Weekly Workout Summary 8/23/15

Monday: I had the day off to recover from my road trip and to try to get my life in order. I woke up cranky and not excited to run. So I immediately got dressed and set out for a run. I walked into a garage and was slapped with crushing humidity. Ok... I can't run in that. So I hit the treadmill. My god I hate the treadmill. I need to distract myself because staring at the display is just hell for motivation but I suffered though and got my 3 miles in. I need to figure out how to make friends with my treadmill.

Tuesday: 5 miles on the treadmill which was just awful. I covered the display and had cartoons playing on my ipad to distract me but I just feel like I am SO SLOW on the treadmill and it drives me crazy. If I try to bump it up to what my pace is outside I feel like I'm draining myself instantly. I guess I just need more practice.

Wednesday: 45 minute tempo run on the treadmill. I welcomed the torture this time because it came right after something that happened that I needed to sort out in my head. I probably didn't go as fast as I should have but I got it in and even managed to feel better after.

Thursday: 3 miles and I said to hell with it and went outside after work. The humidity was crushing but I didn't care. It had been a long and emotional week and I just needed to see some forward progress. It's so much easier to run when you can just focus on something in the distance and let it pull you forward. Mile one was a little rough but what else is new, I felt much better as the run went on and I wish I had been scheduled for more miles. My splits were encouraging though.

Friday: Rest day = working the deep fryer at a state fair all night does not feel like rest. I had a cute guy next to me working the grill though.

Saturday: Scheduled 60 minutes of light exercise, which I try to walk out. I didn't get in an official block but there was a party at my house and I feel like I walked a bunch just trying to get my socializing on.

Sunday: 6 miles scheduled, had to get up early to get this in before work and it was great. My final time was 27 seconds longer than my last 6 miles but I didn't need to stop for any walk breaks this time around and there were more hills along the route. Very happy with my performance especially considering the festivities the night before that lead to a severe lack of sleep. Looking forwarded to moving beyond this distance next week.

That's my holy crap I can probably do anything face. 

Weekly Workout Summary 8/16/15

Update is a little late, trying to get all of my ducks in a row this week!

Monday: Woke up at 4:30 am sore, blistered and chafed in several unpleasant places from my 6 miler the day before. Thought seriously about staying in bed and then remembered I was meeting someone for a run and I couldn't be a jerk like that so I got up. Really glad I did, I was only scheduled for 3 miles and I felt great during them, the soreness vanished quickly and I managed to settle into a nice comfortable pace as instructed. Final time: 31:13

Tuesday: I checked the weather the night before and they were calling for rain so I cancelled my running buddies and decided to do my 4.5 miles on the treadmill. When I woke up there was no way in hell I could do the treadmill. My mindset just would not allow it. So I peaked outside and noticed it wasn't raining yet, I checked the forecast and the percentage had been cut in half so I figured it would be worth a shot. The problem was that it was 5am and overcast so it was so dark outside. I need to be better prepared for this, also a half mile out it started raining. I had my little flashlight, my water bottle and I was fumbling with my headphones. I don't have enough hands for that. It worked out well though, eventually I found a groove even though it was creepy running in such darkness. I made the executive decision to change my route and ran to a local dentists office who has a pretty big well lit parking lot where I ran in circles for 3/4 of a mile until the sun came up enough where I felt more comfortable heading back into the woods. This was my second day in a row of negative splits so I was very pleased with that. Final Time: 47:39

Wednesday: Speed work. Run a quarter mile fast, jog back and then repeat for 8 more times. We attempted this later in the day, not properly fueled for it and started out way to fast. It turned into run run faster than comfortable and walk in between. We hung in there though and really amped up our pace, it took a few rounds but we are getting better. Mentally it's much easier than it used to be. Final Miles: 4.3

Thursday 4 miles scheduled, 4 miles run. Hit this one early in the morning and rocked it. Almost completely negative splits, missed it by 2 seconds on mile 2 but I blame the big hill for that. I've come so far over the last few weeks, I'm glad I've been keeping track of everything because it's great to look back and see how far I've come. I can't wait to see where I am another month from now.

Friday: 2 miles scheduled, 2 miles done. Got this in before I started my road trip, I was very glad it was only 2 miles because it was hot and I was exhausted and eager to get on the road.

Saturday: Rest and by rest I mean walk about 7 miles around Niagara falls.

Sunday: 5k scheduled, only got 3 miles and I am happy with that because it was after 5 hours in the car, it was hot and humid as all hell, I was dehydrated and I'm not sure I'd eaten anything all day. So basically it's a miracle I was able to run at all. Smarter choices lead to better results.




Total Weekly Miles: 19.8
Total Monthly Miles: 39.07

Go Hard, responsibly.

I would call that a pretty accurate description of what I look like when signing up for a race.

And signing up I have been.

But I'm being smart about it and I am taking into account how much time I will need to properly train for the races that I choose.

I'm upping my distance but not at a speed that will kill or even injure me.

I've decided to stick with the Hal Higdon plans because I have had success with them and so it is based on those time tables that I have made my race decisions.

This means that my 10k race in September just became part of my half marathon training program for the race I have signed up for on halloween.  Connecticuts flattest half marathon sounds like a good place to start.

Halloween is probably the only time you could get me to run in a costume so it just made sense to me. I'm even pretty sure I know what it will be but I'll get to that at a later time.

After the half it looks like pickins are slim for races up here in new england but we shall see how it goes.

Heaven knows I love a good double fist pump at my laptop.

Weekly Workout Summary 8/9/15

I would really like to make this a regular thing if nothing else, I have a planner for what I am going to do but I think it would also be nice to have a place to put down how it all went.

Monday: 3 mile run at a comfortable pace with my running buddy. Final time 31:58. We brain stormed training ideas and went over all the things we, really I, should have done differently. After that we did an upper body workout ala Salt and I had to wave good-bye as running buddy went off on vacation to Portugal.

Tuesday: 4 mile run at a local park with the largest bearded man that I know. Final time 40:39. He hadn't run in a year and is still kind of recovering from a motorcycle accident a few months back but he made it 3 miles with me which was  most helpful, one mile I could manage alone, I'm not sure I was up for 4 that day.

Wednesday: 40 minute tempo run on the treadmill. I am still not good at treadmill running. My comfortable pace outside feels out of control fast on the treadmill. I just need to keep practicing and acclimate to it. But my comfortable pace was really slow and my race pace was probably my comfortable pace. Final distance 3.27 miles

Thursday: I went and bought new running shoes because the ones I got back in May were starting to hurt my feet the way I used to feel when I would run in cross trainers. 3 mile run. The large bearded guy had to cancel on me and the beef needed to mow the lawn so I was on my own. If I'd known that I would have gotten this out of the way in the morning but oh well, shit happens. I took a new route in my new shoes and the first mile was great. The second mile had hills and I was lonely, but on the third mile I started focusing on things in the distance and picked up speed and was happy with my finish. Final time 28:07. I also got in another upper body workout which felt great at the time and then the next day my arms were useless.

Friday: Rest Day. So I signed up for a race because I felt like I had to do SOMETHING. Oh and then this guy showed up, so it wasn't a total loss.

Saturday: 60 minute walk was what I had scheduled. I probably got that in and then some with my trip to target and all the other chores I did. I was pretty non stop with the moving around so it was unofficial exercise.

Sunday: 6 miles. I was so excited because I've never actually run 6 before. I wasn't completely confident that I could do it with results that would make me happy if I did it on my own so I enlisted the beef to mount up on a bicycle and accompany me on the route I'd planned out. Well 3 minutes into my warm up parts starting falling off the bicycle. So fighting back tears of disappointment I headed out on my own. My water bottle was too big and heavy b/c I'd be planning on not carrying it but this is what I was stuck with b/c going back home to get a different one probably would have resulted in not running at all. My running shorts started riding up almost instantly which started screwing with my head but once my body warmed they stayed in place and I didn't have to give them a second thought. I couldn't find a comfortable way to carry my water bottle so I ended up repositioning it every 30 seconds or so. That was incredibly annoying. The hill were more plentiful than I had planned and and the sun covered more of the route than I had anticipated but I did it. All by myself, after starting out with a heck of a mindfuck I was able to take on the entire 6 miles. I even managed to beat the 1:05 goal I'd secretly been hoping for. My final time was 1:02:30.

Confidence at an all time high this week, right now with all the challenges I've faced it seems like there is nothing that I can't do. I'm excited about my upcoming races and I know that as long as I keep up the good work, stick to my plan and stay out of my way I'll be just fine.

Total Miles: 19.27

Running, again.

This is the place I return to whenever I'm running.

I don't know what it is about running that calls to me so deeply.

I've never been good at it, it always results in injuries and I certainly don't fit the physical appearance of a "runner". That doesn't matter to me though, I have always been deeply in love with and overly enthusiastic about running. To the point where I will sideline myself with injury over and over again because I cannot control my passion and do too much too soon.

This year I had a birthday, like I tend to do every year and it got me thinking that I needed to get smarter about fitness. I spent from November - April obsessively going to a spin studio until eventually I was taking 9 classes a week and surprise, surprise hurt myself.

I took it as a sign when I saw an advertisement on my facebook feed that a local running store was offering a once a week, early morning, back to running group that would go for 6 weeks and if you wanted you could sign up for a 5k at the end of it. So I signed up thinking that would be good for me.

It turns out that I was correct. The first meeting I ended up sprinting a bit too much and had some knee pain after. The trainers were great though. They quickly recognized my issues and started working with me on it. At some points someone would grab the back of my shirt and tell me to slow down and eventually it worked. I started to find my comfortable pace, something I wasn't sure I could ever do.

I completed the program and the following week was the 5k. Was it great? I can say now that it was but only because of how much I learned from it.

The mother's day race was the first one I'd ever done and I didn't consider that for real since I was working with mom the whole time.

So of course I started out WAY too fast, I was so nervous and excited and just trying to make it through the crowd. This also means that I started to burn out fast. On top of that I am a morning runner, not having taken into account that I was technically training for an evening race and therefore and did not have the energy stored for this especially since I was nervous all day. It was lucky for that that along my journey I picked up an absolute angel of a running buddy who was smart enough to start off the race not like a bat out of hell and caught up to me just as I was thinking I would lay down on the side of the road and cry for my failures.

I had wanted to run it in 28 but I was already there a bit before 3 miles according to the app screaming at me from my headphones, so I kicked it in high gear for the last bit because I come from a long line of stubborn German women and would not accept over 30 minutes for my finish time. I ended up with 29:39 and that was fine by me.

My runs since then have been much more successful with my new found knowledge and discipline so I'm implementing it in my training for my next race which will be a 10k in September. I have aspirations to run great distances and this time around I'm going to use my smarts to not let anything stop me.

So I'll be reporting back here because this running fool needs a place to talk about all things running without driving everyone in earshot raving mad.

Run Like A Mother

I started writing this entry in May and saved it until I could add pictures and then just never came back. Whoops. I'm back for sure now because I need a place for my thoughts. Promise.


Well hello there blog I suppose you think I forgot about you. I didn't, I just forgot how to write.

I'm actually pretty glad I forgot about this thing for a while because when I went to update my "About Me" section it was really cool to see all of the things that had changed in just one year.  I have much to update you on but today I have returned with one specific post in mind, we can get to all of that catch up stuff at a later time. 



I'm going to brag about my Mom for a minute.

We did our first 5k yesterday (May 10, 2015) and she had no confidence in her ability to finish. I told her I could do it in 30 minutes and asked if she thought an hour was a reasonable expectation. She wasn't sure she could manage even that.

We lucked out and the weather was absolutely perfect, there was a slight chill in the air when we arrived but you could tell by the humidity that the cloud cover would eventually burn up and we would be in for some heat. Thankfully that didn't happen until we were lounging on my deck at home.

We elected to start near the back of the pack unsure of what to expect from this crowd. When the horn sounded there wasn't much hustle which I think helped her anxiety. I suspect she was worried everyone would take off like a shot and leave her in the dust, she didn't take into account who was in the crowd, there was no way that was going to be the case. As a mother's day race there was quite the variety of participants so I knew there was nothing to be worried about.

As we finally got underway we fell into a nice rhythm, a  combo of jogging and walking. This worked well for the first mile which had more hills than Mom had been expecting. During mile 2 she hit a bit of a road block her lack of confidence started to over take her, a points I was literally holding her hand up some hills. I cheered her on the entire way and even jogged backwards to give her something to focus on.

Even when she looked exhausted and told me she was done I kept cheering her on and she didn't give up. We were able to finish under her goal of 1 hour and clocked in at just under 45 minutes.

I am so freaking proud of her. She spent the rest of the day floating on cloud nine and told everyone we came in contact with that she finished a race earlier in the day.

Best Mother's Day ever.

Wahpp!

On most days I consider myself a fairly intelligent person. Apparently this doesn't apply when I'm thinking about running. Whatever made me think taking a month off and that starting back up running longer and farther than I ever had before would be a good idea is beyond me. I know I was excited to not be in pain anymore but I'm not sure why I thought my behavior was sustainable. 

Sure enough it only took a week for something horrible to happen. My left Achilles tendon decided enough was enough and pulled me to an abrupt stop. After a few days of rest I was certain I'd done something completely awful to it and planned on making an appointment with my doctor. Then a saintly physical therapist I work with decided to tape me up and encouraged me to rest more. So I did just that and as it turns out my injury isn't as bad as I feared. 

Today I went out for the first time for a short run, just under 2 miles and my leg felt great the entire time and continues to feel great so it looks like I lucked out this time in that I didn't seriously injure myself and was able to return to running quickly. 

If there is one thing I know now it is that I need to come up with a plan if I'm going to continue running so here's what I'm thinking for right now to keep myself safe from injury: 

So I'm going back to where I stared in April with my C25K program because I really need to limit myself again and slowly work up to my time and distance because that really did work so well for me the first time around. I'm hoping I can stick with this and continue on injury free, I need to apply my smarts here if I'm going to keep myself in one piece.

Also,  I need to stop watching shows about girls who get abducted while out running before I go out for a run. I think most of my cardio comes from the panic I feel while imagining kidnappers around every corner. Or when a speeding car zooms by me around a corner with mere inches to spare.

Oh well, back to the safety of the trail next week and then just a few more weeks until my home route will be in a much less dangerous area.