Carol Levesque's Blog

I ran my longest run yesterday. I ran just over 20 miles. It was slow & painful. I ran slow at the beginning so my time was really slow (4 hours & 18 minutes & 28 seconds!), but I believe it allowed me to finish the 20 mi. Don’t think I would have been able to finish it if I had run my regular 7 minutes/km.

Here is the mapped out run from Runkeeper:

I have now hit my peak distance & will not start to taper so that I can recover to run the actual marathon on September 26th.

A reminder that I will be running for the Assaulted Women’s Helpline.

Your donation will directly support the services of the crisis line:
- AWHL offers a toll free and TTY telephone crisis line to all women in Ontario who have experienced abuse. This life-saving service allows women to reach out for help, free of charge, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, assured of their anonymity and confidentiality.
- AWHL provides crisis counselling, emotional support, information and referrals in up to 154 languages
- Your donation directly supports the services of the crisis line to make sure no calls go unanswered.

Sponsor me here: http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=893006

I thought I’d start a new workout for September. I wanted it to be more intuitive to using dumbbells as that is all I have at home.

Quads – Lunge with Rotation
Hamstring – Stiff-Legged Dumbbell Deadlift
Calves – Dumbbell Calf Exercise Ball Raises
Chest – Bench Press – Dumbbells, Inclined
Deltoids – Front – Front Dumbbell Raise
Back – One-Arm Dumbbell Row
Tricep – Tricep Press – Dumbbell, Standing
Abs – Bicycle Kicks

I will be doing 2 sets each & start with 10 (upper) to 12 reps (lower).

Since starting my last workout, I’ve put my YMCA membership on hold & started doing my work outs at home. Therefore I’ve had to modify my runner’s workout.

Quads – Barbell Squat – changed to dumbbell squat
Hamstrings -Dead lift – changed to use dumbbells
Quads – Sumo Squat
Calves – Calf Press – changed to Calf Raise on the steps
Lower Back – Good Morning with dumbbells instead of barbells
Obliques – Dumbbell Side Bend
Bicep – Concentration Curls
Chest – Dumbbell Pull over
Abdominals – Captain’s Chair – changed to crunches on the exercise ball.

I only had to change a few things, but is still a good workout for me to do at home.

Still doing the running of course. Ran 18 miles yesterday. I was quite sore yesterday, but my body has recovered nicely. Should be ready for a 50 minute run tomorrow evening!

I use the application iFitness on my iPhone 3G. I use it to keep track of my workouts as well as the reps & sets that I did per workout. In it is a great runner’s workout. I have found the same exercises in other runner’s workouts so I would like to share it with you.

Quads – Barbell Squat
Hamstrings -Dead lift
Quads – Sumo Squat
Calves – Calf Press
Lower Back – Good Morning
Obliques – Dumbbell Side Bend
Bicep – Concentration Curls
Chest – Dumbbell Pull over

I’ve also added:
Abdominals – Captain’s Chair

This week I started with 2 sets & 8 reps for upper body and 10 reps for lower body. I’m going to increase the reps next week to 10 to 12 & then the week after I will go to 12 & 15. I might possibly go to 3 sets for my upper body but since there are so many leg exercises I will stick with 2 sets for the legs.

I started a new workout this week.
Starting at 3 sets & doing 10 reps for upper body & 12 reps for lower body. Eventually I will move up to 4 sets & 12 reps for upper body & 15 reps for lower body.

Chest – Cable Chest Press
Back – Lever Underhand Seated Row
Tricep – Cable Pushdown
Bicep – Cable Curl
Quads/Shoulders – Medicine Ball Lunges
Hamstrings – Hamstring Tilts
Calves – Calf Raise with Bent Knee
Lower Back – Bird Dogs
Abdominals – Medicine Ball Abdominal Exercises: Crunches with a Toe
Touch
Obliques – Stability Ball Russian Twist

I’ve been following Jenny Hadfield’s marathon training on the ScotiaBank Training pages. I’ve been finding it difficult to run at my 65-75% of max heart rate as I felt it was too slow.

I was using the 220 – Age = Maximum heart rate, which was 184. That left me with:
65% – 119.6
75% – 138
80% – 147.2

I did some more research and found another way to calculate it.
1st I need my actual maximum heart rate. askcoachjenny @ Runner’s World mentions how to determine your maximum heart rate. I tried it out today and found my maximum to be 181.
I found my resting heart rate by placing the heart rate monitor while sleeping & grabbed the average. I did this 3 times & found it to be 68.6

Here is the formula to determine your heart rate zones:

[Max Heart Rate - Resting HR x training zone + Resting HR]

65% – [181 - 68.6 * 0.65 + 68.6] = 141.6
75% – [181 - 68.6 * 0.75 + 68.6] = 152.9
80% – [181 - 68.6 * 0.8 + 68.6] = 158.5

These heart rates seem more reasonable to me & will be using these for my marathon training.

I have officially signed up for the ScotiaBank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

I will be raising money for the Assaulted Women’s Hotline. You can sponsor me here. This is my 3rd time running for this charity. In 2007 I ran a 5 k at this event for AWHL. Last year I ran the half-marathon & now this year I am running a full marathon.

I haven’t signed up yet, but my plan is to train for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on September 26th, 2010.

I will be running 4 days a week. 2 days out of the week I will be crosstraining. On my crosstraining days I will be doing weights. I will be using the STWN marathon training program by Jenny Hadfield.

Just waiting for the charity I run for to get their stuff set up. Then I will be signing up. Hopefully the end of this week or next.

Here’s my 1st run:

I will be doing weights tomorrow & Saturday. Here is my workout for the next 6 to 8 weeks.

Quads – BOSU Ball Squats
Hamstring – Lying leg curl
Calves – Lever standing calf raise
Back - Cable Seated Row
Deltoid (side) - Lever Lateral Raise
Chest – BOSU Ball Push-ups
Biceps & Hip Abduction – Bicep Curl Bosu Ball Exercises
Triceps – Lying Tricep Extension
Abs – Medicine Ball Leg raises

Just got back from running in the Sporting Life 10k.
I greatly improved upon my time from last year. I believe I was about 58:59 last year & now this year I was 54:43.

Here are my runkeeper results:

The finish line improved from last year as well. Previously they had 15,000 people all crowded into a very small section & pour into Fort York. This year it was the near the opening of the Prince’s Gates near the CNE. A lot more room to move around & I didn’t feel like cattle!

Update:
I placed 4715 out of approximately 15000 people, for female age: 35-39 I was 216 out of 960, and for all women I placed 1590 out of 6684.

Here are the results for the Waterloo Half-Marathon for 2010.

Out of 365 I was 202nd place. Out of 55 women from the age of 30-39 I came in 28th place. And for all women I was 74 out of 201.

w00t!!!!