I am now officially one month post marathon. Ask me how far I've ran in the past month. Go ahead, ask. Well I'll tell you. It's been a whopping 3 miles. 3. It sounds so sad. I promise I do have a good excuse. No, I'm not just lazy.
Toward the end of my training, as my mileage was ramping up, I began having pain in my feet. As I usually do with pain, I ignored it. Especially since the marathon was approaching. Nothing would set me back from that. Well, during the marathon, the pain really started getting to me around mile 18. I ended up taking some ibuprofen when I saw my family at mile 20. It was a deep aching pain that really was incessant no matter what I did. It even hurt during my walking breaks.
During training it would subside after a long run. Well, that wasn't the case post-marathon. The pain did not subside. It pretty much stayed the same and hurts A LOT in the mornings when I get out of bed. I went for that 3-mile run and regretted it. My feet weren't too happy with me. Since then, I've been resting and pondering what could possibly be wrong. I thought maybe I had a stress fracture in each foot. I Googled it. I had all of the symptoms. Cool, I was staring down 6-8 weeks in a walking boot.
Now, instead of actually going to the doctor, I (again) swore off high heels and wore Puma tennis shoes to work, with my work clothes. Sexy. Of course that didn't really help much. Just made day to day life a bit easier. So, I finally made an appointment with the podiatrist who happens to be in the same clinic as my primary care physician.
Yesterday morning I went to see Dr. Shea. First he asked me why I would run 26.2 miles. I told him it was fun. He then asked me about my symptoms and then asked if we were going to have to amputate. Hah, funny doc. I didn't really know how to respond to that. It seems like it would have been funnier if directed to an 8-year-old. Oh well, he was at least good-natured. He moved my ankle around, pushed his thumbs in the areas I told him hurt, and all around poked and prodded my feet.
The diagnosis? Tibialis tendonitis. Turns out my calf muscles are too tight to allow the tendons attaching them to my foot bones to function properly. Thus, the tendons are mad and inflamed, causing all of the pain in my feet. Well, we have a diagnosis. Now what do I do about it?
Step 1: Stretch my calves 3-4 times a day for 4-6 minutes each time. Not sure how well that'll go over at work. We'll see. Step 2: Take prescribed anti-inflammatory medicine. I just picked it up at Target. Can I just say that I really love $4 generics? Step 3: Get orthotic inserts for my running shoes. Good thing my favorite running store gives me a 20% discount just for being on their mailing list. Easiest discount I've ever gotten. Step 4: Wear a heeled shoe to work. Done. No argument from me! Step 5: Take it easy and just walk for exercise for now. In a couple weeks, slowly start adding in running. As long as the pain isn't getting worse, I'm OK.
As you can imagine, I'm quite pleased to not have a stress fracture and to not have to wear a boot on each foot. That would have been funny. I'm not pleased that tendonitis can take a while to heal since every-day activity aggravates it. But, I am very, very happy that I can get out and be active during the process. Bam! Now if only I would have signed up for the Monster Dash half marathon that was last weekend. I'm somewhat regretting that decision. Maybe there's a Thanksgiving 5K in Sioux Falls I could do... I'm addicted.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Marilyn vs. Twiggy
I’ve recently been thinking about the issue of weight and what we perceive to be healthy. I've always been active so I've never really had to think about it before. Now that I've toned down the running for the time being, I started thinking more about it as I saw a pound or two come back that had consequently fallen off during marathon training. What I’ve realized is that we, as American women, are pulled so far in each direction that it’s no wonder that a majority have no idea how to be a healthy woman.
Obesity is considered to be one of the more serious public health issues of this century, and one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide. Yet why do we seem oblivious to the detrimental effects of being overweight or obese? Honestly, I don’t think we’re oblivious. I think we’re in denial.
In the mid 20th century we saw a huge shift in what was considered to be beautiful. Women the size and shape of Marilyn Monroe thrived in the 1950’s. She’s still considered to be one of the most prominent sex symbols of all time. Then the 1960’s rolled around and came Twiggy, one of the world’s first supermodels. Let’s make a comparison of their measurements.
Marilyn:
Height – 5 feet, 5 ½ inches
Weight – 118-140 pounds
Bust – 36 inches
Waist – 23 inches
Hips – 37 inches
Twiggy:
Height – 5 feet, 6 inches
Weight – 110- pounds
Bust – 31 inches
Waist – 23 inches
Hips – 32 inches
Well, I see some similarities. Ms. Monroe and Ms. Twiggy were of similar height and have similar waist sizes. But, look at their bust and hips. What? There’s a 5-inch difference in each of those areas. That’s pretty big. This makes Marilyn a distinct hourglass and Twiggy a ruler. The biggest difference was in their basic shape and we started valuing the ruler over the hourglass.
Now I don’t know why this change happened but, it did and the movement continued to grow. As we moved into the latter part of the century, the prominence of stick thin women grew. It’s still prevalent in the first eleven years of this century.
The effects of this trend are pretty noticeable. Women and young girls started yearning to be like these cover girls. Incidences of eating disorders grew and the female population became discontent with their bodies.
Now, we’re facing pretty terrifying obesity rates and it makes me wonder how this happened. If women want so much to look like today’s models, why is obesity increasing? Well, I think there are countless factors at play but I feel like one of them is that women don't know where to look for help and have come to a point of rebellion. They know that they can’t look like models and so they’ve rebelled. They know that excessive dieting was unsuccessful (and quite frankly, not fun) so they went in the opposite direction. We started teaching our girls to love themselves for who they are and not teach them who they could be. We led our girls down a path of future health problems such as type II diabetes, joint problems and hypertension in the name of promoting self esteem.
The problem I see here is that there is no medium. Women strive for one extreme or the other. They limit calories by day then end up binging by night. They spend hours at the gym for a week, then when they don't immediately resemble a runway model, they don't return for months.
What is a woman to do with no positive healthy role model to look to? Yes, grown women need role models too. All they want is guidance. Someone to show them what to do, to tell them how they should be career women, girlfriends mothers, wives, partners, caretakers, and still feel like Wonder Woman.
What women fail to understand is that it isn’t about the shape and size of the body, it’s about the lifestyle chosen. Women need to learn the motivation behind a healthy lifestyle. Yes, the desire to look good will always be present. We are human after all. But, if women choose a healthy, balanced lifestyle, they will find that they will have a healthy and balanced body. When that balance is realized, I think we’ll finally be able to peg down our role models. We'll start becoming our own role models.
Monday, October 10, 2011
26.2 Completed!
Well, it's been over a week since the marathon and I'm finally getting it together enough to write about it. Within a couple of hours of finishing, I was in a vehicle headed for South Dakota. The week following was a whirlwind of spending time with my new nephew and sister, cooking a ton of food for them, going shopping and eating. Thus, there was not a lot of time for blogging. I mean, who wouldn't want to hang out with this guy? He's all about the Gophers too, just like his aunt. :)
I got a lot of Bryce-a-Roni time and you can see why blogging was set aside for the time being. But, now that I'm home, I'll give you a run down on how the big day went.
Erich's and my parents arrived on Saturday morning. Erich and his family went shopping at the Albertville outlets while my parents and I went shopping for beer-making supplies and wine. We have some pretty good priorities. The only problem was that I didn't want to take part in the included wine tasting due to the marathon being on the next day. Oh well. Next time.
For dinner we met up with much of the Run to Stop MS team at Buca Di Beppo for a pre-race meal. If you're unfamiliar with Buca, it's a chain Italian restaurant that serves huge portions family-style. While I really wanted to pig out, I didn't really want to be extra heavy and miserable for the race the next day. The strategy seemed to work.
Sunday morning I woke at the ripe old time of 6 a.m. Jenna was picking up Erich and I at 6:30 so we could meet our parents at my office by 6:45. The rest of the team also met there and we prepped for the race and took a team photo. I don't have a copy of said photo because it's on my mom's camera and she hasn't gotten it up on Facebook yet. I'll share all of the photos we have once my mom posts them on Facebook. After the photo we walked over to the Metrodome to get ready for the starting gun.
The gun officially went off at 8 a.m. I was in the last corral with Michelle so we didn't cross the start line until well after that. But, by 8:10, we were off. Right away it was obvious this race would be different from any other I'd ever done. Not only would it be considerably longer but there was an intense energy surrounding the whole event. From the moment we left, there were complete strangers cheering on every runner. Many people held signs for their family and friends and all of them clapped and yelled as we went by. This was true for the entire race. 26.2 miles of spectator-lined streets. The energy also came from starting a race in downtown. Running through towering buildings and stopping traffic (while they all honked for us) was empowering. Too bad we were out of downtown by mile one. But, the fun was just beginning.
We made our way into Uptown Minneapolis via Lake of the Isles and around Lake Calhoun. Our path took us by the exact spot where Michelle's car was broken into, as well as the lakes where I completed many training runs. After missing my family at mile 3 (they got held up, we ran too fast and were gone before they could meet us) we zipped around Lake Harriet and met up with them at mile 7. By this point I was quite warm and had to shed the gloves I was wearing along with the free arm warmers I received from the marathon. Thankfully I saw them at mile 7 and was able to toss them off at that point.
On the south end of Lake Harriet, we turned and meandered onto Minnehaha Parkway. During this segment I saw my family once, a couple of great Bike MS volunteers and participants and two good friends from high school, who were there to watch another friend from high school attempt to qualify for Boston. She did by the way. Go Hannah! I lost Michelle around mile 11. She was going too fast for my liking so I let her go on ahead. I faced the last 15 miles alone. At this point I realized how great it was to see friendly faces along the course. Don't get me wrong, it feels pretty good to have complete strangers cheering for you, but nothing beats having someone call out your name and yell.
We hit the halfway point on the north/northeast side of Lake Nokomis, before continuing on Minnehaha Parkway to Minnehaha Park. After arriving in the park I was again in familiar territory. This area was where I started many training runs and where Michelle and I started and completed our first run together when we ran 13 miles. I arrived at mile 16 just north of the park and started scanning the street ahead for the MS Cheer Zone. About the time I spotted it I heard my name called out and my coworker, Anna, snapped this photo:
It's not a great picture because I stole it from Anna's Facebook page. But, it does a good job of summing up how I felt about seeing people I know on the route. I was pretty happy. Notice the people behind me who were beginning to take a walking break at this time. Other than going through the water/Powerade stations, I hadn't walked yet. I saw co-workers and volunteers waving signs and ringing cowbells. I saw some volunteers who are very near and dear to me and some of whom I was running for. That was a lovely boost to have when looking at 10 more miles to go. shortly thereafter I saw the family again, this time with the addition of Jenna's brother and his beagle, Fila. I took in some energy and a half a banana in hopes I'd get through to mile 20.
Well, that's about as far as I got before the pain really set in. Ouch. At mile 20 it starts getting rough in any marathon (or so I hear) but this is where the Twin Cities Marathon takes an uphill turn. Yep, as if having to struggle through the last 6 miles isn't hard enough, we had to go uphill. That's the point where if you're not careful, you start to cramp. And, I did a little. I found that an incline really made my calves get tight, so I eased up and walked partway up the hills. I traded off between walking and running during the 2-mile incline. I ran until my calves started feeling tight, then walked a bit. I followed this method for a good amount of the next 4 miles then tried to run even more for the last 2.
Summit Avenue encompasses that killer uphill as well as most of the remainder of the race. Summit has some of the most incredible houses in the area. They're all historic and beautiful. Summit Avenue is home to the governor's mansion as well as the James J. Hill house, which is the house of a railroad tycoon from the 1800's. It's huge, see!
It also marks about a 1/2 mile left in the race. By the time I passed the James J. Hill house I'd made a friend. He was running for the World Vision team and gave a huge proclamation at mile 25 that we only had 1 mile left. In reality it was 1.2 but I tended to forget about the .2 at the end. Thus began our mile-long friendship. We ran and walked a little through the last 1.2 miles, and cheered each other on to the end. We picked up another guy at about 25.5 and the three of us ran into the finish line. It was all downhill from there and was AWESOME. There are people literally everywhere. They are thick on the streets and surrounding the finish area. Everyone is cheering, there is music playing, and as you cross the finish line, an announcer calls out your name.
Immediately after finishing, volunteers are there placing medals around everyone's necks, then you're funneled into an area with food, food, glorious food. I hadn't realized it but I was starving. Turns out 5 hours of Powerade and Clif Shot Blocks aren't really enough to keep you full. There was so much to snack on, I couldn't carry it all. The two things that tasted the best were the Pearson's Salted Nut Roll and an ice cold chocolate milk. Now I know why all of our Bike MS participants freak out about the Salted Nut Rolls after a long ride.
I grabbed my shirt and made my way to my family who was waiting at the MS Society's meeting tent. After sitting for a while and getting off my feet for the first time in almost 6 hours, I decided to take a trip to the bathroom. Out of toilet paper! Now, I understand that there are 11,000 people competing plus spectators but let's make sure the bathrooms are stocked full of TP okay? I plan events too. We literally drive around restocking the porta potties, or we assign volunteers to it. It's not that hard folks. Now, that was really my only complaint about the event logistics.
After my less-than-successful trip to the porta potty, we headed home. Erich had to get to work and my parents and I had to head to Sioux Falls. My overall time was 5:12: 36. Not really great, but I finished. Michelle ended up slowing down quite a bit too and finishing in around 5:06. We did it!
I realized that I may have started out a little too fast in the beginning. This may have contributed to my demise around mile 20. Because I know where I can tweak things and make it better, I think I might have to do another in the future. Now, I'm not sure when it will be, but I'm about 90% certain it will happen again. I know I can do much better than that.
For now, I'm enjoying being able to just say no to going for a run if I don't feel like it. I do like that I can just run when I want and not have to worry about mileage and time. For now, I'm going to enjoy that. Until I take on my next adventure.
Thanks to all of you who supported me though words of encouragement, donations, and coming out on race day. You know who you are and how much that meant to me. It's great to know I have a full network of support behind me, no matter what crazy shenanegans in which I decide to partake.
I got a lot of Bryce-a-Roni time and you can see why blogging was set aside for the time being. But, now that I'm home, I'll give you a run down on how the big day went.
Erich's and my parents arrived on Saturday morning. Erich and his family went shopping at the Albertville outlets while my parents and I went shopping for beer-making supplies and wine. We have some pretty good priorities. The only problem was that I didn't want to take part in the included wine tasting due to the marathon being on the next day. Oh well. Next time.
For dinner we met up with much of the Run to Stop MS team at Buca Di Beppo for a pre-race meal. If you're unfamiliar with Buca, it's a chain Italian restaurant that serves huge portions family-style. While I really wanted to pig out, I didn't really want to be extra heavy and miserable for the race the next day. The strategy seemed to work.
Sunday morning I woke at the ripe old time of 6 a.m. Jenna was picking up Erich and I at 6:30 so we could meet our parents at my office by 6:45. The rest of the team also met there and we prepped for the race and took a team photo. I don't have a copy of said photo because it's on my mom's camera and she hasn't gotten it up on Facebook yet. I'll share all of the photos we have once my mom posts them on Facebook. After the photo we walked over to the Metrodome to get ready for the starting gun.
The gun officially went off at 8 a.m. I was in the last corral with Michelle so we didn't cross the start line until well after that. But, by 8:10, we were off. Right away it was obvious this race would be different from any other I'd ever done. Not only would it be considerably longer but there was an intense energy surrounding the whole event. From the moment we left, there were complete strangers cheering on every runner. Many people held signs for their family and friends and all of them clapped and yelled as we went by. This was true for the entire race. 26.2 miles of spectator-lined streets. The energy also came from starting a race in downtown. Running through towering buildings and stopping traffic (while they all honked for us) was empowering. Too bad we were out of downtown by mile one. But, the fun was just beginning.
We made our way into Uptown Minneapolis via Lake of the Isles and around Lake Calhoun. Our path took us by the exact spot where Michelle's car was broken into, as well as the lakes where I completed many training runs. After missing my family at mile 3 (they got held up, we ran too fast and were gone before they could meet us) we zipped around Lake Harriet and met up with them at mile 7. By this point I was quite warm and had to shed the gloves I was wearing along with the free arm warmers I received from the marathon. Thankfully I saw them at mile 7 and was able to toss them off at that point.
On the south end of Lake Harriet, we turned and meandered onto Minnehaha Parkway. During this segment I saw my family once, a couple of great Bike MS volunteers and participants and two good friends from high school, who were there to watch another friend from high school attempt to qualify for Boston. She did by the way. Go Hannah! I lost Michelle around mile 11. She was going too fast for my liking so I let her go on ahead. I faced the last 15 miles alone. At this point I realized how great it was to see friendly faces along the course. Don't get me wrong, it feels pretty good to have complete strangers cheering for you, but nothing beats having someone call out your name and yell.
We hit the halfway point on the north/northeast side of Lake Nokomis, before continuing on Minnehaha Parkway to Minnehaha Park. After arriving in the park I was again in familiar territory. This area was where I started many training runs and where Michelle and I started and completed our first run together when we ran 13 miles. I arrived at mile 16 just north of the park and started scanning the street ahead for the MS Cheer Zone. About the time I spotted it I heard my name called out and my coworker, Anna, snapped this photo:
It's not a great picture because I stole it from Anna's Facebook page. But, it does a good job of summing up how I felt about seeing people I know on the route. I was pretty happy. Notice the people behind me who were beginning to take a walking break at this time. Other than going through the water/Powerade stations, I hadn't walked yet. I saw co-workers and volunteers waving signs and ringing cowbells. I saw some volunteers who are very near and dear to me and some of whom I was running for. That was a lovely boost to have when looking at 10 more miles to go. shortly thereafter I saw the family again, this time with the addition of Jenna's brother and his beagle, Fila. I took in some energy and a half a banana in hopes I'd get through to mile 20.
Well, that's about as far as I got before the pain really set in. Ouch. At mile 20 it starts getting rough in any marathon (or so I hear) but this is where the Twin Cities Marathon takes an uphill turn. Yep, as if having to struggle through the last 6 miles isn't hard enough, we had to go uphill. That's the point where if you're not careful, you start to cramp. And, I did a little. I found that an incline really made my calves get tight, so I eased up and walked partway up the hills. I traded off between walking and running during the 2-mile incline. I ran until my calves started feeling tight, then walked a bit. I followed this method for a good amount of the next 4 miles then tried to run even more for the last 2.
Summit Avenue encompasses that killer uphill as well as most of the remainder of the race. Summit has some of the most incredible houses in the area. They're all historic and beautiful. Summit Avenue is home to the governor's mansion as well as the James J. Hill house, which is the house of a railroad tycoon from the 1800's. It's huge, see!
It also marks about a 1/2 mile left in the race. By the time I passed the James J. Hill house I'd made a friend. He was running for the World Vision team and gave a huge proclamation at mile 25 that we only had 1 mile left. In reality it was 1.2 but I tended to forget about the .2 at the end. Thus began our mile-long friendship. We ran and walked a little through the last 1.2 miles, and cheered each other on to the end. We picked up another guy at about 25.5 and the three of us ran into the finish line. It was all downhill from there and was AWESOME. There are people literally everywhere. They are thick on the streets and surrounding the finish area. Everyone is cheering, there is music playing, and as you cross the finish line, an announcer calls out your name.
Immediately after finishing, volunteers are there placing medals around everyone's necks, then you're funneled into an area with food, food, glorious food. I hadn't realized it but I was starving. Turns out 5 hours of Powerade and Clif Shot Blocks aren't really enough to keep you full. There was so much to snack on, I couldn't carry it all. The two things that tasted the best were the Pearson's Salted Nut Roll and an ice cold chocolate milk. Now I know why all of our Bike MS participants freak out about the Salted Nut Rolls after a long ride.
I grabbed my shirt and made my way to my family who was waiting at the MS Society's meeting tent. After sitting for a while and getting off my feet for the first time in almost 6 hours, I decided to take a trip to the bathroom. Out of toilet paper! Now, I understand that there are 11,000 people competing plus spectators but let's make sure the bathrooms are stocked full of TP okay? I plan events too. We literally drive around restocking the porta potties, or we assign volunteers to it. It's not that hard folks. Now, that was really my only complaint about the event logistics.
After my less-than-successful trip to the porta potty, we headed home. Erich had to get to work and my parents and I had to head to Sioux Falls. My overall time was 5:12: 36. Not really great, but I finished. Michelle ended up slowing down quite a bit too and finishing in around 5:06. We did it!
I realized that I may have started out a little too fast in the beginning. This may have contributed to my demise around mile 20. Because I know where I can tweak things and make it better, I think I might have to do another in the future. Now, I'm not sure when it will be, but I'm about 90% certain it will happen again. I know I can do much better than that.
For now, I'm enjoying being able to just say no to going for a run if I don't feel like it. I do like that I can just run when I want and not have to worry about mileage and time. For now, I'm going to enjoy that. Until I take on my next adventure.
Thanks to all of you who supported me though words of encouragement, donations, and coming out on race day. You know who you are and how much that meant to me. It's great to know I have a full network of support behind me, no matter what crazy shenanegans in which I decide to partake.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Change of Pace
The marathon is less than a week away. Just as I wrote that I got a little nervous and a butterfly flitted across my midsection. A week? What happened? I was so busy with my work schedule in the past few weeks, and was so wishing our event season would be done, I didn't really think about the proximity of the marathon. I also didn't think about the fact that once the event season would be over, the marathon would be here. Now, here it is. The week prior.
I will say, that the past couple of weeks have been great in terms of marathon training. First, it's been nice and cool. After a hot summer, the cool temperatures are a nice change of pace. It also makes running much easier. Secondly, the mileage is better! Hah, I'm really loving the taper. It takes much less time to go for a run when it's only 3 to 6 miles.
Last week I went on a 3-mile run in my neighborhood. It was a route I pretty much always take for 3-milers. Usually I take it pretty easy since it's completely on concrete, unless I run in people's yards. Even the roads are concrete. But, occasionally I ramp it up and try to see how quickly I can do it. Well, last week I finished the 3.03-mile route in 00:26:18. Bam! That means my 5K time would probably be under 26 minutes 30 seconds, again, Bam! I felt so good about it that I think my goal after the marathon is to bring my 5K time down to around 25 minutes. It's going to be spectacular. We'll see if it happens over the winter. Sometimes it's hard to do significant running in the winter months. I'm hoping I can get some good outdoor running in over the winter. The treadmill might be the death of me now that I've been running outdoors exclusively for the past five or six months. If I make my 5K goal, I'm going to start working on reducing my 10K time. I'm pretty excited to move on to something new.
In other news, my friends and family have been incredibly supportive through the whole process including financially. My supporters have contributed over $1,100 dollars toward my fundraising! That is phenomenal and I'm so appreciative of all of those contributions. If you're reading this and you've made a donation, Thank you. Your support means a lot. You'll be receiving an official thank-you after the marathon.
For now, I'm going to start making some spaghetti for dinner. To be honest, I made the sauce a while ago and just pulled it out of the freezer today. Carbo loading begins now! :)
I will say, that the past couple of weeks have been great in terms of marathon training. First, it's been nice and cool. After a hot summer, the cool temperatures are a nice change of pace. It also makes running much easier. Secondly, the mileage is better! Hah, I'm really loving the taper. It takes much less time to go for a run when it's only 3 to 6 miles.
Last week I went on a 3-mile run in my neighborhood. It was a route I pretty much always take for 3-milers. Usually I take it pretty easy since it's completely on concrete, unless I run in people's yards. Even the roads are concrete. But, occasionally I ramp it up and try to see how quickly I can do it. Well, last week I finished the 3.03-mile route in 00:26:18. Bam! That means my 5K time would probably be under 26 minutes 30 seconds, again, Bam! I felt so good about it that I think my goal after the marathon is to bring my 5K time down to around 25 minutes. It's going to be spectacular. We'll see if it happens over the winter. Sometimes it's hard to do significant running in the winter months. I'm hoping I can get some good outdoor running in over the winter. The treadmill might be the death of me now that I've been running outdoors exclusively for the past five or six months. If I make my 5K goal, I'm going to start working on reducing my 10K time. I'm pretty excited to move on to something new.
In other news, my friends and family have been incredibly supportive through the whole process including financially. My supporters have contributed over $1,100 dollars toward my fundraising! That is phenomenal and I'm so appreciative of all of those contributions. If you're reading this and you've made a donation, Thank you. Your support means a lot. You'll be receiving an official thank-you after the marathon.
For now, I'm going to start making some spaghetti for dinner. To be honest, I made the sauce a while ago and just pulled it out of the freezer today. Carbo loading begins now! :)
Monday, September 19, 2011
20 miles, F-yeah!
Disclaimer: I'm about to swear. If you're easily offended by four-letter words, skip a sentence or two. I just ran 20 miles. Fuck yes! By "just" I mean yesterday afternoon. I'm just now getting up the gumption to write about it. My body still hurts but I actually have enough energy to type more than a Facebook update.
I got up yesterday and it was raining. It cleared up around 1. I left my house around 1:45. It had started raining again. It was one of those light drizzle/misty kinds of rain. I thought I would tough it out and head for the lakes. I got to Calhoun, parked and started out. I was a little chilly to start. I couldn't even see across the lake. But, a couple miles in I was feeling pretty good. By mile 10 the rain had subsided. I couldn't tell if I was soaked with rain or sweat. Around 15 miles I was still feeling pretty good. Mile 17 brought some soreness to my outer quads. I pushed through it and finished up the last couple of miles. I was pretty excited considering I did it in a faster time than I did 18. Looking back, I think I was having a bad day when I did 18. When I got back to my car, I actually did a fist pump. I'm not talking a big fist pump in the air, but more of a Tiger Woods-style fist pump. Eeeks, I just compared myself to Tiger Woods. I think I need to take a shower...As you can tell, I was stoked about how well this run went.
In May, my friend, Pete suggested the Jeff Galloway method for running marathons. I have been pretty skeptical because it doesn't seem like as much of an accomplishment to walk a bunch in the Marathon. But, Hal Higdon who wrote my training plan, mentioned that he ran a 2:29 marathon and walked through all of the water/aid stations. Now don't get me wrong, I will not be running a 2:29 marathon or anything close to it. But, after these 20 miles, I'm pretty sure I'll be following Mr. Higdon's lead. Here's why:
1. I've started using Clif Shot Blocks instead of GU. This is partially because of an attempt to eradicate my tummy troubles and partially because they're much more palatable. More like eating a large fruit snack. The downside is that it's practically impossible for me to eat them while running. I'd suffocate. It takes me about 1.5 minutes to eat the three I take in at a time. On Sunday, that seemed like the perfect amount of time to get the blocks down as well as have a quick little rest.
2. The idea of running the marathon in 13, 2-mile segments seems much more feasible than 26 miles. I figure I can just get from aid station to aid station and be good.
3. Considering I don't run at any sort of incredible speed, walking won't slow me down much either.
4. I only walked 4 times during my run. I had planned to take some Shot Blocks every 4 miles so there you go, I didn't even walk that much. One of those stops was to go to the bathroom so there was some time lost there and another stop included me mixing some Gatorade for my fuel belt. That will shave off some time too.
Now, I'm not taking the full Galloway approach. I'm still not a full fan but I do appreciate the quick breaks to eat and get a drink so I don't choke. I'm pretty happy to have this 20-mile run out of the way. I've been staring it down since May and had to put it off last week due to our Mud Run. I'd post pictures of the event, but my good computer is on the fritz and is currently being serviced by the Geek Squad. I can't get the pictures from my camera to the computer.
My next long run is an 8-mile run. PIECE OF CAKE! In the meantime, have a few shorter runs to do. Awesome. I've found a great new route and wish I would have come up with it sooner. Erich takes the train to my office from his, picks up the car, and I run home. It's about 3.5 miles so it's a nice quick run. Plus I get to run across the bridge where he proposed almost 3 years ago.
I'm hoping my soreness gets better tomorrow. We're loading trucks for the Marathon, plus I'm supposed to have a short run. We'll see how that goes. I'm getting pretty stoked for this race now. Partially because I want to run it, and partially because I get to go back to South Dakota for a full week following it. I'm going to visit my new little nephew and help my sister get ready to go back to work. I can't wait!
I got up yesterday and it was raining. It cleared up around 1. I left my house around 1:45. It had started raining again. It was one of those light drizzle/misty kinds of rain. I thought I would tough it out and head for the lakes. I got to Calhoun, parked and started out. I was a little chilly to start. I couldn't even see across the lake. But, a couple miles in I was feeling pretty good. By mile 10 the rain had subsided. I couldn't tell if I was soaked with rain or sweat. Around 15 miles I was still feeling pretty good. Mile 17 brought some soreness to my outer quads. I pushed through it and finished up the last couple of miles. I was pretty excited considering I did it in a faster time than I did 18. Looking back, I think I was having a bad day when I did 18. When I got back to my car, I actually did a fist pump. I'm not talking a big fist pump in the air, but more of a Tiger Woods-style fist pump. Eeeks, I just compared myself to Tiger Woods. I think I need to take a shower...As you can tell, I was stoked about how well this run went.
In May, my friend, Pete suggested the Jeff Galloway method for running marathons. I have been pretty skeptical because it doesn't seem like as much of an accomplishment to walk a bunch in the Marathon. But, Hal Higdon who wrote my training plan, mentioned that he ran a 2:29 marathon and walked through all of the water/aid stations. Now don't get me wrong, I will not be running a 2:29 marathon or anything close to it. But, after these 20 miles, I'm pretty sure I'll be following Mr. Higdon's lead. Here's why:
1. I've started using Clif Shot Blocks instead of GU. This is partially because of an attempt to eradicate my tummy troubles and partially because they're much more palatable. More like eating a large fruit snack. The downside is that it's practically impossible for me to eat them while running. I'd suffocate. It takes me about 1.5 minutes to eat the three I take in at a time. On Sunday, that seemed like the perfect amount of time to get the blocks down as well as have a quick little rest.
2. The idea of running the marathon in 13, 2-mile segments seems much more feasible than 26 miles. I figure I can just get from aid station to aid station and be good.
3. Considering I don't run at any sort of incredible speed, walking won't slow me down much either.
4. I only walked 4 times during my run. I had planned to take some Shot Blocks every 4 miles so there you go, I didn't even walk that much. One of those stops was to go to the bathroom so there was some time lost there and another stop included me mixing some Gatorade for my fuel belt. That will shave off some time too.
Now, I'm not taking the full Galloway approach. I'm still not a full fan but I do appreciate the quick breaks to eat and get a drink so I don't choke. I'm pretty happy to have this 20-mile run out of the way. I've been staring it down since May and had to put it off last week due to our Mud Run. I'd post pictures of the event, but my good computer is on the fritz and is currently being serviced by the Geek Squad. I can't get the pictures from my camera to the computer.
My next long run is an 8-mile run. PIECE OF CAKE! In the meantime, have a few shorter runs to do. Awesome. I've found a great new route and wish I would have come up with it sooner. Erich takes the train to my office from his, picks up the car, and I run home. It's about 3.5 miles so it's a nice quick run. Plus I get to run across the bridge where he proposed almost 3 years ago.
I'm hoping my soreness gets better tomorrow. We're loading trucks for the Marathon, plus I'm supposed to have a short run. We'll see how that goes. I'm getting pretty stoked for this race now. Partially because I want to run it, and partially because I get to go back to South Dakota for a full week following it. I'm going to visit my new little nephew and help my sister get ready to go back to work. I can't wait!
Friday, August 26, 2011
Coming Clean, sort of
I have a confession to make. I've been slacking terribly at my running. This is hardly the time to slack too. I'm looking at just over a month out of the marathon. Tomorrow is an 18-mile run and I'm so scared because of how little training I've done lately. I do have some excuses for why I've been such a loser but really, it's my fault.
Now, this is a blog about running, so I should be writing about the real aspects of running, correct? The good and the bad? Well, this definitely falls in the category of bad. I encourage you to skip ahead to my part about Sioux Falls if you are uncomfortable reading about bodily functions.
Last Monday, Michelle and I went out for a 16-mile run. We went after work. Mistake. I don't think I will ever, ever run that far after work. It was no fun at all. That wasn't the worst of it. Lately on my longer runs I've been having some serious GI issues, and Monday was no different. Apparently this happens to Michelle too. What a pair we are. We hit the mile 14-15 point and it all started going downhill. Stomach cramps and a very uncomfortable urge to find the nearest bathroom...fast. Luckily, we both made it through and made it home but it's been a close call on a couple of runs for us. My issues were so bad, I called in sick to work on Tuesday morning. Ugh.
This got me a little worried because if I can barely get through 16 miles, what the hell is going to happen when I have to add 10 more to that? I can't be stopping at every mile just to use the john. I'll get picked up by the sweep truck for sure! It's been very distressing to say the least.
So, I did what any 21st century athlete with a problem does. I Googled it. Typing "running" and "diarrhea" into Google was kind of scary because I wasn't sure what would come up, but it was very very helpful. Mostly it was helpful because I found that my problems have a name. Runner's Trots. That just sounds like it's going to be something terrible. So, with Google I began my research. Turns out this is a fairly common problem with runners and there is a lot of information on the web about it. This probably has to do with the fact that up to 50% of runners, or extreme exercisers have this problem. Good, I'm not even close to being alone. I'm not weird. Whew. That's good. So, I've found ways to combat it. Namely, staying hydrated.
I've been very afraid to do any long runs lately because of this phenomenon. Well, armed with my new info and a box of Immodium, I'm going to tackle this week's long run...18 miles. I'm scared to death because that is sooooo far! 18 miles?! What? 16 didn't sound so bad but 18 sounds like forever. It's going to take almost 4 hours to complete, when we include driving time to drop our cars at the start and finish of the route.
So, besides the runner's trots, I've had some other excuses. Lame ones too. I've really gotta get myself past these hurdles. It's not helping me out in any way to be lazy and to find excuses to not run.
I spent a few days in Sioux Falls last weekend. Now, I'm not really fond of running in Sioux Falls right now. The only good place to run, the bike trails, are under some massive construction, especially on the side of town where my parent's live. Terrible excuse I know. But, part of my time in Sioux Falls was for work. There's an MS Society chapter office there and I had to conduct a training. I had spent a lot of time prepping for this training and was massively stressed out and tired. I also was planning a baby shower. I was just plain tired. Running did not sound good. So of course I wimped out of going for runs and completely ran out of time to go for a run I'd scheduled with a friend. Hmph.
That brings me to the next lame excuse. This summer is really wearing on me. Now, summers are always busy for me and I knew that going into this training. I figured I could do it. I will not lie. It's been very hard. Working extra hours and being on events has not helped me at all. I'm completely zapped of energy by the end of the day and there's no possible way I can get out of bed early enough to run as far as I need to. I've just felt so blah.
Lastly, as these runs have gotten longer in mileage, they have also gotten longer in time. What used to be a quick 30-60 minute run after work is now an hour to two hours. Suddenly, my evening and my time home is gone. It feels like I'm never really relaxing. I get up, go to work, go for a run, then go to bed. I repeat that 3 days of the week. Then one day on the weekend I have to block off nearly 4 hours for a long run. Maybe the key here is that I just need to run faster. I guess there's a thought.
But, I'm really going to need to turn it around. 18 miles tomorrow. Whitney, get your shit together. I figure even if I have to stop a bit, I must, must, must get out there and get in the mileage. I plan to meet Michelle at 8 a.m. tomorrow. While I'm very scared, writing this entry has made me feel a little better about it. On that note, I just realized that I'm short on GU gel so I should get going to the sporting goods store to get some.
I'll be sure to provide a full report post 18 miles.
Now, this is a blog about running, so I should be writing about the real aspects of running, correct? The good and the bad? Well, this definitely falls in the category of bad. I encourage you to skip ahead to my part about Sioux Falls if you are uncomfortable reading about bodily functions.
Last Monday, Michelle and I went out for a 16-mile run. We went after work. Mistake. I don't think I will ever, ever run that far after work. It was no fun at all. That wasn't the worst of it. Lately on my longer runs I've been having some serious GI issues, and Monday was no different. Apparently this happens to Michelle too. What a pair we are. We hit the mile 14-15 point and it all started going downhill. Stomach cramps and a very uncomfortable urge to find the nearest bathroom...fast. Luckily, we both made it through and made it home but it's been a close call on a couple of runs for us. My issues were so bad, I called in sick to work on Tuesday morning. Ugh.
This got me a little worried because if I can barely get through 16 miles, what the hell is going to happen when I have to add 10 more to that? I can't be stopping at every mile just to use the john. I'll get picked up by the sweep truck for sure! It's been very distressing to say the least.
So, I did what any 21st century athlete with a problem does. I Googled it. Typing "running" and "diarrhea" into Google was kind of scary because I wasn't sure what would come up, but it was very very helpful. Mostly it was helpful because I found that my problems have a name. Runner's Trots. That just sounds like it's going to be something terrible. So, with Google I began my research. Turns out this is a fairly common problem with runners and there is a lot of information on the web about it. This probably has to do with the fact that up to 50% of runners, or extreme exercisers have this problem. Good, I'm not even close to being alone. I'm not weird. Whew. That's good. So, I've found ways to combat it. Namely, staying hydrated.
I've been very afraid to do any long runs lately because of this phenomenon. Well, armed with my new info and a box of Immodium, I'm going to tackle this week's long run...18 miles. I'm scared to death because that is sooooo far! 18 miles?! What? 16 didn't sound so bad but 18 sounds like forever. It's going to take almost 4 hours to complete, when we include driving time to drop our cars at the start and finish of the route.
So, besides the runner's trots, I've had some other excuses. Lame ones too. I've really gotta get myself past these hurdles. It's not helping me out in any way to be lazy and to find excuses to not run.
I spent a few days in Sioux Falls last weekend. Now, I'm not really fond of running in Sioux Falls right now. The only good place to run, the bike trails, are under some massive construction, especially on the side of town where my parent's live. Terrible excuse I know. But, part of my time in Sioux Falls was for work. There's an MS Society chapter office there and I had to conduct a training. I had spent a lot of time prepping for this training and was massively stressed out and tired. I also was planning a baby shower. I was just plain tired. Running did not sound good. So of course I wimped out of going for runs and completely ran out of time to go for a run I'd scheduled with a friend. Hmph.
That brings me to the next lame excuse. This summer is really wearing on me. Now, summers are always busy for me and I knew that going into this training. I figured I could do it. I will not lie. It's been very hard. Working extra hours and being on events has not helped me at all. I'm completely zapped of energy by the end of the day and there's no possible way I can get out of bed early enough to run as far as I need to. I've just felt so blah.
Lastly, as these runs have gotten longer in mileage, they have also gotten longer in time. What used to be a quick 30-60 minute run after work is now an hour to two hours. Suddenly, my evening and my time home is gone. It feels like I'm never really relaxing. I get up, go to work, go for a run, then go to bed. I repeat that 3 days of the week. Then one day on the weekend I have to block off nearly 4 hours for a long run. Maybe the key here is that I just need to run faster. I guess there's a thought.
But, I'm really going to need to turn it around. 18 miles tomorrow. Whitney, get your shit together. I figure even if I have to stop a bit, I must, must, must get out there and get in the mileage. I plan to meet Michelle at 8 a.m. tomorrow. While I'm very scared, writing this entry has made me feel a little better about it. On that note, I just realized that I'm short on GU gel so I should get going to the sporting goods store to get some.
I'll be sure to provide a full report post 18 miles.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Running Misfortunes
To warn you, this may be a bit of a rant post. My runs this week have been HORRIBLE to say the least.
Let's start with Sunday. Michelle and I scheduled a good 15-miler. We met up and neither of us were feeling too excited about the run. Well, we tried to turn our attitudes around and set out. I ended up getting us lost around Lake of the Isles. Not so much lost since it's essentially a loop, but I definitely misguided us. We ended up going around the lake twice because the first time I missed our turn off to head back around Lake Calhoun. I've discovered that it's easy to lose where you are on that lake because of it's shape and how the trails are laid out. I'll be more careful next time. After this we continued on and still felt a little crappy. Michelle has some crazy knee issues that started acting up. There's a screw in one knee that holds a ligament from a cadaver in place. Really cool in a nerdy scientific sort of way. Really not cool in an athletic sort of way. But, I guess that can happen when you play soccer all your life, including D-1 college. So, we ended up calling it quits at mile 8. Michelle's knee hurt and last week I had a terrible shin splint flare up so I didn't want to over do it. I felt a little guilty about this but I think it was for the best.
Tuesday was scheduled to be 4 miles. We decided to do 5 because of our lack of running on Sunday. One mile doesn't really make up for it, but hey, it helps. We set off from our office and ran north along the river, into the "north loop" area, or the warehouse district for those of you familiar with the Minneapolis area. There is a slight problem with this route however and that problem blew up in my face on Tuesday. You see, the "running" path is concrete and meanders into the woods and drops down close to the river, while the biking path is asphalt and stays close to the road. As you can imagine, for the sake of my joints and for the sake of my safety, I run on the bike path. Most runners do. In fact at any given time, you'll see more runners on the bike path than the "running" path. Well, Michelle and I were about a mile into our run when suddenly she veers off into the grass on the left and in about 2 seconds time, I hear a bike come up behind me and someone yelling, "Bike Path!" before taking out my right leg. WHAT THE F**K? Who doesn't give the standard, "On your left" warning AND passes on the right? Moron. So, he hit me then crashed himself. He got up all huffy and blaming me for running on the bike path and not giving a damn about my safety or being injury free. When I told him that the asphalt is better for runner's joints he actually said, "Well crashing on my joints isn't good for me either!" At this point I'm pretty pissed off because I'd asked him 3 times if he was ok, and I apologized. NEVER did he ask me if I was ok, despite the fact that I had tire marks up my right leg. I lost it. I got angry. I threw it down. He's lucky my fist didn't meet his face, but I yelled, "You know what? WE may have been on the biking path but YOU didn't give verbal warning, YOU passed on the right and YOU ran into me. So, this is YOUR fault!" He didn't like that. He just kept saying, "There's a running path over there." So, he went limping away (he scraped his knee, poor baby) and Michelle and I stopped to use the bathroom. He ended up passing us again and giving us some snide remark to which Michelle replied, "There are 50 other runners on this path. Are you going to run them all over?" Heh, nice.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'll admit that I was partially in the wrong for being on the bike path but I was completely out of the way, and following the rules of the paths. I consider the roads to be largely the car's domain, with a few cyclists scattered in and you don't see me plowing down the cyclists just because they're there. And trust me, they are much less courteous than the runners on the bike paths. So, when I got home, my leg looked like this:
Kind of painful. Notice it's not only on the thigh but on the calf as well. It's all scabby now. Looks great. :/ Hurt to sleep because the covers touched it. The good thing about the incident is that it must have sent our adrenaline going because we finished these 5 miles in 50 minutes flat and that included the time we were stopped for me getting hit and for Michelle to go to the bathroom and some time taken to walk because my leg was stinging from the sweat going into the wound. That is speedy for us!
Well, after that drama, we went for a run yesterday. 8 miles were on the docket. We set out to run around the chain of lakes again. This time it would be Calhoun and Harriet. We parked on the west side of Calhoun and took off. After about 1.5 miles, I decided that my shins were still in pretty bad shape. Probably because of the speed we'd done Tuesday. We turned around and walked back. Upon return to the car, we found that someone had broken in and stolen Michelle's purse as well as a baby shower gift (weird). Well, let's just say that Michelle's whole life was in that purse. 3 credit cards, her debit card, ID, social security card, planner (which she was REALLY upset about) and other things. Her ID is still from Ohio because she's in the process of changing everything. So now she's stuck in weird limbo between ID's. Minnesota won't issue one without her Ohio ID unless she wants to take the whole driving test. Ohio will issue her one but she'll either have to go back and do it in person or it will take 60-90 days. So, she has to wait 60-90 days. That's not even close to the worst of it. In the past 24 hours she's found out that her AmEx card had $9,000 charged to it and another card was maxed out. In addition, her checking account got overdrawn by $6,000. HOLY CRAP! She's now meeting with a Minneapolis police sergeant because the amount of money is on a felony level. I hope the F---ers get caught. They were dumb enough to make online purchases so it's possible to trace it through IP's and the shipping address.
In short, Michelle and I are not allowed to run together for a while. We have bad luck. Let's hope that by our 16-miler on Sunday, the luck turns around.
Let's start with Sunday. Michelle and I scheduled a good 15-miler. We met up and neither of us were feeling too excited about the run. Well, we tried to turn our attitudes around and set out. I ended up getting us lost around Lake of the Isles. Not so much lost since it's essentially a loop, but I definitely misguided us. We ended up going around the lake twice because the first time I missed our turn off to head back around Lake Calhoun. I've discovered that it's easy to lose where you are on that lake because of it's shape and how the trails are laid out. I'll be more careful next time. After this we continued on and still felt a little crappy. Michelle has some crazy knee issues that started acting up. There's a screw in one knee that holds a ligament from a cadaver in place. Really cool in a nerdy scientific sort of way. Really not cool in an athletic sort of way. But, I guess that can happen when you play soccer all your life, including D-1 college. So, we ended up calling it quits at mile 8. Michelle's knee hurt and last week I had a terrible shin splint flare up so I didn't want to over do it. I felt a little guilty about this but I think it was for the best.
Tuesday was scheduled to be 4 miles. We decided to do 5 because of our lack of running on Sunday. One mile doesn't really make up for it, but hey, it helps. We set off from our office and ran north along the river, into the "north loop" area, or the warehouse district for those of you familiar with the Minneapolis area. There is a slight problem with this route however and that problem blew up in my face on Tuesday. You see, the "running" path is concrete and meanders into the woods and drops down close to the river, while the biking path is asphalt and stays close to the road. As you can imagine, for the sake of my joints and for the sake of my safety, I run on the bike path. Most runners do. In fact at any given time, you'll see more runners on the bike path than the "running" path. Well, Michelle and I were about a mile into our run when suddenly she veers off into the grass on the left and in about 2 seconds time, I hear a bike come up behind me and someone yelling, "Bike Path!" before taking out my right leg. WHAT THE F**K? Who doesn't give the standard, "On your left" warning AND passes on the right? Moron. So, he hit me then crashed himself. He got up all huffy and blaming me for running on the bike path and not giving a damn about my safety or being injury free. When I told him that the asphalt is better for runner's joints he actually said, "Well crashing on my joints isn't good for me either!" At this point I'm pretty pissed off because I'd asked him 3 times if he was ok, and I apologized. NEVER did he ask me if I was ok, despite the fact that I had tire marks up my right leg. I lost it. I got angry. I threw it down. He's lucky my fist didn't meet his face, but I yelled, "You know what? WE may have been on the biking path but YOU didn't give verbal warning, YOU passed on the right and YOU ran into me. So, this is YOUR fault!" He didn't like that. He just kept saying, "There's a running path over there." So, he went limping away (he scraped his knee, poor baby) and Michelle and I stopped to use the bathroom. He ended up passing us again and giving us some snide remark to which Michelle replied, "There are 50 other runners on this path. Are you going to run them all over?" Heh, nice.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'll admit that I was partially in the wrong for being on the bike path but I was completely out of the way, and following the rules of the paths. I consider the roads to be largely the car's domain, with a few cyclists scattered in and you don't see me plowing down the cyclists just because they're there. And trust me, they are much less courteous than the runners on the bike paths. So, when I got home, my leg looked like this:
Kind of painful. Notice it's not only on the thigh but on the calf as well. It's all scabby now. Looks great. :/ Hurt to sleep because the covers touched it. The good thing about the incident is that it must have sent our adrenaline going because we finished these 5 miles in 50 minutes flat and that included the time we were stopped for me getting hit and for Michelle to go to the bathroom and some time taken to walk because my leg was stinging from the sweat going into the wound. That is speedy for us!
Well, after that drama, we went for a run yesterday. 8 miles were on the docket. We set out to run around the chain of lakes again. This time it would be Calhoun and Harriet. We parked on the west side of Calhoun and took off. After about 1.5 miles, I decided that my shins were still in pretty bad shape. Probably because of the speed we'd done Tuesday. We turned around and walked back. Upon return to the car, we found that someone had broken in and stolen Michelle's purse as well as a baby shower gift (weird). Well, let's just say that Michelle's whole life was in that purse. 3 credit cards, her debit card, ID, social security card, planner (which she was REALLY upset about) and other things. Her ID is still from Ohio because she's in the process of changing everything. So now she's stuck in weird limbo between ID's. Minnesota won't issue one without her Ohio ID unless she wants to take the whole driving test. Ohio will issue her one but she'll either have to go back and do it in person or it will take 60-90 days. So, she has to wait 60-90 days. That's not even close to the worst of it. In the past 24 hours she's found out that her AmEx card had $9,000 charged to it and another card was maxed out. In addition, her checking account got overdrawn by $6,000. HOLY CRAP! She's now meeting with a Minneapolis police sergeant because the amount of money is on a felony level. I hope the F---ers get caught. They were dumb enough to make online purchases so it's possible to trace it through IP's and the shipping address.
In short, Michelle and I are not allowed to run together for a while. We have bad luck. Let's hope that by our 16-miler on Sunday, the luck turns around.
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