Haha! I fooled my body - briefly...Track recovery and other random thoughts...

I have read a few posts recently from other blogger friends that list out random things about that person.  I LOVE reading these posts for some reason.  Maybe because I usually come away with a little more insight on the person whose blog I am reading, or because it offers me the opportunity to learn a little bit more about some piece of running gear or nutrition that I didn't know.  One of these blogs even challenged me - the intrepid reader - to come up with my own list of five random things....So, I sat down to write this post, all excited like, and came up with the following:

a big, huge, fat, BLANK

Seriously, I can't think of anything random about me that would be worth posting about.  Maybe it is the early hour; maybe I haven't had enough coffee.  So, I will have to noodle this over in my head and save that post for another day.

In the meantime, I'll fill you in on what you are all no doubt waiting to hear - and that is how am I recovering after my first track session?  Well, after the session Tuesday night, I felt pretty good.  (You can read about it here.)  A mere 12-hours later I got up and ran five miles with my running friends, which of course ends with coffee - YUM.

I really think my body didn't quite know what had hit it yesterday morning, so I decided to jump in and do my PT leg exercises which I haven't done regularly in several months.  That went well, too.  Around noon, however, my body did finally start to process everything. (Apparently, it's a little slow on the uptake.)  It was like everything caught up with it.  Suddenly, my hip flexors and quads, especially, were sore.  It wasn't a bad sore, just a tired sore - like I had enjoyed a good workout.  Which I had.

The yoga class I was planning to take yesterday afternoon suddenly seemed like too much, so I ended up skipping it.  That made me a bit sad, because if I don't go to my class on Wednesday afternoons, I will have a hard time fitting it in at all during the week.  So, while running errands yesterday, I picked up this little gem:

I hope that it's worth the $3 I ended up paying after taking off the Target gift card I had earned weeks earlier buying unearthly amounts of toilet paper and kleenex.  (I love those gift card offerings.  They get me every time!)  My hope is that if I can't make a yoga class all summer, this will at least give me a yoga option.  It offers two programs - one for relaxation and one for flexibility, both of which I can use.  Anyway, it seemed a better choice than the yoga for beginners, the pre-natal yoga, and yoga for mommies DVDs I saw.  We'll see!

In the meantime, I am foam rolling and softball rolling like crazy.

Foam rolling can be a bit of a challenge - what with Dog
thinking I want to play.

Yesterday, our running club hosted a fun run at a local park on the water.  And, nothing gets you more excited about a fun run at a local park on the water than seeing the front page of the local newspaper talking about toxic algae blooms, complete with photo taken at said park.  Ewwww.  Good thing we're not the local swimming club.  (I wonder if there even is one?)

If I were a good blogger, I would have gotten a picture of the toxic algae, instead all you get is runners.

Hubby joined the pack for the run - his second since his 100-miler and that seemed to go well.  I and the kids exercised our right to play at the park with friends.  Afterwards, we enjoyed veggie subs and ice cream sundaes.  Some of us enjoyed the ice cream more than others.

Nothing gets kids hooked on running like sugaring them up with a bunch of treats.  Positive association and all that. Anyway, a fun night by all.

Today, the plan is to do my 6K row - nice and easy.  I may also plug in my yoga DVD if there is time.  Finally, I am hoping to bike the kids to summer school today.  We'll see if they go for that.  Then it's errands, clean up time, and karate.  Isn't summer supposed to be relaxing? What's all this running around stuff?

Happy Running!

In Non-Running, Running Related News...

What type of learner are you?  Some people learn best by reading about something, some are learning-by-doing types, I - on the other hand - am clearly a learning-by-being-spoonfed-information-from-an-authorized-person type.  And that is why I have decided that to improve my speed, I needed to sign up for a track session course this summer.  This is guaranteed - I am sure - to make me a better, badder, faster runner...........

............Yeah, right.  Well, it can't hurt, can it?  That is, unless it can.  It seems every time I try to incorporate speed work on my own, I get injured.  I guess with this I am hoping that running around in circles on a track with a coaching type watching me, I will be spared that.  We'll see.

In other non-running, running-related news, I have also signed up for a running evaluation and mini-ChiRunning lesson from an awesome personal trainer and coaching type in the area.  I am very excited to see what she has to say about my running form.  I took a half-day ChiRunning workshop from her about a year ago, so having a bit of feedback on where I am at now will be nice.  (I.e., did any of the information stick at all?)

Finally, my last bit of news,....I have joined a third running club.  Does that make me a traitor?

Apparently, I collect running clubs like other people collect race shirts or running shoes.  It's not that my heart is not fully engaged with my home running club!  However, if I can get a bit of news and perhaps a discount or two from the other clubs, what can it hurt?  Also, the third club gave me a free running hat for joining.  So, perhaps I just really like collecting running hats?