Weekly Rundown… Seriously, Universe???
Well, it was quite a week, with some odd twists and turns. Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting this Weekly Rundown. Let’s just see what happened this week… Sunday Leg day at the gym! I focus on squats and deadlifts on these days, and end with the leg press machine where I work to failure. Good workout! Monday 4 mile run. It was a beautiful morning, 50 degrees and sunny- PERFECT weather for a run. Tuesday Because I have a half marathon on Sunday, I switched up my schedule for the week. I went back to one of my “favorite” Caroline Girvan workouts, Day #20 from the Iron Series. Biceps, triceps, core and abs. Ouch. Wednesday Instead of a long run (once again, because of the Sunday half marathon) I did a 5 mile run. Thursday Gym day! I wanted to get in a little bit of everything, but not too much on the legs. I did squats, bench press (my shoulder is all better!) lat pulldowns, and abs. Now let’s talk a little bit about this half marathon. I originally signed up for it because Darlene was coming down to run it. My husband also wanted to do it, so I thought it would be fun to do it together. Well, for various reasons (including, but not limited to, his bout with Covid in January) my husband wasn’t able to put in the training so I knew he wasn’t going to do the race. And poor Darlene… I’m going to let her tell the story on her blog, but she couldn’t run it either. I have to admit I was feeling unenthusiastic about running the race by myself. I haven’t been doing any speedwork, and I thought it would be depressing to run much slower than my last half marathon. But then I had a mindset shift and realized how lucky I am to be able to run a race. I’ve had to DNS this same race in the past due to injury, and the fact that I was able to run this year, I realized, was an amazing thing. I wrote a whole blog post on the subject, ending with “This year, everything came together for me and I get to show up at the starting line of this race, healthy and ready to run. I can’t wait.” I hit “publish” and then, literally right afterwards, my daughter came into the room and said “I just threw up.” Oh. Well, that’s very, very bad news. And actually, now that you mention it, my stomach doesn’t feel so great either. My husband had been sick on Tuesday and Wednesday with what we thought was food poisoning. He ate dinner at work on Tuesday, then came home and got sick. I thought we wouldn’t get it, since we didn’t eat what he ate. Well, think again. To make a long and horrible story short, my daughter and I were up all night in the bathroom (good thing we have two bathrooms!) Ugh. Friday Obviously, no workouts and no work or school either. My daughter and I stayed home and slept on and off all day. All we were able to get down were some sips of water and tea, and later at night, a little white rice. Fun times! Saturday I slept great but woke up with a massive headache, I assume from dehydration. The good news is we were both able to drink as much as we wanted, but eating was still iffy. We had toast and more white rice. I decided to rally and do laundry and change everyone’s sheets, and just doing that made me tired. Bummer. Sunday No race. I held out hope for as long as I could, but by afternoon on Saturday I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I’m beginning to think this race is cursed! Obviously, I’m really sad that I couldn’t run. But this wasn’t my big, goal race (no, that’s coming up in April and I BETTER NOT GET SICK for that one!) This will pass; as a matter of fact I’m hoping to go out for a short run/walk today just to get moving a little. The timing was ridiculously bad- if the race were just one day later I might have been able to do it. But… c’est la vie. So that was the week! The beginning was great, the second half, not so great. But tomorrow we start all over again. How was your week? Have you ever had to DNS a race due to illness? When was the last time you had a stomach virus? – They are the WORST.
Pre-Race Thoughts
On Sunday I’m running the Ft. Lauderdale Half Marathon! I have a little history with this race…. In 2018 I trained for the full marathon. It was going to be my “big comeback”. I ran marathons before my kids were born, but hadn’t run any since then and I wanted to get back to it. My training went well, all the way up through my last 22 mile long run. Then, I was running an easy 12 mile run during my taper and felt a funny sensation in my glutes. Hmmm, that’s odd. I finished that run, but then could barely walk back home. What in the world…??? After an emergency visit to my sports chiropractor, it was determined that it was either a stress fracture in my sacrum (ACK!) or inflammation in my SI joint- either way, due to the searing pain, I couldn’t run and had to miss that marathon. (It turned out to be inflammation and not a stress fracture, phew.) The “funny” thing (not ha ha funny, but the other kind) is that when I registered for that marathon, my husband decided to run the half marathon so we could run together and then he could be there to cheer me on. After he registered, some of his friends registered to run as well. So when race day came around, they all went off to run without me! Sob. Fast forward to the following year, 2019. After recovering from the SI inflammation I had gone back to training, and once again signed up to run the marathon. A couple months before the race, I felt an alarming pain in my hip. This time, I immediately cut back my training and switched from the full marathon to the half. I was a little disappointed about that, but I remembered how I felt the previous year when I couldn’t run at all. I ran the half marathon that year in a time of 1:57, which was my goal. I felt really good about that! It wasn’t as fast as I ran before having kids, but I thought it was a good beginning to getting some speed back. Now, I’m wondering if that post-baby PR will stand forever. For the next three years, various things kept me from running this race. There was Covid, there were injuries, and there was also my belief that you don’t pay $100 to run a race just for the fun of it- you have to train, and have a time goal! If I didn’t feel I could “race” it and have a decent finish time, it didn’t seem worth doing. Then, this year a blogger friend announced that she was coming down to run the race. My husband also expressed interest in running it again, so I reluctantly registered for the half. The thought of running it much, much slower than I did in 2019 was tough to accept. But I knew I couldn’t do any speed work and risk getting injured, because I have a big goal race coming up in April. I wasn’t really looking forward to it, but had already committed, i.e. paid for it and told my friend and husband I would do it. My husband was having trouble finding the time to train properly, and then right when he needed to get in some serious long runs, he got Covid and that was the final nail in the coffin. He was out. Well, that left me and my blogging friend! Except that earlier this week she emailed me to say that after she arrived in Florida, she injured her foot (I’m going to let her tell her own story on her blog) and wouldn’t be running the race. Now, wait a minute! How did I end up running this race alone??? I didn’t even want to do it in the first place! I’m going to have to get up at 3:15 am on Sunday morning, drive down to Ft. Lauderdale by myself, and run this race at a snail’s pace, which I’ve always been opposed to. How did I get myself into this, anyway? Then… I had a major mindset shift. I’m the LUCKY one this time. I GET to run the race, while others are sitting at home. So what if I’m slow- no one cares. Sometimes you can do everything right, and be taken out at the last minute by illness, injury, or a freak accident. I’ve been there. This year, everything came together for me and I get to show up at the starting line of this race, healthy and ready to run. I can’t wait.
Valentine’s Day (and Other Life Updates)
It’s Valentine’s Day! To celebrate, I took down the outdoor Christmas lights. Ahem. I took down about half of them in January- actually the more difficult ones that went around the top of the house- but never got around to taking down the ones in the bushes or palm trees. I hope it goes without saying that I haven’t actually been turning them on- no, they were just sitting there dejectedly. Finally, I got home from work yesterday and said “It’s February 13th! These lights CANNOT be up on Valentine’s Day.” And I took them down. I’d like to say I learned a valuable lesson from all this, but I really didn’t… other than it’s no fun to procrastinate, which I already knew. I don’t really do much for Valentine’s Day, although I did make my daughter a special breakfast on Sunday (Tuesday mornings are not conducive to pancakes.) I like Super Bowl Sunday much better than Valentine’s Day. What a great game! I was rooting for Kansas City, but what I wanted most of all was a close, exciting game, and we got that. Here’s our Super Bowl dinner: Barbecued soy curl sandwiches, loosely based on this recipe. I have to admit I used a sugar-free barbecue sauce from the store, which has sucralose in it. I know, that sounds kind of gross. I just can’t do that much sugar. Sucralose isn’t a health food either, but in the short term it’s better than sugar (for me, that is) and I rarely eat it. With everything else on the sandwich- cole slaw and onion rings, YUM- you couldn’t tell the barbecue sauce was a little weird. My husband definitely didn’t notice, and ate two sandwiches. I might be the only person who didn’t watch the halftime show. I spent halftime doing dishes and laundry, so that I could relax and enjoy the rest of the game. I know, I’m a nerd. But I’m glad I did that- the second half was so good. Moving right along! Remember how the dryer repairman was scheduled to come last week? The day before, I asked my husband “How old is this dryer, anyway?” And he said “Well, it was here when we moved into the house twenty years ago.” WHAT??? Our dryer is over twenty years old? Yes, we realized we’ve never replaced the washer or the dryer. We quickly canceled the repairman (who probably would have laughed in our faces) and ordered a new dryer, which will arrive tomorrow… possibly. I’m not sure if I can be home for the delivery, since they won’t give us a window until later today. If worst comes to worst, they’ll have to come another day. Just as long as we have it by March, it’s fine. I’ve gotten pretty good at hanging the clothes to dry, but my son comes home on March 4th for spring break and I don’t think I can add another person’s laundry to the mix without a dryer. That’s about it for now! We’re enjoying some cooler weather this week, and I’m having a cutback week with no long run tomorrow, because I’m running a race on Sunday. More on that later! Did you watch the Super Bowl? How about the halftime show? Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?
Weekly Rundown- Fun on the Trail
Welcome to the Weekly Rundown, hosted as always by Kim and Deborah (thanks ladies!) It was a good one, and the highlight once again was my mid-week trail run. But there were other activities as well… let’s just see how it all went down. Sunday Leg day at the gym. I did my usual squats and leg press, but also added deadlifts with the hex bar. I’ve been struggling with transitioning from dumbbell deadlifts to using the bar- specifically, how to get the bar elevated from the ground since I’m not putting big plates on it (yet.) I thought the hex bar would be good because there are handles, but it was still too low. I remedied that by boosting it up a little. My gym opens at 8 am on Sundays, and I like showing up at that time because it’s less crowded- so I don’t feel as self conscious fiddling around with things like this. Monday Uneventful 4 mile run. Tuesday Upper body day at the gym. Teensy snafu- my shoulder is a little sore. I feel like the kid from A Christmas Story, where he wants a bb gun for Christmas and everyone keeps telling him “You’ll shoot your eye out!” Then he gets one and actually hurts his eye. All the naysayers kept telling me not to lift heavy weights because I would hurt myself, and now I’ve hurt my shoulder! Ha ha… I can joke about it because it’s not affecting my running (if it were my leg or hip I would be hysterical.) Anyway, I’m going to lay off the bench press for a little until my shoulder is better- I can still go to the gym and do a “pull” day, which doesn’t irritate it. Wednesday Ah, my favorite day of the week. Long run on the trail, 18 miles! I did the same thing as last week- broke it up into three segments, and returned to my car “aid station” to get a new, icy cold water bottle and to put ice in my sports bra between each one. This run was easier than last week’s, possibly because it was a little cooler (although I use that term loosely.) I also found a whole other part of the trail that I didn’t see last time- you have to go through a tunnel to get to it. This part of the trail was less woodsy and more open, but had some interesting features. Anyway, I’m loving my trail runs. I’m still trying to figure out how all the parts of this trail fit together, which makes it kind of fun. There’s always something new to explore. Thursday Cross training day- I did the stair climber at the gym. As I climbed to nowhere, I reflected that it was the polar opposite of doing a long, adventurous run on a beautiful trail. But since I just did that, it was a good day to stare at the walls of the gym. Friday Another 4 mile run, followed by a short strength session at home- Runner Touch and Bulgarian split squats, and oh yeah… holding a plank. I’ve been neglecting planks lately. Saturday Off! Crazy thing- I wasn’t sore at all after my long run on Wednesday. I mean, there are always little aches and pains; my low back has been achy lately. But really, I couldn’t even tell that I ran 18 miles. HOWEVER, I was still happy for this day off! Sunday On tap for today: back to the gym for leg day. Then, getting ready for the Super Bowl! I’ve decided to make this recipe for the “Best Vegan BBQ Sandwiches.” Except mine won’t be the “best” because I’m going to modify it to cut down the sugar. They’ll still be good, though! How was your week? Any adventures? Are you making a special meal for the Super Bowl?