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Monday, January 31, 2011

Invincible Legs:2

Breakfast of champions: Banana, Cottage Cheese with Berries and Rice Puffs, Toast with Almond Butter, Apple Butter, Cinnamon and Banana. Yes, I am a hungry girl in the morning.               







Day Two of the Invincible Legs Feeling: I did 6 miles this morning in 50:49, then a hard 45 minutes of intervals on the recumbent bike at the gym, and 30 minutes of intervals on the elliptical. I am trying to up my cardio during the week, since before, I had been doing massive amounts of strength training that left me so sore it was interfering with my workouts. I am still doing the strength training, but I am saving my legs on days before my tough track workouts (like tomorrow's, which=DEATH). I find that when I lift and do lunges, squats, bridges, etc. the day before a workout, my legs feel too drained to run fast the next day. Does anyone else have this problem when doing strength training?


Snack time!!! And you know it involved peanut butter and pretzels. And fruit. And hummus... which is the greatest condiment ever besides salsa or hot sauce.

Blehhh Track Workout

This is roughly how I feel about my track workout tomorrow. Skeptical, slightly confused, and basically in a "I am going to put my hands on my hips and say nanana-foo-foo" kind of mood.

This is my feeling basically every Monday when I am packing my stuff up to head to the gym and I realize that tomorrow I have some form of torture awaiting me in the form of 400's. I HATE sprinting; I think this is a feeling stemming from my days on track& field when I always felt like I was going to barf during workouts and races. I love running fast, don't misunderstand me- it's just the running REALLY REALLY fast for a short period of time that I am not so fond of (this is probably why I run distance races...) So, while I was doing my lovely morning 6-miler, (which rocked!!!) there was that nawing sensation in the back of my head telling me that I am really going to be hurting tomorrow. I am trying to more optimistic about these workouts and tell myself I am a SuperWoman marathoner who can do anything, but inevitably, looking at my coach's prescription of 3x 3x400 @ 1:35-1:41 pace with 200 in between 400 and 400 in between sets with 2 mile warm up and cool down, I still feel the sense of dread.
   I think I'll go zone out on the bike and elliptical for an hour and a half or so and try not to freak out about it. Am I alone in my anxiety over the track?

Sunday, January 30, 2011

BERRY PIE and Invincible Legs

So this here is my usual dessert: 2 no-sugar-added rice puddings, microwaved frozen berries, a handful of Kashi Rice Puff cereal, and a dollop of canned Whipped Cream. It basically tastes like a berry pie and is DELICIOUS. And it satisfies my fruit addiction.. I think I could live off of it and be a fruitatarian, as long as I could also eat peanut butter. And pretzels.


Today was actually a lot busier than I expected it to be. Though, compared to my one-day school week that involved lots of loafing around and TV-watching/blog-reading, I guess anything would seem busy! I did 8 miles this morning on the treadmill on a 2% incline at around 8:49 pace. I added in a spurt of 8:40 pace every 10 minutes so 1. I wouldn't get too bored and 2. I can continue to increase my long-run pace. After almost 3 Food Network shows, I was done! It was strange- I did a hard 10 yesterday, but my legs actually felt BETTER today. I am hoping this is not a fluke and that I am actually turning into a superhero-athlete.
                 The rest of the day involved going to the hardware store to get ceiling paint for my dad, going to the library and checking out what felt like 110 lbs. of books and magazines, folding laundry, and a trip to the gym for a half hour of weight lifting, 20 minutes on the elliptical, and 20 minutes in the pool. My legs are suprisingly not sore after my first >40 mile week since my late November marathon! Then again, they also have that "the second day is always worse" rule, so tomorrow I could possibly feel like total poop on my morning 6 miler... Hopefully not!!

My usual workout schedule looks something like this:
Monday: Easy 6 miles at 8:30
Tuesday: Track workout
Wednesday: Easy 6 mi. at 8:30
Thursday: Track workout
Friday: day off from running***
Saturday: long run
Sunday: long run.
***I also do cross training every day in the form of a combination of the bike, elliptical, swimming, strength training or weights. I definitely do not recommend this to everyone, as it adds up to about a 16 hour training week, but without the cross-training I get tight and my hip and ITB get angry. Plus, I just love sweating for 2 hours out of every day (sarcasm. I sweat more than any woman or man you have ever met). And, I break it into a morning and evening session so I have the whole school day to recover between exercising sessions.

First Blog Post!!

FIRST BLOG POST! EXCITING! And, even better, as I write this, two runners just ran past my street in Goretex and awesome hats! I have no idea how to 'start out' my first post, so I'll jump right in to what I plan to do with those ol' thing:
This is my third meal of the day.. Did I mention I eat about 5 or 6 times a day? This particular "meal" involved spelt pretzels, garlic hummus, carrots, cheese, and a clementine. In case you have never tried it, pretzels and cheese are the greatest combo EVER.
Basically, I want something where I can sound off all the running (haha) commentary that goes through my head all day long. I hope to be able to update at least once a day, if not more. I'll try and post my eats, workouts, etc., hopefully with some photos along the way. Please join me as I navigate my life of 16-hour training weeks, 5 AP classes, insulin resistance, electrolyte problems, and an extreme obsession with nut butter.