Thursday, March 4, 2010

Goal for 2010: Be More Like Deena Kastor?

6:30am Wake up, eat breakfast: half a cantaloupe, cottage cheese and a blueberry-walnut scone
7am Walk Aspen, my chocolate Lab, for about two miles

8am Andrew, my husband, stretches me on the massage table and gets me prepared for practice.
8:30am Meet my teammates for practice
9am Warm up and drills, then a 10-mile tempo run [a fast-paced run that acclimates the body to a speedier clip] with a cooldown
10:30am Drink a Cake Batter Muscle Milk, my favorite postrun beverage!
11am Home for an ice bath
11:30am Eat lunch: Asian dish with last night’s leftover rice (I add two scrambled eggs, sesame oil, spinach, peas, tamari and top with toasted sesame seeds)

Noon Massage from Andrew
12:30pm Drink a homemade smoothie with banana, frozen wild blueberries, yogurt and flax seed
12:45pm Nap for a couple of hours with Aspen
2:45pm Eat a goat-cheese and fig-jam sandwich on rosemary bread
3pm Take a Spanish lesson for one hour
4pm Drive to lake and let Aspen fetch sticks in the water while I sneak in a cold foot bath
5pm Meet my teammates at the gym for hurdles, weights, medicine-ball throws and plyometrics [jumping and skipping drills that strengthen leg muscles and improve running form]
5:30pm Run five miles

6pm Eat a before-dinner snack of apple with almond butter
7pm Dinner at Restaurant Skadi: bread with olive oil, mixed green salad and soft-shell crab. Andrew and I catch up on our day.
8pm Answer a couple of e-mails
8:30pm In bed

It's fair to say that Deena's life is just a little bit different from our crew's day-to-day life (when was the last time you were in bed before 8:30?) I've always envied how she is married to a massage therapist. I hate stretching, and I'm awful at remembering to do it ...only to be reminded when a knee or a hamstring starts to hurt, badly. And lucky DK doesn't have to stretch...her husband stretches her! And a post-workout massage!

My friend Dan Taylor, is also lucky to be married to a massage therapist, Claire Taylor. During school Claire needed extra muscles to practice on and I was happy to volunteer. She takes credit for my PR at the Boston Marathon last year, thanks to several post-long run and a pre-race massage. It certainly helped keep me injury-free and it's a little easier to get out the door for a 20-miler when you know a massage is in your future.

Now fully licensed and, as always, fully awesome, Claire has offered a 10% discount to anyone in our group. She and her husband are runners themselves, so she has a good understanding of common running pains and injuries. For information on services, rates, and locations, check out her site: http://www.clairetaylormassage.com/

1 comment:

gladfelter said...

Dang, she sleeps 12 hours a day, eats everything good under the sun, runs/walks 20 miles a day, strength trains, gets massages, is married & seemingly enjoys it, has a lab, etc etc.

Makes me wish I was a world class athlete.

I sure could use a massage right about now.