Monday, April 29, 2019

Wayfarer's Annapolis 10k - Training week 6

The race I'm working toward is the Wayfarer's Annapolis 10k in June.  This used to be a Zooma race and I did it in 2017 when it was still run by Zooma.  I'm excited to see how it's different now.  And Annapolis was a beautiful city to run in.  I haven't really trained for a 10k since my first 10k in 2014.  Since then, any 10k's I've run had been part of training for a longer race.

This was a good week.  I got in my planned runs and strength training, plus lots of walking since we were at a local sci fi convention over the weekend.

Monday - Rest day

Tuesday - Strength training.  I still had some back pain so I chose something low impact.


Wednesday - Yay, finally no pain in my back! I went for a run and got in my speed work.  1 mile warm up, 2x 100m, 5x 200m, 2x 100m, 1 mile cool down.  This went well.


Thursday - 3 mile easy run


Friday - Rest day.  It got a bit busy with getting ready to head to the convention so I took this as a rest day.  But I still got in more than 13,000 steps.


Saturday - 60 minutes on the elliptical plus strength training at the hotel gym


Sunday - 6 miles downtown with 2 miles at easy pace, 1 mile at marathon pace, 1 mile at half marathon pace, 1 mile at 5k pace, 1 mile cool down.  This was a pleasant run around the monuments, not too crowded, and I enjoyed pushing myself a bit.



Here's the plan for this week.

Monday - Rest day
Tuesday - 2 mile warm up, 5x 3 minutes/2 minutes recovery, 1 mile cool down
Wednesday - Strength training
Thursday - 4 easy miles
Friday - strength training
Saturday - 5 easy miles
Sunday - 2 miles easy, 3 mile marathon pace, 1 mile half marathon pace, 1 mile cool down

I'm linking up with Deborah and Kim for the Weekly Rundown!
weekly Run Down

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Fitness Blender

As I've mentioned on my past couple weekly reviews, I've been using Fitness Blender for my strength training recently.  And I really like it so far!  So I thought I'd share a little more about it.

According to the website, Fitness Blender arose out of the belief that "fitness should be accessible to everyone, everywhere, regardless of income level or access to a gym." That's why they offer "hundreds of free, full-length workout videos, the most affordable and effective workout programs on the web, meal plans, and helpful health, nutrition and fitness information."

First fitness blender video I tried

I've only used it for the workout videos so far.  I haven't tried any of the nutrition information or meal plans.  And there are some aspects of the website that are for paid customers only, like having a workout program instead of just choosing individual videos.  But there is a lot of free content!



One of the things I really like is the search functionality.  There are a lot of factors you can use to search, and it's really easy to apply and remove filters.  And I love all the variety of videos they have, and the variety of lengths.  It makes it easy to fit in something quick if needed.



And once you have the list and are browsing workouts, I like how easy it is to see the details of each workout before choosing the one you want to do.  There is a detailed explanation of the format as well as a list of specific exercises that are included.

 
I also like that there is a calendar where you can put in the workouts you want to do and mark them off once they're done.  The check marks are days I've completed the scheduled workouts and the gray bars are where I have workouts scheduled but haven't completed them yet.  There is also a way to mark workouts as favorites so they're easy to find again.


Overall, I'm finding this a really great tool to enhance my strength training!