The reason for the short break is of course the fact that I am training for the Rock n Roll marathon in June. The La Jolla half was actually a “training” run.
Post-Race Nutrition
- Burned this baby off at Mile 5!
After lunch, we went straight to our pre-determined destination: Sprinkles Cupcakes. I’ve been literally fantasizing about a Sprinkles cupcake for the entire time we’re been on P90X. I don’t even eat cupcakes often and usually I prefer a cookie or ice cream to cake, but for some reason people have been bringing cupcakes into work, talking about cupcakes, and posting pictures of cupcakes on Facebook or Twitter for the last 80 days and my desire to eat one has been pretty intense at times. Our favorite healthy restaurant also has massive vegan red velvet cupcakes behind the counter that I crave every time we go there. I even found a fellow blogger via Twitter who competes in triathlons in order to eat cupcakes. She has an entire blog devoted to them. After I read her blog, I decided to find out how many calories are in one cupcake – 500. That means I only have to run 5 miles to deserve it! Needless to say, our post-race visit was a long time coming. Mike and I ordered 2 cupcakes – Red Velvet and Brown Sugar Praline (an specialty cupcake that is only in stores until April 24). We split them as soon as we got home and it was everything I had hoped for. Delicious.
After an attempt at a nap (our amped up bodies and sore legs wouldn’t really allow for one), we were back in the kitchen to make recovery drinks (one scoop powder with 1 cup almond milk and 3 frozen strawberries for me). After more relaxing, that evening we went to dinner with a friend at a local Asian-fusion restaurant (and I made a healthy choice of a shrimp rice bowl with plenty of veggies). Admittedly, my post-race nutrition could use some improvement. It’s highly recommended that you fuel your body post-runs with high quallity, nutrient filled food. However, who the heck wants to run a half marathon if you can’t eat whatever greasy or sugar-laden thing they want to afterward?!
I definitely went a little overboard this weekend, especially considering that I have my big weigh-in and Day 90 pictures on Sunday. I decided that starting Monday and ending Thursday, I’d go back to Phase 1 diet – one carb/day – in order to get a little leaner before the final pictures. Why only til Thursday? Because Friday I need to eat carbs in preparation for our 15 mile training run on Saturday.
Post-Race Workouts & Massage
Our VAVI running coach sent out an email on Monday telling us to NOT run that day. Instead, we should take a walk. That was fine with me becuase I slept absolutely horribly on Sunday night (perhaps from that cup of coffee before the race or just being amped up in general). At lunch, I took a 40 minute walk and my legs felt significantly better. After work, I went to my favorite spa and got a 60 minute massage, with extra focus on my back and legs. It felt amazing. I was walking on air when I left. My massage therapist uses hot stones, warm towels and aromatherapy during the massages and I always leave feeling fantastic. It is probably a good idea to get a sports massage after a run, but I prefer the relaxation type.
Luckily, this is recovery week for us on P90X. So Tuesday morning, instead of a heavy strength training workout, we did our Yoga X workout. Despite waking up at 5:20 for the workout, I actually felt fantastic. I put my full effort into all the moves and by the end was feeling very energized and stretched out.
Yesterday evening I went for my first post-race run. Due to obligations at work, I had to skip my group run and ended up running by myself along the coast near our house. I realized that I hadn’t run alone in over a month and it felt good to do so. Lately I’ve been so caught up in Twitter/Facebook/blogging/event planning/training/working/P90X that I have very little time to myself. I don’t even have much time to let my mind wander during my drives because I usually call someone (and my commute is only 20 minutes). Although the first mile was pretty painful (and painfully slow – 10:30 pace!), by mile two I was feeling much better and by the time I reached 2.5, where I was planning on turning around, I was feeling so good that I kept going until 3 (it helps that miles 2.5-3 are probably the most scenic of the run). I was so caught up in the beauty of the ocean and coast that I really enjoyed the run. Around mile 5 though, I was beginning to regret adding the extra mile. However, I finished feeling good and stretched out at the viewpoint near our house which overlooks the ocean. I couldn’t help but keep reminding myself of how good life is.
Workouts Planned For This Week
This morning we were back at P90X with Core Synergistics. Tomorrow morning we plan to replace Kenpo (which we never do) with Legs &Back and Ab Ripper since we missed it last week due to our run (we usually do it on Sundays). Tomorrow evening I’ll get in a 5-6 mile easy run. Then Friday we’ll do Core Synergistics, Saturday run 15 miles, and Sunday finish with Yoga. I can’t believe this is our final week of Round 1 of P90X! However, we plan on continuing right on with a modified version of P90X when we’re finished. There will be another blog entry on our plans for that coming up shortly.
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