My recovery run-down and what's next

So I've been recovering this week because my Runner's World app said that I had to until Saturday. Well, I call it "recovery;" the app calls it "cross-training."

Although I don't know why it didn't check off my cross-training for today.  The app must have figured out my little trick of selecting "Other" as a workout to get it to register as cross-training in the app and changed the rules on me behind my back.  The jerk.

But don't just take my jerky app's word for it that I did all sorts of cross training this week - also check out these stupid pictures:

ZOMG how did I get on my spin bike?!?

This was the last time I could lift my arm that far above my head
because BOOT CAMP

Just causally biking to nowhere.

I only have a few things to say about my cross-training this week:

• Hubbs is very tolerant of my picture-taking requests....and tolerant of the fact that he has to walk around me and my bike in front of the TV whilst getting ready in the morning.
• I haven't done that Cathe Boot Camp workout in around 2 months and my thighs are now sore to the touch.
• The animals have NO IDEA what to do after I move the bike into the living room, which generates reactions from slightly frightened indifference to "I better be ready to flee if that thing comes at me" from the cats.

Fascinated...but can't be bothered.

Ready to OMG FLEE FOR YOUR LIFE

So, after this week of pseudo-recovery and sore thighs, what's next? Well, I plan on using that Runner's World app to train for the Twin Cities Marathon in October.  Along the way, I plan on doing some duathlons because, as every marathoner knows, duathlons are a vital part of marathon training (not really).

The cool part of the Runner's World app is that you can designate which race is your goal race and then it will automagically give you little mini-tapers to all of your other races too.  Or, at least that's what the instructions say.  We'll see, won't we?  We will also see if I hit that projected finish time of 4:14, which would definitely be a PR for me on that course.  Here's some other things I'm going to do in addition to what's in the training plan:

On the weekends, do my runs early in the morning.  I tend to fart around on the weekends doing things like "cleaning" and "working" and that type of farting needs to stop.  

Hill repeats will be done - on the bike and whilst running.  That MuncieMan Half duathlon is on the same hilly course as my most recent duathlon - and the key to success is hill training.  Which is also known as "masochism."

Do all the workouts.  I did pretty well with this during my last training cycle; this is just a reminder.

Lose 10 more pounds.  Get lighter, get faster.  The most healthy reason to lose weight, right?  (no)

Remember where I've been - and remember that at 43 years old I'm doing OK health, fitness, and body size-wise.

28 vs. 43.  I think I'm doing fine.

And also remember that it's time for the dumb learnings now:

• I have high hopes for the Runner's World app.  High hopes that I also hope won't be crushed by a crappy marathon performance.
• I also have high hopes for losing those 10 pounds.
• I hope my thighs stop being sore soon and I can touch them without wincing.
• I hope everyone realizes now after looking at that wedding picture that hubbs hasn't always looked like Santa.
• "Fascinated but can't be bothered" is my new motto.

Tomorrow's workout: A workout DVD of some kind...I'm still up in the air as to which one.  The suspense is killing you, I can tell.

Day 3, Week 3: Mile FREAKING repeats, wireless headphones are awesome, and recovery is important.

You know how I told you before that I HATE tempo runs?  Well, I feel the exact opposite about speed work on the treadmill:

I love it.  LOVE it.  I could do it all day.  Or at least until I collapse.

I think it's because during speed work they throw in rest intervals between running short distances at warp speed, so there's always something to look forward to during the run.  Rest intervals also allow you to delude yourself into thinking you can actually do another repeat and not have your husband come and ask you if he needs to call an ambulance because you're all red-faced and breathing as if one of your lungs just burst in your chest.  Those rest intervals, luckily, cause those crazy breathing noises to subside and then you're all good for another round of short distance running torture.  In any case, I love the challenge speed work brings in short but heavy-breathing red-faced doable bursts.

Except for this morning's workout.  This morning's workout was.....mile repeats.

Yeah.  Like down to ZERO.  But the training schedule said I had to do three of them at an 8 min/mile pace, so who am I to argue?

The key to getting through any tough workout like this is all about reframing it in your mind so it seems achievable.  Some people like to think of mile repeats as just 2 half-mile repeats back to back, or four quarter mile repeats.  Some people focus on the time it takes to complete a repeat, as in "It will only take me 8 minutes to run this mile!  I'll be done in no time flat!"  My strategy is to think this during a mile repeat to help me embrace the suck:

• First 3/4 of the mile: You got this.  It's just a 1200m with one more loop on the end.  You are awesome.  You are a gazelle gliding across the savannah.  You are running nirvana.
• Last 1/4 of the mile: I WILL NEVER MAKE IT I'M GOING BACK TO BED

Repeat each of the above 2 more times with a 400m walk between each where you try not to scamper off the treadmill and back into bed.

I did manage to complete the workout, and rewarded myself with my recovery drink of choice with some side-eye from the large dog.

Remember kids, recovery is important.  But you know what else is important?  Running tunes.

I always run with music; in fact, I can't get through tough speed workouts or tempos without some tunes to motivate me and my feet.  I recently purchased the headphones you see pictured above, a pair of Sony MDR-XB80BS wireless headphones, when the same pictured large dog ate my Sony MDR-XB50BS wireless headphones.  I don't know about you, but I always use dogs eating headphones as an excuse for an upgrade.

So, what's so special about these headphones?  Let me count the ways:

• Excellent sound, and it has some extra bass going on as well.  You can't adjust the bass like some fancier headphones, but who cares?  When I do speed work it helps drown out the sounds of my labored breathing so I can be in denial about how fast I'm actually running.  While these aren't for audiophiles, if you just want nice-sounding music, these are the headphones for you.
• Magical noise canceling properties.  When I'm on an overnight relay and need to sleep upright in the captain's chair of a van, these are my go-to headphones.  I slap these suckers in my ears, turn on my white noise app, and I can sleep through all sorts of loud screaming runners and van doors slamming.
• Easy setup.  If you can't hook up a bluetooth device to your headphone by now....why not???  It's so easy these days.
• No connection weirdness.  I used to have a pair of wireless headphones that would sound like a skipping CD because the connection between the phone and the headset kept getting dropped.  Not with these-it has never happened in the month I've owned them.

My only complaint is that the volume/track changing buttons are hard for me to use while running.  They're located on the back of the right earbud:

Seems like it would be a piece of cake to use those buttons, right?  Not for me.  Every time I try and skip ahead or back tracks, I inevitably yank the right one out of my ear, causing me to do a weird run/hunch to the right side trying to get it back in.  But I think that's more an issue of my uncoordinated and ginormous fingers than a defect in design of the earbud.

So what have we learned from this blog post?

• Mile repeats suck.
• But mile repeats are doable and so good for you.
• Always recover from speed work with nutrition of your choice (even a bad choice)
• Wireless headphones are awesome
• Specifically, MY wireless headphones are awesome.

Tomorrow's workout: A bike ride if it's not foggy.  And maybe some weights.  

Eating to be healthy? Pffffft.

This week I resumed working out.  Not full-bore training, but some easier workouts to build up into more of a training-esque schedule next week so I can start preparing for Ragnar Chicago.

Our 2012 Ragnar team--my first Ragnar ever.

I have to tell you it is totally weird not having a schedule on a piece of paper be the boss of me; after 16 weeks of being told what to do by an 8 x 11 piece of dead tree with some ink on it, I was cast adrift this week, having to actually decide for myself what workout to do.  Being made to think so much at 4 AM when I get up kind of sucks.

Anyway, I ran on Tuesday and Wednesday because the weather at 5 AM was fanFREAKINGtastic.  No wind, upper 40s/50s, and sunny because the sun is actually coming up at this time (or starting to, anyway).

These are the runs for which I have been waiting.  The runs that I daydreamed about during 20 miles in the cold wind and snow in February where I ran in 4 layers of clothing.  The runs that should have come when spring well...you know...was supposed to come.  Not that I'm bitter or anything.

I haven't been focusing on my pace at all this week and just running by what feels good.  Apparently what feels good is around a 9 minute mile, which is pretty awesome methinks after running a first marathon.  And what's weird is that these small bursts (4 or 5 miles) of faster running actually made my piriformis issues disappear this week.  However, my Achilles twanging as I go up and down steps is back with a vengeance.  I found a sore spot on my soleus that I massaged and foam rolled the snot out of this week, and it seems to be getting better.  All I know is that every time my Achilles twangs its way up the steps I want to cringe because the feeling is SO DAMN STRANGE and you never want to feel it EVER AGAIN.

Because of that strangeness, I rode the bike this morning for 10 miles. Since it was gorgeous weather again I took it outside, leaving the bike in a much higher gear than I normally do by accident (I forgot to crank it back down at the end of my last ride).  I didn't notice it until the 5th mile, and, by that time, I just decided to leave it alone and see what happened.  I think my quads may have gotten a tad bit stronger out of all that high-mileage running that is marathon training, which is good to know.

The goal for the next few weeks is to not tear the hell out of any more of my body parts so I can actually run a Ragnar without some injury nagging me.  Well, that's my exercise goal.  My eating goal is to be down at least 4 pounds by Ragnar Chicago, which is on June 7th-8th this year.  This morning's weigh-in wasn't in line with that goal:

Plywood = My house is being remodeled.  Still.  After 7 years.

But it was only 0.2 lbs gained.  That was probably higher because:

a) I went to bed at 10:00 PM instead of 7:30.  It has been bandied about that lack of sleep causes weight gain, and that may be more true of the long term than one night.  However, thinking back to when I used to weigh myself regularly in the past, after a night of shortened sleep I always came in at a slightly higher poundage.  So I'm not really worried about this.

b) It's a normal fluctuation for some other silly reason.

I know it wasn't because of my eating over the past few days, because I have really been sticking to the ol' eating manifesto.  This may all be in my head, but I have been feeling pretty good these last few days--better than I did when eating crap.  If eating like this is what's putting more pep in my workouts, then I think I have the motivation I need to keep going.  

Because who cares about that whole "eating real food because it makes you healthy" crap anyway, huh?

Losing weight for all the wrong reasons.

I got a new job recently.  My interview, thankfully, did not go anything like this:

I am hoping that in my new position I will have time to do more running and training, mainly because I will have only one job rather than 3 bazillion jobs masquerading as one.  There is also a sweet indoor track at the school in which I now work, which will come in mighty handy come wintertime.

But the new job doesn't start until July 1st, and my next race is on June 7th--Ragnar Chicago.  I have gained some poundage during marathon training, some poundage I need to take off so I can be faster (way to lose weight for all the wrong reasons!).  I have about a month, and I know if I start eating correctly again, I can look like this:

The picture above was taken in 2010.  I look very....flat.  In lots of ways.  Below is a picture of me crossing the finish line at my marathon Sunday:

I've gotten pretty thick around the middle.  Not so 2-dimensional anymore.  Time to get serious and shed the thickness. (Whatever that means.)

It's also time to reverse taper back up to my old levels of training.  I did my first run this morning after my marathon (3 miles), and it's amazing how you think your legs are fine but really they are just cowering in silence, waiting for you to run so they can scream in agony.  Alright, so it wasn't that bad, but Lord that run wasn't good.  It just reminded me that my body will need way more than a week to recover (unlike a half marathon), so I had better take it easy with the runs I do this week and next.

Next up for tomorrow, however, is a return of one of my favorite activities--weight lifting.  Cathe, bring on the pain.