I have been defeated by a hill...

So today's hill workout was not-so-great. First of all, I had no one to run with, seeing as Brennan went skiing and Ryan had something to do, so I had no one to pace with, and thus consistently started running up temple too hard, and then slowed down exponentially by the time I reached Eve's house. oops. Secondly, I kind of psyched myself out before the workout because I ate breakfast at 8, and I remembered that warning about not eating too much from last week, but that was after I ate, so I was afraid I was going to throw up. Lastly, my legs are really sore, I think from canadians...I was reading in this book I got for Christmas that soreness can result from DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness)in which one performs an exercise one's muscles are not used to, and the morning/day after they get very very sore, even if it was a light workout. I think that because I have not done Canadians yet this year, my muscles were not used to them (?) and resulted in much soreness.

Well, as for the actual hills, I was quite miserable from all this soreness, and I would get about halfway up the hill and my quads AND calves would start burning like no other. It was like they were screaming at me. To motivate myself, I tried singing "just keep swimming" in my head, but then my legs' pain was "louder" than this and I just gritted my teeth and kept running...maybe I would've been more motivated with other people there, I'm pretty bad at motivating myself. That is not to say that I quit on the workout. Because I was feeling so unmotivated, I decided to force myself to do an extra hill, so I did a total of 32:05 on the hill. That was good for 8 hill repeats. I believe this was a tad less than last week, so I was a bit disappointed. They felt slower than last week, but again, hopefully that is a self motivation problem and not a physical one. I did feel like I was recovering nicely on the jogs down though!

I had warmed up with 15 minutes, and cooled down with 16, so the day's total was 63.

My morning heart rate was 13, so 52.

Reggie!

We went to Reggie today, which was fun, but really weird, since we weren't racing...like i started getting stressed just being there, well, until I realized I wasn't racing! Brennan and I warmed up for 20 minutes, then did Canadians by the check in area plus some power drills (lunges, right/left hop, no frog jumps though...) and then 8 strides on the track. Then I cooled down for about 19 minutes. It was a pretty good day, my legs felt a tad sore from circuits, though nothing too bad. Can't wait for hills tomorrow =)

Morning pulse - 13/14

yoga mats are a wonderful invention...

No, I was not doing yoga today, but Brennan, Ryan and I did do circuits! I realized that the circuits would probably hurt a lot less if we had yoga mats so, TAADAA! I brought us yoga mats and they cushioned our butts perfectly! =)

We did 4 sets - 2 abs and 2 strength. They felt a bit easier then the past two weeks - so hopefully thats from getting strong and not not having Chisum...but we did try really really hard! And we even added on extra time to the exercises (sometimes, when we forgot to check our watches!) And I didn't even fall down once during planks or leg lifts! AND I did two wall sits that were each 1:40 long! WOOHOO! We also decided to split up our 400s. We did the first two sets - then went out to our parking lot loop. I ran a 87, then 92, but that was partly due to snow (in a part that had not been shoveled and we had to hop through it) and slush. We did the first one the regular way, and the second in reverse. Then we did our second set, and had to stop by the yankee swap quickly on our way back out. We then went out to the 400's that we did once last year where you run from that big tree up to washington and around the corner. Except I don't think it was quite 400 meters because when we got to where we thought we were supposed to end, my watch was at 82 - and that was after slipping, laying on the ground defeated for a couple seconds, and getting back up! And then the second one was 75, so there was no way it was a full 400, but we tried!

As for the warm up and cool down, we warmed up with 15, cooled down with 15, but my mileage was looking a bit shabby this week, and I added on another 15 when I got home. So now, Brennan can't hold over my head that she did more mileage than me this week and force me to cut my cool downs short - I win!

And unfortunately, I legitimately forgot to check my heartrate this morning...

Snowy Sidewalks...

Today we had practice! After only 4 days off, I already missed track, so it was great to see everyone! Everyone else got to do 400's, but I had a B run, so I got Emily come with me! I ran for 40 minutes with her, down the sidewalks of Washington and various plowed streets. Its really really hard to run on semi-plowed sidewalks - it feels like running on sand! It really tired out my legs! So then Emily went home and I ran 20 more minutes by myself. Weirdly, my legs felt really tired, so I went slowly, and finished up with 6 and a half strides because I think they were too short, so I added on! Total B was 60 minutes, which may have been a bit long, but oh well....

Also - my ribs were acting weird. Maybe from the cold?

And morning heart rate - although not completely accurate, was 56.

Monday

So today was a bit of a snowstorm, so I didn't run today - I switched yesterday from off to flows, leaving me with today off! Although I did get quite a bit of exercise anyways! Lots and lots of shoveling! And then I went sledding with Rachel, so got in a bit of a hill workout too!

-forgot to take the pulse this morning though - oops!

More Snow!

So today was Sunday, but since a big snowstorm is on the way, we were told to do our runs today instead of tomorrow. I did the flows workout, which was 2x5, 2.5 min rest, 2x3, 90 sec rest, 3x60, 30 sec rest. I warmed up with 15 minutes and then started. It was flurrying a bit, but not too much. I had to talk to myself to try and keep myself at the right pace, but i really have no idea how I was doing! I think I went a bit harder than last week, but then again last week felt pretty easy of the conversation- scale thing, so I guess it was fine. I wish I had run with Brennan though because she's probably better at pacing those types of things =) I slipped and fell after the first five minute segment, which was a bit of a downer, but I was fine. No bruises!

I cooled down for 20 minutes to get some extra mileage in before the snow. In total, thats like 63 minutes of running, and it felt pretty good. I felt wiped at the end of the cool down, but I was also cold, so that could have had something to do with it.

Heart rate this morning was 14/15, but I woke up again freaking out at the alarm clock. Last night was 52, so I think it jumped when I woke up.

Merry Christmas!

Today was my first ever Christmas run! All these years I've been avoiding them, but it was really quite pleasant! I ran down the brook path out to the highschool, where I saw Priyanka and her dad running. I ran with them for a bit, which was very nice because I haven't run with Pri in a long time! Then I ran back down washington to Wellesley College, and around there a bit. I finished with 6 strides on Leighton. My running time was about 55 minutes. IT felt pretty good, maybe a bit sluggish, but refreshing. The ball of my foot also starting feeling sore, but only for like 10 minutes of the run.

Morning pulse was 56, but last night it was 48, so I don't know what happened there...

And I'm very excited because I got all sorts of running gear/ books/ stuff that I can't wait to use!!!

total this week was about 334