Happy Birthday, Bart Yasso!

Fellow blogger, Pavement Runner, had a fabulous idea for us to write blog posts for Bart Yasso's birthday, which is today.

Bart Yasso is one of my running heroes. If you have never read his book, "My Life on the Run," you must. It is excellent. I really don't even know how to describe how amazing this man is, and what he means to the running community. He has one of the coolest jobs, and has run some of the most amazing races in the world, including Badwater.

I met him for the first time when I was in Kaua'i in 2010. I had the chance to talk with him and his wife, and they are just as amazing in real life as you would think. I love that Bart is so down to earth that he responds individually to messages on Facebook and Twitter. He will sign things, and pose for pictures.

Bart inspires my speed work (curse you Yasso 800s!!!), and motivates me to live each day to the fullest. The running community is lucky to have such an amazing person as Bart to represent it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BART!!!

Musings About the Gym (A.K.A. "The Random")

• It's not even January yet and already the gym is getting ridiculously crowded. ALL the treadmills were full when I got there. Luckily, by the time I put my stuff away and came back out, I got a free one. Unfortunately it was not my regular treadmill (yes, I have one that I manage to use 99% of the time).
• Super. Annoying. People. Are. At. The. Gym. (WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE HERE??)
• To my left - Chatty Cathy. She holds up her phone, which is on SPEAKER and spends 19 minutes (walking very slowly) screaming and cackling into the phone.
• To my right - Walking briskly at max incline while holding onto the treadmill for dear life while leaning backwards.
• What is WITH people wandering around naked in the locker room? I don't want to see it. At all. Please stop.
• The woman working in the Kid's Club told me I looked thinner. She said the same thing to me last year. I think I look the same. Compliment?
• I got BRAND NEW Newton's with an insanely good Black Friday sale. I'm fairly certain I bought my last pair last summer... and ran on/off (plus cross trained) with them for... about 18 months. The lugs on these puppies? INSANE. Did my other pair really feel that way?? These had a neon orange lining on the inside. Obnoxious. Love it.

•  Speedwork. Yasso 800's. First half, not bad. Second half... still not so bad, but was in a "light-headed zone." Almost a "squirrel zone."

• Free time and no racing=Race planning. I think I have a few more races to add to my schedule...
• Not really a gym musing, but sorta training related... I had my surgical consult today, and after TWO HOURS of sitting around, I had about a 2 minute evaluation that determined I do, in fact, need to have the lump in my breast removed. The surgery is no big deal, but "high impact" exercise is "discouraged" for 5 days. I asked if I could get around with 3-4 days off running, they seemed to think that would be ok. Crossing my fingers I get in for the first Friday in January and then I *think* I'll still be able to get all my ultra training runs in. (They were booked all December for surgeries).
• TOTALLY not running/gym related. J's birthday is 3 days before Christmas. I have planned/purchased nothing. I am the worst girlfriend ever.

Speedwork Can Kiss My Yasso...

I hate my HTC cell phone. It takes the worst pictures in the WORLD. But anyway, that is me in the cheetah skirt and blue tank. I figured a cheetah is fast, and since I was planning on doing my first real speed workout in... well, at least 6 months (for shame), I thought it would be a fun optimistic outfit.

Have I mentioned that my gym doesn't believe in air conditioning? And that there are no windows in my gym? And that the treadmills are pretty much as FAR away from the entrance as possible?  And that only thing FARTHER from the door is the pool/sauna/steam room? That means that it is hotter than hot in the gym. And it was 91 degrees when we got there, which means it was even HOTTER than you could imagine. Bleh.

Never mind the fact that I just ran a half marathon yesterday. I am determined to figure out WHY my speed has taken a major turn for the worse, and change up my running to more of the schedule that I was on last fall. So. Yasso 800s.

What I did:

• 4 sets - 4 min @ 3.5 mph & 4 min @ 7.5 mph
• 3 min cool down @ 3.6 mph
• "Easy" jog for 30 min (about a 10:30 pace)

This workout KICKED MY ASS. Ugh. The first two sets were... bearable. The second two? I was pretty certain that I was either going to faint or throw up or crap my pants or die. Luckily none of the above happened. But it was awful. And that "easy" jog at the end? I don't even know how my legs were functioning. Because now, 2.5 hours later, they aren't. Guess that's good? I haven't been sore after the gym in ages.

Curse you Bart Yasso. (Joking, he is one of my running idols. But seriously, this workout was a beast).

November Already?

October Goals (Recap)

• Run twice a week outside of racing (minimum). SUCCESS! I ran all scheduled runs.
• Get a 20 mile run in. SUCCESS! Did a 20 mile run (16 loops around a lake!)
• Try for another PR, but at minimum keep all half marathons this month sub 2:10. SUCCESS TIMES TWO!! PR'd the course in Maine, then beat THAT when I raced in Alaska. All races were sub 2:10. 
• Fix my foot. SUCCESS! Not sure what I did, but I continued to ice every night, whether I was running or not.
• Be a badass at the Athens Marathon - SUCCESS TIMES 26.2!! I did much better than I ever hoped I could!

November Goals

• Continue running twice a week outside racing.
• Try for another PR (of course), but keep both races this month sub 2:10.
• Start working on Yasso 800s again. Start from ground zero since I haven't done them in over a month.
• Stay healthy!!
• Not running related - GET.A.JOB. :( Still unemployed.

My goals this month are pretty simple. I am entering a month where I have very little racing, so hopefully I can start incorporating some speed work back into my training. I have continued doing hill training on the treadmill at least once a week, and I really think that has helped immensely during some of these races that are not "flat and fast."

As an aside, I'm only a little over 75 miles away from running 1,000 miles this year. How cool is that??

Three Things Thursday... And then some

1. The Workouts

Monday

As promised, I took it "easy" - opting to do the Crossramp (blah) and the Recumbent bike (blah, blah). The best thing about using the machines on this side of the gym is I'm NOT facing a wall of mirrors, so I can people watch. And boy, are people at my gym FASCINATING.

Tuesday

BodyPump class. The instructor STILL sucks. It's REALLY hard for me to not give her dirty looks throughout class. I have to be careful because her husband participates and even though he doesn't do half the lifting correctly, he finds it necessary to "teach" too, which is also beyond annoying.

Notice that I'm wearing shorts. So I wasn't PLANNING on running. But I had only a little time after class, so I ran anyway:

Picking up A at daycare after the workout - she is "striking a pose" (oy):

Psyched I let her wear a Halloween shirt

Wednesday

I know myself well enough to know I was going to run again this week. So, might as well do it a bit earlier in the week, just in case I needed extra time to rest/ice/etc. I shall call this outfit - "Rainbow Brite"

Run went ok, I went with my aerobic program, toned down the incline just a bit for an "easier" program:

Slow and Steady

2. The Injury

Well... I keep trying to get in to see a doctor. They never seem to have anything for a new patient. Last time I called I commented that this was the third time I had tried to make an appointment and the soonest they can ever seem to get me in is the following Monday. The receptionist had the nerve to say, "Next time plan ahead more." Really? Plan ahead for an injury? OK then.

Anyway, I have been doing what I can... using the green spiky golf ball thing to massage the bottom of my feet, using the stick to rub down my legs, using cream and massaging. Wearing compression socks 12+ hours a day. And most importantly... icing. I've been doing pretty regular regimen of ice on for 15 min and off for 20, at LEAST 5 sets a day.

The verdict? Well, I think it MIGHT be getting better. I did actually run this week (shame on me), but it doesn't feel as tender as it has. I will continue to take it easy this week, at MOST running a few miles Friday morning.

3. September Recap and October Goals

Thanks to my injury, most of September was a total fail.

September Goals (Recap)

• 
  
  Run 150-160 miles - Fail. Would have been on track if I wouldn't have been injured. Outside of racing, I've put in less than 10 miles the last two weeks. Actual September miles - 124.76
• 
  
  Get my long runs in!! At least one 18 miler and one 20 miler - EPIC FAIL. Yeah. Didn't get any long runs in at all. In fact, my longest runs were the FOUR half marathons I did in 22 days (Um, that sounds crazy).
• 
  
  Get a half marathon PR :D - WIN!! I got a PR when running in Chicago!
• 
  
  Increase my Yasso tempo up to at least 8 sets - Again, fail. I managed to get only one set of Yasso 800s added, I think I'm stuck at 7.
• 
  
  Remain healthy and injury free - Mostly fail. Healthy? OK, I'll say I stayed healthy. Out of town a TON, and I actually managed to end up a few pounds down for the month. Injury free? FAIL, FAIL FAIL.

October Goals

• 
  
  Run twice a week outside of racing (minimum). All this is assuming I am pain/injury free.
• 
  
  Really really try to get a 20 mile run in. Again, this is assuming my stupid foot gets better.
• 
  
  I'd love to get another PR on a half marathon this month, but I'm running 4 of them in the next three weeks, and without training properly, that is probably not a reasonable goal, so... the goal will be to keep them all sub 2:10?
• 
  
  Yasso 800s on the back-burner for now, if I start feeling better I'll do them.
• 
  
  Fix my damn foot!!! Whatever I need to do to be feeling at LEAST 85%... needs to be done.
• 
  
  BE A TOTAL BADASS AND RUN THE ATHENS MARATHON TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY. Holy crap. I cannot believe that I'm a month away. A month. Where did the time go???

Doesn't Get Easier

Wednesday, September 15

Yasso 800s

Worried that my ankle wasn't going  to hold up during the run, so I took it a bit easy during my warm-up.

Throbbing not as bad as yesterday. I figured I'd give my Yasso's a try and I could always stop if it bothered me.

Shocked that I finished my entire set.

• SEVEN sets - 4 min @ 7.5 mph & 4 min @ 3.0 mph
• 9 min @ 6.0 mph

Next time I do the program I'll have to split the sets because the treadmill won't let me program more than 60 minutes in at a time (booo).