Resting for race day

Hey there. I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday! This week is flying by!

I’ve been taking it super easy this week to let my legs rest up for race day on Sunday. Monday I did 3 slow miles, and then yesterday I did this 35-minute walking workout from The Fitnessista. I’ve also been using my Stick daily, hoping to keep my calves feeling good.

Not to mention hydrating a ton. It’s so annoying to have to constantly have to sprint to the bathroom at the end of my work meetings though! ha.

I’m taking a rest day today and tomorrow I’m going to do some arms and abs, and then its nothing until Sunday.

I’ve also started to think about what I want to do after the race from an exercise perspective. I don’t have another half until September, so that gives me about two months between Sunday and when I have to start training again. I can also tell that I’m getting a little bored with running. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but I’m definitely feeling a little burnt out, and taking some time to take it easy will help me feel a little rejuvenated I think. In addition, I’m sort of Zumba-ed out for now but want to start up again in the fall, and kickboxing is on a break until September as well. So that means I have a few open months where I could really do whatever I want.

A commenter suggested a bootcamp class, and I love that idea! As luck would have it, a groupon came out yesterday for 10 classes for $40 at a local gym. What a steal! I looked at their schedule and they have spinning and bootcamp classes in the mornings at 5:45, so I could easily drive their to take the class, drive home, shower and get ready and still get to work on time! So I’m thinking I may try to do a couple of these classes a week plus 1 or 2 easy runs during the week and a longer weekend run.

I have to admit though, the idea of taking a spin class and a bootcamp class kind of freaks me out. I took a spin class before (but only once) and still have no idea how to adjust the bike and how it should be adjusted for me. And bootcamp, man, it just sort of freaks me out.  But I guess I should just get over it huh?

 

The big 2-0

I hope your Thanksgiving holiday was a good one. It was pretty relaxing for me. I bummed around, ate a lot and ran a lot.

My turkey trot went well – my time was 37:56ish (no OT posted yet). I was pretty happy with that and it felt nice to run “faster” again.

I also ran 20 miles on Sunday! and I have been on an endorphin high ever since.

It was cold – low 30s to mid 30s the entire time, but I think it worked in my favor. My legs were sort of numb the whole time and I felt virtually no soreness on Sunday or the day after.  I also skipped the ice bath because I was already chilled when I got home and I didn’t want to risk making myself sick. Maybe there is some benefit to running in the cold?

I’ve been asked a couple of times I’ve I’m training for something. The answer is, yes. I am.  I’m not going to disclose the actual event until it’s over though, because I kind of like not having a lot of pressure on myself, you know? I’ve been sort of lax about this whole training cycle – attitude-wise at least. I don’t constantly think “OMG IM TRAINING FOR A MARATHON.” I just check my training plan, do the miles and keep on moving to the next planned run. But anyhow, the event is in January, and the plan I’m on has me doing 23 miles in two weeks as my longest run, then 20 miles two weeks after that and then tapering.

In other news, my treadmill was delivered and unfortunately it was broken when I opened it. Amazon is awesome so they’re going to fully refund me and pay for return shipping and all of that. But it was a bummer. I sort of threw in the towel after we lugged it into the basement, opened it, saw it was broken, had to repackage it up and deal with all the return stuff.

Luckily, my husband had a great idea. I work in a business park, and there is also a large hotel on the property. Anyone who works in the business park can buy a “membership” to the hotel’s fitness center, pool and locker room. It’s $30 a month and literally a 3 minute walk from work. There’s also no contract – you just pay for a month (or multiple months if you want), they give you a hotel key card to get in, and then it just expires after a month. Then you can go renew it, or not.

I’ve gone yesterday and today, in the morning before work, and so far so good. It requires me to get up at the same time I did to run in the mornings at home, so that was an easy switch. The locker room is clean, there’s towel service for the gym, pool and showering towels, and it’s relatively empty. Also, I’ve been soaking my legs in the hot tub after I work out every morning – can’t complain about that. I’m going to go four mornings a week, and spend three of them running and one doing some other form of exercise – elliptical, stair master, ab work, weights, bike or maybe swimming. I’ll just stick with it for about three months or however long it takes the weather to get warm enough to run outside at 6am again. It’ should be good.

Easy eight

Alright… I am typing this from my kindle fire, because I’m lazy like that, but I applogize if formatting and stuff is off.

I ran eight easy miles today around 9. I procrastinated hoping the temperature would go up a little bit from the 29 degrees it was at when I woke up. Thank goodness it did-i still had to wear tights, a long sleeved shirt, my vest and gloves but I was pretty comfortable. Anyhow, its crazy/awesome how your perspective changes as you build mileage. Eight miles felt like a walk in the park compared to the 17 last weekend.

After my run I ran a few errands and started on laundry. I am currently hanging out on the couch, where I plan to remain for the rest of the day if I’m not switching the laundry out.

In random news, my husband noticed that I was using my kindle to look up recipes frequently (thank you Pinterest). So he had the idea to somehow mount it on our kitchen wall above the counter. We found this mount that attaches to the wall using those 3M sticky strips, which is awesome because if we ever want to removed them we can. And the Kindle just sort of slides into it so there’s nothing permanently attached to the Kindle either. It is really awesome and has already gotten a ton of use. I feel super high tech in the kitchen now, ha.

Pretty cool right?

I’m off to switch the laundry. Have a great weekend!!