It’s been so long I forgot my password

So it’s been awhile since I logged in here.  A long time actually.  I forgot my password to log in. That’s bad.

Anyway, I’ve been training with a new group and that has motivated me to start posting again.

I’m running with Power in Motion (PIM), which is a subgroup of HARRA (Houston Are Road Runners Association).

I originally signed up to try to meet more running friends, but it has actually been really great in helping with my overall running.  As I was describing to another girl this week, my typically running has been binge based.  I’ll run for a couple of months, then stop.  Sign up for a race, train, run hard and then stop.  I’m hoping with PIM i will train smarter and get in to more of a consistent running routine.

Our plan calls for 4 runs per week. 1 as a group on Wednesdays and 3 on our own.  So far I’ve been doing 2/3 each week and I feel good about that.  It’s a lot more than I previously had been doing.

Our group meets on each wednesday and this week we had someone speak about running form.  More importantly heel strikers vs good form.  I had never thought about myself as a heel striker, but he gave us a really good test to find out if we were running with good form or not.  We  were to run in place, lean forward and start running.  That was how it was supposed to feel and if it didn’t feel like that or if we leaned back when we were running it probably meant we were running on our heels.

Major shocker for me…I was a heel striker!!!  We had a 25 min run on the schedule and I practiced on leaning forward and having a quick turnover.  I felt pretty good cardiovascular wise although I had new parts of my body hurting-specifically my shins and ankles.

 

Today I went for a 20 min shakeout run and practiced the same technique.  I felt pretty good other than right knee aching (I’ve had ACL surgeries on each knee so not surprising), but it wasn’t terrible and went away after stretching.  Either way I’m excited to be back into the running groove again!

Back on the blogging train

So I guess you could say I fell off the blogging wagon.  In reality I fell off the trainerhttps://shortgirlruns.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/you-can-tip-over-while-on-your-trainer/ Yea that really happened.  Since then I:

– Successfully completed the MS150 bike ride from Houston to Austin:

At the finish line in Austin

-Finished decorating our house and had our housewarming party (about 3.5 months after we moved in)

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– Spent a lot of time in the backyard with Nolan pup

– And signed up for another triathlon!

I’m doing the Freedom Y Triathlon in Pearland, TX on June 29th.  It’s a pool triathlon, which I’m excited about since I have yet to actually do the swim portion of a tri.  It’s also in June in Texas, which could end up being super hot.  I have been kinda laid back following training, so hopefully I will survive on race day.  I recently went swimming in our community pool and although I had to dodge a few kids, I got the workout done.  I’ve also enjoyed some jogs/runs around the lakes in the community.  This (a safe place to run) was one of my wants  for moving, so I better take advantage of our new neighborhood. I also found a new app which has running mixes called rock my run.  It has worked out pretty well on my runs so far.

We’ve been very lucky to have a mild spring, temperature wise.  It’s finally starting to get REALLY hot.  I waiting until 8ish the other night to do my run and still was covered with sweat when I came back.

Anyway, I’ve got about 2 weeks until the triathlon, time to buckle down for 1 more week of hard training!

You can tip over while on your trainer…

Yup, I learned something new today. My trainer isn’t 100% stable when I’m leaning over to pick up a dog toy.

If you look closely at the aftermath you’ll see a red ball on the ground. That’s what I was going for. Nolan kept bringing it to me and dropping it just shy of my hands. I was prepared to keep him happy with treats while I was on the trainer with a small ziploc bag of treats. See, he thinks whenever I’m on the bike trainer it’s time to play. He constantly is bringing me his treat ball (red Kong toy I can stuff treats in that he has to work to get out) and his squeaky snake (you can see that one in the picture too).

I was about 25 min in when I tipped off and the ride had been going so well. Silly of me to think I had gigantic arms and could reach the ball without getting up. I’ve learned my lesson. No dogs, people or furniture were hurt during this ride. My bike seems ok, but I need to get it inspected before the MS150 anyway so I think I’ll take it in next week to make sure it’s fine.

I was supposed to do a 49 or 74 mile training ride with the series I’m doing, but it was called off because of thunderstorms. 25 minutes on the trainer didn’t even touch the surface of that. I definitely need to get in the saddle more tomorrow and next week.

After the spill Nolan and I took a short 1 mile jog. He was so happy afterwards, but 1 mile is pushing how much he can do without getting bored.

I was pondering training today and I got to thinking that I’m the kind of person who needs a race registration to actually motivate me. I talked about doing triathlons for a long time, but only started seriously training for one after I paid my money. I am working on a race schedule for this year and will post soon. This way after station my intentions I can hold myself accountable to training.

Here’s to trainer rides and no more indoor crashes!

Workout Recap 3/2-3/8

This recap is a little late, but I actually did a few workouts so I wanted to log them.

3/2 Sunday: bike ride around local park= 15 miles.  I was supposed to go on a training ride with the series that I’m using to train for the MS150, but the pre-ride email talked a lot about a bad tailwind and the possibility of rain.  That really didn’t persuade me to get out of bed, but seeing as how the ride is coming up soon I decided to get something in.  Brad wanted to go hit some range balls so I had him drop me off and I figured I would ride until he was done.  That worked out to be about 15 miles.

The loop is at Tom Bass Park and is perfect for training.  Each lap is 1.5 miles and the road is pretty quiet.  It was good training as I rode with a tailwind, sidewinds and a headwind.  Towards the end it started to drizzle, so I was really glad I didn’t go on the training ride.

3/3 Monday: slow 2.14 mile run.  I decided to use my heart rate monitor for this one and I always feel like I’m moving at a snails pace.  I haven’t been running much lately and this seems like the way to go.  I enjoyed a nice run around my new neighborhood and around the lakes.  

Tuesday, Wednesday: unplanned rest days.  It was freezing outside, I did nothing.

Thursday: 1.5 hours of pulling weeds in the backyard.  We hadn’t touched our yard since we moved in.  We had weeds taller than the dog.  I count it as a workout because my hamstrings were shaking at the end from so much squatting and standing.

Friday: rest day

Saturday: 43 mile training ride in Columbus, TX (2 hours from Houston!) Up super early for a training ride. They said that part of this ride was on the actual ride we would do on the MS150.  I had a great ride for whatever reason and felt really strong until the last 5 miles of hills.  I’ve been working on my fueling and water intake and would like to think that helped.  I could feel my hamstrings were a little tight, so maybe that helped as well?? Who knows, but I really enjoyed myself.  

This is what my outfit looked like at the end of the ride.  Still working on my layers

Week of 3/9: My parents, brother and grandma are in town from PA! We’ve been relaxing, heading to the beach and the rodeo.  I haven’t really done much except a lot of walking and sleeping!

4 more weeks until the MS150!

My co-worker and I are thinking about signing up for a super sprint triathlon the weekend after the MS150.  If we do I need to get in the pool ASAP.  More details to come…

2/22/14 Ready to Roll Training Series Ride New Waverly

The day after my birthday I woke up early to head up to New Waverly, TX with one of my friends for a training ride.  There were 2 options for the ride: 32 miles and 51 miles.  The furthest I’ve ever gone has been around 45 miles, so 51 would be a big increase.  For the ms 150 we ride around 100 miles the first day so we decided we needed to push oursevles to get the best out of our training.  Here’s the map of the ride:

The green areas are all national forest lands (I believe), so the first part of our ride was surrounded by trees.  We were actually going up and down some gentle hills and I went the fastest I’ve ever gone on a bike 24+ MPH.  I felt like I was flying!  I really enjoyed myself the first part of the ride….then we were out of the forest and hitting more hills on rougher roads 😦  The climbs were really hard for me, having really only rode on the flats of Houston.  The last climb before the 3rd rest stop was a real killer.  I was in my lowest gear and only going 3 MPH, sad face.  After that the last 10ish miles of the ride was along the highway frontage road and was referred to in earlier eamils as the “roller coaster”.

  Yea, it was and we had a head/cross wind for most of it.  I seriously contemplated jumping in a SAG vehilce several times during this portion.  It was just rough.  In order to keep going I kept telling myself how proud I would feel at the end when I was done.  I think it worked?  Either way I finished and came back and napped the rest of the day.  

We are about 6 weeks out until the MS150 and I need to do some serious training.  My plan is to get on the trainer 2 times per week in addition to the training rides.  Hopefully more time in the saddle will help because my shoulders/neck end up killing me about halfway through the rides.

First Run Around the New Neighborhood

I can say I am so excited to finally have a safe, quiet place to run!

As I mentioned we moved to a development with planned walking trails around lakes. I would guess maybe 5-6 miles worth if not more. Right now my maximum running totals haven’t been more than that, but should I decide to run more than that or get bored there’s a neighborhood across the street from us that supposedly has 19 miles of walking paths/trails.

I took my first run last Sunday after taking about 3+ weeks off. I did an easy run from my house and around the 2 lakes in my side of the neighborhood. It ended up being about 1.5 miles and was so quiet and peaceful. There’s houses lining the lake so I got to peek into everyone’s backyards and look at their patio furniture. We’re currently searching for some to upgrade the tiny bistro set that was on our apt patio.

Overall great run and I can’t wait to do even more. I have a long bike ride with some “hills” Saturday up near Huntsville, which is about an hour north of me. Hoping to also get a run in this weekend too!

Yoga Studio

I’m really itching to take my first run in my new neighborhood, but Mother Nature has had other plans for me. For the past 2 days we’ve had a steady light rain. The temperatures have average around 40°. This is just really isn’t running weather for me.
 
 I think the thing I most appreciate right now about the new house is having a backyard for Nolan. No more walking in the cold rain waiting for him to go to the bathroom!
 

While I’ve been technically counting moving as workouts (I’ve been a little sore each evening). It was time to do something else.
 
 I have the yoga studio app on my iPad and I really love it. I can’t remember how much it was to download, but definitely less than $10. After you have the app you can download different yoga sequences. Lately I’ve been using the beginner strength and the beginner flexibility. Each of these workouts are only 15 minutes long. Everything seems to flow well and you have pictures on the screen to guide you.

Nolan likes to make it even harder for me by running into me while I’m in bridge pose and bringing me toys to play with. The The workouts go by quickly but in the end I’m happy I at least did something.
 
 It looks like there’s only a small chance of rain tomorrow so hopefully I can get my first run in!
 
 -to everyone who stopped by as part of #SITSblogging, thank you a much! I have been even more motivated to keep working out!
 
 What are your go to workouts when it’s raining?
 

Workouts Lately 2/6/14

So my workouts lately haven’t really amount to that much, but I have a good excuse….we are moving into our new house! We have had about 2 weeks to paint and slowly move things.  The movers come in 2 days and I’ve basically been counting moving things to the car and carrying them to the car as my workouts.  We’re super excited to move into our own place and to be in the suburbs (I think).  I am most excited about having a safer place to run.  Our new neighborhood has trails around lakes, street lamps and quieter streets in general.  I will miss our close proximity to work and that’s about it for the old

I did get 1 workout in the past 2 weeks-a training ride for the MS150.  The MS150 is a ride from Houston to Austin that is a pretty huge event.  I think it’s around 180 miles total in 2 days so there is a training series you can sign up for to get yourself ready for it. 

I attended the first ride which was in Katy, approximately 30 minutes from my house.  That was back on January 18th.  I ended up doing the 28 mile ride, which wasn’t too bad other than the headwind for the last 8 miles on a rough road.  It was actually the same route I did for the tour de donut, so I knew what to expect.

I skipped the 2nd ride because we were trying to get all of our painting done.  We did with only 1 person (well animal) ended up with paint on them when they decided to take a nap up against the wall

The 3rd ride was in Sealy, TX, about an hour west of Houston and with a little more hills.  The hills really aren’t hills compared to anywhere but the south, but when you’ve only been riding the flats they seem huge.  My friend Caroline and I opted for the 44 mile ride to work on our endurance.  Again not a great day for riding.  Sidewind or headwind for about 40 of the 44 miles, which was pretty rough.  I really struggled the last 10 miles from the last rest stop.  It’s pretty discouraging when you look down and only see yourself going 9 MPH 😦 I even considered dropping out of the MS150 (you know all the crazy things that go through your mind when you’re in pain).  I successfully made it back to the start, had to get on my bike and ride 1.5 miles back to my car.  We drove to Panera and I had the delicious Fontina grilled cheese and tomato soup.  I finished the drive home, showered and napped the rest of the day. 

I’m hoping to get into a better workout routine once we move, but we’re going to be having our floors done starting next Wednesday so I’m sure that will throw off our routine a little.  Hoping to at least do all the training rides until the MS150 as a goal

Weekly Workouts 1/5/14-1/11/14

It has finally warmed back up in Houston and is no longer below 40 degrees. Yay!

Last week was a very busy week at work. We had another co-worker leave to get married, so we’re covering for her until we find and train a replacement. I didn’t leave work til 7 PM last Friday, which was a depressing way to end my week.

Still working on getting in the schedule of workouts I planned for the week, but here’s what I got for ya:

Sunday: (planned: rest) Actual: rest day, but some time in at the driving range with my new junior (aka child’s size clubs)

Lets just say I probably could use some lessons

Monday:  run 6 , walk 2 x 4, ab workout, post run stretch Workout completed!

Tuesday: Nike Training Club upper body workout No workout 😦 I actually can’t remember what I did 

Wednesday: run 6, walk 2 x 4 times– Finished this workout too. Went to the apt complex gym and fumbled to get connected to the wifi. Finally get connected to wi-if, load Hulu plus and start watching tv, get 3/4 thru new girl, realized I watched that episode the night before (so apparently that’s what I did instead of working out), go to switch to a different episode, remember that I’ve actually been watching the mindy project while I run, feel silly, watch 10’mins of new show, take sweaty post run stretching picture:

 Thursday : rest (corporate dinner after work) Completed!

Friday: run 6, walk 2 x 4 No workout, exhausted from work 

Saturday: run 6, walk 2 x 4, Volunteer at work event in AM, take nap, go to dive bar to watch NFL playoffs, no workout

Sunday: bike ride (distance TBD) Didn’t quite make the bike ride, but I installed my new bike rack on my car.

Here’s my old rack hanging out:

It was super sturdy, but actually about eye level with me. Lifting my bike on there was a huge pain. Also another short girl problem is that my 44cm frame is pretty small ( hard to believe right?) getting it properly positioned was at least a 5 min battle.

Enter the Thule Raceway Platform:

This beautiful rack was the rack of this short girl’s dreams. Easy to load, adjustable wires instead of straps, lockable to my car…I could go on. It normally sells for $349, so when I saw it for $209 and free shipping thanks to amazon prime I knew it was meant to be.

Her she is attached to my car and loaded up (bike is actually out of place and should be closer to the car, but I was playing around when I took this picture.

Beautiful! I’m planning on taking it for its inaugural trip with bike this weekend to a training ride for the BP MS 150.

Recap November-Decmber

So the past 2 months were pretty busy for me and with good reason….

We bought a house!!!

It’s a crazy feeling to spend a ton of money and sign your life away, but it feels so good knowing that we’ll no longer be paying rent.  We found the house in the middle of October, offer was accepted within a few days, then a quick few days of finding insurance, a home inspection and negotiating items.  Luckily the house is pretty new and in great shape so we didn’t really request many things to be fixed.  Just a few small things here and there.  We closed the beginning of December, but we’re actually leasing back to the previous homeowners until Jan 19th.  So we technically haven’t been in the house yet and it doesn’t really seem real to me yet.  The holidays were spent back in PA with my family and I returned to start packing up our tiny apartment.  It’s amazing how much stuff you can pack away.

I’ve got some exciting things on the horizon for the spring.

1. MS 150 in April (I signed up for a training ride, where I’ll hopefully ride every Saturday until then)
2. Parents, brother and grandmother visiting for a week in March
3. First triathlon of the spring in late April.

I slacked off over the holidays and while I did struggle through a turkey trot, there wasn’t much running going on afterwards.  I’m working on a running plan right now from Women’s Running magazine to get back into shape safely.  I had some sore legs and knees in the fall when running, so I want to get back into things slowly and without injuries.  The plan is great and has some walk/run segments that you do for a certain amount of time.  For example this week I’m to run on 4 separate days, each day I run for 6 minutes and walk for 2.

 

I spent last night on the treadmill here at the apartment complex since it’s actually freezing outside (hardly ever happens in Houston 🙂  I watched the Mindy Project on my ipad so it went by quickly.  I also really like being able to set my pace on the treadmill and just run.
 

I’ve also been incorporating in some yoga/core work to help prevent injuries as well.  Here’s my current plan for the week:

Sunday: rest

Monday: run 6 , walk 2 x 4, ab workout, post run stretch

Tuesday: Nike Training Club upper body workout

Wednesday: run 6, walk 2 x 4 times

Thursday: rest (corporate dinner after work)

Friday: run 6, walk 2 x 4

Saturday: run 6, walk 2 x 4

Sunday: bike ride (distance TBD)

 

Here’s to hoping the weather warms up soon!!