Well Balanced Week

 

I stopped writing my Weekly Workout Wround Up posts after the Las Vegas Marathon last December.  At the time I was in a little bit of a funk and probably a bit depressed.  Post-marathon blues and injury aggravations didn’t trend toward wanting to keep track of my (lack of) physical activity week to week.

But I feel like I need to document this past week.

Monday night I ran 5.5 miles with my running club.  It was slow and I walked some due to the heat, but I got out there. 

Tuesday I strength trained.

Wednesday I ran a race.

Thursday I did some more strength training.  I also did some Tabata intervals on the stationary bike and then did a mile on the treadmill in my minimalist shoes.  I didn’t do the whole mile straight, though.  I’d walk a quarter mile and then run a quarter mile.  My calves could really feel it during the run!

Friday I swam some laps. 

Saturday, though.  Oh, Saturday.  I went on possibly the most fun bike ride I’ve ever done.  Kim did an AWESOME write-up so I won’t reinvent the wheel and instead just tell you to go read her post.  Long story short:  we rode from Libertyville, IL to the Chicago Botanical Gardens, wandered around the gardens for 3 hours (I’d never been there before), and then rode back to Libertyville. 

Total distance?  41 miles.  This wasn’t a speed run.  It was a fun, exploration ride.  One of the things I love about the bike is that you don’t really care if you get a little lost.  Sometimes getting turned around leads you to some neat discoveries. 

Like this beautiful view of Lake Michigan.

And then on Sunday I met up with Emily for our first run together!  She showed me her usual 6ish mile route and we chatted while running past the United Center (home of the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago Blackhawks), through UIC, and around our neighborhood.  It was a good time and I’m looking forward to running with her more.

So my week consisted of three runs, two strength training sessions, one bike ride, and one swimming workout.

Which means I worked out seven days in a row.  But, balanced workouts. 

One of my goals this year was to do something active every day that I can.  I think this past week definitely lived up to that goal! 

Just Keep Swimming

 

For the past few Fridays I’ve been going to the gym to do 30 minutes of lap swimming.  I have a feeling only about 15 of that is actual swimming but as of last week I was resting less and moving more.  I only go on Fridays because I get off work at 3:00 PM and I’ve discovered that there are almost always empty lanes by the time I get in the pool around 4:00.

Prior to today I’ve been coming home from work, jumping on my bike, and riding to the gym.  I realized this was silly, though, because the gym is on the way home from work.  So, today I decided I would take the bus from my office to the gym and then from the gym home.   It’s a total of 3 miles.  1.5 from my office to the gym and 1.5 from the gym to my apartment.

So, I left work, walked to the bus stop, and waited.  I saw the bus I wanted coming so I got out my bus pass and stood at the curb.  The bus stopped a little further down the street than I was standing and let its passengers off, and closed the bus door.  I walked down the street, up to the bus door, and the driver totally ignored me.  Okay, I thought.  Maybe (s)he’s going to pull up closer to the actual stop.  I walked back up to the stop and the bus drove right on past.

Um. Okay.  I guess I’ll walk?

The 1.5 miles to the gym weren’t bad even though the air temperature is near 100.  Stay in the shade downtown and it’s tolerable. 

I got an empty lane in the pool and started my workout.

10 minutes with the kickboard to work on my breathing.  Still haven’t figured out how to exhale underwater and not get water bubbles up my nose or feel like I’m gasping for air when I turn my head for a breath. 

10 minutes with the pull buoy.  Or, at least, that’s what I usually do.  Today I felt weak and flailing after about 5 so I switched to the backstroke.

10 minutes of freestyle swimming.  Except I felt exhausted, bored, and frustrated after about 5 minutes so I called it quits.  I just can’t find my groove with swimming.   I know I won’t be great out of the gate, but it just feels so much more difficult than running or biking. 

Anyway, I went back to the locker room, showered, changed, and decided to walk home.  I mean, I already walked there, I could certainly handle another 1.5 miles.

Except, since I have ZERO sense of direction, I walked the wrong way for who knows how long until I realized I was actually going east instead of west.  Dammit.

35 incredibly sunny and sweaty minutes later, I made it home. 

Some days just aren’t the day, you know?  But I’ll just keep swimming.  Both literally and metaphorically. 

Four on the Fourth Race Report

For the third year in a row I joined my running club at the Four on the Fourth four mile race in Elmhurst, IL.  This race has become an annual club event where we race and then pig out on goodies brought by the club members potluck-style.

Last year I ran this race after spending the evening in the E.R. and still managed to beat my time from 2010.

This year?  This year I had no real goals.  Wednesday morning, July 4th, dawned super hot and humid and ended up tying a 1911 temperature for the hottest Chicago area Fourth of July on record by the end of the day.  We hit 102^oF Wednesday afternoon. 

So, really, my main goal was to survive!  I wanted to run the whole thing without walking (I decided to walk some during my 5.5 mile Monday night run which was also done in some crazy heat), try to average 9:00 minute miles, and hopefully have even or negative splits. 

Actually, my goal for this race is always to have negative splits, but since there’s some decent hills I don’t always manage to do it.

I wore my headphones, something I haven’t done in a race in a long time.  I don’t know if they helped or not but I didn’t mind trying to take my mind off the heat and the fact that I haven’t be training for racing at all.

Still, when the gun went off I settled into what felt like a nice pace.  I tried not to look at my Garmin and just run by feel.  Of course, I snuck a look here and there and it always showed me as hovering just around 9:00 minutes per mile.  Perfect.

The hill up to the finish line

The first two miles of this race aren’t bad.  More downhill, good distractions of seeing your friends and “teammates” running in the opposite direction on the out-and-back part of the course.  But once you turn around at mile 2 and start to head back, you’ve got to fight off the demons that tell you that all those hills you went down?  You have to go back up.  Those miles you just ran to get here?  You have to cover them again.

Mile four of this race may be my least favorite mile of all time,

I grabbed water at the aid station, drank some, splashed some on myself, and kept going.  The Garmin still showed I was on pace at around 9:00 so I decided not to push it.  Could I have dug deeper?  Sure.  But why? 

I saw my friend John near the finish line with his camera and made a beeline for him.  He joked later that I’m good and knowing when to get out from behind other runners so I can get my picture taken.  The benefits to not being as concerned about your time, right?

I crossed the finish line and immediately sweat began to roll down my bare skin.   Another club member who wasn’t running asked me, “Did you pour water on yourself?”

Um, no.  This is all natural sweat, thank you very much.

It was hot out.

This race has a table at the finish line where you can punch your bib number into a machine and it will print out your finish time for you.  You don’t even have to wait to get home to look it up online!  But I didn’t bother.  I knew it wouldn’t be my fastest time and I’d already met most of my goals.  Now it was time for watching the kid’s 1K run, stuffing my face with fruit and baked goods, chugging a Gatorade, and hanging out with my club members.

But, for posterity’s sake, I did look up my time online later.  Official finish time?  36:02.   My splits weren’t too bad according to my Garmin.  They were 8:56, 8:46, 8:59 and 9:09. 

See, I told you I hate that last mile. 

But I don’t hate this race.  I love hanging out with so many club members I don’t always get to see. I love the downhome feel of this race.  I love that it’s a great way to spend the first part of a holiday.  And I love that even if I’m not hitting a PR, I can still have a good time.

P.S.  Thanks to John and Robert for the photos! 

L.A.T.E. Ride Report–Up All Night

Have you heard of the Friends of the Park’s L.A.T.E. Ride? It’s been taking place in Chicago for almost 25 years. 

Up to 9,000 cyclists meet up at Buckingham Fountain at midnight and ride 25 miles through the City of Chicago.  The goal?  Get back to Buckingham Fountain before dawn so you can watch the sunrise over Lake Michigan.

I was able to convince Jason to join me since this was a leisure ride event and not a race.  Take it slow, I said.  Don’t worry about pace, I said.

So, we taped flashlights and headlamps to our bikes, strapped on our helmets and rode over to the Fountain.  A little after 1:15 AM we started on our ride.

In addition to the ride there are best lit bike and best decorated helmet contests and this year there was a costume parade.  We didn’t get to the Fountain in time for those but we did get to see a lot of craziness out on the roads.

Photo from Facebook

Like the Blues Brothers.  And people with radios attached to their bikes.  And lots and lots of glow sticks, flashing LEDs, and even one woman who turned her helmet into a bird’s nest….complete with actual, live birds. 

By the way, it’s really hard to take photos while riding your bike.  Especially when you’re biking in a crowd.  And that’s how you spend most of the ride.  In a crowd.  You also are expected to stop at right lights if the intersection isn’t being monitored by police.  This makes for some harrowing moments sometimes.  I got more comfortable riding in a crowd after awhile but for the first few miles I wasn’t particularly thrilled.

I was perfectly content to ride along at a leisurely pace and enjoy seeing parts of Chicago I’d never seen before.  We rode through Chinatown (which still smelled of Chinese food at 2:00 AM), we rode through Greektown and Logan Square and entertained all the drunks standing outside the bars.  We rode through Humboldt Park which, unbeknownst to me, is bordered by two sculptures of the Puerto Rican flag.

Source

Jason, on the other hand, doesn’t have the bike butt callous that I do (nor does he own padded bike shorts) so he started to speed up and weave in and out of people in order to “get this thing over with.”

That made me sad. 

So, I let him go ahead and I puttered along.  We met back up at the rest stop at the halfway point where we chowed down on some bananas and Clif bars and remarked at how much the scene reminded us of Ragnar…just with more bikes.  Jason assured me he was having fun, but that he just wanted to ride faster.  No sense of adventure or exploration, that one.

Anyway, we stuck together for a few miles after that but then Jason pulled ahead and I tried to keep up.  I was trying to ride a little more aggressively but we passed the aftermath of a scary scene involving a participant and a car and it shook me up a bit.  So, I only sped up when I could find a good, clear space among the bikes.

When we reached the lakefront path I was able to up my speed and enjoy riding without having to dodge pedestrians.  In fact, if I didn’t love sleep so much, I would come ride the lakefront path at night more often!  I was having a blast during this part!

In fact, I was enjoying myself so much that I didn’t realize I actually passed Jason who was waiting for me.  We stayed together for the last few miles. 

26 miles, just over 4 hours.   Our reward? 

Pancakes.

And watching the sun rise.

Jason took a short nap while we waited for the sun

Post-sunrise we hopped back on our bikes, rode the 1.5 miles home, showered, and collapsed into bed a little after 6:00 AM.  We did it. We stayed up all night and rode almost 30 miles total.

I don’t think I’ve ever stayed up all night, including at Ragnar.  I knew I could ride the distance so the challenge for me was doing it on no sleep.

Amazingly, being surrounded by other people kept me going.  Well, that and I knew if I fell asleep I’d fall off my bike!

This event certainly was an adventure.  It was more crowded and more leisurely than I thought it would be (lots of people stop at 24 hour restaurants along the way) but it was definitely a unique way to see the city and feel like, as cyclists, we owned the road.

Would I do it again?  That’s a good question.  I think if I was with a group of people who had a more adventurous spirit it could make for quite the party atmosphere.  Lighting up our bikes, playing music, laughing, stopping to check out interesting things along the way. 

Still, I have a feeling there might be other events out there that are more my cup of tea.  But I’m glad I did this one and I would definitely recommend it as something you should try at least once!  At the very least, it gives you a reason to be standing on the lakeshore watching the sunrise. 

Hidden Temple in the City

 

Last Thursday I was riding my bike home from work and my ART appointment when I looked over the side of a bridge and saw what looked like a lovely park. 

When I got home I looked on Google maps and realized I was riding right over the Ping Tom Memorial Park.  I’d recently read about it in the Chicago Tribune but I had no idea where it was.  Until now. 

Some quick calculations and I realized I could do an easy 5 mile run there and back from my apartment.  So, on Friday morning I headed out my front door with Ping Tom Park as my goal.

After several days of temperatures in the 90s the cooler morning air felt wonderful.  Running came easy even though I hadn’t been out on my feet like that in over a week. 

Sure, I had to stop at some intersections and sure my Garmin wouldn’t find a signal for what felt like forever, but I had a goal and I was running and I loved it.

The park is set behind a housing complex in a rather industrial area of the city.  Unfortunately when I was running they were picking up trash from the apartment buildings to every so often you’d get a whiff of something unpleasant.  But the park was filled with people sitting in the sun, doing Tai Chi in the shade, or just walking along the paths.

I didn’t have a much time as I wanted to explore so I’ll definitely be back.  It was an easy run from my apartment (although not the most scenic) and the park has a drinking fountain for that mid-run refreshment. 

And the other best part?  My hip felt perfectly fine afterward.  Maybe all this PT and ART is finally doing something. 

Weekend Wildness

Ladies and Gentleman, let me introduce to you the Stupid Tan Lines: Summer 2012 Collection.

Item #1 :

Bike shorts tan line

 

Item #2:

Bike jersey tan line

 

Item #3:

 Bike glove tan line

 

And just how, exactly, did I end up with this lovely collection of tan lines?

By parking my car here:

 

And riding my bike to here:

 

And then 5 more miles to get lunch here:

 

And then turning around and doing it all again to get back to my car.  Plus a slight detour when I got a little lost.  Total mileage?

64.22 miles.  Today my legs feel sore in all sorts of new places.

I am not the world’s fastest cyclist so not counting stops for traffic or my stop for lunch I did those 64.22 miles in just shy of four and a half hours.  My Garmin died around mile 52 so, sadly, it didn’t catch the last four miles where I was pushing it really hard and probably averaging closer to 18 miles per hour (instead of the 14 for the rest of the trip). 

I really just wanted to be done and, thankfully, an older gentleman on a bike behind me gave me the motivation to push harder. 

But riding my bike my furthest distance ever (by a factor of 2) wasn’t the only wild and crazy thing I did this weekend.

Oh, no.  On Friday afternoon I biked over to the nearest gym to which I still have a membership (until the end of July, anyway) I decided to swim some laps. 

That went….let’s go with….well, at least I didn’t drown. 

I have forgotten everything I learned from my lesson back in January.  I think I’ll be taking my work bonus and getting myself some swim lessons.  I felt awkward and ungangly in the water and I think I swallowed half the pool.  I was in the water for 30 minutes and I hope that at least half of that was swimming.  For the first 10 minutes I just did laps, for the next 10 I used a kick board to try and work on my breathing.  For the last 10 I used a pull buoy so I could work on my arm movements. 

I slept really well on Friday night. 

Saturday I tried a new strength workout that left me feeling a bit sore.  Peace Love and Oats posted a workout she recently tried and I thought, hey, why not?  I swapped out the cardio parts, though, for some deadlifts, dumbbell rows, and stability ball work. 

And today?  Today I am taking a rest day.  I think I earned it.

Medal Day

Monday night's run was definitely not medal-worthy.  I felt pretty good for the first two miles or so but then my legs turned into lead and my left quad started hurting and I just wanted to be done.  Of course, my Garmin didn't catch a signal until after the first 1.5 miles so it didn't even record the parts where I felt strong.  Blah.  At least the company was good since I was running with my running club.

So, instead of focusing on runs that didn't garner any fruit, I'm sharing what I do with my race medals for Mag Mile Runner's photo challenge.

Above is the very first race medal holder I ever got.  I showed the website to my mom shortly after the 2010 Chicago Marathon and she ended up buying me this medal hanger for Christmas.  Until then my medals were just hanging on the door handle of my home office.

I very quickly outgrew this medal holder, though.  Running 30 races in one year will do that to you.

So, towards the end of 2011 I was gifted with two more medal holders.  My mom gave me this one:

And then Kim gave me this custom one:

I now have all three hanging in my office at home.

 The one on the far left has my half marathons and my marathons (other than Chicago).  The next one has all my races that I ran in the actual city of Chicago (plus 2011 Ragnar that ended in Chicago).  Then the next one has all my other race distances and age group place medals.  

There is one other medal that isn't on my medal rack.  And that's the medal from my very first half marathon.

The 2009 Illinois Half Marathon.  That one hangs in a shadow box in my office at work.  It's also my first race medal ever (if you don't count my keychain) so it got some special treatment.

I haven't added any medals since December 2011.  The marathon section of the one medal rack looks a little sparse.   I'd like to add some more but until then it's one day at a time.

An Athlete and an Athletic Supporter

Right after I write about how I can’t get out of bed and workout before work I managed to get up and 3.2 miles on Thursday morning.  Of course, that’s partly because I didn’t have to be anywhere until 10:00 AM instead of 9:00 AM but still.  I ran.  In the morning.  On a weekday. 

It was my first run in my neighborhood and I decided to meander through the university campus just south of us and see where that took me.

Once you get past the university it’s not the most scenic route but the bits through the university were lovely and shaded.

But you know what’s funny?  When I run by myself I run faster than when I run with people.  This used to be the complete opposite.  Not sure what’s happening there.

After my run I showered and got ready for a day of work and errands.  But first I walked (!) to my doctor’s office for a hip check-up.  He ended up doing a technique called “dry needling” to loosen up some of my muscles.  Amazingly, it felt better almost immediately.  Not cured, but better.  He then referred me to another PT who will do some trigger point massage therapy.  This new PT is exactly one block from my apartment which I’m stupidly excited about. 

Who knew I would love living in the city so much?

Other benefits to living in the city?  Being able to go cheer at races!

I rode my bike (thanks, REI, for the new tube!) to the half way point of the Allstate 13.1 Half Marathon on Saturday armed with a tub of Red Vines.  Kim suggested I hand out treats and we picked up these puppies on Friday night.  The runners seemed to enjoy them greatly. 

I had grand plans to do a strength training workout on Sunday after doing an abbreviated one on Thursday evening but ended up relaxing on the couch instead.  Hey, sometimes you need a day to sleep late, enjoy brunch, and read the paper.  Right?

Goals Check-In

My main goals for this year were to do something active every day that I can and figure out what to do about this stupid hip.
And how’s that going six months into the year?
Well, I’m definitely doing as much as possible.  Although, this morning when I woke up before my alarm I thought, “If I’m going to keep waking up before I have to, maybe I should start working out before work.”
And then promptly went back to sleep.
Seriously, though, ever since we moved I’ve been waking up way before my alarm.  I wish I could find some morning workout buddies to keep me accountable.  Without them I’m much more inclined to roll over and go back to sleep.
When I do manage to do things, it’s either a strength workout, a bike ride, or a run.  I still haven’t managed to get to the pool.  Still terrified of lane sharing.  I’ve GOT to get over that.  I wish I had some swim buddies, too. 
Anyway, I rode my bike downtown and back on Saturday to visit Kim who was manning the Fake Meats booth at the first ever Chicago Veggie Pride Parade. 

However, my bike now has its first ever flat tire.  Time to put my REI membership to good use and get a discount on a bike tune-up and flat fix.  I’ve read too many horror stories of people trying to change their own bike tubes to try it myself!  I’ll just pay someone to do it for now. 
On Sunday I didn’t get in a workout but I did promote running!  It was a weekend of booths.  Sunday I set-up and staffed the booth for my running club at a village event.

We got some interest but also a lot of people who gave us the side eye and said “I don’t run!” or “I could never run!”  Seriously?  That may be true but don’t you think it’s weird you need to comment?
Monday night I had to take all the stuff pictured above back to our storage area in Oak Park so I took the opportunity to run with the club.  A nice, steady 5.5 miles. Although my hip was a tad sore afterward.
And speaking of my hip, I have a follow-up appointment with the doc who recommended PT on Thursday.  We’ll see what he has to say since PT didn’t seem to be making a HUGE difference. 
In the mean time, I’ve got an ART appointment tonight.  Maybe some strength training or a quick run (it IS National Running Day, after all) afterward.  We’ll see. 

Busy, Busy

I’ve been pretty busy in the workout department since last Thursday.  Of course, now I’m paying for it as my left hip is KILLING me (or maybe that’s just a reaction to the ART session from last night). 

But what was I doing until I decided to give my hip a break?

Friday was my wedding anniversary so Jason and I walked to a nearby pub for dinner and drinks.  After I rode my bike to and from work.  Does commuting by bike count as a workout if it’s only a few miles total? 

Saturday I did a strength workout but my stomach was upset so I didn’t push it very hard and had to rush out of the gym mid-set to use the bathroom.  I felt pretty out of it the rest of the day.

Thankfully I felt better on Sunday, though, because I joined Kim for some kayaking! 

We kayaked around a lake for about an hour.  I could really feel it working my arms but, believe it or not, I wasn’t sore at all the next day!  I have a feeling that if I’d done this last year or the year before I would have felt it for a few days afterward.  Strength training for the win!

Monday I took advantage of my day off and went for a long bike ride.  I rode from my apartment to Chicago’s lake front path and went south to where the path ends.  Then I turned around and headed back.

Although the air temps were warm there was a strong breeze coming in off the lake that made it pretty nice outside.  Minus the fact that the wind felt like it was going to blow me over or backward most of the ride.  I also explored some alternate ways to get home and ended up riding just over 25 miles.  I’m still not very fast on my bike but I am really enjoying being out on it.

And then Tuesday I went for a run all by my lonesome at lunch.  Been a LONG time since I’ve done that.

Funny how different the lake and the skyline can look from one day to the next, isn’t it?  I ran for 40 minutes and finished 4.5 miles.  And, even though it was straight-up sunny and warm I felt pretty good.  Racer back tan line, here I come!

When I got home from work I hit up the apartment gym for a quick strength session.

Now I’m taking a few days off from running.  I might do a strength session tonight or I might just rest.  That ART session left me really sore!

Chase Corporate Challenge Bandit (Race Report)

 

I totally brought scissors to our team tent and turned my t-shirt into a tank top.

My employer pays for a large number of us to run the Chase Corporate Challenge.  However, you have to sign up in February.  Since at that time I didn’t know if I’d be able to run in May or not, I didn’t sign up.

But I’ve run Chase every year since I started at my current employer so when I realized that I would be able to run I started sniffing around for a bib.

Hey, it’s already paid for, right?  My work would just be wasting that money if I didn’t use an unused bib!

Turns out my coworker got a migraine and went home to sit in a dark room.  Which left me her bib.  So, I used it.

And promptly ran my slowest Chase Corporate Challenge ever.  31:30 for 3.5 miles.  On the plus side, I think that will go down as one of her fastest times.  Glad I could do that for her!

They changed up the course this year and it was basically a lot of running through what are essentially tunnels.  Combined with the crowds, the temperature and the humidity I think everyone ran slower than they wanted.  Plus, since I didn’t bother to study the course map I didn’t know when to pick it up towards the end.  My Garmin was all messed up from the tunnels and then suddenly the finish line was right in front of me!

Could I have run faster?  Maybe.  But I did tell myself to hold back a bit.  No point in running faster and aggravating my hip any more than I already did.  Yes, it was kind of sore and stiff afterward.  Bummer.

Still, it was a gorgeous night to enjoy the city and I’m glad I got the chance to run.  It’s taken me a few days to come to terms with the fact that I’m not as fast as I was in the past two years but life is not always about the speed.  Sometimes it’s just about the opportunity.