Day 2, Week 1: Boot Camp, Barbells, and Ab Creases

It's officially back to the weight-lifting grind this week, and I did my first non-recovery weight workout in about two weeks at 4 AM this morning.  Why 4 AM?

• Because on Thursdays I have to be at work super early every week
• The animals like to wake me up at 3:30 AM, so I was up anyway
• Because why the heck not?

I wanted to ease back into my weight-lifting groove, so naturally I selected the workout from Cathe's Strong & Sweaty series titled "BOOT CAMP" because boot camps are known for their relative ease, amiright?

The reason I like this series is that the workouts are on the shorter side for Cathe, but man do they pack a punch.  This workout doesn't use as much equipment as her other workouts, but you don't need fancy schamncy workout stuff to be suffering and sweaty after 45 minutes or so.

I know what you're thinking - WTF WOMAN, you need a BARBELL?  Well...yeah.  But you can use dumbbells if you want.  Don't get all crazy on me.  But I prefer the barbell, so I asked for one for Christmas one year and Santa lugged that heavy box under the tree for me.  I also didn't have a step for many, many years even though I had workouts that required one, so don't let that stop you from doing this workout either.

This workout has a lot of variety.  She does six "rounds" of exercises, with each round consisting of a cardio burst using the step, a lower body exercise, a compound exercise, and an upper body exercise.  She hits all of the major muscle groups (no abs, though-scroll down to see what I think of the ab workout on the same disc) and wastes no time.

So how did the workout go?  Let me tell you in a picture:

Even the dogs were like, WIMP. PICK IT UP.  And no, I didn't really work out in sandals.  Relax.

I could totally tell that I hadn't done anything like this in a while.  The cardio left me wheezing, and I was struggling on some of the upper body exercises.  But I soldiered on, because I like to have enough muscle definition to discourage any would-be attackers that may pop out of the corn on my runs and get me.  And I also must love not being able to walk later in the day, because this workout is just that glute-tastic.

Anyway, after wheezing my way through the actual workout, I did the ab workout that was on the DVD.  And then I died.

Just kidding.  But man, this ab workout is not for the faint of heart.  I felt as if I had a permanent crease in my mid-section after it was all over.  Just know this: the soul of this workout is every evil muscle-trembling move ever used in pilates.  And then she throws some planks on just for fun.  Consider yourself warned.

So, if my glutes ever unclench and the crease goes away in my abs, I will be doing a 7 mile tempo run tomorrow at around a 9 minute pace.  I plan on attaching a dog to me so he can pull me along, which, in my book, still counts as "doing a tempo."

Day 1, Week 1: A deceptive descending ladder, some dogs, and hatred of water-bottle carrying

So technically I was supposed to do my first run of the training plan last night.  But then this happened.

So I got up this morning and did my descending ladder, which consisted of one each of these fun metered intervals: 1200, 1000, 800, 600, and 400.  Seems like it would be easy, right?  The distances get shorter and shorter.  But NOPE that's not the way the Run Less, Run Faster plan works.  In case you didn't know, this plan has you do three key runs a week: one speed/track workout, one tempo run, and one long run.  Using a recent 5K time as your guide, you determine what your speeds are for your tempo runs as well as all of your track workout distances.  This means that for each one of the distances I ran that are listed above, I had to keep upping the speed for each one.

It's enough to make a girl go crazy.  And her cat to eat dog food.

But I got the run done on my trusty treadmill this morning.  My next run is up on Friday, a 7 mile tempo.  I have every intention of doing it until I find an excuse Friday morning not to do it.  We'll see. One thing I have to motivate me is some NEW GEAR:

I've had the FlipBelt for a while and absolutely love it.  I just got the water bottles for it, because who the heck likes to carry a water bottle while running?  Not this girl.  While the bottles themselves are not huge (about 300 mL; I bought a set of 2 for around $20), they're also not me carrying a heavy sloshing water bottle in my hand mentally repeating "I HATE WATER BOTTLES WHERE IS MY HYDRATION BACKPACK OH WHO KNOWS" over and over again during a run. Tune in on Friday for my review of how well they worked on that tempo run.

And tune in tomorrow for a review of my first real weight workout in 2 weeks.  I'm pretty sure there will be lots of soreness and graphic pictures of my barbell.

Enough with the duathlons--it's MARATHON TRAINING TIME PEOPLE

Because it's never too early to start training for another race even thought I just did one on Saturday, it's time to start training for my next marathon-the BMW Dallas Marathon in December.

Here I am last year in Dallas clearly enjoying crossing the finish line.  And it is also clear that I picked out my clothes in the dark while blindfolded.

Last year I just ran this race to see Dallas from a runner's-eye view and check out the course.  I also ran it 15 pounds heavier, and struggled from mile 19 onward on what is a relatively flat course.  This year, however, I'm racing it.  The goal?  To run a 4:05 marathon.  My current PR is a 4:09:50, so I think shaving off 5 minutes is a decent goal.  So, how am I going to get there?  By:

• following the Run Less, Run Faster Marathon Training Plan.  Running 3 days a week is my jam, ya'll.
• biking on the cross-training days.  Since winter will be coming, I see a lot of indoor rides at the Y in my future.
• continue my weight lifting 3 days a week-upper body one day and total body on two days.
• try and lose about 5 more pounds by eating a ton of real food to get to my racing weight.

I am also determined to be consistent in my training.  Sometimes I have a nasty habit of skipping those tedious tempo runs, only to start sobbing in the back 10K of a marathon wishing I had just sucked it up and done those damn runs.  (It is a sad thing, methinks, that I am more motivated to run a 15+ mile run than I am a 6-mile tempo run.  Very, very sad.)  To help me be accountable to myself, I'm going to log my workouts every day.  This might mean a full-on post about a workout, or it could mean a lazy "here's a quick pic from the workout and that's all you get folks" post.  

Either way, it's a post a day until December 10th, people, so sit back and enjoy the ride and all of the ugly running pictures I'm going to post along the way.  

Sometimes long runs suck. But you learn a lot.

Yesterday I ran a 22 mile long run.  It's the first true long run I have done in 2 weeks, having done a Ragnar two weekends ago and a duathlon last weekend.

My quads are telling me loud and clear today that they are NOT HAPPY.  Not happy at all.  But I'm sure they'll get over it in 2-3 days.

I actually got up early for that run and got my butt out to my favorite long-run trail (the Long Prairie Trail) by 8 A.M.  The day before had been in the upper 90s temperature-wise, and yesterday was much cooler--it was around 70 degrees when I started, and the sky was cloudy, blocking out any additional heat from the sun.  Even if there had been sun, this trail has tons of shade along the way.  In fact, the first 6 miles or so is all under a big tree canopy that looks like this:

I started off the run heading to the east, planning on going 11 miles out to the trail head in Capron and then coming back.  Those first 11 miles were pretty awesome-there was a slight breeze cooling me off, and the majority of the run was slightly downhill.  As I neared the trail head, I did have to get creative when I encountered some downed trees on the trail from the thunderstorms we had the day before:

Had to use my obstacle course skills to get around this one.

Right after this I encountered some cyclists that had passed me about three times already on the trail.  They stopped and asked me how many miles I was doing, and when I told them 22, I thought they were both going to fall off their bikes.  They wished me luck, and then cycled away from me as fast as possible.  I don't blame, them, really--when I stopped to talk to them I got a good whiff of my stinky running self at that point. I would have run away from myself if it were possible within the known laws of our universe.

Eventually I made it to the trail head, and I was feeling pretty awesome.  Legs were feeling good, and I felt like I could run forever.  I felt even awesomer when I realized I would be able to use a real bathroom located there rather than have to duck and cover in the woods along the trail for once.

Better than going in the woods.

I realized at this point that I was about half a mile shy of 11 miles, but decided to make it up by running past my car a bit when I got to the end of my run.  I started back on the trail (scampering over the downed trees a second time), feeling good and excited to be at the halfway point.  Apparently I was so excited that my legs decided to speed up on me, and I started busting out some close to 10-minute miles (my goal pace for each mile was supposed to be around 10:30).

Yeah.  This became a problem in mile 14.  My increased speed plus the fact that it was getting hotter (and now the wind was at my back) really started to take a toll on me, and I was in full blown wall-hitting mental whining by mile 15.  So I made a deal with myself-make it to Poplar Grove (3 miles away) and I would stop and get some cold water at the small convenience store there.

Those were 3 miles of mental torture.  I tried to force myself to slow down, but my legs were having none of it.  But I didn't stop.  I made it to that convenience store and to some cold refreshing water (I do wear a Camelbak on my runs, but after 3 hours the water gets a tad warm).  I tried to make my stop as brief as possible, lingering only to refill my Camelbak. I took off from Poplar Grove, knowing that I "only" had 4 more miles until I got to my car.

And I thought the 3 miles to get to Poplar Grove were tough.  These last 4 miles were pure mental hell.

It was all I could do to keep moving.  This time I actually did slow down (finally), but my legs felt heavy.  I was hot.  A sharp pain had developed in my left side.  My Camelbak was heavy again with water.  The route this time was mostly uphill. My running skirt was soaked with sweat and felt like a lead apron around my waist.  Any minor annoyance that I normally would have brushed aside became magnified in my mind to a major crisis.

But I kept going.    And finally I saw my car.  Too bad that, when I got there, I still had half a mile to go before I reached the 22-mile mark.  So what did I do?  Run back and forth near my car until I did that half mile.  I could have turned around and gone back down the trail the way I came, but at that point I desperately NEEDED to be near my car.  Turning around and running away from it would have probably caused a mental implosion of epic proportions.  So, I endured weird looks from cyclists and finished up the run by scampering back and forth in the parking lot near my car.

When I was done, I just needed to walk for a bit.  After walking around the parking lot a few times while having my recovery shake, I stopped and stretched out a bit by my car.  As I worked out my calves (which were screaming, by the way), I noticed that my skirt was sweating, leaving drops on the ground.

It was my skirt, I swears.

If you think that picture is bad, you should have seen the ground after I wrung out a corner of my skirt.  Ugh.

Apparently I was so soaked that the hubbs insisted on taking a picture of my sweaty self after I returned home:

You can't see it but I am drenched.  Also, while I didn't think I was dressed too crazily for a long run, apparently some cyclists thought my outfit was pretty entertaining and were openly mocking me as I ran.  From their comments, it seems my colors were a tad too bright for them, and the calf sleeves were a little over the top.  People, people, people--can't we all just get along and wear what we want to wear while torturing ourselves with exercise?

Despite this run having sucked the big one for the last 8 miles, I think that these types of runs teach you a LOT.  They teach you that you really should eat more than a bowl of oatmeal before going on a 22-mile run.  They teach you that you should have parked AT the trail head so you could have a downhill run after you turn around into the cool gentle breeze rather than park further down the trail.  They teach you that you will wear whatever you damn well please on a run and let the cyclists in their monochrome black outfits be the ones who are committing an exercise fashion faux pas.  They teach you to put on more deodorant before you leave so you won't gross yourself out with your own stink.

But, more importantly, they teach you how to get tough and finish what you started.  No matter what happened out there on that trail, the important thing is that I got through the rough stuff and finished the run.

Running resistance. And more dogs chasing me.

Workout: 16 miles (2:55:58) and a lot of sitting around wondering if I should go run outside in the rain.

Let's get one thing clear: I did not want to run 16 miles today.  Nope nope nope.  My body was ready, but my mind was weak.

I farted around again before doing this run.  I was actually dressed and ready for this run at 6:30 A.M. today.  That's right-6:30.  And I didn't start running until about 2:30 this afternoon.

Believe me, I had about 3 hours to think about why this happened.

Mile 0:  In the house.  Waiting.

I spent many many hours dressed and looking out the window.  It was a rainy morning, and I knew that I should have just sucked it up and went out in the rain.  Today was an unseasonably cool day with the high temps topping the low 60s, and many times I got up to go outside but found some stupid excuse not to go.  One time, around noon, I even napped in my chair.  What the hell did I have to be tired about?!?  Sheesh.  Mentally I did not want to do this run.  But out the door I dragged myself in the late afternoon, with a plan to bag the run if I wasn't feeling it after 5 miles.

Mile 2: NOT INTO IT.

I decided to do a 3-mile out-and-back by my house first in case I wanted to call it quits earlier than 5 miles.  Yes, it was that bad.  When I was headed back toward the house, my quads were whining and I was whining and I was sweating and I was just not into it, baby.  Not at all.  I stopped to loosen the laces on my right shoe (no more tendinitis as a result of my own stupidity thankyouverymuch), and then kept going.  I decided I would make it back to the house and reevaluate.

Mile 3: Meh.  Not so bad after all.

I was feeling pretty groovy coming down the street by my house.  I think it's because I slowed down and went at a pace my legs liked, considering they had been abused by a 17.5 mile bike ride yesterday.  I stopped by the house to use the bathroom, because I always have to pee by mile 3 (I love that this rhymes for some reason).  After tricking my bladder and being happy that I wasn't peeing outside for once, I headed back out to finish the run.  I was feeling pretty good, too, until...

Mile 8: I don't want to do this anymore but I have no one to come and get me.

I was in capris and calf sleeves.  I was getting warm.  The sun was coming out.  I was sweating.  Basically, I was a whiny mess.  I kept reminding myself that I was halfway done, that I only had to go out another few miles before turning around to go home, and that my legs were not as tired as my brain was.  I kept on trucking.  I had to, because my husband was out of town and no one else was around to come and get me.

Mile 9.69: Liko.

I was heading down my last road, ready to hit mile 10 and turn around.  And then I met the massive mammal known as Liko.

I heard someone yelling off to my right, and then I saw a man running through the cornfield in front of his farm, frantically calling out "LIKO!" over and over again.  I couldn't see what he was chasing or what he was calling until I looked toward the driveway...and saw a black tail poking up above the tops of the now waist-high corn.

And then Liko appeared.  He is a St. Bernard/English Mastiff mix, with a nice brindle coat and a massive St. Bernard head that oozes white slobber.  And he was heading right for me, barking all the way.

This is not Liko.  But it sure is what he looked like.  Only with a brindle coat and more slobber.

I fumbled for my pepper spray.  The tiny little canister didn't look like it would be any match for the canine behemoth heading toward me, but I got it out anyway and prepared for the onslaught by standing perfectly and completely still. And trying not to soil my running capris.

Liko stopped when he got to me.  He barked at me.  And then began to sniff and slobber all over me (he was also part crotch-hound, apparently) with his massive head.  His owner caught up to us at that point, grabbing the dog and apologizing the entire time, insisting the dog was friendly.

Well, Liko didn't eat my arms off the minute he got to me, so I figured he wasn't that bad.  I put my hand out to pet him (as his owner was straddling him and sitting on him like a horse), and he gave it a big slobbery kiss.  After that he let me pet him, and he even tried to join me as I ran in the opposite direction.

At least next time he would know who I was.  Still won't stop me from being scared you-know-whatless as that big tail and head comes around the corner and bounding down the street.


Mile 10: *Bleepitybleep*

Thank God I only have a 10K left.  (Did I really think that?!?)  Now only to get up this hill and to the road that leads to home...oh hello parent of a child I had in class this last school year sitting on a tractor in your farm field, how are you?  Oh me?  Not doing anything, really, but trying to make it home so I can shower and get all this stink off me; and you?  What are you up to today?


Miles 11-15: I'm hungry.

I was hungry.  Hungry hungry hungry.  This was probably not the best run to limit my gel intake to try and get my body to use its fat as fuel.  I was tempted to sample the field corn.  Or at least gnaw on some leaves.  I would have gladly eaten some snow if it were winter.  It was close to dinner time.  I was hungry.  These miles were filled with multiple and slightly salacious thoughts of food.  At least it kept my mind off how tired I was.

Mile 16:  Finishing strong.  I think.

I played a very motivating-to-me song on my iPod on repeat for this mile because it was the only thing stopping me from sitting down.  This was my fastest mile (9:55) and my legs felt like lead.  After it was over I actually left myself a half-mile cushion to walk and cool down before reaching my house.  I like to do this after long runs because I think it helps with recovery.  And because I'm a total and complete wimp.


I think my resistance to this run has to do with my increasing boredom with my usual running routes.  Don't get me wrong; I run in some breathtaking countryside (especially when a skunk has been set off or has died in a ditch).  But I think it's time for some changes.  So, I have decided that, for each of my long runs, I'm going to go somewhere different to run.  A trail, a new town, or even over to where I now work to run the path through town.  Just SOMETHING different, something to look forward to, something to get my butt out the door and keep my mind occupied with the differentness.

A girl can only look at so many cornfields, you know.  Especially when she's hungry on the run.


photo credit: Tracy Lee via photopin cc

This running skirt thing is getting out of hand.

Workout: 4 miles at a comfy pace in the nice cool 50 degree temps of the early morning here in northern Illinois/almost Wisconsin.

This week I was supposed to start my marathon training plan.  In fact, I was fully intending on doing my 5 x 1000m workout on the training schedule this morning.  However, my legs had other ideas.  It seems my quads were a bit cranky with me after my 17.5 mile ride yesterday, and my shin splints are whining more than usual.  I still wanted to get a run in, so I decided instead just to do an easy 4-miler and enjoy the run.  And enjoy my new running skirt from runningskirts.com:

If you can't see, it's got all the running distances written on the skirt, from 5K on up to all of the distances I will only dream about doing.  I have to say this skirt was pretty awesome.  I bought what they call the "athletic skirt," which means it has compression shorts underneath.  Those shorts are comfortable and don't ride up during the run.  The seams are all on the outside of the shorts, so that means no chafing, ladies.  There are also two pockets on each side of the skirt that close in the center with velcro--pretty handy for iPods, gels, or small phones. (I couldn't imagine running with a big clunker of a phone in this pocket, though; it would quickly become a projectile and then become what they call "broken.")  While not cheap, you can tell they were designed with some foresight and with a runner's needs in mind.

This running skirt thing is getting out of hand.  They make me look like a girl or something.

Nevertheless, I will suck it up and wear it during my 11.6 mile night run this weekend at Ragnar Wasatch Back.  I have the cutest blue top, blue calf sleeves, and running shoes to go with it.  It's really too bad, then, that all people will be able to see of me at that time of night is my bobbing headlight and flashing butt-light.

But I digress into the realm of fashion; let's meander back into the realm of my marathon training plan.  Since this week is pretty much all thrown to hell, I decided tomorrow will be a much shorter ride on the bike with some light yoga afterwards, and then a rest day on Thursday while I'm traveling to Utah.

After Ragnar, however, will get decidedly trickier...I will have to recover for a few days and then resume some training.  I think I will do some easy runs and gear up for the long run that's on the schedule for the weekend (16 miles).  After that, I can resume training as usual.  I don't mind skipping the two speed sessions next week, simply because I will have 14 more weeks to enjoy them.  Oh the joys of marathon training!  At least I'll have a cute running skirt to do it in.