Training in an unfamiliar place ... the gym

I generally feel like I can hold my own when it comes to athletic endeavors. I can run (duh). I can play softball and volleyball. I can throw a football (a spiral even) and run a route to catch a pass. I can dribble and shoot a basketball.

But put me in a gym (away from the cardio machines), and I am completely lost. I don’t know what to do with weights or how to stretch. I don’t know the proper form. I don’t know the proper terms. I feel completely out of my element.

So, last night was completely comfortable for me.

Actually it was … well except for that last set of push-ups. 

Ack! Uncomfortable arms!

Last night was my first session with Chris from Peak Wellness. We went through some moves I’ll be doing in Phase 1 of my program. He was patient. And explained and demonstrated things … many, many times. And he was the reason I was comfortable in an unfamiliar environment.

We started with foam rolling (I hear great things about this, but I don’t do it … err, until now – it’s on my plan) and rolling calves with tennis balls. They both felt awesome in an “ahh, this hurts but it feels so good” way.

Then, things got serious: push-ups, split squats and cross leg-ankle rock (without the crossing of the legs and rocking). I did three sets with eight reps of each (look at me use these new terms).

Feels so good on the calves

Next up: band pullbacks, single-leg dead lifts and side-lying clams. I did three sets of each with 20 reps of the pullbacks (which got surprisingly hard … does pulling on a band sound hard?) and eight reps of the dead lifts and clams.

The fun part of the night: medicine ball slams. I slammed a medicine ball into the ground as many times as I could for 30 seconds. I did three sets with 30 seconds of rest in between. 

Now this is fun ... but my arms hurt

We wrapped up with stretching that felt pretty darn good. I was even familiar with one of the stretches. 

I do this after every run.

It's pretty cool to know that I have a program made for me. The things I did last night (and will continue to do) all support my goal of becoming a better runner. 

Do you feel comfortable with weights? Do you know what to do? Do you use a foam roller? Have you ever had a session with a trainer? Do you like push-ups?

This week in running: week 4

This was the week where things started to feel right in my half marathon training. I'm getting used to running at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays (it's still miserably hot, but I know what I'm dealing with) and 7 a.m. (GAH!) on Sunday morning.

Tuesday
 
This was our first night of intervals, and I loved them! I'm not sure if it's because I haven't done them in awhile, I'm crazy or it just broke up the monotony of just running. 

Our coaches split our group into fast runners and the not-so-fast runners. I know this is shocking, but I was in the not-so-fast group. We did an easy run down to an area with a circle sidewalk, and then the intervals started.

The interval site

I think there are fancy ways to write this, but I don't understand it, so I'll write it the only way I know how: we did 5 sets of 1 minute hard/2 minutes recovery, 5 sets of 30 seconds hard/1 minute recovery and 5 sets of 20 seconds hard/40 seconds recovery.   

Overall, it was just 50 minutes of fun. It was a challenge, and I did end up walking some of the recovery times. But, I felt like I pushed hard and got in a great run.   

Distance: 4.2 miles

Thursday  

This week is full of new running things. Today, it was a tempo run. I remember these pesky tempo runs from last training cycle, and I remember not liking them. It's hard to pick a faster pace to maintain for a sustained period of time ... well, it is for me at least.

The plan: run a 10-minute warm up, do a 16-minute tempo run, and then do a 19-minute cool down run. 

As much as I don't like tempo runs, and as bad as I think I am at them, I think this one went pretty fabulously. Granted, my faster time was only about 30 seconds faster than my warm-up time, but it was faster. I'll take it as a starting point. 

Happy after a decent tempo run

Distance: 3.6 miles

Sunday

In my fogginess early on Sunday morning, I thought someone was taking pictures outside. It was only after I threw my clothes on and ran out the door in less than 10 minutes that I realized this was lightning. Morning person I am not. 

Another thing I am not: a lightning person. I'm frightened of this stuff in a serious way. But, since I was already awake, I headed to running group anyway. Being in Florida, a thunderstorm where I live doesn't mean lightning 10 miles away.

But, I didn't think the continued lightning and then the pouring rain on the way there were a good sign. 

I arrived at Fit2Run, our meeting spot, in the rain. I ran inside the store (thank goodness we have it) and found exercise stations set up around the store. We couldn't run due to the lightning (thank goodness the coaches are smart and safe about this), so they set up some stations throughout the store for our workout. We did lunges, push-ups, dips, crunches, squats and climbed stairs for a minute at a time before rotating to the next station. After 20 minutes, the coaches decided it was safe to try and run.

We headed out to tackle a 5-6 mile run (depending on the weather). Unfortunately, it got cut to 2.5 miles. As my running buddy and I were running toward the rest of the crowd, a girl came running back at us saying that rain was coming down in a sheet ahead (and we heard scary thunder rumblings). We promptly turned around and booked it back to the store ... with everyone else on our heels. We then promptly went to breakfast and talked running.

I'm hoping to make up some miles tonight.
Distance: 2.5 miles

How was your week in running? Did you run intervals? A tempo run? What is your favorite? Any thunderstorms that prevented getting a run in?