The 29km run that wasn’t but there were cupcakes….

Saturday I had my sports massage treatment…it was over an hour of pain, relief, discomfort, relaxing and trigger point pressure.  I have a bunch of stuff I need to get worked out so I am very glad I went.  He did plenty of work on my back to alleviate the pain in my neck/lats and feels the issue with my leg is just some inflammation and nothing too major.  We also found that my soleus is VERY tight as are my IT bands and hip flexors.  Not quite a mess but close.  I am back for more torture treatment on Friday.

Sat night was the Hubs’ Bday dinner.  We got somewhat cleaned up and had a great but early night:

Sunday came VERY early as we started at 7am.  My whole body hurt from Sat’s treatment - It felt like a really bad sunburn, especially on my back.  The hubs made me promise that if there was ‘sour pain’ I would stop.  I told him of course and “I would run through the pain” and “feel the burn”.  He didn’t think it was as funny as I did….

We ended up having to do our route backwards due to a huge fire that was blocking part of the route. 

Source

By the time we hit the hills around the 18km mark, my legs were hurting..I could feel myself starting to shuffle a bit and some pain.  We got to our final support stop at 23km and I made the decision to stop.  It wasn’t easy but in the end it was the right thing to do.  Next week is supposed to be a step back week to 23km so I will be doing 6km on my own and then joining the group.  Better late than never….

Post run, there were cupcakes in honour of the Hubs’ Birthday:  Lemon Drop, Chocolate, Red Velvet and Chocolate Peanut Butter…they were a hit. 

This week’s focus is to get back into training with spin/core on Mon/Wed, 10km Tuesday, hills/stairs on Thurs and 8-10km Sat.  Oh… and epsom baths, foam rolling and stretching. 

I need another day in the week….

Four for Friday

1.  Since my long run on Monday…there has been nothing.  I have had some serious pain in my leg (Groin? Hip Flexor?  IT?) not sure what it is.  Having rested all week, it feels better but still freaked me out … a lot.

2.  I got my act together and booked an appt with for massage.  The guy is an Ironman and doesn’t mess around so I am looking forward to getting the leg and my still sore neck/back at least examined.  This is a loooooonnnggg overdue part of my ‘training’ that I will be incorporating regularly.

3.  The hubs Bday is on Sunday.   I have ordered a whole whack of cupcakes for the event to celebrate with our run group.  Which means he has to be up and at the clinic with me for 7am.  Happy Bday buddy….

4.  Marathon #2 is 72 days away.  Ummmmm…where did the time go?

Happy weekend!  Mine will involve a massage, cupcakes, decadent dinner and hopefully a 29km run.

MCM Mama Virtual race and a Sunday Long Run…on Monday

Following Thursday’s track workout from hell courtesy of Coach Satan, my legs were seriously sore…Friday was an off day but I was on vacation and golfed with friends.  Saturday I woke up and yep..legs were still sore.  I did have some incentive for getting our for my tempo run:

“Mama Goes Masters" Virtual Race
When:  August 25th (or whatever date between August 20-25 that works for you.)
Distance:  You have three options:

• 4.0 miles in honour of turning 40
• 8.25 miles in honour of the actual day
• 40K if you dare.  (If you are crazy enough *coughToniacough*, do it whenever in August it works for your training, just let me know when you plan to do it.)

Not gonna lie…I really didn’t want to run.  But in her honour I “sucked it up Buttercup “and did the 4 mile race as part of my Sat 5 mile tempo:

4 mile time: 43:10.  Nothing fast but DONE.  Then I went out and walked 7km as part of golfing..

This all meant that when I woke up Sunday…there was no way I was in any shape to run 27km.  I felt anxious about running, burned out, tired, sore etc. So I didn’t….  I was also in a tournament that I wanted to do well in so that was my focus.

However because I am a guilty-puss..I did my long run this morning (still on vacation!)  Turned out to be a great morning to run: overcast and cool and really windy in some parts but whatever.  I ended up only doing 23km but since I ran Sat and walked ~15km b/w Sat and Sunday….the last 4km can suck it.

Post run I raced to get this to wash the GU/Gatorade taste out of my mouth:

I also tested these out on today’s run:

They are a heavier sock but felt pretty good.  I can feel the start of some blisters so please..help a sister out with blister recommendations……

Four for Friday

Technically today is my Saturday as I took a vacay day but whatever..

1. Since Sunday’s run into a wall happened, things got much better.  Monday and Wed were brutal, sweaty spin+core classes.  Our coaches went to a fitness conference last weekend which always means pain for us.  Tuesday’s tempo run was nothing short of brilliant…I was grinning after as I just had FUN on the run. 

2.  Last night’s track workout  was brutal.  4 lap warm up followed by:

3X400 4 person rabbits (person at the back sprints to the front etc)

3X400 8 person rabbits

3X400 12 person rabbits

2 sets of 3 min flat out running following by 5 min recovery

2X400 of easy running with sets of “A” (forward running with knee ups)

2 min of “C” – running in place followed immediately by 1 hard lap

2 lap cool down.

= pain, sweat, swearing, gasping…fun

3.  Nature continues to be wacked out.  Here is our newest resident on our back fence…very cool.  Hawk or Falcon?

4.  Because I love his music  (City and Colour, Alexisonfire) and it makes me happy, maybe you’ll enjoy it as well. (plus I love me a boy with tats…)

More encounters with Nature and a whole lot of sweat going on…

Since our encounter with the nosey/cheeky squirrels at our house, there have been some fun nature spotting in my life:

You never know who you will see on the golf course..this was Sat morning as we made our way to the tee deck:

This little guy was outside our place last night..Not sure but I thought woodpeckers targeted …..wood, not yucca plant flowers:

I also saw a mallard out Sat morning when I was running…but I was nowhere near water…it was strange.  Guess he needed a change of scenery.

The workouts for the weekend and last night can be summed up as follows:  SWEATY!  I sweat a lot but lately it has bordered on ridiculous.

Sat: I knew it would be a hot day so I was out the door by 5:45am (happy Sat morning!) to do a 9km tempo run.  It turned out to be a great run and I was very happy I dragged myself out of bed.

Sun: 25km group run.  I made a conscious effort to just enjoy the (VERY) hot and humid day. We were doing a tough route again with hills on part of the Around the Bay course and I actually felt really good…until the last 4km where I just stopped.  I walked and did some running but it wasn’t pretty.  Everything I was wearing was completely soaked from sweat – shoes, hat, both layers of my running skirt…everything.  I kept going and finished a sweaty mess.  I forgot my salt tabs so I will see if that makes a difference next week.

Mon: Our coaches just came back from CanFit Pro this weekend.  This always spells trouble for us – a really tough spin workout last night followed by more evil moves in core.  Oy….

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Today is a rough day as I am waiting on some health news about my Pops.  Though I am trying to be optimistic,  the reality is that the news probably won’t be good and some serious surgery will be needed. I hate being the realist so will just focus on some good options rather than recovery……

Four for Friday

1. Wed night’s spin+core was brutal…9X2 min full out repeats+ recovery+warm-up/cool down = a tough 60 min session.  Followed by crunches, pushups, ham curls, obliques, bridges, dive crunches etc. left me very tired and sore the next day..

2. Woke up Thursday morning with a searing pain along my left scapula.  This has happened before…don’t know what causes it and of course I always forget to mention it whenever I have a physio appointment. It really only hurts if I am lying down or move my neck quickly to the side…weird. It seems a bit better this morning though that could be the Robaxacet talkin’.

3. Seeing as my neck didn’t hurt when I walked straight…I still went to our track workout last night. (I know..I know..) It was a great night as it had cooled off a bit but there was also a bit of a wind so it made the repeats challenging.  We did 5 repeats and they were a bit slower than I wanted but still a great 8km run.  Speaking of running:  Look … me in iRun!

4. I always find it interested to read what other people eat…We were severley lacking in groceries so a replenish was in order:

I think we keep Bob in business along with whole wheat pasta..

 

…don’t know who put Ben&Jerry in my cart…

 

Rowe farm eggs and Mr Frosty grocery bag

 

bagels, cottage cheese, soup, Rowe Farm turkey, Luna and Cliff bars

Free range chicken and chops, feta cheese, chick peas and a wicked sweet Ginger chilli sauce the hubs loves

 

These are a new snack find: rice and adzuki bean chips..

 

olives, red peppers and avocados

What’s in your cart?

Nothing hard work(outs) can’t cure

Funk is gone…by working hard.  Last week was some serious training:

Wed:  50 min spin class – heart rate in the high 160’s the whole time followed by 45 min of core torture.

Thurs: first week of speed work at the track.  The track was at a local high school that was recently paved – it was like running on a trampoline.  These are 3 min full out drills followed by 5-6 min recovery.  It was tough….really tough but nothing that a little post run watermelon and banana bread our run friends brought along.

Fri: run of the mill tempo 60 min tempo run but a good one.

Sunday:  23km group run.  FINALLY….a good long run.  It was very warm and I felt great until the last 2km where there was zero breeze and I just could not cool down.  Still finished pretty good and relatively strong.

Mon: spin + core

This morning was a 55 min tempo run that was really tough … but that’s ok.  I survived, I accept it was tough and move on.

Other randomness:

New run shirt arrived.  LOVE it:

I’m not sure what happens when I am not around but apparently the cats have made some new friends:

The hubs made an awesome salad on Friday…which turned into leftovers post run on Sunday. (I know…I have a weird post-long-run-appetite)

Bibb lettuce, roasted beets, blue cheese and homemade horseradish lettuce.  Delish…

How was your week?

Shakin’ out of da Funk….

After Friday’s long run began a long weekend of golfing…and that is about it.  I ended up doing ok – 3rd place in my flight – and had fun.  It also meant a lot of time on the course and no running.  NONE since Friday and no desire to either.  This is something that has been mounting for a bit…all caused by letting some negative stuff build up:

• The whole idea of ‘eating like an athlete’ is going ok…except the athlete I am is a sumo wrestler of late so I have to get this under control.  (i.e. there is a lot of boredom eating going on during the day)
• I am not out of shape but feel ‘squishy’ – see sumo wrestler
• My long runs lately have been hard, especially mentally….how in the world am I going to finish 42.2km again??  Better still…how am I going to do it faster than the snail’s pace I did it last time.
• Why is it all so hard? 

Then I found Kelly’s post that I am using to shake out of this funk. LOVE IT:  What My Body Can.

It can:

Spin away:

Golf weekend after weekend even though I am not that great at it:

Keep calm outwardly while freaking out inside:

(Around the Bay 2010 30km race)

Finish a marathon with mega blisters:

Value the power of laughter:

Love much:

…and be giddy…My race report is in the new iRun magazine.  Who’d a thunk it?

(thanks Kelly for the idea….it helped a lot)

Track workouts start tomorrow night…that will help the funk for sure.  I love the track….