You Know, Jennifer Aniston is Right

“I always say don’t make plans, make options.”
– Jennifer Aniston

Recently, I’ve been throwing up plans for the week on here, and two hours later, totally rearranging them. But here’s the thing with being a mom, wife, employee, runner, etc.: you have to roll with what the day deals you.

Sometimes it’s a sick kiddo. Or you realize you need dog food. Or a friend calls you up and wants to go swimming…or running. Maybe those things weren’t part of the plan that day, but does that mean you shouldn’t take your kid to the doctor or you should starve your pet or turn down a run- or swim-date? Heck no!

I just need to remember, when it comes to exercise: The only plan is there is no plan. So have options.

FRIDAY
I wanted to bike and run, but it was raining and as much fun as I’ve had biking in the rain recently, I’m sort of done with it. Instead, I opted for two levels of Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred followed by a short, easy 2-miler on the treadmill – so sweaty – thanks goodness for 2Toms Sports Shield! Happy sweat!

SATURDAY
A trail run sounded way more fun than my 7 miles at an 8:43 pace. And Mel and Zoe wanted to go, too.

It was sort of a technical trail for Mel’s first one, and for me, someone who has been away from trails for a long time. But I really enjoyed it. I had a grin on my face most of the time as I hurdled fallen trees, side-stepped mud pits (mostly) and crossed cool bridges.

We started at about 1,000 feet elevation, and we gained about 1,000 feet during the run. Definitely ran out of breath on some of the hills!

I feel like we should’ve been muddier than this:

SUNDAY
I just wanted to get outside. But I couldn’t run because I’d just run the day before. So I grabbed my bike and headed for the dirt and gravel trail.

There is this hill on the way back. It’s a small hill, but it’s steep and covered with gravel. I have not yet been able to ride my bike all the way up this thing.

I really want to. So, on Sunday, I shifted into 1st gear on both sides and, when I got close, pedaled hard…until my chain made a scary clunky sound and me, and a passerby, went, “Whoa!” Yeah, it didn’t sound good, but the chain was still on, thank goodness. I couldn’t get the clunking noise to go away and had to shift it back into 2nd.

I got ¾ of the way up. Then I had to get off before I went backwards. What’s up with 1st gear? Do you think it’s broken or am I doing something wrong?

MONDAY
Track repeats were on the plan: 3×1600-meters at a 7:44 pace (with 1-minute walk/jog rest intervals, plus a warm up and cool down). I had stomach issues in the morning and felt sick, so I waited till the afternoon. And I didn’t go to the track. I didn’t want to wait till after school got out and figured it’d be easier (and better for training) to do these mile repeats on “real” terrain.

Ha!

I basically wanted to die after the first one. The second one, I held on for dear life. The third one, I felt like I needed a different route and took the gravelly trail. BAD idea. I couldn’t get my pace below 8 minutes, so I cut back out to the road, but my mind was off, my tummy was off and my body just wanted to shut off. After the run, I realized it’d been several hours since I’d eaten anything (because of the tummy issue), so I suspect that had a little something to do with how sluggish I felt. Either way, it was HARD and I am, again, questioning whether or not I will PR in the 5K, which is now 10 days away. I only have 4 runs left: this weekend’s long run, one more track workout, and two more tempo runs.

TUESDAY
I brought my running stuff with me to work even though it wasn’t technically a run day. I shouldn’t do that. Then I am too tempted to run on my lunch hour. I just really like running at lunch to break up the day. It was cold, though, so I was also tempted to sit in my cubicle during lunch. But, I also knew a short run would help me wake me up.

I went for an easy 2-miler, but I felt some pretty intense pains in my left inner ankle/shin area. This is a trouble spot for me, and a good reminder to NOT run on my off days. Cross-train, yes. Run, no.

It’s Nuun’s fault I was so sleepy, by the way.

An application announcement for the Nuun Hood to Coast team will be made soon (so keep your eyes on their blog HERE, Facebook page HERE and @nuunhydration on Twitter), and so everyone was abuzz with this news on Monday evening.

Even though I got to bed on time Monday night, I could not fall asleep. I just kept thinking about Hood to Coast last year, and what an amazing experience it was. I highly encourage you to apply when the time comes. I definitely will be applying again.

You can read my Hood to Coast Recaps at the following links: Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV. (Some of the photos went missing when I moved from Blogger to WordPress. Eventually, I will replace them, but I don’t have time right now. Sorry.)

Tuesday night, I met Zoë at the pool for lap swim. We had a blast and I even got reacquainted with the flip-turn. It’d been so long, I thought I wouldn’t remember how to do it. But we both did it and felt proud of ourselves.

We did a total of 1,600 yards – some kicking with the kick board, some freestyle, a lap of backstroke and even one lap of butterfly. We did a couple laps of breaststroke and I really dated myself when I told Zoe that, back in my days of swim team, you were not allowed to submerge your entire head during the breastroke. That would get you a DQ. Of course, that’s changed and now you can submerge your entire self and even do a bit of a dolphin kick! Craziness!

I am old. And here’s a picture that proves swimming is not as cute as running:

A run+swim was definitely not part of the plan for this week, but I’m so glad it happened. Wednesday is supposed to be a run day, but I’m taking it off. I will probably walk and then do strength. Thursday, I’ll be back to the Run Less Run Faster plan…I think.

Are you stoked for the Nuun Hood to Coast Relay? Are you going to apply? Did you know Jennifer Aniston was quotable? And, you know what 10 days out from a race means, right? I can start obsessing about the weather! (Right now, it’s looking like rain. Ugh.)