Boldly running where I've never gone before

I can’t say I did much the past couple of weeks prior to this weekend. Labor Day came and went, and the weather turned chilly.  The first red leaves began to show on the trees as the realization slowly dawned that summer is fairly well over.  I rarely welcome this time of year because it signals the end of everything I love: blue skies and greenery, a garden full of vegetables, and endless roads stretching into the distance beckoning me to come and run them.  Here in Northern Illinois the cold months can be quite brutal so at the first hint of winter’s return, a bit of heaviness descends on my mood and I need to make a mental adjustment.

That’s pretty much what happened the last two weeks.  I kept up with running, stretching and cardio but had to do more yoga to keep myself peaceful, and thus neglected the weight training I should have done.  My right shoulder is still in healing mode anyway, although it is about 95% better now, so it was probably the right thing to do.

Not quite able to get the heart rate up that day.  Still bummed and too tired.

The week of September 10 was also taper time for my first fall half, which I will fully report about next time, the Rock’n’Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon.  I’m waiting for all the stats and pictures to show up since it just happened yesterday, and they’re not available yet.

Foggy morning last Wednesday!

My mood is getting better because I’ve begun meditating in the morning with the Headspace app, and I have also started preparing for my winter training project.  Last year, I did a 5 month muscle building program from November to April and got really strong.  This year, I went a little crazy and signed up for a Spartan Sprint in March which I will be training for starting in November.  It is going to require a lot of work because I have never done about half the stuff they will expect of me, so I’m really in over my head again.  But that’s okay.  Planning something new, exciting and slightly scary will help chase away the winter blues by giving me a new goal to strive for instead of moping around and eating while we’re all snowbound for months up here.

And that’s about the latest from these parts at this moment.  I’ll come back with race reports for the Fetch & Pounce 5k in New Jersey on Saturday as well as the Rock’n’Roll Philadelphia half-marathon on Sunday of this past weekend after all the photos are available.

In the meantime, Live Long and Prosper.

This has been an ordinary week with nothing special to report.  I took a couple of days off after Fort2Base to rest my lower body and let it recuperate from the surprising effort it mustered on Sunday.

Monday – I did the 40:00 Active Isolated Stretch DVD again, and felt like I really needed it.  My quads and hamstrings were both tight and a little sore.  The right ankle tendons were grumbling but I have since managed to silence them.

Tuesday – I had a lot of stuff to catch up on at home so I did several hours of housecleaning and then gardening outdoors in the vegetable garden, followed by cooking and freezing everything harvested.  I was on my feet a lot and ended up with 10,000 steps even without any formal exercise.

Wednesday – A 30:00 Fast Finish run was on the agenda.  The weather was quite pleasantly cool and I took it easy, running at the bottom of the heart rate range, despite the urge to really haul butt.  It had a 5:00 Zone 3 finish at the end and I was able to push it then.  A 12 hour work shift followed and I did not get 10,000 steps.

Thursday – I tried a Boot Camp DVD I had not done before and discovered it was not exactly what I expected.  Instead of the usual cardio and weights segments alternated in quick succession, this was pretty much all cardio.  For purposes of this training program, I need metabolic/circuit/interval types that employ cardio and weights because I need (1) to keep my heart rate consistently elevated even when my feet aren’t moving and (2) the added benefit of some strength training.   It was another 12 hour work day.

Friday – Another Fast Finish run, this one 45:00, with a 10 minute Zone 3 finish was this day’s training effort.  It went well and I really enjoyed it.  I did do quite a bit of stretching afterwards.

Saturday – What a lovely fall day it was!  With early morning temps in the 40s, I found myself wishing I could run. But it was a cross-training day so I opted instead for Cathe Friedrich’s Athletic Training DVD, which featured lots of cardio, weights, core and a nice stretch at the end.  Then I let my younger dog Abby drag me around the neighborhood, so I got some steps in too.

Overall, I feel fully prepared for the races I have coming up and at this point only need to keep readiness at its peak while simultaneously avoiding injury.  Sleep was good most of the week at around 8 hours on average, but I’m finding it hard to wake up in the dark so I pretty much have to force myself out of bed at 5:00 on work days.  Caloric intake has been fairly well in control with protein staying around 120 grams daily and carbs coming from mostly fresh fruits and vegetables.   So even my often dicey nutrition is okay at this moment.  I always drink lots of water, and that has continued.

Two weeks remain before Rock-n-Roll Philly, and I’m starting to get excited now.  I wanna run up the Rocky Steps and yell “Yo Adrian!” LOL

See ya next week!