Chloe + Corinne's House

A single girl living with her little dog, trying to navigate the world.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Tuesday training recap

I really shouldn't do these on a Tuesday but well I was a bum this weekend when I wasn't busy!

I'll start with last Monday 8/18 and see what all I remember!

Monday 8/18 - Ran 3 miles.  I honestly can't remember if anything exciting happened or even where the heck I did this training run.  I just remember doing it because it was on the calendar.

Tuesday 8/19 - I had a date!  With a boy!  So no running or gym on this day :)

Wednesday 8/20 - Ran 3 miles again, per my training program.  Normal hot and humid August weather made a comeback on this day so I knew I'd be going a bit slower than normal.  Only mile 2 was to be at tempo.  I had an early volleyball game and planned on going straight to the trail once we were finished but got caught up chatting with a friend.  Finally made it to the trail around 8pm.  Every time I started to walk away from my car, I'd realize I forgot to do something (i.e lock the car, take my phone out of its case so it would fit in the new arm band, left the water bottle behind).  FINALLY got going and was all pumped to run on a new part of this trail, since I'd never gone further than this one little curve.  I figured it out be a little more interesting, maybe have some more curves tossed in with some new scenery and boy oh boy was I WRONG.  I turned the corner and glanced ahead....one long, straight shot.  That's when I realized that DUH it's called Rails to Trails for a reason!  Oh well.  Pushed through this run and came back when it was getting really dark and the bugs were so happy to have me for dinner!  Pace was around 13:30.

Thursday 8/21 and Friday 8/22 - These were both supposed to be gym days.  I did not go to the gym.

Saturday 8/23 - The calendar on my phone said "Run 6.2 miles at one to two minutes slower than race pace."  I went to bed feeling pretty good about that.  I may be a slow poke but I can handle a few extra walk breaks since the weather is so icky.  It was hot and humid.  VERY hot and humid even when I was up early.  Reminded me of Maryland weather.  And all I could think was "I have to run a 10k in this?!"  I was up at 6:30am, ate my chocolate chip bagel, then spent a good five or ten minutes squeezing into my CW-X Stabilyx 3/4 tights.  Felt like a sausage the entire time I was running.  The first mile was BAD.  The humidity was disgusting, and there was some kind of 5k the local high school was doing, so I kept getting passed by these little middle and high schoolers in their short shorts and tiny tank tops.  Second mile was a bit better, especially once I got past the turnaround point for the high school 5k and didn't have those annoying little chatterboxes around me.  Third mile when my GU kicked in, wooooo I was having fun!  Four was lackluster and I felt like I hit the wall towards the end of it.  Took another GU at mile five and felt a little better.  Then Macklemore's "Can't Stop" came on and I was back on for the rest of mile five and all of mile six.  I still had a few more walk breaks than I would have liked buuuut it was gross out.  I really didn't want to die from the heat!  Thankfully the sun didn't really make an appearance.  I completely soaked through my hat.  Literally, the hat was dripping pink droplets all over me as I drove home!  Felt pretty good afterwards though, despite the heat.  Average pace was 13:44 (a little more than two minutes slower than race pace but still a win because it was soooo grooooooossssssss).

A quick note about the CW-X tights.  If you have any kind of knee pain when running, BUY THESE PANTS.  Seriously, I cannot sing their praises enough! 

I bought a pair at Road Runner after the half marathon last October but never wore them.  After my Saturday long runs put me out of commission for the remainder of the day for two weeks in a row, I decided it was time to give these things a try.  I messed up my left knee in high school doing color guard, tearing my meniscus and partially tearing my ACL.  My insurance was crap and didn't cover the number of visits to PT after surgery that I needed.  I wasn't exactly the most responsible high school student, so I didn't follow through on my promises to keep doing the exercises on my own at home.  Fast forward 13 years and here I am with a weak knee and knee pain after runs longer than 4 miles.  I'm always fine by mid-morning on Sunday thanks to the use of my heating pad, ice machine, and puppy therapy (aka having the dog lay on my legs/knees) but I was still dreading Saturdays thinking about the runs getting longer.  I was also wondering if I'd really be able to go to work the day after the race in October.  I felt great after my 10k this past Saturday.  I had just a very slight twinge in my left knee the rest of the day and a little bit on Sunday but it wasn't anything that would hold me back from doing things with my friends.  Felt kind of the way it feels when the weather is changing and the pressure makes my knee ache.  Nothing crazy or unbearable at all.

This means that I'm actually looking forward to seven miles this coming Saturday!  This will be the longest I've ever actually run as part of a training plan (told you I'm not half-assing this training).  Son of a biscuit, I think the running bug finally bit me for real!

Labels: , , , ,

Monday, August 18, 2014

I'm not dead!!!!

So....where did I disappear to?  Nowhere really.  I just got busy with life and wasn't doing anything worthwhile around the house to make this little house/DIY blog seem interesting.  My life has seemed rather dull to me and I don't think I'm THAT funny so yeah.  I just never got around to updating anything and here we are, 582 days later, with a brand new update!

In those 582 days, I've run two half marathons, gained an indecent amount of weight despite all that running, stopped and started a bunch of little projects around the house and in my life, and just generally putzed around.  I've painted and re-painted rooms.  I've installed a new faucet and a new garbage disposal.  I've injured myself doing silly things.  I've read a lot of books, watched a lot of movies, gotten rid of cable, become very good at napping, and continue to really suck at cooking.

If you're reading this, you're probably wondering, why the heck are you back?  It's all Salt's fault.  As in, the famous Salt from Run Salt Run, whom I've been following online for quite some time.  Turns out, we even lived in the same apartment complex back in Baltimore, MD for a number of years and never even knew it!  So sometimes I get a little stalker-y on her posts......but thankfully she doesn't hate me for it!  Anywho, Salt aka Lauren, is a really awesome lady, and reading her posts for the past year or so have finally caught up with me.  I've finally been inspired to write about something.  And that something is.....if you haven't figured this out yet just wait for it....RUNNING!

Yes, running.  That sport that sometimes makes you go "what's wrong with that person?!"  I ran two half-marathons in 2013, the Capital City half marathon in May and the Columbus Nationwide Children's Hospital half marathon in October.  Between the two, I enjoyed the Nationwide race a lot more.  I felt it was better organized, I enjoyed the expo so much I went twice, and I really preferred the route and the amount of people I saw out there supporting us crazy runners.  At the Cap City, my time was terrible.  I didn't really prepare that much and just kind of winged it (such a bad bad BAD idea), finishing in a little over three hours.  But hey, I finished it, right?  Wrong.  I was mad at myself for my performance and convinced my mom to pay for my entry into the race in October.  I promised myself I would genuinely train this time around, and I did.....for about six weeks, off and on.  I think my longest run was 5 miles.  Again, BAD idea but this time I was a little more physically fit overall so it wasn't as bad.  Still bad of course.  So even though I shaved 15+ minutes off my finish time, I was still mad at myself.  I KNEW I could run faster than 13:58/mile because when I did actually train, I was running 12-minute miles.  I sat down and thought long and hard about where I'd gone wrong (besides not actually, you know, training).  I realized that my pacing sucked.  I was starting out much too slow and staying too slow.  My form sucked.  My breathing was all wrong.  If I was going to do it again, I was going to do it right.

I started working on my general overall fitness a few weeks later.  I compared the Cap City and the Nationwide runs and decided that I'd prefer to wait for the Nationwide for all the reasons listed above.  I dragged out signing up and waited until the race was at full price AND less than 500 spots available, but I signed up!  I had been training for a couple weeks at that point, so might as well sign up, right?  Sure! 

Well.....then I got horribly sick for two solid weeks.  I couldn't even walk up the stairs to my bedroom without nearly passing out.  So no gym, no running, NOTHING for two weeks.  UGH.  I wanted to crawl under a rock.  The good news is, I got back on track at the tail end of week five of my training plan.  If you're going to miss out on your training for an extended period of time, do it towards the beginning!!!  Sure, my body hated me on that first long run of four miles after two full weeks of no physical activity at all, but I've done worse (obviously) and didn't die.

This means now, you shall be blessed with multiple posts each week, detailing my running adventures, along with whatever else I feel like sharing.  So enjoy!  And hello to any new people!

PS - New blog title ideas are much appreciated :)

Labels: , , ,