Week 5

Already! How time flies, whether you're having fun or not! Here's this week's goal:  

Week 5: Continue Week 4 habits. Add: Drink at least 8 glasses of water per day. However, since some people find it hard to drink that much water, you could change this to fit YOUR MAXIMUM healthy amount.  

Should be easy, right?

Fourth

Another thought about the Hop Hop Half I ran (jogged/walked/slogged/sprinted) in last Saturday:

I was regarding it as a training opportunity, not a competition, but still I ended up doing better in  the more competitive moments of the race. This happened several times throughout the time I was there, but most notably at the end.

What happened, you ask? What are you talking about?

This is it: Some people would be way behind me and apparently decide that passing me was going to make them feel better. I could hear them coming up on me, jogging along, speeding up, feet flapping on the pavement, and when they would get barely past me, like 5 paces beyond, they would slow down.

I would think, Are you kidding me? And of course, then, being the slightly competitive person I am, I would jog past them. But because I'm not a jerk, and also because I was really appalled at their behavior, I wouldn't stop when I got barely in front of them, but keep going and going and going.

I want to ask Madame L, "What's wrong with these people?" But I know the answer: They're just thoughtless jerks who are trying to push themselves to do better.

And one more thought about it: Because I was regarding it as a training opportunity, most of the time I was able to focus on my breathing, pacing myself, and figuring out how to do better next time. Still, when I found out I came in fourth in my category, less than 4 minutes after the one who came in third, I realized that I *need* to do much better next time. (And BTW she was one of the ones who passed me like that, after I'd stopped to help a runner who was pushing a baby stroller with her fussy 8-month-old baby. Snark.) Anyway, eventually I'll want to finish in less than 1-1/2 hours, like the woman who finished first in my category.

I've already signed up for two upcoming half-marathons, and for these next ones I'll be running with a friend who has already had lots of experience with running events, including a marathon. We won't be staying together---she's way faster than me---but we'll be a support for each other at the beginning and end. And maybe we'll even get to do some training together in coming weeks.

Only a few hundred yards to go, and after Jason took this, he ran alongside me to encourage me to keep running, even though I was more beat than I remember being ever before in my whole life. And it worked. Thank you!

Okay, For Week 4:

Thanks for those two suggestions. Let's go with both of them. So, this week, let's:

---Add a new exercise to our training workouts;

---Set a higher goal for ourselves, more than we've done before or more than we used to think we were capable of; and

---Re-commit to our current goals, like trying one new healthy recipe and tracking our food intake.

Week 4 of Challenge

Here's our goal for Week 4:

Week 4: Continue Week 3 habits. Add: Exercise a minimum of 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week. This can be as simple as brisk walking. The goal is to raise your heartbeat. If you're feeling a good cardio workout, working up a sweat, increased heart rate, it counts. Also, the more that you can vary your exercise routine the better. So, do cardio one day and weights another. Try different forms of exercise (i.e. an elliptical one day and swimming another). Try to establish a routine. If you must, you can split this into three 10 minute segments for a total of 30 minutes.

However, my question is: Is this too easy for us? All of us are already exercising at least 30 minutes per day, aren't we?  Problem is, I don't know what else we might set as an alternate goal for the week. Any ideas?

Hop Hop Half

So, today I did my biggest so-called cross-training exercise so far: I completed the Hop Hop Half Marathon on Marine Drive in Portland.

See the photo below from the Web page with the giant dancing bunny? Well, he was there again, and a lot of runners wore cute bunny costumes.


It was a lot of fun, for awhile. And when it was over it was a lot of fun, too. And then I went home and I'm glad I did it and I'm glad it's done.

And one more thing: thanks to Jeff, without whose help I couldn't have done it. And that's all I have to say about that.

Wait! Look at this photo from last year's run: Looks like Val, doesn't it?!? But I'm pretty sure she wasn't there.

Recipes

Thanks for the recipes for Week 3! (See comments on Week 3 post.) 

The only new thing I've tried so far this week isn't even new, but it does use a mashed-up banana and some applesauce. It's that oatmeal snack recipe from Madame L, but I cut it in half this time and put in cinnamon chips, and it was delicious. I also used sugar (slap my hand) and I think that's one reason it tastes so good. Also, when I put the dough into the muffin tin, I used canola spray instead of cupcake liners, so the bottom of each of the muffin things was nice and gooey and with bits of cinnamon chips.

It reminded me of pineapple up-side-down cake, so I've decided I'll try something similar, maybe on Sunday, making a kind of pineapple version of this, with pineapple chunks and brown sugar at the bottom of each of the muffins. It will be so nice and gooey and sweet, and I won't feel guilty because it will have FRUIT in it!

Thanks for the Support and Encouragement!

And those great recipes, Neva! I'm looking forward to trying both of those smoothies.

I see on Ellen's training blog that Neva also sent her an email message answering her questions about the nitty-gritty day-to-day training for the Huntsman 140.  Ellen asked, "How many miles should I be doing in a week? How much should I increase distance from week to week?"

I'm pasting that advice here:

It's a good idea to have some cross training and/or resistance training a couple of days a week - on those days you don't ride at all. It's also a good idea to have a day (I use Tuesday) to do some kind of interval work. That is, after at least 10 minutes of warming up, doing 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 intervals of 30 seconds up to 5 minutes (depending on your base and where you are in the season) with recovery in between of at least the same amount of time as you did the interval. One of the things you're working on is increased leg speed and/or increased resistance - higher gear or up hill. On that day, you're not doing a lot of time or distance on the bike, but you're training your muscles to take up oxygen and recover.

A typical schedule might be:

Monday - resistance training and cross training - 30 minutes. The cross training should be gently aerobic. This is not the time to push. The work was in the resistance training.

Tuesday - Interval work - 50 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes, minimum 10 min warm-up and cool down.

Wednesday - resistance training and cross training - 30 minutes.

Thursday - a "moderate ride" - not too long or hard, but not too easy either. How long you can go will partly depend on your schedule, but it's nice to get between 1 and 2 hours in.

Friday is a recovery day - 45 minutes to an hour at the most of very gentle cross training, e.g. walking or jogging slowly, or spinning easily on the bike. Heart rate shouldn't go above 120.

Then, Saturday, you do the long ride. If you're able to ride with a group, you'll probably get pushed - I know I did last year. The term "moderate" took on a new meaning. But I wanted to keep up, so I was going pretty hard. And I got stronger and faster as a result. The increase in distance from one Saturday to the next Saturday probably shouldn't go up more than 10 miles per week. Today the "long distance" riders went 60 miles. Two Saturdays ago they went 50, and last Saturday they eased off at 35. Then Sunday, you rest or do something very gentle, like walking or spinning for 45 minutes to let the muscles work the lactic acid out.

This is what I've been doing, more or less.  Sometimes I've made Thursday or Wednesday into a recovery day, instead of Friday. I haven't been taking long rides on Saturdays yet, but did ride with Jason part of the Banks to Vernonia trail Saturday.  We didn't do the whole thing because his back was giving him problems. Then I was going to do more on my own, but got a flat tire, so that ended the day for me. (Yeah, I know there are people who can fix a flat tire and go on riding, but those people do not include me, not a back tire, not on that day.)

Also, I've been keeping up with Laura's blog, in which she writes about her training and, most recently, about some movies about cycling. 

I totally agree that watching movies like the ones she mentioned are good for motivation and inspiration. I watched a couple of movies,*** thanks to her sending them to me, last year, and they were wonderful. So I'm looking forward to watching these ones, this year.

(***The Flying Scotsman and Bicycle Dreams, both of which are available from Amazon.com or to borrow from me---Just let me know!)