Random review of the week

Have you ever had one of those days where you wake up and wonder what have I done all week?  Then you start remembering and you realize you did quite a bit?  That's what happened to me yesterday morning, so here's my random review of the week....

Why whine when you run, when you can WINE?

Wednesday showed me once again why wine and running should always go hand-in-hand.  Run Away Shoes, a local purveyor of running shoes, puts on a once-a-month fun run called the Run 'N Wine.  This takes place at a semi shi-shi local wine shop/bar.  Although I tend to wonder every time I go what the happy hour patrons think of having a bunch of folks in workout clothes hanging out smelling up the joint, that thought became more persistent this week as the weather pushed into the 90s - and we still went running in it.  So, not only were we just mildly smelly and sweaty, we were really pushing the envelope.  Luckily, because of the warm weather, it made sense to sit outside to enjoy our free wine after the run, so the nice breeze that swept through the area no doubt cleared out any odiferous offensiveness.  Despite the temps, I enjoyed running with a couple friends at a nice, slow pace.  Now if only I could get to the other running store's Pub Run to give that a try....

Change in Training Plan

Having run two weeks now on a Wednesday after my Tuesday speed workout, I have come to the conclusion that I should stop that.  So, with next week being a down week mileage-wise, I am going to be switching to my Plan B training schedule, which will mean running Tuesdays and Thursdays mid-week, instead of Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  It will also mean switching my long run to Saturdays instead of Sundays, and adding Sunday as a short, trail/recovery run.  This more closely mirrors my schedule from last summer and gives me that day after speed work to recover.  I am going to miss running with my friends at the Wednesday Morning Group Run, but I figure I can always join them for coffee after.  I think this is one of those cases, where I really need to think of what's better for me.

Time to Row Further Downstream

My rowing workout on Thursday was fantastic - really felt good - and made me think I should start considering upping the time I spend on the rower.  So, starting this next three week cycle, I am going to stop rowing for distance and go for time.  Since it takes me about 31 minutes to do 6K, I am going to do 35 minutes for this cycle, and then either next month or the next three week cycle, I will up my time by five minutes.  I'll do this until I get sick of rowing, which I am guessing will be somewhere around 45 minutes - although ideally I would shoot for an hour.

Karate, Dinner, and a Treehouse?

Thursday is also the kids' karate class day.  There is nothing like going to a karate class and listening to the instructors drill the kids on how they are NOT supposed to use karate on their siblings or friends, and then go outside after class and have them immediately start pretending to karate chop one another.  Something is not getting through.  Of course, I guess LG feels a bit bad about this, because he had no sooner gotten into class this week than he raised his hand and confessed to the instructors that he had kicked his sister in the eye a couple of days ago.  Now, that had actually been an accident...a case of wrong place at the wrong time, but it was nice that he felt some guilt about it.  After karate, we got invited to friends' house for a super, yummy Egyptian vegetarian feast (the kids had noodles with pesto sauce).  It was so tasty, I may have made a pig of myself by having three helpings.  Despite their green noodles, the kids barely ate as they were too enthralled with the treehouse being built in the backyard that was almost complete and certainly playable.  It actually made me feel a twinge of backyard envy that they have something so cool.  I mean, I wanted to play on it.  Given the size of our trees, we have a ways to go before we could do something similar.  I don't know....what do you think?

First Hill Hike Workout

My hill workout on Friday consisted of a two-mile running warmup, followed by "power hiking" at a 10 percent grade for 40 minutes.  Unfortunately, that only got me two miles, so clearly more work needs to be done here.  Hubby has this little power hike shoehorned into my schedule every three weeks.  Additionally, he wants me to substitute one or two long runs for this, as he thinks I need to work up to being able to do this for two hours.  Ugh.  I guess he thinks getting up the side of the Jungfrau will be tough.  Who'da thunk?

We Braved Brave on Opening Day

Yesterday, the kids and I also went to see the movie Brave. I can't remember the last time I went to a movie on opening day...in fact, I am hard pressed to remember the last time I went to see a movie.  While the movie was okay, it seemed a little too adult for my young crew, and while funny in spots, it lacked the constant humor of Cars or some of the other princess movies I have seen recently.  The kids swear up and down they LOVED it, though, so I guess that's good.  I don't know if it is just an opening day thing or what, but the movie theater handed out Brave coloring books and crayons to the kids.  It made me feel marginally better about spending our life savings to pay for the film and popcorn.  We may not be able to eat for a while, but at least they'll be able to color.  One little annoying development in my movie watching world is LG.  This is a kid who since his eyes could first track to a screen has been mesmerized by what he saw.  If nothing else, I could always count on him to sit in a screen-induced stupor when a movie was playing.  Well, no more.  The whole movie was spent with him leaning over to me, saying, "Mom, why did she do ....?," "Mom, why is the bear there?" or - my favorite - "Mom, look there's snow."  Since when did he become such a movie talker?  Clearly, we have a little etiquette to work on.

Happy running!

Kids admiring person in chicken suit at
random weekend festival we found.

Motivation, where did you go?

I woke up this morning with a feeling that nothing productive was going to get done today.  I don't know what that is about. So far this week, I have been rocking my schedule - taking things on, checking off items on my to-do list left and right.  But this morning I feel that energy vibe starting to peter out.  I don't know.  Maybe it has something to do with several nights in a row of six hours of sleep.  Some people can live on that.  I cannot.  And, frankly, I should know that by now.  So, I will muddle through this day as best I can and hope I get my mojo back.

This has been a good week fitness-wise.  After PRing at the 10K on Sunday, I have followed that up with an increased effort week all around.  After several weeks of either maintaining current effort or taking my rest week (at 70 percent of normal effort), I have turned up the volume on all my workouts.  So, my week has thus far looked like this:

Monday:  Slow Flow Yoga and 35-minutes elliptical (up from 30 min,) Tuesday: Power Vinyasa Yoga and 6,000 meters rowing on the ERG (up from 5,500 meters) Wednesday: 60-minute run (up from 55 minutes)

Yesterday's run was particularly rewarding because I went into it feeling sort of sluggish - possibly from lack of good sleep.  In fact, I was wondering if my less-than-enthusiastic anticipation of the run would lead to a bad run.  (You know, negative self-talk and all that.)  I told myself on the drive over to the coffee shop to shape up and just let things happen the way they were meant to.  And, it went great!

I ran with the group for the first five miles, and I had a great time talking to a friend of mine along the way.  It was a slightly hilly route, and I was glad to have someone to push me along.  (I think I would have taken a lot more walk breaks otherwise.)  After circling back to the coffee shop, I added another twelve minutes to finish up the hour I had hoped to run.  I ended up doing 6.3 miles in about 61 minutes.  Average pace of 9:39.  Not bad.  I felt happy going in to coffee and didn't feel the least bit guilty about ordering my Vanilla Caramel Latte.  (It was delicious, by the way.)

Today on tap I have a 6,000 meter row and then tomorrow I am heading up to Green Bay to join a friend for part of her birthday run.  I am really looking forward to this run.  I am curious about the trail we are going to run on and it just sounds like a fantabulous way to celebrate a birthday.  My plan is to do ten miles tomorrow and make this my long run for the week.  I realize that - given my track record (ha! a pun!) - moving my long run from Sunday to Friday is a possible invitation for disaster; my body doesn't seem to like surprises like this.  However, I am hopeful that if I take it slow and listen to my body, I will be fine.  Fingers crossed.

Day 37 of the No-Chocolate Challenge:

So, as a final thought, I was thinking this morning how happy I am that the no-chocolate challenge is almost done.  What have I learned from this?  Well, certainly that I haven't lost my taste for chocolate - I can't wait to eat some on Sunday.  In fact, I have missed it so much that I probably won't ever give up chocolate again.  So, not very deep, huh?  No great insights into what I am made of, no deeper understanding of who I am and what makes me tick - just a deep-seated assurance that I will never give up chocolate again.  Sad, but in a happy way.

Lindt, we will meet again soon...

What do you do when motivation lacks?

I can't hear for all the screaming muscles

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscular_system
By User:Mikael Häggström (Image:Gray190.png)
 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

This morning I woke up to the sound of screaming muscles.  While I appreciate their right to talk, I do wish they would pipe down or shut up altogether.  After all, I have rowing to do later today and - more importantly - a trail run tomorrow, and I don't want anything to interfere with THE PLAN.

Apparently, Sunday's nine-mile trail run was tougher on the body than I thought.  All those little balancing muscles firing, all that lateral movement to get around rocks and debris - it all took its toll.  My IT bands scream when I sit down.  My hips and glutes scream when I roll over in bed.  My lower calves scream when I walk.  Even my upper back is screaming, although I don't know what's causing that unless it just feels left out of the scream-fest.

Ah well.  I am not necessarily against the soreness.  It makes me feel like I did something, and that's a good feeling.  And, generally speaking, my policy is to never regret a run.  I just get too much out of them.  However, I suppose I can be irritated if I end up hurting myself on one, or even if the general soreness sidelines me in any way for the next couple of days.

Perhaps the yoga class I had on tap for this morning will help.  It's one of those "hot" types of yoga where you really get the muscles loosened up.  I was really looking forward to this class until I woke up this morning; now I just hope it's not too late to do some good.  Suddenly, I fear it may hurt.

Bondi Band Winners!

Thanks to everyone who signed up for the Bondi Band Giveaway this past week!  Congratulations to Paula M. and Karen W. for winning the heart-patterned and Packers Bondi Bands, respectively!  Please get in touch with me regarding shipment at your earliest convenience!

Creating Habits to End Laziness - Once and for all

This has been a crazy couple of months.  Running has almost completely fallen off the grid for me with my somewhat failed attempt to rehabilitate a cranky shin solely based on Internet searches and free advice (not the recommended way to go when dealing with an injury, by the way.)  While I have started getting back into running again slowly the past week and a half, a marathon - bought and paid for - still looms on the horizon, just over three months away.  With a crumbled base and little time spent actually running, I don't know whether participation in this particular event is feasible or foolhardy.  I'll think about that more later this week.

In the meantime, I can't help thinking that this fiasco that has been my running life the past six weeks hasn't been all bad.  In fact, there has been some real good that has come out of it, namely more exercise and a higher fitness level.

For years, since I started running back in 2002, I have struggled with two things: finding a way to exercise "most days of the week" and extending my exercise sessions to longer than 30 minutes at a time.  Now, you might think that with all the events I have participated in, I would have those knocked.  But you'd be surprised.  I rarely have done anything in the way of cross-training.  A bike ride here or there when the weather was good, maybe a hill walk on the treadmill once in a while.  For the most part, however, my weeks have consisted of three or four runs - and nothing else.  Additionally, until this past fall, all of my runs - except for my long runs have topped out at about 30 minutes.  Even this past fall, when I tried to start stretching out my mid-week runs, they never got much longer than 40-45 minutes.

Why haven't I been able to achieve either of these goals?  Well, I think the short answer would be laziness.

You can love running and be lazy, too. Punch was a
great example of how to achieve this.

At heart, I am a pretty lazy person.  Seriously.  Give me the choice of waiting a little longer to park close to a store entrance or taking a spot immediately and walking a little further, and I'll pick the former every time.  Get up and get a drink myself or have my kids do it?  You got it.  Kid duty.  Sit and read or go work out?  Well, unless it's running, I would rather poke my nose into my latest library book.  That's why I am always amazed at friends who do so much.  Pilates classes, Zumba classes, yoga, spin, swimming, Arc Trainer.  You name it, there is someone I know who does it - along with running.  Sometimes I feel like Captain Kirk surrounded by the hyper-accelerated Scalosians in the Star Trek episode "Wink of an Eye."  (Okay, I like Star Trek, but I am not that much of a nerd.  I had to look up this reference.)  I'm lazy.  There, I have said it.  I think that's why I like running so much.  You just can't be lazy and run.  The very act of running - to get up enough speed to even call it running - takes you out of the lazy zone.

Even in my younger, crazier days I only
ever exercised seriously three times a week.

So, enter in crazy weeks of no real running.  Why has this been positive?  Because I have cross-trained - with a vengeance.  In the - perhaps misguided (it remains to be seen) - hopes of running this May marathon, I have gotten down to serious cross-training business.  I have embraced the elliptical and the rower, and between the two I am up to six days a week of cardio.  Add in my dusted-off strength routine and I am doing something every day of the week.  And, I've been doing this for almost four solid weeks now, so it really is feeling like a habit.  Additionally, since I feel so safe doing the cross-training, as I have added running, I haven't necessarily cut back too much on the cross-training, so I am up to almost an hour of exercise at a shot on my "running" days.

So maybe not running for a while hasn't been all bad.  If I can keep this up once my running is able to really pick up and resume, then having had this time off may be just what I needed to help me achieve two long-time goals I have had and perhaps - dare I say it - finally make me a better runner.

Any committed cross-trainers out there?  What do you do?

If you are wondering what is happening with my shin, suffice it to say that I have effectively buried my head in the sand where that issue is concerned.  It's not worse.  It's not better.  I plan on doing something about it.  I just haven't gotten around to it yet.  Soon.  

One run leads to another...

I am really heartened by the first run I tried on Friday at the indoor track of my gym.  It wasn't amazingly clear that all was well, but, honestly, after doing it, I feel none the worse for wear.

Friday's plan would have been the elliptical for a tempo-type run, but after being on the machine for 20 minutes, I decided it was time to test out the running gears.  So, I headed up to the indoor track and, listening to music, clutching my water bottle in one hand, and my cheap phone in the other hand (to read the time), I started running.  And I ran, walked, ran, walked, ran, walked, ran for 20 minutes.  Woohoo!  

I estimate I covered about two miles doing a modest run/walk.   My intervals consisted of five minutes of moderate running followed by one minute of s...l...o...w walking, repeat for 20 minutes.  While running I really tried to concentrate on my form: back straight, shoulders back, pelvis tilted, slight lean from the ankles out over the midfoot, and off.  Let gravity draw you forward; kick the energy back.  I tell you, after doing that for 20 minutes, I was tired.  Not so much from the physical effort as from the mental effort of trying to keep my form good.  

I think it paid off, though.  I finished the run and really didn't feel too bad.  I then followed the same protocol of stretching and icing as I had been for the cross-training.  The fallout has not been terrible.  Again, a little tenderness but nothing worse than what I have been feeling after cross-training, and certainly not nearly as bad as it felt after my power walk last Sunday.  There may be hope!  

The best thing, of course, was that I felt no sharp pains in my foot while running.  I ended up wearing my beat up New Balance WT101s.  While I consider these more of a trail shoe, I have worn them on the road before (even for a half marathon once!), and they are my favorite shoes. They are a neutral, minimal shoe, but they still have significant heel stacking.  On Friday they seemed to work out just fine.

Today, I am slated to do the elliptical again, but I think I'll add another run to the end and see if I can repeat the magic.  Today will be a bit different, though, in that I want to simulate a long run.  So, I am hoping to do at least an hour and fifteen minutes - if not an hour and a half - total (elliptical and running).  We'll see.

Elliptical Sabbatical

Ok, so maybe the elliptical trainer isn't so bad. I really have been badmouthing the elliptical lately, and I shouldn't.  After all, it's not the elliptical's fault I am not running.  It's my fault.  Why blame a dumb machine for a problem I brought on myself?

In fact, I should be thanking the elliptical for being there to pick up the pieces of my current fitness program - for being there for me in my time of need.  It doesn't know it is sloppy seconds, that while I spend time with it, I long for another.  The elliptical can't help that it is trapped indoors on beautiful winter days, that it is lined up shoulder-to-shoulder with other ellipticals, or that it just doesn't give me the "thrill" of a good run.  It just soldiers on, putting me through my non-pounding paces, allowing me to elevate the heart rate, sweat out the negativity, and hopefully keep somewhat in shape - all without pounding the crap out of my joints, which seem to to need a break right now.

So, for all that, I should be celebrating the elliptical machine and whoever invented it.  Without it, I would be reduced to biking or - shudder - swimming or some such.

One thing I don't understand about the elliptical, however, is all the people I see hanging on to it for their dear lives.  For myself, I just let my arms swing free, but I am obviously in the minority.  I have to admit to feeling slightly superior to the death grip crowd - well, until those moments when I almost fall off and I have to quick grab on to keep myself from splatting on the gym floor.  (Luckily, a quick look around usually reveals that no one has noticed.)  It is at times like that that I wonder if I am supposed to be hanging on.  I guess I always thought letting my arms swing free copied more the motion of running and worked the smaller balancing muscles.  Maybe a mistake?  Don't know.

In any event, what has become clear is that I do need to introduce some type of cross-training activity into my routine.  I think it would make me a more well-rounded "athlete," and it would then be available for those times when I can't run.  Andy rows on his non-running days, but I can't seem to get into it.  And, while I like biking, I don't get out and do it too much in the colder weather, and I don't like being on the bikes inside.

So, as I start to develop a grudging respect for the elliptical trainer, I can't help but think that maybe introducing it into my fitness equation wouldn't be a bad idea - maybe once a week or so?  It really seems to work my quads - even more so than running - and it is a great, non-pounding workout.  Food for thought.

What is your favorite cross-training exercise?

Oh, by the way, Happy New Year!