Not Awesome Running and Baby Apples

I was going to say that I'm sorry I've been slacking with my posts lately, and tell you all the reasons I haven't gotten around to posting, but mostly I just haven't made the time.

Not being able to run also gave me less to talk about. I'm slowly but surely getting back out on the road, so hopefully I'll be back to my usual random chatter soon.

I have only made it out for a couple of short runs since my second chiropractor visit. We spent the long weekend at the lake house, and I was much too busy relaxing and spending time out on the water.

My running has been slow and not awesome. I don't know how much is lost fitness and how much is the fact that we've been having warm weather lately and I'm not used to it yet.

I'm registered for a half on the 12th, which I was hoping to at least be able to run as a training run even if I couldn't race it, but right now it's looking like it may be a DNS (did not start). Marathon training for Steamtown starts next week and I would rather not do something stupid right at the beginning of a training cycle.

Buddy wiped himself out cleaning out a peanut butter jar yesterday. It's a really rough life.

Our apple trees seem to be happy out in the yard.

We even have baby apples on some of them!

Time to hit the road and see if I can actually make it more than a couple of miles. It's really weird to not just be able to go out and run as much as I want.

The 5 Stages of Injury

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The first step is admitting you're injured.

Ok, maybe it's closer to the last step, like the stages of grief.

Stage 1: Denial

Is that a twinge I feel? No, I'm sure it's fine. It will be fine. I'll just keep on running.

Stage 2: Anger

What the hell? I've been running too well to be injured now!

Stage 3: Bargaining

I'm going to stretch and foam roll, then I'll totally be able to run. And I will ice, and wear compression. And, ok, I'll cut back on my mileage. That will totally work.

Stage 4: Depression

I guess I'm never running again. I'll just eat this giant bowl of ice cream.

Stage 5: Acceptance 

Ok, fine, I'll call the chiropractor.

I've never been to a chiropractor before but both Tom and his mom have had good experiences and thought it would help me out.

I went on Friday and the chiropractor was surprised I wasn't in more pain. He worked on my lower back and hips and did my adjustment, which is a really strange feeling if you haven't had one before. I'm already feeling a lot better, but I was so locked up that I'm going back this week to make sure things keep improving.

I was responsible and just took Buddy for a walk on Friday, and did a little slow jog/walk interval on Saturday.

I took a rest day today, mostly because I really wanted to finish reading Wicked. I never really got into it, but I can't just not finish a book.

Then I started reading The Plum Tree, which I am already way more invested in.

Read any good books lately?

Apples!

So, I think my leg is improving. I want it to magically just be better, but I know that isn't likely to happen.

I switched to the one pair of "support" style shoe that I have (and never ever wear because they're really heavy) for my run today, and it did seem to help a bit. I initially got super frustrated and angry and almost turned around in the first quarter mile, but I made myself keep going and ended up running 3 miles.

They weren't my best 3 miles ever, but they were a major improvement on what I've been able to run lately.

I (re)started doing the Lunge Matrix before my runs this week. I'm also trying to get back to doing the Myrtl routine post-run. I was really good about it for a while last year and I figure a little strength/mobility work can't hurt.

We went to a plant sale over the weekend. Apparently all the crazy plant people were there before we were, because it was pretty picked over by the time we got there. We ended up getting a few tomato plants.

We also got a little apple tree (not at the plant sale though)! It's going to have 3 other apple trees to keep it company pretty soon. If you need any apples, we're going to have more than we can ever use once they start producing fruit.

It's going to be fun to have them grow into our own mini orchard!

Unbalanced

I went and got a massage today. There was a good deal through Groupon the other day and I figured it couldn't hurt what with my random injury. And, really, I'm not one to turn down a massage.

Apparently the right side of my hip was higher than the left, which might be causing some of my issues. Hopefully that means I'll be back out on the road again soon.

I sat down yesterday and sorted out my training plan for Steamtown this fall. I had been debating getting a coach for this training cycle, but decided to see how things go on my own. Mostly because I know myself and my tendency to not listen well when people tell me what to do - even if I'm asking them for their help.

I'm going to use the Hal Higdon Intermediate 2 plan this year. I used Intermediate 1 last year and it worked out really well.

There's nothing more fun than harassing Buddy by taking pictures of him.

Silly dog.

A Really Annoying Mystery

I've been happily living in denial for about the last week. Turns out that's not the best method when it comes to injury prevention.

It's weird though, there is no swelling, no hot spots when I foam roll, nothing that hurts when I'm walking around. But when I run, the first 20-30 steps turn into a ridiculous hobble-run where I have pain from the back of my right heel all the way up to the back of my thigh. If I push through those awkward first steps (because distance runners are like that), I have been able to run a decent amount without pain.

I have been stretching and rolling (foam roller and stick roller) and it mostly feels better...sometimes. I had a perfectly decent 4 miler on Monday and then barely finished a miserable 2 miles today.

The problem is that I don't know what this is. It's not a problem I've had before, and anytime you mention heel pain online all that comes up is plantar fasciitis (which this is not). I'm starting to think that it's something to do with my achilles, but it isn't swollen, tight or painful to the touch.

Mystery.

Really annoying mystery.

I don't have a race until the middle of June, and after that I will be switching over to marathon training, so I would rather take some time off to sort this out now.

In house news: we got the hardwood flooring that is going to be in the master bedroom and the new hallway in the addition. It's currently acclimating to the house so it behaves itself (no buckling!) when it's installed.

We have also been looking at tile for the new bathrooms, but we haven't found anything yet.

Buddy is no help at all, but he sure is cute. I swear he doesn't sleep all day.

Sometimes he stares sadly out the window because Tom is outside without him.

Any idea what my mystery injury might be?

Being Smart and My Race Plan

So, first things first:

We'll see what happens on the 31st and then I'll figure out the plan for the fall.

I have been sticking to my extra stretching and taking it easy and my calf/shin situation seems to be much happier. I had a really good (though pretty slow) run on Thursday. I wore the shoes I wear for speed work and races because I know they don't bother my legs. It was a beautiful day and gave me a little mental boost. 

It was one of those runs that remind you why you run in the first place. It just made me happy!

It also made me feel like I'm not going to DNF at the race tomorrow, so there's that. 

I decided I am not going to worry about pace tomorrow. I'm going to run whatever pace feels good and see what happens. It's a race with a bunch of my friends and the weather is supposed to be great - I just want to enjoy it. Plus, it is too soon after an almost injury to kill myself at this race. I have other races coming up, and aggravating this mild injury could get in the way of the next few. 

See how smart I can be sometimes? 

The key word is sometimes. 

Now I have to find my tin of safety pins, figure out what I'm wearing and what time I need to set my alarm for.

Are you racing this weekend?

Borderline Injured

I have been taking it easy on running the last few days. My run on Monday was supposed to be 4 easy miles, but I started feeling a more painful than should be ignored sensation in my lower leg. I walked a bit and ended up with just under 2.5 miles. 

I spent some time with the foam roller and stick roller and have been living in compression socks since then. Tuesday I took a rest day and did some yoga. 

Adriene (my YouTube yoga friend) just posted a new Runner's Yoga video yesterday, so it was perfect timing. It's so good!

This afternoon I did a short yoga warm up before my run and managed 3 miles. I deliberately went slow and didn't go too far because at this point my goal is to keep things loose so hopefully I will be ready to run on Saturday. I even did a yoga cool down when I got home. 

I'm really nice to my body when I'm borderline injured. It's like when I think I'm getting sick I start eating really well and making sure I drink enough water.

Buddy says hi. Or at least he would if you were here and he wasn't sleeping.

Heavy Legs and Shorts Shopping

I have a special request for the universe: please leave my toes alone, specifically those on my left foot. In the last few days I have dropped the dog gate on one toe and shredded the cuticle, buddy scratched one to the point of bleeding, and I stubbed another on the coffee table. I'm running out of toes, so please, give it a rest.

I did my run on Thursday in my Altras to give my poor toes some extra room. 4 easy treadmill miles.

On Saturday, I planned on doing my long run like I did last week - half with the group, and half after on my own. It was a beautiful morning, clear skies and about 50 degrees. And then when we started running, my legs felt like they weighed a couple hundred pounds apiece. I had to push pretty much the entire run to keep up with the group.

I was feeling a bit better by the end (around 6.5 miles in) and was trying to convince myself to go out for a few extra miles, when one of the guys offered to go back out with me. Up until last year I was pretty much a solo runner, and I never realized how much easier it is to run with people. We did another 4 miles, bringing me up to about 10.5. I was planning on 13, so I didn't quite hit that goal, but considering I wanted to stop after mile 2, I'm happy with 10.5.

The funny thing is that my running buddy had run before meeting up with the group and was heading back out for a few more miles after I went home. When I left he was almost at 17 miles for the day - and he isn't training for anything!

I went on a running shorts shopping expedition in the afternoon. I have a pair of shorts I use for treadmill runs, but they're not something I want to run in outside (they're short and spandex). I have always had problems with looser shorts riding up and driving me insane, but I also know that I won't get through marathon training this summer trying to run in my capris.

After trying on pretty much every single pair of shorts in the store, I picked up a pair of Oiselle Rogas. I'll let you know what I think once I get a chance to test them out.

I'll leave you with some springy pictures from the neighborhood:

The lonely white flower from a couple weeks ago has some company now.

Do you have running shorts that you love?

It was Beautiful

I didn't run with the group on Saturday, partially because I didn't think I would be able to do it, and partially because of this:

I'm not a fan of negative wind chills.

Saturday became a rest day, and we spent a decent amount of time shopping in the afternoon.  Tom was looking for a new coat, and I am on the hunt for some new yoga (pajama) pants. Turns out we're both pretty particular about both of those things. He was successful, I'm still looking.

This morning I geared up for my long run. I stretched. I foam rolled. I used the stick.

I found a knot in my calf (somehow related to the ankle pain?), and it hurt to roll it. I brought the stick down to the treadmill with me and stopped to roll my calf every couple of miles. Other than a bit of tightness (and the pain while I was rolling it out), my 11 miles was pain free.

It was beautiful.

Fingers crossed that I'm past this random injury - I missed running without pain!

We had a snack-a-thon (with beer) for dinner while we watched the Super Bowl. The first course was chips, salsa and guacamole. Round two was a veggie tray, and we finished up with some devil's food doughnut holes.

We planned on having burgers for dinner, but started snacking and quickly realized that we weren't going to be hungry enough for a full meal. Guess we know what's for dinner tomorrow!

Buddy did not care about the outcome of the Super Bowl.

We mostly were torn between which team we disliked more. It was a good game though!

Did you watch the Super Bowl?

Fridays are for Doughnuts

I woke up at 6:50 this morning, for absolutely no reason at all. It was pretty dumb.

Buddy thought so, too.

We got more snow overnight, not much, but enough to cover up the dirty old snow and make the yard look pretty again.

Since I was up anyway, I hit the store early. I may have had an ulterior motive.

The store was nice an empty compared to the pre-"blizzard" shopping the other day, much more peaceful.

I semi-successfully ran this afternoon. I taped my ankle and started out walking for the first mile. The next 3 miles were ridiculously slow, but not terribly painful. Plus, finishing a run, no matter how slow, was really good for my mental health. Cutting a run short is brutal, mentally.

I spent some time with my legs up the wall after my run, and have been icing my ankle.

Come on, recovery!

I'm still trying to figure out what's wrong with my ankle. It's not a running pain that I'm familiar with. I assumed that since it was fine during my long run on Sunday and then it had a few rest days (sick days) that it would be ok, but I was clearly wrong. It does seem to be getting better than it was though, so fingers crossed that it keeps improving!

I'm making Slow Cooker Sesame Garlic Chicken with rice and roasted broccoli for dinner. It smells really good and it's making me hungry.

What's for dinner at your house?

Essential Things and Bruising

After running around all day yesterday, today was a much slower pace.

I had a leisurely morning with my beloved coffee and caught up on all the blogs I didn't get to read yesterday.

I went to the store to buy really essential things like molasses (so I could make gingersnaps) and tortilla chips (because they were on sale). It's impossible for me to go to the store and not buy a bunch of random stuff.

My run today was a nice, easy 2 miles with some bad tv (Vampire Diairies, I'm not proud). My ankle is still hurting a bit, but I might have figured out what is causing it.

When I first started skating in roller derby, I had a lot of bruising on my ankles from my skates for the first few weeks (months?) of practice.

Note the ankle brace above, that was for padding, not stability.

I bruise ridiculously easily. I've been wearing a new pair of waterproof boots a lot more lately to walk Buddy, and I think that's what has been irritating my ankle. So, I am taking a break from the boots and we'll see if the pain stays away. I'm also planning on wearing thicker socks the next time I take those boots out.

And since I have nothing else exciting to tell you, here are a couple of cute Buddy pictures to start your weekend off right!

Any exciting weekend plans?

Not this year

Those of you that follow running news probably already know that the lottery for the NYC marathon opened up this week.

Up until a few days ago, I was planning to throw my name in and see what happened. But I got to thinking about how much money it would cost to run NYC (it's a $255 registration fee), and it even costs a little bit to put your name in the lottery ($11). There are a lot of other options nearby when it comes to marathons, and most of them are at least half the price of NYC. So at least for this year, I'm ok not sitting around in the cold for hours and hours before the race, and running with a completely scary number of people and paying an obscene amount of money for the privilege to do so.

So I'm still on the lookout for a fall marathon to sign up for - I've got time.

Friday was a slow day for me. I spent some quality time with my ice pack and watched a cute movie - The Other Woman.

I spent the evening babysitting and making some money. I didn't get home until almost 12:30.

I still don't know what this stuff was, but thankfully, it wasn't real nail polish.

A 3 year old with real nail polish would be terrifying. This stuff just wiped right off, which is good, because she painted half her foot with it.

My ankle is still sore, but it's definitely feeling better. I skipped running with the group this morning, which bummed me out, but it was the smart thing to do. I may attempt a little dvd workout action today (and obviously stop if it hurts). We'll see.

For now, I'm off to find some food.

I hope your weekend is off to a good start!

Did any of you enter the NYC Marathon lottery?

I was smart for once

I'm really grumpy.

I woke up kind of grumpy, but I was making progress up until my run. It was supposed to be a tempo run, but I only made it through my warmup and the first mile at tempo. My ankle, which was feeling tight and a little off earlier this week decided that it definitely does not want to run.

The thing is, I don't remember doing anything to it. The best I can figure is I might have twisted it at some point on Monday or Tuesday. I noticed it was a little off after my run on Tuesday, but it was nothing to cause concern. Today on my run there was definite pain.

For once in my running life, I was smart, and stopped. I'm giving it a couple of days off and hopefully it will feel better. At least it's happening now, and not closer to my next race.

In happier news: I made brownies today!

I kind of made them up and can probably never duplicate them, but they're really good. They are dark chocolate brownies with a peanut butter cream cheese swirl type thing and mini chocolate chips (for good measure).

I sliced a million brussel sprouts without cutting myself on the mandoline I got Tom for his birthday. That's because I wore the gloves that he is too cool for.

Dinner tonight is going to be those brussels with bacon, roasted butternut squash and pork chops. Now I just have to stop myself from eating ALL the brownies so I will still want dinner! :)

Are you a recipe follower or do you prefer the trial and error method?

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A clean house, a new planner and a quick mile

The house is so clean!

We spent a couple of hours cleaning the house from top to bottom this morning. We ended up having two people make appointments to see the house today. Only one realtor left a card, so we don't know if they both ended up showing up or not.

We took Buddy for a walk around Rockefeller Preserve while people were at the house.

It would be prettier if we had snow.

This afternoon we watched the Giants lose yet another game, and then we headed to Target (sorry Jan, I know it's a sore subject) to get a few things we needed, and a few that we didn't. It's Target, you can't ever leave without buying more than you mean to.

I picked up a cute planner for next year.

I love all things internet except for calendars/organizers. I like to have things written on paper, in my hand. It's weird.

I intend to have things to write in it soon, and not just races! :)

I got a quick mile in before dinner. I'm too close to the end of the Runner's World Holiday Run Streak to stop now! Friday is going to be my first rest day since November 15th. I'm looking forward to it.

Since I was only running a mile, I ran it fast.

Cutting back on my mileage seems to be making my ankle happier, so that's good news. I hate when I'm injured, though, clearly not enough to actually stop running.

Are you an old-school or high-tech calendar/organizer kind of person?

1,000 Miles in 2014

This morning I watched my absolute favorite Christmas show.

Growing up, I had a Christmas tape with several different shows (Garfield's 9 Lives, A Snow White Christmas, a snippet of Fat Albert, Care Bear's Nutcracker and A Muppet Family Christmas). At some point in high school, I sat on the vcr remote and RECORDED OVER my Christmas tape.

It was not a good day.

The best of those shows was A Muppet Family Christmas, it had the Muppets, Sesame Street characters, the Fraggles, and had a Jim Henson cameo at the end - plus it had all the excellent 80s commercials. It originally aired in 1987, and because of poorly thought out song rights (they only secured them for airing on television) all the versions available to purchase are seriously edited (and obviously don't have the awesome commercials).

I managed to find someone online who had the original version (commercials and all!), so now I have it on dvd.

It's pretty much the best.

I did it! Today I broke 1,000 miles for 2014! It's definitely the most I have ever run in a year. I ran 4.5 miles and called it good. I may cut back on my mileage now that I've hit my 1,000, but I'm kind of in the middle of the Runner's World Holiday Run Streak (at least 1 mile a day Thanksgiving-New Years) and I don't really want to stop.

My falling injury is looking better, mostly. There are some good colors in the bruises.

I got fun mail again today. Jan sent me some KT tape for my ankle, and also some really tasty looking corn salsa and some treats for Buddy.

He was pretty excited to get the mail too :)

Snow and some race research

It tried to snow here this morning. It was really pretty, but it stuck to my car and that's pretty much it.

Like my dead tomato plant stick? I should probably pull that out or something...

Tom laughed at me because I wore my coat to the basement for my run this afternoon. It was cold down there!

It's possible I tweaked my problem ankle when I fell yesterday, because for the first time, I could feel it when I was running today. Not bad, but the fact that I could feel it at all isn't the best news. I did an easy 2 miles and called it good.

I completely forgot that I had Tiger Balm in the medicine cabinet. I put some on my ankle, maybe that will help a bit.

I've been doing a little race research, trying to find some races I want to do next year. Right now I'm looking at 3 half marathons (I don't like racing every weekend - I like having a race every few months), and...a marathon?!? It's a distinct possibility.

I'm planning on putting my name in for the NYC marathon in January when the lottery opens up (Jan 15th) because I think it would be a crazy/awesome first marathon (crowd support alone), so we'll see how that goes. I'm also looking at a couple in Pennsylvania and one up in central NY as options if I don't get NYC.