Finally!  Back to feeling like an efficient engine rather than the comeback clunker of recent weeks.  Of special note is that prior to this week, the injured leg had required daily stretching and foam rolling but now it’s as resilient as the right leg – no extra attention needed.

As far as the schedule goes, I quizzed Coach Adam/A muse on how far to take my long runs now.  Since I’m only doing short races this cycle, it makes sense to limit them accordingly.  I liked his suggestion: keep the weekly LR to 2 hours (for me, 14-15mi) and every 3-4 weeks do a 17-18 miler.  Perfect.

So on Friday, I did the 17-miler, moved up a couple days since our first real snowfall was due that night.  It turned out to be an excellent run, took my time on the way out but had lots of energy at the end.

That night we got 4″ of snow so I waited till the afternoon to venture out.  They’d cleared the bike path earlier but a thick sheet of sleet had fallen afterwards so the entire run was one long sheet of ice.  Luckily, it was mostly crunchy ice so no suicidal slipping, just a slow, effortful yet beautiful run.   I added a few miles to make up for not doing a morning run today – would have been too slippery.

Today was a lot more slippy and slidey.  I fell on my ass…hard.  Tomorrow promises warmer temps and rain, so hopefully that’s the end of it.

Oh, Snow You Di-unt! Week In Review

Weight, Weight, there’s more!
During my injured month off, my weight went up a few lbs to 123-124 and there it has stayed.  While it’s a fine weight for a normal 5’4″ woman, for someone whose primary interest is improving race times, that’s 10lbs over what I consider my optimal race weight (which is still 10lbs over any Elite), at least it’s the lowest I’ve ever been while running.

Now, my PR Half in September was done at a fluffy weight (120 lbs) so 5 lbs. heavy.  At the time, I had made a weak attempt to lose more but moving into a new apartment was stressful enough, plus I wasn’t that motivated since the higher mileage had already given me a great improvement.  But now my routine has settled in and after seeing the Olympic Trials last weekend with all those beautiful strong bodies, I’m inspired to get serious about it.

So at the beginning of this week I got all the cravings out of my system with a 3-day candy-fest: Reese’s Pieces, Hershey White Chocolate Bliss and some spearmint leaves.  Once the gorging was complete, I then pulled out the trusty ole notebook/food diary that got me to race weight in 2010 and Baby, I’m on this like a candy-coated shell on a Reese’s Piece.

Unlike some people who hate counting calories, when I’m motivated to make a real change I love jotting down my piehole input.  There’s something deliciously empowering about keeping track – it puts you in full control and as I’ve said in the past, removes the emotion from it entirely.  Not the enjoyable eating emotion, that’s still there in full glory, but the wishy-washy “I feel skinny today so I’ll eat this pile of crap” followed by “Fuck, I ate that pile of crap.”  I tend to get caught in that cycle indefinitely.

Calorie-wise, I’m kicking it off by eating about the same amount as I did for 2010′s weight loss (around 2000 cal/day).  Back then I was running 55mpw and lost about a pound a week but this time, with about 35 more mpw, it should come out to twice that (35mi = 3500 calories = 1lb).  It might end up even being more since doubling keeps your metabolism busy longer.  If that’s the case, I’ll up the calories to keep it at 2lbs/week.

My aim, as in the past, is to remain healthy and well-fueled for my runs.  So far so good: I’ve been timing things better with smarter choices, so instead of  munching on various and sundry after dinner, I have a 10pm bowl of hot cereal w/PB (my favorite sweet crack).  It’s the seemingly small things like this that add up to not feeling hungry despite eating less.

So this is exciting, as much as getting a new training plan or writing up my weekly schedule. I’ve worked on the puzzle pieces separately at different times in my running life: I know they work.  To think what might happen if I start putting them together…might be a trailer-trash masterpiece in the making.

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