Week of 12/28/15 – 1/3/16: Rock ‘n’ Roll Nashville training, week 1

week of 12/28 to 1/3

Monday: rest day
Tuesday: rest day
Wednesday: 3.5 miles (10:53 average pace)
Thursday: rest day
Friday: 3 miles (10:42 average pace)
Saturday: rest day
Sunday: 5 miles (11:18 average pace)

A pretty good start to half marathon training, and a pretty good start to the new year. For the moment, I’m not following any sort of plan. I’m running some shorter runs during the week and a longer run on the weekends. That’s the only plan at the moment. Probably around mid-February or March I will start throwing in some structured speed work and tempo runs, but, for now, it’s just whatever I feel like doing.

That said, on Friday’s run, I did 5:1 intervals where the 5 minute portions were done around tempo pace (maybe a little slower, but I am a little slower since the last time I calculated my tempo pace). It felt good!

Week of 11/23/15 – 11/29/15: 21 Day Fix Round 2, Week 2

week of 11/23 - 11/29

Monday: Total Body Cardio Fix
Tuesday: Upper Fix and 3 miles (11:24 avg pace)
Wednesday: Lower Fix
Thursday: Pilates Fix
Friday: Cardio Fix and 3 miles (11:26 avg pace)
Saturday: Dirty 30
Sunday: rest

Yeah, we skipped yoga this week because Sunday was too busy.

I’m not going to bother posting our meal plan because we only planned three days because of the four day weekend. Yes, I did eat cake (and Oreo cake balls… *drool*) on Thanksgiving, and, yes, it was delicious.

Honestly, this round of 21 Day Fix feels so much harder than it did last time. We are hungry. All. The. Time. Like we eat a meal and ten minutes later we are hungry again because vegetables are not filling. It makes us grumpy. I think it is making us not sleep well, and so we don’t want to wake up early to work out.

Week 3 (and I realize this post is about week 2) has been terrible. We’ve only worked out like twice. Guys, we gave in and went to Mellow Mushroom on Wednesday. Back when I was doing this alone and so Jonathan wasn’t also hungry all the time, he was able to encourage me. Now we just enable each other because we both just want real food.

I need chips and queso.

Abs aren’t worth this.

In running news, my leg still hurts, so I ended up downgrading the Mt. Juliet Holiday Half to the 5k. But Jonathan is going to run it with me now, so there’s that. Assuming we can make it through without any fuel in our bodies. I haven’t ran since last Friday because of my leg.

Week of 11/16/15 – 11/22/15: 21 Day Fix Round 2, Week 1

week of 11/16 - 11/22

Monday: Cardio Fix
Tuesday: Upper Fix
Wednesday: Lower Fix and 3.5 mile walk
Thursday: Pilates Fix
Friday: Cardio Fix
Saturday: Dirty 30
Sunday: Yoga Fix and 7.1 mile run (12:34 min/mi avg pace)

Because we are going to be spending a few days in December in swimwear, Jonathan and I decided to do a round of 21 Day Fix beforehand. This, of course, is my second time doing it, but it is his first. There’s definitely been new challenges and stuff that’s been easier when involving a second person in this madness!

I was planning on taking most of the week off from running anyway, since I was trying to get that pain in my left calf to go away. That worked out well since I was incredibly sore from all the 21 Day Fix workouts for most of the week.

As far as menu planning goes, it wasn’t too terrible. We did planning and a lot of cooking on Sunday before we started. Since we somehow fell into the same calorie bracket (which was weird to both of us), we were mostly eating the same things throughout the week with just a few differences based on our individual likes and dislikes: I was drinking Shakeology with spinach every morning while he ate egg veggie muffins. He ate black beans whenever I ate black-eyed peas. He ate blueberries, and I ate grapes. We let him eat a couple little extras here and there, like some almonds as a snack in the afternoon, just to give him a few extra calories but not enough to be in the next bracket.

21 day fix week 1 meal plan

That was our meal plan for the week. Friday looks questionable because we weren’t sure where we would be eating out for lunch with our respective coworkers. I ended up having a small sirloin with zucchini and broccoli at Ruby Tuesday’s. My coworkers got to hear me contemplate things like, “Does this look like one or two cups of veggies to you?”

It was definitely easier having Jonathan doing the program with me this time since we could help motivate each other and spend time together doing the workouts. It was also super helpful to have an additional chef in the kitchen on meal prep day!

Things are looking good so far… I’m already down 6 pounds! (I may have weighed in initially right after stuffing myself with dinner…)

However, my one run this week did not go so well. I don’t know if it’s due to the restricted amount of calories/carbs I’ve been consuming, but I started feeling weak five miles into what I hoped to be a 12-13 miler, and I had to stop completely at mile seven and practically crawl my way down the greenway. I was seriously iffy on if I’d even be able to make it the two miles back to my car. After I got home and ate, I felt mostly fine, so I’m guessing that’s what it was. I will make sure to not follow the diet the day before the half!!

On a better note, my calf didn’t bother me at all on the run. It was a little sore the next morning, but not too bad.

Week of 11/9/15 – 11/15/15: Mt. Juliet Half Training

week of 11/9 to 11/15

Monday: rest day
Tuesday: 3 miles (11:09 average pace)
Wednesday: 3.4 miles (10:35 average pace)
Thursday: rest day
Friday: rest day
Saturday: 3 miles (12:10 average pace)
Sunday: 3 miles (12:59 average pace)

After my 11 miler last week, I started to have a sort of weird inkling of pain in my left calf. It didn’t hurt while running, but if I moved my leg in a certain way, a mild pain would shoot up my leg to my hip.

On Tuesday’s run, it didn’t really bother me. This was my first treadmill run of the season, which gave me some shin splints when I started, but they went away, and I felt mostly fine for the rest of the run. Wednesday’s run with East Nasty went really well.

On Saturday, I wasn’t feeling great. My leg felt about the same, but I was coming down with a cold (thanks, Jonathan) and was maybe a little hungover from my birthday party the night before. So I took it slow and didn’t push. Yet when I was done, I was limping.

As Saturday went on, my leg started to feel better and I was able to walk normally again. I went back and forth on if I should rest or do my long run on Sunday. Ultimately I decided to go for it, but just take it easy.

It was the hardest ever.

It felt like 50 pound weights were attached to each leg. I was only doing 2:1 intervals, but it was everything I could do to make it through each 2 minutes of running. While walking I felt fine, but running was absolute torture. I called it quits at three miles and figured it would benefit me more to rest than to push myself through 12 torturous miles and end up in more pain.

So that’s where I am right now. I’m going to take a few days (maybe all the way up till the weekend, we’ll see) and RICE my left leg until it feels better. There’s still several weeks before the half, so I think early intervention will mean that I should still be able to run it.

Just couldn’t make it all year without hurting myself, could I?

Week of 11/2/15 – 11/8/15: Mt Juliet Half Training

week of 11/2 to 11/8

This week went okay. I actually got in four days of running, which I haven’t done since…May? June? It’s been awhile. I’m abstaining from any tough workouts, like speedwork, tempos, or hill repeats until after this half is over. I know I’m not in as good of shape as I was in the spring and I don’t want to push too hard. My main goal is just to get through the distance and build up my base to make training for my spring races much easier!

Monday: rest day
Tuesday: 2 miles (11:02 avg pace)
Wednesday: 3.4 miles (11:31 avg pace)
Thursday: rest day
Friday: rest day
Saturday: 3 miles (10:52 avg pace)
Sunday: 11 miles (11:20 avg pace)

I went back to 2:1 intervals for my long run this week, since the 3:1.5 were a disaster the week before. I also ate one gel (a caffeinated raspberry Huma) at mile six, which I think helped, although the last two miles were quite torturous, mainly because they were uphill.

Less than a month before the half!