Just Plodding Along

One of the lovely runners I train is a yoga instructor and last week she invited me to attend one of her classes.....of hot yoga.....my initial reaction was followed by asking ridiculous questions like.... "What if I pass out and hit my head on the floor?" "Will it kill me?" "Has anyone ever died?" I am sure she immediately regretted that invitation. Hot yoga has always been intimidating to me. I am not good at normal temperature yoga. The idea of so much heat and yoga at one time was just too much. But after asking the spouse if he was game we decided to give it a go cause I am trying this thing where I try new things and try to stop being a curmudgeon. Change is hard. So Sunday we showed up with our yoga mats and towels and fear. We walked into the room and were hit by a wave of heat. I immediately started sweating buckets. While we sat there waiting for the class to start all I could think was  And then we started and I had...

Last week I finally got a good long run in and felt a bit of speed coming back. That is a nice feeling. Monday One mile warm-up the 4 x 1 miles on the treadmill all between 8:57 and 8:30 pace with a 400 recovery between. 1/2 mile cool down. Plus a half mile walk with Max the wonder dog and 2 miles with my Couch to 5k group for a total of 9 miles. Tuesday Lifted arms at the gym, The five miles with my advanced 10k training group. Wednesday 2.5 miles walk in the morning and an hour of pilates. 5 miles with my beginner 10k group for a total of 7.5 miles. Thursday Ran 2 miles, walked 2 miles and lifted arms. Friday 14 mile long run slow and easy. This run felt really great. It had been awhile since I had done a long run so I was a bit nervous. It was a beautiful morning.  Later that day I got to go to the track to watch one of my favorite runners kick butt at the mile. It made me think that coaching at the high school level might be something I would enjoy. S...

The other day I was training with my lovely 10K advanced group (side note: I have created freakishly fast running monsters out of those guys. I can no longer hang with them, they totally and probably gleefully leave me in their dust. I guess that is a good sign as a coach and I can not wait for them to dominate the 10K coming up!) and one of the runners and I were chatting about our other runs that week and I mentioned how on Sunday my attempt at a run totally sucked and I hated every minute and cut it short by like five miles. And she said to me that she was so happy I said that because sometimes she feels like everyone loves running all the time and there are a lot of bloggers out there who are too cheerful about the whole thing. So in the spirit of keeping it real I do not always love running. No one always love running. Some days are total shit. Some days I don't even attempt cause I know I am just not into it. And while I feel that my blog does a fair job of keeping it re...

Well sexy is not gonna bring itself back  and perhaps more importantly half marathons are not gonna run themselves so last week I finally got back to some serious training. Oh and it hurt, it was a deep burn.  But I put in around 45 miles and lifted 4 times last week. Boom Monday: After the great track search of 2015 I did some speed work followed by hitting the gym for leg day. This was a very, very poorly executed plan as due to some deep lunges with heavy weights the rest of the week involved a lot of waddling and a deep hatred for the toilet. 7.5 miles for the day. Tuesday: Hit the weights for some sweet upper body action. That evening did some hill repeats while screaming the entire time in my head. 6 miles for the day. Wednesday: Pilates and serious stretching followed by an evening run. 6 miles for the day. Thursday: Walking because you know I broke my butt on Monday.  Lifted upper body. 3 miles for the day. Friday:  Tr...

I don't know if I have been living under a rock or what but I somehow missed this song by one of my favorites. So sassy, so fun. Love it. Miranda you lookin good girl! And what the heck is going on with Nick Jonas.. So damn catchy. Two of my new favorites on the ipod. Flowers, flowers everywhere! Made the trail run this morning amazing. I have to enjoy it while it last because in no time at all the trails will be a hot and dusty inferno. Cheap flowers at the grocery store were a nice pick me up. My new favorite shoes- Asics 33M. When I first put them on I was like eh. But after some miles they are the new favorites in the closet. At a 4mm drop they are a bit lower and I noticed after a ten mile day my Achilles were a bit tired so pay attention to that if you decide to try them. And some Friday funnies.... The daily struggle....tacos are winning. Happy Friday

of woe.... Monday was go time. Time to put the game face on. Time to get back on the track and try and get a little speed out of the legs. Up early. Off to my favorite track. Pull up. Shut off car. Get out, look up. Million of high school kids all over my track.... Why? Oh sure technically it is their track. But come on. The idea of running on the track while occupied by all those youths was too much plus I was probably not welcome to disrupt track practice. Okay. No problem. Plan B. The base track. Monday was a holiday and that one is always empty. And even though it is made out of soul sucking clay or some other substance that sucks all energy out of your body while running it is a measured round oval conducive for 800m repeats. Back in car. Drive over to base. Pull up to track....covered in dudes in PTs running around and doing physical fitness stuff. It was a day off for the army. Why? Though I probably could have run on the track. The idea of dodging people or disr...

The last few weeks have been an exercise in frustration when it comes to running. First a pulled or strained hip flexor. Then a tweaked Achilles after the Bataan marathon. Then I got a cold. All in all besides running a half marathon and a marathon there has not been a whole lot of running going on over here. And weirdly after awhile I really didn't mind it. It helps that I was busy doing other things. Family visit fun  Hike to the top of Mt. Cristo Rey That got me thinking that I was probably a bit worn out and over trained from training for the El Paso half and having some times off was probably not a bad thing. I also realized I was keeping a running schedule that wasn't working for me. Too much intensity, too many hard workouts back to back and not enough fun trail running. Since running is part of my job a few times a week I need to get better at scheduling that running in with my training and making sure I am not doing too much. I need to get better at protect...