Massage

I am recovering after a week of going after it in the gym. Lots of barbells, kettlebells, HIIT, complexes, etc. I pretty much felt like this.

And then yesterday I did something that I have been wanting to do for a long time, something that has been long overdue.

I got a massage.

There's a massage place in the shopping center where my work is and I have been meaning to visit for awhile. Lately my back has been sore and everything has just felt tight, so I finally made an appointment. I wanted a sports massage but they couldn't do one during the time I wanted. This ended up being deep tissue which is fine by me, whatever makes my muscles not tight anymore. When I got there they asked me what areas they should focus on and gave me a tour of the place. I wanted a full body massage to just get everything loosened up, but my main problem areas are my back, left quad, and right calf. Once I got into the darkened room and onto the warm table my therapist went to work on my back. This is when I realized - holy shit, my back is WAY worse than I thought. There were so many freakin knots in my back and shoulders. It was kinda painful at times. At one point she tried to move my shoulders a certain way and I had to tell her to stop because it really hurt. Reduced range of motion right there. The right side of my back was especially tight, which is probably why my right shoulder bothers me sometimes. It mainly bothers me when I sleep and doesn't impact lifting much. After extensive amounts of time spent on my back, shoulders, and traps, I got my arms/triceps, forearms, hands, legs, and feet massaged. My legs weren't bad aside from my right calf and surprisingly my right quad. 

I had no idea it was that bad. I'm going back in 3 weeks because there is still much more work to be done. And I think this will become a regular thing for me, because as active as I am I really need something to keep my muscles loose and healthy so I can perform. Especially because of the fact that the range of motion of my shoulders is limited right now because they are just so dang tight. Today I am hella sore but I do feel much better. Sleeping on my right side didn't hurt my shoulder as much last night. I'm looking forward to going back and seeing how much we can improve on this, and hopefully I'll see some good benefits in the long run. 

Milestone Pod

It's been a busy week - full of learning!

A couple reps have visited my store and trained us on some products. One of them was a massage stick and the other was this cool thing known as the Milestone Pod.

I got a free one! They only had pink but that's ok, I appreciated the free gift

This thing is really cool. It's a little thing that you lace onto your shoe and then just go for a run. No waiting to connect to satellites *cough*NIKE*cough*  because it runs on a watch battery that's good for up to a year and operates independently of satellites or internet connections. When you get home you just turn on your phones bluetooth and it syncs. It tells you things like distance, pace, cadence, ground contact time, stride length, foot strike type, rate of impact, and then gives you a Runficiency score. The only downside is you can't see your pace/distance/etc while you run because the pod is on your foot. It doesn't display any data in real time. I do like knowing where I'm at because I want to push myself if I'm going too slow. But the best part is this thing costs 20 bucks! That's a huge bargain compared to most watches costing $100-500.

I took mine out for a run this morning and here's what it had to say.
(I also wore my watch and it once again couldn't connect until half a mile in. I turned it on anyway to see what it would tell me vs the Pod)

3.57 miles - Interesting, Nike usually tells me this same run is about 3.1
406 Calories
5,844 steps
32:50, 9:11 Pace. That's interesting too. My watch said 10:34 pace. Now, I *know* I was going faster than 10:34. The watch dropped connection at least twice that I know of during this run. It's been bugging out like crazy lately. So I don't think I trust it's pace estimate anymore. However, I still don't know if I was actually a 9:11 average pace. I am ordering a new watch so we'll see how this compares.
Foot strike - 100% heel. Now I know this is a lie. I think one time I hit my heel because of a bump in the path. But I'm always up on my midfoot or toes. I think this error is because I run in the Newtons and maybe the lugs hitting the pavement are throwing off the pod's sensors.
Cadence - 178. This is a stat I have been curious about for a long time because my watch can't measure it. They say you want it to be around 180 and I'm pretty much there. Yay!
Stance time - 285. This is the time in milliseconds where your foot is on the ground. I'm not sure what good is, but the graph had space for 100-500. It says most elites are under 200. So I guess mine is decent??
Rate of impact - 43% low, 57% mid, 0% high. How quickly force is transferred from the ground to your legs, high impact can lead to injury. All good there.
Stride length - 39. Average distance between the heel strike of one foot. Not sure if this is good, it just says this depends on your height
Leg swing - 4% low, 96% mid. Angle between your calf and hamstring measured during leg swing

Runficiency score - 76.  According to the Milestone Pod website the average score is 72. I'm better than average, woohoo! Looking at the graphs it seems like the efficiency of my form vs my pace is telling me that I could technically run faster. I wasn't trying to go fast - this was really just an "average" run for me.

This is a really cool little gadget that showed me some great stats about my running form that I never knew before. I've been curious about whether or not I have "good" form and it seems that I do, and now I know where I can use some improvement. Pretty awesome for only 20 bucks!

Fall running

I'm so happy to be running in the fall - where the temps are around 50 and it's just beautiful outside

This is literally what I see when I step out my front door. I don't really dig this state because of all the buildings, traffic, and people, but it is a beautiful place once you take all that away.

Today's run was 6 miles. A little slower than normal, probably because during the first couple miles I felt some minor pain in my shins and ankles, probably my body getting used to running distance again after some time off. Also my left arch has been tight lately so I'm massaging it often. But this was a great run. 50 degrees, sunny, beautiful fall colors surrounding me, and there was a nice strong breeze so every few minutes it would come along and cool me off. The breeze also brought red and orange leaves down from the trees and they were falling all around me during my run. Very pretty.

My watch did ok too. Guess it's something I just need to keep my eye on.

Can it always be like this please?

When heavy lifting is easier than not heavy lifting

So I'm deloading for a couple weeks. Not only because my lower back was feeling funky for a couple days, but also because I have been long overdue for a deload. I lift heavy all the time, like at least 80% of my 1rm, so every now and then I need to back it off. The weird thing is my upper back is hella sore. And today's chest/shoulders really kicked my ass even though the weight wasn't heavy. I was freaking starving by the time my shift ended at 3pm so I stuffed a turkey sub in my face after work.
I guess it just goes to show you don't have to go heavy all the time, as long as you go hard :) And as much as I love lifting heavy, today made me realize that lifting for reps ain't too bad either. I know how to work hard no matter what I'm doing :)

6 mile run tomorrow. I'm worried that my watch might be dying. Lately it's been acting weird. It froze in the middle of a run, and the last 2 times I ran it couldn't find a connection even after .5 miles, so I gave up and just ran watchless. I'll see how it does tomorrow, then if anything I'll just get a new watch. This thing is almost 2 years old and it's my first watch so I'm not sure how long they are supposed to last before needing replacement. From everyone I've talked to the consensus is it's probably dying. Guess we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Inspired

I had a moment yesterday that made me feel pretty good. I was at work taking people through our gait analysis. During the analysis we ask the customers questions to get to know them - what activities they do, their training goals, what injuries/pains they have, etc. So I was working with a customer who was new to running and following a couch to 5k program with a friend who has already been running for awhile. She told me she was trying to learn to love running but that it was just so hard. I told her that it does get better. When I started 3 years ago I could run for all of 30 seconds and then I'd have to walk for like 5 minutes just to recover. I was 200 pounds and horrendously out of shape. She said "Really? YOU were 200 lbs?" Yep. And while I float between 165-170 now, I'm much more muscular and my body fat is most likely around 23-25% which isn't too bad for someone who loves to eat. So I went on to say that I followed no real program, but I always pushed myself to go a little farther before stopping for a walk and limiting my walk breaks. And before I knew it I was running 5k's without stopping. Then I went on to 10k's and halfs. Running is never "easy", but it does get "easier" because you get BETTER. I didn't have a ton of time to talk to her because we have to complete the analysis in about 10 minutes, then set them up with another employee to try on shoes so we can move on to the next customer's analysis. But I caught up with her after she selected a shoe and she said "I just wanted to thank you, you've inspired me." These are the moments where I really love what I do. Being able to encourage others and give them the tools they need to find their fitness is why I love my job.

In other non-news I've just been running and lifting. Pretty sore from a killer shoulder and chest workout on Saturday, so I'm taking a rest day before hitting the gym tomorrow. My lower back also inexplicably hurts. I ran yesterday morning and have not worked my back muscles since Thursday, so I must have tweaked it while running. Hopefully it fixes itself soon.

38 degree bliss

It's Sunday and I'm proud to say I have finished out a week of being active 5 days a week. We missed the gym yesterday because my husband is sick. I could have gone by myself but ehhh... lol. A nice 5 miler on Thursday, complete with witnessing a guy pissing in the woods with his pants down. I was far away, but I saw some things. So awkward. My calves are kinda sore from running on a regular basis again. They're not used to being worked regularly. This morning I'm happy to say I was greeted by a chill 38 degree morning for my run. It was so amazing. Usually once I'm like 2 miles in the air will start to feel suffocating because I've gotten so hot. But this time I was nice and cool. I could have worn shorts and a t shirt but I wore long sleeve and capris to play it safe. Yes, 38 degrees is what it takes for me to be comfortable running. I think that's just a little bit crazy.

I have lost a little weight by eating a little better and cutting back on sugar.
But once a week I indulge

It's not hard to lose running fitness

Ok, so as you may know I have struggled with motivating myself to run this summer. I had some good momentum up until it got really hot outside, hmmmm wonder if the two are connected? Between June and September I think I ran all of 5 times, not counting a 1 or 2 miler in the gym about once a week. I want to fall back in love with it and make running a regular thing again, and aso shed some extra pounds that have crept back on.

And I gotta say, it does not take long to lose running fitness. I always go out there after some time off like "Ehhh I'll be fine!" But to give it some perspective, the last 2-3 weeks my pace has averaged in the 10-10:30 minute mile, on 3 mile runs, and that's with some effort. I ran a hilly half marathon in May with an average pace of 10:20. Yikes. I know I can eventually get back down to the 9's, it's just all about training consistently. I'll also be working some intervals in there about once a week.

Back to working out 6 days a week! My house is gonna look like this