Let it snow!

Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow! Wow! We sure have been getting a lot of snow! Because of the snow and the holiday season, I've been sitting on my bottom more. It's not too bad, but I do miss regular exercise. Last week, I exercised on Sat & Sun, however during the week it was hit or miss.

Since I know we are getting snow tomorrow, I ran hard the last couple days. Tuesday a girlfriend and I ran Palmer Park. We thought it would be fun to do some speed work, so that is what we did! I was really impressed with what we did too. Then this morning, I ran again with a girlfriend, but in Garden of the Gods. This time, we ran up Rampart Range Road until we couldn't go any further. We still had a little oomph left, however we needed to get back to the cars. On the way back to the cars, my right leg cramped up on two of the hills. We made it back and surprisingly our average pace was 9:45. With all the hills we ran, I really thought it would be more like 11:00. I don't think I can run hard two days in a row on a regular basis, but it was fun this week. Now when I sit at home, stuck in the house while it is snowing, I can still feel good about my week's work outs.

As for the weight and overall body image, that is coming along. The back of my thighs/butt area has gotten a lot firmer. I can see a little bit of the extras, but the muscle tone is there. And the weight, I'm still working to keep it above 130. Once I stop breastfeeding, I'll be trying to keep it around 130... amazing what breastfeeding can do to a body!

caught a cold

Having kids is a wonderful, fun adventure, however all those germs that come along with them are getting me down. I've been able to fight off every cold Ella caught up until now. This darn cold hit me hard! I could hardly breath during my long run yesterday and then this morning I woke up feeling like my head was going to explode. And since I am still breastfeeding, I can't take any decongestants. Decongestants will dry up my milk supply, and we don't want that quite yet, Miles is only six months after all. For now, I will be taking lots of showers and steaming my head to break some of this up. It sure does put a damper on the exercising though.

Last week was a really good week. I did my 10k loop on Saturday. I didn't wear my gps, instead I just ran with my regular watch and tried not to pay too much attention to my time. It was a very relaxing run. Since I lifted upper body on Friday, I did have to keep telling myself not to slouch, because I really was sore. So with it being a relaxing run and having upper body soreness, I did the loop 1:30 faster than before. I was surprised. I guess I just need to focus on relaxing more and I can run better. Don't know why I didn't realize that before... ok, I did, but it is hard to do sometimes.

I've also been keeping up with lifting regularly. Last night I made it to the Ultimate Conditioning class at the Y. It is a weight/muscle conditioning class. I am feeling it today in the upper body, but it feels great. I need to start going more regularly, in addition to lifting with Harsha. Everything else is going along as usual. Great running days, spin class, yoga and lifting.

This next week I have some great runs planned with girl friends, spin class, yoga and more lifting. It should be a great week. My goal is to eat a little more this week too... this morning I weighed in at 128.8. Gotta find what makes me a consistant 130-132. Sounds silly to some, but I don't want to keep losing weight. I like where I am.

Dipped below 130

Well I am now trying to eat more in order to keep my weight above 130. I don't think I will have to eat quite as much when I'm done breast feeding, but for now I eat like a horse. I am sitting at 130.2 and I don't want to fall below 130. Last week, I weighed in at 128.6, which got me down in the kitchen for a snack :-) And here is one of the big reasons for wanting my weight to remain around 130 - my clothes! Friday night, I had a Christmas Party to go to, so I got out my nice slacks. They were all too large! I didn't think my hips had gotten smaller than they were before getting pregnant, but apparently they have. And to top it all off, my shirts were too small! Oh, the frustrations!! My breasts are too big, and my butt is too small. For me, it is normally the other way around. I'll have to put up with it for a while longer, since we have another six months or so to go with the breastfeeding.

And on to the exercise updates. We got some very cold weather toward the end of the week, so I was stuck on the treadmill. I've been trying to add in some speed work and I think it is paying off. My really good workouts were as follows: Tuesday, I ran outside and did a little over 8 miles, with an average pace of 8:45. Since the weather was bad Wed morning, I didn't do the Incline. Instead, I did the stair climber with the intensity set to 13 on the speed training selection. It was a great work out! I then followed it with a 3 mile run on the treadmill with my first mile at 8:30 and the next two at 8. I wanted it to be as much like the Wed Incline workout as possible and I think I succeeded. Sunday was my long run and I kept it right around an 8:30 pace. There were a few other workouts in there too, but these were the ones I felt I saw progress with. I've been trying to train my body to run faster than the 9 min mile pace that it is used to and I think it is getting better. Of course, with shorter runs I can do quite a bit faster, but my goal is to keep my pace at or under 8:30 for longer runs.

It's funny how now I am trying to increase my fitness level versus getting back into shape. I still have a little ways to go to get back into the trail running shape I was in before getting pregnant, however I have surpassed my road running fitness level. Since it was summer, I ran primarily on trails, so that has a little something to do with it. Once spring is here, I will start running trails regularly again, but continue running roads too. I'm always amazed at the difference in which muscles you use for each. I enjoy the half marathon distance, so I plan on doing a few of those next year... as long as I can keep myself running on the roads and groomed trails during the summer. It might be hard to do, because I love trails.