Weekly roundup

This week's exercise:

Monday, 8/31:

Full-body weight workout

45 minutes on the stairclimber @ zone 2 (147 bpm)

Tuesday, 9/1:

1-hour kickass run

What a treat, I felt fantastic for the last mile and was able to pick up my pace in a big way. I sprinted the last half mile or so and it felt great!

Wednesday, 9/2:

Full-body weight workout

45 minutes on the elliptical @ high zone 1 (140 bpm)

I usually do 134 bpm on my first zone 1 day of the week, but the keypad on the elliptical wouldn't recognize the number "3", so I decided to go higher instead of lower.

Thursday, 9/3:

(Failed) interval day

To build on last week's happy success, I aimed for three sets of 2:00 @ zone 2; 10:30 @ zone 4, on the stairclimber. After 20 minutes of warmup at zone 1 on the elliptical, I made it through the first set of intervals with more difficulty than I'd anticipated. I only made it to 6 and a half minutes on the second set before stopping. Really, before I even knew what I was doing, my hand jumped out and decreased the level on the stairclimber.

Feeling like I literally can't continue happens to me so rarely that I decided to respect it. Was that a victory or a copout? I couldn't and still can't decide. All I knew was that the workout felt extra, extra hard -- much harder than it had the week before. Maybe that was because last week I was off my schedule and had a rest day two days before I tackled intervals, whereas this week I was back to my regular routine and even worked out harder than usual on Tuesday and Wednesday. Or maybe it was because Aunt Flo was in town this week (here comes the TMI train). Or maybe I was just having an off day.

Regardless, I slumped off the stairclimber and moved to the elliptical for another 8 and a half minutes so I'd get to a total of 50 minutes of cardio. I was aiming for an hour but ran out of time -- I was meeting my husband for happy hour sushi and had to get there quick if we wanted to score the cheap goodies. So I told myself I'd make up the 10 minutes on Friday. Did I? No.

Friday, 9/4:

Bis/tris weight workout

45 minutes on the elliptical at low zone 1 (125 bpm)

I was running late for a meeting so couldn't make up the 10 minutes of cardio from the day before. I told myself that my big Saturday run, plus the bike riding and swimming I did with little C this week, would take care of it. Truth or excuse? Still not sure.

Saturday, 9/5:

11-mile run

Happily, it felt great! The weather was cool, the route was relatively flat, and I never felt totally wiped out. I ended strong and walked nearly two miles back home instead of calling M for a ride.

I did make one mistake that put a bit of a damper on the rest of the afternoon: I had a nonfat mocha (I keep reading how chocolate milk is a good recovery drink) and a handful of almonds 30 or so minutes after I finished -- and waited too long to eat something substantial after that. The caffeine hit me like a sledgehammer. I got really queasy and, more TMI, suffered through a couple rounds of diarrhea. Next time, I'll skip the caffeine and get something good to eat more quickly. Hopefully that will do the trick ... although I'm still on the fence about the Seattle Marathon in November, I'm training as if I'm going to do it. If I felt that crappy after 11 miles and coffee wasn't the culprit, how awful am I going to feel when I attempt 20 (the longest training run on the schedule) or 26 on the day of the event?

I can't even go there right now.