What Training Plan?

I’m officially in the third week of half marathon training and it hasn’t taken me long to realize that I suck at following training plans. Part of the problem is that I can be stubborn and don’t like being told what to do & when to do it but the other problem is that I love some of my cross-training activities so much, such as spinning and hot yoga, that I’m having a hard time fitting some of the weekday runs into my schedule. On Monday, I was scheduled to run 4 miles and it’s also a day I have spinning so I hopped on the dreadmill an hour before class and then thought I was going to pass out and die during spinning. Since I sit in the front row and the Monday night classes are packed, that would be midly embarrassing. Considering how clumsy I am, I’m proud that I haven’t somersaulted over the handlebars yet.

So anyways, back to the training plan. I’ve been pretty good about sticking to the plan this week, especially since the cranky shins have calmed down a bit. I’ve included a copy of my plan below in case you’re curious. It was included as part of my half marathon core training program through my gym. I’ll talk about the program and how it’s going in a future post and you may even get to see some videos of my crappy form.

In other news, the cake pops that our super nice magazine partner sent us have finally disappeared from the office. Thank goodness. I was addicted to the cake pop crack despite the fact that cake pops do not agree with my stomach. At all. (And yet, I continue to eat them despite repeat sprints to the restroom).

Some cake pop porn for your viewing pleasure:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Random Facts Friday

1) People think I’m the world’s most patient person and I constantly get that feedback at work but I’m really not patient at all.
2) I can’t stand slow walkers or people who stop walking right in front of me. My poor husband is in the category of “slow walkers” and yes, even he gets left behind sometimes.
3) My favorite clothing stores are J. Crew, Madewell, Anthropologie & Nordstrom. And by clothing store, I mean “real people clothes,” not athletic wear.
4) The ratio of “real people clothes”:athletic wear was 532:1 and now it’s more like 2:1. Even though we don’t have a dress code at work, I think I would get some strange works wearing my Lulu gear to work. Although wunder unders do amazing things for my ass, which could result in more visbility.
5) I have the hardest time swallowing pills so all of my vitamins are gummies. They taste good so I occasionally snack on them like candy. Oops.
6) I’m obsessed with The Hunger Games and really sad that I’m going to be out of the country the day the movie is released.
7) I try to avoid talking on the phone at all costs.
8) I love to travel and researching potential vacations is a good form of stress-relief for me.

Happy Friday everyone. Does anyone have any exciting plans for the weekend?

Wordless Wednesday

Two my favorite post-workout treats:

Peanut butter protein bars courtesy of Blonde Ponytail:

“Soft serve” frozen banana with Nutella:

Dear Bitchy Shins…

I know that I probably pushed you up hills too fast & too soon but will you please forgive me? You’ve been cranky for almost two weeks now and I would really appreciate if you would stop throwing a temper tantrum and go back to normal. I’ll even promise to continue giving you extra attention with the stick (aka torture device), the foam roller and ice. kthxbye.

In all seriousness, my shin pain was bad enough that I went to a podiatrist last Friday just to be absolutely sure I didn’t give myself a stress fracture. After the very scientific hopping-on-one-foot test, the podiatrist confirmed I don’t have a stress fracture and just a gnarly case of shin splints. He confirmed that my feet are flat and that I over-pronate which is contributing to the shin splints. He gave me some insoles which I used for the first time last week but I’m not 100% convinced I should use them.

Despite the shin pain, I ran a 5k last weekend and sped up to an 8:50 pace for the last mile despite the pain. I’m trying to take it easy this week and focus on cross-training and am continuing to use all the torture crap on my legs. I’m incredibly inpatient and want the pain to be gone asap so that I can get back on track with my training plan. I need to learn patience since I’m guessing I developed shin splints in the first place from pushing myself too hard. You mean I shouldn’t do hill repeats at an insane pace when I’m just returning to running?

If you’ve had a case of bitchy, cranky shins, how long did it take you to recover?

My First 5k

I can now say that I’ve officially run a 5k as of this morning. I’ve been a casual runner for a number of years but never bothered with registering for a race. Figured I should learn how to race before the Seattle Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon rolls around at the end of June. And learn how to do all the important stuff that comes with racing, like tying the timing tip to your shoe laces and dodging strollers and dogs at the start.

I carpooled over to the race with some Eastside friends that I met through Sweaty Betties and then met up with my new fabulous blogger/Twitter friends. That’s us below before the start of the race. Left to right: Ann Marie (not on Twitter but she should be), TriGirl, me and Stacie. I’m wearing the white race shirt over my 3 layers of bright pink and I’m amazed my $1 heart headband didn’t fall off my head during the race.

It seemed like almost as soon as we met up, it was time to start lining up. I can’t remember exactly where we lined up but I think it was between the 10:00 – 11:00 marker. I didn’t have much of a strategy other than to just push it to see how fast I could go without killing myself before the 3.1 miles were up. Starting the race was a little challenging since there wasn’t a lot of space to move and I was weaving around dogs and strollers. One of my biggest pet peeves is being trapped in a mass of people so I looked for every opportunity to break free from the crowd which happened around 0.75 miles into the race. I followed my friend Wendy and we kept pushing each other the entire race.

I had a nice view of a man wearing bright pink tights and lil booty shorts. If I wasn’t so concerned about my time, I would’ve whipped out my phone for a picture. The last mile and a half, Wendy and I were running at a 8:50 pace which is much faster than my usual 9:30 or 9:45 training pace. Ended up finishing in 28:56 at a 9:20 pace which I’m pretty happy with for my very first (and crowded) 5k. And my shins weren’t screaming the entire 3 miles which is a plus.
I was pretty jealous of all the runners who were able to find tutus. Think I need to hunt down a green tutu for the St Paddys Day Dash.

Below: Wendy and I after eating all the free goodies we could find.

Do you have any races this weekend?

P.S. As soon as I have enough race photos, I’m going to create an awesome custom banner for my blog.