I woke up to allergies and new snow, which felt like a strange combo.
3.67 miles @ 8:39 average with Emilee and Jo!
I also did a ten-minute bodyweight workout from the Peloton app, and then it was off to get Brooke to school and Beck to his favorite slide.
Skye is as punctual as it gets and makes sure to get me out the door so that she is always early to preschool.
Does anybody else eat multiple pb & j sandwiches a day?
Just a few more random things to talk about:
1- Beck loves to play the new game, ‘hide something that mom and dad don’t want me to hide.’ He wins every time, especially when he hides Andrew’s license.
2- Now that it is a bit warmer and the chickens are getting more sunlight, we are back to getting a bunch of eggs every day.
3-Lauren sent me this article yesterday, and it brought happy tears to my eyes.
4-This will be my 13th marathon, yet I still find myself googling things like this…
5-My last important decision before the marathon needs to be made… WHICH COLOR OF SOCK? Pink or yellow? (The ones on the left are for when I’m not running:)
6-The jackets are very cute this year!
7- Lately, I have wanted to learn more and more about the connections between my running and my cycle. The more I think about it, I have realized my best workouts and races always happen in the first half of my cycle. The earlier on in the follicular phase, the better for me personally, I need to find a marathon that falls on day 5ish for me, ha. I notice much more fatigue and less motivation in the last 1.5 weeks of my cycle.
If you haven’t read ‘ROAR’ yet, you should. It is interesting to see how different hormones affect how we run and race and what foods and workouts can help us during each phase. Sarah Canney has a great blog post about this topic and what she has learned from Dr. Stacy Sims. Sarah also told me to try out the WILD Al App after I reached out to her for reassurance about my cycle stage for Boston—> Luckily, I will be in the mid-follicular phase. I’ll remember that my hormones are on my side when I need a pick-up during the race!
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Have you paid attention to the connections between your cycle and your performance? Give me details, I find this so interesting!
Sandwiches—> Favorite combo? Do you eat them often?
Who else has chickens? How many?
Anyone else have seasonal allergies? What do you do to help them?
48 comments
Maureen
Andrew should take a picture of his license and then favorite it. This way if Beck wins at his new game Andrew can still drive and ideally a cop would be considerate of the situation. My sock vote is pink!
The Hungry Runner Girl
That is such a good idea! Thank you Maureen and happy Thursday!
Shelby
I have six chickens! They’re very tame so occasionally they try to come inside to take a nap on the carpet in the lounge. They’re too cute, and because they’re bantams, their eggs are quite a bit smaller than a regular chicken egg.
The Hungry Runner Girl
Shelby! I love hearing about your chickens. We seriously had no idea how much we would love our chickens… they are the best. I hope you have a great day.
Courtney Mick
I just started paying attention to how my cycle affects my lifestyle and the diet/exercise changes I can implement during each phase to best support my hormones about two months ago, and it is fascinating! My favorite source on this stuff is the Balanced Beyers instagram page. I would highly recommend! They’re three sisters who are all certified women’s health coaches, and have tons of entertaining info on how to best support your cycle and I’ve been loving it! They’ve been on several podcasts too.
Courtney Mick
Whoops, typo. It’s “Balanced Beyars.”
The Hungry Runner Girl
Thank you so much for posting about them… I started following and I’m already obsessed with their content. Hope you are having a great afternoon, Courtney!
Geri
Glad you posted this – not only am i feeling super sluggish but knowing that I’m going for a PR on monday….I feel a lot better :) Trying to do my best to rest up before then!!
And that sandwich looked great! I will definitely eat my fair share of sandwiches and honey wheat pretzels during the taper :)
have a great day Janae!
The Hungry Runner Girl
Yes, it’s good that we feel awful right now! Enjoy all of those sandwiches and I cannot wait for our race day. FIVE DAYS! Thanks Geri, you too!
Wendy
I vote for the pink socks ?
So interesting about how your cycle affects your running. Something I have not looked into, but am curious about. Oh, Sarah has some great information on lots of good topics!
I don’t eat a ton of sandwiches, but grilled cheese is definitely a favorite, then turkey with avocado.
The weather is strange all over the place. We had massive winds yesterday. My least favorite for running.
We’re off to Colorado today!! Our son has a tour/visit at Colorado State. He is having a hard time deciding between Colorado State and University of California at Riverside… Big decision!
Have a good day Janae.
Corrinne
Tree pollen kicks my butt this time of year but after that passes my allergies seem to be done. I vote the yellow socks! Feels like a fast color and I love those Lululemon socks.
Nancy
My cycle ship has sailed but I wish I had known more and paid more attention when I was running with it a lot. I vote yellow, seems like a “fast” color.
Florence
Best of luck for Boston Janae!! cant wait to follow your journey!!
I’ve got a 10K in Edinburgh in May right on the first day of my period which I’m worried about TBH… will read the links you sent to see if they reassure me hah
The Hungry Runner Girl
Yes yes yes… it will be the best day for your 10k and you are going to fly! Keep me updated!
Mollie
Yellow! Those are the exact socks I wore in my last two races and I got PRs in both. :)
The Hungry Runner Girl
LUCKY SOCKS… I will think about your PR socks as I’m running in them!
Andrea
We have three chickens right now but most we’ve had is 6 at one time! A trick for increasing egg production in the winter is setting up a coop light on a timer – if ours get 12 hours of light a day (artificial or real sunlight) they lay no matter what! It’s hard having chickens with a dog who isn’t trained around them – sadly we had an accident where our dog killed one when he was a pup (the WORST) and of course ever since then he’s been Obsessed with chasing them so we can’t let them range free anymore…they have an outdoor pen but I still feel bad for them. I vote yellow for socks !!!
The Hungry Runner Girl
That is such a good idea! How have we not done this? I am so sorry about the loss of one of your chickens. That is so hard! I think I will go with the yellow, thank you for your help. Happy Wednesday!
Ashlea
I vote for yellow. They stand out and I think they would go nice with your teal/white sneakers!
Do those socks get picky after being washed? I had a pair of Lulu socks before but I found they picked really bad and stuck together
The Hungry Runner Girl
Thank you Ashlea, I think I am going to go with the yellow then! I haven’t noticed that they get picky but they definitely stick together! I just cannot get over how good they feel when I run with them. Hope you are having a great day so far!
courtney
i vote yellow socks– they just LOOK speedy! :)
no chickens, but luckily a friend does have chickens so i get fresh eggs regularly :) last dozen had THREE double-yolk eggs! a lucky sign for sure!
Arthi
The cycle stuff is SO interesting!! I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts featuring Alisa Vitti who’s done a bunch of work on this topic. First half of your cycle is prime for pushing your heart rate and doing hard things and the second half is better for low, slow, and steady. Check her out … I’ve learned a ton!
And right there with you … Feeling so sluggish this week and hoping all my energy magically comes back on race day :) Have a great week and see you in Boston!!!
Becky Przy
Love the Boston jackets this year! I hope the weather forecast stays as is!
I have started to pay way more attention to my cycle and my running. Around day 21, I can start to feel my workouts feel harder. However, I also have learned that not to assume that just because I am in the last 1/2 of my cycle, it will be a “bad” race. My last half marathon was on day 24 of my cycle and it was my 3rd fastest half marathon time. I just be sure to get extra carbs, rest and recovery a few days before my race. Fit cookie nutrition on Instagram has great info on this as well.
I do not have sandwiches nearly enough! Somewhere in “diet culture land” I feel like sandwiches got a bad rap. We need to start bringing them back. Such a quick, easy meal that can easily be changed up.
We had chickens for about 3 years…I picked up too many dead chickens (fox? raccoon? weasel?) and I told my husband we needed to give up on the chickens. We might have kept them longer, but my kids were only interested in them when they were baby chicks.
Have a wonderful Wednesday Janae!
Erica
I do pay attention to that. I have found it affects my performance (time)very little, it affects the way I feel while performing more substantially.
The Hungry Runner Girl
YOU JUST NAILED IT… I think you are so right, my mood is effected the most and that can make the biggest difference (good or bad) in my running. I always love your insights.
Janine
Good morning, Janae! Beck sure knows how to keep things interesting, eh? LOL!
The days of managing my cycle are behind me, but when I was doing my highest running/racing volume, it was right there making one of my most fervent hopes that my period wouldn’t coincide with race days.
My absolute favorite sandwich is grilled cheese (CHAO makes the best vegan cheese slices IMO for anyone interested) on whole wheat with tomato and Dijon mustard. I think I would eat them every day if I could!
Seasonal allergies are such a pain!! Mine are much better than they used to be and I can usually manage them with Benedryl.
VOTE = yellow socks “the brighter, the faster”! Have an awesome Wednesday, Janae!
Megan
PINK socks!
Also I love your nail color! ANy idea what it’s called!
GOOD LUCK at Boston, can’t wait to hear (read) all about it!
The Hungry Runner Girl
Megan! Thank you so much, I went and had them done! I am going to text my nail girl and see if she will know! Thank you and I hope your day is a beautiful one.
Laura
The yellow socks seem to go better with the Boston jacket! Have a great race!
Annemarie
It is SO crazy that you wrote this post because I was thinking about hormones and performance during my run yesterday! The 2nd half of my cycle, and mainly the week before my period, are so low energy! I am almost afraid to calculate where I will be on 6/5 when I run Mountains 2 Beach marathon. I am really putting in the time and effort to PR and I don’t want that to be an obstacle! I will definitely check out that book you recommended – hopefully it has some tips ?
Good luck in Boston, Janae! You are going to crush it! ?
Amy S
Hi Janae! I am the same way for my cycle! I definitely notice less energy in the second half. I always remind myself though that Paula Radcliffe set the women’s world record for the marathon while she had period cramps and that helps me during times I wanna quit.
Glad to see the chickens back! Happy hump day!
Carol
Yellow! For Boston :-)
Tess
Same here with the snow and allergies. Thanks, Utah! Also definitely the yellow socks for Boston blue and yellow!
~ R
I would go with the yellow socks – not because of color but because they are ankle height and crew height would bug me. Which height will feel better on your legs with your shoe and shorts combo?
Kathy McElhaney
I didn’t track closely how my cycle affected my training, but peri-menopause really kicked my tail! The nights of insomnia + anxiety + night sweats were awful and my workouts really suffered. Now I have symptoms about once a quarter, which usually including being a grump (feels like PMS!) I do believe that staying active makes a difference through every stage of life. I feel better than I have in quite a few years.
Amy
I love the topic of cycle & running – but does anyone have any insight on if you’re affected when on the pill? I like to think my cycle doesn’t affect me haha but curious how others feel.
The Hungry Runner Girl
That is such a great question, Amy! Mind if I ask this in tomorrow’s post? I am not on birth control so I have no idea! Such a great question. Hope your day is a great one!
Amy
That would be awesome!
Michele H
I asked my kiddo about the socks and, no surprise, he said yellow. His favorite color. Good luck in Boston. I cannot wait to hear how it went.
We have chickens also. Nothing like fresh eggs in the morning. We have about 20 chickens. We recently donated some eggs to a local high school so they could observe the whole incubation to hatching process. They gave us the chicks back so now we have six new babies.
My favorite sandwich is the Elvin…peanut butter and banana. I read the ABC book series by Sue Grafton and the main character loved hard boiled egg sandwiches with mayo and salt. I tried that and it’s delicious so now I have another go to. Of course, good old PBJ is always tasty.
Sara
For the sock vote, one pink and one yellow. Because you are known for unmatching socks?
The Hungry Runner Girl
BAHAHAHA this is amazing… I might just have to!
Emily
Running my first Boston on Monday and looking for advice! My coach gave me a 1.5 mile warmup, drills and strides for race morning, but I’ve heard from others that there’s no space for a warmup in Athlete’s village. What is your experience with this?! Any advice? thanks so much!
The Hungry Runner Girl
SO so so excited for you! You are going to love it. I personally have never done a warmup for Boston and take the first few miles as my warm-up since they are downhill they take less energy and get things moving for me. I can’t really remember too many people running for their warm-up there but I may have just been too much in my own head! I can ask this as a blog post question?!
Emily
Sure that would be awesome! thank you!
The Hungry Runner Girl
Great! The question will be up in the morning! I hope you are feeling great!
Eveline
I participated in a research study about the connection between your cycle and performance and one of the things she found was that there is hardly any difference in performance but a huge difference in how you feel during the performance! So output remains pretty much the same but perceived effort feels different (harder in second phase)! So interesting, I still don’t understand how it’s possible that the outcome when feeling great is the same as when feeling not great (you’d think that when you feel good you can push even more and therefore go even faster – but that is not what she found!).
Laura
Yellow sock. When Robin wears yellow you know it’s going to be a tough ride/class. And like she always says “You didn’t wake up today to be mediocre.” So keep your head high, crown on ?, wear yellow & remember you can do hard things.
Elizabeth
Boston yellow socks!!