Week 4: 8 mile long run

Posted on September 3rd, 2008 by Sheryl at 11:55 pm

I did something a little different today and went to the beach for my long run. Newport beach to be exact. I ran along the boardwalk, which was nice, but fairly busy. Lots of things to see, for sure. I’m not sure if I didn’t miss the solitude and quiet of my usual trail, but it was nice enough that I’d definitely do it again soon.

Today’s run went really well! Especially after my sad, sad 7 miler last week. This run was near perfection. Goal was to do 8 miles at an 11:30 pace. Here come the splits!

Split 1: 11:01
Split 2: 11:17
Split 3: 12:09
Split 4: 11:52
Split 5: 11:48
Split 6: 11:48
Split 7: 11:58
Split 8: 11:38

Total Time: 1:33:31
Average Pace: 11:41
Calories Burned: 959
Shoes: Asics Nimbus

I’m pretty happy with my splits. I’m 10 seconds off my goal pace, but after a one week hiatus (fearing I had forgotten how to run), I’m definitely glad that I still managed to hit somewhere near my goal pace. So, yay!

I hit the jacuzzi tonight, let my muscles relax a bit, and I think I’m ready for speedwork tomorrow =D hope all goes according to plan!

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Where in the world is Week 4?

Posted on September 3rd, 2008 by Sheryl at 11:02 am

I admit it. I’ve been a total slacker as of late.

I missed two runs for week 4 so far. I’ve decided to toss those out the window instead of trying to recoup them since it’s now Wednesday and I still haven’t done my long run (an 8 miler). I’m SO desperately behind!

My plan is to knock out the 8 miler this afternoon/evening. I’m gonna break the 1 day recovery rule (since I already took a full recovery week =P ) and do my speedwork tomorrow (Thursday), my tempo on Friday, and my next long run on Sunday. This should get me back on track.

I’ll hopefully be able to meet the time goals for the week. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Now, about weight loss goals.

One of my semi-big goals was to be 30lbs lighter by the time Greg’s wedding came around. Greg’s wedding is now only 3 days away (I’m SO EXCITED!), and I’m at the 27lb mark. So close, but I don’t think, realistically, I’ll be able to fully realize it. Even if I’m not actually 30lbs lighter, I’m still escatic at my progress.

I did some light shopping last Thursday and was surprised to find that I am now a full 2.5 sizes smaller than where I was just earlier this year. I can’t even fit into work clothes I bought last year. They’re too loose on me.

I’m so proud and excited to have lost all this weight! Looking forward to losing another 15 =)

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Week 3: 7 mile long run

Posted on August 26th, 2008 by Sheryl at 7:23 pm

My first disappointing run for this training schedule. It had to happen sooner or later!

Today’s goal was to do 7 miles at an 11:30 pace. My body felt tired and sleep deprived. My legs felt tired and completely zapped of energy. But I wanted to give it a go anyway. I’m glad I got the mileage in, but sad that I really couldn’t get it in the time I wanted.

Split 1: 11:31
Split 2: 11:46
Split 3: 11:42
Split 4: 11:56
Split 5: 12:42
Split 6: 13:53
Split 7: 12:15

Total Time: 1:26:00
Average Pace: 12:17 - booo =(
Total Calories Burned: 844
Shoes: Asics Nimbus

Quite a dismal run. I’m thinking of cutting out either this week’s speedwork or tempo run or maybe both, depending on whether or not my legs start to feel normal again. I want to be fresh for my 8 miler on Sunday… and hopefully avenge this week’s long run. My goal is to get that run in under 1:32:00. I definitely have my work cut out for me!

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Protected: So giddy, I make myself sick

Posted on August 26th, 2008 by Sheryl at 12:02 pm

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Week 3: Cross Training/3 mile tempo

Posted on August 24th, 2008 by Sheryl at 8:56 am

Last Thursday, I biked for 10 miles, up one really major hill and up a bunch of moderate hills. I think it really tired out my legs =P They weren’t sore, but they definitely felt very tired. When I tried to go out for my tempo last night, I could feel it in my legs. I didn’t have a chance to see if I could get over that tiredness yesterday because my precious Garmin ran out of batteries 1 mile into my run >=[ So, I ended up going back home.

This morning, I woke up at 7:30 for my tempo. I didn’t get to the trail until around 8:30 (had to walk and feed the boys first).

It was pretty warm out when I started already. There was cloud cover but I could feel the sun directly beating down on me already. Since I do most of my runs in the evenings, I’m not really used to things starting out cool and progressively getting warmer. I’m used to things starting out somewhat warm and cooling off significantly. I may have to start running in the mornings from now on, at least for my long runs.

Anyway, it was a hard run. My legs still felt tired. But I managed to do the run anyway.

Warm Up: 0.47 mile in 5:12

Split 1: 10:28
Split 2: 10:46
Split 3: 10:48

Total Time: 32:04
Average Pace: 10:41
Calories Burned: 428
Shoes: Asics Nimbus

My goal was to hit 10:45 a mile. The last two miles are a few seconds over my time limit, but my average pace was still under my time limit. So, YAY!!! Definitely one of the hottest runs I’ve done. Hopefully, October won’t be that hot!

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How I Met Your Mother

Posted on August 21st, 2008 by Sheryl at 10:37 pm

Do any of you guys watch this show?? Cause it’s pretty damn awesome =)

I only just started watching it recently. Through the goodness that is Netflix, I’ve managed to watch from the very beginning, and they’re pretty darn funny!

The funniest thing by far, though is this lil video. It turns out that one of the main characters, Robin, used to be a teen pop singer in Canada….. I’ll let the video speak for itself.

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Like Clockwork

Posted on August 21st, 2008 by Sheryl at 2:30 pm

Training has been going like clockwork lately. I’ve never, ever started a new training schedule and hit all my time goals from the onset. I hope I haven’t jinxed myself now =P

A few days ago, I was suffering from a serious lack of motivation. Usually, I can’t wait to get out there, but I was feeling completely lethargic and unexcited about training. I was starting to fear that I was burning out, or worse.. getting bored with training.

But not to fear! It was just a small bump in the road. Training loving Sheryl is back with a vengeance!

All of this progress really gives me hope for a sub 5:00 marathon next year. I know, this probably sounds like a very slow and modest goal for some of you speedsters out there =) But I’m trying to be realistic with what I can do, and I think that’s a pretty reasonable goal for me to aim for. It’s challenging enough to keep training interesting, but not so impossible that I get discouraged during training.

I’ve got my sights set on doing the San Diego Rock n Roll marathon on Sunday, May 31, 2009. Here’s a link to the registration form in case any of you guys are interested in joining in the F-U-N =D

I’ve also started fiddling around with a marathon training schedule, which for now is set to start the last week of October and ends the first week of February when I’ll be revisiting Surf City, and taking that bitch down! I’m aiming for a time as close to 2 hours as I can get =P I definitely want to do better than whatever time I do for LB.

After Surf City, I start a second training schedule (I’m calling it the REAL training schedule cause that first one is sorta just to get my feet wet with the added mileage), which will take me into the SD RnR. Hopefully, all this translates to a 4-something hr marathon =)

Training has really given me new perspective. I never believed I would be able to do any of this, but I guess it just goes to show what you can accomplish if you really have your mind and your heart set on getting something. I’m really looking forward to continuing on this journey and seeing where it takes me =)

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Week 3: Speedwork 3×1600m

Posted on August 20th, 2008 by Sheryl at 9:09 pm

The goal today was to do 3×1600m at 10:15 each. I was SO not looking forward to this! I was feeling crampy and bloated and tired and my lower back hurt. And I just didn’t feel like running so fast for 1 whole mile at a time….

Ok, enough complaining! Here are my splits.

Warm up: 0.47 in 5:29

Split 1: 9:59
Split 2: 10:01
Split 3: 10:06

Total Calories: 446
Shoes: Asics Nimbus

I nearly died during the first 1600m. I had trouble maintaining an even pace, and I think it ended up sucking up a lot of my energy. As I was hitting the 800m mark, I was wondering how I was going to do another 2 of these suckers. I was seriously, seriously tired. I ended up having to take longer recovery breaks than I usually do. And that was enough to get me through the last 2 1600m.

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Week 3: Cross Training

Posted on August 20th, 2008 by Sheryl at 12:40 pm

I really, really LOVE riding my bike.

Have I said that lately? =)

LOVE IT!!!

I’m so glad I started riding again. I can’t help but think that the bike is what’s making me feel a ton better during my runs.

Anyway, here are my specs =)

Time: 50 minutes
Distance: 8.12 miles

Rode through a few hills during this ride. There was one in particular that really, REALLY killed my legs, but in a great way! I feel so much stronger! =D

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Week 2: 6 mile long run

Posted on August 18th, 2008 by Sheryl at 8:38 pm

Today’s goal was to run 6 miles at an 11:30 pace. I totally wasn’t feeling up to this run because I’m still reeling from a sleep deprived weekend. But I forced myself to go anyway, and it wasn’t too bad! I hit my goal pace perfectly.

Split 1: 11:18
Split 2: 10:32
Split 3: 11:26
Split 4: 11:24
Split 5: 12:36
Split 6: 11:18

Total Time: 1:08:26
Average Pace: 11:26 (YES!!!)
Calories Burned: 720
Shoes: Asics Nimbus

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Protected: The Sign

Posted on August 18th, 2008 by Sheryl at 3:02 am

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Olympic Heartbreak

Posted on August 17th, 2008 by Sheryl at 9:49 am

I have been looking forward to watching the women’s marathon for months now. I especially wanted to see Deena Kastor race and possibly get another medal. Maybe even gold. She had a great chance to do it. If you haven’t seen her awesomeness yet, check out this clip of the 2004 Olympics marathon.

Her speed in the last 20 minutes of the race was just mind boggling. She rallied from 12th place, picking off her opponents one by one, until she got the bronze medal.

About 5k into this year’s marathon, she felt a pop in her foot and had to drop out of the race

=(((((

I was in a sports bar, with my heart breaking as I saw her hobbling on the side of the street. My heart goes out to her with what must be an incredible disappointment. I hope for her fast recovery.

Congrats go out to Romania’s Constantina Tomescu-Dita for an awesomely won race. Girl, no one even came close to you! The race was really for the silver and bronze medals. Congrats also go out to Catherine the Great who won silver and and Zhou Chunxin who got bronze. Great race gals =)

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Week 2: 3 mile tempo

Posted on August 15th, 2008 by Sheryl at 7:37 pm

My fastest 3 miles to date! YAY!!!

Today’s goal was to do 3 miles at 10:45 a piece. I’ve been suffering through some low energy days lately and so I wasn’t even sure if I was going to make it out of my house to do the run, much less meet all my times. But tonight my body surprised me!

Warm up: 0.48 at 5:35

Split 1: 10:17
Split 2: 10:42
Split 3: 10:48

Total Time: 31:47 (!!!!)
Average Pace: 10:36 (!!!!)
Calories Burned: 475
Shoes: Asics Nimbus

This is the first time since I started training that I’ve actually done a tempo run correctly, meaning… not running it on intevals =) which I guess is cheating! hahaha I don’t know how long I can sustain it though. I’m suppose to build my tempo runs up to 7 miles. Hopefully, I can keep up!

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One year ago today: Injured

Those Greedy F-ing Bastards

Posted on August 14th, 2008 by Sheryl at 4:10 pm

Update: Someone started a petition to have the movie moved back to the original November release date. I’m not sure if it’ll do anything, but it couldn’t hurt, right? Maybe if we can get millions of credible signatures, they might move it back! (wishful thinking, I know) Here’s the link if you want to sign =)

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince has been pushed from a November release to a July 2009 release.

Seriously, wtf?

What, you ask, was the cited reason for this delay? Was the film not finished?

On the contrary!

According to WB’s president, “The picture is completely, absolutely, 100 percent on schedule, on time. There were no delays. I’ve seen the movie. It is fabulous. We would have been perfectly able to have it out in November.”

Then why the delay?

According to Horn, they wanted to take advantage of an open weekend during the summer season.

Do they honestly think that more people would watch the movie during the summer versus releasing it in November? The Harry Potter franchise has a huge and rabid following. This movie was highly anticipated. HP fans would have watched it numerous times in November and they probably would also drag their friends who are not exactly big fans of HP to watch it, too. How do I know? Because I do that =P hahaha

Honestly, though. I think this is very poor judgment on the part of WB executives. I was already thinking they were fairly greedy bastards for splitting up #7 into two movies. I mean, yes, I am sad that it’s all coming to an end, but I see no purpose in making book 7 into two movies besides just raking in more money.

I’m really disappointed, and even a little heartbroken that we have to wait almost another year for this movie to come out. It wouldn’t have been such hard news to swallow if they hadn’t been touting that it would be released this November.

Those bastards.

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Week 2: 4×800m

Posted on August 13th, 2008 by Sheryl at 8:51 pm

Boy am I tired right now.

Today’s goal was to do 800m at 4:58 each split. I ran it on a relatively flat 1/2 strip on the Mountain to Sea trail. It worked a lot better than the stretch of street near my place. Here are my splits.

Warm-up: 0.48 mile in 5:23

Split 1: 4:43
Split 2: 4:48
Split 3: 4:46
Split 4: 4:45

Calories Burned: 356
Shoes: Asics Nimbus

I started out going WAY too fast on the first split and ended up paying for it dearly toward the end of it. I was raelly struggling to maintain pace the last 200m. The second and third splits were much better and more evenly paced. Although, I wasn’t exactly sure how I would finish the last one considering I was already pretty tired. But once I launched into my last split, I felt pretty good until the last 1/10 of the mile.

Glad I hit my time goals for each split, but boy am I completely spent! I was completely drenched in sweat after I was done.

I feel like I’m definitely pushing myself to the limits with these time goals, but it’s good =) It’s taking a lot of effort to keep up, but I seem to be keeping up just fine. Hopefully this continues on past just the first week!

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