of our trip:

• Saturday, Aug. 1: arrive in Dublin.  We immediately traveled to the very northern tip of the island, to the Giant's Causeway area, which involved: bus from the Dublin airport to Belfast, train from Belfast to Coleraine, and taxi from Coleraine to Bushmills, where our B&B was located.  After all that, we were pretty much exhausted.  We got a very good dinner at a local pub, and went to bed!
• Sunday, Aug. 2: hiking!  We hiked/walked from our B&B in Bushmills up to the Giant's Causeway.  Once we viewed the Giant's Causeway area (which was amazing), we hiked along Causeway Coast Way for awhile.  It was chilly and rained on and off, but the cliffs and coastline were spectacular.  Since we had to hike all the way back to our B&B, we didn't go as far as we might have liked to.  Our distance for the day totaled 14.02 mi in 5 h 14 m, according to Run Keeper - it consistently measured a shorter distance than my husband's GPS app.  After the hike, we traveled back to Belfast by taxi and then train.  We got into Belfast around dinner time, so we walked around the city a bit and got dinner.  I have to say that Belfast didn't impress me - it seemed gray and dirty (reminding me of Naples in Italy); maybe I was too tired and it was too rainy for me to appreciate.  It was a long day!
• Monday, Aug. 3: We traveled from Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Lahinch, on the west coast of Ireland.  We took a bus from Belfast to Dublin, then the Luas tram in Dublin to a different train station, then a train from Dublin to Limerick Junction, then another train from Limerick Junction to Ennis, and then finally a bus from Ennis to Lahinch.  What a day of travel!  At least we didn't miss any of our connections.  The most annoying part was that we had a 2.5-h wait in Ennis for our bus, and there was really nothing to do there.  We stayed at a B&B in Lahinch.  It was a bit far from town, so fortunately one of the B&B owners drove us to a pub for dinner.  The pub was right along Galway Bay, so we got to watch the surf and the waves crashing into the pub windows.  The weather really deteriorated while we were at dinner - it got VERY windy and rainy.
• Tuesday, Aug. 4: We had our first day of hiking the Burren Way, with arrangements made by Hillwalk Tours .  They arrange a hiking path, provide maps and route notes, and set up B&B accomodations for each night - they even transport your suitcases from one B&B to the next.  Great!  Fortunately the rain ended pretty soon after we got started with the hike, but it was extremely windy ALL day - sometimes it was hard to stand upright!  We hiked along the coast line again, along the Cliffs of Moher up to Doolin.  The scenery was fantastic!  This was our biggest day of hiking, with a distance of 19.13 mi in 6 h 45 m from Lahinch to Doolin (I got 45,000 steps this day!).  We would've been a little shorter and faster, but there was a mistake in the route directions, so we spent a little extra time and walking while we figured it out.  We stayed the night in another B&B in Doolin, and walked to a pub for dinner.  It took me forever to warm up after the hike!  I had worn my rain pants and coat as windbreakers for the day, but I still got really chilled.
• Wednesday, Aug. 5: This was our second hiking day through the Burren.  Unfortunately it rained ALL day, getting heavier as the day went on.  We were all wrapped up in our rain gear, but even it got soaked by the time we were done.  This was a very miserable and cold day, and since the rain clouds really cut down on visibility, we didn't see much of the scenery, either.  We hiked 11.96 mi in 4 h 5 min from Doolin to Fanore.  Fortunately this was our shortest day of hiking.  We stayed at another B&B - the owners very kindly hung our wet gear near their wood stove in their farmhouse kitchen so everything got dried out.  Again, it took me forever to get warm.  We walked to a nearby pub for dinner.  By that time, the rain had stopped, and we actually saw a very nice sunset.
• Thursday, Aug. 6: This was our last hiking day in the Burren.  It was a beautiful day, mostly sunny and warmer, with no rain!  This day was mostly through the rolling Burren hills, which are mostly these weird-looking limestone layers.  We also stopped by Newtown Castle, which is at the Burren School of Art.  We hiked 15.62 mi in 6 h 5 min from Fanore to Ballyvaughan.  Ballyvaughan was a pretty "big" small tourist town, and the B&B was quite nice.  We walked to an Italian restaurant for dinner, which was excellent.
• Friday, Aug. 7: We traveled from Ballyvaughan to Dublin.  First, we took a bus from Ballyvaughan to Galway, then a train from Galway to Dublin, and then the Luas tram to the city center.  We got into Dublin in mid-afternoon, so we decided to visit a couple tourist attractions.  First, we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was not as impressive as I'd expected it to be.  Then we went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells exhibition; this was reasonably impressive, but a bit overpriced, in my opinion.  Then we walked around the city a bit, going by St. Stephen's Green, Christchurch Cathedral, Trinity College, the Bank of Ireland, and Dublin Castle.  Things were closing up by then, so we couldn't really go inside anything else. We went to a very good steakhouse for dinner - it was our 16th wedding anniversary!  Then we took the Luas to our hotel, which was unfortunately pretty far out of the city.
• Saturday, Aug. 8: We headed back to Dublin early in the morning to catch our bus tour of the Boyne Valley.  We don't usually do group/bus tours, but when we were planning, we figured that by then we'd be pretty worn out, so it would be OK (and we were right!).  We visited these sites:  the Hill of Tara, Loughcrew, Trim Castle, Beckvit Abbey, Monaster Boice, and the town of Drogheda.  These were all pretty interesting sites, for various reasons.  When we got back to Dublin, we had a yummy dinner at an Italian restaurant.
• Sunday, Aug. 9: We flew out of Dublin and came home!

Overall, it was a busy but fun trip!  It was too bad that we had so much time spent just traveling between different locations, but we don't necessarily expect to be back to Ireland, so we wanted to visit everything!

Unfortunately, the hiking did take a toll on both my husband and me.  One of his knees is really bothering him.  The last day of hiking really bothered both of my Achilles tendons, although I didn't really feel it as being exceptional until later that night and the next day.  Even today, a few days later, they are still sore, but better.  The problem was probably caused by a fairly long, fairly steep uphill section we had on our hike on Thursday.

Long Run Before Vacation

This afternoon I did the next run on my training schedule.  The run had 70 min at an easy pace, which I ran at 5.2 mph, and then 10 min at race pace, which is 6.7 mph for me.  This run went OK; I wasn't as tired as I expect to me on the last 10 minutes, but the first 70 minutes really seemed to drag.  I did this on the treadmill, and the distance came to 7.18 mi.  While I did the run, I watched the movie Europa Report, which was quite good.

This evening, we are flying out to Ireland for our vacation!  We will be doing a lot of hiking while we are there, and I'm really looking forward to it!

New Upper Body Workout

Yesterday after work, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a 60-min easy run.  I ran at 5.2 mph on the treadmill, so the distance came to 5.2 mi.

This morning I did a new workout for upper body strength that is based mostly on USTA's On the Road Training workout.  I added a couple moves, and I'm doing them exclusively with dumbbells, not bands.  Here are the moves:

• Pull-ups: 10 reps
• Superset (2x)
• external shoulder rotations, 15 reps, 5 lb
• 90-90 external shoulder rotations, 15 reps, 8 lb
• Push-ups.  I did 60 reps, cycling through 10 each of military push-ups, regular push-ups, and wide push-ups
• Superset (2x)
• Dumbbell push-press, 15 reps, 15 lb for the first set, 12 lb for the second
• Bicep curls, 15 reps, 12 lb
• Superset (2x)
• Low to high pulls, 15 reps, 10 lb
• Straight arm row, 15 reps, 10 lb
• Superset (2x)
• Upright row, 15 reps, 15 lb
• Lateral raises, 15 reps, 8 lb
• Superset (2x)
• Triceps overhead presses, 15 reps, 10 lb
• Single-arm row, 15 reps, 20 lb
• Front raises, 15 reps, 10 lb

I got a pretty good sweat going with this.  The whole workout, with a warm-up and stretch, took about 45 minutes, which wasn't as long as I expected.  I did the supersets so that I could keep moving and not rest too much.  I burned about 125 calories.

Evening Practice

Yesterday evening, I had a practice with my tennis team.  In the first round, my partner, Bhanu, and I lost 5-4.  It was a very competitive round.  In the second round, my partner, Cora, and I won 6-2.  It was starting to get dark in the last few games, so it was a bit of a challenge.

This morning, I did P90X2 X2 Core.  I haven't done this workout in awhile, but it wasn't too bad.  The bigger problem was just that I was really tired still, for some reason.  I burned about 105 calories.

Singles Win!

Last night I played a 3.5 singles match with our team.  My opponent was a 3.0 player, so I should've beaten her pretty easily, but that doesn't always happen.  In this case, though, I was playing pretty well and won 6-1, 6-2.  The other players on our team won, also, and by large margins, so we swept the match!

This morning, I did Insanity the Asylum Speed & Agility.  I haven't done this workout for awhile, and I could tell!  I was also tired from being up late last night.  It is a great workout for cardio and agility.  I burned about 255 calories in 45 minutes!

New Workout

Yesterday I made into a rest day, because there is a conference on campus that I was at intermittently from 8:30am to 9pm.  That was a bit much, but fortunately today will be a shorter day.

This morning I started a trial week of workouts focused on tennis improvements.  I'm going to have a day of upper body strength work, a day of lower body strength work, a day of core work, and a day of agility work.  Today I did the lower body strength work.  First, I did walking lunges holding out an 8-lb medicine ball and twisting back and forth with each lunge.  I did 6 reps per leg.  Next, I did "monster walks", which is walking sideways while squatting and with a band around your calves; I did 16 steps in each direction.  Then I repeated those two exercises, but switching to a 5-lb weight for the lunges.

After that, I switched to plyometric moves.  I did 20 squat jumps, then 20 jumps onto a 12-in high box.  Then I did 20 jumps to the right onto the box, and then 20 jumps to the left onto the box.  Then I did 10 pull-ups, with some breaks to get them all in.  Finally, I did 20 split squat jumps and 20 tuck jumps.

The last superset of exercises was for the wrist.  I used 3-lb weights.  First, I did 15 wrist flexions (palms up and lifting up), then 15 wrist extensions (palms down and lifting up), and then 15 wrist radial deviations (thumbs up and lifting up).  I repeated all three moves.  The wrist flexions were the hardest; I might go to 5-lb weights for the others.

Then I went back and did the lunges, monster walks, and jumping moves again, but with only half the reps.

With a warm-up and stretch, this all took just under 45 minutes, which wasn't too bad.  I burned about 160 calories, which also wasn't too bad.

I realized after the fact that I didn't do enough lunges, because I was supposed to do 12 per leg, not 12 total in each set.  Oops!  Those are kind of annoying, anyway, because I don't have a lot of room to "walk" in my basement exercise room.

I got the lunges, monster walks, and wrist exercises from USTA's On the Road Training Manual.  I forget where I got the plyo moves from, but they are pretty standard lower-body plyo exercies.

Hiking

This morning I did my usual Sunday boxing class.  The regular instructor was back.  It was a good class!

This afternoon, we did some more hiking to get ready for our Ireland trip.  We loaded our backpacks not only with the filled water reservoirs but also with a lot of the other items we will be carrying.  We hiked between 5.5 and 6 mi - our two GPSs disagreed on the exact distance.  It took about 2.5 hours.  We definitely hiked more slowly today with our heavier backpacks.

Race Pace Intervals

Yesterday was my rest day.  In the morning, I did my shortened version of P90X2 Recovery + Mobility, which burned about 75 calories.  That was really the only activity I did for the day.

This morning, I had practice with my tennis team.  In the first round, I played a two-person doubles drill.  I won 4-2.  After that, since we only had 4 players, we played doubles.  My partner and I ended up tying our opponents 6-6 by the time we had to stop.  It was a fun set, with a lot of good points.

This afternoon, I did the next run on my training schedule, which called for race pace intervals.  First I did 2 x 2 mi at 6.7 mph, alternating with 2 x 5 min at 5 mph.  Since a mile at 6.7 mph takes 9 minutes, I did the intervals by time.  After this longer intervals, I then did 2 x 1 mi at 6.7 mph, alternating with 2 x 3 min at 5 mph.  This all took 70 min and the distance came to 7.36 mi.  I was kind of dreading this run, because I thought it was going to be really hard.  However, is turned out to not be so bad.  The 2 mi intervals went pretty well, but by the time I got to the last 1 mi interval, I was getting worn out.  Even so, it made me feel good.  It seems like the training schedule and the really easy runs might actually be working!

Evening Practice

Yesterday evening, I had a practice with my tennis team.  In the first round, my partner, Lindsay, and I won 4-3.  In the second round, my partner, Bhanu, and I won 5-4.  Both rounds were a lot of fun, with many good points.  It's nice when the practices are competitive and not "courtesy tennis".

This morning, I did P90X3 Eccentric Lower, preceded by Cold Start.  This workout went fine.  I burned about 85 calories.  Afterward, I ran on the treadmill for 20 min at 5.2 mph, yielding a distance of 1.73 mi.

This afternoon after work, I did my tennis speed and power workout.  I wasn't really feeling like doing it today, but it turned out OK once I got to the court to do it.  I burned about 280 calories.

Long Easy Run

Yesterday after work, I did the next run on my training schedule.  It was supposed to be a 60-min easy run, but since I was in meetings all day and didn't get to do my usual walking around, I made it 70 min.  I ran at 5.2 mph on the treadmill, so the distance came to 6.07 mi.

This morning, I did P90X3 Triometrics, preceded by Cold Start.  This workout felt pretty hard to me today, especially the actual jumping moves.  I think my balance might have been a bit better.  I burned about 135 calories.  Afterward, I ran 20 min on the treadmill at 5.2 mph, for a distance of 1.73 mi.

Club Night

Last night I went to Club Night at TCCP.  This is some low-pressure, round-robin tennis, often mixed.  In the first round, I played singles and ended up winning 4-3.  The funny thing about the round was neither of us could hold our serves - we did the exact opposite!  In the second round, I played mixed doubles.  My partner and I ended up losing 3-4, but it was fun.  In the last round, I also played mixed doubles, and again we lost 3-4, but it was another fun round.  It was SO HOT, but once the Sun went down, it started to feel a little better.

This morning, I did P90X3 Incinerator, preceded by Cold Start.  I was supposed to do Eccentric Upper, but switch to Incinerator.  For Eccentric Upper, I really need to use pretty heavy weights, which has been bothering my left hand/forearm/elbow; with Incinerator, I can use a bit lighter weights and go for more reps.  I burned about 85 calories.

P90X3 MMX

This morning I did P90X3 MMX, preceded by Cold Start.  This is a good workout, and it's fun.  It was good at motivating me when I woke up still tired from all the hiking yesterday.  I burned about 165 calories.

Hiking in Rock Creek

This morning I went to my usual Sunday boxing class.  However, the usual instructor wasn't there today.  The pro that taught the class usually teaches kickboxing, so I don't go to his classes much.  While we didn't do any kickboxing today, he definitely put us through a hard class.  Lots of cardio without many breaks.

This afternoon, my husband and I went hiking on some of the unpaved trails in Rock Creek Park.  We're going to be doing lots of hiking in Ireland, so we thought it would be a good idea to re-acquaint our feet with our hiking boots and check out our equipment.  I have a new Camelbak backpack with a bigger (3 liter) water reservoir.  We hiked for about 1.5 hours.  Runkeeper on my phone said we went about 6.6 mi, while my husband's GPS app said we went about 6.9 mi.  It doesn't matter too much.  We didn't have any problems, but it was SO hot.  We were totally soaked with sweat by the time we were done.

Long Easy Run

This morning I had practice with my tennis team.  Unfortunately it started raining about halfway through.  In the only round I got to play, I won at singles 6-0, 2-0.  I was definitely playing a different opponent than on Thursday night!

Around lunchtime, Bill and I went to REI to get some clothes and other items in preparation for our trip to Ireland in a couple weeks.  In particular, we both needed rain pants to put over our hiking pants - it's likely we'll be hiking through some rain.

This afternoon, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a 90-min easy run.  I ran on the treadmill at 5.2 mph, so the distance came to 7.8 mi.  It's amazing to me that a run that takes such a long time does not exhaust me!  I watched the movie Sunshine during the run.  The first 73 minutes of it was very interesting and quite good, and then it turned into a horror movie on and off for the rest of it, which was disappointing and unnecessary.  And I really have no desire to watch horror while running!

Beep Test

Yesterday evening I had a practice with my tennis team.  Before the practice, I did an aerobic capacity test called the Beep Test.  I installed an app for this test on my phone, which makes it convenient to do.  You run continuously between two markers that are 65 ft apart; the app puts out timed beeps, and you have to reach each marker before the next beep.  Gradually, the time between the beeps gets less and less, so you have to run faster and faster.  The speed you need to run starts out at about 5 mph.  Well, I was disappointed that I only completed level 5 before I had to give up because I was panting so hard.  The speed I was at was about 6.9 mph.  I know that I can run faster than that, but apparently not so continuously - you do about a minute at each speed level (with multiple beeps) before the speed increases.  I'd like to improve on this, but I have no idea when I'd fit it into my schedule - I hope my actually running training will help me improve.

After I did the Beep Test, I did a few spider drills, and then players were arriving for practice, so we started warming up early.  I played singles in both of my rounds, which was very humbling.  I played against two of our best 3.5 singles players, and they cleaned the court with me.  In the first round, I lost 6-0, 1-0.  Not even that many deuce games - my opponent had lots of well-placed shots and took advantage of my serve pretty much every time.  In the second round, I lost 6-2, 2-0.  Even though the scores aren't that different, I was definitely doing better in this round.  My partner made some mistakes on my serve.  However, she was really good at coming in to the net and putting it away.

Today is my rest day, so this morning I did my shortened version of P90X2 Recovery + Mobility.  I burned about 75 calories.

Easy Run

Yesterday after work, I did the next run on my training schedule: a 60-min easy run.  I ran at 5.2 mph on the treadmill, so the distance came to 5.2 mi.  The easy runs are still feeling pretty good!  I probably should've done this one outside, but I was too lazy to deal with the hassle of driving through traffic down to the trail.

This morning, I did P90X3 Decelerator, preceded by Cold Start.  The workout went OK.  I did 6 pull-ups for each pull-up move, which was good!  I burned about 105 calories.

This morning I was at my lowest weight in almost two months!  I am finally getting the chance to take off the weight I gained over Memorial Day!

Tennis Speed and Power

Yesterday after work, I did my tennis speed and power workout again.  I didn't change anything about this workout - this is the fifth time I've done it.  It took about 65 minutes and burned almost 300 calories.  It's hard to tell if it's helping me much, but I do feel it in my arms with the medicine-ball throws.  I think my back-pedaling is getting faster.

This morning, I did P90X3 Total Synergistics, preceded by Cold Start.  This is another workout that is a mixed-bag to me, because it's sort of a mix of different types of exercises.  I guess I would prefer all strength, or all core, or all plyo, or whatever, rather than jumping from type to type.  At any rate, I burned about 125 calories.  After I finished, I did a shortened version of P90X3 Dynamix, doing only the moves focusing on the legs.

Easy Run

Yesterday after work, I did an easy run on the treadmill.  I ran for 40 min at 5.2 mph, so the distance came to 3.46 mi.  A lot shorter than my other runs recently!  I was pleased that I still had the energy to make this feel easy, since I've been running so much recently.

This morning, I did P90X3 Triometrics, preceded by Cold Start.  The workout went OK - I burned about 135 calories.  Afterward, I ran for 20 min on the treadmill at 5.2 mph, for a distance of 1.73 mi.  Got to get a little extra calorie burn!

Activities Near Uniontown, PA

Yesterday I had to go to a wedding shower in Uniontown, PA, which is a 3-hr drive from my house.  It seemed like a waste of a weekend day to spend 9am - 12pm and 3-6pm driving on either side of the shower, so I decided to look for interesting activities to do near Uniontown.

Before the shower, I went to Laurel Caverns, which is the largest natural cave in Pennsylvania.  I took the 1-hr guided tour, which went through many of the main caverns.  Some of the connecting passageways were quite narrow and/or low.  The cave does not have a lot of stalactites or stalagmites, which the guide explained was because of the type of rock involved.  It was an interesting experience.

After the shower, I went to Ohiopyle State Park to do some walking and running.  This park is a trailhead for the Laurel Highlands Trail, which is a pretty well-known, cross-country, long hiking trail.  I had been thinking about doing some hiking on this trail.  However, I only had about two hours to spend, and I didn't think that would get me too far out-and-back, and probably wouldn't burn that many calories.

Instead, I decided to walk and hike on the easy Great Allegheny Passage, which is a walking/biking trail that runs from Pittsburgh, PA, to Cumberland, MD.  The section in the park runs along the Youghiogheny River.  It's a very nice trail, with a wide, non-paved, but nicely-maintained surface.  It's similar to the C&O Canal Trail in Maryland, but actually even wider. 

I walked on the trail for about 30 min, then ran for about 1 hr (turning around halfway), and then walked again for about 30 min.  The walking segments totaled about 47 min and 3.1 mi, which is an average speed of about 4 mph.  The run totaled 5.25 mi in 1:00:20, which was an average speed of 5.22 mph - pretty good!  I had a hard time keeping the run "easy" with my heart rate, because it was so nice and cool and the path was so wide, it was easy to start running faster.  Toward the end of the run, it started to sprinkle a bit.  There was so much canopy that I didn't feel it much, but by about 1/3 of the way into my second walking segment, it started coming down harder.  Fortunately I was already pretty soaked and it wasn't too cold, so it wasn't a big deal.

This morning, I did P90X3 The Challenge, preceded by Cold Start.  My numbers were 25 push-ups and 5 pull-ups.  I hit all my push-ups, so with the burnout at the end, it means I did 224 push-ups!  I didn't quite make 5 pull-ups each move, so I had more like 38 + 8 burnout pull-ups.  Not bad!  But for all that, I burned about 85 calories.  Sigh.

Race Pace Intervals

This afternoon I did the next run on my training schedule, which called for race pace intervals, followed by strides.  According to the pace I want to run my 10K race at, 6.7 mph, I needed to do 5 x 1 mi at 6.7 mph, alternating with 5 x 0.5 mi at 5.0 mph.  At those speeds, that effectively becomes 5 x 9 min at 6.7 mph, alternating with 5 x 6 min at 5.0mph.  At the end, the strides were 4 x 30 sec at 7.5 mph, alternating with 4 x 45 sec at 5.0mph.  With all of this, the distance came to 8.02 mi in 1:20:00.

I expected this run to be very hard, because this was the run (without the strides) that I couldn't even finish the first time it was on the schedule at the end of May.  However, I definitely got it done without it killing me.  I did take some breaks during the race pace intervals - next time I will try to cut those down.  Even so, I think it went very well.  Maybe all the really easy runs are finally helping me out!

I watched a move to distract me: The Fountain.  This was an interesting movie, with a lot of evocative and interesting visuals.  Certainly more of a thoughtful movie than an action movie, but it did keep me entertained.

Saturday Boxing

Yesterday was my rest day, so I didn't do any activity in the afternoon or evening.  I did do some yard work.

This morning I was supposed to have a practice with my tennis team.  However, it was raining when I got up and it didn't look like it would dry out in time, so I canceled it.  Instead, I went to a boxing class.  The class was OK - he does keep us moving.  I burned about 320 calories.

Speed and Power

Yesterday after work, I did my tennis speed and power workout again.  It took about 65 minutes, and I burned almost 300 calories.  The weather was looking like rain, but it only sprinkled on me.

Today is my rest day, so this morning, I did my shortened version of P90X2 Recovery + Mobility.  I burned about 75 calories.

Long Run

Yesterday after work, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a 60-min long, easy run.  I ran at 5.2 mph, so the distance came to 5.19 mi.  The time passed by pretty quickly on this one, since I was watching on of my favorite Stargate SG-1 episodes: "Failsafe".  (It's all about a possible asteroid impact, and I teach two classes on asteroids, one of which deals with the asteroid impact threat!  Total geek out!)

This morning, I did P90X3 Agility X, preceded by Cold Start.  I burned about 185 calories.  Afterward, I did a 20-min run on the treadmill at 5.2 mph, which came to 1.73 mi.

I am making progress in losing the weight I gained over our Memorial Day vacation, but I'm still not back down to that level.  Too may other special events have come up during which I've eaten too much.

Evening Practice

Yesterday evening I had a practice with my tennis team.  We played some singles first.  I won my singles 3-1 over my opponent.  Then we played some doubles.  My partner, Donna, and I got ahead 3-1, but ended up losing 5-4 by the time we had to stop.  Our opponents definitely picked it up and started playing better, especially at the net.

This morning I did P90X3 Decelerator, preceded by Cold Start.  I burned about 105 calories.

Singles Win!

Last night was the first match for both my 3.0 and 3.5 summer singles teams.  The 3.0 team won two of the three courts, so they got an overall win.

 I played in the 3.5 match.  My opponent was a 3.0 (albeit a good one), so I shouldn't have had such a hard time against her, but I did.  I won the first set 6-3.  We were on serve until about 3-3, and then I broke her serve twice and got the set.  In the second set, we were pretty even until about 4-4, and then I made a bunch of mistakes and lost the next two games.  I'm not really sure what I did, but it was not good.  We started the match tie-breaker with about 12 minutes left.  I had been playing so badly at that point that I decided to just play as conservatively as possible, keep the ball in play, and not lose points - if the tie-breaker timed out and didn't count, I would win.  Of course, I got down 1-4 pretty fast.  I fought back and by the time the match was called, I was ahead 8-7.  The match tie-breaker didn't count, so I won because I won more games.

We won the other two courts as well, so the 3.5 team got a clean sweep to start the season, which was nice!

This morning I did P90X3 Eccentric Lower, preceded by Cold Start.  This is a pretty good workout, although I hate lunges.  I was also pretty tired from the late match.  I burned about 95 calories.

Two Easy Runs (Edited)

(I edited this from the original, adding in my Saturday afternoon activity.)

Saturday afternoon, I did a walk around Grosse Pointe to look at some of the GP Benches , which are decorated, sponsored benches placed around Grosse Pointe.  Many of them are quite pretty, so I thought it would be nice to view some, and a good excuse for a walk.

Well, it turns out that it can be harder to find a park bench than you might think.  They are not always located right at the addresses listed on the map for them - they can be around the corner, or on the other side of the building, and so on.  Some of them seem to be missing.  However, I did end up viewing 15 of the 41 benches.  This bench below, Monarchs in the Garden, was my favorite.

The walk took me about 90 minutes and was a little over 5 miles - my GPS glitched at the beginning, so I don't know the exact distance.


Yesterday morning I did a 40-min easy run in Grosse Pointe before we left.  I ran 3.48 mi in 40:25, which was an average speed of 5.17 mph.  It was another beautiful morning, although my legs were a little tired from the day before.

After that, we drove back home to Maryland.

This morning, I did P90X3 Eccentric Upper, preceded by Cold Start.  This workout is hard on my left forearm/elbow, but I got it done.  I burned about 80 calories.  Afteward, I did a 20-min easy run on the treadmill:  a speed of 5.2 mph, which gave a distance of 3.46 mi.

Long Easy Run

This morning I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a 70-min easy run.  I'm still in Grosse Pointe, so I ran down Lakeshore Drive, which goes along Lake St. Clair.  It's pretty, and there's always a bit of a breeze off the lake.   I ran 6.25 mi in 1:12:58, which gave an average speed of 5.14 mph.  This is in line with the easy run speed I have been doing on the treadmill, so that was good.

I might finally be getting the point behind the really easy runs.  It was such a beautiful morning today and such a nice setting, I felt like I could just keep running and running.  The run wasn't killing me, like it sometimes feels like.  I just hope that my speed really does increase like it's supposed to.

Easy Run & Golf

Yesterday afternoon, I did an easy run on the treadmill to burn some calories.  I ran at 5.2 mph for 40 min, which gave a distance of 3.46 mi. 

I wanted to burn some calories because yesterday after dinner, we got on our way to Grosse Pointe, MI, to visit my in-laws.  I always eat too much on trips.  Since we had to leave after my husband's work, we only got to part-way through Ohio before we stopped for the night.  I slept horribly, despite being tired.

We got started pretty early today and arrived in Grosse Pointe before lunch.  In the afternoon, we played a round of golf at the Detroit Country Club.  I played pretty badly, as usual, but at least it was a beautiful day.

Easy Run

Yesterday after work, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a 40-min easy run.  I ran on the treadmill at 5.2 mph.  The distance came to 3.46 mi.  So far, the slightly increased speed still feels "easy".

This morning I did P90X3 Triometrics, preceded by Cold Start.  It went OK.  I burned about 125 calories.

Evening Practice

Yesterday evening I had a practice with my tennis team.  First, we played 4 games of singles.  I tied my opponent 2-2.  Next, we played some doubles.  My partner, Mary Ann, and I lost 7-6.  It was a lot of fun and very competitive!  Luckily we didn't get any rain or thunderstorms.

This morning, I did P90X3 MMX, preceded by Cold Start.  This is a fun workout.  I burned about 200 calories.

Before I went to work, I took a short walk around the neighborhood.  It was a beautiful morning!

Lately I have been trying to not sit around so much at work.  The past few weeks, I've been doing an afternoon walk through my building.  Well, my building connects to a couple other ones, so if I walk around all the connecting floors and then go upstars, I get a pretty good walk.  It takes 20 - 25 minutes, and I get about 2500 steps.  I don't want to walk outside, because this time of year it's usually pretty hot and I'd get sweaty and sunburned.  I do have to take it a little easy inside so that I don't start sweating too much and get smelly.  The joys of sweating at the drop of a hat!