Archive | 4:00 pm

ColdGear my butt.

9 Jan

So I mentioned that I got my Under Armour Compression Tights and my new Nike (Golf) jacket in the mail. I tried them out during my chilly run on Saturday and I have mixed feelings.

First, let me say that I absolutely LOVE the fit and feel of the compression tights. I seriously would wear them all day long and never take them off because they’re so comfortable. I wasn’t sure that I would like the weird men’s-underwear-looking elastic band around the waist (you can see it in the video on their website) but it is seriously comfy. No muffin top action there. And my favorite part – they’re actually a little too long. Not like my 2XU compression tights.

I have perfected the awkward picture in one try.

But unlike my 2XU tights, these don’t feel like recovery compression tights. My 2XU tights are so tight, they’re almost like getting a wetsuit on (you should see how small they are!) and I can actually feel them doing something to my legs when I’m wearing them. The UA tights are a good tight, but I am skeptical about their muscle-fatigue-preventing powers. Thoughts?

 

Anyway, I wore my new duds out my run Saturday morning at the butt-crack of dawn. Seriously, the sun was just beginning to rise when I went out. It was about 25 degrees and I wore a long-sleeve tech tee, my new Nike jacket, and a fleece vest on top. On bottom, my UA tights and SmartWool running socks (seriously the best socks ever for cold runs). I also wore a fleece ear warmer and fleece gloves.

Katy didn’t understand why I was bending over and not petting her

Why did I head out so cotton-pickin’ early? I was supposed to run with a friend at 8 am and figured we’d do about 3 miles. Since I had 8 on the schedule and wanted to be done after running with my friend, I got up to do the 5 before meeting up with her.

So, I got geared up and after a breakfast of instant oatmeal (that I’m trying to get out of my cupboard) with raisins, I set out with the pooches for 3.5 miles, after which I would drop them at the house and go do another 1.5 before driving over to D’s house.

Immediately, my legs were cold. But maybe the tights work on some kind of heat exchange so I just need to get moving for them to warm me up, I thought.

Not so much.

My legs froze. My butt froze. I was not enjoying it.

But I kept going because I had to. I dropped the dogs off and gritted my teeth for another 1.5 miles. Just a few more minutes until I can warm up, I told myself.

I got back and grabbed my stuff to head over to D’s, when I found out that she wasn’t feeling well and didn’t think she should run. So I was on my own to finish out the last 3 miles. Crapit. My legs had just thawed out and I had to head back out into the cold. But I wanted to be done more than I wanted to be warm so I did it. It wasn’t pretty but after a spoonful of peanut butter and 3 Shotbloks, I did it.

Luckily, for those last 3 miles, I brought Harry Potter with me (on my iPod) and for some reason, having mental stimulation like listening to a book or sermon makes time pass a lot faster during a workout for me than listening to music. So the cold wasn’t as bad during the last 3 miles (but it was probably mostly that the sun was out by then too).

All in all, I ran 8.27 miles in 1:32:40, an 11:12 pace. I feel pretty good about that, considering I was running with ice legs.

So unfortunately, while I like the UA leggings and am definitely going to keep them, they’re not going to be appearing on any more 25 degree or colder runs. I told Travis that I think my problem is that I’m too cheap to buy the actual leggings made for those temps. I saw some at Boulder Running Company when we were buying our shoes – they were a lot thicker but they were also something like $120. In Minnesota, I think I could justify that because it’s a lot colder there, and for longer, than it is here in CO (except for this winter?!?!). But by February, I’m going to probably be wearing shorts again so…

About the jacket, since I wore a fleece vest over it and it wasn’t raining or windy, I don’t really have an accurate assessment (not that you probably care, since I’m most likely the only one cheap enough to buy a golf jacket for running) but it did keep my arms warm (and not too warm)!

Here’s the back of the jacket if you’re interested:

And the stretchy side:

Also a sad little side note: the jacket has a cinch at the bottom and the little plastic thing rubbed against my UA tights, so now there’s a fuzzy spot on my tights. ::tear::

What do you wear on your legs for cold runs? Help a girl out!

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Training Recap: 1/2 – 1/8

9 Jan

My weekend was very relaxing – Friday night, Travis played broomball with some friends and I just stayed home. I made a frozen pizza for dinner, went to Target and bought some binders/scrapbooks to create a new picture album, a memory book for races, as well as a memory book for holidays, vacations, etc. Then I organized my scrapbooking tote and watched The Wedding Planner.

Saturday, I got up at 6:15 to eat breakfast and feed the pooches before heading out on a run at 6:50, right when it started getting light outside. I ended up doing 8.27 miles at a 11:12 pace, which I’m pretty excited about (that pace would give me a 4 minute PR in the half). After my run, I did 2 things I hadn’t done in a year: used Photoshop (tried to teach my friend how to use it for basic things) and got my hair cut. No, I hadn’t gotten my hair cut in over a year. Whoops.

But really, it’s because my hair only grew this much:

Maybe 6 inches?

Anyway, after my haircut, I took a nap while Travis hung this up in our guest bedroom:

This makes you want to come visit, doesn’t it?

Now you can understand my hesitation to let him put it up anywhere in our house – it’s HUGE. But supposedly this is just “temporary” until we can take it back to Minnesota to his parents’ house. I actually don’t hate it. I just think it looks awkward because of how big it is, and how small our house is.

Here’s a victory pic:

After I was done lamenting about what he had done to our lovely guest room, I worked on my race memory book, and then we went out to dinner at Namiko’s, a sushi bar near our house. We tried a couple of new kinds and found one that we loved – it was called Gemini and was a tempura roll with tuna, crab, and salmon inside. Delicious.

After that, we read and went to bed around 9:30. We lead such exciting lives, don’t we?

The next morning, we both slept in until 8:30! I can’t believe we got 11 hours of sleep. I got up at 6 to let the dogs out and feed them. But then I put Charlie back in her kennel and Katy crawled in between us on the bed for another 2 1/2 hours.

When we finally did get up, we went to church, grocery shopping, and then over to some friends’ house to watch the Broncos game. What a great game! We were all totally pumped that they won, and in the way that they did. Amazing. Go Tebow!

After the game, we went home, worked out, finished doing laundry and dishes, read for a while, and went to bed.

And now it’s Monday again! That means it’s time for a training recap.

Monday: 3.5 mile run (40:04, 11:29/mile)

Tuesday: Half mile repeats (total of 3.3 miles, all 4 around 4:30); 20 minutes strength training

For my strength training, I did the exercises I learned in physical therapy. The hardest one to do is backward lunges off a high step or box (this time I used a step with 4 risers, but I’ve also used a box jump before). Stand on your right foot with your left foot off the step. Slowly bend your right leg until your thigh is parallel to the ground and then step down on to your left foot, concentrating on keeping your right knee straight forward. Start with 1 set of 12-15 times and switch sides. Work up to 3 sets. Major butt soreness.

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 3.04 mile tempo run (31:15, 10:17/mile); 35 minutes of easy yoga

I did my usual tempo formula: 0.5 mile warmup, 2 miles tempo, 0.5 mile cool down. The tempo miles were 9:55 and 10:20. I think the second one was slower mostly because I had to pick up and throw away two poop bags and I didn’t stop my watch. My total time was still 7 seconds faster than the same run last week. Improvement!

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 8.27 mile run (1:32:40, 11:12/mile)

I’ll give details about this run in another post, since I wore my new Under Armour tights. But for now, I’ll say that it was a tough run, but I’m very pleased with my pace.

Sunday: 45 minutes of Denise Austin’s Ultimate Fat Burner

An oldie but goodie. I’m not sure how smart it was to do this video – it involves a lot of lateral movements and plyometrics and now my right knee hurts a bit. But I sweated a lot and got my heart rate up to 173 so it was at least partly a success. I think I’m going to forego the run today though and do some cross training.

When was your last haircut?

What do you think about head mounts of animals? {I won’t be offended if you say you hate them… although Travis might be.}

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