This morning was Cathe's Pedal Power workout. My face in the picture below shows exactly how much I wanted to get up and sweat in a little room in my basement all by myself on my indoor bike.
Here's what I wanted to do instead:
Rubbing it in. The jerk.
But apparently I love pain because I shambled out of bed and made my way downstairs. As I shambled, I realized my abs and lats were still sobbing quietly in the background from yesterday's workout, making specific things very hard to do such as "sitting up" and "lifting my arms" and "existing." But I sucked it up, buttercup, and hopped into the saddle. I programmed a 35 minute time-saver premix and felt like this afterwards:
That's not joy. Or happiness. or any happy emotion. That's my surprise at finding out exactly how hard it is to cycle indoors with sore abs and lats.
But it's no surprise that bite-size dog couldn't give one crap about my pain and suffering.
She's trained well at not caring.
What else isn't a surprise is these learnings rightcheer:
This indoor cycling thing...I'm wondering at how much it's going to pay off when I actually get to ride a real bike again in the spring. Guess we'll find out.
All my dogs are well-trained at not caring. It's a gift.
The cats are even better trained at not caring because they're trained by Mother Nature.
Joke's on the dogs and cats--currently they can't infest my workout area like they used to at our old house. But I know they're trying to find a way...
Tomorrow's workout: Some other blast from the past DVD workout that will make other body parts of mine weep and sob.
It's Thursday, people, and that means I have to get up an hour earlier than normal to get to work super early (it's a regular Thursday thing). Since "an hour earlier" means "3 AM," I wisely schedule a short 3 mile run as a workout on Thursdays. I got the large dog in his running duds and away we went into the darkness.
Too cool to look at the camera.
Now, I get a lot of questions about running with large dog so I put together this helpful FAQ for everyone, because we all know how helpful my FAQs are. (Clarification: They're not.)
Did you have to teach your dog to run with you or did he just, you know, run with you?
I had to teach him how to behave on a leash first. And by "behave" I mean "walking without having to sniff every piece of gravel and blade of grass while pulling as hard as he can on the leash, almost tearing my arm out of its socket." After he learned how to behave, we went for longer and longer walks. And then that progressed to slow runs, and, then, you know, to faster and longer runs.
Why did you want to run with your dog, anyway?
Because I like my drywall and baseboards where they are instead of in his stomach. Also, the cats don't like being covered in slobber, either.
Does running wear your dog out, then?
Let's just say that after a run, the cats' heads are safe for about 10 minutes. Then they better take cover.
Does running with a dog affect your pace at all?
Large dog runs like a complete rookie every single time--he starts out too fast and then, just when you need him to pull you through the last few miles of that 10 mile tempo, he bails on you and finally starts running beside you.
Also, him yanking me into ditches for no reason and trying to chase cars by yanking you in the opposite direction does tend to slow your pace.
Does it ever bother you to run with a dog?
Well, besides the aforementioned ditch-yanking and car-chasing, he also constantly turns around to check to see if I'm still behind him.
"Still there? Good."........"Still there? Good.".........."Still there? Good."........ times 3,000,000.
Buh.
Do you take him to races?
Yes. And everyone cheers him on when they first see him coming. But then, when they see me attached to him, start half heartedly rooting for me as an afterthought.
Do the cats ever thank you for taking him running and saving their heads?
No. Because they are cats. They punish me for the head-eating by touching me with their claws on my face at 2:30 AM.
After the run, small dog kept photobombing my post-run selfie and the phone kept taking pictures as I tried to shoo him out of the selfie area.
I think he just couldn't keep himself away from my running outfit. I have to admit it was pretty much a train wreck; you just can't look away from something that looks that bad. But when it's 3:45 AM and you're getting dressed for a run, making sure your clothes coordinate isn't exactly a priority.
Large dog, however, thought my prioritization skills when dressing for work worked out nicely.
Nice outfit. Now for some cat heads.
This is proof I don't exist entirely in running clothes. Although that sure would be nice.
From this post we have learned:
I still suck at writing FAQs.
That is one of the best night running selfies I've ever taken.
I think large dog thinks we're training for an obstacle course race with all that ditch-yanking and car chasing.
Cats. They never appreciate anything you do for them.
Those boots make my feet look huge. Because they are, I guess (9.5).
Tomorrow's workout: My last tempo on the training schedule! And of course it's at the fastest tempo pace of the plan!
Hey hey hey it's Tuesday! And we all know what that means: It's speed work day, people.
Except for mile repeats, I am generally jazzed about speed work. When I got on the treadmill this morning, I was all "Oh yay it's just eight 800m repeats this will go by SO FAST." At least that's what I thought during the mile warm-up. I was a little less optimistic after the first repeat, and by the third repeat my mental mantra was "MY GOD I WILL NEVER DO ALL 8 OF THESE" rather than "No sweat! 8 by 800 is great!"
But I kept on trudging through those repeats at warp speed, wondering what the heck my problem was this morning. It wasn't until the 6th repeat that I realized the cause of my mental anguish:
I had the sound turned down on my headphones.
Now, I know what you're thinking--that I'm an idiot and you should click away from this blog forever. But before you get all clickity-click happy, let me tell you why that was the cause of my speed work issues this morning. You see, by turning the sound down on my musical motivation, I could now hear my crazy breathing whilst running at warp speed. This made me think that I couldn't run at warp speed, that I would therefore never make it through all the repeats, hence I suck, and as a direct consequence my marathon is doomed.
As you can see, I spiral down pretty far pretty quickly when I decide to mentally sabotage myself, which is exactly what I did this morning. What's good about it is that I pushed through and finished the workout, which became a bit easier once I cranked up my headphones and could no longer hear the extent of my own suffering.
However, the suffering I had just endured was pretty evident post-workout.
The suffering is that dark purple color on my shirt.
After thinking about my mental sabotage this morning, I began to think about other ways I I like to sabotage a run or a race, sometimes even before it begins. Here are some of my more common tactics:
1) Heat. If I check the weather and see if the temps for the race will be unusually warm, my race is pretty much done at that point. This is because I am a moron. If I don't check the weather and just deal with the temps as they come, I am much better off (Example: my recent Chicago marathon performance).
2) Bike envy. Obviously, this applies to when I get my duathlon on. As soon as I am in the bike transition area I start looking at all the other, newer, more awesome bikes in there...and then I start thinking they are all faster than my bike so I should just take my crappy little bike and go home. But I never do because I know the hubbs will mock me if I do that and the animals will shoot me looks of disdain for the rest of the day.
3) Assuming every person at a race is faster than me. I do this without realizing it at almost every race, and I can't seem to break this habit. It really gets me down at the start of a race; the good thing is this quickly dissipates once the race starts because then I actually get to pass some of these people.
4) Cold. This is the exact opposite of #1, in case you didn't know. I become convinced that really low temperatures will cause me to suck and tank a run or a race. Well, at least tank it before I freeze to death on the course.
5) Judgmental cats. They never believe in you. They only want you to fail. And then feed them.
All I have to say is that it's a good thing I have some antidotes for my mental sabotage techniques. And some of you might feel that it's a good thing that this post is over now.
Stop--Learning time:
I love speed work. Really, I do.
I also love it when I suck it up, buttercup, and get the workout done.
What can I say-mentally, I'm a mess when it comes to running sometimes. But I always get out there and see what I'm made of, even if what I'm mostly made of is "wimp."
I kept falling asleep during this post because work has been wringing all the energy right out of me.
The cat does not accept my "falling asleep" excuse. Ever. Because cats are jerks.
Tomorrow's workout: Some weight-lifting goodness with Cathe's PHA workout. Hopefully no mental breakdowns while doing the workout.
I have to say that keeping this blog has kept me accountable for getting off my sweet patootie after having my morning coffee and doing my workouts. Is it sad that every morning this is the conversation that happens in my head while that patootie is planted on the couch?
Me: "I don't want to work out. I want to go back to sleep." Also Me: "If you don't work out, you'll have nothing to write about later on the blog." Still Me: "Yeah....." Me Me Me: "Plus it gives you a more legit reason to take dumb pictures." Finally Me: "Alrighty, I'm getting dressed for the run now."
After having the above conversation with myself, I took the dog out for our Friday tempo run-6 miles, 4 at what the RLRF plan called "moderate tempo pace." Do you think I kept it moderate?
Moderate. Pfffffft
That would be a big fat nope. I was supposed to run at an 8:48 pace. I know the math involved in running is super complicated, but I figured out that I was kind of way off that pace. I also figured out that my running these tempos too fast is probably going to end with some overtraining or getting injured...so I looked up some information about tempo runs from the Strength Running site. Here's what stood out to me from that article:
"More scientifically inclined runners know that tempo workouts are run at or near your lactate threshold. This is the pace at which you’re producing the maximum amount of lactate that your body can clear from your muscles and blood stream.
In other words, tempo runs are done at lactate threshold which is the fastest you can still run aerobically.
If you run any faster, you won’t be able to clear that lactate and you’ll be running beyond your threshold. You’ll then experience the familiar burning sensation of acidic muscles and fatigue that is felt at the end of a short, hard race.
The goal then is to straddle the lactate threshold and not run any faster."
Ha! Screwed that up, didn't I. The large dog didn't seem to mind the faster pace this morning, though. He had his run derp on this morning for sure.
Run derp.
Run derp continued.
His "pull Mom into the ditch" game was also strong. And the cause of that last slower tempo mile.
Oh were you running? This ditch is more important right now.
And I forgot to take a picture of large dog and I running together, so I had to draw a picture.
I like this picture because it makes me look really skinny. Large dog, however, looks like a deformed kangaroo forced to walk on all fours.
So, in sum, I got the run done but did it too fast. Now, what have we learned from today's post?
I'm really tired writing this right now, so this post kind of sucks. But whatever. It's making me do my workouts so I guess it only slightly sucks.
Speaking of sucks, now you know why I never got that art degree.
The derp never ends with the large dog on the run. Which is why his tongue is out in the drawing.
That's the dog's TAIL, not a turd. FYI.
And to make a mockery of my run, the hubbs sent me a pic of what the cat was doing while we were our running our patooties off:
Cats are jerks.
Tomorrow's workout: I'm going to ride my bike I SWEARS. And some weights.
