Report from the road well... treadmill.

I thought I'd report back on my week. It has been busy with hockey and gymnastics, but I still was able to get all 5 runs in for a total of 17 miles. It has been a few weeks since I've been able to (had the disciple to) stick to the schedule.

All 5 runs were on the treadmill. This bores the brain, but takes a lot of the decision making process out of it. I did some workouts this week that I'll be calling the shredder from now on. I run fairly slow and then do sprints for 30 seconds. According to the experts this is suppose to burn serious fat. We'll see. All I know is that I did 6 sprints, 4 at 7 mph and 2 at 8 mph. I'm not sure I've ever run that fast.

Tomorrow is a rest day and then it all starts over again. I think I have 18 miles scheduled for this week. Wish me luck!

Bad Run Bad Mood

I'm in a bad mood. This is unusual after a run. Usually I am pretty happy and not from those elusive endorphins we have all heard so much about, but because I did it. I'm a bit like a bumble bee. As they should not be able to fly, I should not be able to run. My proportions are all wrong. But, I digress, my bad mood.

Being proactive about this weekends long run ( a whole 5 miles) I switched todays scheduled run with tomorrows. I know the chances of getting in a long one tomorrow. Tomorrow is my birthday and I plan on over indulging, 41 only comes around once in a lifetime you know. So I'm guessing I will find an excuse not to lace them up. I'd rather miss a 3 miler than a 5 miler.

So I dressed for the run, first set of hard decisions. Pretty and sunny out but 31 degrees and super windy. I made the mistake of checking out the temp on my smart phone. It gave me the real feel temp... 14. Ugh! I put on several layers and headed out. I was cold at first, but worked up a sweat real fast. I was trudging along and feeling uncomfortable from the start. I was going slow, cold from the wind then hot from the sun. Oh did I mention I had to pee. (TMI I know) I shuffled 2.5 miles and then had a mental breakdown. I stopped to walk. I DON'T do that. I walked some and ran some all the rest of the way home.

All in all it only took me 6 minutes more than my usual 5 mile time, but I feel like I failed today and I hate that feeling. Jim was great telling me most of America was sitting on their rumps all morning and that I should feel proud that I was moving. I'm trying to look at it that way but it is hard. I know from past training that this happens from time to time. Things just don't always come together... but that doesn't mean I have to like it!

Summer Knee in Feb

Yep... I have a skinned knee and a leg full of road rash. It is highly unusually to have skinned knees in Feb in Michigan but I have managed it. Out for a morning run on one of my usual loops. A couple of days before the path had been clear. All snow had been plowed and everything was still pretty cold. Then... a warm snap. A lot of melting has occurred in the last few days. So snow turned to water and covered the side walk and then over night the temp dipped and water turned to ice. I had already done a lap with no mishaps. I knew where the danger spots were. Enter another runner, a friendly runner, a talker. We were passing each other and he said a few words, I answered and was thinking more about the conversation than the terrain. WRONG MOVE.

You know how lots of times when you slip on ice you seem to go down in slow motion. Not this time. I was eating pavement before it even registered that I'd slipped on the ice. I jumped up just as fast even though my brain was thinking I might be really hurt. I limped a few steps before realized I was going to be okay.

The minute I got home the dog was all over my knee. Another indication I might not like what I saw when I got my pants off. The dog was right. I had some pretty nasty vertical gouges across my knee and down my leg. It looked like I had tried to slide into second base. Well, if I didn't know how to slide.

Throughout the day my muscles on the left side of my body started to tighten up. I was glad my husband had brought me some Advil. But I'm trying not to think about the injury too much. Why? Because I have another run in the morning.

Logistics

Today was about scheduling. My daughter had a gymnastics meet and there is a lot to do to prepare for that and it was about an hour away. So on this fine Sunday morning my alarm went off about 10 to 7. It is really against the rules to have to wake up early on a Sunday, but to get the planned run in it had to be done.

I got up, drank coffee and ate an Adkins Bar for breakfast. Don't get the wrong idea, I'm not on the Adkins diet or any diet at all for that matter. My son likes them, they were handy so I ate one. Then off to the gym for my long run. Yep all the way up to 5 miles now.

To my surprise Sunday mornings at my gym are very busy. There were several open treadmills when I got there, but they filled up quickly. This meant that I had to spend the majority of my run feeling guilty for ignoring the 30 minute policy. My gym, like most, have a 30 minute policy if folks are waiting for a machine. Do your 30 minutes and get off. I've found most people ignore it. I ignore it. Mostly cuz it takes me that long to run 2.5 miles and well that is just not long enough. But today I was running 5 and that was going to keep me on well past the 30 minutes allotted to me. I always worry that some skinny blonde girl is gonna lean over and check my timer and meanly tell me to get the hell off. Of course then I'll ask her... who do you really think needs to be on here? Me or You? In the end I'd win, but loose too! Nobody did that, but I was prepared!

I logged my 5 in about 65 minutes and then quietly surrendered my mill to the next victim. Off to start the rest of my day with my family. On a side note Avery did great in gymnastics. Two blue ribbons and two red ribbons. YEAH!

Two in a row

It has been a rough week to train. Work hours doubled and the work was tedious, exacting and very important. Tough conditions! I'm not the kind of person who rebounds from that by taking a run. I'm the kind of person who rebounds from that by ordering pizza and watching a marathon of House. So yesterday was my first run of the week and it took a shoehorn to get me out of the house.

So running today was an important tell. If I got out the door then maybe I still have what it takes to put in the miles need to be marathon ready. If I excused my way out of it today, well maybe I was really fooling myself this time around.

There were a couple obstacles. Jack had an 8:30 am hockey game and Avery had to be at gymnastics at 8:30 am too! So the parents split. I take Jack (the joy of coaching) and Jim drops Avery at the gym. The Blues win the game in the last 5 seconds of the game 2-1. We wrap up and go home. Now I have to manage the transition. That is what life is all about, managing the transitions. My friend Scott and I were discussing training earlier in the week and this was an epiphany I got from that conversation.

Go in the house, straight to the bedroom, take off rink clothes, put on gym clothes, grab my gym pass, Ipod and car keys and GET OUT THE DOOR! Do not pass go. Do not collect $200 just Go Go Go! Somehow I did it and got to the gym. You would think at this point my struggles would be over, but no. Treadmills are jammed. The only two left are archaic machines who nobody ever uses if they can avoid it. I don't need fancy so I just jump on and go. 20 minutes into the run I find out why nobody ever uses them. You get in 20 minutes and then you start your two minute cool down. There is no adjusting this. Oh did I mention that the other old machine next to me has an error message on the screen and that every person that gets on it to use it asks me about it. "Hey what's wrong with this thing?" "Is this thing broken?" Does the attendant know about this?" How the hell do I know. I answer nicely which is just not natural for me, "Not sure." "Yep, seems like it." and "No clue." Yes...that is very nice for me when people are asking me stupid questions.

But I digress, so I have to jump off the machine reset it and start again. Did I mention that I didn't look down at my distance? So now I'm running again trying to get in as much distance as I can before it decides it is time for me to cool down again. After 40 minutes and way to many conversations about broken exercise equipment I get off the treadmill. I can only hope I got in my 3 miles. Any normal adult would have 4 miles done but I'm not normal. I think we have established that.

Pathetic

5 posts and then MIA... what's with that?

Lets bring you up to date... I did finish that half. I ran some and walked some. In my defense I did sprain my ankle pretty bad in March and then walked spent a week in Orlando walking on it before it was completely healed. But I went the distance at my pace.

So that was five years ago and I'm still overweight and have not run consistently since so of course I signed up for a full marathon in Nov. Isn't that what people do... over commit and under deliver? Well, here I go again. Training! Hurrah for me. I've been doing pretty good sticking to my base miles schedule until the week. Work through a major wrench into the plan, but I got back on the horse so to speak tonight. 20 degrees and windy but I ran three outside today. Gotta love Feb in Michigan!