Back from the Dead

I'm still here! The last few weeks have been terrible in terms of work and school, but I'm back now! Let's see...what's happened since the last time I posted?

• Two 5K races
• One 5 mile race
• Three  PRs (because I haven't done a 5 miler before)
• Some swimming (but not enough)
• LOTS of wonderful foam rolling. My calves are happier than they've been in a loooong time. 

First was the Chesterfield Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, which I ran with B. I broke 23 after a slow start. There were more than 3000 people there and many, many people lined up way too close to the starting line. I had never run a big race without corrals! It was lots of fun though.

The 5-miler (the Believe in Girls 5M race) was on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and I placed well but wasn't trying to race hard. My goal was to keep an even pace with good form. I held consistent 8min/mile and finished at 39:59.

Yesterday, B and I ran another holiday-themed race, the Santas on the Loose 5K in Webster Groves. Everyone who entered was given a beard and a santa hat. I elected to forgo the beard because I always get way too warm when I run. It was 60 degrees! St. Louis has been burning up lately.

There were cookies and hot chocolate at the finish line, yum! This course was also hillier than expected. I don't think I've been giving Missouri enough credit, I thought it was flat all over. WRONG!

Small hills,yes, but they just kept coming! 

But - amazingly - I PR'd with a 22:28. I didn't feel like I was running that hard, but the start was much smoother than the Turkey Trot so that certainly helped. I don't love the 5K distance, but I don't want to swear off it until I break 22. I think I'll be able to do it pretty soon with a flat course with a good race plan.

So - that's been my schedule for the past month. I can write up some individual recaps if anyone is local and is interested in doing these races next year.

As for my life outside of running....
I made Thanksgiving cookies, using this awesome blog as my inspiration.

Oh yeah - done with our Christmas shopping! And see those golden star gift tags?

I made them! They were super-easy. I made some salt dough (like you'd see on pinterest), cut out stars with a cookie cutter, made a holly pattern with a big rubber stamp, and painted them with gold paint after they were done drying. 

Carly getting into the Christmas spirit...

Of course, I've been working a LOT. Here are the fruit flies that I stare at all day, e'ery day:

Well, I think you guys are more or less caught up on my oh-so-exciting (not) life. I tried out a few recipes that I'll be sharing over the next few days, including the best butternut squash soup everrrr. And marathon training officially starts tomorrow!! Very excited over here in the AIDIH household.

Have you done any holiday races this year?

New Lab, New Plan

Today I started working in a new lab! First year grad students rotate through several labs over the course of a year before they pick a place to do their thesis work. It's a great way to try out some different things before you commit 5+ years to one group, but it's a bummer to feel like a nomad for 10 months. I had gotten comfortable with the people and protocols in my old lab JUST in time to switch.

Regardless, today was fun and I feel good about my projects for the next few months. I'm in a new, much fancier building that has awesome wooden lockers for the scientists and SHOWERS in the bathrooms! I've been wanting to start swimming or running before work, but it would have been a huge pain to come back to the apartment just to shower and then walk to my lab. Now I can just finish my workout by running right to my building and showering/changing there!

Anyway...now that I'm done geeking out over a shower...
(But really, if you can't get excited about the little things, what else is there?)

I tried to go on an easy recovery run yesterday afternoon, but my calf "injury" was bothering me so I cut it short. One of my goals for my running from here on out is to listen to my body. I have a problem with either being a slave to a training schedule or totally blowing it off. Actually, the two are related - as soon as I miss or modify a scheduled run, I figure the whole thing has gone to hell in a handbasket and my plan spirals out of control. This leads to (a) initial overtraining/injury because I push when I shouldn't and then (b) severe undertraining because I'm either injured or I've given up.

No more.

This time around, I'm going to be smart, i.e. I'm not going to do 7 miles on a strained calf just because that's what my calendar told me to do. I've been an athlete since I was 9, and I need to trust that I know the difference between normal pain and "back off now!" pain. I've also left myself plenty of time to get ready for this marathon, as opposed to the 1.5 months "training" that I've done for both of my half marathons. Hopefully this means that I won't beat myself up for modifying runs because I'll know that I have time to make up the missed miles. I'm going to be serious about my stretching and foam rolling, I'll improve my nutrition, and I'll make sure that I get enough sleep. Come April, I will be ready to kill some miles and eat some hills (well, I'm always ready for hills).

And to lighten the mood, I'll leave you with a picture of Carly, a.k.a. the jello dog.

She sleeps like this all. the. time. 

Do you follow a training plan?
One of my favorite bloggers, Skinny Runner, is a marathon-running beast and she never follows a plan. Color me jealous.