lots of odds & ends! (& weekly wrap)
I'm not sure what happened, or why I wasn't paying very close attention, but we are deep in winter. What happened to fall? I do love winter, though. Christmas is my favorite holiday, and I did a lot of things this weekend that I only get to do near the holidays. Friday evening I went to see the NSO put on "Messiah." It was fantastic, and if baking 850lbs of baked goods last weekend and burning Christmas candles hadn't gotten me in the holiday spirit, this most definitely did. Saturday brought swimming and napping and Christmas parties galore. And Sunday morning brought one of my favorite things: running outside in the crisp cold morning (it truly is one of my favorite things, despite my bitching). The only thing missing was the text-message-renegotiations on what time we were meeting, as I ran with CAR for the first time. 6 easy miles that felt harder than they should have, with the Egyptian-Magician-approved 2 minutes of walking sprinkled in every 2 miles or so. Icing on the cake? My darling Eagles score 782 points in 18 seconds, winning the game to stay first in the league.
Last Thursday marked 13 weeks post-surgery and tomorrow will mark the 7th week of running. I've returned pretty slowly. My first week started at 8 mpw. I've added 1-2 miles per week, but I've also been cutting back on the walking, therefore increasing the intensity as well. This week I clocked out at 17.7 miles, plus 6 in the pool. That puts me in good shape for my goal of being at 20 mpw by Jan 1. My legs are definitely feeling the slow-but-steady increase, but I'm hopeful that it's just an adjustment period. I also am going to switch to running 4 days a week instead of 3, because it's starting to get tough to get the mileage in that I want over only 3 days of running. I'm going to keep doing every other day, except will add an easy day after the longer-run day. And I am very aware that I'm probably being overly careful and thinking about this way too much, but I desperately want a healthy season.
But while I've been super careful about the running, I've been slacking on the other things - namely, the foam roller and the ice. I took an ice bath after my longer run last week, but haven't managed another one since, and didn't ice after running yesterday. Last night I had my first foam-rolling tennis-balling session in quite a while, and it was teeth-clenchingly, eye-wateringly painful. I need to be doing that every night - and after a few days, I know that it will feel amazing. Suck it up, self. This is the easy stuff.
I found a yoga class that I like, and I've been trying to plan the first month ($50 unlimited) for a time when I can maximize it, but I think I just need to suck it up and go. As long as I go more than 3 times, it's worth it, so I shouldn't stress about being out of town for 3 days during my intro month. Although I probably shouldn't go until my disgusting knee heals, as I can't kneel down on that side because I'm still bruised.
And, one gross question. What causes this?
Please don't say "shoes that are too small" because a) I wear running shoes a half-size larger than my regular shoes already and b) I bought 2 more pairs of the 2150's when they were on sale at Sports Authority and threw out the receipt.
Last Thursday marked 13 weeks post-surgery and tomorrow will mark the 7th week of running. I've returned pretty slowly. My first week started at 8 mpw. I've added 1-2 miles per week, but I've also been cutting back on the walking, therefore increasing the intensity as well. This week I clocked out at 17.7 miles, plus 6 in the pool. That puts me in good shape for my goal of being at 20 mpw by Jan 1. My legs are definitely feeling the slow-but-steady increase, but I'm hopeful that it's just an adjustment period. I also am going to switch to running 4 days a week instead of 3, because it's starting to get tough to get the mileage in that I want over only 3 days of running. I'm going to keep doing every other day, except will add an easy day after the longer-run day. And I am very aware that I'm probably being overly careful and thinking about this way too much, but I desperately want a healthy season.
But while I've been super careful about the running, I've been slacking on the other things - namely, the foam roller and the ice. I took an ice bath after my longer run last week, but haven't managed another one since, and didn't ice after running yesterday. Last night I had my first foam-rolling tennis-balling session in quite a while, and it was teeth-clenchingly, eye-wateringly painful. I need to be doing that every night - and after a few days, I know that it will feel amazing. Suck it up, self. This is the easy stuff.
I found a yoga class that I like, and I've been trying to plan the first month ($50 unlimited) for a time when I can maximize it, but I think I just need to suck it up and go. As long as I go more than 3 times, it's worth it, so I shouldn't stress about being out of town for 3 days during my intro month. Although I probably shouldn't go until my disgusting knee heals, as I can't kneel down on that side because I'm still bruised.
And, one gross question. What causes this?
And finally....the weekly wrap. It's been a few weeks since I've posted one (oops).
Monday: 1:10 lifting (legs), 35 minutes/1500 yards recovery swim
Tuesday: 40 minutes lifting (arms/chest/back), 32 minutes/3.4M run, 20 minutes/2.2M elliptical
Wednesday: 60 minutes lifting (L), 20 minutes/2.25M elliptical
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 50 minutes lifting (a/c/b), 1:18/8.3M run (in 2 sessions, one at PT), 60 minutes/6M pool run
Saturday: 40 minutes/2100 yards swim
Sunday: 58 minutes/6M run