Philadelphia did not disappoint with the snow storm this weekend! Despite a snowy Saturday we had a really good week of runs! Hardest/most enjoyable workout of the week was our track workout together on Tuesday. Theme of the of a cold dreary week :
“Push yourself because no one else is going to do it for you”
This week’s running schedule: 3 easy miles, 8 miles with intervals, 0-3 easy miles, 3-4 miles with hills , 10 miles LSD
Anna:
Night Shift …. for those of us that work night shift (and it’s not your favorite shift) you get it! It’s so hard for me to bounce back after night shifts! My body is just not built for them anymore and Wednesday night was one of those shifts that was so busy I finally drank water around 5 am and realized I hadn’t eaten all night long! One of the hardest parts of working in critical care is when it rains it pours! Everyone can relate to this ! After a long shift of not getting a chance to eat anything the hardest thing to do is not go home and binge eat a bunch of crap. Especially when you walk by a table of girl scout cookies on your way off the unit! I am very lucky I have an amazing husband, Steve who made me an omelet filled with all the goodies (spinach, tomato, green peppers, and onions) when I got home. Speaking of my husband, let’s give a shout out to the partners of all of us in healthcare. They are the real MVP. They deal with our over-tired emotions, our emotions after a shift that brings out a sadness we can’t put into words, our schedule that is always changing , and going to so many events solo because we work weekends and holidays.
Week 4 workouts:
Monday: Easy 2 mile run with Beau . I knew Jess and I had a hard track workout planned for Tuesday. Today’s run was to loosen up the legs and body after a weekend of work that left me feeling extra tight. After my run I did a bodyweight strength , 5 min core class (Emma lovewell’s crush your core!), and 20 minutes of focus flow lower body yoga. Yoga has been a saving grace for me working in health care for 10 years. My back used to be so sore after 3 shifts in a row and since I really started to practice I do not feel that upper back tightness anymore. By no means am I Aditi Shah or Anna Greenberg but I have never been so in tune with my body.
Tuesday: 7-8 Miles with intervals
2 miles easy running
2x 00 @ 1:50 pace w/ 200 easy run recovery
1 x 800 @ 3:42 pace w/ 400 easy run recovery
1×1200 @ 5:30 pace w/ 400 easy run recovery
1 X 800 @ 3:42 pace w/ 400 easy run recovery
1X 400 @ 1:50 pace w/ 200 easy run recovery
2 miles easy running
HOLY GLUTES! Speed work is hard ! Doing it with Jess made it more tolerable but man that workout killed me ! Also thinking of the amazing breakfast we were going to get after helped as well. Post workout we went to this adorable spot near Jess’s house and got coffee and these killer omettles. I have found for my post workout protein eggs are the easiest thing for me to eat and it’s an easy way to get lots of greens in. After breakfast we did a quick 10 min peloton stretch and planned our next week’s workouts.
Wednesday : 5 easy miles to stretch out my sore legs from yesterday’s workout. Even after 2 miles my body was still so cold! Running in the cold is such a mental game! I didn’t have a chance to get in the hills workout this week hence the longer run today. Post run I did 10 min body weight strength and 10 min post run stretch with Becs Gentry.I worked Wednesday & Thursday night so after my workout on Wednesday morning I meal prepped and took a nap from 1-3.
Wednesday & Thursday night meal prep:
- Coffee pot made and timer on
- Tofu stir fry w/ baby corn, pees, carrots, and corn covered in a carrot , ginger, miso dressing. I cooked all the veggies in a little rice vinegar and low sodium soy sauce and then coated with the dressing after everything was cooked.
- “Over Day oats” : oats , raisins, cinnamon , little less than half a cup oat milk and then the rest of the jar filled with water until right above the dry oats.
- prepped two little bags of almost, cashews, raisins, and dried apricots.
Thursday: Rest Day/ Sleep day. Wednesday night was a night! I ate nothing all night and barely drank any water. When I got home Thursday morning I ate breakfast and slept until Beau woke me up at 3:30 pm. I showered, ate a jar of the oats I had prepped and headed to work. Luckily the night was way better than the previous and I was able to eat the stir fry I had prepared for the night before.
Friday: This is the hardest part of night shift for me…. What do you do when you don’t work again ! I don’t want to sleep all day and then not sleep all night but I am so tired and want to sleep all day! I made myself get up around 1 pm and do a quick peloton bike workout and then took beau for a 3 mile walk around fishtown.
Saturday: Woke up to a winter wonderland!!! Beau was the only one who got to do some outdoor running. I ended up doing a 45 min intervals and arms ride on the peloton . It felt good to break a sweat but I didn’t want to do too much because I knew I was doing my long run on Sunday. Steve and I ended up heading out to a local brewery to meet up with some friends. It was the perfect day to sit by a fire and drink some delicious beer. Three of our friends that joined us at the brewery are also big runners and have run multiple marathons so a big portion of our convo was based around how terrible training for a spring marathon is! The group helped amp me up for my long run on Sunday.
Sunday: Long Run ,Getting out the door to a snow filled Philadelphia was NOT easy. I layered up and took Jess’s advice and put hand warmers in my gloves. The sun was out during this run making the wind chill a lot more tolerable! My route was completely based on sunlight and shoveled sidewalks. My mile times were not that fast but a good portion of my run was focused on not slipping on the snow/ice !
This coming week is going to be tough! My only day off is Tuesday! I teach a class once a month and it happens to be this week. So today (Sunday) is focused on meal prepping, laundry, and spending some time with my boys. Meal prepping this week is nothing new and exciting because honestly I don’t feel like it !
This weeks Meal prep:
- 4 mason jars of overnight oats: raisins, oats, cinnamon, oat milk, & water to right above the dry ingredients.
- 4 salads: tomatoes, mixed greens, cucumbers, beets ( pre cooked from trader joe’s) , peas ( also pre cooked from trader joe’s), sun dried tomatoes, & canned tuna. I made my own dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt & pepper.
- 4 bags mixed nuts: almonds, cashews, peanuts, raisins, dried apricots, dried blueberries
Jess:
This week I call one of those “get in what you can while you can” weeks. When you work in healthcare (especially in the hospital with shift work) it is soooo easy to get pushed into taking care of everyone but yourself. By the time you get to you, you’ve drained yourself to the point where you are pretty much in the negative energy zone (what we runners like to call anaerobic metabolism). Anaerobic metabolism only works for so long and then your body will shut itself down as a defense mechanism. When you are in this negative energy zone after working a zillion shifts in the hospital, it takes SO LONG to recharge and become human again. It becomes nearly impossible to achieve balance. If you ever feel overwhelmed like this while you are training, PUMP THE BRAKES. I am such an advocate for recovery in both the mental & physical spaces. It’s as important as the training and sometimes becomes even more important to maintain the level of fitness it takes to run a marathon. I’ll sprinkle some of my favorite mental/physical recovery tidbits throughout the blog.
When runners do a really hard speed workout or long run one day, the next day is typically a day for recovery miles – we typically call that a “shakeout” run. One of my favorite things for mental recovery is to do a “shakeout” run for my brain and meditate – turn the lights out, set a timer for 15 minutes, and put on some relaxing background music. It sounds stupid but it is so helpful when you work in a ridiculously stressful environment like the hospital. I suffer from stress-induced interstitial cystitis (most likely because of some poor past behaviors, working in a stressful environment like healthcare, and a little bit of trauma I went through a few years ago) and it is SUPER responsive to meditation and rest. Anyway, I digress! Back to business:
Week 4 Workouts:
Monday: EZ 3 miles on the tread was the plan. BLAH. Why are these tread miles the hardest mental part of the week? Work sucked and I felt unmotivated. Keeping myself honest – I dumped on the run just short of 3 – got 2.75 in so that’s okay!
Tuesday: SPEED WORKOUT WITH ANNA YAY!!!
I never used to get this excited about running with friends but wow this was so great (even though it was hard). I am trying to break 3:30 in the marathon so my planned times were as follows:
2 miles easy running
2x 400 @ 1:42 pace w/ 200 easy run recovery
1 x 800 @ 3:30 pace w/ 400 easy run recovery
1×1200 @ 5:15 pace w/ 400 easy run recovery
1 X 800 @ 3:30 pace w/ 400 easy run recovery
1X 400 @ 1:42 pace w/ 200 easy run recovery
2 miles easy running
I am struggling with keeping the designated pace. Despite my 20 years of running, the speed work has always been a place I have fallen short. I was ALL over the place – mostly too fast (this is not a good thing). I am going to really tune into my internal pacer as I continue to train. Anna and I had the best post workout hang (see her entry <3).
Wednesday: COLD 10 trail miles
So I’ve never trained for a spring marathon and THIS SHIT SUCKS. It’s always dark, cold, and icy. Today was going to be a windy day so I thought going to the trail and being hidden by the trees would help. Instead, I was covered in shadow without sunlight so it was much colder. The wind broke through anyway and I was frigid. Trying some different ways to hydrate while I do longer runs in the winter. I have a Nathan bladder pack but it’s a little too much for a 10 mile run. I used a handheld water bottle similar to this: https://www.nathansports.com/collections/handheld-bottles?gclid=Cj0KCQiAuvOPBhDXARIsAKzLQ8E4lfy1h48iSwMbFUV4DlQ7Krn7DVLWOQi82Lyg7Kv_v1VxWUzlpx0aAt5xEALw_wcB
Works well for those runs that are just a bit longer than 45 minutes. My favorite post run meal is toast, mashed avocado, egg, and “everything but the bagel” seasoning from Trader Joe’s:
Sometimes I add crumbled goat cheese and lemon juice to spice it up.
Thursday: REST. Worked and packed for my long weekend in Florida
Friday-Monday: Went to visit some friends in Florida to escape the cold & snow. We did cycling Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and then I did a beautiful 6 mile run along the water before I left on Monday. I needed the Vitamin D!!
