New Month, New Me
Do you live your life reactively or proactively? For the last eighteen years I feel like I’ve been living my life reactively. I get the most important things done and can function surrounded by a low level of chaos. But imagine how much better and more productive my life would be if I were more in control, more organized, more proactive. Now that we’re four weeks into the school year, I’m learning how to cope with my son being gone (sob!) and my daughter’s schedule. At the beginning of this week I made a chart of each day- what time my daughter wakes up, what time she goes to school, what time I go to work, and when I’m going to work out. No two days are the same, which made it super confusing at first. But now I’m getting the hang of it. So how am I getting in that pesky strength training? Glad you asked! I have a new idea that I’m trying out this month. Before each run, I’m doing a short Strength for Runners class on the Peloton app. Did you know you can search for exactly what kind of class you want by using the filter? Ha ha… of course you did. I’m probably the only one who wasn’t using that. But now I’ve realized I can search for a Strength for Runners class by instructor and/or duration, and then I pick one that is ten to twenty minutes long and doesn’t use weights. Here’s the way I’m looking at it. I just don’t believe my glutes are that weak. At least, that’s not really the problem. I’ve been doing strength training for years, so I don’t think my glutes are too weak for me to run properly. I think they’re not firing correctly. By doing a SFR workout as a warmup, I’m getting those muscles activated properly. I’ll still do one dedicated day of strength training a week, with weights, because of course I can always be stronger. I’ll also do a power yoga class once a week, which counts as strength (in my world) and I’ll do two yoga flow classes, and two restorative yoga classes. That’s the plan! On a side note. I’m still dealing with the plantar fasciitis. Instead of spending money on shockwave treatments (again) or expensive doctor visits (again), or looking into some sort of injection, I decided to do things the old fashioned way. I went to Target, looked in the foot care section, and came home with these: These aren’t a permanent solution, but I’m planning to wear them in my work shoes. My favorite part is the little extra pad of cushioning in the heel. I’m already suffocating at work because of wearing a mask all day, and stepping down on my heel spur 100,000 times a day was about to drive me insane. We’ll see how these work out while I’m deciding what to do next. Happy September! Do you have any new plans or goals for this month?
Weekly Rundown- Adjustments
Hello everyone! Again, it was quite a week. I’m still getting used to my daughter’s school schedule- she has before school band rehearsals several times a week, which impacts when we wake up and when I can work out. I think I have the hang of it now! And, I had to get used to my son being away at college. I should mention that I have an issue with endings. I get sad the day after Halloween. I hate it when the Olympics are over. So as you can imagine, it’s been hard for me to face the end of this phase of our lives, where my son was living at home full-time with us. BUT! Time really does heal all wounds, and after a week, I’m feeling much better. I still felt disorganized with my workouts, but I got something in every day. I’m linking up with Kim and Deborah for this weekly rundown. Let’s get started! Monday After last week’s disastrous lack of strength training (when I drove to Texas and back) I knew I had to do SOMETHING this day. I did Matt Wilpers Strength for Runners workout on the Peloton app. It was only 20 minutes but that’s much better than zero minutes. Tuesday I added a fourth day of running this week! Since this was the added day, I did a short two mile run. Before the run I did a yoga flow class. I’m determined to do more yoga and I thought this would be a good place to incorporate it. Well, I was wrong! Nothing bad happened, but a yoga flow class isn’t a great warmup for a run. It was too stretchy. Live and learn. After the run I did Becs Gentry’s 10 minute Core for Runners class. This is a nice, short one, and my favorite part is where she calls out “Aces!” as an encouragement. I’m going to start using that expression. Wednesday Three mile run. This was the first time since coming back from my hip injury that I’ve run two days in a row. It felt SO GOOD! When I only run three days a week, it seems like my body has to get used to running all over again every time. When I started this run my body was like “Oh yes, I know this- we just did it yesterday!” Thursday I did Becs Gentry’s 30 minute Strength for Runners class. I know- Matt Wilpers was probably very sad that I went to someone else. Besides being longer, I like this class better because there’s more single leg work. Sorry Matt. I meant to do yoga at night, but had forgotten about the Open House at my daughter’s school. Grr! Must get more organized! I’ve realized that vaguely hoping to do yoga three times a week isn’t going to cut it- I need to plan it into my schedule. Friday Three mile run. Again hoped to do yoga at night- again, failed. Saturday Nothing can stop me this time! I did Denis Morton’s 30 minute Power Yoga class in the morning and I loved it. LOVED. IT. It was reasonably challenging, worked my hips and glutes like I wanted, but didn’t have any weird yoga-y stuff that I can’t do. Know what I mean? I remember years ago I used to take a power yoga class at the Y, and it helped my hips so much. I only stopped because the teacher left and they stopped offering the class. Now I can do power yoga again, thanks to Peloton! This class even had some upper body work, so I felt mildly victorious about that. Sunday Six mile “long” run! Hooray! I tried a new thing, which was drinking a large glass of water with half a packet of LMNT in it before the run, and then had the rest of the packet afterwards. I think it worked well! I know I said I didn’t like LMNT, but my husband bought a whole box of the salted watermelon flavor so I decided to try it again. I still only like to drink half of it at a time, but this flavor is okay. Moving forward, I can see that I’m going to have to plan out my week more carefully. I always get all my runs in- it’s just everything else that can fall by the wayside if I’m not careful. And I need the “everything else” to keep me running! Those of you with kids- are you settled into the back-to-school schedule yet? Is it still hot where you are? – We’ve got a couple more months of summer ahead of us down here. But that’s okay- we’re used to it.
August Runfessions!
Well, I set out to write a post about how I’m getting my life back in order after all the recent upheavals, but things are still so chaotic I couldn’t get that put together. Yes, I could confess that I haven’t done upper body strength in seven weeks, or how I want to do yoga three times a week but keep “forgetting,” but then I thought…. I’ll join Marcia for August Runfessions! I have lots of running related confession, so let’s get started! The first thing I’ll “runfess” is that this plantar fasciitis is getting old. Really old. Like, a year old. There have been times during the year where I thought it was getting better, but if anything, it got worse during the six weeks I didn’t run because of my hip issue. It doesn’t usually hurt when I run, but getting up in the morning, or if I’ve been sitting for any length of time, is ridiculously painful. Sometimes I’ll just hop to the bathroom in order to avoid stepping down on that foot. I read an article about an unusual treatment for PF, which is botox injections. I’m intrigued! However, I seriously doubt our insurance will pay for botox injections in my foot. I don’t mind paying the money, IF it works. After all the other things I’ve tried, I would say botox injections sound iffy. On the subject of physical ailments, I’ll “runfess” that after years of rolling my eyes at people who say running is bad for your knees, and having two perfect knees (in spite of all sorts of other injuries) I now seem to have a “bad knee.” This one literally came out of nowhere. One day I was running just fine, and the next time I ran both of my knees were suddenly killing me- aching horribly below the kneecap. I hobbled through a couple runs, then took about a week off and slowly eased back into running. Now my left knee is fine, but I’m left with a sore and achy right knee. It doesn’t hurt much while I’m running, unless I step down in a funny way or have to stop short. It does hurt a little when I do squats or lunges, so I feel like I’m constantly babying my bad knee. I still have no idea what caused this. Hrumph!!! Okay, enough about aches and pains. In my opinion, a good “runfession” should include something horrible or embarrassing, and I’ve got one of those. On my recent road trip to Texas, things started out so well, food-wise. We ate healthy foods that I brought along, and managed to find good, vegan-friendly fast food options (Moe’s, Blaze and Chipotle) for the first three dinners. As I drove back by myself, however, the food I brought along dwindled and finally on the last day I was so intent on just getting home, I only wanted to stop for the bathroom or to get gas. Having only eaten an old tortilla with some peanut butter all day, I decided to buy some boiled peanuts at a gas station in the middle of Florida, and ate them for lunch. This, possibly, was a mistake. I made it home just fine, and the next morning went for a five mile run. Somewhere in the middle of the run my digestive system was letting me know that it was very, very unhappy. You know those runs where you have to make an EMERGENCY STOP in the bathroom? Well… this was just like that, but there was no bathroom involved. Ever have an emergency stop in the bushes? – Up until last Sunday, it hasn’t happened to me in a long time. Are you running with any aches and pains now? Ever have knee problems?
Weekly Rundown- I Did It.
What a week. I drove my son to Texas, got him moved into his dorm, and drove back alone to Florida. The hardest part was not the driving, or the move-in… it was when I had to say goodbye to him. I’m not worried about him- I think he’ll have a great time- and I know Thanksgiving will be here before we know it and he’ll be home. But this is the beginning of him living his own life, away from us, and it’s painful. I know I just have to get used to it. In the midst of all the craziness there was some running and other workouts! Er, sort of. I’m linking up with Kim and Deborah for this weekly rundown. Here’s how it went! Monday I used to take Monday completely off, but I knew I had to do something this day, because Tuesday would be spent in the car. My time was limited, but I did a pool run- my “pool 5k” workout, where I do a little warmup and then “run” fast for the amount of time it took me to actually run my last 5k. It was short, but got the day started off well. Tuesday Literally spent the whole day in the car. We got started at 7 am and got to Mobile, Alabama around dinnertime. After a quick dinner we relaxed in the hotel room, and just to get myself stretched out I did a 30 minute Peloton yoga class. That felt good after all the driving! Wednesday I was determined to get in a run before getting in the car for another all-day drive. But backing up a bit… my husband generously took it upon himself to book the hotel rooms for this trip, and I told him not to get anything fancy since we wouldn’t be there long. Well… he really took me seriously on this one. Our hotel in Mobile was clean, but lacked almost every amenity, including a fitness center. It was on a busy highway. I would have run in the hotel parking lot, but it was tiny and on an enormous slant. As I said though, I was determined. I walked a little ways down the highway until I got to a cross street. It looked shady, and deserted! Well, it turns out the street was shady, and deserted… and .2 miles long. Noooooooo! But, I ended up making a loop- down the street, through the parking lot of the Goodwill dropoff center, and back through the parking lot of David’s Catfish House Express. That gave me about a .5 mile loop, which I repeated until I had run three miles. Then back in the car for another full day of driving- getting that run in first made all the difference though. Thursday Moved my son into his dorm room at Baylor University! This included trips to Bed Bath and Beyond, Lowes, a grocery store, carrying around a small refrigerator, and many other mentally and physically draining activities. I had imagined myself doing yoga (who was I kidding) or maybe even a Peloton strength class (HA!) that night, but I was clearly delusional. All I could do was fall into bed. Friday Another long day of driving- this time the other direction, by myself. I knew I was going to run, and my hopes and dreams came true when I discovered this hotel had one of these… Obviously I’d rather run outside, but not along the side of the highway or through fast food parking lots. Plus I let myself sleep in a little, and did you know it’s hot in Texas? Ha ha. A nice peaceful run on the treadmill in the AC was just the thing. Another three mile run, and I played around with the paces a little to make it a progression run. Makes the treadmill a little more fun. After this run I had another long day of driving ahead of me, this time back to Mobile. Once again I had imagined doing a Peloton class when I got to the hotel… and once again I just fell into bed. Saturday I got up and did a 15 minute yoga flow before getting into the car. This wasn’t to keep myself in shape, or to get stronger or more flexible… it was to keep my body from turning into a marble statue by the time I got home. I had to drive from Mobile, Alabama back home, and I have to stress that I live in SOUTH Florida. To drive the entire length of the panhandle and then all the way down to almost the end of the state… is a long drive. I literally had a callous on one finger from holding the steering wheel. The thing that really made it go quickly was that my son (as a parting gift) had recommended that I get the audio version of the Harry Potter book I was reading (Goblet of Fire) and that book is so engrossing- I listened to it for almost the whole drive. Sunday Home Sweet Home! Got up and did a five mile run, then… went to work. Because who wouldn’t want to go to work on a Sunday after a 40 hour round trip drive? Just kidding. I had to go in to make up some hours, since I missed so much work this week. That’s okay! I’m only working a half day, and then I’ll come home and collapse. It was an epic week. How about you? Do you like road trips? – This one was a fun adventure, but I’m glad to be home!