The Streak

Last time I posted I was in the early days of the Runner's World holiday run streak (#RWRunStreak for those following the tweets) and then I got so busy with running and holiday travel that I never had a chance to write again. Here's what went down:
I ran for 41 days straight, at least one mile per day from Thanksgiving morning until Jan 6th. On the 7th, a Wednesday last week, I hit the stopping point. It came naturally, I didn't plan it nor did I mourn when it happened. Wednesday was always going to be my toughest day, but I'd been on vacation for a few Wednesdays (Christmas and New Year's Day both fell on Wed) and last week I had returned to my usual long, busy Wed and without running on the treadmill before work, I was stuck. It was single digit wind chill outside and my cold-induced asthma lungs and I weren't risking it. So that was that. I had already hit 107 miles by Jan 1st,the original end point, so the rest was just gravy. I'm not even sure what the final tally was.
What I am sure of is how much I enjoyed the streak and what I learned from it. I always fancied myself to be a runner who needed plenty of recovery days, either swimming or on the bike or yoga, I wasn't running more than 4 days a week. I always assumed I'd self destruct if I tried running 6 or 7 days a week, but those fears were probably based on A. Nothing or B. My old, weaker self. Now that I've been strength training hard 2x a week (vs my old wimpy attempts 1x a week) I'm much stronger and able to handle the stress of more training. Yippee! This is excellent news for the upcoming triathlon season which will include not 1, but 2 half ironman races this year. As those guys on the TV show say, this myth has been busted, I can run way more than I gave myself credit for.
The second big thing I learned was that I have plenty of pockets of time in my week to get in an extra workout since this is the "off-season". I've always known that even a quick run gives me more energy and clears my head, we all know that, but it was really fun to get out and trot around the neighborhood on a random Monday evening and get in some crisp, cool air instead of sitting inside. I got to see the Hudson River sparkling on clear nights, crazy clouds on other nights, then fresh snow in a quiet park and so much more. I also really learned to appreciate the treadmill during the icy weather before Christmas and the single digit temps in early January. I normally never run inside, it's just too darn hot and I'm sweating all over everyone around me... It's not a good scene, but on days when the forecast called for icy drizzle or high of 12 degrees F in the evening, I got my ass up and ran at the gym before work, after work, in the evening, whenever. By the end of the streak I'd even done more than my minimal mile (usually a 15 min total between warm up, mile and "please god, let me stop sweating so much cool down), I even did a 6mi speed and hill run one evening when I knew group speed work was out of the question. The scary part is, I actually enjoyed it. No one was within sweat flying distance and I was able to hit my marks without worrying about tripping because it was dark or icy. I haven't been back on the treadmill since the streak ended, but the weather has been more cooperative, but I know it's there if I need it and it won't be too awful.
I'm looking forward to the Jackrabbit indoor tri series, I'm doing one on Feb 2nd and I'm excited to go back and try to repeat my performance from last year and get to the Championships again. I am also looking at a half marathon in late March, and with the streak under my belt I feel like I have a really solid base to start training. There's a big year ahead.

posted from Bloggeroid

An evening with the US Women's Olympic ski jump team

I should start this by saying I recognize how incredibly lucky I've been to have the opportunity to not just meet, but work out alongside, Olympic athletes. You might remember my swim with Nathan Adrian a few years ago before the 2012 Olympics in London. I certainly remember it well. Now, thanks to the Got Chocolate Milk? campaign who sponsors many of the athletes who represent the US on the world's stage, I was able to meet 3 more. Last week I had the absolute honor of spending time with the very talented and hardworking Alissa Johnson, Abby Hughes and Nina Lussi of the ski jump team, all hoping for an opportunity to jump (or FLY) in Sochi in February 2014. This is an incredibly special year for the women of the ski jumping world, not only are they going for gold, but 2014 is the first time that women will be allowed to compete in the Olympics alongside the men who have been jumping since the time of skiing in wool sweaters in Norway.
The fight has been epic, to say the least. The women of the US ski jumping community have been battling the IOC (International Olympic Committee) since their quest began in earnest back in 2002. In Vancouver the team sued the IOC for discrimination against women, but the Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled in favor of the IOC, crushing their dreams yet again. There's a heartbreaking moment in the documentary "Ready to Fly" when Lindsay Van finds out they've lost the case and a reporter asks her what she has to say to the young female ski jumpers of the world and through tears she says "not to do it, there's no future." It's crushing to hear the #1 ski jumper in the world say that about her beloved sport. Luckily for those future jumpers, Lindsay and her teammates never gave up the fight and the women will jump in Sochi.

                                   

Lucky for me too because I got the chance to see some of these graceful, strong women in action on a recent visit to NYC. Alissa, Abby and Nina were gracious, fun and energetic last Wednesday evening despite having spent the day doing interviews all over the city. The ladies and their coach, Alan Alborn, were kind enough to humor me and 8 or 9 other bloggers and writers and let us join them for a strength workout lasting about an hour. We met in a sleek, clean, small, boutique studio called Uplift on 23rd St near 6th Ave and had time to meet the jumpers, mingle and change before diving into a warmup routine of running in place, high knees (their knees go much higher than mine!) butt kicks, and half squats all done for 1min each, 2x. We went right into a series of other activities like squat jumps, trunk twists, v-walkups, push-ups, resistance band rotator cuff/shoulder stability work and lots of other butt and hip work, as you might expect. I anticipated lots of glute and quad work, but I wasn't prepared for just how HIGH the women can jump from a simple squat. Wow. 

                                                                    

 

Not only can these ladies jump, but they do so in with their toes pointed skyward, whereas most of us jump by pointing our toes. It was harder than I thought when I tried it myself! Abby pointed out to me that her favorite muscle is her tibialis anterior (the muscle in front of your shinbone) and it was then that I noticed they all had bulging anterior lower leg muscles. It turns out that you need strong shins if you're going to FLY, and that's exactly why they do these workouts. Every aspect of their sport requires strength- the position they hold while flying downhill at 60mph, the push off that propels them for what can be a football field or greater length and the landing from that flight. Can you imagine landing that? I can't! Alissa mentioned that sometimes they work out in a pool to lessen the impact on their joints while still getting in the strengthening necessary to be so explosive. It was so exciting to have a glimpse into this very elite world of what seems like a very extreme sport. 

After the workout ended and we were all stretching out, someone walked in with a rolling cooler overflowing with various types of chocolate milk which everyone happily grabbed and drank to jump start recovery and refuel after a long day and a hard workout. The Got Chocolate Milk? campain has started the Built with Chocolate Milk campaign which consists of the women's ski jump team and an Olympic men's hockey player. My evening came complete with a bag of goodies from the Built with Chocolate Milk sponsors including tons of scientific evidence toting chocolate (or regular) milk as a superior recovery beverage to other recovery drinks. Chocolate milk has calcium, vitamin D, potassium, phosphorus and the perfect balance of post-workout carbs and protein that I read about in every running, triathlon and fitness magazine or website out there. It makes sense to me- refuel with carbs and protein for repair of muscle fibers damaged during strenuous activity and what young woman doesn't need more calcium and vitamin D to strenthen her bones? For the record, no one is making me say these things- I really believe in the science behind chocolate milk as a perfect recovery and refueling drink. If you don't believe me, check out their website for yourself: Gotchocolatemilk.com 

     

Check out some of the goodies I got from the evening, including the Ready to Fly DVD I talked about earlier. 

How did they know I'm a triathlete and love 2XU? 

The official 2014 Sochi ski jumping Olympic pin!! Rad. 

The perfect mug for morning coffee or post-run hot chocolate! 

2XU headband just in time for frigid temps in NYC! 

posted from Bloggeroid

Recovering faster, getting stronger, staying healthy.

These are all things that I always strive for after a big race, though it seems to have come easier this time around. I took it easy last week for a few days after the 70.3, but by Wednesday I was itching to run again. I held off until Thursday to give myself time to recover not just from the race, but also to adapt to returning to work after nearly a month off. I think a month is long enough to forget exactly how physically demanding my job is. I might as well count it as working out for the whole day. I actually lost weight the first week back, despite not doing much more than walking until Thursday night. Once Thursday afternoon rolled around, I was beyond excited to run again and felt like I could run forever (if it hadn't been for that insane thunderstorm, I might have!). I attribute this to my solid recovery plan. I stepped up my fruit, veggie, vitamin and probiotic intake on Monday and got myself a full 8 or more hours of sleep almost every night since the race. One difficult thing about working with so many children is that my exposure to germs is very, very high. Many of my kids have difficulty swallowing and therefore have trouble controlling their saliva and, well, I tend to get drooled on. It happens, I just have to be hyper-vigilant about keeping myself clean in order to stay healthy (same for the kids!) especially after a big race where my immunity is already compromised. The research is there, we're more susceptible to getting sick right after a big endurance event. Pair that with the first weeks of school and you've got trouble!
Sleep, eat your veggies, wash your hands, repeat.
In addition to resting up and trying to stay healthy, I'm hoping to maintain my fitness and build on it for a strong fall/winter. Since my training load dipped way down I have more time to focus on the things that get tossed out the Window when I'm busy- mainly strength training. I went to the gym on Monday and did some strength work, puttering around the weight room trying to remember what I'm supposed to do, when I finally decided to ask for help. I'd been considering a personal trainer for a while, but was reluctant to pull the trigger. I thought I could just do it myself, I am a PT, after all... But no. I'm pathetic and need some new ideas and someone to give me feedback on what I'm doing. Sure, I could do it myself if I really hunkered down and brought some sheets of exercises to the gym, but the odds of following through with that are slim. So slim. Anyway, I met a trainer who is also a runner and got a mischievous look in her eye when I mentioned wanting some plyos, core work and targeted strengthening for running and swimming. I think I'm in for an ass kicking tomorrow, but I'm actually looking forward to it, which is more than I can say usually. She was excited that I could do squats, push ups, step ups, bridges on a ball because apparently most people can't do those things. Bring it on! I'll let you know if I can walk on Saturday morning.

posted from Bloggeroid

How to find out you're not in good shape, aka Try Yoga

I have been trying to get into a routine that includes a day or two of yoga a week for a year or so now. I've done it here and there, but not at all consistently. This past week I saw a post by a friend on Facebook that was a small list of her goals for the month of September and #1 was to do yoga twice. It made me realize that instead of feeling overwhelmed by the idea of doing yoga 2x a week, I could set a small, attainable goal like that and actually have a chance to achieve it. I did just that and I've already done it twice in 4 days!
I took a small yoga "awakening" class on Friday morning at the gym at 8am. I like the classes at my gym because they're not crowded and I had plenty of personal space. The teacher was cool and casual about things, which I prefer over a very serious, new-agey class. I am just getting into this and I'm really tight and uncoordinated so I need to be able to laugh at myself when I topple over. The class was an hour and 15 mins and it was really tough! I had done a new core and upper body workout the night before in the park, so I was a little sore to begin with. By Saturday morning I was really sore, but I felt great! I had accomplished what I really wanted to and it was nice to feel sore from working hard at something new. I swam after yoga to help loosen my arms, shoulders and back and it was really tough at first but I finally found a rhythm. I think it ultimately helped shorten my recovery time because by Sunday morning I was feeling good again. The best news is that it didn't hurt my ankle too much so I have the green light from my PT to keep going with it.
I did learn some things though during that 75 mins of sweating and grunting: my old knee injury is still there, just quieter, I am so, so tight in my hips, my quads are weak, and I need to focus on activating my deep abdominals throughout the day to retrain them because they're half asleep.
There's nothing quite like trying something "new" to keep you honest.
I did two different yoga videos (sunrise and core) this morning before work while the sun was rising red outside my windows. It took a few minutes to shake off sleep, but then I felt great. If I can't get out and run, this is the next best way to wake up.

posted from Bloggeroid

Tuesday night speed

I did it to myself again.. I subjected myself to one of "SpeedySasquatch"'s speed workouts last night. The last time I did that was the week before the half when he was kind of nice to us, we did 4x1 mile repeats which were speedy but lovely. I recovered from that in day or so. I'm certain that when you talk to me tomorrow, I won't be recovered from last night!

to start it off we did 2x15 walking lunges and 2x20 sumo squats (if you don't know what that is, just imagine the most painful squats you can). The point of this was to do the workout "dead-legged". Well after those lunges and squats, I was already hurting! Lunges get me every time. Yow. We ran a nice easy 1 mile warm-up on the ever-familiar lower loop of the park before we hit "Cat Hill"which normally barely registers with me as a hill when I run in the park. For a point of reference, most of the other, bigger hills on that list in the Cat Hill link are in my neighborhood and I run them every week. We ran Cat Hill 6x, doing 10 pushups between each rep.

The hills felt good but tough, mainly because I feared my legs were going to cramp at any moment when I stopped moving for the pushups! Deadlegs hills hurt, there's no denying that. I do most of my runs in my 'hood and often have big hills at the end so I feel like in a way, I do a lot of deadlegs runs! Lunges are a different beast though.

Well here are the numbers I got:

Total mileage 6.25 miles

Warmup 9:58

Random 0.64mi 10:02 pace

1- 1:49

2- 1:48

3- (missed this one)oops

4- 1:48

5- 1:52 (stopped it late, this was a quicker one for me)

6-1:48

Cool-down 10:05

Heading back to the gym 9:33 pace until we started walking :)

Yay for consistency! I'm not so good with using the Garmin for speedwork, I need to work on my timing and the like. I'll get it down eventually.

All in all it was a good workout and I'm sore as can be. I actually poked myself in the piriformis this morning while I was sleeping (it hurt! ow) and started to blame my husband until I realized he was fast asleep and it was MY hand on my ass. Awesome. It could have been the cat walking on me, but he was curled up under my chin so I think I'm the culprit. I took a nice rest day today and will foam roll before bed, even though I know its going to burn.

Sure enough, I'll be back out there next week for more pain and torture, all for the promise of a spring PR!