Xena: A Mermaid, Vikings and uhh Legos??

[MattSkywalker]

The overseas trip is quite stressful in itself without getting sick, so I'd say you're doing pretty great in your getting back on track.

[Raxie]

17 hours ago, Xena said:

so couldn't fit in exercise

 

But....

 

17 hours ago, Xena said:

Did my "normal Monday 2-miler" after work and followed it up with Ab Ripper (15-min ab video) and some other strength training. I realized I had completely forgotten about the Daily Dare PvP, so I threw that in too

 

Does not compute.

[Xena]

7 hours ago, Raxie said:

Does not compute.

...right....I normally do that stuff before work. Mixed up my schedule and did some stuff after work instead.

 

Today I was tired and didn't do much challenge-wise. I'll run tomorrow.

 

I hate lingering quasi-illness. Hard to tell if taking more days off is helpful or not.

[DarK_RaideR]

19 hours ago, Raxie said:

But....

 

 

Does not compute.

You know that joke about warming up with someone else's max? That's Xena compared to mere mortals.

[Raxie]

16 hours ago, Xena said:

...right....I normally do that stuff before work. Mixed up my schedule and did some stuff after work instead.

 

Ooooh that makes sense! I thought you meant you didn't manage a work out at all and I was like it might be a light day but I think that counts don't sell yourself short! hahah

[Xena]

11 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

You know that joke about warming up with someone else's max? That's Xena compared to mere mortals.

 

Usually I'd do an "aw shucks" here, but today I'll just say thanks! I'm feeling a little low (not too bad...see below) and this encouragement helps.

 

Today

1. Ran ~5 miles in the morning. It was nice to be outside, but my body was struggling through an easy jog. After I finished I was pretty much exhausted.

 

2. Because of #1, I decided to cancel my marathon trip (supposed to run one in about 10 days). It just doesn't make sense. For me the fun of a marathon is to build up as much as possible, kind of wearing yourself down in the process, then recover and feel the strength come back, then go to the starting line and see what you've got on that day. This time my training was marginally acceptable (I'm ok with that, basically using the race as part of my spring training), but then I got sick and I'm just not in shape to do it. I'm pretty sure I'll feel significantly better 10 days from now and also pretty darned sure I could slog my way through the marathon, but it would just be destructive to my body and there would be no joy in it. I have some other local races this spring that I'm excited for. Maybe I'll look to add one in late May or early June. I'm 100% sure this was the right decision...but it's still a little disappointing.

 

3. Over the past couple of days I've knocked off a couple items from my Sushi list...FROM FEBRUARY!! Making a plan to finish it this weekend.

 

4. Going to do some kind of short yoga sequence before bed. [EDIT: done. It wasn't awesome, but it was something]

 

Tomorrow

Will do some kind of exercise in the morning. Not sure what yet...will ponder. Thinking strength training might make more sense since I ran today and my body didn't love it.

[DarK_RaideR]

Calling off that marathon sounds like the wise decision.

[ladymorella]

4 hours ago, Xena said:

I could slog my way through the marathon, but it would just be destructive to my body and there would be no joy in it. I have some other local races this spring that I'm excited for. Maybe I'll look to add one in late May or early June. I'm 100% sure this was the right decision...but it's still a little disappointing.

This was probably the right decision and yet such a hard one to make. Kudos for being good to your body. 

 

Keep to it. Getting over being sick is so frustrating on the training side of it. 

[jonfirestar]

9 hours ago, Xena said:

1. Ran ~5 miles in the morning. It was nice to be outside, but my body was struggling through an easy jog. After I finished I was pretty much exhausted.

 

Yeah I hate that feeling. Sorry you had to cancel your race but I think you are right to have done so. 

[Novaurora]

Sorry about your race, but it sounds like you made tbe right decision.  It seems like quite a few pf us are slogging through at the minute, but we got this!!

[Raxie]

It sounds like you definitely made the right choice - it's awesome you can step back from your path and reassess what's best for you

[jstanlick]

On 3/28/2018 at 8:22 PM, Xena said:

but it would just be destructive to my body and there would be no joy in it.

That right there is evidence enough that deciding to not run it is the right choice.

 

Hoping your body works out its lingering illness and pains soon. One of these weeks spring will actually get here and there's lots of trails out there that need exploring.

[Xena]

Week 2 update

 

I didn't quite do what I planned, but the week was ok overall and ended well. After having a rough run mid-week, I took a little time off. I did 5 miles on Sat and 15 today! The 15 today had regular walk breaks interspersed, but I'm really happy I was able to do the distance. I feel like I can now go back to normal training.

 

Yoga and strength...I didn't do too much, but I did fit in little bits several times during the week. I'm not going to add it all up here. It was kind of a weird recovery week, so it wouldn't really he helpful.

 

"Danish-inspired goal" 2.5 points this week (various fashion and hair choices, did some reading about travel). Up to 3.5

 

Plan: My spring "A" race (the one I care about) is 5 weeks away. I have a trail marathon in 3 weeks that I'm using as a last long training run. I'm going to stop fiddling around with dabbling in cross-training. I'm going to focus on specific training for the event. Strength training will focus on core, shoulder/back (sort of core-like stuff light bentover rows), hips, glutes and other running-specific stabilty and mobility exercises. I'll do yoga or stretching as planned, often focusing on things that help running mobility. The timing doesn't really line up well with challenge timing, but I know what I need to do and it starts now.

[jstanlick]

17 hours ago, Xena said:

Strength training will focus on core, shoulder/back (sort of core-like stuff light bentover rows), hips, glutes and other running-specific stabilty and mobility exercises.

Sweet! I've been telling the kids on the track team the same thing. But, they're 10 & 11 years old. They think you should just run as fast you can and repeat as many times as possible to get ready for stuff.

[Xena]

7 hours ago, jstanlick said:

Sweet! I've been telling the kids on the track team the same thing. But, they're 10 & 11 years old. They think you should just run as fast you can and repeat as many times as possible to get ready for stuff.

That does work much better at age 10 than it does at age 44 :-)

 

Today was a really great challenge day. I did my normal Monday morning 2-miler and had the feeling that it was the perfect thing to do. It was kind of a weird morning...lightly snowing with big fluffy flakes, but not really cold or windy. No one else was out. My body was stiff and tired from yesterday's long run. I took it pretty easy and interspersed a lot of drills throughout the run (butt kicks, carioca/grapevine, high knees, skips), took some walking breaks when I got tired, and ended with a few strides. The whole thing left me feeling a lot more loose, and (maybe more important) started my week off well. After that I did about 10-15 min of targeted yoga-like stretches. After work I finally made it back to the gym. Every single thing I did at the gym could have been done in my own living room, but it's a little easier at the gym and I think I work a little harder with other people around.

 

I know it's only my first day back at the gym in ages, but it felt mentally easier having a plan for what to focus on. Over the past many months, I've gone to the gym with a written plan, but it wasn't really in line with my running goals. It was just a sort of random list of stuff I felt like I should do. This felt more like purposeful training.

 

Tomorrow's plan is a bit of a longer run. Maybe throwing in a timed mile at a slightly peppy pace.

[jonfirestar]

7 hours ago, Xena said:

After work I finally made it back to the gym. Every single thing I did at the gym could have been done in my own living room, but it's a little easier at the gym and I think I work a little harder with other people around.

I have this same problem. If I go to the gym. I'll attack the workout much harder than if I try to do the same thing at home  Your 2 mile run sounds like it was exactly what you needed

[Raxie]

12 hours ago, Xena said:

Over the past many months, I've gone to the gym with a written plan, but it wasn't really in line with my running goals. It was just a sort of random list of stuff I felt like I should do. This felt more like purposeful training

 

I always find it's way better working out when I know what I'm specifically training for rather than random-ish stuff.  Yay for starting your training for your next big race!

[Mistr]

Catching up - somehow I missed my Ranger friends at the beginning of this challenge.

 

Your trip to Denmark sounds awesome. Too bad you caught a cold, suffered for a week and had to cancel your marathon trip. Glad to hear that you are now on the mend.

 

On 3/14/2018 at 8:42 PM, NightWatcher13 said:

I'm loving the Danish folklore theme. Also, viking women FTW. Those were some epic (and terrifying) folks - and apparently on top of everything else, they had full control over household finances 'cause viking men thought we had some sort of money magic.

 

Actually it was much simpler than magic. The currency used at the time was wadmal, a type of cloth. Weaving was done by the women. They had to decide how much of their time to spend making fabric for household needs and how much fabric to make for trade. See Weaving Wealth: Cloth and Trade in Viking Age and Medieval Iceland for details.

[Xena]

On 4/3/2018 at 5:54 PM, Mistr said:

Actually it was much simpler than magic. The currency used at the time was wadmal, a type of cloth. Weaving was done by the women. They had to decide how much of their time to spend making fabric for household needs and how much fabric to make for trade. See Weaving Wealth: Cloth and Trade in Viking Age and Medieval Iceland for details.

You would be rich and/or well-clothed :-)

 

Tuesday I went for a spectacular run. Did my "peppy" mile (just a mile with a bit of effort in the middle of a ~5 mile run). It was slower than I hoped (9:10...I thought it would be ~8:45), but the effort was about right and I can probably go faster next week. After a bit on the road, I was planning to duck into the trails. I couldn't find the entrance I wanted, but then a deer ran across the road into a forested area and I saw that it was a newly re-done trailhead. I chased the deer onto the trailer.

 

Spoiler alert: The deer was faster.

 

It just felt fun, like I was really out there in nature and following some kind of sign or something.

 

Wednesday nothing much. Had some friends over after work, so had to do last-minute cleaning in the morning.

 

This morning decided to take another day off running. Drank a little more than ideal last night (not that much, still could have ran) and my hip is nagging a bit. Went to the gym after work. After I finished my strength stuff, I re-introduced myself to my nemesis - the dreaded foam roller. I think we'll be seeing a lot of each other over the next several weeks. The hip thing should be managable....it's muscle tightness and ITB. I think I can nurse it along. Just have to be careful.

 

On Sunday I have plans to do a long trail run in a new place with my best friend. That makes up for missing my marathon :-)

 

 

[Terra]

I love how you made adjustments so far this challenge!  

 

12 hours ago, Xena said:

On Sunday I have plans to do a long trail run in a new place with my best friend. That makes up for missing my marathon :-)

This ^^^ is perfect!!!  

[jstanlick]

On 4/5/2018 at 9:17 PM, Xena said:

It just felt fun, like I was really out there in nature and following some kind of sign or something.

That sounds really cool!

[DarK_RaideR]

On 6/4/2018 at 5:17 AM, Xena said:

I couldn't find the entrance I wanted, but then a deer ran across the road into a forested area and I saw that it was a newly re-done trailhead. I chased the deer onto the trailer.

 

Spoiler alert: The deer was faster.

 

It just felt fun, like I was really out there in nature and following some kind of sign or something.

This sounds so Rangery!

[Raxie]

9 hours ago, DarK_RaideR said:

This sounds so Rangery!

 

That's precisely what I was going to say! #rangerhivemind

[Xena]

On 4/6/2018 at 10:38 AM, Terra said:

I love how you made adjustments so far this challenge! 

It's been a very adjustment-full challenge!

 

Week 3 Report

A good week, like the kind I normally hope for when there isn't weird travel or plague.

27 miles or so, including 3 quality runs.  #1 included a timed mile and chasing a deer. #2 included half-mile repeats and forgetting my jacket requiring a bonus jacket-retrieval run. #3 was a great 12-mile rugged trail adventure with my BFF. I was planning to get more distance on the trail, but the level of difficulty definitely made up for it.

Made it to the gym twice!

Made it to a legit yoga class and did semi-random yoga-like stretches during the week

No "Danish points"...I think I'm up to 3.5 out of 10 or something.

 

Today

A pretty perfect challenge day. My normal Monday 2 miler (jogging, drills, strides) followed by 10-15 min stretching. After work went to gym and followed lifting with some foam roller torture..

 

And got 3 "Danish points" today. Did some complicated Daenery's-like (GoT) braiding. Bought some pansies to celebrate spring. Ordered a new lamp to replace the incredibly broken and crooked one in my bedroom. Big improvements to Hygge. Not 100% sure what my original goal was (and too lazy to check), but I'm officially declaring myself at 6.5/10.

 

Tomorrow

Leaving for a short trip. Shouldn't be too disruptive. I'll do what I can.

[ladymorella]

Sounds like a great week. And yay on the danish progress.