185 miles in one month! How did I do that??

        I can't believe I am looking at my monthly total mileage and it is 185 miles! That is 85 miles over my 100 mile/month goal. I have only missed 7 days of running all month and it has been fun, pain-free runs. I have run some trails, some roads. I have run with a friend or two and I have run many runs alone. I have run without music/with music/with podcasts or just listening to the red-winged blackbirds trilling along the clear creek trail. There have been times I did not want to take a run but I went out the door anyway and you know what? partway through I decided I didn't want to be doing anything BUT running.
     I mostly heart rate trained it. This is my third month of heart rate training and I really think it is making a difference. Yes my runs take longer. Yes I sometimes get frustrated or even embarrassed when I have to walk up a little hill or, even worse, a downhill. But I take it seriously because I see changes. I see results! I have lost body fat and lost weight. I feel better about my running and my workouts show that.
      I take heart rate training so seriously that when my GPS watch started to have a nervous breakdown on me and say stupid things like my pulse was 39 on a Paynetown uphill I said LIAR and sent it back where it came from so I  bought another monitor from a friend. Even though I had lost some bells and whistles such as GPS, etc....the heart rate was the most important thing to me. Now my monitor says more sensible things although that means I have to walk more. Sometimes I get to having such a great time and I forget to check it (I still haven't figured out how to get it to chime when it gets over my heart rate so I have to look at it from time to time) and it will be 148 and I will have to stop dead in my tracks and start walking......sometimes fuming as my little runner's high dissipates.
     Also I have been doing pyramids in the weight room and that is making a difference overall. Last week I did a pyramid at the bench press: I started at 5X85 then did 8X80 then 10X75. I finished off with 20X45. I like doing them that way because you first get the strength/power move and then move into the endurance. . On the dumbbell chest press I am up to 25 pound dumbbells and 15 on the flys. On the rows I have finally gotten past the 70 pounds mark and am up to 85. The squats I do a pyramid as well: start off 5X105, 5X110 then when I am fatigued I increase it to 115 and do that as many times as I can. An aside: in the last month the guys in the weight room have started to "little bit" accept me. One even asked me to spot a chest press for him. Kind of cool.
   For core work I have started some intense stuff in the last two/three months. I have done high-intensity moves that work me harder while needing less overall time to do. That's good news for a busy person.
   I like to do my stability ball crunches holding a 10lb. weight plate. I can get in more with 20 crunches than I could with 50 of the regular kind. I have also progressed on the TRX to where now I do planks and body saw movements with a 10 lb. weight plate on my back. Body saw 10 times back and forth and then hold a plank with the 10lbs. on as long as I can hold it. I do that perhaps 3X. Then here is my trick again. When I am fatigued with all that then I do a plank with feet on the stability ball and 20-25 knee tucks. So once again I do the power moves followed by endurance moves.
   Besides that it has been just lots of long, slow, lovely runs through the summer days and nights. Pain-free and relaxed the way running should be. Even the sucky runs are better than no runs at all.

Hill repeats on a summer day AKA how to kick my own butt

        Today's Training:  I am getting into the habit of workouts at the cross country course. I have started seeing the same people almost every time and it is always cool to go there. Today I did have to kick my own butt a little! I have had quite a week and so was feeling kind of run down today. Said to myself "I will do my hill workouts tomorrow night instead of the group run."  
     Then I said to myself: Heather! You will say you will do your hill repeats tomorrow and then tomorrow you may find a reason not to do them. And I remembered how I feel during and after my workouts. So I got on my bike, rode back to work and hit the course. It was VERY HOT as I usually go right after my early morning training but today I went at 1pm. Sun bright and burning down.
   I jogged down to the fence, put my water bottle and headphones down and do what I usually do which is stand at the bottom, take a deep breath and GO!! I don't stop until I am past the grass. Then I turn around and jog back down. Usually it is easier but today the air was very humid and I felt like I was drinking the air. So I walked back down and thought I would only do a few. Then I thought again: You got all the way here dressed and ready do at least 10. You have to do at least 10!
  I decided to run like heck all the way up and then walk/jog down and take long enough to truly catch my breath before starting the next one. There was one woman there I think I had seen before and she was jogging up the hill. I took my deep breathe and ran up past her. When I turned around to head down she said "Nice work! I wish I could do that!"
   In the end I did 10. And I was glad i kicked my own butt and got out there. Now I can look forward to casual run Thursday!

                                                             LOVELY DAY!!

Whole30 DNF: not a good fit for me

       Whole30: I tried it and it was not a good fit for me. I am so happy for my friends that have found success in this meal plan but I was having trouble with it and so I listened to my body and decided to place my pride aside and DNF this diet.
      One of the main things was I don't have a large food budget and some of the things that they wanted me to eat regularly were pretty expensive for me. Fresh berries, meat, coconut oil, dates, avocados, olives were kind of expensive. Oatmeal, beans and peanut butter are filling and cheap. I felt I needed to be able to take my Gu's when I was doing long runs. I felt hungry all the time.
    My diet before Whole30 was pretty good. I had a larger breakfast with some complex carbs, protein, fruit and yogurt. Lunch was usually salads, quinoa and some veggies. Dinner was Tofu stir fry, veggies, milk. I have been off processed foods for years. No boxed stuff, no mac and cheese, no TV dinners. I had bought frozen veggies, Tofu, yogurt, skim milk, whole grain bread usually with flax in it, flax seed cereal, oatmeal. Very simple and did pretty well for me. I did find out I can do with much less wheat and carbs and it will help me feel better so that will continue. I will not be having bread, cereal, bagels, etc....on a daily basis. I have found I can do without those most of the time. I feel I needed my Quinoa. That has been a staple for me for quite some time as have soy products. I wanted my protein powder.
   Another aside: Whole30 DID show me I can go without so much sugar which is very good for me to know. As difficult as it was, conquering the sugar beast was a good thing to do and that is something I will take with me.

As I said, I believe Whole30 is great for some and perhaps not as useful for others. Deciding to call it quits so I can feel less hungry and have enough calories to manage my physical workload every week is a good decision I think.

MORE POWER to my friends who have made this work for them though! Major impressed!

Training log: doing the discipline thing

       My training is beginning in earnest now. I do not officially start ultra training until the end of June but am already trying to get in good habits like the back to back weekend runs, hill repeats and sticking to a running schedule (doing it even when I don't feel like it). So far my runs have been fairly shortish (maybe 6 miles or so) but I am at least starting to develop habits of discipline that every training athlete must adopt in order to achieve their goal. A quote I like is "The future is purchased with the present" Now I must do stuff other people won't so that later I can do stuff that other people can't.
   My schedule is roughly thus:  running days are tuesday, wednesday, thursday, saturday and sunday. Wednesday including hill repeats at the cross country course if I can find the time to do so. It's good for me to do my intense work on the soft grass. Plus i LOVE running up that long, grassy hill. Mondays and Fridays are rest/cross-training days. I also have been adopting a habit in the last 6 months or so of weight training. That usually includes a bench press day, squat rack day and deadlift day  with supportive lifts of dumbbells, barbells as well as cable, kettlebell, weight machines and bodyweight exercises such as TRX planks/pikes, pushups, squats, lunges/walking lunges, planks on the mat, tricep dips and other as I see fit that week's schedule.
    I try at least once a week to get in an alternative workout: rowing, HIIT workout, tabata, core only, medicine ball, pretty much whatever comes into my head that will add alternative movements to my muscles. There is an important element to training which is specificity. That means if you want to run you have to run. That's it. However if you only run you use the same muscles all the time which means other muscle groups get or stay weak therefore increasing the chance of muscular imbalances and injury.
                                                So MIX IT UP! 
   I have also started a really strict diet a couple of weeks ago which I am loving! It is the Whole30 plan and leads to some amazing benefits. I can already feel that I am lighter, faster, more energy and in general feeling amazing! I feel so much better and my body is taking to my training better. Last week I did hill repeats and I felt so much faster and running up the hill seemed easier.Still hard but better!

      I signed up for my full marathon which according to what I have read of ultra training it is good to get a full under your belt about a month before your ultra. This one is about a month and half before but the schedule that weekend is for 20/10 so I can adjust to get pretty much the right mileage just adding on a bit on Saturday and cutting Sunday a bit short.


So there you have it:  Training is good stuff. Even if you don't want to really do that workout or say no to those cookies and ice cream when you are on that course for the distance you can look back and say
"if it weren't for those sacrifices I wouldn't be here or able to do this."

                         So have gratitude for discipline. It will get you where you want to go.