New Season, New Challenge

So, this is my first real week of summer since I had so much school stuff going on last week. And I'm finally going to start a challenge I saw online a while back. Actually, I'm going to do two different challenges. The first is the 200 Crunch Challenge (yes, the website says situps, but then goes on to say they use crunches), and the second is the 100 Pushup Challenge. I figure this will at least jump start my core strenthening plan.

For both of these challenges, you complete an initial test just to see how many of each exercise you can currently do. So...my starting numbers for the Crunch Challenge is 100 (oh, yes, really!).

Ok, so I'm pleased with the number of crunches I can do. I'm attributing this to the fact that I run, and while I don't focus on my core enough, running does seem to keep it stronger than if I wasn't running.

But my pushups? My starting number is just 5. Man, I am weak!

But, that's the point. I am going to follow the plan to get to 200 crunches and 100 pushups, hopefully by the end of summer.

I'm in the Excellent category for crunches, so I'll actually be starting at Week 3 of the plan. That means 3 "workouts" this week of 5 sets of 20+ crunches (depending on the day).

I'm in the lowest rank possible. Luckily, they didn't name these like they did the crunches. I'm afraid it would say something like "Weakling" or "How Pathetic." I'll be starting with 5 sets of 2-5 crunches. We'll see.

My plan is to start the workouts on Wednesday. I'll fit in Wednesday/Friday/Sunday workouts this week and switch to Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday the next week.

It's Sunday...time for this week's schedule...

Today has been a rather odd day. A big storm blew in last night and we actually had rain most of the morning. We went out with friends last night and the kids were at the grandparents', so the hubby and I enjoyed a lazy morning listening to the rain. But now it's cold! The kids got home and had lunch, but then they both took naps. I haven't had a ton of things to do...a little laundry, a few crafty Mother's Day things, but that's about it.

I figure I should look at the week ahead to figure out what's coming up and what workouts I need to fit in. I know that last week was supposed to be an "easy" week on the training plan for the 10K at the end of the month, but since I hadn't signed up for it yet, I stuck to my normal easy/fast/short/long routine. Now, the question is whether or not to take this week as an easy week or just keep on trucking through the plan.

If I just stick to the plan (which is what I will probably do), my week will look like this:

Monday-easy 4 miles
Tuesday-t-ball game in the evening
Wednesday-tempo run of 2 miles at 9:49 (which my handy-dandy conversion chart tells me is about a 6.1 on the treadmill) with a mile warmup and a mile cooldown for a total of 4 miles...I may make this another 3 mile tempo
-church in the evening
Thursday-the plan doesn't have anything, but I usually do 2-3 at the Y during SB's dance class
Friday-rest
-SB has an extra dance class this week
Saturday-6 miles (the plan says at 11:32, but I usually do about 10:40 or so)
-t-ball pictures and game
-head to a family get-together out-of-town
Sunday-rest, well at least workout-wise...we'll be having a Mother's Day breakfast with my mother-in-law and driving back home for Mother's Day at my parents' with my dad's side of the family...no rest for the weary :)

Somewhere in there, I need to figure out some healthy meals/snacks, make some homemade yogurt, grocery shop, finish making Mother's Day gifts, and get to the post office.

I'm also trying to stick to my daily crunches, but I missed a couple of days already. It's better than nothing though!

Finally!

I finally feel like I'm getting faster. Yesterday, I was actually scheduled for an easy 3 on my training plan for a 10K at the end of May. But since I haven't actually signed up for that 10K, I went ahead and stuck with my weekly pattern of easy/fast/short/long that seems to be working for me. I thought I'd try a 5K and see how fast I could go. I warmed up with a quarter mile, and my left knee felt wonky, so I figured I'd better take it easy. I cranked the ol' treadmill to my normal 6 mph (or 10:00/mile). Much to my amazement, after a quarter-mile, my knee felt fine and I bumped it to 7 mph (8:34/mile) and took off. I started bumping it up a little more after a mile and a half and finished the 5K in 26:05! Someday, I WILL break 25!

And my dear friend Chandra has challenged me to do 50 crunches and 25 back extensions a day. Apparently, I'm a sucker for a challenge because I'm finally adding in this core work. I've made 3 days so far...I know, I know...it doesn't sound like much, but it's progress.

I did have to forego the back extensions yesterday. After this crazy long week of TAKS tests at school, my back isn't feeling so hot. And this week is why I run. I know I'm going to need that run tonight (and maybe a beer when I finish...lol)!

I'd like to get this habit down for a couple of weeks and start adding some push-ups and squats. There's this cool challenge site for doing different amounts of different core exercises. One of them is here: Two Hundred Situps. The others are linked from there. You take an initial test and follow a plan to get you to that goal. Eventually, I think I'm going to do that...maybe this summer?

I'm interested to see how finally getting some core work in will affect my running. Hopefully it will help me build strength and speed.