Posts Tagged ‘newsletter’

Continuing on this weekend’s blog subject, I’m loving the return to my old way of running (faster overall as well as from the get-go).  But I wanted to say to you lovely readers that this is totally my own experiment and nothing I’d suggest for anyone else.   So here’s a disclaimer:

You will rarely see me give advice on forum posts or here because I don’t feel qualified to tell someone else what to do and also, everyone’s so different.  So keep in mind that the conclusions I come to or new experiments I try are results of investigating my running logs as well as the peripherals surrounding my running (mileage, what I can handle recovery-wise, etc).  Plus, I’ll try anything to get outta this rut.

Second Run With New Paces
Yesterday’s Long Run was way fun.  Again, like Saturday, I went a little overboard with the initial miles, only because it’s amazing to me that I can feel good going fast out the door, when my usual run profile for the longest time has been 9:00-8:45′s to start, then whittling down with each mile.  Such a creature of habit, I thought I needed that slow start!  Kooky.

Anyway, this was a 14-miler that started 8:00, 7:50, 7:50 (hilarious splits) but then I slowed up as the heartrate increased – was 70 degrees so warmish – then used HR to keep it real which averaged 162 (76%HRR or 81% Max for those keeping score at home).  No pretty progression shape on the SportTrack graph, but it was hella fun!  I was tired and satisfied at the end, knowing today would be a rest day.  Average pace 8:11.

Now, keep in mind that I will not be running all Sunday runs like this!  14 miles isn’t a big deal to me as far as distance, but next weekend I’ve got 17, which I’ll take into the trails and be closer to MP+20% – MP+10%.  I’m experimenting but doing it responsibly.

For instance, this week is a cutback week with 2 days off so I can afford to play a bit, but next Sunday’s 17-miler kicks off 2 weeks without a day off and includes a 10k race in the middle, so I’ll be more circumspect about pacing.  I also won’t be hitting quality work warmups as crazily as I did for Saturday’s tempo (I was having fun testing the waters).

Weight
I admit that after the debacle that was the Philly Half last month, I had a couple weeks of bad attitude with the weightloss.  Not really bad, I still didn’t buy any junk or eat a whole lot more, but I had some “what am I doing this for?” mental poop going on.  Still, I continued to jot down my daily calories (while eating a little extra here and there) but eventually got back to my routine.

Then I was sticking around 115 and was beginning to think that’d be my last stop on the weight-loss train, only because I’m not willing to eat less than I have been (around 1900 calories). But the fun thing about tracking and making a cute chart in Excel is that patterns emerge.   What I’m seeing is I’ll land on a new weight, then for the next 3 weeks, there’ll be ups and downs fluttering around that number, then it’ll go down to a new number with more fluttering.

Today I fluttered into 113 land!  113.8 to be exact.  That makes 10 lbs lost since July 23rd.

Sleep
All my sleep problems from the summer disappeared when the weather improved.  Now that I can go to bed at my normal time again (12:00-12:30) and wake up when my body says to, I’m getting a full 8 hours and even 8.5 sometimes.  Huge relief.

Newsletter
I have been So. Bad. on that front.  Someone asked me a couple weeks ago if I had her correct email address since she hadn’t received one in ages.  I embarrassingly told her no, it wasn’t her email, I just haven’t gotten around to sending one out in forever.  I almost removed the link entirely thinking my newsletter career was over, but for some reason I haven’t given up all hope.  I just have to start looking around for things that interest me enough to share.   Sorry for being such a slug about it.

I’m liking this week so far.  It started a little rough but that was due to a pretty strong weekend of running.

Monday was a 7mi recovery @9:10

Tuesday was my Billat 30-30s, averaged 8:23 for the run.  The warmup miles were quite slow because I was still in creaky mode, but the fast bit went without incident, or rather, a tiny incident.  My inner quad got a little ping about 1/2 through the fast bits, not enough to make me stop but enough that I felt it on…

Wednesday’s run, which I’d planned for 9, but cut down to 6 @ 8:58, figuring better to be safe with the tweak and besides, there’s no loss cutting 3mi from a recovery, yet I’d have been sad to compromise a “real” run.

Thursday, (a.k.a. this morning) I was in a bad mood when I woke up, which is funny since I realized from a post I made last week on Facebook that last Thursday sucked upon waking, too.  But thanks to the beauty of running, like last week, I snapped out of it once I hit the road.  My schedule called for a 13-miler with tempo but because I didn’t want to tempt the inner quad, I figured I’d do regular GA pace and hit the ramp a few times by the museum as a quasi hill run.

I ended up only doing the ramp once and went on the other side of the museum/river for the first few miles, just for a fun change.  As the first couple miles went down, I noticed my energy level was increasing.  First mile was 8:52 but with each passing mile, I progressively got faster till my last 2 were 7:35s, bringing the whole run to avg 8:05.  My legs felt great, my mind felt great, it was just…great!

Tomorrow is a day off and then Saturday, some MP miles and Sunday, a 20.  We’ll see, since Saturday says “heavy rains/wind” – if so, I’ll just run easy.  I’m  in that nebulous place between full effort and slacker mode.  I know I’m putting in some good runs but I’m also not pushing as much as I could which, depending on the day, has me either “eh, who cares? it’s enough” or “oh shit, I’m going to suck horribly in Boston”.  Generally the former wins, the latter seems to be limited to Thursday waking up.

Newsletter

Sent #3 out and must apologize for a lack of editing on the Swedish stair piece, I don’t generally write “experiment” two times in one sentence.  And also, I’m not so sure that is a guy in the Jazzercise video, so my apologies to the woman with the horrible haircut.

Today will be a double-hit media blitz for some of you hapless creatures.  Not only is there a new video, but I’m sending out the first edition of my newsletter this afternoon.

The Video

I was going to do a jacket video but figured I may as well start from the inside out, so today’s video is on my favorite winter base layer.  Coming next will be the jacket video and then one on winter accessories, but for now, top and tights is the focus.

Like last time, this’ll send you to YouTube in hopes you can give me a few ratings and/or comments.

If you want one of the mocks, you can find the largest selection of colors at Eastbay: mens or womens.  Btw, a couple folks have asked what size I wear in those, which is a good question.  UA runs small so while I wear Small in every other manufacturer, I buy my UA tops in Medium.  So keep that in mind.

The Adidas Supernova Brushed Tights are last year’s model so they’re getting hard to find, though Holabird has them on closeout for men for only $39.95 in all sizes.  Even without the exact items, you get an idea of what to wear out there in the elements.  Also, for the record, I don’t wear those 2 pieces only or I’d be pretty damn stinky.  I own duplicates of both items and various other tights and half-zips, but these particular pieces are my favorite combo of all.

The Newsletter

Oooh, scary, sending my first one out today.  Just wanted to give you subscribers a heads-up that I’ve changed the email it’s coming from to the new URL (girlinmotion.com without the dashes) so if, when you signed up, you found the confirmation email in your spam folder and had to mark it as “not junk”, you’ll likely need to do it again with this new address.  Sorry about that.

OK, hope you don’t get sick of so much Floness in one day.  Later, kids!

And I Am One

The schedule called for a 10 on Saturday with 8MP, then 17 on Sunday.  I was fine with it until Saturday came and it was 8 degrees windchill (and that’s from an inland weather station, the river’s gotta be worse).  Somehow the idea of pushing MP in that kind of temperature was not thrilling me in the least.

I wanted to want to do it, I really did.  So I looked at my schedule to see what my options were.  I noticed that today would start my first cut-back week which meant next weekend’s runs were to be a 7 and 13 with no quality involved.  Checked the weather and saw that next weekend would be in the 30s (tropical!), so after much hemming and hawing and still feeling loserish, I decided to switch weekends.

The two thoughts that kept me from feeling full-on Loser is that

A. I’m not going to be running Boston in 8 degree weather and since the MP miles were guaranteed to be harder than normal, it’d make me feel unnecessarily negative, and

B. My body doesn’t know the calendar, so if my cutback starts two days earlier it’s all the same to the legs. Nothing lost.

Once I got outside, I was extremely happy with my decision.  Despite 2 pairs of gloves, my fingers went numb pretty fast so I had to keep messing with my hands to keep some life in them.  I ended up making it a peppy GA run because I wanted to get home, so 7@8:09.

Yesterday was much warmer at 24 degrees but I stuck to the cut-back schedule and did 13@8:35.  Again, it was a good decision because I felt creaky and old – a rare occurrence with me, but there it was.  In fact, somewhere in the middle of the run I was wishing Boston had a Half I could drop down to.   If only.

So yeah, I wussed out but it won’t affect anything, I won’t be skipping or losing any quality work.  Funny how a little rearranging can make you feel like you’re doing something wrong nonetheless.

The Newsletter

I’m sure you’ve noticed the new addition to the right menu and the page to which it links.  I’ve decided it would be fun to add a newsletter to the mix and while I’m not sure of the final format, there are some things I’d like to talk about via the newsletter – jabber about goals, motivational ideas, links to interesting articles and whatever sounds worthy of sharing.  I’m also very open to suggestions from you guys, so if you have anything you’d like to see, please let me know via email.

And because I think a bribe should always be involved when someone is kind enough to supply an email address, I’ve put together a big-ass pdf of running links accompanied by comments on why I like them or how to use them, etc.   Thus, Flo’s 103 Fabulous Running Links is my entry into the bribe market.  Of course I hope you guys sign up, but don’t feel obligated in any way, I know what it’s like to get too much email so I’ll love you no matter what.

That’s it for today’s adventure in one-sided conversation.  Have some good runs, my darlings, be safe and stay warm.  Only 1 million days left to Spring!  Feels like it, anyway.