Here comes the Sun!

A nice recovery run at lunch time today. I can feel the effort from yesterday but everything feels good. It's becoming tourist season along the Seattle Waterfront so the first and last mile of my run consists of dodging around all the construction detours and the ambling tourists. And that is just what I needed to loosen the legs up. 

I made it as far as the new pedestrian overpass in Myrtle Edwards Park and was happy to take in the view north towards the Grain Tower and Magnolia. And there are some interesting route notes/maps painted on the bridge deck and called the Lake to Bay Loop.  Well done!

Recovery

It was a very good weekend of running even with the pissy weather.  I do very little stretching besides a quick roll on a foam roller for my low back/IT band and maybe a quick glute and easy hamstring stretch. I don't ice anything anymore.  There is no need which believe me is a wonderful thing.  I'd tweaked my back at work and had a lot of running miles.  It is better to be safe than sorry.  So on my rest day today (a complete and total day off), I did get out the yoga mat for some easy poses and a quick roll around on key points in my back and butt.  Ah.  It takes about 10 minutes and feels very good.  Why do I forget to do this regularly?

 

And I usually end up with helpers...

Rest Day

For me yes.  I debated a weight workout or working to remove a laurel bush in the back yard.  A complete rest day seemed better after telling a successful and newly minted IronMan to take her recovery as seriously as she took her training.  I better walk the talk!  However Luigi, the neighbor cat, is a fair bit plump.  Feather toy and some romping and some growling is good for him! 

That was a vacation!

Just two full days but there was:
kayaking

splashing and lounging in the pool
















and hanging on a beach watching boys getting a first surf lesson.  I was jealous!  Next time.  Plenty of good food and drink and of course just hanging with a friend. 

9

Revisiting & The end of Summer

Llandover Woods

There are a couple posts I'd like to revisit.

Recovery:  I think I forgot to mention the most important part of recovery for me.  Sleep!  Mess with my sleep and I notice.  That happened this previous week.  It was a super busy and stressful week at work and I just couldn't sleep that well thinking about getting everything done.  And I'd be up early most days to run and also because the cat-assisted alarm clock (two of them!) were quite active.

I'm pretty lucky in that I don't think I need as much sleep as the average person.  I do fine with 6 hours but do like to sleep a little longer on the weekends (7 hours).  I have always been a freakishly light sleeper and I wake multiple times during the night and consider this normal.  I can usually tell when training is taking a heavy toll because I sleep a lot sounder and longer and love it!

By the end of the day on Friday, I felt physically ill I was so tired.  It does not particularly affect me at work.  I don't really feel sleepy and I'm lucky in that my job is such that if I do feel sleepy sitting at my desk, I can always get up and go take care of other responsibilities.  That really helps.  I take short snoozes on the bus commute home if needed.  One full night of solid sleep is enough to make the difference.  With that, I can easily get right back on training and other life business.  If i have multiple days of not sleeping well, it becomes more important to me to rearrange my running schedule so I run in the afternoon (run commute is perfect for this) and can sleep in in the morning before work.

Weight:  Oh yes, the other part of training is eating enough but not too much.  How am I doing in changing my diet and possibly seeing my weight (or more likely body fat) drop?  Great! And it happened without much fuss actually. I noticed that right before Ragnar Relay that I was at a low for body weight (by about 2-3 pounds only) and more noticeably a lower body fat percentage. 

Remember I'm using a particular scale which may give consistent body fat percentage results over time but may not be accurate (ie my real laboratory measured body fat %) and that is just fine.  it's more the trend of reducing that I was looking for and I achieved.  The 2% drop I managed is noticeable to me.  I feel much more muscled and stronger.

I was still looking to improve the diet though.  Work is a typical office.  It seems that there are snacky items everywhere, all the time.  I know because I do a lot of the ordering for the office.  I'm always looking for "healthy" alternatives.  I'm sorry.  I do not think whole grain baked chips are really a good healthy snack and neither are those "healthy" granola bar.  It's still processed food beyond all recognition.  I know. it's easy!  I've lost my taste for them truthfully.  I'm lucky in that work does do fresh fruit at work a couple times a week.  I would often have a piece of fruit and some nuts.  Too many nuts.  They are so tasty and it's hard to stop at just a serving.  and breakfast was becoming a challenge.  I love eggs so i'd have those probably 5 times a week.  No problem.  But what to have on those other days.  Oatmeal?  Love it but honestly I am sick of it and it doesn't last.  A couple hours later, I am starving.

Smoothies!  That's what I've been trying.  It's a great way to use up a fair bit of the fruit which doesn't get eaten at work (i cut up the too ripe fruit and stick it in the freezer so it doesn't go to waste) and a good way to get some random veggies in as well.  I've been experimenting with a plain yogurt base but also really enjoy almond milk. Add in a fresh banana (or frozen banana if they were getting too ripe) and whatever fresh or frozen fruit (Trader Joe's has some great fruit for this) plus almond butter for healthy fats.  I like some spinach or arugula (boatloads in the garden right now) or celery and it's an easy, tasty meal which I really look forward to for breakfast.

I just have a stick blender which does the trick well enough.  I also make some batches of this and freeze and take to work for a snack.  Fun and endless possibilities and particularly nice after longer runs on the weekends.  After a big post-run breakfast of pancakes, eggs, coffee and fruit, I always need to eat again soon but nothing appeals.  Smoothies appeal.

After setting a master's 10k PR, I was able to run 45 miles the week after and that is amazing to me.  Recovery seems to be working pretty well!  With the Labor Day Holiday, Summer seems like it is ending.  The temps are cooler in the morning and it is so much darker in the morning and evening.

"South Loop" is the only loop in Llandover Woods

There are lots of things to look forward to in the fall though so that is just fine. Summer has been great.  It's been fantastic watching everyone achieve their summer racing goals and beyond! 

I had a reminder of that this weekend while on a group run.  I was marking a course that I probably learned as one of my first in-city runs many years ago.  When I was looking at a map just to make sure where I was going as there are different possibilities for both starting and ending to add on miles, I noticed a little park up on one section that I'd never seen before.

After some googling, I found the Llandover Woods Greenspace. It's a small forested area with a small loop trail which goes straight down and straight up.  Deeply forested and deeply peaceful, it was a lovely addition to a city run.  The trail is a solid gravel path and in good condition.  There is a pretty impressive set of stairs which would probably be slippery when wet. I'd run this loop counter clockwise because of that.  I look forward to seeing this woodsy oasis throughout the year. 

Relay Recovery

CoachLesley.com Orange Ogres finish strong!

The first time I did a relay such as this one, I have never been so sore after the event.  Why? I hadn't been running much because of injury, I didn't understand or know how to eat or drink during the relay and I'm pretty sure I was clueless about things that can help speed recovery.  All of those things (plus just years more running at a higher level) means I have been amazed at how easy recovery has been from this year's event.

I've been at a consistent high mileage (for me) for a couple of months with no injury issues besides the occasional tweak here and there. I get how I have to bring and then eat foods which appeal to me at odd times even when I don't really feel like it. I have extra food too and generally people bring enough extra snacky items to share.  This is much better than when i had a PBJ sandwich which I could barely choke down and then promptly lost in the van the first year I ran a relay such as this.  Yep, experience counts on so many levels!

And I'd had some excellent running in this event.  17 miles total @ 8:06 pace overall. I'd had a very sucessful third leg too.  I knew what I wanted for pace going into my third leg but from experience I didn't expect to be able to hit any faster for the harder effort. I was really surprised to see a sub-8 pace overall for my last leg.  I honestly felt like I was working hard yet just maintaining and I was delighted to be going faster than I thought!  Generally at the end of races when I am pushing the pace, it feels extra hard and my legs will  not move.  I hope that this new experience will translate to other goal events!

As an aside, the last leg is also where I had the best laugh.  Our other driver of Van 2 (GVB) had taken to shouting "faster, faster, faster" at a couple of our runners as we were passing them in the van.  It was purely in fun jest, or course and accompanied with much cheering.  I started running and they must've piled into the van because not too long afterwards I got cheered and GVB yelled "faster, faster, faster!" at me as they went past.  It did make me laugh because at that point I was still warming up on the uphill first mile.  But the van got stuck at a long wait for a left-hand turn onto a busy highway.  Aha!  I could see them stuck there with a line of cars and was delighted as I caught up, climbed the hill and could yell, "faster, faster, faster GVB!"  Relays are just full of fun moments like these.  

Anyway, the funny thing is that I really do much, much less aided recovery now than I used to.  No ice baths, no icing of anything unless it's an obvious tweak like a rolled ankle.  I do make sure to eat well after most runs.  Since i never have any problem eating directly after a harder effort though this is not the issue for me that it can be for others.   The interesting thing is that recent research is showing that aided recovery in the form of ice baths or anti-inflammatories may be counter productive. 

How so?  Your bodies response to hard efforts is inflammation which triggers the body's mechanism for healing and repair which makes the muscles stronger.  Take out that inflammation and the body's adaption to the hard workout is lessened.  See here:  article

Of course there are instances with aided recovery would be useful.  I wore compression socks in-between each of my legs at the relay.  In that instance, i needed to run hard again almost immediately and my lower legs feel better after wearing them. 

I recovered quickly enough that I was pretty seriously considering jumping into a half marathon this weekend.  However the timing of my cycle has been so uneven of late, I decided against running that this weekend. Good call as Seattle hit record breaking temps!  I'm happy to be back up to my usual 40 mile running weeks and looking forward to a 10k in a couple weeks.  Meanwhile I am totally enjoying the heat.  I know it won't last.