Fit Friday - 2 Weeks to Race Day
I am excited to introduce my first Fit Friday post!!! Fit Friday's are a chance to recap my workouts, runs, and what I've been eating from the week and document my progress with my current goals. I usually use Friday as a rest day, and do my long runs on Saturdays, so this will cover Saturday to Friday.
Saturday: The Operation Jack Half Marathon is two weeks from today!!! My goal is to do better than my 1:45 average finish time and not burn myself out so I can continue training for the Big Sur Marathon. I've incorporated weight lifting into my training which has helped me feel much stronger on long runs where I used to feel sluggish by mile 8. Saturday's 10 mile run was good. The primary reason why it wasn't great is because at Mile 2, I was surprised when I went down to the boardwalk, and it was completely closed and torn up! I had no idea they shut this part down a few days before my run. You can see the blip in my splits where Mile 3 jumped up so significantly: 7:27, 7:39, 8:07, 7:51, 7:55, 8:09, 8:07, 8:08, 8:20, 8:07. My goal for tomorrow's long run is to keep the first 8 miles under 8 minutes.
Monday & Wednesday: Ideally, I'd like to run 4 days a week, and lift at least 3. This means doubling up at least one day so I can have a complete rest day. I was not successful at doing that this week, and only had 2 other runs on Monday and Wednesday. Both were 6.4 mile runs and I felt great on both of them, maintaining a pace of 7:45 on each run. My sister is Fit Healthy Fun Kate, and she likes doing challenges and other shiz like that. Her most recent challenge was Advocare's 24 day challenge and she is now a supplier. Distributor. I'm not completely sure, but she deals these drugs (totally kidding!!), so if you want them, you can purchase them directly through her site. She gave me a sample of O2 Gold which is supposed to enhance the body's use of oxygen during high endurance activities. Kate doesn't run because she has a bad knee, so she pawned them off on me to see how they work. I tried them during my Wednesday run, and my breathing was solid. I felt like I could keep running for another 3 miles at least at a sub-8 pace. Now, I am not swearing by these magical pills because I also feel like I've improved my overall fitness level with weight training, but will keep trying them during my runs to see how they improve my breathing.
Typical flexing in the gym pic
Sunday, Tuesday, & Thursday: I always try to make the Sunday morning Body Pump class at the gym. I like this after my long runs on Saturday because it's a full body workout and I'm more likely to workout after a long run if I participate in a class. Tuesday morning's gym sesh was back, chest and abs. I am really working to strengthen my core and back because my back has been a pain point for me this past year. Thursday I focused on legs, shoulders, biceps and abs. I do legs before rest day because I feel like it's hard to legitimately do a leg day when you're a runner because you are always working them so hard. This gives me a day of recovery before my long run, but my legs will still be sore tomorrow, I'm sure. I also think this preps me for pushing through the pain I will experience during a race.
A few things I've been focusing on this week are hydration. I just got my delivery of Nuun All Day tablets from some Cyber Monday shopping I did and these have helped me drink an additional 24 ounces of water each day. Let's face it water is boring, but so necessary for all fitness levels. I use the All Day tablets on days that I just lift or run less than 8 miles because they are full of essential vitamins. I use the Nuun Active tablets for long run days because they provide a higher level of vitamins + electrolytes without the extra sugar you would get from a traditional sports drink. I haven't tried the Nuun Energy yet, but this looks like a great option for pre race hydration because it has the vitamins + electrolytes + caffeine.
I love getting packages of goodies!
I've also tried to minimize my mindless sugar intake/dessert obsession. I used to eat a huge bowl of ice cream every night, but lately have been having 2 lightly salted rice cakes topped with nut butter (I really like Peanut Butter & Co.'s The Bees Knees and White Chocolate Wonderful) and bananas. It's a great balance of sweet and salty and it fills me up. It also has way more nutritional value than the ice cream I was eating. Next week, I'm testing out proyo (protein packed frozen yogurt) for dessert!!
If you have any good proyo recipes, let me know so I can try them out and add them to next week's Fit Friday post!
J
