Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Training Like Crazy

It has been a few days since my last post. I have been running and really focusing on getting myself ready for my first half marathon. Last night was my first night of training at Velocity Sports. There I am with Kacie, my trainer for the evening. She is in her young twenties and is just this little thing, but let me tell you, she is all muscle! I introduced myself to her and explained why I was there....to train my upper body and core for all of the half marathons that I have coming up in the future. I told her not to go easy on me and that I could handle it:) She just smiled and said, "Alright, but let me know if you need a break.......okay." I looked at her smiling and said, "I will not need a break, I am pretty sure that I can do this."

So myself and seven other adults lined up for our session of core, strength and endurance training. Yes, I was the newbie and the rest of the trainees were curious. I introduced myself and they were all so nice! Kacie explained what the hour session would consist of......1) You will be sprinting and running at least half of the session. 2) We will be using a eight pound exercise ball to do various drills.

So, here is the good news.....I kicked butt at the running! We ran so many 50 meter sprint repeats and I was finishing before the men:) I was very happy about this since I pretty much sucked at some of the other drills. I sucked it up, I never complained, and I put 100% effort into everything! Unfortunately, I did terrible at the push ups. I was able to do five push ups that were perfect. After push up number five my arms just couldn't handle my body weight (123 pounds)! Yes, I know this is pathetic, but I will get better! My favorite drill was the Russian twists using the eight pound ball! God, I actually enjoyed doing those:) We worked the entire time....sprinting and strength drills, and sprinting and strength drills! I was getting tired towards the end but I didn't show it. Fianlly, after our last v-frame freeze Kacie said that we were done! What did I do other than secretly thanking God for the end? I collapsed on the turf! I rested about a minute and stood up. Kacie said, "Good job Julie, you didn't do to bad for a first session:)

I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed tying to get myself pepped up for my 10 miler. I had every intension to run ten miles on the track of my health club. Below is the before picture.....I am looking happy and ready to rumba:)

I did a few walk warm up laps and then continued to run. At first I liked it and I thought about how great it was not to have all the extra layers of clothing that I usually wear for my outside runs. Then after a few miles I was getting hot and the air was dry. There were also so many people just walking around the track and I found it difficult to run at a consistant pace. I wasn't feeling so hot....maybe I was just tired after last nights workout. I really didn't feel any soreness until mile six. I sucked it up for two more miles and I was done. I had every intention of running a few more on the mill tonight.....no way, I am done for the day:) As I am typing, I am feeling a little sore and tenderness ummm...everywhere!
Here I am after my last lap looking a little tired and worn, but still smiling:) Tomorrow I will try to either get into another Velocity class or run a five miler.

This has been my sixth week of blogging!!!! I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed it! I love reading everyone's blogs and it has been a pleasure getting to know other runners and their unique stories. In my next blog I would like to share with you a few of those blogs that I absolutely love. Everyone of these future feature blogs are different and they all posess that something special or that x-factor that I personally favor. Until then, keep smiling:)

17 comments:

  1. That class sounds fun! I can't believe you ran 8 miles on an indoor track - impressive! Makes me dizzing thinking about it. :)

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  2. Your training sounds intense. I am also impressed. Keep at it!

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  3. You chicked the men at sprints, way to go! I cracked up at the picture of you lying on the grass, sounds like you did a great job and will be gung-ho to go back! I need to do push ups too, those are so hard for me!
    How many times did you need to run around the track to get in 10 miles? Did you listen to music? I guess it's much better than the snow! Keep up the tough workouts, way to go!

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  4. Your workout facility looks incredible! I'm jealous! If you want to try a different type of core/overall body workout, go a bit more Russian and try out Kettlebells. Trust me, they HURT!

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  5. Congratulations on completing your first class! It sounds tough, but I'm sure it will make you a stronger runner and get you in great shape for your upcoming 1/2.

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  6. Great effort! Sounds like a good class for ya. Wow, 8 miles on indoor track. Not sure I could do that, but it is better than a treadmill - so I take that back. Fun photo's! Can't wait for it to warm up and see some Minnesota outdoor shots. Keep kickin! Cheers!

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  7. Hi Julie! Looks like you are rocking it, way to be! If you are looking to up your pushups I highly recommend the 100 pushups workout- www.hundredpushups.com (I think). I haven't been doing it as consistently lately but I did it for a few months- I started off being able to do 5 real pushups. Now I can do 20 in a row and 80 altogether! I'm a huge fan of pushups, even though they are wicked hard.
    I hope all is well!

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  8. Love the pics and I'm so jealous of where you get to work out!! How long is the track. Our indoor track is 13 laps to a mile. I just can't do it! Great job on the workouts-keep it up!

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  9. Sorry I have been busy at work and SICK this week. Love th enew name of your Blog. Congrats on the new adventure, you will do great!

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  10. Wow look at those arms! I need to follow what you're doing! Bootcamps are great for reminding me to do something besides run

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  11. That class sounds tough, but what a great workout!

    Glad I found your blog. It is nice to find another MN blogger.

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  12. Hi Julie! Happy Friday :) My spibelt really did stay put. I was so surprised. It felt like it was part of me, if that makes any sense lol. Regarding the gu- I haven't actually taken any yet, since I haven't run far enough to warrant taking one. After this week I will be trying them out!

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  13. Wow, Julie - way to kick those men's butts running :)! And what a cutie you are!!! it's fine to cut a run short if it saves your legs. I have an indoor track at the gym I go to and find anything over 5 miles is agony (6 laps = 1 mile) so way to stick it out as long as you did! Happy Weekend!

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  14. Nice run!! Way to go!!

    YES, I think we're talking about the same race: the Winter Carnival Half Marathon! It was my first half marathon 2 years ago: http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com/2008/01/st-paul-winter-carnival-half-marathon.html

    And last year, it was shortened to a 10K because of some REALLY cold weather, but that lead to some REALLY epic photos:
    http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com/2009/01/half-marathon-no-quarter-marathon-no.html

    If you like out-and-backs (like I do), you'll love the course. It's out of downtown St. Paul and south along the river, then you turn around at mile 6.55 and come back the exact same way. You get to see everyone else running, which is great! It's all small rolling hills, with 2 that are a little steeper (but they're not LONG hills). Let me know if you're doing it for sure, because I'm planning a little blogger meet-up before hand! Hope to see you there!!

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  15. BTW, I have a little more good news and a little more bad news:

    GOOD NEWS: you can totally do this race if you've recently done 10. That shouldn't be a problem. I forgot to mention that in my previous comment.

    BAD NEWS: the race is pretty constant rolling hills. I think I down-played that a bit in my previous comment. Like I said before, there are really only 2 hills that suck to go up, and they are both on the way back: I'll guess around mile 9.5 and right at mile 13. The rest is more gentle hills, but they are always present (except for about 2 miles of the 13 mile race). Just wanted to make sure I wasn't making it sound TOO easy. But it's not that HARD either....

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  16. Hi Julie!

    Great job with the running! I tend to enjoy the short sprints (though I would have likely been one of the guys behind you . . . I seem to be slow with the short sprints). I do like running 800s.

    Thanks also for commenting on my blog! Right now, I only run during the week about three times a week and try to get 3-4 miles in each time. Then, I try to get a long run in on the weekends. When I was training for the marathon I would still run about three times a week, but try to get a few more miles in.

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  17. Great job!

    We've got our first 10 miler tomorrow.

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