Workouts this week: July 24-30

Monday: Weekly off day
Use it to clean my house. Well four hours of cleaning netted 1/4th of my house clean. So much more to do.....

Tuesday: Stationary bike

I had some pain after running Sunday and some pain walking around Monday, so I didn't run today. I did 60 minutes on the exercise bike. I put hulu on my laptop and did my arm workouts on the commercials.

Wednesday: Off (So lazy!)
The plan was to do a 6.5 mile trail run with the Athens Road Runners. The temperature was supposed to be 89 degrees. That plus my legs not being 100% I skipped. I did about 10 minutes of stretching at home and walked the dog. Oh well. I didn't want to do a tough hilly trail run in that heat.

Thursday: Morning run
To redeem myself for not running Wednesday, I got up at 5:30 a.m. to run before work. Is it weird if I like morning runs best? I don't think I minded going to bed at 9:30 p.m. And waking up at 5:30 wasn't THAT bad. (Was it?)

I was supposed to go to evening yoga. I went home and walked the dog instead. (So lazy this week!)

Friday: Yoga
I did go to yoga today. And we did headstands and handstands. Hooray!


Saturday: Trail 10k
Saturday is my usual run day, sometimes a long run. After not running much this week, I decided to run 6 miles. And It's the first time since July 1, I've run over 5. Ugh.

The run was fine until maybe mile 4 or so and then it fell apart. I felt awful. I had to walk four times in the last mile.

So I've lost some fitness—having not run longer distances in weeks. Also, it was 94% humidity.

I'll get my fitness back. The last mile felt like garbage.

I had a tiny bit of shin pain afterward, but still think I'm on the mend.

Sunday: Yoga
Last yoga class of the summer semester. We did a lot of cheat and arm openers. It was different. Still a good class. And I got to do a headstand.

Runs this week: 2
Miles this week: 10
2 yoga classes + exercise bike

Workouts this week: July 17-23

Back to running

I was reading a running book, Run the World, and the author, an elite runner, takes two weeks running off every year. And that made me feel better about my running back. I needed it.

Monday: OFF
My official weekly off day.

Tuesday: Run

I was really hesitant to go back to running. Should I take another week? Would I make things worse? But I got up and ran before work. The plan was to run 1 mile. 1 mile was fine, so turned into 1.5 mile and that was fine, so I ran .5 mile back to my car.

IT WAS FINE. No pain

Also, went to yoga class after work. I did a headstand and fell out of it and startled the teacher. Oops. I was over confident and didn't set up for it. I was fine!

Wednesday: Exercise bike at home
Exercise bike and abs at home.

Thursday: Morning run

I upped my miles to three before work today. And it was fine! No pain. Hooray. I even made it to work on time.

PM: I had planned on going to yoga or an abs class at Ramsey, but I had to work late and Matt had an appointment. So instead, I worked late and then went home and did 20 easy minutes on the exercise bike, some abs, and 10 minutes of rolling.

Friday: Yoga
I went to yoga at Ramsey.

Saturday: 4.5 miles

I got up early and had the trails to myself. (The goal was to finish running before it got too hot and humid.)

After my run, I run into my boss. I ended up walking .5 mile as a cool down with her and her super cute dog.

No pain.

Sunday

After three runs with no pain I was feeling overconfident and went out to run 5 miles off trails.

At mile 3, my shin started feeling bruised. I ran anyway and my shins didn't feel great afterwards. I don't think I'm quite ready to run on consecutive days. Now I know.

Yoga
Went to Sunday night yoga class. This class was focused on the lower back.

Runs this week: 4
Miles this week: 14.8
2 yoga classes plus some exercise bike

Week off running: Recap

I've taken a week off running. It's the first week I've not run since February 2016 when I got really sick.

I thought it would be harder. That I'd go crazy. That I really would want to run.

Nope. I quite enjoyed the week. Saturday morning, I usually go running. That's my routine. So I thought about it the most then. Instead I rode the exercise bike for an hour and then went on a marathon of errands. (Ok, more like a 10k. I had 6 places to go.)

I enjoyed the extra time I had. I enjoyed not being so tired in the evening. And I generally felt less tired. (I've been feeling extremely run down lately.) really I needed a week to recharge.

I did four yoga classes and two stationary bike workouts. I avoided weight lifting, since that's apparently the root cause of my injury (tight quads leading to knee and shin issues). I even asked a friend to teach me about lap swimming

I think if I wanted to walk away from running, it would be easy. I could stop now. And I'm not sure that I'd really regret it.

I remember being constantly injured running in high school. I pushed my body harder and harder to go faster and that often meant shin splints or knee pain. I don't really want to go that route again, My goal for the year was to stay healthy.

I think I'll start running on Tuesday and see how it goes. If I lose fitness, so be it. I can make it up. I have no races scheduled until next April.

I don't think I'm quitting running, but we'll see how getting back into it goes.

If it's not too hard on my my body, I have a few things I'd like to see if I could do in the next few months.

Mini goals
1) Run a 5k under 23 minutes
2) Get my mile time down to 6:30 (or 6:28 so I can match that pace chart I have)
3) Get my 10k time down to 48 minutes

Shin splints : what my chiropractor said

I went to the chiropractor for my back. And for my shin splints too. She's not an orthopedist, but I know if my hips are out of alignment it can make my knees hurt. I wanted to make sure this wasn't causing or aggravating my shin splints.

She remarked that my shins were really tight. And my quads too.

I told her my quads have been tight for three or so weeks now. (From Bodypump, I think).

I also told her my knees felt funny when I walk down stairs. (Ding, ding, ding).

Then she tested how high I could lift my legs while laying on my belly. (Same test an orthopedist did for my IT band issue years ago.) She test if my legs felt tight when she bent them a certain way. Then she tested my knees. She had me flex my knees while she poked them.

Basically, my tight quads (that I thought nothing about) have been wreaking havoc on my lower leg and knees. Because my quads are tight, so are my shins. And somehow my knees are tracking wrong due to a muscle imbalance. My outside quads are strong my my medial quad is weak, and that's causing knee issues. So she gave me some stretches for the medial quad and for my knee.

And I feel all sorts of messed up.

The good news is my shins are feeling better.  I've been resting and making sure to up my calcium. They feel almost good enough to run on. I'd like to give it a few more days. (Maybe 10 days off running? Honestly, I'm fine with losing some speed. I don't have any planned races.)

I'm not sure how I feel about my knee and running.

My knee did hurt worse after getting adjusted. I'd felt a twinges before I went in, so it was a problem waiting to happen. It felt better the next morning, so nothing to worry about.

I've taken a whole week off running and I think I'll take a few more days and then try some miles.

Goals - mid year check in

The year is half over and I'm wondering how I'm doing on my goals.

#1 Stay Healthy. Do what I love while avoiding injury as best I can.
Working on this one. First injury of the year now. Resting so it doesn't get worse. 

Classes to try———I don't really care about trying new classes as much, and I've tried most of the classes I'm interested in at Ramsey
1.  Try an Orange Theory class
2. Try a Fuel yoga class.
3. Try more classes at Ramsey—DONE
4. Maybe try swimming (not necessarily a class) 
5. Take a yoga workshop on something, like hand balancing or inversions.

Been doing speed work since April.

Running goals. (I added some since December)
1. Run a 10k or half the Chick Fil-A half marathon—DONE
2. Still would like to run a 5k under 23 minutes—In progress
3. Look into group work or morning speed work—DONE
4. Botanical garden trail without walking - DONE (super slow pace but it counts!)
5. 10k at 8 minute mile pace - DONE
6. More 5ks? Can I run on the road? In progress
7. More Strava records — Ongoing though I've been varying my pace more, slower easy runs, and faster track work instead of all the same pace.

Have run 3 10ks. 

Tumbling goals: on the back burner for the moment. I'm taking a break from gymnastics.
1. Connect fly springs. Getting there. Better than last year, but not quite.
2. Walk overs. Not there yet. Oh well.
3. Touch my feet to my head. Stopped working on this.
4. 10 second handstand. Maybe? Definitely can do 7 seconds.
5. Practice handstands at home. (Daily?) Haha. Didn't do this.

General goals
1. Conquer the Ninja course at Rush. I got to the third ring or so. And then they got a whole new ninja course.
2. Try another flying trapeze place. Bonus: Get my cutaway! Tried trapeze at two new rigs!
3. Get a body composition test done. DONE. UGH. SO INACCURATE.
4. Stay on budget with fitness clothes. (Spend less money at Lululemon).
     Now I spend all my money on running shoes ;)

I feel like my goals have really changed since I wrote them in December. Tumbling is on the back burner. I'm a slow learner and not especially good at gymnastics. I have made almost no progress in the last year. I like the trampoline park, but there are too many kids, so it's hard to go and have fun. And while I love flying trapeze, I feel like my weekends are TOO busy when I add that in.

My mini goals (STAY HEALTHY)
1) Run a 5k under 23 minutes (same goal as above)
2) Mile to 6:30
3) 10k in 48 flat
4) Find a running coach. I think I really need someone to talk to about running, goals, when to back off or push and what to do.
5. Volunteer at a race
I've been debating running the AthHalf this fall. And I think maybe I'll volunteer and not run it.

Week off running

Ozzy approves of naps and running less

Well, it's been a good few months of upping my miles, but I'm taking the next week off running. I've got the beginnings of shin splints so I want to see if a week off helps.

I've been worried about them for a few weeks.

I got the first pain a month ago. It was the first week I ran 30 miles—and probably too many miles on road. So I've been running more trail miles and decreasing my miles. It's not horribly painful yet, but I don't want it to get worse, so time off. I won't lose fitness in a week (I think) so I'll take the week off, and go to the doctor if necessary.

I blogged about a little bit of pain after the week I was in Florida. I had some pain after my nine mile run.

And last week, I ran 7 miles in the morning and then noticed the pain while walking around shopping afterwards. I took it so easy this week. I ran 10 miles. I scaled my miles way back. There was a little bit of pain during my five mile run, mild and at the beginning. But that's the only time it's hurt during my run. It usually hurts after my run.

Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate. Or is that C for cat?

It's just an ache. I can take anti-inflammatories and I don't notice it at all.

I ran a race yesterday. No pain during the run. Some afterwards. It's achey. I feel like the front of my leg is bruised.

I feel like I did what I should have
• I run in new shoes from the running store (gait analysis done. I love the shoes!) So it's not worn out shoes.
• I followed the 10% rule ramping up my mileage. I was very deliberate (so hopefully not too much, too soon)

I do worry about calcium. I take a calcium supplement, but I worry about my bones since I don't eat dairy and haven't for 5 years. (I faithfully take a supplement.) I usually drink soy milk so I make but I've been extra diligent to make sure I drink a glass a day and get 100% of the calcium I need.

It could be road running? That I just need a break? Who knows?

In the mean time, I'm looking forward to a lazy week. And if it's still bad, I'll go see the doctor and see if I can use an anti gravity treadmill. At least if I miss running this summer, it's during the hottest part of the summer!

Workouts this week: July 3-9

 SUPER LOW MILEAGE

July 3: Off day
Another Monday off day. I actually had big plans to RUN and lift weights. But I came home and slept for two hours.

I ran 120+ miles in June. My body is tired. I'm worried I'm over training. I feel like I need to sleep for three days.

July 4: speed work
Day off work. Wahoo. I got up at the same time as I do and was out the door at 7:30 a.m. for speed work. I tried a Nike workout. The workout said 2 minutes between the intervals. I walked 200 meters between most of them. 100 meters for one or two of them.

2 x 200 meters at mile pace (:37, so 5:01 pace, and :41, so 5:37 pace)
400 at 5k pace, 1:37 (6:15 pace)
800 at 10k pace, 3:32 (6:50 pace),
400 at marathon pace, 1:57 (7:46 pace)
200 at mile pace, 43 (5:49 pace)

So I paced that all WAY TOO fast. That's why it was so hard. I also took yesterday off so I had fresh legs and could go a little faster than I would on tired legs.
My 10k pace would be a FAST 5k for me in a few months. My marathon pace was close to my 10k pace.
So I worked on getting fast. I'm not really complaining about going to fast. I wasn't looking at my pace on my watch. I only saw the paces when I was done. I was running what I could run.

And that wasn't a lot of mileage so I ran a cool down mile. It felt super heavy and slow. I was sure it was a 9 minute mile or more. 7:25.
I guess after running fast, a 7:25 felt slow?

As I was starting my cool down, a bunch of 8- or 9-year-old boys showed up to the track. I'm not sure if they were a soccer team or youth track league. And I think they were running a mile. I'm not sure. I lapped four of them. Some of them weren't trying. They were walking. Ahh, to have that youthful energy again.

July 5: I don't wanna run
Today was about as unmotivated as I've ever been to run. I was tired. My quads hurt (why do they always hurt?) It was 93 degrees outside so too hot to safely run.

Thankfully, I have the option of the gym, so I begrudgingly headed there to run on either the indoor track or treadmill. I opted for the indoor track, since it wasn't too busy (and I am super slow on a treadmill). I ran a total of 42 laps. The goal was to run 5 miles and I ran the extra 2 so my Garmin would count 5 miles.

It counted my first mile exactly right, but then I kept losing 10ths. Not sure what that is about.

I went home and iced and put on compression socks. GO AWAY SHIN SPLINTS. There was some discomfort when I was running. Mostly the first mile.

I think I'm going to take next week off running.

July 6-7 Off
Took two days off pre-race. I should have gone to yoga. Instead I worked late. I did stretch on Thursday. Friday, I felt like I was getting sick and was in bed at 9 p.m.

July 8: 4k race
Separate post on the race. It was hilly. My reward was pizza for lunch.

July 9: OFF
I thought about going to weights and yoga. I blew off weights to take a nap and then stayed home from yoga to work an overdue report for week.  My shins were achy today.

Days running: 3
Miles run: 10
Workouts: 3 runs and lots of naps.

Next week's report should be even more sparse. I've been running on empty for a few weeks and need to recharge.

Oconee 4-H 4k: Race recap

I'd been looking for a race to get my 5k time down. I saw this 4k and thought it looked weird (I liked weird) and thought it would be a nice way to try out by speed and practice faster times for a 5k.

My strategy going in was 7:20, 7:10, 7 minute pace for the last half mile. With a time around 18 minutes. Hahahahahahaha

The week before the race I start getting shin splints. And then two days before the race, I realized the route was really hilly. Ugh.

I've been feeling super tired for the last two weeks, so at that thought I lost a lot of enthusiasm for the race.

But the morning of, we show up. (There are no signs)

We sign in. There are no race bibs or swag. The T-shirts are cotton. (All of this is fine with me)

I try to find the hill on the course and can't. And I jog to the start with about 2 minutes to spare. (But there are about 5 minutes of announcements, so I would have been okay.)

And then it's race time. I lined up near the front.

I go out fast. My watch says 6:40 pace. I know to slow down, but two other women are right with me. The first woman falls off at the first turn and I pace on. A dark haired lady (I'd guess early 20s) gets about 10 seconds ahead of me on the downhill. I let her have the lead. I keep her within a few seconds the entire race, and plan to catch her at the end.

The downhill is nice. You run down towards a weird metal silo loop around it and then run UPHILL. The first half of the hill I power up and feel great (thanks hill training), the second half of the hill is a little rougher, but then the course turns, it gets a tad steeper (4% grade) and I've been running a quarter mile and it's awful.

My first mile is 7:10. Which is a little fast but okay.

Then comes that same long hill a SECOND TIME. This is where I want to quit. I'm breathing hard and thinking about barfing. I wonder if I walk how much time it will cost me. But I don't. I finish the hill the second time (and my pace has fallen off considerably) and get to the marker for mile 2.

I feel awful at this point. And my brain is dead. I'm on auto pilot. There's half a mile left and I don't have 7-minute mile pace in me. I run. And the lady in front of me makes a wrong turn. I'm following the guy in front of her and I pause for one second before the course monitor turns her around and I sprint to the finish and win the women's division overall.

And I feel a little bad about this. I MIGHT have kicked her in at the end (she didn't put up much of a fight and kick it in after the wrong turn—that's what I would have done), and I don't think the wrong turned cost her more than 10 seconds, but I was on the course following the leaders. Should she have won? Would I have  passed her at the end? We'll call this luck and I hope I'm not a horrible sport. But surely I shouldn't have stopped for her? And this race had no stakes. It won't even show up any any timed races services websites—no athlinks. So there's nothing she lost in this. We'll just say I won my age group and she won hers. She ran a good race.

They handed me a card at the finish.18:28. For eighth overall. She finished 10-15 seconds behind me. They handed me a medal and that was that.

I got a banana and a water. There were no prizes. There was no medal ceremony. They said it was a no frills race and it was. For this, I'm glad it's a good fundraiser for them. I worry about races not raising money when they have to buy timing services or pay for a police escort (they did neither of this since it was on their land and they own the timer). This is all fine with me. A prize is nice but I don't need it.

So it wasn't the race I'd hoped for. But because of the hill, I'll say I did OKAY. (Also no shin pain during the race, though I did take medicine. I was a little achey after the race, but mostly fine).

Honestly, I don't think I'd do this race again. And I'm currently looking for FLAT 5k courses.

Workouts this week: June 26-July 2

June 26: OFF
Enjoyed my Monday off. Came home and took a nap.

June 27: Speed work X 2
Ran a mile for speed at 6:30 a.m.

Then did 6:30 p.m. track workout. The workout was warmup, 5 800s, then a cool down (with breaks in between).
After my mile, I didn't really want to do the last two reps, but decided to see how I felt.
• 3:27
• 3:27.9
• 3:30

And then I was basically done, but Matt told me I couldn't quit.
• 3:33. My legs were SOOOOOO Heavy on this one.
• 3:27. Ugh

(Also the track is long, so for .52 miles)

800 meters to cool down. That was HARD. I was so tired after that workout.

June 28: trail run

Did a trail run with the Athens Road Runners as part of the monthly trail series. It was white to orange trail at the Botanical Garden, which I've done once before. The goal today was SLOW recovery miles. And yep, ran 10:58s.

This trail is so steep, it's easy to run slow. I was pretty proud of myself for running the entire trail and not walking the hills. Thanks peer pressure, I wouldn't let myself do that.

June 29th: rainy run
My quads were sore. I was tired. Today I wanted a flat run. No hills. I ran by my house. And I started feeling better after I started running. (I think the tired feeling was from not getting enough sleep). The plan was to run 5.1 miles. Easy miles. Still on recovery. I hit 5.1 miles and the rain started POURING. I called Matt to come pick me up. No answer. And my phone wouldn't hang up. It's in a waterproof case but when the case is wet I can't touch buttons on the screen. So I walked the big hill and ran an extra mile back to the house. (I had planned to walk the last mile as my stretching post run.)

Good news: I bought a pair of new Nike Pegasus shield. They're designed for running in the rain. They're water resistant and extra grippy.

From Nike: Designed for use in rainy, wet conditions, these running shoes have a DWR coating on the mesh and Flywire uppers, as well as water-resistant booties to keep your feet feeling warm and dry. The grippy, high-abrasion outsoles offer traction and durability, while the Cushlon and Phylite midsoles are soft and responsive.

Verdict: They are indeed water resistant. My feet were dry and not sloshing in my shoes.

June 30: BodyPump + Speed
I went to 5:30 BodyPump. I DID NOT like the music for the 102 release. Ugh. It uses a lot of dumbbells. There are pushups. I did lunges with no weight.

Then I did some speed work from a workout from Nike.

Warmup mile
2 100 meter strides
1000 at race pace (4:12)
2 100 meter strides

The workout said cool down mile, but I was tired so I ran for 5 miles, which was a little more than half a mile. My Garmin doesn't track right on the indoor track.

Saturday: Failed long run
The goal was to run 8-9 miles. I skipped my long run last week. I went running today and my legs were tired. I walked in mile 2. And again in mile 3. At mile 4 I was ready to quit, but said I'd get to five miles. I could do that. At five miles, I willed myself to 6. At 6, I willed myself to finish a 10k, and then I willed myself to finish 7 miles. And that was that. I was hot and tired. And it was more than 4 miles. I was just tired.

Afterwards, I was feeling the twinges of shin splits when I was walking around that afternoon.

Sunday July 2: Progression run

I tried a progression run today. Which is weird for me since I like to rabbit my first mile and get slower. (Also I was only running 3 miles today. I'm slightly scaling back my mileage and tapering).
I ran my first mile 9:30, which is recovery pace for me.
Mile 2: 9 minutes.
Mile 3. 8 minutes.

I ran this on trails so I purposely made sure mile 3 was downhill. Not sure if I started too slow. I think I just forgot which part of the progression I was on for that third mile. So apparently I can do this. It was a challenge. I'd try it again.

**Starting to get shin splits. Had zero pain during the run. But my shins started to hurt after the run. So I iced and took so anti-inflammatories. I'll search what I should do, but I think it's the muscular kind of shin splints.

Also went to Sunday night yoga.

Car twin: my black and white mini, parked near a black and white FJ

Miles this week: 28

Days running: 6

Also 1 weights class, 1 yoga class