Imagine

Slogged through 4 slow, irritable miles today in the chilly, damp air. Did a LOT of walk breaks for some reason and even had to stop to help a lost runner from out of town try and find her way along the Canal Loop. I felt frustrated, too hot (wore an unnecessary rain jacket), and fatigued. When I got back and mapped my time and route, my pace was slightly faster than the last couple of times I ran the same route and was faster than the pace I need to make my 2:30 HM goal. I don’t even pretend to know what gives but I will take what I got.

I am starting to think about life after a half marathon. What will I do with all the new found free time? What can I do to avoid the seemingly inevitable weight gain that most runners experience after a race?

I am thinking that since weight gain is almost inevitable due to increased appetite but fewer calories being burned in the first few weeks after the race would be a perfect time to focus on muscle building. To build muscle, you have to eat. To keep all that food from getting used as fat, your best bet is to build muscle.

So that is becoming my plan at least related to my fitness levels. After the race, I will cut back on my mileage but go way up on weight lifting. My next scheduled race isn’t until June, and that is the Henricus Dauber Dash (check the name! I have to run this!!!) where due to the obstacles, extra strength will help a whole lot.

I confess, the idea of not being in training is a little scary. I have been at this a while now, months actually, I like having a daily and weekly plan laid out for me, and I like the results of the work I have put in. When I wake up on Sunday, March 18th, for the first time since December 3rd, I won’t have a schedule to turn to. The day won’t be specific for something, whether it be rest, speed intervals, a long run, or weight training.

So after the first week after the race, I will definitely continue my “training” but not even close to the levels I am working at right now. In fact, I am most looking forward to extra time with Grace and Byram. I hope to find family-friendly active activities for us to do as a group. Walks at the park, swims at the Y, maybe eventually even bike rides together at the state park once we are all able and equipped for such a thing.

I really want my family to be active together and I have this little fantasy of Grace and I running races together when we are both a little older. How amazing would it be to cross a finish line together with my daughter one day? That thought, that visual image stays in my mind on some of those hard, long runs and helps me keep going.

Shoe Shopping! (But Not Like You Think…)

As of today, I have dispensed with using MapMyRun for logging my workouts. I love The Daily Mile now. The only reason I stayed this long with MMR is because I had started tracking my workouts for the Winter 100 Challenge there, and since I have long completed those 100 miles, I packed up screenshots, sent them over to Kristen (The Running Mom) and have finished that challenge. Maybe I will win a cute headband or a tube of Nuun tablets, and maybe I won’t, but either way, I am proud of my mileage.

I really feel like last week’s running break has done me a world of good. Today is one of those days where running has done me a world of good as well. I left out of here in a horrible mood, grumpy and low. I plotted a new route (albeit a short one) and went out on an adventure run. It is hard to be bogged down in menial and depressing thoughts when you are taking in new surroundings and making sure you don’t get lost.

Tonight, I hope to get to the Y and do another 2 and a half miles since I need to log 5 for the day. After that, some severe core work and then some stretching. I will finish my night at the Y the way I always do: some laps around the track with Grace.

The Instant Classic Half is closing in. We are nearing the peak of the training runs with 11 miles scheduled for this Saturday, dropping back to 8 next Saturday, then going up to 12 on March 3rd, and tapering off to 6 miles on the 10th, the week before the race. That’s it. Only 4 training team runs left. Yesterday, the race organizers posted the route through the park for the half marathon and it looks like a big figure 8. I spent some time on Google Earth just looking at the area from space, seeing what the elevation looks like and what not. The park is mostly treed so I couldn’t see much actual trail, but I don’t really need to.

One major task lies before me this weekend: new running shoes. I have been doing a TON of virtual shoe shopping, trying to decide between minimalist, trail, road, fully supportive, and all the other options I don’t even understand. I think I would like a trail shoe because I run so often off-road, but I need them to be road worthy too. I would kind of like to check out these Brooks PureGrit shoes.

Source: brooksrunning.com via Melisent on Pinterest

The price is alright and they have really good ratings. I would like to give them a try on and see.

But I have a confession: I can’t explain why, but I am incredibly intimidated by going and trying on expensive and fancy running shoes. No good reason, it is just…difficult for me.

Time to buck up because I am going shoe shopping on Saturday!

A Little Ironic and Ass Backwards

So yeah, rest works.

I felt a thousand times better today than I had all week. I was psyched to hit the weight room at lunch and I am looking forward to my 8 miles tomorrow (though I do wish it would be a tad bit warmer).

Felt like committing attempted homicide on my entire upper body so I upped my weights across the board in general and hit it. I will write it out in the order I have my lifts listed on my sheet but that was not necessarily the order I lifted in.

Dumbbell Bench Press: 2 sets x10 reps w/ 20 pound dumbbells.
Dumbbell Military Press: 2 sets x10 reps w/ 15 lb dumbbells
Shoulder Shrugs: 2 x10 w/25 pound dumbbells
Lateral Raises: 1 x5 w/ 10 lbs dbs, 1 x10 w/ 7.5 dbs (holy crap these are hard)
Bent Over 1 Arm Rows (both arms) 2 x10 w/ 20 lb db
Standing Rows: 1 x9 w/20 lbs and 1 x7 w/ 20 lb dbs (failed both times)
Lying Pec Decks: 2 x10 w/ 12.5 lb dbs
Lat Pulldown: 2×10 w/ 27.5 lbs
Cable Row: 2×10 w/ 5 plates (no clue about the actual weight; the plates were just number 1 though however many there are; I am guessing somewhere between 30 and 50 pounds?).
Back Extensions: 2 x10 while holding an 8lb medicine ball
Crunches: 1 x10
Reverse Crunches: 1 x10
Plank: 1 for 1 minute (New record!!!)

This workout left me feeling amazing. My hands were trembling as I unlocked my locker. My pencil marks on my sheet were barely legible from my shaking arms. I left the Y with one of those true highs where I couldn’t stop grinning, felt amazing, and was warm all over so that I didn’t need a coat over my short sleeves.

Created a MyFitnessPal account to track my calories since I forgot the old system I used to use. Yesterday, even with fully trying to consume more calories, and with one regular beer and one unusually dark beer (Southern Tier Chocklat Stout; so good!), I came in at less than 1800 (which is where MFP wants to see me at based on weight and height, but it does not factor in my activity level). Today, I have already mapped out much of the days calories including our planned dinner, and I am almost 700 calories short for the day currently. I don’t want to up my calories with pure junk, though that would be easy to do, but I need a calorie boost in small packages. I already eat nuts, I got some 70% dark chocolate squares (had one today in fact for an added 55 calories), I drink milk (nutrient dense and calorie dense without being especially filling), and I am drinking protein shakes.

I think for now I am going to aim for 1800 calories or there about per day and see if the 200-400 calorie increase helps my energy problems; if not, I will have to go to even higher calorie foods at meals to get myself above the 2000 calorie threshold.

When I underwent gastric bypass, at the time, it never occurred to me that there might come a time when I was counting calories again just to make sure I was getting enough energy.

Yes, it does feel a little ironic and ass backwards.

Overtrained and Underfed?

I have been dragging terribly all week; particularly since Saturday’s 10 mile run followed with the afternoon spent moving someone out of their house. No energy. No motivation. Monday’s twanged quadricep made me nervous but that seems to have panned out okay. Tuesday I did an awesome interval run, bumping up the speed a notch this time, but by 23 minutes (2.25 miles) I was out of gas. Period. Nothing left and my gut was cringing and I threw in the towel. Yesterday, I was exhausted but talked myself into dressing out. I did my 5 minute warm up and I was so miserable, I turned around and came back to work, head hanging in shame.

I suspect a little overtraining. I haven’t done the resting heartbeat test, but all of the rest of the symptoms are there. Irritability, decreased performance, decreased energy, lingering mild muscle soreness, and so forth.

So today, I rested. I might do some gentle yoga tonight but that is as far as I would push it today. Tomorrow, I will do my upper body workout, and Saturday, I will go run my 8 miles with the team, but today, I rest.

I have done a lot of reading on overtraining this week; I think a major contributor to my issues has been my diet. My diet is not bad. In fact, since the first of the year when I first started culling the extra junk from my diet, my diet has been pretty awesome. I was so proud because for a few weeks I tracked my calories, and I mean all of them, including liquid ones, and was finding myself taking in 1400-1600 calories a day, which is perfect for my weight, and which, from what I am reading, is not enough to support my high level of activity.

Estimates range, but what I see a lot of is that a 30 year old, 155 pound 5’7″woman, running about 20 miles per week (and not even including the weight lifting I have been doing), needs to be eating 2200-2400 calories per day to maintain energy levels.

Not so proud of those 1400-1600 calories a day now.

This is a conundrum for me. I tightened up my nutrition a bit too much, but at the same time, I am not sure exactly how to get even close to that number of calories in per day with a measuring cup sized pouch rather than a football sized stomach.

God help me, I think I am going to have to go back to Obesity Help’s fitness board and ask others how they manage.

Blue On a Monday

Monday is lower body lifting day.

Started like usual with dumbbell squats, but on the first squat, a muscle in my right quad pinged. I tried a couple more but my form was shit and the pain got worse each time. I switched over to the leg press machine, which did not seem to aggravate the injured muscle.

Leg Press: 2×10 at 150 lbs
Standing Calf Raise: 2×10 w/ 17.5 lb dumbbells (need more weight next time)
Hamstring Curl: 2×10 at 50 lbs
Back Extension w/ 8 lb medicine ball: 2×10
Crunches: 2×15
Reverse Crunches: 2×10

Stretched the hurt quad and foam rollered it. Very worried at the moment. Tuesdays are speed days and I am going to baby the hell out of my leg today, and try to run tomorrow if it feels safe to do so.

Whatever Dude

I decided to go test my theory about my weight and size, and I confirmed I really can fit into a size 6 pair of pants now. Nice.

Spent much of the week suffering from Monday’s lower body workout. I don’t think the next one will take so long to recover from. I remember having a similar experience each time I start a new routine.

Watching my average pace times slowly decrease and that is making me very happy. I did speed intervals on Tuesday on a treadmill, 4 miles on Wednesday, and 3 miles yesterday. Tomorrow, 10 miles. My first double digit distance. Not particularly nervous or worried about the run but more concerned about my energy levels afterwards. I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow.

Heard a new derisive term to refer to the weight room today while in the women’s locker room. “Manland.” I had thought that the stigma against lifting free weights was lifting in our modern world; I suppose not. But then again, I had a “screamer” in the weight room with me today counting every rep at a good high decibel level and ending each set with a guttural “Jesus Christ!” He wasn’t lifting puny weights, but really?

I admit. I looked him square in the face and rolled my eyes like a slot machine.

“Whatever gets you through your set, dude.”

Getting Smaller But Gaining Weight

I am seeing progress after a long plateau since November and recovering from some backsliding several weeks ago.

I love http://dailymile.com. I have used MapMyRun for ages, but I find it slow-moving and sometimes tedious. I am keeping my MMR tracking going until the end of the Winter 100 Challenge I am participating in, at the end of which I will screensave and send my monthly totals from MMR in, and then I think I will leave MMR behind for good.

After slacking on my training during the two weeks around Christmas and New Years (not completely stopped but down), my average pace increased by almost a minute and I needed a lot more walk breaks on my runs. I saw no real progress with my strength training during that time either.

Daily Mile’s really cool graph system is allowing me to see in a very visual way that my average pace is once again on the decrease (hooray!). I discovered yesterday that I suspect the HMTT I am running with is having a good/bad effect on my training. I think I get a little “race-like” when I start off with the group but then by the end of the run, whatever the distance, I am totally gassed and doing more walk breaks. When I ran by myself at home yesterday, my only break was the few steps I slowed down for to get across Hopkins Road safely. I slowed significantly after running up the Beulah Bitch but even after that hill, I never had to slow to a real walk. My overall pace was faster.

In other news, I am falling into that weird situation where I have gained back all the weight I lost in the first 14 days of the year (only 2 pounds) putting my weight back up to where I was on New Years Eve when I was carrying about 4 extra pounds since Thanksgiving. That being said, I have had to move my wrist watch to a smaller hole and my size 10 pants are now almost unwearably baggy, and my size 8s, that have been my bread and butter size pants for so long, are getting loose.

What gives? Is the combination of the longer distance runs and the moderate weight lifting I have been doing paying off with more muscle mass? Can you gain a couple of pounds of muscle mass in a month (or really, since early December when I started both the half marathon training team and upper body strength training)? I only started boosting my protein intake at the beginning of January, so I tend to discount much of the work I put in for December after we got our YMCA memberships.

I don’t know what is going on with my weight. I do NOT want any extra fat weight to carry on my 13.1 mile run in March, but if I am gaining strength and muscle, then those are worthy pounds to carry because stronger legs and core will especially help me with the trail aspect of this half marathon. The evidence points to muscle (smaller wrist watch size, looser pants) but I am still wary. I am also not trying to get back into the habit of agonizing over every single pound up and down on the scale because that is not a healthy mental practice for me.

Finally, after spending the last week reading through a stack of relatively recent RunnersWorld back issues, I have let the magazine convince me to start a lower body weight training routine. I have shied from lower body strength training for two reasons. The first has been fear of injury; when I am adding on miles every week, the idea of strength training already fatigued legs seemed like a bad idea. And the second has been…well, to be honest, the fatigue I mentioned above. I am a little more than 6 weeks from my half marathon, more than halfway through the training program, the mileage is climbing and the honest truth is my legs are tired all of the time.

I began today with a workout from another source intended for people with very little time. I figured if I am not spending an hour agonizing over a weight training session with my legs, I am unlikely to overdo it, but using good multi-joint lifts with moderate weight ought to help with the strengthening I want, and hopefully avoid injury or overtraining.

It is really short: squats (I used dumbbells), calf raises (I did them standing with a 30 lb dumbbell in my hands), and hamstring curls (on a machine and sitting up rather than laying on my stomach). I did 2 sets each of the squats and curls, and 3 of the raises.

I also did a core workout including back extensions (unweighted), the proverbial crunch, and a “reverse crunch” I saw in RW magazine. Simply put, you lay on your back, arms flat by your sides, raise both legs into the air and then, engaging your core, lift your butt a couple of inches off the floor and then lower it back down. You don’t move your legs much so you don’t put as much leverage on your lower back (ouchie!), but holy crap, I felt this 10x more in my lower abs than I ever felt with a standard leg raise.

Lifted

For the first time since my surgery, I bench pressed a full size standard Olympic barbell. 20 kilos or 44.1 pounds. When we first joined the Y in December and I approached the bar for the first time in a few years, when I attempted to lift it, nothing happened. Nothing except some eyebrows raised from other lifters in the room and a couple of offers to help spot for me. Sheepishly, I declined the assistance. I couldn’t do it. It was completely humiliating and I was shamed into action.

Since then (with some time off around the holidays), in addition to running, I started attacking my upper body with dumbbells. I have been completely disorganized with my lifting, not going in with a solid plan other than to work on the muscles I like to look at the most, but that, to this point, has been enough. Dumbbell bench presses, upright rows, triceps extensions, pectoral flys, and such.

Dumbbells are great (and arguably better than a barbell) but there is a mental thing about lifting a barbell, and even better, stacking plates on it and then lifting it, so it was a great feeling to lift it last night.

Having achieved my very first strength related goal, I need to organize a program and follow it. If I want to achieve my goal of a sub-50 minute Warrior Dash in September, I have to be stronger so I can overcome those obstacles faster.

9 Miles

I ran my 9 miles on Saturday morning in the most adverse conditions I have encountered so far. It was in the low 30s and alternating between heavy mist and pouring rain. I am actually really glad I did not hold out for Sunday’s group because Sunday was slightly drier, but it was much more windy and the windchill was in the low 20s. I prefer the rain to the wind.

So, 9 miles. I took gels around miles 3 and 5 and that was sufficient. I didn’t go through as much water as I did the previous week. The hills on this particular route during the early miles were really brutal and I lost track of the group by the time we hit the Lee Bridge. I managed to keep my paper with the route printed on it together until I hit the Boulevard and then it disintegrated. I got a little panicky on Monument because I just didn’t gather how far it was from Monroe Park to the Boulevard and I started getting a little irrationally afraid of missing the Boulevard (simply not possible).

Of course, I didn’t get lost. What can I say? I was alone and I was very tired.

I did a little stretching in the parking lot, but that was it. No foam roller or anything extra. I was so severely chilled that I could not bear putting my body in an ice bath, so I skipped that step too. I don’t deserve to feel as good as I do, all things considered, but, for now at least, it seems that the DOMS I was experiencing several weeks ago has stopped. I was very sore on Saturday right after the run, but after a nap and some time, that became very minor. Today, two days later, I still feel fatigued in my legs, particularly in my quads, but it isn’t pain and even my hip isn’t bothering me.

I have a major problem coming up and I have known this was coming for a while now. My training schedule has me running 3 weekdays a week — Tuesday through Thursday. Tuesdays and Thursdays are ALWAYS just 3 mile runs. Wednesdays have been 4 mile days until this week. Starting this week, and continuing through all of February, the Wednesday runs are going to vary from as little as 4 miles to as much as 6 miles.

I simply cannot do a 6 mile run on my lunch hour. I am not fast enough and I have to allow for time to change before and after. 4 miles currently is the longest run I can fit in my hour. That leaves me running in non-daylight hours. The Y limits machines to 45 minutes and they go into Cool Down automatically at 45 minutes, so again, I hit the 4 mile limit (also, I am ready to scream with boredom with just a few minutes on a treadmill). Running in my neighborhood sans daylight is just not a good plan for my personal safety in general.

Right now, I just don’t know what I am going to do. I could ask to use some personal leave and do the runs at lunch, but I can’t guarantee I will get any approval for that, especially if it affects the phone schedule. I could ask to leave early and take 90 or so minutes of personal leave and change and go run before 5pm. Again, run the risk of not getting approval.

The only other thing I can think would be to split the workouts. It wouldn’t give me the longer distance training I need, but if I did say 4 miles at lunch and 2 miles at the Y, or 3/2, or whatever, I would at least keep my mileage base for the week up where it needs to be.

Would love ideas or thoughts, but am too embarrassed to ask the HMTT right now, given that I don’t really know any of them.

8 Miles

I was irrationally nervous about Saturday’s 8 mile HMTT route. It just felt scary to contemplate running that particular number of miles. If I could explain why, I would. Maybe it was because I didn’t run any of the short scheduled runs during the week so I felt unprepared, but either way, I was very anxious about it.

Strangely, I do not feel the same intimidation about this Saturday’s scheduled 9 mile run. I haven’t seen the route yet, but I am curious about where we will go this time. We went north last time, going all the way to Bryan Park. I don’t think we cross the Nickel Bridge until the 10 mile route, so I am very curious where we will be going.

But back to last Saturday. It was not my best run. I tired out very early on and my quads were unusually fatigued; they were burning at only two miles. It might have been the cold, it might have been a little dehydration, or maybe my head just wasn’t on right, but it was a tough run, with the last two miles probably being almost equal parts running and walking. I made sure I stretched in the parking lot and again with the foam roller when I got home, and my soreness level was significantly less than after the 7 miler 2 weeks ago. Big win for me there.

Likewise, yesterday I did 3 miles, and while I tried very hard to do some speedwork, I similarly tired out very early on and had to even stop at the halfway point.

As a result of two sort of “off” runs, I am pushing water and electrolytes. I have decided I really do like the Nuun tablets I have been using instead of Gatorade but I have to get more of them.

Tonight, I need to do 4 miles on the treadmill at the Y. I find running at night not to work exceptionally well for me; I am tired, I find the treadmill boring, I find the news on the t.v. on the wall depressing, and I get a little self-conscious with all the people behind me on bikes and elliptical machines looking right at my jiggling parts for 30-45 minute stretches (I am embarrassed to admit that I even think about that).

One last thing: Yesterday marked exactly two months left until the Instant Classic Half. I am getting excited about it. Not nervous yet. Just excited. Hope they get a map up of the half marathon route up soon though. I would like to go explore the trails we will be racing on, but I am pretty unfamiliar with Pocahontas in general.

I will try and update about the 9 miler next week.