Update.

How to recap the past few months.

During training for the Ogden half, managed to overtrain somewhat, then caught the spring flu from my kid.

Made it to the start line with a brand-new inhaler.  Coughed two minutes before the start; threw out back.

Ran ("ran") the race anyway.  It was 40 degrees, and rainy, and miserable, but I'm glad I managed to get to run down the canyon; the race is usually sold out so it's no guarantee I'll get to do it next year!

Took a week off; returned to building a base.  Became more and more tired.  Still wheezy.

Appear to have developed anemia, and more worryingly, asthma.  Working with docs for a solution.

TL;DR: this sub-2 is going to be harder than I thought.

Week Three: Keep on Shufflin'

Monday
Planned: 50-60 minutes, easy.
Actual: Big fat zero, zonk..

Honestly not sure what happened here.  Maybe the race caught up with me; maybe I'm underfueled.  But in any case I couldn't manage to get up at 5AM to get the run going, and then work was just too busy.  By 5pm I was dragging; by the time the baby was asleep and I zombie-walked through the dishes, I just decided to call it.

Tuesday
Planned: 40-60 minutes, easy,
Actual:  56 minutes (11:15)

The weather here in Northern Utah has been unseasonably warm, which is creating a total #firstworldproblem for me.  I always wear my reflective jacket when I'm out in the dark; it's a bright neon yellow reflective shell with wide reflective strips. The delicate piping on most gear doesn't strike me as enough protection, and I have too much going on to have time to get hit by a car.  I also have  headlamp and two handhelds as I like to see where I'm going and don't have the best night vision.

Nerding it up, yes.  Anyhow, the trouble is that at 40 degrees (in #$%^ing February!) it is not warm enough to wear the jacket alone over a sports bra, but putting it over a shirt means sweating to death.  At least I'm a visible ball of grossness, but honestly, if this weather continues I'll have to find a harness instead of a jacket.

Wednesday
Planned: 70-90 minutes, easy; strength program.
Actual: 72 minutes (10:20); completed strength program

Hey, look at that!  I hit a respectable-for-me easy pace!  I ran along the mostly flat trails up on the bench, and the loop I chose happened to be seven miles.  I'd hoped, initially, to run closer to 90 minutes but I didn't get out of work quickly enough and eventually just wanted to come home.

Friday:
Planned: 50-60 minutes, easy
Actual: 57 minutes (11:14)

5:30 AM start again.  It was a nice morning for a run, and I'm feeling a bit more confident running in the dark.  Near the end of my run I saw two charming gentlemen also decked out in headlamps and handheld lights; they shouted hello and I was warmed by their greeting and by our light-up fellowship.

Saturday:
Planned: 105-120 minutes, easy
Actual: 112 minutes (11:06)

Apparently my body's new thing is to have no speed but maintain nearly perfectly even splits (11:16, 11:16, 11:20, 11:06, 10:58, 11:18, 10:55, 10:54, 11:22, 10:40) for ten miles.  I really have no idea how I managed just over (just!) two hours for a half in September.  But the run was easy, with no pain or tightness, and I wrapped it up with a strength workout with my toddler as a coach: ONE, TWO, FOUR, FIVE SIX SE'EN AYCH NINE TEN.

Total Mileage: 27.3

Race Recap: Striders WRC 5K

Event: Striders Winter Race Circuit
Date: 2/7/2015
Distance: 5K
Field: 692.


Map:  Oh, hell.

Why yes, that is ~300 feet of elevation in about a mile.  Yes, yes, it is.

Every runner I know warned me about this course.  It's straight up the hill!  Just when you think it's done, it's not!  It is not a PR course.

Oh, indeed, they are right.  The first hill starts gradually, and then you think you're done, and then you make a turn, and up, up, up you go.

The Winter Racing Circuit was started by the local running store, Striders, ten years ago.  It's intended in part as training for those that are planning to take on the Ogden Marathon in May, so there are many seriously talented runners out there on the course.

It was an unusually nice morning.  This winter has been so mild that as of the first week in February, my tulips and daffodils are poking up their heads.  February, guys!  It was nearly 60 degrees at 8AM on race day, but I fully expect Mother Nature will be all "fooled you!" and we'll probably have six feet of snow in June.

Anyhow, the race.

Personally, it wasn't great.  This past week I added in my weights routine and I was surely feeling the effects of being two weeks into a mileage build-up.  I wasn't fast, and I had to walk part of the hill.   I finished in 30:06, which is quite a bit over my PR, but I'll take 29/92 in my age group given how sluggish I felt.  I joked at the finish line that I'm counting this race as a separate race than a normal 5K.

I'm the one that looks like she's going to die if she doesn't pass Stripey Pants.

The race non-personally, however, was great.  Striders sold the circuit this year to the GOAL foundation, which also runs the Ogden Marathon, and support was fantastic.  The course was on the open road, and the Ogden PD kept everyone safe.  At the finish there was coffee and hot chocolate provided by Daily Expresso, and bananas and orange slices and granola bars.

I also really appreciated that the course stayed open until the last finisher came through, and the announcer gave everyone a heads-up about ten minutes beforehand so people knew to stay and cheer. Heather's experience in her half really gave me a great appreciation for how important it is for the back of the field to have the same experience as the front of the field.  And while it's less of a safety issue with a 5K, a 5K is also often the first distance a newer runner does.  Not good if the experience is being alone on a road after everyone's gone home.

So, props to the GOAL foundation, and the next race is the 10K, on the 21st.

Yes, there's another hill.

Week Two Recap

Health: Hey, look at that!  I can breathe!
Injury: Hip feels pretty good; right big toe is acting up a bit.
Sleep: Good, but I am feeling beyond worn out.

Monday
Plan: 50-60 minutes, easy.
Actual: 53 minutes, easy (10:15)

A quick five+ after work today. My usual route in winter, when I'm stuck on the roads, is reasonably hilly, and today I added an extra hill just for the variety.  I'm not great at climbing hills, but they're very good for you, like broccoli, and I think they help my form.

My form is still all over the place.  I'm not in any pain during or after the run, but I feel like I'm cheating my stride length, running choppy instead of smoothly.  It's already so much better than it was three weeks ago, so I'm trying to be patient, but I really liked having 9:40 feel easy and it's been mentally a bit rough to see my leg speed so far off.

Tuesday
Plan: XT or 40-60 minutes, easy
Actual: 39:52, on a treadmill, with no music (9:52)

The run did not want to happen. I was going to run from work.  It's been unseasonably warm, so I packed for a 50 degree run, but as I changed into my gear, it started to drizzle.  So I decided not to tempt fate and instead headed over to the treadmill, whereupon I discovered that a) I had not packed my iPod and b) that the weather was just going to threaten rain for an hour.

Wednesday
Plan: 70-90 minutes, easy
Actual:  82 minutes, easy (11:37)

Man, this day.  The kiddo woke up, so the run before work didn't happen.  Sometimes I sneak in a few miles after work, but I had meetings and so I didn't make it out until after dark, running around with my lights like, a passerby observed, a bionic woman.  Very tired legs and no leg speed, but a gentle, easy run, followed by weight training.

Friday
Plan: 50-60 minutes, easy
Actual: 58 minutes, easy (11:24)

Another slow run in the dark.

Saturday
Plan: Striders WRC 5K race!
Actual: Race (30:06), then weights, then another hour of easy running.

I will recap the race soon.  Suffice it to say that I had a hard but disappointing run, but the race itself was fabulous.  Since I didn't feel like I managed a good effort in the race, I tacked on the miles I would have had scheduled for a long run.  Might have been a teensy bit of a mistake, but it was an odd 70 degree day in February and it did me good to get outside.

Total mileage: 29.7

The exhaustion is pretty severe, so I've switched to a multivitamin with some iron just in case I'm running a bit low.

Onward!

Almost Hansons. Almost.

While I was out with an injury, I read running books voraciously, mostly with an eye to finding a plan that would facilitate my stepping up from a plan where the goal was to finish the half upright, to beginning to race it.  More mileage, but something that's sensitive to a beginning runner's lack of speed.

I started with Hansons Half Marathon Method, which is a version of their popular marathon training program aimed at the half.  The first part of the book explains their training philosophy, which centers on running, running, and more running, because they argue that the non-cardio benefits of running are what really improve a runner in the long run.  Hansons marathon plan became known as the plan that demanded only a 16 mile long run, but what the buzz failed to mention is that the long run topped out at 16 because all of the rest of the mileage comes during the week.

They build their training program on the principle of cumulative fatigue; throughout the training cycle, the runner's legs will always be tired and never fully rested, which will not only simulate the last leg of the race, but also ensures that the runner has to take the easy days easy.  It's hard to race your training accidentally if your legs are always a little heavy.

I liked a lot about the plan.  The "Beginner" plan, aimed at beginning racers at the distance, tops out at 48 miles a week, which would be a challenge.  Every run is planned, with intervals and tempo runs included every week.  Best, the book includes all of the pace charts that you could wish for to get you through training, and it's extremely well-organized and edited.

Here's the problem.  I want to do this plan so badly, but I don't think I can handle six days a week of running.  I know I can manage five without an injury.  Every time I've pushed it to six, the sixth run of the week is horrible and I wind up hurting.

I want to destroy my half marathon, but I also want to keep from losing hours a week to PT.    So this cycle I'm sticking to three principles:

1. Run no more than five days per week.
2. Off days are off.  No weight training or extra core work.
3. Mobility work every day on hotspots.

So I've shelved Hansons for now.  Maybe next time.

Week One Recap

I decided for my second half to increase my mileage somewhat.  The Another Mother Runner basic half marathon plan was great, but I've read some research that suggests that about 40 miles a week is optimal for fitness (beyond that is necessary for small improvements, but there are diminishing returns.)

I wanted to run more, so I shopped around a bit for a plan.  I read the Hanson's Half Marathon book, which I'd highly recommend, but I don't think I'm up for running six days a week yet.  I know I can manage four or five and keep the injury bug at bay.

So, McMillan's plan from You (Only Faster) was the winner.  I think the book will be more useful once I have a little more experience.  I don't know how to tailor a plan to my strengths, because I don't know whether I'm oriented more toward Speed or Endurance.  I'm leaning Endurance right now because my half time way out performs the predictions based on my 5K time.  But I do  like interval workouts, so we'll see.

Week One is the first of eighteen weeks, and designed to begin the process of building up a mileage base.

Health: Meh.  Last week I had flu symptoms which resolved into a sinus cold that has clogged my head.  Not awful, but not ideal.

Injury Status:   Hip gets tight during runs but I am no longer having troubles with extending it.

Sleep:  The kiddo has decided that he needs to sleep touching me.  He wakes shrieking in his crib and then comes into bed.  I haven't been this tired since he was nursing twice a night as a newborn.

Monday

Plan: 40-50 minutes, easy.  Actual: 54 minutes, easy (avg: 10:21/mile)

Easy paces for me are supposed to be between 9:31-10:27; barely kept that one together over all the hills.  And it went a little long because I was conservatively shooting for the lower end of the range to keep my weekly jump in mileage reasonable, and completely misread the chart.

Tuesday

Plan: 40-60 minutes, or cross train, easy.  Actual: 49 minutes, easy (10:29)

Wednesday

Plan: 60-70 minutes, easy.  Actual: 61 minutes, easy (11:15)

I changed at the office, ran, and came back, where I ran into a colleague with whom I run occasionally.  She asked how it went.  I said, "Some days, it's just time on your feet."   The run was a slog from start to finish.  I would not recommend not sleeping and a head cold as a training regimen.

Thursday

OFF.  The plan also has running as an option but my preference now is to run Tuesdays, and take Thursdays off completely.

Friday

Plan: 50-60 minutes, easy.  Actual: 56 minutes (10:38)

I changed, ran, came back, toweled off with Wet Wipes and ridiculously fruity deodorant, and headed to an afternoon of meetings.  Dinner was an excellent New York strip prepared by the husband, and it was delicious and needed.  Then he decided to stay up with the toddler at night so I could get an uninterrupted eight hours.  I slept in our guest room.  Absolute bliss.

Saturday

Plan: 75-100 minutes, long.  Actual: 78 minutes (8 miles, 9:49)

Sleep works!  I ran with a friend along the gorgeous Ogden River Parkway.  It's very flat and great for just cruising along.  She had eight on her training schedule so I just ran with her as it met my time goals for the week. Long run paces are supposed to be from 9:33-10:51, so I was glad I nailed it, even with a large positive split.  

Total mileage: 28.7

Lessons learned:  One should not despair when one can't keep up an easy pace with a head cold on three hours of sleep.  One should instead, shake it off and take a nap.

Saucony Omni 12.

So, the month and a half off.  I had just managed to get my SI joint under control, and I went out too aggressively at a cold Thanksgiving 5K, and followed it up with a long trail run, and then gardening, and my left thigh, hip flexor, abductors, adductors, groin, everything, just told me NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE, and that was it.

I limped.  I read Kelly Starrett's Ready to Run and Jay Dicharry's Anatomy for Runners, and both are full of helpful tips for the injury-prone runner, some of which I adopted, and some of which I'll take with a grain of salt, as you'll see,

I'm feeling better now, but minimal cross-training, some lingering stiffness, and Christmas has set me back.

Nevertheless, this week starts the training program, and a few weeks back I picked up a pair of Saucony Omni 12s on clearance.  This is a monster of a stability shoe, but it has several features I like a lot.

First, they're a sharp-looking shoe. Not the most important feature, but still -- they look good.

Mine are in the teal colorway, but with 50 miles on them including one very muddy trail run, they're not quite as pretty as the stock photo!

Saucony a while back decided that all of their main shoes would be 8mm drop, and I really like this feature.  It is noticeable compared to my other standby, the ASICS Kayano, which has a ~13mm drop, but it doesn't feel wrong; I just notice my calf muscles working a bit more.  That's good, for me, because a lower drop means my hip has to do a bit less work to stabilize my foot. 

The heel doesn't flare much at all, which I also appreciate.  It feels sleeker.

The feature I really appreciate, however, is this:

The shoe is very straight, and the last is very stable.  After a decent amount of trial and error, I've figured out that one of my problems is that due to bunions, I have very little ability to stabilize my left foot with my toes, so a softer shoe, or one that curves leaves me with little leverage.

Now, straight lasts mean heavy motion control shoes, right?  Here's the thing -- the Omnis are really light, and their ride reminds me of their Mirage, which I love (except for its durability.)  So, it's a good shoe, I think, for someone like me who likes the idea of a more minimal shoe with a lower offset but doesn't yet have the strength to pull it off.

And that gets me to my last point.  Starrett recommends flat shoes for runners, and working toward them.  I'd wear a flat shoe if there was a stability model, but there's not, and while I completely believe that the right thing to do is work on my hip stability, the thing is, my poor hip needs all the help it can get.  Sometimes I think minimalist movement forgets that the shoe is supposed to fit the runner, not the other way around, and that the shoe is one tool the runner has among many.

The Omni rides a bit firm.  I prefer this -- it's easier for me to control a firmer shoe -- but I also suspect that it's designed for a heavier runner (which makes sense, given the demographics on who is likely to need a motion control shoe.)  I don't feel like I sink into the cushioning at all, and it rides high.  

Mostly, though, I'm just happy to finish a longer run without my hip instantly clenching, and these shoes just may be a winner....

Almost go time.

One week till a new round of half training, and with luck, some more than half-assed blogging!

So, it's been a while.

Work kicked into high gear as it does this time of the year, and I had time in the past month to run, work, and be a mom.  Blogging couldn't happen, and frankly with next to no readers it wasn't a hard call.

But the siren song of the internet calls me again, and new posts will be coming soon, as I am continuing my quest to define "middling" with respect to running.

And, I signed for another half.  Stay tuned.

NOW BEGINS THE TAPER.

I did it!  13.2 miles in around 2:20 today.  This morning there was the most beautiful rainbow over the valley, and the sky was pink.  A friend and I ran a point-to-point course starting at the top of one trail, running along the Bonneville Shoreline trail, down the Birdsong trail, and then looping along the Ogden River Parkway.

It went well -- my only goal for this run was to make the distance without aggravating my back too much.  The initial climb on the trails always slows me down, and I'm an extremely novice and inefficient trail runner, so it was easy to keep a relaxed pace.

Around mile eight I ate some Extreme Sport Beans.  These are quite literally glorified jelly beans. They're made by Jelly Belly and have caffeine and vitamins.  I was experimenting with refueling on the run.  Usually I don't bother, but I figure I might need to during the race and I didn't want to find out in three weeks that they upset my stomach.  Not bad, but hard to get down quickly, so perhaps I'll stick with Gatorade at the water stations.

I do think I didn't time the Beans (MAGIC BEANS) right.  Around mile 11 I started to struggle a lot, and my legs felt dead, but half a mile later my energy levels returned, so I either got a second wind or the sugar kicked in.  (Wondering if "second wind" just marks the body's transition from burning glucose to burning fat stores.  Anyone know?)

After walking a mile for a cooldown, we headed home, where I drank chocolate milk, stretched, "rolled some foam", and then had a nice relaxing day of mowing the lawn, doing laundry, going grocery shopping, and picking up the toddler, which at this point is basically a workout with a 21 lb, wiggling, kettlebell.

I'm just going to call it active recovery.

And the winner is....

... the SI joint.

So, I missed my long run this weekend.  My back was tight and spasming whenever I tried to bend over and after sitting for long periods, so ten miles wasn't going to happen.

I treated myself to new shoes!  Asics Gel-Kayano 19, for $50!  These are a stability shoe.  I'm trying something new.  I noticed that my Nikes had creases on the medial midsole, and so I think they have worn out.  If I am overpronating, which I think I might be based on the depth of the creases, while I may have high arches, I'm probably need the support.  I don't need a squishy feeling in my shoes, so I can run on a firmer surface.  It's worth a shot.

(Reasons to support your local running store:  end-of-season clearance sales.)

So, eventually, there will be a new review coming your way.

I began to feel better with a bit of rest, and so Monday I went out for an easy four miles with a friend.  Running along the river parkway was nice, and flat and stable.  My back and left glute were tight, but didn't seem to get any worse.

Tuesday I did six miles on the treadmill.  The only real problem with this is that my mental treadmill limit is about forty minutes, so it took a lot of Sportscenter on the TVs to get me through those last fifteen minutes.  I start mentally subdividing the tenths of miles into seconds.

So far, the new shoes are working out well.

And then in the evening I was off to the sports doc.  He treated my shoulder when I separated it a couple of years ago, and his first recommendation is almost always PT, which I appreciate.  Anyhow, after some fun confusing the newbie resident -- I'm flexible so it's hard to generate symptoms -- the doc determined that my pelvis is rotated on my left side, which is stressing the piriformis muscle.

It's about what I expected, given the location of the pain and my inability to stretch it out.  I'm just glad that there seems to be no disc involvement.  His guess is that the instability originates from having the baby, and that running has basically stressed it enough that my back clenched up.

I told the kid it was his fault, but he just grinned and tried to feed me goldfish crackers.  Toddlers.

I'm fine to keep running if I want.  The plan is more 'mill tomorrow, then an easy four Friday, and then thirteen on Saturday, and then I will be the happiest newbie that ever tapered.  PT starts Monday, and I'm hoping they can sort this out.  Once the race is done I have to rebalance lifting and running  -- because it's curious that as soon as I cut back on strength training, a nagging pain became a huge pain in the rear.

Literally.

Too much Radiolab?

I think I've hit the point in the training cycle where I am wondering why on earth I thought it would be fun to have running as a hobby.  The 12-mile run last weekend was a slog from the very first step, and while the week improved, I've been dragging all week.

The seven miles I was supposed to do on Tuesday turned into 6.68 on Wednesday.
The interval workout on Thursday went great, even though I had to do it on a treadmill.  Ten minute warm-up, 8 x 1min with 2 minutes of recovery, ten minute cooldown.

I switched the speeds between 4 mph for the walk breaks, and somewhere between 8mph and 9mph for the run intervals, with most of them hitting in around 8.5mph, which I think is about a seven-minute mile.

Friday was an easy quick 3 miles.

Today was eight miles following a night in which my son decided that night-time was for shrieking, and a morning full of thunderstorms.  I managed a good workout but I felt awful from beginning to end.

It didn't help that I somehow managed to put only one episode of Radiolab on my iPod Shuffle.  Most days, and most runs under an hour, I don't bother with music or any audio, unless I'm on a treadmill.  But today I knew I was feeling a little off, so I figured I'd listen to Radiolab, and This American Life, and that would carry me through a workout that I didn't feel like doing.  

The episode was a short, the Robert Krulwich birthday episode.  This was a lot of fun, as most of the episode was a retrospective of some of the more hilarious events in his career.  But at the end of the segment, I heard the familiar pop-hum of the Radiolab opener. My shuffle was repeating the episode!

I have no idea where the This American Life episode got to.  I suppose I must have forgotten to load it.  But here's the thing.  It takes me about an hour and twenty minutes to run eight miles.  The birthday episode?  Only about 28 minutes long.

So I listened to the birthday episode three times, because while I am fine with running without audio, I am not so fine with running without audio while my headphones dangle and bounce.

I have to remind myself that I'm doing this voluntarily, and only two more weeks before tapering starts, and that I've come so far in the ten months that I've been running.

Still, it's one of those days where I think my next hobby will be competitive napping.  Who has the most comfy quilt?  Who can sleep the longest?  What teddy bears provide the best performance for your long nap?

Maybe there's a niche here.

Twelve miles a-runnin'

So, I would not recommend a two-day car trip plus subsisting basically on caffeine and sugar as preparation for a twelve-mile run.  My lungs were fine, but my legs decided that they were going to hang out on the slow end of my easy run pace and refuse to turn over any faster.  After three miles in I figured out that it wasn't that I wasn't warmed up, but that I wasn't going to go anywhere quickly.  GI tract was not happy after a week of junk food, and halfway into the run I had to search for a bathroom.

But all twelve miles got done in a little over two hours.

I'm starting to wonder if my sub-2 goal is too ambitious.  It's really hard to say.  I'm an inexperienced racer, but I can run a 10K in around 54 minutes, so if everything goes well, I should be okay.  Huntsville is a fast course.

I found this podcast to be really interesting.  Greg McMillan (yes, that one) talks about, among other things, whether a sub-2 goal is reasonable.  My takeaway for myself was that it's really hard to say.  It's my first one, and I have almost nothing to judge my speed or preparation.  I think right now I'm hoping for sub-2, but I'll be pleased with anything under 2:15.

Achievement is weird, isn't it?  Here I am, a beginning runner with no discernible natural talent, and running thirteen miles is almost already something I'm willing to regard as not really an achievement unless it's under a completely arbitrary time.  Keeping this in mind is important, I think.  A year ago, four months after a rough labor and delivery, I wasn't sure I'd be able to run at all.  And now, I'm wondering how fast can I go?

Probably sub-2.

Unless I fuel with Timbits for a week first.

Ups, downs.

I had another great day with the weights yesterday.  It was a relatively easy workout, consisting of form work on power cleans (Coach has ambitions of getting us all into powerlifting), deadlifts at 85%, and a quick circuit, but it was followed up by simply hanging from the pull-up bar until we had to let go.

First set, I made it 45 seconds.  Second set, 41 seconds, with ten pounds weights added.  Third, 30 seconds, and then my grip said NOPE NOPE NOPE.  All in all, a lot of fun.

Today I was too tired to get out of bed early, so I tried to sneak in a workout at midday.  It's only 78 degrees, I figured.  Not too bad.  But the sun was beating down and by three miles in I was completely cooked.  I had 4-6 on the schedule and called it at 4.3, walking the rest of the way home.  I think it was the right call; I need sunstroke like I need another hole in the head.

This is an odd article.  I mean, fascia isn't that mysterious.  Ever take the skin off a chicken breast -- see that white membrane?  Fascia.  It holds muscles together and sections off the body.

I am completely willing to believe that we don't know much about whether massaging fascia helps, and I'm completely willing to believe that many practitioners are full of non-scientific woo.  That said, there are a lot of athletic practices, like foam rolling, that seem to work even though the science is shaky, and the tricky part is figuring out when the science is not there because it's not there yet, or because it's not there because there's nothing there to test.

For now, massage feels good and you will pry my Stick out of my clenched fists, so I'll keep it up. But it's worth keeping in mind how little we know.  Rolling might be good for you and have nothing at all to do with the fascia.

Oh, ew.

Hey, look, pictures of a doofus from Skirt in the Dirt!

Is it possible to like your own race pic, ever?  I think not.

Yesterday we had a massive cloudburst-style thunderstorm.  Rivers of water pouring down the streets, poor little xeriscaped plants not knowing what to do with themselves with all this water.

After the storm ended and everything drip-dried a bit, I went for an easy 5 mile run.  Usually I'm in my Nike Pegasuses on the trails unless I'm doing hills, but I grabbed my actual trail shoes due to the puddles and the mud. (Saucony Peregrines -- review on them after I have 100 miles on them, but man, these are a great light shoe.)

The humidity was not bad compared to places that actually have humidity, like the armpit that is the East Coast this time of year.  But for northern Utah it was a swamp, and within a few minutes I had a sheen of sweat covering me instead of the usual instant salt wash resulting from a normal evening run.  I dodged puddles and kept a good pace, even when I had to run through a cloud of little flying ants that swarmed the wet trails.

I arrived home and prepared to stretch, when I noticed a couple of little flying ants had stuck to me.  Ew.  I then looked in the mirror.

It turns out curly hair doubles as an excellent bug catcher.  Screw stretching.  Hit the showers!

I sometimes hate nature.

Back to the bar!

The last two weeks I've slacked off on strength training because after the trails caught on fire and I missed my long run, I felt like I should take the run options in my training plan instead of crosstraining.

Yeah, enough of that.  I think right now I do a bit better if I run four days a week and strengthen train for two, keeping one day as a rest/yoga day.  

So today I hit the gym with some friends for a leisurely weights workout, by which I mean Coach taught us some new ways to be completely exhausted by the end of it.

First up, the Turkish get-up.  

(That's not me.  This is Neghar Fonooni, who is evidently a badass.)

 Second, the push press. A push press is a regular overhead press, but instead of standing still and beginning the press with your arms, you bend your knees slightly and then explode up, transferring the force from your legs to your arms, and then you press it up.  The idea is to use your legs to power the weight above your head -- it makes the press significantly easier.

Once that was done, it was onto maxing the squats.  110lbs for me!  It was a soft 110, but I didn't really want to push it as my IT band is a bit achy after last week's adventures.  We closed out the day with some push-ups, dips, and split squats, and some well-deserved stretching.

Not sure what to make of this set of lifting standards, but it's interesting.  I'm solidly in the novice-intermediate range on all of the lifts that I've done.  Maybe I've got the wrong sport prioritized as I'm clearly in the turtle range on distance running...!

Who else here strength trains?

Up, up, up.

I usually run on trails, but most of the time the ones I choose are relatively flat, with a few rolling sections, but nothing too technical or challenging.  This I do largely for reasons of timing.  I run in the morning, as soon as it's light, and I try to be back before the baby wakes up, which means at most I have about 70 minutes.  I'm not great at running trails.  I take about a billion steps and I'm extremely inefficient, which makes it harder to squeeze a workout in.

But this morning, I met a friend for an eight miler (for me -- six for her.)  Rocky, steep in sections, and I really should have opted for my Saucony Peregrines over the Pegasus, but I didn't, and this is what my Garmin has to say:

Elevation Gain: 1,440 ft
Elevation Loss: 1,467 ft
Min Elevation:4,649 ft
Max Elevation:5,327 ft

This is what my body has to say:

Owowowowowowow.  Right toe, IT band, and ankle are all tight tonight.

I had to walk in some sections, but the nice thing about trails is that because I'm so remarkably inefficient at them, I don't really care much about my time.  That's a nice thing on a long run, where I sometimes fight the temptation to turn it into what I would call a tempo run if I had any solid idea of my race pace yet.  8.1 miles in 1:36.  

It was a beautiful run.  The Bonneville Shoreline Trail and associated feeders and canyons snake high above the city, and we ran most of it just as the sun cleared the mountain.

Not a mountain, but a nasturtium!

Tomorrow is a rest day.  I wonder -- do rest days preclude yoga?  Because I think I could use a little mat time....

Oh, Snap!

I've loved snapdragons since I was a kid.  Squeeze their cheeks and they open and close their little mouths!  Snap, snap, snap.  So when a friend offered me some of her volunteer (read: self-seeded) snapdragons, I jumped at the chance to use them to fill out my garden.

Snapdragons are supposed to be annuals, but in northern Utah, it's just warm enough that it's possible for the seeds to winter over.  As a result, what were originally ordinary solid-color snapdragons pollinate each other, and turn into gorgeous tie-dyed, ombre manic dragons.

There's probably a halfway decent metaphor in here about hybrid vigor and friendship and beauty and strength, but the last thing the Internet needs is some hobby jogger trying to squeeze a metaphor out of some pictures of some flowers.

Yesterday's run was a comfortable, tentative five miles, in which my main goal was not to fall on my face again.  Achievement: unlocked!  Today I hit the Birdsong trail again, because not only is it so pretty, but it's sufficiently challenging that I have to take it as an easy run.

Eight miles tomorrow, in which I hope to explore a new (to me) trail!

Well, hell.

Today's run was going to be great.  Sunday's rest day followed by an invigorating yoga workout yesterday primed my body to be ready for a good effort.  My various aches weren't feeling too bad, and I slept in a bit, but as it's cool (well, 75 degrees) and rainy, I figured I'd be okay with a later start.

Because of the rain I figured I'd hit the roads instead of the trails, and I set off for an easy seven.

First two miles were great.  The rain was misting gently. Warming up, legs feeling good, ready to push it a bit:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
1	8:58.2	1.00	8:58
2	9:14.1	1.00	9:14

Pretty cool, huh?

Then, WHAM!  I slipped while crossing a road and face-planted.  My chin hit the ground hard, and gushed blood.  Some construction guys came over to see if I was okay and offered me a towel and  a bandaid.  

I limped the two miles home.  Total time: 1:03.  No seven miles.  A tender jaw and chin, and various abrasions and contusions everywhere.

Not the medium length run I was hoping for!  I'm not the whiniest person in the house only because the baby has a fever.

I think I'm going to hunker indoors today, surrounded by soft pillows.

Check in, tune up.

As I'm beginning week seven of training, I'm nearly halfway there, and I thought it wise to take stock of what's well and what's whining:

• Left glute/hip
• This side has been the bane of my existence since about the 32nd week of pregnancy.  I can't quite figure out what's wrong, but it's as if the entire posterior chain on that side is just about half an inch too short.  Stretching helps, but a basic forward fold is really tough on that side right where the hamstring cups under the glute.  It does not seem to be worsened by running, but it's been frustrating for a while.  Interestingly, what seems to make it worse is sitting in my desk chair.
• Remedy: sitting on exercise ball, lots of stretching.
• Right IT band
• Just a tiny tweak and tightness right above the outside of the knee.  It's noticeable if I try hero's pose or squat deeply.  
• Remedy: It gets better with rolling or Sticking, but I need to keep on it.
• Right heel
• Some pain on the outside of the foot near the heel.  This started after I stumbled while trail running and stoved my foot hard.  It's tighter in the morning, but loosens as it warms up (which sounds like PF, but it's in the wrong place.)
• Remedy:  Eccentric calf raises (still not PF!), Foot Rubz massage ball.
• Right bunion
• This is just the worst.  I've had bunions since I was a kid, which just seems so unfair.  Where were the years of stilettos?  I have a narrow midfoot and flexible feet, and I think as a kid this meant just that my toes had to grip to keep shoes on, and over time, this forced out the big toe joint.  Anyhow, lovely hallux valgus, but no mobility limitations.  My left foot is visibly worse, but does not hurt.  My right foot, however, is driving me nuts.  It seems to be worse if I tie my shoes too tightly over the instep.  
• Remedy: Yoga Toes stretching, lacing properly, maybe look into taping.

Reflecting on this I wonder if perhaps I'd do better with a lower drop shoe or a stability shoe to help out that right leg a bit.  No knee problems, though, which for me historically is when I can tell a shoe doesn't work.  

I think I need to recommit to doing more core and hip stability work, and to doing a brief yoga session after runs.  (Too often I skip stretching in favor of showering, and too often I miss showering in favor of waking up the baby.)

But despite my whiny body, I'm actually feeling really good so far in the training cycle.  The long runs haven't left me as wiped or hurting as I thought they would; aches and pains are noticeable, but not to the point where I feel like I need Tylenol every day to function.  

Today's plan called for a fun workout.  I haven't done yoga in months as limited training time has been spent on lifting, but tonight called for a lovely yoga session in my living room as the evening breeze blew through the house, bringing the promise of thunderstorms (but maddeningly, as of yet, no actual rain.)  

Check out what I did!  Ron's classes are great.

Seven miles in the morning.