March Mileage Report

Comparison is the Thief of Joy

What could you do if you lost weight?

Hurts So Good – The Addaday Pro Massage Roller

February Recap

Setting my 2019 Race Schedule

My word of the year is challenge, and that’s something I’ve been focusing on as I set my race schedule for the year. I’ve had the races for the first half of the year pretty well locked down – a few olympics as tune-up and rehearsal for my big goal, IM 70.3 Ohio. But that only takes me through July. July is when my race season started last year, thanks to injury and surgery.

I started looking at what will come after July, with the idea of a challenge in the back of my mind.

I decided I wanted to finally tackle the series challenge with a local race group, which means doing at least five of their races. I’ve already got three on my schedule, so adding two more doesn’t sound too bad.

One thing I’ve never done is a back to back triathlon, racing both Saturday and Sunday. I’ve done it with half marathons, but not in a few years. So an added challenge for the year is going to be a Saturday olympic and Sunday sprint. The hardest part is going to be getting out of bed both days, I suspect!

So as of right now, here’s what I’m looking at:

• 4/20 – Rumpus in Bumpass Olympic
• 5/11 – Kinetic Olympic
• 5/25 – Swimfest 4500
• 6/15 – General Smallwood Olympic
• 7/28 – 70.3 Ohio
• 8/24 – Farm to Fork Fondo (tentative)
• 9/7-8 – Patriot’s Olympic and Sprint (tentative)
• 10/13 – Army Ten Miler (tentative)
• 12/1 – Space Coast Half Marathon

The “tentative” just means that I haven’t plunked down the cash yet for the race. I’m also thinking I’ll add some more running races in the fall, maybe the Baltimore half, which I haven’t run in years. I should also pick up some 10ks here and there as time permits.

Given how little I raced last year, this feels like a lot, but I’m excited to tackle the challenge. I love the camaraderie of racing, and I’m looking forward to getting back out there.

The post Setting my 2019 Race Schedule appeared first on Elbowglitter.

The Prevalence of Cheating at Races

January Recap

2019 WDW Marathon Cheering Recap

Putting Wheels on a Squash is Harder than you Think

2018 Mileage Review and 2019 Goals

2019 Goals and Word of the Year

Training Safely with AfterShokz Trekz Air

2018 Year in Review

I had big plans in 2018, namely to finish a 70.3.

Well, we all know how those plans went. 2018 quickly went off the rails, but I did my best to regroup and reframe my goals. One of my goals was to get healthy and I can successfully say that I did that by rehabbing my hip. I’m back to running pain free, so I consider that a huge win.

January

January was definitely a month of discovery. I started the month with an awesome trip to Disney to cheer for the marathon, but ended the month with a diagnosed labral tear as well as MRI findings showing some sort of mass on my ovary. Unexpected, for sure.

Though I had been working with my PT prior to this (she’s the one who initially suspected the labral tear), at this point, we started doing focused work on my hip.

February

In February I saw an amazing doc who confirmed my super cool ovarian cyst and told me she was going to take it out at the beginning of March. I really appreciated her no-nonsense attitude.

This also began the month of cancelled plans. With the labral tear, racing the Donna half was out. Given that I wasn’t sure what surgery was going to cost me after insurance, I opted to cancel that trip to conserve expenses. Thanks to Southwest’s awesome policies, I transferred that flight to a trip to my parents’ house to see family. Always worth it (and much cheaper lodging too).

March

I started March with surgery. It was not as bad as I feared, save for the fact that we discovered that hydrocodone doesn’t have an effect on me. After surgery, my heart rate was elevated, and when the nurses asked if I was in pain, I said yes, but it wasn’t awful. They gave me more pain meds, which didn’t really help. I just figured the pain made sense. I had just been cut open. It was bearable after all. Turns out with the drugs I had been given, I shouldn’t have been feeling anything. Whoops. I discovered this later, when at home and alternating hydrocodone and ibuprofen, I realized that the ibuprofen helped and the hydrocodone did nothing. (Turns out this is a fun family trait. Thanks, Dad.)

Because of my surgery, I had to step back on some of my PT exercises. My surgeon was great and told me which of my exercises I could do, but it turns out that when your abdomen has been sliced open, you don’t want to do anything where you are leaning or laying such that the weight of your organs is pushing towards those incisions. So I lost a bit of recovery time here.

This was also the second cancelled trip, as I missed out on BDR New Orleans. This month, I also officially pulled out of 70.3 Chattanooga. I didn’t cancel my trip – I was way too excited to spend time with my Coeur teammates. I just knew I wouldn’t be racing.

April

This month, I started easing back into training. All self-guided, but it felt good to be back. I also started pushing my hip rehab now that my incisions were mostly healed.

This was the third missed race of the year – the local National Women’s Half. This one didn’t feel like as much of a loss, since it was a local race.

In April, I also got to see Hamilton with my family! It was even better than I thought it would be, seeing as I knew the soundtrack inside and out.

May

May was a big month. Though I wasn’t racing (fourth missed race of the year), I still traveled to 70.3 Chattanooga with some friends and it was worth every single minute. I don’t know that I could have had more fun. It was awesome to cheer for friends and strangers, help out where needed, and just enjoy the company of friends and my Coeur teammates. I’m so very glad I went and didn’t sit at home feeling sorry for myself.

I also went to see Harry Potter & the Cursed Child with my sister and my cousins – our first of two trips for the year. I wasn’t the biggest Harry Potter fan – I liked the books and movies, but wasn’t into it as much as some of them, but I really loved the play. We saw both parts in one day, and that’s a lot of time in a theater, but it never dragged. Definitely worth the trip.

Finally, in May, I started working with a new coach. Nothing against my old coach, but after a few years of working together, we just weren’t fitting as well as we had been, so I took the opportunity for a new start, knowing that I was spending the year rebuilding.

June

June was a bit of a quiet month, but it was also a month of a lot of training. This was my big push back to running, my big push towards racing. It was a month of a lot of hard work.

July

This was the month I had been working towards. Finally, my first race of the year. I’m so glad that it was Rev3 Williamsburg, a great way to start my season (and sadly, say goodbye to one of my favorite races). I was nervous, since I was still recovering, but it went so incredibly well and proved that all my training and PT was working.

August

Obviously, the Baltic Cruise was the highlight of August. I still can’t believe all of the things we got to see on that trip. I’m still trying to put together a photo book from the trip. Of course, I didn’t even get it close to finished by Christmas! It was worth every single penny spent, and I hope my sister and my cousins and I all get to travel together again in the next few years.

September

Choir started back up this month with our new conductor following two seasons of guest conductors. It was absolutely a change, but a welcome change. I appreciate someone who insists on hard work, but doesn’t ask more than you can give.

This month was also the end of my triathlon season with the Giant Acorn Oly. I had goals for this race, and was really happy with my finish. I managed to PR the course! All my work had paid off. It was a great race that felt incredibly good, and I was sad that my triathlon season was so short, but glad that it was a successful season.

October

October was a bit of a blur. I raced my 11th Army Ten Miler. It certainly wasn’t a fast race, but I raced without pain, which was the whole goal.

We also had a huge choir concert this month, premiering a work that was written in 1917 and had never been performed. It was absolutely exhausting. So many hours spent rehearsing. But when it was all said and done, it was a very cool thing to be a part of, and I’m looking forward to hearing the recordings once they’re complete.

November

I finally made it back to book club (then promptly missed the December meeting). I need to find a way to prioritize this in my schedule – I really like spending time with these ladies!

The month ended with a triumphant return to half marathon racing, nearly a full year since my last 13.1. It was like I wrapped up the past year in a nice bow when I finished that race. The previous year, I was struggling with my hip, and this year, I finished strong.

That was followed by an amazing whirlwind trip to Disney World to see the decorations. It was exhausting and so much fun. Anyone who thinks Disney isn’t for adults is wrong.

December

Finally, a relatively easy month. It’s a month of rest and recovery from an intense year of training. I sang three holiday concerts (still less work than October’s premiere) and am currently spending Christmas with my family, which is the best way to end a great year.

The post 2018 Year in Review appeared first on Elbowglitter.

Whirlwind

Running with Zwift

Race Report: 2018 Space Coast Half Marathon

November Mileage Recap

ImageParty / Pixabay

Okay, so I can’t believe November is already ending.  Yes, I have probably said this every month, but seriously, where is the time going?

November was a great month!  I finally, finally got to race a half marathon and it went so well!  I’m still working on my recap, but in sum, it wasn’t my fastest, but it wasn’t my slowest, and it didn’t hurt.  I feel like I’m finally back.

However, in November, I also did my best to avoid going to the pool.  I don’t mind swimming.  It’s a good workout and I always feel great having done it.  But I just don’t like going to the pool.  Swimming is my only AM workout – all the rest happen after work, so I suspect it’s simply that I don’t want to drag myself out of bed and head out into the dark, cold morning.  Summer swimming is nowhere near as bad.

November Totals
Swim: 2.5 miles
Bike: 74 miles
Run: 77 miles

Yes.  I went to the pool twice.  Two times all month (and one time was today).

I’m actually blown away that my run miles topped my bike miles, but this was a very run focused month.  So many long runs.  But they were absolutely worth it.  I even did a 13.1 mile training run, which is the longest training run I’ve done since I was marathon training years ago – usually I top out at 12.  But I trusted my coach on this one and she was right.  I probably didn’t need that extra 1.1 miles (actually the plan only required 13, but I was getting that last .1), but it absolutely gave me the confidence I needed going into my race.  I knew that I could cover the distance without pain and not having that stress on race day was huge.  It also gave me an idea of what my finishing time might be, which removed that stress.  I know I’ve lost speed this year, and while I know it will come back, that doesn’t mean that I don’t feel a twinge of disappointment that I’m not immediately fast again (“fast” being a relative term – I am very much a party in the back kind of racer).

My next race isn’t until April, so I’m looking forward to a few months of rebuilding and getting into shape.  I have big plans for 2019!

2018 Totals
Swim: 54.6 miles
Bike: 1504 miles
Run: 286 miles

The post November Mileage Recap appeared first on Elbowglitter.

Strong & Slim Thighs Workout: 10 Min Solutions- Jessica Smith

Pilates for Abs Workout: 10 Min Solution- Lara Hudson