Pursuing Balance & Joy

Where I Am Today

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Hi, friends!

Things have just been so crazy lately! I can’t believe I haven’t even gotten here long enough to tell you I ran the Indy Women’s Half Marathon.

Well, I did.

It was the most horrible race of my admittedly-short running life.

There were some good parts. Tom followed me on his bike and basically was with me for the whole thing. That was AWESOME! There were several times I really wanted to stop, but he was right there with the words I needed to hear. It’s still amazing to me to be so supported by someone I love. That’s not really something I’ve ever had.

That’s about it for the good parts. Seriously.

I realized early in the week of the race that I was feeling really overtrained. I didn’t taper nearly enough for this race. My legs hurt the night before the race. That’s never a good thing. I went into the weeds before the race thinking I wanted to try for a new PR, but that morning I knew I just wanted to finish.

I actually did it in 2:31:08. That’s a little bit quicker than we did the 500 Festival Mini Marathon and a little slower than I did the Carmel Half Marathon. What that time proved to me is that I’ve gotten quite a bit faster since May. That isn’t surprising since I did the Mini coming off the foot injury that kept me from running at all for 3 months.

I also learned that I’m not capable of putting in the number of miles on my legs (both running and biking) that I have been lately. I’ve been doing 8-10 hours (or more) of cardio A LOT of weeks in a row. That’s just silly.

The first week after the race, I tried to get back into my old routine with a couple tweaks, but I realized very quickly that just wasn’t going to do it. I took 3 days off and completely came up with a new plan for this week.

I started yesterday on the new plan. I ran 30 minutes. I didn’t really push myself to go hard or fast, but I ran 3.14 miles in 30 minutes. I guess knowing I wasn’t heading out for a specific number of miles (and resting for 3 days before) convinced my legs that running faster would be fun. I really enjoyed the run. (It seriously helps that Indiana is flat. ) I topped off my run with about 30 minutes of strength training and stretching and foam rolling.

My new plan called for 30 minutes of biking today, but it hasn’t happened yet. Monday Night Football kept me up too late, and I needed the sleep this morning. I’ll get my 30 minutes in later today then do my strength training/stretching/foam rolling again (different exercises today than yesterday).

The plan for the rest of the week is similar: 30 minutes of either running, biking or hitting the gym and 30-ish minutes of strength and stretching. The foam roller or stick is required every day too. That’s one thing that really helps my legs, but I’m not faithful enough to it.

My plan holds steady for the next couple weeks then I start progressing a little bit at a time to get a bit more cardio in but honestly not very much more. I add back my long runs in a couple weeks. That’s really the biggest change.

What about races? Well, I’m not sure just yet. I think the next one will be the Hot Chocolate 5K in Chicago. That’s on a Saturday, and the next day is SkyRise Chicago. I seriously cannot wait to climb the Sears Tower again! After that, my next planned event is the 500 Festival Mini Marathon in May. Tom and I are signed up to run that one together again. I’ve been debating a few other events in my head. There’s a 42K relay in October and a marathon in April and a few others things. I’ve laid out a plan that would have me ready for a full marathon in April, but I just have to give my legs another month or so before I can decide whether or not I’m going to do it. (I suck at patience. Seriously.)

That’s where I am today. Where are you?

Posted in Exercise | Comments Off