Dev on Running

When I don’t really have anything to share, I just don’t post. I guess I’d rather be absent from Tumblr than super boring.

But here’s an update on my bike-accident recovery: I saw my chiropractor, Dr. Formo, yesterday and she worked MIRACLES on my neck, which had been very stiff and painful since the crash. She cracked everything back into place and I woke up this morning feeling fantastic!

Dr. Formo is a 3:15 marathoner, so I obviously do everything she says, and she recommended I continue resting this weekend and start running again on Monday.

My bruises continue to develop into more delightful and robust colors, and I still have a swollen/partially numb bump on my left leg, so she said it would be best to let my body focus on healing. That leaves me with just under two weeks to prepare for the 5K on Sept. 23, which I’m totally fine with.

Fun fact: Strangers are not shy about asking, “Sooo… what happened?” when you walk around looking like you got the shit kicked out of you. Luckily I have the chain scrape to prove it was just a bike accident!

It has been great to relax this week and focus on looking for a job. For weeks, I’ve browsed jobs and been too afraid to apply for some of the ones that I’m technically unqualified for. I don’t know what I thought would happen… like I would get emails back saying, “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, right.” Silly.

This week, I just set aside my fears and sent out resumes like crazy, and what do you know? My phone started ringing.

Now I just have to get these bruises healed before in-person interviews next week!

My “long” runs for 5K training are only four and five miles. Today I meant to do an easy four, but ended up pushing my pace again and completed a really sweaty and satisfying run.

The 0.80 mile to Green Lake is mostly downhill, so it’s easy to run a little faster than usual for the first mile. Once I reached GL today, I just couldn’t slow down! I tried… I failed… and I thought, “Well, what’s wrong with running at this pace if it feels good?”

Ain’t nothing wrong.

I also lifted weights back at home. The White Stripes station on Pandora is excellent background music for this, by the way.

My whole body is tired in a good way. Tomorrow is technically a rest day, but Aaron and I are going to bust out a bike ride. I’m excited to break in my new gear!

Aaron is alive! He texted me that his ride went well and he’s at his mom’s house now. Whew.

Meanwhile, I had a GREAT three-mile run down to Green Lake and back.

My 5K training plan called for an easy three, but I pushed my pace a little because I was feeling so good. It was a beautiful morning and I felt like flying. Negative splits!

I also think wearing my compression sleeves made a big difference. My legs felt a little shin splint-y after my last run, but they felt really strong with the sleeves on. I have these ones from CEP, which seem pricey at $40, but they’ve served me well all throughout marathon training, during the marathon itself and now.

On to something more fun: HALLOWEEN!

It’s my favorite holiday by far. I was at Target last weekend and saw a whole section of Halloween greeting cards and almost had a heart attack. I’m so, so, so excited for Halloween.

My question is this: Of these animals, which should I be for Halloween? I’m leaning toward red panda or Japanese red fox. (This would also be a comfy thing to wear around the house in the winter, or to wear to the grocery store and freak people out. Heh.)

Who else is excited for Halloween?? What do you want to be?

I highly recommend this, if you want to impress people:

Did y’all know that lululemon has a women’s cycling team?

I didn’t, until I walked into Aaron’s favorite bike shop and gasped when I saw a female mannequin rocking a Specialized-lululemon jersey and helmet — the same ones worn by the cycling team members. So cute!

Aaron was amazed, too. Apparently, he’d been secretly trying to find the jersey for me for months (I’ve never found a jersey I liked enough to buy), but it was sold out at lululemon and hard to find on Ebay.

The bike shop had one jersey that was randomly returned by someone, and it was my size — clearly destined to be mine. : ) Thank you for the early Christmas present, A!!

I had to get the helmet, too, because… matching. Pretty colors. Or something. What was the question?

Cute jersey = motivation to take my bike out for a spin this weekend. Silly, I know, but I’m a girl.

Obviously you don’t need fancy clothes and accessories to cycle — I’ve ridden quite a bit in regular running tops/tanks and my old helmet from Target; here is what I do recommend you get to start cycling — but it’s fun to add new stuff to the mix once in a while.

I’ve found, in both running and cycling, that it’s better to invest in a few quality pieces that are comfortable and will last a long time rather than buy an array of cheap items that’ll fall apart/be uncomfortable/etc.

Anyway, that’s all I have. It’s a rest day. Happy Friday!

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Sorry, not that kind of exciting news. I just had to trick y’all for a second. : )

The diamonds in this ring have been passed down through my family on my mother’s side. A family friend, Mrs. Mandry, gave them to my great-grandmother in the form of earrings. The Mandrys had no children, so great-g got the bling!

She passed them on to my grandmother, who didn’t have pierced ears, so she had them set in this ring. My mother inherited it when she passed away, and it’s too big for either of us to wear/not our style, so it’s been sitting in a drawer for years.

I came across it recently and asked my mom if I could turn the diamonds into earrings again. She said yes, and Aaron has a family connection at a jewelry store (a really good connection to have, don’t you think?), so I got a great deal and a nice, shiny set of earrings!

I’ve always worn cheap, fake earrings from Claire’s that turn green and gross after awhile, so it’s really great to have some legit jewelry that also has family meaning. It has nothing to do with running, but I was excited to get them from the jeweler today and I wanted to share. : )

Now, for the running! I’ve stuck with my training plan and had a great couple of runs since I last posted.

Yesterday, speed intervals:

– 1 mile warmup
– 0.25 mile fast
– 0.12 mile walk/jog recovery (x7)
– 0.41 cool-down run home

 

I wasn’t trying to hit any particular pace for my sprints; I just tried to settle into a pace I could maintain for a quarter-mile while pushing myself. I’m happy to see that I got down to the mid 8:00 range! Haven’t been there for a whiiiile.

Tonight, a tempo run:

– 1 mile warmup
– 1 mile comfortably hard
– 1 mile cool down

I’m noticing huge improvements in my endurance. I’m now running these miles straight through and just stopping at water fountains and crosswalks. This is my first run since I sprained my ankle that’s been under a 10:00 minute/mile average pace.

Maybe that sub-30 5K really is in reach.

Legs are very tired after three straight days of running. Very excited to rest tomorrow!

The last run I blogged about was a two-miler a week ago, but I didn’t comment on the pain in my right knee that I felt at the end and that lingered through the following day.

I decided to take a day off from running to be safe. That, of course, turned into five days… and then I got a strange 24-hour cold over the weekend… and finally, today, I felt totally back to normal and ready to run.

No pain!

Today, my chiropractor said the knee pain could have been caused by my hips being out of alignment. Good to know.

I also decided to stop being lazy and created an actual training plan for the comeback 5K I’m running in just under four weeks.

My main goal for the 5K is to pace myself well and be able to run the whole 3.1 miles, and my secondary goal is to break 30 minutes. At my current fitness level, I won’t be running sub-30, but we’ll see what happens with consistent speed work, tempos and weight lifting!

Obviously you don’t need to lift weights as part of 5K training, but I really think it added a lot to my marathon training, and I miss looking and feeling strong.

Side note: I documented my marathon training with detailed weekly recaps and a reflection on my overall training after I nailed my 4:15 goal; you can find all those posts HERE if you’re interested!

On top of wanting to have a great race next month, I’m also excited to dive into this training plan because I’d still like to have my 10-pounds-lighter body back and I’ve so far failed at committing to regular exercise. I know from experience that nothing motivates me like an upcoming race!

I’m newly back on the Paleo bandwagon as well. I saw and felt great results after my month of Paleo eating in June, but I just flat-out failed to maintain good eating habits. I’ve got this to motivate me on that front:

Oh, yes. You are looking at just over two weeks in Italy starting at the end of September.

We’ll be visiting Milan, Rapallo, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Florence, Siena, Orvieto, Rome, Naples and the Amalfi Coast. Aaron wins for planning our itinerary in excellent detail! (I’m sick of travel planning.)

Make no mistake — we will not be eating Paleo in Italy! I plan to indulge in everything Italy has to offer, but I want to make my best effort to shed a little extra weight beforehand. I may just put it right back on, thanks to pasta, pizza and gelato, but I’ll give it a shot anyway.

Yummm… pizza, pasta, gelato… I’m sorry I even mentioned them!