Back to Basics

I'm more or less functioning without pain now, and so I've been assessing my upcoming training and looking back on past cycles.

I have kept one Excel spreadsheet for many, many years where I collect my training plans for races in different tabs. The evolution of these tabs is enlightening.

My training for my very first half marathon is located in the oldest tab. The cells are color coded to depict running days, cross training days, and rest days. Running days have the mileage number - no pace data, no indication of tempo/interval/recovery/base, zippo. The cross training days show "CT" - I don't know if that day was a cardio cross train (elliptical, bike) or a strength cross train (biceps, triceps, back, shoulders, chest, lower body). I didn't get hurt during the training for this race, and I remember enjoying each workout.

Over the years, that format changed. The first huge jump was made when I started documenting specific cross training. I think that was beneficial; now I'd know when I last did upper body versus lower body to even out my gains. Nobody wants to skip leg day...

Then started the running specifics. I think this is a two-way street. On the one hand, I think it's very important to remember when you do hard workouts and when you do easy workouts. Easy, easy, easy doesn't challenge you, but hard, hard, hard can injure you. The other hand will be discussed further down...

I added the same kind of components to my strength training cells. In addition to "biceps, triceps," I also recorded the number of reps and number of sets for each type of exercise.

In short, my Excel tabs have gone from containing cells that could hold at most 4 characters to containing cells that have novels written in them.

I think this kind of detail can be extremely beneficial if used for good and not evil. Unfortunately, I am a creature of comparison, and if there is past numerical data available, you can bet your ass I'll be reviewing obsessing over it. 

Why was last month's 7 mile base run faster than today's? I did 4 sets of 15 reps of bicep curls yesterday, but I did 5 sets of 17 last week! What gives!?

As my Excel chronicles increased in size, my appreciation of my physical ability diminished. 

And that's why I'm going back to basics. The comparison has officially driven me crazy; I'm going to keep some record of what I've been doing but nothing that can give me the means to harass and negatively critique myself. I think the KISS principle applies to me and my Excel sheet - keep it simple, stupid. 

What kind of detail do you keep for your running? 

Therapize Me!

Not a word, whatev.

I've been through physical therapy for longer than some, shorter than others, and I've learned some things - figured I'd share the wealth! Maybe some of these bullet points can save one of you from potential physical and financial pain...

• Foam roll. Please. Keep things loose and flexible. I don't think you need to roll everyday for 30 minutes or anything, but it helps to occasionally get on that baby and squirm.
• Some stretches require long holds, other stretches are more active and more "pulsated," if you will. A good rule of thumb in my opinion is that if it is an INTENSE stretch, do repetitive holds for 5 seconds. 
• An interestingly large amount of discomfort can stem from your lower back. A lot of nerves are attached there, and you can experience tingling, burning, pain, and/or loss of feeling from your hips down to your toes from bad posture. 
• Girls - weird things happen during our time of the month. We get pressure in our lower backs from menstruation, thus possibly leading to the aforementioned issues.
• As I said here, a good indicator of a healing injury isn't necessarily the lack of pain during exercise but rather the recovery time afterward.
• If you have to sit, maybe take a rolled towel and place it behind your lower back. Keep that gap - look like a C pointing away from you; don't form your body into a slumpy forward C!
• On that note, bean bag chairs are apparently the devil.
• Recovery isn't linear. You'll have good days and bad days.
• DO NOT GOOGLE. This is something I'll admit that you should do as I say and not as I do. Googling leads to A) the belief that you're dying, B) stress, and probably the worst offender, C) comparison. Just because so-and-so recovered from IT Band Syndrome in 2 weeks doesn't mean that you will. Everyone's recovery journey is different, and reading message threads about others' adventures (disasters?) could end you in a funk of extreme discouragement and negativity.
• Trust your therapist. They are trained to help you! 

Disclaimer: I'm no doctor or therapist, just a recovering recreational runner with her fair share of medical bills ;)

Hope you all had a great start to July!

Blessings and Curses

But first! My current top 5 country songs:

Anything Goes - Florida Georgia Line
Cheap Seats - Dallas Smith
Real Life - Jake Owen
Sirens - Lee Brice
Crash and Burn - Thomas Rhett

I tell you these because 1) I'm obsessed with them, and 2) I've put them on my RUNNING PLAYLIST!

Yes, you read correctly, running. I was released from physical therapy last week (!!) and instructed to keep my runs between 3 and 4 miles until the pain goes away completely. Each run has moved me closer to negligible fatigue and farther from leg-dragging pain!

Yesterday, I ran outside at a normal pace for the first time in six months. I smiled the whole time; I felt as if I were flying. I pumped my arms and yipped a bit... I probably looked slightly insane.

You all know this feeling.

A little tidbit I learned from PT (disclaimer: this is one therapist's casual comment, not a medical certainty, but it's something I like to repeat to myself): When recovering and after being cleared to workout, feeling some pain is okay and common. What really indicates healing is how quickly the pain subsides after exercise. Last Monday, I ran three miles on the treadmill and was pretty much out of commission all day. Any movement hurt. Yesterday, I ran three and a half miles outside with much less pain during the run (like hardly any), and it went away in an hour. Progress, not perfection.

Now for the blessings and curses: summer and technology.

We all know summer running is hard. We all know summer running slows you down. I am thankful for these facts - coming back from an injury, I'm going to be slower due to lost fitness... but I can also look at my times and not feel SUPER down, because I know some of it is due to the time of the year! Yay!

The curse part? Summer running is hard, and summer running slows you down.

I use a Garmin and RunKeeper on my phone to track my workouts - sometimes one, sometimes both (I'm a little crazy).

All the gadgets!

I LOVE being able to look back at past runs! I love being able to give myself a little boost of confidence after viewing my stats from a hard run, and I love being able to see progress! But... while it's true that heat can slow me down, I can also look back at runs from LAST June and compare. Yikes.

I'm working really hard on not comparing. I'm pretty sure I've commented on that notion 39,233 separate times on ya'll's blogs. What I want to remember is that feeling I had yesterday - that smile, that mid-run fist pump. Wish me luck!

Any country music suggestions?
Anyone else a victim of comparison?

Addiction or Nah?

As a budding sports psychologist, I know the importance of exercise on relationships. I know that exercise can make you feel better about yourself, thus leading to being happier to be around and boosting social interaction. I know that group fitness classes and running groups are great ways to meet people and increase your friend circle.

Giphy

But what happens when exercise starts to become more important than those relationships?

What happens when you choose a run over a happy hour?
What happens when you miss the beginning of a friend's birthday party because you were at the gym?

What happens when a healthy goal takes precedence, takes dominance, and then takes your life?

It's a slippery slope, and I've teetered on it occasionally.

For example, I've said no to going to brunch because I would honestly prefer to go on a long run over sitting for hours drinking booze on a Sunday morning.

Giphy

However, I have also said no to going out on a Friday night because I didn't get my workout in earlier, and I felt obligated and guilty.

More Giphy

One was decided on preference and happiness, and the other was decided on a feeling of duty and shame.

I think it's very important to take the time to determine your motives. If you're starting to dread your workouts, or you're finishing them feeling angry and beat (in a not-beat-because-I-worked-my-ass-off-good-way-but-rather-beat-because-my-body-is-internally-rebelling-way), then assess your regime. I'm not a doctor (yet ;) ), but if skipping workouts or even the thought of skipping workouts is making you uneasy, irritable, and/or anxious, take a step back. Sit out for a little bit. Bench yourself from the game. Or even go talk to someone.

If you take a long break, you will lose some fitness. NOT ALL - but that's just basic body mechanics. That used to freak me out. Two weeks off of running, and my VO2 max decreases by 7%!? Yeah, I used to be really concerned about that, honestly, until I realized that it meant nothing to me. 

1. I'm not a "highly trained athlete," I'm a recreational runner.
2. I don't even know my (then) current VO2 max, so clearly I'm not going to know A) if it decreases any or B) if that decrease is 7%.
3. I'm already stressed about Garmin miles and paces, why add more numbers to be obsessed about?

Think about yoga. You begin softly, you warm up the body, you strengthen the body, and then at the end, you rest. The rest is built into the exercise. 

This blog post went from exercise addiction to the importance of rest... but I guess they're related?

Do you struggle with wanting to and having to workout sometimes?

This is as much a reminder for me as it is advice for, well, me.

"Will it ever stop?"

This is one of the most frequent questions I've heard throughout my physical therapy stint. Frustrated, desperate patients would implore their therapists to tell them, "Yes, and here is the date."

It doesn't work like that.

I always love theBERRY's inspirational quotes.

Recovery is unpredictable, and we can't hold our therapists to their guesses or estimations.

I truly believe everything happens for a reason, even horrible sports injuries. I think the time it takes to heal, recover, get over, *insert verb here* depends on the time it takes us to learn whatever we were meant to learn from the situation. If we're not done with the circumstance, we haven't learned all we needed to just yet.

We should also focus on the journey, not the outcome. One of my favorite quotes is painted on a piece of wood I own:

"Happiness is not a destination. It is a way of life."

I'll be the first to admit I'm the guiltiest when it comes to wishing for endings. I want to hurry up and get to "the good part." Well, the adventure there IS the good part!

Past break ups have taught me to "smile because it happened" (I know, that's so cheesy). Lame jobs have taught me what I do not want to do with my life. My IT band issue has helped me learn to listen to my body, how to strengthen my core, and how to rest. I've learned to love yoga... and I've sort of gotten good (maybe?) at it!

I don't want to wake up one day when I'm 60 years old and realize that I was constantly wishing my life away.

Enjoy the now! Every bitter, horrible, beautiful, intense, happy, scary, worrisome moment of it!

...HOWEVER.

There are instances where I am quite the opposite, where I do not wish to be done with the process, and those instances are when eating.

I think we can all agree that THAT journey is ALWAYS enjoyed, and the end sucks.

Like my voyage through these boiled shrimp and delicious salad!

Or the conquering of this oatmeal with jalapeno cream cheese and peanuts. Mmmm.

Do you ever find yourself wanting to be through with something?
What's your favorite dish you wish would never end?