Treadmill running and Personal Training

It has been nasty and rainy all weekend. My schedule for training got all switched around due to the holiday and I intended to run both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday I was utterly lazy. Sunday I went to the gym, hopped on a treadmill for my long run (4-6 miles this week), and was delighted to find that Tangled was playing on the Disney channel. I was planning to try out a progression run (my version of one anyway) and see how that went. I started at a pace that was a bit slow for me. I did 2 miles at that pace and then pushed the speed up to what was just around the normal pace for me. It was actually below the normal. I usually can do around 12-11 on pavement but the 13 something felt pretty tough on the treadmill. I didn’t even get a mile into that portion and I started having hip and glute pain. I never have that on the pavement. I kept going, though. I was going to keep this pace then kick it up one more notch when I hit 4 miles. I ended up stopping at 4 miles because the hip and glute pain continued and then evolved into knee pain as well. I don’t play around with knee pain..

Today was back to the normal schedule and started with personal training. Leg day! She pushed me hard. The stairmaster is still the work of the Devil himself. I did an assortment of lunges and squats. There were extensions, presses, etc. The usual. We ended with some heavy duty ab work. She had me do the planks where you switch from elbows to push up position and back. Those were terrible when I did them the first time but were a bit easier this time. A very little bit easier. She said she could already see some definition in my shoulders too!! I’m pretty proud of the fact that I can do the leg lifts on the crazy chair without a seat contraption. I could not master those before since you have to hold yourself up with just your arms. I can do them now!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American peoples! I cooked like crazy yesterday and started the day off with a nice 3 mile training run. My sweet Quinnie went with me for about 2.5 miles. 

   
   
It was a beautiful morning for the run. I took my brand new lined tights out for a run but they really weren’t necessary. I probably could have ran in shorts today! The sky was so pretty, like cotton candy. 

  
I didn’t pay attention to time since I had the doggy with me. She’s a bit ADHD  so I really have to be on alert when she’s with me. 

I had to help finish up the grand preparations when  got back. We ended up with enough for a few small armies.

  
and now family time followed by cocoa and movie 🙂 have a happy Thanksgiving you guys! (Or a great Thursday for anyone not celebrating!) 

   
    
    
   
This is how Midna coped with all the visitors!

Vacation Post 4: Epcot

These posts are fun for me because I get to relive the vacation that totally feels like a dream to me now. It’s a weird thing. You look forward to Disney for so many months and when you get back it’s like a distant dream. 

Epcot is one of my favorite parks. I love getting the ability to experience different cultures. The food and wine festival was another plus. I love both food AND wine! We were only rained on one day this whole trip and it happened to be on Epcot day. I had a minor meltdown midday. I threw a bit of a fit bcause I got soaked waiting to take pictures with Aurora. I later apologized and told hubs that I blamed it on everyone calling me princess that day. It goes to a girls head. We went to epcot a couple times this trip too.

We did several character meets 

   
Selfie with one of my favorites! (I dubbed this a Belle-fie) 

   
   
   
We also met Aladdin and Jasmine, as well as Aurora.

My favorite meet and greet was a random and very unexpected one. We were shopping in Germany and I was sending this pic to a friend 

  
A girl could seriously get used to this.

I turned around and there was a princess shopping behind me. 

  
We followed her through the streets where she did a quick meet and greet. 

  
And that is the fun story of my first time ever meeting Snow White, who is quickly becoming one of my favorites! 

We ate at Biergarten, which was delicious. I loved the scallop we had from the Scotland kiosk from the festival. We did a wine walk in Italy, Germany, and France. Overall, it was a great day filled with fantastic food and fun! 

6.5 training miles in and prep for Thanksgiving!

I moved my long run from Saturday to Sunday because I had to run all over creation with last minute prep for a baby shower. I will spare you the rant about co-hosting with a friend that I love dearly. The main thing is it turned out wonderful and the mother to-be was very happy with it. She also was sweet enough to bring hostess gifts that neither of us expected. Free 30 minute massage! I hear a deep tissue massage calling my name in the coming weeks. Then I went to watch a local production of The Nutcracker Ballet with my lovely mother in-law. It was beautiful and she loved it. I’m talking edge of her seat love too!

  
So Sunday I ran 6.5 very cold miles in the park. I realized one thing very quickly. One pair of lined tights was not nearly enough. The only ones I had were still wet in the wash. I wore some regular tights and came out of the run pretty much a popsicle. The park was beautiful and still. It was a great run and I thought of my father in-law along the way. It was his birthday. He would have been 61.

   
   
I took care of the tights issue by going to Kohls and getting a great deal on another set of lined tights. I can’t wait to try them out.  Today was filled with cooking and baking since we are preparing to host our first Thanksgiving at our house. My mother in-law and I have been hard at work throughout the day.

   
The turkey in the oven!!

My gluten free pumpkin pie! 

 

Never Question Your Trainer

  
The first day I did training I told my husband I thought she went a bit easy on me. The next day I found out how wrong I was. The second day I thought I didn’t do enough abs and the day after I found out I was wrong again. Ihave learned my lesson. This girl knows exactly what she is doing and I won’t question that again. 

My girl is amazing! She starts me off on the stairmaster every session. That thing is the work of the devil. I get less winded on my long run than I do on the stairmaster. It works to get my heart rate going strong and pretty quickly. Today was the full body workout day and I wasn’t sure what to expect. The stairmaster was, of course, the beginning of the session and I breathlessly chatted with her about Thanksgiving and such as I struggled through the warm up. 

Next was some leg and glute work. She had me doing some modified jump squats  with a weight and the funky leg lifts where you hold yourself up on a chair looking contraption. I was pretty impressed with myself on that one. It relies so much on upper body strength and I have never been able to really do many of those. I did them today! I did three sets of ten of them with a little struggle. Then there was some more dynamic squats with planks in between the sets. 

I know better than to question whether she is being hard enough on me. I know she knows what she is doing and will be doing what is best for my needs. She is super fun to chat with too. I find myselt actually looking forward to cross training days. Runninng is still my number one workout love but this is going very well! 

And of course, this is always true…..

  I may never quite look like Wonder Woman but a girl can dream, right?
What about you lovely peeps? Any cross training that you love to do and ho is it going?

Vacation Post 3: Hollywood Studios and 50’s Prime Time Cafe

Our second day was spent gallivanting around Hollywood Studios. The first thing I have to say is that I am really really sad they closed the animation academy. I loved getting to learn how to draw my favorite Disney characters. In fact, the ones I have done the past two trips are hanging on my wall in front of me as I type this.

That being said, we had a wonderful day. A pastry and a yogurt for breakfast before hitting the rides. Star Tours was, of course, one of the first ones we went on. Hubby gets motion sickness so that one always puts him out of commission for a little while. We shopped and met Woody and Buzz. We hit all the photo stops we saw. It was a great day.

The table service we opted for this time was 50’s Prime Time Cafe. Last year we went to the Sci-Fi Dine In Theater and loved it but we wanted to try a new one this time. My goal is to try all the restaurants at some point. I wish I had taken pics in 50’s Prime time. The theme was so great. I loved the feeling of being in a 1950’s kitchen. The food was every bit as good as I had read about. I had the salmon and hubby had some kind of platter that had enough food to feed both of us. The dessert was amazing too. He had the PB&J milkshake and I had the apple cobbler a la mode. They called us “kids” and encouraged us to finish our plates. It was super cute!

We bought some fun art work that will go up in our bedroom. I’ve had the house for three years and barely done the decorating. I love the fact that my favorite shows are present in this park.

Castle above the Writer’s Stop and Mr. Gold’s Pawn Shop.

   
    
    
   
We caught Fantasmic for the first time and it may have become one of my favorite shows offered in Disney World. I can’t believe we haven’t seen it before!! 

3 Training Miles

I think I am finally getting back into my routine. Having the trainer is helpful with that too because I can’t make a last minute excuse and miss those cross training days. She would charge me anyway! I am still having a bit of a hard time getting my lazy self out of bed. It’s getting colder and my bed is so warm. If my husband or the cat is snuggling with me when the alarm goes off, it’s nearly impossible to make myself get up. 

I may not have gotten up as early as planned today but I did get up and I pushed through 3 miles. I think I am going to have to work my way back up to doing higher mileage in the mornings after being lazy for those three weeks. It wasn’t an easy run, even though I was just in my neighborhood and it is entirely flat. I was happy with it, though. I think it was more of a struggle because I wa pushing faster. I saw 10s and 9s a few times on the Garmin screen. I didn’t maintain those speeds the whole time but I did still get a solid 11:36 min/mile. This next month I’ll work to see if I can push myself into the solid 10s. My aim for Glass Slipper isn’t to finish fast, though, just to finish still standing (though I would crawl if it came down to it). Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with where I’m at. It’s not easy running with all your muscles sore either. Training must be working!

Personal Training Day 1 and 2

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to start with a personal trainer. I tossed around the idea of a running coach but decided to go to the gym and see what the weight training could do for me. I started Monday with my personal trainer, Mallorye and she’s amazing.

We meet three times a week at 8 am. Legs, upper body, and total body. Monday was leg day and I left the gym thinking that she may need to get a little harder on me. Push me more and not be afraid of my knees. I learned not to even think like that. I was so sore Tuesday and I’m still sore today. Needless to say, it’s working.

Today was upper body and I have no doubt that I will be quite sore in the morning. I love it though. She’s really nice. She knows what she’s doing and I can tell I am getting something out of it. I already asked hubby if this is something we can afford to do for quite a while. I actually look forward to the days I meet her at the gym!

Tomorrow I run!

Race Recap Run Crazy for CASA 10K

Saturday I ran the first race I have done in months and I’m pretty happy with the outcome. I got there early and met up with a friend that agreed to run it with me. Hubby had to do some work on the house, so my cheering section was one member short. I wasn’t quite as nervous as I usually get. This race last year did not go great but, considering I had a sprained ankle my time was pretty good. I had been struggling a bit with out runs and I decided I was not going to get preoccupied with my time. If I PR’d then great, if not that’s okay too.

  
I did a moderate Harley Quinn costume and ran in my new shoes. Maybe that’s what gave me luck. The course was incredibly confusing and less than half the volunteers had any energy. The ones that did made up for it. We kept a pace in the mid 11 to low 10 min/mile area and were pretty happy with that. 

When we hit mile 6, my friend told me she was going to kick it up a notch and bring it to 10 min/mile. Nothing feels longer than that last .2 at the end of the race. We did kick it up and I paced with her, shich was an accomplishment to me. Right as I approached the finishline I felt my kneecap sliding out of place. It’s the curse of being tall for me. I screamed because that’s my instinctive response when I feel it happening. Somehow, it decided to slip right back into place without fully dislocating and I soldiered on and crossed the finishline at 1:13:41 which is a PR for me by about 3 minutes. 

   
 We immediately celebrated with our free massages that were set up right past the finishline and then waited on the awards ceremony. I didn’t expect to get anything but my friend has won division awards before. We were confused when the first place person in her age group had a slower finish than she did. We were also surprised when she got 2nd place in the age group below her. 

When they posted the results, they had everything wrong. She was in the wrong age group. I was in the wrong age group and they put me two years younger than I am. They even dated the race wrong. It showed November 8, 2014. I emailed them and it took two days but they fixed it in time for me to submit it today for the POT for Princess weekend. 

  
I had a blast running this race with one of my favorite runner girls but I will say I was disappointed in how disorganized it was. It was a great cause and I was glad to support it but it would be nice if they were able to at least give people the awards they actually won. My girl here was given 2nd place but she actually won first. I was 5th in my division but I’m good with that. I wasn’t far from the third and fourth place people (they got  the exact same times as each other) so that proved to me that maybe I do have a chance sometime of getting a division award. I don’t know that I will run this race again due to the massive disorganization but I am glad I did it this year!