Say What!?! Chilean Miner to Run NYC

So I was perusing the news as I always do during my lunch break where I saw this article.  My first thought was what? How is this Chilean miners who was stuck underground for months going to be ready to run a marathon. I continued reading and it said he ran 5-6 miles per day down there. Ok, that's good he stayed active, but 5-6 miles/day equals about 35-42 miles/week. Running 5-6 miles at a time and 26.2 at once is a huge difference.

I continued a littler further and saw that he listened to Elvis on his iPod. I thought to myself, eh, horrible running music, but then it came to me, how did he keep his iPod charged?  Mine barely stays charged for a week let alone two months. I haven't read all the details about what they did or did not have down there, but I just never thought an iPod charger would be one of them.

I wish him the best of luck and can't wait to see how he does.

Then I Ate a Huge Burrito

My long run did not happen this weekend. My original plan was to do a two-a-day run on Saturday. After a quick 4 miles with Josh and Lucky we had errands to run and a house to clean before Josh's b-day party. Oh and Husker game to watch. So the second 6-8 miles I was going to do just didn't happen. Before I knew it I needed to get those bacon wrapped dates made, spinach dip going and that baked brie baking.

It turned out to be a bit of a drunk night for myself and our guests apparently. Just goes to show that even though we're on the down slope to 30 we still can get crazy from time to time...evidence of the vomit in the bathroom we found the next day.  I was a total waste of space on Sunday. I basically was hating life.  Note to self...you can no longer drink like you did at 21. I think that is the last time I'm drinking for a little while. Beer isn't that fantastic that I cannot resist it and I'm just not really a big drinker anymore.

Monday was Josh's 29th b-day. I made him dinner, we went to the gym, but since it was his b-day I didn't want to spend hours running. Probably rude thing to do.

Last night was my night to get it in.  I left work and nearly got blown off the interstate. The winds were insane. Rather than do the running man I decided to run on the dreadmill. 

Time: 1:38   Distance: 10 miles   Avg. Pace: 9:49 min/miles

I stopped at 10 miles though I was planning on 12. My knees actually started hurting and swelling so I figured I better stop. Don't want to have to drop from the race in a week and a half.  (Bonus-I drunkenly talked Shanna into running the race with me! Yes!)  I couldn't really find a good elevation chart of the course so I used MapMyRun to make one myself.  It looks pretty flat to me, just how I like it!

After running Josh treated me to the Garden Fresco Burrito with Green Chili from Tres Margaritas...I ate the WHOLE thing. It was delicious. Oh and they made Josh wear a sombrero while they sang to him and gave him a weird red, white and green shot...yuck. Of course the one time I don't bring my phone or camera to take a picture. Drat!

1/2 on a Whim

After the RNR Denver Half I am feeling even more determined to get the sub-2 hour half under my belt. So after searching all lunch I found one that I don't have to fly or drive for a gazillion hours to.  It's right up the road from me in Loveland. 

Yep, I just went ahead and registered myself for the Heart of the Rockies Half Marathon which is in three weeks!  That gives me a bit of time to get in some speed sessions and two more longer runs.  I'm not going to have the sea level advantage and I haven't seen what the course elevation is but Loveland is about the same elevation as Longmont (lower than Denver) and from what I remember from the two months we lived in Loveland, it's flat as a pancake. We're even going to run right by the condo we lived in. I'm sure there will be a few hills in there somewhere but I'm looking forward to it.  Maybe I'll even talk Josh into running the 10k while I do the half.  Hopefully we won't have snow or ice. That would just be crummy. I am all for temps in the 30s or 40s though. My best runs are in those cooler temperatures.

Never done two races this close together but hey, it's almost like training right?

Did you say PR!?!

Today something totally unexpected happen...that's right I set a new 1/2 marathon PR. I honestly was shocked while I was running and realized that I was going to PR.  Especially since I hadn't trained. But let me back up.

Last night Josh and went down to our friend Russell's house.  Russell, Josh and our friend Jason and I enjoyed some of my delicious homemade spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Mmmm. Totally hit the spot. I went to bed early like a good runner while the boys stayed up. Unfortunately for me I was a light sleeper because when Josh came to bed it woke me up and I was unable to fall back to sleep for any significant amount of time. 

I rolled out of bed about 4:30 am, did my normal morning routine and jumped in the car to head to the race.  Once I got downtown I made my way to Civic Center Park.  I am glad that I had done this race before because there was zero signage telling people where to go. I was really surprised since the Rock N' Roll races are usually better organized.  I held onto my warm clothes as long as possible before heading to the corral. 

By about five after 7 am I was on my way across the finish line.  I was feeling good, not worrying about my pace when my first walk break alarm went off. I thought about ignoring it but decided hey, this is my plan and I should stick to it.  When we hit the only really steep hill around mile 4 people were dropping. The hill was hard but I powered up it. I remembered passing a lot of people in that same spot last year. 

A lap past the zoo, around the Denver Nature and Science Museum and I was already more than half way...still feeling good! At that point I looked at my watch and realized that I could probably PR if I just kept moving at about the same pace.  I didn't want to get cocky just yet.

Next up was Cheeseman Park. I remembered that last year there was a fairly long incline.  Not a problem I was still feeling great.  By the time I was half way up that it was time for a walk break and a my last gel.  This is apparently right where I missed Josh and Russell who had been waiting there to see me.  Once we were out of the park there was only a little over a mile left.  Even better it was flat with a slight downhill about a half mile from the finish and I was still on track to PR.

When I saw the shoot to the finish I sped up.  I breezed past the 13 mile marker and sprinted.  I was proud of myself for having enough energy to speed up.  I crossed the finish line and knew I had PRed and it felt good!

Splits courtesy of my Garmin:

Mile 1-9:33
Mile 2-9:38
Mile 3-9:27
Mile 4-9:23
Mile 5-9:44
Mile 6-9:45
Mile 7-9:36
Mile 8-9:06
Mile 9-9:42
Mile 10-9:33
Mile 11-9:38
Mile 12-9:23
Mile 13-9:03
Mile .25-1:54

Time: 2:05:10   Distance: 13.25 miles   Avg. Pace: 9:27 min/mile

So really I hit the 13.1 distance at 2:03:53. Which is awesome and a huge PR.  That is nearly 10 minutes faster than I finished this race last year and 2 minutes faster than Moab (which was primarily downhill).  But of course that's not what my chip time was.  Not gonna lie I'm kinda bummed I had to take the marathon medal even though I only did the half. Oh well. A medal is a medal.

Chip Time Stats:

Time: 2:05:09   Avg. Pace: 9:32 min/mile

Still a PR, but only by about 50 seconds.  Hey I'll take it! Maybe I shouldn't train more often. That or this run/walk thing is an excellent idea.  I really need to run a sea level race and I definitely be under 2 hours.  Hmmm.

I met Josh and Russell back at the car and we met my dad and brother Ted at Toast in Cherry Creek North. I was so hungry I had a really hard time deciding what to eat. I finally settled on the breakfast burrito with a pancake on the side. Definitely satisfied my sweet and salt craving.  As we were driving back to Russell's house to pick up Josh's stuff we passed by Bonnie Brae Ice Cream. Of course we had to stop for a celebatory cone. Mmmm.

My legs are a bit sore but I think that once I foam roll I'll be all good.  Woohoo for unexpected PRs!  As it turns out I may be faster than I give myself credit for. This is motivation to get my act together for my next race.

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

Summertime and the livins easy

Friday night was baseball night for the Van Kirks.  We met our friends Cassie, Monte and their adorable son Porter at Coors Field.  Not only did the Rockies beat the Cubs, they set a record in the 8th inning for the most consecutive hits in one inning.

Yep you're seeing that right, the Rockies decided to make the loss really hurt with 12 runs in one inning.  We stopped at The Gin Mill for a few hours afterwards before heading home. I was super excited to hit the pillow when I crawled in bed around 1:45 am.

My plan was to get up and head out running around 6 am.  Yeah that did not happen.  I rolled out of bed around 8:30.  I arrived at MacIntosh Lake just before 10. It was already nearly 80 degrees. By the time I hit 3 miles I knew there was no way I was going to get through 7 more out on the lake with zero shade.

Jumped in the car and headed to the gym.  Finished up the run there no problem. I tried my first Hammer Gel...not bad. Consistency was pretty good as was the flavor. What really sold me was that I had no GDF.

Stats:

Time: 1:37:16   Distance: 10.01 miles   Avg. Pace: 9:43 min/miles

Saturday night was ladies night! Thalia, Rachael, Sheila and I met at Thalia's before heading to the Tim McGraw and Lady Antebellum concert. Oh Tim.....

The show was awesome! Wish we would have been able to get a bit closer. We enjoyed it nonetheless.  We made it back to Thalia's around 2 am.

Completely exhausted I still made it back home and up to Estes Park for a quick hike in Rocky Mountain National Park with Josh, my sister-in-law and my nieces.

The Luckiest

I'm the luckiest. I have such a wonderful husband. Look what he sent me just because...

Oh yeah and after happy hour with some of my favorite ladies I went for a run. Not going to lie my ankle and calf hurt the entire time...not horribly but I could feel them like a sore muscle. First time I felt like I could have just kept making laps around my neighborhood.  It really is amazing the difference between dreadmill and outdoors. I think I finally settled into a pace that was sustainable for me...at least for now. Need to bump it up to reach my half marathon goal.

Stats:

Time: 39:45 mins.   Distance: 4.14 miles    Avg. Pace: 9:36 min/miles

So about deodorant

Last night was busy. After another crazy busy day I headed home to get ready for my sister and brother-in-law and our niece and nephews to arrive for the night. They had a busy day at Cheyenne Frontier Days and planned to crash at our house then head back up to Cheyenne for an air show later today. Anyway, I ran into the house, opened the windows, turned on our house fan…so hot, through the sheets in the dryer, fed our little fur-baby and headed to the gym. If I was going to get in my workout I had to do it right away.

Luckily there was actually a treadmill available. It was amazing for one to be open during the after work rush. I got on and started my 1200 meter warm-up. On the schedule I had 4x1200s @ 7:51-8:13 min/mile pace. First bad sign, I forgot my water. Second bad sign, there was already condensate on the windows.

Then a nice middle-ish aged women got on the treadmill next to me. I was almost finished with the first recovery interval when it hit me…the third bad sign. It was that awful I forgot my deodorant this morning but thought I could squeak by without it even though it’s almost 100 degrees outside smell. Yikes. Now of course, we’re all working out and I’m the first one to admit after a run I am smelly. But this was overwhelming. I actually began feel nauseated. It was stifling really in the heat of the gym.

Between that and knowing I had to hurry up to meet everyone for dinner at The Pumphouse I cut my workout one interval short. So I ended up doing 3x1200 @ 8 min/mile pace. Better than nothing right!

Stats:

Time: 40:23 mins   Distance: 4.5 miles   Avg. Pace: 8:58 min/miles

I went to dinner straight from the gym. Sweat and all. I’m sure Josh was thinking man did you forget deodorant too. It all comes back around.

Tonight I’m enjoying some Indian food with Rache at our local place, Flavors of India. It’s so good. Can’t wait to catch up and eat lots of saag.

Oh yes and a big CONGRATULATIONS to Hilary and Ed Lammon! They welcomed their baby boy on Monday. He's so adorable isn't he. No name has been decided on yet, so they're still calling him bean.

I think that he definitely looks like Ed, at least for now.

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.

Tempo Tuesday

I did my first tempo run in months last night.  I was pretty stoked about it. Josh and I headed to the gym because it was about a million degrees outside and in our unconditioned house. Even our humid gym felt pretty good. I wasn't planning on doing a tempo but after 5 minutes on the dreadmill I knew I needed some variety to get me through my 4 miles I planned to do.  I was one of those people last night....yes I ran in just my sports bra.  Well and of course shorts, etc. It was just so hot after the first mile and weighing passing out and being flung off the back of the dreadmill into the elliptical machines vs. showing some skin, I figured it was the lesser of the two evils. Here's how it went:

Mile 1-10 min/mile
Mile 2-8:57 min/mile
Mile 3-8:57 min/mile
Mile 4-10 min/mile

Distance: 4 miles    Time: 37:55 mins    Avg. Pace: 9:29 min/mile

Amazingly I wasn't even dying running a sub-9 min/mile. There may be hope for me yet. I picked up my orthoditics yesterday. I was instructed not to run with them until I can walk in them comfortably for 7-8 hours at a time. When we got back to the gym I put my sweaty feet into my need to be retired Asiacs and wore them for about an hour. I figured some sweat should help me break them in a bit faster. Now I understand why I shouldn't just run in them right away. They feel strange and are kind of hard so the bottoms of my feet were not happy.

Bit on the sore side today.  Knot in calf has reappeared and my ankle is tender.  Tonight is a cross-training day so Jillian Michaels is on deck to kick my ass.

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?

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!

Women, Food and God

Several weeks ago while Claire and I walked around MacIntosh Lake she told me about a book she had seen on Oprah, Women, Food and God. It sounded interesting to me as we had just been discussing body image issues, etc.  When my mom called and said she was reading it and love it, I thought, ok I'll give it a shot and picked it up at Target. 

I've slowly been reading it, and though it is interesting, none of it has really applied to me because I'm not overweight and I typically eat what I want. That is until we got to the chapter on indulgers and restrictors. I eat healthfully and exercise regularly, but I do tend to flip flop between the two types of eaters.  I rarely will pass up something sweet or my favorite dip because really, life's too short to not eat at least a bite or two of your favorites.  It's better than binging on it later.  I do however find myself being really selective when choosing what else I'll eat that day or the next to make up for my splurge. Just to make sure I'm not worrying anyone, I never skip meals.  Food fuels my body. I do however, choose what I put into it.

Josh and I have totally changed the food we buy. We've eliminated as many processed foods as possible. We get bread from Great Harvest (only a handful of ingredients and it tastes amazing), our chicken and meat from the Farmer's Market (raised naturally eatting better than we do), we're growing our own veggies and when we buy fruit/veggies from the store they are all organic. We're trying to take in as few pesticides, chemicals and hormones as possible.  I'm even looking at the labels when selecting condiments to avoid high fructose corn syrup. Of course we still go out to eat occasionally so we can't control what's in their food.

You'd think this would be making me feel great, but I have been struggling with my own body image lately. Between not running, traveling for work (a recipe for over indulgence) and all sorts of social events going on, I feel like my body is going soft.  Full disclosure, at the height of marathon training I weighed 126-128 lbs.  I was eating a ton (1800 calories-3800 (on long run days)) and was feeling great.  Now I'm 130-134 depending on the day. This is not a huge difference, but to me it is.  My clothes still fit but feel more snug. My once almost visable abs are fading and the light of day I saw in between my thighs is all but gone. I'd love to say it's muscle but ha, who am I kidding.  I've been trying to look in the mirror and tell myself something positive every day, but I'm still feeling heavy and disappointed in my lack of willpower.  I wish I was one of those naturally thin people, but I'm not. I have to work really hard to stay in shape.

I'm nearing the end of the book and the beginning of training again. Hopefully I can get my head on straight and stop being my own worst critic.

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 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.

A Whole New Attitude

Yesterday I woke up with an entirely new attitude. I finally started calming the demons in my head. I asked myself a few questions:

1. Why do you want to register for the Colfax Marathon? Because your race was cut short, because you feel like people will see you as a failure for not doing it or because you want to?

Answer: Because my race was cut short and I feel like people will think I’m a failure for not doing. Is that the right attitude to go into a race with? I think not. It’s not even healthy. I’m pretty sure that no one thinks I’m a failure (at least I hope not).

2. How does your body really feel?

Answer: Tired. I’m not sore from Saturday anymore, in fact the soreness was gone by Tuesday night. My calf however is still screaming. During a practice booth setup session yesterday I could feel my muscle pulling every time I stepped on and off the step stool. It’s not an oh the muscle is tight, it’s an owe my muscle is tearing sensation. Also not good going into a race.

I knew the answers to these questions all along, but it was hard fighting the nagging voices of self doubt in my head. My decision is not to run Colfax because I don’t really want to and my leg hurts. Is it worth tearing my calf muscle which would endanger all of my future races for? No way! Plus you know what, I may have had an act of God ruin my marathon but I still raised more than $4500 (nearly $10,000 in the past 12 months) for cancer patient. That makes me a winner regardless of race status!  Cheesey moment of self esteem boosting positive reassurances done.

Of course I cannot go without some sort of challenge or activity in the mean time while my legs heals.

Enter the Bikram yoga challenge. A local Bikram studio just a few miles from my house has a pretty awesome deal for newbies. For $65 I can get a month of unlimited classes, a yoga mat and a water bottle. This is a great deal considering monthly memberships start at like $100…ouch. During this month, I’ll be challenged to do as many classes as possible. If I can do 15 or more I’ll get a discount on my future months membership. As it happens Saturday is the first of May (aka May Day for you silly Coloradoans that haven't heard of it). No better day to get started on a new challenge than the first day of the month. It’s also the only month this summer that I don’t really have anything going on so that just works out perfectly.

Also in the mix is going to be a boot camp class offered at the Longmont Rec. Center. It’s M/W/F in the evenings. So I’m thinking that once my calf feels good, not right now, that I’ll start adding those classes to the yoga. I’ll be getting full body workouts doing both classes. I’m really excited to get started!

I think this break is just what I needed. I get to try out new exercises and really listen to what my body wants. It may also be the jolt my system needs to move past my fitness plateau, not to mention awesome cross-training for running. This being said, I am not abandoning running. I’ll add runs in there here and there to keep my running fitness as well. Again not until the calf feels better.

Anyone want to join me for some hot yoga?