This past weekend was the first weekend in five weeks where I haven't had a race. On one hand it was a nice rest, by the end of the snowshoe season I felt like I needed a bit of a mental break from being 'race ready.' I always want to race hard and race my best effort for that day, and doing that weekend after weekend can be a bit exhausting. I'm into a two week transition/break before starting up training specific to the mountain races I'll be doing.

Time off

I had no scheduled training last week. I took three days off which coincided with a gigantic snowstorm. We evacuated our spot on the beach, just to stay ensure that we could get out in case of an emergency. At high tide in a storm the two roads that go in and out from this area can flood and become impassible. Also, you don't want to slip of the road into the marsh...which is highly likely. So we spent two days at my mother in laws.

We got back on Wednesday and dug out. I finally went out for an easy run on Thursday morning, which felt good. Friday I slept through my alarm and squeezed in a quick kettlebell routine in the driveway while the kids played outside, and once my hubby got home I went out for a quick, hard effort for 20 minutes. I wasn't planning on a hard effort that day, but with only 20 minutes to get a run in I thought I'd make if fast and see if I could make it to the dead-end (~1.4 miles) and back before 20 minutes was up.

It was a fun way to structure a run, but by the time I got home my hip was screaming at me. I've had tightness in the glute med since the Granite State Snowshoe Series Championships which subsided, but came back after the Northeast Snowshoe Championships. I never really did a good job of stretching or foam rolling after these two races and immediately hopped in the car for a long drive home (2.5+ hours) after each race.

Anyway, doing pistol squats (it was more like a 1/4 of a pistol squat), single leg deadlifts and jump squats then heading out for that faster run really aggravated the glute med, or now I'm thinking it is the very top of the IT band where it attaches at the iliac crest. Whatever it is it's a weird discomfort that I've never experienced before, but I'm pretty sure it is stemming from running really fast down hill on un-even terrain on a weak left glute. The IT band and glute med on that left side are probably getting overworked and that's why they are so sore.

I've spent a lot of time on the floor with the roller and doing some dynamic stretching and the discomfort has subsided considerably since Friday night when I was hobbling. Thankfully I've got another week of no planned training, so I can give this rest and take care of it before I start training back up next week.

Someone hit the lights

In the mean time I've got plenty of other things to occupy me, we had to make some quick decisions about the lighting placement and fixtures for the house. They almost put the roof on before the electrician got in there to prep our vaulted living room ceiling for the electric. So I spent most of Friday on the computer looking through thousands of pictures of light fixtures trying to figure out what I wanted. Hopefully things will start to move along a little quicker. I'd like to be in the house before the beginning of June since June is going to be a busy month...I'm already stressing about the timing of everything in June. Gah.

It's also crunch time for taxes, which I HATE. We an accountant do them for us, because two people with their own LLC's...it's messy. Even though I only have to gather documents and prep my own businesses taxes, I'm constantly afraid I've done it wrong.

So there's lighting and taxes and snow! There's still snow on the ground and I'm over it. Snowshoe racing is done. I had my fun. I'm really ready for the snow to melt and to be able to walk to the playground with the kids and have it not be covered in snow. And I can get them out on the trails without snowshoes.

I think the whole family is starved for some Vitamin D and is suffering from some major Cabin Fever.

-Sarah

Life Lately: lighting, taxes, snow

Time off

Someone hit the lights

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