Yesterday's Long Run: A List of Eventful Events.

I found a picture of me from 1994-ish yesterday, which would have placed me solidly in my college years and around 19-ish years old:

Zomg that shirt.  And shorts.  Oh the 90s.

As you can see from this pic of me at the end of yesterday's run, I still have the same taste for obnoxious multi-colored prints:

Note obnoxious print on shorts and shoes please.

It's good to know that my taste in clothes hasn't changed that much in over 20 years...but my desire to actually get off my arse and exercise has.  Well, now that I'm in my 40s I pretty much have no choice but to get up and do something lest I turn into a junk-food eating blob.  And get up and do something I did yesterday, with that something being a 19-mile run.  My long runs usually have something eventful happen, and yesterday's was no exception.  Let me do a quick list of those events for you, because lists are what I live for these days:

Event #1: I was exhausted even before I began.  OK, not really an event, but this past week was a nutty week for me at work, getting there super early and leaving super late each day (the school year is ramping back up for us educators).  I went home on Friday and feel asleep at 7 PM, not waking up until 5 AM the next morning when a dog slapped me in the face as a proof of life check. ("Is she still alive?  Someone slap the woman; we have to go outside!") And even after I woke up I was still exhausted...so that meant I dawdled around the house a lot before finally getting ready for the run.  This also meant I left a lot later than I should have, meaning I would be ending the run in hotter weather.  The things I do to sabotage my own runs, I tell you.

Event #2: Dodging cyclists at every turn.  Now, please remember that I love cycling.  I really, really do.  But it seemed like I kept running into every group ride being had in the area yesterday.  Some groups were awesome, letting large dog and I pass, but other cycling herds just plowed on through, causing Simon and I to head into the ditch for our own safety.  One time a group came over a blind hill and I seriously thought we were going to be bicycling roadkill.  At least I can't say the run was boring.

Event #3: Mother Nature calling me incessantly.  So if you read this blog regularly you know that Mother Nature and I have a love/hate relationship during runs.  Specifically, she loves to call me at inconvenient times during the run and I hate to answer...but I have to.  Yesterday was no different, and I had to duck into an abandoned field as well as find a nice spot in some really tall grass on the edge of a cornfield to take the calls.  I really have to review my eating plan to see if I can permanently block her calls during runs.

Me staring down Mother Nature.  And losing.

Event #4: Mother Nature made a fool out of me. As I was entering the early double-digits of my miles, I kept noticing that the hordes of cyclists passing me from behind kept chuckling as they went by.  I shrugged it off, because I was really more focused on getting the run done through the heat of the day that had started to set in.  As I was chugging down a welcome long downhill in the middle of mile 15, I felt something chafing me along let left side of my back.  When I reached back to re-adjust my clothing and see what was chafing me, I felt something sticking out of the back of my shorts (!).  I stopped to take a look, and realized I had streams of long grass hanging out the back of my shorts, with the ends inside chafing me like a sunofayouknowwhat.  I must have accidentally snagged them while I was answering Mother Nature on the edge of that cornfield, therefore enabling all of those cyclists to have a good laugh this morning at my grassy tail as they rode by.  Glad I could add a little comic relief to their rides (but not glad about the chafing that I gave to myself - OUCH).

Event #5: Body parts making strange noises.  From mile 11 on I kept hearing a weird suction-y type noise, and I kept thinking someone was coming up behind me.  That is, until I realized the noise was coming from the inside of my sports bra now that it was soaked in sweat and could hold no more (sweat, that is).  That bra got retired to the trash can after this run--FYI.

Event #6: Holy hilly hills.  As per usual, I ran lots of hilly hills for 19 miles. The only thing that gets me through this kind of torture is the fact that I do loops around my house, with a lot of looped out-and-backs of 3 miles or so...and instead of thinking about miles left I think about loops left, which is usually a much lower number that my brain can deal with without sobbing uncontrollably on the inside.

Event #7: Running 19 miles faster than the pace indicated on the training plan.  At some point during hot runs my subsconscious wants the suffering to be done so it makes me run faster...I finished a full 10 seconds faster per mile than I should have.  Whoops.

After dealing with the hills and the grass in my shorts and Mother Nature for 19 hot miles (the first nine with large dog), one good decision I made was to leave a cold bottle of water in the shade that is my mailbox.  Chugging that thing at the end of the run was like drinking unicorn tears.  One other bad decision I made was sitting in a deck chair while I took the dogs out afterwards...it took a while to figure out how to get out of that chair after the run I just had. 

But you'll be glad to know I did make it inside and to the ice bath, where I got judgy looks from cats the whole time, making for the perfect end to a long run.  Not really.

Hyooman you IDIOT sitting in ICE *judgeraysfromeyes*

Speaking of ending, this post is over now.  Check out the upcoming workouts below.

Upcoming workouts: Today--lifting heavy things.  Tomorrow - only 10 miles of speed work.  Only.

Stop and smell the sunrise.

Large dog and I had an easy 7 miler this morning — it was easy like a Wednesday morning.

It was such a good run we had to stop and smell the sunrise in the last half mile. Temps were fantastic, no dogs tried to attack us, and I got to wear my dinosaur shorts. These are the runs that remind me why I love running so much. 

And Botch loves to hang out with me while I’m in the ice bath. The weirdo.

Tomorrow’s workout: 10.5 miles of threshold work BUH 🙄

I ran today, and it felt good.

Well, it felt good until about the 5th mile.  Then I started to notice that my foot was still broken.  But only a little bit.

I wasn't stupid enough to think I could do the long run that was scheduled for today (18 miles), so I settled on 6 miles as a nice compromise.  And 6 slow miles.  But the top of my foot was still all sore whenever it got into a shoe, so I did a bit of Googling and decided to lace up the old shoes like this:

I wanted to avoid putting the laces over the part of my foot that hurt.  I also chose a shoe that is a stability shoe rather then my normal neutral shoes. And away to the treadmill I went.

Like I said, I didn't feel it until the 5th mile, where it started to become a bit more noticeable.  All those days off from running this week were probably a good thing.  But afterwards, I made sure to do this:

That water, for the record, was *BLEEP*ing cold.  And my foot was noticeably more sore afterwards, and I can't really lift my big toe very well.  It's amazing how much you don't realize how much you actually do that while running.

I also broke down and took some ibuprofen after the icing extravaganza, and it's feeling pretty good right now.  I wish I could find the naproxen I was prescribed once for a neuroma--if I do, I'll be popping those babies for sure.

I think I will follow my training schedule and do cross training for the next two days, and see about picking up some speed work on the treadmill starting on Tuesday.  Maybe some biking, maybe some weights...but for sure taking it easy on this foot.  I want to be ready for my first 22 miler a week from today.

Random Fitness Ramblings

The past few weeks have been full of fantastical fitness happenings in my life.  Well, not really, but I have thought a lot about stuff that's important to me regarding fitness, recovery, and working out lately.  So, if you choose to read further, you will now be subjected to some random fitness ramblings about topics that probably only interest me.  And maybe you.  But you'll never know unless you read it, right?

Rambling #1: Compression Stuff

When I do my training runs, I have this tendency to run all my speed work too fast.  I'm talking "so fast that I got seriously injured and thoughts of stress fractures were prancing around in my frontal lobes at all times and giving me more wrinkles" fast.  In my injured state, I read a lot about what other runners were saying helped them not become injured during training (besides stop running my speed work so moronically overfast).  One of those things was compression socks/sleeves/garments.  So, having a habit of plunking down tons of cash for stuff simply because it's for running, I bought some compression socks and sleeves from various companies (CEP, PRO Compression, and SL3S) and have been wearing them during training and for running races. I have even purchased recovery socks, and--believe it or not--wear them after a race or hard workout to recover.  Below are some images of how sexy they are and remind me of when I was a kid in the 80s and we all wore our socks that high and we were the COOLEST:

Grey shorts = I look like I didn't quite make it to the bathroom during my run.  SL3S compression socks.

Recovery socks.  They feel awesome.

CEP compression socks for my first run in Ragnar.  I'm not a huge fan of these.

Half-marathoning-it in my PRO Compression socks.  I dig these.  

To put all these socks to the test, I performed a series of highly scientific experiments.  For the socks designed for running, I ran in them.  For the socks designed for recovery, I recovered in them.  From those little experiments, I used a rigorous data collection method known as "asking myself a question and then answering it."  The question asked was, "Do I hurt less during and after I use these expensive things--Yes or No?" After careful systemic analysis of the data, I have come to the conclusion that the CEP socks I have are the ones I like the least.  I experience the most pain during and after my workouts in them (maybe I need to go down a size, even though I measured my calf circumference just before buying them?).  My favorites so far are the SL3S calf sleeves and the PRO Compression socks, because I experience the least pain during and after running.  The only negative about them is that these companies need to start making them in purple or navy blue, because those are my two favorite colors in the entire universe. (Can you tell from the pics?)  The recovery socks I do like as well--I sleep in them and my legs wake up feeling all bouncy and ready for the day.  I feel it important to note at this point that the shin splints that plagued me after my last half marathon have pretty much disappeared since I have been recovering/training in these socks.  But that could also have been a result of....

Rambling #2: Ice baths.

 As I have already mentioned, I had the shin splints from hell.  This was right before I was supposed to run  Ragnar Chicago, which I thought might be a tad unpleasant with shin splints.  After coming back from an easy run with my shins screaming, I elected to try ice immersion for my shins.

This was my response face to my husband's incredulous "why is my wife sticking her leg in a bucket of ice" look.  Yeah, I can throw down the looks, yo.

Now, some say that you shouldn't do this, because you're basically stopping the recovery process, and it is from this process that you make gains in strength, speed and endurance.  Others say you should do this to aid in recovery and to help your legs feel fantastic the next day.  Because I wanted to see for myself if this whole icing thing was worth it, I again resorted to my science teacher training and designed an experiment to see if plunging body parts in ice would help them feel better the next day (as well as my nagging, annoying ankle injury that made it feel like someone was pulling up a sock that was on the inside of my skin).  Here's a run down of my experiment and my results:

Step #1: Run.  Then stop running at some point.
Step #2: Immerse body parts in ice for 10-15 minutes or however long I could stand it before I wimped out.
Step #3: Go to work and earn money for more running stuff.
Step #4: Come home and go to sleep.  Dream about buying running stuff.
Step #5: Determine how body parts plunged in ice felt the next day upon rising and stumbling down the steps half-asleep and not stepping on any sleeping dogs.
Step #6: Repeat Steps #1-5 for 3 months.

Results:  Said body parts that were immersed feel better--MUCH better.  Shin splints have not been felt for at least 4 weeks, but this could also be a result of a vacation in Alabama where the researcher's mother makes excellent Southern food that may have special healing properties.  Further experiments are warranted that involve eating copious amounts of this food.

So, according to my research, ice = body parts feel better.  As a matter of fact, I have moved up to taking full-on ice baths after running (see picture below).

Just chillin.  Dig the homemade ice cubes?

However, icing will not prevent you from doing stupid things while training, like running your speed work too fast.

Rambling #3: Cathe Friedrich never fails to make me think I'm going to die.

Cathe Friedrich is my favorite DVD-trainer-person ever.  I will gladly arm wrestle anyone who wants to argue with me on this, especially since Cathe has done quite the nice job of helping me get some upper-body strength and definition through the remnants of my former fatness.  I did two of her workouts this week that were new to me, To the Max and Pyramid Upper Body.  The former is a step workout like no other--no complicated choreography, just simple HiiT moves that will leave you a sweaty, drenched mess and needing a towel to wipe the sweat off of anything in your exercise space because it will be drenched in sweat, too.  The latter is a pure weight-lifting workout that uses simple moves but pyramids what weight you use to do them.  How effective is this workout?  Well, let me tell you all of the things I am had a hard time doing today as a result of doing that workout yesterday:

• Washing my back in the shower
• Making right turns while driving the car
• Making left turns while driving the car
• Opening the front door 
• Closing the front door
• Doing anything involving lifting my arms above the level of my shoulders
• Doing anything that involved moving my arms medially or laterally

I think I had been hitting a plateau with my weight-work (I believe it makes you a stronger runner who can endure to the end when form starts to crumble), and this workout was what my muscles needed to wake 'em up again.  Plus, I love Cathe because she doesn't just make the same old DVD with a new name on the cover. And she's not afraid to lift heavy or make workouts that make me think I will drop dead after it's over.  And she doesn't scream at you, she motivates you.  I love that woman.

Well, I appreciate it if you've made it all the way through this rambling post about ramblings. If you have any ramblings of your own that pertain to fitness or any of the contents of this post, feel free to share.  Or not.  This is a no-pressure kind of blog.