Weekly Wrap-Up: 4 weeks to go!

I can’t believe we have less than a month to go! Very exciting! Our magic bands have arrived and waiting patiently beside the folder full of all of my compulsive travel documents.

I have a bag in the closet full of things we’ll need for the trip and list making is in full swing! The house/dog sitter is booked, vacation time approved (including vacation from daycare) and I even already have my out of office notification set up. It’s especially nice to think about Florida when it is so cold in Nebraska that my shampoo froze in my gym bag! I didn’t even know that was possible until I tried to take a shower after my run on Friday and couldn’t get the shampoo out of the bottle. It was still frozen solid despite spending an hour in the gym locker while I was running. Brrrr!!

A whole new meaning to “ice” shine this week!

Weekly Workouts

Monday: 70 minutes yin yoga – Like I mentioned in Thursday’s post about my fears of getting hurt this close to the race, I’ve decided to be extra careful for the last month of training. That means my one day of cross training I’ve been doing each week is now dedicated to yoga to keep things as limber as possible.

Tuesday: 20 minutes walk, 40 minutes stationary bike – That caution also means that instead of the 4th run I’d been doing each week (3 miles) I’ll be exercising the cross training option the Hal Higdon plan offers for that workout. It feels a little weird to run only 3 times a week after doing 4 runs a week for so long (especially since I cross train for longer than it would take me to do a 3 mile run!) but I want to be careful!

Wednesday: 5 miles on the treadmill (still single digit and below temps) – The gym has definitely slowed down now that the “New Year’s Resolution” zeal has faded for most people. 11 minute mile pace, including some walk breaks.

Thursday: 5 miles on the treadmill (so cold outside the shampoo froze!), again at 11 minute mile pace. I find it interesting that a) my ache in my ankle is definitely worse on treadmill days, so it’s definitely something about my treadmill form that is causing that and b) I do okay on the treadmill without any kind of fueling, even though I try not to go that long without fueling when I’m running outside. I usually just have water during the run, although I am typically starving after!

Friday: Rest day – I was tempted to go ahead and do my 10 miler as it was twenty degrees warmer on Friday afternoon (low 40s) than it was predicted to be Saturday morning, but if I’m interested in staying safe I know running my longest ever run right after two five mile days back to back was not a good idea.

Saturday: 10 miles in 1:49:36 – I planned on going to a new park for this run, but thanks to gloomy weather it was still dark when I was planning on starting between 7:30-8. I decided to go back to my usual stomping grounds rather than test out an unfamiliar path in an unfamiliar part of town in the dark.

Gloomy start to the morning

I wanted to get in another trial run for fueling, so I planned on a Gu at mile 4 and mile 7-8, with Nuun before and after but plain water during (to simulate my plan for the race itself). That approach worked well for me on the day of my 9 mile run, but I wanted to be sure it would still be okay with a second trial run. I don’t like Powerade, so I’d rather get my electrolytes & carbs on the course from my gels and stick to plain water for hydration. Alternatively, I could carry a water bottle with some Nuun but I don’t want to juggle water when I’m trying to take pictures along the way! This run went well for most part and I finished with my usual 11 minute mile pace. It was chilly and windy, but the clouds started to break up just as I got to my favorite part of the run at around mile 5-6, where we’re up on a levee and can see all across the lake and out across town.

Unfortunately, coming back down off the levee, I hit an icy patch as I was turning and completely wiped out! I was able to get up with no major pains other than a stinging cheek where my face smacked the trail. I did notice for the remaining 3-4 miles that my muscles felt tighter and I felt a little slower, I think just from tensing up as I was falling. My knee didn’t hurt at all, which meant I was completely surprised when I got home and saw this:

That’s mostly bruise, not actually scraped through my pants. It’s a little sore now that I’ve stopped but it doesn’t feel like anything seriously mechanical was injured. I’ll be glad for a rest day tomorrow though! It is interesting – yesterday I was nervous about this 10 miles coming up, just like I am about every new long distance, but once I got out of the car at the park, I had absolutely zero doubt I’d finish the ten miles. Even with the fall, it was a good run. I can’t believe I spent almost two hours running this morning though! Saturday was also Katie’s virtual 5K for her birthday, so I’ll have to be sure to submit my time for this year (33 minutes exactly for my first 3.1 miles). That is way better than last year’s time of 41:11!!

Sunday: Rest day – I’m very glad I stuck to my plan for rest before and after the ten miles! I’ll appreciate some time to relax and stretch out today.

New Weight Watchers meeting

Like I mentioned last week, I have given up on meetings with this new leader at my Weight Watchers center near my house but I found another center with a 7 am meeting that was about 10 minutes farther away. I decided to go check it out this weekend. They get bonus points already for being right next door to Panera, so I could get a hazelnut coffee before the meeting. Overall, I liked it. I was interested to see that I wasn’t the only person from the Lakeside meeting who has shifted over to this new center as several people were there and wanted to come talk to me about switching meetings. It was a fairly large group, which is impressive for 7 am on Saturday, and they were lively. There were several Lifetime members, which I like, and the leader seemed really down to earth and helpful. I’ll definitely be going back to try them out again. While I didn’t lose weight just to be able to wear smaller clothes, I did like that one woman who was a Lifetime member had a small ring that she wore every day as a touchstone that was engraved “Eat what you want or wear what you want”. Cute 🙂 I’ve never bought into the whole “Nothing tastes as good as thin feels” mentality because I just love food, but I did like that the phrase on the ring highlighted the fact that you make a choice. That’s what it is all about – a thousand little choices. They get easier over time, but it is still a choice.

And finally, a vote – Which skirt should I wear with my Superman shirt for PHM? White or black?

Not quite the same pink, but close

 

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