Tag Archives: Running Splits

Be Kind to Yourself

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Happy Thursday, Fancy Oatmeal-athons.  You’ll be glad to know that this will be a Fifty Shades of Grey - free blog post.  I haven’t quite finished the third book, and am not sure yet if I’m going to do a complete review of the sequential novels.  This is mostly due to the fact that the plot develops between Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele that give away too much for those who haven’t read/finished reading the first book.  I don’t want to be a spoiler and let you know that Christian leaves her and marries me, so you’re welcome.

Anyways, this post will be a comforting return to normal topics of discussion: my running and delusions.

This morning, I had four miles on my calendar, so I loaded up the ol’ iPod Nano and took off.  I was going to own this run.

And that’s just what I did…my legs felt great for the first time since Sunday’s run.

I have been dealing with a little more leg discomfort than usual, and I’m not really sure what the culprit is.  I’ve been doing a few more sets of leg exercises each week, but that only helped make my long run on Saturday fly by faster.  I’ve been icing, using compression sleeves, and stretching like a Romanian gymnast.  So what the H is going on????

All of my runs this week have been more synchronized, pacing-wise and this pleases me.  But this bloody case of leg lethargy is raining on my parade.  Today, I decided to try and slow my roll a little bit and not worry so much about beating a 7’50 average pace.  Calm down, Spaz Legs!

At first, I thought this was a step backwards; I had regressed in my conditioning.  The truth is it’s probably exactly what my body needed in order to STAY in good condition.  Sometimes, it’s ok to be nice to yourself and listen to your body.

Why do people, myself included, get so down on themselves?

Top Three Reasons Why I am Hard on Myself:

3.  I replay a scenario over in my mind and think of what I SHOULD have said

2. I didn’t workout when I was supposed to/didn’t run as far as I was scheduled

1.  I didn’t say something when I think I should have

What I think that it all boils down to is not living up to my own expectations.  It’s true that we often set standards for ourselves that can get a little too lofty, or are incrementally too far spaced from the previous step that we have taken in our progress towards an end.  We are our own worst enemy and more often than not, set ourselves up for failure, and then berate our inability to perform.

Mentally, I have been chastising myself for running an average of five seconds slower per mile…that’s all, five seconds.  Well guess what happens to people who push themselves too fast, too hard!

So the next time that I start to go all Chris Brown on myself, I’m going to remember that we all need a break, it doesn’t make me a loser (there are enough other reasons like falling in love with fictional billionaires), and in the end it will help me to achieve my goals faster.  And every once and awhile, it’s ok to be kind to the body that has shown up for me despite the verbal lashing that I give it.

Discoveries

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Welcome to the weekend, Fancy Oatmeal Readers!

I need to first update you on the last few days of the Bering Sea Days 2012 – I got nothin’.  Well the truth is, and hopefully this isn’t TMI, but I wasn’t there because I couldn’t take three steps away from the toilet for the majority of Thursday and Friday.  Another epic fail on the part of my immune system and keeping up the firewall from germs that seem to circulate around the school faster than teenage gossip.

This morning, I was feeling MUCH better and had a strong desire to get back to the treadmill.  I was scheduled to get in 8 miles, and I promised myself as many breaks, bathroom or not, as I needed to reach my goal.  I’m right in the middle of watching Survivor: Gabon, and I knew that I would need to watch at least an episode to meet the mileage I was going to run.  Fair enough.  Hit play. It’s on!

 

My splits seem to be getting more consistent, and I’m pleased with that.

It seems as if my longer runs are easier to pace out than the shorter ones.  Not sure why that is.  Perhaps it’s because I know that longer distances mean that I will be running longer – plain and simple, those mental times that I attempt to calculate where I am in my run, I simply know that I am not going to be done running yet.  Keep up the pace.

Afterwards, I iced my ankles for a good 30 minutes, then switched to my knees for another 15.

While I was moving some stuff around last night, I found the booklet of instructions that came with my camera.  I’m not much for directions for things I can figure, mostly, for myself so the instructions were shoved in a drawer at the end of the hallway.  I thought it might be fun to start using the self-timer option on the camera.  Turns out, it has two different settings: 2 second delay or 10 seconds.  I wish they would have had a happy medium of say, 5 seconds.  Trying to pose just right in 2 seconds was highlarious!  I didn’t save any of those pics because blurred close ups of my forearm aren’t blog-worthy.  10 seconds for an individual person is about 6 seconds too many.

Here are some of my highlights:

In other news, I’ve decided to start up another blog.  This one is going to be solely dedicated to my teaching life.  I’ve decided to call it “A Lit Candle.”  Get the pun?  Lit = past tense of “to light” AND Lit = abbreviation for literature.  Oh yea!  That’s from the part of my brain that WASN’T under my soft spot!  Check it out.  Please.  I beg you.

Fast as an Easter Rabbit

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Morning Workout: 4 miles @ 31:09 (avg pace = 7’47″)

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I always seem to run out of time in the mornings to get in a good 3 reps of either an upper or lower body workout after running and the abs challenge.  Even though I get up before the sun, I enjoy a good, leisurely hour before actually getting my butt in gear.  This may sound crazy to 99.9% of you, but it’s how I roll.

I’ve decided that I’m going to start breaking up my workout into two parts, and completing my abs exercises at the end of the day.  I can tell that I’m not working as hard on my strength training, and that’s something that’s important to me to maintain.  So starting tonight, I will do my second half of my workout while watching Survivor.

I was able to get a nice Tempo Run in this morning.  I have created an extra goal for April: 5 runs with an average pace of 7’50″ or faster.  Today was one of those days.

I started out wanting to have one of my “fun runs,” and go at a decent clip around 8’05.” As I was rounding the corner on my 3rd mile, I started losing a little steam, so I switched over to my Power Song: “Sexy and I Know It” and blasted through!  I was proud of myself for completing such a challenging run.  I didn’t look down to see what my pace was, so when I saw my splits on the Nike Running site, it all made sense.

In other exciting news, Dear Hubby and I received our Easter Basket from my mom and dad.  It doesn’t matter how old you get, seeing the pink crinkle grass around a bag of pastel M&Ms makes me laugh and squeal with joy.

Oh my Sugar-Induced-Coma-Causing Lord!  Do my parents know how to celebrate the end of a 40-day Sugar-Free Lenten season or what?!?!

The truth is, I’m enjoying my sugarless lifestyle so much, I am planning on keeping it up.  Dear Hubby agreed that was fair.

While Dear Hubby was wriggling in his new-found spoils of being my parents’ son-in-law, I don’t think he noticed that I slipped this bag of practically sugar-free Easter treats:

Fancy Oatmeal logic dictates that if you have 10% or less of a serving size = zero calories/sugar

Do you still get an Easter basket?

Do you have any special rules for eating?

Five-Second Rule + the 10% Rule