It’s winter in the Northeast which means it’s freakin’ freezing and it snows pretty much every other day.  Last week we got a total of 15 inches or so, which is not conducive to running or biking.  It is however, an absolute blast to snowshoe in!

THE RUNDOWN

 

Pretty fancy graphic, right?  Thanks to Michelle at A Dish of Daily Life and Canva, my site can look like I know what I’m doing and it’s Pinterest friendly.

Anywho, it’s been cold and snowing here but the training must go on!  It reminds me of one of my most favorite quotes from running icon Emil Zatopek:

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You can change “raining” to “snowing” and “tired” to “snowing.”  What’s the issue?

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 3, 2014

RUNNING:  Despite having to switch a lot of things around because of the snow, I was able to log 23.5 miles this week.  I had to do my 11 miler in loops around my neighborhood since the streets were so bad but it was infinitely better then the treadmill.

Another re-arranged meeting was with CSR (Coach Rocket Scientist) at an indoor track yesterday where we quickly realized there was no way we could do our planned workout.  The indoor track is underneath a gigantic dome where soccer, volleyball, touch football and basketball are played.  They were all being played when we got there so we had to improvise.  I did a warm-up on the treadmill and then three laps around the track at 5K-10K pace.  I had to dodge volleyball players, wandering siblings and odd stares throughout those laps.

The purpose was so CRS could film my running from a few different angles.  The result?  A complete analyzation of my form and efficiency.  It was ugly.  If you have ever seen yourself running in extreme slow motion on film, you know what I mean.  It’s kind of like the first time you hear your voice on a recording and you think “Who is that?”  But, it was insanely helpful and I have a lot of work to do.  Running work.  Which I love.

I was also instructed to get new running shoes asap!  Done.

BIKING:  I got some weird looks from my gym peeps when I was on a spin bike in the middle of the gym instead of just riding it when I teach classes.  You can usually find me on the treadmill if I’m not teaching class so there was some confusion.  My body was also confused when CSR gave me the equivalent of speed drills to do on the bike.  I felt like my muscles were crying.  I ignored them and pressed on.  I’m not positive on total miles logged this week since I didn’t always have a counter but, I rode a total of 4.5 hours.  Here’s a sampling:

Click on the image to make it bigger:

CYCLING  INTERVALS

SWIMMING: I had the perfect opportunity to swim this week and I still did not swim.  I was coaching some “brick” training at the Y (bricks are two TRI disciplines put together like swim & bike, run & bike or swim & run) and the first leg was a 20 minutes swim.  Did I get in the pool?  No.  My back was a little cranky that morning and I was meeting CRS at the track later in the day.  I’m no fool.  I wasn’t going to risk anything for my track performance so, once again, no pool.  Little did I know there would be no track workout!  The pool Gods hate me.  I think this is officially coming off The Rundown.  That will pretty much guarantee that I get in the pool next week, right?

CROSS-TRAINING: Snowshoeing – with a twist.  Once again, because of more snow, my Power Sculpt class was cancelled so I had to improvise.  As most of you know, I live on a mountain.  This mountain comes in handy when you’re snowed in with pent-up toddler angst.  Pent-up twin toddler angst rivals pent-up athlete angst so clearly we all needed to get out!  Try dodging snowballs hurled from two monkeys, as you attempt snowshoe hill repeats, and this is the result:

RACING:  I saw on Laura’s blog, Mommy, Run Fast, that I could enter to be randomly selected to enter the NYC Marathon.  It’s on my bucket list and I couldn’t help myself so I registered.  If you’re my husband and you’re reading this – it’s a total lie and one of those wacky things I only say when I’m blogging – wink, wink.

FUEL: I am getting to be quite the cook these days!  I really just enjoy frightening my husband when he finds me whipping up egg dishes on Saturday mornings. You can find this one on my Pinterest board – Food Is Fuel HERE.  It’s from Runner’s World “The Athlete’s Palate” and it’s amazing.  Some thought the combo of cherries and chick peas would be a little odd, but it absolutely wasn’t.  This dish is packed with protein (eggs, goat cheese, chickpeas) and left me full for at least 2 hours which is a very long time in my book.

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SPEAKING SPANISH:  I had a “real world” language experience this week.  One of the moms in Miles and Vaughn’s gymnastics class speaks fluent Spanish.  Her daughter was very upset this week, which happens when you’re four.  I was able to understand what the little girl was trying to tell her mom and I was overly proud of myself. That lasted about seven seconds when her mom started to reply.  WTH?  She spoke so fast and with such intent that I had no clue what she was saying!  Clearly I need to restrict my interaction to children when we get to Spain or I will be lost!

THINGS I LOVE:  NUUN hydrating tablets.  They are amazingly awesome.  One of the reasons I needed to hire a coach is because I know I wasn’t fueling optimally for my endurance events and I’m horrible at drinking water.  I know, I know.  But now?  I pop one of these suckers into my water for runs, spin class, cross-training, wine…ok not the wine, but I would if wine actually needed anything added to it!

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THINGS I DON’T LOVE AS MUCH:  Low back pain!  I started getting little tweaks on Sunday morning and I’m not happy about it.  I chatted with a friend about her chiropractor but I’ve never been to one.  Any thoughts on them?  Yay or Nay? CRS and I established that I have a gluteus medius weakness so I need to do more clam shells, single leg dead lifts and Bosu squats which should take care of it.  Time will tell!

MUSIC:  I’ve already stated that I’m not up on the latest tunes.  I have to admit I had no clue this was an “old” song until my friend pointed it out to me in the nicest way possible.  Bless my heart.  Well, it’s new to me  and I freakin’ love it!  Caution: swear words used.  Really just one swear word repeated 1,000 times:

TV:  The Olympics are finally here…and I’ve watched about 15 minutes so far.  I really want to watch, I just haven’t.  I’m sure I’ll get some time in this week when it snows again.

READING:  All I’ve been reading lately are the computers on my bike or my wrist.  Numbers are swirling around in my head all.day.long.  Pacing, Mileage, RPM, HR, Watts, CD, WU – I mean really!  Do you know how hard it is to keep track of 15 repeats when you’re at 151 heart rate?  Hard.

RANDOM THOUGHT OF THE WEEK:  It’s really more of an apology I owe to all the shoppers at Dick’s Sporting Goods on Sunday afternoon who had to witness my son puking all over the floor in the shoe department.  He felt a lot better afterward, which I’m sure is more then I could say for any of you.  Sorry.

Don’t forget that you can still enter to win this fabulous TrailHeads headband:

And it's reversible!

And it’s reversible!

Just follow TrailHeads on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook and leave a comment saying you did.  Winner will be announced on Valentine’s Day – Friday, February 14th. xoxo

Do you love or hate the weather where you live?  If you could move, where would you move to and who would you take? Are you watching the Olympics?

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