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 start a new exercise program this week since it has been 6 weeks since I started the last one.

Day 1 & 3
Chest – Dumbbell Fly
Quads – Dumbbell Lunge
Chest – Hammer Grip Incline Dumbbell Press
Deltoid (Front) – Barbell Military Press
Calves – Seated Calf Raise
Triceps – Dumbbell Tricep Extension

Day 2 & 4
Back (Lats) – Assisted Pull-up
Hamstrings – Seated Leg Curl
Back (General) – Dumbbell Bent Over Row
Deltoid (Side) – Dumbbell Lateral Raise
Biceps – Cable Curl
Abdominals – Jack-Knife Sit-up
Obliques – Medicine Ball Twists

I’m also starting my 3rd week of training for the Waterloo Half-Marathon in April 2010.

I signed up last weekend for the Waterloo Half-Marathon. It raises money for the St. John Ambulance. The race will be on Sunday April 25th, 2010.

I also started officially training for the half-marathon this week. I am using a training schedule I found on the Toronto Women’s Half-Marathon website:
Half-Marathon training schedule

I’m aiming for a time between 2 hours & 2 hours 15 minutes. I think it is feasible. Since my time on my 1st half was 2 hours 15 minutes & 58 seconds.

I’m still doing weights (see workout below) but I’m in my last week of that program and will be starting a new one in a week.

I have started up my gym membership again. This summer I did lots of running outside, but the cooler weather and short days have prompted me to go back indoors.

This week I went back to the gym. I am doing a 2 day split work out:

Day #1 & 3
lever pec deck fly
dumbbell squat
dumbbell incline bench press
lever seated hip adduction
dumbbell shoulder press
lever standing calf raise
cable triceps pushdown

Day #2 & 4
lat pulldown
machine leg curl
cable seated low row
lever seated hip abduction
bar upright row
dumbbell biceps curl
ab crunch on a ball

This is a push/pull workout that I got from www.exrx.net.

I am still going to run 4 times a week, plus 1 day I will crosstrain (either a spin class or crosstrainer). I will only run 3 to 5 miles per session. I am going to train for a half-marathon in April, but full training won’t start until November/December. I’m trying to find some good training programs online as I need to work on my intervals and speed training.

Bill Dunphy covers the coverage of a propane depot explosion in Toronto and finds old school media comes up short.

WebU: Propane depot explosions expose shortcomings in breaking news coverage by newspapers living in a Web 2.0 world