I had a really great run today!

I met up with a friend for a somewhat long run this morning. We didn’t really have a plan. I was hoping for seven or eight miles at least, but I’m always up for more. We decided to take one of my favorite routes through a waterfront neighborhood.

My friend is a bit faster than me, but usually drops down to stay with the group. Well, since it was only a group of two today, I did my best to keep up! It was probably a comfortable pace for him while a little more effort for me, but I still felt good.

When we got back to our cars it was just under seven miles so  I had to run down the street until the Garmin hit 7.0. I stopped my watch at seven miles, and we walked a minute. He asked if I wanted to keep going.

Of course!

We took a brief walk break and then we started running again. From where we parked, to the water and back is about three miles. My friend hasn’t been running quite  as far lately and started walking just shy of mile nine. I felt good and kept going!

1. 9:52
2. 9:09
3. 9:16
4. 9:17
5. 9:14
6. 9:31
7. 9:46
8. 9:26
9. 9:32
10. 9:23

Ten miles in 1:34:32 – 9:27/mile average. While we did pause and take a walk break after mile seven, that’s still the best long training run I’ve ever had. My 10-mile race PR is 1:35:02!

Core Challenge Week 3 Day 2

After 10 miles, I wasn’t really in the mood for a long core workout, but I had to squeeze it in. I went back to the Wii like I did for my first workout, but I chose the easy version this time!

This workout was a little simpler:

1. Curl ups (10)
2. Crunches with punches (10)
3. Reverse crunches (10)
4. Curl ups (16)
5. Crunches with punches (16)
6. Reverse crunches (15)
7. Curl ups (10)
8. Crunches with punches (10)
9. Reverse crunches (10)

Since there were no leg raises, I created a custom workout with medium and hard leg raises. I forget if it was 10 or 15 for medium, but the hard version had 20 — you really start to feel it then!

So, it turns out the easy workout was a little too easy … but just what I needed after that run!

It’s been a busy week, but I managed to get in all my workouts.

Tuesday night was our last hill workout. Twelve 200-meter repeats up a bridge, with a goal of 63 seconds. It went pretty well. In the beginning it felt a little tedious, but got better once we had a few hills competed.

Here’s the rundown:

1. 57
2. 57
3. 60
4. 61
5. 60
6. 61
7. 60
8. 62
9. 61
10. 63
11. 61
12. 61

Well, I wasn’t able to keep them too much under my goal like I could with some of the shorter sessions, but I stayed pretty consistent.

I thought I was going to have a tough time getting a second run and core workout in mid-week. My choir has concerts this weekend, which meant rehearsals almost every day. Fortunately we got out early Wednesday night and I got to work!

First I hit the treadmill. I planned on keeping it a slow run so I could also watch TV on my laptop. I figured I could multitask — I had a bit of a backlog on the DVR and really want to be able to clear it off before I go on vacation. By watching an episode online, that was one more thing I could delete!

It’s hard to watch TV when you’re running fast, so I kept it easy. But I did have to kick it up towards the end. I was watching a recent episode of 90210 where the Glorious Steinums take the stage …

What a great song. I definitely switched from jog to run once that came on! I managed to finish 4.5 miles by the end of the episode.

Core Challenge Week 3 Day 1

I also wanted to squeeze in a core workout after my treadmill run. I didn’t want anything too long, though, since I got a late start. It was the perfect time to try out the 10 Minute Solutions DVD I got as a freebie at Fitbloggin’!

To qualify for my Core Challenge,  I selected “Six Pack Ab Attack.” This was a fast-paced workout, squeezing a lot of good ab exercises into 10 minutes.  I liked that it moved quickly, and there were definitely some challenging exercises in there. I didn’t really care for the ‘Boot Camp’ theme, though. Saluting and calling the viewers ‘recruit’ and ‘soldier’ seemed a bit silly. It can still be a ‘Boot Camp’ without a military angle!

I also was working out in a small room and it was a little hard to maneuver so I could still see the screen.  Overall I liked it, and look forward to trying the other exercises. These will be great when I only have time for a quick workout!

On Tuesday night, we had 10 hill repeats on the schedule. If you haven’t been following along,  we’ve been running 200 meters up a bridge. My prescribed pace is 63 seconds, and most of the time, I’ve been hitting or exceeding my goals.

We had another rainy day and I really wasn’t looking forward to it. But it wasn’t quite as cold as last time. And I really didn’t want to run my hills on the treadmill again!

1. 56
2. 59
3. 60
4. 60
5. 61
6. 61
7. 62
8. 61
9. 58
10. 65

Yeah … that last lap only looks like it was  too slow.  There were only four of us that braved the rain (that turned to drizzle and stopped) … Two guys and two girls. The guys were faster, and one of them thought it would be funny to move the marker on us. We ran about .01 too far. It makes a difference when you’re only running for a minute!

My only other run was on Saturday this week. It was a sunny day, about 60F. Lovely!

We didn’t have too much time so we just planned a loop through town for a little over six miles. We had to get back in time for another boot camp session!

There’s a trainer in town that offers occasional free classes. I’m going to try to do them as often as I can since they’re really good workouts!

We started with a half-mile warmup run around the track (well, we were already warmed up, but I always like the extra mileage!) and got to work.

After a variety of exercises including push-ups, tricep dips, sideways stair-climbing, medicine-ball passing and tethered running, we had a decent series of ab exercises. Perfect for my core challenge workout!

Core Challenge Week 2 Day 2

I don’t know the names of all the exercises we did, but they included reverse crunches, bicycle, passing a basketball from overhead to our feet and passing a 10-pound medicine ball from overhead to our knees. We finished off with a one-minute dolphin plank hold.

I’m pretty sore today. That means it’s working, right?