Showing posts with label running. Show all posts
Showing posts with label running. Show all posts

6.02.2008

Exhausted with a capital E

I just told Hubby that I thought I could sleep for the next week. He said that I got a good amount of sleep last night. Which is true. But I think the week leading up to this trip and then some late nights before the run have just hit me hard.

I'm actually sitting in Chicago Midway airport right now and having bought a new book because I finished the other one I brought, I'm getting ready to start it. We had a light breakfast at the hotel this morning and then McD's for lunch before leaving the airport in New Hamphshire. We got her a while ago and I was dying for some nachos so Hubby and I split some but they just didn't do the trick. So here I sit hungry, sore, and exhausted. I miss my bed.

Vermont was just beautiful but the run was awful. No injuries to speak of but it was really hard. The course was hard. And I was very disappointed in my attempt. I did manage to finish but not because I wanted to. If Hubby hadn't been there with me I think I would have probably just walked to the finish line. I didn't even have a final push for that sprint to the finish line once it came in to view.

I'll update again in the next couple of days with more details about the trip and Vermont. Thanks to those of you who were thinking about me on Sunday. Without your thoughts and prayers there's no telling how poorly I might have done!

5.29.2008

Vermont or Bust!


This evening after work the family is headed out to Collinsville. We'll spend the night and then in the morning hubby and I will be hopping on a jet plane and leaving for Vermont. We'll have a couple days to relax and see the area (neither of us have been there before) and then on Sunday we'll be running in the Covered Bridges Half Marathon.

I'm gonna go ahead and be honest and admit that I really haven't trained like I should have. I planned on it. Just didn't. After my run in April I promised myself that I would do my weekly mileage and cross-train twice a week as well. I was lucky to do even 2 runs a week. I've had shoe issues, shin splint issues, and just flat out motivation issues. But oh well, at least I'm doing it right?

This will be my 3rd 1/2 and although I haven't trained like I should I'm still hoping to improve on my time. My 1st time last year was 2:58. According to last years CBHM times that would put me in at 14 from the end of the pack! I know I'm not gonna win but I'd sure like to be more towards the middle. This April my time was 2:48 (which moves me up to 35th from the end). Brad is going to run with me which is a great motivation for me because he doesn't let me quit. I'm really hoping to finish in 2:45. And the course map shows a mostly downhill elevation with the exception of one steep hill so I'm hoping that will help and not hinder my time.

Hopefully I'll be back next week to report a wonderful mini-vacation with Hubby and a great run!

4.30.2008

And the doctor said

No more monkies jumping on the bed!

Oh wait, wrong doctor.

So I went to the doctor. He looked at my foot, examined it, pushed around, asked some questions. Then he said it could just be a really bad sprain but he was concerned that it might be a stress fracture because of the way I described it. So he took an x-ray which thankfully looked ok. Although he said he wanted his "ortho buddy" to take a look at it just to be sure because a lot of times it's hard to see stress fractures on x-rays.

He gave me a steroid pack to take, some Lortab for the pain, and told me to wear really supportive shoes. He'll call me after ortho buddy looks at the film just to let me know what he said. Then if I'm not better by Monday I have to get a bone scan. Good times.

I'm really hoping and praying that Emily is right in her comments from my last entry. I think that sounds a lot more easy to recover from. I don't have time for stress fractures.

Why is this so hard? I just want to be a runner. Why won't my body cooperate? Ugh. I think I definitely need some bon bons.

Vini Vidi Vici

Yep. That's right. I came, I saw, I conquered.

Actually I'm not sure that there was much conquering going on but I finished the run and that's what counts. Right?

So Sunday we got up at 5:00 (in the am...ugh!) and headed out to the starting post for the half marathon. As we were driving towards downtown with our windshield wipers on Hubby and I were both considering backing out. I think it's a really good thing that we were both running because we had each other as support. Seriously, it would have been really easy to just say, "Seriously, it's cold and rainy and who wants to run in that?!" Ya know?

I started getting a little bit worried about Eli too because he was going to just do the 5K and then he'd be done and just hanging by himself. I got him a fanny pack, much to his dismay. Apparently fanny packs aren't cool. Who knew! So he had Hubby's phone with him, a little cash, and his PSP. I told him to call me as soon as he finished so I would know he was safe.

Prior to the run Hubby said we needed to really take it easy since we hadn't been training like we should. He said he was going to run with me which would be great for him but um, how do I slow down and take it easy? I think actually it was a good thing that he ran with me because he really encouraged me and kept me on pace.

My time last year was 2 hours and 58 minutes. This January when we decided to run it again my goal was to make it in 2:45. Of course, you know that I didn't stick with my training at all so going into it on Sunday I really just hoped to be not too far after my time from last year.

I felt great for the first 10 miles. Seriously. It was kind of an amazing feeling because I just prayed that if I hurt it would just be normal long-distance running pain. Ya know? No IT band pain, no shin splints, etc. Just that normal soreness from running. Well, that's what happened and it was awesome. I really did feel great. The last 3 miles were tough. I was having trouble transitioning from my walking to running again. My thighs and calves were killing me. But Hubby pushed me forward and encouraged me to keep going. Knowing that poor Eli was waiting for us at the finish line and was "freezing cold" (as he told me on the phone) I knew I had to keep running to get to him. Then Hubby told me that there was a possibility I could actually make my original 2:45 goal. Wow.

I didn't quite make that goal but I did finish in 2:48:58. Almost 10 minutes better than last year! Go me! So I know that I can reach that 2:45 goal and I just pray that during our next run I can reach that goal.

So the good news is...I get to wear my new shoes. No, I didn't make my original goal of 2:45 but I figure beating my time at all from last year when I haven't been training deserved a pair of blingy shoes. Am I right?

The bad news is...something is wrong with my foot. I just had soreness all day on Sunday after the run and nothing in particular hurt. Then Monday morning I put on my new shoes and walked down the hallway and the outside of my left foot started hurting. I thought maybe it was the new shoes so I changed but it hurt in that shoe as well. It's gotten progressively worse and today I can barely put any weight on it. Not cool. I'm going to the doctor this afternoon and hopefully he can give me some insight. I've been taking Ibuprofen and icing it but it's just not helping. With just 31 days until the Vermont run I really need to get it fixed now!

By the way, if you'd like to see me running you can view pictures by clicking here. Then click on "pictures" and another window will pop up. If you'll search by BIB number you can view a few photos of Hubby and me running. My bib was kind of scrunched so you have to search Hubby's numbe which is H3874. I'm hoping that by Thursday maybe there will be a few more photos up. I may just have to order one of us crossing the finish line though. Pretty cool.

4.21.2008

run 5, walk 2, repeat

How do you spell slacker?

M-A-R-G-O

Yep that's me, big time slacker here. The OCK Memorial Marathon is quickly approaching. Quickly as in less than a week. This Sunday. A mere 6 days away.

Have I been training? Um, no. Do I have a good excuse, or even any excuse at all? Um, no. I really don't know what's wrong with me. I just can't seem to get it together. Last January I joined Weight Watchers and committed to it and lost 20 pounds. That's also the point where we decided we'd run the half marathon and I knew I couldn't just go out and run 13.1 miles without training so I trained. I ran every Tuesday and Thursday and on Sunday's I did a long run, working my way up to 12 miles so that I would be strong and ready for the big run.

This January, after regaining those 20 pounds plus 5 extra (I'm a human yo-yo, I swear) I decided to get back on track with my Weight Watcher's program and I even mentioned how I was going to stay motivated by scheduling several runs throughout the year so I would keep training. A lot of good that's done me!

Hubby and I have both just not been training at all like we should be. We both keep saying that we'll do the run on the 27th but I'm not sure how we're going to manage just walking out there and running that distance without just dying. So on Saturday he told me he thought that we should probably do at least 8 miles this weekend just to see where we stand. If we made it through we could go ahead and do the 13.1, if it killed us we should just count that money as lost and aim for the next run in June. As nice as it would be to just back out of next weeks run though I know that I'll never get back into training if I don't just dive in. I don't want to be sitting here the week before our June run and still not have trained at all.

So yesterday, despite both of us fighting some nasty cold/allergy thing, we set off on our 8 mile run. The first 4 miles went ok. Miles 5 and 6 were exhausting. Miles 7 and 8 were absolutely awful. And those last 2 miles were uphill, which made it doubly worse. It stunk, it really did. But I did it, all 8 miles, and afterward although I felt like I wanted to die I was proud of what I'd accomplished.

So I'll be there on Sunday with bells on and I'll do my run 5 minutes/walk 2 minutes until I reach 13.1 miles and I'll get that finishers medal and t-shirt and hopefully that will be what I need to keep on running.