Skip to main content

Speed Work and Wind Don't Go Together

Spring Roll Sunday
Last night we ended up making spring rolls and baking some tofu for dinner. It was simple, light, just what we needed after a late, heavy lunch of pizza.

I filled the spring rolls with zucchini, squash, and carrots that I had tossed with some Chinese Five Spice and red wine vinegar. For the tofu, I used a package that had been frozen then thawed. I made a simple marinade that I also used as the dipping sauce: soy sauce, PB2 (or peanut butter), hoisin, and sriracha.
 

I baked the tofu until crisp and served the spring rolls and tofu with the dipping sauce.


Speed Work + Wind = Sucky
We had a front move through that brought in crazy high winds and crazy low temps. It was only about 65 degrees at 9:30 when I left for my run. After lows being in the upper 70's you can imagine how cold this felt.

Today my half marathon training plan had me doing an easy 3-mile run. My longer, speed workout run was supposed to be Wednesday. But, since I had more time and it was cooler, I thought I would switch it up and do the 6-mile speed workout today.

This was partially a good idea. The downfall? The 20 mph gusting winds. Let's just say speed work and gusting winds isn't pretty at all. The plan called for a warm up (I did 1 mile at a 9:30 min/mile pace) then 3 x 1600 meters (1 mile) at an 8 min/mile pace with 800 meter (1/2 mile) recovery jogs between then finishing up with a cool down that equaled 6 miles.

I was really nervous to be quite honest. An 8 min/mile pace for a full mile? I really questioned that I could do this, especially not knowing my speed until I hit mile mile marker points. I did myself a favor and started slow with my warm up then dug in and managed to pull out a sub 8 min/mile for my first interval. Not going to lie, I wanted to puke.

I jogged for half a mile trying to get my heart rate down and recover. It's really really hard to gauge your speed in gusting winds, however. I felt like I was going so slow, but my heart rate wasn't coming down much at all. At this point, I was without my mile markers so the plan was to run hard for 8 mins. I made it 7 and was just done. So that one was a fail.

I'll admit that I was a little frustrated with myself, with not making it 8 mins, meaning I definitely didn't make it a mile. I tried to recover better before my last interval. Again, fail. I managed about an 8:40 min/mile. That was just all I had in me. I jogged for a few minutes to recover then picked up the pace a little bit, determined to at least finish with a decent time. I felt like I was just dragging ass.

Despite not making all 3 intervals at the pace I was supposed to do, I managed to average an 8:52 min/mile for 6.2 miles. Not too bad after all. But also shows that I didn't recover the way I should have. Next week my speed work is 4 straight miles at an 8:31 pace.

Errands, Chores & Home Decor
After my run, I got home, stretched, and rolled out the muscles. I grabbed something to eat, more water, then got into my bikini. I lounged and read for a little bit. I mean, I needed to rest my legs right? But, I didn't stay out too long as I needed to get off my rear and get to the store.

I should have gone to Target and the grocery store. But I just didn't have it in me to do both. Luckily the Target I go to does have a small produce section, so I was able to pick up a few things to get me by until I go to the grocery store tomorrow or Wednesday.

After Target, I started to tackle the mounds of laundry that have accumulated. It's really sad that the majority of the laundry is our workout clothing, then towels (many from our workouts). We got the spare bathroom cleared out so we can start painting. But, there are a few places that needs some patching. So, Jason is taking care of that while I am working on making up some lentil veggie burgers to stick in the freezer.

I have no idea what we might do for dinner. I think a lot of it will depend on how involved we end up being with the bathroom painting project. Somehow those types of projects always seem to grow far beyond what you were planning.

Daily To-Enjoy List:
Cooler weather run (semi-enjoyed?)
Some lounge time



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Love in Photos

In honor of Valentine's Day - Love in Photos Husband Family and Furbabies Friends Even if you're not a fan of Valentine's Day - I hope you have a wonderful day and remember the loves in your life.

Hump Day and More Pineapples

Full-Body Workout  I'll readily admit that getting up this morning was quite painful and almost didn't happen. I forced myself out of bed though not exactly excited about tackling a full-body Pyramid workout. Sort of daunting at 5 am really. I did the warm up from Shock Cardio Cardio Core Circuit (cardio only premix) then hit the weights. It was a pyramid up only so I increased my starting weight. I topped it all off with the first 2 1/2 drills from the cardio workout. I ran short on time and was basically spent. Squats into Plie Squats Step Ups (seriously hate these especially at 5:30 am) Incline Chest Flyes into Chest Press Pullovers into DB Underhand Rows Step Ups (freaking again) Static Lunges Overhead DB Press into Lateral Raises Deadlifts Kickbacks into Overhead Extensions Hammer Curls into Alternating Curls Calf Raises I am so excited to report that my new cross-trainers and running shoes arrived today. Can't wait to test both of them out. I waited way way way too

Hitting the Gym and Lazy Means Creative Tex-Mex Creation

Sunday, Gym Day Why do vacations and min-vacations go by so quickly? Just doesn't seem quite right. Anyway, we left Branson around 9:30 am to head back home. It was a pretty uneventful drive back, which is usually a good thing. We got home and unpacked, then I headed up to the gym. I started with a 10-minute treadmill run to warm up before hitting the weights for back and light legs then abs. I went with a giant set for back then supersets for legs. GS - 4x8 Underhand barbell rows Pullovers Double-arm rows SS#1 Rear-leg elevated lunges (Bulgarian Split Squats) - 3x8 Calf raises - 3x20 SS#2 - 2x8 Walking lunges Plie squats with low-end pulse Single-leg deadlifts - 2x8 I did some ab exercises, stretched, and called it quits. Lazy = Crazy Dinner I may have made it to the gym and washed a few loads of laundry, but I never made it to the grocery store - lounging in the pool trumped grocery shopping. This meant getting creative with dinner. We had another package