A New Gym For A New Year

I love the gym. I know not everyone loves the gym, but I really do. I have belonged to many gyms in many cities, but after baby #3 I tried to go it alone. AND I tried to go it alone with no home exercise equipment or goal.  Yeah, that didn’t work out very well for me – I need cardio equipment. And I need a goal.

I figured that running outside was enough for me – I ran as often as I could scrape together a few minutes, building back up slowly after pregnancy. But it was hard and the weight loss wasn’t happening. I guess after an 11lb baby, these things take time. And for me, I need to click into a mindset where I’m ALL IN. Focused. Eye on the prize.

So last year around this time, I entered the lottery for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in DC, the inaugural year. So I had a plan. I had my goal.

And last year, on December 31, I joined Planet Fitness for a steal of a deal – it was $99 for the entire year – can’t beat that! It had everything I needed at the time – clean facility, great hours, plenty of equipment, and it fit the budget. I’m a huge fan of this gym because it takes away two of the main obstacles to working out – time (it’s open 24 hours during the week) and money (it’s normally $10/month). So now I had a goal AND I had cardio equipment available to me, as long as I could leave the house.

As I got into the triathlon training, I needed more. I swam at the outdoor neighborhood pool in the summer, I swim at the nearby indoor pool now. I biked outside in the nice weather, I have a bike trainer now. So I’m figuring it out, cobbling together my tri training. But I love classes – especially cycling classes, and I love weight machines more than I love my hand weights and exercise videos. There’s something I love about the gym, where I can focus on my workout 100% without the distractions of the laundry I need to fold, the lunches I need to pack. And I daydreamed about having it all in one place – swim, bike, run.

So on Friday night, I popped on over to a gym I’ve been eyeing that has it all – a pool, cycling classes, and more, and joined. My year is coming to a close at Planet Fitness and I didn’t want to renew, so now I have it all for 2014.

What I learned: the membership staff clearly isn’t used to someone joining who already works out 6 days a week and does triathlons.

“What are your fitness goals?” – Running half and full marathons and doing triathlons.

“When is your triathlon race?” – Um, there are a lot of them in my future plans.

“Have you considered personal training to get you to your goals?” – No, but I would spend the equivalent amount of money on a triathlon coach if I had it.

I did get the feeling that the guy was genuinely impressed with a mom of three working out so much and doing all these races. Go me.

So I had a good workout on the elliptical that evening, although it was brief after I finished all the signing up stuff. I watched some reality TV, which made the time pass quickly.

And the next morning I met my dad for an 8:15am cycling class, which my neighbor friend teaches. Did I mention my dad goes to this gym? Yep, that was what sold me.

On Sunday, I wanted to try the pool out, but I had promised my middle child some one-on-one time – a special prize for sleeping in his new big-boy-bed all week without mommy sitting with him for an hour. So we went ice skating.

[He made me wear the dorky headband. The things we do for our kids…]

There were a lot of tears, mostly by him, but he says he’ll go again. He’s been completely and utterly obsessed with hockey since before he could walk and talk, but is pretty scared on the ice skates. At home he’s a superstar hockey boy so we need to figure out how to get him to be more confident and less terrified.

And while it wasn’t a power-packed workout for me, it was fun. And we were together.

Do you belong to a gym? What is your gym routine?

When was the last time you ice skated?

Age Group Farewell

On the Nike Women’s Half Marathon result page I’m now listed as a 2:29:12 finish. Time to celebrate – I gained 2 seconds!

But staring at those results a realization sunk in: this was my last race in that age group: “F35-39”. Yep, 40 is coming, and fast. Don’t get me wrong, I’m actually fine with turning 40. I’m headed into my 40’s with 3 great kids, a career I love, and I feel like I’m getting on track personally with weight loss and fitness.

I’m already mentally crafting my birthday Facebook status:

“Suck it, 40, I’m in the best shape of my life!” 

I have a little work to do before I can actually post something like that, but I’m motivated. I am losing weight but mainly I’m getting stronger and more fit. But I still have a ways to go.

Before I had my first kid I lost 43 pounds through a self-created plan that I officially dubbed “Operation: Get Off The Couch“. I’ll definitely write about that another day, but at the start of it I couldn’t even do yoga without stopping for a breather, and at the end of it I ran a marathon. And I ran it well, in 4:17:03. And also at the end of the plan, I was 43 pounds lighter.

However, this realization of the age group change is getting me to think of signing up for a race before my September triathlon so I can sneak in one more running race in a 30’s age group. There’s a 5 miler in my area in a couple weeks that I’ve done before, and I could practically run to the start, so I’m hovering over the registration button…

Do you notice when you move into the higher age group? Does it bring you down or fire you up to meet new challenges in the new age range?

Nike Women’s Half Marathon Expotique

WE RUN. Why yes, yes we do.

Yesterday, I went to the Nike Women’s Half Marathon Expotique to pick up my race packet and check out what they had going on there. I thought I might buy a few things, but they didn’t really have anything for sale other than a small Fleet Feet stand with race day essentials (buy BodyGlide = check!). They were directing people up the hill to the Nike store in Georgetown for shopping, but I was short on time so I didn’t make it up there.

They gave us a card with a code in our race packet, and you could enter it into a few places to try to win a prize. I didn’t win anything [insert sad face here]. I took a pic as I entered (from the back, the wrong side, oops!):

I’ve been Tweeting but I didn’t stick around the video wall of Tweets long enough to see some of mine:

I love running in DC – this course looks great and it’s the main reason I was interested in signing up for this one as opposed to another half marathon. Look, it’s a foot tour of DC!

They had a lot of cool things at the Expo, like printing customized signs for your spectators to hold, hair and makeup stations, and a big wall where you could sign with Green Sharpies, with the header: WHY DO YOU RUN?

 

(ack, too much glare!)

I’ve got my bib and I’m ready for Sunday!

Stop grilling while I’m running!

Seriously, just stop. Yes, you. No more grilling, not even on gorgeous afternoons like today. Don’t you people know I’m trying to finish my long run on a practically empty stomach? And the smell of the charcoal and burgers grilling is making it hard to run the whole 8 miles?

i suppose an easy answer would be to either A) don’t go running at dinnertime, or B) eat before the run.

Well, as for A): I intended to go in the morning. But I didn’t get home from work until after 1am last night, after which point the night went something like this:

• In bed at 1:45am.
• Still wired from coffee I drank while working the event (since it looked like it might go on FOREVER and I wasn’t going to make it through the drive home in the middle of the night – I’m old with 3 kids), it took a while to fall asleep but it was around 2:15am.
• The 1 year old woke at 3:15am.
• Note: he almost never wakes at night (yes I know I’m lucky) but he had no pants on (WTF dear husband who put him to bed while I was at work?) and was a bit chilly. And his paci had fallen on the ground. So I took care of those things, gave him a fresh diaper, and tried to put him back down. No luck.
• I thought I might die of need-to-sleep-itis, so I brought him into bed with us. This has not worked out well in the past, but I couldn’t stay on my feet any longer.
• He proceeded to poke me in the eye, play with my hair, and dive-bomb into my body.
• Finally woke my dead-asleep husband and made him get up with him.
• Had trouble falling back to sleep.
• Kids woke up after 6am sometime.

Yawn. I was in no shape to do the 8 miler in the morning, at least not until I had a cup or two of coffee in me. I spent the day cleaning and running after a toddler and basically exhausting myself further.

So now we come to B): I was finally ready to do the run in the afternoon. Finally. But my husband and older kids were at Costco, and I wasn’t attempting 8 miles with the toddler in the jogging stroller.

5pm rolls around and I’m ready to go. I was starving after all the hard work. So I shoved a few Fig Newtons into my mouth and filled up the water bottle, impulsively deciding to try the Nuun stuff I bought the other day, and hit the road.

Speaking of those Fig Newtons – not a wise choice for a pre-run binge. Those things sit like a rock in the stomach.

Speaking of that water bottle filled with Nuun – not a wise choice for someone who didn’t have access to a bathroom for 5 miles and has popped out three babies.

So as I’m running around the suburbs, it seemed that everyone was grilling tonight. My stomach empty and my bladder full, I finally made it home.

I feel pretty ready for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon next Sunday, even though my pace is going to be way slower than I put on my registration (why did I estimate 9:00-9:59 per mile for my first post-3rd-baby race?!). I made peace with my pace today and as long as I don’t need to many potty stops along the way, I hope I’ll come in by 2:20-2:25.

Note to self: don’t eat Fig Newtons before a workout ever again.

Side note: I really liked the Nuun even though it went right through me. That could have been sheer quantity though.

Slow and Steady (Never!) Wins The Race

As a form of self-punishment for over-eating donut holes in the office kitchen this morning, I ran farther than my scheduled 4-5 miler (I’m a bit loose on my training schedule since my week has been crazy…).

I did 5.2 miles but I was slow. Really slow. Like so slow I’m worried I need to readjust my half marathon goal time.

My Nike+ app on my phone called out my average pace every half mile as planned, but I didn’t like what it had to say.  I must have looked nuts shouting at my bicep – “NOOOOO I HATE YOU! YOU MUST BE WRONG!!!” I was in wooded paths for part of the run, so maybe it just didn’t pick up all my mileage. Yeah, I’ll go with that theory. 

I parked at my parents’ house and ran from there, since I was in the mood for a change of scenery – they live in a cute neighborhood with great paths around little lakes. The sky was getting really ominous and I was worried I’d get poured on, but only a few drops hit my hat. 

When I hit mile 3 I started to feel great and broke into what felt like a REALLY fast pace, totally pushing it with a nice, powerful stride.

At mile 3.5 Nike+ called out my stats: umm, that pace sucked too, although I could consider it less sucky than the rest of the run.

My goal for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon: I’d like to do the half at a pace of 10:00-10:30/mile, finishing within 2 hours & 15 minutes, which wouldn’t be my best half marathon by any means, but it would be respectable for my first post-partum race. I’m now confident there is no way that is happening. Mentally readjusting using online pace calculators now.

Even without speed work, I thought I’d resume my previous pacing of 10:00/mile on average without running with a group and doing track speedwork. I guess after 3 babies, being older, and with foot pain, my expectations are totally out of whack.

My next race is the triathlon so it will be a short run (3 miles). I have no clue how to estimate my pace for that because although it’s a short distance, I’ll have already had a swim and a bike segment!

Mind over matter over miles

12 miles done. Well, my Nike+ app says it was 11.57, but I think the GPS gets lost in the park a bit. If I’ve been wrong about the mileage of the park loops all these years, and therefore all my Marine Corps Marathon training was off, I think my head will explode.

So let’s just call it 12 since I have always trusted what I had clocked with my little distance calc on the jogging stroller, the computer on my bike, and the map of the park SAYING the mileage of the path.

I had a few good miles in there, really I did. But after mile 8.5 when I started to head out of the park towards home, all sorts of aches and pains started popping up. Pubic bone pain, knee pain, Morton’s Neuroma pain, foot pain, general stiffness. I think when the neuroma acts up I change my gait so it causes other issues. I stopped a few times to stretch but it didn’t seem to help much – only made it harder to get going again.

I had to really focus mentally – mind over body – and keep going with one foot in front of the other. I don’t think I’ll beat any pace records of mine from previous halves at the Nike Half, but I’d like to finish strong.

I returned to find the toddler was awake in his crib, but I couldn’t make it up the stairs to get him so I sent my husband up there. Here’s hoping I don’t look strange hobbling around the office tomorrow!