Spring Break

I'm feeling pretty good. No knee pain or any other pain for that matter. However, this week is spring break for my daughters so getting to the gym will be a challenge. My husband and I have also planned a little getaway to Cape May for the weekend. I'll have to see how things go.

Today, I'm just trying to figure out what the following from my training plan means. I'll probably just take my best guess. Heck, if it's wrong, it's still some kind of running.

Sunday Night

There are 182,000 other people out there watching Swedish House Mafia play their last show ever at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami. I'm not sure if that's an amazing or pathetic way to spend a Sunday night especially since I'm going to pay for this when I try to get up for work tomorrow morning.

But this is the music I love. The music that gets me through the last painful miles of a race so I'm going to call it amazing. Farewell Swedish House Mafia. And thank you for the inspiration.

Edit: The feed reached 210,000 viewers. Spectacular!

New York-bound

It's been an interesting week. I figured that since I took it nice and slow on Saturday that I could just go on training like usual. Not so much.

I struggled through a cycle class on Wednesday. My training appointment went great (got that good kind of soreness) but yesterday I had 10 miles on my training plan and it wasn't so good. I decided to use the treadmill at the gym to avoid hills since my knee isn't 100%. I started running out of steam around mile 5 and also had some tummy issues. I spent the next 3 miles thinking of what could possibly have done it. Ice cream the night before. Ugh. I can't have dairy before a long run. Still, glad I did the 8 miles.

I guess I need a little more recovery time and it works out because I'm actually headed to NY for a funeral and its going to be a quick trip with no time for workouts. Sunday, I have a belly dance show so that's not looking good either and next week is spring break for the girls so it might be a tough week to get workouts in. I'm hoping a few days rest does me some good and I can get in a few good workouts in the evenings.

I'll end here with this lovely tile at the station. Happy Friday!

Health and Fitness are not luxuries.

Since I was a teenager, I've had periods of exhaustion affecting my daily living.  I even remember my parents taking me to the doctor because I slept so much, only to find every test come back normal.  It wasn't a big deal because when you don't have kids, you can just take a nap after work and sleep in on the weekend.

The real probem began after I had kids, especially having kids who have emotional challenges and don't sleep well (more on that another day).  Giving birth brought the blues which I managed to recover from ok, but it also highlighted my own sleep issues.  I even developed insomnia at one point after my second daughter was born and quite by accident I discovered that birth control pills were causing it.  However, dropping that medication and getting past insomnia didn't solve all my problems and even though I could sleep now, like before, I just couldn't get enough sleep. 

I eventually got to the point where I couldn't function as a mother because of the exhaustion.  My husband was understandably irritated and overwhelmed having to be both father and mother while I was essentially incapacitated.  I felt awful, but what could I do when I was so tired I couldn't see straight?  The exhaustion dragged me down emotionally.  I didn't feel like it was depression (having experienced that after my divorce) but there was a sadness and weariness to my daily existence.  Again, doctor visits yielded nothing.

One day at a routine visit to my gyn, I mentioned it to her and she asked me what I ate, especially for breakfast.  She suggested that I might try eating more protein throughout the day, including for breakfast.  I thought, "It can't be that simple."

It was.

I started paying more attention to what I ate and noticed that on days I ate protein for breakfast - eggs, greek yogurt, etc. vs. a bagel or cereal, I didn't feel like I was going to collapse at 3PM.  I can't believe that all along what was happening was a major sugar crash every day.  I guess I'm just really sensitive to carbs.  Around this time, I also started running for the first time.  My energy level went through the roof and I was happy.  REALLY happy! 

I can't understand why I had to struggle for 20 years when the solution was so simple.  Since making that small adjustment to my diet, I've never felt better.  More doctors need to be aware of how important nutrition is and that it's not always something that they need to throw a bunch of tests and medications at.  I am so incredibly grateful to my gyn for her knowledge.  She changed my life! 

This brings me to an article I came across over the weekend that really captures exactly how I feel. I took a quick phone pic because I didn't want to forget the exerpt, but of course, I forgot which magazine it came from.  Maybe Health?

Sometimes, I feel guilty that instead of going home and cleaning, or doing mom-type things like it seems the other moms do, I head straight to the gym after I drop my girls off.  Then I think of how this is not recreation like say scrapbooking or a photography hobby might be.  If I don't do this, I am left unable to function physically.  I can't be a good mother, a good wife.  Sometimes I wonder if people look at me and think of how selfish or spoiled I am when they see how I spend my time.  Yes, I am lucky to have the opportunity to work part-time and be able to get in 90 minute workouts, but it is truly something I need to live.

As for my husband, I have asked him more than once how he feels about what I do.  His answer is always the same - He is not a fan of mud runs or obstacle races because he worries about my safety, but other than that, he doesn't mind one bit.  He is a huge support and I could never train for or participate in races without him.  I am mindful of his time as well and as the article above mentions, we have a similar method to taking turns.  He goes to the gym during the week at a different time and on weekends, I arrange my workouts around his gym time. 

I hope we are setting an example for our daughters.  I want them to see how important eating well and being active is and wish for their happiness and health without having to experience the struggles that I endured.

Week of March 17th

I plan to take it easy this week to rest my knee and I'm heading to NY friday for a funeral so there is a little interruption there, but I think getting the half in puts me a little ahead of the game.  Sometimes life happens and that's ok.

March 17th - 23rd:

Sunday - Weights (ended up being a rest day post half)

Monday - Stretch

Tuesday - Rest

Wednesday - Trainer appointment and cycle class

Thursday - 10 mile run

Friday - Weights (Will be traveling.)

Saturday - 6 miles (Funeral and travel home.)



Rock 'n Roll USA

I had the greatest time at the Rock 'n Roll USA half-marathon yesterday!  

I spent the night with my running friend since we had to be up and on our way to the train so early in morning - 5:30 AM.  We were pleasantly surprised by how warm it was and that it wasn't raining given the expectation that it was almost certainly going to rain and we would probably have a very soggy race.  

We checked our bags, got some food and water provided (loved this!), and headed to the potty lines.  After that, we went to look for the pacers but couldn't find them.  We didn't actually want to run for time so we just decided to do our own thing and went to our assigned corral.  As the race started with corrals moving, we both wanted to use the potties one last time and finally found some that didn't have super long lines.  This is one of the things I always hate about races.  There are NEVER enough potties.

Once we crossed the starting line, we took a nice easy pace (this was more of a training run for us than a race).  I actually looked around to catch the sights and stopped at the Washington Monument for a picture.

Yes, those are socks on my arms.  I use them for almost every race.  They're effective and cheap enough to toss if I don't want to carry them.

We crossed the bridge and made the loop around to cross back over.  The best thing about this race was that it was such a great tour of D.C.  The only other race I had done in the city was the Army 10-miler but I really liked this race more.

The race started heading uphill around mile 4, but it wasn't anything terrible and I wondered if maybe the elevation map looked worse than it actually was.  Then, we hit some big ones after mile 6.  Luckily, we weren't going at a hard pace so it wasn't so bad, but my knee started feeling it a bit because of it.  Once we got to mile 7, it was flatter and downhill for a while.  We stopped so my friend could hit the bathroom and I took the opportunity to take in a gel, some pretzels and some water while I waited.  

A couple of things to note - At a lot of the water stations, you had to pour your own water.  This didn't bother me since I wasn't in a hurry but if you were running for time, this might have been a problem.  My guess is that they just didn't have enough volunteers.  What can you do?  Also, I can't say I was terribly impressed by the bands.  I liked a couple of spots on the course, like the pumpin' dance music at one of the tents (not a band) and there was a group of girl drummers that was great but that was about the only things that made an impression with me.  I didn't really care much because I had my own dance party going on with my iPod.

The spectators were a lot of fun - the most fun I've experienced to this point.  Below is my favorite race pic ever.  It really captures the fun mood!

We started heading towards a gorgeous view of the Capitol but the hills started again. I was fine, but since it was the later miles, I could feel it more.

My friend and I stopped chatting the last 3 miles.  She was feeling it and I tried to let her run her race.  As we approached the finish line there was a heck of a hill going up.  She just said, "We aren't walking this." and we didn't.  We finished together and got our medals!

Post race, we got quite a lot of food and drinks - water, Gatorade, chocolate milk, bagels, chips, Powerbars apples, bananas and a bag to put it all in.  I was really hungry so I was happy to have food.  Then, we headed to packet pick-up.  Some of the lines were insane, but luckily our lines were short and we made it through without a problem.  

Here's were the bad part comes in.  The signage wasn't great so we went the wrong way trying to leave.  We had to walk quite a way to get out.  Then we got to the Metro.  It was a mess.  There was a giant mob just trying to get into the station.  We decided that rather than wait in that, it would be better to keep moving and try to find another station or find a cab.  Cabs were scarce.  Lots of other runners were looking for them too.  So while we tried to figure out which way to go, we were joined by another woman who decided to join us for the long walk to the next Metro station.  I think we walked a couple of miles.  My hips, knees and feet were killing me.  I was dying and miserable but we finally made it and I've never been so happy to sit down.  Once we got to our stop, more walking back to my friend's house to retrieve my car for the drive home.

I have to say, I would do this race again because I felt that it was well supported and I didn't think it was as crowded as some people said, BUT I would pay for parking next time.  The Metro situation was just unacceptable.

All along, we had planned to go to Shamrock Fest afterwards, but we lost HOURS due to the Metro mess. My family wondered where I was and I wasn't even sure I wanted to go anymore.  I just wanted to go home, shower and die.  Once I got in my car (more sitting) I felt a little better and finally getting a shower and a little more food made me feel like a new woman.  We decided to head out to Shamrock.  

Shamrock was pretty much the drunk-fest I expected it to be and we got there so late that we missed some bands we'd hope to see, but we had a really great time watching CelKilt.  I'm not a beer drinker at all, but I had been saying all along that I was going to celebrate with a Guinness.  They actually ran out at one point, but my running mate came through and found some for us!

It was really cold so we went to the DJ tent to warm up for a bit.  We all wanted some food, and none of us were interested in carnival food, so we decided to head out and hit a restaurant on the way home.  After that, we were all pretty beat so we headed home.  My parents (who had been babysitting) headed out, my friend crashed on the couch and I went to bed.  I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.  All-in-all, a really great day.

I had a wonderful night's sleep that I really needed.  Today, it's all about my girls.  Taking them out to see Wreck it Ralph.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  

Packet Pick-up!

Packet pick-up for Rock 'n Roll USA today was fun. I snapped this pic in a mirror after getting my bib. I got my hair cut and they straighten it when I go so I don't quite look myself.

I watched a video of the course. We signed up with a pace group but aren't sure we'll stick with it. There's an gradual incline between miles 4-7 that makes me nervous and it's going to rain but I'm excited!

I'm having family night with my husband and girls then heading over to my friend's house to spend the night since she lives right by the train station and we're heading out at 5:30AM. Hoping adrenaline gets me up. If not, I guess there's always coffee.