Status Update

Hello everyone!

An update on what's up with your friendly neighborhood CPAGrrrl... 

WORK = CRAZY MID-JANUARY TO END OF FEBRUARY

I'm an accountant.  Other accountants need stuff from ME so they can start THEIR "busy season".  [Not to belabor the point, but I wrote this on Thursday and I'm finally editing, adding pix and links and publishing on Monday.] 'Nuff Said.  

RUNNING:

I have been in the habit of doing walk/run intervals for quite some time. I have begun to feel the walking breaks are more of a limitation I place on myself rather than a useful training tool.

One of my personal goals as part of training for my first triathlon, was to "step up my running game" a bit and use fewer breaks, get back to running at least 2-3 mile stretches without a break. Last night I had my longest stretch in quite some time, a 27-minute run!

More proof that my body does what my brain chooses to tell it to do!

[Bad blogger: no smiling post-run selfie!]

SPEAKING OF TRIATHLON TRAINING:

It's been going GREAT!  Here's a pic of my training schedule.  Yellow Highlights = completed planned workouts.

I'm into Week 5 of the 20-week plan and feeling great.  My shoulder was a little tweaky this week during my short swim.  I took it REAL easy and I'll see how it feels for my long swim workout this weekend.  If it still feels "off," I'll make an appointment with my PT to figure out what's up, but the swimming feels awesome, I feel so strong in the water! (My form is atrocious and my efficiency is low but I feel terrific.)

MILEAGE:

When I set my mileage goals for 2016, I had no idea there was a triathlon in my future!  I'm getting WAY more bike miles than I anticipated for the early months of the year (it's still WAY too cold here for outdoor biking), so I'm already anticipating blowing that 225-mile goal right out the water.  I'll need to reassess and revise the total mileage goal and the bike-specific goal.  And the # swims goal.  The plan was for 30 swims!  At this rate i should hit that by the end of April.

ONE AWESOME BIKE RIDE:

We had this ONE amazing day of spring weather last Saturday.  It was over 60 (SIXTY!) degrees, no wind, mind-blowingly awesome outdoor weather.  I had planned to do some laundry, take Coty for a LONG dog-walk and then do my long swim (as per my lovely Training Plan, sticking to that Plan, my friends, the Plan is my lifeline!) But when my awesome friend Raegan called and suggested a bike ride, I threw it all out the window.  I ditched the laundry, gave Coty a Quickie, dug out my bike helmet, and rode to her house.  From there, we went downtown for lunch, rode to the bike shop where I learned out what sort of bike I have (an "upright") and what sort of bike rack I could get if I was so inclined (the Really Expensive Kind), and Raegan gave me some pointers on tri suits, tri shorts, and the whole world of multi-sport gear!   Then we rode to the south end of The Trail, back up to the crossroads and east to the end of the Trail, then back to Raegan's again, where another gear lesson followed and I got to see her IMPRESSIVE bling collection. (We did talk about all sorts of things over the course of our 3-hour adventure, not just tri-stuff...) All in, I got about a 20-mile bike ride for the day AND got to spend some quality time with one of those people I always want to spend more time with.

A DAY OF HIKING:

The nice weather held on Sunday too, and The Hubs and I decided to make a trip to Starved Rock State Park.  I took about a billion pictures but won't bore you with those.  What I love best is that Coty got to join us for this adventure.  "Hiking" is something of a misnomer for what we did here, as the park is mainly accessed via man-made pathways - wooden paths, stairs (SO many stairs!) dominate, but I get why:  where there weren't pathways, it was MUDDY!  We had a blast and got about a 3-mile hike with the dog.  A VERY successful, ACTIVE weekend, I'm so glad I was flexible and chose to ditch my Training Plan for 2 days.  #wycwyc!!

I still have some other blog posts floating around in my head that I hope to get written up in the next week or so.  Things have cooled off at bit around the office so I'm thinking I'll be able to carve out some writing time in-between workouts over the next few weeks.  

I'll leave you with some pics from our day of hiking:

SUPER HAPPY #RUNNERDOG, EVEN AFTER THE HOUR-PLUS CAR RIDE.

Trepidation and a Trip to my PT

So this week is coming along nicely so far.  Monday I had a really successful walk with both dogs.  Louie had a NEAR-PERFECT 1.2 miles, even ran with me a bit and stayed right by my side.  One of the dogs in the neighborhood that normally sends him into a nuclear meltdown was out, even barked at us a few times like he was trying to bait him, but Louie stayed calm and focused.  MAJOR success for my little monster! 

Monday was also, of course, the Unofficial Runners' Holiday, otherwise known as the runninng of the Boston Marathon.  This year's publicity was, of course, extraordinary.  All the focus on the story of last year's bombing ...  I don't even want to go there.  Me, I just really get off watching all those amazing athletes.  I found myself trying to explain to a coworker why Boston is so incredible... and it has NOTHING to do with last year's events.  I've learned a lot this year about why the course is so notorious and what makes it difficult, and anyone who can finish it just Blows. My. Mind. 

There were a number of people from my local running group who qualified and got in this year, two whom I knew well enough to follow and get text updates on how they were doing.  They all finished - Tim and Stacie ran the whole thing together and even crossed the finish line holding hands!  How freaking awesome is that?!?  Dan did an amazing job and posted on Facebook throughout his trip to Boston and before and after pics.  I'm hoping to share more about his experience sometime soon.

Yesterday, Tuesday, I had an early meeting at work - needed to be there by 7:30am for a meeting with all the managers in our office, with the guy whom I'm still referring to as "my new boss."  I tried not to grumble too much about the time.  I am NOT a morning person, but I must admit, it was nice having the meeting out of the way and getting on with our day.  Don't tell my new boss I said that.  :-)

I've been working this week on some transition projects - getting files from our old system into the systems we use with the new firm.  It's tedious work and can be frustrating at times, but I enjoy tedious work and I feel quite a sense of accomplishment when I get each of these done.  There's also a time factor - this project really needs to be completed before we get into our busy season, which is only a month away!  Sand is flowing very quickly through that hour-glass...  I still have high hopes that all this preparation will create a situation where this year's busy season won't be anywhere near as difficult, or as long, as last year's.  I do NOT want to repeat the 4-month frenzy that was last fall and winter.  All this to say, I've been enjoying my job this week.

But the point is, Tuesday night was Catch the Wave group night!  We were out at the lake and for many of our group members, it was their first time there, and / or their first time running the Lake Run Loop Route.  This is the route they will run for the race they've spent the last 9 weeks training for, through some SERIOUSLY bad weather.  They have been real troopers, and I'm so proud of our group!  We ran the route using our planned 8/1 run/walk interval and they did fantastically.  I, on the other hand, was having some trouble during the last mile of our 4.37-mile run.  Damn feet started up again.  More on that later.

Today I have to miss my Ride the Wave group.  I have a board meeting to attend this evening out of town, so I'll be working late and driving home... probably won't be home until after 9pm.  Ew, I hate that.  I am considering leaving work and taking a long lunch break to go for a run.  It will be my last run before Saturday's half marathon.  I'm going to let my feet rest until then, other than a possible dog walk on Friday.

I did finally make it into my physical therapist yesterday.  He checked out my neck pain and recommended I come in for a few visits to work on correcting that.  It's a posture thing - my posture while working at my computer. 

I expected him to tell me the foot pain was caused my the same problems I had last year - my calves are too tight, I need to stretch and foam roll more, I need to stop wearing heels.  I was prepared for a lecture about the exercises he showed me last year and that he can tell I haven't kept up with them.  Instead, he said he was surprised how loose my calves were - they're tight, but nowhere near as bad as last time, and he could tell I've been working on it.  That was very nice to hear... but here's the thing:  he basically said he doesn't have a good idea about what might be the cause of my foot pain. 

He wants me to come in and run on the treadmill and take another look at my form - we did this last year and he had suggestions about my cadence, but said my form was good.  Maybe something about that has changed.  So further investigation is the plan on that.  If we don't know what's wrong, we don't know how to FIX it.  Basically, I took that as terrible news.  But not the kind of terrible news that sends me to the nearest junk-food bar, so you know... there's that.

He did spend some time torturing me - my neck (upper trapezius), calves, and even the bottom of my feet, calluses and all... and I'm pretty sore today. My shoulder / neck area especially - it actually feels bruised there!  And I talked with him about whether I should attempt the Christie Clinic Illinois event this weekend.  He didn't want to tell me one way or the other whether to do it or not, but gave me some good input on what to consider.  And I've been talking with my Catch the Wave co-leaders and my Ride the Wave group members and leaders about it for weeks.  It's time to make a decision.

Found in this mornings email in-box:  Today's Daily Kick in tbe Butt:
"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort."
Jesse Owens


Determination.  Dedication.  Discipline.  Effort.
I think I have my mantra for this weekend's 13.1.  I've decided to go, even through I'm not properly trained for it and I'm still having ongoing issues with foot pain.  I'll do a 5/1 or 4/1 run/walk interval and take it slow, and if it gets to the point where I can't do the run interval anymore, I'll keep walking. 

If I CAN finish, I WILL finish. 

If I can't finish because the pain in my feet is too great, that is going to be okay.

Oh, and as for the title to this post?  The Trepidation part?  Yeah, this half marathon has me scared.  The foot pain, when it's bad, it's BAD and the fear of that pain has been a big part of why I haven't been training more and better since the weather improved.  This weekend is about facing fear, not about running through pain.  I'll stop if I need to, but showing up requires that I face the fear of that pain.

Fear is Fear

Well, my little Self-Pep-Talk did the trick yesterday.  And the shopping, that helped too.  :-)  I changed clothes in the comfy bathroom at work and sneaked out a little before 5pm.  I was one of the first to arrive at the meetup spot for our group run, but I didn't want to give myself any chance of bailing out on my plans.  I knew what the weather had been like this winter when I signed up and paid my registration, and I'll be damned if I'm going to waste a single week of this training program!  There may be weeks when work keeps me away on Wednesday nights, but that wasn't this week.  Still, there was always a chance I'd sneak home, right up until I walked in the doors at the meeting place!  I would have felt SO LOUSY if I'd skipped it, and I knew it.  Sometimes I just have to remind myself of the consequences of my choices.

This was my plan.  Thanks for the inspiration, Distant Runners!

A quick rundown on the workout:  Many people did, in fact, stay home last night due to the extreme temperatures, so my group consisted of two leaders, Georgeanne and Kay, both of whom I ran with last year, myself, and a new (to me) runner named Susan.  The plan was for a three-mile interval run.  The way this played out was a one-mile warm up run, followed by three rounds of "6 minutes at goal pace / 2 minutes recovery."  In my current condition, the two minutes of recovery means walking, but it's intended to be a fast run broken up by short periods of slow jog.  This is something I practiced on the treadmill a few weeks ago and I'm working on it.  I'm used to taking those walk breaks and would like to phase them out.  Mentally, I am not sure it's really good for me.  Physically, there's nothing wrong with it, but I go to them too easily and I need to break that habit, walk only when it's absolutely necessary.

Aaaanyway, my calves were really tight during the first mile, which is typical for me, but they usually loosen up after about 8 minutes.  Last night we finished the first mile in about 13 minutes or so and they were still really tight.  I'm attributing that to the extreme cold.  I was wearing two pairs of pants, but I wasn't exactly toasty.  I walked a few minutes before we started the intervals, and kept up as best I could with our planned pace of 11:30 during the intervals.  I think George ran us at 5 minutes instead of 6.  She mentioned that seemed like a really long 5 minute interval!  Once we finished the intervals we had about a mile left to go and did a slow jog back.  All told, 42 minutes and we did 3.12 miles.  Just what I had in mind, not fast, just fabulous, as they say.

There wasn't much ice on the trail, but once the sun was down, even with my flashlight, I found myself feeling really fearful of slipping on the ice.  By then we were on the return, so we pretty well knew where the ice patches were, but I was having a real mental battle over this ice thing.  At once point I started thinking this was my brain's new version of "I can't do this!" - like that sabotaging part of my mind had found a new way to do its thing and trip me up - psychologically speaking - and hold me back.  Perhaps for the moment it realized that "I can't do this" wasn't going to work, not tonight anyway, and it chose another way.  

Ah, RunnersWorld, sometimes you really knock it outta the park.

Surely my own brain doesn't work that hard to screw up its own plans... does it?  I'm an accountant; not a psychiatrist so what the hell do I know.  

Fear is fear, I guess.  Fear of change, fear of pain, fear of falling, fear of failing, fear of the unknown (to me, that's the ice for sure! Ice is tricksy.)  Perhaps I'm just beginning to recognize what fearful thoughts I have.  That'll be the first step in learning to combat them.

Found this on the Hunting Happiness Project Facebook page.

Tonight I have a group fitness class scheduled with my weight loss challenge group, but it doesn't start until 7:15pm, which is awfully late for me.  I'll have to find a way to combat the urge to bail on that one as well, but for more practical reasons.  When does one EAT when you have a class that late?  Usually I have dinner at 6:30 or so, which is entirely too close to the start time for the class.  So I can't do that, but I can't show up hungry either - that's a recipe for disaster.  And I hate the idea of eating dinner so late - it'll be close to 9pm by the time I get home.  Then again, the class has a pretty good name - Body Attack! - with an exclamation point.  I'm intrigued... I'll probably find a way to make it work.  

Long-Overdue Update

I've been a bad blogger lately. 
But I have some really terrific things that have been taking up my time! - Here are the highlights:

1) On June 30, we added a new member to the family!  This is Louie, a pitbull / boxer / whoknowswhat mix we rescued.  He's about 18 months old, but seems to be new to everything - walking on a leash, basic commands, NOT jumping on people... we have a lot of work ahead of us to get him up to speed.  He's really sweet, loves to cuddle, and enjoys killing any squeaky toy that crosses his path.  (Quite the "strong chewer" this one!)

Handling this bug guy has required some minor lifestyle changes:  I'm getting up early every day to take him and Coty on a morning walk.  Just a short one, but if I can get him up to speed (no pun intended) and learning to run, this could mean I start having some morning runs!  All these years and I never thought anything would convince me to start running early in the morning, but there you have it.  Sometimes you just have to find the right motivator.

Since Louie is new to even the most basic commands, we're spending time every day working with him on learning to sit, stay, lie down, etc.  "COME" is going to be a big one - this guy is a runner, if you drop that leash he just takes off wherever, and does NOT come back.  (Once you catch up with him, he's perfectly happy to come with you though.)

2) I've done a fair amount of work-related travel recently - some overnight, mostly just long drives, which make for long days. Work continues to be very challenging and very rewarding. I love my job, and I'm really glad to be back to doing the work I was meant to do.

I've kept the drives interesting by stopping every now and then for an impromptu photo shoot when I see something cool on the side of the road.

 

If this interests you at all, there are more pics on my personal Facebook page, here.

3)  I've continued with my physical therapy - in fact, today is my last day, and I'm really sad about it!  Is that weird?  Seems like I should be glad I've been pronounced healthy and essentially injury-free, and cleared to continue training for my two fast-approaching half-marathons.  I do have some ongoing issues with my calves and my low back, but they've given me all the tools I need to continue working on them at home. 

Maybe I'm just really selfish:  I go in there once or twice a week, they warm up with me and listen to my runner problems and ask how I'm doing, then massage all my aches, and give me homework to do - I have my own personal team!  My PT is a runner - is in fact a member of my local running group - and I feel like I've had a "coach" for "my sport" - for the first time in my life!  I'm really going to miss them.

They had me do some running on the treadmill a few weeks ago on video and did some analysis of my stride and cadence.  I got some really good feedback - my stride is solid, not too much heel-strike, though I have some homework to do on that as well, but the main thing I need to work on is my cadence.  I plan to go back in a couple of months to video again and see if there's been improvement.

4) Speaking of my upcoming half-marathons:  my long runs quickly got to be VERY long!  I've had two 24-mile weekends in a row!  4th of July weekend I ran my 5-mile race (more on that to come), plus took the dogs on some SERIOUSLY long walks and an 8-mile training run ... 23.65 miles over 4 days!  Last weekend I had a 9-mile training run on tap (plus a 1-mile dog walk and a 0.5-mile warm up & cool down) on Saturday, then Sunday a 4-mile pack walk with Jason and the dogs, plus over 8 miles on the bikes... 23.32 miles for the weekend.

I'm looking forward to a new challenge this weekend:  a 10-mile training run.  This will be my longest-ever run.  And on orders from my PT - I will be doing lots of pre-run dynamic stretching, post-run stretching and foam rolling.  I'm gonna need it.  But I know I can do it.

5) And speaking of all that mileage:  I owe you a June progress update, which I will work on later today.  Spoiler Alert:  I did not hit my 500-mile goal in June. 

That's because I will hit my 500-mile goal this week!!  I'm so excited about it I can't wait:  Total mileage by my count is at 496.65 right now, so I'm less than 4 miles from goal! 

Well that's all I have time for right now.  I hope to post a June Stats Update and a Park2Park Race Recap by the end of the weekend, and will definitely post an update on that 500-mile milestone soon. 

I'll close with my most favorite picture from this past weekend:  Jason and the dogs, half-way through a 4-mile walk.  In their defense, it WAS pretty darn hot out.

Have a great weekend, all.

I Hate Sit-Ups. (Do This Instead)

I'm getting my calves reoriented to running! Last Thursday I managed a 4.37 run/walk using 2/1 intervals. It took a full hour, which COULD be discouraging, but after about a half-hour, my calves FINALLY started to feel loose and NORMAL again! Perhaps I should have pushed harder and longer when I tried it on Wednesday.

Sit-ups have always been rough on my back (being a bit top-heavy, I can never seem to keep my low back flat to the floor), so when my husband told me about this article he read last week, I had to go find it for myself. 

Five Reasons to Never Do Sit-Ups / Crunches again. (BONUS: it's VERY short.)

Of course, this does NOT mean I get to skip my core work: planks, side planks, side planks with pulse, Russian Twists, nearly anything with a Bosu Ball... Especially with all I've learned from my physical therapy sessions the past few weeks, I absolutely need to work that core for a healthier, stronger body!!

Here are some of my favorite options (and some I want to start using):

Basic Plank (classic; I do this all the time, always challenging

 

Side Plank (I also like to do this one with a "pulse" - point your arm to the ceiling and :pulse: your hips to the side (up toward the ceiling) 

Lunge with Rotation (This looks difficult to me; haven't tried it yet, but it incorporates a lot of what my PT is wanting me to work on.)

 

 

 



Bosu Ball Forearm Plank

http://www.realsimple.com/health/fitness-exercise/workouts/bosu-ball-exercises

Bosu Ab Twist

Here's one on the Stability Ball:  Back Extension Rear Leg Raise

Check this out for other options!  25 Variations on the Plank

In my hunt for pics / video I found this terrific list of Bosu exercises:  41 Exercises to Do on a Bosu Ball.

I also referenced these articles:
Best Ab Workouts for Women
8 Killer Ab Exercises (Active.com) - looks like you may need at least the free Active.com membership to read this article.

How did you learn you love running?

Lately I find myself in a constant state of amazement at what my body is capable of. 

When I first started running, after every 5k race I participated in, even if I did a significant amount of walking in order to finish, I was barely able to walk the next day, let alone go out and get some more exercise.  Now, I think of 5k's like "another training run" - one I will really push myself on.  I can even go for another 3-mile run/walk the afternoon of a race, without experiencing any muscle soreness the next day.  The day after a race, I'm ready for another run, (preferably this time with my dog).

I'm reminded of this today because my Wednesday night Ride the Wave group had our first "Hill Workout" last night.  (I did take the dog - she was ecstatic - it was her second walk of the day!)  I was expecting we would pick a big hill and then run up and down it a bunch of times, but I was mistaken.  We ran as a group, 4 1/2 miles in a figure-eight loop on the streets of a hilly neighborhood.  It wasn't as grueling as what I expected, but it was certainly a really tough workout.  We earned it last night.  (What did we earn?  Well, I guess that's up to each of us.)  And this morning, I marvel at how my legs aren't even sore. 

I was talking with someone during the run last night (and last week too, I think... hmmm, I must talk about this a lot.) about how slow my weight loss has been over the past 18 months.  Running helps me stay focused and committed despite the slow progress.  I focus on the running because that's where I can always see improvement. It's not always on the scale. It's not always on my ass or in the way my clothes fit. But it's right there on the clock.  If I work hard and stay consistent, it'll be there every damn week.

Shoot I think I just found myself a motto. Or at least an answer to that age-old question:

"Why do you run?"

Visit Life in the Day of a Runner and "Like" their page!

Two Great Workouts

I have two workout rundowns for you today - both a bit overdue.

Last week's group run was a Speed Workout - an entirely new experience!  First, a weather report, because it's Illinois, so the weather is ALWAYS a factor.  Yeah, it was FREEZING, and WINDY!  Temps were in the 20s, I'm not sure the exact number, but it was freakin' miserable out there!  But sunny... it was the first workout after the time change, so that was a big plus.

We met at a local high school track, and once we finished bitching about the cold, we got started just a quickly as possible.  Here's the plan we followed:

• 1-mile easy jog to warm up
• 400m (once around the track) FAST, 400m recovery jog - do this 4 times
• 200m recovery walk/ jog
• 200m FASTER (you're only going half-way around the track, MOVE IT!), 200m recovery jog (try really hard not to walk now... but that's tough)
• Cool down walk / slight jog, 800m.

It was really great - I think if not for the cold I might have actually enjoyed it!  Total mileage was about 4 miles, and we were at it for about an hour.  Hard to tell about the time; I think I stopped and forgot to restart my Garmin during one of the intervals.  The best part is that it was a true "group run".  Normally, we in the "Relaxed Runners" group have such disparate paces that we spread out quite a bit during our weekly runs, end up running in even smaller groups - sets of 2 or 3, or on my own - which is fine, I still get the motivation and accountability of being with the group, and I enjoy running on my own as much as anything, but with this set schedule, we stuck in a tighter unit.  I got to know several of the other women a bit better.  It's funny how the conversation flows during the "recovery" intervals - we were working hard, getting tired, and at least for myself, getting honest.  I find myself talking about things I don't normally think about, much less talk about.  Funny how everything is so interconnected.  Diet, fitness, health - it's all mental, it's all physical, it's all the same.  I'm turning into a freakin' Zen runner?

Okay, whatevs... I have another run I want to share, and this one has pictures!

There was a big snowstorm coming this weekend, scheduled to start Saturday night, so I planned my long run for Saturday.  (Good thing, too, since the storm was worse than I expected - good god, we got over 8 inches!  Started Saturday night as planned, didn't stop until Monday morning!)  But Saturday.  Saturday was perfect.  I took Coty to the vet for her checkup, then out for a run to work off her anxiety.  It was warmish - in the 40s, no wind, sunny skies.  Cool enough to run comfortably without a ton of gear and layers on!

I wanted to do between 7.5 and 8 miles, so we headed out from the house and then north to the very end of the trail, and then a bit further, until my Garmin beeped 4 miles.  I was so glad I remembered to bring my phone - I took some pics along the way!  Right at the start, Coty had a little run-in with a cat.

"Wait!  Come back!"

I wasn't quite quick enough on the draw with my phone, but it was pretty entertaining! This was during our warm-up walk anyway, not an interruption.  Once that little distraction was past, it was time to start running. My goal for the day was to run by and large the entire route, with a short break every two miles.  Due to various factors, some dog-related stops, ran into a couple of people I knew, etc., it ended up more like a short break every mile.  The only two miles I ran solid were #s 5 and 6, but man, it was a great time, I don't regret that one bit.

Here are some photos I took along the way:

Before - all keyed up!

Coty, before her Running Rehab.

We came across some geese who landed just beside the trail where we were running.  Coty couldn't resist!

The End of the Road (but we went just a bit farther)

 

Looking to the north-east at the turn-around point.

The view south-west from the turn-around point.

Looking back the way we came.

The road ahead, at the turn-around point.

 

Coty, half-way through!

This one is my favorite!

We've done this before.  Back in August, when I failed to blog for a couple of months, I went on this same route twice.  Once to see if I could go 8 miles (it's still the longest long run I've ever done), and again because I didn't have a camera the first time.  But I never did write about it, and I always wanted to.  Now I have.

Have a good week - I intend to.  After two great workouts like these, what could go wrong?

No coincidence

Today has been a whirlwind!  The past week was a little rough on the old diet and exercise plan... a 12-hour workday on Monday (including lunch at *gasp!* Buffalo Wild Wings), good workout followed by pizza on Tuesday, group run Wednesday (and pretty clean eating all day - a win!), working out of town again on Thursday (let's just say there were cookies involved and not talk about it)...

But I was back to routine for the weekend - a terrific group run Saturday morning - the group raised over $1,000 for the local Child Protection Network!!  I had a bunch of housework to do and was afraid if I did a long run I'd be too tired to get to it, so I kept it short - 3.5 miles, about 40 minutes.  Spent the rest of the day doing laundry & various housekeeping.

Saturday night was the usual round of debauchery... er, I mean a fun night out!

And today, Sunday... Weigh In Day.  I was a little bit dreading it.  Anyone in their right mind would, considering the week I had.  So here's the damage:

I was down 0.8 pounds!  Believe you me, I must have checked it 6 times.  Put me at exactly 168.0 - my "mini-goal" weight set nearly six months ago!  So a goal achieved today!!

This puts my BMI at 28.8.  I set a new goal of 10 more pounds, which will put me at BMI of 27.  Let's hope this takes less than 6 months!

Here's what I have to say about all this:

a)  I set that last goal in late September, just before the busy budgeting season at my old job.
b)  That's about when I really found out just how much I didn't like that job.
c)  I lost a total of 2.4 pounds between then and the first day on the new job.
d)  Since starting the new job (which I'm loving), four weeks ago, I've lost 2.2 pounds.

Coincidence??  I think not.

On with my day:  since yesterday's run was shorter, I had a long run planned today.  I took Coty to the Lake and we did the normal 4.4-mile "lollipop" route, but extended it by running the "loop" portion twice.  It was raining, but not too bad.  Mostly sprinkling, but with occasional bouts of real rain.  It would rain really good for five minutes or so, and then pass us by and go back to sprinkling / light rain.  The weather was WARM (yes, 50 degrees definitely counts as "warm" for mid-March in Illinois).  There was still some snow on the ground in places, which created this really neat mist here and there that we got to run through.  I ended up running 6.75 miles in just about 1 hour, 24 minutes.  

I can't wait to see how I fare in the St. Patrick's Day 5k next Sunday.  I'm super excited about it - it's on a Sunday, Jason's day off, so he's going to volunteer at the finish line - I get to have my hubby waiting for me at the finish line, and we get to drink some green beer afterward!!  

Jedi Mind Trick

After the MPZ race, I headed home knowing I still needed to walk the dog.  (Saddest dog EVER watching me leave in the morning in my running gear!)  With all the weather we've been getting lately, she's gotten a lot of "quickie" walks and I wanted to do right by my little running buddy, so I decided she deserved a good 3-mile excursion.  So basically, I went and did another 5k.  This one was MUCH slower, took it really easy, about 45 minutes and plenty of walking.  We both had a grand ole time.

Saturday night was the usual... drinks with friends and a burger basket at our local watering hole.  Woke up entirely too early on Sunday for no good reason.  Jason was awake too, so after my weigh-in...  Ah, yes, the Weigh-In!  Down 1.8 lbs this week!  This puts me at a BMI of 29.0 and less than 1 lb from my next "mini-goal."  The current goal was just 6 lbs, set on September 22 - Man, this one has been SLOW coming.  But slow loss beats steady gain EVERY damn time, right??

Anyway, after the weigh-in we decided to go out to breakfast and do some shopping.  I broke my cardinal rule & took off without doing anything with my hair or makeup... so of course we ran into my new boss at TJ Maxx!  Never, never, ever leave the house on Sunday without makeup!

Once we decided we'd had enough running around, it was time for my workout.  I drove Coty to the park & hopped on the Trail for another 3-4 miler.  My legs felt really heavy.  I really left it all on the course Saturday and my shit was t-i-r-e-d!!  But instead of calling it a tough day and walking it, I used a little trick I learned in Catch The Wave... Walk 5 minutes to warm up, then run 2 minutes.  Walk 1, run 3.  Walk 1, run 4... etc.  Just keep upping the running minutes in each round, and by the time you're up to an 8-minute running interval, you've gone 3.5 miles!  It's the old "shut up, you can run for another 4 minutes... it's only 4 more minutes!" trick!!

Yes, it's my own personal Jedi Mind Trick.

Becoming Calloused

Well with the new job I'm struggling a little with making some time for blogging but I'm still doing my thing over here.  It was a great week at work - I'm totally loving the new job.  SO glad I decided to make this change!  So... workout rundown for the week:

Monday:  pouring down rain.  Of course, it was clear but cold all day, right up until I got off work and headed home for a 3-mile run!  It started pouring down while I was getting changed into running clothes.  I actually had to talk Coty into going for a walk.  That's how bad it was.  Completely insane.  Do you have any idea what it takes to make that dog LAY DOWN when you suggest going for a walk???  So we did get in one mile... one very fast mile and got completely soaked through in under 15 minutes.  :-D

Tuesday was a long day - I had to go out of town for work, so up at 5am, on the road at 6:15am, worked 8am - 5pm at a client, then the 1 1/2-hour drive home.  No workout for me.  I call that a "rest day."

Wednesday was the first night for Ride the Wave!  I've been so excited for this, and made sure to eat "clean" all day - a really healthy lunch (one i was so pleased with, I took a picture!) and hefty afternoon snack to fuel up, and left work early so I could change clothes and be there right on time, at 5:15pm.  There was some socializing and introductions, some discussion of what the program is about, etc. and then a 2-mile assessment run. We had an opportunity to warm up with about a 1-mile jaunt to the "starting line" so I did an easy 2-minute walk / 2-minute jog to warm up on that distance.   I was hoping to run the entire 2 miles and average about a 11:30-min pace.  It was dark, so although I had my Garmin on, I didn't have much opportunity to monitor my pace, and the point is to run at a "comfortable" speed, and as I said, a speed I can maintain for the full 2-mile run.  As expected, I was one of the last to complete the assessment (compared to the 50-odd other participants, I'm definitely one of the slowest!) but I'm happy to report I came in at 22:54 - RIGHT ON PACE with my goal.  Awesome.

Full Garmin details here

Thursday was a gym day and I started with 20 minutes of interval training on the stationary bike on Level 5.  That one is still pretty tough but it may be time to consider trying Level 6.  Got in 5 miles before the timer went off. Then I did a "full-body" strength training workout - three sets each of 11 different exercises, hitting all muscle groups.  Highlights:  I bumped up my barbell curls from 20 lbs / 10 reps to 30 lbs / 6 reps.  That was tougher than I expected.  Will have to work on that.  Another new Bosu Ball Exercise:  squats on that wobbly thing!  Pretty self-explanatory, but I found a video for you anyway.   That was challenging - think I worked on balance more than glutes with those squats - but MUCH easier than the side-to-side lunges from two weeks ago!  Another new exercise:  "Fireflies" - this is awkward and I don't like to think what it looks like if you're a fellow gym-goer and have to watch me do this, but it feels good, works practically the whole body, and it's difficult!  Check out the video below.  Oh and this will be relevant later on... we had a snowstorm Thursday night.  Started around 4pm and it was fun looking out the gym windows and seeing all that snow dumping out of the sky!  (Didn't hurt that the weather kept the gym attendance low that night!!)

Friday I was a bit sore (the good kind) from the gym workout but feeling fantastic.  As always, Friday is a rest day so after work, just chilled out till Jason got home and we headed out for an evening together.  Burger baskets, beer, and oh yeah, something in the basement of the bar CAUGHT FIRE.  That pretty much cleared the joint out, but of course, we finished our beer and made sure to settle our tab before we headed home.  In all honesty, it was really more of a smolder than a fire but it's more fun to say the place was in flames, don'tcha think??  The fire department never even showed up but they located the source of the smoke and took care of it inside of maybe 20 minutes or so.  All's well that ends well - Jason had to work today anyway so we had planned to make an early night of it.

So today I planned a 3-4 mile group run.  The roads were relatively clear of all that snow but there are still patches of ice and packed snow here & there.  Well, wouldn't you know it, I found the ice!  About 4 minutes into our run, my left foot hit a bit of (what appeared to be) wet pavement (but which was in fact, wet ice) and went sliding at freaky-fast speed directly to my right.  I went sprawling.  UGH when will I learn not to fall down all the damn time?!?!?!  I landed HARD on the outside of  my left knee and the outside of my thigh, tweaked my ankle just a bit, and my face hit the curb.  (I had a nightmarish flash-forward of how I was about to lose my teeth.  Thank goodness I just hit my chin on the curb.  My teeth remain intact.)  I'm SO GLAD Meg was running with me, she encouraged me to stay still, evaluate my condition and then we walked for several minutes, tried some more running, and finished the run.  We just took care, took our time, ran some, walked some, and chatted.  Got about 3 miles in after all, just slowly - about 54 minutes (including my time on the ground).  There was a stretching demo set for after the run so I stuck around for that and gave my very unhappy leg/knee/thigh muscle some solid stretching.  Once my body began to cool off, it REALLY started to tighten up.  I'm taking it easy for the rest of the day, RICE (Meg taught me this great acronym) Rest, Ice, Compress, and Elevate.

So now I'm limping.  I took a bunch of Advil & I'm RICEing it.  We'll see how it feels tomorrow.  I don't think I have a serious injury.  Just some bruising and, apparently, some balance issues!

Tonight is our friend John's Big Fortieth Birthday so I'm planning to wear Extremely Un-Sensible Shoes, have dinner out, and party like a 40-year-old rock star later.  Hope my leg holds up to the abuse!  And as always, tomorrow will be another weigh-in day.  Have fun out there!

Last thought for the day:  found this on Facebook this week and I loved it.  I love the thought that "Your mind becomes calloused to effort."  We can train our minds the same way we train our bodies, and at the same time.
BTW, here is where I found it:  Not sure the source, it was on my friend's wall.

BOO-YAH!!

It's been a few days since my last post but luckily I've had a pretty mundane few days...  Wednesday was my last post so you know that was a Gym Day, but all running, no strength training.  Thursday was supposed to be another gym workout - all weight training - but it turns out that was also a holiday of some sort... what's it called?  Oh yeah, Valentine's Day.  So here's the thing... I came home to change clothes and got... um...  distracted by a nice dinner & movie night with my dear husband.  No Thursday night workout for me!  oops.

Friday was another rest day (this one planned - I really hate working out Fridays after work and then having to take another shower & get dressed to go out),  

So back to the routine on Saturday:  here's a hint:  my Facebook / LoseIt! updates yesterday afternoon looked like this:  

"AWESOME RUN TODAY! Walked 1/2 mi, ran 1.5 mile, then felt so good I decided to reset my timer and run a 5k to see what kind of time I might get - so another 3.1 miles followed by a 1-mile walk (the rest of the way home) - THAT'S RIGHT I set a NEW Personal Record for 5K today, just screwing around on my dog-walk!! And total mileage for the day 6.2.

BOO-YAH!! :-)"

Here's how it happened: (gotta share because it just felt kind of magical)

I headed out with a loosely-defined plan of running & walking 5-6 miles, heading to Constitution Trail from the house and going south.  I walked the first 1/2-mile, then combination walk / run (mostly run) another 1/2-mile to warm up.  Then I really felt ready to get going and ran a full mile. During that mile, I kept noticing my mind wandering and I would think - "Oh crap, I've slowed down!" and check my watch... only to find it was solidly between 11:00 and 11:30 each time, which is a fine pace for me.  "Easy run" for me is in the neighborhood of 12:00 - 12:30 and I wasn't looking to push for speed, just a basic endurance run.  But MAN, it felt so good and I felt really comfortable (Note to self:  this is what it feels like to have two days off before a long run.)  Then my mind got to wandering again and I started thinking about the upcoming race schedule.  I'm excited for this year's races, feel like it's going to be a very successful year for running.  Now I'm getting off on a tangent, but that's exactly what it was like.  The first 5k of the year is just two weeks away, and you know how goal-oriented I am... I began thinking What should I have as my goal pace for the MPZ Stampede?  My stated goal for the year is to run a 5k under 35 minutes... but man if I'm feeling comfortable right now at 11:20... what does that work out to?

Yes, I'm an accountant; I could totally do that math in my head, but who cares about the MATH??  I decided I wanted to know what I could do, like NOW.  So when I hit the 2-mile mark, I decided to walk a few minutes, reset my Garmin, and start the clock over.  I'll run a 5k today, in the middle of this long run, and see just how fast I can do it.  Simple plan, plus it had the added benefit of Immediate Gratification.  

I filled Coty in on the plan; she seemed to be on board, and off we went!  No walking, and I tried not to check the watch too often, just run as fast as I felt comfortable doing, and with the exception of a couple of emergency pee-breaks requested by the dog, kept moving as fast as possible until the 3.1-mile marker.  At the end of the run, the watch said 36:15!  My previous 5k record was 37:18 last October at the CISAR 5k Leg Lifter, so I shaved MORE THAN a FULL MINUTE off my previous PR!  And check out those stats!  I managed a negative split on mile three but that first mile (which was Mile 3 if you're keeping track from the start of the day's workout) was a SOLID 11:25.  Sweet!

That.  Was.  Awesome.  

Here's a photo of my tired, happy dog after what turned out to be a practice 10K run on Saturday.

Man, it's hard to capture her eyes - her face always comes out as a black blob.  Oh, and yeah, it's winter.  The yard looks like crap.

Today was a lazy day.  (As most Sundays are around here.)  It was also weigh-in day - I came in at exactly the same weight as last week (believe me, I stepped on the scale 5 times, damn thing never budged!) - so zero gain / loss this week.  I did head out for a 3-mile run / walk with Coty and attempted a Test Mile.  That was a bust, but only because Coty decided to be a jerk and behave in a menacing manner toward another runner on the track, interrupting BOTH our workouts.  I had to stop the watch, put her on her back and scold her, and keep her on a short leash for the rest of the run, including the second half of the Test Mile, as consequences (aka punishment) for her growling and barking at a stranger who was completely within his rights. Bad dog.  

Anyway, the test mile came in a 10:05 - still pretty great for me, but not a new record.  I can feel great about that time, but I'm disappointed in Coty's behavior.  

Well, I'm off to bed, gearing up for another great week at work! Oh and Ride the Wave starts this Wednesday so I'll have a new, structured training plan readying me for the Lake Run 12K the first weekend in May (and in the process, also for my 10K at the end of April!!)

5k Days

Quick post... this week is going great so far.  All-day orientation for the new job on Monday, followed by interval-training run - 3 rounds of 6-minute intervals at "medium-hard" (which I defined as 11:00 to 11:30 pace) and 2-minute "easy" run (around 12:00-12:30).  Total time around 45 minutes with walk / run and got in a 5k!  

Tuesday was my first "real" day in the office, and more training (software I'll be using, company history, staff updates, etc.).  I stayed a little after 5pm and ended up home too late to make my Tuesday night running group (shoot!  That's 2 weeks in a row!) but took Coty out for another 5k in the neighborhood.  My training schedule called for a 30-40 minute "easy" run and that felt great.  Total time about 44 minutes, with some warm-up and cool-down walking thrown in there.

Today was cool - I got started actually doing some real work, reading some recently-issued financial statements & checking out workpapers & audit documentation.  There is a team in the field who had a question and I was able to help answer it for them, and I learned some interesting things about some of my new clients.  Man, all I could think about all day was, "why the hell did I ever leave public accounting???" I loved this job.  I'm excited to find I'm still enjoying it like I used to.

Okay.  Enough gushing about my new job.  It's going well and I'm happy I made the change.  I realize no one wants to hear how much fun it is being an anal auditor accounting freak.

But here's a photo of the name plate on my new office door!

And tonight was a gym night (Jason has the day off work and took care of the dog-walking duties).  My training schedule called for a Hill Workout so I hopped on the treadmill and hit that little button for "Rolling Hills" (a button which I have never before pressed) and set the timer for 40 minutes.  My calves were feeling SUPER tight so I did as much running as I was comfortable with and allowed myself some walk breaks.  The hills weren't really the hard part - challenging but not too hard - I think it was just that three days straight of running = tired legs & calves.  I got through it and ended up with - you guessed it - 3.1 miles in about 40 minutes!  (Theme for the week?)

Oh one last thing:  Jason went to the grocery store today & got himself all excited, wanting Rice Crispy Treats.  He bought all the ingredients (even READ the RECIPE) and begged me to make them.  So they are currently cooling in the kitchen, with Nestle Tollhouse peanut butter & milk chocolate morsels spread on top.  I'm going to try not to "help" too much in making them disappear.

I'm All About the Research

I'm getting excited about race season starting up again!  Just 3 weeks until the first 5K of the year!!  And of course there are 11 weeks left before my first 10K of the year - the Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon Event on April 27.  As I have the past two years, I'm running the 10K distance in this event.  (They also hold a 5K, half-marathon and full-marathon.)  (Yes, I wimped out and registered for the 10K, not the half.)

I found a training plan on the Athleta web site and spent some time this evening tweaking and transcribing the plan into my Training Log (thanks again, Heidi & Ben, I'm using that thing DAILY and I love it!) to follow my normal weekly workout schedule.  Here is the base plan that I started with:  Training for a 10K


I sort of tweaked it from an 8-week plan to an 11-week plan.  One of the alterations I made was to extend the long runs in the last few weeks, similar to how I trained for the We Care Twin Cities 10K last September.  I really felt great on race day after conditioning my body to run slower, for longer distances.  I got myself "used" to going 7 and 8 miles, and that made the 6.2 on race-day feel fast and easy.  I want that again!  (Plus, can't hurt for training for that half later in the year.)

I picked up this book at the library a couple of weeks ago and have been really enjoying it.  I'm about 2/3 through it now, and I'd like to look back through in the next few days and review what I've gotten from it... sort of a little review I guess.  So you've got that to look forward to.  In the meantime, here's a little sneak-peek:

Photo from Amazon.com

She had me right from the start.  Check out this passage (which begins on page 1) (Really, page 1, she had me!):

Listen to those millions of women runners.  Listen to their quiet breaths as they talk in predawn pairs before the rest of the family wakes or with their group of friends on Saturday morning before lattes.  Listen  to the lessons and the laughter, the questions and camaraderie they share to the rhythm of stead footsteps: “I feel so much stronger… “ “I’m ready to take on a new challenge…” “I never thought I could, but now…”

Women develop a special sorority on the roads.  The bond is based on an understanding of the empowerment that comes with running, full realization of the capabilities of mind and body, appreciation of how far they have come, and a knowing wink that says how much is yet to be gained.  Running, in short, is growth.  Movement.  Progress.  To run is to feel alive.  And so they talk and share – and run.  Singly and in groups, swiftly and slowly, they run.

Now, the whole thing isn't this flowery, it's really quite practical, but those two paragraphs really grabbed me and I've gotten a lot of great tips along the way.  She also includes training plans for beginners, intermediate runners, and for those training for a 10K, half, and marathon.

Okay, now that's about all I have to say for today.  Seriously, three posts in one day?  What is up with me??
Must be the weather.  It's been raining and windy and cold all day.  It's my "rest" day as far as the workout schedule goes, and I even made the hubby walk the dog.  I did a little housekeeping but otherwise, all I've done all day is watch TV and blog.  I gotta admit it's a pretty great way to spend a rainy day.