Outside Run

Today was forecasted to be unseasonably warm, so I thought I'd do a run outside before lunch.  Well, it wasn't all that warm yet, but it wasn't bad.  I did my run on the Rock Creek Park Trail, since I haven't been there in quite awhile.  I ran 5.08 mi in 55:58, so the average speed was 5.45 mph.  A little slow, but I had a number of road crossings to stop and wait for, and I think Runkeeper tends to keep going a bit for those, which adds time but not distance. 

My heart rate was supposedly really high for a lot of this run, even though I certainly wasn't panting for breath.  I don't know if that was real, or something my Basis Peak was dreaming up.  Anyway, since my so-called easy runs have seemed to hard lately, I think I'm going to pull back to a treadmill speed of 5.6 mph for awhile for the "easy" runs and see how it goes.

This afternoon, I had a practice with my tennis team.  In the first round, my partner, Jill, and I lost 4-5, but we had been much farther behind, so it was good that we were catching up.  In the second round, my partner, Whitney and I scored 7-6, 2-2, which was essentially a tie.  In the last round, my partner, Joan, and I tied our opponents 5-5.  It was a fun and competitive practice!

Catching Up

Wednesday after work, I did the next run on my training schedule, which was a 60-min easy run.  I ran on the treadmill at 5.7 mph, so the distance came to about 5.65 mi.  This run did feel easier than some I've done lately.  I think my legs were a little less tired from the weight training.

Yesterday morning, I did the next workout from The Master's Hammer and Chisel, which was Total Body Chisel plus 10-Min Ab Chisel.  I upped my weights on a number of the moves, and I think the workout went pretty well.  I burned about 165 calories.

Last night, I had a tennis match with my 3.5 team.  This match went much better than the one on Tuesday - we won four of the five courts!  My partner, Whitney, and I won 6-3, 6-2.  Our opponents gave us some trouble at first, because they lobbed us a lot, and we sort of went along with it by backing up and lobbing back.  We ended up making a lot of errors and feeding them put-away balls.  We changed things around so that I played more at the net and took a lot of the lobs out of the air, and that pretty much finished them off.  Whitney would hit deep baseline shots, which would get them off-balance, and then they'd give me a floater to put away.  Or, we'd take a lob out of the air, which would throw them off, and we'd get the point.  It was a fun match, and kind of nice to see that we are actually better players than some other players for once.  Sometimes after a colossal loss like we had on Tuesday, you start to think you're a horrible player - not really, it's just that those players were REALLY good.

Today is my rest day.  This morning, I did some foam rolling and stretching.

Tennis Loss

Yesterday morning, I did the next workout from The Master's Hammer and Chisel, which was Chisel Agility.  Most of this workout is not too hard - I feel like a lot of it is too slow to really be an agility workout, but what do I know?  I burned about 165 calories.

Last night, I had a tennis match with my 3.5 team.  Unfortunately we were playing one of the top teams in the league, which always has really good players.  We lost all five courts - we didn't even win a set!  My partner, Whitney, and I lost 1-6, 1-6.  I don't think the score quite reflects our level of play, because we did have a number of deuce games.  Our opponents were just very good: they could hit with power, they moved pretty well, and played well at the net.  That's hard to beat!  At least they were nice players, and we had fun.

This morning, I did the next workout from The Master's Hammer and Chisel.  This was Iso Speed Hammer, which is a very short workout.  I had arranged that intentionally, since I knew I was going to be up late with my match last night - I got an extra 30 min of sleep!  Part of the reason this workout is so short is because Sagi moves between the moves very quickly - I don't even have time to write down what I did!  I upped my weights on a number of moves, since I had my notes from the last time.  I burned about 90 calories.

Snow Day

Today we had a snow and ice storm, so the university was closed.  I was home all day, which always leads to me not doing much incidental activity.

This morning, I did a workout from The Master's Hammer and Chisel.  I did Hammer Power, followed by 10-min Hammer Abs.  Hammer Power is an interesting workout, because it gradually builds up the steps of some power lifting moves, albeit with dumbbells instead of barbells.  I don't think I used heavy enough weights for the 5-rep moves.  I burned about 145 calories for the whole thing.

I was supposed to have a tennis match this evening, but it was canceled because of the weather.  Instead, I did a 50-min easy run on the treadmill.  I ran at 5.7 mph, so the distance came to 4.7 mi.  This run finally felt a little better than some of the recent ones I've done, which was a bit surprising, since I ran over 12 miles yesterday!  I did get a lot of sleep this past weekend, which probably helped.

Race Pace Intervals

Today I did the next run on my training schedule, which was race pace intervals.  First, I did 2 x 2 mi at 6.3 mph (9:30 min/mi), alternating with 2 x 5 min at 5.0 mph (12:00 min/mi).  Then I did 6 x 1 mi at 6.3 mph, alternating with 6 x 3 min at 5.0 mph.  This took 2:03:00, and the distance came to 12.3 mi.  This was a hard run.  It was not hard for cardio so much as hard on my legs.  Blah.  Next week is a cut-back week and the longest run on the schedule is 80 minutes, so hopefully I will rest up a bit and start feeling better with the legs.

Boxing + Tennis

Yesterday was my rest day, so I did some stretching and foam rolling before work, and that was it for my activity.  I did get in a reasonable number of steps at work.

This morning I went to a boxing class.  This is not my usual class, but it's a pretty decent one.  I did burn almost 400 calories during the hour, which is pretty high for that - the instructor does keep us moving pretty much the whole time.  I just don't care for his style quite as much as I do with the Sunday instructor.

This afternoon, I had a practice with my tennis team.  In the first round, my partner, Viqui, and I won 5-4 - it was a very good round.  In the second round, my partner, Whitney, and I won the first set 7-5, but lost the second set 1-3; one of our opponents is an extremely hard hitter, and when she's on, she's really, really good.  In the third round, my partner, Joan, and I lost 3-5; we had a lot of good points, but made some mistakes, and our opponents did not as much.  It was a good practice!

Why is running so hard?

Yesterday evening, I had originally intended to go to a boxing class.  However, it was really cold out, so by the time I got home, I didn't feel like rushing to get ready and then hurrying back out into the cold and traffic.  So I decided to stay home and do a run, and then do cardio tennis the next day.

I ran on the treadmill at 5.7 mph for 50 minutes, so the distance came to 4.7 mi.  This run just felt hard again.  I had been doing so well with my easy runs, but now my heart rate is up quite a bit for them and they just aren't easy.  Maybe my legs are sore and tired from The Master's Hammer and Chisel.  I'm wondering if I'm starting to get anemic again - I'm paranoid about that, so I'm going to up my iron supplements for awhile.  I also have a sneaking suspicion that my old treadmill was falling apart so much that I was actually running on a decline because the supports were failing - I think I would've felt that in my quads, though.  So I don't know what's going on, but it's depressing.

This morning, I did the next Hammer and Chisel workout, which was Chisel Cardio.  This is an OK workout - not my favorite, but it's not too bad.  I upped my reps on a few moves.  I also burned many more calories than when I did it the first time - about 190 calories compared to just over 100 or so previously.  I'm not sure why that was.