One step forward, two steps back
While I refuse to see it as an omen, there sure have been a few wrenches thrown into my Goofy Challenge training. I missed a couple weeks in September due to a nasty cold, then my right hip rebelled against my increased training (which included hill and speed play). Just when I’m back running long distances (thanks to doing my physical therapy exercises diligently) the holidays hit. ARGH!
Given I’m a personal chef, Thanksgiving week is always hectic for me. Not only do I have to prepare Thanksgiving dishes for my clients, I’m also responsible for my own. Because we were heading to Whistler for the holiday I roasted the turkey ahead of time and froze it (it works remarkably well, resulting in incredibly moist turkey!). I ran about 12 1/2 miles on the Sunday before, which meant I was too wiped to bake any pies on the weekend. So I was forced to bake a pie for my client during their cook date (it was a gift). Given I only bake pies once a year, I’m not that speedy. In addition, they live about 20 miles from me, and by the time I hit the road the traffic was horrid.
As I was winding my way through the jam I got a call from my Wednesday client: what was I planning on preparing for their Thanksgiving dinner besides the stuffing? Well, I hadn’t even planned on doing the stuffing! (The wife was out of town the week before and her husband said her family was going to take care of everything. Apparently he got it wrong). So while I had planned a quick cook date to allow us plenty of time to get to Whistler, I now was responsible for stuffing and mashed potatoes for 25. sigh.
But what the heck has this got to do with my training? Unfortunately it meant I had to curtail much of my workouts, especially my physical therapy. I got a 3 1/2 mile run in on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, then the 5-mile Whistler International Turkey Trot on Thursday (I still can’t believe you’ve never heard of it). But Friday and Saturday were a bust (okay, so I suppose I worked off a few calories WALKING down the friggin’ mountain on Friday).
Things started looking up on Sunday. My darling and I toyed with crashing the Seattle Marathon, but I was concerned it would be unethical (even if we didn’t partake in any of the fueling stations or use any port-o-potties, I still thought it would be wrong to clog up the route). Morning dawned and it was obviously going to be a glorious day (unlike last year, when I ran the Seattle half. We awoke to snow!). We had a 14-15 mile run on the docket, but as with every other Sunday, we decided to dawdle a bit. We finally got our act together by 10:30, and I had mapped out a run that would meet up with the race for the last 4 miles (and given we had such a late start, we figured we wouldn’t get in anyone’s way).
By the time we caught up with the group we had run about 6 1/2 miles. But I still felt bad when the volunteers were cheering us on: “You’re looking great!” The only people running at that point were the marathoners, and they would have been on their 22nd mile. We did our best to stay out of their way. However, I got caught up with the excitement and found myself running faster than I should. Within a half mile of the finish we turned off to finish our run, which included a mile-long hill up Fremont Avenue. (That’s when I started cursing my decision to run fast during the marathon stretch).
Monday morning was my weekly weigh-in for the Holiday Weight Loss Challenge, and not surprisingly, the scales were not good to me: 168 pounds. Some of it can be attributed to monthly bloat, but most of it was a result of too much junk food and wine at Whistler. I vowed to get back on track and had a terrific workout at the gym Monday morning (including my PT exercises). Normally I’d do a run Monday afternoon, but since my long run was put off until Sunday, I decided to rest. At about 6 p.m. I started to feel it: the tell-tale scratch in the back of the throat signaling the start of a cold. RASSENFRASSEN! My darling had it too. Neither one of us slept well that night and we were both feeling quite peaked the next day. (Turns out our Whistler condo was one big petri dish for germs — of the 20 people who were there, at least 15 of us came down with a cold).
I was finally able to shake things by Friday, but I had three days of absolutely no activity. To make up for it I decided to do some speedwork during our 3-mile run on Friday. While I almost beat my personal best (I was off by 6 seconds), my left hip and hamstring sure had something to say to me. Although I probably should have taken today off, I was determined to get in a run (this weekend starts 4 weeks of back-to-back Saturday-Sunday runs in preparation for Goofy).
I mapped out a 7 1/2-8 mile run, but from the get-go I knew it wouldn’t be easy. After warming up my muscles I stretched a bit to loosen up my hamstring. It helped, but I had to do it again a couple more times during the run. I figured if it got too bad I could walk up Stone Way (another mile-long hill), but I soldiered on. I did, however, forego the hills through Woodland Park, instead running the flat part along Greenlake.
Despite these setbacks, I do feel really good. My overall pace today was just over 10 min/mile, and I feel it actually loosened up my hip (good thing — I’m planning on running a half marathon tomorrow). But the best part? As we were lounging on our couch reading our Harry Potter books (I’m on the second, my darling is on the fourth) we looked out the window to see snow! It’ll most likely be gone tomorrow, but it was just what I needed to get in the mood to decorate for Christmas.
December 3rd, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Weigh Ins Suck. Who’s idea was this? ha ha.
December 4th, 2007 at 6:40 am
omg. you have got a lot going on! i can barely cook for my family let alone others! you rock. glad to hear you took some time to lie on the couch & read … this training around the holidays is going to be a challenge.