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in Relaxation, Running, Travel, Vacations · May 23, 2014

Florida Running and Relaxation!

Hello from Florida! I am just checking in this morning to share some pictures and to talk a little about my running.

Also, I was lucky enough to guest post over at Laura’s blog- The Gluten Free Treadmill! Check out my tips for planning meals and workouts here: Meal prepping for the win, take two!

If you follow me on instragram you may have noticed several complaints about my allergies over the last few days. Actually, there were so many people I was talking to at work on Monday and Tuesday who were dealing with the same thing…terrible allergies that were causing sinus headaches and actually felt more like a cold. When I flew to Florida on Wednesday it really made things worse. I was a mess all of Wednesday and into Thursday morning.

Thursday’s run was rough- I wanted to get out there moving, but I felt run down and my breathing was off. I ran with tissues and walked as much as I needed. I covered 5 miles and then stopped at a grocery store to by different allergy medicine (I had been taking Zyrtec but I decided to try something with a decongestant).

allergies

The meds worked some sort of miracle because by Thursday evening I was feeling back to 100%. I even tried some pool running during the day on Thursday. (No pictures because I have no idea what I am doing). It felt totally awkward. Are you supposed to move around? (I was wearing an aqua jogger). I felt like I was moving in circles. Totally embarrassing but that is why I tried it for the first time in the comfort of family rather than at my gym pool.

rob birthday

We celebrated Rob’s birthday last night (his actually bday was Tuesday) with some cake and ice cream.

 

birthday cake

And this morning I was up bright and early and caught the sunrise as I was leaving for my run.

sunrise

As I talked about in this post, I am not training specifically for anything but I am starting to add a little workout into my runs. I wanted to do a workout yesterday, but with my allergies it just wasn’t happening. So this morning I set out with a plan of doing a warm up, and 4 x 6 mins at about my goal 10 miler pace (7:50) since that is most likely the next race I will do, with 2 minute recovery in between each set. It was really hard to get my legs moving fast. The first 2 sets were much slower than planned, but the last 2 felt good. i finished off with 3 sets of 2 minutes with 1 minutes of recovery in between and a cool down.

image

image

I took extra recovery after the first set because I stopped to take some pictures.

view from run

I found a great stretch of road for this workout. It was flat (but everything here is…) and there were hardly any cars and no stop lights.

tempo run 

Now that my workout is done and I had some breakfast, I am sitting out on the dock enjoying some coffee while I blog. It is so relaxing out here!

morning coffee

morning on dock

Not a bad way to spend the morning;)

canal from dock

I hope everyone has an awesome Friday and a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Do you get allergies? Do they affect your running?

How do you like to relax on vacation?

Ever tried pool running? 

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Previous Post: « Thinking Out Loud #3: Focus on the Positive
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Michele @ paleorunningmomma says

    May 23, 2014 at 2:19 pm

    Those pictures are insane! My favorite is the one of your laptop! No allergies for me. I’ve never tried pool running and would not know what to do if I tried! I could just imagine the awkwardness. Seems like a nice way to cool off in Florida though 🙂

    • [email protected] says

      May 23, 2014 at 3:04 pm

      Yes it was really awkward! I would love to know what I’m doing so I could use it as a form of cross training, but there is almost no chance I would do this in front of strangers at my gym:)

  2. Lauren @ Will Run for Boston says

    May 23, 2014 at 2:25 pm

    I love running in Florida! Great workout this morning – it looks like you had a beautiful view for it! 🙂

    • [email protected] says

      May 23, 2014 at 3:05 pm

      Thanks! The views were great- and its always nice to have a change of scenery!

  3. Susie @ Suzlyfe says

    May 23, 2014 at 3:24 pm

    Is it weird that right now I’m excited about any allergies I do have? Allergies -> pollen->trees-> NOT SNOW. And what a beautiful area… I would definitely run all over that place on vacation.

  4. Chrissy @ Pink Polish and Running Shoes says

    May 23, 2014 at 3:35 pm

    I have allergies and they’ve been really bad this year. Usually about a mile into my run my eyes are watering and my nose is dripping. It’s so gross. I get the headaches too. The only thing that seems to make any difference for me is using a neti pot regularly….I’ve been bad at that lately though.

    • [email protected] says

      May 24, 2014 at 2:06 pm

      I feel your pain! I have heard of other people using a neti pot. I might have to look into getting one if they continue.

  5. Amanda - RunToTheFinish says

    May 23, 2014 at 4:17 pm

    AHHH I miss being near the water, when it gets hot in orlando there seems to be no breeze…ick.

    I was feeling so achey all over and finally started taking my allergy medicine again…boom better!! It was crazy because I wasn’t sneezing that much just not feeling right.

    • [email protected] says

      May 24, 2014 at 2:09 pm

      I also love Orlando, but I remember I was there for Memorial Day Weekend last year and it was much more humid than its been here in Cape Coral.

      For awhile I had to take allergy meds every single day…and like you I would just feel “off” until I took them. I also found that switching up the kind that I take every few months or so would help. I think my body would get immune when I took the same stuff every day.

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Alright, my last post about the Richmond Marathon Alright, my last post about the Richmond Marathon (maybe). This one is about lessons learned/areas for improvement.

1) Starting in the right corral- I knew I wanted to start a little slow but I think I started too far back and I ended up boxed in later in the race. 

2) Increasing fueling- I think I did the best I could on this day but now that I know more about what works/doesn’t work for me I think I can try to get my carbs/hr a little higher for next time

3) Self-doubt- On paper I knew my training showed I could run a certain time. My coach knew I could run a certain time. But deep down did I believe I could run that time? I’m not really sure.

4) My right piriformis- This little muscle has been giving me trouble FOREVER and it likes to rear its ugly head the most during races. I’m working with a PT but it’s hard to address the issue when I can go months without any problems and then at mile 15 of a marathon it starts acting up. So while this is certainly an area for improvement I am not really sure what I’ll be able to do to keep it from happening next time.

5) Ignore the data leading up to the race- During race week my sleep scores were horrible, my HRV tanked, and my watch told me I was “strained”. I might just stop wearing it during the taper next time.

What lessons have you learned during a marathon or big race?

@richmondmarathon #racerecap
It’s been 5 days since the Richmond Marathon and i It’s been 5 days since the Richmond Marathon and it feels like a lifetime ago! I am working on my full race recap which I will post on my website but I wanted to share some reflections on here. Today I want to focus on what went well. Every finish line is an accomplishment, and while every race can teach us something I think it’s always important to focus on the positive.

First off, Richmond was a great race with amazing crowd support! There were some hills (a few steeper than I expected) but nothing crazy.

Fueling went well- after my train wreck of a run a few weeks ago I had to adjust my fueling plan and took out the Tailwind High Carb and went back to regular Skratch instead. I tried to make up for the difference with gels but my overall carbs per hour was a little less than it had been when using the Tailwind. I think I got about 65 g/hour so I’d like to get that up a bit next time but I didn’t get nauseous and took gels up until the end of the race.

Shoes felt good- during that same training run I had some top of foot soreness from my laces. I changed my lacing technique and had no issues on race day. 

Mindset- I did a lot of work preparing for the race mentally and was able to use those strategies during the race. I focused on one mile at a time and shifted my goals when I knew my original goal was not going to happen. 

Pacing- Even though I didn’t run my goal pace I was able to run fairly consistently without drastically slowing down at the end. 

Recovery- I felt pretty good following the race and wasn’t even sore anymore by Tuesday. This was probably the least sore I’ve been after a marathon.

Strong training cycle- this year I feel like I’ve been clawing my way back to where I was a year ago after several illnesses last winter and spring. I had a great training cycle with @lauranorrisrunning and I know I’ve made more progress than my race time shows.

Marathons are a huge investment so I really tried to make the most of the experience!

@richmondmarathon #racerecap
Happy Medal Monday! I can’t believe the Richmond M Happy Medal Monday! I can’t believe the Richmond Marathon was only 2 days ago. I’m barely sore (probably because I was trained for a faster time than I ran) and am feeling good.

I included a list of my marathon times on the last slide here, which I posted in my stories yesterday. I got some messages about how others can relate to feeling like their times “reset” at a certain point- whether it was after an injury, having kids, or just time off from running.

I think we can get so caught up in PRs that it may take away from the overall progress made in the process of training. Sure, there are runners who come back from having kids and immediately set a new lifetime PR. But many of us will need to chip away at our times to get to where we want to be.

Focusing on progress and the gains made in a training cycle vs a specific race time can help to keep things in perspective!

Now, I’m trying to figure out spring racing plans. What’s everyone running this spring?

#medalmonday
What a day! This race (and really, this week) was What a day! This race (and really, this week) was a rollercoaster. I knew pretty early on that my legs and my lungs were not feeling my goal pace. Each time I sped up it felt really hard- way too hard to not even be at 10 miles yet. So I just focused on running the effort that my body would allow. I used all the mental strategies I had to get through each mile. Ultimately, I wanted to run faster than my marathon last November, which I did by almost 2 minutes, making this a postpartum PR. More importantly, I smiled almost the whole time.

After finishing we had to rush to get out of our hotel room and spent the whole afternoon driving home. Over the past 2 days I’ve spent almost 10 hours in the car.

More to come soon…just hoping to get home and get some rest soon!

#richmondmarathon
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