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Sunday 21 November 2010

Hill Sprints are Back

Thanks for all the lovely comments on the new house! We're settling in well and I'm starting to get some energy back after a tiring few weeks.

Since we moved I've only really done a bit of running and some push-ups.. not as many as I should have done though, I think I'm going to start week 2 again, last week was a bit of a write off. My running has felt really labored too, I hope it's just 'cause I was tired from all the lifting and moving related sleepiness.

I took Roxie for her first run last weekend. We did 2 miles and it was one of the hardest 2 miles ever! She kept tripping me up and she pulls on the lead badly... I hope she will learn not to pull soon.. We did 2 miles in just over 20 minutes and I felt like my arms got a workout too.

Mike took Roxie's lead the next time and we did another 2 miles, faster this time. The first mile was about 8 minutes and it was uphill. Well I totally burnt out and slowed us all down for the second mile which took about 10 minutes. Ooops! Rather annoying really as we had planned to do 3 but I felt horrible and had chest pains so we cut it short.

We ditched Roxie for yesterdays run and went to do an old favourite. Hill sprints! 1 mile warm up then 20 x 50m sprint uphill, 50m recovery jog downhill... An old lady said she wished she could still do that as she walked past us, then the second time we ran past she told me off for lagging haha. I mainly kept up with Mike for the first 10 then he got 2 reps ahead of me in the final 10.. His endurance is much better than mine.. That's something I really want to work on before I do another half marathon... Any tips?

Yesterday, just before we set off running a lovely parcel arrived... My Teapigs goodies which I won on Maria's blog, Running Cupcake, thanks Maria!! I so wanted to stay at home and make a big cuppa instead of running! I won the Christmas Cheeky bundle and they sent some peppermint and green tea samples too.
I tried the spiced winter red tea first...
Waited patiently for 3 minutes for it to brew
And then burnt my tongue...Not so patient...
Yum yum! I made my dad a cup too and he loved it, really nice on a wintry morning and definitely christmassy sort of spices. Delish! I'd pick this over mulled wine any day! Although I did for a moment wonder what it would be like with baileys instead of milk!! I only tried rooibos tea recently as my mum and dad bought some vanilla flavoured rooibos back from Amsterdam. I've always been a green tea girl but I could see rooibos featuring more often in my cuppa!

I could spend rather a lot of money on the teapigs website! Must be restrained, the prices mean they would have to be special treat teas on my current budget! I've already made a wish list as long as my arm though... Rooibos creme caramel, popcorn tea, oriental special brew bundle, and of course the matcha all feature on it... Please father christmas!!

How has everyone elses weekends been? Hope you've all enjoyed a break :-)

*disclaimer* Teapigs have not paid me for my review or sent me the teas to review, all opinions are my own and I featured the product on my blog because I enjoyed it.

12 comments:

  1. Hill springs/repeats are great for building up endurance and strength. They're tough but worth it. We have a really hard time running with our dogs too. They try to compete for the front spot LOL.

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  2. Yay so glad you like them! I just ordered a load more tea from teapigs- I had only ever tried plain rooibos before and found it weird, but the teapigs rooibos is amazing :)
    Perfect for the winter.
    Good to hear that you are settling into your new house :)

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  3. I've just made a huge tea pigs order, I love that stuff but because its on the pricey side I ration myself to one 'posh' (as my hubby calls it!) cuppa a day and stick to tetleys green tea the rest of the time. Sounds fun taking the dog out but I know how difficult it is when they pull on the lead and your just walking so I can imagine its a bit of a nightmare running! Hope you have a great week :-)

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  4. I love tea pigs I need to order some more quickly though as I am on my last tea bag =(

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  5. i think hill repeats are great for endurance. but i also think that LRs on hard terrain (like hills) are great or even better because you aren't hitting the hills on a regular basis. my favorite workout is to run a hilly route that i have and in the middle run 4-6 times up the biggest hill. then continue on

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  6. Ooh brave you doing hill sprints! I'm a chicken and try to avoid doing them as much as poss! :P
    I can't take my dog on runs- he stops every few seconds to smell things and he's very small so finds it hard to keep up over distances!
    Glad to hear you're settling in well :)

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  7. Hi there!
    Hill sprints! At this time of year?! God bless ya girl;-)

    and yeah for the sweet tea winnings. the packaging alone would sell me. YUM!!

    It's Thanksgiving week over here in the USA, so I'm excited about it all;-)

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  8. Those look great. POPCORN tea?
    (i'm not patient either...I burn my tongue all the time...)

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  9. I think with the endurance, you just need to do more of what you're doing. If you're bad at something, keep doing it until you get better, right? ;-) I'm sure you haven't really lost much fitness though. You've just been through a really stressful period, and have had a lot of physical work moving house. You'll be back into things in no time.

    ps - how's Mike, and your feelings about boxing.. ?

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  10. For endurance get a plan. Runners World smartcoach is a very decent oplace to start.

    You're after endurance per se - which you'll get from LSRs; and speed endurance (ability not only to run a certain distance but to run it at a desired pace) from tempo runs and intervals.

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  11. Oooh, the teapigs goodies sound nice - the hill sprints not so much. I did 25 mins interval training last night and it nearly killed me.

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  12. Laura, that's a great idea... that might be a way to convince Mike it is a good idea to spend a fortune on tea haha!

    Alison, thanks for asking about Mike, he's doing really well, didn't need surgery after all, I was so relieved, so was he I think! I think the more he recovers the more we're leaning back towards boxing.. My mum will not be happy :S

    Thanks Rob, I've been doing the run less run faster plans but I've been off them the past few weeks. I think I could do with starting another plan, been thinking of doing the 10 mile plan but not sure if my legs are up to it! Only one way to find out!!

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