Lots of Bits'n'Bobs

Well I've had a bit of a hectic week, it's amazing how busy you can get being jobless!

On Tuesday I had a meeting with my mentee, we were going to yoga but I also wanted to get a run in as I had a full day on Wednesday. I ran to meet her which was 2 miles, we then did 1hr 30 minutes of a yoga class. I wasn't a fan of the yoga, it was a beginners yoga class but it went a bit slow, I know it's not supposed to be fast though so maybe it's just not for me, I prefered doing it from a video anyway. After that I ran a legnthened 4 mile route home. I was surprised how tired I was, I expected to be able to do it a lot faster after the break in the middle but that wasn't the case!

6 miles in two parts total 53.00, pace 8.47
Part 1 - 2 miles
1.5 hours yoga
Part 2 - 4 miles

Mile 1 - 8.38
Mile 2 - 8.20
Mile 3 - 8.39
Mile 4 - 9.13
Mile 5 - 9.05
Mile 6 - 8.51

Wednesday
I think I've probably mentioned on here before that I was applying to study mental health nursing. On Wednesday I had a day long interview/selection process for the course. I only applied to one university and I kind of felt confident I'd get on because I easily had the qualifications required and I had experience both personal and through voluntary work. I found out on Thursday I did not get on. Gutted doesn't even come close, I cried my eyes out, I don't know what to do with myself career wise, there aren't any music jobs and I finally thought I'd found my calling. I felt the whole day went well but apparently there were only 20 places and a huge number of applicants. I don't know how huge! I've emailed asking for feedback as I've decided to apply for another university close enough to commute to but it's not ideal. It'll work if it gets me where I need to be though. I'm so upset though, I feel like I'd make a good mental health nurse and now I'm recovered fully from my eating disorder I felt I could turn that experience into a positive to help other people.. Oh well it's not over. I'm stubborn, I'll keep on trying and if it's meant to be it will happen.

Thursday
Strength - density 20 minutes - as many push-ups, chin-ups, chair-dips and frog stands I could do in 20 minutes
Push-ups - 27
Chin-ups - 6 + 37 seconds hanging from the bar
Chair-dips - 43
Frog stand - 36 seconds in total

I felt so weak doing this workout, and that was before I got the bad news about the course! I still managed some core work for 15 minutes.

Finally, today I had my tempo run, let me tell you, it was horrible!! Why are they so horrible! I just don't know but they really take it out of me! I really struggled and even had to stop for a few moments during mile 2 when I was almost sick and embarrassingly dry heaved at the roadside for a little while whilst Mike propped me up! I'm not sure how I managed to acheive the pace, after the first two miles it felt entirely impossible!

Stats
5 mile tempo run 44.41, 8.57 minute pace overall (8.21 for the mid section)
1 mile slow 9.58
3 miles short tempo 8.23
1 mile slow 9.58
Mile 1 - 9.36
Mile 2 - 8.32
Mile 3 - 8.26
Mile 4 - 8.05
Mile 5 - 10.05

Well I'm going to go chill out and watch some tv now! We had quite a day today after the run as we found a stray dog, a west yorkshire terrier who was absolutely adorable but in need of a good bath and full groom. We sent him away with the dog wardens he will not be put down if no-one claims him (I wouldn't have let him go if that was a risk!). Anyway I totally fell for him. If no-one claims him we might well find ourselves with a little doggie! He was so sweet!

19/03/10

Well I tried the cherry raisins in my breakfast this morning and yummmmm, they were really good! I tried them by themselves too and they were good that way too, kind of like sweets. I think when I start doing runs that are long enough to need fuel I will try these, I think they would be easy enough to digest and give me some extra energy! Anyway... I've gone off topic... Back to my breakfast, it's quite an art form the amount of things that go into it!

I have two natures path cereals, optimum power and millet rice oatbran flakes, then I have plain musli to which I add dried apples, blueberries, cranberries and today cherry flavoured raisins!

Optimum power, cereal with soy, flax and blueberries

Millet rice oatbran flakes

Musli

+ cherry raisins!

Served with semi skimmed organic milk and xylitol, my milk of choice is soya actually but today it was cows milk.

Yoga AM
Our yoga dvd arrived this morning so I just had to try it out, I did a 30 minute routine which was supposed to aid digestion. It's hard to say if it worked but it felt like it did, I was fairly full when I started and my tummy felt better by the end, not sure if that was just cause time had passed though... will have to test it out after a restaraunt meal!! The dvd looks good though I'm looking forward to trying all the other routines.

Run - Afternoon
I ended up having a good run today! It was going to be a tempo run but my tempo miles ended up not very good tempo but good overall, I beat my old 3 mile time! Yipeee! I didn't even realise how much until I checked the time at the end, I just ran as hard as I could. Mainly thanks to a man on a bike who cheered me on in the first mile when the wind on the bridge felt unbearable and I just felt a bit crap, he put a smile on my face for a good mile or so :-) Here's my stats!

Mile 1 (warm up) 9.51 average HR - 160

Tempo(ish) miles - 3 in 24.33 average HR - 183
Mile 1 - 8.31 (181)
Mile 2 - 8.13 (183)
Mile 3 - 7.47 (187)

Cool down miles 2.39 at 10.03 per mile average HR - 169

Total running = 6.39 miles in 58.25, 9.09 per mile

With my lunch I tried the apple pie nakd bar, Mike and I shared the big one, it felt like good running fuel and didn't make me feel sick whilst I was running so that's a big plus for me! It was really tasty too, similar to the apple cupcakes I make only more healthy! The big bar has two of your five a day crammed into it too... Check out Mike's hand model skills!



It had a similar texture to the berry bar, I liked it more than Mike as it was very appley and he's not the biggest apple fan! I really liked the apple chunks in it and the cinnamon flavour, I can't decide if I prefer this or the berry one... too many choices I think hehe.

Mike has started a blog!! In face we're both blogging sat in bed at the moment haha, anyway go check it out and say hi if you have time! Here it is Fighting Fit. It's similar to mine but he is going to include more fitness articles such as training without much equipment, high intensity methods, strength and combat sport articles. I might be slightly biased but it's definately worth keeping an eye on, he knows his stuff and spends a lot of time researching fitness techniques and the body's energy systems. He writes most of the workouts we do together at home if they aren't a Ross Enamait one that is!

17/03/10

AM
I went for a long slow run today trying to keep my HR around 160-165, it was frustratingly slow to keep in this HR range and it took all my willpower not to speed off! But I need to work on my aerobic fitness for the half marathon, I'm a lot more anaerobically fit from boxing I think. Anyway here are the run stats, I figured out how to set it to lap after every mile :-) I feel very clever about that haha

7 miles in 1:17:46
Average pace - 11.08 per mile
Average HR - 165

Mile 1 - 10.26 HR 161
Mile 2 - 11.06 HR 164
Mile 3 - 10.48 HR 165
Mile 4 - 10.57 HR 167
Mile 5 - 11.21 HR 167
Mile 6 - 11.32 HR 166
Mile 7 - 11.48 HR 166

I just had to get slower and slower to maintain a lowish heart rate, I find this really odd as my 6 mile run last week at 9 min per mile pace gave me an average HR of 175. Maybe it's because I'm still poorly but it seems so much slower just for 10bpm less!

The run was pretty boring, the most exciting thing happened in the third mile when a bee nearly flew down my top, actually change exciting to SCARY!

Does anyone elses garmin say you've run less than you have when you upload it, I stopped at 7.00 today and when I upload it it says 6.99, this happens all the time and Mike's always upload as 4.01 or just over! Mike doesn't wait to press it I think we both stop it at the same time, the garmin must have some conspiracy to give Mike my extra .01 miles haha. So frustrating cause it looks like I'm always cutting my runs short but even when I wait for it to go past the mile it comes up short, what is going on!

Wooo according to my ticker I have now run 100 miles in 2010, maybe I ought to change the goal though, don't think I'll be getting to 1000 in a year, just don't think my legs have coped with the increase in mileage as well as I'd hoped they would do. I'm going to leave it for now in case I manage to up my mileage a lot coming up to the half marathon but I'm way off target I needed to be running 83 miles a month and it's 2.5 months in and I've only just made 100, that means I'd need to run about 95 for the remaining months, I just can't see that happening!

PM
Boxing workout at home.
Warm up - 10 minutes
Shadow boxing/Heavy bag (alternating rounds) - 8 x 2 minute rounds
Focus mitts - 2 x 2 minute rounds
Cool down - 10 minutes yoga, I'm a convert!

This workout felt really good, we did it to a Bas Rutten tape which I've mentioned on the blog before. He is shouting combinations to throw, it's good cause he doesn't let up or let you slack! I was totally amazed at how good I felt during this workout, still being poorly and having jogged 7 miles in the morning I expected to be pretty slow and tired but I wasn't out of breath for much of it at all and I was really going for it it wasn't like I was being lazy and that's why I wasn't tired.. I remember the first time I did a Bas Rutten routine just shadow boxing and I felt close to puking/passing out, this one felt like a breeze :-)

We finished with some yoga, this is the dvd we've ordered, it's called yoga for stress relief, should be very suitable since we want to do it as a relaxation type exercise. I can't wait for it to arrive!

Check out Marcia's running skirt giveaway here.

16/03/10

I was feeling really poorly yesterday :-( stupid throat infection! I didn't feel up to doing any conditioning work or cardio so Mike and I decided to try yoga for the first time, we did the three videos beginning here, I'm a convert!! My body felt so good afterwards, I couldn't believe it. I really enjoyed it, in fact we ordered a yoga dvd from amazon already, it has 6 hours worth of yoga on it. I've never been a workout video fan but it seems to work for yoga cause looking at pictures and trying to figure out what they want you to do is too confusing! We did try that first but it was too much time between each pose figuring out what the next one was.. I'm still feeling poorly today but it feels more like a head cold now, my throat isn't so sore so I'm going to try going for a slow run, not sure on the distance yet, I'm hoping to go long but I'll see how my chest feels when I get out there.

Does anyone else do yoga? I'm jumping on the bandwagon very late haha ;-)