Things I Do When I'm Not Running

After a half marathon (or any race longer than this), I typically take a full week off from running. Usually I do this because I'm broken and can hardly walk, because I've messed up something royally during the race (typically my knee/IT band/hip area). For the past year, I've been pretty shocked at how great I feel after races (San Antonio not withstanding, I felt terrible after that race for a full week. Major humidity=major dehydration=looooong recovery).

Surprisingly, after Brookings my legs were immediately tight but not broken. Sunday I looked at my recovery plan in my Pfitz book, and drew up a little mini plan. Yeah, remember when I said I'd be going plan-less for a couple of months? Apparently I lied!

I thought I'd run Tuesday or Wednesday, and ended up waiting until Wednesday. And it sucked. Well the run itself was fine, but my knee alerted me that it was not fully healed from the race.

So I rested.

AND WENT STIR CRAZY.

That Wednesday pre-run, I had myself convinced I was going to run a marathon in less than a month.

Since the knee pain, I have looked at marathons in January 2018, as well as March and April 2018. Do I want to run 20 miles through our winter? No. What am I thinking?!?

I've been looking at running calculators to see what they think I can run a marathon in to further fuel my desire to sign up for one. Is it sub 4? No. Am I trying to build up speed so that is the obvious race goal. YES.

Stick to the plan Jerbear.

Finally I've talked myself off the ledge (I think) by focusing on this summer's races. Plotting out some goals for the June 5k series, some pace goals for a couple of 10ks I'd like to do. Reminding myself that I'll be putting in lots more miles this summer, in a good amount of heat (yay heat training!) before my big goal races. That's the crappy part of a too hot summer, is that I have 6 months until my next goal race, which feels like FOREVER (4.5 months if I get in to the TC 10 Mile). OH! And I looked up my ten mile PR thinking maybe I could run a PR in October if I get in. 8:23 pace?! Are you freakin' kidding me?! There's no way. I'm so annoyed at how much speedier I used to be. Good god.

Ollie's Adoptiversary

Happy Adoptiversary Sweet baby girl! Five years ago Kyle and I welcomed a chunky monkey, anxiety filled bundle of pug fur into our lives. She's seriously the light of my life and I love her like crazy.

Maintenance Training Week 2

Week of May 29-June 4

Monday: 4.2 miles of trail running/hiking bliss. It was so toasty and it's been so long since I've run on the trails. Pure magic.

Tuesday: 3.04 recovery miles. Checking out out a route for next week's run+flow! Followed by a 45 minute cycle class. Uff da.

Wednesday: My legs felt like shit and my body felt dead, so I cut the run to two miles, followed by deck yoga.

Thursday: The world's longest and most amazing massage. 2.5 hours of bliss and 4 out of place ribs.

Friday: Rest day.

Saturday: 2 mile warm up followed by the PurpleStride 5k. Super easy warm up, because it was roast toasty!

Sunday: I wanted to run when I woke up, we stayed overnight in Omaha and were right next to a cute bike/running path, but it was record high heat all weekend, and I could not do it. Blech. So instead I did one hour of yoga at Yoga Rocks the Park in the pouring rain.

Total Mileage: 14.3 miles

Weekly Reads: My Not So Perfect Life

My Not So Perfect Life is the newest book by Sophie Kinsella. I was always look forward to her books, as they're typically the light reads I'm wanting while sitting by a lake in the summer time. I've yet to be lakeside, sadly, but I did thoroughly enjoy this book. I wasn't the biggest fan of her last book, but this one was much better! I had a hard time putting it down, and that's really saying something for a chick lit title.

My rating: 4 stars

Summary fro Goodreads:

Katie Brenner has the perfect life: a flat in London, a glamorous job, and a super-cool Instagram feed.

Ok, so the real truth is that she rents a tiny room with no space for a wardrobe, has a hideous commute to a lowly admin job, and the life she shares on Instagram isn’t really hers.

But one day her dreams are bound to come true, aren’t they?

Until her not-so perfect life comes crashing down when her mega-successful boss Demeter gives her the sack. All Katie’s hopes are shattered. She has to move home to Somerset, where she helps her dad with his new glamping business.

Then Demeter and her family book in for a holiday, and Katie sees her chance. But should she get revenge on the woman who ruined her dreams? Or try to get her job back? Does Demeter – the woman with everything – have such an idyllic life herself? Maybe they have more in common than it seems.

And what’s wrong with not-so-perfect, anyway?

Happy Birthday Mama!

It's my mom's first heavenly birthday today! I hope the heavens are full of delicious food, snuggly animals, a sandy beach with perfect sunny temps and your earth-shaking laughter!

Miss you!

May in Review

Total Miles: 70.7 down from 104.9 miles last month. 60.6 miles last May.

Planned Miles: 67 miles. I only calculated through the Brookings half.

Total Time:  12:07:08 down from 18:58:53 last month. I've easily done six hours of yoga or cycling to make up the time difference!

Total Runs: 14 for an average of 5.05 miles/run.

Highest weekly mileage: 28.7 miles the first week in May. 4:49:16 10:06/mi pace

Favorite run: Last long run of the cycle with Toni, where we divulged our top secret race goals for each other during the run and they were secretly spot on with our own super secret race goal times. Ha.

Most hardcore run: Yoga-track-athalon. We did our ladder workout on the track after doing warm up miles and yoga. It felt awesome. I was worried about the paces and the intervals, and we killed them.

Favorite Race: Brookings Half Marathon Fastest time in 3 years! Wahoo. And 11 minutes faster than last year's race (in 20 degrees warmer). I'll take that progress.

Bike Miles: I haven't taken my road bike out yet, but I have gone to two 45 minute cycling class at the new yoga and cycling studio. I so wish it would tell me how far we went during class. It kills me!

Favorite Jam: None. 

Maintenance Training Week 1

Week of May 22-28

Monday: 5.37 miles. I had wanted to do 4 miles after work, but then I was hungry, so I wanted to bail. So then I told myself 3. And as I got started I thought 2 would be fine. My left knee was still slightly annoyed. And then I started to feel good. So I kept going. 5.37 miles later I was done, but felt like I could've ran forever and ever. Magical. I had to pick the pace way up during the run because my heart rate was so low. It's rare for my GA zone to be sub-10 but I'll take it!!

Tuesday: 60 minutes of POWER. I had wanted to do a little run or cycle after, but I was pooped. I guess I'm still recovering. BORING. I did find out shortly after class that there WILL be early morning classes throughout the summer (originally they were thinking it wouldn't happen, and I was terrified that I'd be broken runner Jerbear again) but they came through for me! I can't wait to see what another few months of POWER+all the miles does for me.

Wednesday: Group run at 605! I did 3 miles, solo. Wahhh. I was grumpy and didn't really want to run anyone's pace other than my own. I did a recovery run because my legs felt like garbage. And then I was excited when my recovery pace is not as pokey as it used to be. WIN!

And then, there was deck yoga. AKA the best kind of yoga.

Thursday: I was all jazzed to head to the trail group run Thursday after work, Kyle even coordinated an Ollie potty break before he left town so I didn't have to rush home to take care of her. Until I'm back on a plan-plan, Thursday will either be trail or tempo days. Fun, right? Except I woke up and my back was killing me. At points during story time, I almost shrieked as it was spasming. Miserable. So yeah, no run for me. I went home and spent 30 minutes in an epsom bath, and then rolled around on my rad roller balls for quite awhile, which worked wonders. I got the knots out, but was still dealing with some tenderness. I need a massage asap.

Friday: I had the day off (yay!) which means I worked Saturday of Memorial Weekend (boo!) but that meant I could head north to see my bestie's yoga studio! She moved to a new location and I needed to get there to see its awesomeness, and see her, and take a class from her. Thank goodness gentle yoga was on the schedule because my back was still sore, but not NEARLY as bad as it had been. I had to forfeit a coffee run because it was grumpy. Womp. So much for keeping my weekly mileage up.

Saturday: Rest. Foam rolling. Major work with my rad roller balls on my lower back and shoulders.

Sunday: I really wanted to get a run in. My back was feeling pretty good, but I was nervous. I opted to take one more rest day so I wasn't right back in a world of pain for a handful of miles. Womp womp.


Total Mileage: 8.4 miles. ahhhhh. going nuts over here.