Every Wish That We Put Into Motion.... (comments welcome!)

[Herding_Cats]

Weekly Wrap Up. 37 weeks until I regret all of my life choices try to fall asleep for the marathon and complete the Dopey Challenge (that I 100% made fun of and scoffed at the insane people who would do such a stupid thing no more than 7 years ago.)

We woke up to snow on the ground Monday-Wednesday. I'm over it. Spring needs to get here already.

Monday: did a 5k/45min on the treadmill (I am ONLY allowing myself to watch Bridgerton Season 2 while I'm running, so I also did a warmup and cooldown walk to get through the whole episode, in addition to the 5k.) And then had indoor baseball practice with 31 middle school boys.

Tuesday: No running, dealt with the whole registration debacle instead. Another indoor practice. Headed off a major blowup with one of my volunteer coaches, which was absolutely exhausting.

Wednesday: No running. Outdoor practice (FINALLY) where I shivered enough to feel tired.

Thursday: No running. Last practice before my team's first doubleheader.

Friday: No running (sense a theme going on here?) The weather forecast was a liar and it was NOT 55, it was like 45. And I was under-dressed to be outside standing around from 3:00-8:30. We somehow didn't hit the ball at all (we have no idea why our kids didn't/couldn't hit the ball because this group does NOT usually struggle at the plate) and lost both games.

Saturday: 4mi/57min running (and some walking) It was 77 degrees at the warmest point today. Yes. On Wednesday morning it was SNOWING and today it was almost 80. Felt good to get outside and sweat again. Also, I am dehydrated, so that's something I need to work on again. My big water cup took a baseball to the handle a couple of weeks ago and has been sitting in the car since. DS3 decided he was going to run with me, and then asked me when we were going every 15min until we left. He wanted to run the route that has the hill on it since he ran all the way up it last year (and I walked a little bit in the middle and he hasn't let me forget it) so that's the direction we went. I now know that going UPhill makes my foot/achilles Very Upset with me. So maybe I won't go that way again for awhile. DS complained about the back of his knees (but then indicated his heels once we got home) a ton after we hit mile 2, so we did quite a bit of walking during mile 3 (which included going up the dreaded hill.) DH/DS1 had a baseball tournament downstate today which their team won, so we are celebrating with takeout from our local mexican restaurant and costco margarita (it's SO GOOD.)

Total Running minutes for the week: 102.

Crossing my fingers for next week as the temperatures are forecasted to plummet back down into the upper 30s.

 

[HangWithMerida]

I hadn’t counted the weeks out. 37 weeks somehow makes it feel closer than 8.5 months! I’ll cross my fingers for you next week. Here we are at a point where lows are in the low 70’s all the time so my morning runs are just a variation of how hot is it outside and am I leaving early enough to not put on sunscreen.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Putting this in here because I know you all will "get it." Today we got around to buying the bigger shadow box to start putting all our race pins in from MW and SS. And we absolutely cannot find ANY of our MW pins. They're all together somewhere, but we don't know where. 7 of them. Ugh. And we all know what the merch situation was that weekend, so replacing them isn't much of an option at $50/ea on ebay.

 

[Herding_Cats]

TLDR: I booked more things for MW. I managed to get a run in. And it snowed 3 days this week. I'm so sick and tired of snow.

I will forget things, so I'm going to update on days I actually run.

Sunday: intended to run. But then didn't. And then it rained.

Monday: Snow. YAY!

Tuesday: MORE SNOW! We also booked our flights for MW. We opted to use our local airport because of how much DH did not enjoy the 4hr-each-way drive to Detroit this past race weekend, and by the time we factored in gas and parking to fly out of Grand Rapids we were within $150. And now I'm having all of the feelings about leaving DD home with grandma for a full week and debating booking a refundable ticket just in case we need to take her with us and leave her with my parents in FL for Wed-Fri until DH is done running. Don't get me wrong, I'm really looking forward to an adults-only trip, but mom-guilt is real. We got SS booked for Thursday-Monday, and now I'm just trying to find someone who will rent me 20pts so we can get the Tuesday/Wednesday nights at OKW. And for rental cars to NOT be almost $600.

Wednesday: the ground was white this morning. It was 25 degrees. Remember back on Saturday it was almost 80? Yeah. I miss that. DD fell asleep on the couch so I took advantage of yet another evening indoor baseball practice and got on the treadmill.

Ran for 1 hour, watching eposide 2 of season 2 of Bridgerton. And now I want to just watch the rest of the season. (I've read the whole series a couple of times and this was my least favorite book, but they're doing a nice job with the adaptation.) Stats for this run: 60min, 4.31mi. I walked 1 minute each time I got to a mile. I did a couple of strides (which is super awkward on a treadmill) and I set the speed to 5.5 (which is pretty close to a 11:00/mi pace) for the last quarter mile and then speed walked for a couple of minutes to get to the full 60min. Average HR was 141 which is right in the middle of my zone 3 "aerobic zone" with my recently updated HR zones.

I definitely needed to get a run in for some stress relief because HOLY CATS, the hard part of coaching is NOT the kids, it's the PARENTS. Also, it's super fun to find mystery bruises all over my body right now from playing catch or fielding (or having balls stretch the L-Screen when I'm throwing BP.)

WE ARE 36 WEEKS FROM MARATHON WEEKEND EXPO DAY!

 

[GollyGadget]

Average HR was 141 which is right in the middle of my zone 3 "aerobic zone" with my recently updated HR zones.

This reminds me that my hr zones are much more accurate now that I changed them to % heart rate reserve. My Garmin isn't fancy enough to do the calculations so I had to manually put them in and it looks a little weird, but it works.
% Max Heart Rate

Half marathon results


% Heart Rate Reserve

Half marathon zones


It's makes a ton more sense that I would spend 83% of my time in zone 4 threshold during a half. As you can see in the screenshots, before I updated the zones, Garmin thought I was running in zone 5 maximum for nearly 90% of the race. I'm kind of surprised it didn't warn me that I was on the verge of exploding if it really thought I was at max for that long.

 

[Herding_Cats]

This reminds me that my hr zones are much more accurate now that I changed them to % heart rate reserve. My Garmin isn't fancy enough to do the calculations so I had to manually put them in and it looks a little weird, but it works.
% Max Heart Rate
It's makes a ton more sense that I would spend 83% of my time in zone 4 threshold during a half. As you can see in the screenshots, before I updated the zones, Garmin thought I was running in zone 5 maximum for nearly 90% of the race. I'm kind of surprised it didn't warn me that I was on the verge of exploding if it really thought I was at max for that long.

Right?! This was my HR data during my taper for MW. When I was probably in the best cardio/endurance shape of my life. On a treadmill, so temperature controlled and FLAT, but using the factory setting for HR zones based on my age/gender.


And this is from my run yesterday. When I haven’t run in about a month and a half (except for the SS 10k) but with my updated zones. And it was almost all at the same pace, for the same distance, same treadmill, etc.
And this is why perceived effort is important. Because these were both easy runs, and the HR zones are only one tool to use for training.

 

[michigandergirl]

Let me know if you run the Holland Haven Half!! I'm considering running that one this year because it aligns well with fall marathon training. I've run it twice before and it's a good one, well run. Aid stations usually have interesting offerings, like blueberries, popsicles, and BACON.

 

[Herding_Cats]

No running, but I did order my first costume (probably for the 5k or 10k) off ebay because it was just too good of a deal to pass up!

 

[Livelovedance]

WE ARE 36 WEEKS FROM MARATHON WEEKEND EXPO DAY!

36 weeks sounds exciting and terrifying all at the same time lol

 

[lookingforsunshine]

like blueberries

That sounds amazing. I have a good friend who lives in Holland… I might have to check this race out sometime.

 

[Herding_Cats]

<Insert whiney post here>

A few things, and in all seriousness, if you read this and think "Hey, you should ask your doc about ____" please say so, because problems/injuries are not something I've dealt with in almost 20 years, and that was and arm thing fixed by a chiropractor in 2 appointments. I see my doc on the 16th, so I'm not asking for a dianosis or anything, but I know that there are sometimes things that commonly crop up for runners that I should/could at least ask about.

First off: weight loss. I gained around 15 pounds since October, 10 of which were leading up to MW, and the other 5 after that. After MW I took a break from running and then jumped back into lifting/hiit (Liift4) with around 10-15mpw of easy running. And I put myself back onto "Plan A" of 21 day fix for portion as an alternative to counting calories. Over 7 weeks I lost a whole 3 (it might have been 2?) pounds, and by week 6 I was exhausted all the time. Like falling asleep in a chair after lunch exhausted. Which, that maybe means I wasn't eating enough calories??? I was so fed up with it that I quit the eating plan, went back to my "normal" eating and just trying to make sure I was still eating a lot of veggies and not having carbs/sugar for all of the things. I gained back the (little) weight I had lost and have stayed there since. I'm also hitting the wonderful age for women, and especially women in my family, when they put on a LOT of weight. In my family it tends to be late-30s/early 40s (I'm 38) but they also aren't very active, and I don't want to just shrug and brush this off as hormonal stuff.

Tangentially: The tiredness makes me wonder about my iron levels also? But I'm not sure how much they usually fluctuate and if they would be back into the normal range now since I've been doing so little for awhile now. Additional side-note, I'm still falling asleep early more often than I "should", but currently I'm chalking that up to the stress of having added in baseball season, because there are other nights where I go take a melatonin because I can't fall asleep. I know I'm also at the age when the thyroid can go crazy or quit altogether, and I got that tested when I had bloodwork last year and it was in the normal range.

Secondly: This foot/ankle thing. It's been a problem off and on for a year now. Originally it acted like I rolled it, even though I hadn't rolled it. Then I thought it was my shoes, and I changed shoes and it was not an issue often, but became more of an issue when my mileage really ramped up in September and December. I thought maybe it was because of how crowned my local roads are since the ankle that bothers me is the "low side" ankle....so maybe I'm landing harder on that foot. But then I ran strictly on a treadmill for 3 months and it only got worse. It also got worse as I gained weight. (So maybe problem 1 is aggravating problem 2.) Then I thought maybe it was because of the shoes I was wearing for lifting/plyo because they are pretty old. Or that maybe it was the plyo itself. But I haven't done that for a month and a half now (or really much of anything), and still the problem persists. ALSO, my achilles above my heel is thicker in one spot than it is on the other (not-bothersome) ankle. I'm definitely leaning toward asking for PT for it (although who knows how I'm going to jam that into my schedule at this point.)

 

[garneska]

For the tired thing, i would ask the Dr to check your thyroid levels. There is a simple blood test and a more comprehensive one. I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism long time back (OMG it was 1998). I actually take two thyroid medicines for it and I get the comprehensive blood test, but i have had issues for a long time. It would fit both tired and not losing weight. Now you are older, but not as old as me, and it is harder to lose weight. The only way i was able to do it is with counting calories. I counted everything that went in my mouth and counted my exercise. I used the Lose It app. Not saying other ways don't work but the math works.

 

[jmasgat]

I was also going to suggest a thyroid check. My mom and sisters have/had Hypothyroidism and take meds. So far, I haven't, but it is definitely something to check.

As for feet....(And I write this as I am STILL recovering from my run "accident/injury" last week)....it doesn't take much to screw up feet. I am amazed at the complexity of a foot. Seems like a small injury in one area then causes the rest of the foot to rebel. Any change in gait from "normal" will cause issues with complementary/adjacent muscles, etc. Twice this has happened to me (one of them being now) For me, it has just taken time and patience (ha!) to resolve. But if you are still having these issues for this long, I would try an orthopedic doctor and/or the PT.

I hope you find resolution for the issues. Feel free to "whine away" (whining is grossly underrated in my book--and who better will understand your frustration than this community)

 

[HangWithMerida]

I will second @garneska. Talk to your doctor about bloodwork to rule out medical concerns.

Re: weight loss, we are close to the same age (41 here). I lost 50 lbs when I was about your age. I counted calories and meal prepped all my food for 6 days a week. Removing the decision making and emotional/stress eating options from my routine was the key for me. Now it is a habit and is just easier than having to think about what I will be having to eat every day. I have maintained my weight loss for going on 4 years. I know meal prepping seems daunting and doesn't work great for everyone's life, but it doesn't have to be all or nothing. Some people just do breakfast and lunch then deal with family dinner on a daily basis. Some just do their lunch so they aren't tempted to eat out at work. You can make it fit your life. The goal is to actually make things easier. Calorie counting isn't sexy but it works. Just don't create too big of a deficit when you start. As a runner, you need to fuel your exercise. It's easy to fall into the trap of having too large of a deficit and hamstringing your efforts. Calculate your BMR and TDEE to get an idea of what your body needs to function before you start setting any calorie targets. https://goodcalculators.com/tdee-bmr-calculator/

A PT consultation also sounds like a good idea for the ankle, especially since you have been dealing with it for so long and noticing swelling on your achilles.

 

[GollyGadget]

I highly recommend checking with a PT on the ankle thing. Most will do a free screening which is a great way to see if it's a good fit for you. Look for one that has experience with running.

I had some knee and hip pain in January. It got to the point that I couldn't even sit without being in pain. I considered going to a PCP but came to the conclusion that they would just tell me to rest and not how to resolve the issue that caused the pain in the first place. Anyway, went to PT for the first time and it was eye opening. The PT was able to pinpoint my weaknesses and suggest strength exercises to address them, but most impressively gave me some stretching that made the pain disappear pretty much overnight. I had been doing stretches just apparently the wrong ones. These people go to school for years to understand the mechanics of our body and how it all works together. Sometimes we just need to talk to the experts.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Honest truth, losing weight at 28 or 34 was way easier than it's been at 37-38 for either Steph or myself. Just doesn't seem like the old tricks we used to use work as well as they used to. But we're both still trying. I've personally always found that if I try to lose more than 1 pound per week (500 calorie deficit per day or 3500 per week), then my body doesn't tolerate it. I almost always bounce back. What deficit were you aiming for?

On the ankle, I've injured mine twice so far. The first time I took some time before seeing a PT, and then they helped, but ultimately it took me taking 19 weeks completely off from running to resolve the issue. Problem is, while I corrected the injury, I didn't correct the root cause. So when I injured my ankle the second time (different area) the PT could see the weakness in the ankle was the root cause of both injuries. The second ankle injury lingered for a year despite seeing the PT for several months during that time period. But like @GollyGadget, I had one experience where I had a glute injury that lingered for a few weeks and I couldn't get rid of it. Saw the PT, and it was almost an instant fix from the new stretches exercises. So that's all to say I've had a range of experience from an instant fix to a year long process. But my policy I try to adhere to is that if an injury lasts longer than two weeks consistently, then I should probably get a professional opinion.

 

[sandam1]

Anyway, went to PT for the first time and it was eye opening. The PT was able to pinpoint my weaknesses and suggest strength exercises to address them, but most impressively gave me some stretching that made the pain disappear pretty much overnight. I had been doing stretches just apparently the wrong ones. These people go to school for years to understand the mechanics of our body and how it all works together. Sometimes we just need to talk to the experts.

This mirrors my experience! When I went the first time, it was for an issue that I'd had since I had started running. But it wasn't an injury and no one could give me any idea on how to make it go away. I spent less than 5 minutes with my PT and he told me what was wrong and how we were going to fix it. The right PT can be a magician - emphasis on "right" one because there are some that just aren't very good at their jobs, but there are some that worth their weight in gold.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I did double check my Dr's office website today and my PCP is listed as having a "Medical Special Interest" in a few things, including sports medicine. So maybe she will know what's wrong with me.

I was also going to suggest a thyroid check. My mom and sisters have/had Hypothyroidism and take meds. So far, I haven't, but it is definitely something to check.

As for feet....(And I write this as I am STILL recovering from my run "accident/injury" last week)....it doesn't take much to screw up feet. I am amazed at the complexity of a foot. Seems like a small injury in one area then causes the rest of the foot to rebel. Any change in gait from "normal" will cause issues with complementary/adjacent muscles, etc. Twice this has happened to me (one of them being now) For me, it has just taken time and patience (ha!) to resolve. But if you are still having these issues for this long, I would try an orthopedic doctor and/or the PT.

I hope you find resolution for the issues. Feel free to "whine away" (whining is grossly underrated in my book--and who better will understand your frustration than this community)

From one of my mom groups I know how hard it can be to get a thyroid dx sometimes, and I'm not convinced that it's tyroid, but I have enough cousins with issues that I do want to keep on top of watching for it. And I agree. Whining can be helpful, because those feelings gotta go somewhere!

I will second @garneska. Talk to your doctor about bloodwork to rule out medical concerns.

Re: weight loss, we are close to the same age (41 here). I lost 50 lbs when I was about your age. I counted calories and meal prepped all my food for 6 days a week. Calorie counting isn't sexy but it works. Just don't create too big of a deficit when you start. As a runner, you need to fuel your exercise. It's easy to fall into the trap of having too large of a deficit and hamstringing your efforts. Calculate your BMR and TDEE to get an idea of what your body needs to function before you start setting any calorie targets. https://goodcalculators.com/tdee-bmr-calculator/

A PT consultation also sounds like a good idea for the ankle, especially since you have been dealing with it for so long and noticing swelling on your achilles.

So I used your handy little calculator, and if I put in "medium exercise" (which I'm completely guessing at) it puts me at around 2200-2300cal/day for TDEE. And if I compare that to the calorie calculator on my garmin for days that I was exercising, they're pretty close (as in, within 100 or so....on days I was doing a workout and then a 3-4mi run I was closer to 2400-2500 according to my watch)

I highly recommend checking with a PT on the ankle thing. Most will do a free screening which is a great way to see if it's a good fit for you. Look for one that has experience with running.

I had some knee and hip pain in January. It got to the point that I couldn't even sit without being in pain. I considered going to a PCP but came to the conclusion that they would just tell me to rest and not how to resolve the issue that caused the pain in the first place. Anyway, went to PT for the first time and it was eye opening. The PT was able to pinpoint my weaknesses and suggest strength exercises to address them, but most impressively gave me some stretching that made the pain disappear pretty much overnight. I had been doing stretches just apparently the wrong ones. These people go to school for years to understand the mechanics of our body and how it all works together. Sometimes we just need to talk to the experts.

I'm going to ask our XC/Track coaches if they have any PT recommendations and then find one that takes my insurance. I know there's a REALLY good one about an hour away, but that's just not reasonable for me to get to.

Honest truth, losing weight at 28 or 34 was way easier than it's been at 37-38 for either Steph or myself. Just doesn't seem like the old tricks we used to use work as well as they used to. But we're both still trying. I've personally always found that if I try to lose more than 1 pound per week (500 calorie deficit per day or 3500 per week), then my body doesn't tolerate it. I almost always bounce back. What deficit were you aiming for?

On the ankle, I've injured mine twice so far. The first time I took some time before seeing a PT, and then they helped, but ultimately it took me taking 19 weeks completely off from running to resolve the issue. Problem is, while I corrected the injury, I didn't correct the root cause. So when I injured my ankle the second time (different area) the PT could see the weakness in the ankle was the root cause of both injuries. The second ankle injury lingered for a year despite seeing the PT for several months during that time period. But like @GollyGadget, I had one experience where I had a glute injury that lingered for a few weeks and I couldn't get rid of it. Saw the PT, and it was almost an instant fix from the new stretches exercises. So that's all to say I've had a range of experience from an instant fix to a year long process. But my policy I try to adhere to is that if an injury lasts longer than two weeks consistently, then I should probably get a professional opinion.

So when I was sticking to my food plan it was the 1200-1499cal range (which was the recommendation using their chart and formula recommended), and I was assuming that I was going a little bit over most days, but that assumption could have been wrong. But if I look at the numbers from the calculator @HangWithMerida linked, it appears that I was probably being too aggressive with my deficit.

Having to take even more extended time off from running is seriously the worst case scenario right now. (OK, so maybe being told to never run or do plyo-type stuff again is the actual worst case, but ANYWAY.) I will drive myself bonkers worrying about Dopey. Although it might force me back onto the spin bike to at least have the cardio.....

This mirrors my experience! When I went the first time, it was for an issue that I'd had since I had started running. But it wasn't an injury and no one could give me any idea on how to make it go away. I spent less than 5 minutes with my PT and he told me what was wrong and how we were going to fix it. The right PT can be a magician - emphasis on "right" one because there are some that just aren't very good at their jobs, but there are some that worth their weight in gold.

I need this to be my solution. Because I just need it to be. Little bit of pixie dust, stretch like this, do this exercise 2x a day, and be set. It's a nice thought.

 

[HangWithMerida]

So I used your handy little calculator, and if I put in "medium exercise" (which I'm completely guessing at) it puts me at around 2200-2300cal/day for TDEE. And if I compare that to the calorie calculator on my garmin for days that I was exercising, they're pretty close (as in, within 100 or so....on days I was doing a workout and then a 3-4mi run I was closer to 2400-2500 according to my watch)

So when I was sticking to my food plan it was the 1200-1499cal range (which was the recommendation using their chart and formula recommended), and I was assuming that I was going a little bit over most days, but that assumption could have been wrong. But if I look at the numbers from the calculator @HangWithMerida linked, it appears that I was probably being too aggressive with my deficit.

I agree with @DopeyBadger above with the recommendation to limit your deficit to 500 cal/day. That is also the target I had for my weight loss and it was slow going (took a year to lose those 50lbs) but I wasn't hungry or tired and have been able to maintain that loss easily. If your TDEE is at 2200-2300 and that is close to the estimate you are getting from your garmin, you probably estimated your exercise pretty well. So take 500 cals from that to get your new range. This method does require you to be aware of and honest about your activity levels. If your exercise drops and you don't adjust your range you could easily be eating at your maintenance calories.
My husband took his on a more day by day basis. He calculated his TDEE at sedentary and subtracted from that to get his base. He then ate back any calories he burned from exercise. So from day to day his calories were pretty variable whereas I had a steady number that averaged out over the week.

 

[sandam1]

I'm going to ask our XC/Track coaches if they have any PT recommendations and then find one that takes my insurance. I know there's a REALLY good one about an hour away, but that's just not reasonable for me to get to.

Honestly, in the absence of someone just as good closer, I would make the extra effort to get to the "really good one." You might be able to minimize your visits - I know that my PT's office offers telehealth visits - but particularly for diagnosis and setting up an initial treatment plan, you want to the best that you can find.

Also, you mentioned your insurance - my insurance doesn't actually cover physical therapy unless the result of me actually being hospitalized. What I found was that my PT was incredibly accommodating for me to pay out of pocket (they see it all of the time) and the visits weren't prohibitively expensive. Considering what I was going to spend on runDisney weekend, the few hundred dollars that I spent at my PT is well worth it.

Having to take even more extended time off from running is seriously the worst case scenario right now. (OK, so maybe being told to never run or do plyo-type stuff again is the actual worst case, but ANYWAY.) I will drive myself bonkers worrying about Dopey. Although it might force me back onto the spin bike to at least have the cardio.....

The reality is that now is the BEST time to deal with it - and if that means taking a break, so be it. What you don't want to have happen is to keep running now and have to take even more time off during the middle of the actual Dopey training. If you have to spend some time on the bike now (and spoiler alert you probably are) to stay on the road later, that seems like the best scenario.

I know that my PT tells a story about he's actually trained people to run FAST marathons using what he calls a "s**t ton of biking." These were people that just couldn't stay healthy doing the volume of running that they needed to do to reach their goals and it worked. It's not what you want to aim for, but it is possible. That's why finding a PT that deals with runners is so important because they know how to balance injury recovery with training for X race. Plus having someone that understands the runner mentality is crucial.

I need this to be my solution. Because I just need it to be. Little bit of pixie dust, stretch like this, do this exercise 2x a day, and be set. It's a nice thought.

Oh, I don't want to give the impression that what I went through was easy. I was out of running for 4-6 weeks in November and December (if I recall correctly) during my Princess training plan (so late February race) and could only walk, bike, or elliptical. I also put in a LOT of strength work and very diligent stretching to correct the problem. Fixing physical problems never seems to be quick or easy, but postponing dealing with it doesn't help either. My PT uses the rule that for every week/month that you've been dealing with the problem, that's approximately how long it's going to take to fix it. His point is, of course, if you catch the problem quick and deal with it right away, you will get back on the road faster. But most runners don't which is why he has a thriving practice and side business.