Sunday, August 24, 2014

Marathon training week 6--and the beat goes on


La da da da dee, la dee da da da....The good part about being older is that I have all these great pop culture references for life events...

How to sum up this week? Besides being hot and humid? I still had plenty of mama drama to deal with, but I felt unstoppable with my runs. I'm thinking and hoping that this tough training is making me not only physically stronger, but mentally tougher as well. Fingers crossed.

Monday: Rest day! I was tired and sore after my hilly 14 miler the day before. I was also tired from being woke up at 1130pm by the angry father of my one of my son's friends. He was calling me from the ER where his son was a patient--passed out drunk. He was extremely upset because what he thought was a fantasy football draft turned into a party for his son and a bunch of his friends. Including my son. He wanted answers, and I had none. And neither did my son, although I knew he knew more than he was saying. So I went to bed. But I didn't sleep. The next morning, I put my yoga mat down to stretch and destress. Since I didn't start work until 1, I decided to do that SeaWheeze yoga routine I've been enjoying. Truly, this was the highlight of my day. I dealt with my son when I got home.


Tuesday: I got up early to run 6 before work. It was storming, and I was so close to running on the treadmill. There was a small window of time for me to get my run in and not be late for work, and the storm passed just before that window closed. It was hot and steamy after the storm, but I had a pretty good run for the conditions, averaging 9:12/mile. As far as my son was concerned, the saga continued as I learned that my son was the one who brought the liquor to the party. Grateful for the distraction of work and lots of cute babies on my schedule, I pushed through my day and dealt with my son when I got home.

Wednesday: Yoga! And back to school for my boys. Having taken the car away from my son as punishment, I made them take the bus. My oldest was just so put out by this. Oh well. I got them out the door and I headed to the yoga studio, a huge knot in my stomach. Today's class was all prep for a pose called Bird of Paradise. It is a beautiful pose, if you are able to open up your extended leg. I'm a little flexibility impaired, so my Bird of Paradise looks like he has a broken leg. But the prep work was perfect--all hip and hamstring openers.

Bird of paradise pose--svarga dvidasana

Thursday: Becky changed up my speed work this week. I had 2 mile repeats x 3 on the plan. I wasn't quite sure how to pace myself and I took a stab at it, pacing them at 8:30 mins/mile. The first 2 repeats/4 miles were perfect! But mile 5 was 8:45, and I was fading fast. So I stopped there and jogged the rest of the way to my car. The conditions were also very humid again, and I really need to take that into account when I'm pacing myself. Next week, I'm shooting for 8:40mins/mile for this, unless it cools off.
After that, I headed over to CrossFit. Becky had me do front lunges with 55# on a bar; 4 laps. Every half lap was sumo deadlifts x10, with a 53# kettlebell (80 total!). I was shaking when I was done. On one of my last lunges, I got stuck on my lowered knee and had trouble getting up. At the end, I had the satisfaction of dropping that barbell to the floor. I love that! After that I did bridge poses x 10--but she had me walk my legs out and back each time. My hamstrings started to cry. I swear they did.

Right?

Friday: another rest day. Also the start of a week off of work. I woke up feeling pretty sore, especially in my glutes and adductors. I had planned to do yoga, to stretch, but I lost track of time. I met one of my old friends, another nurse practitioner, for SUP (standup paddleboarding). We drove to Montrose Beach, in Chicago, rented our boards, and headed out on to Lake Michigan. The water was calm and not too cold. Once we were out on the lake, we both just looked at each other and said...ahhhh. We paddled around the harbor for an hour, just talking, getting caught up on each other's lives, and enjoying the beautiful Chicago skyline. It was wonderful. After that, we went out for lunch, had a few beers, and went home. Later that evening, I went to watch my youngest play football for the first time as a high schooler. He caught a pass, made a few tackles, and made me a proud mama. As we were leaving, I ran into one of my neighbors, another mother runner, who wasn't all that encouraging when we talked about marathon training, particularly MY marathon training. You can read about that here. I'm just so gullible--letting myself get sucked into these negative conversations. Of course, I always think about the good comebacks hours later...



Saturday: Since it was still hot and humid, I set my alarm to get up before the sun to run the 5 that Becky had on the plan. My legs were more sore than the day before. I don't know if it was DOMS or the SUP or a combination, but I could barely walk up and down the stairs in my split level home. I thought the run was going to be a bust. I headed out the door, with no goal for this run except to finish it. After the first mile, my legs loosened up, and I settled into a nice 9 min/mile pace. I was shocked at how good it felt, between the humidity and my sore muscles. As a matter of fact, I felt so great, that I ran 6 instead of 5. I would have gone further, but I had carpool duties and I needed to get home. I did get on the yoga mat to try to stretch out my painfully sore muscles. I pulled out my Eoin Finn DVD, The Pursuit of Happy Hips and did the Easy Street Routine. My hips thanked me for it.

In the afternoon, I took both boys shopping for clothes. Afterwards, we went out to lunch. We had some great conversations and I started to feel like we were getting back on track. Later that evening, we went out to dinner to celebrate both boys' birthdays. We had a lot of laughs and I felt everyone starting to relax. Later, my oldest asked to go out with a friend and I told him to behave. He said that he was done with all the nonsense. We'll see...

Sunday: I woke up at 6 to prepare for my bike ride. Becky didn't put a distance on the plan, and so I planned to do my 30 miler, which takes me about 2 hours. I headed out and about 9 miles into it, I heard my back tire making a funny sound. I looked down, and yep--flat. I have an innertube, tools, and a small air pump on my bike. I had no idea how to change the tire. I figured I could put air in the tire and go back home. But for some reason, the air pump wouldn't connect to the tire valve. I put up the white flag of surrender and called my husband to come and get me. He changed my tire, but not without a struggle! He also found a staple in the tire. I headed back out for some more miles, but decided to go a different route. I rode north of my house into a really pretty semi-rural area. I felt pretty happy until I came to a major road and there was nowhere to go. This is one of my biggest frustrations of riding around here. So I just wandered around the area to get my miles in. I did drive by a farm with these guys! There was a bunch of them and they were all pretty interested in me!

I saw a herd of alpacas!

What a stressful week! Next week is a full week of school, my oldest starts a new job, and I have a few more days off. My goals for next week are to dial down the drama and stay on track with my training. It's so funny, after a couple of days of not running, I really miss it! Even after the long bike ride and all. But you know what I say...endurance is endurance!


16 comments :

  1. Ooh that bird of paradise looks hard. I don't know if I am that flexible.

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    1. I can lift my leg up but I cannot extend it. But you know what they say in yoga, you still get the full benefits of every pose...

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  2. Wow you aren't kidding about it being a stressful week! But I admire your ability to just keep moving along. It seems that having yoga in your life really helped center you this week. And who needs negative neighbors when you have positive bloggers to help push you along!!

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    1. That and my CF workouts...I'm digging deep and finding some mental toughness! I hope this translates to the marathon!

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  3. Blech. Sorry to hear about the liquor. I cringe when I think about what may be in store for me when they hit high school. Sounds like training is the perfect destressor for you!

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    1. I guess it isn't if this stuff is going to happen, it's a matter of when and how you handle it. I told both boys that I know it is going to happen, but it doesn't mean I'm ok with it. But telling them not to do it--it just seems like that isn't the way to handle things. I don't know. I'm hoping that now that school is back in session, things will settle down. And yes--this marathon training is perfect for me right now!

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  4. I need to do yoga more. I know that it does help with your runs.

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  5. I think you should just ship those boys up here to Arkansas; I'm pretty sure my hubby could knock some since into them. He had a party streak a mile wide, once upon a time, and he's got some frightening stories - ha! :) I did Bird of Paradise for the first time last weekend at my yoga workshop; it was awesome! We used the wall for some assistance, and that really helped. Great job with your training this week; hope things settle down for you, now that the boys are back in school. Take care, have a good week, and thanks for linking up!

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    1. Haha, I was just talking about this..I thought sending them off to Haiti or some place really poverty stricken would be helpful. Anyways, we had a good weekend and I'm hoping things will be better now. Fingers crossed!

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  6. Ohh, I really hope it all starts to settle down for you soon. You are doing great with your training though! Such a great stress reliever!

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    1. Me too! I'm glad I've been able to train through all this. Onward and upward!

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  7. So glad that you have running and yoga to help with a stressful week! Good luck with the drama and your training next week! :)

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  8. Ha love that alpaca pic! I feel the same way with running, sometimes I get over it and then when I don't run, I really miss it!

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