Treadmill Tempo Run Fail

I woke up dreading my run today.  Mainly it was because I was up late last night blogging all sorts of blogariffic things on all my blogs, and the late was made later by the fact that I teach a grad class on Wednesday nights.

I need to learn to make better blogging choices.

Anyway, I woke up very tired and very cold.  The wind was howling, the temperature was in the teens, and there was no way I could run a tempo run in sub-zero wind chills.  Or, at least that's what the hubbs mumbled to me when my alarm went off at 4 AM.  It's very cold here in Illinois right now, in case you didn't know:

Even my puppies are feeling the cold, and they're built for it (partly genetics, partly too much blubber):

This morning I had to gather up all my courage--even the stray bits under the bed and in the back corner of the linen closet--to go downstairs and do a 4 mile tempo on the treadmill.

You probably already know I can barely handle running 1000m repeats on the thing, so you can imagine the state I was in when I started running 4 miles at my tempo speed.  Outside, I can run a 4-mile tempo without much thought. The treadmill, however, is a much different and completely sad, pathetic story:

First 800m: "This isn't so bad.  At least I have some good TV on the trusty old ID channel."
Next 800m: "This is starting to suck."
Next 800m: "Maybe I should kick the speed down a notch.  If I were a total wimp."
Next 800m: "ZOMG I'LL NEVER MAKE IT I SUCK I WILL TOTALLY FAIL AT THIS MARATHON."

In case you were counting, I barely made it to the half-way point of this tempo.  After that, I had to break it up into 800 m repeats just to get through the workout.  What's extremely sad is that the last part is no exaggeration; I was mentally cracking by the second mile.  I really need to mentally toughen the you-know-what-bad-word-to-which-I-am-referring up.  So, to punish myself, I shall be doing more tempos on the treadmill until my inner whiny baby learns to put a cork in it.  It's kind of like self-flagellation, only with a treadmill.  I think.

Meh. And you can quote me on that.

Had a 6 mile easy run on the ol' marathon schedule thisa morning, but because I didn't get my butt downstairs in enough time (I really don't know where my morning time goes), I only had time for 4.5 miles.  I knew this going into it, and then changed my goal from distance to time when I realized I only had about an hour to work out.

Because I keep forgetting to turn the damn GPS off on my Garmin when I run on the treadmill, this is what the map looks like from this morning's run:

Not really much else to say about that run (except I didn't really move around that much.  I am not talented enough to do plyometrics AND run at the same time whilst on a moving treadmill), except that it was really slow--which was the point.  My legs are feeling pretty good; methinks they have finally recovered from that 18-miler.  That's a good thing, since I have a 20 miler scheduled for this Saturday.

Not much else to say about anything else really.  Had one of those days that involved a lot of snarling, finger-pointing, and me declaring, "And you can quote me on that!"  That pretty much drained all of the witty repartee right out of me; we'll see if a good night's sleep can restore my jovial banter for tomorrow's post.

Total Running Moron Tuesday

I had every intention of running outside this morning.  I really, really did.  I had 4 mile repeats to do, and the weather was in the 50s at 5 A.M. on January 29th.  In Illinois.  Which, in case you didn't know, is in the Northern Hemisphere, so we are supposed to be in the depths of winter, but we're not--the Snow Miser is on vacay and his brother Heat Miser is here to stay.  At least for today, anyway.

But, as you probably suspect by now, I didn't get to do my repeats this morning.  I did do these things:

a) Go outside.
b) Run

But it was just too freaking windy (20 mph winds) to do any sensible speed work.  I only managed a mile warm-up before I turned around and came back, being blown all over the place in the meantime. I know you hard core types would have been pumping out the miles and cursing Mother Nature into the wind the entire time, but I actually like to get up to the proper speed in my speed work.  And maintain it.  Winds that are too high don't let me do that, you see.  I toyed with the idea of doing them on my treadmill, but the thought of the mental anguish I would suffer doing that when I can barely manage 1000m repeats on the thing caused me even more mental anguish.

So I just came back in and got ready for work--but I packed a bag of running clothes for later.

After my last period class, I changed into said running clothes:

The gruesome aftermath of my run.  But my compression sleeves are freaking awesome.

I snapped on my new Garmin footpod, slapped on my 910XT, and then began to run in endless circles around the upper floor of our school, over the terrazzo floors and through the halls.  I did this in front of a lot of students and staff that knew me, which resulted in a lot of battle cries, jeers, and snide comments thrown my way.

Lessons learned on this run:

• It is much nicer to run mile repeats in endless circles than on my treadmill.  While technically my displacement for both would be zero, I have actually traveled a distance by running in those circles.
• There is no wind or rain when running inside the school.
• High school students sure do come up with witty things to say about teachers who are running in the hallways.  Witty, funny, and highly inappropriate.
• I maintained pace nicely, unlike what would have happened this morning.
• It was actually nice to talk to people in the halls that I knew while I was circling; it helped pass the time.
• I shocked a lot of students who didn't expect to see me running all-out at them in the hallway in shorts and a t-shirt.  I was not in my regular teachery uniform, you see.  I half expected some of them to start throwing homework at me just to get me to stop barrelling towards them.
• My cadence sucks.  Going to have to work on that.
• My new purple compression socks are working out quite nicely.  They would look great in a race photo or two.

I didn't care that I looked like a total running moron.  I had a run that needed to get done (without getting injured!), and I plan on crossing that finish line of my first marathon somewhere close to my time goal.  I hope to do it upright, however, and not by crawling and/or throwing myself one body part at a time towards the line.

Monday Ramblings

I began my morning by ever-so-gracefully slipping in my driveway on the sheet of ice that had formed overnight and landing right on my ass.  Good thing I have worked long and hard at putting extra padding back there; I don't even have a bruise.  Yet.  That'll teach me to wear fashionable boots with an almost nonexistent coefficient of friction instead of practical ones.  Since ice tends to melt when it hits warm ass molecules (I know this because I am a science teacher), that meant that any ice clinging to my ass thereby underwent a change of state and transformed itself into liquid H2O which wet my pants and backside thoroughly.  I got to drive to work with a wet ass.

Good thing this happened after I did Cathe's Supercuts workout (DEEElicious!), or I would really have been in trouble.  This is the third time I've done it, and I must say I am in pretty heavy serious like with it. Compound moves that make my heart rate skyrocket and that crazy core at the end....mmmm mmmm.  Now if I can only convince her that I really am committed (she keeps asking me, dammit, every time I do the workout), it would be a perfect workout.

Now, it's probably obvious I love me some cross training, mainly because it mixes up my workout week and staves off boredom.  But I also like it because I really believe it helps you train injury-free (if you're doing it right, that is.  I've done it wrong before and only got more injured.  Let's just say you shouldn't do high-impact workouts on your cross-training days-just because it's not running doesn't mean you should do it).  And my marathon training plan (which I am bitter about purchasing but glad that I have) provides two cross-training days after my long runs on Saturday.  This isn't something I ever had in a training plan before, and I dig it.  I'm thinking this has been allowing my legs to heal before smacking them around with more running abuse each week.

Why do I think this?  Because I have been the proud owner of an Achilles injury since September.  And, even after running 18 miles on Saturday, all is quiet on the Achilles front.  In fact, it feels 95% normal--and I am hitting a weekly mileage I have never ever seen before.  I guess I just got all jacked up in my old training schedules that never gave me two days off from running in a row; being a novice runner, I just assumed that wasn't what was done.  I got all mentally trapped in the boxes of those schedules I never realized I should have just given myself two days off if my body needed it, breaking free from the schedule shackles I had imposed upon myself.

Whoa.  It got all serious for a second.  Let's lighten it up:

That's better.

Anyhoo, after a pretty craptastic day today (at least I had no meetings), this came in the mail for me:

Calf sleeves.  And they're purple, people--my lucky racing color. Plus they are from Pro Compression, a neat little company whose products would make excellent Christmas gifts for the runner(s) in your life.  Just sayin'. Can't wait to try them out tomorrow morning when I'm running mile repeats in the dark.

Cathe's Burn Sets Round 2: I can't smell my own fire

In order to recover from my 18-mile run I did yesterday (my quads still aren't speaking to me), I decided to fill this cross-training day with the wonderful world of weight work.  Specifically, I did Cathe's Burn Sets again from her new XTrain series.

This is a solid workout, and I actually heavied up all my weights this time.  In fact, at some points I was using heavier weights than Cathe.  But not as heavy as I should have to feel the burn.  I know I should have looked like this during some point in the workout:

photo credit: pasukaru76 via photopin cc

But instead I felt more like this:

photo credit: slworking2 via photopin cc

In this workout you do three exercises per muscle group (chest, shoulders, back, biceps, triceps), and then you do what Cathe calls a burn set, which is an exercise designed to really make those muscle fibers burn baby burn.  They usually involved resistance tubing and a firewalker band, which required me to go get even more equipment (I hate workouts that involve a lot of equipment).

Again, I wasn't feeling it.  I mean I was feeling it.  But I wasn't FEELING it.  There was no spontaneous combustion of my muscles going on.  At all.  Maybe a sputtering of a flame.  Like a sparkler on the 4th of July.

Hmmmm.

I did heavy up on all my weights, but the heaviest weight I own is a set of 20 pound dumbbells.  I could have picked up my 40 pound dogs, but I am not interested in getting bitten.  I mean, I was using those 20s on exercises I never have before (biceps and shoulders, mainly), and was whomping out tricep extensions with my 12s when I normally use 8s, but those burn sets didn't burn.

Maybe my muscles are made of flame retardant materials.  Or I just need heavier weights.

18 Miles of Hunters, Animal Poop, & More Bad Running Fashion

Yesterday I topped off my third week of marathon training with an 18-mile run, my first-ever run at that distance:

The weather couldn't have been better for a winter run--temps were in the 20s, there was no wind (for once!), and the sun was out the entire time.  I got to run to places I've never been before around my house, which included finding out that there is a hunting club about 9 miles out.  Nothing like coming down the road and seeing rows of men in orange with guns coming toward you, peering into the cattails ahead of them with murderous intensity.  My inner mantra during the 8th and 9th miles was, "please don't shoot me please don't shoot me run run run."    Now you know why that 9th mile split time is juuuuust a tad bit faster than the rest.

I'm still working on my eating strategy for this type of mileage.  I want to experiment with eating something solid, but for now I usually just eat gels (PowerBar ones being my favorite) and wash those down with some water every 30 minutes or so.  I hate carrying a bottle of water in my hands, so on this run I wore my water-bottle belt.  It made me look like a total running dork but it was worth it just to not have to carry that bottle around:

Boy do I know how to put together a running outfit as if I was color blind.

Problem was, that little bottle just wasn't enough water.  I was thirsty by the end of the run--really thirsty.  In the last 2 miles, I seriously considered eating snow just to quench my thirst, but opted against it after realizing how much anonymous animal poop was located along the side of the road.  Note for next time: bring an extra water bottle and drop it off at about the halfway point.  It's not like anyone will take it out in the middle of the country where I run (unless the anonymous pooping animals scamper off with it).  

But it was also one of those runs where little itty-bitty things start irritating the crap out of you (literally!), and you have to deal with that stuff along with the fact that you are tired by mile 14 or so and are also trying to mentally urge yourself forward, valiantly resisting the urge to sit down in the middle of the road and call your husband to come get you.  Things like finding a place to use nature's facilities where no one will see you and call the cops, adjusting your clothing 3 bazillion times because it's all askew after using nature's facilities, realizing your gloves aren't cutting it and having to stop and bust out some hand warmers, trying for 5 miles to get said hand warmers in the right position in your mitten-gloves so you don't lose fingers, realizing your nose is raw from all the wiping after snot-rocketing, dealing with the fact that you are thirsty enough to eat snow....all of those things just grate on my nerves after a while.  

But I have to learn to suck it up and keep on running, which is what I did.  I have to admit that, even though I was irritated by all the little things, I was excited when I hit the 17th mile.  I was happy that I had kept on going despite all the annoyances and despite the fact that my legs were so numb from fatigue that they no longer felt like they were attached to my body.  I was rather jazzed that I was now running into mileage territory heretofore unknown to me.  We runners are weirdos like that.

But I was most happy about my decision against eating the snow along the side of the road.

Workouts, Unicorns, & Rhinos.

I have been crazy busy again, whomping up presentations for other school districts, occasionally teaching a class or two at my high school, and stopping students from putting plastics on my hot plates:

So, since last we met, here's the working out rundown:

• Treadmill Tuesday was full of high running fashion
• Wednesday was an easy 5 mile run, which I did on the treadmill because I had no interest in losing body parts as a result of frostbite.  And when I say easy, I mean easy:

One of my training resolutions this time around is to make the easy days easy so I can run my quality days with quality.  Just trying not to get injured.  Again.

• Thursday was an 8-mile tempo run, 6 of which were run at a comfortably hard pace.  Lesson from this run?  "Comfortably hard" does not mean "running all out."  I have to convince my legs that tempo runs are NOT races; they are supposed to be kinder, gentler speed work, not runs that have me wondering if I'm going to freaking finish.  Plus, I learned that running after work sucks, mainly because I'm tired because I walk and/or stand around all day watching younger humans learn.  
• Today's workout was upper-body weights, doing my fave Pyramid Upper Body workout.  I think the bicep track, which usually has me emitting noises that are from another planet by the end, is getting easier.  Not much, but a little.  I also think I have an unnatural love of the dumbbell pullover that might require therapy at some point.

On a more serious note, I shared this picture on facebook this morning:

I expressed the sentiment that I often felt like the rhino in the picture.  I know people think I'm totally nuts (about a lot of things), but once you have been overweight (see the "About" page for a good hard look at the old me)  it's hard to get out of the rhino mentality--your image of yourself gets distorted much like what you see in a funhouse mirror.   And my mirror has especially been all sorts of funhouse crazy since I found out  that I have gained about 14 pounds since I quit smoking over 2.5 years ago, which I have rationalized in all sorts of crazy ways.  But, bottom line, I'm scared to death about looking like I once was.

What I think I have to realize about this whole weight/body image thing is that:

• I am healthier
• I am more active
• I have done things I never thought I would ever do (running a half-marathon or a Ragnar wasn't exactly on my to-do list when I was 80+ pounds heavier)
• I no longer get irritated by sweat pouring out of any back-fat rolls during the summer
• I own no clothing with sizes that begin with a "2" anymore
• I like bulleted lists

I also have to realize that, like one astute Facebook friend stated, I am already the unicorn.  But maybe just a species that is genetically predisposed to store fat in case of dramatic climate change.  Genetic variation is the spice of natural selection, you know.

Treadmill Tuesday Strikes Back

Today was another wonderful Treadmill Tuesday, consisting of running one 1200 m interval at my 10K pace and then, after a minute recovery, running a 400 m at my 5K pace.  I then repeated this two more times with a 3 minute recovery between each set, all while desperately trying to focus my mind on the TV show I was watching during the intervals rather then mentally screaming for the little lap thingamajig on my treadmill to MOVE FASTER AROUND THE LAP, DAMMIT, I'M DYING HERE.

As you can tell, I don't do well with 1200s on the treadmill, nope nope nope.  They are a necessary evil, however: I have come to terms with them, but I don't have to be happy whilst I run them.  (I should rename this blog "Grumpy Runner.")

What did make me a tad bit happier was running in my new Mizuno Wave Rider 16s in all of their purple glory:

These are some pretty awesome shoes.  They seem a bit narrower in the foot, but they still gave me that same "rocker" type feel that I experience in the 15s, as if you're gliding along the ground.  The only thing I don't like is that my left heel was slipping out of them a little even after adjusting the laces in just about every imaginable configuration during the warm-up, which is not good for my damaged left Achilles.  Going to have to see if that can be rectified in the future.

Because speed work is typically hard on my calves and shins (I just can't handle it if my shin splints come back.  I am afraid of a stress fracture as much as some kids are afraid of monsters under their beds), I like to wear compression socks to work on those days.  However, I couldn't find any color-coordinating compression socks to sneakily wear under my brown dress pants this morning.  I guess I could have worn the neon yellow ones, but my sanity is already being questioned too much at work.  Hence, I decided to wear this under my dress pants:

Yeah.  I'm sexy and I know it.  

Lazy Triceps & Mental Ruts

I love my cross-training days.  I love my run days.  Right now I have a training schedule that is an awesome mix of both, making me look forward to both activities with a rapturous joy that only an exercise addict can muster.

So it was with a happy yet maniacal gleam in my eyes that I pulled out Cathe's XTrain series and decided to do Supercuts again yesterday.  It's the second time I've done that workout, and I am thinking it is going to be one that I return to again and again.  It moves fast, has effective exercises that you don't feel until the next day (hello, squats with your elbows to your knees and those crazy sit-outs and kick-outs), and gets your heart rate a-going up and down with all its compound moves.  If I had to describe Supercuts in one word, it would be DEEE-licious.

Since I did some cardio/total body yesterday (I always like to do one total body workout a week), I decided to give my legs a rest before my third week of marathon training begins with another fabulous Treadmill Tuesday.  So, I decided that I would do some upper-body weight work, and settled upon doing two of Cathe's workouts from her XTrain series--Chest, Back, and Shoulders followed shortly thereafter by Bis/Tris.

My little dumbbell family wasn't enough for these workouts.

Cathe was using 30s and 35s for some exercises (!!!!); I only have 20s as my heaviest set of dumbbells.  I feel so inadequate.

Anyhoo, I won't go into the specific exercises in the workouts, but there was a nice mix of old favorites (push-ups, chest flies, bicep curls, hammer curls, kickbacks, pullovers, preacher curls, etc.) and some newer ones that I have never seen before that issued a nice challenge.  Both workouts just kept moving right along, so the boredom factor wasn't an issue.  You do 16 reps of each exercise, unless you chose a heavier weight than you could handle, in which case you should try and do 12-14 reps.  This is what I did during the tricep exercises, when I tried to bust out all sorts of kickbacks with 12 pound weights and ended up at about rep 12 trying to avoid dropping the weight on my head, neck, or face regions.  I have to say I did the sloppiest reps I have ever done in my life on those exercises, laughing at myself the entire time.

And that's when I discovered my triceps--especially my left one--are pretty damn lazy.  At about rep 10 they started acting as if they were flimsy noodles, stalling out on the bottom of any kickback, refusing to come back up because it was just too much work for them.  We'll just have to work on those lazy SOBs, won't we? I should make them write a damn SMART goal and give me weekly status updates--that is, if I wasn't so busy attending pointless meetings during the day to actually read them.

But on the bright side, I had a moment of confidence-boosting that, again, only the truly exercise addicted can understand.  You see, I pulled off 16 reps of dumbbell overhead presses with 20 pounds in each hand.

Now, I know some of you do that just for fun every day to entertain small children or coworkers.  However, I have had a mental block for a while now with my weights, thinking that 15 pounds was SO HEAVY and how could I ever LIFT HEAVIER THAN THAT on any exercise that wasn't a back exercise.

I was in a mental rut; have been for quite some time.

But when I saw that Cathe was using 30s, I just couldn't pick up the 15s.  I went for the 20s, and pulled off 16 solid reps with good form.  When I put those weights down, it was like I was on top of the world.

It may seem like a small accomplishment to you, but it was a huge mental hurdle for me.  You see, I don't just weight train to look like I could kick someone's ass (but that is a vital part of my motivation) and still be able to do things for myself when I am 70; I do it because, every once in a while, it reminds me that I can do much more than I currently do. I just have to finally decide to pick it up and make it happen.

This week's workout lowdown

I have been remiss in blogging lately because my job has become crappily all-consuming.  I have been preparing for meetings, running meetings, angry about attending so many damn meetings, angry at people who are so entrenched in their own fixed mindsets that they can't see how they are damaging students, and staying up late writing and preparing an all-day in-service presentation for another school district which I was lucky enough to give on my birthday.  (The in-service wasn't crappy at all--I had a great time.  Staying up late the night before because I was having copier issues was the crappy part.)

It's been a little hectic, but my workouts have remained my priority and my sole source of stress relief.  Here is my exercise lowdown for the week:

• Monday was barbell day.
• Tuesday was a quality run workout, consisting of 6 x 800 meters at 10-K pace on the treadmill.  Treadmill Tuesdays are back, people!
• Wednesday I ran 5 easy miles, again on the treadmill.  The treadmill makes me run easy when I need to run easy. Plus, the TV in front of it works now, so I can plod away while being sucked away in the vapid void of what they call TV programming these days.
• Thursday was a 7 mile tempo run.  I ran the tempo portion of the run (5 miles) at about an 8:45 pace because my goal is not to go crazy on the speed work days and get injured like I have done in the past.  However, I didn't have to watch for things like this:

Thankfully this melted the day before; it's hard to keep pace when you're trying not to break yourself.

• Friday had me doing some easier weight training.  I actually did my favorite Jari Love DVD but skipped all the lower body parts.  This workout used to kill me, but yesterday I was feeling just fine during the workout. Love that I can see gains like that, and it only took a few years, lots of Cathe DVDs, and copious swear words.

On Saturday:

I was running a 5K  to celebrate my birthday weekend.  (I know, we runners are weird like that.)  It was a nice flat course through a small subdivision, and was held by a local park district that happened to be located an hour from my house.  Do you know how hard it is to find a race in the middle of January on the weekend of my birthday?  In case you were wondering, very hard, so getting up very early and driving an hour is my only option.  Thankfully this race had a 9 A.M. start time.

The weather was a little windy, but temperatures were in the 40s--you can't ask for better weather, really, for Illinois in mid-January.  I was running faster in that race than I have in a while (averaging an 8:16 pace because of a slow first mile), but I wasn't running all out because I knew I had 13 more miles to go after that.  Why?  Because when I woke up this morning it said, "Pace-16 miles" on the old marathon training schedule, so I ended up splitting those miles up between my race in the morning and my 13 mile run in the afternoon:

Like I've said before, I believe that you learn something from every run.  The learning gathered from this run was that my new running shoes sucked for long runs.  I bought some New Balance 750s the night before, and they felt good--really good--when I walked around in them in the store.  They even felt fabulous during the 5K, and my Achilles wasn't hurting at all after the race.  After my long run, however, my Achilles was screaming.  Thankfully, my oldest sis had already planned to take me to get a birthday massage, so we went to this massage place called World of Rainbow (really) to get the most awesome foot and leg massage I have ever had--and it helped immensely.  I'm thinking there just wasn't enough support in the New Balances for that long of a run.  Lesson learned: stick to my Mizuno Wave Riders.  

So, even though my week was crappy, my workout week was pretty good.  Let's hope that in the coming weeks I won't have to rely so heavily on my workouts to retain what's left of my sanity.

I need more barbell!

Today's workout was brought to you by my barbell:

Don't get all excited--there's only 25 lbs on that bar.

I busted out some barbell action this morning with Cathe's Muscle Endurance workout.  It's an oldie (from around 2005) but a goodie, with tons of barbell work at the beginning until she works the smaller muscle groups at the end with some light dumbbells.  Here's a quick breakdown of the workout:

PROS: 

• I got to use my barbell.  A lot.  At one point I had 40 pounds on the thing until I realized that if I blew my back out I could not climb upstairs to get my husband to take me to the hospital.
• She really works the legs--all aspects of it.  I like this because there was some decent glute and hamstring work, without overloading the quads.  As a runner who suspects her glutes are being total lazy-asses and need to firm up, I'm all over this.  I also like that she doesn't just work the muscles in front. 
• You can use the weight that works for you.  I went heavier on some of the dumbbell portions at the end than Cathe did, but lighter on some of the barbell exercises because my legs were still kind of trashed from the 14 mile run I did on Saturday.  
• Did I mention I got to use the barbell a lot?  If I didn't, I'd like you to know it was definitely a "pro" of this workout.
• Not a ton of equipment was needed.  Unlike some of her other workouts, I didn't feel as if I was using a plethora of equipment just for "variety."  Sometimes just a barbell and two sets of dumbells are all you need.
• I felt totally badass doing lat rows and deadlifts with my barbell.  Bad.  Ass.

CONS:

• Leg presses on the high step.  Lots of them.  One round was more than enough.
• She really worked the triceps and shoulders with multiple exercises for those muscle groups, but only did one exercise for the biceps (barbell curls).  My biceps beg for more abuse, Cathe.
• The atrocious set design.  I think it was meant to feel as if you were back in ancient Greece or Rome, working out with the gods or something, but I felt like I was on a cheap set made to look like ancient Greece or Rome.

Overall, I dig it as a workout, and will be doing this one more often--mainly because what all of my workouts need is more barbell.

Treadmillin' it.

Today I made up the 5 miles I missed on Wednesday.  I did this on the treadmill in front of a TV that does not work:

It was better than staring at the wall.  But not by much.

It took me about 65 minutes to do those 5 miles, but I don't care.  I know a lot of people hate running on the treadmill; I'm not a huge fan myself.  However, I acknowledge that it has its benefits:

• When I need to run easy, like today, it forces me to run easy.  It's hard to "accidentally" speed up on the thing, and I really have no desire to keep hitting the "+" button next to the speed.  (Or the incline, for that matter.)
• When I need to run fast, it forces me to run fast.  It won't let me wimp out during repeats or intervals.
• It doesn't hurt my knees, my Achilles, or any other body parts I have issues with.  I always feel good after a treadmill session.
• I can wear summer running clothes in the middle of winter.  It gets hot on the treadmill, in case you didn't know.  Well, it gets hot if you're actually working out on it.
• When it is all snowy and icy and nasty and windy outside, I can still get a run in.  Even though I go nowhere. However, when I do an out-and-back course and  finish where I start, physics would tell me I didn't get anywhere, either.  Damn displacement.
• Interval and repeat sessions on the thing help me build mental toughness.  Why is it that 400s, 800s, and 1000s always seem so much longer on a treadmill?  They help my inner baby suck it the *bleep* up and finish.

While I don't look forward to running on the thing, it has helped me train for many a half-marathon--and it's helping me train for my first marathon.  Now we just need to get the hubbs to get the TV working so I can stop humming songs to myself, talking to myself, and trying to run while looking to my left out of the window, almost taking myself out in the process.  It's hard to train when you're dead, you know.

14 miles of snot-rockety windy fun.

Today wrapped up my first week of marathon training with a lovely 14-mile run in high winds and sleet during the last half of the run.  It wasn't my best run, but it was a run that got done.

This run was supposed to be what my training schedule says is a "pace run," where you start out 45 seconds or so slower than your goal marathon pace and then slowly increase your pace so that you are running at your goal pace by the end.  Because you can't freaking tell what the hell is going on from my splits above, I'll just tell you--my goal marathon pace is between 10:00 and 10:30.

Yeah.  So much for that pace run, huh?  It was the winds.  (And maybe all the slowing down for snot rockets.)

Every time my paces slow down, it means I had turned in a direction where the wind was blowing on me in its rude cold way; it takes me a bit to get used to it and get back up to pace.  Looking at this, it seems I really ran several smaller pace runs.  Let me tell you, my quads were on fire by the end; running into that wind just sucks the energy right out of them. Well, it was either the wind or the quad sleeves I decided to wear for this run that tuckered them out.  I'm not sure yet how I feel about wearing the quad sleeves while running.  Calf sleeves?  You betcha; I don't even notice them.  Quad sleeves?  Hmmm...I love them for recovery, but my quads felt so constrained, so heavy with them on from the start of the run.  I'm undecided about this quad sleeve issue at the moment; I need to gather more data.

But because I believe you learn something on every run, here are some learnings about which I am undecidedly decided about:

• Carrying a water bottle when doing winter running sucks.  The hand holding the bottle always gets super cold, especially my pinky fingers.  One day I fear those pinky fingers will fall off and shatter on the ground, and then I'll really be screwed.
• Just because something doesn't hurt during a run doesn't mean it won't hurt afterwards.  My peroneal tendons on my right foot have decided to keep my left Achilles company in hurting.
• The Weather Channel's site lies to me on a regular basis.  That damn sleet wasn't supposed to start until 8 PM, but it got to me at around 3:30 PM.  Every time I got stung in the face by a little ball of angry sleet, I was cursing those bastards.  
• All dogs were behind fences along my route.  This one's a keeper.
• I really enjoy only knowing my pace for a mile after I have ran it.  It helps me focus on the run.  Thanks, Garmin 910XT!
• Cheese and crackers is probably the worst pre-run snack you could ever have.  Besides bran cereal, I guess.
• In high winds make sure your snot rockets don't ricochet upwards into your eyeball.

Since I missed my easy 5 miler on Wednesday, going to have to do that tomorrow plus some weights just to round out the day.  But I've had enough of the winds--think I may just wimp out and hit the treadmill tomorrow (still gathering more data on those quad sleeves).

Weight Lifting & Math.

Keeping my late streak alive, I woke up a little late again this morning, but with enough time to do a workout.  I know it was supposed to be a rest day today, but I usually interpret that to mean "rest from running."  I know I shouldn't be working out on these days, but I just drag around all day if I don't work out before heading off to work; I actually feel more tired if I don't get up and get the ol' blood pumping in some way shape or form.

Speaking of pumping, I decided to pump some iron with Cathe's Upper Body Pyramid Workout, which involves a giant heap o'dumbbells along with a step that has the largest risers I've ever seen in my life.  Since I don't own that kind of step (like I've said before, I am always missing some piece of equipment needed for a home workout DVD), I use my stability ball (all you end up doing is lying down/sitting down on it anyway). I use dumbbells ranging from 3 to 20 pounds simply because I don't have any dumbbells larger than 20 pounds, a situation I hope to rectify in the near future.

Now, I have done this workout many, many times, and each time it has me breathing like a pregnant woman in labor and swearing like a sailor by the end of it.  This is because you do pyramids (duh) of two exercises: 12 reps at a light(er) weight, 10 reps at a medium(er) weight, and then 8 reps at a heavy (your muscle fibers might implode by the end of 8 reps) weight.  You then go down the pyramid, using your medium(er) and light(er) weights.

NOW IT IS MATH TIME.

Cathe has a track for each of the upper body regions, as it were: chest, back (the back track is my favorite because it rhymes and I get to do dumbbell pullovers, my current fave exercise in the known universe), shoulders, triceps, and biceps.  If you do the full workout, going up and down the pyramid, that makes a grand total of FIFTY-TWO REPS in a pyramid.  And remember, you're doing two (three in the shoulder track) exercises per track--so that's 52 reps per exercise, making that 104 reps total per track.

MATH TIME IS OVER.

This Cathe woman is insane.  But I am insane(er) for doing this workout over and over again.  However, I must say that it has developed my arms from flabby and puny to having some sort of guns:

I know, I know--looks like I need 104 times a bajillion more reps to get these guns beyond the "water pistol" stage.  But it's going to have to wait until after my 14 mile run slated for tomorrow.

In need of sleep. Where are you, sleep?

I have been very very busy this week because my job requires me to actually show up and teach students now that the holidays are over.  This means I have had little time for the blogging, which I have missed terribly, so I'm sneaking in a quick post today to fill the blogging void in my life.

I have been spending some late nights this week grading, getting massaged, and teaching night classes to other teachers.  This means I have been dragging my ass out of bed later than normal because my body is stupid in that it requires more than 5 hours of sleep and wants to keep sleeping.  Therefore I have been unfortunately shortcutting some of my workouts during this first week of marathon training--I had to skip an easy 5 mile run entirely on Wednesday because I wouldn't have been able to make it to work on time (so I did the first three tabatas on Cathe's Tabatacise DVD.  Very sweat-inducing and thigh-frying).  Tuesday morning, however, was filled with some short speed work on the treadmill (5 x 1000 m) at my 5K pace, which made me realize that what I thought was my 5K pace is no longer my 5K pace because I haven't run at that pace in over a month.  It also reminded me what a big baby I am on the treadmill, breaking down in a mental puddle over the fact that 1000 meters is SOOO LONG I'LL NEVER MAKE IT PLEASE MAKE IT STOP even though if I run that same distance outside at that pace I never want to sit down and cry even once.

This morning I woke up late again, but I was determined not to skip another run.  On the agenda for today was a 6.5 mile tempo run, which included a 1.5 mile warm-up and a mile cool down in that number--but with my tight time schedule I decided to reduce the warm-up to a mile and the cool down to half a mile.  So off I went scampering into the morning darkness, dressed like this:

Doesn't everyone have possessed dogs and construction materials in their dining room?

Scamper, scamper, scamper, run run run I went, trying to keep roughly a 9 minute pace.  Because all of the blood in my body is in my legs when I run, my brain wasn't getting enough oxygen to realize I should have made my turn around back towards the house sooner than I actually did.  Instead, my brain kept thinking,"6 mile run 6 mile run hope that car doesn't hit me 6 mile run 6 mile is that poop on the road i wonder from what animal run must turn around at usual 6 mile run turnaround spot," forcing me to run an extra half a mile and thus forcing me to hightail it through the rest of my morning routine lest I be late for work (FYI, all body parts were thoroughly cleaned--the shower was not skimped upon).

Lack of sleep combined with the fact that I ran way too fast of a tempo made me one tired teacher today.  In fact, the idea of crawling into one of my cabinets in my classroom and taking a nap sounded like an absolutely fabulous one around noon, until one of my colleagues pointed out that I don't get paid anymore if they fire me.  Reality always deals the deepest cuts.

Tomorrow is a rest day.  I think I'll get up in enough time to do that without fearing I will be tardy to work.

Burn Sets & Grading: Make the commitment!

This morning I was up very early because I have to finish my procrastigrading before school resumes tomorrow (ugh).  I decided to work out first, and, since I destroyed my legs with a faster-than-normal 12 mile run yesterday, pumping iron was on the menu for today.  I chose Cathe's Burn Sets from her new XTrain series, dragged out all of my weights (3 lbs-20 lbs) plus some other equipment (resistance tubing, firewalker band, stability ball), and got started at about 6:30 this AM.

See this face?  I made this face a lot this morning.  Only with my face, not Cathe's.

I chose to do the complete upper body workout, which is about 70 minutes long.  It worked chest, shoulders, back, biceps, and triceps, doing three sets of about 10 reps each with some pretty heavy weights; the last set you were supposed to go to failure.  My idiotic self kept choosing weights that were too light, so when the failure set came around, I was all like, "Hey!  This was easy!" as all the people on screen were having their arms fall off by the middle of the set and were struggling to put them back on before Cathe started the next round.

Not really.  But I never felt like my arm was going to fall off.  Note for next time--heavy up.  I was having weight envy the entire time, what with Cathe busting out 30 and 35 pound weights; the heaviest weights I own are 20 pounders. I felt so inadequate.

Overall, this workout is a nice solid weight-lifting grunt-inducing workout.  The moves are not complicated (in fact, a lot of them are traditional moves we all know and love to hate), and she does give you about 30 seconds of rest between most sets. This workout can be broken up into two separate ones (Chest, back, and shoulders vs. Bi's & Tri's) if you'd like to split up the pain over two days.  Or, you can check out one of the many premixes available if you want a longer or shorter workout, depending on your preference.  You can also add a core routine to your weights if you are so inclined to torture yourself further.

And there's DUDES in the background.  I felt kind of weird about that, as if they were hanging out in the women's locker room or something.  I'm sure I'll get used to it.  Maybe.

My only criticism of the workout are the burn sets, which are exercises right after you do three sets of exercises for the same body part.  They really weren't burning me.  Maybe just lightly singeing me.  Perhaps it's because I didn't really go to failure on most of the failure sets that I wasn't feeling their firepower, but on my first go-around with this workout, they seemed like more of annoying add-on afterthought than anything else.  My other only criticism is that Cathe keeps using the word "commit" throughout the workout.  "Commit to this set!" "Show your commitment!"  I felt like I was going to have to buy her a ring after awhile just to prove it.  I'm doing the workout Cathe--I'm freaking committed already.

Speaking of commitment, I now have to commit to grading 90 final exams that I haven't graded yet, and they must be graded by tomorrow.  That's going to take more mental strength than I needed this morning during my workout, for sure.  If you would like to come over and do this grading for me, please leave your name and address in the comments.

Sometimes it's nice to just run.

I was supposed to run a 5 mile race today.  I didn't go because I didn't want to trash my ankles (which are having some technical difficulties) by running too fast, and I didn't want to spend 2 hours today driving back and forth from Wisconsin where the race was.  I would much rather spend those 2 hours farting around on the internet writing blog posts about winter running and Cathe Friedrich videos.

So what did I do instead of race?  Run 12 miles in my totally awesome new purple Nike Lunarglide 4s.

Did I mention they are purple, my lucky racing color?

I told myself this was going to be a long run in anticipation of my marathon training starting on Monday.  I was going to take it easy, enjoy the day (it started out sunny and not-so-frostbite-inducing), and just go for a 12 mile stroll.  That normally means I would be running anywhere between 11 or 12 minutes per mile, because I am not a speedster by any stretch of the imagination.

You can see by my splits below that I did not achieve that goal:

Must remember my training starts MONDAY, not today.

I blame all of this on my new Garmin 910XT watch and my blatant incompetence at operating it.

I'm used to my Forerunner 305, you see, where I have already customized the main screen to give me the time of day, total time, distance, and--most importantly--my pace per mile.  I am addicted to this number to the point where sometimes I get so wrapped up in it that I lose sight of the fact running should be about enjoyment, not about hitting some number that has become so irrationally important to me.  

So you can imagine my fright when I realized that the run screen I had customized the night before did not contain any field for my pace.  I actually stopped within the first tenth of a mile to fix it (discovering then that the 910XT has an "Autopause" feature where, if you stop, it automatically stops the timer.  Rock on, Garmin, rock on.  Like this feature.) but, what with it being freaking-ass cold outside, didn't want to freeze by big old butt right off by standing around for 5 minutes messing with the screen options.  So I just left it alone and started running.

What it would tell me was my pace after each lap.  But during the lap itself, I was unplugged from knowing my pace at every single moment.  Not glancing at my pace on my watch every 3 nanoseconds thus freed me up to do things like:

• Be aware of the strange dog up ahead in the road waiting for lunch me to run by
• Focus on my breathing, effort, and form
• Realize I totally screwed up the direction of today's run in regards to wind direction and fully pull the front of my balaclava up over my nose
• Learn how to breathe wearing a fully deployed balaclava
• Time my snot rockets, factoring in wind direction and speed
• Be more present in the running moment

It was nice for once to just...run.  I felt pretty comfortable the entire time (except for the last two miles when the wind picked up and changed direction so I was running into it.  Mother Nature, you bastard.)  And that's the first time on one of my long runs of that distance that I did not run any miles in the 11 minute range.

Maybe my watch was holding me back instead of helping me.  I'll still be wearing my watch on my runs (mainly because it was damn expensive and if I didn't wear it my husband, who purchased it for me, would start considering divorce); however, I don't think I'll be changing the settings on that new Garmin watch anytime soon.

XTrain by Cathe: All Out Low Impact HiiT

I'd like to start off with a small aside about yesterday's XTrain workout, Supercuts:

My entire body is beset with soreness.

Supercuts has parts of my body sore that are never sore, like regions of my core that never feel like they get worked (namely my lower back muscles, my upper back, and my armpits, for Christ's sake).  Even though the moves are super-easy, they will super cut you the next day like a knife through butter.  Whatever that means.

Anyhoo, on to today's workout.  Because I have a 5-mile race tomorrow that has some serious hillage at the end, I decided to take another cross-training day today.  I also needed a flimsy excuse to bust out another one of Cathe's XTrain videos again, so this fit the bill perfectly.  On today's workout menu was her All Out Low Impact HiiT workout, because I wanted to get some cardio in before tomorrow's hill assault.

First, let's talk about the positives:

• The workout is short (38:53 total) but long enough to make you wonder when it will be over when you're in the middle of some of the moves.
• Again, variety is a central theme in this workout.  You start off doing cardio with weights, then move to the step, and then move to using the gliding discs.
• I liked the color of their shoes.  
• It isn't all squatting and lunging and squatting and lunging and oh yeah let's not lunge or squat for a second oh wait back to the squatting and lunging now.

Now let's talk about the not so positives:

• Honestly, I was a bit disappointed in this workout.  My heart rate wasn't exactly where it needed to be, and I was pushing on each exercise, and I found myself actually wishing for the abuse she dishes out in her Afterburn workout from her Low Impact Series.  This might not have been the right workout for my fitness level; maybe it's time to try her Tabatacise workout in this series.
• I found myself playing a little game with the music--trying to guess what song they were trying to copy without violating copyright laws.  When I start paying attention to the music (something I never do if the moves are tough enough) that's a bad sign.
• I didn't really feel the gliding disc portion of the workout was as effective as it could have been.  The previous step portion could have been extended or ramped up in place of that, in my opinion.  Of course, you must know that most of the time I *bleep*ing hate using those damn discs anyway; I always feel as if I'm totally focused on keeping my feet on the stupid things rather than on the exercise itself.
• In the first portion using light weights, I felt like there was way too much time between exercises; Cathe kept letting us take breaks.  That may be why I felt like the cardio wasn't as effective for me.

One thing I noticed in both of the workouts I've tried from the XTrain series so far is this: Cathe keeps looking off to her right at someone or something.  It's driving me a little bonkers.  Who and/or what are you looking at, Cathe?!?

Ahem.  Anyway, I am thinking that this could be used on one of my easier cross-training days when I start my marathon training next week.  It's certainly not a horrible workout by any means; I'm thinking that it just wasn't right for me at my current level. I am hoping the next workout I plan to do from this series, Burn Sets, promises to bring on the pain like I know Cathe can.

Getting on the XTrain caboose.

I got my XTrain series in the mail yesterday; I'm getting on the XTrain for the next few months, baby.

It comes with 9 discs (well, 10, really--I got the bonus "Ride" DVD where there are a lot of women on spin bikes spinning in front of a camera.  Since I do not own a spin bike, it doesn't look like I'll be doing that one any time soon.  What was I thinking?) that are a cornucopia of weight lifting and cardio goodness.  All of them look tough except for the "Hard Strikes" one where they're all wearing pink boxing gloves.  I'm casting a leery eye on that one for now.

But you know what's amazing about this series?  THERE ARE DUDES IN SOME OF THE VIDEOS.  Yeppers, actual males in all their maleness.  They seem like they're tucked in the back for the most part though, and usually appear in the weight training DVDs.  My first reaction to seeing them in the pictures in the user's guide was, "Dude!  There's dudes in this!"

Anyway.  Since today was a cross-training day, I got up early, scampered downstairs, and broke open the set faster than any kid on Christmas morning.  I chose a low-impact total-body workout called "Supercuts" for this morning's torture session, choosing the premix that played the entire workout plus a bonus core workout.

These are a few of the thoughts that ran through my head during this workout:

• "This may be too easy." (thought after the first 10 minutes)
• "This may kill me." (thought after 20 minutes)
• "I am going to break my ass." (after doing some crazy core moves called sit-outs)
• "I think my diaphragm is going to poke through my chest wall." (after doing even crazier core moves called kick-outs)
• "Wait wait wait I can't get this firewalker band over my fat thighs correctly...wait...damn. Going to have to rewind." (when doing a moving squat exercise with dumbells; or, trying to do it anyway)
• "Guess I shouldn't have been stupid enough to pick the premix with the core work after it." (after realizing the main workout ends with sit-ups and push-ups done very fast and very often)
• "What does she mean 'right foot'?  Isn't she on her right foot?  Should I be on my left then?  Oh *bleep*ing hell." (after Cathe confused me with her directional terms)
• "I think my thighs look a lot like Cathe's.  Or Jai's.  Oh, who am I kidding--I have thighs like Sasquatch."
• "Holy crap that was over quickly."

Now, in a feeble attempt to mimic what professional fitness blogs do, below is a specific list of pros and cons of this workout:

PROS:

• Tons of variety in the exercises.  I loved not having to repeat "rounds" of exercises for once.  
• All of the moves were simple to do (some I've seen in Cathe's other videos but there were some new ones).
• Compound moves are abundant that get your heart rate up quickly.
• Challenging last set of moves where you do 5 sit-ups and then immediately roll over and do 5 push-ups for 8 sets total.  
• Tons of premixes, as usual.  There is absolutely no excuse for not finding a workout you can do in the time that you have.  NO excuse!
• The core routines are pretty damn challenging, and I like that you have two from which to choose.  Variety, again.
• This no-impact workout if very intense; don't ever let Cathe's low-impact workouts fool you into thinking that they won't be challenging enough.  My knees and Achilles are thanking me for not jumping around after yesterday's 9 mile run.

CONS:

• Cathe moves between exercises VERY quickly sometimes.  Not often, but sometimes I had a hard time keeping up. (This is probably because I am slow.)
• There's a lot of equipment needed for this workout (5 and 8 lb dumbbells, a medium tension resistance band, a firewalker band, and gliding discs), some of which you only use one time (the firewalker band).  Also, what if you don't own some of this equipment? You can always use paper plates instead of the gliding discs, but what if you are hell-bent on saving the planet one piece of refuse at a time and refuse to purchase wasteful paper plates? What then, my fitness fanatics?  What then, indeed.  (The point I'm trying to make is this: Is this workout still as effective even if you don't have all the equipment?  I would have liked some modifications to be shown, as someone who usually is missing some piece of equipment needed for a workout.)
• Since I got a barbell for Christmas, I was disappointed that no barbell was used.  Don't give me that crap about this being a cardio/toning routine.  I got a barbell for Christmas and I expect all workouts to take into account my unreasonable expectation.

In all seriousness, this was a pretty decent workout; I look forward to doing it again. And, if it isn't enough for you or you find it too easy or too short, I dare you to try the Supercuts Extreme workout, where you do the workout twice, you badass.  Then come and tell me how easy it is.  For the rest of you (us), enjoy this DVD if you can, and stay tuned for more reviews in the XTrain series from yours truly.

More on winter running.

I planned on doing today's run on the treadmill.  But something inside me throughout the day was trying to convince myself to run outside in that 25 degree weather and 12 degree wind chill due to the 15 mph winds.  (It's the insane part of me, you see).  So I finally decided to suck it up and run outside, even though it takes a bajillion years for me to get dressed to go for a winter run.  Perhaps this is why:

1) Put on compression calf sleeves.
2) Put on either thigh compression sleeves that will annoyingly fall down during the run or a pair of compression capris or tights.
3) Put on a pair of winter running tights.
4) Dig through drawer looking for my favorite mock turtleneck running compression shirt base layer, frantically hoping its clean from the last time I gathered up the courage to run outside in the cold.
5) Take 15 minutes to decide if I should wear a sweatshirt or a running jacket.  After that decision is made, try and decide which sweatshirt or running jacket.
6) Take another 15 minutes to decide what running shoes I will wear.  Mizunos, Asics, or Nikes; oh my!
7) Find my two winter running essentials, my Saucony balaclava and my Hotfingers gloves:

These two items alone make my winter running comfortable.  If my fingers or ears get cold, I turn into a gibbering puddle of goo and want to call someone to come get me in the middle of my run.

8) Put on balaclava, and then remember I haven't put on my headphones/iPod yet.  Take off balaclava and put on earphones.  Put balaclava back on.

9)  Find fuzzy warm hat to wear on top of balaclava.

10) Check the weather and then determine a route where the wind will be at my back on the way home.

11) Start to walk out the door, and then remember I need my pepper spray for any nasty dogs or kidnappers.  Go back and get it.

12) Start to leave again and then realize I am not wearing my ID.  Go back and put that on.

13) Finally start running.

On today's run, I met my little collie buddy who lives at a little farm along the route I took.  He usually accompanies me for about half a mile each way on this out-and-back route, pretty much making a mockery of my running by walking beside me while I look a total idiot "running" next to him.

It's hard to get a picture of a dog that's trying to sniff your crotch at the same time.  He's cute, but he's a crotch-hound, alright.  I don't even know his name.  I'm such a shameless running hussy.

At the end of my 9 mile excursion into the cold, I was met by this gorgeous sunset staring at me from my own backyard:

This made all that messing around getting ready worth it.  Would have missed it if I had stayed inside staring at the wall in front of my treadmill.

New Year's Eve Running Ninja!

Because I am a loser that never gets invited to New Year's Eve parties, I run a race that starts at 11:45 P.M. every New Year's Eve out in Roscoe, IL.  It's a 5K, so you are out on the course when the New Year hits--and you know when it does, because fireworks start going off everywhere.  It's not one of those fancy 5Ks that have bibs and timing and water stations (which would have frozen over last night; it was 14 degrees with single-digit wind chills); it's just a fun little run you do with friends.  You get a shirt, a decent race packet with some cool swag (scarves!), and a great time with a small group of people who just want to start of the new year on the right foot.  Or the left, depending on their position at the starting line.

Shirt and scarf this year.  Awesome.

Because I know some of you have a limited amount of energy, focus, and visual acuity from last night's festivities, I won't bore you by writing a lot of these little black words.  Instead, I will give you an artsy-fartsy visual representation of the evening by slapping all of my iPhone photos from last night in this post.  Enjoy!

"Hello, my name is Terie and I'll be your running ninja this evening."

These tights?  These are my purple prisoner tights.

Give it up for the tights, yo.

Phil and I before the race.

My buddy Phil and I after the finish.

Photo ops after the race.

Hubbs is showing me how much he loves me in 2013.

Goofing around with photobomb in background.

Sneaking up on the new year.

Boy, that 2XL shirt I won in the raffle will sure come in handy.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year.  Keep on running.