Sunday, September 25, 2016

Weekly Workouts 9/19-9/25

Monday: Rest.

Tuesday: Elizabeth and I ran 5.3 miles over the bridge. It was really humid and warm, and I felt completely useless. I had to walk a lot and just felt really sick and lightheaded. The run took us an hour, which was much longer than I had counted on for the mileage, and my right calf was tight the entire time.
We ran up the bridge both times and then walked at the top before the descent; I also needed a walk break in mile 4. Obviously our splits speak for themselves. 
If Elizabeth hadn't been with me, I would have quit early. This was one of those days where having a workout buddy really paid off. I think my issue was partially low blood sugar (I had a Coke as soon as I finished the run and felt better.)

Wednesday: Wednesday I was still having some weird lightheadedness. I went home after work and did this video...
...followed by lots of stretching and some planks, etc. I was really just focusing on getting my calf feeling right.

Thursday: We had to run in the morning because I had another 5-8pm training. We did 3.4 miles at 5:15am and I felt really good. I took a salt tab before the run, and I think that made a big difference! I need to remember this and keep taking salt pre-run until the weather breaks.
I like that morning runs are all about fitting in as many miles as I can before I have to get back home...there's less pressure for mileage and more of a focus on time.
Friday: When I got home from work, there was constant thunder but it didn't quite look like rain. I got changed and went outside to run around 6:30, but literally made it five steps before lightning streaked across the sky directly overhead. NOPE.
LOL...that quick turn-around!
I really was excited to run and was feeling really good, but had to take my workout inside. I did some core and ab work, then squats, lunges, and some pushups and kettle-bell swings. Just a general full-body workout. It felt good, but I wish I had a treadmill!

Saturday: Rest.

Sunday: Elizabeth and I took a new route and ran 9.5 miles. The run felt awesome. It was 75 degrees with 91% humidity, but I felt great! My calves were still tight for the first 2.5 miles or so, but once they warmed up my legs felt strong. Considering I have a few little races coming up now, I need to figure out how to warm my calves up so they're not tight early in the run.
The one thing that sucked about this run is that our tracking failed at the very end. The Nike+ app has been going through some changes, and it's been awful. It glitches all the time. Today, it was working on my phone and watch without trouble, and I saw our splits about halfway through and heard the voice feedback at the end as it gave us our final pacing updates, but when I went to turn it off, it froze up and completely deleted our splits! I know early in the run we were at a 10:58 pace; at the halfway point we were at a 10:45; and by the end we were at a 10:35 overall pace, so I know we had some good negative splits. I'm pissed that the app ate my data.
I've contacted customer service and I'm glad I'm not the only one having issues - usually Nike is pretty good about changing things when many people complain.
I'm not the only one having this issue; the comments on the support pages and app store reviews all reflect that the new update is garbage. I've used Nike+ since 2009 and am comfortable with it; I like it better than using a Garmin. But if they don't clean up the new app, I'm going to have to stop using it.

Other than that, this long run was perfect! Again, I still need to figure out what to do about my calves early on during runs - if it takes 3 miles to warm up, then I need to bear that in mind on race days. Still, this was an improvement to how I felt Tuesday, so I'm happy! It was a great way to end the week!

ABK

7 comments:

  1. I love having weights and stuff at home too so no matter thexperts weather I can workout. Particularly when it is icy out and I don't want to run OR drive. Nice job on your nine miler!! You got some miles in this week.

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    1. Yeah, it was really nice to be able to get in a solid workout! Having the "gym room" at home has helped shift my mentality about home workouts so I don't dread them as much!

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  2. I'm sorry you've been experiencing tight calves. If you ever figure out how to get them to start out loose please let me know. I've just come to terms with the fact that my calves will always be tight during the first 10 or so minutes of a run. On race mornings I just make sure I run at least a 10 minute warmup so that I get that out of the way before the race.

    Do you do bridge repeats, or incorporate the bridge into your normal run? I've never done bridge repeats but I want to incorporate them into this training cycle since the Miami Marathon has several bridges including the McAurthur which is SUCH a beast to run. I'm just not sure how many to start with since I've never done them before. I guess I'll just see how it goes the first time?!

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    1. I think, as Ana mentioned below, that downward dog has really been helping. I stay in that position and take turns lifting my heels and driving them down to really stretch and release my calves. It seems to be helping!

      I both do repeats and incorporate bridges into normal runs. I've been at my fastest when I'm running my bridge 4x a week, so I know it really does make me stronger, but I get a little bored of it! I was scared to do repeats at first because they seemed really hard and I used to JUST incorporate the bridge into my runs, but now I like repeats because they're painful but over soon!

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  3. Isn't it the worst to have technology that gets all wonky? Way to go on your long run!

    I'm not an expert, so take whatever I say lightly. Have you tried doing downward dog stretches for your calves? back in the spring I was really struggling with tight calves, it was so bad that I was in pain most of the time. I started doing Downward dog stretches and it helped so much!

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    1. You know, I've actually started doing downward dogs a little more often this week! They've been part of my cross-training exercises and yoga and I remembered after seeing your comment that, oh yeah, they really do seem to help me! So I'm doing them nightly now. I do think they're helping!

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  4. I think the humidity, atmospheric pressure, and weird eating habits at work (now that I don't have a schedule sometimes I forget to eat lunch until 2pm!) have contributed to the lightheadedness. I've been more careful this week about eating etc and I'm feeling better!

    I'd rather have tight muscles after than during, too! I think we all would!

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