Shoe Review: Mizuno Hitogami

I think I have mentioned more than once that for a while one of my favorite mid-distance road shoes was the Mizuno Wave Musha. Yes, they were ugly as sin, but they were nice and light while still offering just the right amount of support, and responsive enough for racing 5Ks/10Ks while still providing enough cushioning that you didn't end up with bruised feet after. We had four beautiful years together; then Mizuno cruelly pulled the plug last year, and to add insult to injury, I lost my last pair when the bag they were in was stolen from Kezar Stadium last November.

Mizuno also announced at the same time that they were discontinuing the Wave Ronin, a shoe that I never ran in personally but based on the description it reminds me a lot of the Brooks Launch (neutral, relatively traditional in its design, but lighter & more stripped down than most traditional trainers) & that the Hitogami would replace both since there is "no reason for shoes that were so very similar to fight each other for wall space." The Mizuno lightweight family, then, now goes (from heavier to lighter) Hitogami, Ekiden, Universe.

While I've been mostly happy with my Kinvaras as an all-around work-horse shoe, there are a few things I don't love about them, and if I could find a shoe that works better, I'd switch. So I pre-ordered the Hitogami from Road Runner Sports, a Bay Area running store that will let you try shoes out & return them within sixty days, no questions ask, if they don't work out for you.

Some basic info about the shoe:

Right out of the box, the Hitogamis struck me as light (duh), rather on the narrow side, and with the slimmer midsole I'd liked about the Musha. The midsole uses a new foam called U4ic, which replaces the AP+ they've used in the past, and is supposedly 30% lighter.

Running Warehouse lists a stack height of 23mm in the heel & 14mm in the forefoot for a total heel drop of 9mm, which is almost identical to the Musha (22mm/13mm). (For comparison, the Kinvara 4 measures 22mm/18mm, ie, lower stack height and lower heel drop, which you wouldn't necessarily think just by looking.)

Left: Mizuno Wave Hitogami, 23 heel/14 ball/9 drop.
Right: Saucony Kinvara 4, 22 heel/18 ball/4 drop. Deceptive, huh?

As you can see, the Musha 3 (right, men's size 6.5; they didn't come in women's sizes) outweighed the Hitogami (left, women's size 8) by a full ounce:

U4ic at work? Either way, bullet point one on the "Hitogami ≠ Musha" list.

Construction

In addition to the U4ic in the midsole, an almost entirely mesh upper probably also contributes to the shoe's light weight. The construction of the tongue, heel counter, laces, etc. is fairly traditional. Mizuno doesn't state on their site what type of last they used, but it looks just the slightest bit curved vs. totally straight, which you can kind of see here and in the top-down photos. The bottom of the soles is blown rubber (yellow) with a good amount of hard carbon rubber (dark blue), which should make it fairly durable & long-lived.

If you peer through the little hollow in the heel, you can see the trademark Mizuno "Wave" plate inside. (I am convinced that making sure you can see the "Wave" is the sole purpose of that hole. The Ekiden has it too, and the only other purpose I can see for it is getting rocks stuck up in there.)

Sizing & Comfort

Generally speaking, the Hitogami was a comfortable shoe to wear--no pinching, rubbing or chafing anywhere, and the mesh upper means that everything touching your foot is soft. The size eight fit me perfectly length-wise. (For comparison, I wear a 7.5 in Sauconys & Altras, an 8 in Newtons, New Balance, & every Mizuno I've ever tried, & can comfortably do a 7.5 or 8 in Brooks; Running Warehouse suggests sizing down and Road Runner Sports suggests sizing up, so my own comparative experiences with different brands size-wise is the best I can offer there.)

My suspicions re: the narrowness of the footbed were confirmed as soon as I slipped them on, though. To get them to fit comfortably, I had to loosen the laces almost as far as they would go, and even then, the toe box is still pretty claustrophobic and I felt like the outsides of my feet were spilling over the side of the footbed. (While I don't have particularly narrow feet, I wouldn't say I have particularly wide feet either, and this isn't something that typically happens to me with 'B' width shoes.)

I think the fact that I had to loosen the laces so much is why
they look sort of wide & chunky in this picture. Or maybe it's just me.

This is point two re: Hitogami ≠ Musha. The spilling-over-the-footbed feeling even just walking around was particularly worrisome, given that I've been doing anything & everything I can to avoid over-supinating.

On the other hand, something I did like about the Hitogamis was the foot bed, which offers just a little extra cushioning as compared to the Musha (cushioning being the main reason I was never comfortable running more than 12-13 miles in that shoe). It wasn't the squishy, pillowy feeling that I hate in many traditional shoes; just a tiny little extra bit of "Ahhhh" when your foot hits the ground. So based on that, I could see running longer distances in the Hitogami than the Musha. Point three re: Hitogami ≠ Musha.

Ride/Feel

It really is too bad about the narrow footbed & toe box, because otherwise, the ride in the Hitogamis has been pretty comfortable. I like the level of cushioning, and in spite of having a fairly significant midsole, the shoe remains pretty flexible in every direction.

On the other hand, that probably means that you want to avoid this shoe if you like a little more stability. I wouldn't call it minimalist by any stretch, but it is absolutely, definitely, 100% neutral. (Point four re: Hitogami ≠ Musha.)

I also did enjoy the relative responsiveness of the shoe. No, it it's not as snappy off the ground as the Musha was (point five), but it's not squishy either, & the flexibility of the sole actually provides reasonably good ground feel. If I were going to keep it, I would probably use it mainly for short-to-medium length runs and racing half-marathons and maybe marathons, depending on how my feet felt on long runs.

The narrowness, though, really is a problem for me. I feel like the outside of my foot is spilling over the footbed, which in practice seems to translate into more likelihood of ugly supination (which probably played a role in causing my stress fracture). While I'm sad that that's the case, it was gratifying to hear my physical therapist mention it after watching me run on the treadmill, particularly from the back.

Some width comparisons:

Hitogami vs. Newton Gravity

Hitogami vs. Altra One

Hitogami vs. Brooks Launch

Hitogami vs. Kinvara 4

Bottom Line

Unfortunately I don't think the Hitogami is for me, nor is it (in my opinion) a great replacement for the Musha. BUT, that's not to say that it's not a good neutral shoe in general. There are several things I like about it, and if it weren't so narrow, I would probably hang on to it for short-to-medium runs, & I could even see them working for longer distances for runners with good mechanics & an efficient stride.

I am hoping to get a review up on the Ekiden in the next couple of weeks; I feel like writing a quality review will require doing some fast running in them, though, so it will probably depend on whether not I'm up to that between now & then.

Race Report: Get Lucky 5K

Pre-race

It's patently absurd to me to think that I once ran a 20:44 5K. It was early in May 2012, at a tiny charity race in Menlo Park, while I was training my ass off to deargodpleasefinally *FINALLY* officially break 1:40 in a legit half marathon. My 5K goal at the time was sub-21:30, and I thought maybe, if I had a really good race, I might be able to do it. Do not ask me how I ran a 20:44. I don't know. I'm pretty sure I almost died afterward.

Obviously, I wasn't shooting for anything in even the same realm as that last Saturday. I've been in physical therapy for 10.5 months. I spent January dealing with a stress fracture. I've run less than 50 miles in all of 2014, mostly in three to four minute intervals. I haven't done speed work (on my feet) since December 17.

My only goals were as follows:

• Have some fun & celebrate being discharged from physical therapy / allowed to run without walk breaks
• Practice good form
• Pay attention to pain
• Don't run through it

Which (spoiler), I'd say was all fairly well accomplished.

This race was a bit odd in that it started at 11 a.m., but since it was more of a St. Patrick's Day community event/fun run, it made sense. It also meant that I could justify an hour drive up from the city by getting Don to come with me & then spending the rest of the day wine tasting in & around Santa Rosa, since we didn't have to leave until ~9:30. (Come to think of it....Why don't more races do this???)

Festive runners stretching before the race

Ah, right. I know why. There may be a polar vortex terrorizing the rest of the country, but this weekend in wine country the highs were in the 80s. It was at least 75F by the time the gun went off.

Even though I knew this would be a small race with a fairly chill field, I had no illusions that I would be running it all-out or attempting to place. Since I have been given very strict instructions not to run more than 20-22 minutes at a time, I didn't even warm up, unless you count a bit of light jogging between packet pickup & the port-a-potties. I figured I would use the first mile as a warm up & then spend the last two just having fun, letting myself run as fast as I felt comfortable with while keeping up my form.

Well. Let's just say that I seriously, *seriously* underestimated the amount of conscious control I have over what my mind and body do when I pin a bib to my chest & then a gun goes off.

Since this was very much a family-friendly, community-oriented event, it didn't surprise me all that much when I saw moms lining up at the very front of the pack with small children and/or strollers. Ordinarily that would bug me, but the field was small enough that it was pretty easy to get around those folks in the first twenty yards or so. I wore my Garmin, but only really for recording splits, since my only plan was to run at whatever pace felt fun and happy. (Even without "RACING"-racing, I figured knowing what numbers that level of effort matched up to would give me some kind of baseline information about my fitness.)

Start

I settled into a "WEEEEEEE RUNNING IS FUUUUUUN" type of groove pretty quickly, and after a few minutes glanced at my watch out of sheer curiosity, and saw that my pace at the moment was a cool 6:45. Oy, I found myself thinking, there is no way that is going to last. Sure enough, I pretty quickly needed to ease back, and mile 1 ticked off in 7:02.

Into the second mile, my super-cute knee socks and I began to appreciate the full sun & 75F+ temps. I got thirsty enough in that second mile that I grabbed a cup of water when I went by the station (which I almost never do in a 5K), and then very quickly after found myself remembering what it's like to race this distance, mainly the part where you can't remember why at some point you thought it sounded like a good idea.

It's cool, I told my (other) self. We're not really racing today. No need to kill yourself. Ease up all you want. Just stay comfortable.

But--and here is where it gets weird--I realized I just couldn't do it. Even knowing I was out of shape, barely not injured, and really just doing this for fun, I could not back off from at least a moderately painful pace in the middle of a 5K. It just was not going to happen. Mile 2 = 7:14.

Here is when I subject you to one of my completely unscientific theories of running & racing. I have the sense that there exists some part of my brain that, over many years of practice & trial & error, has developed a sense of what level of effort is appropriate & sustainable for racing a given distance. The actual pace varies with my fitness/training, but there does seem to be a level of effort that my body has learned to dial into pretty much automatically. Towards the end of a race, I can override it for a sprint to the finish, but otherwise, that's pretty much the pace I'll maintain barring any major catastrophes.

So going into mile 3, I think that's kind of what my body was doing. I may not be in great shape right now, but apparently the autopilot is not the type of thing that gets rusty. The down side of this was that comfort-wise, the rest of the race really, REALLY sucked, and it would have been nice if the autopilot could have toned it down for maybe half a second at some point. At one point I was like, "Dude. Seriously, chill."

"NOPE."

"Come on, slow down a little. Just a little maybe."

"NOT HAPPENING."

"You really don't have to do this today."

"THE HELL YOU SAY."

Sweaty post-race victory shot, strategically staged in front of a St. Paddy's Victory Fern. Obviously.

So that was that. I definitely didn't step on the accelerator, but half a mile from the finish I decided it would probably be easier to just go with the momentum, even though I knew it was going to suck, than to wrestle the wheel away from the autopilot & slow down. I missed my mile 3 split (it was 7:13) so really had only the vaguest idea what kind of time I was in for. When I came around the last turn & saw 21:55 on the clock, I was kind of surprised and actually did muster a little bit of an extra sprint to the finish. Initially my time was listed as 22:09, but later when the official results came out with chip times, it was revised down to 22:06. I had pretty much gone into this race assuming it would be my slowest 5K race ever, and it was, but only by six seconds, which was kind of neat considering the hot weather, lack of warm-up, and knowing I could have run the last mile harder if I'd cared to.

Garmin: ??? (When you're out of practice racing, it turns out you might forget to stop your watch at the finish. By the time I looked at it, it read 34:something. Oops. :/ )

Official: 3.1 miles / 22:06 / 7:08 pace (which, if my Garmin is to be believed, means that I ran the last .1 in 37 seconds, ie 6:10 pace.)

Overall: 6/224
Women: 3/160
A/G: 3/69

Basically, I ran this race more or less at my 10K PR pace. Which...is sort of amazing to contemplate. The whole experience put me in mind of something I read recently from Lauren Fleshman (if you haven't noticed, my new pro runner crush):

"The performance itself was semi-solid, like Jell-O, and equally satisfying....To be honest, I was never going to be competitive in the race. I hadn't done the work yet. But I knew I'd have to race again eventually, and I'd rather rip off the Band-Aid than slowly peel it back. Every runner who beat me would give me motivation."

So yeah. I had a great time and am very happy I decided to run this race, but consider me motivated. :)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*LOGISTICAL STUFF~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Location: Rohnert Park, CA

Date: Mid March (March 15, 2014 this year)

Price: I know there was some discounted pricing on this race early-on, but I don't remember the exact numbers. It was something like $35 for the first 100 registrants, $40 until xx date, $50 after xx date. I also think that it was less for the under 16s, like maybe $25. (I know, super unhelpful. You get the gist, though.) More than I would typically pay for a 5K, but it is a charity gig, and it's hard to complain too much about money that provides weekend nutrition to grade school kids.

Deadlines/sellout factor: All the emails & Facebook posts I saw claimed that the race would absolutely, definitely sell out, but as of the night before the race, there were still spots available, and they did end up having some race day registration. It was an inaugural event, so who knows what will happen in the future.

Field Size: 224 finishers listed.

Staging: The race was held in a little shopping / event area in Rohnert Park, with the course making two big loops around it. The start/finish was near a grassy area with picnic tables & chairs, so there were plenty of space for people to hang out before & after the race. Packet pickup was inside the community event space (walked in less than half an hour before the start, and literally had to wait about ninety seconds to get my stuff); there was also a bar area inside where the post-race beers were served, with plenty of tables & chairs for relaxing. (Also, it turned out that there were real bathrooms open in the event space, which I did not know until I'd already visited the port-a-potties. No wonder there were no lines.)

The Course:

The course was two big loops around the shopping area marked off with cones. The first loop required a couple of dog-legs into the parking lots, & the second was just a straight shot all the way around. There was one little spot with a short but not insignificant up-hill, but the rest was basically flat. There was one aid station with water & Gatorade, giving the runners two chances over the course of the race. I was worried it might be tricky to tell which way to go on the two different loops, but the volunteers did a great job of directing everyone appropriately.

For my purposes & expectations, the course set-up was just fine. If I were looking for an absolutely perfect course on which to PR, I probably would not pick this one. First, the dog-legs are not ideal, and because it's more of a community fun run, the second loop did get a bit dicey with the faster runners having to negotiate clusters of dogs/strollers/kids/walkers/etc. (When I got to the aid station on my second loop, there were like 40 people basically standing all the way across the path.) But again, I really was just there to have fun, so this didn't bother me much.

Parking:

The website said that there would be lots of free parking, but that donations for the charity were encouraged. However when we parked, we didn't see anyone soliciting donations, so I'm not sure what the deal was with that.

Swag:

A cute hoodie & beer mug (filled with beer) for all (adult) finishers. (There were green smoothies for the under 21s.) The hoodie is more T-shirt weight than sweatshirt, but for a $50 charity race, that's pretty much what I expected. It'll be great for throwing on & lounging around post-workout.

Look, schwag! Also, our succulent collection.

Gift certificates for a local running store were awarded to male & female first place finishers in each age group (with the age groups being under 16, 16-39, & 40+).

Overall Assessment:

By & large, this race was exactly what I expected. Again more than I would normally pay for a 5K, but I really wanted to run a 5K on this date, it looked like a lot of fun, the swag was nice, and because it's put on by the Santa Rosa Marathon, I figured I could trust it to be well-run & -organized, which it was. I'd recommend it to people who were thinking of running it as long as they understood that it's a community fun run, not a srsbzns competitive road race, and didn't mind the price tag. (Also, hey, it's a charity thing, and I've spent precious little on race fees lately, so no big deal for me this time.)

Physical Therapy = O-V-E-R

On Friday morning, I went to PT as per usual & was glad to be able to report to him that my 20 minute runs had been going well & I hadn't had any pain during or after. We started out with all the usual strength tests, which we haven't done in a few weeks--hip flexors, glute meds & max, hamstrings, general posterior chain, etc. For many things he gave a satisfied nod and a decisive "Good" or "I like it." When we got to hamstrings, it was "Awesome," and my hip stabilizers (where you lay on your side, raise your top leg up to ~30 degrees a la Jane Fonda, point your toe up and in, & try to resist force from above), "Wow, I could probably stand on your leg and not break this." (For this, I credit the 200-300 clam shells I've been doing each week.)

Not everything was perfect. There is one particular movement pattern where I lay on my back, raise one thigh perpendicular & shin parallel but angled inward at the knee, point my toe, & try to resist inward force with my knee, where I am rock solid on the left side but noticeably weaker on the right; apparently this is 100% related to how my right knee often wants to collapse in a little, which my body tries to compensate for using my sartorius muscle (the one I tore last summer, not a coincidence), so I still have some work to do there. Also I am still to keep doing a little extra work for the right glute. (Hello donkey kicks!)

After the strength testing he put me back on the treadmill, yellow sticky dots strategically stuck to various joints (knees, hips, SI joints, heels, ankles, etc.). I ran & he videotaped, & afterward we did a quick run-down of what looks good and what still needs work.

• Forward lean is MUCH improved, but 2-3 degrees more would be a big help in terms of protecting my insanely tight hip flexors. (This is amazing to me--I've worked on it so much, and gotten so much better at it, to the point that it sometimes feels like I'm about to face plant right into the dashboard, and STILL on the video my torso looks almost straight up-and-down. Even though I'm a confirmed forefoot striker, which is fine, not having enough forward lean still results in just the tiniest bit of over-striding.)
• Foot strike & general leg position/alignment looks good.
• Pulling through with hamstrings & glutes much MUCH better.
• Keep working on the inward-drifting right knee. Probably forever.
• Left hip drop also MUCH improved but still noticeable; working on the right knee should help with this.
• Left foot is currently pointing almost straight forward throughout my stride, which is bad & also a risk factor for both over-supinating & stress fractures. (For those keeping score at home, that's a yes on both counts.) Work on just a *slight* bit of turnout on the left foot; watching from the back, they like to see about two toes' worth sticking out on the side.
• Cadence is not bad, currently hovering around ~178; try to get it up to ~182 consistently (which should also help with that tiny bit of over-striding).

"But this is all really, really knit-picky stuff," he told me after. "Overall you're very strong and looking fantastic. A thousand times better than last summer." Which is always great to hear after you've gone through a giant list of things you still need to fix. Then, "I think we're finally ready to graduate you."

Oh, I could have whooped for joy.

He mentioned that I can still make appointments at the Human Performance Center from time to time for a quick check-in or a bit of cupping or ionto or what have you, which doesn't require a referral. I brought up RunSafe & how people keep telling me I should just do it sometime, which he agreed with. "It's not urgent, but you would still probably get a lot of useful information. Just, y'know. Wait for a discount or promo or something. They run those sometime." Check.

As far as running goes, I am to continue with my 4-5 days a week as long as I the pain doesn't return, increasing by ~10% per week & keeping up the cross training in the mean time. While I am a bit skeptical of the 10% rule as some all-powerful charm for magically preventing all injuries, I can still roll with it as a general guideline from my PT as I work my way back up to what I think of as "normal" mileage.

"Oh, one more thing," he added. "I don't like those shoes on you at all. Too narrow & aggravating the supination issue. I think I'd probably get rid of them." This in reference to the Hitogamis, which is pretty much the conclusion I'd already arrived at after less than 10 miles in them.

Sorry, guys.

As I've discussed before, I'm in the process of looking for my "it" shoe, & the two current candidates are the Mizuno Hitogami & Mizuno Ekiden. I promise to do actual reviews after I've put more miles on both, but right now the 30 second story is that both are serviceable & have their uses, but it's unlikely that either of them will become my new favorite. (Why'd you have to go, Musha? You were 99% of everything I wanted in a running shoe. I promise I'll never forget you.)

First Impressions on the Ekidens

• I know there is a fine line between flyweight trainers & racing flats & people draw the line in different places, but to me, the Ekiden absolutely comes across as a racing flat, no question. The Musha was sold to me as a racing flat when I first bought it which was how I used it at first, but over time I became a better runner with stronger feet & eventually moved to using it as a mid-distance road shoe. (It was great up to 12-13 miles, but I don't think I personally would have ever run 20+ in it.) Not so with the Ekiden. I'd wear it on the track & for racing 5K/10Ks, but that's probably it (at least until I have feet of steel & looser calves & pitch-perfect mechanics).
• Along the same lines, they do fit snugly, which I feel like racing flats generally should, BUT are weirdly not as snug as the Hitogamis & definitely have a slightly wider toe box.
• Fairly stiff & with precious little cushion (again see: racing flat).
• Comfy enough on the treadmill. I can't imagine why you would ever be tempted, but just in case, do not wear on the elliptical. This is a no-good-very-bad idea. (I've been doing 20 minutes on the 'mill & 25 on the elliptical, & just wore them because they were what I had on. Now I know better.)

* * *

Grand Total: 61 miles

* 10 running
* 44 bike
* 7 elliptical

Monday: a.m. strength / afternoon 12.6 bike / p.m. karate

My feet & shins were still sore from my first run without walk breaks on Saturday (kind of surprisingly so), so I decided to give them another day to recover before I tried it again.

To be honest, I didn't think it would be that big of a deal when I switched from doing 4-6 short intervals of running interspersed with walk breaks to running for 20 minutes non-stop. And from a cardiovascular standpoint, it wasn't. I've been doing so much biking & elliptical-ing that even at quicker paces, 20 minutes didn't even have me breathing hard.

But OH MAN. The foot muscles. The anterior shin muscles. I think these are what they call "shin splints"? Not in the medial tibial stress syndrome sense (which is different) but the honest-to-gods-brand-new-runner type of shin splints. As in, walking is uncomfortable. My Saturday run felt great, but I needed two full days of recovery before I could even *think* about another 20 minute run.

Tuesday: a.m. 2.2 run + 3 elliptical / p.m. bike

What I learned on Tuesday: Don't wear racing flats on the elliptical. I'd been trying out the Ekidens (which are *so clearly* racing flats) for my twenty minutes on the treadmill, then After 10 minutes, my feet & calves were uncomfortable. After 12, they were crying out in pain & I had to pause briefly to ditch the shoes. Barefoot was better, but ultimately unsustainable; I had to quit after ~20 minutes because there was just no way I was putting up with it for five more.

I woke up feeling kind of crappy & by lunch time I was convinced I was getting sick so I went home & to bed. I hate skipping workouts but I hate feeling sleep deprived / generally like ass even more.

Wednesday: a.m. strength work / afternoon 2.3 run + 7.3 bike / p.m. karate

I was feeling mostly better Tuesday evening but still decided to skip Wednesday morning strength & invest in a little extra sleep. By afternoon I was feeling normal again & did the rest of my normal Wednesday stuff. I wore the Hitogamis, which felt like, y'know, shoes, but a bit on the narrow side.

In karate news, I have a sweet new bo, custom made from impact-grade laminated hickory. I've been in a bo moratorium for several years due to losing two (cheap, mass-produced) bos in the dojo bathroom in the same year & have been using an inappropriately sized one of Don's since then, so having a real, proper one feels beyond luxurious.

I'll try to get some action shots this week. Because bos are sweet.

Thursday: a.m. 10.5 bike / p.m. 2.3 run + 4 elliptical.

I wore the Ekidens again on Thursday, but was smart & brought a different, cushier pair for the elliptical. To be honest, though, I am soooo over the elliptical. It's really starting to get on my nerves (literally, my feet keep falling asleep & getting that gross pins-and-needles feeling), so I may just do run / bike from now on, especially since I'm starting to run more.

Friday: a.m. PT (1 mile on the treadmill? Ish?) / p.m. 13.5 bike.

Obviously Friday was a great day for reasons previously explained.

Saturday: Race day!! 3.1, um, NOT easy. Race report soon to follow! Then, wine tasting. :)

Sunday: Rest

Hacking Dinner With Matt Fitzgerald

Over the last couple of months, I've been doing my best to put into practice what I learned from Matt Fitzgerald's fantastic books The New Rules of Marathon & Half-Marathon Nutrition & Racing Weight. I definitely don't beat myself up about not being perfect (there are some areas in which I am admittedly & intentionally imperfect), but by & large I do what I can to:

• 1) get enough carbs (~380g per day for my weight & activity level)
• 2) always eat when I'm hungry
• 3) eat the right amounts of the right food groups
• 4) limit fatty meats, refined grains, sweets, & fried things
• 5) time my nutrients (carbs in the a.m., carbs pre-exercise, carbs & a bit of protein post-exercise, & protein in the evening; stick to about the same amounts at about the same time every day).

(I refer you to the books if you want to know more about the research supporting these recommendations for endurance athletes--he explains things much more clearly & thoroughly than I possibly could here.)

If you're going to write books aimed at endurance athletes, you better practice looking inspirational.

You might not think so, but by & large this is actually pretty easy for me (except for #1, which you would maybe think is easy but is actually very, very difficult). Limiting certain foods always seems like it's the hardest thing for people, but for me, #4 was barely a change. Even before I read the books, I basically didn't eat processed sugar except for special occasions, & don't tend to crave sweets. I've limited red/fatty meats for years because of the heart disease that runs in my family (special occasions only; don't miss it), & for the most part fried food just grosses me out. (If I have a weakness, it's refined grains; until SF's whole wheat pizza craze takes off & our Indian places start serving whole wheat naan, there is no danger of my getting this stuff absolutely perfect.)

In terms of #1 & #3, I spent a few weeks at first tracking everything in order to help me develop a sense of what "enough" of the different food groups & 380g of CHO (!) felt like, but at this point it's become so completely routine that I barely think about it. Obviously I can't definitively prove that it's all because of working on how I eat, but I can say that since the beginning of the year I have more energy (in spite of pulling doubles most days & sometimes even triples) & have reduced my body fat percentage by 5%.

One small change I've been trying to make is cooking & eating at home more. In general, I really do love fresh, nutritious foods & even enjoy cooking, but if I'm going to eat less healthy stuff, it's generally going to be on a day when we're busy & tired & haven't planned ahead around dinner (read: most days). So we end up with pizza, or burgers, or Indian food, etc etc etc. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE eating those foods & have no plans to give them up--but I'd rather plan to have them as a special treat than default to them because they're easy & convenient & we're both too brain dead to come up with anything else.

For now, my goals are modest. If I plan one meal per week ahead of time, I put it in the win column, because PROGRESS! Two meals? I am a god damned wizard.

The result of this has been researching & collecting tasty dishes that are high in lean protein, complex carbs, and/or beans & veggies, and also don't take a ton of time or effort to prepare. I was completely prepared for this to be a deeply tedious, boring, all-around disagreeable task, but it hasn't. Instead, it's been oddly gratifying & made the whole quick-delicious-Fitzgerald-approved-dinner thing seem weirdly doable.

Last night's dinner was particularly satisfying. Ahem:

Not my picture (source) but that's basically what it looked like.

Lemon Pepper Cilantro Catfish, adapted from this recipe. Prep time: less than 10 minutes. Cook time: 12 minutes.

• Arrange catfish fillets in a casserole dish & season liberally with lemon pepper. (I did one large one but I think the recipe mentions 4 smaller ones; whatever.)
• Melt 2 Tb butter in a small saucepan, then add 4 oz dry white wine (I used chenin blanc), chopped cilantro, several cloves of chopped or pressed garlic, & juice of half a lemon. Simmer for ~2-3 minutes & pour over catfish filets. (I re-seasoned with lemon pepper at this point because some of it got rinsed off by the wine sauce.)
• Season with paprika & bake at 375F for ~12 minutes. (I check it every few minutes with a meat thermometer & just pull it when it gets to ~125 all the way through; 12 minutes actually ended up perfect.)

Cilantro-Lime Lentil Salad, inspired by these two recipes (but adapted liberally). Prep time: Boiling the lentils takes about half an hour, but you can use that time to prep everything else (less than 10 minutes). I preheated the oven & started the lentils cooking at the same time, then did all the rest of the prep for all 3 dishes during that time.

• Boil 1 cup of lentils.
• In a separate bowl, mix a bit of EVOO, juice from 1 lime, black pepper, garlic salt, cumin, a cup of chopped cilantro, & 2 cans of diced tomatoes (drained). (If you're concerned about seasoning measurements, boy are you in the wrong place. Do it til it tastes good.)
• Toss lentils with tomato mixture & reheat if desired.

Now this totally is my picture. (You can tell from
the horrible light balance.) Still, delicious!

Sauteed Avocado-Lime Spinach, which I totally just made up. Prep time: 5 minutes maybe? Less if you don't have to chop spinach. Cook time: Less than 10 minutes. I chopped the spinach & garlic while the lentils were cooking, then did the sautee-ing while the fish was in the oven.

• Heat some EVOO in a skillet/wok/frying pan/whatever; once it's shiny, add a few cloves of chopped / pressed garlic & let simmer til fragrant. (Don't let the garlic burn! Burnt garlic is just the worst.)
• Add a LOT of spinach, tossing gently to coat with EVOO/garlic.
• Once the spinach has cooked down a bit, add the juice of half a lime & toss to coat.
• When suitably cooked down, toss with garlic salt to taste & garnish with fresh avocado.

Look, it's a plate of sauteed leaves-of-something!
Because all sauteed leaves-of-something look the same.
(source, which, btw, features a bitchin' recipe for
"Sauteed Leaves-of-Something." You are welcome.)

In case it isn't obvious, all of this should be paired with the rest of the wine from the catfish.

Seriously. 20 minutes of shopping, & probably 40 minutes in the kitchen, grocery bag to table, and it was all mouth-wateringly delicious. I just cannot argue that we don't have time to cook (excepting karate nights), particularly if we do all the shopping for the week ahead of time. The hard part is doing the advance planning, which is what I'm working on right now. (I also suspect this will become easier as I build up a database of tried-and-true recipes.) If, by the end of the year, I can reliably plan & cook two delicious, Fitzgerald-approved dinners per week, I'll be extraordinarily pleased with myself.

Officially Done With Walk Breaks

This is what we call, "running at a semi-reasonable pace."

Who can run for twenty minutes straight without taking a walk break or becoming incapacitated by bone pain?

THIS girl.

That's right. Starting last Friday, my PT said that I could take that 5 x 4:00 w/ 1:00 walk breaks I've been doing, ditch the walk breaks, & try running all twenty minutes in a row. It turned out that on Friday my right Achilles / medial tibial area was a bit unhappy so I put it off a day, but by Saturday afternoon my legs felt great, so I laced up my new Mizuno Hitogamis & headed out.

I couldn't have picked a better day for it. Saturday in San Francisco was a flawless 70°F & sunny, with just a hint of a breeze.

I didn't care about my pace. As I saw it, the goals for that run were pretty simple:

• Pay attention to pain.
• Don't run through it.
• Maintain good form (lean forward, land silently on mid/ball-of-foot, pull through with hamstrings & glutes, finish with shin parallel to ground; my PT has pretty much tattooed this to the inside of my eyelids).

OMG you guys. Do you know how much I've missed running through my neighborhood on a warm, sunny day without anything hurting? SO MUCH. Being able to do this again, even just for twenty minutes at a time, utterly made my day.

Also, I got these socks for next weekend's 5K:

Decisions, decisions...

Which ones shall I wear on Saturday? Shall we have a vote??

Life is good. :)

First Thoughts on the Hitogamis:

These poor shoes have the great misfortune of immediately following the ones I just wear tested & fell absolutely in love with (and will be buying as soon as they're available), so I'm doing my best to be fair. Still, it's hard not to compare them.

After one easy twenty-minute run on local sidewalks, here are my off-the-cuff observations:

• Relatively light
• By & large quite comfortable
• On the narrow, tight side, particularly in the toe box (I had to loosen the laces basically as far as they would go in order not to cut off circulation to my feet)
• Rather stiff - not particularly flexible in the sole
• Nice amount of cushion (probably enough for a full marathon, I'd think) without that "pillowy" feeling

The Hitogami was supposed to replace both the Musha & Ronin & slots right in between the two in terms of weight & heel drop, but thus far I have to say that while I never wore the Ronin, this one feels like a very different shoe than the Musha. I'll definitely do a more thorough review once I've got a few more miles on them (and also on the Ekidens, which should make for an interesting comparison).

* * *

Grand Total: 54 miles

* 9 running
* 26.6 easy (bike)
* 9.2 speed (bike)
* 9.2 elliptical

This week ended up being a *little* bit of an unplanned cut-back week for different reasons, but since I haven't exactly been working in planned cut-back weeks, that is probably not the worst thing that ever happened.

Monday: 13.8 bike

Don & I spent Sunday night working on vacation planning (on which we've been procrastinating), & before I knew it it was midnight & I was nowhere close to getting in bed, which meant there was just no way a Monday morning strength session was going to happen. I did my easy hour on the bike after work, but then he & I both got home, both sleep-deprived, looked at the weather, looked at bridge traffic, looked at the state of our vacation plans, & said "Screw it" & did not go to karate.

On the other hand, we did research Italian agriturismos, book a few nights in one in Umbria, & also booked a few nights in a restored medieval castle tower. So all in all it was still a productive night.


We're staying in this castle in Perugia.


Umbria, I cannot wait to be in you.

Tuesday: a.m. 3.3 run (6 x 4:00 w/ 1:00 walk breaks) + 2.5 elliptical / p.m. bike, 2.2 warm up, 10 x (1:00 @ all-out, 2:00 easy) = 11.8 speed.

Bike speed work? Sucked ass.

These were supposed to be equivalent to 300m repeats, & it never fails that when I see them on the schedule (after running god-forsaken 1200m's & mile repeats for weeks on end) I'm like, "Ppppppfffff. 300m's? Bitch, please. Sprinting for 1:00 barely even counts as doing something. And 10 x basically nothing is still basically nothing. But let me just bust this out really quick if I must & then someone can get me a *real* speed workout to do."

And then I absolutely sprint the hell out of the first one, which is easy, sprint the hell out of the second one, which is pretty easy, and then after the third one I basically want to die. This was supposed to be 12 x 1:00 but after six of them that was soooooo not happening. I have never been good at short intervals and SURPRISE!! Not doing any for 3 months has not made me better.

As a side note, I have no idea how well doing speed work on a spin bike translates to running fitness. I feel like it has to in most ways (since mitochondria are mitochondria, red blood cells are red blood cells, capillaries are capillaries, etc.) but is definitely not as efficient as doing it on your feet, since the motion is different & you're using some different muscles in some different ways. I suppose we'll see how next week's 5K plays out & that will give me some indication.

Wednesday: a.m. strength work / afternoon 6.7 elliptical / p.m. karate

Two full sets of push-ups with the 25, no breaks, better form than last week. Two more sets that weren't quite as good & required a little pause at after 10. Also, just so you know I haven't changed my mind, the elliptical is ass.

Thursday: a.m. 3.1 run (6 x 4:00 w/ 1:00 walk breaks) / p.m. bike.

Ordinarily I would have put in 15 more minutes on the elliptical after my a.m. treadmill time, but I was feeling kind of tired & beat up from karate (okay also I didn't go to bed until midnight) & there were some spots in my lower right leg that just felt kind of "off" & painful, & if Lauren Fleshman can heartily mock people who stick to their training plans *no matter what* & Alberto Salazar can pull Mary Cain from indoor Worlds because her calf is feeling a little sore, my plowing through 15 minutes on the elliptical with an achey leg suddenly doesn't seem all that heroic.

Friday: a.m. strength work / run / bike.

Once again, I didn't sleep well, & though I made it to the gym in the morning for strength work, I spent most of the afternoon staring off into space with a glazed expression or falling asleep at my desk. This was one of those days where, if I'd really been training for something, I would have sucked it up & forced myself through the p.m. workout. As it was, though, we had dinner plans with dear friends and I really wanted to be semi-functional for them, so instead I left work early & went home to take a pre-dinner nap.

Saturday: 2.5 run (20:00 straight!!).

Sunday: Rest.

I had this idea that I would run in the Hitogamis on Saturday & then do another twenty minutes in the Ekidens on Sunday, but it turns out that when you haven't run for more than ~4 minutes at a time in nearly three months & then you run for five times that amount, you get a bit sore in the foot/shin areas. Nothing that feels like an injury lurking; just the usual running muscles doing their usual thing after not having to do much for a few months. Most likely I could have done the run & it would have been fine, but it seemed like a smarter idea (LOOK AT ME LEARNING!) to give them a day to rest.

Instead, we slept til noon & spent most of the afternoon reading the internet in soft pants.

The Ceremonial Updating of the Goals

(Because this is a thing bloggers do, right?)

Running continues to progress. All my muscles are sore from grinding the lacrosse ball into them. I spend a really disconcerting (to me) amount of time with Thera-bands wrapped around different ones of my limbs / joints. I still don't sleep enough. (I never do.)

No pedicure comments plzthnx.

I've been doing my weekday runs on the gym treadmill & my Sunday runs outside at home. The first time I ran on concrete after a couple of weeks on the treadmill only, it freaked me out a little. There was uneven sidewalk, startling changes in grade, unpredictable pedestrians, those knobbly yellow panels on the corner sidewalk ramps that are supposed to provide extra traction when it's wet out, but that actually just make it more slippery...

You guys this is not better.

(Update - So I just learned from bt that these are for helping blind people find the ramp in the curb, not for giving me traction in the rain. It is always good to know when things are not in fact trying to kill me.)

All this meant that, in addition to focusing intently on my form & footstrike (which takes a lot of brain space just now), I also had to think & react to a bunch of other things in order to not slip/stumble/fall on my ass. Which made me feel like sidewalk running was maybe still a bit advanced for this stage of recovery & I should just stick to the nice, uniform, predictable treadmill belt.

And I do think there's something to that. On the treadmill, I really can focus on how I'm running without having to think about anything else and work on adjusting minute details. On the other hand, I have to choose a specific pace & then try to fit my form & stride into it, which is sometimes okay & sometimes kind of uncomfortable. Mostly it's a game of speed up/slow down, trying to calibrate my effort level/cadence/stride lengths so that it feels natural & effortless.

Outside, I do have to think harder about footing & not running into things/people, but I can also pretty much let my body run however it wants within the bounds of good form. For the most part I've been ignoring pace during my outdoor run-walk interval sessions because I'm not training for anything & have only really been focusing on form. Last Sunday, though, I paid more attention to my pace & splits on my outside run for the first time, and it suddenly became clear (I think) why trying to run with good form & cadence & all that on the treadmill is so difficult.

I took the first interval semi-easy to get warmed up, the on the second one just tried to settle into a good cadence at a nice, comfortable level of effort while still keeping good form. At a certain point I felt like I was maybe working just *slightly* too hard for an easy run & should back off just a little.

And then I looked at my watch & realized I was running sub-10K PR pace. Those are numbers I haven't seen in months. Even once I'd forced myself to settle back into the nice, comfortable cadence from before, I was still running pretty close to half-marathon race pace.

Seriously. Until I'm back to doing tempo/threshold runs, I would never try to run on the treadmill at those paces. Marathon pace (low eights) has felt like as quick a clip as I'm comfortable with. But outside, if I'm going to run with good form & foot strike & cadence & all that stuff I've been working on, mid-sevens seems to be about as slow as I can manage. Could this be why I feel like I can never get the treadmill speed just right? Should I just crank that baby up & see if everything falls into place?

(Sidenote: Am I excited that mid-sevens are feeling this comfortable so quickly? Of course I am. But I won't be that excited about it until I'm doing it for more than four minutes at a time, sans walk breaks.)

THE PART ABOUT GOALS:

A few weeks back, I had some (very scientific & in no way completely arbitrary) goals for running on my 33rd birthday, which I did not quite make. In descending order: run for 33 minutes, run 3.3 miles, run 23 minutes (my birthday was 2/23), run 2.3 miles. I did run 3.33 miles, but I did it by running ten third-of-a-miles with 1:00 walk breaks. It was still the farthest I've run since the stress fracture and felt really good, so I was not too sad about still being in a place where I need the walk breaks.

BUT. My PT has said that in not too long I'll probably be able to run for twenty straight minutes, and you know what twenty minutes is. For me, on a good day, that's damn near a 5K.

It's been a while since I stood at a starting line & in spite of the fact that I know it'll be a while before I'm in racing shape, I'm kind of starting to miss it. A lot. So before we go out of town for three weeks on April 20, my goal is to make it to some short, local races. The candidates:

MARCH 15: Get Lucky 5K (Rohnert Park, CA).

As I'm sure you guessed, this is a St. Pat's-themed fun run, & put on by the same folks who do the Santa Rosa Marathon. Sure, it's a bit of a drive just to run a 5K and admittedly kind of pricey (I usually top out at ~$30 for a 5K & this is $50), but it's not like I've been spending tons of cash on entry fees lately & it looks like it would be a lot of fun. Also the $50 includes a hoodie, beer mug, and (to quote the website) "beer, beer, & more beer!" With an 11am start, a post-race Irish buffet, & being close to Santa Rosa (read: wine country), I may be able to convince Don to come with & then go do some local wine tasting after, which would make the drive more worth doing.

(Update #2 - A couple days after I mentioned this to Don, I posted on the social medias about how everyone should come run this race with me to celebrate my return to running double digit minutes at a time. When he saw it he got this horrified look on his face. "Wait. You didn't mean you actually want me to run this race with you, right?" I gave him a reassuring pat on the leg & was like, "Oh. Oh, honey, no. No no no. I just want you to drink with me." & he was like, "*Phew*!" We are not one of those RunCouples^TM. Not even a little bit.)

APRIL 5: Spring Forward 5K/10K (Mountain View, CA). This race is a fundraiser sponsored by Microsoft & takes place partly on the Microsoft campus in Silicon Valley. I've had it on my radar for a while, but recently I was down at that campus for work so I've gotten a look at the course, which was kind of neat. I would really like to run the 10K if I'm up to ~45 minutes by then, but if not, it's good to know there's a 5K I could drop down to.

APRIL 19: Big Bunny 5K (Cupertino, CA). Another charity race down on the Peninsula. This is literally the day before I get on a plane for Italy, so who knows how well that will work out logistically. It's pretty close, though, & I got a $5 discount code on it, so I'm keeping it in mind.

It should go without saying that none of these would be target races. They'd be more just for fun, just to get out there & race again & convince my brain I'm not injured anymore & see how I feel. (It's also highly unlikely that I'll end up running all three, though I did go ahead & register for Get Lucky). By April I might actually have done enough running that Spring Forward could serve as some kind of fitness gauge, but still, I have no illusions that I'll be able to *really* train for a fast 5-10K by then. I just want to run hard & fast & see where I am (y'know, before I go to Italy for three weeks, do almost no running, & gorge myself on wine & pasta).

The Bruises Are Worth It

Okay, so apparently I was wrong.

Last week I read a fascinating book called The Power of Habit (more on that later, in a totally non-preachy way, promise) & one of the topics the author got into was how businesses tap into people's psychology to create strong habits that involve giving your money to said business. Every habit has a cue and a reward, and in order to leverage people's habits for the good of your business, you have to figure out what the reward is for them, what do they really get out of it. (Often not actually the product / service you're selling, interestingly enough.)

One of the examples he used was gym memberships. And it turns out that after putting years and years and millions of dollars into exhaustively researching what keeps people coming to a gym, there is one secret. One main reward that people seek when they go to the gym, the one thing that consistently keeps people coming back & paying their dues month after month.

Any guesses? You'll never guess.

SOCIALIZING. This is apparently the *entire driving force* behind group exercise classes.

Incredulous Kanye is incredulous.

If you say so, Charles Duhigg.

I told you I wasn't really a gym rat.

On Wednesday I saw my PT, who had a student PT with him, so he poked & prodded & ground away at all the "collagen cross-binding" (read: giant knots of scar tissue) in my calf, & then she poked & prodded & ground, ART & cupping & all manner of unpleasantness ensued, & like always, I went home tastefully bruised.

"No, it's okay, they're the good kind of bruises!" <= statements
that should never have to be uttered. (BTW, this is totally one of those
Lauren Fleshman "keeping it real" moments.

(Sidenote: If you don't read Lauren Fleshman, what is the matter with you??? Get over there. You can read the rest of this later. Yes, she runs for Oiselle, but she is also a professional runner so sponsorship deals are a big part of how she eats & pays her bills. Also, she is not constantly shilling for them or choking the internet with posts about how much she {heart}{heart}{heart}'s her #Oiselle teammates. And, she's just an amazing & fabulous human being.)

So yes, there is still a not-insignificant amount of scar tissue in my legs (which I'm also working on grinding out at home with the lacrosse ball), but there's less of it now, and also I do actually seem to be getting stronger. But more importantly, he pronounced that for the next 1-1.5 weeks, I can run up to 5 x 4:00 w/ 1:00 walk breaks, and if that goes well & I don't have any symptoms, then (drrrrrumrrrrolllll) I'm clear to start running for twenty minutes straight without walk breaks.

Did you hear that?? No walk breaks. Smell you later, Galloway.

I can't even remember the last time I was this excited about something.

* * *

Grand Total: 59 miles

* 10.8 running
* 37 easy (bike)
* 5.5 speed (bike)
* 5.7 elliptical

Monday: a.m. strength / p.m. 14 bike

(No karate cuz picking Don up from the airport.)

If you've been reading for a while you might remember that a big part of my strength work is push-ups, and that one of my big goals since last summer has been to gradually work up to 15-20 push-ups with a 25 pound plate on my back (while maintaining good form). For the last couple of months, I've been doing four sets of 15 with a 10 pound plate during every strength session, which has gone from "OMG this is impossible" to "Ugh, I can do it, but it really sucks" to "Meh, not that different than without the plate." Back in the summer or fall sometime, I got the 25 pound plate out just to see what it felt like & if I could do anything with it at all. As I recall I managed about three push-ups (with questionable form) before I could no longer get my chest back up off the ground once it was there.

So using the ten pound plate has gotten easy, and I noticed last week that my gym actually has a few 15.5 pound plates (which, huh??), so I decided that this week I'd try using that one instead of the ten & see how terrible it was. Well, Monday morning I couldn't find any of those. So I went, "Eh, what the heck?" & got the 25 out instead, just to see what kind of progress I had made since the last time I tried.

And you guys, on my first set, I did all 15 push-ups with the 25 pound plate. And on the second set, I took a short pause after 10, but still completed all 15. My form wasn't absolutely perfect (I need to work on getting all the way down on every rep), but it wasn't terrible, either.

So yeah. Last summer I declared my mission to make that 25 pound plate my bitch. I wouldn't say I'm quite there yet, but she definitely has cause for concern.

Tuesday: a.m. 2.85 run (7 x 3:00 w/ 1:00 walk breaks) + 2.65 elliptical / p.m. bike, 3.2 warm up, 2 x (5:00 @ 5K effort, 1:00 easy, 3:00 hard sprint, 2:00 easy), 1.6 cool down = 10.3 speed.

The running, it is just lovely. But apparently I semi-failed at carbs again on Tuesday afternoon, because as soon as I got on the bike I realized I had a hollow pit where my stomach should have been & had that light-headed nauseous feeling the whole way through my warm-up. I decided I'd just do as much as I could without feeling utterly miserable, even if it meant just doing an easy ride instead of speed stuff, and that would be okay. Weirdly, though, as soon as I started the first hard interval I suddenly felt fine, got through the whole 45 minute workout with no problem, and all of it was actually pretty easy. (Still--I scarfed a car banana immediately afterward.)

AND, came home to find these bad boys on the table, which I'd pre-ordered a while back using one of those sweet post-holiday coupons I was talking about earlier:



What's even more exciting than getting to run again? Getting to run in sweet new kicks.

Wednesday: a.m. PT / p.m. karate

Originally I'd planned to get one more treadmill run in with the shoes I'm wear-testing before I have to make my final report & send them back (can't say much about them, but OMG. So much love. I have seriously debated not returning them. I kid, I kid. Mostly) plus a little elliptical time. But my work day had other plans, & that combined with the sucktastic weather we were having (read: could not actually see the lanes on the freeway & passed three accidents on the way home) meant that by the time I got home I basically had time to eat something & get ready for karate.

Thursday: a.m. 2.6 run (5 x 4:00 w/ 1:00 walk breaks) + 3 elliptical. / p.m. bike, 10 easy.

Apparently I am past the age where I can just walk into the dojo, bust out a bunch of super-aggressive kicks right off the bat, & not have it absolutely destroy my hip flexors in half an hour's time. By the end of class, I kid you not, I couldn't put my own pants on without physically lifting & holding my legs up with my hands. The last time that happened I was a month away from tearing one of said hip flexors, so I was a little on the fence about trying to do any running or elliptical Thursday morning.

In the end I decided to go to the gym anyway, figured I'd give it a try, & if it was at all uncomfortable I'd just do some stretching & PT stuff & then go to work early. Well, I'm happy to report that I was able to do all of it with no pain at all, in spite of the fact that walking was *incredibly* painful & I still could not put on pants or socks like a normal person. I feel like this probably says a lot about how I've stopped abusing my hip flexors when I run since that injury. (Also, scream-y muscles make it REALLY easy to tell when you flirt with even slightly bad form, even just a little.)

Friday: a.m. strength work / 2.65 run (5 x 4:00 w/ 1:00 walking breaks) + 8 bike.

Still can't put on pants unassisted, so again, I figured I'd go to the gym & attempt all my usual strength work, but skip anything that was uncomfortable / painful. (I didn't even attempt deadlifts / back squats, because, although you *shouldn't* really be using your quads / hip flexors while lifting, it still kind of seemed like tempting fate more than I'm inclined to.) Instead of bicycle crunches or pike crunches, I resorted to plain old ordinary crunches (or, as my karate class calls them, "sadistic asshole crunches"; sorry dudes, if they don't make you want to cry, they're not doing anything) but other than that I was able to do everything I normally did without any pain.

Oh! Also, I grabbed the 25 lb plate again to see if I could do better push-ups with it today than Monday. At first I was kind of disappointed that the answer was "Eh, not really," plus I had to pause at 10 in both sets instead of just the second one. Then when I was putting it back, I realized it was a f***ing 35 pound plate, not a 25. Yeah, bitches! When I suck at something, there is *ALWAYS* a good excuse reason.

Saturday: Rest. Okay fine, it snowed in Tahoe so we went skiing again. But I was still sore enough from whatever I did to myself at karate on Wednesday that I did not ski all that aggressively, so it was basically just like a rest day...

Then we came home & walked across the street in our sweaty ski clothes & ordered a three-course dinner to go. Because San Francisco.

Also, I win at lamb shank.

Sunday: 2.8 run (5 x 800m w/ 1:00 walking breaks).

For whatever reason, I am never really excited about running on the weekend, unless I've got something special planned. It always feels like a chore to drag myself off the couch & put on running clothes. Of course once I'm out there (at least 99% of the time), all is forgotten & I feel ten times better for it.

So it was on Sunday. The weather was kind of nasty, which made me that much more unenthusiastic. A few minutes in, though, the same cold, windy, drizzly conditions that had previously made me want to curl up inside with hot tea & a book felt brisk & refreshing. Since it's easier with the Garmin to run distance intervals than time, I set it to auto lap at half-miles & did my prescribed five with one-minute walk breaks.

It. Felt. AMAZING.