Monday, February 9, 2009

Slightly Beat Up

I had a pretty "productive" weekend. Although I'm mentally in great spirits and still full of energy, my calves and hamstrings and pretty beat up.

-Saturday I ran in accordance with my training schedule, 8 miles. Those 8 miles were in 20 degrees over some pretty steep hills in Valley Forge National Park. I was kinda intimidated by this run as I've only ever run this distance a few times, all of them on treadmills with no incline. I'm happy to say though that I paced myself very well and felt strong the entire run. I felt I could have even gone further. In the end I ran it in 1:13:15 or a 9:10 mile average, well below my 10 mile average target. I was happy about that.

I felt really good and not sore at all after the run, so on Sunday:

-I rode my bike 30 miles. My friend invited me to come out and the weather was in the 50's for the first time in a while; I couldn't resist. Those 30 miles once again were very hilly. I felt good and pretty strong considering I had no ridden a bike in a month or so.

By Sunday night I had some soreness in my calves. This morning it was time to do my Monday 3 mile run. I did it, outside once again, but I felt like I was running in sand. I still managed a respectable 25:17 or an 8:26 pace, but it sure didn't feel like that when I was doing it.

Now it's a few hours later and like I said, I feel good, but I am sore. I've been stretching when I can.

This week's weather was supposed to be fairly warm and I've been considering commuting on my bike a few days. I'm just not sure if I'm going to wear myself out adding in riding my bike 20 miles a day for a few days, lifting on Tuesday, then doing the rest of my training runs for the week which total another 18 mile.

This Saturday I have to continue to push myself and get up to 10 miles. The following Saturday is 11 and the next is 12, then is tapers down for a few weeks until the actual Half Marathon.

Overall I'm very happy with my progress and I don't want to wear myself out or worse, injure myself for the race. So I think I might have to suck it up and not ride my bike this week. I guess I have all year for that anyway...

I've also heard that a low cardio slow workout can help your muscles to recover and get rid of the extra lactic acid, so maybe I will ride to work...

As you can see I haven't decided yet.

On another note, I've been trying to get back into posting some sort of pictures in my posts. I'm not really a fan of posting pics of myself in spandex, but what the heck. It's not like there arent already half naked pics of my on this blog:

I managed to snap a pic in the freezing cold before my long run on Saturday. The trick to running in such cold? Layers! Lots of them.



Disclaimer: As you can see despite all the exercising I've been getting I still have an extra 10 or 15 pounds around the middle that I'd like to see go away. But being in weight loss mode and doing this much stuff is hard. I'm hoping it comes back off when I get back on the bike more consistently.

2 comments:

Ripx180 said...

looking fit man!!! sounds like you have a pretty intense training regiment going on right now. You should definitely rest a little more as you get closer to your half M. Sounds like things are progressing really well.

Brian said...

The training schedule actually ramps down the last three weeks before the race in order to get rested and be able to give optimal performance during the race.

Today is a rest day cardio wise for me (i still have weight training tonight) which is good. I do feel a like better than I did yesterday which I attribute to a better nights sleep.