My program consists of running 3 times each week. Simply put, 2 short runs during the week (working on different aspects of running) and 1 long slower paced run to build endurance. I won the cross training battle once again this week!
Monday, Jan 16th:
6am spin class @ the Y (50 mins)...it was a tough class this week and I pushed myself. It felt great.
Evening easy yoga class @ Oranj...a nice relaxing stretchy class.
Tuesday, Jan 17th:
5 Yasso's @ 4:32 each.
A Yasso is an 800 metre done in a specified amount of time. The concept of a Yasso is that if you can run 10 Yasso's in the same amount of minutes as your goal race time, you will achieve your goal time on race day. For example, if I want to run a 4:30 marathon, I need to be able to pull out 10 Yasso's @ 4min 30 sec each. You work up to being able to repeat each Yasso 10 times with a short recovery in between. On Tuesday night, I did 5 (they ramp up as I progress through my training). Tuesday was effing freezing cold (it was like -16 or something ridiculous with another -10 degrees of windchill), so needless to say I was not so secretly happy to hit the treadmill. I love Yasso's on the 'mill because you're forced to keep at pace. I realized after the fact that I was too fast. My Yasso's should be at a max of 4:35 and a minimum of 4:48 according to McMillan (more on him in a future post maybe, depends how much I feel like rambling on). Now I know you're thinking, seriously Bron..3 seconds? That's totally insignificant. I had to walk my recoveries. If I had slowed it down 3-10 seconds per 800 metres, I bet you I would have been able to jog out those recoveries. Now I'm not sure if that matters....but I have a feeling it does. More importantly, it matters to me. You always want to push yourself when you train for anything athletic, but you have a threshold and you shouldn't cross it before you're ready. You invite injury and risk the dreaded "over training"
If you're intrested in finding out more about Yasso's, hit this link:
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244-255-624-0,00.html
Wednesday, Jan 18th:
100% REST DAY
Thursday, Jan 19th:
4.91 miles/7.8KM run with my group @ Lululemon Run Club. I love this group, we have a great mix of runners and our leader, Kim, is awesome. She's a 2 time Ironman Canada finisher (as this blog progresses I'm sure that I'll share my absolute amazement of anyone that takes on triathlons, but specifically an Ironman. I stand in total awe of these athletes and instinctively want to fall to my knees proclaiming "I'm not worthy" a la Wayne's World). It was snowy and it was a tough run. We generally move at a good clip, well for me anyways. And in the snow it becomes that much harder because you're engaging all your stabilizing muscles to avoid slipping. My calves were screaming pretty good and I came home to a good soak in an epsom salt bath. Did you know epsom salts help to pull lactic acid from your muscles? My RMT recently informed me of this priceless little fact. It has changed my world, let me tell ya!
Friday, Jan 20th:
I met my girlfriend and gym buddy Bri at the Y at 6 bells in the a.m. (ok I was probably like at least a few minutes late, something I'm really trying to work on!) and we had a kick ass gym workout. We did supersets and worked shoulders, a little core, some bi's and tri's and did some Bosu Ball torture. Out the door by 7am and then off to start the day. Just the way I like it. A quick and quality workout complete before the sun is up.
Saturday, Jan 21st:
YOGA DAY!
A girlfriend of mine wanted to try Hatha Yoga. She has wrist problems so any practice involving poses like cobra and down dog hurt her wrists. I offered to take her to the Yoga Loft for a 90 minute practice. Helena rarely (if ever) includes those types of poses in her practice so I figured it would be a good bet. This particular girlfriend is interested in becoming more active so I am happy to be able to show her some options for getting out there and moving.
In the afternoon, another group of us girls were off to try some hot power yoga at Hot Box Yoga. Bri and her sister had done hot yoga before. Meghan and I had not. Hot? Check. Power? Double check!
This was a challenging practice, but it felt so good. I felt strong and I really enjoyed the instructor, Pam. I was pretty sore later that evening and of course the following morning. I can definitely see how people get addicted to hot yoga. I'm trying to determine how I can bring more hot yoga into my life without breaking my bank account. For those of you that haven't tried it or gotten a membership at a yoga studio, it is certainly the definition of spendy.
Sunday, Jan 22nd:
13 miles/21KM long slow distance run (so if you see me referring to LSD, I don't mean a hit of acid). I ran this with my training partner and run buddy, Shannon. We usually run on Saturday mornings, but Shannon had to work. LSD's are always better with a buddy. She is also doing the BMO and it is also her first full marathon. It was snowy (but not slushy!) and those stabilizers were kicking in again. I'm left with a sore right leg and a big 'ole blister between my big toe and second toe on my right foot. Not fun. We completed the distance in full and didn't feel like we were going to die at the end. I felt like I was high maintenance today and I felt bad for Shannon because of it. I kept having to walk to fiddle with fuel or hydration. Then it was a stitch, then a sudden pain in my right knee. After that I thought to myself "suck it up buttercup and just finish this".
In Summary....
Total mileage: 20.41 miles/32.8KM
Spin: 50 mins
Yoga: 3.5 hours
Resistance training: 55 mins
All in all, a well rounded week. There is too much snow, but such is life. It is January after all.
The key to winter runs is layers. Kim (our run coach) is always offering us great tips for training. In retrospect, I feel very good about what I accomplished this week. I do not feel exhausted. Just a little sore. I'm taking tomorrow off.
Lessons learned: I need trail running shoes for snowy conditions and don't do power yoga less than 24 hours before a scheduled LSD. I secretly knew that, but I really, really wanted to try hot yoga and this was the only time it fit into my schedule this week. The reduced drop in fees are ending on Jan 31st. Since I'm cheap, I felt the need to take advantage of it. My thought process was if I liked it, I would still have opportunity to take advantage of the reduced drop in fee at least one more time before the month comes to an end. The curse of frugality (I don't even know if that's a real world, but this isn't scrabble so I'm not concerned).
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