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November 9, 2005
Paying the Price
I knew my snowball fight-starting adventure of yesterday would come back to haunt me, and I guess it's better sooner than later. I was inundated by snowballs as I ran through the neighborhood today! Well, just from one house where several kids were playing. It was awesome. Lucky for me, I'm quick-moving, or should I say fast relative to the trajectory distances of snowballs thrown by 12 year olds. Ah, fun times, fun times. I'm already planning my revenge.
It's c-c-cold! It got down to 12 degrees last night. I don't know how I feel about that. Well, I know that I feel cold.
I was bundled up SO much while running today, even though it was probably 20 degrees, but how about that wind! I ran for 39 minutes and pocket change, which I'm calling 5 miles. I timed one of those miles on the dirt track, during which I had to cut tracks through all of yesterday's snow, and still came out with a 7:42 mile.
I think I'm going to do the time trial DVD on the bike trainer again tonight. The video claims that if done twice a week, it will help increase your lactate threshold. The video features a 10 minute warmup of easy spinning, with 2x1 minute sprints. Then there are 3x5 minute "power intervals," with 5 minutes easy spinning recoveries. The power intervals are supposed to be executed at an intensity that you can only keep up for 5 minutes, and not much longer (Actually, the video instructs you to calculate a heart rate for these intervals using a funny equation and your heart rate max. So far, I've been too lazy to calculate the appropriate heart rate.). Then, there is 12 minutes of "steady-state intervals," which consist of 2 minutes spinning fast alternating with 2 minutes of lower cadence in a higher gear, all while keeping the power output the same, and at a pace at which you're working hard but that you could sustain for a while (There's also another equation that I haven't done.). Finally, the video ends with 8 minutes easy spinning cooldown, for a total of a 1 hour workout. I kind of feel like this is a good way to get a good workout without the pounding of running a workout while I'm trying to build base mileage. I think I'm going to follow the 2x a week instructions for a few weeks and see if this helps me with my running.
Whew, tonight is my last work shift for the week! I work a funny schedule, 7 night shifts on, 7 days off. So now, I will have 7 days off, starting tommorow. My weeks on are really hard because they are long night shifts, but the weeks off are very exciting. My plans for my upcoming "weekend:" 1) A visit to a ski shop to begin doing reasearch on cross country skis and snowshoes (The winter toys that I plan to purchase soon!). 2) An end-of-season pizza party and awards ceremony for my cross-country team (I coached the local high school's cross country team; their season finished 2 weeks ago.). 3) Visiting the park's interior by vehicle. As of now, all the interior roads have closed because of snow. I have finagled (Is that a word?) a way to "do business errands" in the park so I can drive around and see how much snow is in there already. 4) A short road trip. I won't divulge much more about this right now, as I think we're going to do something really, really, super fun. However, my friends and I are roadtripping to see our other friends where they work at Mt. Rushmore. I think that's enough for one week, though!
Posted by Meghan at November 9, 2005 6:44 PM
Comments
hey marshmallow. just stopping by to say your run was really zippy. let us know which winter toys you buy. i am trying to embrace winter sports too this season and i will be trying new things (even though probably not investing in permanent equipment). enjoy!
Posted by: Audrey at November 10, 2005 6:57 AM
hehe...your blog matches your outfit.
the upcoming week sounds great! have a wonderful time off.
and the snowfights? AWESOME.
Posted by: jeff at November 10, 2005 9:55 AM