Weights - AnnaTheApple

July 21, 2014

Week #6 Marathon Training

Hi guys, another week of training done. Now I know I said I probably wasn’t going to document my marathon training every week but I guess I am…sorry, I know it’s quite running heavy and probably boring.

Anyway last week was a mixed bag. I felt very tired and getting up really early in the morning was taking it’s toll. But I guess I need to ‘woman up’ and get on with it, this is what’s it all about.

Monday – no running but this strength routine:

– 4x 15/leg single leg squats
– 4x 15/leg weighted calf raises
– 200/leg clams with resistance band
– 4.5mins crab walk
– 3mins plank
– 100 Russian twists

My lovely theraband has snapped like three times…

Tuesday – 5 mile tempo run (one mile warm-up, three tempo miles, one mile cool down). I went off too fast on the first tempo mile. In my head it went like this: “Wooohoo yeaaahh! So speedy! Yeaaahhh!” then 7 minutes later “I’m dying, god I’m dying. And here’s a hill. I’m dying.” And that trail of thought continued for the rest of the run. Well done, Anna, brilliant pace control.

Wednesday – I was supposed to do a strength workout but I was working from home and it never happened because when I finished work there’s so many more cool things to do at home than workout. I did manage some toe lifts and 100 bicycle crunches. Then I just lay on the floor watching a film (Gone Baby Gone <—amazing).

Thursday – 6 mile easy run. Usually I wouldn’t bother showing my splits for an easy workout to avoid my ego being enticed but this run annoyed me. I spotted a fellow runner ahead of me who was running a little slower than me. I eventually overtook her, said good morning as you do, and then had to pick up the pace to get a bit further ahead (it’s that awkward over-taking moment, you know?)

Anyway she starts getting faster to catch up! And all I can hear are her footfalls behind me. Like seriously, BACK UP. I overtook you. Don’t try and repay the favour on my easy run. I had her hound my heels for two miles (mile 3 & 4) which meant I had to run faster than I wanted to to avoid her overtaking me. This is probably all in my head I know.

Strength workout in the evening:

– 4x 18/leg weighted calf raises
– 4x 15 single leg squats (15 more on weaker leg)
– 4.5mins crab walk
– 200/leg clams with resistance band
– 4mins wall sit
– 4mins toe lift
– 2x heel taps

Friday – Alarm set for 5.10am, walk Alfie, out the door 5.45am for a 15 mile bike ride…One mile in feeling great “wooohooo cycling’s not so bad!” …a few minutes later “hmm feels so bumpy, better check my wheel”. GARGH flat tire. Even if I did have a puncture repair kit I wouldn’t know how the hell to fix it. So I turned around and walked a rather miserable 1 mile home. I was not amuse so took my frustration out with cleaning the bathrooms and hoovering.

My lovely husband (finishing at 12.30 on Fridays) fixed the puncture for me so when I got home from work I could try again. I loved it, really enjoyed it. But got to almost 12 miles and bam another puncture.

But a really nice guy on a bike stopped and helped me. He was very nice and helpful, fixed the puncture after like 20 minutes worth of sorting as my wheel is so tight.

I was very grateful, we then parted ways and two minutes up the road another puncture. Seriously. Ben had to come and collect the bike and me.

Saturday – we went to our local (Netley Park) parkrun. I thought I’d just see how I felt and push it if I fancied. I went with it, pushed hard and got 21:56 and first lady. Quite happy with that!

Sunday – Ben and me and some guys from the running club did the Stansted Slog half marathon. Unbelievably hard. I’ll do a recap post soon. I finished in 1:53:09, fifth female. Brilliant race.

And now I’m shattered! But a good week of training. I’ve got a sports massage tonight with Kyle thank god as my legs ache so much. Good aches though (*touch wood*).

Have you ever had an annoying failed workout?

Have you ever done an off-road, hilly race? It’s like an adventure but so much harder than a road race.

Are you good with maintaining tempo speeds or a set workout without getting carried away?

July 14, 2014July 14, 2014

Week #5 Marathon Training

Still trucking along nicely. I do look out though to the (many) weeks ahead and think “how am I going to survive this?” I’m sure something will crop up injury-wise, I just only hope it’s something minor. How’s that for positivity?

I forgot to mention last week the commencement of the Ab Challenge (er so that would be two weeks ago?) I did complete the 30 days, but as I said previously, I amended it to be bicycle crunches and Russian twists (with the leg raises and plank). It was tough I’m not going to lie. But I felt like I gained some strength (but no six pack thank god). I’m trying to do something every day, whether it’s a plank, some crunches or what-have-you but at the weekend it’s hard because, well, it’s the weekend.

Monday – no running but I did this strength routine:

– 15×4 calf raises with weights
– 4mins crab walk
– 1min x3 plank with side leg touch
– 200/leg clams with resistance band
– 4.5min bridge
– 15×4 bridge leg lifts
– 15 press-ups
– 2min toe lifts

Tuesday – I did another hill running session. One mile warm-up, two miles worth of two hills running up and down, then one mile cool down. The bin men were out and they must have thought I was mad.

Undoubtedly I would be running faster with the running club (as is the nature of running with others) but I’m so motivated at getting up early and running that I’m quite happy to go solo. And I know I harp on about this, but I can fully listen to my body rather than get all competitive and carried away with the club. But I do miss it 🙁

Strength routine in the evening:

– 15 press-ups
– 4mins toe lifts
– 4x 15 calf raises with weights
– 3mins plank
– 3x 1min elbow plank to push up
– 100 Russian twists
– 200/leg clams with resistance band
– 4.5min crab walk

Wednesday – 4 miles easy recovery run in the morning. Kept around 8.30min/mile pace. Legs felt heavy and niggly though especially one of my calves. I promptly text the wonder that is Kyle, our local sports massage therapist, and he was able to come round that evening and sort it out. I’m all over prompt action for any sort of niggle. Kyle got rid of the issue thankfully. You might think I’m a bit of a paranoid over-reactor when it comes to running niggles. You would be right.

Strength routine:

– 2x 100 bicycle crunches
– 4x 15/leg weighted single leg dead lifts
– 200/leg clams with resistance band
– 1x 1.5min/side plank

Unfortunately I got bored with the side planks and kind of gave up and went home. It happens! Also it was annoying that I’d forgotten my hair bobble. You know when I get bored when I start taking plank selfies…

I’m not pouting, I’m grimacing!!

Thursday – speaking of Kyle, he was able to put me in touch with a guy at Southampton Solent University who is currently doing a study on endurance runners and athletes and needed participants for his current study. This involved me doing a VO2 Max test.

I’ll post more about this in a separate post as I have a lot to say! It was all very interesting but hard work. Probably 2.5 miles running at a guess.

Friday – had some time in the morning so did a few quick strength moves:

– 4×15/leg single leg squats
– 100 Russian twists
– 100/leg clams with resistance band
– 3min wall sit

Saturday – I knew I wouldn’t have time on Sunday for a long run, so I ran to parkrun (4 miles), did parkrun and then ran home again.

I felt really good on the run there and got a bit carried away with my pace but I was just enjoying it. It was so hot though. I made sure to arrive at parkrun just before the start so the gap of stop-starting would be small. I thought I’d put some effort into the parkrun but really had no idea how it would go considering the heat and the four miles already on my legs. Not sure quite why I was looking so happy!

A guy from my club kindly ran with me and helped pace me. I was intending on getting a negative split but it didn’t really happen.

In the end 22:32 which I was happy about. And then I scanned my barcode and dashed off to run home.

My legs felt considerably more tired but still fairly good, though I got a terrible stitch after a mile because I’d chugged down a load of Ben’s water before I ran off home. Rookie error. But a successful 11 miles in the bag!

Later Ben, our friend Nathan, Kyle and me met up for a 15mile bike ride round Durley. Initially I was really not up for it as I was quite tired but as soon as I started pedalling I felt the best I’ve ever felt on the bike. Really strong and comfortable. It spun my legs nicely.

Sunday – urgh. My alarm was set for 5.15am as we needed to leave the house to go marshal a local race at 8.30am. I wanted to get 6 miles and I really didn’t fancy leaving the run till later when I’d want to chill. Just a recovery run so kept it easy.

Ben had his alarm set for 4.30am as he wanted to do 12 miles. He was meeting another friend at 5.30am (madness!). Unfortunately he slept through his alarm and when mine went off I was like “er, Ben, why are you still asleep?” I’ve never seen that boy move so quickly in my life. Or heard such language so early in the morning 😉

It’s currently Monday morning and I’m shattered. Absolutely drained. Come on body, don’t fail me now please!

Ever set your alarm ridiculously early to make a workout?

Have you ever done a VO2 max test?

Have you ever done any 30 day workout challenge?

July 7, 2014July 7, 2014

Week #4 Marathon Training

Hello summer! I’m loving the lovely sunshine and beautiful mornings. Getting up stupidly early to run is actually quite easy as the sun is already shining and it’s fairly warm outside.

This week has been really tough. After Endure 24 I had Monday and Tuesday off running as I just needed some down time. I had a great sports massage with Kyle which really helped loosen things up. Thankfully my hip hasn’t played up again either. It’s now 12 weeks from Berlin marathon and I am wondering for how long I will go until I get injured again – I really hope things go plain sailing. Who knows? All you can be is sensible with warming up, stretching, regular foam rolling, massages and strength training.

Monday – OFF

Tuesday – strength training after work:

– 15×3/leg calf lifts with weights
– 200/leg clams with resistance band (I do 50 per leg each time)
– 4.5mins bridge
– 20×3/leg single leg dead lifts
– 16 press-ups
– 3mins toe lifts

Wednesday – I had planned to do four easy miles but as I started I found I was quite happy to run a bit faster so I call this a “paced run”. I’m finding it easier to start slower and get faster which is always good I guess.

Strength work:

– 200/leg clams
– 50/leg single leg lifts with ankle weight
– 20×3/leg single leg dead lifts with weights
– 20×3/leg lunges (mix of lunge twists and with weights)
– 4mins crab walk

Thursday – 10k tempo run. This was a brilliant run. My legs felt fresh and I felt good. My plan was one mile warm-up, two miles tempo, one mile easy then two final tempo miles.

To cool down I walked Alfie afterwards. He’s loving it at the moment as I walk him in the morning before I run at stupidly o’clock (usually 5.30am), then when I get back from my run if I have enough time I’ll walk him again to cool down. Pampered pooch!

Strength work (felt a bit de-motivated and bored so kept it quick):

– 200/leg clams
– 4mins crab walk
– 3mins toe lifts
– 3mins plank
– 2x 1.5mins side planks

Friday – a much needed recovery run. My legs felt very heavy and I felt tired. This was the third consecutive day of getting up around 5.10am.

Saturday – Ben and me headed to Basingstoke to do the Basingstoke parkrun with my friend who’s just gotten into running (the one I did the Race for Life with) and her husband and son.

In my plan it was a speedy 5k but as I had now run three days before I wasn’t sure how well this would go. I just thought put in some effort and see how it goes.

It was actually quite a tough course. There were two laps and a sneaky gradual incline you had to do twice. But it wasn’t anything crazy hard. There were over 300 people there! And lots of speedsters. I was lucky to come 4th lady with a time of 21:22, which I was chuffed with. It’s the fastest parkrun I’ve done since November. Fairly depressing but I’m pleased regardless.

There’s Ben in the red shirt

Ben found the run quite tough. His ankle was playing up and it didn’t help that he’d had a late night the night before and hadn’t run properly all week. My friend got a PB of just over 28 minutes 😀

We all had a good time though and had coffee afterwards with our friends. So chuffed they’re getting into running!

Sunday – fifth day running in a row. I hope I don’t look back at this week as a mistake week. I was concerned I was running so many consecutive days but I needed to get the mileage increasing (famous last words…). I did feel OK for all the runs and afterwards though. I kept this run slow and easy.

But it did feel like a lot of hard work at about six miles. My endurance has definitely suffered due to my lack of long runs. This distance was a distance I used to find very easy, but yesterday it was back to basics. I spent a long time foam rolling and stretching afterwards, as well as doing a quick bit of core work and clams.

Later we went shopping and I was shattered at the end of the day; I had to have a nap! Ten miles is definitely not a distance my body is used to anymore sadly. Work in progress!

Annoyingly running in the hotter weather is causing me some annoying chaffage. I keep forgetting to, er, lubricate my arms before going out…

Which makes things fairly painful later…must do better.

Onwards to another week. Fingers crossed it continues to go OK!!

How has your week been?

Do you get any nasty chaffage issues when running?

What’s your top strength training move? I need to liven things up a bit I think.

July 1, 2014

Week #3 Marathon Training

Another week passes… Apologies if you find these posts a bit dull as they’re so running-focused, I’m finding it a great way to track my progress and also something I can look back in future.

The week went OK. Running on my own, though not as fun as running with the club, is helping me stay focused on my goal and also avoid pushing myself too hard or doing more mileage than I should.

Monday – no running. Strength workout after work:

– 3mins calf raises
– 4mins bridge
– 10×3/leg bridge with leg to chest (see below)
– Marching bridge (Demo –> careful it’s loud when it starts!)
– 4x 10 running man (Demo)
– 3x 15 single leg dead lift (Demo)
– 100/leg clams with resistance band

Tuesday – strength routine at home when I got back from work day in London:

– 3mins toe lifts
– 4mins bridge
– 10×3/leg bridge with leg to chest (see below)
– 4x 20 running man
– 3x 20 single leg dead lift
– 100/leg clams with resistance band
– 15 press ups

Wednesday – I got up ridiculously early to do a hill session on my own. There are two great hills near me and I’ve been wanting to train on them for ages. I ran one mile to warm-up (8.22 pace) then alternated between the two hills. I ran over the first one as fast as I could, then jogged slowly down as a recovery. I then ran back over the hill and repeated the jog down. I then did exactly the same on the other hill. All in all, I ran eight up hills. This equated to just over two miles. I then jogged a mile back home. I was absolutely beat!

Thursday – I got up again early (we’re talking 5.10am) and went out for an easy recovery run. My problem is that my ego is getting in the way of these easy runs. Though I find it easy and I’m not exerting huge amounts of effort, it still isn’t easy-easy you know? I can’t seem to get it into my head I should be running 8.30s – which are really easy for me. This would be a far better recovery for me and less stress on my body. But my ego keeps whispering saying “you don’t want 8.30s on your stats for this run do you? People will think you’re slowing down and are a rubbish runner”. I know this is ridiculous though. I know I need to keep my easy runs EASY and my hard runs HARD. Otherwise it all merges and I’m unable to completely blast my harder ones. Need to work harder at this.

Strength workout in evening:

– 3mins bridge
– 2mins calf raises
– 4mins toe lifts
– 2mins bridge march
– 4×20 single leg dead lift
– 150/leg clams with resistance band
– 4mins crab walk
– 4x20secs/leg balancing on one leg with eyes closed
– 15 press ups
– 20 diamond press ups

Friday – off.

Weekend – Endure 24 (I’ll do a whole recap post on this as it was EPIC – but I only did two laps of the 5 mile route).

Just to talk quickly about some of the strength workouts I’ve been doing. I’ve been reading a great book called Anatomy for Runners by Jay Dicharry. Basically it helps you identify your weaknesses in running and the ways to improve on those weaknesses to avoid injury and become a better runner (sounds like something I definitely need to read, right?)

Leg to chest bridge

So like the geek I am, I took the book to the gym and followed some of the exercises. It’s a great book. Very interesting, though there could be more photos as some exercises were tricky to understand what was going on!

And I’m also incorporating different things like the running man, single leg dead lifts and balances, as well as lots of different stretches from Kinetic Revolution (<- love this guy, so many great articles and advice for runners). You can sign up to a free 30 day challenge and each day you get given a list of stretches and exercises to help you improve as a runner. I haven’t been following it to a tee I must say as I just don’t have time with everything else but I’ve been picking specific ones that I think might help me.

Do you do hills for running training? I’ve been fairly anxious because it’s quite a tough workout and I’ve only felt strong enough now to do it (ironically it should increase my strength).

Are there any fitness books you swear by that have helped you?

Have you ever done any crazy fitness thing, like running for 24 hours? Or being part of a relay team?

June 23, 2014

Week #2 Marathon Training

I loathe to write anything hugely positive about my running for fear that the sword of Damocles hanging above my head will drop…and injury will strike. However, I am trying my best to avoid that situation as you can manage!

I’ve pretty much followed my training plan but shifted some miles here or there depending on the time I had, though the overall week’s mileage remained the same. I’ve also modified the Ab challenge because I read a few articles about how it wasn’t that good for you…specifically crunches and sit-ups being bad for your back and neck, and rather than creating a nice strong core it’s actually just working specifically your abs. I’m not interested in getting a six pack or the aesthetic side of things but I do want a strong core.

So instead of doing the sit-ups I do Russian twists instead to work my oblique muscles (side abs?) and instead of the crunches I do bicycle crunches which I hear are better for your back and more dynamic. I’m not judging anyone else doing the Ab Challenge (Ben is sticking with the regular plan), just personally for me I didn’t want to risk anything. Everything else on the challenge I’m sticking to.

So last week, this is what went on:

Monday – no running. 45 minute strength workout:

– 100 weighted squats
– 4mins toe lifts
– 3mins calf raises
– 4mins crab walk (—> demo)
– 3mins bridge
– 1mins bridge pulses
– 10×3 bridge leg lifts

Toe lifts

Tuesday – 5k at a fast pace. Not breaking any records here but I’m chuffed I almost fully negative split it (damn you 0.1 nubbin).

I also did a strength workout after work:

– 30 x3 (per leg) hip hikes
– 30 x3 (per leg) backward lunge and knee lift with ankle weights
– 5mins toe lifts
– 3mins calf lifts
– 24 x4 (per leg) clams with resistance band (—> Demo)
– 30 (per leg) bird dog (4-8 sec hold) (—> Demo)

Wednesday – 10k Race for Life in Basingstoke.

I ran this with my friend at her pace to support her in her first 10k. It was such good fun! More on this in another post, though I will say she smashed her target at got 1:04 which is brilliant (and she could have done better but we were held up by walkers).

Thursday – no running but a strength workout after work:

– 4 mins bridge
– 3x 10 (per leg) bridge leg lifts
– 5 mins toe lifts
– 3 mins calf raises
– 3x 1min heel taps (—> Demo)
– 5 mins crab walks

Friday – 4 mile run on feel keeping it easy. Another (almost) negative split run! I wear my heart rate monitor for my runs so I can make sure I’m not pushing too much. My heart rate was an average of 157 (my fast 5k on Monday was 172 average).

Saturday – 5k at Parkrun. In my plan I had said this was a speed session so I wanted to push it.Parkrun Selfie

I just ran as fast as I could basically. There was a girl in front of me the entire time and though I managed to overtake her twice she still beat me.It was a bit frustrating but what are you gonna do! I should have kept to her shoulder and not wasted energy in premature over-takes and seen if I could pip her towards the end.

My time was 21:42 and I was third female. Not too shabby!

Sunday – I got up early and ran a 7 mile easy paced run. I found this run quite tough. Even though it was early (8.30ish) it was already very warm. I struggled to maintain a good pace and felt a bit rubbish. I don’t think what I ate the day before had helped… (BBQ and lots of cake).

From the get-go it just felt like a slog.

After the run Ben and me met up with our friend to go for a 15 mile bike ride again.

I enjoyed this a lot more than last week. Not sure why but it felt nice to work the legs in a completely different way. We didn’t go at any great speeds but it was just nice to be out in the sunshine, chatting away while moving the legs. I think we’re going to try and continue this every week when we can but probably move it to a Saturday as the long runs are going to increase and I won’t fancy a bike ride afterwards!

Total of 23 miles.

I’m pleased with the week. Feel like I’m getting faster and hopefully getting stronger.

How has your week been?

Has the sun been affecting your running?

Have you ever done the Race for Life?