Healthy Twists

Or, Don’t Run With Your Car Alarm in Your Sports Bra (alternative title)

This week’s training recap will be a little more entertaining than most, so I’m just going to get into it. Well, first, remember when I ran a 4 mile race and then couldn’t remember where I parked my car and Mitch had to rescue me? Yes? Ok then. Keep that in mind.

Monday: 10 min yoga, some stretching, and a 45-minute walk with Nina.

Tuesday: 35 minute walk with Nina (I had some extra mommy duties this week since Mitch was working a lot.)

Wednesday: Gym session! I did 10 min warmup on the stair climber, then about 50 minutes of lifting weights followed by 10 min of foam rolling and stretching. I decided to do some lower-body work, and I was reminded for the next two days how much lunges and squats KILL me. That’s probably why I should keep doing ‘em, right?

Thursday: I walked Nina for about 40 minutes before work, and then after work I had these grand plans of running that ended after 10 minutes. But I guess 10 minutes of running is better than none!

Friday: I ran for about 50 minutes after work. It was only 4.25ish miles but I really didn’t feel like I was going that slow, so I’m not sure what was going on. I was still super sore, so that was probably part of it. That was when I decided I was taking the day off on Saturday if it was the last thing I did!

Saturday: See above. I did no formal exercise but got in plenty of NEAT due to running errands, doing a ton of laundry, and then working an overtime shift where I was opening and closing doors for people all night (don’t ask). I also stretched, stretched, stretched.

Sunday: LONG run day! 11 miles on the schedule. Here’s where it got interesting.

In the morning, I learned that when “they” tell you to have all your gear ready the night before, you should listen. I couldn’t find my nifty fuel belt, and I was running late so I just took my water bottle, my Sport Beans and my keys, and off I went.

The plan was to meet Jenny at point A, drive in her car to point B, then run back to my car at point A and then I would drive her back to point B to get her car. From A to B was a large portion of the actual half marathon route, so we wanted to see what it felt like. For the San Diego peeps, we started in Point Loma in a residential neighborhood, ran around Harbor Island then through downtown and ended in Balboa Park. Non locals: that’s FAR.

I locked my keys and cell phone in my car and just took my car alarm (see where I’m going now?). Jenny drove us to the spot in Point Loma, and we were off. It was a really cute neighborhood and I had lots of wedding talk to distract myself from the daunting task ahead. Neither of us had our watches on us, but I was actually happy to not know my time. Most of the run was uneventful. I liked not running a loop, because the whole time I was running towards the end! My knees started to ache around, mile 8 or so, which was odd because I usually don’t get knee pain. I just kept plugging along and it seemed to subside.

Probably somewhere during mile 10, up a long (but not super steep) hill, I let my emotions get the best of me and we stopped to walk for maybe(?) a quarter-mile. Did I “need” to walk? Like last week, I guess I don’t know. Maybe I don’t have the mental strength to get through this, but I believe I am still allowed to be proud of myself and what I accomplished, walk break and all.

I think we finished the 11 miles in about 2 hours and 15 minutes, which is fine with me considering the walk break and some stoplights. My goal from the get-go was to finish this race and not get injured during the process, and as of now I’m on track to meet that goal. This has been really, really hard (which I think is the point), and I know I’m not training “perfectly” and while part of that bothers me, I need to stop asking more of myself than I would ask of anyone else. I would be SO proud of anyone else who did what I have done thus far. So there

Back to my story. We collapse on the grass for a few minutes, stretch, and head towards my car to go home. I click the “unlock” button to get into my car and….nothing. THE CAR WON’T UNLOCK. Um. Crap? I’m starving, sweaty, and thirsty, and now we seem to be stranded. Apparently, my brilliant plan of keeping my alarm in my bra was not the idea. At least now I know, sweat kills electronics. And, if I had my damn Camelback belt, none of this would have happened. My grumpiness level was doubled when I realized that one.

Jenny and I duck into a nearby shop and luckily, the store manager takes pity on us and lets us use his phone. I call Mitch. No answer. She calls her boyfriend. No answer. Repeat. At this point, we really didn’t know what to do, but Jenny figured her guy was probably home taking a nap or something. He didn’t live that far away, so she called one more time to tell him we were on our way to him. And off we went…walking 2 miles on the now-hot sun (because my feet needed that) to her boyfriend’s house.

The whole time, we’re wondering what we’re going to do if he isn’t home. Thank goodness, Jenny’s boyfriend was home, and I used his phone and finally reached Mitch, who said he would come meet me at my car. If you’re counting, this makes TWICE he’s had to rescue me, post-run. Jenny drops me off at my car (and then they go off to get hers, 11 miles away) and I wait around and stretch and fantasize about In-N-Out until Mitch finds me and delivers my spare key so I can get into my car.

By the time I got home, it was almost 2 PM. Since 7:30 AM all I’d had to eat was half a bagel with peanut butter and honey, and about 115 calories of Sport Beans and G2 (low-calorie Gatorade). And I ran 11+ miles and walked 2+. You do the math on that one.

I had the best wrap in the history of wraps (grilled salmon, roasted veggies, whole-wheat tortilla) and proceeded to crash on the couch for the rest of the day until I met up with a girlfriend for frozen yogurt and more wedding talk.

Today, my knees still feel a little tender, but honestly I’m surprised I’m not in more pain. So maybe I’m in decent shape after all? And now that I’ve had several showers and several more meals, it’s a pretty darn funny story.

And with that…what did you do this weekend? Was your Sunday more eventful than mine?

P.S. I found my fuel belt today. It was not on the floor or kitchen table where I thought I had left it, but actually put away in it’s proper place. The fact that I didn’t even think to look there should tell you something about my cleaning habits, or lack thereof.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.