three things thursday

1. The other piece of the "being coached" puzzle that I forgot to mention is nutrition.  Every day, I log my weight, resting HR, and hours of sleep.  Scientists will notice that this means I am now required to weigh myself every day, something I have never done in my life.  The first thing I noticed is that I've gained about 5lbs (muscle?  please?  yes, let's go with that) since the last time I weighed myself which was likely last December or January because, in general, I don't give a crap about the number as long as my pants fit.  The intensity of my workouts has changed quite a bit, so I spent the first week eating like I normally did and then wondering why I was starving at 6pm and gobbling down everything I could fit in my piehole which is actually quite a bit.  This is a good way to gain 3-5lbs fairly quickly, which is what happened.  Then I freaked out at the scale (stupid bitch) and stopped eating ice cream and drinking beer and went back to what I would call my "high-normal" weight for a few days.  But then I became so concerned about bonking at 6pm and eating everything in sight that I started over-compensating earlier in the day, which was good because I wasn't starving at 6pm but was bad because I gained 3lbs back.  So it's a process.  I'm trying hard to balance giving my body what I know it needs to fuel and recover against not going on some weird kind of strict diet.  I don't want to live the next year only eating the same 8 foods and never drinking beer or eating a cupcake, but I also know that fuel and recovery has to come first.  Nutrition has been a work-in-progress for me over the past 2 years, and I'm just continuing to try and figure it out without having to take pictures of all of my food.  (She says after drinking a protein smoothie and then eating a chocolate chip cookie post-brick.)  


2. My slightly naggy shin blossomed into a raging lunatic earlier this week but then just as quickly quieted back down.  I've decided that maybe jumping into the Ravenna plus all the barefoot work was maybe contributing to it, so I'm going to trade off running in the Ravenna and the Adrenaline for a while and see if that helps the transition to a lower stability shoe.  I do believe that my gait is ready for the lower stability shoe but it might have been good to ease into it.  Proving yet again that I actually am really awesome at hindsight.  Many of my enabling friends very smart people agree that trading off shoes is actually a good thing because your muscles don't get bored.  And yes, I am aware that I change my mind every 4 minutes about what is making my shin angry but thank you for not mentioning it.


3. We're about to be in my favorite season - autumn - and this is the first time in 3 years that I've been running while it's going on.  I'm looking forward to digging out the capris and the long-sleeve and finally the ear warmers and actually getting to enjoy DC while the leaves are changing.  I couldn't be happier.  I'll probably fall down the stairs and break my neck tomorrow and be out until February.


Happy Thursday, everyone!  Are you sad to see ridiculous heat and humidity hit the back door?