When 60 minutes of activity feels like a rest day

I’m still in the 100 Day Challenge, doing the workout spreadsheet. My goal is to average 100 minutes of exercise per day for 100 straight stays with a minimum of 30 minutes per day. So far, I’m doing fine. In the past week I ran a little over 25 miles, walked 10.5 miles, went to 2 Pilates classes and 1 yoga class, lifted weights,  and stretched. Doing all these activities, I averaged a little over 122 minutes per day. Yesterday was the first day that I really felt that my body was adapting to the variety and amount of exercise.

Fridays are almost always a rest day for me, but with the challenge, I am now doing a 60 minute yoga class. This morning as I was thinking about the class and trying to decide if I wanted to do some additional activity to get more minutes, I decided that just doing the yoga would probably feel like a rest day---when compared to what I have been doing over the course of the last 12 days. Last Friday I did the 60 minute yoga class and then did a 30 minute bike ride in the afternoon. I think that today I will simply let the 60 minutes of yoga be enough and then tomorrow I will attempt a 6-7 mile run. We’ll see how that goes.

100 Day Challenge Continues

On January 1, I began a 100 Day Challenge. My challenge is the exercise an average of 100 minutes for 100 straight days with a minimum of 30 minutes a day. It can consist of any form of exercise, but mostly is running, walking, stretching, ellipticating, biking, weights, yoga and Pilates. Thus far, I have done some of each, with the exception of Pilates which I will try to do tomorrow morning. I have done two yoga classes, the first one being last Monday evening with Tammy at Downtown Down Dog or whatever it's called. Vicki Copeland is also doing that class so it was fun to spend some time with her. On Friday morning I did Kelly Spiers' class at the Y.

My sore hamstring/piriformis is feeling better, probably because I have been running slower and have been doing the tennis ball massage routine before and after running. I also think that the fact that I am doing such a variety of activities is certainly helping.

It has not been that difficult to get my minutes. The older I get, the more I have to walk before and after running so those minutes certainly add up. Next Tuesday I will have dental surgery in the afternoon and I'm not sure how that will impact my exercise. For that reason, I have been trying to get some cushion minutes so that if/when I have to just do the minimun, I can still keep up the average. After 8 days, I have an average of just over 110 minutes per day.

A real positive of the challenge is that I have gotten back to lifting weights. I do low weights with high reps---usually between 10-20 on each machine/movement. I have also included ab work and I end each session with about 10 minutes of stretching.

If my hamstring/piriformis continues to improve, I will race the Oh What A Beautiful Day 5 miler and a February 5K in Austin when I attend my Dead Runners World Conference. This is an internet email running list to which I have belonged for over 15 years. It consists of runners from all over the world and we meet once a year with between 30-100 people attending. It is really neat to meet people with whom I have been corresponding. While at the conference, many will run the Austin Marathon and Half. I had briefly considered running the Half, but then my body told me that was not going to happen, so I will settle for the 5K.

If any of you are interested in learning more about this DRS  group, contact me and I'll tell you how to become a member. You don't have to post to the list. Many people just lurk and find that to be enough involvement.

Ending 2011 and Starting 2012

I am pleased that I ran a total of 1110.25 miles in the past year. What was surprising was that I also walked (for fitness) 573.25 miles. That was probably due to the training that I did for the Grand Canyon hike, as well as the hiking that I did during the week in the canyon. I also had the fewest injuries in many years, with the exception of the past week when I tweaked my left hamstring. I hope that I can get this rehabbed quickly. I have had such a history of hamstring/piriformis injuries that I know what I need to do and not do in order to get past it. Yesterday was our club’s 12K race and I had trained to do it, but with the injury, I resisted and that was a very good thing in that I was able to be more hands on with the race. Since I was the co-director, that was a good thing and I think it resulted in a more quality event.

Today I will begin the 100 Day Challenge. My challenge is the exercise an average of 100 minutes for 100 straight days with a minimum of 30 minutes a day. It can consist of any form of exercise, but most likely will be running, walking, stretching, ellipticating, biking, weights, yoga and Pilates. I’m really looking forward to this as it will force me do more cross training type activities.

A big part of the challenge will be my ability to document this. I have a Garmin and I am going to clear it of all history and try to figure out how to use more of the features and download the information.

This should be fun!