Working on It

I keep telling myself today is the day I give the trip updates, etc. but there are just not enough hours in the day lately.  Couple bullets before I get my butt in gear:

-Trip was great. Paris is awesome and super romantic. Would totally go back for a third time.  London eh, kind of like being in America. Didn't dislike it but didn't love it. High Tea was a big highlight.

-Training has gone down the drain. Still doing the Denver Half but it's going to be sloooooooow. That's ok I think I'll be running it for fun with Shanna and her friend from out of state. Ran 12 miles on Sunday...slow but then again I wasn't really trying.  Ankle currently hurting even with insoles.

-Saw awesome concert with Rache, Josh and her friend Amanda. Darius Ruckers and Brad Paisley put on an awesome show! Few tears when the Justin Moore sang a song called "Grandpa."

-Got a promotion at work. Yeay!

-PAID OFF MY STUDENT LOANS!!!!  I can't believe it. Thanks to the sale of the Subaru and Josh's parents sending us a check for trip expenses I am now student loan free! Now we just have Josh's to contend with.

Little teasers for all of the update I need to do. I'm going to try to get them all done before Josh and I celebrate our 2nd anniversary this weekend (super excited for that!).

Whirlwind

Man it’s been a whirlwind lately. The past month has flown by. Updates from our trip to come but let’s recap what happened after I got home from Missouri and California.

That evening Josh’s friend Peter and his new girlfriend came over for dinner. Nice to see Peter but after no being home for 10 days all I wanted to do was hang with my boys and veg out on the couch.

Monday it was time to get back to the gym and Tuesday I finally got in another run and tons of laundry while Josh was a golf league. Wednesday we had dinner at our friend’s Ryan and Claire’s house…awesome. I hadn’t seen them in a while and it was nice to relax and enjoy dinner with them out on the patio. Thursday Josh’s dad was in town. We went out to eat at Martini’s Bistro. Of course I had to have some key lime cheesecake.

Friday I had a surprise dinner for my friend Sarah G in Boulder. She was totally surprised which was awesome!

Saturday, another crazy day. I did an 11 miler:

Distance: 11 miles Time: 1:45:36 Avg. Pace: 9:36 min/miles

My legs were a bit on the sore side from that one. Stretch, snack and shower later we were headed to Denver to celebrate Claire’s b-day. We had dinner at Lime which was delicious. Then there was a little of this...

and a little of that.

Great time…not so great hangover the next day.

By Sunday I was crashing hard but started getting ready for our trip. The next few days leading up to our trip were no picnic either. I think this is the first time in a long time that I’ve had something to do every day and night for several weeks in a row. Thank goodness for vacation!

Sore...throat that is

After two days of presenting at a trade show I figured my voice would be a bit on the tired side. But then I woke up yesterday morning with a pretty bad sore throat. This morning I can barely swallow.  I think I have strep...ugh. I'm going to head to the doctor and hopefully they can get my all doped up so that I can get all my work stuff done for the week and enjoy the weekend at the lake.

Last night I was bound and determined to exercise since I didn't on Tuesday night after the closing of the show.  Instead of doing a speed workout I did a tempo run. Not going to lie it was hard. Breathing hurt and my ears were ringing.  I pushed through though.

Time: 37:35  Distance: 4 miles  Avg. Pace: 9:24 min/miles

On the road again

By 4:10 am on Saturday we were on the road headed to the Westminster Park-N-Ride to catch the SkyRide to the airport.  I think I was nervous about the car purchase because I could not sleep at all the night before. Our flight was uneventful and we landed without incident in Dallas a few hours later. Mitch from Classic of Denton was there with our new car to pick us up! There it is, our new car! Of course it's not brand new, it's a 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid.

We headed to the dealership and after a few hours of paperwork and listening to the finance guy ramble we headed out towards home.

We were starving when we hit Bowie, TX. We made it to Main St. and saw this cute little place named Nostalgia Antiques & Soda Fountain that said they had fresh sandwiches.  I have never been to a place quite like it. It was a restaurant and soda fountain inside an antique store.  My Grandma Walker would have LOVED it!

We got our sandwiches, chips, drinks and desserts for only $23.  Love that all meals came with dessert. So tasty. I definitely recommend it if you happen to be in Bowie.  Don't forget to write on the inside of the phone booth.  We jumped back on the road and headed towards Amarillo.

We drove through small town after small town before we reached Amarillo early evening. The one thing all these towns had in common...Dairy Queen. The smallest one was under 500 I believe, yet they all had a DQ. Texans love their ice cream apparently.

First stop in Amarillo...the Cadillac Ranch of course! It had been raining off and on all day so of course it was one huge mud puddle. It was much easier to walk in barefoot.

We cleaned up in a nearby puddle and headed back out on the road. We had only made it a few miles before a big red barn caught our eye. 

Yep we ate dinner at a steakhouse called the Country Barn. It was delicious. Quite possibly the best apple crisp ever. It also had awesome sinks like this:

Only in Texas.  We were planning on staying in Dalhart, TX which was about an hour and a half away so we needed to get back in the car. Of course we had to stop at a western store.  You know it's going to be good when this is out front.

I had no idea that cowboy boots and hats were so pricey! I don't think there was a pair of boots under $200 and we saw a hat that was over $1k! 

Man it gets dark on 287 through rural Texas.  Of course we were too busy playing with our Sync system to notice that we were suppose to turn to get to Dalhart.  Figuring Boise City, our back-up wasn't far we continued North.  Yeah, Google Maps lied to me.  Boise City was not only not in Colorado, but it only had two motels and neither one of them were that appealing.  Here's where we ended up:

It may not have been so bad about 40 years ago but it was gross...totally rundown. At least the sheets were clean. Both Josh and I checked before setting foot in them.  I kept my flippy floppies on at all times outside of the bed.  Needless to say we never need to go to Boise City, OK ever again.  We got outta there asap.

The rest of the trip was uneventful.  We made room for the new car in the garage. My poor little Honda was kicked to the curb.

I did a quick run around our neighborhood. There was a bit much indulgence this weekend.

Time: 31:09  Distance: 3.29 miles  Avg. Pace: 9:28 min/mile

Total stats for the week:

Time: 2:19:55  Distance: 15.04 miles   Avg. Pace: 9:18 min/mile

I almost forgot! We went up to Ft. Collins to pick up our chickens from the farm. 

We are part of the Jodar Farms CSA so we get four fresh, natural, cage free chickens a month. Yep, I held a chicken.

Not Ready for That

I had this ingenious plan to do my 'long' run for the week last night since we'll be spending 14 hours in the car this weekend. Lucky for me, the run was only 6 miles. I'm doing two weeks of mileage build up with a week of 'taper' following the next cycle. Worked really well for Nashville so I'm doing it again.

We didn't get home from signing our new car loan until 6:30 which meant we weren't done with dinner until 7:30. If I was going to fit in an hour long run I needed to get my butt in gear and get over to the gym. Bad plan #1.

So I get to the gym and start running at a comfortable 10 min/mile pace. But one mile in I decided to make this run a tempo which is what I would normally do on one of my weekday runs.  Bad plan #2. I was not ready for a 6 mile long tempo run.

The first few miles were fine. I got to 2.5 miles though and the brat I had just eaten decided to get it's revenge. Yep, hop off the treadmill and get to the bathroom asap.  Back running again I got the next mile and a half or so down, started feeling nauseated. Awesome.

I paused the dreadmill at this point, drank some water and gave myself a little pep talk instead of telling myself I sucked at running and it's pathetic that this run is so hard for me. After all this was no problem at all a few months ago. Boo.

I finally finished the run. It felt like it took FOR-EV-ER. It was not my best plan ever to do this as a tempo run. Definitely going to hold off a little longer before doing a tempo longer than 4 miles...at least for a few more weeks.

Stats:

Time: 56:20    Distance: 6 miles    Avg. Pace: 9:23 min/mile
2 miles @ 10 min/mile pace   4 miles @ 9:05 min/mile pace*

*Yeah had I been actually thinking I'd have done 2 mile warm-up, 2 mile tempo, 2 mile cooldown.

Legs are a bit sore today but I'm pretty sure it's from my intense deep tissue tendon rub at PT yesterday morning. Yes, it made my eyes water and I winced in pain. Whatever it takes to get me back to 100%. I'm for it.

If It Walks Like a Duck...

...it must be a runner after their first speed workout. I am sore today! Yesterday I was telling Josh how I didn't think the No More Trouble Zones DVD really worked me out as much as the 30 Day Shred (which was disappointing considering it's twice as long) because I wasn't sore at all.. I don't know if it was the combo of doing the DVD on Monday night then the speed workout, or just running intervals for the first time in months, but man. I swear I'm walking like a duck today trying not to work my thigh muscles at all.

I have to say this interval workout kicked my butt!  This is what I looked like after.  According to my training plan I needed to do 8x400 meter (.25 mile) intervals at about a 7:30 min/mile pace.  Note that this was my speed interval pace and not my sprint interval pace...eek.  I didn't note however in my plan what my recovery intervals were supposed to be so I made those 400 m @ 10 min/mile pace.  I know that there is a way to program this in my Garmin, but I'm lazy and would rather just have the treadmill do it for me.  Plus I'm pretty sure I would have quit all together or slowed down significantly had I been on an actual track.

Here's how it went:

1 mile warm-up-10 min/mile
.25-7:30
.25-10
.25-7:30
.25-10
.25-7:30
.25-10
.25-7:30

Already overheated at this point I took a 2 minute break to throw some water on my face...the gym was HOTT hot.

.25-10
.25-7:30
.25-10
.25-7:30
.25-10
.25-7:30
.25-10
.25-7:30
1 mile cool down-10 min/mile

Time: 52:26 minutes    Distace: 5.75 miles    Avg. Pace: 9:07 min/miles

This was hard for me. Just reinforced why I need to do this speed work.  Overall I ran 3.75 miles at the 10 min/mile pace and 2 at the 7:30 min/mile pace. Not fast for some, but definitely fast for me since I'm just getting back into it. Can't wait until next weeks torture, I mean speed session.

Training Commencing

I ran 7 miles yesterday. Yes they were on the dreadmill only because it was already really hot out. That is officially my first long run of half marathon training. It felt pretty good though I felt like I was moving like a snail.  I did 5.5 at a 10 min/mile pace, then .5 at 9:30 min/mile with the last mile at 9 min/mile pace. I was just so tired of being inside that I wanted the run to be over. I feel pretty good about it. I did stop at 5.5 miles because I was having chest pains reminiscent of the pain I had a few years back caused by Costochondritis.  After getting some water and walking around for two minutes I felt ready to finish. My legs were a little sore after the run which I expected as it was my longest run since Nashville and the first time in months I've run that much in one week.

Last week's stats: 14.5 miles  Avg. Pace: 10 min/miles (we're going to be picking it up this week!)

I'm still having some pains today, but hopefully it's just heartburn from all the crappy food I've been eating lately.  Super excited to throw myself back into training...for real this time. I'm picking up my orthoditics tomorrow morning. Yeay! I also finished up my training plan which goes all the way up until the Rock N' Roll Marathon in Arizona this coming January. I'm not commited to the marathon yet, but the course looks pretty awesomely flat and it would be nice to go somewhere warm in January. Of course there are other expenses with traveling like that and I only have two weeks of vacation each year which I'd rather not burn right away again. Regardless, I thought having a plan intact would be a good idea.

I would really like to run a sub-2 hour half. My last half in Moab I ran just under 2:06 which was an 8 minute improvement from Denver. Pretty nice improvement I'd say.  Because I've been out of the game and am totally out of shape, speed workouts are a must and are twice a week for this training session much like last time.  I wandered over to the McMillian Running Calculator and it spit out my paces necessary to achieve my goal pending all else goes well.

I'm feeling a bit itimidated right now, but I'm sure once I get into the swing of things I'll be fine. The long run paces are no problem. We'll see how the rest goes.

Rolling with it

This week I found out my friend Heather is getting married! Yeay! She met her fiance Dan just a few months before Josh and I started dating at a house party we went to. I remember going back to the sorority house that night and talking about that cute guy she met. Last year they had their beautiful daughter Kylie and unfortunately I was unable to go to her baby shower since she lives in Boise...sad. Needless to say as soon as I got the date for her wedding I booked my flight to Boise!  I'll be heading there the weekend of Sept. 17-19th...yep the weekend after getting back from Europe. I'm going to be one tired chica.  It's also the same weekend as the Crossroads Half Marathon.  As excited as I was about the race, Heather's wedding is way more important.  So my next half won't be until October.

Last night I took to creating a training plan for myself with thoughts of training for the Arizona Rock N' Roll Marathon which is in January.  Not that I really want to go support the state of Arizona and their ridiculous, racial profiling, anti-immigration law, but it's an available winter marathon. Anyway, it's that or Vegas which is in December but I won't have vacation time until the start of the new year.  So I set out to create a training plan which is almost done. Heather just ran her first half so we'll see if I can talk her into heading to Phoenix for the race with me. My plan is based off of the Runner's World Less is More plan which has only 3 days of running. One speed workout, tempo run, and long run. It's all about quality and not quantity which works well for me. I'm also going to continue to cross-train and take a couple rest days per week.  We'll see how it goes.

Josh and I ran around our neighborhood last night. I have to say it was not my finest run.  It was only 3 miles but felt like eternity. It was my first outside run since Nashville and I could feel it. The treadmill is awesome because it keeps you at a steady pace. Last night my pace was all over the place. I ran as slow as 10 min/mile pace all the way up to 8:43 min/mile pace. Yeah, all over the place and panting the entire way. I'm not sure if Lucky's tongue or mine was hanging out further.  I felt so out of shape. Of course Josh was there to remind me that I've been injured and I'm out there doing it. It's going to take a little while for me to regain all my fitness. At least that is two runs this week for a total of 7 whole miles. Haha. I'm considering trying to get in a run early early tomorrow morning before we head to the lake but I'd have to be out the door at like 5, not sure that's going to happen.

Sad Decision Day

Well this week marks the start of July, which means the Denver Marathon is only 3.5 months away. You may say, well that’s pretty far away…ha nope. If I started training next week, I’d only have about 14 weeks of training which would need to include a 3 week taper. That means I‘d only have 11 weeks to get myself back up to 20 mile runs. That’s just 2.5 months to get from zero to 20 without injury. Even though I've been cross-training my butt off, it just seems like I'd be asking for injury.

As much as I’m desperate to train for the full marathon, I’ve come to the decision to drop from the full to the half marathon. I’ve been going over all of this in my head, on paper, trying to figure out training plans that would get me prepared enough to run a strong race, not a fast one, but a strong one. It’s just not in the cards for me. If I were up and running even just 10 miles a week right now I’d just go for it. Maybe only do one 20 miler. But without the base, I’m not going to risk injuring myself even more.

I HATE giving up which is what I feel like I’m doing. I’m trying to remind myself that I need to listen to my body and my body is telling me that I am not ready to jump into training for a full. It's not my fault mother nature robbed me of my full marathon for the year and left me injured. My plan now is to train for a fast half marathon with the goal of setting a PR. After all, a half marathon is better than no race at all. Maybe I’ll even find a winter marathon to run in November or December. That will give me more time to prepare. I’m beyond frustrated but know that you can’t make your body do something that it’s not ready to do. It’s not like there won’t be other marathons in the future right?

Orthotics. They're not just for old people.

Yesterday I got fit for my customized orthotics. I cannot wait until they're ready!  Bob, the owner of my physical therapy practice worked with me to determine what I needed. He had me run on the dreadmill for a few minutes to see my gait in my running shoes. Then he had me lay on my stomach so that he can play with my sweaty feet. He said mine were nothing compared to the ones he used to work on while he was with the CU athletic department.  He drew on my a little bit and was happy to see that my feet line up with with my calf.  My problem is that my foot is just deformed.  Haha. Not really but it isn't shaped quite right for it to land in line with the rest of my body while I run...or even walk.

My new orthotics will add some padding under my toes on the rightside of my right foot as well as some support near the back of my arch. He said that he is confident that having these orthotics will help me run pain-free.  That was music to my ears! He was also nice enough to temporarily adjust my shoe to hold me over until the orthotics come in.

After the gait analysis and fitting it was time for my weekly PT session. It was the first session in a long time that I almost teared up doing therapy.  My tendons and shins have all sorts of knots and build-up. Every time Ryan hit certain spots on my ankle and shin my entire leg started shaking it hurt so bad.  Needless to say I was not going to be running last night. I'm hoping to get in a good run this weekend. I'm still super sore from PT yesterday and meeting Tawsha for a cocktail tonight so I think I'm taking the night off. It's about time, I haven't taken a day off since last week some time.

Oh and it looks like Josh may have gotten pink-eye. Flashback to preschool right?

From two legs to two wheels

I'm considering taking up a new physical hobby...cycling. Now I'm not what you would call a cyclist. I didn't even learn how to ride a bike until I was 7. Thanks to my friend Whitney who let me practice on her bike until I could ride it on my own.  Since then I've had a couple of bikes including my pretty pink cruiser than is collecting dust in our garage.  It got a lot of use when we lived in Ft. Collins, but since we moved and there is not Old Town to ride to it's been sadly neglected.

Anyway, I've been thinking about doing a sprint tri for which I'd need a bike other than my cruiser.  Yesterday Josh and I stopped at a shop in Longmont so that I could try out a road bike.  I was really nervous about the super skinny wheels.  Once I was on and actually pedaling it wasn't so bad.  Of course it will take some getting use to but I think I can do it especially the whole leaning over and the weird braking. I will definitely not be keeping up with Josh anytime soon or using toe clips. The last thing I need to to have my feet stuck to the pedals. I'd be the person at the stop light like this:

I'm not sure if I'm going to love it so we're going to keep our eyes peeled for a used bike. No sense in spending $1000 on a bike until I know whether or not I like riding.  It will be great crosstraining exercise.

Any tips for a newbie cyclist?

By the way, running is not going great. Last week I ran twice for a total of 7 miles. I was going to run 7 on Sunday but I took a few steps and the shooting pain returned. Luckily I have PT tomorrow.  If I can't run three times a week in the next couple of weeks I'm going to have to seriously consider dropping from the full marathon to the half.  Booooooo.

The Results are In

Tendonitis. Yep, still tendonitis. I'm happy that it's not a stress fracture that's for sure, but come on. Who has tendonitis after not running for over a month? This girl!  Plan of action: physical therapy at least once a week, custom orthoditics and ice on a regular basis. Oh yes and tylenol. Definitely lots of tylenol before running. IB Profin after.  Basically they don't know why I'm continuing to have pain. My deltoid tendon is irritated but that shouldn't be causing continuous pain. Ugh, so irritating.

And just like that, I'm giving myself permission to start training. It's going to be slow and steady. I've definitely lost conversation pace speed, but that's ok. I'm going to start off with the three day a week plan.  After a few weeks or a month if I'm feeling good, I'll start adding in speed and tempo workouts.  So happy I don't have to be in a boot!

Look out trails of Boulder County, I'm coming for you!

What a weekend and training

This was a busy weekend and it flew right by.  Highlight of the weekend...of course other than seeing Maegan be so happy saying I Do to Ahearn...running! Yes, that's right, I ran again. I knocked out 6 miles at a 10 minute pace. My ankle hurt, it felt like a constant pinching sensation but I did not once have shooting pain up the side of my leg or my shin.  I'm jonesing for some speed work but know that I need to not push too far too fast. I think I may even try to do a short 3-4 miles tonight after work. For now I'm sticking to the dreadmill because it has some play to it which helps reduce the hard impact. 

On the running note, now that I'm running, well kind of, I'm starting to think about marathon training plans. I'm going to create my own using a hybrid of a couple of different plans.  I'm going to refer to my TNT schedule from last season (abbreviated since I will not be training for 19 weeks this time), the Hal Higdon plan and Runner's World's Less is More. I think running three-four days is the most my body can handle for training. I'm definitely going to continue crosstraining as well. I cannot wait to get my orthoditics and get out there. I refuse to train for a marathon on the dreadmill!

Back to the weekend, Saturday we watched the USA vs. England World Cup game with Ryan and Claire. I decided I liked the game because there were zero commericals until the half and there was always action going on. It was kind of anti-climatic without a winner though.  After that we headed to Denver for Maegan and Ahearn's wedding. She got the same crappy weather or her wedding day that we did. Boo. But it was nice anyway. We caught up with some of my sorority sisters I hadn't seen in years!

Sunday we did an Indian cooking class. Needless to say we were stuffed when we got home!  If anyone is interested in going to the class in August, let me know! It's only $18 and you get tons of food. I bought a cook book and am ready to try making some of my own Indian food at home.

Being Still is Hard

So is waiting. Yesterday morning I had my MRI on my ankle. I haven’t ever had one before so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. All I knew was that I couldn’t have any metal below my hips which was no problem. They laid me on the bed and packed my foot in. They were also nice enough to put a blanket and headphones with XM radio on me. They said the machine was loud and they were not kidding! Man the noises it made were so loud it made the entire bed vibrate. I was totally paranoid I would ruin the pictures because they said even the slightest movement can skew them.

About 15 minutes in my legs began twitching of course. I was focusing so hard on holding still I’m pretty sure I could have made myself levitate with the same power of thought. The entire thing took about a half hour. They handed me a disk of images and sent me on my way. The orthopedic surgeon should have received them yesterday. Now I just have to wait. I tried looking at them to see if I could tell what was wrong, but of course everything looks all jacked up to me. I assume I won’t hear from the doctor until Monday afternoon sometime. I’m trying to be patient.

My ankle is sore from my PT rubbing on Wednesday. It hurt so good that it bruised me a little bit. I got all set up to meet with the owner of my PT practice. He’s going to do a gait analysis and get me fitted for custom orthotics. $200 ouch! So worth the money if they help me prevent future injuries.

I’m starting to think about my training plan for the Denver Marathon. I think I’m going to have it start 4th of July weekend. I should have my orthotics by then and with several weeks of PT under my belt, fingers crossed, I’ll be ready to run my little heart out. That is pending the MRI indicates it was only tendonitis.

I’m ready for a super busy weekend after two weeks straight of work. Tomorrow Ryan and Claire are having a party for the World Cup and my friend Maegan is getting married. It’s going to be a fun day! Sunday Josh and I are doing an Indian cooking class which is a fundraiser for LLS. I’m excited. I love love love Indian food. At least I have distractions while I’m waiting for the doc to call.

I Ran!!!

That's right, I ignored advice of the doctor and my own better judgement and ran.  I smiled the entire time too!  Friday afternoon I was heading to the gym before yoga and decided you know what I should try it out.  The first few steps on the treadmill sent shooting pain up my calf but once I got in my groove I was ok.  I ran an easy four miles before I decided I should not push myself right out of the gate.

Time: 40 minutes    Distance: 4 miles    Avg. Pace: 10 min/miles

Not too shabby considering I haven't run in more than a month.  Now, several days later I'm still hurting though. My ankle hurts every time I walk.  I've made the executive decision to skip the MRI and just start intensive physical therapy.  I didn't really like the orthopedic surgeon at all and I don't really feel the need to work with him or spend money on the MRI if he thinks it's just tendonitis. 

Hopefully I can get into PT before I leave for Tampa on Saturday afternoon so we can get this show on the road.  My month of yoga also ended this weekend....it did not go out with a bang but more on that later.

So the problem is what?

I'm not sure if I'm disappointed or relieved right now.  My appointment with the orthopedic surgeon was kind of a let down.  I went for x-rays which apparently showed nothing. The doctor told me that he's leaning toward just really bad tendonitis but is scheduling me for a MRI to double check.  The MRI will confirm or deny tendonitis or a stress fracture.

I guess I'm happy that it's not stress fracture but I'm super frustrated.  I just want to know what's wrong with me so that I can fix it and get back into training.  I suppose the MRI will do that.  From there if it's just tendonitis I'll do some heavy duty physical therapy complete will some nasty deep tissue work.  Better than a boot.  I am seriously starting to think that this is all in my head. 

I also found out that apparently my knees are weird. Not the doctors words of course. My knee caps track up and out rather than just straight up and down.  I need to be aware of potential injury and really take care of them.

So now I just wait. This is the last week of the yoga challenge.  I've done 17 classes, it will be 18 after the class I do tonight.  If I got to every class for the rest of the month I'll hit my 25 classes.  Not so shabby.

Just Not My Day

I'm not having the best day.  I woke up about 3:45 this morning with a stomach ache. I though that it was probably just from being hot or hungry so I got up and went to the 5 am yoga class.  Bad idea.  I had to leave the room early for fear of vomiting.  I got showered and dressed, still feeling like total crap.  I walked out to my car and something seemed a bit off. I walked to the passenger side to discover that my window had been broken out.  A rock had be thrown through the window so hard that it totally shattered my window and hit the opposite door, knocking off the light cover.  Seriously?  At this point I started tearing up. I already felt like total ass and now this.  UGH!

At this point I decided that I need to let Pete and Lisa know I was going to stay home.  I almost tossed my cookies right there in the parking lot.  I picked the glass off of my seat and drove home.  I still haven't cleaned it up yet.  I just got off the phone with the police department. They informed me that there have been 20 Honda Accords stolen lately and the 1997 is the preffered model.  Flipping fantastic.  She said to take every precaution.  Well duh, I already lock the doors and park in crowded places.  Short of never leaving the garage, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.  I guess it's good that the car wasn't stolen.  There is my positive spin on the situation.

Oh yeah and PT yesterday, also bad news.  They referred me to an orthopedic surgeon.  Now not to worry, it doesn't seem that I'll need surgery on my ankle, but they are almost positive I have a stress fracture.  I have an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon on Monday.  First I'll have to get x-rays.  If they do see the stress fracture, I'll have to wear a boot.  Booooo.  I was given a range from anywhere in between 3 weeks and 8 weeks.  That would mean I'd basically be limited to the pool for exercise which is just a total bummer.  It could be worse, I'm not fighting for my life like Jason.  Who by the way, is making some really positive progress but is not out of the woods yet. 

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. Until then I'm resting, trying not to get pukey and cuddling with Lucky.

Time for Vacation Yet?

Well of course not.  Nope, not until September. Even though the month of May is flying right by, September seems so far away!  It's only 3.5 months away which means October is only 4.5...I have got to get back on the road. I may have to start a countdown. One of the days until our trip to Paris and London (yes, we're going on another fabulous vacation this year. Yeay!) and the other one for the days until the Denver Marathon. 

Still going strong with the challenge and my body is feeling it.  I don't know that I really see any huge changes except that I can get further into the poses than when I first started. The number on the scale has dipped slightly but I think that is because when I get home from a sweaty session at 7 or 8, all I really want is a green monster and some peanut butter graham crackers.  That combo definitely does not replace a real meal. Last night Josh and I forced down some steak and veggies so that we got enough calories for the day.  Last week ended like this:

Wednesday-50 minutes Elliptical+Bikram
Thursday-Bikram
Friday-Off (first day in weeks)
Saturday-75 minutes Elliptical +abs
Sunday-Bikram

This week has started off pretty well though I'm taking today off to grab a beer at Lefthand after work and PT.

Monday-55 mins Elliptical+abs+Bikram
Tuesday-Bikram
Wednesday-Off (I've forgotten how awesome rest days are)

Sarah G. came up to do the class with Brenna and I on Monday. She was suprised at how much of a workout it is. She's going to come next Monday too. I swear the studio should be paying me to do yoga there since I'm bringing in so many newbies. 

Well, lunch is over and it's time to get back to work before I head off to PT this afternoon. Update to come.

I Miss Running

As of today, it's been 18 days since I've run. It's the longest I've gone without running since June of 2009 when I took time off to let my tendonitis in my knees heal.  Of course I knew that I needed to take time off. My calf and ankle still hurt. I'm pretty sure that my ankle hurts because of a stress fracture, otherwise it should be healed by now.  Ugh, as the weather gets nicer more people are outside hitting the pavement and I envy them. I am ready to at least have the option to run.  Not even having the option is what's really getting to me. 

Plan of action: get into PT as soon as possible. Get back into my icing and foam rolling regiment.  Continue with yoga and cross-training so I don't lose every ounce of fitness I have. I realize that it's going to be hard running again and that I've probably lost some speed. I don't even care (ok I care a little bit), I just want to run!  I want to run so badly that I'm actually seriously thinking about pool running for fun.  To answer your question, yes I may have gone crazy. 

Since I'm all registered for the Denver Marathon, I have started looking at training plans. I think I'm going to stick to a 3-4 day/week running plan with yoga, pool running and other cross-training.  I'll definitely do speed workouts at least once a week. I figure if I do a 16 week plan, I have until mid-late June to get my ankle/calf situation under control.  I've decided the Bolder Boulder is out, which totally sucks, but there are tons of other smaller and less expensive races out there this summer. 

One of these days I'd like to be able to train and get through a marathon without injury. A girl can dream right?  Here's what my workouts have looked like so far this week. Sticking with the challenge!

Saturday-20 mins bike + 25 mins Elliptical +abs
Sunday-50 mins Elliptical + Bikram
Monday-60 mins Elliptical + Bikram
Tuesday-Bikram

Oh and you should totally check out this marathon recap from Beth who also happens to live in Longmont. She had to withdrawl from a race last year because of injury. She came back from that and totally rocked the Colorado Marathon.  She'll be joining Nancy (MIL) in Boston next year.  If she can do it, I can too right?

Update: PT appointment made. Next Wednesday at 4:30 pm.  Done and done.  Hopefully I'll get some good advice on what I can do to expedite recovery and when it's safe for me to start running again.

Yoga Challenge: Week One Down

The first week of the challenge is over and I'm feeling good!  It feels so good to sweat at yoga.  It's probably the only place you'll catch me working out in tiny little shorts and my sports bra.  If women older than me and in far worse shape than me can sport it, so can I.  Plus the room has lighting that make my abs look pretty awesome...you know like existent.  Here's how the first week went:

Saturday-Bikram + 35 mins on Elliptical + weights/abs
Sunday-Bikram + 40 mins on Stationary Bike + weights/abs
Monday-Bikram
Tuesday-50 mins on Elliptical + weights/abs
Wednesday-Bikram
Thursday-Bikram
Friday-Bikram

Six classes down, 19 to go to get the biggest discount on next months membership.  I can already tell I'm becoming more flexible which is awesome.  My legs are also getting stronger because those standing balance postures are killer.  Hopefully this will help me with running as well. I'm sure it will feel amazing after runs...once I can actually run again. The ankle is still hurting. I tried a couple steps running, shooting pain plus a few days of hobbling around. Note to self: call to get an PT appointment ASAP. 

Anyway, I took before measurements to see if I lose any inches by the end of the month as well as pictures. So the pictures are awful...I'm way too pale and they just look like crap so I'm not putting those up, but I will post my pre-Bikram measurements later this week. I don't think I'll really lose any weight, I'm not really trying to, but I do think I'll be more toned than I am currently.  Toning, relaxation and injury healing are the primary goals. Though I wouldn't mind looking like this.

Jason Update: He's in stable but critical condition. They were having issues controlling his brain swelling so they did a craniotomy to give his brain room to expand.  A CT last week indicated that he does not have brain damage right now but they will be repeating those tests this week to figure out what his long term brain function may be like. Keep thinking of him.  If you're interested in checking on his condition, Rache is running this website.