Long Weekend Laziness

Oh hey! I hope you all had a good holiday weekend! Sorry for the major disappearing act, but we were out of town and I switched into total vacation mode.

We spent our weekend at Tom's family's lake house and had a nice, relaxing weekend. The weather was all over the place, but we had one good afternoon out on the jet boat. Tom likes driving super fast and doing crazy sharp turns/power slides - it takes me a little bit to get used to being on the boat, and then it's a lot of fun.

There's a spot on the lake with a rock that Tom likes to jump off of (he estimates it to be about 20 feet up, or a little less). It took a great deal of patience and insisting that I wouldn't die, but he convinced me to jump. The water was COLD, and that was with shortie wetsuits on (it didn't help that I'm not used to wetsuits and was pretty sure it was trying to suffocate me).

Most of the rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, eating, and visiting. It was excellent.

I did manage to convince myself to go for a run on Saturday, and took a very pretty (and very hilly) 5 mile run on the roads near the house. I don't feel too bad for slacking off a little since I didn't actually take any recovery time after my last race.

I'm back to business as usual starting tomorrow  - apparently my next race is in 18 days, so I should probably get a little more focused...

Fridays are for Doughnuts

I woke up at 6:50 this morning, for absolutely no reason at all. It was pretty dumb.

Buddy thought so, too.

We got more snow overnight, not much, but enough to cover up the dirty old snow and make the yard look pretty again.

Since I was up anyway, I hit the store early. I may have had an ulterior motive.

The store was nice an empty compared to the pre-"blizzard" shopping the other day, much more peaceful.

I semi-successfully ran this afternoon. I taped my ankle and started out walking for the first mile. The next 3 miles were ridiculously slow, but not terribly painful. Plus, finishing a run, no matter how slow, was really good for my mental health. Cutting a run short is brutal, mentally.

I spent some time with my legs up the wall after my run, and have been icing my ankle.

Come on, recovery!

I'm still trying to figure out what's wrong with my ankle. It's not a running pain that I'm familiar with. I assumed that since it was fine during my long run on Sunday and then it had a few rest days (sick days) that it would be ok, but I was clearly wrong. It does seem to be getting better than it was though, so fingers crossed that it keeps improving!

I'm making Slow Cooker Sesame Garlic Chicken with rice and roasted broccoli for dinner. It smells really good and it's making me hungry.

What's for dinner at your house?

Back to Normal

I was having weird dreams and woke up at 7 for no good reason. Boo.

I'm getting into a routine now that Tom's back at work - my morning consists of coffee, breakfast, dishes, and a trip to the grocery store for dinner things. That's because I'm incapable of planning meals any further in advance than that.

Yesterday I told Tom I didn't want to start my run because I was afraid I was just going to have to stop again right away. I felt that way again today. There's almost nothing more frustrating than having to cut a run short because you're in pain.

Fortunately, the icing, stretching and compression socks seem to be working, because I got back to my training plan today with no pain - I win!

3 easy miles with a little stretching at the halfway mark.

Followed by some push-ups as today's #NoExcuses challenge with Sweat Pink. It takes a whole new set of skills to set up my phone and use the self timer to get these pictures.

I even elevated my feet for a bit after my run, and Buddy pouted until we left the basement.

He always turns his head away when I turn my phone camera on - brat.

Just in case it affects anything, I put the mat back under my treadmill today. We didn't bother with it when we moved it to its new home, and I'm wondering if it's creating more impact than there would be with the mat down. It certainly can't hurt.

I'm so happy to be feeling back to normal - there's nothing like having to rest an injury to make you want to run!

Race Sign Up and Running Again!

I was amazingly lazy on Sunday. We had freezing rain pretty much all day long, and I spent most of my day researching races, reading blogs and watching tv.

Freezing rain is dumb.

Buddy was terrified while Tom cooked dinner, so I threw his blanket on him. He stayed like this for about an hour.

He has such a rough life.

The result of all my race research is that I'm now officially signed up for 3 half marathons!

West Point Half Marathon - March 29th
Rhinebeck Hudson Valley Half Marathon - May 16th
Walkway Half Marathon - June 13th

The Rhinebeck and Walkway races are new, it's the first year for both of them. I think I have run more races in their first year than I have run established races. I have never been signed up for more than one half marathon at a time, it's weird for me to be planning my entire year of racing at once.

I'm almost 100% decided on a marathon, but registration doesn't open up for most fall marathons until April, so we'll see if I'm still stuck on the same one come April.

I ran today!

I haven't run since my painful, aborted tempo run last Thursday. My ankle has been feeling a lot better, and I took it slow. I did a legitimate warmup (which I don't always do) and stopped to stretch (and do some mountain climbers for the #NoExcuses challenge) every mile. I ended up running 3.13 miles in 30 minutes. I'm just happy that I got to run!

And yes, I iced after I was finished.

Hopefully this means I can get back to my training plan this week.

Buddy did as much adventuring as his leash would allow this afternoon. I think he was just happy the temperature was above freezing.

Do you plan your race schedule for the year all at once or do you like to play it by ear?

Not this year

Those of you that follow running news probably already know that the lottery for the NYC marathon opened up this week.

Up until a few days ago, I was planning to throw my name in and see what happened. But I got to thinking about how much money it would cost to run NYC (it's a $255 registration fee), and it even costs a little bit to put your name in the lottery ($11). There are a lot of other options nearby when it comes to marathons, and most of them are at least half the price of NYC. So at least for this year, I'm ok not sitting around in the cold for hours and hours before the race, and running with a completely scary number of people and paying an obscene amount of money for the privilege to do so.

So I'm still on the lookout for a fall marathon to sign up for - I've got time.

Friday was a slow day for me. I spent some quality time with my ice pack and watched a cute movie - The Other Woman.

I spent the evening babysitting and making some money. I didn't get home until almost 12:30.

I still don't know what this stuff was, but thankfully, it wasn't real nail polish.

A 3 year old with real nail polish would be terrifying. This stuff just wiped right off, which is good, because she painted half her foot with it.

My ankle is still sore, but it's definitely feeling better. I skipped running with the group this morning, which bummed me out, but it was the smart thing to do. I may attempt a little dvd workout action today (and obviously stop if it hurts). We'll see.

For now, I'm off to find some food.

I hope your weekend is off to a good start!

Did any of you enter the NYC Marathon lottery?

I was smart for once

I'm really grumpy.

I woke up kind of grumpy, but I was making progress up until my run. It was supposed to be a tempo run, but I only made it through my warmup and the first mile at tempo. My ankle, which was feeling tight and a little off earlier this week decided that it definitely does not want to run.

The thing is, I don't remember doing anything to it. The best I can figure is I might have twisted it at some point on Monday or Tuesday. I noticed it was a little off after my run on Tuesday, but it was nothing to cause concern. Today on my run there was definite pain.

For once in my running life, I was smart, and stopped. I'm giving it a couple of days off and hopefully it will feel better. At least it's happening now, and not closer to my next race.

In happier news: I made brownies today!

I kind of made them up and can probably never duplicate them, but they're really good. They are dark chocolate brownies with a peanut butter cream cheese swirl type thing and mini chocolate chips (for good measure).

I sliced a million brussel sprouts without cutting myself on the mandoline I got Tom for his birthday. That's because I wore the gloves that he is too cool for.

Dinner tonight is going to be those brussels with bacon, roasted butternut squash and pork chops. Now I just have to stop myself from eating ALL the brownies so I will still want dinner! :)

Are you a recipe follower or do you prefer the trial and error method?

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The Speed Trap

Sometimes, I get caught up in the speed trap. I want to run fast, faster than last time, faster than last week. Faster.

It's not a smart way to train, in fact, it's a recipe for injury.

My training plan (which claims I will be able to PR at my next half - it hasn't seen the elevation chart!) has my easy runs starting out at 10:21 pace. While I didn't slow down that much, I did slow down. I did today's run at 9:40. And then I read a few articles to remind myself why it is important to not get caught up in the speed trap all the time.

Easy runs are extremely important to training. They help develop slow twitch muscle fibers (super necessary for distance runners!), improve aerobic capacity, bone density, muscle tendon strength and increase glycogen storage (more energy!). This article is a nice reminder that easy runs have their place, even if they are sometimes frustrating.

Buddy thinks that any time someone sits on the couch that he should be on their lap. Because he is clearly a lap dog.

Good thing he's cute.

Today's run was 3 easy miles - it felt short and slow.

It's hard to come off a 50 day run streak and switch to training mode, but I'm working on it.

Have you fallen into the speed trap? 

Race Sign Up, Strength Training and Crab

I took my rest day on Sunday very seriously. Mostly unintentionally.

I was ridiculously tired from not sleeping well on Friday and waking up early on Saturday to run, so I ended up sleeping in. Really sleeping in.

Ok, I woke up at 10:58.

The day mostly consisted of catching up on blogs and digging through boxes in the basement for all of my workout dvds - I did manage to do some laundry though!

And we watched Divergent. It was cute - Hunger Games is better though.

I also signed up for my first race of the year - the West Point Half Marathon at the end of March. It's hilly. Crazy hilly. One of my weekend running buddies ran it last year and is running it again this year, so we are now planning to harass convince some our other weekend runners to join us.

Good thing I got my new training journal in the mail over the weekend!

Today I reinforced the knowledge that while I can run for hours, I have really minimal muscle strength when it comes to anything else.

I did a Jillian Michaels dvd and wanted to die for about half of it. I guess that means I should do it more than once a year.

She's so mean.

You should definitely be jealous of our dinner tonight. For Christmas, my mom sent us a big box of fish and some king crab.

Merry Christmas to us!

Buddy's had an exhausting day of napping. It's a rough life.

Do you do any workout videos?

Are you a cardio addict or are you good about strength training?

Weirdly excited to run on the treadmill

Yesterday was a rest day, and I take my rest days very seriously (mostly).

I spent a lot of time slogging through that packet of paperwork - I'm finally done - and Tom and I talked houses. The house we have looked at a few times pretty much needs an entire kitchen, so we were looking at appliances and how much it would cost to make it a kitchen we would be really excited about.

Turns out we have expensive taste.

Buddy takes the sunshine very seriously.

I was weirdly excited to run on my treadmill today. Don't get me wrong, I like running outside sometimes, but since my challenge had to be outside, I didn't really want to do it.

Five happy, sweaty miles done - at 8:45 pace! I was pretty excited about how good I felt running at that speed, running faster is finally getting easier! :)

Gilmore Girls kept me company, as usual. I'm addicted.

And I'm trying something new for dinner.

That's pork loin with apples, onions and honey. I found the recipe HERE. I mostly followed it.

I haven't done much cooking in the slow cooker, so we'll see how it turns out.

Post Race Recovery

Happy Wednesday!

My mom and I spent most of yesterday playing with a 12 month old. There are worse ways to spend your day.

Buddy was pouting because Tom was hanging out with a friend in the city.

I haven't even attempted a run yet. On Monday, Mom and I took Buddy for a long walk, but otherwise I have been taking it easy.

How long do you take off after a race? It really varies for me, mostly depending on how sore I am, and how long the race is. I have seen recommendations to rest anywhere from 5-13 days after a half. Generally, I take a few days completely off, and then hold off on any tough workouts for close to two weeks. I've even been trying to stretch and foam roll this time around.

I definitely pushed myself on Sunday, so I still have some pretty sore muscles. Plus, having my mom here is a good excuse to take it easy for a few extra days. :)