Comments

Hey everyone!

Feel free to post in the comments or to start a post.

These should be related to the site but, if you're having a bad day and you don't feel like running, post. Let us know, we're supposed to be hear to support each other.

If you think the workouts are too easy or hard let me know, if you had an awesome/horrible run even if you just had an average run let's here it.

Let see some comments roll in. I think you're out there but it's hard to tell. ;-)

Workout for August 1st, 2006

Welcome to August.

For our first workout of the month we are going to do some Great 8's.
This is a relatively quick but challenging workout.

Run a very gentle 400 meters

Stretch

Run a slightly faster warmup 400 meters

Beginner - 3x800 meters
Intermediate - 5x800 meters
Advanced - 7x800 meters

If you don't plan to run this workout on a track divide your average mile time in half and run for that amount of time.

These should be done as fast as you are able
while still finishing the whole 800 meters
(if you are running no walking, if you are walking no stopping)
with a 400 meter recovery in between each set.

Walk the recovery.
Time yourself. Record your times.

We will be doing this workout on a regular basis.

Reminder: 400meters is one lap on a track 1600meters (4 laps) in a mile.

As we progress in our program you should see seconds shave off your average 800m time. If you don't run on a track it's important to pick a site where you will typically do your Great 8's.

You should also learn how to "stack" your times, meaning each set should be within several seconds of the others.

Stacking will be more important when you start running 5k's or triathlons and marathons. Many runners will run much faster than there average pace during the beginning of a race because of adrenaline and excitement, this can lead to fatigue and frustration later on so it's important to know what a five or ten or twenty minute mile pace feels like.

How did YOU do?

Hope that all of you had a great weekend. It was beautiful here and it's finally starting to cool off a little. Hope that everyone made a little progress towards achieving their goals.

I will not be posting workouts for Mondays. Monday's are going to be my super busy day when school starts and I currently play soccer on Monday nights so it will be my rest day from running. If this doesn't flow with your schedule use a workout from another day. That will get easier once we've been up for a whole week.

Hope you are all feeling great. I'll post tomorrow's workout after lunch.

Keep up the great work.

JoanLindsay

Sunday Funday

Joan and Mikel, I had so much fun Sunday morning...even though I wanted to sleep in. The run gave me energy all day and I would love to make the Sunday morning run a new tradition. I'm slightly sore, but not too bad. Let's keep it up!

Took me ALL day!

I finally got my run in it's 11:05 and I kid you not I just came in from finishing my run. I am such a procrastinator. I was safe. I used my running lights and let someone know I was running and for how long. It was great and awful. It felt really good to be doing it and I felt really strong but, my lungs were burning pretty much the whole time and I wanted to walk almost the whole time...but I didn't only for a few minutes.

I have you guys to thank. If it weren't for this I totally would have just skipped my run for the day. So thanks for that. Hope you all had good runs. Sleep well. See Q and Mikel in the morning for our Sunday run.

Get Your Shoes on.....Workouts for July 28 & 30

Sadly this weekend's workouts are a little bit boring. We will be focusing on getting our long stuff done on the weekends, when at least most of us have more time.

Remember it's hot...make sure you are hydrated before you start. Try not to run in the heat of the day. Carry a small water bottle if you do.

The stretching is important to prevent injury. Don't injure yourself it's only going to make it harder for you to achieve your goals.

Saturday July 28, 2006

10 minutes of warm up stretching

Beginner - Run/Walk - 30 Minutes
Intermediate - Run - 45 Minutes
Advanced - Run - 60 Minutes

1st quarter easy pace
2nd & 3rd quarter 60-75% of your ability
4th quarter easy pace

Walk for at least 5 minutes be proud of yourself for exercising.

10 minutes cool down stretches.

Beginners I know it says run/walk but really try and run as long as you can, when you think you can't go any further set a marker for yourself that's about 20 feet in front of you (the next mailbox, phone poll, the big tree on the corner) walk when you get there or see if it's passed and you can keep going. On the flip side don't exhaust yourself if you haven't been running lately don't feel guilty about walking you'll be running the whole thing in no time.


Sunday July 30, 2006

10 minutes of warm up stretching

Beginner - Run/Walk - 20 Minutes
Intermediate - Run - 30 Minutes
Advanced - Run - 40 Minutes

Walk for at least 5 minutes.

10 minutes cool down stretches.

This should be an easy run. You should be able to have a conversation with someone. We want to get the lactic acid and soreness out from yesterday. Stretch your muscles and think about how fabulous you are.

If anyone wants to run together on Sunday, I'm going to get up and go in the morning say around 8:30 or so before it's sweltering out. Post in the comments if you want or email and we can pick a place.

so far I'm slow at blogging

Don't know if that fares well for my performance. No just kidding. I'm very excited to get started too. My goals:

1. One of my biggest goals right now is to quit smoking. Not that I was a pack-a-day person by any far stretch, but I'm tired of doing it at all anymore. So I'm on my 6th day without a cigarette and I really think getting back into running will help with that.

2. I'm not going to overcommit to five times a week because I know myself and that will just be setting me up for failure. I would like to commit to 2-3 times a week. I would also like to start doing yoga again in conjunction with the cardio of running.

3. I too want to run the River City Roots 5K in September and get a sweet t-shirt.

4. I am also not buying any, ANY new clothes until I've been smokefree and running at least twice a week for a month.

5. World peace.

Minus the last one, I don't think my goals are too lofty. This is going to be superfun. Thanks, Joan!

Start of my goals

What is the category for under a beginner, because that is what I am.
No running for me in over 4 years, sometimes I get into walking for short periods of time.
I have ran off and on most of my life with exception of last 4 years.
I have ran a few 5 Ks for fun and would like to run a marathon before I turn 30 (that and a triathalon have always been goals)
I have two little boys, 14 months and 3 months. We have a double jog stroller coming on the 1st of August. Mostly I want to have them grow up with healthy lifestyle models. We are making a shift in our diet to more healthy, more raw meals and we already feel better just from that.

Short term goals:
Work out 4 times a week, minimum.
Think one positive thought about myself and running everyday (positive affirmations)
Drink 1 gallon of water daily.

Long term goals:
Loose the 80lbs I have gained over the past 5 years.
Marathon in 2 years
Triathalon in 2 years

JoanLindsay's Goals

So this list will probably grow & change as time passes but I have five goals right now...

1) To run the 5k @ the River City Roots Festival in September in 28 minutes or less.

2) To run the 10k @ the Blue Mountain Women's Run in October in 55 minutes or less

3) To finish the Bridger Ridge Run in August of 2007

4) To make time to run, it's good for me, it makes me feel better mentally and physically but, I'm starting grad school full time in a month and working 20 hours a week and making time to run is going to be a tough one for me.

5) And this is the most immediate. I have one pair of jeans right now. I need to buy a couple new pairs, I want this to be a pleasant experience and running is going to be the key to making that happen.

There you go...my goals...I've got some that are small and finite, some that are ongoing, and one that's going to be really hard to accomplish. But, right now, I'm making the commitment that I'm going to do everything in my power to accomplish them. Thanks for your support.

What level are you at?

Post in the comments what level you are running at so I can tailor our workouts to meet your needs. I mostly want to know what level of running you are at right now. If you have a running history feel free to let me know.

I consider myself a beginner at the moment I haven't been on a running program since last fall. I ran long distance throughout jr. high and high school (with some of you). I ran on and off in college and after. I have run countless (or more accurately to many to remember), 5 & 10k's and have done one marathon. I don't want to do another one but am interested in possibly doing a half marathon and I prefer trail running to track or road runs. I also was an assistant cross country coach at CHS for a season after I graduated from UM.

Beginner - not currently in a running program

Intermediate - run sporadically 1 or 2 times a week

Advanced - Currently in a running program or training for a race.

Let's Get Fired Up!

I think that setting goals is a really important part of staying motivated. I'm inserting some links to some articles from a website called sparkpeople that has a lot of good materials for staying on track.

Sit down in the next few days and really think about why you signed up for this. What are you hoping to get out of it. Make some goals for yourself. I think it's important to write them down and put them somewhere that you see them everyday...make it big enough so it's hard to ignore.

I'm going to post my goals here because I seem to be more successful at achieving things when I tell people about what I'm trying to do. If you don't want to post your goals you definitely don't have to, but I'm hoping that we can help each other motivate to achieve our goals and congratulate each other when we do.

The articles

Sharing is Achieving

Goal Buddies - that's you girls.

Goals That Help, Goals That Hurt

Goal Tracking - Hopefully the Blog will help us with this

Spread the Spark - I really like this article. I think it's where there is the most opportunity to really have fun with this.

Medium Term Goals

Weight Loss as a Team Effort - I know a lot of you aren't here to lose weight. I am. If it doesn't apply to don't take offence.

Health Challenges - This article talks about challenging one another to do something healthy for a set amount of time. Runnerika - I appoint you to think of the first challenge. We can make it like tag so we all get some responsibility.

That's it. Sorry for the long post. Let's start seeing some goals. And good news, it supposed to cool off in Missoula this weekend. Just in time for your first Fast Girl workout.

Welcome Fast Girls...or Girls who will be fast.

Regardless of the name of the blog it doesn't matter if your fast or not. We're just going to make sure we're staying active.

I plan on taking the next day or so to think of some goals that I want to accomplish and post them here so I have some form of accountability. I'll post the first workout Friday so we all have something to accomplish over the weekend.

I'm looking forward to training with all of you.