Tag Archives: winter miles challenge

An injury?

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Well, I’ve been ignoring some pain in my right foot for about a week. I thought it was getting better, and perhaps it was and the interval training has aggravated it again. It usually only bothers me when I’m sprinting; or if I walk more than a hundred yards in flats or shoes without support; or if I’m bending the toes to do push-ups, planks, or lunges.

I keep debating whether or not to see a doctor, but I’m not the type of person to run in at the smallest thing. Whatever the problem is -stress fracture, plantar fasciitis, tendonitis, etc.- unless it’s bad enough to need surgery (it’s not), the treatment at this point would be the same: take it easy. So that’s what I’m doing. If I’m careful for 2 or even 3 weeks now, I can still pick up my half marathon training in time. Will I do as well? No, but I should at least finish. That’s better than nothing.

This brings me to a couple of dilemmas. First, I’d just upped my calories. Now that I’m doing less cardio, I’m going to drop my calorie limit again, at least this week. But how much? I keep hearing never go less than 500 under your BMR. Okay, but what if you’re still lifting weights to gain muscle?

Second issue: no cardio. Next week I should have access to a swim center, so I can get some cardio workouts there. I’d like to try the elliptical machine at the base gym tomorrow, and see if my foot does okay with that. It’s when the pressure is on the ball or toes of my foot that I have problems. As long as I’m coming down on my heel on the elliptical, it should be okay. Either that or I’ll walk on the treadmill on an incline. I just need to get some cardio in. I’m scared I’m going to gain fat.

Anyway, this is all kind of depressing. This is my last week of the Winter Miles Challenge, and I’m not sure I’m going to meet my goal! I did get over 5 miles in on Sunday (caused me foot pain all Monday morning), so if I can get a couple of miles here and there on the treadmill or elliptical, I should be okay. I just have to really listen to my body.

Have your plans ever been thrown off by an injury?

Beautiful weather for once!

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So I took the weekend off after my run/jog/walk last Friday. I should’ve run on Monday, but the temp only got up into the 30s. Well, the rest of the week was forecasted to hit the 50s and 60s, so I decided to wait, rather than drag Baby J and I out into it.

Tuesday I did 5.88 miles outside with Baby J and the jogging stroller. It was a beautiful day- sunny and in the 50s! I’ve been reading a bit about interval training, so I did walk/jog/run intervals. Afterwards, I felt awesome!

Today I took Baby J for a 3.34 mile bike ride around the neighborhood. It wasn’t a very strenuous workout, but we did get some activity. In a few minutes I’m going to do some push-ups, ab exercises, lunges, squats, and planks.

I’m debating whether I should get my long run in tomorrow or wait until Friday. The thing is, tomorrow it’s going to be upper 40s in the morning. On Friday, it’s supposed to be low to mid 60s in the morning. Sounds great doesn’t it! BUT there’s a chance of storm on Friday. I guess I’ll head to the park in the AM, and just see how it goes.

I think I’ll be able to up My Winter Miles Challenge this week from beginner (10 miles) to intermediate (20 miles)!

On the diet front, I’ve been eating too much. :( I need to get this under control! I have a plane ticket for Baby J and I to go and stay with my husband in Florida for a couple of weeks. I have a week and couple days until we leave. J hasn’t seen me since Christmas. He knows I’ve trimmed up, because he’s see me on Skype and in photos, but I want to look REALLY good in person, you know?

View during my run yesterday!

Me and Baby J after our bike ride today! He wants to know why my helmet is unsnapped (I just undid it because we were done!).

How is your week going? Have you been meeting your goals?

One bad week but one good run

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Well, another week has gone by. This was a bad one. I just ate too much food. Not enough self control. I barely worked out at all! BUT I did have one good run, yesterday. It was a very windy day, and the wind kept catching the jogging stroller, so it was tough. I did walk/jog intervals for about 10 1/4 miles. My averaged out pace was 12:32 min a mile, so I’m pleased about that. I’m happy overall that I was able to get the distance in! I did meet my Winter Miles Challenge, woohoo! You can read more details in my Fitness Friday post at Mylifeaworkinprogress.com.

The next few days are supposed to be cool, but mid-week the weather’s supposed to warm up. The forecast says we may even get into the 60s! As exciting as that is, every time this area has a good extended forecast, by the time we get there, some storm or other has moved in bringing snow and cold.

I’m just really hoping that we have good weather by March, so I’ll at least have a month of good training for my half marathon. As it is now, I could completely the half, but not as fast as I’d like. Baby J and I are going to visit his Daddy in Florida in a couple of weeks. We’ll be there for about 2 1/2 weeks, so perhaps I’ll get some good runs in while I’m there!

One other thing, my arm muscles are getting stronger. I was able to do more reps and more weight this week. I need to be more consistent though. I have a lot of work to do, so hopefully next week will be better.

Baby J loves to ride in his stroller during mama’s runs!

How was your week? Your weekend so far?

An easy weekend

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I planned on both Saturday and Sunday being rest days, but some friends of mine wanted to run. So yesterday morning I ran a couple miles at an easy pace with them, and then we walked a couple more. Today, Sunday…no running. Hopefully my legs will be well rested for tomorrow. I’m meeting three friends; it’ll be a fun run!

In other news, for some reason I thought my push-ups app was a daily thing, but realized you’re only supposed to do it three days a week. I’m going to do arms Mon-Wed-Friday then, but I’ll add in some free weights.

Abs I’ll probably do Mon-Fri. I’m wondering if there’s some sort of online fitness tracker, or if I should just use an Excel Spreadsheet.

Anyway, not a lot to report, except I did meet my Winter Miles Challenge for this week, woohoo! About to head over to Run with Jess to report that.

How was your weekend?

TGIF and I’ve joined the Winter Miles Challenge. You can too!

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Winter Miles Challenge Button

I’ve signed up for the 2014 Winter Miles Challenge hosted by Run with Jess! This free challenge is to motivate us all through the toughest two months of the year- January and February. Although it doesn’t get really cold here in Southern Virginia, I still can use the motivation.

You don’t have to be a blogger to participate, so check out the link above for more info and to sign up. The challenge is open to everyone, and you can pick how many miles you plan to run each week (and change that at any point). And there are prizes you could win!

I knew this week I’d have trouble getting mileage in, so I picked the beginner goal at 10 miles of running a week. We’ll see how I do, but hopefully by February I’ll be in the next category, which is intermediate.

On a different note, today I blogged a Fitness Friday post on my other blog, My Life: A Work in Progress. If you’re interested, you can pop over there and read my current fitness goals as well as view some photos. I even posted my measurements (scary stuff- for me!). You’re also welcome to join me over there every week for Fitness Friday, and you don’t need a blog to do so!

Today’s run was the third this week. And I’ve gotten progressively slower. But I ran a little farther, so I’m not depressed about it. It balances out, right? I figure it’s going to take a few weeks before I get back into the swing of things. I will be able to run faster and farther…it’s just going to take some time to build my endurance and speed back up.

To recap:

  • Wednesday, I ran 1.8 miles at an average pace of 9:36.
  • Thursday, I ran 2.15 miles at an average pace of 9:39.
  • Today (Friday), I ran 3.62 miles at an average pace of 10:58. I actually did run/walk intervals for a couple miles after that, but I wasn’t tracking the time or exact distance.

I was very stiff and sore today, and really struggled to put one foot in front of the other. Just have to keep working at it! I haven’t done any ab or arm exercises yet today, but I’m about to run my push-up app.

How was your day? Did you meet your goals this week? Are you working out this weekend or taking a break?