Slornow and Wannabefaster's Winter Mentor Group-CLOSED (Page 29)

Rest Days: I take them pretty seriously because, even though my training isn't killing me now, in a few months I'll really be feeling it. I also believe what I've heard about the rest day being the day you get stronger; you spend the whole week tearing down your body, and it needs that day to recover and get some strength back. Without it, you'll just keep compounding stress on it. 

Nate-good to hear the back is feeling better. One thing I like about teaching is that it's expected that I move around the classroom; I can tell a difference in my back if I've sat all day. 

I got my swim workout done this morning, now just a 30 minute bike ride this evening, and I'm all done for the day.

Randee-Hope your ortho appt. goes well

Blanda-Enjoy your retreat

Nate-I feel your pain. Hang in there. I know how frustrating it is.

Jason-I feel you on running in the cold and on icy or un-shoveled sidewalks. Still I wouldn't trade it for a treadmill.

Rest Days-I used to be really good about them. I scheduled them and stuck to them but over the past few months I had stopped scheduling and I think that contributed a lot to the problems I'm having. I never really did schedule active recovery but let my rest days just be rest. Most of my reason for that was a few years ago when I wasjust running I was really struggling with shin splints (it's always something, isn't it?).

I was kind of off the grid yesterday. I'm taking a mission trip to Nicaragua next month and there are several planning meetings which I have to travel for. Yesterday it just ended up taking the whole day between that and a few other things. When I'm gone next month I'll be without computer access and I won't be able to train at all, although, I'll be getting plenty of exercise. Mission is constant work and I love it. Anyways, if I disappear for a bit I haven't quit the group.

Rest days-mine seem to come about due to hectic work schedule or travel. They don't show up very often in the schedule I get from my coach. However, there are days where the workouts are more like active recovery with short easy runs or easy spins on the bike. This gets back to what we were talking about before in keeping easy days easy.  Its a long season and there have to be periods of recovery.

Mixed bag on my swim at lunch today. Good solid workout but never felt very smooth in the water. Bumping the run up to five miles tonight with some moderate work through the middle. Glad tomorrow is Friday. 

I got tied up with work today and it was raining so I improvised.  I went over to my PTs office.  I started with 20 minutes on the bikes (hills), then 20 minutes upper body weights and then my every other day run; 2 miles in 22:59.

If I keep running the two miles every other day I will run more in Jan than all of last year.  That doesn't consider that on Monday I add 10% to the distance.

BTW - whoever it was that suggested covering the console on the treadmill, really bad for me.  When I checked I had not run anywhere near as far as I thought.  Kinda demoralizing.  For now I will just watch it tick down.

Tomorrow's Friday...YEAH!

Felt really good after work today. I used my stand up desk and it worked out pretty well. Only time I sat down was the drive to and from lunch and then at the restaurant itself.

Decided I'd jump on the trainer just to see how it felt, with the intention being to get off if I felt any pain at all. There was none, so i did my scheduled 30 minute Z2 trainer ride.

Then I said "Well what the heck" and ran to the end of the street and back. No pain, so I did my scheduled 15 minute brick run and went ahead and added on the 30 minute run i missed yesterday.

Feel great! Still not 100% but my back is healing and there's minimal pain. I should count this incident as a blessing because I've been educating myself very much on the psoas and how much it affects running and everyday life. I encourage everyone here to read up on it and do some strengthening or stretching especially if you have had a history of lower back pain.

I'll even help you out with a link!

The Psoas: is It Killing Your Back?

5 showers in one day is alot. 2 swims in one day is just wierd!

wannabefaster - 2013-01-24 8:16 PM

slornow - 2013-01-24 9:11 PM

wannabefaster - 2013-01-24 8:06 PM Five, count them, five showers today. One before morning swim. One after morning swim. One after my hour on the trainer. One before my impromptu evening swim (even though I had literally gotten out of the shower 45 minutes before.... this place has people who strictly enforce the shower before pool rule--no exceptions! ) One after my evening swim. I am squeaky clean.

5 showers in one day is alot. 2 swims in one day is just wierd!

I couldn't agree with you more. I tried not to swim but my daughter begged me to get in the pool..... Next thing you know I was swimming along (trying not to let her go faster than me--getting schooled this morning by the 65 year old with the visible pacemaker was enough humiliation for one day )

Ok, that's understandable. Swimming with your daughter is totally acceptable. Didn't realize that was you next to me this morning.

Well, you're not supposed to look, even at the end!  (I didn't suggest it, but I'll answer for whoever did.)

Treadmills are depressing.  You've never run (IME) as far as you thought you had.  I honestly think that unless you have a very specific workout that you have to hit for a very specific reason (not "I want to"), and you absolutely must run on the treadmill. then just cover it up and run and never look.  Seriously.

You beat me by one.  On our way to dinner tonight I complained that my skin was really dry.  My wife said 'how many showers did you take today?'  Oh, yeah, that was probably it.

Michael I did have a very specific workout that I had to do and since it was raining, a treadmill was my next best option.  For the first time ever I have a running plan that seems to be working.  I run every other day and this week that is 2 miles.  Each week I will add another qtr mile.  If I can keep it up I might actually be able to run the run in April.

If I am ever going to do the run in anything that approaches respectable, I think as long as this is working this workout qualifies as I 'have to hit for a very specific reason'.  I imagine a lot of people on this site feel the same way about swimming. For me it's running, my achilles heel as it were.

I can live with looking at the console.  I have a goal in mind, the will to succeed and this great group for support.  Given that, how could I skip my run today?

So I experienced the upside of my am/pm pace issue.... ran this evening, and my standard pace felt soooo easy!   I felt confident enough to crank up the pace for 10 min  (about 1:00/mile increase) and I didn't find it hard at all.  Much better than my early morning lethargy!

Re: rest days -- I can only think of one time in the last year when I did 7 days of training.  Rest days creep in naturally -- lots of work conflicts and other commitments get in the way.  I'm regularly doing 4 days a week, maybe 5 on a good week.    But I'm not IM training.

Scott.

Nate I know a few people who swear by stand up desks.  I would love to try it - not sure how I can rig it in my office.  I have two monitors.......got any pics of your contraption?

Wow Nicole - have you ever been to Nicaragua?  That will be an interesting trip for sure!

Jason - Adrian Monk would be proud of the amount of showers you took :p

Michael - the only way I can tolerate the treadmill is if I have an interval workout.  My mind needs to see that next "change" coming so I have something to look forward to.  Odd, I know

As for me, ortho said I'm ok to run (start slowly obviously) but really I'm not that psyched to go out and do it - I'm afraid it'll happen again and I'll be on the DL for another 6 months.  Maybe next week I'll give it a quarter mile or so and see how it goes.

DH's acl "revision" is February 5th.  I guess that's what they call it when they are redoing the original reconstruction **shrug**

ok, off to VT tonight to participate in the Tubbs snowshoe romp to stomp out breast cancer.  We'll be the ones in the banana suits (I kid you not).  http://tubbsromptostomp.com/vt

Have a good weekend all.  Be back Sunday.  Train good!

Randee-good news on the stress fracture. You are wise to ease back into it. Banana suits? Really? That's great.

Anyone racing this weekend?

Here's a pic! I put my laptop in the upper cabinet space and then took my rolling file cabinet and placed it on top of my desk next to the cabinet and placed my second monitor on it. Pretty good set up so far!

Yesterday, I could definitely feel the fatigue by the end of the day. Hopefully I be used to it after a few weeks.

That's great to hear!  You can make it.  At least, if you don't skip your run... ;-)

Jason -- I know what you mean.   I've managed to make peace with the treadmill too.  The consistency of pace is nice, and the entertainment too     Only real downside is no deer wandering through the basement -- that always makes for a much more exciting run.

Scott.

Guess I spoke too soon on the treadmill thing. I really do enjoy running outdoors but I could see where it would be handy especially to do a quick morning run without the layers like Jason said. I actually own one but it was broken the day I got it (it was a gift that had been sitting in storage for a while). I can only make it go 1 speed-the fastest-so now I hang clothes on it and hope I'll find a friend with a truck to bring it to the dump someday. It's a shame, though. I'm sure someone handy could fix it.

I had the best workout tonight than I've had in ages. My goal was a 1/2 hour on the trainer at a comfortable pace and it felt pretty good. I know that's not much but I feel a little more like myself today. I''ve really been struggling with motivation this week.

Randee-I went on the same trip last year and I can't even describe how amazing it was. I have a lot of pics on my Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/#!/nicole.l.groleauif anyone is interested send me a friend request.