Good, Bad & Yummy 5/3-5/5

Oh what a "normal" weekend it was.

Okay, well...kind of.

Friday

Work at Office

Ran some errands

Ran 6.8 miles in the heat

Friday evening dinner/drinks with friends.

Saturday

Painted the guest room/my office

Ran 13.5 miles

Dinner/Movie at home 

Sunday

Morning run: 5 solo, 11 more with Jen

Ice bath, and lots of foam rolling

Ran some errands

Worked on setting up the guest room/my office

Dinner/relaxing 

Onward to the GB&Y.

The Good

*Friday was first 'shirtless' run of the year, bring on the sunny weather

*It was great to have dinner/drinks with friends Friday night. 

I've realized the benefit of surrounding yourself with good people 

who have your interest at heart and not just their own. 

Surround yourself with people who make you better,

not the ones who bring you down.

*36.3 miles run in 3 days, and I feel better today than I did before the weekend.

*The guest room/office is all painted, 

just need to move everything in, and decorate!

*13 days until Cleveland Marathon, the wait is finally almost over.

Marathon #5 will be under my belt before you know it.

The Bad

*My arms are sore from painting and moving stuff all weekend.

Short girl problems: ladder isn't tall enough and neither am I....lots of reaching.

*On Saturday nights run I was cut off by a cyclist 

and hit my head on a branch and cut my leg.

That man better hope I don't see him again..(he didn't even stop)

You can see the cut that goes all the way across my leg.
It's not deep but it's super sensitive.
I'm being a baby about it, but I don't care.

* I definitely experienced some Post-Long-Run-Blues yesterday. I was very cranky, sore, tired, and just not in the mood for ANYTHING. So I took some time for myself, relaxed a bit, stepped back from things and gave myself time to decompress. I don't normally get it same day as long run, but since I ran longer Saturday night, and then Sunday morning...it hit me sooner. 

The Yummy

*Friday night I had my favorite... GUINNESS :)

that definitely gets filed under yummy!

*Saturday lunch

Spinach/Arugala salad with grilled chicken, fresh salsa, and feta cheese.
Yummy, healthy, and fantastic. Trifecta.

 *Sunday Dinner

I see no shame in posting how I refueled after Saturday/Sunday's long runs.
Last night John went and picked up dinner for us.
Fish fry, chilli cheese fries and mac&cheese...
I'm not ashamed of this delicious goodness that's horrible for me.
It's not like I eat it all the time.

This week is going to be a busy one for sure, 

but I have great things to look forward to this coming weekend.

 So let's just home Monday-Friday goes by fast!!!

How was your weekend?

What's your favorite 'unhealthy' or 'healthy' 

way to refuel after a long run?

Beating the Madness & PLRB

So let me share a secret with you, Monday's crap-tastic madness almost got the best of me yesterday. There are a few reasons for this, including why it has to do with fitness/running, and life obviously. I managed to survive the madness and end the day on a good note, by doing some things that work for me, getting a little sweat time in, indulging in some crap food, and with support from my 'team'.

Reasons Yesterday ALMOST got the best of me

1. It was Monday, and as Monday's go, it's a dumb day.

1. If you want a reason to laugh at me, listen to this song...."C'est La Vie" By Shania Twain. It has my thoughts on Monday nailed down. My mom and I used to listen (and sing..duh) to this song a lot when she would drive me to school when I was in Jr.High/High school(crap..I'm aging myself)....but if you really want to laugh at me.... Listen to "River of Dreams" by Billy Joel (it has nothing to do with monday madness), Mom and I used to sing this one in the car when I was really little (I was 6 when it came out).
2. Okay now that you're done laughing at me, back to reasons yesterday was just not my day. Had to deal with stupid things at work, and by stupid I mean clients who don't do what I tell them to do, and then yell at me when things take longer. (If your financial planner, or anyone handling your accounts tells you to fill out paperwork and send it in ASAP, DO IT. Because your account won't magically do what needs to be done without it.)
3. Traffic was crappy as all hell. I live 3.9 miles from my office ( I know, crazy long right?), well it normally takes me 15 minutes or so to get to work ( love morning traffic). Yesterday it took me 32 minutes. If you're like me and looking at those numbers, you'd realize that I could have run 3.9 miles in less than 32 minutes. 
4. Post-Long-Run-Blues. Now some of you may have heard of this and some of you may not have. I noticed this a few years ago when I started doing longer runs training for my first marathon. The day after a long run, feeling very tired (expected), agitated, and just not myself by any means. At first I just thought it was fatigue, but after seeing it more and more and reading about other people dealing with it, I realized it was more than that. Long runs put your body and mind through a lot, and post-long-run-blues is actually more common than you would think. Some people get it the same day as their run, I notice I get it the following day. I struggled a lot with this for a while, until my doctor suggested choline supplements. I read more about it, in articles like this one : Choline Supplementation, which I found to be helpful in understanding it more. Taking Choline supplements really helped diminish my post-long run blues.  While training for Marathons 2-4 I didn't have any issues with PLRB so I didn't supplement, but now training for #5 , the blues are back and I'll be hitting GNC later today to stock up on Choline. During your long runs, you blood-choline levels go down, and low levels can lead to fatigue, and even mental issues such as depression and anxiety (Cue PLRB). Like I said, not everyone gets this, and those who do might see it happen the day of or the days following a long run. I have done a lot of research on PLRB (my term for it), choline supplements and other contributing factors, if you want to know more, comment or email me and I will gladly share.
5. General Exhaustion. As I have mentioned before I am a very busy person, 2 jobs, planning a wedding, training, everything. There are times this wears you down, especially when at least 2 days a week I work both jobs, which makes for a 14-16 hour work day(not including training time, and getting ready). Those 2 days are usually sandwiched around the weekend (Friday and Monday), and that makes for 4 long days in a row (Saturday's and Sundays I usually have a lot going on). Yesterday I was not in the mood for a long day, to be honest I don't think I could have done it without screaming, or crying or falling asleep at the wheel. Luckily I was able to get someone to cover my shift last night so I my 14-16 hour day was cut in half, actually more.
6. Friend Drama: I won't go into detail about this to spare everyone from being involved in drama. But you should know this was something weighing on my mind, and had me feeling less than fabulous.

After getting someone to cover my shift, I decided I was going to take an even shorter day...Sue me. I got what I could done at the office and was gone. But by doing some things for me, I was able to beat some of the madness out of myself. 

Anti-Madness/Anti-PLRB Routine

1. Do something for someone else: I went to BuyBuyBaby and A.C.Moore to get things to make for my sisters baby shower this weekend. Being giving always makes you feel a little happier.
2. Indulge in something: Totally grabbed a diet Pepsi (I don't drink a lot of soda), Pretzel M&M's and sat in my car inhaling them (while I got my oil changed). 
3. Do something for yourself: When I got home, early afternoon... I took my shoes off, kicked my feet up, put in season 4 of Alias and watched 2 episodes, completley ignored my phone and laptop and just got lost in mindless TV while not moving a muscle.
4. Sweat it out: Besides Choline supplements one of the things that helps me with PLRB is to sweat a little even if it means working out on a rest day. Giving your body a little boost ("exercise gives you endorphins, endorphins make people happy, happy people just don't shoot their husbands".....hmm I may need to watch that movie later.) I didn't kill myself in a long workout, but I gave myself a little sweat time on the bike (30 minutes), 15 minutes of core fitness, and then ran a mile.  Even a little workout can boost your mood.
1. With this I will also say...sometimes the best way to beat the madness is to take a day off. Even if you have a workout planned, sometimes you're body is in madness mode because it needs rest. Yesterday was supposed to be rest day so I worked out a little to help me, sometimes making a workout day a rest day is what you need, learn to listen to your body...it doesn't enter madness mode for no reason, it's trying to tell you something so LISTEN.
5. Take a step back (from work): This is when I got someone to work for me at night, and took an early day at the office. Sometimes you need to back away. Madness mode doesn't make for a productive employee.
6. Be quiet ( give yourself time to think and process everything going on): shut off the phone and laptop for a bit, read a book, relax, don't worry about analyzing anything, just breathe and embrace some peaceful time. I went from 3pm-7pm(when J got home) without speaking a word, 1st of all I avoided human contact once I got home, and I gave myself alone time.
7. Get some rest: This could mean going to bed at 8 pm, which I was going to do...(but then Biggest Loser came on). Or getting some rest could mean simply relaxing, those chores and things that need to be done, they can wait. Kick your feet up and allow yourself to be lazy, you work hard, you earned a little down time.

Let me also say this, I have one kick ass Fiance....all I told him yesterday before I left work was that I wasn't in a great mood and that I wasn't going to be working the rest of the day. Here's how he handles this....

 ( We always say how we are a team, both being athletes, it's just how we are, nerds and I love it.)

He came home from work around 7 with dinner from Panera (including ever fattening mac& cheese...my favorite), chocolate (duh), Starbucks (enabling my addiction), and a giant hug....my mood was instantly better, mainly because seeing him does that, but because he knows the things that make me happy (especially the hug). Having an off day can be made so much better, just by having support and understanding from the main people in your life.

I spent the rest of the night laying in bed, eating fattening food, tearing up watching the Biggest Loser (Danni is my absolute favorite, Jackson and Jeff crack me up, Gina annoys the crap out of me...), and being grateful for the fact that I have a lot of good things in my life, and that tomorrow (today) is a new day. I ended the day feeling better than I started, that is when you know you beat the madness and didn't let it get the best of you.

So, Question: Have you ever felt Post-Long-Run-Blues? 

What puts you into Madness Mode (Monday anyone?) and how do you get out of it?

For the record, I posted last week about an off day, last weeks off day was lacking motivation, yesterday was monday-madness and PLRB, there is a difference. If you would like me to explain, let me know. I'm not a debbie downer all the time, I really am not, but we are all allowed to have off days, and times when we need help.