My own personal fitness truths

Rather than participate in the consumer frenzy that is Black Friday, I instead decided to do a little spin and weights this morning, heavy on the weights. (Ha! Get it? I crack myself up!)

I'm really enjoying myself, despite that crazy face I'm making.

I love the barbell but hate shoulder work.  As you can tell.

Yesterday I managed a 9 mile Thanksgiving treadmill turkey trot of my very own, which essentially involved running a few miles at half-marathon race pace sandwiched between lots of slow-ish running.

Stop-motion videos are my new obsession.  You're just going to have to deal with it until this phase of my life is over, people.  Sorry.

Anyhoo, whilst I was treadmilling away staring at the big blue wall, I found my mind wandering to all of the things I've learned from fitnessing these past 10+ years or so...those little annoying truths that can only come with a lot of trialling and erroring and succeeding and screwing it all up.  Below are a few I'd like to share with the world:

1) When running in the winter, it's never as cold as I think it's going to be outside.  Whenever I have to do a run outside in the dead of winter, I'm the WORST at mentally whining about how cold it's going to be and how much the run will suck.  And then I force myself to get dressed and get out there, and--lo and behold--after the 2nd mile I'm actually pretty comfy.  (Exceptions to that rule: All polar vortices as well as anyone who loves in northern Canada, Siberia, or Alaska.  Or anywhere else that's super duper cold all the time.)

2) Time slows down when you run faster on the treadmill.  Everyone knows a mile on the treadmill at 7:50 takes WAY longer than a 10:00 mile.  It's the rule of treadmill relativity, and I'm pretty sure it was referenced by Einstein somewhere in his research on general relativity.  Maybe.

3) On any race taking place on a bike path, you will encounter three racers running three-wide on the path so you can't pass easily.  You know those runners.  We all do.  They have their place in our universe much like the person counting out exact change at a register, drivers who drive 5 miles under the speed-limit in front of you when you're late for work, and speed bumps when you least expect them.

4) The second cup of coffee before a race is ALWAYS a bad idea.  But I drink it anyway and then get irrationally mad at everyone in the port-a-john line at mile 3 slowing me down with their urinary needs. 

5) There will always be people that tell me that I shouldn't lift weights or I'll get those big bulky muscles.  I had this happen to me in a hotel fitness center recently, when a complete stranger decided to offer that little tidbit of wisdom to me as I was using some 15 lb dumbbells.  I suppose these people think females shouldn't have visible muscles...or something.  Good thing I don't think that.  My goal is to look like I could kick someone's sweet patootie (and other parts of them as well) if they met me in a dark alley.

6) There will always be people that insist that because I run as much as I do I can eat whatever I want and not gain weight. What plays in my head when I hear this: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO What comes out of my mouth when I hear this: As someone who gained 20 pounds while training for a marathon, I can tell you that is most definitely not true.  But people still don't believe me when I say that, probably because sometimes people like to hang on to these weird little untruths despite evidence right in front of them to the contrary.

7) The treadmill resetting itself after you get off to answer the call of nature is one of the most excruciating forms of agony a runner can experience.  Especially if your running watch is always way off when you treadmill run and you don't remember what the mileage was on the treadmill before it reset itself like a total jerk.  The struggle is real, people.

8) That one nonrunning friend that can never remember that a marathon is always 26.2 miles.

Me: *runs a 10K race*
Friend: "How was your marathon this weekend?"
Me: "It was just a 10K race, not a marathon."
Friend: "But that's still a type of marathon?"
Me: "Well, it's a type of race, but it's not as long as a marathon."
Friend: "But marathons are races, and you ran a race!  So, how was your marathon?"
Me: "....fine.  It was fine."

9) The hubbs will never stop telling me that I run too loudly on the treadmill.  I have no idea what this really means, but him saying this to me does legally allow me to scream "CLOMPITY CLOMP CLOMP" at him on the rare occasions he's on the treadmill.  Because that's how good of a wife I am.

10) Whenever I sneak down to the workout room to do a treadmill run, there will always be a large dog there to judge me.  Mainly because he's there to guilt-trip me because I'm not running outside with him.

*judgementrays*

So there you have it - some of my running truths that I have cultivated over the years I've been fitnessing.  And here's some learnings from this post I cultivated in my brain for the last 5 minutes or so:

• Seriously.  Love me some barbell.  Loooove.
• I was thankful that I didn't die of boredom on that 9 mile treadmill run.
• Seriously - for the love of all that is holy and running-related, just because you run a lot doesn't mean you can overeat.
• Strong is sexy, people - having muscles is a beautiful thing.
• Having large dog judge you is not beautiful - it means he's going to destroy a random part of the house later.
• CLOMPITY CLOMP CLOMP CLOMP.

Tomorrow's workout: Technically I'm supposed to run 10 miles, but I'm going to go run a half-marathon in the rain because I accidentally signed up for a race series.  More on the blog about that later.

Who knew eating right would improve your running performance? (Everyone)

You know what's crazy? I ran 19 miles yesterday over the serious hills around my house and I woke up today like it wasn't no big thing.

Look look SPRING

For once that smile isn't fake.

Now, don't get me wrong; it was a challenging run.  I was really pushing during that 19th mile, and those hills were not making my life any easier, let me tell you.

It was all downhill from there.  And then uphill.

But for once I wasn't completely destroyed the next day...my legs today felt amazingly...just fine.  In fact, I cleaned the entire house today without my legs feeling like stiff appendages that weren't really mine once.  And after cleaning I did 45 minutes of spin and about 35 minutes of lifting heavy things with my tiny dog as supervisor.

Tiny dog is unimpressed with my workouts.

Look out weights...here I come.

Tiny dog did helpfully clean my weights between each use.  Which is gross, actually, but we pretty much let tiny dog do what she wants because of the sheer magnitude of her tiny and cute.

Tiny dogs licking weights aside, some might attribute my new-found long-run recovery to me consistently running all the runs on my training plan, which I'm pretty sure has helped a ton.  But I actually think a lot of the credit for my new-found long-distance running strength is the whole "not eating crap" thing I've been doing for a few months.  In fact, I have even started meal prepping a bit.

Yummo alert.

So far I've just been doing lunch because that's what I don't have time to make in the morning (I *am* running 10-12 miles before work some days, remember), but it has completely helped with keeping my diet consistent and my portions under control.  And because this former biology teacher knows a few things about science and how cells work and stuff, I'm pretty sure my healthier options are giving my cells what they need to not only perform well but also recover well.  Case in point: my splits from yesterday's run, excluding mile 9 where I stopped at the house to go to the bathroom and forgot my watch wasn't set to auto-pause.

Kids, for me to be running 9:30s at the end of a run like that is amazing. And now I wonder why I didn't do this healthy eating and run all the runs stuff for my previous 33 marathons.  After all, being 12 pounds lighter is also probably doing a lot for my marathon goals as well..and I'm actually beginning to see that the weight is coming off.

I also see that this post is over, and it's now time for the learnings:

• I am not exaggerating about those hills, people.  They are some serious business.
• I am also not exaggerating about the convenience of meal prep. Those 5 lunches took me less than 20 minutes to make and prep.
• Those 5 lunches are also all the same...because I am the master of eating the same foods over and over again.  What can I say; it's a gift.
• We really do let tiny dog do whatever she wants, except be nasty to the cats or eat non-food things off the floor.
• We also need to stop typing now because large dog is trying to sleep, and he needs his recovery time just as much as I do.

Tomorrow's workout: My usual Monday speed...just some quick 200s though that for some reason will last 9 miles.

Four quick things about my new spin obsession

Today's workout was some spin, baby.  Specifically, it was Cathe's Cycle Sweat.

Spin (or indoor cycling....toeMAYto, toeMAHto) is quickly becoming my new obsession, especially since it's low impact but super duper cardio-intensive.  I am currently rotating between Cycle Sweat and three other Cathe spin DVDs: Pedal Power, Ride, and CycleMax.  Here's four quick things about spin that I have discovered in the past few weeks:

Thing #1: This is WAY better than just getting on the bike and pedaling in front of the depressing news we have these days.

I used to pull the bike in front of the TV and just pedal for however many minutes I had decided to pedal that day, grinding through the workout and the news.  No wonder I wasn't ever super excited about getting on the bike.  With these workouts, I have some sort of challenge to look forward to every time I pop in one of these workouts.


Thing #2: Speaking of challenge, holy dripping buckets of sweat, batman.

If you're using the proper resistance and not taking it easy sitting down when they're standing up, then you're going open up the sweat floodgates during these workouts.  I was completely taken by surprise at how many calories my watch said I burned when I did Cycle Sweat for the first time (400+).  I was also taken by surprise by how challenging the workout was, especially since I hadn't ever really ridden on a bike out of the saddle that much.


Thing #3: I'm pretty sure these workouts are going to keep me in riding shape for when the weather allows me to bust out the tri bike this spring.

The one thing I hate in the spring when I start dusting off the tri bike is that feeling like I'm starting over with my bike training.  I'm pretty sure with these workouts I will keep some of my riding legs over the winter so I can dominate my first duathlon in June.


Thing #4: Tiny dog is currently unimpressed by my spin workouts.

Seriously.  She just sleeps through them, mocking me with her slumber.

You can't please everyone, I guess.  But I'm pleased to present the learnings below:

• When the going gets tough during one of these workouts, I just think of how I will dominate my first duathlon because of it.  
• In other words, I lie to myself to push through.
• Tiny dog is new to the house, so she doesn't quite understand my workout obsessions yet.
• Tiny dog doesn't know what she's gotten herself into.
• And sometimes with my races, neither do I.

Upcoming workouts: 5 miler tomorrow with a "rest" day following....and by "rest" I mean "anything but running"