Jan-Feb Workout Schedule

I’ve been literally pulling myself through my workweek workout by workout. Since my workouts are so important to my productivity in other areas of my life I thought I’d start filling the blogosphere in on what kinds of workouts I’m doing every week.

For the month of January and February my schedule looks like this:

Monday: AM cardio/HIIT strength circuit + AB ripper X

Tuesday: AM cardio/Legs + Shoulders

Wednesday: AM cardio/HIIT strength circuit + AB ripper X

Thursday: AM cardio/Back + Biceps + Glutes

Friday: AM cardio/HIIT strength circuit + Ab ripper X

Saturday: AM cardio/Chest + Triceps

Sunday: Rest day (maybe yoga)

I also will be doing daily deep stretching for 30 minutes. Check for daily updates with my “Today’s Run” posts and check out my “Strength Circuit” posts for interesting or particularly brutal strength circuits.

Cute Find / Free Calendar

Perusing the interwebs occasionally you find something useful and cute and FREE. Today was one of those days. I have been looking for a calendar to help keep track of my goals for the year (especially since I kept zippo of my goals for 2012 as far as fitness goes). Anyway, the folks over at RunPrettyFar have a free one that is awesome.

It’s cute and has an inspirational quote that goes along with each month. Additionally, each month has a section where you can write down your goals for the month. I’m a big believer in writing down goals and am a sucker for a inspirational quote…and when you throw free into the mix I’m jumping all the way in head first.

Here’s a screen shot for the calendar. I’m sure the folks over at RunPrettyFar won’t mind me posting it and the link to their blog. It’ll give them some additional traffic. Download the calendar, save some pennies and be inspired.

Stay Tuned for OCDRunner’s Next Fitness Challenge

I really have enjoyed doing this 60 day yoga challenge and have found that the daily logging, etc has really helped me to keep on track. Ever the planner/listmaker. I’ve already set to task to design my next fitness challenge.

So when Turkey day is over and I have completed 60+ yoga classes in 60 days, I will announce my next fitness challenge to anyone who cares 🙂 It has a long term and a short term component.

…and boy is it gonna be SEXY!!! Like Andreia Brazier’s abs sexy.

 

Running: a relief and a stressor

I’ll be the first to tell you that running has been my therapy.  As I write this post, I am a 6^th year MSTP student. This means I have finished two years of medical school course work and I am currently putting the finishing touches on my PhD dissertation. In September of this year, I will return to medical school to finish up my clinical requirements. Because of scheduling issues, I will likely start with Surgery, a notoriously malignant clinical rotation and a field in which I have minimal interest. Add in failed experiments, a fear of mice (my current research subjects), the need to constantly prove to the ‘old boys club’ types that I belong and then sprinkle life’s daily issues on top of that. I’d say I have a little bit of stress.

Believe it or not, running (or just exercise really) is the only time I let my mind relax. Even in my sleep, I stress – as evidenced by the TMJ-like pain and stiffness in my lower jaw when I wake up in the morning. When I run, or lift weights, or get on the stairmaster, my only concern becomes finishing the workout….to get through the pain of fatigued and sore muscles and accomplish something (Weightloss, fitness, mileage goal) on the other end.

Yup, there’s a hint of masochism in there somewhere. I’m sure there are ways to cope with life stressors that do not involve setting out 3 hours on a Monday morning to jog 16 miles. I could have dealt with the verbal abuse of a disrespectful dissertation committee member without the help of barbells and dumbbells and Spartacus 2.0. But the pain of a good workout somehow relives tension….somehow, when I max out on a set, or get to mile 16 with dead legs, I feel in control.

And then, there’s the side of running that is stressful. It’s easy to obsess over running…afterall, it’s the element in my life that I have complete control over. I’m addicted to that feeling – being in control. Like an addiction, running can interfere with my productivity in other aspects of life. A three-hour date with running means a three-hour space of time when you are not doing something else that perhaps you should be doing.  A social running meet-up means scheduling our 2 hours on a Saturday morning to run, when you should perhaps be catching up on lost sleep.

It’s sometimes hard to find a balance. But yet, a balance must be struck. I need to run and I need to get my PhD by this August. I need to run and I need to work my ass off in all of my clinical rotations so I can get my choice of residency. I need to run and I need to spend time working on my experiments and papers so that I can continue to excel as a graduate student and make a name for myself in my field. I need to run and I need to eat, and sleep and groom and interact with friends and remain conscious of my personhood. This balance has been elusive but I will continue to search, because…well, I need to find it….it’s written on my to do list after all.

Race Schedule – List in progress

Nov 2011- Dec 2012 Race Schedule (Ambitious/crazy/lots of mileage)

As mentioned in a previous post, I’m going to try and run at least one race/month. Just because it’s a race doesn’t mean I’ll be racing/trying to PR. This is especially true for the weekends where 2 races are back to back (May is like this because I would like to become a 1/2 fanatic) or when I have a 1/2 right the weekend before a Full (July is like this, and I plan on racing the full and slowly jogging the 1/2). I’m still looking for races to fill some months up. I also am interested in doing the Hermes Cleveland Road Race Series, which is mostly 5 and 10Ks so those can easily substitute into my schedule for some tempo runs and fartleks.

It’s gonna be a hell of a year!

Nov-11 :: Tallahassee Turkey Trot –  Tallahassee, FL – 10K, 11/24/2011 (done, PR)

Dec-11 ::

Jan-12:: Nike+ Virtual 1/2 Marathon – Cleveland, OH, 1/15/2012

Feb-12

Mar-12

Apr-12:: Chi-town 1/2 Marathon – Chicago, IL – 4/1/2012

May-12:: Capital City 1/2 Marathon – Columbus, OH, 5/5/2012 (BGR!)

:: Cincinnati Flying Pig 1/2 Marathon – Cincinnati, OH, 5/6/2012 (To become a Jupiter level 1/2 fanatic)

Jun-12:: Towpath 10-10, 10K – Cleveland, OH, 6/19/2012

Jul-12:: Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon – Chicago, IL, 7/22/2012

:: San Francisco Full Marathon – SanFrancisco, CA, 7/29/2012

Aug-12:: Lee-Harvard-Miles Memorial 5K – Cleveland, OH, 8/25/2012

Sep-12:: River Run 1/2 Marathon – Cleveland, OH, 9/9/2012

:: Akron 1/2 Marathon – Akron, OH, 9/29/2012

Oct-12:: Nike Women’s 1/2 Marathon – San Francisco, CA, 10/12/2012 (lottery, BGR!)

or if don’t make the lottery

::Baltimore Running Festival 1/2 Marathon – Baltimore, MD, 10/13/2012 (BGR!)

Nov-12:: Tallahassee Turkey Trot – Tallahassee, FL 11/22/2012

Dec-12:: Reindeer Run 5K- Cleveland, OH

lottery = race entry contingent upon lottery selection

BGR! = this is an official race of BGR!™

A Running Schedule is a To Do List

I’ve always been a compulsive list maker. A conversation with my mother a year ago revolved around the utility of a 50-item to-do list that I made to help me make the transition from laboratory-confined graduate student to PhD-holding medical student. Apparently, she, like the on-campus therapist that helps me sort out my thoughts from time-to-time, fails to see how a list so long can be an effective organizational tool. “How is your list helping your stress level?” That was the (rather facetious) question my therapist asked me the last time I spoke with her. I was advised to abandon such a list for a more truncated and “realistic” version, and to “relax.”

Enter running. About a year ago, I decided to pick up running again (in high school I was a back of the pack cross country runner) for two major reasons: 1) Exercise is relaxing; 2) My little brother started running and I can do anything he can do better. My initial revisit with running was tough and frustrating – far from the relaxing endorphin high that I expected. I found myself in the dead of Ohio Winter, pounding out mile after tedious mile on a treadmill at paces that were unimpressive even to my back of the pack high school XC running former self. My brother finished the Philly full marathon that year and informed the whole family that it was the “most important thing anyone in the family had ever done.”

Thank the Lord he made me a researcher. I have a tendency to compulsively research things that I am interested in doing or am involved in. I’ll read just about everything about crocheting, or cooking a particular dish or in this case, running that I can access. {As an aside, the smartphone is probably the worst invention in the world for someone like me, because the moment someone says something in a conversation or lecture that I don’t understand, I’m online-completely distracted reading related and tangentially related artciles about whaetever that topic is.} So to combat my disdain for putting up >11 minute miles, I went to google. I stumbled across a host of resources – all the typical ones you see runners cite: Hal Higdon, Runners World, Jeff Galloway, couch-to-5K and I even found some motivational resources like – Black Girls Run, National Black Marathoners Association and DailyMile. I went to Amazon and dropped 12$ on the “Complete Book of Women’s Running” and bugged some people on DailyMile for additional resources.

Last year my goal was to run at a sub 10min/mile pace, to run a 1/2 marathon and to run at least 500 miles in the year. Now there (I have about 80 miles left to reach 500 for the year!), my aspirations are growing. Today, I started planning out my racing schedule for 2012, which, for me, a compulsive list-maker is like a binding contract. I’m setting the ambitious goal of running at least 1 race per month. I know how disappointed in myself I will be if I don’t adhere to my schedule. With this disappointment is sure to come stress – especially as my PhD dissertation defense date and graduation date draw nearer. Each race will produce a new benchmark – a goal time that I will tell myself I have to meet for a given distance. So while the endorphins are there –  I certainly can attest to feeling low and being easily aggravated on days that I do not run – running has surely brought its own set of stresses to the table.

I haven’t discussed this aspect of my relationship with running with my therapist yet –  I only go to see her when things spiral out of control or something tragically life altering happens. So far both feet are on the ground. Hope they stay there.