Monday, February 20, 2012

Recentered

Amid the events of the last two weeks, I find myself needing to regroup this week. Time to pick up where I left off and return to logging my food intake, hitting my runs and completing my strength exercises.

This morning's weigh-in showed 176.6 pounds, up from my last check.  Considering the runs I've missed and the amount of grieving food I've consumed, that's not so bad.

Over the weekend, I had two very good -- albeit very muddy -- runs, increasing my weekly mileage to just under 12, which is only two miles shy of what my pretraining plan dictated.

Saturday's trail run was a mudslide, and I still have no idea how I managed to run as fast as I did. At a few ticks more than five miles, it was my longest run of the year. The trail was flatter than the other trails I frequent, but the terrain was also sloppier than any I've encountered this year.  And yet I managed to log my fastest trail pace of the year: 10:43 per mile. Most of my other trail runs have been at a pace above 11 minutes.

Thursday, I logged my fastest pace of the year on my one my neighborhood three-mile routes, and that was after a week of not running. Perhaps I was expelling some stress.

This morning, my abs are sore from hitting a par course while in the middle of a three-miler yesterday. The short exercise circuit included "body curls," which consisted of lifting my knees to my chest while laying on an inclined board. I only did five curls, but that was enough.

My goals for this week are four runs, for a total of 15 miles with a "long" run of six miles and at least one trail run. Today I'm planning to get back to my core exercise routine.

There's a race coming up in March, and I'm thinking of making it my first event of the year. I want to feel strong.

4 comments:

Junk Miler said...

Well that all sounds very sensible. I don't understand.

Laura said...

The body curl idea sounds AWESOME. The hotel gyms I frequent don't usually have one of those dip stations that allows you to hang on with your arms and do leg lifts for your core, but they DO have benches - so this sounds like a great alternative. Thanks!

Carolina John said...

I'm also feeling every freaking ounce of offseason weight right now, and a bit of a winter cold to boot. Not fun at all.

That trail race, however, does look like a lot of fun.

gin hall said...

Kettlebells. Get some! My new Monday night workout is an hour intensive kettlebell routine, and you will discover muscles you never knew you had. Seriously, best workout I've ever done- and I think it will help with overall strength.

also- have you tried get-up sit-ups? (can use weights instead of kettlebells)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm9r-yHyNNA

our beginner class does these two handed.