Sunday, February 28, 2010

Dreadmill Eighteen

I've been in denial for a few weeks now that something might be wrong with my ankle.  As we were running a couple weeks back I knew I landed wrong as my foot connected with the ground. Running on those icy,  uneven trails is really hard on the body. I played it safe and took a few days off and did my run last weekend on the treadmill.  It was a taper week so it wasn't too bad. 

I finally broke down and went to the doctor on Friday afternoon.  Low and behold...tendonitis.  UGH!  I thought I had successfully avoided it this season, but those trails took their toll.  Luckily it's just my ankle and not my knees this time.  The doctor said I could keep running as long as I ran on an even surface and used kinesio tape...which meant the dreadmill for an entire 18 miles...booo.

Bright and early yesterday morning I headed to the gym all taped up, two water bottles and my gels in hand.  I decided not to push too hard so set the treadmill to a steady 10 min/mile pace and started running. The first six miles flew right by and were a breeze.  By the time it slowed me down for cool down it was time for my first gel. 

The next six miles were interrupted by my stomach. It could have been the pizza or the gel but my stomach was not happy.  Quick run to the restroom and I was off again.  Mile 12 came and went and it was time for gel #2.  Done and done.

Mile 15 comes along...my stomach acts up again!  This is making me realize that running at the gym definitely has its advantages.  By mile 16.5 I was just ready to be done. I'd already watched an episode of Law & Order, The Practice, Ruby and was almost through Guiliana and Bill...yes I know, bad TV.  To help get myself through it I popped some PowerBar gummies and cranked up the speed to 9 min/miles.

With only a half mile left my knees stiffened right up.  I was going to push through but realized it was probably best to stop and stretch. Twat squat and I finished that last 1/2 mile.  When I was done it did not feel like I had just run 18 miles. I mean last season I was dying on that run. This time I was soaking wet and a little sore but not even tired. I thought about staying at the gym a little longer to do some upper body work but figured it was in my best interest to get home and ice.

Today I'm still feeling good.  My ankle is sore and my knees a little bit too, but I can still take stairs no problem and figure I'll be nearly 100% tomorrow. 

With that it's time to board my flight to Oregon...yes, I'm off again.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Beau Jo's Fundraiser...mmmm pizza

This Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Beau Jo's is helping me raise money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!  Eat at the Boulder location or just order take out and they'll donate 20% to LLS.  What's the catch?  You have to print out this flyer. 

My team will be eating there on Friday night if you want to join us!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Sick Sixteen

For the past week or so I've been battling a nasty cold.  One of those colds that you feel coming on and when they finally hit you, you're down for the count.  I spent all day Wednesday at home laying down. I could not sit upright for more than about 10 minutes at a time.  By Thursday I was thinking, oh I'm doing better so I'll go to work. Bad idea. Three hours in I was done and I went home. 

As Saturday neared I was getting more and more nervous about my run.  I went to bed hoping I'd wake up and be all better.  Aaron, Amanda and I decided to start our run earlier than the team so that we'd be done before noon.  I woke up bright and early at 5:30 am.  Verdict, still sick.  I ate my banana, cinnamon and brown sugar oatmeal, took a few doses of Tylenol Cold and headed out the door about 6:45.

I got to Coal Creek Trail and it was about 28 degrees outside.  After a few warm up stretches and some chatting we headed off.  The first three miles were rough.  I was light headed, having trouble breathing regularly and my nose was running faster than I was.  At mile four I had to stop and drink some of my Nuuns.  Quick stretch and I was ready to go. It was like that Nuuns had magical healing powers.  That or my cold medicine kicked in.  I was off after that.  The run just got easier and easier for my physically but my stomach was not happy.

We did several out and backs to cover this run including a pretty good size hill.  From like 12-13 we ran up the long steady incline portion of the hill then ran down the steep side.  Got to the bottom and turned right around to tackle the hill again. Want to really test how your legs will feel when they are tired and a hill comes up...do hill repeats from miles 12-14.  It was pretty killer.  My butt was definitely feeling it.

Not going to lie, the last tenth of a mile was rough. I kept looking at my watch wondering how I wasn't done yet.  Finally I hit 16 miles. I ran back down the trail a little bit to run Amanda in her last tenth of a mile.  She and Aaron did great and I know they are looking forward to our taper week this week as much as I am.  Amazing how easy 12 miles feels when you ran 16 the weekend before. 

After the run I stretched, headed to Natural Grocers to get more whey protein, a shaker bottle and some Epsom salts for my bath.  Then I treated myself to a Chipotle Burrito Bowl...mmm.  Amazingly I couldn't even finish it.  Not to worry I ate Chinese food, ice cream and had a beer later that night.

I have the last Italy post done, but of course I've been busy and lazy and have not added pictures to it yet. I'll get it done today as it has now been over a month since we got back.

P.S. I haven't gotten any donations in weeks now.  Come on people give to the cancer patients!  You can read more about a very special patient, Mighty Mason, by clicking here.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Don't You Get Hungry?

Lately I've been getting a lot of questions about getting hungry when I run.  The answer, nope.  I usually am not even ravenous until the day after a long run.  Here's my little stash of running goodies.  I have everything from gels to my PowerBar Recovery bars and Nuuns tabs for my water.

This is what I take on runs that are longer than 8 miles or so.  I take my fuel belt which holds 18-20 ounces of water.  I fill them to about 9 ounces and add half a Nuuns tab to each little bottle.  Nuuns is an electrolyte replacement tab.  Slightly fizzy and fairly tasteless.  Josh likes to use them now after a night of drinking to prevent hangovers.

Moving on, we have gels.  Gels are not my favorite but they are a necessary evil.  On a run under 11 miles, I usually only take one. There are only four flavors that my stomach can handle: Lime Sublime, Strawberry Banana, Tri-Berry and Blueberry Pomegranite.  After some unfortunate DGF aka gel digestive failure incidents, I realized I had to stick with GU brand and only those flavors.  Occasionally I'll throw in a GU Chomp or ShotBloks but that usually just because they taste good and I need something to do when I'm running for 3 plus hours.  These little gels really do give me a boost of energy. Yesterday I took my gel about about mile 6.7. Once it kicked in about about mile 7.25, I definitely speed up.  It may have been the gels or it may have been that we were no longer running on uneven, hilly, sometimes icy terrain. 

Even though I'm not usually hungry right after runs I know that I'm supposed to eat something within a half hour for my poor little abused muscles.  I usually eat a PowerBar Recovery Bar (only after double digit runs) because for one, it tastes like a candy bar and two it has just about the right balance of carbs, protein and fat to help my muscles begin the recovery process.

So there you have it.  Do I get hungry on runs, nope.  Do I eat, of course.  I mean really who can run for hours on end without eat something?  For my 16 mile run next weekend I'll probably have three gels (miles 5, 10, 14ish) plus my Nuuns.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Romeo, Romeo where for art thou Romeo?

Verona was a just a quick train ride from Venice so we figured we'd take a day trip.  We actually did it on our second day in Venice, so I'm going a bit out of order, but eh, that's ok.

It was really seeing where Romeo and Juliet is set that made me want to check out Verona.  I wasn't sure what exactly we should see there, so we stopped at the tourist office at the train station.  Emensely helpful. 

Our first stop was Arena di Verona.  It was a nice pink color and had an ice skating rink outside of it for the holidays.  I was impressed how well preserved it is.  They still hold performances at the colliseum during the summer months. 

Of course we had to pretend we were gladiators since we were able to get into the center ring.


Next stop, Casa di Giulietta to see the window from which Juliet longed for her Romeo. Now of course this isn't really Juliet's window, but we had to stop by anyway.  Josh made sure to rub Juliet's boob for good luck.  I really think that is just a lucky charm that was thought up by a boob man.

Looking down at my Romeo.

On our way to our next destination we apparently walked right by the House of Romeo which is a private residence.  We didn't even realize it until we were reading our book later that night.  Isn't this square beautiful?  It's called Piazza dei Signori.

We walked across Ponte Pietra on our way to Roman Forum.  We didn't spend too much time there because it was all starting to look the same.  We did find it interesting that it was all buried under houses before being uncovered by a man after he'd purchased the property.  Who builds over a Roman forum?

Anyway, we were chilly and jonesing to get back inside. So we booked it to the Duomo.  It was another beautiful church and was nice and warm.  We didn't take any pictures in these churches, because you know...it's yet another church. 

Last destination on our itinerary...Castelvecchio.  We thought it was going to be more a cool castle than museum, but hey it was warm and there was some impressive art work and check out these weapons.


Can you imagine trying to carry that or being struck by any of them. Yikes!

Josh really needed a cappucino so we made a stop at a bustling local place then walked back to the train station.  It was time to head back to Venice for some food and relaxation.