Exercising when you're sick

It all started yesterday.  I felt a tickle in my throat when my alarm went off at 5:00 am but assumed it was just dry from the fan being on.  So I went and taught my spin class.  I felt a little weak while I was teaching but figured it must have been because I was on tired legs since I did Monday's run after work and didn't have enough time to rest.  Then went out to lift weights and several times had to stop because I was seeing spots.  By the time I got home from the gym I was completely wiped out.  I took a hot shower, got my kids off to school, called in sick to work and went back to bed.  I slept for 5 straight hours.  Very unlike me.  

Then last night I slept good so I got up to run this morning.  It's always hard to gauge how you feel in the morning because honestly I always feel like crap until I get going.  Well this morning was totally different the more miles we went I felt worse.  I cut the run short by a mile and had to walk part of my last mile because I was feeling so weak.  Same thing today.  Get the kids off and go back to bed.  I'm not sure what I have because I don't have any other symptoms besides a headache, exhaustion and body aches.  This better go away soon because I have lots to get done and really don't have time for this.

Usually if I exercise when I'm a little sick it makes me feel better.  But this time it seems to just be draining me of everything I have left.  

Do you exercise when you're sick?

My Type of Therapy

This pretty much says it all.  Running is totally therapy for me.  I love the way I feel when I run.  I love talking to the girls when I run.  I love that what is said on the road stays on the road.  

P.S.  Today's workout is an easy 6 mile run.

The Turkey Trot

Four years ago we added a new tradition to our Schultz Family Thanksgiving - the Earn Your Turkey 4 mile run on Thanksgiving morning.  There is a 4 mile run, a 2 mile walk and kids races.  The first year we did it we had shirts made and everyone did the race.  We had about 40 people in the race and 9 of the 10 kids did the race (Mark was on his mission).  I think we walked away with 4 or 5 turkeys that year.  I love starting off Thanksgiving with this race!!

This year only a few of us did it.  And I actually won my age group this year at 29:31.9.  Too bad we left right after the race and I didn't stay to pick up my turkey.  I ran the fastest I've ever run the race (7:30 pace).  It was 40 degrees this year which helped.  Timmy ran with me the whole time and then out sprinted me at the end.  I was so mad at him.  If you run together you finish together!!  

When I finished I ran back to meet Heidi and ran in her last mile with her.  It made me so happy that she was running.  She ran 3 of the 4 miles!!  The last time she ran consistently was when I made her train and do an Olympic distance triathlon.  A few months ago when I signed up for the Utah Valley Marathon Heidi signed up for the half marathon.  I LOVE IT!!  

All the runners at the finish.

Cody, George, Heidi, Timmy, Me, Danny, Kenadi, Todd

Carlee & Lexie

Annual Work Checkup

This morning at work I had my annual health review for lower insurance rates.  They do blood work, weight, BMI, body fat %, etc.  It's great to have cheaper insurance but I wasn't very happy during my personal assessment meeting today.  

In 2005 my body fat was 1% lower that it is now.  That was 2 kids and 6 years ago.  I'd think only varying by 1% would be a good thing.  But this sweet young girl who was doing my analysis challenged me to do better.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Obviously I'm a bit wound up about this.  She should have been telling me great job on maintaining myself in my old age.  She also told me that snacking every 2-3 hours is the best way to eat.  Agreed.  However, I simply don't have time to prepare healthy snacks everyday for myself so I choose not to snack.  It's not like I'm eating candy bars between meals.  But still she told me that everyday when I get home from work before doing anything else I should pack up my lunch bag with healthy snacks for the next day.  Great idea - maybe she'd like to get my kids settled, dinner on the table, homework done and signed for me so I can pack myself some snacks.  

I'm done.  There were other things that I felt she shouldn't have said to me and maybe if I would have just agreed with her instead of telling her why I do the things I do it would have gone better.  But I pride myself in being a pretty healthy person and my results were all in the "good" category so she should have just backed off. 

Now I'm going to go get today's 7 mile run in and maybe eat a healthy snack :)

Long Runs & High Heels

I ran 15 miles this morning (I meant to run 14 but miscalculated and ended up going longer....dang it).  Changing the long run to a Friday instead of a Saturday was a great idea!  It's nice to have it finished and it was a warm beautiful morning.  And the sun coming up behind the mountains was absolutely breathtaking today. 

However, the bad part of doing my long run today is that I have a big presentation at work this morning so I had to wear my "fancy" work clothes so I had to wear nylons and heels.  My feet hurt soooo bad in these darn shoes.  I know that fashion is pain but mixing painful shoes with extra tender feet is just torture!  

Over the past few years I've had lots of back & hip problems so I rarely wear heels. I love that with the styles today I can still look cute and fashionable in comfy flats.  But not today - I just can't wear flats with this suit.  Oh well If I can run 15 miles I can last a few hours in heels :)

Working out with kids

Yesterday at my spin class one of my regulars had his teenage son with him. I loved that they were working out together.

I've done a few races with my oldest and all my kids have done the Earn Your Turkey race few times. My kids are still way too young to go to the gym or workout with me. But I hope when they are teens I can work out with them. We do situps and pushups at home. And when I do my Insanity workouts in the front room my kids always "workout" with me.

Do you workout with your kids? What age did you start?

Today's workout: Tempo Run
7 miles with 5 @ 8:26

The Running Community

This morning when I was driving to drop off the girls at the babysitters I saw a girl running so of course I craned my neck to check if I knew her.  Then right after that I had to pick up the hubby from dropping off one of our cars at the shop and on the way home there was another girl running and he said "do you know her?"  After I told him no he said "in weather this crappy only people like you run so I figured you probably knew her."

So classic that because I run I think I just might know everyone else running close to my house.  Sadly, I didn't know either of the awesome gals I saw out running this morning.  I bet I'd like them though.  I do recognize people around all the time from the gym or the trail.  I don't really "know" them but I see them often enough I feel like I can say hello.  And last weekend I was shopping and the girl behind me had on a Ragnar Vegas sweatshirt so I thought it was completely normal to just strike up a conversation with her about the race and how she liked it and has she done the Wasatch Back one, how does it compare, etc. Hopefully she didn't think I was some crazy lady.  I love the running community!

Today's workout:  5 mile easy run (although it is never easy to get up on Monday morning and go outside and run on a cold dark morning)

Digging Deep

Today I did a 12 mile run.  I had such a bad run today.  I know we all have them and I don't want to dwell on the fact that I just didn't love my run and felt slow and crappy the entire time.  I should be happy that I ran 12 miles this morning...but I'm not yet.  


I had to dig so deep to keep up with the girls on the run today and just to finish in general.  I trailed behind them for most of the run today and no matter what I did just wasn't fast enough to keep up.  Last night at 4:00 am I was woken up to clean up throw up by a sick kid and couldn't sleep much after that.  Then today it was low 40's and rainy the entire run.  I couldn't wrap my head around buckling down and going for it.  

I need to remind myself that I did it and even with stopping at red lights and a few very big hills I was still at a decent pace.  It's ok to have a bad run....it's ok to have a bad run.....it's ok to have a bad run.  I think I'll keep chanting that until my next run!   


Here are a few quotes I found today that motivate me to keep on going.

Getting up at the butt crack of dawn

Today my alarm went off at 5:10 am.  It pains me when I look over and see that time on the clock and know it's time to get up to go workout. I remember the good days of college and when I was first married heading to the gym after work.  But once these little darlings came into my life all of that changed. I work full-time so there was no way I was going to be gone another hour after work anymore. 

 

This morning my sweet little 3 year old came into the bathroom while I was putting on my running shorts crying.  She was so tired still and really didn't want me to go running.  She told me to put my pj's back on instead and go back to bed.  SO TEMPTING!  But instead I took her back to bed and told her I would be back soon. She made me promise to be back in 3 minutes (everything is 3 to her) and she was fast asleep before I left the house.  When I got home from the gym around 7:00 all 4 munchkins were still sound asleep.  I don't love getting up so early (although doing it for over 9 years has made it much easier) but I do it so I can workout without taking any time away from my kiddos.  Working out makes me a better mom. I am glad that I have the awesome workout buddies I do who have kids too and have to workout way too early with me!

Today's Workout:  speed work on the treadmill

1 mile warm up (9:00 min/mile)

Mile intervals (3 times)

1 mile @ 7:47 min/mile

1/2 mile recovery

 Followed by 20 minutes of weight training. 

Winter Running Gear

It was 22 degrees this morning when I left my house for a 5 mile run.  Brrrrrrrrr. I run outside as much as I can in the winter because I really don't love treadmill running.  Anyways.....here is some info on how I dress to stay warm while running in freezing temperatures.

On today's run I wore a long sleeve shirt and a fleece jacket on top.  My Adidas supernova fleece lined running tights with extra warm running gloves (they have a cool wind breaker mitten that goes over the glove) and a hat. It took a few miles before my legs warmed up. It might have been a little warmer with a tank under my long sleeved shirt or maybe a more fitted shirt so my tummy wouldn't have been so cold.  The hard part with too many layers is that I feel constricted and if I sweat too much then I get even colder.

Here are my guidelines for what I wear at what temperatures. 

55 degrees - this is tank top & shorts weather for me!!  The sweet spot for me is actually 53 degrees (perhaps I'm a bit OCD to know this is my exact favorite temperature for running).  

45-55 - capri's with a tank and sleeves.  I love my sleeves!!  Sometimes I'll throw on my fun stretchy gloves if it's closer to 45 degrees as well.  I also like to wear a bandana to cover the top of my ears.

35 - 45 - light running tights or even my capri's if the sun is out and a long sleeve shirt with my very favorite stretchy gloves.  And to keep my head warm a headband that completely covers my ears.

30-35 - cold weather running tights a short sleeve shirt and long sleeve shirt.  A headband for my ears and stretchy gloves.  Sometimes instead of tights I will wear bike shorts with a loose running pant.  

20-30 - long sleeves with a running jacket and either my fleece lined pants or capris with my loose pants over them to keep my quads and buns warm.  A warm hat is a must at this temperature as well as warmer gloves.  I hate it when my fingers never warm up on a run. I usually wear my smart wool socks when it's this cold out to keep my toes warm too.  

I hate running if it's under 18 degrees.  I don't remember why but at some point we decided that was our low point for running outside and if it's that cold it's treadmill time.  I have run in single digits a few times but that was only for races never just to go run. 

The Earn Your Turkey Run 2010
It was 7 degrees when I ran and when my kids ran it was 12 degrees!!! 
I love that Sophie is wearing her snow boots!

  

What a cold cold morning this run was too! 
I don't remember the temp but we all had frost on our eyelashes

Just a note:  I run a bit hot and some of the girls I run with are always 1 layer more than me.

Workout Music

I love music when I workout.  It can totally change my mood.  If I'm struggling during a workout I can turn on a good tune and it will totally motivate me.  Usually when I teach spin I just turn my iPod on shuffle with workout music and go from there.  I change the songs if it's too fast or slow for what we're doing and sometimes if a good song comes on I'll completely change what I'm doing and do some extra jumps or intervals.  I love just going with the music.  So today for my spin class I decided to create a workout that was all based on just doing what fits best with a song. I decided what type of things I wanted to do then put together a playlist to match the workout.  Then we just turned on the music and did the workout.    

Today's Spin Playlist:

The Workout:

Song 1 - warm up

Song 2 - seated hill climb (tap up the tension each minute)

Song 3 - fast flat (lower tension quick tempo)

Song 4 - seated hill w/high tension

Song 5 - hill sprints (30 s. on/30 s. off)

Song 6 - standing run

Song 7 - recovery

Song 8 - tempo hill

Song 9 - hill sprints (30 s. on/30 s. off)

Song 10 - seated hill

Song 11 - standing hill at a faster tempo

Song 12 - jumps

Song 13 - sprints (faster during chorus)

Song 14 - cool down


Does music effect your workouts like it does mine?

I still can't walk

I think besides my marathon this is the longest and the most soreness I've ever had!!!  I can't go up or down stairs and my legs have been getting so tight if I sit too long at my desk.  I didn't do anything post race.  I didn't stretch, drink a recovery shake, or anything and I am paying for it now.  I really need to take better care of myself and do my post run routine no matter what.  

Here is what I usually do: 

Liquids.  I drink a full water bottle and a full gatorade right after I run.  I can't seem to absorb the water unless I alternate it with electrolytes.  I drink g2 usually because it's easy and not too many calories and I really like the grape taste. I do this after all my weekly runs no matter the length.

Protein Shake.  I try to drink a high protein recovery drink after every workout I do and especially after a long run.  Right now my favorite recovery drink is the Winder farms chocolate milk recovery drink. I mix it in my awesome new Bledtec with a scoop of reduced fat peanut butter and ice.  DELICIOUS!  If I'm taking an ice bath I heat it up and drink it like hot chocolate instead.  

Roller.  I have a foam roller that I use on my legs and back after I run and before bed.  Sometimes I just speed roll because it hurts less but I get the best results if I go slow (it hurts so much when I do this....but it's the good kind of hurt) and stop in a spot for 15-30 seconds if there is pain there.  Then it usually lets go and feels better after a few tears and maybe swear words.  

Stretch.  I try to stretch right after my run and at night before I go to bed.  Lately it's been so cold after my runs that I haven't been stretching and I can feel a difference in my legs when I don't stretch.  Even after a short run I stretch.

Ice bath.  I only do this after long runs (13+ miles) I fill the bath with cold water until it looks like it will just cover my legs.  Put on at least 2 layers on top - a warm sweatshirt is a must!  I make sure I have my phone - it provides a stop watch and entertainment.  I like to talk about how much my ice bath sucks cause it makes me feel better.  I get a warm drink then I slowly get in the bath.  After I'm in the water I dump at least 2 big bags of ice in the water with me and start my timer.  I usually go for 10 minutes.  The first 3 are the worst then I'm so numb the rest goes by faster.  I can honestly feel the swelling going out of my hip and knee joints.  It's the worst kind of pain but has awesome results.  Then I hurry and drain it and take a hot shower.

Support or Peer Pressure?

At the race expo on Friday night there was a booth to sign up for the Utah Valley Marathon.  We had been discussing the race a little on the ride down so we stopped at the booth to watch the video and check out the course.  I might have put a little pressure on the girls to sign up - at least for the half marathon so I wouldn't be alone.  A few of them were thinking about it seriously and since it was cheaper to sign up there they did it.  Somehow 3 of the girls ended up signing up for the full marathon. I even said something to the effect of "I don't know what just happened but I LOVE IT!!"

I couldn't be happier!  I love running with the girls.  After all, misery loves company!  Now 5 of the 12 people from our Ragnar team will be running a marathon the week before Wasatch Back next June.  

2011 Ragnar Team 

P.S. I can't even walk today because my quads hurt so bad.  Note to self: ice bath and roller no matter what after a steep downhill half marathon!! But the good news is that if I can keep up my training up and the pace I ran for 13 more miles I will get my qualification time and I still have 7 months to go before the race.

Snow Canyon Half Marathon

After my mom and brother and husband all talked me into going to do my race I headed down to St. George.  I decided to go and packed about 15 minutes before it was time to go.  Ugh.  We drove down, ate at Subway, and went straight to the race expo to pick up our numbers.  We got there about 30 minutes before it closed.  

This morning it was so cold for St. George and I didn't pack very well for the weather.  Dang it.  I wore knee length  shorts, a tank, my sleeves, gloves and ended up keeping on my race shirt for the first 4 miles.  I absolutely hate having something tied around my waist but it was too cold to not wear it so I had to deal. 

The course is BEAutiful and very downhill.  My legs and feet hurt by mile 8 and I could feel a blister forming on my foot from the steep down grade but it made for a nice fast race.  My only complaint about the race is that there wasn't enough water on the course.  The first water was at mile 4 then again at 7, 10 & 12.  I drank at all 4 stops and still didn't feel like I got enough fluids and have had tummy cramping most of the day.  Next time I will carry my own water on this course.   The wind picked up around mile 11 and I got super cold and just didn't have a lot of get up and go for the last few miles.  I just felt so slow.  I wasn't wearing my garmin so I had no idea how I was doing but I got past by more people than I would have liked.  I still finished in 1:44 clock time (I haven't seen my chip time yet) and it is my PR for a half marathon but I wish I felt better when I was running.

My blister

Jill and I after the race

Right after the race we left, showered and got in the car to come home.  It was a 24 hour whirlwind trip and I am super sore from sitting in the car for 4 hours right after the race but it was worth it to do the race.

The Dilemma

Sometimes being a mom and a runner don't go so well together.  All 4 of my kids have been sick at some point this week with fevers, headaches, chills, etc.  That means I haven't gotten a good night sleep once because for some reason they are never sick at the same time.  Since I haven't slept well I have missed a few of my morning runs.  I hate it when I miss a run in the morning because it's nearly impossible to fit it in later in the day (again because of the kids).  I am definitely getting a treadmill (and soon) to help with this issue.  

Also, I am supposed to head to St. George this weekend for the Snow Canyon half marathon.  I signed up for the STG runners series to get into the marathon and need to do 2 races down there.  I feel so guilty leaving my still sick boys with someone else since dad is still out of town.  

The big dilemma is that I really want to do the race and check it off my to-do list but I also really want to be a good mom and be here for them.  I have 2 hours to decide what to do and it is stressing me out. UGH UGH UGH!!

Weight Maintenance Tips

While waiting for my massage the other day I was reading an article on weight loss in a readers digest magazine that I thought had some good stuff.  Here are the points it had for maintaining your weight once you've lost it.

• Eat breakfast.
• Eat a calorie-aware, moderately low-fat diet that includes complex carbs.
• Get plenty of exercise at moderate intensity. Walk!
• Self-monitor through frequent weigh-ins and a food and exercise diary.

So how do I do in these areas?  

Well I usually have a high-protein shake everyday for breakfast.  Check.  I think I eat pretty calorie-aware but I don't always eat complex carbs - I love pasta so much!  I definitely get plenty of exercise but I don't walk I prefer to run or ride.  I self-monitor by weighing myself a few times a week and making sure that I only vary by a few pounds at all times.  I am also a bit OCD about my exercise "diary".  Between my blog and the running app I have on my iPhone I know the miles I run and the workouts I do.  I'm not great at tracking my food in a diary unless I'm trying to lose weight.

Do you do these things or have other great tips for maintaining your weight?

Tempo Running on a Treadmill

Today was a tempo run.  6 miles total with 4 @ an 8:25 pace.  It was 28 degrees this morning so it was a treadmill day.  Normally I'll run outside in 28 degrees but I'm not quite ready for it to be this cold yet!!  


This workout was cake to do on a treadmill.  I didn't have to think about my pace at all I just set it on the treadmill and ran.  It wasn't a hard pace and I know I can run faster but I want to follow this training program to make sure I don't get injured and am ready for the marathon in June.