Very Long Run

Yesterday afternoon I ran 13.0 mi in 2:10:00 on the treadmill at 6.0 mph.  This was a hard run - I took a lot of breaks on the side rails.  I was still tired from biking the day before.  I did eventually finish it, however.

Last night, I tried looking for Ceres and Vesta again, but it was cloudy in that part of the sky.

This morning I did my shortened version of P90X2 Recovery + Mobility, since I was still pretty tired.  I'll back up my regular workouts by a day.  Today I burned about 115 calories.

Rock Creek Bike Ride

Yesterday afternoon, my husband and I went on a bike ride from our house to the northern end of the Rock Creek trail.  The round-trip was almost 27 miles, which we did in about 2 hr 20 min.  We didn't go so fast that I felt horribly exhausted afterward, but there were a few hills that were killer.

Last night, I went out to try to see Ceres and Vesta in binoculars.  They are really close together in the sky right now, making them easier to find.  They are also close to Mars and Spica in the sky.  Unfortunately the Moon was also close to all of them last night, which washed out the asteroids.  I'm going to try to remember to look again tonight.

This morning I did my usual boxing class.  I dogged it a bit, because I have a 13-mi run coming up this afternoon, so I didn't want to completely wear myself out.  Fortunately my legs are not sore from the biking yesterday.

Morning Practice

Yesterday afternoon, I went for a walk around the neighborhood.  It was about 4.75 miles in 90 minutes or so.  Nothing too difficult, which was probably good, because my legs were still tired from the sprinting a couple days ago.

This morning I had practice with my tennis team.  My legs are starting to feel better, but I didn't play all that well.  I won my first round with my partner.  In the second round, we were pretty even.  Lost the third round.  I am trying to get everyone to think about doubles movement and following the ball on the court - not sure that it's working!

Hard Tempo Run

Yesterday afternoon I did my planned tempo run.  I did 6.0 mi at 6.3 mph, which took 57:09.  My legs were still really sore and tired from my sprinting the night before, so this run felt really hard.  I took quite a few breaks.

This morning I did my shortened version of P90X2 Recovery + Mobility.  The foam rolling definitely was good for my legs.  I burned about 115 calories.

Lower and Upper Body Plyo Workout

Yesterday evening I did a lower body and upper body plyo workout of my own design for the first time.  The upper body exercises were from a similar workout I did last summer.  I included some lower body plyo moves to help improve my running efficiency from this article from Runner's World. I included some uphill and downhill sprinting as suggested in an article I read a couple months ago in Runner's Digest.

Here's the lower body sequence:

1. Uphill sprints, 8 x 10 sec: between each sprint, I took about 50 sec to walk back and recover.
2. Power skips, 20 per leg, with about a 30-s break.
3. Leg bounding, 20 sec: with about a 40-s break.
4. Downhill sprints, 8 x 10 sec: between each sprint, 1 took about 50 sec to walk back and recover.
5. Repeat 2 and 3.

The high school near me has a straight sidewalk on an incline that I used for the sprints.  Initially I thought that a total of 160 sec of sprinting wouldn't be too hard, but they really were pretty tough.  I had planned to add a round of level sprinting, but I decided to save that as an add-on for once these feel a little easier.

After this was all complete, I shifted to the cinder-block tennis wall and did the upper body moves.  Most of them involve an 8-lb medicine ball.  I chose these moves to do because they were recommended for tennis on this sports fitness advisor page.
Here's the upper body sequence:

1.  Overhead throws, 8 throws
2.  Side throws, 8 throws per side
3.  Overhead slams, 8 throws
4.  Squat throws, 8 throws
5.  Plyo push-ups, 8

I repeated this sequence 4 more times, with about 90 sec of rest in between.

A few comments: the lower body plyo work in this workout is by no means complete.  I haven't included a lot of jumping, because I do that in morning workouts, such as P90X2 Plyocide.  In this workout, for both lower and upper body, I'm focusing on exercises that I really can't do inside.  Also, the point of this workout is not to improve cardio fitness, so I didn't do the moves as fast as I could.  The idea is to be rested (somewhat) before each move, so that you can really put all your effort into it.  So there are a lot of breaks.

I am definitely feeling my legs this morning, especially the hamstrings.  I'm hoping to be able to do this workout 1 - 2 times per week.  I didn't have time for it when my tennis teams were in season, so these next couple of months are my chance.

This morning, I did FOCUS T25 Gamma Rip't Up (124 cal), followed by Insanity Cardio Abs.  I was definitely still fatigued from yesterday's plyo work.  I used 12-lb weights, but I had to take more breaks than when I previously did Rip't Up.  I burned about 205 calories total.  Yesterday marked the start of my last round through my FOCUS T25 workouts.  I think I need a recovery week after next week.

Tennis Practice

Yesterday evening, I had a practice with my tennis teams.  Since we are in between seasons, I am trying to get them to improve on some doubles play.  We are focusing on following the ball at the net, so the net player moves back and forth on the court to be in the correct position.  While this may seem like an obvious thing to do, a lot of players don't do it.  I want to improve on that.  As some of them said, following the ball like that can be really tiring.  All the more reason to practice it now and develop the conditioning.

This morning I did FOCUS T25 Gamma Speed 3.0 (186 cal), followed by Asylum Vol. 2 Agility Tutorial.  Last night in practice, my legs did not feel too fatigued, but they were tired again this morning.  Speed 3.0 was tough, but I was feeling better by the time I got to the Agility Tutorial.  I burned about 300 calories total.

Long Run

Yesterday afternoon I did a long run of 11.0 mi.  I completed it in 1:50:00 on the treadmill at 6.0 mph, my goal pace.  This run was hard.  I felt fatigued even in the first few miles.  I'm wondering if this is because I have kept my calories pretty low since Memorial Day (trying to lose vacation fat).  I'm going up to 1800 cal/day this week.  We'll see if it helps.  I have been hungry a lot.

This morning I did FOCUS T25 Gamma The Pyramid (116 cal), followed by Asylum Vol. 2 Ab Shredder.  I was definitely still quite tired from my long run, so this was not my best workout, but it went OK.  I usually do Insanity Cardio Abs on Tuesdays, but I knew I didn't want to do the tuck jumps in that workout, so I'm switching them.  I burned about 195 calories total today.