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.

I have issues. Especially with running clothing.

Yesterday morning I planned to go biking....and I actually did.

Getting faster, little by little. And getting a little bit smarter by cycling that early in the morning when the wind isn't so bad.  This was also the first ride so far this season where my toes didn't turn into small flesh-colored blocks of ice by the end of the ride.  So while getting the ride done was cause enough for celebration, the fact that I didn't have to blast my toes with hot water in the shower to save them was yet another reason.

YES NO POTENTIAL FROSTBITE

And another cause for celebration-absolutely perfect running weather this morning for my threshold workout (2x2000m @9:01 pace).  Cool temps, no wind, and a happy large dog at the end of it all.

ZOMG ZOMG running ZOMG ZOMG

But you know what doesn't have me jumping for joy?  Running clothing.  I have issues concerning life in general, but I really have issues with running clothing.  And because you know I love to overshare, these issues are listed for you below:

Issue #1: Pockets.  I need them all the time on everything.

I began to wear running skirts a while back because the kind I usually buy have HUGE pockets on the running shorts underneath to stash all my important running stuff like gels and toilet paper in plastic bags.  At the time, these skirts were pretty much the ONLY things made for women that had decent pockets...but when you looked at the men's clothing, there were just pockets all over their running gear.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I saw a men's running jacket once that was made from nothing but pockets whereas the women's equivalent jacket from the same manufacturer had one teeny tiny pocket jammed up in the armpit.  Or maybe it was the right shoulder.  OK, I don't remember exactly where it was, but I'm pretty sure it was somewhere where you couldn't easily reach it unless your arms were freakishly long.

Anyway, I think you get the idea that I think pretty much every piece of running clothing should be made with huge-ass pockets.  It's just better.

Issue #2: Stitches on your tights shouldn't unravel and pop just because you're putting them on.  No, I'm not too fat for them, either.

You know what's fun?  Pulling on an awesome pair of purple running capris (that have pockets!!) for the first time and then hearing the loud POP of stitches loosening themselves....and then seeing that there is now a small hole in the front and center of your awesome purple capris.  Showing off your underwear.  Providing a teeny tiny amount of natural a/c to that part of your body. And making you mad as hell because those capris cost $65.

That's not really fun, by the way.  Not at all.

Issue #3: Running tights/capris/shorts that like to travel southward when you're moving forward.

I've covered this issue before...sagging running bottoms are a complete deal-breaker for me.  There's nothing quite like that feeling of borderline insanity you feel when you're 5 miles out on a 10 mile run and realizing you're going to be pulling up those tights for the last 5 miles every 2 minutes or so. It's enough to make you just want to run in your underwear the rest of the way home but you're too afraid of getting arrested for indecency and that can't happen because, after all, you work in education and how would that look?!?  (Answer: Not good.)

Issue #4: Running belts that like to travel northward when you're moving forward.

Any running belt that tries to transform into a bra while I'm running is getting thrown in the trash as soon as I get back to the house.  Or thrown in a corn field if I get really sick of it before I get home.

Issue #5: Running shirts that stick to you after you start sweating in them.

I mean, really....did the maker of said sticky running shirt not know that someone would, perhaps, be SWEATING in that shirt?  And that after sweating has occurred that it would stick to the person in the shirt like the loose moist skin of a frog?  And that this feeling will slowly degrade that person's sanity when having to put up with that fake frog-skin feeling for, say....26.2 miles?

Maybe they didn't.  I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe they thought they were making something other than running clothing.  This time.

Issue #6: Boring running clothing.

Seriously--life is too short to wear boring clothing.

Or pose normally for running pictures.  

No more ranting; just learnings:

• Who's happy she dropped from that half duathlon to the Olympic distance?  Hint: It's me.
• Unless you're one of those runner girls that wears nothing but little racing underwear and a sports bra when running, we runner girls NEED out pockets.  Or this runner girl does, anyway.
• I think it's pretty obvious from that picture that running is like heroin for large dog.
• If it's running clothing and has huge pockets, I buy it.  There's a little piece of info for you, running clothing makers.
• I also buy it if it is obnoxiously patterned and colored.  Are you listening, running clothing makers?  That's how to take my money.
• I'm really, really tired, so I'm ending this post now.

Tomorrow's workout: Easy 5 miler!  At 4 AM!

I'm exhausted. Here's some pictures and random words about workouts and stuff.

It's been an exhausting week, kids.  Work has been sucking away a lot of my time away from this little blogging habit of mine, and I'm resolved from now on to at least throw up one stupid picture with a caption I wrote while half asleep for your viewing pleasure.  Today however, mainly because I'm pretty freaking exhausted right now, you get at LEAST 5 stupid pictures about my workouts over the past 3 days.  Maybe more if I can stay awake long enough.

Workout #1: An 8 x 800m speed session.  Kind of.

I was supposed to do 8 of those 800m repeats, but only ended up doing 5 because:

• I got up late and couldn't do them before work,
• I got a late start after work and wanted to stop early so I could go to bed on time, and 
• I had to keep stopping for various stuff, like bathroom visits and the fact I had to TIE DOWN my watch band so the stupid magnet would stop slipping down and loosening the band causing my watch to try and escape my wrist.

This...is so much BS.  Even the cat agrees.

Plus, I just wasn't freaking feeling this workout.  It felt hard.  And I just wanted to go to bed, as you can tell below.

BUH BUH and more BUH

Some workout is better than no workout.  I guess.


Workout #2: Cathe's Boot Camp workout from her Strong & Sweaty series.

I was strong.  It was sweaty.  There was a lot of jumping and barbell.  Female cat supervised both my workout and the barbell to make sure it didn't roll away.

Hyooman.  Barbell not going anywhere on my watch.

Workout #3: Tempo run.

Tempoooooooooed it

This run is another reason why I'm so exhausted right now--take a peek at that start time.  And the sad thing is that was actually a little late - I had to cut the tempo short by a mile or I would have been cutting it close to get to work on time.

At least I got to give one of my birthday boys (large and small dog both have the same birthday - today) a birthday spin around the neighborhood as his first present of the day.

 I think he liked his present.  Just a hunch.


More random words disguised as learnings:

• That speed work session was literally the WORST session I've had in a long time.  That'll learn me to skip doing it in the morning.
• Did you see the temperature on my tempo-run summary pic?  23 freaking degrees on April 5th? Ridiculous.
• You know what else is ridiculous?  My thighs stinging after mile 2 of that tempo because I am a moron and didn't wear fleece-lined tights.
• But what's most ridiculous of all is this last picture below.

OMG so much tired.

Tomorrow's workout: Total body weights of some kind.  Hopefully female cat can keep an eye on my barbell again if she can work it into her busy cat schedule of sleeping and eating.

Day 7, Week 11: My sweat-filled non-running workout and stupid pictures from my conference.

So I'm traveling at the moment.  I'm at a conference in downtown Chicago until tomorrow, but I'm not letting that get in the way of me doing a sweaty non-running workout in the palace of a fitness center this hotel possesses.

I only did 30 minutes on the stationary bike, but holy buckets were there buckets of sweat all over the floor around my bike.  I felt like I needed to put up those wet floor signs so people weaving in and out of the empty bikes wouldn't slip and crack their heads open.

After that sweaty goodness, I made my way over to the free weights and did 20 minutes of weights, alternating a lower body exercise with an upper body exercise, making sure I hit all major body parts.  This induced more sweat-dripping awesomeness, of which I tried to take a picture but this damn hotel room lighting made the picture kind of suck.  But who am I to deny everyone the suckiness of this picture.

After that I had to get dressed in, like real adult clothes and do some learning and stuff.  And take stupid pictures.

As you can imagine, all that learning on top of the stupid picture taking sure is exhausting.  It's time for this little runner to head to bed now.

I may be sleepy but the learning keeps on rolling:

• I gotta get me one of them fancy stationary bikes.
• I did learn a lot today at my conference, I swears.
• The only pictures worth taking, in my opinion, are stupid ones.
• I want to know when I will not be exhausted at the end of the day.

Tomorrow's workout:  The plan says 20 miles at 15 seconds slower than marathon pace....but the fact that I'm traveling may modify that plan.  

Days 5 & 6, Week 11: The last two workouts in 6 pictures and 6 sentences

Thursday morning I did an easy 3-miler in these freaking awesome tights that were not anywhere near freaking thermal enough for how cold it was.

3-mile post-run large dog status: ADHD temporarily paused.

Speaking of large dog, he seems pretty darn pleased with our 8 mile tempo this morning; specifically, he seems pleased that he kept trying to drag me into the ditch to run at every opportunity.

Mom.  I have no regrets.  Ever.

Since that tempo was supposed to be at marathon pace, you can clearly see below that I again committed the running sin again of running my tempos way too fast.

It's these splits that are causing great soreness in my calves right now.

And those splits in conjunction with the picture below clearly reveal, yet again, that I am an idiot-but an idiot with a husband who loves me.

And here's the learnings:

• It's been a busy and long last two days, and I barely had time to post these pictures today.
• I'm super tired.  Therefore this post isn't that funny.
• It's clear I have a husband that has been exposed to my idiocy for way, way too long.

Tomorrow's workout:  A little hotel cardio and strength work.