Last night, Whitney and I won our #2 doubles match for my 3.5 team. We won 6-4, 6-2. It was a fun match, because pretty much all of the shots were with quite a bit of pace. Not much lobbing or dinky shots. It made it hard to poach, but I was glad to be able to keep up and not hit out a lot. Also fun to win! Unfortunately the team lost the match overall.
Today is my rest day. I did my shortened version of P90X2 Recovery + Mobility and burned about 100 calories.
My weight was back down a bit. Still keeping my eye on it. However, I did have splurge today. I gave the colloquium at Goddard Space Flight Center and went to lunch at the cafeteria there before. Yummy to have some french fries. I imagine it was a lot of sodium.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Goal Pace Run
Last night I did my first goal pace run, which is just what it sounds like: you run at the pace you're planning to run the race you're preparing for. In order to finish my half-marathon in 2:15:00, I need to run at 5.8 mph or 10:20 min/mi. So last night I ran 7.0 mi at that pace, which led me to finish in 1:12:26. Happily enough, this felt like a pretty good pace that I could've done for longer. Which is good!
I'm having a bit of a struggle with the thought of running my longer runs at a slower pace than this. After all, my longer runs are still shorter or only as long as the half-marathon. If I want to run the half-marathon at that pace, shouldn't I run the longer runs at that pace? I guess the idea is that while I'm still running longer distances than I've ever run before, I should ease into it. However, since I'm only running twice a week usually, I wonder if I should push that. We'll see. Since I'm still mostly running on the treadmill because of the cold weather, it's easy to set a pace. I don't think I'm going to be nearly as successful pacing myself outside. I suspect in the half-marathon I will start out fast and get slower, and hopefully just manage to finish in my goal time.
This morning I did P90X2 Chest + Back + Balance and X2 Ab Ripper. This burned about 230 calories. I did increase my numbers on most exercises. One thing that has been nice is that coming back to this workout after a long break, my chest strength appears to have not suffered at all - in fact it may be better. I'm banging out a lot of the push-up variations and balance moves. The pull-ups are much harder since I really don't focus on them much otherwise. It's cool to be able to do them, but I don't think the level of strength necessary for a pull-up is needed for much of my other activities.
My weight has been creeping up a bit this week for some reason. It was even up a tad this morning after my run last night, and usually I lose a lot of water weight from a run. I may be a little bloated. I don't think I'm really making that much muscle. I'll have to keep an eye on it, and I'll have to see what my waist measurements are on my Saturday weekly measuring.
I'm having a bit of a struggle with the thought of running my longer runs at a slower pace than this. After all, my longer runs are still shorter or only as long as the half-marathon. If I want to run the half-marathon at that pace, shouldn't I run the longer runs at that pace? I guess the idea is that while I'm still running longer distances than I've ever run before, I should ease into it. However, since I'm only running twice a week usually, I wonder if I should push that. We'll see. Since I'm still mostly running on the treadmill because of the cold weather, it's easy to set a pace. I don't think I'm going to be nearly as successful pacing myself outside. I suspect in the half-marathon I will start out fast and get slower, and hopefully just manage to finish in my goal time.
This morning I did P90X2 Chest + Back + Balance and X2 Ab Ripper. This burned about 230 calories. I did increase my numbers on most exercises. One thing that has been nice is that coming back to this workout after a long break, my chest strength appears to have not suffered at all - in fact it may be better. I'm banging out a lot of the push-up variations and balance moves. The pull-ups are much harder since I really don't focus on them much otherwise. It's cool to be able to do them, but I don't think the level of strength necessary for a pull-up is needed for much of my other activities.
My weight has been creeping up a bit this week for some reason. It was even up a tad this morning after my run last night, and usually I lose a lot of water weight from a run. I may be a little bloated. I don't think I'm really making that much muscle. I'll have to keep an eye on it, and I'll have to see what my waist measurements are on my Saturday weekly measuring.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Cardio Frustration
Well, I did not get to do cardio tennis last night. The minimum to do the clinic is three people, and there were three of us signed up. However, at least three have to actually show up in the first 15 minutes. The third person was delayed, so it was canceled. I ended up hanging around and doing some points games and singles with the two other guys, but it was not really what I had been planning on.
This morning I did Insanity: The Asylum Vol. 1 Vertical Plyo. I still hate this workout. It's so hard that even the people in the video can't keep going continuously after the first few minutes. As I've seen someone remark, only Shaun T thinks that double jumps are "active recovery". I think the problem for me is that it's so hard that I just don't even feel like pushing myself that much, so I end up dogging it. I also worry about the impact on my knees with all the tuck jumps and power jumps, even though I try to land softly. I burned 199 calories during it today.
Tonight I have a treadmill run scheduled.
This morning I did Insanity: The Asylum Vol. 1 Vertical Plyo. I still hate this workout. It's so hard that even the people in the video can't keep going continuously after the first few minutes. As I've seen someone remark, only Shaun T thinks that double jumps are "active recovery". I think the problem for me is that it's so hard that I just don't even feel like pushing myself that much, so I end up dogging it. I also worry about the impact on my knees with all the tuck jumps and power jumps, even though I try to land softly. I burned 199 calories during it today.
Tonight I have a treadmill run scheduled.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Inside Run
Last night I did a tempo run on my treadmill since we had a snow day. Since I'm no longer including my walking warm ups and cool downs in my distances and times, it makes the run pretty boring numerically: 6.0 miles in 1:00:00. That was the plan!
This morning, I did P90X2 Shoulders & Arms and X2 Ab Ripper. I pushed a few more reps on some of the exercises. Arnold presses on one foot with 25 lbs per hand are tough, but I feel strong doing them! Also, I can lift as much weight with my triceps as my biceps, which seems unusual: 20 lbs for each for basic exercises. In total, I burned about 192 calories in the workout according to my BodyMedia.
I am hoping to go to cardio tennis at TCCP tonight after work, but I suspect they won't have enough people to do it. We'll see!
This morning, I did P90X2 Shoulders & Arms and X2 Ab Ripper. I pushed a few more reps on some of the exercises. Arnold presses on one foot with 25 lbs per hand are tough, but I feel strong doing them! Also, I can lift as much weight with my triceps as my biceps, which seems unusual: 20 lbs for each for basic exercises. In total, I burned about 192 calories in the workout according to my BodyMedia.
I am hoping to go to cardio tennis at TCCP tonight after work, but I suspect they won't have enough people to do it. We'll see!
Monday, March 3, 2014
Snow Day
Last night I lost my 3.5 match. Grace and I played a strong match on #2 doubles. We won the first set 6-4. One of our opponents was much weaker than the other, so we concentrated on hitting to her. We lost the second set 6-2. We let some lobs drop in for overheads, and they did make fewer unforced errors. The match tiebreaker was very close - we were tied up 8-8, but then lost 10-8. It was a lot of fun, though, because it was a challenging match but not overwhelming. Unfortunately we lost all of the other courts, too, except #1 singles.
Today there is a big snowstorm, so the university is closed. This morning I did my scheduled workout: P90X+ Kenpo Cardio+. I don't do the warm up on the video for this workout; they do minimal warming up and then do some yoga stretches. That doesn't work at all for me. I need to be a lot warmer before I get started. So I do my own warm up exercises (jogging in place, fake jump roping, jumping jacks, butt kicks, and high knees) and then I do some ballistic stretching of my hamstrings. Then I get into the official workout. This also saves me 90 - 120 seconds in the workout. Today I burned 289 calories. I felt like I had quite a bit of energy to do it. Afterward, I used the extra time because it's a snow day to do some foam rolling on my legs.
Because of the snow storm, I won't be able to do my usual tennis doubles tonight. I will probably do a run instead. Plus some show shoveling sometime today once the snow tapers off.
Today there is a big snowstorm, so the university is closed. This morning I did my scheduled workout: P90X+ Kenpo Cardio+. I don't do the warm up on the video for this workout; they do minimal warming up and then do some yoga stretches. That doesn't work at all for me. I need to be a lot warmer before I get started. So I do my own warm up exercises (jogging in place, fake jump roping, jumping jacks, butt kicks, and high knees) and then I do some ballistic stretching of my hamstrings. Then I get into the official workout. This also saves me 90 - 120 seconds in the workout. Today I burned 289 calories. I felt like I had quite a bit of energy to do it. Afterward, I used the extra time because it's a snow day to do some foam rolling on my legs.
Because of the snow storm, I won't be able to do my usual tennis doubles tonight. I will probably do a run instead. Plus some show shoveling sometime today once the snow tapers off.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Signed up for the half marathon!
This morning I did my usual boxing class. I was not as wiped out as I thought I might be after yesterday's long run and tennis practice. Hopefully that will hold up for my 3.5 match tonight.
I did some number-crunching yesterday, and I think it's a very reasonable goal for me to finish my half-marathon in 2:15:00 or less. I think I'm going to do some goal-pace runs of about 7 miles where I run at about 6.0 mph. At that speed, I would definitely be under 2:15:00, so I want to get used to it.
For my runs so far, I've been including my 5-minute walking warm ups and cool downs in my times and mileage. I don't think I'm going to do that any more, though. It makes it hard to figure out what kind of pace I'm actually running at. So for my tempo runs, goal pace runs, and long runs from now on, I will not include them. I'll keep them in my interval runs, though, since those aren't really the same kind of runs.
I have signed up for the half-marathon! I will be doing the half-marathon at the Frederick Running Festival. I feel like it's a bit expensive, but my first one is definitely one to celebrate. Of course, I missed the early registration date by 2 days, so I paid an extra $10.
Before then, I'm going to do at least one 10 K, and maybe two. I'm thinking about the one in Gaithersburg on Mar. 30. Possibly I will also do one next weekend on Mar. 9. We'll see. It's getting exciting to think that I'm actually going to be able to do a whole (ha ha) half-marathon.
I did some number-crunching yesterday, and I think it's a very reasonable goal for me to finish my half-marathon in 2:15:00 or less. I think I'm going to do some goal-pace runs of about 7 miles where I run at about 6.0 mph. At that speed, I would definitely be under 2:15:00, so I want to get used to it.
For my runs so far, I've been including my 5-minute walking warm ups and cool downs in my times and mileage. I don't think I'm going to do that any more, though. It makes it hard to figure out what kind of pace I'm actually running at. So for my tempo runs, goal pace runs, and long runs from now on, I will not include them. I'll keep them in my interval runs, though, since those aren't really the same kind of runs.
I have signed up for the half-marathon! I will be doing the half-marathon at the Frederick Running Festival. I feel like it's a bit expensive, but my first one is definitely one to celebrate. Of course, I missed the early registration date by 2 days, so I paid an extra $10.
Before then, I'm going to do at least one 10 K, and maybe two. I'm thinking about the one in Gaithersburg on Mar. 30. Possibly I will also do one next weekend on Mar. 9. We'll see. It's getting exciting to think that I'm actually going to be able to do a whole (ha ha) half-marathon.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Long Run and Practice
This morning I did a 9-mile run as part of my half-marathon training. I did it before lunch. My time was 1:36:46, which I was quite happy with. It was a little faster pace than my 10-mile run two weeks ago. It didn't feel really hard, either. I also didn't have any bathroom breaks like I did with the 10-mile run, but that might have been because I did it in the morning instead of afternoon. I watched the first couple episodes of Stargate SG-1 while I ran, which was fun.
This afternoon I had a practice with my tennis team. My legs were still really fatigued, so I was expecting to play poorly. However, I actually played quite well. In fact, I was even hitting my forehands better than usual. I was definitely running out of gas toward the end, though.
This afternoon I had a practice with my tennis team. My legs were still really fatigued, so I was expecting to play poorly. However, I actually played quite well. In fact, I was even hitting my forehands better than usual. I was definitely running out of gas toward the end, though.
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