5.26.2014

Jake's Birthday Week! [Week 3: 16M]

Highly recommend this book! This is where my new training plan came from!
I mentioned this briefly in my last post, but since it was a late post, I'm re-covering it here. :) Last Tuesday I picked up on week 2 of Brad Hudson's 5k Level 1 training plan. It's only 12 weeks, only one week is over 20 miles, and most weeks only have 4 runs. It is a VERY conservative plan, which is exactly what I need! I'm really excited to have something structured and with a little bit of quality that still keeps risk minimal!
I prefer to have long runs on Saturday so I don't have to have busy mornings before church, so I've pushed Brad's schedule back a day to make everything fit. It makes the mileage totals funny for a few weeks, but it's still the same workload. You should see a lot more cross training cardio from me as well. With such an open schedule last week, I was able to get in the habit of 60 minute cardio sessions and I really think that will help bridge the gap for my low running mileage. Since my last two weeks matched Brad's first two weeks of the plan, this is week 3 out of 12! Here we go!

Sunday, May 25th
3M relaxed + 4 x 8" hill sprints. Really strong pain beneath the inside of my knees, but the bottom of my feet felt sooo much better being back in my Hoka's! The hill sprints felt better than anything I've done in a long time. No pain at all on them. I wanted to do so many more!
30' spinning.

Monday, May 26th
30' elliptical + 30' recumbent bike. Kept heart rate between 158 and 168 for the most part.

Tuesday, May 27th
4M easy run + full body strength workout. Felt super stiff and achy at the start but loosened up okay about 20 minutes in. I still don't feel like I could take off sprinting if I had to. Just too tight and painful in my knees. But, I did go to the chiropractor after my workout, so I'm hoping that when I head out to run on Friday they'll feel better! :)

Wednesday, May 28th
60' elliptical. Nothing to report. I will say that music makes all difference on cross training days!

Thursday, May 29th
Rest day. First one in about 2 weeks!

Friday, May 30th
3M run + 4 x 8" hill sprints. Felt much better than most of my runs lately, but my right hamstring was really bothering me. I tweaked it a bit on Tuesday morning doing one-leg russian deadlifts and I think it needs a bit longer before I try stretching it or doing any more leg swings.
Full body strength session. Day two from this circuit (I did day one on Tuesday).
30' fartlek bike. 2' easy, 30" hard for the first 25 minutes. 4' tabata intervals at the end with 20" hard, 10" easy.

Saturday, May 31st
6M run with last 10' moderate. Absolute worst run ever since coming back! I think it mostly had to do with the humidity and warmer temps, but it was rough for sure. Terrible knee/IT band pain as well. Spent all morning doing intense lawn work after I got home, so no cross training. This body needs a rest!

Vacation week! [Week 2: 18M]

I'm posting this a week late, but we were in Michigan Tuesday thru Sunday and I didn't want to pull out my laptop on the trip! :) It was one of the most relaxing, enjoyable trips I've been on in a long time!

Here's a couple quick pictures from the NCAA championships (where we were). The athlete in the pictures is my husband's athlete and she ended up placing as an All American in the 3k Steeplechase! 




Onto last week's training! I found a plan that I can follow for the next 12 weeks. It's from Brad Hudson's plans and it's his level 1 5k plan. Seems weird to follow a level 1 plan, but the mileage progression is so conservative that I think it's the perfect way to work back into things! Since his plan only has 4 runs most weeks, I'm going to try getting ~60 of quality cross training at least three days every week.

Sunday, May 18th
5M easy on the gravel trail at DBU. I was achy and tired, but I still got the full run in. Trusting that the chiropractor will help on Monday!

Monday, May 19th
Crummy 3M on Katy Trail in Dallas. Still very achy and stiff. I don't feel like I could sprint away from a dog if I had to!
Lots of new work done at the chiropractor. Weird stuff, but you never know!

Tuesday, May 20th
60' elliptical + upper body weights and core. Kept my heart rate between 160-165 the entire time. Didn't feel bad during the workout, but felt really queasy the rest of the night!

Wednesday, May 21st
4M moderate on the tack in Michigan. Chiropractor stuff must have been magic! No knee pain at all and very minimal shin pain! 8:18, 7:40, 7:44, 7:27.

Thursday, May 22nd
60' elliptical + lower body strength and core. Kept heart rate between 155 and 160 this time and felt good. Knee/ calf/ achilles started getting tight and sore towards the end, but that's to be expected when you do a new exercise for so long!

Friday, May 23rd
60' elliptical + extra stretching. Very tight calves, but I used a cream on them and they felt better by the evening.

Saturday, May 24th
6M run on Kent Trail in Michigan. I ran nice and easy to the trail (about a mile), moderate on the trails (averaged under 8:00 pace), easy back to the hotel. Bottom of feet hurt and knees/ shins were back similar to how they felt on Sunday. Good thing it's almost time to go back to the chiropractor! The bottom of my feet probably hurt because I only brought one pair of shoes on the trip and they're older than I'd usually wear.

5.12.2014

Attitude of gratitude! [Week 1: 12M]



Last week was a very successful week in terms of running... I went up two miles compared to the prior week, and my daily run pace dropped significantly. The only downside from last week was my knees still aching and the fact that I didn't get in any supplemental work due to travel. It was on my mind a lot over the weekend and I was frustrated that I was going a full week without any strength work.

This week I am making it a goal to show gratitude for even the smallest things! I am realizing that I often let simple things ruin the greatness of so many other blessings in my life. I want to appreciate every step of every run without being discouraged by other things!

This week we'll go up two miles again, but the long run stays the same. Trying to get all my runs over 20 minutes in length before I push up the long run again.

Sunday, May 11th
4 miles on the track. 8:29, 8:16, 8:03, 7:23. I kept the entire run very steady and controlled, but ran the last lap hard. Super humid and windy out, but other than that it was nice! Still using the Hoka's and no problems with them yet. My knees have not gotten any worse, though they still hurt for the first mile or so. 

Monday, May 12th
Bodypump class.

Tuesday, May 13th
3 miles on the track. 8:08, 7:55, 7:20. Another nice and relaxed run, though the crazy wind made it a bit more challenging. It wasn't bad the first six laps, but once I changed directions I was running into it for about 3/4ths of each lap! My knees are same as always... no improvements still. Last lap was higher effort again; I didn't run 7:20 pace for the full mile... was running 7:36 pace for the first 3 laps of it. Trying not to push things too much for a while!

Wednesday, May 14th
45' spin class before work.
3 miles in the afternoon. I ran in the neighborhood today in order to get off the track. Went through my usual warm-up drills and could tell my knees were a little more stiff than they had been in previous days. Once I started running I realized how much worse they were! I literally almost stopped running in the first 100m! Luckily it eased up a bit during the run. Left knee hurts in the front on the bottom, right knee hurts on the top in the inside. Left shin also hurts close the ankle; right shin hurts more mid-shin. :( Switching tomorrow's run with Friday's rest day and hoping the chiropractor and some rest will clear it up a bit! 8:07, 8:00, 7:41 today.

Thursday, May 15th
Rest day

Friday, May 16th
60' total body conditioning class.
2M run in the neighborhood. I went the chiropractor this morning and my shins were literally screaming at me. He did dry needling and it helped a ton, but the tension was so tight it bruised all over, haha! I decided that since I'm feeling so many pains I'm going to make this my down week instead of next week. It works better that way because we'll be on a trip to DII Nationals next week and I'll be able to get in really good runs there!

Saturday, May 17th
60' walk at the lake while Jake ran.

5.04.2014

I consider this week 3!

I am so pumped I didn't have to miss any miles last week! My knees definitely bothered me on several of the runs and I considered stopping, but in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't! I think the more I run, the more my joints, tendons, etc will strengthen, so as long as I keep recovering fully between runs, I'm still going forward!!! Playing it safe this week and only adding two miles for the whole week. I'm in no rush and would like to be back on  my feet for much longer this time... I have big goals and that takes time! :)



Sunday, May 4th
4M run. Another nice run in the books! I did two miles one way and then two miles in the opposite direction (still sticking to the track since I want to avoid pavement and declines a bit longer). 8:11, 8:10, 8:08, 7:56 for 32:24 altogether. It was ridiculously hot and really windy, but hey, no complaints! Knees ached a bit, but nothing I couldn't run on, obviously! :)

Monday, May 5th
60' BodyPump class.
Chiropractor after work.

Tuesday, May 6th
3M run on the Katy Trail. I came very close to not running this morning (I would've tried again at lunch though!) because my knees (mostly the left) were so sore. I didn't even go through my normal pre-run drills because it was hurting so much! I ended up getting it in and all was well. Tomorrow will be short and easy and hopefully they're feeling better by then! :) No pace for today's run because I couldn't get the Garmin to start until 7 minutes in, so I ran out for 12:30 and then started the Garmin when I turned to run back. 1.5M exactly at the car but in much less time on the way back. Still annoyed with being so out of shape and uncoordinated, but trying to be patient and thankful!

Wednesday, May 7th
45' spin class.
2M run. Ran on the grass track for 18 minutes. Nice and relaxed... nothing new, no change to my knees, but no new problems.

Thursday, May 8th
Rest day. Traveling all day to Columbus.

Friday, May 9th
3M run on the track. 8:08, 7:48, 7:23 in my new hoka's. For some reason I forgot it was a 3 mile day until about halfway thru the second mile! I ran the last lap of the run hard, but the rest of the run was nice and steady, speeding up only because I was warmer.

Saturday, May 10th 
2M run on the track. 8:04, 7:25. I've felt surprisingly good on both of these last two runs. Could be from extra sleep... who knows. My knees still hurt for about the first mile, but that's it. Ran the last 100m hard, but kept the rest nice and steady.