Maintaining

Here's my physical activity since the Hot Chocolate 15k.

Monday 12/5: 1 hour boot camp, 1.44 mile run, 9:43 average pace
Tuesday 12/6: 45 minutes of spinning
Thursday 12/8: 3.11 mile run: 9:22, 9:07, 9:11 paces.
Friday 12/9: 2+ mile dog walk
Saturday 12/10: 3.87 mile easy run
Sunday 12/11: 2+ mile dog walk + 3.93 mile easy run


Sadly my Monday night Boot Camp ended last week with the end of the semester.  So this week's Monday instead involved shopping for my work Secret Santa, grocery shopping, cooking dinner, having a beer, then remembering to do some weight & core stuff on the living room floor:

I did:
2x30 second plank/hover
3x10 (chest) pushups on toes
2x8 up-up-down-down planks (move between straight arms and forearms)
2x25 regular crunches
2x15 per side: oblique crunches isolating one side at a time (half bicycle)

With a 5lb weight in each hand:
2x12 lateral raise
2x12 bicep curl
2x12 overhead tricep extension
2x12 rear fly

I felt it in my chest, shoulders, and abs a little bit Tuesday morning so while it's not at all like my hour long boot camp, it wasn't a waste.

 - - - - -

If you are friends with me on Daily Mile or follow on twitter, perhaps you saw my whining about my sore foot.  I think, if it's possible, that I bruised part of my foot from cinching my laces so tightly around the feet that I could no longer feel before the start of the Hot Chocolate 15k.  1 week and 2 days later, my foot is feeling better.  It never appeared swollen or bruised, and did not hurt on impact, but the snug fitting base of the shoe laces on top of that spot on my foot was not so comfortable.

After extensive online "research" trying to relieve my fears of a stress fracture or something else similarly terrible, I came across a website suggesting buying foam circles meant for calluses and sticking it on the spot on your foot where the laces rubbed.

This looks ridiculous, but I did it.  I found a package of 6 store brand foam circles for less than $2.

Then to be sure, I also re-laced that shoe, skipping the eyelet right above the uncomfortable spot.  I found an article about this on Runner's World.  They suggest putting lipstick on your foot to determine which eyelet to skip, but I already knew which one was the issue.

My right foot was 100% comfortable for both of my weekend runs using this little combo.

- - - - -

It's now been just over 3 weeks since the Philadelphia Half marathon and I've definitely been taking it easy.  I think I still need a training plan even for "maintenance" because I don't think I've had enough variety in my runs to be maintaining the fitness I gained leading up to the Philly half.  I really feel like I need some structure to my running again, even though I don't have a set date in mind for my next PR-potential half marathon.  I've got about 15 weeks until the beautiful part-trail/part-road race out in CA at the end of March, if I sign up for it.

The full FIRST/Run Less Run Faster (RLRF) plan runs 18 weeks.  I only ran the last 7 or so weeks of it to prepare for the Philadelphia half.  Since I felt I saw great progress using it for the 7 weeks, I can't wait to see what 18 weeks will do to help my times.

I feel like I followed the plan very closely, missing very few of the target runs anyway.  My adherence to the training will vary more this time around since I've got a 5-6 day cross country drive in my near future (2 months away).

My plan is to start the RLRF half marathon training plan again to at least give me a schedule.  As I figure out which race I'm working toward (and when that race is), I will just adjust where I am in the training plan, even if it means repeating some weeks.

Starting the plan will also give me the kick in the butt I need if I have any hope of getting to my arbitrary mid-year goal of 1000 miles run in the year 2011.  Due to taking it easy for 2 weeks post-half marathon (lazy) and the above mentioned foot issue for the past week (didn't want to push it if I had a real injury), I didn't get in as many miles as I would have liked to. 

As of right now, I need to run another 73.5 miles in the remaining 18 days of the year, which I understand is pushing it.  That's an average of 4 miles per day or 28 miles per week.  I'd like to hit 1000 miles, because I like nice even numbers, but I'm not going to beat myself up if my foot starts to hurt when I do a real long run this weekend.

What do you do for maintenance in between races/events?  
Do you have a plan you like or do you wing it?


What's your yearly mileage looking like for 2011?

Did you have running/fitness goals for the year and did you meet them (or will you in the next 18 days)?