I took it easy during the week since my leg was still bothering me and I was feeling a little under the weather. I went for a nice solo walk on the canal on Monday and strolled along into the sunset. 18 minute miles for the win.
On Tuesday, Fleet Feet had a yoga for runners class that some of the girls and I did. We were anticipating running a few miles beforehand, but when you take bad weather and throw in 3 unmotivated attitudes, you don't have a very good outcome. Instead we hung out with our FF BFF's inside the warm store for 40 minutes before it was time for yoga. Can't win em all I guess.
Since I am terrified of my train wreck of a leg sabotaging my upcoming marathon training, I called up my buddy and paid him a visit.
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| home away from home |
Dr. Dan stretched me out and did some work on my leg (aka dug his elbow in my entire lower left extremity for an hour). We chatted a bit about my training and he gave me some tips and advice that will help me re-vamp my training schedule to (hopefully) avoid any training cycle disasters. He also assured me that it's okay to come see him during training for a "tune-up." You better believe you'll be seeing me in a few months, Dr. Dan.
Thursday and Friday was back to back nights of good food and (a little too much) good wine. On Thursday we celebrated my sister's birthday with a big ol family dinner. Can't believe my little babies are all grown up. Friday night was my work Christmas party and let's just say that Friday + good work friends = I am not waking up for a long run on Saturday morning.
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| sissys and co-worker bff's |
After pulling a college move and sleeping until 1pm, it was time to get my butt in gear and get ready for a festive 5k! The race, It's a Wonderful Run 5k, is an evening race in Seneca Falls. The whole event is based on the movie It's a Wonderful Life. Hint: in order to understand the coolness of the race, it might have helped if I had seen the movie. Good thing we had a long car ride for the girls to explain it to me. Also helped distract me from the college-style hangover I was rocking. Woof.
There were over 3,000 people at the race and the whole course was festive and decorated. People were outside their houses blasting Christmas music (and also Bruce Springsteen) and cheering for everyone. I've never ran a race at night and it was so cool to have all the Christmas lights light the way!
After taking eight days off from running, my legs seemed to be a little confused about what was going on. It wasn't until about mile 2 that they remembered what they were supposed to do and once they woke up I went flyin (you know, relatively speaking).
The race was a blast and obviously we went and got dinner afterwards. A good run + Blue Moon + a burger = best hangover cure ever. Tis the season!
Once I got home it was right to bed because this morning was race day #2. I was really intimidated about this morning's race and not particularly looking forward to it, so enter my new race morning alarm tone:
If Eye of the Tiger doesn't make you want to be a beast then I don't know what does. My race this morning was an indoor triathlon and the local Y. I had seen a flyer for it a few weeks back and thought it was the coolest thing. 15 minutes each of swimming, biking and running.
When I initially registered, I was all "oh I can totally learn how to swim in the next couple weeks." Buuuut that didn't happen. So I awoke this morning throwing a Hail Mary to the swim gods to keep me afloat.
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| here goes nothin |
Steph and Coach Rob showed up to cheer me on which turned out to be a huge help. I also know one of the volunteers and the three of them helped make my disaster of a swim a little more bearable. Let me tell you, just because you are "in shape" in the world of running, does NOT mean you are at all in shape to swim.
The swim was SO. HARD. I did two laps and almost wanted to die when I saw the clock telling me I still had 13.5 minutes left to swim. My front crawl quickly turned into a kinda-sorta breast stroke which turned into some side stroke shuffling which eventually turned into some water jogging and doggy paddle. I was a train wreck in there. Longest 15 minutes of my life.
Swim - 20 laps in 15 minutes
After the swim we had 5 minutes of transition time before the bike. Naturally, I forgot to pack a towel so had to dry off with my tshirt after the swim. Since I was still pretty much soaking wet, trying to get my capris on my wet legs turned into a 4 minute fiasco. I ran over to the bikes and heard "30 seconds!" Wait. I'm still barefoot.
As I hustled to get my socks and shoes on, this happened:
In the whirlwind to get situated and on the bike in time I tore a huge hole through my sock as I was trying to put it on. And then apparently forgot how to tie my shoelaces. "Three seconds!" AH! Sock ripped, shoes half tied, GET ON THE BIKE!
After my less than relaxing transition, I pedaled my little heart out on the bike and felt much more in my element. I was still soaking wet, but I was on dry land. And doing something that I actually knew how to do. With no possibility of drowning. Despite my flustered start, I was in my zone.
The bike went by the fastest and even though I had zero resistance (call me a cheater, I don't care) I was definitely working my wet, flustered butt off.
They had music blasting and the volunteers (along with my personal cheerleaders) were cheering and so encouraging the whole time. It was great!
Bike - 7.04 miles in 15 minutes
The "transition" to the run was much less chaotic than my first transition and I was ready to take on 15 minutes of the dreadmill. I started my speed at 6.0 and that quickly faded to 5.5. I surprisingly didn't get (that) bored during the 15 minutes. Usually I want to peel off the thing after about 2 minutes, but between the race atmosphere and Rob and Steph cheering me on, I was in the zone the whole time.
Because I'm a wuss, I dropped my speed down to 5.4 with 5 minutes to go. The second I touched the screen to slow down, Steph yelled at me encouraged me to pick it up. "You can do anything for 5 minutes!" So I picked it back up and ended up running the last 2 minutes at 6.5. My average pace for the 15 minutes was right around 10:30; not bad for tired legs!
Run - 1.43 miles in 15 minutes
I seriously had so much fun this morning! It was really well organized, the volunteers (and my cheerleaders!) were fabulous, and I felt really good about the whole experience. Despite my less than successful attempt at swimming, I loved the entire event! I would absolutely do one again and it got me really excited about cross training and incorporating biking (and maybe swimming?!) into marathon training.
Overall a fantastic weekend! :)
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