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.