April Coffee Date
Phew, it’s April! It’s the first Friday of the month, so time to join Coco and Deborah for our monthly coffee date. I’ll be at Starbucks drinking my favorite earl grey tea… and I have a parenting challenge to discuss. It always seems that once spring break is over, the rest of the school year speeds by in a blur. And I can tell you who’s absolutely ecstatic to see this year end… my daughter. All I hear nowadays is how tired she is of middle school. The rules are stupid! They make them wear ID badges! The dress code is too strict! They have assigned tables at lunch! Obviously, it’s practically a prison. She CAN’T WAIT for high school next year. To go along with this new attitude is a new look. Over spring break she cut her hair herself (apparently only losers go to a salon, when anyone who’s on tiktok knows you can cut it yourself for free) and…. dyed it bright red. BRIGHT red. I actually like the cut. I would have gone with a more subtle red, but I’m happy for her sake that it came out the way she wanted. But that’s not all! For the past year she’s been asking to get a septum piercing. At first I said no (of course) but now she’s asking for it to be her eighth grade graduation present… arg. No offense to anyone with bright red hair and a septum piercing. I know it’s a look. I guess it’s just that I’m having trouble reconciling this with the memory I have of her as a cute little girl with long curly hair, who loved unicorns and rainbows, and used to say that her favorite color was “glitter.” Anyway, now she’s fourteen and, well, it’s her nose. I don’t like the look of septum piercings, but that really isn’t enough of a reason to say no, so I guess I’ll say yes. Girls are hard, you guys. If we were having coffee together, I would tell you that Wednesday I did my very last long run before my race- the hay is in the barn! The race is two weeks from tomorrow. I know there’s still plenty of time for me to trip over a curb, get Covid, or end up with a stomach virus the day before the race, but barring any strange disasters, I made it! I should be at the starting line on April 22nd. I’m excited. If we were having coffee together, I would ask if you have anything special planned for the weekend. I’ll be working as usual today and tomorrow, so it doesn’t really feel like a holiday weekend to me. But we’ll make a nice dinner on Sunday and of course my daughter will be getting an Easter basket, as always. She may be too old for glitter and unicorns, but she still likes candy. Would you let your daughter (or son) get their septum pierced? Do you have a race (or anything else exciting) coming up this month?
Reading and Eating
I’ve been doing a lot of reading and eating lately! I read two books I really enjoyed (and had one “meh,”) and may have partially solved the “what the hell is for dinner?” problem. Let’s start with the books. I didn’t love this book about people going through doors to different worlds. Actually, I couldn’t even decide if I liked it at all, but I was intrigued by the fact that I couldn’t figure out where it was going. Usually when I read a book I have a good idea what’s going to happen, or at least I can guess it’s going to be one of several outcomes. I kept reading this one mostly because it was different. In the end, I didn’t like the characters. I know it’s fantasy, but even in fantasy I like the characters to behave in a believable manner so I can relate to them. The plot was weird but interesting, but the one-dimensional characters killed it for me. Wrong Place Wrong Time was even better than I thought it would be! It got a lot of rave reviews that convinced me to read it, but I was afraid it would be too gimmicky. The premise involves a woman who witnesses her son committing a murder and then travels back through time to figure out why he did it. Now, I have an issue! I hate how, in stories about time travel, the reader knows what’s going on but the character doesn’t, so there’s a long boring section where the character is trying to figure out what’s going on. I want to shout “YOU WENT BACK IN TIME, GET ON WITH THE STORY!” Of course, if the character woke up in a different time and said “I knew immediately I had gone back in time” then I would be criticizing it for being unrealistic, so I guess there’s no way around it. ANYWAY, once we got past that, I really, really enjoyed this book. Even with the time travel, it all made sense. It was a fun mystery, and I liked the main character. I could totally relate, having a son of my own. It’s also a fast read. I basically read the entire second half one evening, sitting on the couch while my husband and daughter carried on around me- I barely noticed them as I sped through the book. My husband gave me two books for my birthday. He started reading one of them, The Lost Art of Running by Shane Benzie, and I read The Rise of the Ultra Runners. I LOVED IT! It recounts two years of the author’s life, where he dives into the world of ultra running, with the goal of accruing enough points (by running various ultra races) to run UTMB (one of the most prestigious trail ultras in the world.). The book alternates between his race recaps and sections where he gives the history behind different races, and also talks about some of the legends (and lesser-known runners) of the sport. In one section he talks about meeting Shane Benzie, which was pretty funny since I’m reading his book soon. I highly recommend this book IF you’re at all interested in ultra running. If not… don’t read it. Okay, onto the food! Two weekends ago, when University of Miami was in the basketball playoffs (sob- still sad about how that turned out!) my theme dinner for the night was “Cuban.” I made this recipe for Cuba Black Beans, which were delicious! I made a lime-cilantro rice to go with it, and the first night we had it with plantains and steamed kale (I bought the plantains frozen from the store and just baked them in the oven.) But this dinner didn’t stop there! We had it again the next night with avocado instead of plantains. Then I had it a third night! My husband was over it at that point, but I don’t mind eating the same thing over and over again. I was scraping the bottom of the barrel, vegetable-wise, and had it with a salad of romaine lettuce. This whole Cuban bean thing made me realize that cooking a huge pot of beans on Sunday is a GREAT idea. This past weekend I made a double recipe of this bean and vegetable burrito filling. I was going to put in some vegan cheese, but in the end left out the cheese entirely, and it’s delicious! (Side note- if you make this, watch the salt. I put in two teaspoons for a double batch and it was plenty.) Muahahaha…. we’ll be eating a lot of burritos this week. I wonder how my husband will like that. Next up reading-wise, Exposure by Helen Dunmore. I’ve only read the first chapter, but I already love it. Have you read any of these books? Do you mind eating the same thing for several nights in a row?
Weekly Rundown- More Than Enough
First of all, a HUGE thank you to everyone who commented on my last post. The comment section was a treasure trove of positivity and wisdom. “You are the expert in you,” “Keep the main thing the main thing,” and “We can do all the things, just not all at once” were among the incredible comments. Marcia said her mantra for the later miles of a marathon is “More than enough.” I love it. So obviously from now on I’ll be doing everything perfectly and not second-guessing myself, right? Ha ha… we’ll see about that. I did have a good week, though. Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Here’s how it all played out. Sunday Leg day at the gym! I proceeded VERY cautiously after hurting my quad during squats the week before. I started with hex bar deadlifts… Everything felt good, so I did some Bulgarian split squats and leg presses (no squats!) I eased into both of those very carefully, and didn’t go quite as heavy as I thought I could. Nothing hurt, and I considered it a success. But then… Monday I woke up with my quad hurting again- WHAT THE…??? Nothing hurt at the gym yesterday… did I injure it while I was sleeping? At any rate, I now know that I can run with a sore quad (just add it to the list of things that hurt but don’t affect my running) so I didn’t freak out. 4 mile run. Tuesday Upper body day at the gym! Good workout. Didn’t hurt myself in any way. Wednesday It was a “short” long run week, so I did 10 miles on the trail close to me. Since it was a continuous run with no “aid station” stops, I used my un-favorite double bottle hydration vest- but this time it didn’t bother me. Everything about this run felt great. And I realized that I ran almost an entire minute per mile faster than when I run on the sandy trail. So there’s “trail slow” and there’s “sand slow.” And of course, “road slow.” Ha ha… I’m pretty sure my legs don’t know the meaning of the word “sprint” right now. Thursday 3 mile run- everything felt good. Friday I had to decide what to do about lower body strength this week. Rather than risk hurting my quad AGAIN, I opted to do a Caroline Girvan Iron Series workout, Day #8, hamstrings and glutes. I was not looking forward to this, because I knew it would be a lot of hip thrusts… but I did it, and followed it up with some core work. Saturday Part of me wondered if I would wake up with my quad hurting, which would be baffling. But no… everything felt fine (my glutes were a little sore, though!) I did a 4 mile run. I don’t usually run on Saturdays, and ended up with the rare opportunity to run with my husband! That was fun. And later, an exciting night of basketball! Ahem. The bad news is both Florida teams lost. Ugh, FAU! What a heartbreaking way to lose. At least UM eased us into it gradually. But looking on the bright side, I’ll get a better night’s sleep on Monday. That is going to be a late game, and now I don’t have to stay up for the whole thing. You have to take the good with the bad! Sunday Day off! Now I’m glad I did that Caroline Girvan workout on Friday, so I could sleep in and relax today. On Wednesday I have my last and longest long run before my race. Last night I had anxiety dreams about this run; in one of them, I was frantically rifling through the freezer looking for my Uncrustables, and it turned out my husband had thrown them away because he didn’t think they were healthy enough. I was really upset because I’m planning to try them out as fuel. Ha, luckily it was just a dream. I will have my Uncrustables on Wednesday! How was your week? Did you watch the Final Four? Do you ever run with your spouse?
March Runfessions… Enough is Enough!
Two weeks ago, in my Weekly Rundown, I wrote about an issue I was having with my quad. I first hurt it on the bike (where I was varying the intensity to simulate hills) and then made it worse two days later by doing squats at the gym. Two people left interesting comments: Deb said “the bike, just like running, needs to be eased into…” and Marcia said “You can do everything. Just not all at once. That means when I’m training for long distance I still strength train but I don’t do so to failure. There’s too much risk and the body gets fragile after stressing it in different ways.” It got me thinking- why, when I know I have a big race coming up that means so much to me, was I even at the gym pushing so hard on the bike in the first place (the day after a long run?) And why did I insist on going back two days later to do squats? Why? I “runfess” that I did a little soul searching here. And what I came up with was, deep down inside, I never feel like I’m doing enough. It’s not a completely crazy thought. For someone training for a 50K, my weekly mileage is low. And I only strength train twice a week- one day of upper body and one day of lower body, and that seems like the bare minimum. AND, I haven’t been doing any speed work. But I have to remind myself that there’s a reason for that. To minimize the risk of injury, I decided to prioritize weekly (and now, every other week) long runs while keeping the rest of my runs short. I opted to forgo speed work until after this race, again to minimize the risk of injury. And while I would love to do two lower body days at the gym per week, I can’t figure out how to do that and still have fresh legs for my long run. Those are the choices I made, and it’s going to have to be enough for this race. I’ve figured out my nutrition, my electrolytes, and how to cope with the heat. I’m pretty confident that despite my low mileage and minimalist strength training schedule, I can complete the distance. I certainly won’t win, or even finish in the upper 50%, but I believe I can complete it. Maybe for the next training cycle I can add more miles. After the race I want to do some speed work and get to the gym more. But even if I do all that, I still can’t do everything. I won’t be able to do every single strength workout that I see people doing, or every kind of speed work, plus drills, plyometrics, barefoot running… the list goes on and on. It’s hard for me to say, “No, I can’t do that… I’m already doing enough” because I don’t really feel that way. But it’s the way it has to be. Maybe when I finish this race I’ll be able to look back and say that yes, actually my training was enough. I did all the things I needed to, and left out the things that weren’t as important. Only time will tell! In the meantime, I have to put blinders on and forge ahead with the path I chose, and get myself to the starting line healthy. Thanks as alway to our fearless leader, Marcia, for hosting Runfessions…and for the great advice. Do you second-guess your training? Or are you able to pick a training plan and stick to it?