Thursday, April 19, 2012

Mid-week Torture

I'm getting smarter, I think. Or my mindset is shifting at least. This week it is was imperative that I embraced the fact that my Tuesday training run was going to suck. The last two races I have done I decided to actually race and and earn PR's. This means, I didn't really treat them like training runs, I pushed myself to achieve goals. And what that means is my body is going to be sore. After 2 horrible post race Tuesday runs, I went into this week's run with the idea that it was going to hurt, I should take it slow and it's a training run. I headed out and promised myself that I would not look at my pace or time because it didn't matter. When my run hurt I felt okay about it, I didn't need to achieve a personal best on my mid-week run. It's interesting how so much of it is a mental game. I came away from Tuesday's run feeling good instead of disappointed. I reviewed all of the data from my run and a light bulb went on! I really do have a race pace and a training pace! In the past I've basically had one pace for everything. I knew that Sunday's race would be a test to see if I am seeing any improvement in my longer miles and it really gave a boost to my confidence to know that, yes, I am seeing improvement! This helped me to not feel down about my slow, easy, kind of hurts Tuesday run.

Come Wednesday I was hoping that my tired and cranky legs would benefit from a bike ride, they did - at least temporarily. I worked on foam rolling last night before I headed out today for another run. Knowing that my legs are still sore and cranky I headed out with the same attitude and just tried to enjoy the day. It's getting warm here in the Bay Area, even though I went out in a tank top and running capri's. I was still hot! Even my feel were hot, this is a reminder as to why I love training in the winter because I just have no heat tolerance at all.

After my run I headed home to hose off and spare my PT the stinky and sweaty mess that I was, I'm sure she appreciates this! She is very interested in the mechanics of my feet and the compensation that is going on as I run. I know what I'm doing everyday, but we're wondering what I'm doing when I actually run. Next time she's going to have me run on the treadmill and observe. After a nice session of ART (is it sick that I really enjoy this? It hurts a little but I can also immediately feel the benefits of it) she decided to reintroduce the stability strength exercises with the TRX. This time we are doing less reps. It's obvious I need to build up strength in certain areas, I was just hoping to reintroduce these after the 1/2. She told me to complete these on non-run days, so that should help with the over-use issue.

That's my week so far. I complete my last swim lesson tomorrow, and have a 60 hour bike and 9 mile run to look forward to this weekend as well as my daughter's birthday party, which thankfully I planned to have outside of the house to spare my sanity.

A few photos from last weekend's start. This is my "my ankles are locked up look!"




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