Workout Week 18.–24.11.2013

In Workout Week posts I will tell you everything about my last week’s workouts.

Monday was BodyPump day as always. The day began really bad unfortunately. Sunday night I felt kind of nauseous and weird in my stomach. I thought that a good night sleep will help but it didn’t. I got up in the middle of the night and to be polite, the only thing I will tell you is that food poisoning had hit me hard. In the morning I felt better but still tired and a little weak. I had an important presentation to do and that went well.

By BodyPump time at 8 PM I was more tired than normally. But a good workout fixes a lot of things! We did program no 85. In chest track Maris encouraged and motivated us so much that in the end I increased my weights fro 5+5 kg to 6+6 kg. It felt good! Back track unfortunately didn’t play so in the end we did 2 tracks for abs. During the workout I thought why are the tracks so familiar. Then I realised that program 85 was the first BodyPump I ever did in June (and only went there once, then summer break came in my local club). I knew NOTHING about technique then, god I must have done everything wrong! Maris also told us that if anyone is going to Tartu Novembrijooks (and I am) on Saturday, we should start taking things easier from Tuesday.

Tuesday: strip aerobics. New routine, it was fun as always.

Wednesday: BodyPump. Program no 85 again. I had the same weights as last time and some muscles on my body were actually a little sore from Monday. My instructor asked me if adding weights in Monday’s chest track helped and they obviously did. Then she also mentioned not to overdo it since I have to race on Saturday. She somehow knew I’ll me taking part in Tartu Novembrijooks 🙂 

On Thursday I took it easier and went to functional workout. It’s meant to work on the muscles you need in everyday life, a la when you have to move upstairs, lift something etc. It might sound easy but I’ve previously been sore from it. A nice change.

Friday was official rest day before the race on Saturday. I did some walking in the morning and during the day, all together a little over 2 hours of walking and almost 15 000 steps.

Saturday was my 5K race day. You can check my post all about that race here. I also walked to the place where the race took place, in total about 45 minutes.

On Sunday I decided to give Zumba with Kristi another try. I have been in her Zumba class once before and I didn’t really like it that time… This time I LOVED it! I knew only one song from before but the choreography was different. I messed up a thousand times but it was still fun 🙂 AND Kristi had a Christmas song as cool down and stretching track. The first Christmas song I listened to this year…

 

In total:

3 hours of walking

2 hours of dancing

3 hours of muscle workout

32 minutes of running

 
 
 

An OK week. I have been feeling weird, not like myself for the whole week both workout and foodwise… Need to figure out what’s going on. Maybe the school stress is getting to me? I’m also pressured about hitting my goal weight by the end of the year. I haven’t weighed myself in a week and won’t weigh myself for another 2 weeks because I’m too obsessed with the number on the scales. But if I have not lost weight after these 3 weeks… I will be upset.

Tartu Novembrijooks 5K 23.11.2013

The last race of this year was on the 23rd of November 2013. It was a 5K run at Tartu Novembrijooks (Tartu November Run). Prior to the race I got a little nervous but I really didn’t have time to think about too much since I was busy with school etc. But when Heidi made a post about her goals for this race on her blog I got to thinking what my goals were…

 

Friday night I figured that it would be pretty nice if:

  • my time was under 35 minutes, ideally under the magical 30 minute line (not realistic)

  • my average pace was at least under 7 min/km like in Tartu Tudengimaraton 10K, ideally under 6 minutes per kilometre (unrealistic, my fastest ever 6:52 min/km)

  • the weather was nice

That was pretty much about it for my goals or dreams for that race.

I woke up at 8.30 AM. On Saturday the weather was OK: really foggy but no rain which made me so happy. I ate regular breakfast, nothing special. Then I decided to walk to the race place and back, it was about 4,5 km there. Not so bad. I left my house at around 10 AM and got there around 10.45 AM. Waaay to early. I jut had to stand there, be bored and get cold. And as a not so pleasant surprise, it started to rain a little.

 

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Regular breakfast: 3 eggs, bacon, sesame seeds and cheese. Plus a large chuck on raw cabbage.

The start was at noon. By then, the rain had gotten even stronger. The more we ran, the stronger it got. My face was dripping in water and I had no mascara left on my eyes (I thought some would be nice since there would be pictures taken… not one of my wisest ideas).

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First kilometre was pretty good, I was fast (6:01 min/km). Then the second and third kilometres were also pretty decent, still fast for me as my average pace at those points were 6:22 min/km. At the end of the 4th kilometre my average pace was 6:21 min/km.

God knows what happened then but at the end of the race my average pace was 6:26. That means that I must have slowed down without even noticing it.. The splits show that I was indeed slower at 6:38 min per km but note that it’s still fast for me! 

Photo by Reigo Teervalt
Photo by Reigo Teervalt

Overall results were great actually. I can be satisfied with myself because I managed to get my fastest average pace at running and I felt good after the race. I even felt I could have pushed myself a bit more and probably gotten under the 30 minute mark but well… It didn’t happen this time, maybe next time it will 🙂

This race showed me that running shorter distances can be fun and useful. I should try running under 5K distances more often and try to get my speed up. It’s a nice change to my regular 7–10 kilometre runs.

After finishing we quickly took a picture with Heidi and then her friend gave us a lift to town again. I originally planned to walk but I was soaked, started to get cold and was actually happy I didn’t have to walk another 45 minutes.

Big thanks to Heidi for sending me the picture and Katrin for taking it! 🙂

You can watch a video summary of the race. You can see my back for half a second at 1:21 😀

Results:

  • My official time: 32:22,4

  • My RunKeeper time: 32:34

  • Average pace: 6:25 min per km (fastest ever!)

  • Average speed: 9,35 km/h

  • My postition: 283rd (out of 300 that finished)

  • My position among women: 113th (out of 124)

  • In my agegroup: 55th (out of 62)  

 

Tartu Novembrijooks was the last race of this season and also my third ever sports competition. Can’t wait to see what happens next year. I’m already planning my races and competitions… And I have interesting things coming up! Excited as hell for 2014 🙂