First Ice Bath

Today after my 5K race I added on 4 more miles that slowly turned into a walk to finish my 7 miles for the day. My legs were killing me and was looking forward to getting into the jacuzzi and relaxing. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remembered something about getting into a hot tub after running isn’t good and an ice bath is better. After being out in 36-degree weather all morning I wasn’t too keen on a cold bath. I had my friend google “hot tub vs ice bath after a run” and found an article on running.about.com that explained the benefits of an ice bath and why I shouldn’t soak in a hot tub. Ugh. I was still unsure though. But I was already hurting, so I decided to take the plunge.

I could sit here and describe to you how my very first ice bath went, but I really think that the following pictures and video is the best way to show it. Enjoy my pain.

As this video was being shot, I was mad! I didn't want proof of this ridiculous decision I had made. After it was all over and I watched the video, I realized how hilarious it was. I cannot stop laughing at myself!

Delirious!!

November 2011 Recap

November totals

Bike: 0

Run: 33.19 miles

Walk: 3.22 miles

Yoga workouts: 2

Rest days: 15

Races:  5K4Life in which I was on track to PR and was misguided to the finish line so I fake PRed instead; 5th Annual Gobble Wobble in Southborough – a new Thanksgiving tradition for sure!

5K4Life

Gobble Wobble...hence the turkey on my head.

The good:  I ran for a half mile straight several times in a row during my first ever 6 mile run. Longest I’ve been able to run continuously EVER in my life. Also 33.19 miles ran in one month!! Wow. If I had been doing my Marathon Month challenge in November, I’d have kicked it in the pants!

The bad:  My fake PR.

Did I meet my November Goals?

I wanted to fix myself. Eh. Well, there will always be aches and pains I guess. On my way home from the Witch City 5K at the end of October, I stopped at PR Running and bought compression socks. I now wear them during every run and I no longer have calf pain while running. I suppose that’s a start right?

I wanted to start kickboxing. I didn’t. Fail. My Groupon expires in January, so it’ll be sooner rather than later!

I wanted to run outside more. I did!! But not as much as I’d like. I did several of my runs on a trail near my house in NH. I also did some on the trail behind my work. And of course my 5Ks were outside. I’ve been doing my best to get at least 1 run outside per week, but I’d like my goal to be 2. The speed workouts (or my attempt to be speedy) I feel more comfortable doing on a treadmill where I can control the pace and make sure I stay at that pace for the entire interval. I can’t control that outside. Same with tempo. Can you? If so, how?

You Searched What??

More crazy searches that lead people to this blog. Funny stuff! Search queries are in bold. My comments are italicized.

0 degree haircut - I don’t know what that means. Maybe I should Google it.

yellow fire hydrant - Someone actually searched for this and found MY blog....??

drunk woman at races – hilarious!

12 days of Christmas workout - I have to admit, I’m curious.

some people go crazy - And I’m one of them!!

famous Christmas songs - I don’t think I’ve even discussed Christmas on my blog. We’ve still got time people!

meatball costume – At first, I was confused. Then I remembered my 5K costume race.

teach my ass – This sounds like a scary boot camp workout. Sign me up!

What are some of your funny search queries?

For December

Races:  Reindeer Run Festive 5K; Winter Classic 5K – not only are there T-shirts...there are fleece hats!; Jingle Bell 5K – medals! (I’m up to 3 medals now!)

Goals:

1. Continue to run for longer intervals. For my 6 mile run, I ran .5 miles at a time. For my tempo runs, I run for 10 mins at the end of the run instead of a shorter 3 or 5 min interval. I want to bump that up.

2. PR at one of my 5Ks. Right now my current PR is 49:03. My “official” PR is 47:something, but I don’t count that because I ran the wrong way during the race. Still upset about that. If I could beat that 47: something time, it would take away all the pain!

3. Complete the first half of the 30 for 60 Challenge. NO REST DAYS!!

What are your December goals?

30 for 60 challenge

Tomorrow will be my last rest day for a while.

Starting December 1st, I’m off and running for 60 days straight. Not literally, don’t be crazy! I have a habit lately of saying “Yeah, sure sign me up” for things that I haven’t discussed with myself yet.

The premise is to exercise or be active for 30 minutes every day for 60 days in a row. This will be hard for me because I’m used to having rest days. Several rest days. But a 30 minute walk can be very calming and will still count towards my daily activity. I have big plans. Yoga, walks with the dogs, stretching, core workouts, Wii tennis!!!! What else can I do??

Do you want to join?? Check out the original post here.

If you join, follow me on twitter @runaroundsara and use the hashtag #30for60 to track your workouts! Let me know what you plan to do to keep active on the days you’d normally rest. If you don’t join, let me know any ideas you have for activities that will keep me busy!!

Week Eight: Disney Princess Half Marathon Training

Week Eight

Monday – yoga rest

I don’t even remember this day. I know I definitely didn’t go to yoga though. Next week.

Tuesday – run

The confidence boost from last Sunday's run carried over to this run. Being a short work week, I was thinking I was doing a speedwork run. But it was only Tuesday so based on my longer intervals of running on Sunday, my intervals were run 5, walk 2. I sort of did speed work, starting at a faster speed to begin with, then went down slowly until I found a more comfortable pace to finish out the intervals. I probably could have done longer intervals at that comfortable pace, but I had a 5K planned for Thursday and I didn't want to push it too hard. Sometimes confidence is all you need to have a good run.

Entire workout 40 mins – 2.36 miles (16:57/mi)

30 mins – 1.901 miles  (15:46/mi)

Wednesday – rest

I think last week passed in a blur. I don’t remember this day either.

Thursday – long run – 3 miles

I did the 5th annual Gobble Wobble 5K road race. I did the walk last year with my mom. This year, I went for the 5K. Of course, I only did it for the pie.

3.11 miles – 51:20 (16:30/mi pace)

Friday – rest

Slept in, recovered from Thanksgiving festivities (i.e. to much wine) and didn't leave the house until the afternoon for a movie. I don't do that Black Friday shopping business. 

Saturday – run walk

This was supposed to be my run day. My friend texted me and asked me if I wanted to run the Central Mass Rail Trail with her. I agreed and she said “Bring the dogs!” -- that’s the last time I ever listen to her!!

I have 2 boxers. My girl is 11 years old. My boy is still a puppy at just over one year. My friend took the girl. She’s very flexible wen it comes to following along and not really paying attention to what’s going on around her. Meaning, she’ll run nicely. The boy? Not so much. I had him. He was going crazy and flipping around the second we got out of the car. He’s not a great leash walker, but he’s still learning. Needless to say, I couldn’t run with him. He was way to excited with all the people around and it was easier, and less stressful, for me to just walk with him and do my run later. When there’s no one else around, he’s not too bad running with me. So, we need to work on that obviously. Practice makes perfect!

At least they're cute.

Sunday – run

I need to work longer intervals into my running more consistently. I obviously can do it; I just get lazy. I need to push myself now. I pushed myself for the last 10 minutes and instead of doing the run 3 walk 2 intervals for the last 2 cycles, I ran the entire 10 minutes. I really only started to struggle during the last 2 minutes. And normally I’d have just slowed down a bit, but I decided to push it and keep going at the same speed. Pushing myself felt good. I know I can do it, it’s just a matter of not letting myself give up.

Entire workout 40 mins – 2.42 miles (16:33/mi)

30 mins – 1.97 miles  (15:12/mi)

I’ve been itching to get more activities in my schedule in addition to running. Starting December 1st, which is in two days, I will be exercising for 60 days straight in a 30 for 60 challenge. The idea with to get in at least 30 minutes of exercise for 60 days. No rest days. My “rest” days will be spent doing something active, but low impact. I really need to get my cardiovascular endurance back up to where it was when I was training for the triathlon. I’m hoping some elliptical and spin classes and weight training and maybe some swimming will help. Any other suggestions?

Nov 21 - Nov 27

According to dailymile, I am 3 miles away from running, elliptical-ing biking or swimming 500 miles in 2011!!

90 days until the Disney Princess Half Marathon!

5th Annual Gobble Wobble 5K Road Race Report

I did this race last year with my mom. We did the 2-mile walk instead of the 5K. Looking at the route this year, I realized that we went the wrong way last year and ended up doing 1.77 miles instead of 2. Oh well. It was togetherness!

Thanksgiving 2010

Before the race, both years, a turkey crossed my path on the drive to the location. I don’t know about you, but these turkeys are BRAVE! I mean, showing your face on Thanksgiving when everyone wants to eat you? Tough turkeys, they are!

I met up with some friends for the race and we chatted about how freaking cold it was outside. My car thermometer told me it was 28* on the way over to the race. I had many layers on, but just standing there at the beginning was quite cold.

Luckily, registration was held inside a school that was the start/finish area of the race. So it was a short time of standing around in the cold before the race. They also supplied food & coffee. Bagels, bananas, danishes, munchkins, donuts, coffee from both Dunkins & Starbucks. And PIE. Lots of pie. I have decided that I’m no longer in the 5K business for t-shirts (though, they are pretty cool!) I’m now in it for the pie!

PIE

The race itself was pretty good. The route was hilly, but I managed quite well. I planned to run half miles at a time, and take walk breaks of .1 or .2 miles depending on how I was doing, but I really didn’t follow that. I ran as much as I could and took about 30-45 second walk breaks when I felt tired, or when the hills were too much for me. I made it about half way up the one big hill before I had to walk. But I power walked it and probably went about as fast as I was running. At one point in the beginning of the race, I was running a lot slower than I usually do because I hadn’t really warmed up and I didn’t wanna get cramped up, and people were walking faster than I was running. Most of them were only doing the 2-mile walk so I never got the chance to try and pass them again later. But there were 2 girls who were walking about as fast as I was running, and they did the entire 5K, but I never caught up to them. They were just a head of me the entire race. It was good motivation though, because I kept them in my sights the whole time and I didn’t allow myself to fall back.

A first for this race was that I was about to set someone in my sights and pass him near the end and hold him off and finish before him. He encouraged me to run pretty much the entire last mile of the race. Not with his words, but with my desire to pass someone in a race – while they were still moving and not stopping to tie a shoe (which I had to do at one point in this race).

There is a running joke among family friends that I have short legs. So I’ll use that excuse here. I can’t walk fast. I just can’t. I can run or jog as other people walk at their normal pace. But trying to keep up with someone’s normal walking pace gets me out of breath and it’s easier to break into a jog. So, when I see people passing me walking while I’m running, I curse my short legs. I’ve tried the power walk. It just doesn’t work for me.

The reason for this story? The guy I passed was walking. I saw him up ahead of me around mile 1.3 and thought, I wonder if I can catch him. As the race went on, I saw that I was getting closer and I decided that I would pass him. I finally passed him around 2.8 miles in.

I didn’t finish in record time, but I did better than I have been doing lately with this distance, so I guess that’s progress.


Official time: 51:20 - 3.11 miles

My friends were waiting for me at the finish. We went into the school to grab coffee and stock up on PIE. And I had fun with the turkey hat.

Friends of Southborough Recreation put on a really great race and I have a feeling this will become a Thanksgiving tradition for me!

I thought it was funny that they used last year's banner!

Week Seven: Disney Princess Half Marathon Training

Week Seven

Monday – yoga

I sweat more in this hour & 30 minutes that I have in my entire life. I swear. I hadn’t done yoga the previous 2 weeks due to being sick. I think my sweat decided to band together and compile 3 weeks worth. I probably lost 10 lbs. in that class alone. In past classes, I’ve wanted to do the half pigeon pose to stretch out my hips, but I felt awkward just hopping into my own pose in the middle of the class.

source: womansday.com

The instructor is really cool and says, “This is your yoga class, you do what you need to do, I’m just here to guide you. If you sit in child’s pose the entire class, you are doing yoga”, so I probably could have busted out the half pigeon and it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but I never did. I did it a few times at home, but figured I’d get a better stretch after an hour of yoga and stretching with a very warm room.  And I did! We finally did the half pigeon pose! My left hip is really tight, so I had to use a block to support myself, but overall, it’s a very nice hip stretch!

Tuesday – rest

Wednesday – run

I didn't want to do this one. Spent 10 minutes sitting on my couch whining about doing this. Then finally got up and did it. Intervals of run 3 mins, walk 2 mins.

Entire workout 40 mins – 2.32 miles (17:15/mi)

30 mins – 1.88 miles  (15:55/mi)

Thursday – rest

Got out of work early to head up to New Hampshire to catch Straight No Chaser in concert in Manchester. We decided to make a weekend out of it and go up to my house near Lake Winnipesaukee after the show for a long weekend. I was hoping for their Christmas concert since everything seems to be all about Christmas lately

This was taken Sept 10. The day before my triathlon!

But they started out with a few of the same songs from their show I saw in July in Atlantic City. I was disappointed until they started mixing it up and I realized it was going to be a different show. For the second half of the show, they busted out some of their best Christmas songs and I was happy!

I love a cappella. Especially Christmas a cappella. But they didn’t do my all time favorite Christmas song: O Holy Night. I later heard that they sang it at their show the next night in Boston. Booo. Hisss.

Friday – run

Beginning of the trail

I didn’t want to do the track, and I was in NH without a treadmill, so I headed out onto the Cotton Valley Rail Trail. It was so cold & windy. I hated being outside in this. I tried doing speed work, but to me, it's impossible to figure out speed unless I'm on a treadmill. What struck me as odd was that I went out 20 mins, and then came back. On the way out, I ran 1:30, walked 2:30. On the way back I ran 2, walked 2. I ran more on the way back, yet it took me longer to get back than it did to cover the same distance on the way out. I can only hope that this cold & wind are not foreshadowing for the upcoming winter, because I could not stand it. I hated every second of it. If it’s too cold for me out there, I’ll spend the rest of my training inside on a treadmill and just hope for the best.

41 mins – 2.4 miles (17:06/mi)

Saturday – rest

Got lost on the way to a store and ended up in Maine. Twice. Almost got killed on the way home by an ax murder (maybe) and watched movies and drank wine by the fire. Successful rest day.

Sunday – long run - 6 miles

I did NOT want to do this today. I whined about it for a good hour and even complained on twitter. But after some advice and support from Amanda, Sharon, and Stephanie on the Twitter, I got dressed. That was half the battle. I pouted the entire time I drove to the trail. And pouted during my .5 mile warm up. Then I started my usual run 2, walk 2 routine and pouted through the first interval. Then I got mad at myself. It wasn’t windy, it wasn’t cold, and I had no reason to be a complete sourpuss about everything. So I changed my tactic. I told myself to just run. Even if it was slower that someone else’s walking pace, just run. And don’t stop until I couldn’t take it anymore. Push past 2 minutes, after all I’ve run 20 before. I knew I could do it; I just needed to kick myself in the butt and make it happen. I ended up running for .5 mile, then walking for .25. I continued that pattern the entire 6 miles. Never before have I run that long continually throughout a workout. So, even though I might have been slow as heck, I still consider that progress. Now I know what I need to do on all my runs. Maybe I’ll see progress that way. The downfall of this run was, I ran out of fluids (Crystal Light Pure, of course) at mile 4 (I need better planning) and I could feel it. My legs started to hurt at mile 4.5 but I kept going. By the time I was done, I was dead. But I completed it.

6 miles – 1:48:59 (18:08/mi pace) Average run speed = 4.4 mi/hr

Apparently this was the week of “I don’t wanna”. I had a tough time committing and getting it done. I mean I got it all done. But I complained the whole time and I didn’t want to do any of the runs. I think my problem is, I’m getting so bored with just running and I’m not seeing overall improvement. In fact I feel like my endurance/fitness level is deteriorating. I’ve decided it’s because I’ve been doing nothing as far as cross training. When I was training for my triathlon, I was biking, swimming, doing the elliptical and a little core as well as running. Now with just running, I’m falling into a rut, and fast. So now that I know my downfall, I just have to up the ante and get in some other activities so I don’t get completely bored with this and give up!

11/14-11/20 

So weird to see 6 miles up there as a RUN, and not a bike ride. God, I hope I can do this!

97 days until the Disney Princess Half Marathon!

We are in the double digits now!!