Three Things Thursday – Diva’s Training

July 3, 2014 Faux Runner Comments 4 comments

Instead of sharing something non-training related, I’m taking advantage of Three Things Thursday to share a few changes I’ve made that is worth mentioning and changes that I will carry forward.

1. I’m a runner. I need to run.

The Divas Half Marathon is only 12 weeks away and I want to go for a PR. I may not be prepared enough for a time goal, but I want a new birthday PR to erase the one from Feb ’12 (2:48). And I have the awesome exciting Ragnar Relay, Napa Valley coming up with the most awesome team of Bada$$ Mother Runners.

And as I have discovered, I am not one of those who can run 10 miles on the weekend fast and easy after a week of CrossFit classes. I love CF and CF has its place in my life to get stronger and lose weight. But as a runner, I need to run. Plain and simple. My goal is to run 3/week until Divas and then ramp it to 4/week for Dopey training.

I used to average around 60m/week while not training for a marathon. Logging only 30m/week isn't helping me. — I used to average around 60m/month while not training for a marathon. Logging only 30m/month now isn’t helping me.

2. I’m training, not getting a workout in.

I’m starting to view my days as training instead of workout. Every workout has a purpose. Even the CrossFit days. Instead of going hard on every single day, I’m staggering my hard and easy days. Right now, the 3 runs are “just run”, track intervals and long run. In another 2 weeks, I will be replacing the “just run” with a tempo and hill repeats (alternating). Swim and bike are cross training and easy recovery days.

This also means regular foam rolling and stretching, the two things I’ve slacked off when I cut back on mileage for CrossFit.

3. Food is Nutrition and Fuels my body.

It’s all great fun to say “I run so I can eat” and the other foodie jokes. But when it comes to reality, food is what fuels my body as as (faux)athlete. I’ve always known this of course, but I was always going to start eating healthy “tomorrow”. After my depressing body fat results test, tomorrow started this week. I am cutting out all food that comes from a package and focusing more on vegetables and protein. After this week I’ve realized that eating healthy is in part being aware of what I eat. Do I *really* need to eat that cup of rice or can I wait until I roast some sweet potatoes? Do I *really* need to snack on that ice-cream or can I hold off with some iced water?

I broke this rule on Saturday evening as we went out for pre-Father’s day dinner. I had forgotten my protein smoothie and ate in my old way at the restaurant. While I put the guilt away at that time, my stomach felt miserable the entire next day. One cheat meal a week is fine, but even that cheat needs to be well thought of.