Recovery and Whats next

I'll be in Minnesota until July 2nd and my plan while I am here is to relax, recover and figure out what is next on the agenda.  This is how it has gone down so far.

It was easy to rest on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday but today I am feeling all rested and ready to roll. I realize that my body will need a little more time to recover regardless of how totally normal I am feeling right now. BUT, I still wanted to get in some sort of workout.

Today's Workout: Keeping up with my 5 year old at Bounce Depot.  It is like this giant warehouse with all kinds of blow up slides, obstacles courses etc. I went in there thinking that we'd have some great bonding time and I'd be all ready to bounce around with him for hours... Only to start feeling like my brain was going to explode and my lunch come up after only 15 minutes.  Apparently running 26 miles is easier on your body then the bounce depot..... (note to self, only go to bounce depot with 5 year old if one of his friends promises to be present.)

After my workout or lack thereof I did the next best thing and stop by the grocery store and pick up all of the ingredients for dessert. My family and I are staying with my in-laws for a few days and I'd promised them some dessert of their choosing. 


So this Mess....

Followed by this Mess....

Turned into these two desserts (Banana Cream Trifle and Chocolate Banana Cream Pie) that I thoroughly enjoyed =)

Although I am able to relax and recover from the marathon I am already excited and anticipating what is going to be next on the calendar. I am for sure doing a Sprint Triathlon at the end of July.

SUPER excited about it.  

I will be blogging my training adventures for sure.....not that I have any idea how to train for one of those.  Suggestions?

Along with that, here are some up coming races this fall that I am trying to decide between.
Rock'n'Roll marathon or 1/2 in Denver (Oct. 9th)
Mankato Marathon in Minnesota (Oct. 22nd)
CIM Marathon in Sacrament (Dec. 4th)

And of course, my dream race which although probably won't happen this year but always do need to add to this list is:

Disneys the Goofy Challenge
My first marathon was the Disney marathon and after being a part of it and watching all of these people participate in the goofy challenge that I swore I'd go back.  If they can do it, I can do it! But I'll probably have to wait until next year....my dad always taught me to pay my bills...SHOOT.

Anywhoo, WHAT TO DO????

Anyone out there ran the Denver Rock'n'Roll?

Mankato, or CIM?

Also, I need help with training for my first tri.  Do I really attempt to do speed on a bike or just go for rides?

Happy Running -Jen

p.s. my plan is to be happily running again next week.  Take that week easy with some normal miles and then hop back into training slowly the following week =)

I hate being sick

This post is dedicated to getting sick in the middle of training for a marathon. Yep, that is what happened to me last week.  I will give you a brief Description of how it all went down.

Last Monday I was determined to get in my 20. So I woke up early, and did it.  It felt hard and horrible.  I kept looking down at my Garmin thinking.... why does this pace feel so hard? Then Monday night I started getting achy and feeling like junk. The long and the short of this post is that some days I ran and felt OK, some days I ran and felt like crap and some days I didn't run at all because I knew I was sick, but just wasn't sure how sick I really was. And although Advil(the only dependable pain reliever that works for me) covered up a lot of my discomfort I think that this past week I actually had the FLU! I hate the flu..... I mean seriously, who gets the flu... me apparently. BOO

I guess I didn't realize how crappy I really felt until now I just keep feeling better. Had I known that I actually was that sick maybe I would have not tried so hard to keep at my training plan. But regardless some of those workouts did feel good.

So here is my question. How do you know how much to give when you are sick? I am kind of against just doing nothing unless you feel so miserable that you literally just can't.  I do feel that in the past there have been times when I have felt a cold coming on and an airborne and good run have kicked it to the curb.  So how do you know when to and when not to? Maybe I should lay off the Advil and let myself feel miserable and then I wouldn't be so tempted to just keep at it? I dunno.... any suggestions would be wonderful.

Anyways, at least now I am feeling better and today is the start of a new week =) I hope everyone out there does NOT get the flu and we can all move into the new spring summer seasons Flu, Cold, or whatever annoying virus free!

Happy Training all.  Jen

Oh and just one more shout out to all my Boston Marathon friends who are running today!!!!  WAHOOOO!

Heart Rate and Recovery Runs

In my running club they are having us figure out our Maximum and resting heart rates for training purposes. Heart rate can be used for several different reasons. In our club, one reason would be to make sure on your recovery days you are actually recovering. As runners, I think a general mentality is to just always try to push to go faster and faster which at times can cause more harm then good. So staying within a certain zone on a recovery day can really be helpful for your body. For more information on what an actual Recovery Run is, please click Here.

BUT, I have decided I do not like running Long Slow runs. For these simple reasons.... they are long and extra slow! So what would normally take you 1.5 hrs now takes you almost 2 and for what... to recover???!!! How do you all feel about this? Yesterday was cold, I went 12 miles and I had a hard time staying warm and not getting stiff and I felt it was because I tried to go so slow and stay within what would be my heart rate recovery zone.....CRAZINESS I say!!

Although heart rate is important and so is recovery, I have decided to recover only from 4-6 miles. Then, I am going to turn my long runs back into a variety of tempo and general aerobic runs where you run your natural pace or faster. What do ya think?

On a side note....

This is me sporting my staying warm in the winter running gear. It is important to wear layers so you can shed if necessary. When running I have found all kinds of trees, bushes, etc. that provide excellent hiding spots for extra layers that were making me uncomfortable. Be smart and stay warm!