It's been almost 2 months since I moved from Denver...
Since then, I've tried to continue my regular training schedule and I was feeling pretty good about it until 2 weeks ago. My IT Band has decided not to cooperate with me, and well, if the IT band is unhappy, the rest of my body suffers... well, actually is more like, if my low back is tight, my SI Joint, hammies and IT band will not be happy. So here I am, in a new town without my trifecta of wellness (My yoga teachers, my acupuncturist and my massage therapist), all people who knew exactly what was going on with me, and would always help me through the hump and allowing me to train and "conquer" (AKA PR in every race).
Now, without my coaches near by, and having to drastically change my training schedule after 3 years, I'm feeling cranky, I'm not going to lie... I like to follow a pattern, and have my routine, and once disrupted, well... I'm not a happy camper!
So now this... 2 weekends in a row without a long run, and only 1 run during the week up to 3 miles to check the IT Band. It sucks! why? because I was up to 17 miles on my long runs, and because without long runs, my mood swings get a bit out of control.
What to do??
I decided to start swimming again, to cross train and keep the legs moving. Humbling experience, because after 80 laps and 75 min of solid swimming I'm only at .95 of a mile...crazy hah? it puts everything into perspective. I like it a lot, it's a different kind of meditative state, there's no music, no looking around checking the scenery; it really is just you, your breath, and that coordination of arms and legs to keep propelling you forward... and of course, your thoughts! and we all know what happens when the mind wonders...So I'm working on focusing on the goal, completing the SF Marathon without injury, and finish it with a better time than last year!
After taking a full week break that included a deep tissue (that killed me) massage, lots of icing and heat/cold therapy and foamrolling, fast forward to today:
I ran for 3 miles, and it was a slow one, but purposely slow to check things out... the run was ok, but I could feel the tightness creeping in after 2 miles...not good! Must foamroll even more, and keep icing and hitting the pool even more often to strengthen everything. That's the plan for now.
we'll see what happens!
Ojai to Ocean half marathon is in 12 days and SF Marathon is 68 days away!
Looking at the big picture, I must rest, recover and heal to keep doing this... I know it!!! I just hope I can finish my next race strong!
Monday, May 21, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
it's been a while, and no longer at altitude
It's been a long while since my last post.
Somehow I find it easier to type 140 characters or a small paragraph on facebook that actually sit and write for a while.
I'm no longer in Colorado, and it's been over a month since my move to California.
It's been a weird transition and I didn't think it would be as hard as it is now. I miss my friends, those who became my family, and my routines. For someone who has been adverse to change for a long time, I have self imposed many changes in my life, and somedays it feels like a whole lot.
I'm still training (when people ask for what, I tell them I train for life!), I feel it is best to stay fit all year round so I can register to any race I want and feel ready for it. At least that's the plan!
Of course, my baby is the The San Francisco Marathon, my 3rd year traveling to that gorgeous city (still my favorite) and run through all those beautiful places! That race is July 29th, so I have some time in between to do other fun things.. =)
In 17 days I get to run the Ojai to Ocean Half Marathon, and I'm both excited/worried about this race, because of it's slight downhill slope, supposed to make the race fast... I'm one of those weirdos that actually like hills, and I feel like I thrive in them; there's something about conquering something that looks and feels hard to do and yet, you manage... a sort of metaphor for life if you will!
There's so many races in California, and I wish I could do them all.. but first, I must get my business venture up and running!
I will very soon be sharing my yoga teachings to the world (and Ojai and Ventura), and once I get my website running, with some excellent yoga, ayurvedic, and running content, I will be very happy to share it with this cyberspace.
In the meantime, I will continue to swim (started swimming again and boy, am I sore!) practice yoga and run =)
Salud y Buena Vibra!
(Cheers & good vibes to all!)
Somehow I find it easier to type 140 characters or a small paragraph on facebook that actually sit and write for a while.
I'm no longer in Colorado, and it's been over a month since my move to California.
It's been a weird transition and I didn't think it would be as hard as it is now. I miss my friends, those who became my family, and my routines. For someone who has been adverse to change for a long time, I have self imposed many changes in my life, and somedays it feels like a whole lot.
I'm still training (when people ask for what, I tell them I train for life!), I feel it is best to stay fit all year round so I can register to any race I want and feel ready for it. At least that's the plan!
Of course, my baby is the The San Francisco Marathon, my 3rd year traveling to that gorgeous city (still my favorite) and run through all those beautiful places! That race is July 29th, so I have some time in between to do other fun things.. =)
In 17 days I get to run the Ojai to Ocean Half Marathon, and I'm both excited/worried about this race, because of it's slight downhill slope, supposed to make the race fast... I'm one of those weirdos that actually like hills, and I feel like I thrive in them; there's something about conquering something that looks and feels hard to do and yet, you manage... a sort of metaphor for life if you will!
There's so many races in California, and I wish I could do them all.. but first, I must get my business venture up and running!
I will very soon be sharing my yoga teachings to the world (and Ojai and Ventura), and once I get my website running, with some excellent yoga, ayurvedic, and running content, I will be very happy to share it with this cyberspace.
In the meantime, I will continue to swim (started swimming again and boy, am I sore!) practice yoga and run =)
Salud y Buena Vibra!
(Cheers & good vibes to all!)
Sunday, January 16, 2011
1st week of maintenance training AKA let's get back in the groove!
Today is sunday, my only official rest day. And since my Sundays are very relaxed and include teaching a yoga class for runners, I feel overall pretty happy!!
Here's the week in review, with 5 days of activity, starting to get the groove back, and returning slowly to the "full on" I'M TRAINING mode.
*On Monday, I did spin/sculpt. 30 min of full on spin followed by yoga with weights, which means, I'm adding weight training to my routine. yay! It delivered the kick ass work out I needed and left me drained!
*I took tuesday off, since I work late on monday nights and I've been battling a cold/cough/congestion for a week now that kept me in bed... wasted day.
*Wednesday, I decided to only do some yoga, and the class had so many hip openers, it was wonderful.
*Thursday marked my first hill training day of the season, on the treadmill.. I did 1/2 mile at 9% incline power walk to warm up, then 1/2 mile run at 0% incline, then kept running, switching every 1/2 mile to 3% , 0%, 6%, then back to 0%, cooling down with a power walk again at 9% incline. Only did 3.5 miles and switched gears to yoga right after, delivering an hour long for stretching all the muscles I worked so hard on those inclines.
*Friday stayed pretty mellow, with 1hr walk with the dog and 1 hour of yoga. I'm tending to a small back pain on my left side, making smart choices, and resting before a real injury occurs...I think we all know that's the name of the game in the end.
*Saturday, 1st long run of the season.... supposed to run 5 miles, and ended up running 3.5 miles since my sinuses and cough were killing me.. a total bummer. After the run, did 50 squats, 100 sit ups and 50 push ups. As part of the Qi Ryders Challenge! Keeping Colorado the fittest State in the United States for 2011.
That's it for this week.... Next week should be fun!!!
Here's the week in review, with 5 days of activity, starting to get the groove back, and returning slowly to the "full on" I'M TRAINING mode.
*On Monday, I did spin/sculpt. 30 min of full on spin followed by yoga with weights, which means, I'm adding weight training to my routine. yay! It delivered the kick ass work out I needed and left me drained!
*I took tuesday off, since I work late on monday nights and I've been battling a cold/cough/congestion for a week now that kept me in bed... wasted day.
*Wednesday, I decided to only do some yoga, and the class had so many hip openers, it was wonderful.
*Thursday marked my first hill training day of the season, on the treadmill.. I did 1/2 mile at 9% incline power walk to warm up, then 1/2 mile run at 0% incline, then kept running, switching every 1/2 mile to 3% , 0%, 6%, then back to 0%, cooling down with a power walk again at 9% incline. Only did 3.5 miles and switched gears to yoga right after, delivering an hour long for stretching all the muscles I worked so hard on those inclines.
*Friday stayed pretty mellow, with 1hr walk with the dog and 1 hour of yoga. I'm tending to a small back pain on my left side, making smart choices, and resting before a real injury occurs...I think we all know that's the name of the game in the end.
*Saturday, 1st long run of the season.... supposed to run 5 miles, and ended up running 3.5 miles since my sinuses and cough were killing me.. a total bummer. After the run, did 50 squats, 100 sit ups and 50 push ups. As part of the Qi Ryders Challenge! Keeping Colorado the fittest State in the United States for 2011.
That's it for this week.... Next week should be fun!!!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
9 Days Gone. January 2011
I can't believe the days are already flying by, and I seriously need to get back in the groove (aka training mode) for all the events I have planned for the year.
Here's the list:
5-31 Bolder Boulder 10K
6-5 Steamboat 1/2 Marathon
7-31 San Francisco Marathon
10-18 Denver 1/2 Marathon
I learned from my injury last year that I can only run 1 full marathon per year, and add shorter events in between to keep the motivation going.
I sent my application to become a Team Captain for Team In Training and got accepted! I'm so excited about this, not only because I'll contribute to such a great cause and get to help people reach their goal of fundraising and completing an event, but because I'll get to see a lot of the same faces from my very 1st TNT event; my coach Andy, who's super awesome and so encouraging, who even got me some nutella packs to go for the race (he knows of my love of nutella after running); my best running buddy Erin, who kept me company in all long runs AND the marathon!; Holly who's faster than me, and super friendly southern lady; Whitney, who's an example of dedication, great energy and courage, our hero!; Stephon who's our personal cheerleader, and stayed with me through the worst run of my season, and kept me from crying (seriously!), I'm excited he's going to be our assist. coach!. Ashley, our office contact.. I've lost track how many times I e-mailed her or called her with questions, and she always replied with a smile. Everyone at the TNT office is just great! I'm proud and excited to continue my journey with them.
So for training...what to do what to do??
My official training season starts February 6th with the Team, so in the meantime, I'm keeping the mileage short, basically doing maintenance runs, while trying to keep my new running bud's pace (hopefully this will start preparing me and making me a bit faster? I can only hope).
So far the plan will include, yoga 6 days a week for at least 1hr a day, but I may increase to 3hrs a day as the mileage increases (specially after the long run). The reason is simple, yoga will lengthen the muscles back to their natural state after the pounding from running, thus avoiding injury (this was the formula for the San Diego Marathon and I ran the whole race minus injuries of any kind).
It will probably look something like this;
*Monday: Spin-Sculpt (spin for 30 min followed by yoga with weights for 30 min) + 1hr of yoga OR Mountain Warrior on the real Ryders' bikes (1 1/2 hr workout that includes: spinning, cardio blast training and boxing)
*Tuesday: Easy run 3 to 5 miles + 1 hr of yoga
*Wednesday: Track work + 1 hr of yoga
*Thursday: Spin- Yoga
*Friday: Yoga
*Saturday: Long Run + Long Yoga
*Sunday: Rest Day
I'm sure this will look entirely different once the training gets going, but at least that's a plan... I may run a bit more during the week, or I may not, it all depends on my right knee, that in reality is my S.I Joint on the left side that starts acting up.
Also, I may switch track work to hill training every other week. I have the good fortune of having Red Rocks Amphitheater as my training ground for hills, and since I have to conquer all the hills in San Francisco (at least the ones during the 1st 10 miles), I need to be better prepared than the 1st time I ran them.
Here's a picture of Red Rocks... in all its glory!
Here's the list:
5-31 Bolder Boulder 10K
6-5 Steamboat 1/2 Marathon
7-31 San Francisco Marathon
10-18 Denver 1/2 Marathon
I learned from my injury last year that I can only run 1 full marathon per year, and add shorter events in between to keep the motivation going.
I sent my application to become a Team Captain for Team In Training and got accepted! I'm so excited about this, not only because I'll contribute to such a great cause and get to help people reach their goal of fundraising and completing an event, but because I'll get to see a lot of the same faces from my very 1st TNT event; my coach Andy, who's super awesome and so encouraging, who even got me some nutella packs to go for the race (he knows of my love of nutella after running); my best running buddy Erin, who kept me company in all long runs AND the marathon!; Holly who's faster than me, and super friendly southern lady; Whitney, who's an example of dedication, great energy and courage, our hero!; Stephon who's our personal cheerleader, and stayed with me through the worst run of my season, and kept me from crying (seriously!), I'm excited he's going to be our assist. coach!. Ashley, our office contact.. I've lost track how many times I e-mailed her or called her with questions, and she always replied with a smile. Everyone at the TNT office is just great! I'm proud and excited to continue my journey with them.
So for training...what to do what to do??
My official training season starts February 6th with the Team, so in the meantime, I'm keeping the mileage short, basically doing maintenance runs, while trying to keep my new running bud's pace (hopefully this will start preparing me and making me a bit faster? I can only hope).
So far the plan will include, yoga 6 days a week for at least 1hr a day, but I may increase to 3hrs a day as the mileage increases (specially after the long run). The reason is simple, yoga will lengthen the muscles back to their natural state after the pounding from running, thus avoiding injury (this was the formula for the San Diego Marathon and I ran the whole race minus injuries of any kind).
It will probably look something like this;
*Monday: Spin-Sculpt (spin for 30 min followed by yoga with weights for 30 min) + 1hr of yoga OR Mountain Warrior on the real Ryders' bikes (1 1/2 hr workout that includes: spinning, cardio blast training and boxing)
*Tuesday: Easy run 3 to 5 miles + 1 hr of yoga
*Wednesday: Track work + 1 hr of yoga
*Thursday: Spin- Yoga
*Friday: Yoga
*Saturday: Long Run + Long Yoga
*Sunday: Rest Day
I'm sure this will look entirely different once the training gets going, but at least that's a plan... I may run a bit more during the week, or I may not, it all depends on my right knee, that in reality is my S.I Joint on the left side that starts acting up.
Also, I may switch track work to hill training every other week. I have the good fortune of having Red Rocks Amphitheater as my training ground for hills, and since I have to conquer all the hills in San Francisco (at least the ones during the 1st 10 miles), I need to be better prepared than the 1st time I ran them.
Here's a picture of Red Rocks... in all its glory!
We will see how the year starts shaping up.!
Friday, December 17, 2010
Running at 25 degrees..
Well, winter is really starting to make an appearance in Denver.. I'm personally not a big fan, but well, I love every aspect of this city except for the snow, so I'll deal with it, like I've done for the past 12 years.
Today I went for my 1st official snow/drizzle 25 degree weather run, where the cloud coverage keeps the sun from shining (something I love the most about Denver) and it takes about 3 miles to get warm.
So we decided to do 5 miles!
After a great birthday party last night, and me partaking in a few (3) beers, I almost felt compelled to say: hell no! I'm not running in the cold, I'll hit the treadmill later!. but in the end, running with someone will always beat running alone, because of the accountability factor, and most specially, because he was also there last night at the party, so, no excuse to be lame! hehe.
So thanks again to my new awesome running bud Ryan for the extra push (literally, his pace is way faster than mine, and the more we run, the faster he gets -whereas the longer I run, the slower I get-).
Crosstraining continues as usual, with a small hiatus on the bike starting tomorrow, since I'm getting an awesome tattoo on my ribs tomorrow, so I'll be out of sweating commission until the tat is healed.
Two more weeks to keep it nice and easy and come January 1st, no more messing around! training season will begin again.
And for extra fun, I'm sending my application to be team captain with Team In Training for their upcoming summer season! woohoo! I love those peeps, the cause, the mission, the training, everything is worth every minute.
Cheers friends!
Today I went for my 1st official snow/drizzle 25 degree weather run, where the cloud coverage keeps the sun from shining (something I love the most about Denver) and it takes about 3 miles to get warm.
So we decided to do 5 miles!
After a great birthday party last night, and me partaking in a few (3) beers, I almost felt compelled to say: hell no! I'm not running in the cold, I'll hit the treadmill later!. but in the end, running with someone will always beat running alone, because of the accountability factor, and most specially, because he was also there last night at the party, so, no excuse to be lame! hehe.
So thanks again to my new awesome running bud Ryan for the extra push (literally, his pace is way faster than mine, and the more we run, the faster he gets -whereas the longer I run, the slower I get-).
Crosstraining continues as usual, with a small hiatus on the bike starting tomorrow, since I'm getting an awesome tattoo on my ribs tomorrow, so I'll be out of sweating commission until the tat is healed.
Two more weeks to keep it nice and easy and come January 1st, no more messing around! training season will begin again.
And for extra fun, I'm sending my application to be team captain with Team In Training for their upcoming summer season! woohoo! I love those peeps, the cause, the mission, the training, everything is worth every minute.
Cheers friends!
Friday, December 10, 2010
Training at Altitude. December part 1.
This is my first blog....
It will contain all of my adventures in training at a mile high....
I AM OFFICIALLY REGISTERED FOR THE SF MARATHON JULY 31ST. 2011
So, it is time to train again... and this will become my "training diary" of sorts, and will have links to my awesome Garmin "computer" too!
So far, I have been cross training like crazy, nursing the injury that made me complete 13.1 miles at the Denver Marathon instead of 26.2.
This is what I've done so far...
*Monday Nov. 29th - Qi Ryders Mountain Warriors... 1 1/2 hrs of ass kicking bootcamp style training and then 1hr of spinning on the real ryders.
* Tuesday - No training today. Long day of work
*Wednesday Dec. 1st.- Anusara Yoga. Always good for the soul and most specially all my leg muscles!
*Thursday Dec. 2nd - Vinyasa Yoga. Powerful balancing poses with Raven.
*Friday Dec. 3rd. Willpower & Grace. Holy Quadriceps workout! Sara is a great teacher.
*Saturday Dec. 4th. Run & then Yoga. Gotta keep those legs moving and strong; got on the treadmill to "feel it out" after my month and a half hiatus and ran 2.5 miles and it felt great! afterwards, a great yoga session followed (with the fabulous Kylie) to stretch out properly.
*Sundays are my days off, and they will always be, since I'll continue to have my long runs on Saturday; and in fact, I teach yoga for runners on Sundays!
*Monday Dec.6th. Qi Ryders Mountain Warriors. I just love this program so much, it always changes, it's never dull, and they make us work so hard, it is totally worth the hurt! I'm so grateful Chris and Nick keep us going!
*Tuesday Dec 7th. Spin / Barre. Decided to check out the new "craze" out there, with the whole barre program. I am not convinced yet, since I never wanted to be a ballerina, therefore feeling very ridiculous the entire workout..but the spin part is always fun (I missed the yoga though). That being said, the barre does its work, and the calfs get an intense workout for sure!
* Wednesday - No training today, every week, I get the one day where work gets in the way...
*Thursday Dec. 9th. 1ST OFFICIAL RUN OF THE SEASON OUTDOORS! Oh how fun! Went to Wash Park for the loop. 2.5 miles with Ryan (it's nice to have a running bud that can run later than 6am!)
*Friday Dec. 10th. Spin / Sculpt. the terrific combo to tone upper body and create more strength!
*Saturday Dec. 11th. tomorrow I will do spin / yoga or run and then do yoga, yet to be determined, either way, I'm gonna keep moving; because a body in motion, stays in motion!!!
For those of you curious and wanting more info on the location and times of all of this great cross training tools/programs you can go to:
www.qiryders.com
www.qidenver.com
It will contain all of my adventures in training at a mile high....
I AM OFFICIALLY REGISTERED FOR THE SF MARATHON JULY 31ST. 2011
So, it is time to train again... and this will become my "training diary" of sorts, and will have links to my awesome Garmin "computer" too!
So far, I have been cross training like crazy, nursing the injury that made me complete 13.1 miles at the Denver Marathon instead of 26.2.
This is what I've done so far...
*Monday Nov. 29th - Qi Ryders Mountain Warriors... 1 1/2 hrs of ass kicking bootcamp style training and then 1hr of spinning on the real ryders.
* Tuesday - No training today. Long day of work
*Wednesday Dec. 1st.- Anusara Yoga. Always good for the soul and most specially all my leg muscles!
*Thursday Dec. 2nd - Vinyasa Yoga. Powerful balancing poses with Raven.
*Friday Dec. 3rd. Willpower & Grace. Holy Quadriceps workout! Sara is a great teacher.
*Saturday Dec. 4th. Run & then Yoga. Gotta keep those legs moving and strong; got on the treadmill to "feel it out" after my month and a half hiatus and ran 2.5 miles and it felt great! afterwards, a great yoga session followed (with the fabulous Kylie) to stretch out properly.
*Sundays are my days off, and they will always be, since I'll continue to have my long runs on Saturday; and in fact, I teach yoga for runners on Sundays!
*Monday Dec.6th. Qi Ryders Mountain Warriors. I just love this program so much, it always changes, it's never dull, and they make us work so hard, it is totally worth the hurt! I'm so grateful Chris and Nick keep us going!
*Tuesday Dec 7th. Spin / Barre. Decided to check out the new "craze" out there, with the whole barre program. I am not convinced yet, since I never wanted to be a ballerina, therefore feeling very ridiculous the entire workout..but the spin part is always fun (I missed the yoga though). That being said, the barre does its work, and the calfs get an intense workout for sure!
* Wednesday - No training today, every week, I get the one day where work gets in the way...
*Thursday Dec. 9th. 1ST OFFICIAL RUN OF THE SEASON OUTDOORS! Oh how fun! Went to Wash Park for the loop. 2.5 miles with Ryan (it's nice to have a running bud that can run later than 6am!)
*Friday Dec. 10th. Spin / Sculpt. the terrific combo to tone upper body and create more strength!
*Saturday Dec. 11th. tomorrow I will do spin / yoga or run and then do yoga, yet to be determined, either way, I'm gonna keep moving; because a body in motion, stays in motion!!!
For those of you curious and wanting more info on the location and times of all of this great cross training tools/programs you can go to:
www.qiryders.com
www.qidenver.com
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