Keep On Keepin' on

Having a good week. I've been really busy with report cards and work so have only been able to run and do my stretching every day during the week. I ran on Tuesday but shins felt achey for the next two days. I ran Friday instead of Thursday because I had a staff meeting and an orthodontist appointment and didn't get home until 7:30pm. As you know I usually run on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. HOWEVER, I am adjusting my plan once again. I have decided to give myself two rest days between every run day for the next few weeks and see how that goes. I'd rather do that than skip a run altogether.

And now for the most exciting news. I've been thinking a lot about what Brett from Zen and the Art of Triathlon told me. He didn't get rid of his shin problems until he got bigger shoes. I have worn size 8 shoes for most of my adult life but I'm really starting to think that I need a half size bigger. Problem is, I bought a brand new pair of runners last fall - the exact same ones I have now - but they hurt a lot after only one run so I've never worn them. Today I boxed them up and took them back and tried on some size 8 1/2's and voila! I need bigger shoes! I tried on a few pairs and ended up with New Balance 1063. I'm not really *in* to the orange (aaack) but I can live with it. I'm not supposed to run again until Monday so I will give them a gentle tryout in the gym and see how they feel so I don't get them dirty. I am SO hoping that

Gotta love weekends away...

Hubby and I took off Friday afternoon to get away for 48 hours. We drove to a small town about an hour and a half away and stayed in a really nice B&B. We had a couple of great dinners out, visited the Granite Creek Winery, bought homemade gouda cheese, and slept a lot. I went for a run on Saturday, breaking many of my safety rules by running alone, on a busy, unfamiliar highway, late in the day, without ID or money. I had my cell phone but I must admit I felt a little vulnerable, especially when I was running back up the country road that wound through the dense forest. Earlier that day we had listened to the winery owner recount the tale of his dog, Shia, who had managed to escape capture by a cougar a year ago. I managed to arrive back safely, and we headed for home Sunday afternoon, in time to get a little school work done for the week.

Training

I ran 4.7 km on Thursday and 4.4 km on Saturday without significant pain. That's 14.3 km for the week. I made to sure to do a long warm up and throw in some walk breaks, then streched well afterwards. I've also been wearing my Zensah shin sleeves after my run and sometimes during the next day. I am doing the toe lift exercises on the off-days and trying to fit in my upper body workouts when I can.

For now, I've stopped swimming. My swimming fitness is fine and I have to stop swimming for 3 weeks when I get my eyes lasered again anyway so fitting a couple more swim workouts between now and then doesn't seem worth the huge amount of time it takes out of my day. By the time I can get back in the pool, the new pool will be open so I am going to cancel my Y membership and sign up at the new YMCA for April 1st. I CANNOT wait until I am only a 5 minutes drive away from the pool. I think I might even be able to fit in a morning swim once in awhile. I'll have to see if I can work that out.

Goals for the week

• Run (easy) on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

• Upper body weights and toe lifts on Monday, Wednesday, Sunday

• Trainer 2X

• Get my report cards done!!!

And OMG those Trilogy Running boys, Shawn and Jason, are SO funny. Got a real kick out of their latest episode.

Adding some more, as I think thru some sort of training plan.

Feb. 22-28 *5-1 R/W
Mar. 1-7 *6-1 R/W
Mar. 8-14 *8-1 R/W
Mar. 15-21 *10-1 R/W
Mar. 22-28 *12-1 R/W
Mar.29-Apr.4 *15-1 R/W
Apr. 5-11 *15-1 R/W
Apr. 12-18 *20-1 R/W
Apr. 19-25 *30-1 R/W
Apr. 26-May 2 5km run
May 3-9 5km run
May 10-17 5km run
May 24 race

Good week so far

I have a whole lot more energy this week AND I had a good run on Tuesday - yay!

Tuesday - 5.2 run in 40 min. Did a solid 5 minute walking warm up, followed by another 5-10 min of walk/run intervals. Then I ran for 20-25 mins with several 1 min walk breaks and a 5min walk cooldown.

I stretched as soon as I got back to school, and then iced my shins although they felt ok. Later that night, I did more stretching and Yoga for Runners. Also did 5X10 pushups, 5X20 crunches, 3X60 plank, and 2X30 side plank. Glad I can hold plank for a full minute now! Finally, I did my side leg lifts to work on the medial glute.

Wednesday - Today I did a full upper body workout using 10 lbs weights and can now do 3 sets of 10 reps. I was reminded by several people that I should be doing higher reps, and less weight so will drop back to 8lbs and up to 15 reps from now on. I also did my toe raise thingies that are supposed to strengthen my shins (dorsiflexion?). I sit on the kitchen table with a 2 lb weight wrapped around my foot and then I lift my toes towards the ceiling 10 times. 3 sets of 10 on each foot. I am going to finish with stretching, rolling my hips and lower legs on the foam roller, and then 25 min of yoga.

Tomorrow, I cautiously run again.

Got my eye surgery date - Thursday, March 12th. Not as soon as I would have liked but not bad. I will miss the last two days of school before spring break and it'll mess up my first weekend somewhat but that's ok I guess.

I think I'm going to cancel my swim pass for the next 6 weeks. I won't be able to able to swim again until April and the new pool opens then (crossing fingers that it's still on schedule!!!!).

I am happy. :)

Runner's Round Table and more

Hi everyone,

Been having a busy week but wanted to check in for an update.

Tonight I was lucky to be a part of the Runner's Round Table - West Coast Edition. The episode (#17?) will be posted to itunes soon but for now, you can download a copy here. You can also check out the Runner's Roundtable blog.

My training's been going fairly well this week but my focus for the week changed a little while I took a rest from running to give my poor shins a break.

Picking up from where I left off last week....

Wednesday - I couldn't get the car and had some important family commitments so I didn't swim so that evening. Instead I did 5X20 crunches and 5X10 pushups, and did the Yogamazing for Runners with some additional calf/shin stretching.

Thursday - I tried to go for a run but suffered too much shin pain so ended up walking briskly the entire time. I did 3km in 30 minutes, and recorded audio for my podcast while I walked. Then that evening I did a full upper body workout, dorsal flexion exercises, squats and side leg lifts, followed by 30 minutes of Yoga and stretching.

Friday - I danced for about 2 hours at the family dance, in heels. Not the best thing for my shins but I had fun. A good cardio workout. :)

Saturday - 5X20 crunches and 5X10 pushups again. Skipped my run this weekend too.

Sunday - 1:10 on the trainer. Mostly Zone 2, with some drills and a WU/CD. Felt good.

Today - Planning to do crunches/pushups and yoga tonight before I go to bed.


Plan for rest of the week:

Tue - going to try running again
Wed - swim I hope.
Thu - run I hope
Fri - going out of town
S/S - will fit in one run while I'm away this weekend.

Eyes

On Friday I had my eye appointment and we decided that I will be getting my left eye 'touched up' and start wearing reading glasses if need be. There are no laser appointments available between now and spring break (mid-march) but the doctor is going to try to squeeze me in anyway. They do laser surgery one day a week, Thurs or Fri, so I have a chance to get in the 19th, 26th, or March 5th. I'm really hoping for the 26th while my student teacher is still here - less disruption in my class. I really hoping it's NOT the 19th, because Erik and I are planning a weekend away and have a place and the dog kennel already booked. Crossing my fingers.

Fatigue

I hesitate to write about this because it seems all I do lately is complain, but I have been SOOOO tired lately. I feel like I could fall asleep at work and I come home from school and have a nap, then I need to go to bed early. I do remember feeling like this, at this time of year last year. Maybe it's just a symptom of the return to harder training? I don't know. Maybe I need vitamins/iron? Maybe it's the cutting back of calories (which I have not done that consisntely so it's hard to blame my eating.) Maybe it's the extra stress in my life right now (most likely a big contributor.)

Anyway, sometimes I make myself go workout anyway and I feel good afterward, and other times, I can only crawl into bed and sleep.

I am listening to my body and trying to figure out what to do. I do know I am sick to death of the cold and I need it to get warm soon and melt the ice and snow. My crappy vision is really putting me off my stride and making me mentally exhausted too.

Sunday - I did weights and abs in the morning and yoga i the evening.

Monday - I did a 45 min trainer ride and did yoga the evening. The yoga felt so good, I think I need to get back into that pattern again. It might be more do-able now that I have figured out how to upload the podcast video onto my blackberry.

Today - I came home and slept for 90 minutes. I only got up becasue I had to go pick up my husband. My shins are quite tender today and so it was easy to decide to skip my run.

Tomorrow is swim day. Hubby still has a number of interviews after school so I'm not sure if I can get the car. We'll see.

OK, coming up later this week - less whining and more enthusiasm. If not, I just won't post. :)

PS Finally go logged into Talkshoe. Last night, I called in to The Triathlete's Coffee Shop and that podcast is now posted on itunes. Just google it. I was fairly quiet most of the time, for me. :)

Tonight I finally managed to log in using the computer by turning on Hotspot Shield before I called in. That makes it looks like I'm coming from a US IP address so maybe that's what made the difference I don't know.

Anyway, The Runners Round Table West Coast will air live on Talkshoe at 8pm PST Monday, February 16th. Join us at the Round Table chatroom! (See link in last blog post).

Howdy folks

Gets tough finding time to train and work and podcast and update my blog. Maybe I spend too much time on twitter - ya think?

Anyhoo - my days are going well. It's been a bit hectic at work these past two weeks, meetings, parent conferences, principalship announcements that could affect my future - you know, the usual.

I've been doing fairly well sticking to my swim and run plans - swim twice a week and run 3 times a week. Made the mistake of running with friends two weeks ago and went faster than usual which irritated my shins again. Damn things are so particular. They've been bugging me off and on since then, but were mostly ok all week so I did 4km on Tuesday, 5km on Thursday and then went for 5.5 km on Saturday (instead of 6). This morning, they were really sore again.

I know what I have to do and I'm doing it. Thank you all so much for your suggestions but there's not much else that can be done but backing off, stretching, strengthening, icing, and ignoring.

Ran into a new problem with my swimming - the chemicals at the pool have been 'off' - either too much or too little - and subsequently, I have start sneezing within an hour of my swim and end up super congested for about 16-24 hours after. My eyes and nose burn and itch so much I wanna rip my skin off my face. Despite that, I am continuing to go to the pool, although I didn't stay quite as long last time, and hopefully they'll get the problem sorted out soon. Ugh.

Bike - when I am over worked at school, it's the trainer that takes the short shrift. Back at this week, I promise.

Strength - this has been hit and miss - not sure why. So I did a really good upper body workout today and I'm going to do some yoga before bed tonight too - with a focus on legs.

Plan for the week

Mon - bike
Tues - run
Wed - swim right after school
Thur - run
Fri - nada
Sat/Sun- swim, bike, run


Fun Stuff

I got a new toy this week - my cell phone died and could not be resurrected so I ended up coming home with a Blackberry Storm 9530 and I am in love. It is THE coolest phone I've ever owned. It's a phone, I can surf online anywhere I have cell service (no need for wifi), it checks my email, sends and receives text messages, plays music and videos, has a regular camera and video camera, built in GPS and maps, and much, much more. Yeah baby.

Teeth

My braces bug the crap out of me. Only 21 more months. I can do it.

Eyes

I have been 'adjusting' to monovision for 3 months now. I cannot stand it any longer. I need to see clearly. I wore a contact lens in my left eye yesterday for a few hours and it was SUCH a mental relief. I cannot begin to explain how tiring it is to have crappy vision. I have decided to get the left eye touched up and forget about mono-vision - it's just not for me. I think I can live with having to wear reading glasses, especially if it means I can see people's faces 10 feet away and read the labels on things at the store from 3 feet away. I am going to call the laser place tomorrow and make an appt - the sooner the better because I can't swim for 3 weeks after. I have come close to causing a traffic accident twice when driving in the dark in the past two weeks. Bad news.

Oh, I almost forgot!!

If all goes well, I get to join the boys on the Triathlete's Coffee Shop on Monday, February 9th at 5:30pm PST (8:30 EST). So far I haven't been able to get the sound working on my computer so if it doesn't work tomorrow night, I'll just call in on the phone. Anyway, please come and join us in the chatroom if you're not busy!

Then, I also get to be on the Runner's Roundtable - West Coast at 8pm pst (Note change) Monday, February 16th. Ultradad, Solorunner, and Quadrathon will be there and I think Ultradad is the host of this event. It'll be interesting to have a "West Coast" version of the Runner's Round Table - I'm looking forward to it!

I think they want me for my exotic Canadian accent :)