Starting 5K Time

Yesterday morning I recorded my "beginning" 5K time for September.  I woke up not feeling at all good.  My tummy was very off.  I had a fairly tight schedule for the morning, but managed to switch a few things around and was able to delay my run by an hour.  Luckily by then I felt much better.

It was a beautiful crisp morning.  As much as I HATE/despise/loathe/detest the thought of summer coming to an end, running is the absolute best on a morning like this.  When the air is damp, there is a slight dew on the ground, and you start off with just the slightest of chills.  A thing of beauty!

I decided for these timed runs that there would be no watch stopping.  This would be a race situation.  If I need to stop or walk, the clock will keep ticking.  I also was approaching this as a race situation.  There would be no wiggle room left so that I could allow for improvement at the end of the month.  I was going all out with a best effort.  If I can't improve by the end of the month then I can't improve, but I didn't want to fool myself into thinking there was improvement, so it was all or nothing.

Gotta say ... I kinda shocked myself.  It was an INCREDIBLE run.  I have not had a run like this in quite some time.

My initial time for the Cardio Challenge 

for 5K was 26:32 - 8:34 pace

I have not hit that pace over ANY distance yet this year.  In fact, I have not hit better than that pace on a straight through run (i.e. no watch stopping) since October last year.

I am SOOOO happy!

Of course this will make it a little harder to get the amount of improvement I set out.  I had wanted to improve this time by 1 minute by the end of the month.  That would put me at 25:32.  My PR over this distance is 24:53.  Can't say I have a ton of confidence, but I'm going to give it my all and try.  When I decided upon that 1 minute improvement goal I figured it would take me somewhere between 28-29 minutes.  I figured my "improved" time would be 27 or better.  So yeah, I'm a little shocked, but very, VERY happy!

This weekend I'll be setting my 10K time.

I want to send out best wishes to my blogging buddy MARCELLE who is running her VERY first half marathon this weekend, and I believe just her 2nd race ever.  AWESOME!  She is going to smoke it and I'm so proud of her.  Good luck Marcelle!

Heidi

♥♥♥♥♥

September Cardio Challenge

ACTION PLAN

Cardio Challenge:  To improve my time over the 5K and 10K distance.  I will run both distances within the first week of September (a few days apart).  I would like to improve my time this month by at least 1 minute for the 5K and 2-3 minutes for the 10K.  To do this I will be running more consistently and reintroduce some of my old buddies (sarcasm!) hills and intervals.

Nutrition Guidelines:  I will be following the Weight Watchers plan.  The old plan, not the new one (I don't understand that one).  To earn my daily point for this challenge I will need to stay at or under my points target (22).  I will allow myself additional points in the form of earned activity points.  I will not be using the additional 35 weekly points as I do not find I lose weight when I do.  I will adhere to the healthy eating guidelines with the occasional moderate treat (i.e. not eating 22 points in doughnuts! haha).

Planned Workouts for Week One:

Sep 1 - Timed 5 K plus hours of casual walking at an event
Sep 2 - 14 mile cycling, Strength workout
Sep 3 - Rest / Walk with a friend
Sep 4 - Timed 10K
Sep 5 - Hike
Sep 6 - Bosu Ball class & Bootcamp
Sep 7 - Interval running, 14 miles cycling

Last night I slacked off a bit and "only" did the Bosu Ball class, not the Bootcamp as well.  My heart wasn't in it and my friend was leaving on vacation the next day and had her mind in other places.  Still loving that Bosu class.  My balance is HORRIBLE though.  I really hope it improves over time.  The worst is when we have the ball turned over and stand on the flat side.  We're "supposed" to stand on one foot while doing upper body strength moves.  I'm just going from standing on two feet FAR apart to moving them in close together.  And I shake like a leaf in a hurricane, it's quite funny to see.  I should be doing some additional balance work throughout the week.  Hard to believe I was once a gymnast who did not so bad on the balance beam!

Heidi

♥♥♥♥♥

Action Plan - Week ONE

Before I get into the details of week one of the Action Plan, I want to share just my weekend run with you.

On Saturday I (once again) did my longest run of the year.  A few weeks ago I had planned to run 13.1 miles, without stopping, before the end of the month.  My target date was to do that this past weekend.

I have to be honest and say I am not quite there with my running to cover that distance without rest breaks yet.  My mind wants to be there, but my body isn't there.  I accept that and will continue to work towards that goal.  So, my revised goal was just to run 13.1 miles, with whatever breaks were necessary.

When I started out on my run on Saturday, a couple miles in and my tummy reacted to the early morning start that I hadn't gotten up early enough for to prepare.  So, I had an unplanned stop early on.  Lately my friend has been running from her place and we meet halfway (which is about 3 miles for each of us), then we run together.  Because I had to stop, she ended up running 4 miles and I only ran 2.  This would mean that with the route we planned, my overall distance would be shorter.  So, I figured I'd end up with 11-12 miles and that would be that.

My friend is training for a full marathon, so we've been meeting up, running a loop together, then I get my bike and ride alongside her to finish up her mileage.  As we finished up our loop together, I was at 12 miles, but didn't feel like I was dying.  I really wanted to run at least the 13.1 miles, so decided to tack on another "little" block.  Whoops ... didn't realize that "little" block was 2 miles.

I ran 14 miles!  And I actually felt pretty darn good.  That's my longest run this year, and probably the longest I'll do as I'm not interested in longer distances.  I still want to do the half without stopping, but for the next month I want to work on intensity and speed over the 5 and 10K.

Now, onto the Action Plan Details .....

********************************

Action Plan - Week One

I have e-mail a link to the spreadsheet for anyone who was interested in joining along.  If anyone else is interested, or you didn't get the invite to the spreadsheet, let me know.  Remember this is NOT a competition against each other, it's only against yourself.

Each item below is worth 1 point.  And if you choose to skip an item, your choice.  Week One will have a little more to record as it's all the starting info.

1. Record your starting weight
2. Record your starting measurements (suggest at least Chest, Waist, Hips, Thighs, Arms).
3. Take a beginning picture
4. Choose a cardio challenge and post what you are doing.  Remember to note what you did, where, maybe even what time of day, as you will want to duplicate this at the end of the month to note your progress
5. Record time for cardio challenge
6. Strength workouts - Earn 1 pt per strength workout (up to 3 times) - the fitness test can count as one
7. Daily Activity - earn one point that you do 30 minutes or more of activity.  If you do a 30 min strength workout you double your points because you'll get one for a strength workout and one for activity
8. Daily Nutrition - earn one point per day that you stay within your personally established healthy eating guidelines.  It would be interesting if we each posted what we're doing, but that's not required.
9. Do the following fitness test and record results:
• Count # of push-ups in a 1 minute period
• Time how long you can hold a plank
• Time how long you can hold a wall sit
• Time 1 mile run (ran as fast as you can)

If you have any questions I'm always happy to answer.

Heidi

♥♥♥♥♥

Action Plan! Are you in?????

WOW, I'm an idiot.  All those years in Honours Math (with a minimum of a B) have obviously not served me well in my adult years.  Apparently I can no longer do simple math.

Yesterday I said that I had gained 21 lbs.  Later in the day I was thinking about it and realized my math was wrong.  It's "only" 17.6 lbs.  OK, so not a whole lot better, but maybe not quite as bad.  Actually, it does make me feel a little less of a failure.

So, I've been chatting with Syl about doing a September Challenge.  There also seems to be a number of my bloggers buddies out there who are currently struggling in one way or another.  Maybe we all need some sort of a challenge.  I'm doing this for me, but would love the support of a few friends.  Anyone who wants to join in is welcome.

Here's the gist of it:

• Challenge runs from September 1 - 30
• First week of September you will record a time for a cardio challenge (run or bike or whatever cardio form you'd like to challenge) over whatever distance suits your fancy.  The last week of September you will challenge this same route/distance and record your improvement.
• Same thing with a few strength, flexibility, and maybe endurance tests.  These will all be posted by the end of this month.
• You will also record weight & measurements at the beginning and end of the month.  No need to report them if you are not comfortable with that, but it would be interesting to see everyone's results.  I'd also strongly recommend taking a picture of yourself from various angles at the beginning and end of the month.
• You will earn points for activities (i.e. min 30 min activity, completing a strength workout).  More importantly (for me and maybe some of you), you will also earn points for staying within your chosen diet.
• You can do whatever you choose for training along the way, but I will suggest some challenges along the way for bonus points.

I will create a Google spreadsheet for us all to keep track.

This is NOT a challenge against each other.  Rather just working together towards success.  The earning of points is simply for inspiration.

Also, it's completely open to whatever your personal choices are.  For example, my cardio challenge will be a timed 5K and 10K, and I will be following the Weight Watchers plan.  Someone else might be to improve their time on a half marathon, or 10K of cycling.  And maybe their eating plan will be counting calories, or South Beach or something they have personally developed to suit their needs.  The idea is to have a plan, and follow it.

So .... are you in??

Heidi

♥♥♥♥♥