3+ hour Commute

Yesterday's commute home was more than 3 hours long because of an accident on another train.  

Lesson: have a better back-up plan than the bus or run like hell to the bus so I don't have to wait for the 4th bus on the route home to have room to pick me up! 

When I got home, I did not run or work out.  I did get some extra walking in because of my change in transit plans...so I guess that's good. 

I don't anticipate having problems getting home today, so I will be on track to getting my Wednesday workout on! And I'm not going to let any delays getting home impact my workout plans today - I've eaten enough and have enough snacks to be okay today! 

I'm very much looking forward to this weekend - 4 day weekend for me! :)  Phill and I are going camping on one of the nights, which will be super fun.  Being surrounded in beautiful scenes and peaceful silence with the person I love very much will be fantastic. 

We will likely also stop in Berkeley on the way home, to stop at one of our favorite restaurants, Angeline's Kitchen.  Incredibly excited for this as well - it's been a good year since we've visited this delightful restaurant! 

Perhaps I'll accomplish one of my goals tonight...like paying my parking tickets...

Spicy Carrot and Shrimp with Cucumber Salad...yummmmmm

Last Night, I made Spicy Carrot and Shrimp with Cucumber Salad. This was sooo yummy! 

Yumm...Spicy Carrot and Shrimp with Cucumber Salad!

A photo posted by D (@runningdizzy) on Mar 16, 2015 at 9:29pm PDT

Phill made the croutons (soooo good!) using the Rye and Cheddar Bread we bought at the Farmers'  Market last weekend and some spices.  And then I made the rest, which included: carrots, shrimp, avocado, cilantro, cucumber salad, and cayenne pepper.  

Phill and I have made it a goal to cook more, and we've been doing a pretty good job of it!!  I usually enjoying cooking, but there are times life just catches up and we don't have time for it!

Before Dinner last night, Phill and I ran for 10 minutes and then walked home, totalling 2 miles.  I also walked 1.7 miles to/from CalTrain and Bus stops.  My quad and knee issues seemed to be resolved, but I am going to be cautious.

I also performed core work (4 x 10 push ups, 10 minutes of various ab exercises, 20 Superman’s, and a few sets of various other arm exercises) and stretched and rolled. I'm happy to report I was able to do the Pilates Roll Up 10 times with ease.  A few months ago, I couldn't do one without my legs flying up into the air!

Today - I will run another 10 minutes and then perform various leg and core exercises. 

Weekend

My weekend consisted of walking, a little of running, cleaning, finishing season 2 of the Orange is the New Black, and making smoothies.

Friday, Phill and I probably walked about 5 miles.  I had no quad pain or tightness, which gave me the confidence to go out for a mile run on Saturday.  Saturday, I did a dynamic warm up, ran one mile and walked 1.5 miles.  Later than evening Phill and I went out for a 2 mile stroll, also.  Sunday, I did a dynamic warm up, ran one mile, taught Phill some drills, and walked 1.5 miles.  Additionally, I made sure to roll, use the stick, and stretch. 

I gave Dunsmuir a bath by taking him into the shower with me.  He is such a good Rabbit. He made no fuss at all.  This is him, post bath: 

Post-bath happy!

A photo posted by D (@runningdizzy) on Mar 16, 2015 at 10:01am PDT

I experimented with making Smoothies for Phill and me this weekend.  Saturday's consisted of 1/4 cup strawberry, 1/4 cup raspberry, 1/4 cup cherry, 1 banana, half a block of tofu, and 1 cup almond milk.  I put a little too much tofu in there and used the firm tofu (that's all we had), so the texture was a little weird.  It tasted good though.  Sunday's consistent of 1/4 cup cherry, 1/4 beets, 1 tablespoon chia, 1/2 cup carrot, 1/2 banana, 1 cup almond milk, 1/4 cup kefir. This tasted pretty good, but was very fibrous to drink. I am looking forward to having kefir in my cereal next.

I also made grilled cheese for dinner last night.  I also made a bowl of fresh veggies.  I intended on it being a salad, but our mixed greens went bad / were bad when I bought them.  

The grilled cheese was really good. I used Eureka Organic Bread (Seeds the Day) and Habanero Sierra Jack Cheese (both super delicious ingredients by themselves!).  On the outside, I put some Parmesan on the outside. Very tasty and simple sandwich.

This weeks running plan: 

Monday: Dynamic Warm Up, 1 mile run, arms / core exercises

Tuesday: Dynamic Warm Up, 1 mile run, leg / core exercises 

Wednesday: Dynamic Warm Up, 2 miles, arms / core exercises

Thursday: Dynamic Warm Up, 1 mile run, leg / core exercises

Friday: Dynamic Warm Up, 2 mile run

Saturday: Dynamic Warm Up, 2 mile run

Sunday: Dynamic Warm Up, 2 mile run, drills 

Of course, that will also include stretching and rolling.  

One of those days may include a longer run.  I have two friends who are training for a half marathon, and I may meet them for their run.  I assume it will be 4 - 5 miles, at 10 - 11 minute pace.

Other goals: 

• Pay my darn parking tickets! 
• Continue reading my book

It's Friday!

Do you ever start your workday wanting to exclaim, "WTF", so loud that the guys jackhammering outside of the building could hear you?  That's how my day started. 

It is Friday though, so all I need to do is keep it together until 4:00PM. 

Last night, I wore my Strassburg sock until 4:17AM.  Almost the full night - which is a testament to how well I slept last night, too. When I woke up an hour later, I felt no pain in my foot, which was pretty awesome. I usually feel minor pain in my right foot when I wake up. 

I know I told you all my quad was hurting yesterday, so you are probably wondering why I have foot pain now.  

I hurt my foot in October 2013 and was out from running until around October 2014.  I had a stress fracture.  After the stress fracture healed, I still had pain.  So, I found out that my talus bone was out of place causing stress on my peroneal tendons and ankle.  Additionally, I have a minor heal spur causing pain and inflammation in my plantar as well. This is all due to old ankle sprains that my teenage and young adult self pretty much ignored after the swelling went away.  I had some pretty narly sprains, too. 

Once the pain in my quad goes away - which I think will be tomorrow or Sunday - I plan to approach my workouts for the next 4 weeks a little differently.  Because I was out for an entire year and couldn't do much of anything (walking, cycling, elliptical, swimming all hurt my foot), I gained significant amount of weight.  So, the extra weight that I'm still carrying (even though it is less than when I started) might be causing additional strain on my body. Because of this, I am thinking I need to focus on working on my core strength and mobility before I start increasing my mileage again.  

My thoughts are as follows: 

• Dynamic Warm-up and running 2 miles everyday, and continuing doing my normal daily walks. (Total distance will be around 19 miles, including the walking)
• Mondays and Wednesdays: Arms and abs, stretching and rolling
• Tuesdays and Thursday: Body weight legs (squats, calf raises, clams, bosu ball), stretching and rolling 
• Fridays: Just stick with the running, only. 
• Saturday: Just stick with the running, only. 
• Sunday: Longer Dynamic Warm-up, incorporating some light drills or lunge

As the 4 weeks progress, I may increase my mileage to 3 miles on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.

I love running.  I love increasing my mileage and intensity.  Right now though, I need to be patient and focus on getting stronger.  I want to be able to run for the next 50 years...and possibly be able to run fast and pain free doing it. My arms and tummy are doing to look pretty good if I keep up the core, too! 

A little bit of pain and a little bit of patience

I haven't posted in a week and I haven't run in a week! Correlation?  A little bit. 

My quad began to hurt last Thursday.  It was really tight and sore.  Then my knee started to bother me and swell.  And then also my hip and my glutes. 

I am assuming that my body responded quickly and abrasively to my 5K on Sunday and my progressive run on Wednesday.  Now I know that I am not quite ready to be increasing intensity...and I need to be patient with my body.  

I am pretty sure my hips are tight, causing anger in my IT band and also vastus lateralis muscle.  After a lot rolling, icing, stretching, massaging, hot tubbing, I'm feeling like I'm 95% recovered. I also go new running shoes, the Brooks Glycerin.  My shoes were pretty close to getting to the end of their life, so I am figuring this may have been a factor to my small set back. 

Yesterday, for exercise, I walked about 3 miles total and did light weights and core.  It was nice. 

Outside of trying to heal, I've really only been working, organizing the apartment some more, and catching up on more Orange is the New Black.  Pretty boring stuff. 

I got a Spot Award at work for a project I completed, so that's extra money in my pocket.  I revised our ADA forms and also created a ADA Interactive Process Guide for the HR Managers.  Additionally, I created a Documentation Checklist and ADA Hardship Analysis for the HR Manager to use when employees are requesting an accommodation.  When I first started my job, I was surprised none of this existed here and I finally put in enough time in to make some changes. I'm pretty happy about this, and I am looking forward for my project to actually get implemented (which is another challenge!)  I could talk for days about the ADA...but I won't do that here. 

Tonight I am going to try to read rather than watching the tube - let's see how that goes! 

Talk to you all later!

Orange is the New Black

I was a fortunate recipient of a Chrome Book recently. It is treating me very well.  I can do some job searching, article reading, blogging, and TV watching all on this handy little device.  It's amazing...and it was amazingly cheap. 

Phill and I have been watching Breaking Bad periodically and sometimes to the point of binge watching.  I'm so excited to keep watching, as the story has finally developed into something pretty complicated and intense. 

Over the weekend and to distract myself, I began to watch Orange is the New Black while icing my foot in the hotel's trash bin.  I've watched about 8 episodes since then.  I am enjoying the show - it's funny and I'm looking forward to the story and character development.  I am wondering where Piper will go after her stint in prison - 15 months is not a very long time, so I'm wondering how there are 3 seasons.  But, hey, sentences get extended and there are other characters on the show. 

Well, enough of my TV series babble - my run yesterday went pretty well.  I can definitely tell that I ran hard on a Sunday, but legs are feeling strong.  Phill and I ran for 40 minutes, totalling 4.86 miles.  We started at around 9:30 pace and progressively got faster until mile 4.  Between mile 3 and 4, we progressed from 8:00 pace to 6:55 pace. 6:55 pace lasted for 3 minutes, and the last 30 seconds of that got a little tough so I focused on my breathign and arm control. After mile 4, we just jogged until we reached 40 minutes.  

This morning, my back was really sore but it's feeling better now.  I probably just slept funny.  The rest of my body feels alright, but I do have some minor shin soreness so I will have to watch that and make sure I continue to religiously roll and ice. 

Today and tomorrow - just 20 minutes of easy running. And some core work.

Enjoy the rest of your week, readers.

7:39

This weekend's 5K ended up being a nerve-wracking tempo run, and the good news is my tempo pace is a lot faster than I expected.  I ran the 5K in Napa at around 7:39 pace, and it was pretty fun.  Phill ran pretty well this weekend too - he averaged 6:53 pace. I can't wait to run it next year! 

I am also looking forward to setting my next running goal.  I feel it is important I enter as many races as I can because I get major anxiety out there.  

This weekend I noticed that my lungs really had no problem running 7:39 pace.  It was the rest of my body and my mental strength that struggled.  It also felt strange to be running fast, as most of my runs linger around 9:00 - 9:30 pace.  

Overall, the weekend was pretty good.  Phill and I brought our friend Anthony along for the weekend activities.  Anthony and I watched Bill Rodgers and Don Kardong speak and listened to Frank Shorter over a conference call. Unfortunately, Shorter was unable to attend the Marathon College due to weather. I hope to see him speak live one day - maybe next year! Overall,  it was a great talk - lots of great history and insight about their time as elite runners. We also watched Dick Beardsley and Jack Keston talk as well. They had good stories and songs to sing. 

After the race, we went to The Thomas Restaurant for lunch.  Apparently it was still "brunch hours" so I had their crab benedict.  It was pretty good, so were their cocktails. I wished the benedict came with potatoes or fruit though - if I hadn't left the place tipsy, I probably would have noticed I was still hungry! 

Here is my week's running plan - I am probably going to hover around 20 - 24 miles per week for the next 3 months or until it becomes very, very easy.  Right now, 20 - 24 is very manageable but I still find myself with little aches in my shin or calf, so I know I'm not ready to do anything more: 

Monday: Walking, core - I did about 3.7 miles of walking, total, and about 15 minutes of core. 
Tuesday: 30 minutes - I ran 3.34 miles. 
Wednesday: 40 minutes at a moderate pace (so I'm thinking 8:45ish pace)
Thursday: 20 minutes, easy, core
Friday: 20 minutes, easy
Saturday: 30 minutes, easy
Sunday: 65 minutes - easy / moderate

This morning Phill made biscuits and coffee for breakfast.  He also walked with me to Caltrain.  Very sweet - set the tone of a great day. 

I better get back to working now...