Friday, July 17, 2009

No More Sicky!

Well, the past two days ended up being a complete washout thanks to a bug I've been fighting off which left me completely drained of energy. I skipped Karate on Wednesday in favor of crashing on the couch, missing a good sparring class. Thursday I felt a bit better but decided to stay away from the Fun Run (which I was going to do as an easy run anyway) and take another day to heal up for the track meet. At least I didn't miss any quality workouts. (Aside from the sparring, which I really DO need to work on but wouldn't have taken part of anyway with a race this weekend.)

Today I'm back up to about 80 or 90% so I decided to go ahead with an easy three in my racers to prep for tomorrow. I did a couple slow laps on the track just to get a feel for it in my racers. I felt kinda silly because there was this hardcore there (spikes and all) getting ready to do some serious speedwork.

I was very happy because I was able to do it all without socks without getting a blister, which means that much less weight on my feet tomorrow.

Anyway, an easy lap or two around the lake tonight followed by some kata review in Karate. Tomorrow's my first track meet ever. Yikes!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Final Time Trial

Last night's Karate class was very low-key. We ran the kyu belts through basics and then broke them off for kata. It was Sensei's last class before leaving for Okinawa for two weeks.

This morning I did my last hard workout before the track meet - a 1600 meter time trial at the track. IronKid was supposed to join me to rabbit me to a 6:45-6:50 time, but was out late and overslept. (For which she was extremely apologetic.) Despite no pacer and a very nasty, strong wind on the backstretch I managed a 6:56. Missed my goal, but what the hell. It's nine seconds better than just two weeks ago.

Tonight is a Sundowner series.

Tomorrow, thank God, is a rest day.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Slight Injury

Thursday's Fun Run didn't go quite as planned. The route of the day was HillyMan. I came in at 32:27 (I think), which was okay-not-great. My PR on that course is under 31:00. It was the hills that got me - I managed to keep up with IronDad most of the way but he pulled away on the climbs and was too far ahead to chase down by the time we got back to the last half mile, which is flat. IronKid of course finished in under 27:00, but there's something wrong with her. LOL.

Unfortunately I twisted my ankle at the beginning (HillyMan starts off on the grassy park), so I couldn't run on Friday. Luckily it was only suppposed to be an easy four, so no big deal.

Saturday was the Northeast Open. My first event was empty-hand kata. I was going against a blue belt (surprising, but like me he had three years of training), and a brown belt (much closer to my rank). I took first by a hair. Coming in a close second, surprisingly, was the blue belt.

Weapons held an even bigger surprise. The only other person competing was a green belt who got bumped up to my division. I did the best Toye No Sai in my life, but she won. I was a bit shocked, to say, the least, but they must have scored us on a steep grade. After taking first in my last event I wasn't going to complain.

My last event was sparring, which didn't go nearly so well. They basically threw ALL of the over-18 females together. My first round fight was against the girl who ended up beating the second-place girl 5-1 in the final bout. I literally didn't score a single point on her. She was so good (not to mention a foot taller than me) that even Dr. Z. was like, "I don't know what to tell you except that she was a phenomenal fighter."

Sunday was 400-meter repeats at the track. I could only do four before my ankle gave out (I wanted to do five), but they went well - 1:34, 1:35, 1:37, and back down to 1:36. That's right - a negative split on the FOURTH. Sweet.

Dr. Z and I then did four laps around Mirror Lake later in the day. It took about 1:35 or so, but went very well.

Today's easy run was great. The double track workouts are really paying off because I ran four miles in 34:37 and it felt easier than ever.

Well, that's about it. Tonight is Karate - probably kata since Wednesday was sparring. Tomorrow will be tough - a 1600 meter time trial at the track followed by a Sundowner in the evening. Phew! Good thing I have Wednesdays off!

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Updates, Getch'er Updates Here!

Here goes. *deep breath*

Thursday I skipped my pre-flight tempo run because my knee was really, really bothering me. I did, however, do a couple laps around Mirror Lake with Dr. Z so it wasn't a totally lazy day.

Friday I did a three mile walk-run in the heat with MomTook. Not the original plan, but some MORON had attempted to grease the squeaking treadmill, leaving OIL ALL OVER THE BELT. SO dangerous. Anyway, we headed out into the 95 degree, 95% humidity of the Gulf Coast summer and got it done.

Saturday we spent two freakin' hours looking for a damned track. We finally found ONE, but it was locked up tighter than Fort Knox. I ended up using the Pinellas Trail to do my speedwork. Much less exact, but what the hell. (And yes, the two-hour delay meant I didn't get started until after ten, which meant being in the heat AGAIN.)

Sunday was a day off. Left Florida, boohoo.

Monday was an easy four miles followed by Karate class. (In this case, LITERALLY followed by Karate class since I didn't have time to run during my lunchbreak.) We did Kata, which was awesome.

Tuesday was another 1600 meter time trail. I fell apart due to going out too fast - did the first lap in 1:37. What the hell. Made up for it by setting a new PR around Mirror Lake that night - broke 23:00! We then did two more laps, because we are awesome. Or insane.

Yesterday was a day off.

Tonight is a Fun Run. I shall post results later.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Tough Tuesday

Two grueling workouts yesterday. Glad I have today off to recover! (Of course, on Monday Sensei said we'd have sparring tonight, so it may not be much of a break after all.)

Started with my track workout. I did a 1600 meter time trial to see where I was at. Finished in 7:05. I'm ambivalent about that result - on the one hand, it's actually a 4 second faster pace than my 1500 last week, so yay. On the other hand, that is still not a great time, plus I know I have more speed than that. (I've run faster miles than that on the road during a 5K.)

Last night we had the third Sundowner of the year. Despite a strong headwind the entire way out, Dr. Z and I smashed our PR, coming in at an even 52 minutes. Yay!

So now I'm trying to recover and enjoying getting ready for a long weekend away in Florida. (Where yes, I will be doing my regular Saturday track workout at the school down the street from my mother. In the heat and humidity. Joy.)