Hitting Reset

What, no Wisconsin Marathon race report? A little over a week after the race I've come to terms with it, considered my next move, and put a new plan into action. So I guess I'm already over what happened there and don't feel the need to rehash every step.

Did I qualify for Boston? Nope. Did I run my fastest marathon yet? Hell yeah! I'm happy about the PR but it was a bitter pill to swallow to run ahead of pace until mile 21 and feel the wheels totally come off. I kind of feel like I was due for something like that to happen to me though so when I look at the big picture, I'm not bitter about it. I'm taking the stance that any goal that comes too easy isn't an aggressive enough goal. It's the whole point of a challenge right?

So what happened? I'm still not exactly sure. Like I said, I ran ahead of pace (average 8:10) for 20 miles. Somewhere between 20 and 21 I started to feel a tightness in my left hip- which showed up right away with an 8:30+ mile 21. I remember wondering if I should stop and try and stretch but also knew that doing so can also mean the "kiss of death" in a marathon. It kept getting tighter though, until I felt so locked up that my stride was becoming obviously lopsided- and painful! So I did the unthinkable and stopped to stretch and then walked for about 30 seconds. Nearly a 10 minute mile 22. Ugh. At this point though I knew I could still squeak in under a 3:40 finish time if I could get back to running 8:30s for the last 4 miles.

Nope. I knew for the second I started running again that my body could no longer get back to that pace. It was infuriating, but at the same time I refocused on at least running a PR. All my body could do at this point was shuffle/walk out 10-11:00 miles to the finish. It hurt (in more ways than one) but I did it.

What should I have done different? It's hard to say. I felt like everything was completely on point for 3/4 of the race. I honestly thought I had it in the bag! This week I've spent some time researching why something like this happens late in a marathon and it seems to be due to running the same pace for extended periods of time on a flat surface. Um... check? So one thing I'm going to do next time is throw in some 20-30 second strides every mile or two to break up the repetitiveness of a single pace for long.

Next time.  When will that be? Honestly, the thought of going through another training cycle for 12 to 16 more weeks is not something that interests me. I feel like my fitness level is where it needs to be right now and all I need is for the pieces to come together on the right day. So... I'm trying again! In three weeks. I'm registered for the Sunburst Marathon in South Bend on the 31st! After taking a recovery week this week I feel like I can buckle down and be ready to race again then. Let's look at Wisconsin Marathon as a 21-mile training run at race pace... which a 5 mile cooldown. Ok? Ok. Let's go.

Marathon #13. Every finish is good. 

Stepping UP

It's been a while since I've done a YMCA update (busy vacation-ing and running marathons I suppose.) This week though I finally made it back to try a new class! I ventured out to the Southwest YMCA in Greenfield to try BODYSTEP. 

Yes, I'm as surprised as you are that step classes still exist! I went through a Kathy Smith dvd phase after I had Juliana (almost 14 years ago- oof) and I was a step class regular at my local community center back then. So while technically I'm not a newbie, I knew I was definitely going to have to reach waaay back into the depths of my muscle memory for this class. 

First off, the Southwest Y is really nice! The indoor track particularly caught my eye on the way to class from the locker rooms. I'm told there's an outdoor track at this location as well. The studio my class was in had a lot of natural light and windows, which I always appreciate.  I set up my spot in the room, eyeballing what the other people had chosen. I decided to go with fewer risers on my step, but kept a couple on the side in case I wanted to bump up the height later on. No need to show off today, I thought. :)

Getting to work

Back to that muscle memory. It's a wonderful thing! Once the music started pumping and we got moving, everything started to come back to me. There are a few specific terms for different movements in a step class and when I heard them again I felt myself thinking, "Aha!" There's definitely a level of coordination involved that might frustrate some people, although there's also a TON of repetition which helps if it takes a while to catch on. One thing I really like about step is that you start with a basic movement and then build on top of it. As the class goes on you learn more choreography but you always come back to the beginning to put everything together. Also, it's a cardio bonanza. You sweat like crazy! If you like dancing, this class is probably a great choice. For a beginner there were lots of modifications given for the more complicated moves, and on the flip side there were many ways to make it harder as well (adding bigger arms or jumps to the movements or adding a riser to the step.) When I left, I daresay I was "glowing." It put me in a great mood. 

Next up??

Full Disclosure: I have been offered a free family membership to the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee in 2014 in exchange for blogging, tweeting and general social-media-ing about my experiences there. Hey, why not? Sounds good to me. 

BEACH FINALLY HAPPENED.

It happened so hard. And it was glorious. And we even had a side of adventure thrown in. For example:

ZIP LINE!

You might think that as a person who runs ultra-marathons that I have a healthy sense of adventure. However, when I'm not running I like my feet firmly planted on the ground (and let's face it, butt on the couch) so the fact that I hung from a wire high up in the sky above all the tree tops is something that I still have a hard time believing happened in my real, actual life.

But it did!

And then I showered in my air conditioned hotel room and marched my ass back to the pool for more pina coladas. I may have drank my weight in fruity cocktails last week. It was an impressive showing.

Seriously though. Just to lift my face to the sky and feel ACTUAL WARM on my skin was almost more amazing than flying through the air like an extreme-adventure-style-Mary-Poppins. After the winter we had here in Wisconsin (that at times felt like it would break me into pieces) I feel like I can hardly put into words the feeling of calm that swept over me to just dig my feet into the sand and watch the sun setting over the Pacific. I had been holding so much anxiety in my body leading up to this trip that it was phenomenal to relax and let it all fall away.

Getting a Swedish massage may have helped as well. And did I mention all those pina coladas?

Ch-Ch-Chisel

Episode #6 in my YMCA group exercise saga is Y-Chisel! (Gotta love the names of these classes.) After Combat, Blitz, and Pump I wasn't quite sure what Chisel would bring and how it would be different from the others.

This time I joined up with my friend Sara. We were the first two there but the instructor already had a mat laid out in the middle of the room with some weights and a resistance band so we sized up what she had and followed suit. I was still a little unsure how heavy weights to use so I ended up grabbing four sets to choose from (along with what I knew to be a medium-weight band.) This many weights was probably overkill but the class ended up being so small that I didn't feel bad taking so many options.

Getting down to business:

This class felt similar to Body Pump in that it had set tracks of music for different types of exercises. (Shoulder pressing, lunging, core work, etc.) We stuck to high repetitions of lower weights again, which kind of throws me at first because I usually like to use heavier weights. Despite grabbing one of the larger sets of dumbbells before class, I never used them! We also did a lot of exercises that used our own bodyweight. For example we had a few sets of plank walkups that seemed to go on forEVER. It was a real challenge to push through that track without stopping to take a break. Another track had us using the resistance band- lots and lots of glute kickbacks with the band wrapped around our feet. I certainly felt those the following day.

I really enjoyed how this class is a blend of cardio and strength work. My heart rate was up the whole time and the 45 minutes seemed to fly by. I also feel like I got a very balanced workout from head to toe. Overall I feel like the Y has a great mix of classes so you can switch things up a lot and not get bored.

Photo from ymcacw.org

Next up: ZUMBA

This is an Update

Yep. It's been a couple weeks without any posting on here. Not that I'm a prolific blogger or anything but I've had a half a dozen ideas for blog posts this month yet I haven't sat down and let those thoughts materialize onto the computer screen. Honestly? I've been exhausted lately. Like, really really exhausted. I feel guilty about falling asleep at 8pm even before my kids to to bed, annoyed about all the endless baskets of laundry that are piling up, and sad about not being up to date with what's going on with my friends and family.

You could say that I'm overwhelmed. It would be the truth.

I feel like I attacked 2014 head on with all these things I wanted to do without thinking about how it would affect my day-to-day life a few months down the road. So now here we are a few months in and I'm all "When did 'The Year of Me Doing Whatever the Hell I Want' turn into 'The Year of Me Being Overcommitted and Feeling Inadequate All the Time?'"

Today I ran with Team Challenge (the group I'm coaching for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation) and I had a discussion with one of my team members about her fears training for the half marathon this summer. We were talking about wanting other people to perceive us a certain way and the words, "You don't have to impress anybody!" came out of my mouth. Good advice right? Sometimes I wish I was as good as following my own advice as I am at giving it. In reality though, I'm kind of full of it.

I need to figure out what things I want to do in order to be happy and not worry about how anyone else views the decisions I make. That, or I need be sitting on a beach in Costa Rica, fruity drink in hand. (Luckily that is actually happening two weeks from now! Thank Jeebus.)

Pump it Up

Before I became a member of the Y, one thing I always heard from friends of mine who were members was: “BODY PUMP IS AWESOME.” Or maybe something like: “OmigoshBodyPumphurtssogoodyouhavetotryit! Also: OUCH.” So when the day finally came when I would finally make it to Body Pump at the South Shore YMCA I was…um...pumped? At the very least I was excited to take the class that I’d heard such good things about.

A lot of what scares people about a class like this is 1) There is a lot of “gear” involved and 2) There are lots of repetitions with the weights. Let’s talk about both.

1) Getting Started

It says on the class schedule to arrive early 10-15 minutes to set up. Although a seasoned Body Pump veteran wouldn’t need so much time, I got there 15 minutes early to talk to the instructor and figure out what weights I would be needing for class. In addition to mat I ended up with a stepper, two sets of light to medium dumbbells as well as a barbell and some varied weights to swap on and off of the bar depending on what muscle group we were working. Since I wasn’t familiar with the barbell she helped me figure out how much weight I would be needing and gave me some tips for how much weight to put on (i.e. start light and add if needed, squatting will be your heaviest weight of the day, etc.)

2) All those repetitions.

They are not kidding around.  LOTS of reps! I’m the type of person who is used to heavier weight/fewer repetitions so I was glad I listened to her advice to start lighter. What I thought was a good amount of weight for me would start to buuuurrrn about halfway through the song- whether it was overhead presses with the barbell or lunging lunging lunging again and again. Like the Body Combat class, each song had a “theme”. There was track for squatting, one for rowing, one for overhead pressing (and so forth.) By the end of class I had used every combination of weights on my barbell as well as both sets of dumbbells.

I can definitely see why this class is popular. A lot of people find strength training to be boring so the lively atmosphere and music help to keep the energy high. Plus, the higher repetitions add a level of cardio to the workout as well. So if you’ve ever gone back and forth about a Body Pump class don’t be intimidated! Just get there early, don’t go overboard on the weight and have fun!

36

I've been around for 36 years now. (Insert joke about needing a walker or something about my lawn. Har har.) Anyway, I woke up this morning and re-read my birthday blog post from two years ago- which I still think has a lot of great points. Yay for wisdom coming with age! Although this year I have a few more things that I'd like to add to that list:

Don't be afraid to put yourself in vulnerable situations.

I'm kind of surprised I didn't have this on the list before, although I do feel like in this past year I've done more things that initially made me feel uncomfortable. I have to say that I've never regretted trying anything new, even if I felt completely terrified or awkward going in. (Somebody remind me of this if I ever get the chance to jump out of a plane.)

It's ok to be selfish.

Ain't nobody know your life! At the end of the day I need to take care of me. (You know, after taking care of everyone else. Heh.) Sometimes I need to remind myself that I can say "No" to people. I can't do everything. (Believe me, I've tried.)

It's ok to not have all the answers.

I was tentative jumping into being a personal trainer because I thought I had to know everything and be the absolute best in order to coach others. Now that's just crazy because NOBODY KNOWS EVERYTHING. I'm never going to be the strongest/fastest/smartest but that doesn't mean I can't help people get stronger/faster/smarter. Life is about learning and I'm never going to stop. (Can't stop, won't stop.)

Embrace your gifts.

Ok, I did include this last time but it's very important to me. I never want to stop feeling grateful for all the things I have in my life. Holy crap I've done some amazing things in the past 36 years and I can't wait to do even more! And I will be thankful for every last second of it.