Trust and the coach

For the past week, I have been harboring a little secret. Today I shared it with Becky. After I told her, she shrugged her shoulders, which I took to mean it was ok. In Becky, I trust. Coach Extraordinaire. Super Woman. Wise Sage.

I knew my coach was a superhero, but it was confirmed today!
photo by Buckshot Images

I've been off the road for almost a week now, letting my foot rest so the devil in my plantar fascia can chill out. I've been pedalling away on my bike trainer, posting yoga poses for the Sweatpink #flexandflow challenge, and lifting all the weights with Becky. I can clean and I can squat. I've been wearing my deadlift shoes. I've been diligently stretching and rolling my foot.

By the way, Becky confirmed what I already suspected: yes, cycling does aggravate the plantar fascia. Certainly not as much as running, but yes, there is some aggravating going on. Damn it.

The one thing I'm not doing this week is running. And to tell you the truth, I'm not missing running right now. At all.

There it is. And it isn't even Runfessions...

It's no wonder I'm having night sweats...

I haven't told anyone this until today. I feel a little funny saying it here. After all, I'm a runner. I do all things running. I write about it. I talk about it. I love it.

But let's stop and think about it. To meet my mileage goal at the end of the year, I did run a lot more running than when I would normally be winding down. Becky told me today that I ran way more last year than she would have liked. She said she understood my need to meet the goal. But it was a lot of miles.

While I'm on this little break, I'm kind of enjoying pedalling in the comfort of my family room. I'm having fun picking out cycling videos on YouTube. So far I've ridden in Italy, France, and Australia. It's not all fun and games and pretty scenery, though. When I climb off the bike, I'm sweating profusely. And it wasn't because of that guy in the France video who was wearing white bike shorts. White shorts and endurance sports should never happen. Just sayin'. No, I know I'm working hard because I've been wearing my heart rate monitor, and I've been riding in my target HR zone--between 140-160 BPM.

And because my foot is still bothering me, I'll take one more week before I head back out to the road. No one even had to twist my arm. It's supposed to be brutally cold this weekend anyways. Icy. Snowy. Cold. Brrr.

What? The cold never bothered me before. Am I getting soft?

Nah. Just a little burned out. Wrecked. 

No worry, I'll be out there soon enough. I've got a spring marathon to train for! Oh, that. Today, I asked Becky about a training plan. Her response?

"This isn't like your last one. You're supposed to just enjoy this one!" 

Wait...no training plan? Yes, Becky's right, Big Sur is all about the experience, but it is still 26.2 freaking miles! With a few hills. 2000 feet of them. Says the flatlander. 

Becky is hoping that a lot of the weight training I'm doing will prepare me for the hills. After this strength cycle is complete, there's going to be more plyometrics and HIIT again. But mentally, I do need to do some hill training. Some speed work too. And some long runs. I'm going to piecework some kind of plan together. Experience will pay off here. I wouldn't recommend this approach if you haven't run a marathon before.

While I have 100% trust in my coach, I plan on working on that training plan this weekend. 

Today while I was at CrossFit, a woman from Becky's class introduced herself to me. She told me she reads my blog. She also told me she loves my pictures. Living in the area, she says can usually figure out where I take them, but she told me that they always look like some exotic locale. Well, how fun was hearing that? I always try to find beauty even in an area that isn't known for its ambiance. It's there. It all depends on your perspective.

Let's see if she can figure out where I took this one for SweatPink's #flexandflow challenge. Taking this picture was a mini-adventure. I was on my way home from yoga class and found the perfect spot for the pose of the day. As I was setting up to take this picture, I noticed a small dog running through the park. I watched him run, I realized it wasn't a small dog at all. It was a coyote! Luckily, he wasn't interested in me--they never are, I'm all gristle--and kept on going. Crisis averted. I set the timer on my phone and started to back up, getting myself in position to take the picture. I didn't realize I was standing on the edge of a hill, which was coated with an icy crust. My tree started to slide down the hill and I couldn't stop! I fell forward, put my hands down on the crusty surface, and clawed my way to the top of the slope. Just like a mountain climber, right? I looked around to make sure no one saw me, resumed the pose, and snapped the picture.

Completly unintentional.

Namaste.

Do you ever get burnt out on running or any other activity? What do you do to get your head back in the game? Any funny selfie stories?

Today I'm linking up this post with the DC Trifecta: Courtney, Cynthia, and Mar!

It's a wrap!

It's the end of the year as we know it...

It's time to take down all the holiday decorations and get back to my regularly scheduled life. But first, I've got a few loose ends to tie up here on the blog. The Weekly Wrap, hosted by Tricia and Holly, is the perfect place to do it! You may want to check out what everyone else is posting and while you are there, wish Tricia and Holly good luck on the WDW Marathon, happening next weekend!

So let's get this party started! First things first, a few leftovers from 2015:

I did a data dump with my Garmin and found all kinds of fun statistics. I'm kind of a numbers geek. My Forerunner 10 gave me a surprisingly large amount of interesting (at least to me) data. I've summed it all up in this fun infographic:

This week I received a few reminders of some awesome events I participated in this fall.

My official Chicago Marathon participation certificate arrived:

In case there was any doubt.

I also received some photos from the Underground Polar Express run that I participated in a few weeks ago. A fun day with friends, it was a great event for a good cause. I'll be back. So fun.

Me, Marcia, and Sara

Never one to miss a photog! But check out the shirtless guy behind us. Really? In December? At a Santa run?

This past week, I hit my final goal for 2015, that #RunThisYear goal of 2015 kms/1252 miles that I set for myself one year ago. That is my highest yearly mileage ever, and this was my first year ever that I didn't miss any time on the road for injury. I am thrilled with that, and I need to give credit to my coach Becky, who has worked hard with me to strengthen and balance my glutes, hips, and hamstrings. She also developed a marathon training plan for me which was tough, but effective. Low miles, lots of cross training, and plenty of mental toughness sprinkled in.

As promised, after this run, I hung up my running shoes to devote some time to recovery. Hoping my hiatus will be brief. But I need to get this PF under control. My love/hate relationship with my faux Strassburg sock continues. Got heel lifts? Downward dogs? Compression sleeve? Foot strengthening? Did you even know this was a thing? According to this article, it is THE thing for PF.

So yes, I'm doing those heel lifts. What else can I do?

The first thing I did was treat my feet to a pedicure on New Year's Eve. Afterwards, I slipped on my new Oofos sandals, which I won from Kim at Kooky Runner. I think I'm in love. Let's just say these flip flops are my new favorite thing! Have you tried them yet?

It's all about the pretty toes...and the super comfy shoes!

I also went to see Becky for my weekly workout--she had me doing more cleans, front squats, and deadlifts. Since she's a corrective exercise specialist as well as an endurance coach, I asked her for any advice she could give me that I wasn't yet doing for my foot. She talked with me about doing some arch rolling on the lacrosse ball as soon as I get up in the morning, before I even stand up.

Since Becky was on board with my plan to take some time off running, I was able to leave the CrossFit box with a bike trainer to use for the winter. Can you say win?

Thanks to YouTube, I rode for an hour on Saturday through the Italian countryside and on Sunday, I rode along the beach and up a mountain. I'll be sharing more about indoor bike training in a separate post, but let's just say it is a worthy successor to the treadmill. Equally as boring and tough. I wore my heart rate monitor to make sure I was getting a decent workout, and I stayed in "the zone". Oooh, the pain! The sweat! My husband had to turn on the ceiling fan. I chugged my Nuun hydration throughout.

Completely non-running related but worth a mention: I went to see the movie Sisters with my sister Lisa. We had heard that the movie had received mixed reviews. But it's Tina Fey and Amy Pohler! We both thought it was hilarious. In fact, we laughed so hard we cried. If you liked Bridesmaids, you'll like this one. There are so many one-liners that I can't remember them all.

We decided that we need to up our dance game. Not that we ever had one...

What did you do this week? Ready to go back to reality? Seen any good movies (besides Star Wars?)