running: the dawn

I usually do my end of the week wrap up on Fridays, but this weekend I was gifted with a wonderful visit from my parents.  Which was WAY more fun than sitting down and typing out all my workouts from last week.  But I don’t want to forget… so here we go:

This week’s workouts:

Monday: 3 miles
Tuesday: 3 miles & Jazzercise
Wednesday: 5 miles
Thursday: 7 miles & Jazzercise
Friday: 3 miles

Total: 22 miles

Hurray for a successful week!  I’m so happy that I was able to get a run in every day.  Seriously, that hasn’t happened in FOREVER.

So, the truth is that I don’t actually have access to a real-life Jazzercise class.  Which means that I cheated.  I still have all of my old dvd’s from when I was an instructor (that’s how we all learn the routines ).  I just pop one in and dance up a sweat.  Full Disclosure: this is no where near as much fun as being in an actual class with friends, but it’s the only way I can get in some good cross training.  Especially since it was still 100+ degrees every. single. day.

Random Thought: I just saw an ipad commercial where someone was using it in place of a cookbook.  I’ve always dreamed of my perfect kitchen with some sort of snap-in device where I could mount my ipad (which I currently don’t own…but assume that I will someday…).  I actually do most (if not all) my cooking with my laptop propped on a near by shelf with the recipe from my favorite food blog (101cookbooks.com) on display.  Someday this will be a disaster.  I’m sure of it.

Mr. Dawn went with me to my classroom today.  First day back is tomorrow.  With a whole new set of classes that I’m teaching this semester I had a lot of work to do.  Midway through stapling and three-hole punching this semester’s assignment tables he pointed out that they were ALL labeled “January 2010.”  Awesome.

His suggestion was to “walk them through an exercise in crossing out the zero and making it a one.”  His next idea? I could also incorporate the collating and stapling into the same exercise….sounds like fun huh?

Seriously this seems to be the theme of my life.  I feel like I’m about a year behind on everything.  I had a fantastic break full of fun, family, and festivities.  Literally every day could be an entire post all to itself.  Not sure if I’ll get around to that… I did not run as much as I had hoped, but very early on I decided to embrace that and just roll with the punches as far as exercising went.

Meanwhile, midstream, I decided to change training plans.  Yes, we are 15 weeks away from the marathon.  No this is not ideal.

You know that whole new set of classes I mentioned?  Yes.  My life has changed pretty dramatically in the last three weeks.  As in moved to a different building on campus, added three different classes to my prep and will be working more hours.  I decided that my previous schedule with it’s 45-60 miles a week just wasn’t going to work.  I needed something that had more flexibility. I am going to take this training seriously, but I won’t be able to have the singular focus that I have in the past.  After reading about Keri’s experience with the training plan from “Run Less Run Faster” I decided to pick up the book and take a look for myself.  Immediately I was in love! I seriously think that this plan was written specifically for me.

The general idea: run three days a week one long, one tempo, and one speed, then crosstrain two days.  AMAZING!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE to crosstrain and always do it even when my plans don’t call for it.  Today when I was typing out the workouts into a spreadsheet I got really excited about the speed work and a little intimidated by the tempos.  Looks like it will challenge me without overwhelming me.

Yes, I will miss my high(er) mileage weeks, but I know that this is right for me.

Yes, I love snow days EVEN MORE now that I’m a teacher!  It is always exciting to get up, check the computer, and have the option to go right back to be.  And that’s exactly what I did.  Because I was so super productive yesterday with my cleaning, I had very few chores left over to do today.  Which meant…I got to have a true day off.  Ok, so maybe I did some emailing and various other things for work….but it really was just a relaxing lazy day.

My Boston training officially starts this week!  Because the training starts on a Monday (rest day–nailed it!) I decided to skip my long run yesterday [gasp].  I know.  Originally I had  a 15 miler scheduled, but since I did that mileage last week, I thought it would be ok to take another day off.  I wish I could say that I enjoyed it, but unplanned rest days have a tendency to make me nervous.  All day today I kept thinking, “you know, I could go get those miles done now.”  I resisted, but just barely.

I had almost resolved myself to skip my Insanity today and go to bed feeling lazy…but Mr. Dawn knows me better than I know myself and “encouraged” me to get it done.  I did…and he was right.  I feel much better going to bed having accomplished something today.

I’m getting nervous.

We leave at the end of the week.  We’ll be in 4 different states over the course of two weeks.  Will I stick to my plan?  I’ve added all my mileage to my google calendar, and tried to space it out so that it will have the greatest likelihood of actually getting done.   Now, I just need to do it.  Thank goodness for such a supportive husband who will be with me every step of the way (LOVE HIM)!

Go Team Christmas Training!

Anyone else worried about training through the holidays?  It keeps me up at night….

Shaun T. is trying to kill me.

No really.  He is.

At first I thought we just had a cutely-funny, jovial relationship.  I would fall on my face while trying to do “level 2″ drills and we would giggle about how weak my arms are.  He would chide me for taking so many unscheduled water breaks and I would shrug it off with a laugh.  Even though my feet never moved as fast as, say Tonya, I figured that he would overlook it because of my winning smile and “can-do” attitude.

That was all well and good during the first month.

This is month 2.

AKA, death.

I swear, even though the original dvd’s were copyrighted in 2009, Shaun T. stays up late into the night figuring out how exactly to torture me specifically.  Squat push-ups?  Power push-ups?  Level 3 drills?  Common, seriously?  I mean, this is some kind of practical joke, right?  I’m being punk’d.  There’s no way that someone actually thinks that I’m capable of HALF these moves….

That’s what led me to the conclusion that he must want me dead.  I haven’t figured out his motive…but I’ll leave that to Grisom and the Gang after I’m gone.  Don’t be surprised if, when they find my body, I appear to be in some sort of jumping jack position

I am a woman that loves numbers almost as I love seeing the numbers improve.  That is probably the main reason why I’m putting myself through the Insanity program.  I’m not much into all the jumping and yelling in the dvd’s, but I have to admit that I am seeing and feeling improvements.  At least I’m seeing improvements in my ability to jump and slap my knees…I’m not sure when or if I’ll see a mark improvement in my running.  I feel like this program is an investment in my fitness, but I don’t feel like its going to better my long distance running.  It focuses on short bursts of power and intensity which is helpful in playing sports or running track.  Maybe I’ll see my speedwork improve after this…but I won’t be doing much of that for at least another month.

Anyway, on to the numbers.

As you can see…improvement in all areas!  I think the one that was the biggest shocker to me was the switch kicks.  Its the first move in the “Fit Test” and I didn’t look at my previous number until after I finished.  Seriously? More than double?  I’ll take it!  I’m starting to get numbers much closer to the individuals on the dvd.  And because of my selective-competitiveness, I am hope to be able to kick their butts by the end of the 2 months .

After some pretty strong encouragement (read: pressure) from my brother I have decided to give the Insanity dvd’s a run for their money.  I’m still in my “off season” and while I will continue to run and slowly build the mileage back up, I wanted to add in another cross training element–you know, for kicks and giggles.  He’s been through the P90x serious and Insanity both and recommended the later as a better supplement to my running.

Now, I am just 4 days into the series, so I can’t yet speak to any long term benefits or improvements.  What I can tell you is that I have never felt my core this sore after a cardio workout.  Usually I only get this kind of deep-down muscle fatigue after an intense ab-centric workout.  I can’t believe how tender my lower abs have been all week.  True, I did run 4 miles on the same day that I did the “fit test” but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the cause of my sore-core.  Wowza.

From what I can tell so far (remember, only 4 days in) the program is all about cardio intervals incorporating plyometrics (jumping drills), resistance training, and strength building.  I cannot believe how quickly the people on the video move.  It makes me look like I am working out neck-deep in a pool of wet cement.  Seriously.  I mean, I understand that in marathon training we develop our “slow twitch” muscles as opposed to the “fast twitch” but sheesh.  I look like an uncoordinated toddler and I feel like a new born giraffe learning to walk for the first time.  Bottom line: it ain’t pretty.

I’ll be sure to check back in with results the next time I do my fit test in two weeks.  The hope/goal is that every two weeks you repeat the same fit test from day one and you see marked improvement over time.  Let’s get Insane!

The Mr. gave me the go ahead to day to purchase a pull-up bar for our home! I always feel funny buying things that carry the “as seen on tv” stamp.  Don’t get me wrong, some of the best inventions find their start in infomercials (hello snuggie!).  Here’s the one I ended up finding.  On sale of course…

After assembling this simple piece of equipment, I decided to give it a go.  Oh. My. Word.  Seriously?  I like to consider myself relatively fit.  Not any more…this will engage a whole new set of muscles.  And by muscles, I mean pain. I did two “negative” chin-ups (that’s when you jump up and then slowly lower yourself down).  I felt every muscle in my arms, back and abs engaged.  I am excited to explore and try different exercises.  My home gym is slowly taking shape.

I expect to be ripped like this shortly: