Back at the track

Tuesday: 3 mile track workout

Monday was a rest day since my race was Sunday, but by yesterday I was itching to get a run in. So, back to the track I went.

Pre-run fuel

 I tried to only run at about 85%, I didn't want to give 100% and have my body reject the effort. I also wanted to be careful with my calf. The calf is feeling better, but not 100%. I am still wearing my compression sleeve, but not 24 hours a day anymore.

The workout:

6 x 600s

4 x 300s

This was a very different work out for me. I'm used to doing multiples of 400 (400, 800, 1200, 1600). It was a nice change and those 300s felt short - and fast - after doing all those 600s!

I was definitely worn out after the work out was finished, but I could tell I didn't push myself.

Not pushing myself was the plan, but it still feels weird.

Race Recap: Little Miami Half Marathon

Sunday morning I arrived at the race fairly early - about 6:40 for a 7:30 start. I was nervous about parking and I don't like to take chances on race morning. We lucked out with a great parking spot so we stayed in the car to stay warm until it was time to meet our friends at 7.

Mojo had a great group of runners for the 10K and half marathon.

I was extremely  nervous to start running.  I hadn't run since Monday and I just didn't know how my calf was going to react. I decided to start out conservatively and just see what happened.

I ran the first few miles with Sarah and Maureen. My calf was feeling good and the miles were ticking by rather quickly. Around mile 4 or 5 Maureen told me to go ahead with fellow Mojo-er Bryan. So I did.

I was still feeling good. It felt like I was flying. My Garmin would go from 8:20 to 7:05 - the trees along the trail were messing with the GPS signal, so I didn't really know what my pace was. I tried to slow myself down, but I just felt good. I was worried  I would run out of juice though in the last few miles.

Between mile marker 8 and 9 Bryan told me he was going to hold back and to go ahead.

I held my pace as best as I could. I kept my eye on a guy in a red shirt and just tried to stay with him. I let him get a little bit ahead of me in an effort to conserve some energy, but made sure he didn't get too far ahead.

With 2 miles to go I knew I was going to PR if I could just hold on.

The guy in red passed an older gentleman and as he went by the older guy said "Way to go, you're passing a 74 year old man!". As I passed him he said "You're doing great lady!"

This made me giggle.

I kicked it in a bit with about a little less than half a mile to go. A guy next to me looked over and laughed and said "oh no you don't". In response I said "I'm about to PR, I don't care what else happens!"

We raced across the finish line and congratulated each other after we crossed. It's always nice to have someone push you at the end!

After crossing the finish line I stick my foot out for the volunteer to clip my chip off...

and it's GONE!!!!!!

My heart dropped to my stomach and I was about to cry. I'm always a little emotional after races.

K and Sarah's husband met me at the finish and I'm pretty sure my first words were "my chip is gone". I was so focused on finding a race official to see if anything could be done, I couldn't think about anything else.

Thankfully one of the race officials looked me up and my chip did cross the starting mat. I had worn my Garmin for the race (which I RARELY do), so they set my time by my watch.

I knew I wouldn't win anything - but it was a PR and so important to me that it was official.

K asked me if my leg hurt during the race. I barely remember this, but I looked right at him and said "yeah, it started at mile 10.38".

I was so happy it didn't hurt for almost 10.5 miles. And when it did start hurting, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared it would be. I wanted ice as soon as I crossed the finish, but the missing chip took my mind off of that pretty quickly.

So, my new PR is 1:46:32.

I finished 4th in my age group (by 19 seconds!) and 34th woman and 136th over all.

Not to shabby with a bum leg!

The race was a great event, I would definitely do it again. It's on the smaller side, but well organized. The course is scenic (but not many spectators since it's along the bike path), mostly shaded and flat.

Weekend Review: PR City!

Happy Monday!

Foggy Monday morning sunrise. View from my backdoor.

This weekend was quite fun!

Friday night K and I had a date night at the hibachi grill. Such yummy food!

Then we headed over to his brother's house and hung out (and drank some wine!) with his family. We ended up over there WAY later than we expected. Time always flies when we are with them!

Saturday was pool party time at our friends house!

The weather was absolutely beautiful.

I made a delicious quinoa salad I'll tell you about later this week!

We also played this super fun game Telestrations.

Imagine Telephone combined with Pictionary. Totally hilarious!

Sunday was the big race day!

 

I'll give more of a recap later, but the BIG news is:

I have a new PR and Sarah kicked some serious booty in her FIRST half marathon!

Race Goals

Thursday: Body Blast Class at lunch

I had to modify or (yikes) not do a few things in class yesterday because of my calf.

As hard as it was to do that, I am proud of myself for not pushing it and hurting myself even more.

We had class outside and it was gorgeous! It's always nice to get out and enjoy some fresh air in the middle of the day.

The sunrise became 1000 times more beautiful minutes after this picture.

I am feeling fairly confident in my leg for the race this weekend.

I plan to wear either a compression sleeve or compression socks during the race.

I'm sure there will be some ingesting of ibuprofen before the race (yes, I know you shouldn't do that, but I am anyway).

Luckily the course for Sunday is flat, hills would be really bad news for my calf.

So I've been thinking about my goals for the race:

A) PR. It's a flat course and my current PR isn't exactly breaking any world records, so should be doable. Or so I thought until I injured my leg...

B) No PR, but close to my last 2 half marathon times.

C) Finish. If all else fails and my leg is not cooperating, I still want to finish. I've only DNFd one race before and it was a 5K that I tried to run with a broken foot (I didn't know it was broken until 2 days later).

I think those are all fairly realistic goals! Fingers crossed for a healthy and safe race for all of the runners!

 

And on a totally random note, two different days this week I saw hot air balloons in the sky on my way to work in the morning. There's something I just love about hot air balloons.

Recipe: 2 Ingredient Pizza Crust

Wednesday: TIU Abs

 

I will start this by saying that I in NO WAY came up with this on my own.

It was mentioned to me by a friend, then I searched and found several different blogs with the recipe and slightly varying instructions.

Also, this is still a cheat meal, but much healthier than a normal pizza.
We LOVE pizza in our house and occasionally want to splurge on it, so why not make it healthier when we do?

 
Here's what you need:
1 cup plain Greek yougurt
1 cup self rising flour

Here's what you do:
 Mix the yogurt and flour together. Form a ball with the dough.
Knead it. The more you knead it the better.
It will be very sticky. I put a little extra flour on my pizza stone (and on my hands) and kneaded it directly on the stone then pressed it out just using my hands.
Bake the crust for 15 minutes on 350.

We love mushrooms!

Remove crust, add already cooked toppings, put back in the oven until everything is melted.

See, it's that simple! 
Delicious and husband approved!

I feel like the extra protein in the crust made me feel full for a long time and with less pizza!

**Since making this I've learned you can make your own whole wheat self rising flour by adding 1 teaspoon of baking soda and salt to regular whole wheat flour. I bought self rising white flour because it is all I could find**

All the cool kids wear compression sleeves

Tuesday: Weights and Abs

Yesterday I raised my white flag of surrender.

I'm not giving up on my race this weekend, but I decided I need to do everything in my power to make sure I get to the starting line and finish line on Sunday.

My new running shoes came in yesterday, so I stopped by Mojo after work to pick them up.

I had a little conversation with Mr. Mojo about my strained calf and what to do.

I took his advice to heart, went home and iced my leg right away.

Then I put my compression sleeve on and haven't really taken it off since.

I was in a lot of pain Monday night and all day yesterday, but I am hopeful that the compression and icing will work it's magic.

Last night K and I hit the gym.

He got some cardio in while I did some upper body and abs.

When I go to the gym I like to match wear as many colors as possible.

I did the same TIU workout from Monday and added some additional tricep, bicep and shoulder moves. Then it was time for some ab work!

This was a killer! I did the whole thing through once and was spent.

And I plan on doing it again tonight!

It's a good thing it's going to be a little cooler for the rest of the week. I don't want to wear a skirt or dress to work with my compression sleeve. I like it hidden under my jeans much better.

Why I should never ever stop running

Monday: 3 mile run outside, TIU workout

After work I headed to the gym to do some upper body strength training before meeting Ben to run. I wanted to rest my calf before running, so I picked a new to me TIU plan: 

 

That lat rollout is NO joke.

Ouch!

Then it was time to run.

I was nervous at first about my calf. We started a little slow and planned on just taking it easy.

Ben was a little beat up from soccer on Sunday anyway, so it worked out fairly well.

I could feel something in my calf, but it wasn't really painful.

We finished the 3 mile loop in 26:39.

I could feel my calf more towards the end, but it still wasn't horrible.

The the more time that went by the more it hurt.

So, I'm sure you are wondering what the lesson is in all of this?

Never ever ever stop running and my calf won't hurt (at least not too bad).

This arrived in the mail yesterday, so needless to say, it was a good night at our house.

 The evening was rounded out with K's soccer game.

 I hadn't been to watch in a while, so it was fun to see him play again.

So now I am debating on how to make sure I get to not only the starting line on Sunday but also make it across the finish line. Compression socks? Kinesio tape?

I haven't had a real injury in a long time, so I know I am lucky, but this is really bad timing too!