Weekend's Away; Running In New Places
Sunday, March 31st - Rest Day:
Leaving town for the weekend is always a bit of a challenge for me.
First, there is the packing - whatever I take has to have room for a pair of running shoes (which I try not to wear when I am not running, to save on tread/loft life), I have to pack a whole set of clothes that will only be worn to sweat in (and spares for those, if I am gone longer than a couple of days), and the number of clothes for this activity changes depending on how familiar I am with the area I am visiting and it's weather patterns.
Then there is the negotiations for morning time - my husband, much to his credit, wants me to sleep in and relax when we are on vacation. I totally get this, but I am sort of hardwired for activity at this point and a day without some sort of physical challenge often leaves me feeling pent-up and bitchy. Not Good On Vacations. My compromise is usually this; I get up early (or really, late by comparison to my normal wake-up time, but early by comparison to 'vacation time' schedules), go on my run or hit the gym, come back and take my shower, climb in bed and read/watch TV until the hubby rouses himself a couple of hours later.
This can actually be quite frustrating for me, as my activity time in the morning includes my brain ramping up for the day. By the time I am out of the shower I have a whole list of things I want to be off and doing. According to my love, any sort of planning is antithetical to the whole concept of vacations.
I...get this...*twitches*. Especially as his job regularly has him working 12 hours shifts (he has three this week).
As a compromise I tend to exercise the first day we're out of town and then take the next day off in an attempt to cultivate my inner lounge lizard. So far this has met with mixed results (see the part about me sucking at relaxing, noted above). This past weekend included. However, I will say that we had a lovely time over all, and I did manage to skip working out on Sunday without turning into a total freak.
Thank the gods. ;)
Saturday, March 28th- Running:
Ran 5 miles/45 minutes = 6.6 mph. Not a devastating pace, but considering that this is my first week breaking 10 miles total in training in 7 days that I have hit in awhile I am OK with it. I also ran in the 'mist' (super-light rain/massively-dense fog) and didn't let the cooler weather deter me from getting my miles in. OMG, the coast. The beach.
Spring. Is. AWESOME. In. California. *happy sigh*
Friday, March 30th - Crossfit:
I was the only person at the 6:30 AM class on Friday - so basically I got private torture training from one of my favorite coaches. It's a little weird being the only person in a class where group motivation is such a big factor in performance. However, I managed to do a good job anyway and certainly felt the effort.
1 Minute WOD (Workout of the Day): Toes-To-Bar (TTB). I did 15 of these and felt pretty annoyed with myself until I took a look at the board and realized that I actually did pretty damn good. :D
Strength Training: Overhead (OH) Squats. Perform five OH squats every minute for 10 minutes. Whatever time you have left after you have completed your five squats is your rest period before the next set begins. I did this with 29 kg, which ended up being a pretty good weight for me. This was also the first time I have used my new wrist wraps and I can tell that they are making a difference. W00t!
Met-Con: As above, this was a timed exercise with sprints, whatever you had left as the remainder of each one minute period was for rest. So, at the beginning of each minute you perform a sprint of the length of the indoor soccer field (from goal box to goal box), and then you rest until the next minute starts. C set me a goal of 13 second reps, I did 12's. *evil grin* I got one 11 second sprint in early, and had a couple of 11.5 second reps in there as well. In the end, I only counted whole seconds so those mid-reps became 12's and my overall combined time for the exercise was 119 seconds. I am curious if I would have been faster with other runners there to amp up my competitive juices.
Leaving town for the weekend is always a bit of a challenge for me.
First, there is the packing - whatever I take has to have room for a pair of running shoes (which I try not to wear when I am not running, to save on tread/loft life), I have to pack a whole set of clothes that will only be worn to sweat in (and spares for those, if I am gone longer than a couple of days), and the number of clothes for this activity changes depending on how familiar I am with the area I am visiting and it's weather patterns.
Then there is the negotiations for morning time - my husband, much to his credit, wants me to sleep in and relax when we are on vacation. I totally get this, but I am sort of hardwired for activity at this point and a day without some sort of physical challenge often leaves me feeling pent-up and bitchy. Not Good On Vacations. My compromise is usually this; I get up early (or really, late by comparison to my normal wake-up time, but early by comparison to 'vacation time' schedules), go on my run or hit the gym, come back and take my shower, climb in bed and read/watch TV until the hubby rouses himself a couple of hours later.
This can actually be quite frustrating for me, as my activity time in the morning includes my brain ramping up for the day. By the time I am out of the shower I have a whole list of things I want to be off and doing. According to my love, any sort of planning is antithetical to the whole concept of vacations.
I...get this...*twitches*. Especially as his job regularly has him working 12 hours shifts (he has three this week).
As a compromise I tend to exercise the first day we're out of town and then take the next day off in an attempt to cultivate my inner lounge lizard. So far this has met with mixed results (see the part about me sucking at relaxing, noted above). This past weekend included. However, I will say that we had a lovely time over all, and I did manage to skip working out on Sunday without turning into a total freak.
Thank the gods. ;)
Saturday, March 28th- Running:
Ran 5 miles/45 minutes = 6.6 mph. Not a devastating pace, but considering that this is my first week breaking 10 miles total in training in 7 days that I have hit in awhile I am OK with it. I also ran in the 'mist' (super-light rain/massively-dense fog) and didn't let the cooler weather deter me from getting my miles in. OMG, the coast. The beach.
Spring. Is. AWESOME. In. California. *happy sigh*
Friday, March 30th - Crossfit:
I was the only person at the 6:30 AM class on Friday - so basically I got private torture training from one of my favorite coaches. It's a little weird being the only person in a class where group motivation is such a big factor in performance. However, I managed to do a good job anyway and certainly felt the effort.
1 Minute WOD (Workout of the Day): Toes-To-Bar (TTB). I did 15 of these and felt pretty annoyed with myself until I took a look at the board and realized that I actually did pretty damn good. :D
Strength Training: Overhead (OH) Squats. Perform five OH squats every minute for 10 minutes. Whatever time you have left after you have completed your five squats is your rest period before the next set begins. I did this with 29 kg, which ended up being a pretty good weight for me. This was also the first time I have used my new wrist wraps and I can tell that they are making a difference. W00t!
Met-Con: As above, this was a timed exercise with sprints, whatever you had left as the remainder of each one minute period was for rest. So, at the beginning of each minute you perform a sprint of the length of the indoor soccer field (from goal box to goal box), and then you rest until the next minute starts. C set me a goal of 13 second reps, I did 12's. *evil grin* I got one 11 second sprint in early, and had a couple of 11.5 second reps in there as well. In the end, I only counted whole seconds so those mid-reps became 12's and my overall combined time for the exercise was 119 seconds. I am curious if I would have been faster with other runners there to amp up my competitive juices.