Day 7, Week 9: I've been a little busy.

As anyone who works in public schools can tell you, this time of year gets a little hectic because, you know, school starts back up again after that weird 3 month break we take.  And since I'm in charge of some of the activities for all of this starting up, my life this week has consisted of a lot of not sleeping, talking, running around setting things up, and trying not to fall asleep when someone is talking to me.

Oh, and I did manage a few workouts this week.  Some lifting, some running in the dark, and some cycling in the living room.

I did have to abbreviate a lot of the workouts in order to make it to work on time (hour commute yo), but my left butt has thanked me for that by not screaming at me anymore while I run.  So it all worked out in the end.  Well, I hope it's the end of my left butt screaming at me, anyway.  It was pretty quiet during this morning's brick workout:

A few things about this brick workout:

1) I didn't want to do it.  I was exhausted from the week's activities.  I just wanted to sleep until late in the afternoon and then eat until I fell asleep again.  But then "56 miles" kept running through my head and the fear of dying during my race won out.

2) I actually had another 50-mile ride on the schedule for today, but I just wasn't motivated to do it in the heat (I didn't head out until around 9 AM).  Instead, my brain decided that brick workout would be a nice compromise.

3) I decided to head out on a road I hadn't biked on for a while just to mix it up a bit.

4) I am a complete moron because a) WTF kind of compromise is a brick workout in the heat of the day especially when you do the running on a road that has NO shade and you're running at 11 AM in August for crying out loud, and b) that freaking road mentioned in #3 was one huge uphill climb full of rolling hills for around 8 miles and I was a gibbering mess by the end of it.

Well.  At least I did a workout today, even if it did almost kill me.

And now I shall end this post to put it out of its misery.

Tomorrow's workout: 18 mile run because, as we all know by now, I'm an idiot.

When you want to do your tempo run and Mother Nature spits wind in your face.

I tried to blog yesterday, honest I did.  It was going to be one of those short stupid posts where I throw up some dumb pictures I took during the day, throw down some facetious garbage underneath them, and laugh my way through my little fake learnings.  But my internet went all wonky, wouldn't upload the photos, and then I fell asleep in the chair waiting for those damn things to upload.

But tonight my internet is raring to go, so we're about to bring on the stupid pictures and facetious garbage again.  Your excitement is palpable; I can tell.

So yesterday (Wednesday) I ended up doing an easy 3-miler on the treadmill rather then my longer tempo run because I had to get up at 3 AM and leave the house by 5:30 AM.  Would have done it outside but I wasn't exactly keen on running in those hellish 20 mph winds when I could run in perpetual summer on the 'mill.

Who's unimpressed with this selfie?  YOU ARE

And I thought I outsmarted those damn winds, too, smugly thinking I would do my tempo on Thursday rather than my usual Wednesday, when the winds wouldn't be so strong.  Well, they weren't as strong - only 16 mph cold freaking winds. 

It was like Mother nature laughed and spit in my face at the same time. Only she spit at me with wind.

I briefly toyed with doing the tempo (2 miles easy, 3 miles @ 8:30 pace) on the treadmill, and then my brain forced me against my will to get on outside running gear to forget that ridiculous idea entirely.

Taking it outside WOOT

But 16 mph winds...those winds are a tad strong to be able to tempo at my required pace.  So I decided I would actually outsmart the winds by plotting a course where I would run with the wind at my back or to my side instead of straight-on into them. 

I did the first 2 mile warm-up going into the wind, but the actual tempo was run to the east and on that north/south road in the map above.  I was glad I thought of doing the tempo this way as opposed to my usual "I'll run this mile loop over and over again even though it means I will run some of these miles straight into the wind." "Now Terie," I hear you all asking, "Why would you ever run a tempo run straight into 16 mph winds?"  And the answer to that question is "Because I'm an idiot who has done that very same thing too many times before."

I am also the same idiot that ran the 3 miles at tempo way too fast, as per my usual.

And the usual large dog tagged along on the run.  And he was crazier than normal because we don't normally run down that north/south road and he was all OMG WHERE ARE WE GOING IS THAT A CAR LET ME CHASE IT HEY CAN I RUN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD WHERE ARE WE GOING.  He was so all over the place that he must have gotten all sorts of new smells on his feet because he was thoroughly inspected by the cat when we returned home.

Large dog. How do you not smell yourself.

I found out later that the time of day we went running (4:30 AM-ish) was the warmest part of the day, as the temperatures plummeted from the 30s into the teens for the rest of Thursday.  This forced me to dress as if it were winter again and, if you think my running outfits are bad, you should see what happens when it gets super-freaking cold and I'm in regular clothing:

And there it is.

To the learnings!

• When I woke up last night a cat was sleeping on the keyboard and had written gibberish in the blog post that almost happened last night.  Hubbs said that would have been better content for all of you.
• Palpable is a cool word.  Use it more often, please.
• Those grey running tights are new...expect a more detailed review tomorrow.
• You haven't really run until you take large dog on a new road and his ADHD comes on full force and you are strapped to him.
• I know you covet my parka.  

Tomorrow's workout: Total body weights with some barbell love thrown in.

Day 7, Week 12: A 20 mile run masquerading as a half marathon.

Because I am apparently addicted to Turkey Trots, in addition to the 4-mile one I busted out on Thursday I ran another one this morning that was a half-marathon. 

You already knew, however, that I was going to turn this race into the 20 mile long run that I missed last weekend because I am a complete idiot who knows better than to try and make up miles...but I will do it anyway.  Let's talk about how those miles went, shall we? 

Well, we'll talk about them after we admire how awesome my crop tights were that I wore to the race:

They have POCKETS, people.  So awesome.

OK, admiration complete.  On to the race recap.

The morning started with me getting up at my normal time and driving about an hour to the race location.  It happened to be in a scenic forest preserve that has copious amounts of running paths.  I know this because this was the same half marathon at which I first broke the 2 hour mark, so this race is kind of special to me.

All the specialness is just shining down.

Look!  Water! You don't see that every day.

I then busted out 5 pre-race miles on the paths around the start line because I figured getting more miles in before the race started was better than having to do all 7 of the extra miles afterwards.  And by now I think we all know that anytime I say "I'll do it later" that "later" really means "lol never, suckers."

By the way, the last 0.2 of those 5 miles were spent dodging members of the lead pack of the 5K that were barreling towards me on the path.  That sure will get the heart rate in the zone, let me tell you.

Afterwards, I spent some time running little distances to the port-a-john (always a must), as well as back and forth to my car to ditch that sweatshirt and grab extra gels.  I did record those itty bitty distances because every little bit counts, doesn't it, when you're trying to make a 20 miler out of a 13.

The 0.25 is what happened pre-race.  Obviously, the 13.13 distance is the actual race itself, which considering there was a freaking strong, cold, and gusty wind the entire time, went pretty well. 

I have no idea what my hand means.  It was early.

Well, the race went well except for the fact that I was supposed to run the damn thing at a 9:35 pace and, as you can see, it ended up being at a 9:15 pace.  While I had a few 9:30 splits, my legs again decided to not listen to me at ALL and do their own thing.

I kept trying to get behind people and pace them to slow down, but I think the sound of my breathing/wheezing was forcing them to slow down to look at whatever was making that noise (me), so I just had to keep passing them one after the other.  And then the finish was upon me, where I grabbed the boxed water they were handing out (yes, boxed!), squatted a bit to stretch my quads out, and then walked back to the 13th mile marker and started running the 1.5-ish miles back to my car.

Now, I know you read the end of that last sentence and were all like, "Yes, Terie, it makes perfect sense that you would run back to your car after running 18-ish miles, 13 of which were a race."  OK, maybe you were more like "crazy woman you RAN back to your CAR?!?" Yes, I did.  That was by design.  I could have taken the shuttle back to my car, but I knew getting back to my car was pretty good motivation for me to finish off those 20 miles.

Plus I have taken the shuttle before.  It takes forever.  It was faster just to run back to the car, trust me. 

Once I got back to that car I tried to take a cool pic of me with my medal but the wind kept making the ribbon do weird things so instead I got one that looks like I'm strangling myself with it.

When I got home and showed large dog my medal, he was highly impressed, especially with the fact that I managed to make a half marathon turn into a 20 miler.

Just oozing with being impressed.

Post is done, learning has begun:

• Can you tell that's my fave running hat since it's in almost all my race pics?  
• Even if large dog isn't, I am impressed that I actually pulled off 20 miles today.  I thought for sure I'd wimp out and just do the race.
• When I was running back to my car, people finishing the race kept telling me I was running the wrong way.
• When I told those same people I had already finished, one of them yelled, "And you're *reallybadword* still running?!?"
• Hubbs wants it noted on record that I am, indeed, a crazy woman.

Tomorrow's workout:  I honestly have no idea.  Maybe weights?  Maybe yoga?  I'm all discombobulated because I ran long on a Saturday instead of a Sunday.  Stay tuned or the resolution of this fitness cliffhanger tomorrow.

Day 3, Week 11: 3:45 AM Speed Sessions. For crying out loud.

Here are the facts:

Fact #1: I had to be at work at 6:45 AM today.
Fact #2: I have a 65 minute commute to work.
Fact #3: I knew I would be at work until at least 9 PM tonight.
Fact #4: That speed session (10 x 400m with 400m recoveries) on the training schedule was going to have to be done at 3:45 AM because there was no doing this after work (and we all know that's a lie, anyway-it won't ever get done after work).

Isn't everyone missing window trim on their perpetually-being-
remodeled farm house?

Fact #5: Those miles aren't going to run themselves.  

Fact #6: My marathon time goal (4:05) will not be achieved by my usual "Oh I'll just do it tomorrow" crap.

Fact #7: I barely have time to write this post tonight.

Fact #8: I wore these shoes to work and I completely regret it.

There is only one conclusion that can be drawn:  I am an idiot.


Tomorrow's workout: Some Cathe Boot Camp.  Why?  See conclusion above.

Day 7, Week 3: Bike ridin', weight liftin', and dog lickin'.

Summer decided to make a comeback this week up here in northern Illinois, so any workouts that take place have to either take place in the early morning dark or early enough after sunrise to avoid being fried by the sun.  That's why I farted around and waited until 9 AM to do the bike ride I promised everyone yesterday.

As you can see, I'm just as surprised as you are that this ride actually happened.  It was hot, but not the "sweat is continually dripping from my armpits and raining down on the back of my calves as I cycle" kind of hot.  I had to keep reminding myself that I am not actually training for a race now that includes cycling.  As you can see from the splits, the wind slamming me in the face helped remind me at the end of the ride as well.  I didn't really plan this ride like I do when I'm training, where I plan to cycle into the wind on the way out and with it at my back on the way home.  As I've said before, I'm an idiot.

Well, the wind slowed me down along with the fact that I have to slow down before turns a lot because the corn blocks the view of incoming traffic.  I kind of like not getting hit by cars when I ride.  It's a quirk of mine.

After returning from the ride, I ate some lunch and then got down to my weight-lifting business.  First step:  Wearing the right accessories.

FYI-This is a complete lie.

Second step: Decide what workout I want to do.  This is never an easy decision for me, since I have a lot of workouts from which to choose.

Those are my four favorite Cathe series, and they all have about 5-8 workouts each. Now, I have been doing the Strong & Sweaty Series for months now, but the Ripped with HiiT was quite tempting today.  The Low Impact Series has some good strength workouts and some killer low-impact squat-filled cardio that will make your glutes beg for mercy.  Her ICE series is a nice series to use when you want to step back from so much intensity, either in the cardio or in the heavy poundage. 

So which one did I end up choosing?  After careful consideration, I chose Total Body Giant Sets from the Strong and Sweaty Series because that's what I did last Saturday and my brain was feeling lazy about decision-making...and because I got to use my barbell again.

On to the third step: actually do the workout.  This workout was delicious as usual, and I followed it up with the Bonus Abs workout that's on all of the Strong and Sweaty DVDs.  As I've said before, that workout is not for faint of heart.  And, in my house, it leads to a fourth step: Post-ab workout dog torture. What's on the floor is theirs, after all.

On a completely unrelated note, I am running a marathon next Sunday.  Actually, I'm running a 10k, then a 5K, and then a marathon.  It's all a part of the Twin Cities Marathon weekend when you sign up to be a part of something they call the Ultra Loony Challenge.

I've done this challenge since it started a few years ago, and I'm totally getting pumped already.  I don't know why I love this race, but I do-and the rest of the week I will discuss one reason a day why I love this race and this challenge so much that I completely physically destroy myself doing three races in one weekend. 

Summary o' the learnings:

• Sometimes I actually do go bike riding when I say I will
• Selfies with the bike are hard when you're alone
• I do not know how other short-haired girls look good in headbands but I always look like a mushroom of hair sprouted off the top of my head
• There is no such thing as too many Cathe workouts
• You learned what "loony" has to do with Twin Cities if you googled it while you read this post

Tomorrow's workout: 18 miles of long run goodness before the sun comes up!

Day 6, Week 3: Enough about tempo runs, let's talk about SHOES

Because I'm an idiot, I got a total of 2.5-ish hours of sleep last night.  I stayed up reading a really good book (American War) and then made myself worry about work for a few hours as I laid in bed definitely not sleeping but instead torturing myself for my imagined work sins.  What better way to prepare for my tempo run this morning?  I'm sure that's in someone's book of training plans somewhere.

I had a shorter tempo this morning: a 2 mile warm-up followed by 3 miles at a pace the Run Less, Run faster people call "short tempo" but I call "too fast for the dog but I took him with me anyway" pace.  I needed to make sure his naughty switch didn't toggle to the "on" position accidentally any time soon.

But I also didn't want to to do the run at all, any potential dog-damage be damned.  I wanted to snag an hour's more worth of sleep and then slog my way through the rest of the day as sloth-like as possible, hurting people with eye rolls and side-eye all day long.  And then this thought came tumbling through my brain:

"But if I don't go, I'll have nothing to write about this afternoon on my stupid running blog."

That thought made me sad.  It also made me go hook myself to the dog and do the damn run.  I was supposed to run miles 3-5 at an 8:33 pace.  Here's what happened:

I am my own worst tempo running enemy.  Maybe I'll get the hang of this "running at the pace I'm supposed to be running at" thing one day.  But I was still happy that I got up and did the run.

Even though my pace was all wrong during that tempo, you know what was oh-so-right?  My shoes.

Bonus cat!

I'd like everyone to meet my little family of Brooks Launches.  Most of them are Launch 4s, with a pair of purple 3s being watched closely for potential shenanigans by the cat in the upper left.  As you can tell, I love the Brooks Launch so much I bought them twice.  Times three.  Why so much Launch love?  Because:

• They are light.  I do all of my workouts in these-speed, long runs, and tempos.  They never feel heavy on my feet at the end of a run (which is something the Glycerins always do to me)
• The amount of cushioning they have gets me. Not too much, and not too little.  I can feel the ground without feeling every pebble jammed into my sole like I feel with some of the more minimal Nike shoes.
• Colors...so many pretty colors.  I'm not one for boring shoes.  If you're going to run a marathon, you can at least have the decency to have interesting shoes on for the race photogs.
• I can run injury-free.  I've never ever gotten an injury in these shoes.  Unlike some others.
• Yeah, I'm looking at you, Saucony.  
• It's pretty obvious the cat loves them too, and if they're good enough for the cat, they're good enough for me.  

It should also be obvious that if they ever change these shoes in any major way, I'm going to have a complete meltdown.  Trust me, Brooks-no one wants that to happen.  Amirite?

Today's musings in sum:

1. Get more sleep and stop torturing myself with things work-related
2. Good books are good but not before bed.
3. Running tempos too fast is apparently my super-power
4. I need at least two more pairs of Brooks Launch shoes, especially the ones they have now with the knit upper
5. And yes, Terie, you ARE right.

Tomorrow's workout: Weights and this time I *am* going to bike ride I really really mean it this time

Day 6, Week 2: Tempo NINJA

I grabbed the dog this morning and headed out for a 5:30-ish AM tempo run.  I did surprisingly less hemming and hawing and sitting around with my coffee not wanting to do the run since I knew I was going to have to blog about it later.  Who knew posting stupid pictures of myself every day would refill my running mojo?  Not me, that's for sure.

The tempo was supposed to be run at an average 8:48 pace.  You can see below how well I met that target:

Seriously, 5th mile??  8:19?  After running 4 miles before that?  Like I've said before, I'm an idiot.  Why?  Because I'm a big believer in running training runs at the pace you're supposed to run them at, because running them faster all the time just leads to overtraining.  I blame the fact that it was dark when I did this run and couldn't obsessively stare at my watch every 3 nanoseconds to make sure I was on pace.

But after I saw my splits I have to admit I felt like a running ninja and spontaneously broke out into some crane, boys and girls.

This was also way better than doing the tempo on a treadmill.  Why?  Here's the difference for me between tempo running outside vs. treadmill:

Tempo outside: 1) Terie runs the whole time at the desired pace (or faster) while bring dragged by a dog

Tempo on the treadmill: 1) Finish warm-up mile  2) Kick treadmill up to tempo pace  3) Stop every few minutes to do something like blow my nose or get a drink as an excuse not to run so fast on the treadmill 4) Finish the run thinking, "Well, that was better than nothing."

On a completely different topic, I decided to use this blog to not only write stupid workout posts, but also to write stupid reviews of new gear that I'm trying.  The first piece of gear I'll be trying is this little beauty from Fitletic:

You see, I love Fitletic running belts...but despise hydration belts.  Those little water bottles usually cause me all sorts of trouble and I end up throwing a tantrum during the run whereby the hydration belt doesn't make it home with me and is never EVER seen again.  

But I decided to give this hydration belt a shot because as I've mentioned before carrying a water bottle in my hand during a run is, for me, akin to having a root canal just for the fun of it. And unfortunately water is just a little necessary on those 20 milers. So...I'm going to suck it up and try this belt and review it for you because hey--that's the kind of runner I am.  I'll endure the pain of potentially crappy gear so you don't gave to.

I'm also going to try it out on not just any old training run--I'm going to try it out at the Twin Cities Marathon weekend in two weeks.  Be prepared for gritty, raw reviewing right in the thick of marathon endurance....and be prepared for lots of shaky video and swear words.  But wait to prepare until, like, the day before.  Wouldn't want anyone to peak too early.

Tomorrow's workouts: Bike ridin' and weight liftin.  Yeehaw!