Just a boring little post today.

Workout:

45 minutes of weight work (total body) - Cathe's Total Body Trisets total body express workout
35 minutes of cycling (9 miles)

I have discovered that if I actually get to working out at 5 A.M. and stop farting around until 5:30, I can actually do two workouts in the morning rather than hurry through one lest I be late to work.  Time management is a wonderful thing.

My weight work today was deceptively easy.  I have done this workout a bazillion times before (approximately), and it never fails to turn my glutes into lumps of skeletal muscle soreness by the end of the day.  I usually don't notice the lumps of soreness that have developed on my ass until I try to get out of a chair some time in the afternoon.  Today I didn't notice the lumps until the car ride home, so maybe I'm getting better at this workout.

Being away from home this weekend, I found that I missed my bike.  Yesterday's elliptical session at the hotel just didn't give me my "I must be outside and see the sun rise and avoid critters attacking me" fix that the bike gives me.  I knew that I wouldn't be able to cycle very far today, but it was just what I needed to lift my spirits.  In fact, even some lady giving me the finger after almost backing into me couldn't dampen my joy at being outside on the bike.  Not even the huge mutant raccoon that sprinted out in the middle of the road on my way back to the house this morning that did not move an inch from its spot in the middle of the road as I sped by could dampen my mood.

And you know what made me even happier at the end of the day?  The fact that I get to do speed work tomorrow.  Sick, I know.

It's a ladder workout, and, after I put it into Garmin Connect, it looks a little something like this:

Click to embiggen the pink and purpley goodness!

My Garmin gets to boss me around tomorrow.  Super cool.  But ever superer cooler is the fact that I get to run them in my new bright yellow pair of Saucony Shadow Genesis(es?).

I'll be all aglow running my little ladder workout, prancing away in the darkness of 5 A.M.  That is, if I don't fart around until 5:30.

That was some hot heat out there this morning while my movement was in motion.

Workout: Intended 7.5 mile tempo, ended up with 4 miles of crap.

Have you ever asked a group of 15 year-olds to describe what "heat" is without having them use the word "hot?"  It's about the same amount of fun as having them describe what "motion" is without using the word "movement.

This morning, while running in the heat at 8 A.M. because I farted around again after getting up at 5 A.M., it was hard to describe the heat as anything but "hot."  Except for maybe "damn hot" or "hot as fire" or "hotter than my husband when he's asleep and pouring forth heat like a nuclear reactor or a supernova."

It was pretty hot.  And humid.  Yay Illinois!

I wanted to do a 7.5 mile tempo (5 at 10K pace), and I was keeping the pace to around 9 minutes per mile just so I could finish the entire run.  But the hot heat had other plans for me.  I had to stop just before mile 4 and start walking.  It was just too much.  It didn't help that I was running in a place with no shade, either.  If I wait to run that late again I am going to hit the shaded trail about 20 minutes away from my house rather than being an idiot and running in the summer sun here in almost Wisconsin.

Was I disappointed I couldn't make it?  Sure was.  But, to paraphrase a picture I saw on Facebook this morning, it's better to have a bad run than no run at all.   I decided I wouldn't freak out about it, and focus on the good things about the run.  There were two of them, the first being:

1) I am in love with my new Brooks Glycerin 11s.

I wore these shoes on all of my runs for Ragnar Wasatch Back this last weekend, and I wore them on my heat-hot sort-of tempo run this morning.  They seem lighter than the 10s, and they are more flexible.  And, this just may be my crazy brain's perception, but I feel like they are less "squooshy."  The 10s give you a smooth and soft ride, but the 11s seems to give you a good amount of cushion without feeling so soft.  Being the neutral-footed runner that I am, I don't really want a lot of cushion--I just want enough.  Enough is enough, you know?

The second good thing about the run was:

2) I thought my new running skirt totally sucked, but it doesn't.

(Please note the awesome running hair that I have when I wear a visor.  I have no running shame.)

I have reviewed this skirt before, but I only ran 4 miles in it.  When I wore it for my 11.6 mile night run at Wasatch Back, however, I ended up with a nice chafe on the inside of my left thigh.  You see, the shorts underneath the skirt have the seams on the OUTSIDE, not the inside, in order to prevent chafing.  But they failed to realize that runners such as myself would be running with one leg of the compression shorts higher than the other, and will run all weird and wacky so as to chafe on only one leg using the seams from the other leg's shorts.  How could they not plan for stupid runners like me who run all wrong in their products?  Sheesh.

Because I was sure I was just being running-skirt challenged (and the skirt is so cute I just had to give it another chance), I wore it this morning for my hot-heat run.  I am happy to report that no chafing occurred, especially since I was sure to have the shorts the same length underneath.  That's not to say it wouldn't happen again at longer distances; now I know not to wear this on a long run.  I'll save my sparkle-sparkley skirts for those.


So, in the face of a bad run, I have found some goodness.  I'm still determined to get my mileage in, however, and plan on doing a brick workout tomorrow with the bike (15 miles + 3 mile run), and then doing some weights.

Hopefully I won't be dawdling in the morning, waiting for the hot heat to start before I get my movement in motion.

Mushroom burgers: Meh. New shoes: Any excuse will do.

I'm still doing well on my new "eating real food more of the time" eating plan.  I came home last night fully expecting to eat another chicken breast, but when I opened the package the distinct smell of potential food poisoning met my nostrils.   So I ahd to throw them out and find an alternative.

I scoped out what was in the fridge and freezer, and came across some mushroom burger-thingies that I had bought because a) I love mushrooms and b) I love burgers.  They are only 110 calories a burger, so I thought I would cook me up one of 'em and chow down.  I dressed it up by putting it on a whole wheat bagel for some carbage and adding jalapenos and salsa for bonus flavorings.

It looked edible. 

It was only meh.  Next time I'll try a turkey burger instead.

But enough about food; I have a burning question that needs some answering: How I can run 7 miles (5 at 10K pace) on a foot with tendinitis and have it feel freaking fabulous the next day?

Every time I get an injury, it seems that running more is usually the answer to making it feel better.  I will never understand this.

Of course, it may have to do with the fact that I discovered that it may have been my shoes doing the damage.  So, because I have two X chromosomes, I turned this injury into an excuse to go shoe shopping.  Because I ran pain-free in my Asics on Thursday night, I decided to go after another pair of Asics.  I purchased the Gel Cumulus-14s, which I had eyeballed a few months ago but never purchased.  But a close runner-up was the Brooks Glycerin--oh man, were those some nice-feeling shoes.  But they still put a little pressure on my extensor tendon that hurt, so I wisely opted out of getting them.  But I will be keeping them in mind for a future purchase.

So now that I have my new pair of shoes and the weather isn't all rainy and nasty like it was yesterday....

...I think I will try and go for my long run that is scheduled for today.  22 miles.  My plan is to go for all 22, but stop and turn around if I feel any pain in that tendon; I may even do a walk/run approach if the pain gets too bad.  But right now it feels perfectly normal, and hopefully the new shoes I bought can keep it that way.

Also, I plan on doing this run on the Long Prairie Trail, a place a coworker recommended to me because I am tired of being chased by people's dogs.  I am excited about running in a new place, but more excited that my foot stopped hurting and that I can resume my training.

Hopefully this run won't screw up that plan.  I'll let you know how it goes later.