A blog about my journey of training to run a 1/2 marathon with Team In Training and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and beyond.

Monday, August 31, 2015

Getting My Head In The Game


I'm struggling this training season to get my head in the game. I'm used to starting over. I'm used to pushing through pain. I'm used to it not being easy. But this season has been inconsistent and discouraging. I was managing my weekday runs really well until I had to do 5 miles on the "dreadmill".  My consistency began to slip and I have not managed to pull it back in. With my hubby home on the weekends, I have been able to go out to do my long runs. My new freedom came with a price, horrific shin splints. I was so bad that I stopped wearing heels and went to the doctor. His answer was take some time off, which really helped with my inconsistency. So I ... 
tried acupuncture. It helped, but the pain came back as soon as I ran a distance longer than 4 miles. So I... 
tried KT tape. This has helped the most. I kinda wanna wrap my whole body in this tape. The soreness came back as soon as I took the tape off. I even...
Went to the spa and did a leg massage with hot stones. Felt amazing, but short-lived. 
I am staying with the KT tape for now and doing my best to get my head on straight as well. Fortunately, I have friends who force me to.
My friend, S, invited me out for a group run when I really needed some motivation. It was a great run, very hilly and challenging. I managed to shave over a minute off of my average per mile. I felt it the next day and the next day... And the next day. 😀 I'm trying. I really am. I just gotta get my stuff together and do it. So until then...
Peace, love, and KT tape! 


Saturday, August 22, 2015

A sixer in the bag

Today was a brutal, slow six miler. I have had a crazy week and didn't get all my weekday miles in. But I really wanted to hit my 6 miles this morning. We had a late softball game last night, and I knew it was going to be rough getting up his morning. It was. (But I got a new shirt last night.)
Then I stepped outside and it was sooooo humid that everything   immediately felt damp. It's one of those days where you have to chew your air before you breathe in.  I hate that feeling! I started and it was rough. Brutal. Sometimes excruciating! But sometimes the universe sends you exactly what you need when you need it. This morning was a very social run. I was inundated with greetings of puppy kisses. I met 3 very enthusiastic new friends who gave me sloppy dog kisses. All very sweet. Then at the 3 mile mark, my right feet started falling asleep. I'd stop adjust my shoe, shake it out a little, stretch nothing helped. I powered to mile 4 and was giving up and going home when I ran into one of my favorite people, B. She told me that she didn't want to be out there either , but she had just finished her 6. She's really an amazing person, you guys!  (And not just because she ran 6 miles.)She encouraged me to keep going. So I did. I found my stride about mile 5.5 and was headed back home and the wind changed direction, and the temp dropped about 3 degrees. I was looking around for Mary Poppins to appear, it was so wild out there.
I hit my 6 on my way home. It felt great. It was slow and awful, but it's done. That's always a great feeling. Thanks B for telling me to stick it out. You're an inspiration! Now I'm going to stretch out and drink my smoothie. So until next time... 
Peace, love, and sixers! 

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Slow and steady....

Won't really win the race, but it'll get me across the finish line in one piece. That's the plan anyway. This week has been a little rough. I was taken off the new medication because it was causing some really adverse effects. So I'm back to just ibuprofen. I'm ok with that, but it's going to take a minute to get me back to where I was. Despite that, I had a steady run on Monday. Tuesday's run was a disaster from the beginning. It was short a few miles because I step off the treadmill to go to the bathroom and tweaked my ankle.
So I took a few days off and came back today with a 5 mile run. It started off pretty enough. It was really nice to be outside.
It quickly turned into a nasty, brutal run. I was a little overly ambitious and chose a hilly route. It slowed me down significantly. I knew going into the run that I just didn't have any oomph today, but I needed to get a longer run in that did not involve the treadmill. So I did it. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to feel that tomorrow. Hell, I'm feeling it right now. Afterwards, I did a little post-run yoga. The kids wanted to participate, so we broke out the extra yoga mats. 

I love these two! Overall, it's not been a great week, but it's not been a horrible week either. It's just another building block to a really great run in the future...I hope. 

Peace, Love, and Future Runs! 

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Don't blink or you'll miss me!

So... Not really. Unless you blink really, really, REALLY slowly.  However, I am steadily shaving time off my miles. Last night, I ran two sub 16 miles. This week I have consistently running sub 16. I have even run a sub 15. I know that isn't Flash fast, but it shows steady improvement. I began my training running 17:00+\mile. At this rate, it is quite possible to reach my goal of 11:00/mile. I know it seems ambitious since I'm still in my lower miles, but those tend to be my hardest miles. I am having a little trouble regulating my breathing, but I am working on it. I am in a fair amount of pain lately for different reasons. But despite all these little things, I have a feeling that everything will start to click very soon. I just have to keep plugging along until it does. It actually felt good to hit two miles tonight. I had some kick ass power songs to push me through. It was all about the ladies last night.  Brandi Carlile,Joan Jett, Florence + the Machine, and P!nk brought me home. Carly Simon and Carole King helped me cool down during my post-run yoga. Well, until my dog, Omar, decided to jump on my stomach and lie down while I was doing a bend. 
There are worse ways to end a night then puppy snuggles. 

Peace, Love, and snuggle buddies!