Spinning to Chicken Run

Got in a great spinning session on Speedy today while watching the movie Chicken Run (hilarious). Disciplined myself to keep my effort easy. My heart rate was between 120-125 the entire time. I sure wish I had a distance/cadence sensor on my bike. I have no idea how far I rode. I only know my time was 1 1/2 hrs. I suppose it is just as useful to train by time and come spring, I can start keeping track of distance again. Or I can break down and buy a sensor for my bike! :-)  Nah, I'd rather use the money to buy race registrations!

No running today. No running tomorrow. Super 5k race Sunday. Two rest days before the big test. That's how I'm thinking of it, anyway. I'm very excited!

I did another workout from the 100 push-up challenge. The workout itself was a challenge! But I did it. I didn't do the pull-up workout. There's a little twinge between my shoulder blades and I figured push-ups was enough! :-)  The workout looked like this:

• Set 1  -  12 push ups
• Set 2  -  17 push ups
• Set 3  -  13 push ups
• Set 4  -  13 push ups
• Set 5  -  Max out  (I did 19)

Phew! I was feeling that one! :-)

Sent in my passport renewal paperwork today so I will be ready to run the Detroit Marathon this fall. Running across the bridge into Canada means lots of security measures for this marathon! It is worth it though!
GO PACK!!!!!

Ahhh... nice and easy run.

Nice, easy Lifetime Fitness treadmill run next to Matty (He did 24 miles - craziness). I slowly picked up the pace, but never went faster than 8 min/miles (started at 9:05). Hip flexor and adductors a bit tight, but no pain. I did some gentle stretching after the run. Taking the next two days pre-Super 5k off from running. Gotta get spinning anyway! Lumberjack 100 is coming... !!!

100 push-ups, 50 pull-ups?

Cross training day!

I did one hour of nice and easy spinning on Speedy (my Trek 6700 hardtail mountain bike) on the indoor trainer today. I popped in the Transformers 2 movie and watched the first half of it - always makes time on the trainer go by faster. (And you think treadmills are boring???) Unlike running, I can actually wear a HR strap while cycling. I had it on today and kept my HR between 125-135. I think that's about right!

After a few hours rest, I did a full body strength training session focusing on core, hips and glutes. I loved the hip/glute strength training ideas from the latest Rrunner's World print edition - March 2011 (pgs 42-43). I do many of them regularly already. I'd never seen the one with the resistance band around the knee (three way leg raise), so I gave it a try today. Great exercise! It gets the glutes, flexors and abductors all at once! Plus the leg I'm standing on gets worked just trying to balance - stabilizer muscles firing away! I definitely recommend that exercise and all the others on that page as well.

Playing around online after logging my workout today, I came across the 100 push-up challenge again. I'd played around with the idea of doing it before, but I just may commit to it this time. There is also a 50 pull-up challenge. I wonder if I could do both at once. Right now I can do 23 push-ups and 9 pull-ups, so I have a long way to go!  I already made a log to track my progress. I might as well take the plunge! Wish me luck! (Maybe a certain pizza maker will do it with me???)  ;-)

Pre-Storm Long Run - We did it!

Matt and I wanted to get a nice, long run in before the storm. It was great! We drove just a few miles away from the downtown area and parked at Bald Mountain. Then we ran 10ish miles and looped back to the car. We fueled up and then headed out for another 7.5ish miles. It was nice to not have to carry anything with us and still get a long run in on the awesome Orion back roads. It is so hilly around here that long runs turn into hill runs, so we got a great strength workout for our legs along with the endurance workout from a long run. Perfect! Now we can relax and watch the snow fall...

Lumberjack 100 registration in 6 hours! Ahhh!!! The countdown has begun. I'm already nervous.