Yeah, I Run Like A Girl...

Adductors, Again!

2012-01-27T12:12:00.000-05:00

I brought up my (fairly bad) knee pain yesterday and they think it's my adductors. This was the muscle that was constantly spasming the first few weeks after surgery. I have never thought about these muscles before, now they are haunting me, evil little fellas. They massaged them yesterday...okay, not a massage but more of a painful jamming of fingers into them until my inner thighs got nice and bruised. I was in a full sweat, trying to not yell during this since I didn't want them to back off. Damn, that hurt. It was worse than when they released my psoas and those who have had that done know how badly that hurts. I'm nice and bruised today, I'll try to run later to see if the tendons down at the knee feel any better. I did roll them out on the trigger point roller and that hurt like heck, so hopefully I can keep them loose on my own.

I'm cutting down PT to once a week starting next week! I feel good and bad about this. Good is the huge amount of money I'll be saving and one less day of driving. Bad is all the little stuff that is cropping up, like the adductors, that I cannot problem solve on my own and now I'll have to wait longer for professional help.

I'll be running outside three times a week, 30 minutes a pop next week and then up to 42 the week after. I also should be Alter-Ging twice a week. Two rest days. So, not too much of a difference expect a day less of PT and swapping a day of Alter-Ging to outside running. Hopefully my knees will cooperate and not need to take any time off and I keep slowly (oh, this is soooooo slow) keep working my way back to being able to really run again.

Matt brought Bentley down to the cove yesterday! I hope to get the whole pack there this weekend and take some shots with the good camera. He was a happy boy in the 33 degree water!

Challenges

2012-01-25T18:52:00.000-05:00

I knew it wasn't going to be easy returning to running, but it's proving more challenging than I would have guessed.

Amazingly, the repaired hip feels pretty good. It gets achey, but I was warned about that, there is no real pain cropping up within the joint. Yet, there are a million other things rearing their ugly heads now that I'm ground running coupled with the fact that PT has really kicked the strengthening up a huge notch. I am crazy sore for a day or two post PT in my quads and my knees (posteriorly) are killing me all of a sudden for that duration, as well. The knee thing, equal in both knees so seemly not related to the surgery, just started about a week ago. I don't feel it when in PT, but the night after they just kill (I'm not a wimp, either) and they hurt when I try to run. I've been doing a ton of squats, single leg squats and lunges...I'm guessing one of those are the culprit. I'll talk it over with them tomorrow, I hadn't mentioned it earlier since I figured it was simply a matter of my muscles adapting to the new program. I still believe this is the case, but I need to adjust my schedule to have a day off after PT days, I think.

I'm also ready to start slowly weaning off the Alter-G. It's a combo of things, though I will utilize it in the future when I'm back in full training for recovery days and some overspeed work! Treadmill running, I'm told, is not great post surgery for me since it makes it difficult to engage my glute correctly. Also, the amount of support I get from being zipped in isn't forcing me to stabilize myself. Again, I'll talk all this over with the guys in charge tomorrow, but I'm thinking once or twice a week on the treadmill should be my max right now. I would LOVE to get cleared for 5 or 6 days a week of outside running, but I don't think that will happen too soon. I could be way off on that, though, since I seem to feel way better running outside (yet, really-really-really-really out of shape and sucking wind) than I do indoors. I'm not sure why, it could just be because the duration is so short but I hope it because I'm finally learning the correct pattern to fire my muscles while running.

Speaking of that, it's one of the things that is frustrating me the most. I have tens of the thousands of miles on these legs, apparently running with a dysfunctional muscle firing pattern. Dr. Larson warned me about this, and now it's a huge focus of my PT. I hope I can teach the body to run correctly, but it's not easy breaking old habits. I feel extremely lucky to have the crew working on me that I do! It's amazing to see the focus shift away from the hip and to all those little nagging things I've had bugging me since I have starting running! Now, when I throw out that my arch had bugged me in the past (or any number of things I've brought up), it's not blown off or left to address later. It gets talked over, tested, and a game plan to make sure it doesn't happen in the future is formed!

I have (many, many) days where I think I'm never going to be back to where I was before this all happened BUT I also have days where I think I'm going to be better than ever with my huge list of issues now getting worked on. I don't know, that's for sure, but I hope it'll turn out well! The next few months should be pretty telling, I'm not feeling the most confident now but that tends to change daily :).

....and she heads to the great outdoors

2012-01-16T17:45:00.000-05:00

First run outside! Perfect weather day, 50 degrees and zero wind.

Thoughts about my first run outside since getting my hip repaired.
1. I'm way out of shape.
2. I'm way out of shape, living in a really hilly area.
3. I'm way out of shape, living in a really hilly area at altitude.
4. I'm way out of shape, living in a really hilly area at altitude but it's okay since I love running. :)

I actually think it's the elevation more than the hills. I forgot how loud breathing is at this elevation. I haven't run much, at all, but I've been outside twice so far. Only 16 minutes each time, so that's a bit frustrating. I just have a chance to get warmed up and in a tiny bit of a rhythm and then I have to shut it down.

The hip joint feels pretty good, it's a bit achey afterwards but I was told that was to be expected. The main issue I'm having is still fighting with the nerve pain running down the back of my legs. We are really beginning to address this at PT now, so I hope it will lessen sooner rather than later.

The schedule just has me at 2 runs outside twice a week. I really, really want to do more but can't if I'm going to keep Alter-Ging (the Alter-G is great right now since I go longer, over an hour, and keep my HR up to a decent aerobic level for that time--I need that work, for sure!). I'm starting to crack. I want to beat my body back into shape and I'm not allowed to so that. I guess (okay, I know) the slow timeline will be a good thing in the end but I still find my level of restlessness building to a breaking point.

Exciting

2012-01-13T09:06:00.000-05:00

I got to run, full weight! I went to PT yesterday, got stretched out (I'm going to miss this part so much when I'm through with PT--I need to get Matt to learn how to do these stretches I can't do on my own!) and then I was told today was the day. Yippee. It was cold and icy outside, so off to the gym's basketball court we went. I jogged around a couple of times, it felt good. Then I started to stride out a bit so they could see my stride...it's good, but the left leg is most certainly weaker than the right still. And, I'm soooo out of shape, it's hilarious (okay, it's sad). So, I did that for out 5 minutes, trying to run fast so he could see my stride but running out of breath quickly, haha, pitiful. Then, I got sent off to the treadmill to run 3 on 1 walk for 16 minutes. It felt good, but very, very awkward. I won't be running full weight on a treadmill anymore, yesterday was just an exception...my PT doesn't like the 'mill after this injury since it's difficult to engage my glutes correctly (and, I did feel this when I was on it vs. running around the gym).

I'll Alter-G today and then I get to run 16 minutes OUTSIDE tomorrow! That's what I'm talking about, a run outside in Colorado. It's about time! This is going to be a extremely slow progression. My schedule for the next two weeks is set for me and it's only a total of 5 runs outside, 16 minutes week one and 20 week two, that's not much running at all. I'll still hit the Alter-G 3x a week, though. This seems to be a test to see how the joint reacts to the full weight running (plus, it is HILLY where I live). If I'm not too sore, I can increase the Alter-G time a bit, so that's good, but I'm still staying at 75% on that.

Fingers crossed that my hip joint reacts okay to this and there are no big setbacks!

Wow

2012-01-04T17:35:00.000-05:00

I was sipping my coffee yesterday morning and saw a deep red glow out the window. This sunrise was amazing!!! The colors and the clouds were over the top awesome. It only lasted a few minutes but I was able to shoot some quick photos.

No Regrets

2012-01-01T15:32:00.000-05:00

NYE Hike up to Horsetooth Rock

What a year. So much good and so much bad! Overall this year is very much a win. We finally did what we've been wanting to do for so long and moved to Colorado. That's huge! On the other end of the spectrum is my health. I basically lost this entire year of running. It was the end of March when the wheels fell off, where I basically stopped running.

Yeah, I rested and thought I'd be okay and able to still race Boston. Well, that didn't work out too well :). Boston was a huge bust, time wise, and the final nail in my hip's coffin. I do not regret trying to race there, it was a once in a lifetime weather day with the temps and significant (understatement) tail wind on a course, that if run correctly, can be really fast. I had to try, that's who I am!

Normally I like to think about running goals for the upcoming year. I certainly can't do that this go around. I have no idea how my repaired and newly shaped hip is going to react when I get cleared to run outdoors again. My hope is to keep making progress, keep feeling good enough to want to want for more and to want to do it now!

Looking SE from Horsetooth towards the Blue Sky Trail

So, onward to 2012! I promise to try my hardest to rehab this injury the best I can. I can't wait to be able to start up my walk/run progression. This may occur in a couple of weeks! That will be such a thrill, believe it or not. I feel like I don't even remember how to run! It's going to be really weird. I was cleared to bump up the Alter-G WB to 75% last week, a huge jump from the 50-55% I was at. It felt so much more "normal" to run at a higher weight, there was a lot better feedback. I was sore afterwards, not in the hip but in other areas (hamstrings and both glutes). That was Friday and I won't Alter-G again until Tuesday, so there will plenty of time for stuff to adapt/repair/calm down.

Plenty of ice on the trail! A bit nerve wracking.

Boring Update

2011-12-28T17:44:00.000-05:00

The right knee has calmed down, it appears it was just a bruise to the meniscus liked we hoped. That's good! I can NOT handle another real injury right now, my head would explode. I did shut down the Alter-Ging until yesterday, so a week off. I "ran" 7 yesterday and today at 55% weight bearing (up from 50%) and the knee feels fine but I'm still having back issues with pain running down the back of my left leg. Hopefully this can get addressed at PT tomorrow. The feeling of "too many cooks in the kitchen" is still bugging me. I will get this streamlined soon, I hope. Right now, I have 2 surgeons, 3 PT's and the doc at the Alter-G place (who's not treating me right now, but sees me more than any of the other ones since I'm there 3 or 4 times a week and asks the most questions of anyone about how I'm doing on a daily basis). I'd like to have one main PT and then move some of my care to the doc in Boulder.

I'm really itching to have my life back. There are so many things calling me. I miss getting up crazy early and heading out for 24 miles and getting back and showered before most folks are even up. I miss running so hard I think I'm going to throw up. I miss racing. I miss hanging out with running friends. I miss my routine!

I'm frustrated with the apparent timeline, I really feel like I could start some type of run/walk outdoors program sooner rather than later. I'm at 14 weeks out right now, I don't think I can mentally handle another 10 without anything outdoors. I'm getting some mixed feedback out when I can start ramping things up (too many cooks!), my want is to listen to what I want to hear but I'm still staying silly conservative. I do think that there needs to be a point where the envelope begins to get pushed the tiniest bit, though.

Doh!

2011-12-22T17:32:00.003-05:00

Vacuuming is dangerous.

I got too excited with the new Dyson, turned too fast and did something to my right knee's meniscus!

Are you kidding me?

@#%^$%&^%$$@#!!

(is 3:30 too early for a glass of wine?)

Yum!

2011-12-18T21:31:00.000-05:00

Wow! Jerk tempeh tacos!!! This supper totally came together by accident (I was too lazy to make a real dish and searched for leftovers) and ended up being CRAZY good. I made some jerk tempeh the night before and we had a lot left (nothing too exciting, just sliced tempeh marinated in jerk seasoning and some EVOO, then cooked in a non-stick in a bit of coconut oil). I also had a side of black beans and rice all mixed together and a left over roasted sweet potato.

I floated through the fridge and cupboards to see what was in there. I found a half a head of cabbage, so I made a slaw with that, some grated carrot, lemon juice, salt and Veganaise. I toasted some pepitas with salt, because they are crunchy and delicious (and the key to the taco)! We also had some salsa verde, whole foods fresh corn tortillas, and Dayia cheese. OMG, so crazy good. Just a bit of all of this in a tortilla and, bam, best supper ever! This meal rocked, I will be making this one over and over for Matt.

Though going through a bit of set back from last week, I still was able to "run" on the Alter-G a lot. My stride is getting there, not 100% by any means, but not the worst thing ever. Hopefully tomorrow the little flare ups that are plaguing me will get the heck out of here...I totally rested today except for stretching, so I'm feeling like a slug but hoping it'll pay off. I think/worry my psoas is tight as heck and might need to get that worked on tomorrow in PT (those that have had this done know what I'm talking about), but if it helps to make me feel better then I'll deal with it with a smile (okay grimace) on my face.

Stranger Danger, Game Changers and the 3 Month Follow-Up

2011-12-16T09:54:00.000-05:00

Follow Up: The journey to getting this hip diagnosed correctly was a rough one, it has taught me to not blindly trust any medical professional (really, run on a femoral neck stress reaction and severe undiagnosed hip pain as much as possible since *you* don't see anything wrong on the films??? I guess he thought I was just making everything up.). I had my 3 month follow-up with Dr. White in Denver on Wednesday. My first meeting with him, I was certainly guarded and nervous (he totally understood, he saw what I dealt with and says he sees it often with patients). For several reasons, I was much more relaxed this visit. Again, it's a very different experience than Dr. Larson's office (LOVE LOVE LOVE the entire staff there, so much!!!!), but it's all good. I had yet another set of x-rays, I think I've probably had 50 x-rays this year...(and a cat scan and an injection under fluoroscopy and 4 MRI's!), sorry body. Anyway, he said the x-rays looked good with the femur healed nicely, my range of motion was great and to keep on keeping on with the Alter-G! If things keeping going okay, I don't need to be back until the 6 month mark where I should get turned loose to get training for real again. He was really happy with the progress!

Game Changer: Alter-G. Again, access to this machine has totally made the rehab process better! It's also helps that everyone in that office is so kind and positive, it's just a great place to go to! Happy dance :)

Stranger Danger: The one thing I didn't need was a new person tossed into the mix. Mentally I'm not okay with this, maybe it's not fair but it's where I am right now in this process. I showed up to PT expecting to see my PT and was handed off to the new person. I have already been going back and forth between two PTs there, which I find a bit challenging. There is a lot of mixed feedback (on what should be sore what shouldn't/what exercise is great but then hearing it's bad for the joint), minor stuff to them I'm sure, but a huge deal to me since I need to figure which one to trust fully. This is my body, my hip, my sport, my future we are dealing with. I don't want to chance anything, I'm done with that game after the summer of the missed diagnosis and really bad advice.

A third person, one who hasn't seen me through the ups and downs of the rehab, just didn't thrill me. A couple of new things got added in, I was a bit worried about one exercise setting of my back and mentioned it. It felt okay during but, damn if I wasn't right, I'm all jacked up today. This morning, I feel ready to burst into tears from frustration from being put into this situation. It doesn't help that I only slept an hour or so last night since I was so uncomfortable. Ugh. Not a happy camper. My back has been GREAT since the surgery, the best it has felt in the past 8 years and something I haven't even had think about. Arg.

Hopefully everything loosens up by this afternoon, I get some rest and feel bad about being so crabby about this, but this morning I'm still sticking with the Stranger Danger theory :)

3 Months!

2011-12-12T18:25:00.000-05:00

Freezing Fog = Pretty Trees

Woohoo! I'll be at three months tomorrow. It's a been a long haul, to say the least, but there is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel now.

My outlook has changed, for the better of course, now that the Alter-G is in the mix. There are still a whole slew of challenges in front of me but I'm slowly beginning to feel like myself again. My glute has been exhausted, which I'm told is a great thing since it's really working now. PT is going great, still pinching ouchies when my hip angle is closed but most everything else is feeling pretty good. Still working on keeping the psoas loose but it is so much better than just a week ago.

I'm still working 50% WB on the Alter-G, but in a week or so we'll begin to slowly ramp that up. In an effort to stretch out the stride (and get the HR up a tiny bit), I've been ramping up the speed. Today was 8 1/2 miles at around 6:45 pace...life's a breeze when you only weigh a bit more than 50 pounds while running :).

Check these out!!! The Whole Foods in FoCo has them and I had a protein bar (chocolate coconut, yum!) after my "run" today and it was awesome! I'm super thrilled to have something vegan AND delicious for my post-run lunch I can eat on the way back home. I can't wait to try out the electrolyte drink when I'm back in real training. I have been so grossed out by the crazy dyes and other crap (HFCS) in the stuff I generally end up using when salty, sweaty and desperate for some potassium, salt and calories. This is going to be prefect!!

Speaking of healthy, Maria has me thinking it's about time to invest in a juicer. Matt has been getting different juices when we are out and about on the weekends (Fort Collins has some AMAZING vegan/veggie places), and they have been really great. Plus, beet juice will make me faster! I cracked up when I first saw this study a couple of years ago since I adore beets and eat them all time...now I need to make a juice that also tastes great (I tried once at my parents and let's just say the beet lover couldn't drink any of it, big fail). Tasty Harmony (this place rocks!) has one we haven't tried yet, I may need to give it a whirl this weekend and see how it goes down.

I guess I'm hungry since I keep talking about food, not my hip :). I have made a few new recipes in the past couple of weeks and have got a couple of great ones that I'll share once I get them typed up. We are suddenly way into tofu in stews! And, I've been playing around more with tempeh blackening it and I'm going for a jerk seasoned version this week since that sounds delicious. Also, jackfruit is new to us! I've only cooked with it once so far but it's super easy to work with, it just takes a looooong time to soak up the flavors. I think I need to get a crockpot to make working with that a bit more streamlined. I had fallen into a cooking rut, even though it was all good, I was just rotating the same old recipes. I'm glad I'm finally mixing things up again!

Obsessed

2011-12-07T17:34:00.001-05:00

I am obsessed with getting back to it. I really, deeply miss my routine. The tiny amount of "normal" brought back into my life with the Alter-G is so wonderful. My PT went to watch me run yesterday and I got the green light to keep going. Woohoo! I was very worried that he might pull the plug on me, but apparently my stride is looking okay. I have to keep thinking about extending and really pushing off the left leg, that's difficult for me since even though my stride isn't even (according to them) it feels that way to me. It'll be a bit of a challenge to concentrate on that since I have a habit of just totally zoning out while I'm running but I'll get it done. There is not a more motivated person on the face of the Earth right now :)

I'm still following the same basic schedule, PT'ing 2 times a week, Alter-G'ing 3 or 4 times and biking on the non-"running" days. I can't wait to pump up the "running" some, but I'm still pleased as punch about what I have right now. I try to not get too fired up, but it is hard. Coach gets me ready to take on the world and prove everyone wrong by kicking the basic/normal person's recovery timelines butt, haha! He's the master of that, running huge mileage weeks, getting faster again and really enjoying running on 2 TKR's. He is an awesome source of inspiration. :)

It's going to blow my mind when I can start a run/walk progression on the roads. I'm itching to train for real. I miss that (good) exhausted feeling, I want to feel crazy fit again. I also miss that horrible feeling right at the end of a 5k, believe it or not! OMG, it's going to be such a long haul getting back into shape but it's going to be so much fun!

Racing season is getting going down in Florida, so that gets me feeling kind of sad. I don't miss the weather and a whole handful of other things Florida, but I do miss my running friends from down there and the races I have done every year. A1A is going to be a tough one!

Reverse Marathon

2011-12-02T08:43:00.001-05:00

When I first woke up in recovery, they asked me how I felt. I was in a lot of pain, extremely nauseous, dizzy, confused and exhausted. I told a friend I felt exactly like I had just finished a marathon! This recovery is like the journey of a marathon but in reverse and instead of lasting just over 3 hours, it's taking several months. I think I'm at about mile 18, it's getting better but I'm still in the challenging part of the race. I know it'll get easier as I go, but with a ton of physical and mental obstacles tossed at me. I never know when they will pop up, just like in a race, but I know that they will appear and I have to keep my mind prepared to not freak out when they show up.

This morning is a bit of obstacle day, I'm tired since I could not fall asleep last night and the rest of the house was up at 5am, which means I get up as well. I'm also a bit sore from yesterday (not in the joint, but the surrounding muscles). Luckily, I'm back on the Alter-G today so I can avoid the bike trainer. I guess I feel about the bike trainer how others feel about the 'mill. I get bored out of my mind on that thing, time crawls and I start searching for excuses to stop early (I don't though!). In my defense, I'm a runner not a cyclist, so I don't feel too badly about complaining a tiny amount over the trainer (it also causes anterior hip pain, so I fear that when I'm on it and would much rather get a workout doing something that doesn't hurt as much!). I will not complain about any form of running, no matter the setting! I have never minded the treadmill, it's an amazing tool when running outdoors isn't an option (be it the weather like I had a lot in FL or, now, a repaired hip that can't handle real weight yet). I LOVE running, I'll take it and embrace it anyway I can get it :) The doc at the Alter-G place said I was lucky since they are putting a TV in front of it soon, I said I'm totally fine without it right now. I'm just glad to be "running"!

Yesterday was a "dedicated to the sport" kind of day, not because of physical issue but because of momma nature. We got a ton of snow up here during the night and it was still dumping and the wind was blowing when I needed to try to get down the mountain and to the Alter-G and then PT. Matt was not thrilled about me trying to drive in it, but dammit, I grew up in Northern MN and a Colorado storm wasn't going to keep this gal down! It was a bit dicey, I made it out of neighborhood okay (that's the scary part, if you go off the road up here you don't go in the ditch, you fall off a cliff several hundred feet into the reservoir...I don't know what they have against guard rails up here!!). Anyway, it took me over 2 hours to get to Boulder when it should have been just over an hour. It was slippery, snowy and the drivers were not exactly making the best choices out there. I made it and it was worth it. Every day, every exercise, every choice I make shapes my recovery.

Trying to figure it all out

2011-11-29T14:18:00.001-05:00

The sudden access to an Alter-G has certainly mixed things up. I'm trying to get everyone together to agree on some type of plan for me. The people I am now working with are AMAZING! I love each and every one of them, I really am lucky. I have gone from the my lowest point dealing with a not motivated, distracted ortho in Duluth who could have cared less about getting to root of my problem or getting me back running/competing again (I'm still really, really upset about my experience there, as you can tell) to being in the care of some of the top professionals in the country who want nothing more than to get me healthy and running again.

Dr. Larson says "to keep it boring", as in not too much too soon. Toni Dauwalter (she kicks PT ass for runners!), has worked with the Alter-G a bit and gave me a basic idea of where to start (more running, but a bit less weight than I was thinking it looks like!). My PT at Howard Head is going to try to find time to go in with me on a weekend (his days off!) to make sure my glut is firing correctly (no happy glut, no happy running Jen!). The doctor who owns the machine wants to make sure he talks with everyone else who was involved up until this point. Awesome, awesome people in my life right now!!!

We are still working out a plan, I went back to the 'mill yesterday and did 5 on, 1 off of run/walk at 50% for 35 minutes. I felt great during and great this morning but this afternoon there is some anterior hip discomfort so today I will be taking it really easy on the bike and with the exercises. It'll be a kind of wait and see, day by day on how I react to the running motion again. I'll go in Thursday before PT and go a bit longer with more running but at an even more reduced body weight, as long as I'm feeling okay. BTW, the rubber shorts I have to wear for the 'mill are sweat factories. I really feel weird jammed into those things, they are hot, thick and go fairly far down my leg towards my knees. So odd for someone who tries to run in least amount of clothing possible normally. Haha, maybe I can sweat off some of that long run fuel (okay, it ass fat) hanging out back there! It'll be a while, I'm guessing, before I can get my HR up high enough on that machine. I couldn't get out of the 120's yesterday.

I finally have a long term goal! It's a crazy loose one, I just want to be able to do something at The Colorado Marathon. I don't care if it's just the 5k and I don't care if I'm fast (but, I don't want to totally suck it up!). My PT doesn't think it'll be a problem :). It's my new hometown race so I really want to be out there on course. Yeah, it's six months away but it's a nice carrot dangling out there!

Alter-G!

2011-11-26T17:46:00.001-05:00

When I first met with Dr. Larson, we went over a timeline on recovery from this beast of a surgery and rehab. Three months of very, very little, 6 months to beginning a run/walk program, 1 year to get back at it for real. BUT, he said if I can get on an Alter-G we can get me "running" sooner. When we moved out to Foco, I checked out the nearest one I could use and it was in Vail (at the Howard Head out there). Well, that's 6 hours of driving, probably more in the winter, and not a feasible option. I let it go, though I have been trying to convince the Westminster HH office to get one :).

During my follow-up with Dr. Larson, it was brought up again. Just for kicks when I got home, I went to Alter-G's website and checked out locations again. Holy cow, there are now 2 within an acceptable driving distance to me! One very close in Windsor and one in Boulder. The Boulder location is at a place dedicated to athletes, so even though the drive is longer (yet, it's 15 minutes from PT, so that's a bonus on those days!) it's a much better scenario for me. Also, a phone call with the doctor there sold me. Being under the supervision of someone who gets runners and running and is planning on coordinating every phase of this with my surgeon and PTs is priceless! I AM THRILLED.

I have been hurting from the biking, I actually think the "running" (yeah, it's not real running yet, not even close...I'll be at 50% of my body weight for a while) will be easier on the hip flexors. It's less of a dramatic motion and less pulling up than I have with the clip-less pedals.

I did a test run there today. Just 12 minutes or so at around 50 pounds...zero pain (I have pain on the bike)! Crazy. I'm in love. I have an appointment scheduled there for after PT on Monday. I still need to get some ideas about percentages and speeds and a basic plan laid out for me. Hopefully we can start hitting this a couple of times a week to start out and then build up to 4 sessions. The mental boost this has given is unmeasurable, it really is. I was so happy for the biking, I adore breaking into a sweat but it isn't jiving with my psoas when I do it everyday. Mixing it up AND having my sport involved again in my rehab is totally wonderful, thrilling, awesome, great...all that good stuff.

Getting zipped in

Calibration

Woohoo, "running"

Happy, happy gal here :)

Ouch

2011-11-23T09:46:00.001-05:00

Too much, too soon I guess. I don't go back to PT until Friday and I'm a hurtin'. I somehow managed to tick off my hamstring, as well. I have no idea how that happened. The last few days my hip is mad at me, my hamstring is really aching and now today my butt is killing me. There are a whole lot of unhappy muscles on my left side and I haven't really been doing much (no walking for real, one quick bike session in 3 days). Not having therapy for a week has not panned out! Friday can't come soon enough!

I went back to MN for my follow-up with Dr. Larson on Monday. He said the x-rays look good, which I knew (my left femur is so, so pretty now, beautifully shaped!). He talked about the surgery a bit and showed me on the films what he removed. He explained that he was able to loosen up the "tight" spots (the FAI) but that I have "loose" areas and those aren't fixable. I was pretty painful on manipulation since I've had a bit of a flare up, but he didn't seem overly concerned about that. He also pointed out the problem on my right side (ahhhh, it's so haunting me) and did some flexions on that leg. OMG, I do not want to go through this again but dammit there are problems with that joint, as well. I need to remind myself that this whole procedure and diagnosis is fairly new and I should be thankful that there is a fix even if the recovery sucks!

Anyway, he left it at "just keep making progress". He knows I have no real short term big goals running wise, there is no point since I can't rush it anyway. I'm just trying to get back to anything right now and that at this point, my recovery is pretty much up to the folks at Howard Head. This ordeal is one hell of a tough and long journey with no guaranteed prize at the end. Oof.

Everyone Knows it's Windy

2011-11-18T10:06:00.001-05:00

I think we now live in one of the more windy places in the country. It is really, really windy here, a lot! It's whipping out there right now, so I'm playing on the computer procrastinating my walk. I'm really having a hard time dressing for long walks. When I'm running, I know I'll heat up right away. If I'm not freezing the first 10 minutes or so, I'll be too warm for the majority of the run. With my (lame) walking, I'm not really creating much body heat since I'm not working too hard. I went a bit over 8 on Wednesday and was freezing the first half, into the wind, I just never warmed up until I flipped around. The first couple of days walking I was pumped to be out there, now I just want to be running. I had a rough hit of reality on my 8 miler, I flipped around and looked at my watch at just over 4 miles and realized that men have run faster half marathons than I just walked four miles. OMG.

One thing I need to get over is my fear of mountain creatures! I worry so much about mountain lions, I know they are out there and they are just in my head. Bears, wolves, coyotes, deer, elk....not scary to me, giant kitties--yikes! I have lived in South Florida way too long. I never used to think about that kind of stuff when I was a kid in the woods, now I spend way too much time on my walk listening for scary stuff. I had myself convinced there weren't any out there until I talked to a lady who walks the trails everyday and she said people see them all the time. One guy had one run right in front of him on the Tower Trail a couple of days earlier (I had JUST come from there when she told me that!). Ahhhhhhh. I need to find someone to walk (and eventually run) with me everyday, safety in numbers! So, if anyone doesn't work and had a few free hours everyday and wants to walk with and protect me, let me know! I need to find a blog post titled "How Not to Look Delicious to a Mountain Lion" :)

I've been walking with Suunta, since having another soul with me makes me feel better (and I can have conversations with her to keep me occupied) :). I got her a backpack so she can carry some stuff for me (extra gloves, hats, water for us!), she loves it! She is such a little trail blazer, she rocks out there! When the trails are had to find (to me) she know exactly where to go, it's amazing!

Hip-wise, same old same old right now. It's a tiny bit sore from all the activity, but I'm making good progress. As long as I don't have to close my hip angle I feel great! That movement is still a huge source of pain :(. I swear, I'm never going to reach the handlebars of my P3 again. I had a super tight adductor and PT worked on that yesterday...that hurt and I feel really tender there today. I'm surprised it's not all bruised this morning and I won't be shocked if it turns many shades of black later today. This is the muscle that was spasming constantly the first couple of weeks after my surgery. He's a pain in the butt (well, the inner thigh)!

Two Months

2011-11-16T10:29:00.001-05:00

In SEVERAL months, this trail is going to be a great long run route!

The last couple of days have been pretty good! I was finally cleared for resisted indoor biking on Monday. Yippee. I have to ease myself into it, but I actually was able to break into a little bit of a sweat last night with 45 minutes of pedaling. I can't wait until I can build this up to 90 minutes to 2 hours of decent effort cycling. That will be awesome. Hopefully I'll be able to get there in a couple of weeks.

I've also been walking quite a bit on the trails starting last week. Fun! Yesterday was my longest walk of 6.5 miles. I felt solid during it, I was getting over it mentally (walking just seems soooo inefficient in going places compared to running) the last 15 minutes or so, stuff was getting pretty achey and I was ready to be done, but I feel great this morning. I don't get the satisfaction from walking like I do from running, but at least I'm outside breathing in cool, fresh air and seeing some amazing scenery!

Up Near Horsetooth Rock!

I fly to MN this weekend for my follow-up with Dr. Larson on Monday. I'm curious to see what he has to say. I felt a little behind for a while, but I feel like I'm moving ahead of the curve now! I have always been a freakishly great healer (I swear, I have until this one!) and was pretty bummed when I was not hitting milestones early or on time at first. Now, I'm feeling how I think I should be. Part of me believes that getting outside and beginning to get some form of exercise starting last week got my body back into its repair and move forward mode again. I know there will be plenty of setbacks and I'm expecting them but hopefully I can keep getting outside and get back some of my cardio on the bike!

Week 7

2011-11-09T16:42:00.000-05:00

Wow, almost 2 months post here! Okay, that's not really all that exciting. I was actually doing really, really well the beginning of this week. I was a rockstar! There were high fives in PT when my glute was firing when it was supposed to. Comments were made when I walked around there and wasn't limping like an idiot. It was good!

I got a bit too confident and walked way too much yesterday. It felt good, crazy good, to be outside and breathing the fresh, crisp Colorado air. I felt great walking, as well. I was striding out decently and nothing was hurting (okay, my stupid left arch is flared up again--this thing hurt before my surgery but wasn't an issue when I wasn't able to walk/run--I was hoping whatever it was would be gone--wrong). I felt wonderful that evening, as well. No real soreness that I could pinpoint. Around 3AM this morning, my hip woke me up and let me know it was not at all happy with me. Ugh. Ouch. Boo. Crap. Damn.

So, today I can barely lift my left leg and when I do it kills me. PT was able to loosen it up quite a bit and I felt okay when I left there but the long drive home made everything tighten back up. I'm hoping by tomorrow stuff will calm back down and I can get back on track. I was hoping to be able to add in resisted biking by the end of the week, that's out the window now. I need to get pain free by next Monday so I can finally get cleared for that!

Big Horn Sheep! We saw a ton of them this past weekend.
They are way bigger than I would have guessed and very cool looking creatures.

Fake It

2011-11-05T10:16:00.000-04:00

White snow with blue lake. Pretty!

This song is on my iPod's running playlist and I like it during a hard portion of a run. I figure if I spend enough time faking my way through running eventually my body will adapt and I can actually do what I set out to. It works!

I put on my playlist during my drive to PT this week (huge mistake, those songs just get me fired up to run) and I also wore a pair of old racing flats in there, as well. I'm going to trick my body into being that of a distance runner again!

I'm having a problem with the front of the hip still. I can't fake it on this one. I need it to be pain free so I can get cleared for some resisted biking and slowly begin to get back into shape. I told my PT that I'm not going to tell him when it hurts anymore but he's on to me. He can flex it and apparently my face gives it all away even though I refused to yell out in pain and he can feel that it is super stiff in there. No big girl cycling anytime soon. boo.

I've taken on this recovery like I would a training cycle. I've begun to log everything I do, even though it's all loser stuff. I even have to take a "step back" day on Sunday and just go through my routine once...boo, again. I can begin to try to walk some more and see how that feels. Our block up here is 3/4 of a mile and I've gone (slowly) around it 3 times now. I'm going to try to do that a couple of times a day and see what happens.

So, the crappy stuff is the anterior pain that is stopping my progression. The great stuff is that I walk in PT all stiff and limpy and he has gotten me really loose and my glute firing while I walk the past two visits! I stiffen back up on the drive home and that's too bad, but there is hope of walking like a normal human again! Heck, once they get me going in there I'm walking better than I have in several years! I've had a slight limp in my walk for a long, long time and I've just ignored it.

I've also noticed that my surgical leg has a better range of motion in some planes than my right leg. I don't know what to think about that....I'm not sure if it's a yay for the left leg getting rid of the FAI or boo for the right leg impinging. I don't care too much either way since it is what it is but it's interesting!

6 Weeks Out & a Stupid Butt

2011-11-01T15:50:00.000-04:00

Yep, I'm a stupid butt. My left glute has shut down. She doesn't wanna. I can't make her fire. How annoying.

How in the heck does a muscle decide it's totally over it and just give up? I'm frustrated! It hasn't totally, 100%, shut down but it takes so much effort to get her to go just once. I feel terrible for my PT, he has to spend so long trying to find a movement where I can actually get it to engage. The whole experience is really odd to me, my body seems more than happy to use the wrong muscles (my hip flexors!) to move my leg and I can't change its mind no matter how much I will it. I have never been unable to complete (what seems like) such an easy task. Arg.

I'll hit the whole PT routine again this afternoon for a couple of hours, try to figure out what is working and what is causing pain and I'll be back at PT tomorrow. Gosh, I feel like I still should be going there every single day to figure out this conundrum (and would if my insurance would cover it!).

Overall, I think the hip is doing okay. It's more of a muscle firing pattern issue right now causing a lot of the pain. And, for some reason, I have a lot of bone pain posteriorly. Again, weird. This is a long, long, long road to recovery.

You know what would make me feel better and relieve all this stress that's building up to boiling point? A nice hard, challenging long run!

Snow!

2011-10-27T14:18:00.000-04:00

Before Bed

5AM!

Bentley just wanted to stare at it all night! He's so happy!

Suunta loves bouncing around in the snow, sticking her nose in it!

ohhh, the house looks happy with snow on it

Bentley trudging on through

Happy, smiling Panda (and Matt!)

The girls did some snow chasing in the driveway

The view is totally different looking with snow out there

So pretty

Up, Down, All Around

2011-10-25T17:06:00.000-04:00

Talk about ups and downs. Yesterday I was feeling amazing. I had a ton of energy, I was walking well enough during PT that I was given permission to walk outside without my crutches if I could keep it up, and I was able to add in some planks and butt back squats! I was up bright and early this morning, around 5 (which is my norm out here) and got the laundry, clothes, dishes and all the floors done before it all came tumbling down.

I have no idea what happened, but I feel terrible. I'm really sore, tired and just blah feeling. Perhaps yesterday was a bit too much, maybe I'm just coming down with something or the total lack of quality sleep over the past five weeks may have finally caught up with me. Matt keeps asking what's wrong, I guess I look as crumby as I feel. I also haven't done my PT yet, for the first day since the surgery I don't have it in me.

I keep thinking I'm going to pull it together, but I'm running out of day. Oh, well, I guess one off day isn't the end of the world. I will feel like a failure if I don't do my couple of hours worth of "work", so I hope I can at least get the motivation to hit some of it. Anyway, it's not a pity party, I don't work that way. I just think it's a good thing to record the journey, good and tough parts. Deep down, I hope this might be a metal/physical breaking point and my body will give up and be able to sleep a few hours straight tonight...tiredness begins to trump pain.

In exciting news, we should be getting hit with our first real snowstorm here in a few hours. Bentley is excited (well, Matt is for him)! Suunta is probably going to freeze her little butt off, I have to get her a snowsuit this week! She's such a weather wimp. Panda, on the other hand, has plenty of fluff and will be totally fine. She seems completely unfazed by extreme heat or cold!

I finally got the TV up and working in front of the trainer! It's little but it's HD and we have the DirecTv hooked up. I'll get a bigger one in there at some point and move this to a guest room, but this is great for now! I was utterly disappointed to find out yesterday that I'm still looking at WEEKS before I can add resistance to the trainer (meaning actual exercise, not just aimlessly spinning my leg in circles like I'm doing now). Maybe that's the deep, hidden, subconscious reason I just want to crawl back into bed today and not face the world? I really thought I was going to be able to start that somewhat this week. Such a bummer. I want to do something fun so badly.

FAI surgery, one month out

2011-10-18T09:58:00.000-04:00

Today marks the one month point. This week has been so much better. I feel this week how I thought I was going to feel at the second week, haha, I was so very ignorant going into this surgery.

My sutures were taken out a couple of weeks ago, the portals are closed now and one of the scabs actually fell off already. They don't look bad, at all, and I usually don't scar too badly. It's amazing that such a major surgery leaves so little evidence on the outside! On the surface, when I'm not trying to walk, I look like a fairly normal person now. My left leg is a lot smaller than my right now, but I bet the average person couldn't tell and I'm wearing long pants most of the time here anyways!

I met with a hip surgeon in Denver, Dr. Brian White, yesterday for a follow-up. I was really apprehensive going in. I had such a horrible experience with an ortho in Duluth (this post sums up how terrible I was feeling) it was just not cool. The road to getting diagnosed was a rough one. Finding Dr. Larson in Minneapolis was amazing. Dr. Larson, his staff, and CDI was just over the top professional and so focused on athletes and getting me back and fixed. None of the "run through pain" feedback I was getting from everyone else. He knows athletes, knows they have a high pain tolerance and is willing to, get this, find and fix the problem! He rocks!

The PTs at Howard Head really, really, really like Dr. White, so that gave me confidence going in but that doesn't mean I wasn't nervous about yet another bad experience. I got a bunch of x-rays right off the bat and was seen pretty quickly. It was a different experience than Larson's office but it was really good! I let him know right away my concerns and he said he hears that a lot. It seems like most people with the problems I have go down the same road of a missed diagnosis. He understood, which was nice.

He said my hip films looked really good, we went over the x-rays from both sides. I can really tell how the left hip is shaped normal now. Sadly, the right one has problems and he pointed those out to me. I feel like it's a ticking time bomb, but at least I've been down this road and know what to avoid and look for. We went over my images from the surgery and he walked me through it all and showed me what was what and why he did what he did. That was great, I never got any real feedback post-op since I wasn't there for my 2 week, so it was good to understand exactly what was done!! He also said, range of motion wise, I'm right about where he'd expect me to be at this point. The swelling is the cause of a lot of pinching type of pain and that just takes a long time to resolve, it's par for the course.

I'll fly back to see Dr. Larson next month, but I'll do my three month post op with Dr. White in Denver. It's not ideal bouncing between two surgeons but logistically it makes the most sense. They do seem to really compliment one another. I did get more feedback about the 6 month to attempt to run again timeline. He also feels that is the very minimum, dang! He did spent a lot of time warning about all the major pitfalls of trying to push it too soon. Once again, I was reminded that isn't a knee or shoulder surgery and that there is absolutely no pushing through pain with this one. There is no "hey, I'm fit and tough and heal fast". This is a strict rule, darn :(.

Okay, hip/PT progress report! Again, some great stuff and some not so great stuff. The pain level continues to go down. The range of motion is getting better. My butt is really, really sore though! PT digs in there and can loosen it up for a while, which helps with the hip pain but it seems to tighten right back up. I've been rolling on the trigger point roller, which helps, but I certainly can't get in there like my PT does. I adore the new stuff added to my rehab routine, nothing is too fun yet but I can spend several hours a day, easily, doing my "work". At least I feel like I'm doing stuff!

I can't loose the crutches, though, dang. I have a limp when I try to walk and it does not feel right yet. I'm frustrated since they are telling me what to do but my leg just won't do it. I guess one of my glutes isn't firing and my stride is way off. We spent a long time in PT yesterday working on it and, to be honest, I don't things got much better. It's really tough since I just can not make my body do what I want it to do! I have had a slight limp for years, though, so I think it's going to take some time to teach my body. For now, I can walk around the house without crutches for a bit but I can't go outside in the real world without them. It's still progress and I'll take it!

Learning to walk all over again

2011-10-13T09:02:00.000-04:00

Holy cow, I was not ready for this! On Tuesday I was allowed to begin to put some weight on my left leg as I crutched around, 25-50%. I was feeling like I was putting even more weight on it and everything felt great! It was just so much more stable crutching around like that and made the stairs a heck of a lot easier (though going down stairs was pretty painful).

I went to PT yesterday, said that the weight bearing was going great. We went through my normal range of motion and stretching, with the added ouchies of beginning to crank a bit on my external rotation now that I'm over three weeks out. That did not feel pleasant, but I was told it's totally fine which means I don't care at all. I could care less if they move me to tears and make me scream from pain as long as it means it will get me back to running! I have an easier time sucking it up and dealing with pain/discomfort than I do when I have to back off at the slightest sign of pain (that just seems so mentally weak to give in right away...looserville!). Anyway, it's nice to finally have some discomfort I can finally work through. It makes me feel like we are getting somewhere.

We talked about walking, he said I could start to do short walks around the house without crutches! OMG, so excited. I can cook/clean/do my thing. I almost exploded with joy!

After I did my exercises he told me to stand up sans crutches. Okay, no problem, I got this! Then he said to take a couple of steps. Yippee! I assume this is going to be 100% smooth and there will be nothing to it. Heck, I've been walking for 36 years. I took a step, full of confidence and totally certain of my body--zero hesitation. My left foot hit the ground in front of me and I just about went down. So close to a full face plant in front of a bunch of people (who got a kick out it, haha)! Totally jello leg with stiffness and soreness. It just did.not.work.right.at.all. Crazy and not at all what I expected. I tried to take a few more steps and it wasn't pretty and I was soooooo shaky.

Dang, I guess I need to learn to walk again. Who's body is this? It's certainly not mine! So, no crutch free walking in the house for now (dammit) BUT I can do one crutch around the house for short bursts. This is almost as good, I can carry stuff (coffee!). I still need both most of the time, but I am going to work on a more normal gait pattern and try to really be aware of extension on my surgical leg. It hurts so I guess I haven't been doing it. If I think about it, I can do it no problem and hopefully the leg will stretch out and it'll begin to feel better.

I'm getting slowly back to being a normal human. That's exciting. There are about four or five different things that are popping in my hip now. I hate it, but I guess that's normal. The swelling makes all the tendons slide a bit different and pop over things. I was told it'll be like that for a while. Dang, the hip is a tricky joint.

I have been having fun getting the house furnished! I got some awesome wall lamps on Craigslist from a lady who moved from Vail to east Denver and wanted to get rid of her "mountain" decor! I love these and she only wanted $7 for them...are you kidding me?

I also found a great artist in Denver and bought a couple of painting from her. These are great and look great in the house! So exciting! I still need a TON of stuff for the walls, but it's getting there!

Matt named him Seymour!

I named him Mr. Murray

I'm still blown away by the views here! This was a couple of days ago when the sun was starting to set behind us.

Chin Up!

2011-10-10T10:51:00.000-04:00

I have got to find a way to embrace this injury and recovery, I'm just not in a great place right now. It seems with every step forward and progression, there is a set back. I know this is how it is supposed to go but I really thought it would be easier!

It will be week 3 tomorrow, which means I'll get to begin my weaning from the crutches! I think this will be a huge mental boost for me, I should begin to gain some independence! I totally cracked this weekend and broke down in tears (I never do that!). I am just mentally exhausted by having ask for everything. Can I have a glass of water/could you carry the laundry to the machine/we need to go into town and get bread...everything I want and need is 100% dependent on Matt. He's been great, but he's slowly getting over it, too. Why shouldn't he? It's no fun having to constantly help someone and that's not how things generally work around here. He works and helps with the dogs, that's all I ever ask of him. I love doing the cooking, cleaning, errand running, organizing in our life. Now, I can't do any of it and it's not getting done the way I want it to. It's driving me crazy and making me crabby (and I don't have a right to be crabby, I need to just let stuff go. Really, who cares if there's dust or dog hair on the floor and the dishes are put away in a timely manner? Okay, I do, a lot!)

I started external rotation in the middle of last week (I was terrified)! It's going great and actually feels really awesome. There is very little range of motion when I do it (or the therapist does it) and it's really tight, but it's not at all painful. It feels achey but in a really good way, like finally getting up after a long car ride and being able to move some muscles that have been totally stuck in one position for a long time. The problem is still with my internal rotation, it really hurts and I don't think it should. Whenever I rotate to the point that engages my repair (according to the PT--I have no idea what the heck is going on in my hip and what movements push things certain ways--it confusing!), it is a bad, ugly sharp pain. It really doesn't seem to be easing, either. I don't like that! I have some other ouchies, but I think these are par for the course. The pinch is still there if I close my hip angle too much, one of these days I'll be able to put on my own socks and shoes! My left foot is also just icky looking, it's really off color and freezing cold, but again, I think that's pretty normal because of the amount of traction they used during surgery and my lack of mobility. I'll address all of these issues when I meet with Dr. White in Denver next week.

So, this week I'm really going to try to dig down deep and find something good to focus on. I have a lot of long term things to look forward to like biking with resistance and someday running again (just over 5 months if I keep on track!). Yet, I need a short term positive to look at and aim for that I can get excited for. I'll find it, I'm sure, I just need to start looking!

Week Two, Learning New Lessons

2011-10-04T10:45:00.001-04:00

I used to do this stretch (but even deeper than she is) ALL THE TIME! Come to find out it was about the worst thing ever I could do for my hips. Yikes, lesson learned. I was talking with my PT about protecting my right hip (which has WAY WAY worse FAI according to the scans in it than the left that I just fixed but isn't too terribly symptomatic at the moment). He showed me the number one motion to avoid and sure enough, that was it. I rarely stretch when I run, but since my hips ache a lot, I did that pretty much everyday. I thought I was helping to loosen muscles up, instead I was apparently smashing my misshapen femur into my labrum. Who knew?

I'm two weeks post op today, 22 weeks away from running again (talk about an overwhelming timeline)! I was hoping to begin to wean off the crutches starting yesterday but they are thinking I should wait another week. I'll talk it over more with them later this week and see where we are at. I was really planning on rocking this rehab and kicking ass but I guess the mental and physical toughness I claim to have isn't enough and time is the only key into getting better.

The muscles spasms are slowly easing, thankfully. I have a really, really sore quad muscle and my hip is generally achy. PT really worked on loosening those up yesterday and my passive ROM went better once everything relaxed a bit in there. They actually stayed loose for my evening session (at home, with Matt playing PT), so that was awesome. It's back this morning, but I'm going to work on some self massage with my stick. I think once the stitches are out, it'll be easier to massage my anterior hip and keep things a bit happier in there.

New movements and exercises are being added everyday, so that's fun. My hip screams at me if I push a movement too far. It's a very black and white line on some certain movements. This sharp pains scare the heck out me but they keep reassuring me that if it only happens every once and while it'll be okay.

I'm making my first new Colorado friends in rehab! So funny. It's where I'm spending most of my time. When I'm not there, I just lay around the house. Crutch walking/hopping just aggravates my hip, so rest is king for the time being. I'd love to be able to go into town and get some things for the house and explore, but that's not happening until I can get down to at least one crutch so I can carry things. The house will get decorated (at least somewhat) at some point.

A huge shout out to Cindi! She crushed her PR at Twin Cities and got herself a nice and secure BQ! I am so thrilled for her!

Ups and Downs

2011-10-02T14:36:00.001-04:00

This was to be expected, of course, but there have been a ton of ups and downs the past couple of weeks. It's kind of like a race, right off the bat I was hurting but actually feeling way better than I thought I would (like taking off at a crazy pace the first 1/4 mile of a 5k and not really even noticing). I thought it was going to be a breeze! Now, the reality of this long journey is setting in and I need to pace myself. Unlike a race, though, there is no pushing as hard as possible to get there as quickly as possible. That's the frustrating part!

One of my PT's was telling me how the surgeons don't really warn people of the challenges of this particular rehab (and post op pain) since it would scare too many people away (...and there is no way for this injury to heal on it's own without a surgical fix). This is not a basic run of the mill knee or shoulder fix. The hip joint is deep, complex and surrounded by a ton of muscles. And, they also need to dislocate it with a lot of traction to get in there. He's seen a TON of hip patients, and said we all go through the same learning process, reality check and mini mental meltdown.

Where I spend all my time now either resting, icing, stretching, or doing my exercises.
At least I have a TV, comfy bed for the exercises and an amazing view!

I'll have a number of hours where I feel amazing and totally forget I just had surgery. Then, seemly out of nowhere, my hip will start really hurting. All of the pains I'm feeling are normal and to be expected. There is a lot of throbbing and general soreness but there is also the really sharp pinch I get if I move the wrong way. Those should all gradually lessen over time, I guess once the swelling inside of the joint goes down that helps a lot. I'm still fighting with muscle spasms, I can't seem to shake those and I find myself just generally fatigued right now. I feel totally exhausted a lot of the time. I'll be glad when my energy levels bounce back, that's for sure!

Rehab Room! (at some point)

My house is SLOWLY getting organized. I can't do much being stuck on crutches, but it's getting there. We have our master just about set up, save for a few things that need to get up on the walls. My "rehab room" is ready. Of course, I can't get down on the yoga mat (well, I could probably get down but there is no way I'd get back up--we are going to try it out in PT next week, I hope!) so I'm doing most of my exercises on the bed. The new bike trainer is awesome, but they don't want me on it yet since I can't get it set to zero resistance. I want to talk to them about that more, since I really think if I just have my good leg clipped in and a running shoe on my bad leg I should be able to spin that without messing anything up. I'm gong to have to get a TV in that room, I think once I'm cleared for resisted biking I'll be in there for several hours everyday.

Week One Post Op

2011-09-28T17:06:00.000-04:00

I now realize why people don't go back to work too quickly after this surgery. The PT is really time consuming. I'm one week post surgery and I pretty much spend all day icing, having stuff done to me or doing my exercises.

I am so lucky to be able to rehab with the staff at Howard Head, that's huge! The downside to that is the drive to get there. I need to plan 90 minutes to get there, I'm in PT for just about 2 hours and then it's a 90 minute drive back back home. That takes up my morning and early afternoon. I get back, grab some lunch and then have to hop back into bed with my game ready on for a couple of cycles. After that, I need to repeat what went down in PT and have Matt spend about 30-45 minutes moving my hip and leg around with the exercises he learned from the therapist. Then it's back on the ice machine again, make supper and eat and back to bed with the machine hooked up until I fall asleep. Wake up and repeat.

There isn't anything too exciting about PT, lots of gentle little things but there are so many it really takes up a lot of time. I have been having a huge problem with different muscles going into nasty spasms on my surgical leg. It's mainly my hamstring, but all different ones are upset and really going off at times. It's painful and annoying. I called the doctor's office, they seemed to just want to be sure it wasn't anything serious causing the pain, like a clot (see, I'm still getting in trouble for flying so soon!)...it's not that, my leg looks fine and the pains certainly seem like basic muscle spasms. They aren't fans of muscle relaxants since he said they don't really work all that great considering all the side effects (I do get stupid tired on those things, I have never been a fan and sure as heck couldn't drive) but I feel like I'm surrounded by other patients who got operated on in Vail who are using them to keep their muscles calmer. I'm trying to stop the "muscle guarding" I've been doing, but I believe it's really subconscious. I know I was doing this in MN and I guess my body is still in enough discomfort that it feels like it needs to keep the muscles around the hip tense to protect it. Makes sense, but I'm working against myself when this is happening.

Overall, I think I'm really doing well. When someone asks me why I'm on crutches and I tell them I had hip surgery 8 days ago, they are shocked. I'm trying to reprogram my brain a little bit, though. I have spent years learning how to block out and ignore pain and then when it does take ahold of me, I have tried to teach myself to embrace it and make it a positive thing. That's great for training and racing!!! It's not so great when rehabbing a hip. It's so difficult for me to say "when" to the PT so he knows where we are at the flexion, extension and all the good stuff. This is not a push through the pain type of rehab and I find that very frustrating. I want so badly to be able to attack this full force and I can't.

Here are some pictures from the new house, sadly I haven't made the 5 minute walk down to the cove but Matt and puppies can! I'm so jealous!

Isn't this such an amazing place to live? I can't believe it still!

There guys are everywhere!
Suunta loves watching them out our windows and they walk right up to the house!

Suunta loves her new swimming hole!

FAI Rehab...the first few days

2011-09-27T16:33:00.000-04:00

The first night after surgery was fairly rough. I didn't sleep too well, my hip was hurting and so was my left foot. The foot just absolutely throbbed all night long. I'm assuming this is from the traction they put me in to pull apart my hip joint for the surgery. I didn't have PT until the afternoon, but it actually came up pretty quickly it seemed. There were some realizations that first morning. The big one was that couldn't dress myself (and still can't a week later), holy loss of independence! I just can't move my hip enough. How utterly frustrating for someone like me.

I made it to PT on day one post-surgery, was scared silly and just exhausted to boot. Not much happened and she was really gentle with me. She slowly moved my hip around just a little bit to try to keep the joint loose and help with the swelling (and there was a ton of swelling) and then I had to get on the bike. I knew that was coming, it's common protocol for FAI patients to get right on the bike and pedal with only the good leg but allow the surgery side to "go along for the ride". I was moving so slowly and it was really uncomfortable but I got it done. I felt a bit looser afterwards.

I was dropped off my friend's house afterwards, where I'd spend the next couple of nights until my trip home. She was amazing, really awesome and totally took care of me. I needed that. I underestimated how much help I'd need and I'm lucky to have someone who was willing to play nurse and take care of me those rough couple of days.

PT day 2 and 3 were more of the same, but with adding in some isometrics of my abs, butt and quads. The pain on the 2nd day was probably worse than the first, but I also was trying to be all bad-ass Jen and not take any pain meds which I was told was not the best course of action. The pain was causing me to really muscle guard and was making everyone's life a bit more difficult.

On Friday after PT was my big trip home. The trip that didn't make my doctor's all that happy (understatement) and that I did NOT think it through enough. There is no way anyone who goes through such a big surgery should even consider flying alone so soon afterwards. It was so horribly challenging, I can't even explain. I had a small bag to check and then for carry-on's my backpack and the Game Ready. I had called ahead to arrange assistance and a wheelchair and they were aware I wasn't able to do anything on my own. It started out rough right off the bat. At the curb, they checked me in and took my bag (easy enough) and then called for a chair. Getting to the gate was not fun, the lady pushing me wasn't happy about having to carry my Game Ready and she was basically just in a horrid mood. Security wasn't too rough, but it took a long time since I had to get a pat down and have someone take off and put on my shoes for me (ouch!). I was wheeled in a bit further and transferred to a cart. That wasn't easy and it was hard to get in and out of the cart and hang on while he flew around the airport. He dropped me off, with all my stuff, at the gate and it hit me that I was stuck there for well over two hours and I couldn't leave since I was all alone. I have him a ten dollar tip for a 2 minute ride and begged him to take some more money and please buy me a bottle of water so I'd have something to drink.

I got my drink, thankfully, and just waited there all alone. Then it hit me, I had to go to the bathroom. Now what? I have a $3000 rented machine I was responsible for and my bag with all my personal belonging next to me and no way to move them or anyone to watch them for me...I was totally trapped. That really stunk. I was so sad, so sore, exhausted and just feeling really alone and basically abandoned. I waited there for a solid 90 minutes or so until a extremely nice flight attendant sat across the way from me. I explained my situation and he offered to watch my stuff while I crutched my way over to the bathroom. My gosh, do I owe that guy! It took me forever to get over to the bathroom and back but at least I felt better!

I was able to board the flight before anyone and I was lucky enough to have a first class ticket in the first row. That made life much easier! The flight attendant knew I needed to get up every 20 minutes or so with him spotting me and he also checked on me about every 5 minutes to see how I was doing. It was funny and sad all mixed into one. Everyone in first class was drinking, of course, and having a good time but they also felt pretty bad for me. I was feeling rough and probably looking even worse than I felt. Moving about during the flight, with crutches, was pretty shaky but I got it done. After we landed, I waited until just about everyone was off the plane before I got out but they had a chair right at the door and that made it pretty easy. This lady was more than happy to carry my stuff and was in a great mood--what a difference. At this point I was utterly exhausted and feeling pretty horrible but at least I knew I made it back. She got me to baggage claim, gathered my suitcase and got me to the curb where Matt was able to pick me up. We still had a 90 minute drive home, but at least I was with someone!

That was such a rough day, I hope to never feel so alone again. I'm a pretty independent person, I can take care of myself and prefer to do things on my own. The surgery changed that, I needed help more than I could have imagined and I am learning to ask for it, finally.

There are a few things I would have done differently for the surgery and the first few days after. I would have been certain to have had someone with me at the hospital that had some clue about the surgery, how involved it really is, and that would have written down all the stuff Dr. Larson told them about the procedure once he was done so I could know his impressions right afterwards.

I would have NOT tried to fly home so quickly. Today I'm a week out and I can imagine flying now, but not alone! It was stupid to think I'd be fine and able to take care of myself. The best part of the whole ordeal was finding out how wonderful friends can be, taking on the responsibility of caring for someone 2 to 4 days after surgery is no easy task! I don't know if I could do it. I'm blessed that I had someone willing to do that for me and do it full force with a smile on their face!

FAI Surgery Report--Part Two

2011-09-25T17:43:00.001-04:00

Horrible Pre-Op picture with my 15 year old glasses on, yikes.

I woke up recovery a bit confused, but more than that, I was anxious to know if he was able to fix me. I think the first question out of my mouth was what time is it. I wanted to know about how long I was in there. I was in the OR around 10, perhaps a bit earlier and I woke up a tad after one. The second thing I said is that I was really, really nauseous. One quick injection into my IV and that problem was totally resolved. I received some more pain medication, even though I still felt really drugged and dizzy, I was hurting. I was in there a while, but it wasn't too exciting and I don't remember this all that well. I was tired and really sore and just wanted to sleep.

The Game Ready and my walker
(can't believe I own a walker, ugh)

After a while the Game Ready people came in and filled us in on how use the machine...once again, I barely remember any of this. (The Game Ready machine is amazing. It has a huge wrap that goes around my waist, hip and left upper leg that circulated cold water and applies compression. Hurts so good! I am supposed to keep this thing on as much as I can stand.) During all this, my hip started killing me, I thought there may have been a block that was wearing off and asked, nope. Eek, another dose of pain meds showed up. After a while, they got me into a wheel chair, gathered up my stuff and sent me out of there. It was a bit quick, I was so VERY shaky on the crutches, I can't believe I even made in into the car. It took me forever to get into the hotel room, but I made it somehow, I still can't believe I tried all that. It would have been way too easy to fall and undo all the repairs that were just made.

With my Game Ready and crutches within reach (and, of course, the puppies)

I don't have a ton of info from Dr. Larson about what happened, but I have the basics. He said there was bruising in there...this seemed odd to hear and I'll ask more about that when I go in for my follow up. It's not like I've been forcing running, I've been basically on total rest all summer save for a few test runs as they prescribed. He was able to repair the labral tear, I can see two anchors and stitches in the photos they sent me home with. He took off some bone from my femur and from the rim to fix the impingements and he did the AIIS decompression. So, everything he said he may need to do, he did. I consider this a good thing since at least there was plenty in there to fix and get me better finally!

The first night was pretty uncomfortable, but okay. The strangest thing was the size of my hip and thigh from the surgery. It was massive, as in even my giant stretchy yoga-type pants barely fit. It looked so strange to me! Anyway, there was one night to rest and then on to PT! They don't mess around :)

FAI Surgery Report--Part One

2011-09-24T09:58:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I'm finally home and repaired! Wow, what a crazy week. I flew into MSP on Monday and headed to the hotel. Tuesday I was up bright and early at 5am so I could get in a cup of coffee before I had to stop fluids. It was worth missing a couple of hours of sleep and it's not like I slept all that well anyway. I love, love, love my coffee :)

We got to the hospital and everything moved pretty quickly, oddly I wasn't even all that nervous. I think I was just ready to get fixed and tackle the long recovery process. They got me checked in, moved me to a pre-op waiting area where I got changed and a nurse sat with me while I filled out a bunch of additional paperwork (which I believe is for a long term FAI study from what I can remember), took my weight, asked some basic questions and got me fitted for my new best friend, my crutches.

The anesthesiologist came in, asked me even more questions and warned me that the first few days would be pretty rough. That made me a little nervous, but I was still just ready to get going. I was, without a doubt, much more worried about going under then I was about the surgery! The unknown was very unsettling to me, when he explained I'd have no sense of time, that was weird. The fact that I would go to sleep and wake up feeling like it was a second later even though is was much longer just seemed so wrong and unsettling.

Dr. Larson flew in with a smile on his face and in a great mood, marked my left hip, calmed my nerves a ton. He explained that he planned on fixing the labral tear, shaving bone if they needed (they would manipulate me while I was under to see where/what was impinging) and then see if he thought the AIIS decompression was needed. He also said that if he got in there and nothing looked too bad, he would do nothing. He said it didn't happen often, but it did happen. We talked about my follow up and, most importantly, my rehab. He was THRILLED to hear I was going to Howard Head once I got back to Colorado. He knows the guys there and reminded me how lucky I am to be able to rehab at the best hip place in the world! That was pretty comforting.

A few minutes later, Larson's PA Kevin came in. He talked about my post-op medications and found out I was flying home Friday. He was not thrilled, oops. He left to talk to Dr. Larson and brought me back some compression socks, talked about taking aspirin and told me I'd have to get up with my crutches every 20 minutes with a spotter on the plane. Thankfully, it's a short flight back to Denver. This is the one thing I really didn't think about and I'll type more up on later. Trying to fly alone, even with a first class ticket and arranged help from the airport was a massive undertaking and a huge mistake. It was probably one the most challenging things I've undertaken and I was totally confident it would be a breeze. Nope.

Shortly after, a nurse came in and took me to the OR. It was huge, there were a ton of folks in there who all introduced themselves to me (I barely remember any of this). They got me up on a tiny little table, put in the IV and all I remember is feeling dizzy and then waking up in recovery.

Happy Hip Thoughts!

2011-09-16T11:46:00.000-04:00

We are full steam ahead with the surgery! Yikes. I have a couple of days to attempt to get the house in Fort Collins organized and then I fly back to MSP. I'm going to be pretty useless for a while, so I hope I can get some of it done.

So, everyone think happy hip thoughts on Tuesday :)

Sigh

2011-09-12T11:59:00.000-04:00

I should be just finishing up registering for the 2012 Boston Marathon right now. Instead, I'm on the phone working on arranging my hip surgery. Not exactly the fall I was planning for. Twin Cities is in a couple of weeks, I was really hoping to do that marathon this year. Depending on if I can still keep the repair scheduled for next Tuesday (still waiting on the insurance company) and if my rehab goes well, I wonder if there a shot I'd be able to run it next year? That would awesome!

I have today and tomorrow to finish up packing, we are hitting the road Wednesday for Colorado. I am so excited to get out there! I wonder how long Bentley will have to wait for his first snowfall? He's going to love, love, love it!

Skol Vikings!

2011-09-11T10:33:00.001-04:00

Yay! It's football time! Okay, that's a really frightening picture but I do get excited for the season opener. I'll grab a jersey (I'm feeling Harvin today, I think) and my horns and get ready to watch some NFL this afternoon!

I'm bummed because I LOVE when I can run a hard long run early Sunday morning, get back shower and eat and then just spend the remainder of the day watching football, recovering and resting my legs.

I have been REALLY stressed out about everything with my hip the past few days. I'm so worried that BC/BS FL will just instantly deny coverage for the surgery, making us have to appeal and reschedule everything. Heck, they just started covering it a couple of months ago and Dr. Larson's office hasn't ever dealt with BC/BS Florida before for this procedure so they aren't sure how tough they'll be. I guess I won't know for a few days, but we have much planning to do still. I do have my PT all set up for the first 3 weeks after surgery. I'll see Toni Dauwalter in MN for the 3 days right after and then I'll fly back to Colorado on Saturday. Then, I'm all set up with the awesome Howard Head team for every day for the 2nd week and then 3 days the 3rd week. I don't have a ton of PT allowances with our insurance, so they really want to hit it hard right away since that's the critical part of rehabbing. Howard Head is THE PLACE to go for hip surgery PT, I'm very lucky I'll be able to have access to them. See, I may not be able to run out in Colorado but it is working out for this anyway.

My hip has been a painful mess, I want to get fixed so badly! I want my life back, I haven't been this still ever. Even after my bad riding accident, I was only really shut down for a couple of months. This is crazy. We are heading out to Colorado in a couple of days and I'm so terrified of the amount of pain I'm going to be in just unloading BABs. This is not a way to live life, that's for sure.

Hopefully things will continue to move forward this next week!

Numbers

2011-09-09T08:30:00.000-04:00

I love tracking numbers in my head when I'm training. Miles, paces, durations...it's all fun to obsess over. I always have mental countdowns to different goals. Three days until my hard tempo, four weeks until a half, two more months until my taper starts for a marathon. I adore stuff like that, it's fun to look forward to those things.

Now my numbers are boring with a mix of scary. Yesterday I drove eight hours round trip for a five minute test! Totally crazy, and really boring. I'm getting super burned out on the drive down to The Cities, but I'm getting done what needs to be done to start moving forward and dealing with this injury. Everything was moving so slow starting all the way back in April. I was hurt, deep down I knew I was really hurt but I kept staying positive and I was convinced that rest and PT was going to fix whatever was wrong. For possibly the first time in my life, I tried using patience. It didn't work, I should have known better haha. Now, things are moving so quickly it's getting hard to keep track of everything.

The number that makes me the most nervous is the return to sport timeline. This means being able to begin to just train again, which is only the beginning of getting back into shape. It's four to six months, and then up to one year for full function. Holy crap. Oh, well, I can't even take the dogs for a decent walk right now without being in major pain for the remainder of the day. So, I have no problem doing what needs to be done but I wish it was an easier fix.

Since my last post, I've heard from the doctor what he is planning on doing when he's in there. Of course, he won't know until he sees exactly what's going on inside of my hip but there is a basic plan. I've gotten yet more radiation with a 3D cat scan yesterday. Am I glowing yet? My poor body. Anyway, that was the 5 minute test that I drove down for. Hey, it's better than staying perfectly still in a MRI for an hour! I've been trying to gather notes and get my providers to send over all their notes so they can submit everything to BC/BS. I've seen their protocol for the surgery and it looks like I hit every single one of their criteria perfectly (and there is a lot!) but I fear they may not want to instantly (to them, not to me, I've been fighting this thing since spring) want to approve it.

The plan is pretty much what I figured. Attempt to repair the labral tear, if not repairable he'll clean it up the best he can. Reshape my femur (this was the reason for the 3d cat scan yesterday, to map that out). Lastly, and I don't even understand what this is, is a possible iliac spine decompression.

I'm sure all this stuff is crazy boring to read about, but it'll be nice for me to have a record of the process.

2011-09-07T09:19:00.000-04:00

I met with Toni Dauwalter again yesterday morning. She had me fill her in on what went down since I saw her last week. I told her the anesthetic injection was followed by a totally pain free run, and that driving home afterwards my hip started to kill me again. She asked how the past few days were running and I filled her in. Then, she went over my body hoping to find something tight or imbalanced outside my hip. She said my sacrum is lined up great now (it wasn't last week) and that nothing felt tight or "off" anywhere in the leg or around the hip. When she did anything that put pressure inside the joint, bam, pain. And, as expected, she asked me if I knew what that all meant. Yep. Her recommendation was to call Dr. Larson's office and get things moving.

Since I have been in complete denial about needing surgery, I never really asked too many question while at Dr. Larson's office. I just kind of took in what he offered but I don't know too much about what will go down as far as getting back. Luckily, Toni was able to calm some of my fears and she thought 4 months back was possible and that the six months I heard from Dr. Larson would be the max. She also knows we are moving, but really wanted to see me the couple of days right after the procedure. Even though I won't be weight bearing for a while, I guess they want me on a bike the day after to keep things moving in there. Interesting. She also sent me home with some additional PT exercises to add to what I've been already doing to get everything as strong as we can now to help with recovery later.

I left a message at the doc's office and his awesome nurse Cindy called me back late yesterday. She still needs to talk everything over with Dr. Larson to see exactly what he'll want to do and make sure that my insurance will cover everything, but right now she found a spot for me on the 20th since they just had a cancellation.

I'm thrilled I might be able to get this thing fixed sooner rather than later, BUT, we are supposed to move into our new house on the 19th. Eek. Poor Matt. He's busier than he's ever been with work and already stressed about taking the time to get us out there. Now, I don't know how we are going to work this out timing wise. We either need to head a couple of days earlier so I can at least be able have one or two days to get the house at least somewhat set up (I'll just fly back by myself in the evening the day before the surgery) or we need to just stay here an extra week. I would actually rather just get out to Colorado so I can do some things around the house, I am going to be completely useless for several weeks since I won't be able to put any weight on my left leg in the beginning.

I have impeccable timing folks! Of course, the timing may change once I hear back from Dr. Larson's office.

Low Lows

2011-09-05T08:55:00.000-04:00

I was hopeful Friday, I really was. I ran four miles and didn't feel terrible. I felt ready to let myself think about running and racing again and I was so happy. It's like someone flipped a switch in my brain and I was 100% ready to be back into my normal routine. Saturday morning I was wide awake at 5am, pumped to get out there and just jog around a bit. I had no desire to push it, just to keep testing it out as directed so I was just hoping to be out there for another 30 minutes or so. It wasn't good. My leg felt perfect for about a 1/2 mile and then all the old pains started showing up again. I made it a whole mile, stopped stretched and calmed down mentally and then turned back around to slowly jog home. I couldn't do it, I had to stop and just walk back. Bummer. I chalked it up to a bad day and figured I just wait until Sunday. Yesterday, same scenario and my hip is killing me just lying around again and it's keeping me up at night. Arg.

I head back down to Minneapolis this afternoon and will meet up with the PT tomorrow morning. I REALLY hope that she finds some muscle/tendon thing that is super tight that we can get loose which in turn relieve the hip pain. If not, I guess it's time to accept that the hip needs to be fixed. It's a long rehab, but it better than the situation I'm in now.

Blah

Hummmmm

2011-09-02T12:06:00.000-04:00

So, three teeny tiny runs in and I'm a perfect 50/50 mix of hopeful and worried. My first run, with the numb joint was awesome! Yesterday I did my PT exercises early in the morning and headed out to test things out a few hours later. I think I was a bit too aggressive with the exercises (yep, did more than I was told to, I guess more isn't always better) since both my hamstrings were pretty sore when I tried to run. I only went 2.5 miles again, hip wasn't terrible and my back was totally fine.

Today I ran 4 miles and will do the PT later on this afternoon to break things up. The run was so, so physically (it rocked mentally, I'm so happy to be out running....SO happy). The hip felt uncomfortable, but not painful. I am so out of shape, though, a nine minute mile takes about the same effort that a six minute mile did in the spring. Yikes. It'll come back, so I'm not worried, but it's amazing how slow my body needs to go right now. Anyway, the hip felt pretty good until the last mile but there wasn't any pain bad enough to make me want to stop or walk. The entire left upper leg feels really, really weak. That's not helping, I'm sure. Now, a couple of hours later, the hip is throbbing but nothing like it was a couple of months ago when I last tried to run. I guess it'll just be more of the same over the next few days until I head back down to The Cities.

At least I'm doing something!

2011-09-01T08:35:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a big day in working towards getting to the bottom of this hip deal! I still don't know 100% what it is that's going on, but it's a complex issue and at least I feel like I'm on the correct path towards resolving it.

I started out with a trip to see Toni Duawalter at Accelerated Sports, a physical therapist that deals with runners. Dr. Larson and his staff couldn't say enough great things about her and her work with runners! She had me jump up on the table and looked me over for quite a while. My left lower back has a spot that is pretty tight and that is causing my pelvis to be all out of whack. It was really interesting, when I was on my stomach and contracting my glutes and hamstring to raise my leg, there was zero pain on the right side and a lot of pain in my left back when I was lifting my left leg. She would put pressure on a spot on my back to line up my pelvis, I'd lift my leg and it wouldn't hurt at all....crazy. She also watched me walk on the treadmill and run for about a 1/4 mile. She said my stride looked great, so that's good but that my muscles on my left leg have really lost a lot of their tone (not surprising, I've been so very protective of that leg). I have some gentle PT exercises to work on over the next few days, so that'll be good. I have to try to teach my body to fire my hamstring on the left side without using my hip flexors. Easier said than done, it takes a TON on concentration. Hopefully I can retrain my left leg to work smarter. I have another appointment with her next Tuesday.

After that appointment, I had a couple of hours to burn before heading to CDI. I went to Barnes and Noble. That was probably the most expensive part of the day, haha. I have no self control around books!

I went to CDI to get my hip joint injected with a numbing solution under fluoroscopy. I wasn't really looking forward to this, the thought of a big needle being pushed into my my hip capsule from my groin area seemed like it was going to hurt. It didn't hurt at all, and I had no issues watching them do it. He didn't even numb the skin, and in all honesty, that made the whole thing easier. One quick stab and he was in there, he checked the position with dye and then injected the numbing solution. I'm sure if they had to do it again if the position was off, I'd be a bit on edge, but this was a walk in the park.

I headed back over to Dr. Larson's office. He manipulated my leg all around and we talked about what Toni told me. The plan was to go for a short run with my numb hip joint after he was done with me, call them and let them know how it felt, and then try to run over the next few days until I go back to see Toni and then we'll try to decide where to go from there. He went over with me where he thinks we are with this (I'll say it again, Dr. Larson, his staff and the people he has sent me to ROCK. Everyone there really takes the time to make sure I know exactly what's going on, answer all of my questions and are amazing at their job!). He said the tough thing is that it's impossible to be 100% certain with what is the main problem since everything is related hip/back/pelvis. The scary part is that hip surgery to fix the labral tear may or may not fix everything so we want to try a few other things first and exhaust those avenues before jumping into surgery. With going into the hip, won't know until it's done and it's a LONG rehab, he stressed this many times. He did say that IF the labral tear is the main issue, that 95% of his athletes get back to where they were! Those are great numbers.

I headed back to my car, tossed on my running shoes and went for my first run in over 9 weeks! A huge part of me wanted it to still hurt, that meant that the hip joint wasn't the issue, but another part of me just really wanted to run pain free even if it was for a short time. Well, nothing hurt. I was, at the time, thrilled. I am so very out of shape, but it felt so good to be out there running and to have nothing hurt in my left hip OR my left back (my left arch is still bothering me, dang, Toni said we can talk about that once we get the hip thing figured out). I even opened up my stride a couple of short times in my little 2 1/2 miler and I haven't had the confidence to do that since April! I swear running and not hurting was like a someone injected a happy drug into me, I was just so at peace to be doing what I'm so used to doing. I still am in shock in how terrible of shape I'm in right now, it didn't help that it was humid and 85 degrees out there...what's up with that Minnesota?

I jumped back in my car and headed north again, about 4 or 5 hours after the injection while driving my hip started to kill me :(. I guess the anesthetic started to wear off. Uf da, it kept me up most of the night last night, but feels much better this morning. I'll head out for a run this afternoon again and see how that feels. Hopefully, it'll feel okay. Hopefully that 9 weeks I took off helped to calm things down and those PT exercises will help to even things out down there. I'm not totally confident but I'm extremely hopeful, I should know so much more after the next few days. I'm nervous for today's little run, it's majorly storming outside right now so I won't head out for a few hours...fingers crossed!

No News Is, Well, No News

2011-08-28T12:10:00.000-04:00

I had my appointment with Dr. Larson on Thursday. First off, what a great experience it was dealing with him and his staff. They made me feel important and really let me know they will work with me to get back. Even though I'm dying to get to my new house in Colorado, I almost wish I was staying in The Cities for the winter to have them get me 100% again. This guy does athletes, real athletes and really understands the deep desire/need athletes have to get back competing. I will always fly back to MSP to see him for anything hip/knee related! He has a customer for life!

I talked with his nurse first, filled her in, next his PA came in and took a TON of notes and manipulated my leg. Dr. Larson came in, took a ton of time to listen to me and looked me over. He had told me (more on this in a minute) that on my original MRI that he did see a small labral tear and that I have very deep hip sockets and a bit of a misshapen femur head (FAI) that could be the source of the pain. The plan was to get a 3T MRI, make certain the stress reaction is gone and if so, get a numbing shot in the joint and to go for a run. I was pumped with the idea of running, though not thrilled about the idea of possibly needing surgery to correct my joint if that's the problem, it's a LONG rehab...he said 3 months of very little, possibly back to training in 6.

Off to the MRI I go at a place about 10 minutes from the doctors office that was also equipped to administer the injection in the hip joint. It didn't take terribly long, about 45 minutes and then I was to wait around for a STAT reading on it (I tell you, this doctor gets things done!). The radiologist was supposed to rule out a stress fx and then let them go ahead and arrange the shot. The nurse called me in, said the radiologist told her that I shouldn't get the shot from the pathology he saw. I assumed that meant there is still a problem with the stress reaction (of course, they won't tell you anything until your doctor get's the report), I wasn't thrilled about it, but I finally thought I had an answer. They sent the report over to Larson's office, his nurse (who is amazingly kind and extremely helpful) gave me a call as soon as they got it and said that it showed NO stress fx and that the labrum appeared intact (okay, I wonder if it's actually all right?...and, if it is, then what the hell is the matter with my leg). Arg, I should have gotten the shot and went running, that was the plan...something got lost in the communication with the radiologist and at this point the day was pretty much over. So, I headed back north.

Dr. Larson told me that he wants to do the shot as he planned, examine me after and then possibly send me for a run if he thinks it's a good idea. He's being very careful which is great. He has also put a call into a PT who is supposed to be the best around for dealing with runners. He said she works on Team USA MN all the time. That's the hold up right now, she hasn't called me back yet even though he personally called her and ask her to fit me in asap. So, the plan is to go down next week, Wednesday or Thursday since those are the two days he see patients in the office. He wants the PT to look me over in the morning, go CDI to get the injection done and then go to his office to get examined and possibly go for a run! I am wanting to run, pain free, more than I have ever wanted anything in my life.

So, I'm no further than I was except now I'm in really, really good hands and I know that stress reaction is healed. At first, I was upset/frustrated that I don't know any real answers and I've waited 8 weeks for this day not running and trying to be patient (which is not easy for me). By today, I have convinced myself that the 8 weeks fixed whatever was wrong (perhaps that stress reaction in the neck of the femur was the culprit all along) and that I'll be back to training by next week! I'm already trying to figure out a timeline to get a base back and when I can think about training to race again....I miss racing soooooooo much.

Of course, my hip still hurts, so that's an issue, but maybe it just needs to get strengthened and back in the mind set of working hard again. I've been so protective of it the last few months, I bet all the muscles have completely atrophied. The one thing that still lingers in the back of my mind is the SHARP pain (as in, drop to the floor pain) I get every now and again when standing up from a chair. It has only happened a few times but it's a scary kind of pain. I haven't had that happen with running, though, so I'm not worried about that on the roads.

Stuff always hurts a bit and I can still be out there training, maybe I'm at that point? Maybe I'm not. I'm not going to know until I try again. Next week!

Good Things

2011-08-18T09:36:00.002-04:00

No, nothing is happening running wise, but some good stuff has been going on!

1. Garlic Scapes!! Are you kidding me? These things are awesome if you like/love garlic. I didn't even know what they were a month ago, now I'm obessed. Matt stopped at the farmer's market one day and a lady gave him a big bunch to try out. They were awesome. We ended up buying a ton, grilling them with green beans (my favorite!) and just chopping them up raw in salads. Then, I Googled them and found that people love to pickle 'um up. It's a short season, so I went a bought a few pounds and we went to town. One recipe was basically a dill pickle recipe and the other was just the scapes pickled in vinegar with red pepper flakes. We've tried them out (yes, a bit too soon but I couldn't wait) and they are sooooooo yummy! The dills ones taste exactly like a really, really garlicky dill pickle. So cool.

2. Finally, a house has been rented for this winter! I'm am so pumped. This place is great, it's up in the foothills west of Fort Collins, Colorado. It's a log house, which I love since I grew up in one. It's mostly furnished, I only need to get some bedroom furniture. It is surrounded by AWESOME trails, right out the door! It's a 5 minute walk to Horseshoe Reservoir, a massive lake. There is a great kitchen, which I've never had and I can get into town with a 15-20 minute drive where there are great organic/vegan/Jen-friendly stores and farmer's markets--I'm going to be a cooking machine out there.

There are also supposed to be a few serious runners in the neighborhood, so that will be great once I'm back and ready to start training again. We have a place to store BABs that's only 1.5 miles away, too!

3. I have a new and very delicious recipe! It's adapted from one in the book Forks Over Knives. Here are the basics (I don't have a photo, I've made it two times this past week and we've just inhaled it).

Chopped garlic
3 cups veggie broth
1 cup red lentils
3 diced sweet potatoes
2 bunches of kale
1 buch spinach
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1/4 cup of chopped fresh mint (this is key!)
salt
fresh ground pepper, to taste
cayenne, to taste

Cook garlic over low heat, either with oil or just use some broth. Add broth and bring to a boil. Toss in the lentils, potatoes and kale....cook until the lentils are soft and sweet potatoes tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in lemon zest, lemon juice, spinach and mint. Turn off heat and adjust seasonings. This is really good, the mix of the lemon juice, mint and cayenne is really refreshing!

Still Just Waiting

2011-08-12T08:43:00.001-04:00

Two more weeks until my appointment down in Minneapolis. I really hope he has some answers for me, I need to feel like I can begin to move forward. My leg is so sore still, despite continued rest. Crazy. The weather has been great this past week, as well, so that hurts. 40's in the morning just scream "go for a run". I'm dying to just run, but I mostly miss racing! At least the puppies are having fun! Look at my Grandma Panda go!

We are still trying to nail down a house for the winter. It's been much more difficult finding all the things we want in a house that we like than I expected. I hope to have something done by this weekend. Doing it remotely is probably the main issue. It's tough to get a feel for a place by photos and questions alone.

There have been some great storms this summer up here! I took a ton of photos of this one, it was awesome watching the clouds swirl and twist all over the place. Matt's had a great summer of "Minnesota" things finally. He's seen a moose, a wolf and the Northern Lights! After several sleepless nights, getting up to look and walk around, last week was great for the lights. Personally, I think the moose is way cooler, but he's always wanted to see the lights. Now, he just needs to see a bear and a walleye and his Minnesota experience will be complete.

Hopefully my next post will be more upbeat with some good news about my hip and some photos of our winter house for this year!

Waiting is the hardest part

2011-07-19T10:39:00.000-04:00

This is really driving me nuts. Full (seriously, I'm not doing anything) rest hasn't changed anything, my hip is hurting 24/7 (this is making me want to just try to run, horrific pain be damned). I had an appointment in the Cities this Friday with a sports doc, but I got a call from the ortho I REALLY wanted to look at my hip so Matt thinks it's best I just go with one doctor instead of getting pulled in different directions.

The guy is Chris Larson down in Edina and he's supposed to be right up there with Philippon at the Steadman Clinic in Vail for hips. He's also very difficult to get into. A couple of weeks ago I talked to his office, they said I needed to send my MRI down there to get reviewed by him to see if he'd even accept me as a patient. I got a message that he looked over my films and will see me. Yay (or maybe not, I'm guessing this means he sees something in there (boo) and that he can fix it (yay, again)). I called his nurse back thinking I'd get right in, hehehe, she said the earliest would be sometime in November. Say what? I explained our situation, that we are leaving in September, she found a spot for me at the end of August. Dang, I'm never going to be running again at this rate.

I'm bumming since I would love to finally know exactly what this injury is before I find our house for the winter and I don't think I'm going to know anytime soon. I've been looking all over for our winter rental, it's been fun but challenging trying to find everything we want, at a price we like, in an area that rocks. The biggest problem has been securing solid, non-satellite, high speed for Matt. We want to be in the mountains, but too far out of town and no DSL.

The places we are looking at are awesome, I just would love to know if I'm going to need to be by well trained PT's over the fall and winter. Matt's obsessed with Bozeman, MT. It's awesome, very pretty but I'm having a hard time finding a place out of town with high speed for him. He's really stuck on the idea of MT, though. I'm obsessed with Telluride. Holy cow, it looks amazing!!! I've found a couple of properties just outside of town that look great and they have solid high speed. I'm all over that! The down side of Bozeman and Telluride is that I wouldn't be near a great sports clinic. I'd love to find a place near Aspen (awesome clinic with Steadman, but also awesome sports rehab!), but it's not easy finding a house and high speed that doesn't require 4WD in that area that is even in the range being affordable. Outside of Boulder in the foothills is, of course, my dream location but I can't find anything to work there.

Anyway, it's been fun looking for a house! I think we'll have to just nail down a place and go with it in the next couple of weeks. I don't want to push this too far and end up really panicking in a month that we don't have a winter place.

If you guys had the flexibility to live anywhere you wanted for the next year, where would it be? I'd love to hear some more fun ideas!

2011-07-08T14:14:00.000-04:00

Fun, getting HD in BABs! Not fun, watching so much TV trying to heal up my hip that I finally cracked and got a better TV in her.

Fun, the TdF! Hours and hours of entertainment! Not fun, watching these guys crash over and over and over...that doesn't help my not-so-strong confidence on the bike.

Fun, getting acupuncture for the first time (trying anything at this point) to get healthy. Not fun, having a ton of needles jammed into my groin, oh my.

I'm still stuck on the pain train with my left leg. Nothing has really changed over the last couple of days. I'm heading down to the Cities in a couple of weeks to see a sports doctor (not an ortho). I also sent my MRI off to get looked over by an awesome orthopedic down in the Cities but it is supposed to take to several weeks to get looked at, yikes. I'm dying to get this thing resolved. I dearly miss being fit, this bites, I haven't done anything for nearly three months! Ugh.

2011-07-06T08:22:00.000-04:00

Thanks guys! It's helpful to get some feedback on this one. I try to play the confident, strong person, but sometimes it's easy to start to question your instincts and toughness. Deep down I know I'm tough, I love feeling like the crazy woman who will push myself as hard as I can and being able to ignore a lot of discomfort. Yet, I was really questioning myself this past week, feeling weak. The whole, get out there and push myself through the pain to prove a point to myself was pretty dumb. Oh, well, this has to get worked out at some point...stuff always does.

I'm still of lost of where to start. It's pretty silly, I have awesome insurance I pay a ton of money for and never use, I'm willing to work as hard as I need to to get healthy and training again yet I just don't have any clue. I just need one person to point me in the right direction and to stick with me until I can find an answer.

I haven't run since Saturday, I have been a mess since that experiment. Just walking the dogs hurts and takes me down. Watching the Tour de France gets me all pumped up (well, the massive crashes do make me nervous about biting it) to pop on P3 and start cycling but the thought of that particular leg motion freaks me out, I'm pretty sure my hip will be popping, catching and yelling as much if not more than running. I may try to do a test ride with Matt later on and see what happens. I'm totally out of shape right now, it's crazy. My cardio is gone, I know it'll come back some enough but I miss feeling super fit.

I also want to know where we'll end up over the winter and a lot of factors deciding that hinge on figuring out where I am and what I need to do to get healthy again. If I'm back into full on training in a few weeks and this is figured out, I think the PNW is the place to be weather wise. If I need to be resting/rehabbing this thing for several months, then Colorado seems like the place to go (plus, Bentley could be hanging out in snow every day!!).

Operation Run Through Pain

2011-07-02T12:36:00.000-04:00

Yeah, it's not exactly going well. Not surprising, I can't see where forcing running when it hurts to simply walk is a solution and a path back to training and competing. I'm still really, really trying to figure out why this is what I was told to do. **I have to hope that by "run through pain" he was using the word "pain" where I would use "discomfort". Those are two very distinct differences to me.**

Well, whatever is wrong is certainly worse after these last couple of days. I want to be all bad ass and just go and run fast, hard and long and just see where it gets me for better or for worse, but I literally can't. I can limp through a few slow 8 minute plus miles and that is absolutely all I can do, I couldn't even run a strider if I wanted to.

I got a copy of the hip MRI and report. Minimal stress reaction in the proximal femur and mild osteitis pubis. X-ray report showed moderate pubic symphysis changes (I have no idea what any of that means). I have to assume none of that is an obvious problem, since I was told everything is a-okay in there.

I'm kind of lost about my next step. Matt (who is pretty anti-western medicine, so this says a lot) thinks I should keep on searching for a doctor to take the time to listen to me and who will be motivated to figure out what's going on in there and form a plan to fix me. It's overwhelming trying to figure out where to start but I'm guessing it will require a trip down to The Cities (which is fine, we don't have the time but we'll figure it out. Maybe we can even catch a Twins game if we bus on down there and stay a few days!).

I Guess I'm a BIG Baby and a Loser

2011-06-30T10:58:00.000-04:00

...at least that's how I feel right now with the feedback I've gotten :(

2 doctors and a PT told me to push through this and run. So, I did. I'm in tears. My god it hurts. What the hell is the matter with me? I trust these guys (I had my MRI report send to my Florida people), I know they won't lead me wrong or get me hurt further but why is it when I try to run it goes like this? Start to 1/2 mile: I feel awesome, strong, happy, I love running, I need to find a 5k to race and soon! Mile 1: Hip starts to ache on foot strike but it's nothing I can't deal with. Mile 2: Hip hurts worse, now lower back is hurting. Mile 3: Same thing except hip hurts the entire stride and the leg just isn't working right. Mile 4: Tears are welling up in my eyes from pain, I can barely life my left leg. Mile 4.9: Have to stop, can't make it another 30 seconds to even it up to 5 miles (I hate not running round numbers, it just seems wrong. Granted I don't run an extra .8 at the end of marathon-haha). Go back in RV and cry from a combination of pain and frustration.

Need.to.man.up. Ugh. I have NO IDEA where to go from here. My plan is to just force myself to run over the next week. It'll either be okay like they say or I'll pass out from the pain in the middle of the road and get run over by a car (or deer, which is a bigger possibility up here).

That's my day so far.

--

I went back to the chiro (that I saw last week, I liked her and I finally may be over my massive fear of chiropractors) yesterday and had a new experience. I didn't even know what it was or where the psoas muscle lived until my chiropractor pushed her hand in my groin and found it. I don't think I've ever felt a pain like that in my life. Oh.my.god. I hope that's the problem here. It's a muscle that attaches to the femur and it's hard to get to, but let me tell you, she found it in there. She's gong to try acupuncture on me next week. I will try anything at this point.

I'm going to try to keep updating on what goes down all this. It'll be a learning experience no matter how it plays out. Matt's terrified that people aren't respecting my level of pain tolerance, I'm sitting here second guessing my toughness which is making him more nervous since I'm now willing to push as hard as I ever had to follow their orders and see if I can get training again.

Any advice out there? I'll take it! I'm totally lost, confused, second guessing myself mentally, second guessing my doctors, second guessing my body and just really frustrated.

All Kinds of Stuff

2011-06-28T09:08:00.000-04:00

It's been forever since I've written an entry, I was waiting to know what was going on. Ha, I still don't know everything.

So, the most exciting news for us is that we are going to be traveling for the year! How fun!!! We leased (to own) out our house in Delray. This was a bit crazy, but it worked for us and it what the buyers needed to make a play at getting a house in our neighborhood. I hope it works out for both of us next spring.

We will stay up in MN for the summer and fall and then we are going to head west. Either Colorado or Oregon for the winter! It's a bit overwhelming, but it'll be fun and so few people can do something like this we needed to jump on the opportunity. I'm sure parts of it will be stressful, but most of this next year should be really awesome! We can't wait for the St. Bernard to see snow! That thought makes my heart smile!

Here's the bummer part of my life right now. I have had something major going on in my left hip since running/limping on a bum left knee in Boston. I haven't really been running, I thought that time would work out what ever has been going on in there. Well, it hasn't. The entire hip is sore, front-side-back AND something is popping/catching/cracking in there every time I lift my knee up. It hurts/aches 24/7. Yuck.

I finally bit the bullet and went to an ortho in Duluth. Here we go again...I haven't exactly had luck finding a great sports doctor up here and I'm getting frustrated. I just want someone to find out what's wrong, care enough to get me back training and take the time to listen to me! I swear, I mention all my symptoms and they only hear one and focus on that, not looking at the whole picture or just thinking about someone/something else. I guess I am spoiled with the medical care from my ortho and PT people in Florida. They care, they get back to me quickly, they listen to me and they get me fixed!

Anywho, my main fear was/is a stress fx in the neck of my femur. I understand those can get really complicated, really quickly. I am also worried about the clicking and having some type of problem with my labrum. I know that rest hasn't changed a thing with any of my symptoms, that's the bummer.

I got a MRI last week. The ortho called me yesterday and said the MRI was "totally clear", that's a quote--wait for it, you'll see why I'm a bit confused later on... I asked about the continuing pain ALL over my hip and he said he thought I only had anterior pain (see, why don't people listen--makes me sad and feel VERY insignificant as a person). He said to go ahead and run through the pain, try to find a therapist to work on my leg (I've been doing that already up here with a good chiro/massage-not running yet, though). So, at this point I'm really happy, being told it's probably muscular and it'll be fine. Go ahead and train through the pain is what I'm told (which I have no problem with as long as I'm not destroying my body long term. Pain is part of the game).

Okay, so I'm about to hang up the phone and go for a run and he casually mentions that the radiologist said there was a stress reaction in the femur on his report. What? Now I'm totally, 100%, head hurting, confused. I only answer with "okay" and he tells me that he isn't worried about it. At this point, I have NO IDEA what's going on. I KNOW that stress fractures/reactions up there can be very, very serious. This is not a typical shaft injury you just lay low on for a bit and get back to it.

The plan is to get the report sent to FL so the people down there can tell what's going on. I'm confused and frustrated right now. Why is my hip catching everytime I lift my leg up? Why is the stress reaction something I can ramp my training up with and not be a problem? He knows I'm a higher mileage runner (maybe, I actually have no idea if anything I mentioned was remembered), getting in the 90 miles/wk range and I'm planning on be back there soon if things are all clear.

Maybe I'm expecting too much? Maybe I'm frustrated and venting without good reason? Go ahead and tell me. I'm certainly not a shrinking violet and afraid to mention things when I meet with a doctor so I know it's not me not sharing information. Maybe everything I've ever head about stress fractures in the neck of the femur is crappy information and I can just go ahead and start running 20 milers again? I've had 2 months off, so perhaps what shows up on the MRI is actually something about healed and I really can run again? I don't know. I am going to lace up the shoes and head out today but I'm not going to keep going if the pain is horrible.

Sorry for the venting.

It's Almost BABs Time!

2011-05-10T15:57:00.000-04:00

We are going to be pulling the Acadia this year! Yep, 40' just wasn't long enough :)

It's been almost a year since we bought BABs (Big Ass Bus)! There were some challenges, the learning curve is huge with something like this. First off, it's big. 40 feet long and 30,000 pounds (people, do NOT cut off one of these, it doesn't stop on a dime, there's a lot of weight)! I swear, just handing the keys over to someone with something that large is CRAZY. On our first day, Matt hit a curb, it's takes that happening once to make you realize how far back those rear wheels are. Turns need to be taken very, very wide and it's all about the mirrors. About 30 minutes later, I scratched the side a bit...arg. Not my fault (I swear, it wasn't!), there were 3 people outside directing me. Lesson 2 was learned. Never, ever trust anyone else in guiding you. One of us drives, the other is outside watching everything when the fit is tight. We have two-way radios that are key in this. From what we've heard, we got off easy. My parents neighbors took a turn too tight their first week (in a brand new coach that was probably well over $300k) and caused thousands of dollars worth of damage. Ouch. The air brakes are totally different than normal brakes, too, but we adjusted to them pretty quickly.

Lots and lots of button and switches! There's at least ten more switches on the dash you can't see in this picture!

I understand (well, not 100% on the inverter but that's already programmed) all of this except for one mystery button that has something to do with using the bus in the winter.

We also learned all about diesel engines, diesel fuel, fuel filters and the kindness of other RVer's on our first trip in her. Sometime during the 2nd day, we started to lose power and boost on the hills. BABs is rocking a 350hp Cummins engine with an Allison transmission, no way this should have been happening. We.Are.Clueless...We.Are.Panicking... We finally limped into Paducah Kentucky's KOA. We bought her at a dealer, but she was owned by a couple in her previous life who seemed to take good care of her. The maintenance records were pretty solid and the interior very well cared for; my gosh we were hoping this wasn't a huge deal ($$$$$). It was the weekend, so we were waiting it out to get someone to come look at her and move her into a garage for troubleshooting. The next morning, the owner of the campground caught me on my way back in from my run. She said she woke up in the middle of the night thinking she had a solution. One of the slots there held a similar RV, owned by a good friend of hers. She remembered he had a similar issue when he bought his rig (from Florida!). He came by, took off the fuel filter and it was totally clogged. The new diesels have a lot of organic matter in them, if they sit in a hot and humid environment (Florida!) crap/slim/gunk grows. This guy saved us so much money, took time off from work, fixed our rig and followed us several miles on the way out of town to make sure we were okay. He wouldn't take a thing, he just asked us to pay it forward and help someone else out someday. He spent the whole weekend helping us out, teaching us stuff about the RV and fixing our problem. I swear, I have never met a more selfless individual in my life. He also called us over the next several days to make sure we made it Minnesota okay!

It took a few days to get moving again, we had to wait for the filters to come in but it could have been so much worse! We can't wait to get up there again and visit those folks.

Mechanical stuff is mostly Matt, he learned how to change all the filter, fluids, grease and replace bearings and other random stuff over the course of the summer. Thanks to my Dad!!!!!!

The kitchen is small by house standards, big by RV standards, it works perfectly!

Learning how to operate the inside of the bus was my domain. It's a house, it's a house on wheels, it's complicated! I think it took me a week to figure out how to get the DirectTV working. We've blown fuses, I have replaced a few of those--there must be 100 around the bus of all different kinds. I've learned how to disinfect the water system. The heating, cooling, convection microwave/oven and host of other things are now second nature to me. I believe I have every flip/switch except for one figured out. (Matt still doesn't know how to turn on most the lights, that cracks me up. The AC/Heat is also a mystery to him. And, I'm the "leveler" with the hydraulic jacks.) I need to get the surround sound working, I haven't really even investigated that yet I just know there are a ton of wires and speakers all over. We really want to upgrade the TV's to flat screens and get HD. That doesn't seem too complicated, some cabinetry would need to get done at some point to make it perfect, but we could at least get it started. The problem is that the HD satellites are crazy, stupid expensive. That one will wait for a while!

Buying the coach was a stretch, but it was soooooo worth it. We adore her, once we get the Acadia set up to tow behind her, we will be taking a ton more short trips in her. We drove her a few times down here, but not too much, having a car will make it easy to take her to races all over Minnesota and Florida! It'll be a blast. We will live out of it again this summer, just like last. It was fine and we are really excited to get back up north!

It's an old school TV, but it works just fine and getting DirecTV on the road is awesome!

Words most comfortable chair, dining table and decent sized fridge and freezer!

Just a queen size bed, but that's plenty depending on the St. Bernard's choice of sleeping locations.

Not too bad on the storage in the bedroom, a big closet in the back behind the glass, a dresser off to the right and a bunch of other spots to store stuff. I need the room, I have A LOT of running shoes!

TV in the bedroom, too!

There were a few reasons BABs was The One for us. I love that it's just tile, I can't imagine dealing with carpeting and the dogs. The shower (to the left) is bigger than the one in my master at home (yep!), the bathroom (behind that door on the right) is decent and there is a separate sink area in the bedroom.

Tough Sledding

2011-05-02T16:38:00.001-04:00

Wow, my body is still ticked at me from Boston. My left leg is grumpy from my foot to my lower back. Something is popping in my deep hip/back area and really, really setting off my back !!!???!!! What the heck is that? The knee is still there, but much better, I think that'll be cleared up totally fairly soon. It's all a chain, and it's off track just a bit still. Ouch.

I have run a bit here and there. The weather down here isn't exactly ideal right now, it's been really warm and hitting or getting near 90 every day, so that makes taking some easy time much more doable. I can not wait to get healthy and get up north!

I am having a blast living vicariously through my running friends. Cindi is following a new schedule put together by my coach and having a great time with it. She is going to rock Grandma's in June and I've been enjoying stalking her blog, following her progress!

It seems like most of my buddies who ran Boston haven't missed a beat since the race and are out there hitting PR's already. That seems crazy to me right now, I don't think I could run fast or far even if I was being chased right now.

Maria asked for a picture of the polenta casserole I posted about a few weeks ago. Here ya go, we just finished off another batch of this today! :)

Lists of Random Stuff

2011-04-24T10:13:00.000-04:00

I'm sorting out the good and bad from Boston and its training. It's not that I'm super happy or super upset about what went down, but I'm nursing my left leg for a bit and I have a ton of free time right now.

The Good Stuffs:

No chafing!!!! It's the first time ever I haven't chaffed the heck out of myself somewhere during a marathon. The bun huggers helped a ton and I was good about layering on the Body Glide everywhere.
Being able to still run a 3:08 on half a leg.
Being in the best shape of my life right now despite this little injury.
Winning A1A again! The highlight of my year so far, no doubt.

The Bummer Stuffs:

Working my butt off in training and having a result a solid ten minutes slower than I hoped.
Feeling like I let a ton of people down with my time in Boston, including myself.
Dealing with pain right now, that's never fun.
Not getting in a fast 5k time this cycle.

The Looking Forward Stuffs:

Overcoming my fear of the track this summer. Is it possible? Will I even try? Stay tuned!
Hills, hills and more hills. Wheeeee fun! I'm built much more like a strength runner as opposed to a speed runner, I'm excited to train on terrain more suited to that.
Planning out my summer and fall! That's always fun, waiting a bit on coach's reactions to my ideas.
Getting healthy! I think that will happen soon enough, a few easy weeks should sort things out.

I'll start get excited about getting back into training soon enough. Getting rid of the leg pain and packing for Minnesota will be key in reviving me! The thought of running up in the woods and getting off of cement is enough to bring me to tears of joy. Of course, the weather is the biggest plus up there. My body needs the break, for sure!

Boston Photos

2011-04-23T10:13:00.000-04:00

I'm still in full on recovery mode. My left leg is not a happy camper right now. I'm going a bit crazy not running, but I'm paying the price for doing a marathon on a less than healthy limb. I hope I can pull myself together by mid week next week.

Why in the heck are my elbows sticking out so far? That can not be the right way to carry your arms. I've got to think about that one.

Still a teeny tiny amount of lift in my stride. Not much, though.

Not a happy face :). The sharp turn did a number on my leg.

Yep, there are still 2 gels stuck in my bottoms. I suck at following my fueling plan!

Look how happy everyone else is, arms raised in glory...and then there's the look on my face, hehe.

Notice the scary white upper thigh, lower butt area (I really should have sat out in the sun a bit before we left). I did get a nice sun burn on the right side of that!

Boston Marathon 2011

2011-04-21T13:23:00.000-04:00

I have a lot of mixed feelings writing out this race report. I had a ton of high expectations going into the this training cycle. Getting hit with an injury four weeks out from the race changed everything. Instead of the high hopes of going after a big PR, I was worried about even making it to the finish.

We flew into Boston Saturday, checked into the hotel and walked over to the expo to grab my number. My left leg was pretty sore, so when we got back to the hotel we had the concierge find someone to come over and give me a massage. The lady was great, she actually stayed nearly TWO hours instead of the one I had scheduled. It was wonderful getting someone to loosen up my back, but I was worried since she couldn't get my left leg to ease up at all. She kept saying "wow, those are some angry muscles in there". Oh, well, it's not like I didn't know this but I wouldn't have minded some magical fix.

Sunday, we both jogged a couple of miles around Boston Commons for my pre-race shake out. This didn't go well and I found myself deeply concerned about Monday. I tried not to focus on it or talk about, I even did a decent job sounding positive to my coach, but in the back of mind I was aware of what was going down. With all the excitement about the weather forecast, I was just dying to want to be 100% for this race. It was killing me! The plan for Monday was to go out on feel and just see what happens.

After a decent night's sleep, I got all bundled up and headed over to the buses. Damn, my leg was hurting walking there. Now I'm in panic mode mentally. How in the heck am I going to get back to Boston if I have to step off course in the early miles? I want to cry, I'm so worried, but instead I just hop on the bus and chat with the folks around me. I freeze my hind end off waiting around for the start, but still knew it was going to be perfect to a bit warm out on course. People tend to forget a tail wind or no wind makes it seem pretty warm out there relative to the temperature and it was going to be sunny. I stripped down to my bun huggers and shimmel (also wearing arm warmers I could push down and toss gloves) and headed to the corrals.

It took just over a minute to cross the start line, not too bad, and we are off. I'm feeling flat, which I expected since I've barley run the last fews weeks, but okay the first few miles. Somewhere in mile 4 I got hit with the first warning from the leg, slowed down a bit and started over-thinking every step I took. Stressful way to run and not a ton of fun. Again at 7 and 11 there were warnings and I just thought, try to make to the 1/2, that's something anyway! I felt fine for a while and then that long downhill after Wellesley was the worst, my leg was not happy and I couldn't even come close to relax on the downs. That's my running style, too, bummer.

I hit the 1/2 just where I wanted to be for the day, high 1:29's. But, there was no flow to my running and my leg was really, really grumpy. The hills made the knee mad, even on the ups, so it became a "try to just finish" game. When the leg felt good, I tried to relax and up my pace. When the leg felt like it was going to totally go, I slowed up until it eased. Sadly, the angry leg was kicking the happy leg's ass in the how much attention it was demanding. With about 4 miles to go, I actually felt awesome for around 800 meters. I sped up and passed a ton of folks, I had the energy, but would I have the leg to keep it up for 25 more minutes??? Nope, I had to slow to just about a jog. Okay, it wasn't nearly that bad, probably more like a 7:30 pace but for what I had prepared myself for it felt like I was crawling.

I finally limped across the finish in 3:08:11.

Not terrible, but certainly not the race I wanted or trained for. I grabbed a bottle of water, took a swig and suddenly my whole left side (bad leg side) cramped up. I had a major pain/cramp/whatever it was all over my left abdomen. Yikes, that hurt and almost put me to the ground and stopped me in my tracks. My jacked up stride must have done a heck of a number on my body. It would come and go and finally the medical staff demanded in I sit in wheel chair and then eventually made me go into the med test. Arg, that's a first.

They were top notch in there but I was in there forever! I saw people coming in who (at least in my delusional post-marathon mental state) surely looked way worse than I did and they would get treated and head on their way. Not me, I ended up in there for 90 minutes or so. The doctors had PT come over and work on my side, trying to get it to relax. Then they took my temp since I apparently looked ghostly white and scary and it was 95.1. That led to a nice heater, a ton of blankets and the some warm broth (okay, the broth was a massive mistake since it ended up being beef broth and I got WICKED sick a few hours later. I haven't had dead cow for probably 20 years and my system wasn't happy). I wouldn't have drank it if they told me what it was, oops. They took off my shoes and my the looks on their faces I knew it wasn't pretty. My right sock was soaked in blood, which I knew since I felt the blister pop around mile 22. The rest of my toes were black with blood blisters, eeeewwwww, but they drained them for me and tried to clean them up. Man, that can not be a fun job. So far, I've lost 4 toenails from this race and one is on the edge!

So, that's the drama from Patriot's Day. It was painful and rough out there and not a ton of fun but I don't regret my choice to race one bit. It's Boston and Boston is AWESOME!

Once I get my race uploaded, I'll update with my sad splits and toss in some photos from the race.

Go Team Jen!

2011-04-13T15:22:00.001-04:00

Team Jen rocks! I am so very lucky to have awesome people in my life who support and get me. This crazy knee situation stinks, but it also reminds me how many folks are on my side. I have no idea if I can even race in a few days, but I know I have a bunch of folks cheering for me.

Matt is so good about supporting me and my crazy obsession with running. He has gotten up at insane hours (2:30am for A1A, ouch) for races. He drives me there, holds all my stuff (that's no small feat!), videos and takes photos when he's not also racing, waits for me to run my cool down, hangs out during sometimes really long award ceremonies, and then drives me home always with a stop at Starbucks for my post race soy chai tea latte. He takes so much of the stress out of races and makes sure all I have to do is run. Even more impressive is that he'll bike along with me on my long runs! That's no fun, imagine having to get up in the dark and bike that slowly just to make sure I get in enough fluids and I'm safe when the sun isn't up. That has to be so boring for him (though, he's learned to bike ahead after I've had a drink and that he can play Words with Friends on his iPhone against my Mom since she's always up super early. I think that's so funny!). I should remember to give him credit for dealing with Injured Tapering Jen, I'm guessing she's a bit touchy and emotional right now-heehee.

My coach (I'm sure you guys know it's Dick Beardsley) is also so awesome! I get support, a very varied and personalized schedule working around my strengths/weakness/and our S. Fla weather, a TON of knowledge and experience passed on to me, an insane amount of enthusiasm and, most importantly, someone who can talk me off my mental ledges when I'm having a melt down about something! Just talking with him the other day about my situation going into Boston calmed me down (while firing me up at the same time) :). I'll try my hardest given the situation but I will be smart about my knee and step off if I need to! He has gotten me into the best shape of my life this cycle and I think there is still so much more fitness I can gain over time. One small injury (granted the timing isn't great), doesn't change that and I plan on having a kick-ass year and making him proud!

My massage therapist/PT/doctor! They have all done whatever they could to get me healthy for Boston. That's awesome (no calling and waiting days or weeks to get in--I was in the doc's office and then PT, in a matter of hours)! Also, my massage therapist is smart enough to NOT show up this week since he has a sore throat and doesn't want to get me sick! Everyone wins there since I'd have to beat him up if he got me sick this close to a goal race (and I don't want to go to jail) and I think his wife wants to keep him around :).

And, of course, all my fun blog readers (I wish more of you commented, I know you're reading!), my family, my friends near and far that running has given me. I really believe this sport has some of the best people around! It's hard to comprehend all the awesome people running has brought into my life. I'm pretty darn lucky and I know it!

***Edited to add*** My Suunta puppy! She's key in keeping me happy and feeling loved! She is the best about hanging out in bed with me after a race or hard run, even in the middle of day when I know she's hyper and would rather be playing. She's such a momma's girl, which I love, she insists on being right next to me not matter what I'm up to even if it's sleeping! She is more than happy to go to bed with me at my stupid early bedtimes when I'm training hard. That's one dedicated Border Collie :)

Where Am I?

2011-04-11T17:52:00.000-04:00

I don't totally know.

I do know that I'm much better off than I was last week. I don't want to push this knee thing too far, even though I am dying to test it out with a hard run or some downhills. There really is no point since the chance of setting something off will be increased too much by the effort. I think I'm going to have to trust that taking it this easy before the race is the best way to get me to the start and finish line next Monday. Advice from my coach: "It'll get tested next Monday".

So, there it is. It's full steam ahead on Patriot's Day! It could be awesome, it could be ugly. All I can do is try my hardest out there and that's the plan!

You Name It...

2011-04-05T13:54:00.000-04:00

Things I'm trying to fix me:

Pennsaid: It's new to me. I'm tolerating this MUCH better than an oral NSAID, happier tummy!
Medrol Dose Pack: I hate using this stuff, but I'm desperate. I also took my last dose this morning, so that's done anyway.

DMSO (70/30): Stinky! Old School, but I really believe this stuff works wonders.
Glucosamine Chondroitin MSM: Not so sure I buy into it but it won't hurt. Why the hell are the pills so big? Dang.

Rest: Most annoying of them all.

Any other ideas?

Ruh Roh

2011-04-04T06:14:00.000-04:00

I guess I need to share the bad here, too...

Dammit, I spoke too soon. I was feeling really, really good after my hard week--probably better than I did the week prior! I did an easy 5/5 double on Monday. Tuesday I headed out for an easy 10, I was just running around the 'hood with Suunta. Just over 1 1/2 miles into it, I felt like someone shot me in the left knee out of nowhere. Oh no, left knee?, NO...that's not my iffy knee from last summer. What the heck? I wasn't running hard, I wasn't super sore, I was on even footing, I was wearing good shoes, I was well rested from the night before, I had walked the dogs to make sure I was warmed up.

I had to stop, there was no choice, it was that bad. I stretched my calves, quads, hammy and just sat for a minute thinking it would pass. Everything passes, right? I wasn't doing anything dumb, I figured it was just one of those things that freaks me out for a minute and then disappears, I have those all the time.

Well, it's been several days, a trip to the ortho and a bunch of meds later...it's still there. I did a super easy test run over the weekend, as directed by my doctor. It's still there, but not as bad. Pool running bothers it and I was told that biking would be even worse and to not try that. So, folks, I'm resting it for a few more days. I'm going to lose fitness over the next 3 weeks, no doubt, but it's my only shot at getting to the start (and, more importantly, the finish). So, major time goals are kind of out the picture now, it's just about trying to get healthy.

Vegan Cauliflower Mac and Cheese!!!

2011-03-29T08:40:00.000-04:00

Big thanks to Maria for sharing this recipe with me! I swapped out the cheese with Daiya to make it vegan and it was perfect! I was super worried when putting this together, I think my cauliflower was massive and it seemed like I had way too much sauce for the amount of macaroni (and I used more than 8oz, closer to 10), but it was fine once I baked it and it sat for a bit.

I cut back the time on boiling the cauliflower from 25 minutes to about 10, I didn't want to totally destroy all the nutrients and it was super soft after 10 minutes. Next time I will only boil the pasta for 3-4 minutes, I went around 5 (maybe a bit more) and it was a tad too soft once baked.

2 1/2 cups vegetable stock, I LOVE the Better than Bouillon
2 bay leaves
1 cauliflower, cored and cut into large pieces
8 ounces whole-wheat elbow macaroni, I used a bit more
1/2-1 cup Daiya "Cheese"
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
Salt and black pepper
1/4 cup Daiya "Cheese"
1/2 cup whole-grain bread crumbs

Heat oven to 400° F. Boil a pot of salted water.

In a saucepan, warm stock and bay leaves on medium-low heat for five minutes; turn off heat.

Cook cauliflower in boiling water for 10 minutes. Put cauliflower in a food processor or blender.

Cook pasta in boiling water for five minutes (at the most!!!). Drain and rinse to cool; put pasta in a greased, nine-inch square baking dish.

Process cauliflower with stock (discard bay leaves), cheese, oil, mustard, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, working in batches.

Pour sauce over pasta, toss, and spread evenly in dish. Top with additional cheese and bread crumbs. Bake 20 minutes. Serves four.

11 Hours

2011-03-28T09:26:00.002-04:00

Wow, last week finally proved that I can get my mileage back up there and feel okay. It seems like forever since I've linked a few hard weeks together with my running. Last summer was so incredibly frustrating, it also has left me fairly paranoid about my back and leg health. As this training cycle begins its final phase, I'm happy overall. I've had WAY more aches and pains, everywhere, this time around but I think that's as much from the lack of fitness going into it from my summer totally off as much as the old injuries speaking up.

It also hasn't been helpful that I've had a shoe meltdown. Saucony totally changed the Fastwitches and their new model just does not work for me. A few runs in them and I've developed some major discomfort on the bottoms of my feet, throughout the arches. Dammit. I've never had that before and it's taking a while to go away. It's gotten much better, so that's good, but I'm upset I have to find a new everyday trainer now. I bought a pair of Brooks Silence and adored how they felt on my feet, so comfy, but they seem to make my knees grumpy. I also have a pair of Newton racers and like those since there is more structure under my metatarsals but I don't want them for my everyday shoe since I can't feel the ground under me as well, they are more of a once or twice a week shoe. I just got a pair of Mizuno Wave Ronin 3's and I think I found my new shoe!!! They feel very similar to the old Fastwitches and don't seem to tick off anything else in my legs.

So, I know most my running friends do the same thing but I was cracking myself up this past weekend (I have to say one of the fun things to look at when I get up super duper early to run is all the drunk Facebook posts people make and then usually delete later in the day--I'll take my running life over that life, any day, but damn it's funny). I had to go long on Sunday and it's been stupid hot and humid down here again. Matt suggested to just treat it like a race and that we should get up uber early. So, wild woman that I am, went to bed just after 7 on Saturday night! I set the alarm for 3:45am so I'd have time to eat something and get all the puppies walked (which seemed crazy until I saw that it was set for 2:20am from the night before A1A--hey, 3:45 is nutin'). I woke up my poor husband so he could bike with me, there was NO WAY I'd be out there in the dark that early. I'm terrified of opossums, they are all over down here and just plain creepy. We were out the door by 5, and it was soooooo dark until around 6:45ish. There are no lights on A1A in most places since it's sea turtle nesting season. Not good. I was really worried about tripping and came super close a few times. 24 miles got done to finish off a 92 miles week, but it wasn't a fun run by any means. Slow from the heat, humidity and darkness but done and that's what matters. Stupid hobby, I swear.

I'm pumped to begin to scale things back and see what the taper brings (I usually swing from exhaustion to crazy hyper during taper by the hour). I have no idea what I can pull off up in Boston but I'll be glad to be toeing the line at a goal race again. I'm already thinking about fall. It looks like Twin Cites for me, mostly out of convenience since we can just stop in The Cities on the back to Florida for the winter and it will save some $$ not having to travel for a fall race. Also, being from MN, it seems like I should race it since I've already done Grandma's. That's a long way out, but it's fun to think ahead. I'll have some back-ups in mind, though, for sure.

Oh, yeah, I slept 11 hours last night!!!

Pictures, just for fun :)

Puppy Pool Party...Fetching Coconuts

#3249

2011-03-15T15:27:00.000-04:00

Boston bibs are out! This makes it feel real to me all of a sudden (holy crap, time for this flatlander to work on hills-hills-hills and more hills). It also seems like forever since I've raced a marathon, nearly a year. Okay, that's not so long since I can really only race 2 (possibly 3, I did that my first year running) marathons a year, but it still feels like forever since I've toed the line of a goal race.

The one bummer is the change in the corral system. Last year, I was in corral 3 with a 3xxx bib. This year they gave out the numbers 100-999, so that basically makes the 3xxx bib a 4th corral number. If I was just trying to run my qualifying time again, around 3:06, it'd be fine. I'm worried about trying to go sub-3 pace amongst a ton of folks running way slower. From what I recall during my first Boston (while running faster than those around me-I ran almost a 12 minute PR), it was a total frustrating mess the first 6 miles and I'm sure it cost me a minute or two in the end between the mental exhaustion and the extra mileage added running around folks. Oh, well, it is what it is and I'm going to make peace with the situation.

Heck, it's my own fault. I want to start up front, well then, I best get a time that gets me there. It's not a solution for 4 1/2 weeks from now, but it's a goal to aim for in the future.

Tickets and now hotel done, so we are good to go. When does that weather forecast come out???????

----

This is crazy, my mom (yes, my mother who doesn't eat anything like us, not even close) sent me a recipe yesterday that I tweaked and made. Wow! It was really yummy, too!

Arugula and Sprouted Lentil Pasta

3 onions sliced thinly
2 TBS olive oil
1 cup sprouted green lentils (or regular, but I think the sprouted are healthier, only reason I used those)
2 bunches arugula, washed and roughly chopped
3 cups of diced fresh tomatoes (I used a mix of red and some yellow pear heirlooms we have growing, so the color was really pretty)
1 pound whole wheat pasta (I used shells)

Warm the oil in a large pan or dutch oven over medium-low heat, toss in onions and some salt and caramelize, this may take 30 or 40 minutes depending on how dark you want them.

Meanwhile, prepare lentils in boiling water. The sprouted ones only took around 10 minutes to become tender.

Boil and drain pasta, reserve some cooking water.

Once onions are sweet and dark, lower heat to low and toss in tomatoes. Stir in the arugula and cover until it wilts. Add the lentils and pasta, season with salt and pepper. If it's too dry, add some of the pasta water. I think that depends on the amount of liquid the greens release, I didn't need to add any water.

To go non-vegan, toss in some good grated parmesan to thicken it up! My goal for this next week is to try to create a good vegan parm alternative, I'm thinking pine nuts/nutritional yeast and other stuff I can't figure out yet...

Anyway, this was good. I mix white beans with pasta a lot and usually use broccoli rabe but the change to the spicy arugula was awesome. I didn't add garlic, I will next time. I think roasted garlic would be really good mushed up and mixed in but that's a lot of work, so maybe just add some chopped raw at the end of the onion cooking portion?

High Hopes

2011-03-14T16:33:00.000-04:00

That's about food, not running. I found these at Whole Foods today, I have a lot of hope they are going to be good! Their vegan chocolate cake is awesome, but too expensive for a whole cake that we won't be able to finish. I am not a fan of baking (I LOVE to cook!!!), one of these days I'll get into it, I hope, and save some money while be able to make exactly what we want. Note all the grapefruit in the background. I have been craving (and eating) them like crazy lately. I did this with apples last year while in training, I was eating 2 or 3 a day. I'm keeping the grapefruit to just one per day (of course, they are about the size of my head). Do you guys have any weird cravings that last while in heavy training? I hope it's not just me!

Dang, we got a nice little (probably final, so sad) cool front last week that lasted into the weekend! I finished up my 90 miles not too dehydrated! The weather is warming back up, but that's fine since it's all about hills for the next couple of weeks and that means the 'mill. Since I did my long run Friday, I had just an easy 10 and PM 5 on Sunday. Matt was free to go golfing, for once, the poor fella has been biking with me on my long runs to keep my hydrated (and in the case of my first 20 while I was sick to make sure I didn't die, that was a touchy run). The weather was spot on Sunday for opening up the house, eating a massive salad with a bunch of stuff from my garden in it, turning on some reggae and just chilling by the pool with the puppies. I think that's the most relaxed I've been in a long time. This probably kills my friends up north, but spring is on its way (and you are always welcome for a visit)!

This whole traveling north for the summers now is awesome since I can have home grown goodness out of a garden year round this way! Sweet :)

Attempting to Form a Plan

2011-03-12T16:54:00.000-05:00

Deep in training and working hard! Just like it should be with 3 more weeks to go before taper time. It's all about pushing myself as hard as I can without breaking, it's a fine line. I know one workout, good or bad, does not define a training cycle (not that I can always remember that since I tend to obsess over a bad workout for weeks), but I think these next 3 weeks are key to getting in some extra endurance and fine tuning the sharpness a bit. 90 miles this week once I get my runs in tomorrow (I got excited with a cool front that blew through and moved my 20 miler up to Friday--I got to run in the 50's and 60's--woohoo!!), I haven't been there for a while!

Can I break 3 at Boston? I think so if the conditions are good and I'm having a good day.

It's crazy to feel out everyone's pacing plans for that race. The feedback is overwhelming, which I can understand, it's a dynamic course. It's not like you can tell yourself to try to hit every mile at 6:51 and keep it steady as you could on a flat and fast course. It almost makes me want to chuck the Garmin and just run like it's a race not a time trial. I won't do that since I'm not competitively racing there (I'll be thrilled to crack the top 100, which to me would be awesome, but in the whole scheme of things is not all that impressive) but I don't want to spend the entire race glancing at my wrist constantly making adjustments every 30 seconds to hit what I think I should hit. That will be way too mentally exhausting and not a relaxed way to run if I'm always changing paces to please the watch instead of working through the ebbs and flows of my body's reaction to the terrain. I've got to find a nice place where I'm running very relaxed (this is a big one for me so I can keep my stride and pace at a sustainable level...tension and running equals a poor overall performance from me...even more so when the distance is increased), while listening to how I feel but also being mindful of making mistakes about going too fast or too slow over a period of time.

I am planning on positive splitting, I'm a good downhill runner and a conservative uphill runner. I'm not planning on going out crazy fast, or even fast, but I hope that I've prepared my legs for the downs and that I won't feel the need to brake a ton on those. If it was a fast/flat course, I'd plan on even splits hoping to negative split but being prepared to lose a bit of time to fatigue. If it was St. George, I'd plan a big negative split. Alas, it's Boston and the profile and my experience tells me I should plan on a 90 to 120 second positive split if things go according to plan. Of course, a million factors can change what goes down and I'm okay with that.

New Recipe (and it's a good one!)

2011-03-10T07:38:00.003-05:00

Holy cow, this was GOOD! I have been in a bit of a rut with my cooking, sticking with a handful of our favorite recipes. Yesterday, I had some free time to float around the web and look for some new recipes and I had to go to the market so I knew I could get any ingredients I didn't have.

I'm not 100% sure of the original source of this, I believe it's from Viva Le Vegan. I have to order this cookbook, if everything is as yummy as this I'll have a ton of new recipes to play with. Matt now considers this he new favorite! I guess I'll be making a few more time in the coming months. Next time I'm going to steam some kale, drain really well and add in the layering! I think that will be awesome.

The pine nut tofu sauce is really, really amazing. I need to find some other things to put it in. I'm thinking a big roasted veggie lasagna, no cheese needed with that sauce!

Tortilla and Poblano Casserole

1 1/2 pounds white potatoes, peeled
1 pound poblano chiles ( about 4 large chiles )
1 small onion
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
3 jalapeno chiles, stemmed seeded ( if less heat is desired ) and chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried Mexican oregano
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tb peanut oil
1 cup vegetable broth
1 pound corn tortillas
1 recipe Pine Nut Crema ( See Below )
2 Tb pumpkin seeds or pine nuts

Directions

1. Roughly chop the potatoes, place them in a large saucepan, and fill with enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat, partially cover, and cook for 14 to 16 minutes, or until tender. Drain and set aside. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, press into large crumbles.

2. Meanwhile, over a gas burner, roast each whole, intact poblano chile. Use metal tongs to turn the chile several times over the flame until its skin is blackened, sizzling, and blistered, 3 to 5 minutes. Place the roasted chile into a tightly covered container or a sealed paper bag. Repeat with the remaining chiles. Alternatively, you can roast all the chiles on a rimmed baking sheet at 450 F for 15 to 20 minutes, or until their skin is blackened and the chiles have collapsed. Allow the chiles to cool enough to be handled. Gently remove their skin, split open, cut away the stem and seed base, and remove any excess seeds. Chop the chiles into 1/2 inch strips and set aside.

3. Make the tomato sauce : In a blender jar, pulse together the onion, diced tomatoes with their juice, chopped serrano chiles, garlic, cumin, oregano, and salt, to blend an almost smooth salsa ( some fine chunks are okay ). In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat and carefully pour in the salsa. It may splatter a little but that's all right, just keep stirring. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the vegetable broth and simmer for an additional 5 minutes. While the sauce is simmering, preheat the oven to 375 F and have ready a 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan and a sheet of foil large enough to tightly cover the pan.

4. Assemble the casserole : Pour 1/2 cup of the sauce into the bottom of the pan and tilt it to spread it around. Using tongs, dip a tortilla into the pot of sauce and place it on the bottom of the pan. Continue with five more tortillas, dipping them in the sauce and overlapping them, spreading their edges a little up on the sides of the pan. Top with about half the crumbled potatoes and sliced poblanos, then ladle another 1/2 cup of sauce on top. Dip another tortilla in the sauce, layer it on top of the potatoes, and continue as before with five more tortillas. Finally, sprinkle the remaining potatoes and poblano strips on top. Tear any remaining tortilla into thick strips, dip them into the sauce, and spread them on top of the casserole. Pour any remaining sauce evenly over the casserole and cover with foil, crimping the edges tightly. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and take off the foil. Increase the oven temperature to 400 F.

5. Spread dollops of the Pine Nut Crema over the top of the steaming hot casserole. You don't have to be even about it; a few bits of the casserole showing underneath are fine. Sprinkle the pumpkin seeds over the crema. Return the pan to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until the top of the crema is golden and the seeds are toasted. If desired, broil the casserole for 4 to 5 minutes to continue browning spots of the crema, but watch carefully as not the burn the seeds.

Pine Nut Crema
Makes about 1 1/2 cups crema

Ingredients
12 ounces soft silken tofu
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 Tb lime juice
1 Tb olive oil
2 tsp cornstarch
1 clove garlic, grated
1 tsp salt

Directions

1. In a blender jar, pulse together the tofu, pine nuts, lime juice, olive oil, cornstarch, garlic and salt until smooth and creamy, scraping down the mixture several times with a rubber spatula. Taste and adjust the flavor with more salt and lime juice if desired.

Tickets!

2011-03-09T13:23:00.000-05:00

Okay, now I need to stay healthy! We got our flights booked and our house sitter arranged, no backing out. I've been so worried about my back/leg staying healthy but it's close enough now, 5 1/2 weeks out that reservations needed to be made. Overall, I'm feeling pretty good save for a bad right knee day on Monday kind of out of nowhere. I finished my easy 10, felt fine and then a few hours later I couldn't really put too much weight on my right leg and my knee blew up. Weird. Anyway, I spent the rest of the day rolling out my IT band, sitting on my butt and icing. By Tuesday morning, things felt fine thankfully. My allergies, on the other hand, have been totally out of control. I'm hoping that will pass soon enough, the pollen level are sure to even out.

Stuff around the house has been really crazy. There have been a ton of showings with the new realtor, so that's good. If nothing comes out of it, we are fine but we would really love to get north permanently and get that phase of our lives started. We are lucky that we don't need to sell and that we have plenty of equity in our house, with the market down here that puts us in a minority. All this action has turned me into a cleaning/staging/running/cooking machine and I'm getting tired!

Just a few more high mileage, high quality weeks and time back off! Wow, I'm sure it'll fly by. I have only run one 20 miler so far and that's freaking me out, but I'll go 20 again this weekend and I'm sure a couple more times after that. I usually have so much endurance, this go around is a bit different since I have had a much shorter training cycle than in the past and I've been working through this injury. It's been a much more cautious approach, but in all honesty, I feel stronger and faster than I did last year at this time. Confidence in the distance with follow with some additional long runs.

I'm trying to run down the list of things I can do to help my cause up in Boston. I'm keeping at the "rolling hills" on the treadmill focusing on solid downs, sleep has been pretty good (it's been better but with all the stuff going on it's still decent, at least 8 hours a night), my weight is in a good place around 110 and I usually drop a pound or two during taper since I'm not starving all.the.time. from the higher mileage, and I've gotten my flu/cold out of the way! I have one last pair of Saucony FT3's new in a box that I'll break out for a couple of long runs and then use for my race and my fueling plan is in place, though it's always a challenge for follow through with that on race when the speed is fast and the pressure is on. So, I'm controlling what I can and hoping for the best with the stuff I can't. If the weather is really poor or if I'm sick or hurt on race day, I have a back up marathon in Grandma's so I'll try not to freak out too much.

6 Weeks!

2011-03-07T09:26:00.000-05:00

Only six weeks to go, which means only 4 weeks until taper! I can make it...I hope. I am actually doing fine, but it's been warm down here and that annoys the heck out of me. I'd jump on a plane to Minnesota, but the weather up there isn't exactly marathon training friendly either right now.

We still need to get our plane tickets and make the hotel reservations, that'll happen this week. I think it's about time for some PriceLine negotiations, haha. Hey, it's worked well in the past!

We finally compromised and replaced our car. I LOVED my hybrid, she was awesome but we couldn't pull her 4 down behind the RV. We are a one car family which I'm sure a lot of folks can't comprehend but we don't need to drive much. The hybrid was almost 4 years old and we only logged 19k miles on it--I'm sure almost all of those were driving to race miles, too. I make a trip to Whole Foods in Boca about 2 times a month but everything else is close so it's either a 2 mile little drive or we take a bike for small grocery pick-ups. So, we got a used (first used car I've had in forever, spoiled was I) GMC Acadia. We didn't want anything too nice since it'll get beat up a bit behind BABs. It's nice enough, that's for sure. Plus it has Heads Up Display and I love that! I had that way back when and it's a nice feature. I'm short, so usually the steering wheel, once adjusted, covers up the tachometer for me and it's a pain for see what's going on. It's so nice to have all the info right there on the windshield. Here's a poor quality picture from my iPhone. We are going to be quite the train driving up to Minnesota this summer!

Attack of the Sinuses

2011-03-03T17:07:00.000-05:00

Oh my gosh, sinus infections hurt. Around last Tuesday I had a weird taste in my mouth, by Wednesday morning I couldn't breathe, my throat achey and my head was pounding. I spent the last week with a massive sinus headache, totally clogged nose, sore throat and the inability to sleep. Good times! Haha, I am finally feeling better so it's all good now. Hey, what is it now, six and half weeks until Boston? It's actually decent timing. I had to back off just a bit and my body probably needed that break.

I have an awesome schedule for the next couple of weeks, I should be back in the 90's! I will be, of course, monitoring how I'm feeling for the next week and backing off if I need to.

---

I've noticed that I haven't been posting any recipes lately. I need to type stuff up or I tend to forget what I did and that's no good! Here's a great polenta casserole recipe loosely based on one found in Eat, Drink and be Vegan. The original is kind of bland (for us) and more Italian based. I spiced it up and added a ton of elements! It only takes around 5 minutes to toss together and it's a one dish clean up, actually zero since we can't eat the whole thing and just toss the pan into the fridge with a cover on.

1 can of black beans (rinsed)
1 can of pinto beans (rinsed)
1 small onion, diced
I add some bell peppers if I have them around, diced
2 cans of roasted chili peppers, diced
1 cup of frozen corn (fresh if you have, of course!)
1/2 cup of tomato sauce
1/2 cup of tomatillo salsa (or whatever salsa you have, or even just some chopped fresh tomatoes)
fresh lime juice (about a TBS or so)...you want this moist but not wet or it'll be soggy, this depends on the salsa
handful of chopped cilantro
salt and pepper
cumin, a little
chili powder, a lot
chipotle seasoning, to taste

Mix all this together in a bowl.

In a 9 x 13 baking dish add a small touch of oil to coat. Line with tortillas (corn or if you can find, I found a corn/flour tortilla which was perfect since it had the corn taste but was less crumbly!)

Pour the filling on top and spread out.

Take a tube of polenta and grate it on the a box grater (big side). Mix that with 1 TBS of olive oil and toss in some type of cheese. Dayia cheese works wonders on this, the cheddar style. I wasn't a fan of it but now that I've been melting it, it's the bomb! Of course, if you don't want to stay vegan, use cow's cheese. Season with a bit of salt and pepper. Spread on top of the filling.

Toss in the oven around 375* and bake until everything is bubbly and yummy looking! Maybe 45-60 minutes. If I'm in a hurry, I'll toss it to broil for a few minutes to crisp it up.

This is really healthy and filling. It also makes great leftovers which is a bonus. It's been a hit with the non-veggie crowd, too!

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Vegan Yum Yum!

This is stupid good when you exchange the tofu with pan sauteed tempeh! We loved it the way it was but last night I wanted to have tempeh...WOW! I think this would please a huge crowd of tempeh questioners, too.

Videos!

2011-02-23T14:19:00.000-05:00

Matt is now totally into his Flip at the races, so not many pictures these days but a ton of videos! Here's some from this past weekend. A1A is his favorite race since he can catch me at a ton of places!

A1A Half Marathon 2011

2011-02-21T15:49:00.000-05:00

Where to start? I seriously almost didn't even do this race this year. Weather matters to me, too much sadly, I've blown up more times than I count in the heat. The forecast for this past Sunday was not looking too good for me, at all. Lows in the mid-60's and highs reaching 80, humid, full sun, wind out of the ESE. Eek, a recipe for disaster in JenLand. I hadn't signed up even the week before and told my coach I didn't think it was a good idea. I suggested that perhaps I'd be better served just going long on my own. He talked me off the ledge, told me to just try to run goal marathon pace and if I had to slow down even slower than that, fine. At least I'd be out there with friends and fluid support. So, I jumped online, gave Active their nice little processing fee, and tossed my name in and tried not to worry too much.

The good part is that the majority of the pressure was off. I was terrified of trying to race hard, blowing up terribly and looking like an idiot when people expected me to run a decent time. The problem is that I like being competitive. It's fun but it's also very, very risky when the conditions don't suit me. I've been burned so many times in the past and haven't really learned my lesson.

Game day, we wake up at the crazy hour of 2:15AM and get our day started. It was about 63 degrees and 95% humidity here when we left the house, clear skies. Once we got down to Ft. Lauderdale, the temp read around 65, so just about what I figured. The good thing was the wind wasn't whipping off the coast, heating up even more, I didn't feel terrible running my warm up couple of miles.

We got organized at the start and I see a lot of ladies that are just as fast, faster, or who have been pumping out pr's like crazy lately and right on my tail at a bunch of races. I tell myself I'm just going by feel and if I'm slow, so be it. I figure I'll be happy to try to finish in the top ten.

And, we're off at 6AM on the dot!

Mile 1: 6:31, okay way faster than I thought but I'm running with a group of guys I ran with in the 8k last weekend and I feel fine. Plus, it's nice to have friendly company out there! My friend told me to stay relaxed no matter what and I'd be fine, just keep on running relaxed. I tried to heed his advice.

Mile 2: 6:34, nothing too exciting I think I'm in 2nd here behind Heather Gollinick (who has WON 5 Ironmans!!)

Mile 3: 6:42, up and over the bridge to the beach. I slow down on the ups, as always, 2 girls pass me one is my friend who ran a 1:24 in Palm Beach a few months ago, Heather drops back beside me on the bridge. Sweat is pouring off of me and I'm worried.

Mile 4: 6:42, passed by Heather again and one other girl who was flying. I'm in 5th and I think uh oh, I need to try to hang on to 6:50's or better for as long as I can and hope I can stay top 10.

Mile 5: 6:40, I eat a GU on the way out of the park so I can attempt to wash it down with the water station at the entrance.

Mile 6: 6:34, huh where that come from? I pass a couple of girls on the way out of the park and I feel okay. I'm shocked. I'm back in 3rd. A buddy of mine is running near me and tells me the race is just ahead and to stay focused.

Mile 7: 6:24!!!, I was in a gap and did NOT want to be there. The two lead ladies were just ahead of me along with 3 or 4 guys and I knew I needed to try to join them, it was now or never if I wanted to make a play. I caught up to them, but I kept on going and took the lead. I can't understand why I'm not blowing up, but now I'm in front and I want to try to stay there as long as I can. My friend is right on my tail, though, she's tough and she's fast.

Mile 8: 6:33, the gap is about 20 meters and we are running our last mile north before the turn around. I'm feeling not so great because of the weather but I'm hanging in there. My legs are fine, but my breathing isn't very relaxed.

Mile 9: 6:38, the turn around and I loose the 2 guys I'm running with since they are going for the full. Bummer, I'm totally alone and there is a bit of a wind. I'm not really sure what's going on behind me but people are yelling that I'm about 50 meters up.

Mile 10: 6:39, I'm starting to get tired. I'm also worried that there are people working together behind me but I can barely see the next guy up ahead so I know I need to just try to keep going for as long as I can.

Mile 11: 6:38 and it was not easy. I can feel my form going and I'm working against the wind by myself. I'm having fun and totally paranoid at the same time. I'm getting crazy support from the runners heading north and they tell me she's about 100 meters or so back. Wow, my gap is building but I'm still worried that things might change quickly.

Mile 12: 6:40. I'm tired, my legs are sore and I'm really warm. I just tried to keep my stride together and not fall apart too badly. I am told that I'm fine, up by 200 plus meters but I'm not at all relaxed yet--I know things can change quickly. Plus, now I realize I can PR, too. I want the win and I want the PR now. Keep on trucking, feed off the awesome crowd, keep your stride, is what keep reminding myself.

Mile 13.12: 7:21 (6:33 pace). I refuse to relax my pace even though I really want to and the crowd is making it easy. This is fun, more fun than anything I've ever done and I enjoyed it more this year since the competition was harder and I really had to work for it. A ton of people are cheering for me, the TV cameras have been tracking me the past 6 miles and, to be honest, it's a really cool feeling. I can't believe this race worked out and I was able to defend my title. I feel incredibly happy and very, very lucky about this race.

Final Time: 1:26:41 and first place Female!

Busy, Busy Bee

2011-02-14T16:16:00.000-05:00

Wow, I've been really busy for me. Mileage has ramped up and doubles have been added. We are also mixing things up with the house, changing realtors, dropping the price a lot (ugh, last time on this one or we will just keep this joint until the market comes back and that may be many years), prettying stuff up inside and outside. We also need to deal with our car issue and we aren't agreeing on that, at all, so that's been stressful and I'm guessing nothing will happen anytime soon even though it needs to.

Last week was a solid mileage week at 82.5. My only terrible run was my long run on Thursday in the heat, I really melted. I ended that with a slow overall pace and a migraine, fun stuff. On Wednesday I actually had a decent interval workout, not great but still progress for me! I have no track, plus I have a fear of them, so I run these on the roads and the traffic (people and cars) make it difficult to get really settled on a pace but I get them done and the training effect is there.

I was bad this weekend and swapped out my Saturday hill repeats for an 8k race on Sunday. The weather was cool and I just couldn't imagine running on the 'mill and not using the cool air to my advantage after having such a rough time outside with the heat the whole early week. I'm super glad I went, even though I had the race start time a half hour too early and woke us up and 4am when we could have slept in more...oops, last minute changes mess me up.

The race went really well. It was windy on the way back, so my "dream scenario" time slipped away but I was happy with the result of 31:18 for the 8k and first overall Female. I also have no doubt I could have slid under 31 if it was calm out (or even if I had another lady to duke it out with on the way back with the headwind to push me or if we could have even traded drafting for a mile or two). I really felt well within myself out there. I think the 31:18 puts me around a 3:02/3:03 for a full with the VO2 charts which are pretty solid for me normally, and that's without any rest and not totally perfect conditions. So, I still have a lot of work to do to get where I want to be but I'm making progress anyway.

February!

2011-02-02T14:30:00.001-05:00

Hanging with my teammates.
Race for the Cure

I'm willing to call January a success, not a smashing one, but one nonetheless! I managed just over 300 miles and I'm hanging in there. The back is still pretty crumby, but I can deal with it. I've been trying to remember if stuff always hurt this much while in marathon training. I'm sure it always has, but I think us marathoners tend to forget it easily. I wake up in the morning and, oof, I'm stiff. My ankles, my knees, my back, my hips. I always feel better after a few minutes walking/limping around, but, dang.

Matt showing off his harvest!

I have been making an effort to really focus on being as healthy as possible. Number one, food. I did this last training cycle, and I'm trying to do it again. HUGE salads, for lunch and with supper unless I'm cooking another green (we have awesome collards in our garden this year!!!!). Add pumpkin, sunflower, chia, hemp seeds, dulse, some home-grown heirlooms (yay!!! and $$$ savers!!!), some carrots, peppers, a nice homemade dressing and shazam....yummy, filling, and powerful! We are about to be overrun with tomatoes, I hope my neighbors are ready! I don't want to waste food, so I end up giving away tons of fresh 'maters when we hit our peak.

Right now, I have Maple Hemp Bars from Vegan Dad in the oven! Not low calorie, I'm sure, but yummy and Matt adores them. They are awesome to have on hand when traveling, as well! OMG, it smells so good in the house, I'm not a big baker, more of a cook, but yum.

Number two on my list is core work and rolling. I can't really seem to get going on the core without really, really setting my back off so that's a slow work in progress. The roller, yeah, hurts so good!

Number three is sleep. I'm on my go to bed at 8 or 8:30 schedule right now. Oh, sleep, you are good to me!

A Much Better Week

2011-01-31T12:56:00.001-05:00

This last week was so.much.better. than the week prior. Dealing with that little heat wave and then the migraine, I was pretty down, more than I realized. This past week was just the opposite! I had a great hill repeat workout, faster than I planned, a better 5k on Saturday and then no long run on Sunday. It is scheduled for Tuesday. I am loving the extra couple of days before that effort, I needed that tiny couple of days mental break, I guess.

Monday: 11.11 (8:29) easy. Nice and simple run after the long run
Tuesday: 11 (8:03) rolling hills. 1/2 mile up, 1/2 mile down...repeat.
Wednesday: 11 hill repeats. 4 mile warm-up, 8x10 4% 1/4 miles @ 6:00, 3 cool down.
Thursday: 8 (8:18) easy. 6 x 1 minute pick-ups inside the run.
Friday: 5 (8:44) recovery. Easy stroll around the 'hood.
Saturday: 5k in 19:07. 6:10, 6:14, 6:13, :30. Felt super easy, didn't push at all until the last .1. 6 miles warm-up/cool-down.
Sunday: 8 (8:24) easy.

I hope this week feels as strong as last week, so far so good. I still feel way behind on my training for Boston, mentally I can't picture being ready in time, but I know that it can change in a heart beat.

Uf Da

2011-01-24T14:43:00.000-05:00

Uf da, I feel like a stada baba, eh. Yep, I should have been up in Minnesota last week as I endure below zero temps much better than the hot and humid stuff tossed our way last week. I don't know what's the matter with me, but I can NOT run well in the super humid heat. Last week kicked my butt, I think I'm finally rehydrated. I actually cramped (my right calf) on Saturday my electrolytes were so off, I've never cramped that bad while running, even at the end of my marathons. I bought some electrolyte tabs, so I'll see how those help me out. I wasn't helping my cause last week, just drinking water out there but I didn't want to carry gels with me for my runs and I don't need the sugar (but, I did need the salts, lesson learned).

So, it's wasn't a fun week but it was a solid week. Decent, not great, mileage and another 5k win, though the time was really slow. I dogged the whole race only wanting to be sure I won, I didn't care about the time at all. This lead me to have to take off like a wild woman the last part of the race since another woman was right on my shoulder the last mile. We hit a short downhill with about 1/4 mile to go and I took off. I'm not a good uphill runner, but I can fly on the downs and I was able to gap her and keep going on the flat to the finish. This is about as open as you'll ever see this proud-to-be-a-shuffler's stride!

The stats:

Monday: 10 (8:12) easy
Tuesday: 11 (7:00) steady
Wednesday: 10 (7:40) tempo that almost killed me. 6:29, 6:26, 6:27, 6:28
Thursday: 13 (8:19) easy
Friday: 5 (8:35) recovery, plus strides
Saturday: 5k (19:41 ugh), 4 warm up and cool down plus strides
Sunday: 15 (7:34) long

Total: 71 miles plus one massive migraine after the tempo in the heat.

Adapting

2011-01-20T15:21:00.001-05:00

Holy cow, this week seems tough. It didn't look too bad on paper, I didn't even think too much about it. I have to remember that I'm not nearly as fit as I'd like to be right now and I haven't been doing quality work for a while. Toss in some really warm weather (ugh, I hate running in heat and humidity), and I'm feeling it this week so far.

Monday was easy, just a slow 10 after my long run on Sunday. Tuesday was a "brisk" run, 11 miles, I ran this at exactly 7 pace (and I was annoyed I didn't make it 6:59, that would have looked nicer in the log!). And then there was yesterday. It was already into the 70's when I woke up and the humidity was a lovely 99% with not a cloud around. When the dew points are in the 70's I totally fall apart. I used to know that and move quality runs indoors on days like that. Well, poor judgement was the ruler of my Wednesday. So, I headed out the door did my 3 warm up and took off and almost died running 4 miles at just under 6:30 pace, then I ran 3 to cool down even though it was only supposed to be 2 (heat induced inability to remember what I just read before I left the house). Running hard in conditions like that usually hit me hard and yesterday was no exception. I thought I was fine after I got home, but a few hours later I got NAILED by a terrible migraine and spent the rest of the day and night in bed trying to ease the intense pounding in my head and to not throw up. My log entry for the day started with "this run sucked". You know what? It did. I might as well enter what really happened, maybe I will remember that next time I'm in a similar situation.

Today was an easy 13 miler and I was in no hurry! It was in the 80's by the time I was done. Oof, enough already with the heat. It should be better this weekend.

This was very, very cool today. I saw some manatees when I started out my long run on Sunday, so I spent today looking for some more. When I was on my way back, I saw a few in the intracoastal and I ran over to the water's edge. I was about a foot from one, damn they are cute! It was tempting to try to pet him, but I figured I'd probably end up falling over the seawall and going for a swim in some nasty water. They are just so mellow and fun to watch, very relaxing! His front little flapper kept popping out of the water as he spun around slowly, just hanging out manatee style.

Week 5 in the books!

2011-01-17T08:58:00.000-05:00

This week started out great, was terrible in the middle, and then ended great. Crazy.

Monday: 9 (8:14) easy. Nice and slow, tired from last weekend.
Tuesday: 10 (7:52) hills on the 'mill. 1/2 mile up, 1/2 down, repeat. Starting to increase the paces a bit on the way back down.
Wednesday: 9 (8:07) hill repeats. (8 x hill repeats. Modified it a tiny bit to make it simpler for the 'mill (distance instead of time). 8 x 1/4 miles at 3.5%. Started out at 9.1mph, ended at 9.6mph. I could have pushed these way more but was nervous about my hammy and not sure where to start with the pace. Next time I'll start out around 9.6 @ 4%)
Thursday: 12 (8:14) easy. Not a great run, after about mile 8 hamstrings both felt weird.
Friday: 7 (8:20) easy. Dammit, back was bad=bad right hamstring=numb right calf. :(
Saturday: 5 (8:25) easy. I was planning on racing but didn't want to chance it so I just jogged around the 'hood.
Sunday: 17 (7:35) long. Started out easy and didn't love how my leg was feeling but I got much better throughout the run! It ended up being a nice run even though it was pretty hot and sunny out! (8:07, 7:54, 7:50, 7:48, 7:48, 7:50, 7:47, 7:48, 7:52, 7:37, 7:33, 7:23, 7:12, 7:11, 6:58, 7:12, 6:56)

Arg!

2011-01-15T12:52:00.000-05:00

Grumble, grumble, grumble.

I was feeling sooooooooo good, and then on my 12 miler on Thursday I was just a bit off towards the end. It wasn't much, but it was a deep achey feeling down the back of my leg. I kept the pace super easy and just got home. Friday was only 7, I made it about 4 before I started getting those "shocks" running down my hamstring. Darn-it. I ran/walked home, the leg felt like it was going to cramp up and tear on me. I was supposed to race today, but that surely wasn't the right choice so I bagged it. I went out for a super easy 5 around the hood, it was fine (not perfect but better than the day before) but now my outside of my calf is numb again. So, the nerve is ticked off once again. I have a 17 miler tomorrow and I'll decide in the morning if I feel confident enough to get out there and try to run it. I can always do it on the 'mill, long runs on that aren't any fun but it's safe or I can lug my phone with me and call Matt for a ride if something goes wrong.

I hope this is just a tiny setback. I have had little things, a million of them, pop up like this in training and after a few easier days of running they usually go away. If I haven't been through all the stuff I had to deal with over the summer, I wouldn't even think about this as anything more than a bad couple of days. I'm walking a fine line trying to get ready for Boston, I think if I miss even on long run it'll be out as a goal race if I want to be realistic about where I am now and what kind of time I want to go for at my next goal marathon. If things don't work out, I will probably still go up there and use it as a fun run and then maybe aim for Grandma's.

This is a FUN next couple of months down here for races, I really want to be able to get out there and be competitive. Every weekend in February has a great race! The Butterfly 5k is awesome and on a fast course, Boca 8k which should be fun since I have never raced an 8k and I'll probably go out like it's a 5k and have a blast the last two miles while trying not to throw up or pass out (heehee), then the A1A 1/2!!!!, followed up by Riverwalk, which is really early this year for some reason, but I love the watercolors they give out as prizes! I've got to pull myself together!

"Hills"

2011-01-13T09:36:00.000-05:00

I'm not confident enough with my body to try real speed work right now. Well, let's face it, I have a huge mental issue with speed work, anyway. This is probably one the biggest things holding me back in my running. I haven't been to a proper track in a couple of years and I'm pretty sure I left in tears the last time I was there (I just fall apart and get sooooo frustrated when I can't do what I should be able to do). I know I've changed so much as a runner since then, when I'm healthy enough to try shorter repeats I'll get myself to a track and give them a real shot. It's time to deal with this.

Because of my leg/back injury this past summer, coach is having me do a more strength based training cycle this go around. He thinks it'll be good for Boston since it's more of a strength course and less of a flat speed course. The problem with that is that I live in South Florida, very flat South Florida. I don't even live near a big causeway. My bridges over the beach are only about 15 or 20 feet of climbing. So, to the treadmill! She's hanging in there, the poor gal has been totally pounded over the last 3 years. It was a cheapo 'mill, but I think it has over 2,000 miles on it and we've only replaced one belt and the front roller. I'm sure it won't make it too much longer, but I'll going to get every last mile out of this thing.

I've been doing one or two runs on it a week. Usually one "rolling hill" run. I have a platform for the back, so that's pretty easy to make happen. I've just been doing 1/2 mile up, 1/2 down, repeat and then finishing with a mile or so down for a Boston specific stimulus. I'll try to get in a couple of longer pure downhill runs in the next couple of months. They'll beat me up, but they'll be worth it for the race. I did these before my first Boston and before I raced St. George and I really, really think they made a difference.

Yesterday I had hill repeats. He told me to do 9 miles with 8 repeats of 1/4 mile at 3-4% at a good clip (but to make sure I could finish all of them) in the middle of the run. Eek, I had no idea what I could do. For once, I underestimated the paces, usually I push myself too hard and end up struggling (see issues with speed work above, haha). So, I guessed. I split the difference on the incline and used 3.5%. I started out at 9.1mph, too easy. Then I went to 9.2mph, still okay. I just kept upping the speed and did the last one at 9.6mph and it was fine. I wasn't tired or sore after the workout, so I'm sure I didn't get a proper training stimulus, but I have a place to start next time doing these.

It's been a challenge figuring out where my fitness is. I feel really out of shape, but better than I did a couple of months ago. My training paces seem fine and my 5k last week was decent for effort, so maybe I'm not in as bad of shape as I think? Or, maybe the whole iron deficiency thing was having a huge impact on my running over the past couple of years? It's just been 3 weeks since I found out about that, I know it takes time to build iron back up but I'm sure my numbers are better already. I'll feel better once I get a few more races in and get my long runs up in the 20 plus range and things are still going well. I'm finding that it's not just about building up confidence in my body's ability to handle training, it's also finding a way to feel mentally strong about my running again. I'm not there yet, I hope to be soon.

Week 4 Recap

2011-01-09T14:03:00.000-05:00

My mileage was still a bit light this week, but I should be back into the 70's next week! This week was good, I'm still struggling with the back issues but I'm getting more fit. I'm starting to feel little snippets of my old stride, oh how I've missed that feeling of effortless running! I hope it keeps showing up and sticks around longer.

Monday: 9 easy (8:21)
Tuesday: 10 "hill" (8:03) treadmill hills. 1 mile slow warm-up. .5 @ 5% @ 8:30ish, .5 -2% @ 7:30ish repeated, last mile -2%.
Wednesday: 10 tempo (7:33) Great run! 3 easy, 6:24, 6:22, 6:23, 6:22, 3 easy. Hot out, so thrilled with the run.
Thursday: 5 recovery (8:40)
Friday: 3 easy (8:20)
Saturday: 5k race in 19:18 for 1st Female. 5 miles warm up/cool down. Race went really well, didn't push too hard and ran pretty even splits.
Sunday: 17 long (7:43) Was only supposed to run 16 but was really thirsty and had to run an extra 1/2 mile to hit a water fountain before I turned around. Legs were totally fine, back was hurting after 9ish. Coach didn't want me to push the pace at all since I raced yesterday so I ran a couple slow and then just held it around upper 7:30's to low 7:40's.

62 miles total.

Progress, The Hard Way

2011-01-06T13:20:00.000-05:00

Well, all the challenges I went through last week has made this week seem amazing! I had a nice long run on Sunday (back hurt terribly, but the pace was solid), and then yesterday had a good tempo run (back didn't hurt, yay)!

I did my first attempt at a tempo in almost year a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty darn rough. I had four miles of tempo pace sandwiched inside of a 9 miler and really struggled, barely hanging on and averaged 6:44. Oof, not even close to where I hope I was. I wasn't full of confidence heading out yesterday for my 10 with 4 at tempo, it was warm, 75 degrees and humid with a 65 degree dew point. Usually those conditions destroy me, I'm not a good heat runner. I was drenched with sweat my first easy 3, hit the watch and took off hoping to see how long I could hang on to a 6:35ish pace. I hit the first mile in 6:24 and thought "oh, crap, this isn't going to end well". It was okay! 6:24, 6:22, 6:23, 6:22. I'm not where I want to be but I'm not nearly as far off as I felt a few weeks ago.

So, the roller coaster ride that is the struggle to get back into race shape continues. Poor Matt has to listen to me say there is no way I can do Boston one day to me proclaiming I'll be okay the next. I've been all over the place mentally and physically, but I'm determined to fight my way through this and come out on top. I'm stubborn :)

2011 thoughts and ideas

2011-01-04T08:51:00.000-05:00

Running Goals:

These are going to be similar to last year's since I missed so much of the year.

Races:

5k: 18:xx (I really want a sub-18:30 but I'll take anything under 19!)

1/2: 1:25 (6:30 pace, just seems like a nice round number)

Marathon: 2:5x:xx (I really, really, want this one!)

Training:

Run my hard runs harder and my easier runs easier. I get sooooo bored running super slow, but it's important to let the body heal after a workout. If I get better about slowing down, I'll get better about speeding up!

Get back in good enough shape to start running with the guys again. They really helped to get me to a new level last spring, it's nice running with faster folks a couple of times a week.

Stay mentally positive during hard runs, it makes a difference but it's hard to do!

Personal Goals:

Be less materialistic. Things don't make me happy long term. Doing stuff does! Continue to trend towards that lifestyle. (This is not an easy task in south Florida, people are scary materialistic down here and it's easy to get caught up in that)

Don't obsess about everyone "liking" me. There are people out there who aren't worth the effort and drag me down. If I'm true to myself and my beliefs, some people aren't going to like that and that's okay.

Volunteer more, contribute to causes we care about deeply, get more involved politically!

Try to use the microwave less. I don't use it too much, but I also think it's really bad for us. There are other, just as easy, ways to reheat stuff.

Keep reading, learning and applying those lessons to our every day life.

Keep on keeping on with the vegan lifestyle. Um, um good! I don't think we'll go 100%, dang cheese still gets us every now and again, but neither of us miss eating dead animals, at all. It was really weird having a turkey in the house for Thanksgiving, I did't like it and felt badly about it. It was AWESOME that Matt's father had a ton of organic and vegan dishes at Christmas this year for us (and, they liked it, too!).

Try to do one thing everyday to help someone out or put a smile on their face. I've been trying to do this for a couple of months, it's fun!

Week 3 back in training!

2011-01-03T08:20:00.001-05:00

2011, let's go!

Last week was very light on mileage and I missed my two hill workouts, but overall decent considering how I felt.

Monday: 4 (8:15) easy super early before doctor. Was supposed to be 9 miles.
Tuesday: 0 Missed a hilly run, could barely move.
Wednesday: Perhaps the dumbest run of my life. 8 (8:19) slow on the 'mill. Was supposed to be hill repeats.
Thursday: 13 (7:56)
Friday: 13 (7:54)
Saturday: 6 very slow (8:29) with Matt
Sunday: 16 (7:25). I didn't do my speedwork within the long run, this is the worst my back has ever felt on a run so I was thrilled with the paces considering! Splits: 8:10, 7:56, 7:43, 7:41, 7:31, 7:35, 7:24, 7:30, 7:22, 7:07, 7:06, 6:55, 7:01, 7:09, 7:10, 7:00.

60 miles total

I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get on track this week!

Update

2010-12-31T13:27:00.002-05:00

What a crazy couple of weeks since I last blogged. I WILL blog more in 2011, I promise! I enjoy having this diary to look back on and I really let this slide over the last year.

This is my last post of 2010 and hopefully my last whiney one for a long time!

I saw the back surgeon, it was a good appointment overall. It was interesting to see his reaction to my films. He was shocked about the old fractures at T12 and L1 and wanted to know what type of violent accident caused that trauma. I have been made to realize just how lucky I was, things could have turned out so differently. Sadly, those are what they are and something I just have to continue to deal with. It's been over 7 years of dealing with back pain from that, what's another 60 or so? He also saw the disc rupture that seems to be a major source of my right leg pain/numbness. We scheduled an ESI to give that a shot.

I had to wait a while for the ESI because of the holidays, so I just had that done on Monday. The anesthesiologist gave me the same look about the old fractures and he was shocked I can still run (in all honesty, running makes me feel better most of the time, I'd rather run 20 miles than sit in a car for over an hour, it hurts less!!). If you asked me Tuesday or Wednesday my thoughts about it, I would have told you that I made a huge mistake. I guess the shot really set off that nerve, I haven't felt constant pain like that in a long time. The good news is, it resolves and it is lessening right now.

Here's a great example why I (and all real runners) are totally crazy. I sat on my sofa the other day, in a huge amount of pain and spent well over 5 minutes trying to figure out how I could get my shoes on so I could try to run. I couldn't bend at all without hitting a 10 on the pain scale. I got them on finally and then walked with Suunta around the block. Walking felt fine, so why not run? I did. It was not nearly as bad as I expected, I was okay starting out and fell apart a bit on the way back. I paid for it a bit the rest of the day, but it was totally worth it. I just needed to move, mentally it just relaxes me.

I ran again today and was even better. I can bend over so much further and sleep has been a lot easier. I think by the end of the weekend, I should be fine. Now, I hope this was worth it. I should know by mid-week next week. This week, I'm way behind on mileage but I can't make it up so it'll be a bit a bust. If I'm feeling good next week, I think I'll be back on track.

I'm not too confident about Boston, there's just 15 weeks left and I have a lot of work to do still. I'll make a call in a few weeks. There are a ton of other races out there a month or so later, but Boston is Boston and I'd rather race there.

***edited to add***

One of the great things that came out of my appointment was when the doctor saw that I had been anemic in the past and mentioned that to me. It made me realize that I haven't checked on that in years, I just take an iron supplement and vit C everyday and figured I was fine . So, I got my blood pulled and my iron numbers were really low! Wow. I've been feeling kind of foggy lately but I know that I get that way when I'm in pain and I figured that was all there was to it. I had no idea I was working with that. So, I've doubled my iron supplementation and I'll get checked again in a few weeks to see if that helps and stuff starts to trend upwards. I also wonder if I've been like this the entire time I've been training? Yikes, anyway, if I can even get my numbers back up into the low end of the normal range, I should feel a huge difference. I guess it's time to find a GP and start keeping better tabs on things since I'm asking a lot of my body these days.

Yay! Err, wait, maybe not.

2010-12-15T16:39:00.000-05:00

Or, maybe yay? I've been all over the place back and leg health wise since my last post. I'm in a better spot now, but it seems every time I allow myself to believe it's just about gone I have a REALLY rough day. Oh, well, it's progress. A small amount of progress, but progress nonetheless.

The weather down here has been a smashing success the last couple of weeks, in my Minnesota born and raised opinion (who would have thought I could be rocking my awesome Keen wool clogs I got up in MN this summer down here almost every day?). It's been downright cold. Between the weather and my impending appointment with the back surgeon (tomorrow, eek), I decided to make the jump back into a modified training plan. I need to see what I can handle. I'm not going crazy, coach understands that I've been able to run a decent amount of mileage but that I've done no quality work.

A couple of weeks ago, I jumped into a night 5k. I had zero expectations, but Matt wasn't running (I have been running just ahead of him to let him draft off of me) so I wanted to see what happened if I tried a tad harder. I wasn't about to take off at a crazy pace, I just wanted to push it a teeny, tiny bit. I hit the first mile at 6:26 and felt totally fine and just stayed exactly on that pace the entire race. 19:58. Last year, I'd have been really upset with a time like that, right now, I was thrilled. It felt easy, like tempo pace easy. I took the next few days pretty slow and then jumped into a mile race the following Wednesday. This race is a blast, I wanted to do it even if I wasn't going to end up competitive. I started this race out really slow and just kind of built up throughout and with about 1/4 mile left, took off. That was a fun way to run a race like this, not fast, but really fun. I must have passed 50 people. 5:53. Okay, so I was doing mile repeats last year quicker than that, but hey it was my first sub-6 since April! I was a bit sore from this and took off the following day.

The formal schedule started this past Sunday, 15 miles with some surges. It ended at 7:30 pace and felt great. My back was a disaster the last couple of miles, but the right leg seemed a-okay. Monday was easy, 10 miles, felt fine. Tuesday was rolling hills, on the 'mill. This didn't feel fine. My right leg was really numb and weak. Ugh. Today I had hill repeats to do on the 'mill, but I wondered if it was the 'mill that was causing such discomfort. So, I headed out on the roads down to the Linton Bridge. It was okay, I modified it a bit but the mileage ended up longer than planned since the bridge is 4 miles away. I'm feeling alright now, but not perfect. I think I'll not run uber early tomorrow and just head to my appointment. I have 10 to get in, but really only 8.5 since I went over today. I'll try to run that in the afternoon if my leg feels good. If not, I'll force an unplanned rest day.

I'm thrilled to be training again, but I covet those days when I didn't have to over analyze every little ache, pain, sensation. When I could just run, carefree, pushing when I wanted to as hard as I wanted to, full of confidence in my body. Not worrying about the possible consequence of every single footfall. I know, no doubt, those days will be back but I'm not the most patient human being walking around and this has been a test of my love of running. The passion hasn't wavered one bit, but it's been mentally exhausting at times. I have to admit, physical exhaustion is preferred on my end!

PS: It's comforting to see in the comments that I'm not alone. I know every runner struggles at times, but it's easy to forget that when it's happening to me.

Progress?

2010-12-02T09:55:00.001-05:00

Progress or a holding pattern? I'm not really sure right now. I do know that there are plenty of good days and plenty of bad days still. I also know that I'm very motivated to get back to a proper training schedule. I've learned a lot about my body over the past seven months. I've also learned that I need to "share" more when I'm talking to my doctors. I tend to really downplay everything and not mention a ton of stuff I don't think is relevant to my visit. I wonder, now, if I was more open and less afraid (okay, terrified) of sounding like a whiner or complainer, if I'd be back to 100% today.

Things I thought I knew. My hamstring was strained down by the tendon on the outside of my knee (this was true, but a small part of this problem). It seemed fairly simple to me. Rest it, strengthen what needed to be strengthened...my external hip rotators and glutes are ready to take on the world :), and slowly get back into training. As distance runners we have a myriad of items on our bodies that hurt, everyday, every run. That's part of the package, to be expected. The person who is most comfortable with being uncomfortable usually wins. The problem is knowing when an ache/pain/discomfort is part of a bigger problem. But, the overwhelming thing to me is to not be a whiner, I dismiss most everything easily and without much effort. In my defense, I tend to heal super fast. I've had a ton of stuff pop up in training, eased back just a tad for a couple of days and been right back and ready to go at.

My right leg. Hammy is hurt, okay I know this but it's been months of rest and I'm getting nowhere. Time to see my ortho down here, I finally admit. I casually mention my knee is very stiff and pressure-filled feeling. Doc notices my knee is swollen and points it out to me--how have I not seen this? Knee MRI, nothing huge or out of the ordinary for a distance runners. Okay, cool, I blow that off 100%. Hours and hours and hours of PT. During one of these sessions, I mention that I'm getting some sharp pains down the back of my leg and into my calf. On another day, I mention that out outside of my calf is almost always numb when I run (and, now, almost all day long). I mention that I have been having back pain, more than usual, but I figure it is just my old injury flaring up now that I'm trying to ramp up my mileage. On yet another appointment, I mention that my right foot is totally killing me, right over the top and kind of into my big toe making running really difficult. I say I think I've been tying my shoe too tight (I know I'm not, my gosh, you can slip my shoes right off I have them so loose), wearing worn out shoes (all of 120 miles) and that this is just a normal since I've been ramping up my mileage. I've got a "Jen" explanation for everything and don't even think about connecting the dots.

I'm glad to have finally gotten a lumbar MRI. The pattern of pain follows a nerve perfectly. I bet I could have saved a lot of time and money being a tad more open. Thankfully for me, I have a kind and patient PT who actually listened and took the time to figure out me since I apparently have no idea what's going on in my own body.

So, I'm waiting on my appointment with a spine surgeon. I'm glad to know the cause of all this. I really never thought I messed up in my training. This happened after a rest period post Eugene when I was still pretty low mileage just starting to get back into work. I never felt fatigued, tired or overly stressed when this went down. I'll be even more glad to hear something along the lines of, this will be fine with a few new PT therapies mixed in or this will calm down with an ESI. I'm anxious to hear what he has to say, if he cares at all about dealing with athletes and what we expect from our bodies and how the appointment plays out. I hope he is as motivated to get me back to where I was last year as much as I am!

I'm Back (okay, just somewhat back...I'll take what I can get)!

2010-11-17T15:27:00.000-05:00

Okay, I guess I did fall off the face of the Earth. I've been hurt, frustrated about being hurt, and now I'm still fighting for my recovery. I think when I typed up my last post, I was still in denial about "a tiny little something" going on back behind my knee. It was hurting then, but I didn't even bother to mention it. Denial, yep, didn't work out.

I continued that wonderful cycle of giving it a couple of days, trying to run again, feeling okay for a bit then ended up worse off than where I started for a looooooong time. Then, I gave it a month. I was feeling okay, could run a decent amount but every time I'd speed up something would happen and set me back. I finally gave up, rested up totally (no biking or swimming) and waited to get back to Florida to get some proper medical care. All the difference in the world.

Yes, I had messed up my hamstring down at the tendon behind my knee but after a handful of tests including x-rays and a couple of MRI's the culprit was found. Big surprise (sarcasm), it's my back. My poor, I got stepped on by my horse, almost got killed and all mushed up, back. Now, my back has hurt every single day for the past 7 years, but it's never been much of an issue running. It's more of a I can't sit in the car for more than an hour with out freaking out from pain kind of thing, motion has aways made me feel better. Injury wise, it all makes sense, now. Yes, my hammy was hurt, but I was also having sharp pains down the back of my calf, as well as having a lot of numbness in the back of my leg down into my calf. The frustrating thing I'm dealing with now, is right foot pain, also caused by this. So, I feel like the hamstring is doing really well and just about healed but I need to get this foot pain out of here so I can train like a big girl again.

I'm waiting out the foot now. I really hope it goes away...if not, it'll be back to the doctor to take the next step. I've finished up PT, it's been awesome and the reason this thing was finally properly diagnosed, now it's up to my body to see what it can deal with over the next few weeks. I've been able to run pretty far, up to 15 miles, but I haven't really mixed in any speed yet. I tossed in a few striders early on and they caused pain and backed off those for a bit but managed some last week that went well. I did an easy progression the other day and dropped my last mile down to 6:30 which, besides feeling out of shape, went very well. I think the hamstring is going to be fine mixing in some workouts, I just need this foot to feel better.

I am signed up for Boston, I hope to be able to try to race it hard. I can't imagine that right now, but I'm sure a couple months of workouts and I'll begin to feel it again. I've asked a lot out of my body over the past 3 years I've been running and this is the first major setback I've had. I can't really complain, I also know if I would have gotten a proper diagnosis this thing could have been a couple of months rather than nearly 7! Arg. I covet that smooth feeling I had running last year and how much fun training was. Right now, it's awkward, a bit ugly and fairly humbling. Sigh.

I haven't fallen off...

2010-05-20T18:41:00.000-04:00

the face of the Earth, but I did kill my Mac laptop with a healthy dose of coffee all over the keyboard :(. I'm still in mourning. I've fired up an OLD PC, but it's a mess and it's been downloading updates for the past two weeks. Eek.

So, I'll try to sum up what's been going on.

Eugene Marathon. It was a great race, but not my day to break 3. I went for it, but a couple of things worked against me and it just didn't work out. I was about a minute off at 20 and then was slammed with a major lack of energy. Legs and lungs felt perfect, this was a new one to me but I'm pretty sure I know the combination of events that lead to this. 3:07 is still pretty damn good for a chick and I'll be ready to try to smash my PR during my next attempt in the fall. Hey, it's a marathon and that's a long race. I know I'm in shape to get a 2:55-3 but to do that I need everything to come together perfectly and that's pretty darn difficult to orchestrate. I also think that's why I love the distance, there are no do-overs, it's a whole lot of eggs sitting in a fragile basket come race day.

I had an awesome season down here, so I hope I can keep chipping away at my PR's over the next year. I'm already thinking about lowering, or at least trying to lower, my 5k and half times. I've flirted with breaking 19 in the 5k, but would love to see a sub-18:30 and I'd also like to see a sub-1:25 half. I realize that gains are going to start to get harder now and come in tiny doses, but I'm still improving so I don't want to limit myself yet.

The most exciting possibility is the idea of all of us, Matt and puppies, getting out of here for the entire summer. We'll find out for sure if it'll happen by the weekend, things are looking pretty good! I hate to be so excited fearing a letdown, but I just can't stand the thought of another summer in South Florida. So, Minnesota, hopefully here we come!

I should be back into training come Sunday, and the Gary Bjorklund 1/2 is next on the list. I hope I can get some speed back and wake the legs up in a few weeks, eek. I'm looking into St. George for my fall race and that excites me. I've run the course, so I'll be more ready this go around. It's so well organized and the low- key setting makes it easy for me to just fall into my normal pre-marathon routine and I know that's key for me to race a solid race-zero distractions. The weather there can be an issue, so I will have some type of back up in the plans, maybe CIM. That's stuff that will get worked out next month.

I'm sorry for the messy post, I'll get back on top of things!

Getting Close

2010-03-25T17:11:00.001-04:00

Well, I'm deep in training right now. As always, I go from feeling like I'm not doing nearly enough and then, bam, I'm working my butt off and really pushing. Eugene is in just over 5 weeks, so I really only have 2 or 3 more weeks of hard work left and then it's off to taper town.

My long runs have been going really well this go around. My first 20 miler, several weeks ago was nice and easy, keeping the pace just under 8 and logging some time on my feet. A couple of weeks later, a tad faster, with an average of 7:36, but no quality mixed in. Then came the big one, the workout that just terrified me. 20 miles with 13 at goal marathon pace. I always have a hard time with these, they have never gone well. I finally got the courage to get some help and find someone to run with. What a difference, a huge difference! The run ended right around 7 even with 13 miles floating between 6:30's-6:40's. And, it felt great. Wow. Yippee. Finally! This past Tuesday was my first 22 miler, I LOVE 22 milers. The run went well, it had a mix of easy miles and progression miles getting under my marathon pace a couple of times. I finished it around 7:34 pace, following coach's instructions. 24 miler ending with 4 at goal marathon pace next week. I really hope the weather isn't too nasty hot and humid for that one.

There have also been a mix of other workouts. Mile repeats every week, starting with 4 and working my way up to 6 this coming week. He's having me run these at a very quick pace, but I'm getting them done. The 4 were actually harder than the 5 I did last week, so I guess I'm adapting. We'll see how the 6 go. That's a whole lot of running at a fast pace, it's not going to be easy.

I've also done a few races since I last blogged. Nothing too exciting, but races I like down here. A couple of 5k's, I came in 2nd in one and won the other, so that's always nice. I ran the Shamrock 10 miler, came in 2nd there, I made a big tactical error but learned a good lesson. I have one 10k left (oh, my, that's going to hurt with all this mileage in my legs) and then the racing season is basically over for me down here. I'll pop into a couple of tris over the summer, once I get back on the bike a couple of times and hit the pool a bit.

We are slowly getting organized for Eugene. I'm really excited for the trip, Matt's even more excited than I am. It's going to be really tough watching Boston on TV, but it'll be fun to track the leaders and watch it live this year. Plus, I have a ton of friends to track. It's not going to be a very productive Monday :).

Oh, yeah, I'm having my typical pre-marathon "I'm not prepared for ANY hills, at all, whatsoever" meltdown. Welcome back my old friend, you've not been missed. I will be spending so good time with my buddy Mr. Linton Bridge over the next few weeks.

A1A Half Marathon, 2010...Yippee!

2010-02-25T13:09:00.001-05:00

The yippee is for Bill :).

Okay, so this was way cool. I got to win a huge race. A couple of years ago I could have never dreamed of something like this. I've had a good run, ha!, the last couple of months. My training paces and, more importantly, my race paces have been dropping the last couple of months. I've had a couple really solid "up tempo" runs as coach calls them, pushing myself harder than I ever have in training, and then a couple of nice 5k's, shaving nearly a minute off my PR from last year, these have all given me a ton of confidence.

Not wanting to jinx myself and very aware of the fact I usually have rough halves during marathon training, I kind of kept some of my pacing thoughts hidden in the back of my mind. Full disclosure, I really felt like I could run around a 1:25-1:26 on a perfect day (meaning 40's, no wind, a small taper) and possibly around 1:27-1:28 on a decent day (which we pretty much had) and I was fairly certain I'd be able to break 90 minutes even if things were a little bit "off" (hot/windy/just not feeling great).

I tried to line up right in the front row at the start so I could see who the other women were and where they were, some men just can't deal with a women starting in front of them (oh, the horror), I got pushed/shoved back a row or so before the gun went off. The first couple of miles felt way more comfortable than the pace reflected, that was awesome, but I was sweating pretty decent heading over the bridge to the beach and that worried me a tad. Another women was running next to me on the bridge, we had no idea if anyone else was up there. Once we crested the bridge and started running into the park a few people yelled first women and we knew we were up front. Just after entering the park, she asked if I was doing the half or full, I said half. She smiled, said she's doing the full and is going to drop down off my pace to settle in and told me to "be the champion and keep up the pace". I wished her luck and told her to have fun, she laughed at the "fun" part. I had little doubt she was going to win the marathon, which she did in 2:58!

It just kind of stayed the same the entire race. The pace didn't really change too much, I didn't get overheated until the last couple of miles (yay!) and I never felt like I was working hard. The amount of cheering and encouragement being the first woman was really cool! I always love when someone takes the time to tell me where I'm at in the woman's race, it helps so much. But, being out front was just neat. Getting interviewed by Comcast Sportsnet the second I crossed the finish line was a bit surprising, but also a very memorable experience, I'm sure I was quite a sight 10 seconds after crossing the finish of a fairly long race-yikes.

After the race with Matt. He was so excited, that probably pleased me more than anything during and after the race! I also need to give a shout out to my Suunta puppy, she's been having a blast pulling me through my striders at the ends of my runs...of course, slowing her back down is a bit of a challenge :).

The stats.
1st female out of 1613 women
1:27:09

splits:
1. 6:34
2. 6:36
3. 6:40
4. 6:37
5. 6:35
6. 6:35
7. 6:40
8. 6:44 (major confusion at the turn-around, lost several seconds trying to figure out where to go)
9. 6:41
10. 6:41
11. 6:40
12. 6:40
13. 6:48 (found out I was well over 2 minutes ahead of the next lady, relaxed and took it all in!)
.1 6:31 pace
Average 6:39

2010-02-10T15:36:00.000-05:00

Just for fun, a picture with my sister and her kids from the Freeze Yer Gizzard race. Owen did his very first 5k and only had to walk 2 times! He's going to be an awesome runner, he LOVES it!

Usually I'm a bad blogger when I have nothing going on, this is not the case right now. I need to keep on top of this, though, since I really like looking back on my entries from time to time.

Since my last blog, I've raced a couple of times. I ran the Securian Frozen Half up St. Paul 3 weeks ago. That was a blast, but far from a fast race for me. Between the wind, footing and the hills, a 7mm effort was the safest bet. I'm super glad I did the race, though, it was fun even with the freezing rain. Later that day, I was outside standing in a true combination of rain, sleet and snow! Yuck. The drive to the airport at 4am the next morning was really interesting until I got on a main road. Ice and lots of it. I think my first few miles driving were probably about 5mph max, seriously. I didn't want to kill the rental car, myself or anyone else.

I was kind of hoping to jump into the half marathon at Miami the following weekend, but I didn't sign up early and it was $125 at the expo. No thanks. Maybe if it was going to be 40 or 50 degrees but I can run 13 miles in the heat all alone for free. Next year, hopefully, the timing and weather will work out, as I really enjoy this course.

This past weekend was the Butterfly Run 5k just about 1/2 hour south of us. The weather was looking good, which is just a huge factor for me. It was a bit windy, but the temps stayed under 60 and that makes all the difference. I felt terrible on my warm up. My stomach was really acting up, a lot, and my legs were just feeling blah. I saw a couple of ladies that are faster than me and was just hoping to keep a particular person within sight for as long as possible. Imagine my shock when the person I was hoping just to be able to see at the half way point was right behind me for the first 2 miles. Sweet, but I was really waiting for a huge blow up to happen. I've been working on keeping a solid and positive mental state going on these short, hard races. I give up too easily normally. I think it's working! I would find myself drifting into the "just back off and don't blow up" excuse and was trying to replace it with "you've been training hard, just stay comfortable at this pace, keep going". It sounds so corny, but I swear it's working. My splits were 6:03, 6:06, 6:11 and 5:50 pace to finish for a 19:05 (bummer it read long on the garmin, I thought I was going to break 19!!). I'm pumped to finally have a 5k pr that I'm not totally ashamed of. I've historically been REALLY weak on the shorter stuff compared to my marathons, so we'll see how this plays out over the course of this year with my goal races (marathons).

Speaking of marathons, yes, that is actually what I'm focused on even though I'm racing so much. My first 20 was Monday. Everything felt great, I was/am a tad sore from it as it was a long effort the day after a hard 5k. I haven't gone that far since last September! Body likes the long runs, though, so I should be feeling even better the next one!

The gizzard is still intact!

2010-01-19T14:22:00.001-05:00

So much fun! It seemed like a good idea, and it even turned out to be a good idea! The weather was very mild by Northern MN standards, almost too warm since we ended up running mostly in slush save for about 1/2 mile on slippery snow. My shoes were totally soaked after the race and I tossed them in my car in favor of wearing my Uggs for the awards. I found them there this morning, frozen solid, oops. I just about missed the start of the race, I somehow got the start time off by 15 minutes in my brain. I had to weave my way up through the back of the pack, luckily this race isn't huge. You can see me here, wearing my purple team shirt w/ purple headband (under the "N"), giggling and trying to get up towards the front.

I caught up to what I hoped was the lead women about a mile into the race and asked her if there were any more women up there, she didn't think so. She slid in behind me to draft for about a mile and a half and then around the 2.5 mile mark we had better footing and I put in a decent surge and lost her. I was running in a pretty big gap the 2nd half of the race. I could barely see one guy with a white shirt ahead of me but with the bends and turns, I lost sight of him. I was worried for a while I may be off course, on my way to Canada but finally saw a 10k sign after a solid mile of concern. With around a mile or so to go, I finally glanced back and couldn't see anyone so I was able to back off the gas and float it in. I finished at 40:56 to win the women's race and won a very cool handmade pottery thing that I just adore and got a pretty nice medal to boot!

I have a few more days in Minnesota and then back to hot, yucky, humid Florida. I'll treasure my nice cold weather runs while I'm up here, for sure! Running on snow and dealing with the big hills by my parents house is certainly working my legs, I feel the fatigue even though my mileage is low right now. This will hopefully give me some nice training effects.

2010

2010-01-02T16:36:00.000-05:00

I'm very much looking forward to my step-back/recovery week this upcoming week. I've just been a tad tired, not much, but I've run every day since I started back up again (and will run everyday this week, still) with the intensity ever so slowly ramping up. A tiny step-back will feel good, for sure! I have to admit, working with coach is working--the man knows what he's doing! I feel stronger and fitter compared to just 6 months ago. My paces in training are slowly dropping and that is a nice confidence booster. I'm also getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, finally!

I'm not a huge resolution person, I believe in always working to improve yourself, every single day with every single decision but it's fun to write down different goals and there is no better time than right now. Running wise, same ole story, in all reality. I want to keep chipping away at my marathon PR. I really would love to dip under 3 this season. Fall will probably be my best shot, but who knows, maybe my fitness and the weather gods will aline for my spring race. Secondary and tertiary goals are faster 5ks and halves. Those will need to occur during marathon training, so I don't put too much pressure on myself. I would like to get a 5k pr that is an 18:xx and a half around 1:27ish. Those would just be bonuses but I'll take them with a huge grin on my face if I get them :)

Outside of running, I just want to keep moving our lives in the direction they are going. Keeping life simple, clean and not closing our eyes to the world as a whole. I want to make choices that are better for not only us, but the world, it's not really all that difficult, heck I think it's an easier and more pure way to live and love life! We've made some beautiful changes this year in our lifestyles and couldn't be happier. Eating almost entirely vegan has been the shiz! I've been reading and learning a ton, I like that, I tend to fall out of that habit sometimes and need to keep it up. The main goal is for us to get the heck out of Florida, but the market is just so terrible right now. It'll change, there is limited nice land and even fewer normal honest to God family neighborhoods around, so at some point, someone will want our place. In the meantime, I'll be traveling a ton to Minnesota and Colorado.

Eugene is really beginning to look like it'll be my spring race, Matt prefers it and flights aren't too crazy pricey out there. I promise that I will make a call on a race soon! I really worry about the weather at Boston, I was super lucky the past 2 years and can't imagine them having good weather again. Of course, the weather can be bad in Oregon, but I know my odds are way better. Plus, we really want to spend some time checking out that area. But, Boston has a way of getting my all jazzed up over running, ugh, I will figure someone out I really will...at some point ;).

Stuff is Happening

2009-12-28T16:30:00.001-05:00

Well, maybe not really but I feel like I'm back into full training even though the mileage isn't really up there, yet. Since the half at Palm Beach, I ran a mile race that Wednesday. That was weird, I've never raced anything nearly that short. It was fun, I'd like to try a few more and get a time more in line with my potential at that distance. Too bad there aren't too many around here, or probably anywhere for that matter. Then, that Saturday I raced a 5k. Holy cow, I was tired by then. That was my 3rd race in a week and I haven't been doing any speed work. Luckily, there wasn't really any of the faster ladies around and I was able to easily win the race without having to put forth too much effort. Oof. The next Saturday, at the last minute we decided to drive up to Jupiter and we both raced the 5k at the Classics by the Sea. That was an awesome race! I went out easy effort, kept it easy effort and got a nice little PR with that effort of 19:49. My heart rate was only one beat higher than what I average my marathons at. Cool. I've never felt so strong running quickly before. I was able to cross the finish line, take off my chip and go out for another 4 miles to cool down without even feeling winded. I hope to keep feeling so strong. I think the lower weekly mileage along with the shock and awe effect of the races the week before just allowed my legs to feel really great that morning.

Training is ever so slowly ramping up. I think I'll be in the 70's this week. My long runs have been different lately. Progressions, tons of progressions. They have been good for me, but no walk in the park. Since it heats up so much down here as your run goes on, it makes dropping the pace even more challenging. But, that's good for me. I also did a bunch of goal marathon paced miles in a couple of my runs. The sub-7 pace, hovering around 6:50 is feeling more comfortable. MP runs are always a struggle for me on fatigued legs but I try my hardest. I hope that this go around they feel a bit easier than in the past, we'll see. I also need to pick a marathon. I think Matt prefers that I do Eugene, I'm sill on the fence. I have to make a choice pretty soon.

I'm super pumped to head up to Minnesota for a couple of weeks in a couple of weeks! I need to be cold, really cold, for a bit. Running will be a challenge up there, but it'll get done. I'm, for sure, doing the Freeze Yer Gizzard 10k in the Falls. I'm still trying to decide about the Securian Frozen Half in the Cities the weekend after. I think I have okay gear for running up there, I guess I'll find out!

Palm Beach Half

2009-12-07T16:24:00.000-05:00

Wow, so this went a heck of a lot more smoothly than I guessed it would have. I'm feeling really unfit (for me) right now, so I was worried about even trying to run this as a quality long run. I've done a couple of steady runs, as coach calls them, ranging from 7:15 to 7:30's and they hurt fairly badly. I knew I lost quite a bit over the past two months of down time from real training. I ran a hard fartlek on Wednesday and really took myself down for the rest of the day. It was hot and super windy and I pushed way too hard, I was sure that this was going to destroy my chances for a comfortable run on Sunday at the race. Coach didn't ask too much of me for this race, just to give it a good effort and treat it as a quality long run. So, I planned on running a few warm-up cool-down miles easy and try to run the 1/2 around a 7 even pace.

At the start, I ran into a friend doing the full as a training run (and ran a 3:16--damn sweet training run!) and her 405 wasn't working, so I gave her my 305. So, I had a watch for the race but it was all wonky like, no biggie at all. Marathon very much trumps 1/2 and I was glad to be able to help a friend out!

The plan was to run around even 7:00 pace and see if I felt fine doing so. To be honest, I really thought it was going to not work out...I just don't feel fit. Luckily, it felt super easy. It felt like marathon pace felt in StG and that pleased me, very much! It was fairly windy on the way back, so it was good practice to work on drafting. I was super lucky to find a great group of guys to work with! I do need to keep working on my drinking skills, my I am terrible at the water stations. I fall WAY behind everyone I'm running with and have to sprint to catch up, not cool (not to mention that I usually spill 50% on me, 25% goes into my lungs and I end up coughing out the 25% I should swallow). That is something I'm really going to concentrate on in my next few shorter races. I have got to get better at this.

So, I'm happy with the race! It has given me some nice hope about being able to keep getting faster this year, I can't wait to feel fit again and try to pound out some awesome times! I hope it works out.

Sorry about the lame race report, not a lot of drama but a solid day. 1:32:04, 11th female.

Time To Get Back Into Things

2009-12-03T16:00:00.000-05:00

Wow, I certainly know I gave it my all at StG. I'm finally feeling back to my old self, somewhat. I haven't had this much down time since I've started running, but my body certainly needed it. Sadly, fitness leaves us of so quickly. I haven't really done any real runs yet, no true speedwork (just some progressions and fartleks) and no real long runs. The long list of aches and pains has finally shortened up, my ankle is still a tad suspect from the tennis incident but is just about there. I'm running a decent amount, but I don't feel like I'm in training yet.

My plan for the next couple of months is to be a racing machine. I love the idea of it and coach thinks that racing as much as possible is great. A lot of these races will just be a sub for a long run or speedwork, no mini taper involved, but I need to race more to get better at racing. That's the plan, I hope I can keep Matt motivated to continue to come along with me. He helps out so much and I've really learned to depend on him in the mornings! I don't have to think about anything except getting warmed up, racing, running my cool down. He holds all my stuff, takes pictures, makes friends with other race husbands/wives, cheers me on, makes me drink my recovery drink (yuck) and drives me home! I feel lucky to have his support, I just know he may crack if it's every single weekend. He only missed two 5k's last year, one there was good surf and he wasn't going to miss that and the other one it was pouring rain and he was NOT going to go when he woke up and saw the radar and thought it was dumb that I did...I was so mad/sad that I ran a PR, funny.

So, what's up? Palm Beach 1/2 this Sunday, that one is going to be a major blow to the ego--I'm not race fit at all right now, but I'm still excited to get out there. Then, I'm going to run a mile road race at night on Wednesday. That one totally freaks me out, I'm not a miler nor am I a night person but dammit, I'm going to give it a shot! There are a nice sprinkling of 5k's most weekends and also the Miami and A1A halves. I love both of those courses, I really hope to score good weather for A1A and really try to get in a quick 1/2.

I've been reading a ton, I go in spurts and I find myself in a major reading streak right now. Some really great books about all kinds of stuff. A lot of stuff on nutrition, the environment and factory farming, some fluffy stuff about dogs :), and a few other things. I'm totally out of control! I just started one that I think may be really good, I'll post a review and some thoughts if it turns out as interesting as it seems early on! It addresses a lot of stuff I really believe in. Mostly, that people aren't born with some great talent, they work their asses off for what they get. I feel this way about my running, I'm far from fast but I hang in there at a local level for being new to it. It's not luck, lord knows it's not genetics ;), it is that I work really hard. I think a whole slew of folks who tell me that I'm talented would suddenly find themselves just as talented if they really wanted it. It's a whole lifestyle, eating well, running smart and running A LOT, living a fairly solid and clean life, learning to learn from others without being defensive, being humble and full of confidence at the same time. I'm not sure of the exact quote, but the author calls it something like "it's hard work, it hurts, not many people are willing to do it so they find excuses not to". Which, is fine, I think you must have a passion to want to try to do something all out, it's takes a lot of guts and can be painfully humbling. There are plenty of things I just kind of do, but there are a few things which I really enjoy and want to attempt to see how far I can push. That's fun to me! Maybe I'm weird, who knows, but it's how I tend to approach life. Too bad I didn't find passion in running a business or saving the world, that would probably serve me better than running, but I can't help that I enjoy this silly hobby so much!

This really is one of my favorite quotes, mostly the 2nd half. Who wants to live a so-so life, what's the point?: Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorius triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt

The Mental Side of Racing

2009-11-09T17:58:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking a lot about things I need to work on, mostly focusing on the physical side. Then, the other day while reading a book that has nothing to do with running, I started thinking about the mental aspect. The mind is so powerful over our bodies, remembering that I can sit and watch my heart rate and it'll be pretty low. But, if I really concentrate about relaxing I can make it dive. Nothing has changed, except my state of mind.

Coach always reminds me to keep it positive before my marathons. Think good thoughts and stay confident. It's not as easy as it sounds. It is really difficult to not over think every single aspect of your training, to think about the one tempo run that you blew up on instead of remembering all the other ones you nailed or to think about the sore throat that is lingering and the sore insert any important running related body part here. I think I do a pretty decent job, going into marathons (I can NOT say that about shorter races, oh no!). I'm always pretty relaxed, almost resigned to my fitness (for better or for worse). I'm not at all cocky, I'm terrified of the great humbling that can be awarded from the marathon if we don't respect it. I think it may serve me well to be a bit more "up" about my race the day or even hours before but I just find myself very, very mellow. It's not my main concern, though.

I do think that the whole during the race is an area I could really make some serious improvements with. My emotions go all over the place, was thinking about this today while emailing a friend. I'd like to be able to train myself to really find a way to stay 100% or even 95% positive. I'm ready for the rough patches now, I know they are going to come at the most unexpected times, but I'd love to be able to just toss them aside and move on within seconds instead of minutes.

So, what do you guys have for me? Over the past few days, I've looked at a ton of books on Amazon about "Brain Training" and "Mental Running", that kind of stuff. There are so very many choices out there! I'd like to get some recommendations if you all have any. I need to continue my insane book problem that has reared its ugly head now that I'm not running as much. I've seriously been out of control with the buying and reading of books this past month. Crazy!

Boston, Eugene. Eugene, Boston.

2009-11-05T12:22:00.001-05:00

Ack, I can't figure out which race to do. I'm totally on the fence for my spring race. I wish someone with magical powers could tell me that Boston is going to be 45 degrees, overcast with a tailwind! That would really help out. I really want to check out Oregon, though, too. I have no idea.

Eugene:

Flatter course
Way better chance for awesome weather
I would not have to start behind 3000 other runners
I'd probably be right up there in the standings
Get to check out Oregon
Finishes on Hayward Field, that's pretty damn cool
I'd be mixing things up for spring and going somewhere different

Boston

Fast crowd to pull me along
A ton of my friends local and from afar will be there
I actually love the course even though it's challenging
The energy at this race it so awesome
I might be able to still race the 1/2 at Ogden a few weeks later
Well, it's BOSTON

Stuff

2009-10-21T16:58:00.003-04:00

Yeah, I think that's all I got. Just more random stuff.

First off, a picture from St. George. This is somewhere around the 1/2 point. As you can see, this is not the most crowded, fan-filled race. It was very peaceful running through the mountains, though! I like this photo, I figured it was time to update my blog picture with this and remove the one from my first marathon a couple of years ago.

Second, tennis. Tennis did me wrong. I love tennis, I really do. I'm not that good at it, but it's a fun sport and our neighbors have a tennis court that was have full access to, so it's super convenient. But, my legs are not used to the lateral movement and I hurt my ankle something bad yesterday. Crap. Oh, well, at least I'm not close to any goal races right now but I was ready to start up running regularly again. I'm going to wait this out a few days and hope it gets better, if not, I'll make an appointment with an ortho. That's not an easy task down here, this is not a place real sports doctors live, it seems. I have not had any luck with a doctor understanding what it is that I do with my running.

Third, weather. What the hell? It's getting crazy hot again. Maybe it's a good thing I can't run for a little while. Come on fall, those 2 days were soooooo nice. I even had the a/c off for 48 hours! Woot.

Fourth, next race. I'm really leaning towards Boston, yet again. I'm so lame, I should mix things up. But, dammit, Boston is just so very cool. It's unlike anything I've ever done. I wouldn't want every race to be so chaotic, but it's neat to do that once a year! I'm still looking into other options, though, I just haven't been moved by anything yet.

Fifth, new car? We need to replace the H3. We want something not too fancy, but solid. We are leaning towards a new VW Jetta Sportwagon Clean Diesel TDI or the new Subaru Outback. We are also thinking maybe just getting a cheaper used SUV for Home Depot/Dog/Beach/Race trips. We hardly ever drive, but we need two cars. Choices, choices, choices.

Split Pea Soup

2009-10-15T06:43:00.003-04:00

Okay, so it's not cold here...yet. But, I LOVE soups and stews and I've missed eating them over the summer. Whole Food's bulk bins are heaven for me, I can go to town there! On Tuesday, I saw the split peas and had to, absolutely, make a split pea soup. Yummy.

This makes a huge batch, enough to freeze plenty of extra! So simple, so inexpensive, so good.

1 onion, chopped

3 large carrots, chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped

5 cloves of garlic, chopped

1.5 cups of dried split peas

1/2 cups of barley

1 potato, diced

10 cups water, more if needed

bay leaf

fresh parsley and thyme

salt and pepper (I love the taste of white pepper in my soups)

(I also added dulse for extra nutrition and salty flavor, I think it looked really pretty in there)

I guess you could easily add everything into a crock pot on low and let it sit all day to make it even easier, I did it in a dutch oven on the stove. This came out thick, rich tasting and nicely filling.

Saute onion in a bit of EVOO until soft, add garlic stir for a minute. Add in rinsed peas, barley and water. Bring to a boil and simmer for an hour or so. Add in carrots, celery, potato and herbs. Allow to cook for another hour or two, stirring occasionally adding water if needed.

I did cook up some Fakin Bacon tempeh for Matt in case he wanted the smokey flavor, he didn't care either way, the man ate THREE massive bowls! I read online about smoked salt that is supposed to add a nice smokey flavor to foods. I need to look into that and see what it's all about.