Sunday, January 13, 2013

#NoGymJanuary Update III: Schedules

Hello, Sunday! I hope everyone has had a great weekend so far! Unfortunately, my weekend was marred by a Packers loss. Glad I got to spend it with some GREAT (Packers) friends, but sad to see the boys head into the off season!


This week, it's all been about consistency. After I found my training plan to go Sub-2, I realized that I needed to establish which days would be dedicated to each workout. Since the goal is quality over quantity, I had to schedule three weekday runs and a long run either Saturday or Sunday. Similar to a gym that has set schedules for classes, I decided I needed to add them to the calendar on my phone so I could look up at any time. This means I'll always have it with me to check, no looking up the training plan online, counting the days, etc. This has been really helpful, especially on my runmute and speed work days when I totally forgot what I was supposed to do, and everything was on my phone to check!

Here is what I've been up to outside of the gym this week:

Monday: Run club hill work! I was SO intimidated by this workout; it is 10 hill repeats (Equals just over a 5k) on a GIGANTOR hill in my local park. You run it for time. I said "Maybe I'll three or four." I ended up doing ALL 10! I also got to meet Kim, and was so excited for another Kim to join!

Tuesday: Runmute home from work. I ran a tempo run with two miles to warm up, one mile at 8:15, and one mile cool down. My 8:15 mile ended up being 8:25, which I was COMPLETELY excited about! My route home consists of a lot of stop lights, so I have to be very careful while running. I also don't run with music; despite it being a safe area, it's not "my neighborhood", and not being able to hear a car coming could be very dangerous.

I saw a mounted horseman on my runmute! This is SO rare in Queens! 

Wednesday: Run club speed work! AH! I was VERY intimidated by this. My plan called for one mile warm up, 3x 800's, one mile cool down. The run club was doing 8x 800's...uhhhh, not for me! Thankfully they don't look down on those of us with a training plan ;-) Steph was fabulous and did all 8, along with my coworker who has also hopped on the run club bandwagon! I was in group 3 out of 3, so there's that. Something to work towards! However, if STEPH is telling me group 2 is too fast for her, well, I'll chill in group 3!!!

See Steph Run. She's fast. Go wish her a happy birthday TODAY!

Thursday: REST. I NEEDED to rest. Because of run club, I had combined a lot of my runs on back to back days; the training plan I'm following encourages every other day runs. I loved this day. I made a delicious truffle oil mushroom risotto. It was scrumptious. (Only difference in the recipe is I sauteed the mushrooms in truffle oil.)

Friday: Workout at yoga club! I taught the kids mountain climbers, high knees, crisscrosses, burpees...oh my gosh, they were exhausted and READY for yoga! I also did yoga with them. Felt really good.

Saturday: Another AMAZING long run. What the heck!? Apparently when I decide to run fast and allow myself to be short of breath, I run fast! Who would've thought? I beat me 10k PR by 5:06 (See edit below, I got the distance wrong!)...!?!?!?! Granted, that 10k was in hilly Central Park, in June, high humidity, AND this was Garmin time. I ended up running 7 miles at an 8:53 pace. Mile 3 was my fastest mile at 8:38. Yes, I chose a flat-ish course, so next long run I plan to test out my endurance on a more challenging route.

Well hello there 10k Garmin PR! Edited to add: THIS IS NOT A 10k...I blame runner's brain...but then again I wrote this post well after the run...oh well, it was a PR but maybe by 4 minutes ;-D WHOOPS!

Sunday: REST. I needed to relax today. I ran 15 more miles than the week before, and it was DEFINITELY not a safe 10-20% increase! I have to take it easy and build up the right way to avoid injury.

How about you? Do you schedule your workouts in advance? Do you do what you feel like doing? Are you a slave to consistency? TELL ME ABOUT IT!

5 comments:

Emily @ FitMamaInTheCity said...

Yeah workouts... I love the idea of putting it on the calendar... It makes it so "official." And the run club looks amazing! But scary fast. (I'm in Forest Hills, so close!) I need to work on speed a little bit more. And endurance. And everything.

As for me, I go out with an idea of what I'm going to do, but more or less do what I feel like. More often than not I surprise myself and go further than I thought!

Maureen said...

I like to write my workouts in my calendar at the beginning of each week. I'm still old school and carry around a paper planner and I find that actually writing out my workout schedule by hand (instead of just updating my phone's calendar) actual helps me stick to my routine better.

Karen said...

I like to run with a plan. Without one, I'd probably become so over-trained with 80 mile weeks that I'd eventually quit altogether. Gotta schedule in those rest days. I write on a paper calendar and in a paper weekly planner. My running logs have been formatted the same way since 2006. It is fun to look back at the old ones sometimes :)

Oh fyi, a 10K is 6.2 miles, not 6.1. If it was 5min faster than your 10K pr, it probably was still a PR but more like 3-4 min.

Kristin W said...

I'm impressed by your commitment so early in the year! You are killing No gym January! I've been successful so far....even running on my lunch break! Keep it up!

Kara said...

You are totally going to run a sub-2 half!! I have complete faith in you! If you ever want to run together let me know. Especially with the speedwork - I would love a buddy. I'm so jealous you're able to runmute home!