Monday Moves

Posted on April 8, 2013 by HHRunner

*go enter the Esprit de She giveaway while there’s still time!*

Yeahhh buddy, starting off the week on the right foot this week since I was super motivated [I say that lightly – it doesn’t exactly take a lot to recap workouts, even if my inability to regularly do so makes it seem that way] and posted my workout wrap-up yesterday.

Which means I actually have to figure out my plan for the week today. I’ve decided that I think I’m going to drop my running down to 4 days per week instead of 5, though there’s really no good reason for that. If I add in additional running, great. If I don’t, fine.

Onward to the schedule:

this is my favorite.

Monday: BodyPump

Tuesday: easy 15 minute run before work, 45 minute interval run after work

Wednesday: 3 mile run in the AM + Happy Hour Spin Class

Thursday: Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30 L2 + maybe some running? but maybe not. we’ll see how I feel. Last week I tried to run on Thursday and I ran for a full minute before deciding that I didn’t actually feel like running. so I didn’t. Sean was impressed with my great mental fortitude and ability to stick it out.

Friday: nothing! gotta rest up for the weekend, obviously.

Saturday: I’m gonna shoot for 6 with the running group + BodyPump

Sunday: 5-6 easy miles, probably with the same ‘you aren’t allowed to use the watch for anything other than tracking mileage’ mentality.

[via]

weekly workout wrap-up

Posted on April 7, 2013 by HHRunner

Hey-o! I’m bloggin’ on a Sunday! I started off this week feeling a little “meh” about my workouts, but I feel like I really picked up speed at the end of the week and I finished everything out feeling really good, so I’m pretty pleased about that!

For whatever reason, my computer isn’t currently letting me pull any pictures into this post? So I guess we’ll just get right down to it.

Monday: 20 min HIIT running, BodyPump. I did do 20 minutes of HIIT – specifically, a 5 min warm up, 5 x 1 min @ 7:03 then 1 min @ 8:34, 5 min cool down. I hated all of this. It felt much harder then it should have, I was unhappy with how I was running and the 20 minutes felt like 45. So there was that. BodyPump, on the other hand, was delightful as always. I just really love the instructor.

Tuesday: 3 mile run before work, Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown after work. The 3 miles happened. For whatever reason, I couldn’t get the gym TV to work in the morning, so I started at a blue screen for a solid 26 minutes. And that was that. Yoga Meltdown happened after work and I thoroughly enjoyed it – I forgot how much I like that DVD. I was pretty stressed from work, though, and Jillian didn’t relieve all of that stress, so I laced up and headed out for a slow 2.53 miles. I just ran what I felt like running and then came back home. 3rd run of the week, 1st one that was OK.

Wednesday: 3 mile run @ Memorial Park + Happy Hour Spin Class (ob-sessed with that class now. I don’t even know why I was nervous about going last week). I’ve been running my runs at Memorial without the watch. I just check the time when I leave and then when I get back to my car. It’s delightful! I felt like this run was hard and when I got back to the car I realized there was good reason – I ran it in 24 minutes exactly, and I know that it always takes me a mile to warm up, so that means I ran the last 2 miles in the 7’s. Happy Hour spin is seriously one of my favorite classes to go to. I love love love the instructor.

Thursday: Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30. I didn’t want to work out at all on Thursday, so I guess it’s good that I planned such a short workout. And that Sean was running on the treadmill when I got home. There was no way I was going to let him work out and not suck up 20 minutes of my day for Jillian. Did it. Was glad I did it. And was glad I was done.

Friday: Friday 5k before work. Nope. I took a rest day. For one, after Thursday I could tell that I needed one. I also am currently taking a class on Friday nights, so that kind of eliminated any other time I had to work out. Friday is now going to be my rest day – at least for the next 7 weeks.

Saturday: Some undetermined amount of miles [maybe 8? then again, maybe 4…] + BodyPump. Initially I wanted to hit up my running group and run with them, but I ended up going to bed really late on Friday because I got wrapped up watching King of the Hill [don’t judge my high quality TV choices – there is not much on Friday nights], so I nixed the alarm and just let myself sleep. When I woke up I hopped on the treadmill, did a 1 mile warm up, then 2 miles alternating a 1/4 mile at a low 7:xx with a 1/4 mile at 8:34, then a 1 mile cool down. Then BodyPump happened at 10:30 – it was a new release and SO FUN! When I got home from grocery shopping I decided I did want to run 8 total for Saturday, so I laced up and hit the pavement for 4 more miles, which were surprisingly quick considering how tired I figured my legs were. Done and done.

Sunday: NOTHING. I have no plans other than a 1.5 hour deep tissue massage. Well, all that nothing changed once I subbed out my rest day for Friday, so I woke up this morning and headed out for 5 easy miles. The only thing I told myself was that I wasn’t allowed to watch my watch. Which resulted in a slow warm up mile around 9 min, then 3 miles at flat 8’s, then a slower final mile.

Like I said earlier, this week didn’t start out at all how I wanted it to, but I really feel like I finished it up with some solid workouts. I’m trying to focus on balancing fun with working out and being healthy, and I feel like I achieved that this weekend.

How was your weekend?? Did you do anything fun?

Go enter the giveaway here. NOW.

Esprit de She 5k

Posted on April 5, 2013 by HHRunner

So over the past couple years I’ve had one focus: distance running. Even when I was sidelined, running long was all I could think about. However, when I started running, I was all about the 5k’s. I’ve ran many 5k’s in my time as a runner, but they kind of started to fall off my radar as I became more immersed in the world of distance running. I replaced 5k’s with 10k’s when it came to ‘short’ distance running, and as such haven’t ran a 5k since my brother and I ran one together two years ago.

When I was approached by Esprit de She about becoming an ambassador, I jumped at the chance. The race, which is held May 9th [a Thursday evening] is in City Centre, which is one of my all time favorite places to be. According to the lovely folks over behind the race, Esprit de She is “the nation’s premiere athletic event series for women.” They go on to say, “We are a community of active women connected by a shared desire to celebrate fitness and fun, sisterhood and strength.”

Really, who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

First and foremost: all you lovelies in the Houston area should go sign up for the race. Let me make it really easy for you… do it here.

I’ll be attempting to run one of those puke-inducing 5k’s [which should be interesting considering I haven’t focused on running fast in a long time…]

Second: Esprit de She has offered to give away two shirts to two lucky winners!

I am a lover of t-shirts, so these are right up my alley. How cute are they?!

In love with the colors. Heathered gray = the best.

I’ll let the giveaway run for a week and will pick the winners next Friday.

To enter:

1. Leave a comment. Tell me how your last 5k went or why you don’t run 5ks. Or don’t. Just leave me a comment Smile

2. Blog about it and let me know!

That’s it! Nice and easy!

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday!!

Full disclosure: Esprit de She comped my entry to the race, but I probably would have ran the race anyway because it’s in City Centre, which I love, and because I’ve been looking around for a 5k. All opinions are all mine. I don’t do giveaways often, so when I do it’s something that I’m really pumped about!

The Woodlands Half Marathon

Posted on April 4, 2013 by HHRunner

OK. I’ve been holding out on this little race for a solid month now. I’m not really sure why, I think because it wasn’t that great for me, but it was, if that makes any sense at all.

But let’s back up and start at the beginning.

After running the Aramco Half, I was on a serious running high. I was toying with the idea of running another half pretty quickly, but not sold on any certain one. I’ve wanted to run the Woodlands for a couple years now, simply because I grew up close to the Woodlands and I have a soft spot for it in my heart. But, we had a wedding to go to the day of the Woodlands half, so I pretty much counted it out.

Running or this? Or both? Important life decisions.

Due to some various factors, however, I started to debate if it was possible. The wedding started at 3PM and was in New Braunfels – a solid 3+ hours away. But the half started at 7AM, and if I ran anything close to what I ran in Houston, it was possible to run the half, shower and still get to the wedding in plenty of time [spoiler: we got to New Braunfels at 1:30… plenty of time]… And the wheels started turning.

I ended up taking the rest of January after Houston pretty easy in terms of running, and then spent February attempting to build back up some speed. I threw the idea out to Sean about running the Woodlands before the wedding and he told me to go for it. 3 seconds later, I registered. And there it was. Another half. March 2nd.

To be completely up front: I truly wasn’t sure if I was actually ready to run this race. My long runs were mediocre at best, and while I knew I’d be able to handle the distance, I wasn’t sure how quickly how I could actually get my little [ok, average-sized] feet to move.

But, like it or not, race day still showed up. I was a freaking mess. I kept thinking about what a terrible idea this was. The last time I ran a race in the Woodlands – and a 5k no less – I hated it. How was tacking on an additional 10 miles a good idea?

After pushing my way up through the corrals [nope, straight up just walked up to the front], I found the 1:45 pacer – who looked like a freaking rockstar [seriously, homegirl was in SHAPE] – and strategically placed myself behind her. The plan: sub-1:45 half.

And then, just like every other race, we were off. It was a beautiful day out. Cool and sunny. Within seconds of starting, I heard my name and turned and saw my parents cheering me on – I immediately teared up. I am such a sap sometimes [most of the time]. I had that same overwhelming feeling of gratitude for my body and that I was running that I’ve had many times since recovering from the demon knee. Unfortunately, however, those blissful feelings didn’t stay for very long. The first 3 or so miles ticked by and I had my normal “why the eff am I doing this, this was such a bad idea” thoughts. I somehow managed to stay close to the 1:45 pacer, which was good. At some point, not really sure when, I pulled ahead of the 1:45 pacer and steadily tried to keep pace with the 3:30 marathon pacer. I’ve never run with a pace group before, so this was weird.

Good point about the half/marathon course: There were ample aid stations. I walked through every one and alternated grabbing water or Gatorade at them. I also partied with these bad boys:

via – FYI margarita is the best flavor.

Around mile 7ish we hit a series of ‘motivational’ signs that were hilarious. They went on for a solid mile and I laughed the entire time. After that, however, we went out into no-man’s land. The crowd support at the Woodlands is minimal, at best. And then all my “oh this is the perfect weather!!” came back to bite me. Because it was sunny and the sun being out makes it hot [term used loosely, it was not even close to being hot for Houston, but it was rather warm with my long sleeves. should’ve worn short sleeves] and bright.

There was literally nothing but trees and the street for the rest of the course. Or really the entire course. And while it’s ohhhh soooo pretty at first, it’s not that exciting after the first, well, mile. I tried to check my Garmin at one point to see if I was on track to PR or not [a little after mile 10], only to find out that it had decided to stop keeping track of what I was running. So that was a fun realization. The only thing keeping me sane at this point was that my iPod was in touch with the war raging in my head and kept pulling out songs like “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson and that song from the 8 Mile soundtrack by Eminem. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, well, I’m too lazy to go find it. Sorry.

I wanted to quit at mile 11. This was not the rainbows and butterflies that the Houston half was. I was miserable. And at around 11.5 I noticed the 1:45 pacer creeping up into my view again. I tried my hardest to find some oomph, but it just wasn’t there. I started reminding myself that I only two miles left, and that was only 16ish minutes, and I could do that. And I counted down like that every 5 minutes. Just 10 more minutes now. OK, we’re down to 5 and you can hear the crowds. LOOK THE SPLIT FROM THE MARATHONERS, YOU GOT THIS.

And here is where I rant [as if this whole race report hasn’t been depressing enough]: we turned the corner and some idiot yelled “you’re almost there! the finish line is ahead” so I kicked it. And I ran my little heart out. And I waited to cross the finish line. And waited. And realized that the idiot who yelled that out didn’t know what he was talking about.

In reality, the finish line was maybe 0.4 miles away. But when you yell out that the finish line is ahead, I expect it to be coming up in a 1/4 mile or less. By the time I actually saw the finish line, I thought I was going to puke. My body was not handling sprinting well at that point. I ran straight past Sean, who yelled to me and tried to high five me, and ignored him. By then I had such tunnel vision that I couldn’t handle exerting energy towards anything other than crossing the finish line.

When I finally crossed [dramatic, much? it was really only about a minute after that] the finish line I had no clue what my time was. I didn’t even know how quickly I had actually crossed the start line to start trying to figure out how I’d done. So I found my parents and Sean and waited.

Side note: I was so stoked that my parents were there because they missed Houston, and it really pumped me up knowing that they were there cheering me on.

I chatted with my parents for a few minutes, then they left and Sean and I went over to look at the results.

And there I was: 16th in my age group, with a finish time of 1:44:02.

How I managed to pull out another PR is beyond me. It wasn’t fun, it wasn’t a good race for me, I pulled the biggest positive split ever, and none of that mattered once I saw that number.

Running and racing has been a very humbling experience for me over the past year. My body has shown me what it can and can’t handle, and it’s let me know very loudly when it’s been pushed too far. But it’s also let me do things that I never thought were possible. Breaking 1:45 in the half was huge for me. I’m so unbelievably grateful that in a matter of a month and a half, my legs let me run an almost 4 minute PR… after already giving me an 8 minute PR. I am so, so humbled and thankful. I can’t express enough appreciation to my husband, who always not only supports me, but pushes me to go further, to my amazing doctor, Dr. Hinson, who has kept me sane and healthy throughout this entire thing and to God, who has truly shown me what it means to be patient and persevere, even when things look bleak.

Monday Moves on Tuesday… Again

Posted on April 2, 2013 by HHRunner

I truly can’t believe that Tuesday is almost over. I don’t even know where this week is going and I see no sign of it slowing down… I’m not even sure if that’s good or bad at this point! I feel like the minor meltdown I was having yesterday was ages ago… which I guess is good because I’m feeling rather optimistic about everything right now.

Now that March is over and my little experiment with running 15 minutes each morning has concluded, I’ve realized two things: 1. I really do like getting in some sort of movement in the morning. 2. It’s freaking hard to do that every morning. So I’m going to cut back to a few times a week and call it good Smile

At any rate, one of the few things that’s keeping me sane throughout all of this week’s craziness is knowing that I have some kickass workouts on the books. I’m looking forward to each and every one of these:

21076014959e11e28d0622000a9e13b7_7

Monday: 20 min HIIT running, BodyPump

Tuesday: 3 mile run before work, Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown after work

Wednesday: 3 mile run @ Memorial Park + Happy Hour Spin Class (ob-sessed with that class now. I don’t even know why I was nervous about going last week)

Thursday: Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30

Friday: Friday 5k before work

Saturday: Some undetermined amount of miles [maybe 8? then again, maybe 4…] + BodyPump

Sunday: NOTHING. I have no plans other than a 1.5 hour deep tissue massage.

And in other news, I do have a very overdue story to tell you guys about a little race I ran at the beginning of last month… Expect that on Wednesday or Thursday. It’s a fun one!

On that note, I have to go pull dinner out of the oven Hope y’alls weeks are all off to a magnificent start!

weekly workout wrap-up

Posted on April 1, 2013 by HHRunner

Ouch. This weekend I did a lot of this:

and this:

and then this:

and maybe some of this:

The working out, on the other hand… well, we’ll just let the workouts speak for themselves.

Monday: Run 15 minutes [AM], BodyPump (heavy) [PM] Ran 1.72 miles in the morning. Went on a 20 minute bike ride with the boy + hit the volleyball back and forth for 15 or so minutes. Then PUMPED. Success.

Tuesday: Run 15 minutes [AM], 6 mile run [PM] Ran 1.76 miles in the morning. Did another 6 on the treadmill that night. Rounded it out with 10 minutes of core Pilates. Check, check, check.

Wednesday: Run 15 minutes [AM], 2-3 mile run + Happy Hour Spin Class (doesn’t that just sound fun? Put “Happy Hour” in the title of anything and I’ll probably think it’s a good idea) [PM] Ran a sleepy 1.68 miles in the morning. Did an easy 3 mile run at Memorial Park immediately after work while I killed time for the spin class. Spent 45 sweat-filled, blissful minutes spinning. Loved every single second. Big, fat check.

Thursday: Run 15 minutes [AM], Jackie Warner Total Body Circuit Training [PM] Ran 1.73 miles in the morning. Cancelled my date with Jackie in lieu of Jillian and did Ripped in 30, level 3. Lots of legs. Semi-check, simply because Jillian is shorter than Jackie.

Friday: Run 15 minutes [AM], Friday 5k [PM] 1.75 miles when I first woke up. Followed that with a 5k around the neighborhood. Knew that my long run was doomed. But still, check.

Saturday: 10 miles. I haven’t had a solid double digit run in a while. It’s time. + BodyPump (light) 10 minutes on the elliptical [5 before Pump, 5 after. getting crazy here!]. BodyPump. 20 minutes of incline walking. Zero running. Meh.

Sunday: REST DAY = the BEST day. Major success on the resting. But I failed at life.

While I didn’t run 10 miles this weekend, I’m not too cut up about it. Sometimes, it’s just better not to run. I didn’t feel like it, so I didn’t. Perks of not training for anything.

I am failing big time when it comes to my diet and nutrition. Just straight up binge eating on the weekends. I know it’s a problem. I don’t know how to stop it. I do need some help in some way, shape or form. Suggestions are welcome.

Also, I did get to see one of my very best friends from college this weekend, who I haven’t seen since last summer. I always get nervous that we’re not going to have anything in common anymore, because we don’t really keep in touch, but then we always just fall right back into being best friends. And I love that.

And, as usual, I can’t ever seem to get enough of this face:

Seriously. Just the best.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a workout plan for the week. Until then, I’ll be drowning my binge eating sorrows in salad.

Seriously, suggestions on how to get eating habits under control are needed. GO.

Monday Moves… on Tuesday

Posted on March 26, 2013 by HHRunner

Another week, another plan in place. I had a really bad day mentally yesterday. You know those days where you just all around don’t feel good about yourself, but there’s really no good reason for why you feel that way? That was me. Everything was getting on my last nerve.

You know what makes a bad day better? Having a ridiculously awesome mom + husband. My mom listens to me lament all of my problems all the time. I just don’t know how I got so lucky. And my husband? He just rocks.

When it comes to our interests, Sean and I are decidedly different, but the same. I love working out in any way, shape or form. Sean loves motorcycles like I love working out. We both love being outside. Yesterday when I got home from work he asked me if I wanted to go for a bike ride. For anyone who doesn’t know us personally – we have a grand total of 6 bikes in our garage – two regular bikes, one motorcycle, two dirt bikes and a mini dirt bike. It was a beautiful day, so I enthusiastically agreed. I went and pulled on jeans, boots and my jacket and went to meet Sean in the garage. He was wearing workout shorts and Nikes. We both looked at each other like the other person was crazy.

He thought we were going on a regular bike ride. I thought he meant a motorcycle ride. Miscommunication at its finest. In case you’re wondering, we went on a regular bike ride. [Pointless story of the day – check.]

Moving on… This week is [hopefully] going a little something like this:

Monday: Run 15 minutes [AM], BodyPump (heavy) [PM]

Tuesday: Run 15 minutes [AM], 6 mile run [PM]

Thursday: Run 15 minutes [AM], Jackie Warner Total Body Circuit Training [PM]

Friday: Run 15 minutes [AM], Friday 5k [PM]

Saturday: 10 miles. I haven’t had a solid double digit run in a while. It’s time. + BodyPump (light)

Sunday: REST DAY = the BEST day.

Two things I’m obsessed with right now: easy runs and BodyPump. I’m trying to hit around 30 miles each week, but I’ve realized lately that I’m not even really sure why. I think I’ve gotten so used to feeling like I have to hit a certain mileage during training. On the other hand, I really want to up my strength training. It’s put me in a strange place where I’m not really sure what to do. Suggestions?

weekly workout wrap-up

Posted on March 25, 2013 by HHRunner

so, that whole Sunday blogging thing. that’s a laugh, right? I would say that I didn’t blog yesterday because I was just far too busy, however that would straight up be a lie. all I did yesterday was:

1. laid in bed and forced sean to chat with me. sean loves when I wake up early and wake him up and talk his ear off about nothing. promise. when I did finally get out of bed and left him alone he promptly went back to sleep. and then yelled [<--- term used loosely] at me when I rescheduled my massage at 10am because I “disturbed his morning nap.” I don’t think it qualifies as a nap if you haven’t gotten out of bed yet.

2. got a massage. I feel like this is blasphemy, because any massage is better than not getting a massage at all, but it just was not that great, which annoys me.

3. wandered aimlessly around target. I bought this curling iron for, you know, all the times I’m curl my hair [read: never].

via – this actually might not be the one I bought, but it came from target, was on sale for $24.99 and looks sort of like that. which basically sums up all of the curling irons like that on the target website.

4. watched this movie:

via

[do not even try to debate with me about the fact that this is the greatest movie of all times. I do not not want to hear if you disagree.] also, sean made a shocking discovery during this movie.

via

Now, maybe it’s common knowledge that Inigo Montoya and Jason Gideon [that’s old school Criminal Minds for anyone who doesn’t regularly watch the show] are the same person, but I just had no idea.

5. that’s it. I watched about 15 episodes of duck dynasty in a row, followed it up with a healthy dose of Revenge and then went to bed. I even brought my laptop over to the couch next to me, but the thought of opening it and blogging was just overwhelming.

all that to say, my day was too exhausting to do this:

Monday: Run 15 minutes [AM], 1/4 mile repeats on the treadmill [PM] <— I feel like this isn’t going to happen. That’s pretty pitiful. We’ll see if I can drum up some motivation. 1.67 miles in the morning. and that’s it. so I did a stellar job of drumming up that motivation, obviously.

Tuesday: Run 15 minutes [AM], BodyPump [PM]. 3.77 miles in the morning of speed work. 5 min warm up, 20 min alternating 1.5 min hard with 1 min easy, 5 min cool down. BodyPump in the PM.

Wednesday: Run 15 minutes [AM], easy 45 minute run [PM]. 2.22 miles in the AM [20 min, not 15]. easy 5.12 miles around the neighborhood after work.

Thursday: Run 15 minutes [AM], Jillian Michaels 6 Week 6 Pack [PM]. 2.91 miles before work [25 min, not 15]. Jillian 6 week 6 pack after.

Friday: Run 15 minutes [AM], Friday 5k [PM]. 1.77 miles in the morning. 3.1 in the afternoon.

Saturday: Run with the running group [wanting to hit a total of 8-10 miles] + BodyPump. I’m just obsessed. 6.15 freaking terrible miles on the treadmill in the morning because I just couldn’t be bothered to get up in time for running group. then I took louie on a disastrous trip to the vet before heading to the gym and finishing up my run [3.28 mi] on the treadmill before a BodyPump class. Then I spent the night dancing and wedding-ing.

Sunday: Nothing. I have really high aspirations of being ridiculously lazy. NAILED IT.

All in all, it was a successful week, I think. I’ll be back at some point, either today or tomorrow, to set up this week’s workouts.

How was everyone’s weekend?? Anyone do anything fun?

What’s your favorite older movie?

Workout Wednesday–Re-learning to Run

Posted on March 20, 2013 by HHRunner

So my good blog buddy Melissa recently emailed me the following:

I have a blog request for you: Teach me how you re-learned to run. I know my heel-striking is still going on, and I don’t know how to fix it without injuring myself (that’s what I was trying to do when I got injured last year!!!)

HELP ME.

Well. If there’s a few things I’m sure of it’s this:

1. I adore Melissa, so I want to do anything I can to help her. I mean, I even run with her on occasion.

This picture was not edited at all.

2. I am an amazing heel striker when running. Um, just look at the above picture. Or here:

This is like a best of for terrible race photos of me. NBD.

3. Re-learning to run is intimidating as hell, but it’s really not that bad once you get going.

The truth is, when I started running I had no clue that heel striking was bad. I trained for my entire marathon doing the heel striking thing while running, without any sort of inkling that I was doing myself a major disservice and prepping myself for what would be a season-ending, year-long battle with my knee. While I don’t think heel striking led entirely to my knee injury, I have no doubt that it definitely coaxed things along. Mainly because I was given very strict instructions per my favorite sports doctor to STOP HEEL STRIKING.

Oh ok, let me just get right on that. Except re-learning how to run is not that easy.

Successfully NOT heel striking!

So what did I do?

1. I started running in very short increments. This was two-fold: one because I had been out of running for five months and had to build back up my base from the very beginning [not fun. not fun at all.], and two because I had to train myself to run on the forefront of my foot, not the heel. I ran for one minute at a time, focusing on my form the entire time. I literally ran watching my feet strike the treadmill and purposefully took how I was running into consideration for the minute(s) that I was running.

2. I ran only on the treadmill. Because I was able to control my speed and there were no other variable factors, running on the treadmill made the most sense. I didn’t have to worry about the wind, uneven terrain, being chased by a dog, bad weather – none of that. I only had to worry about the boredom that eventually sets in when you’re running on the treadmill. And since I was so focused on my form, that was a very good thing.

3. I had Sean watch me run. When I felt like I was getting used to running without heel striking, I picked up my cell phone [yes, while I was running] and called Sean and told him to watch me run RIGHT NOW. I had been running for about 15ish minutes, which at that time meant that I was starting to get tired and that my form was more likely to start slipping, which I felt was the perfect time for him to come check out my running. He watched me for a few minutes and told me that I wasn’t heel striking, which was good because it reassured me that I was getting used to the feeling of running the right way.

4. I switched to minimalist shoes. And I’m never looking back. Because they have less cushioning on the foot it forces your foot to run more correctly. There’s a lot of fancy schmancy science stuff behind it, I’m sure, but I’m no doctor or expert, so suffice it to say, I can tell that it’s made a difference in how efficiently I run.

brooks

5. I continue to really focus on my form. I will be 100% honest when I say that I do fall back into heel striking when I’m racing and I start getting tired. I can tell when my body starts to make the switch and I have to actively focus on running the right way. I’m usually good until I hit about 11 miles, and then I can start to feel myself falling off and I have to work to run without heel striking.

UNsuccessfully heel striking during the Aramco Half.

Changing your running form is not easy. It takes work. But it is worth it if you’re currently heel striking to invest the time into changing how you run. If you do decide to try and change the way you run, be prepared to have all sorts of leg muscles get sore that were never sore before – because they were never being worked before. Being sore because you’re running the right way, however, beats the hell out of being injured because you were running the wrong way. Winking smile

If I missed something, please let me know!

Do you heel strike?

Monday Moves

Posted on March 18, 2013 by HHRunner

Oh Monday, we meet again. I made some really poor decisions surrounding wine yesterday after going rock climbing and am paying for it today. I’m tired, I’m cranky, and I feel like eating nothing but carbs and drinking soda. So that’s exactly what I’ve done.

Note to self: Sunday Funday, even if it’s with your parents, is unacceptable.

Despite the fact that I pretty much slept on my drive into work this morning, I did still manage to formulate a workout plan and bust out a sleepy 15 minutes on the treadmill at a very easy [but felt unnecessarily hard] pace. Priorities. I’m trying to get myself out of my funk by repeating motivational mantras in my head, but I’m just not sure how well that’s actually working.

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In the spirit of just jumping right into things, the plan this weeks looks a little like this:

Monday: Run 15 minutes [AM], 1/4 mile repeats on the treadmill [PM] <— I feel like this isn’t going to happen. That’s pretty pitiful. We’ll see if I can drum up some motivation.

Tuesday: Run 15 minutes [AM], BodyPump [PM]

Wednesday: Run 15 minutes [AM], easy 45 minute run [PM]

Thursday: Run 15 minutes [AM], Jillian Michaels 6 Week 6 Pack [PM]

Friday: Run 15 minutes [AM], Friday 5k [PM]

Saturday: Run with the running group [wanting to hit a total of 8-10 miles] + BodyPump. I’m just obsessed.

Sunday: Nothing. I have really high aspirations of being ridiculously lazy.

I’ve been through several phases in my working out life regarding rest days and what I think of them. During some periods, I’ve taken 0 rest days for weeks on end. Other times, I’ll take 2-3. Right now, however, I’m finding that 1 day per week is working out well. As is having 2-3 days per week where I only have a 20-30 minute workout in the afternoons. I feel good and I’m [mostly] motivated to keep training [I use that term loosely, because I have a grand total of zero races in mind right now].

And that’s all I’ve got today. I just can’t be bothered to brainstorm anything else to write about.

How many rest days do you take per week?

Please tell me someone else out there made really poor decisions on Sunday as well. Please.