Is It The Shoes?

Between Friday's weigh-in where I was down 1.8 pounds, and a great Friday and Saturday of run and bike training, I feel pretty good.  I ran Saturday morning with the Park Hill Ladies' Run Club, and struggled again a little bit with the respiratory stuff.  I am going to find a way to beat it.  Once I do, I know that I am strong enough to crank out the miles that have been giving me trouble.  I took my dog, Blue, with me to the run, and there were a couple of other dogs there, too.  Blue, being the competitive and strong-willed dog that he is, was determined to be first in the pack and as a result, I woke up with an extremely sore right arm on Sunday morning.  It was either hold him back with all of my strength, or wind up facedown in the dirt while he triumphantly defeated all the other dogs.  I wish I could steal his energy sometimes, and if I had two wishes, the other one might be that he listen to me more than just occasionally when I say "heel".

I made a big mistake in ordering new shoes this week, and really paid the price after Saturday's run.  I have been wearing Pearl Izumi Synchropace II and III for the past few years.  They are knee and ankle miracle shoes for a runner like me who is on the heavy side and tends to over pronate a bit.  I just wore out my fifth pair.  Because things are a little tight lately with our wedding coming up, I had the genius idea of trying to save some money on running shoes, and I found two new pairs of the old, original Synchropace shoes on eBay in my size for $49 each.  That is less than half of what I pay for my current model.  I ordered both pairs, and ran four miles in a shiny purple pair on Saturday morning.  The resulting giant blisters kept me from running again yesterday.  Not good.  So, needless to say, I reordered my old faithful pair last night and am waiting patiently for them to arrive, while wearing their tired and dirty predecessors.   My knees are craving the spring of great new shoes, scheduled to arrive by Friday. I shouldn't have messed with a good thing.

Today's workout will consist of treadmill intervals of 5 X 2:00 at 9:30 pace again with warmup, cool down and jogging in between, and I probably will do a bike course or swim after that.  I am working on coordinating my Runner's World half marathon plan with my run club schedule and adding in a little tri training, too.  I think I need to get a big wall calendar and just sit down and schedule it all out.  Otherwise, I may lose my mind trying to keep it all straight along with all of the races and, oh yeah, the getting married stuff, too.  Anybody have any great tips for keeping it all straight?

Looking forward to a productive training week, and really excited about my next race coming up on Valentine's Day.  More on Wednesday!

If It's Called "Gentle," It Can't Be Bad. Remember That.

This has been a great week so far, and I am so pumped by all the good vibes and support I have received.  I started out this week with a Runner's World half marathon training program.  I ran intervals on Monday according to their plan, and I did it on the treadmill at the gym just to get a feel for the speed and timing.  5 X 2:00 at 9:30 miles (for me this is 10 seconds faster than race pace; I'm sure real runners might laugh at that) with 2:00 jogging/walking in between.  First of all, this was a really FUN workout that flew by.  Second, boy did I feel it in my thighs the next morning!  It was awesome to know that increasing speed like that, even for just a little bit at a time, can completely change the muscles I use and begin to adjust my "fear" of going fast.

The rest of the week thus far, I have done some cross-training at home.  I am looking forward to getting off the spin bike and back on to my road bike, but in the meantime, Mike and I try to do the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred workout as many days as we can. That's supposed to be us in the photo.  It is an intense 20 minute body circuit workout comprised of tons of squats, lunges, push-ups, and ab work, with bouts of cardio mixed in.  It is so hard, but since it is over in 20 minutes, I try not to complain.  And I am proud to say that when I started, I could only do about half of level one.  Now I can do almost all of level two except for something evil called Twisting Squat Thrusts or something like that, where you basically twist your body into a pretzel and jump up and down, all while maintaining plank position. You do this until your abdominal muscles begin to actually separate from your body and fall to the carpet one by one, and that is one rep :).  Seriously, where does she come up with this stuff?

Saturdays and Wednesdays are run club days.  I started a women's running club in my neighborhood after Mike and I bought our house, and I love what it has turned into (our site is here).  Even though I am still among the slowest of the members, the thought that there are others waiting for me every Saturday morning gets me right out of bed and out into the cold.  One Saturday morning I rolled over in bed at 7:00 am and groaned to Mike that I didn't want to go, and he said sleepily and simply, "You have to go, you're the president."  I am not really the "president" of anything, but there is a certain amount of responsibility there that caused me to get right up.  There are great ladies in this group, and I feel like it will be a big catalyst in what I am trying, nay going, to accomplish this year.  Last night I got a great run in out in the crisp air, and was able to complete three miles right at 30 minutes, an accomplishment right now while I am still trying to figure out this respiratory thing.  It also doesn't hurt to have a faster run buddy with you.  I do not like to feel like I'm holding anyone up, so it is a good push.

Tomorrow is Friday where I will weigh in and then try a new RW training element called Gentle Pickups, where 5 times at the end of my run I slow down and then gradually speed back up.  I think these might take a little more to get the hang of then all-out intervals.  I'l let you know how I do.

The ads on my blog are supposed to be up and running any time now, and once they are, all proceeds are ready to go to my charities.  Take a look!  See you tomorrow!