Tuesday, September 29, 2015

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.

Monday, September 28, 2015

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.

Friday, September 25, 2015

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.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

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.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

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.

Monday, September 21, 2015

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.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

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.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

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.

Friday, September 18, 2015

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.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

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.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

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.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

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.












Sunday, September 13, 2015

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.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

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.

Friday, September 11, 2015

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.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

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!

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

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.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

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.

Monday, September 7, 2015

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!

Sunday, September 6, 2015

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.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

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.

Friday, September 4, 2015

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.

Thursday, September 3, 2015

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.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

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!

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

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.