Well...that's my lowest mileage week in quite some time. With good reason, though. The first half of the week was recovery from Sunday's Shamrock Half-Marathon; the second half was tapering for the Monument Avenue 10K on Saturday. Plus two post-race non-running days on Monday and Sunday to bookend the week.
I pulled out every trick I knew to recover as fast from Shamrock as possible, including drinking water non-stop, sleeping as much as I could, keeping the running and cross-training minimal, and getting a sports massage on Wednesday that really helped a lot. I don't think I was completely recovered from Shamrock by Saturday, but I was good enough to run a good race, so yay.
I've raced the past three weekends, and raced 4 out of the 5 weeks in March. Next week will be a return to normal training, which I'm looking forward to.
No race next week also meant I _finally_ got to update my hair color. Why is my racing related to my hair color? (and why am I discussing my hair color in my running blog?)
Well, because my hair color is tangentially related to my running. To explain, I suffer from seasonal allergies in both the fall and the spring (though the fall is much worse) - these allergies sometimes affect my running.
I also dye my hair, and am moderately allergic to my hair dye - I get breakouts and very itchy skin for a few days after coloring my hair, and my seasonal allergies also worsen for those few days (allergens on top of allergens - bigger histamine response).
Thus, I try not to color my hair the week of a race. Which is generally easy to do. Except when you're racing every single weekend.
I naturally have medium brown hair (and naturally black eyebrows, which means that my natural hair color looks faker than my CVS color job). So when my hair grows out, the medium brown roots create an effect that looks suspiciously like the beginning stages of male pattern baldness. Lovely.
For the past few weeks, I've been wearing headbands everywhere, and filled with gratitude that I don't have any conferences or formal meetings to go to. I need to take a week off of racing for a lot of reasons, but the hair is near the top of the list.
Dailies
Monday: 3 "miles" pool-running plus yoga. Foam rolling at night.
Tuesday: 6 miles very easy (9:04), followed with 1500 yards swimming. Foam rolling at night.
Wednesday: 7 miles very easy (9:17 pace) followed by drills+strides and some upper body weights and injury prevention work. Massage at night.
Thursday: 6.6
miles, including a 1 mile pick-up at 6:34 pace. Foam rolling at night.
Friday: 4 miles very easy (8:45), plus drills+strides. Foam rolling at night.
Saturday: 11.5 miles, including a 10K in 39:55. 1500 yards recovery swimming in the afternoon, followed by foam rolling.
Sunday: 7 "miles" pool-running in the morning, followed by foam rolling. Yoga class in the afternoon. Returned my hair to its proper color at night.
Pesky hair, rearranging your schedule! But it's got to be done, right?! I don't dye yet, but I'm on the verge of requiring it. My parents were quite gray in their 30's, and at 32, it's only a matter of time.
ReplyDelete