Merry Christmas!!

Jim, Jack & I Wish you ALL a very Merry Christmas. 

I know many of you have seen this picture already.  I guess that's the problem when you have a spouse who blogs too.

Many people have asked if that's really our kitchen or did we super impose this image somehow.  Yes, that is really our kitchen and it is a real photo.  Jack has mad skills!!

We look forward to sharing more stories with you in 2012!  Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year!

ART Makes Me Cry

I wish I could tell you that I had recently seen the works of Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in person and its beauty brought me to tears, but that is not the kind of “art” I’m talking about.  I am talking about ART – active release technique.  I’ve talked about it in my blog quite a bit over the last few months; it’s a specialized form of chiropractic medicine.  Although, very, very different from traditional chiropractic manipulation.

 

After reading about ART several times in blogs, I searched out an ART Dr. in my area for some pain I was having in both hips.  I have to say he has done wonders for me.  When I first went in I could barely walk, much less run without pain.  My hips felt locked up and out of place.  Now, for the most part I have limited hip pain.  It still comes on occasionally – like after a 22 mile run, but it doesn’t bother me day to day.  About a month ago, I remember saying to the Dr., “You know this ART stuff is not so bad.  I had heard so many times how painful it is supposed to be, but it really doesn’t hurt that bad”.  He just smiled and said, “Well sometimes it just depends on what area of the body you are working on, but also some people just have a higher tolerance for pain”.  I decided then and there that I must just be exceptionally tough.  I’m not saying it doesn’t hurt – trust me it’s not a pleasant experience, it’s just that the pain was tolerable.  And he was right, there were areas that were a little more painful, like when he worked on the adhesion in my abdomen, and he worked on my calves a few times too.  Sometimes I would have to hold my breath a few times to get through it, but it was ok.

So last week when I developed some very sudden foot pain, I called him up and asked if he thought he could help.  Well yes, of course, he was actually very good with foot pain.  So I made an appointment and went in after work on Thursday night.  My visit started with Mark, the “motion counselor” – not sure if that’s his technical title or not.  Anyway, Mark provides you some specific stretches and exercises for the area that is hurting, and also hooks you up to some giant electrodes.  I have had this done on my hip several times now, and it’s also not very pleasant – I knew the foot was going to be bad.  So he slaps one very large electrode over the heel of my right foot, and then puts a couple others in the general area and cranks up the juice.  Immediately my foot begins to tingle – it’s that pins and needles feeling you get when your foot is asleep, and then my toes start involuntarily spasming.  My big toe is waving like it has just been crowned the next Miss “Toe Jam” America.  The rest of my piggies are also doing a little dance of their own.  Let me tell you – when your body parts are moving involuntarily – it is not a fun time.  This lasts for about 10 minutes and then finally I am done and ready to see the Dr…..man I’m glad that’s over.

Dr. Black works on my hip for a few minutes first…ah not so bad.  Then he does a little work on the calf…hurts but I’m getting through it just fine.  Then he starts in on my foot.  HOLY crap – that hurts!  I begin to breathe in and out like I’m in labor.  Before I know it I’m yelling out “OHHHHH Kelly Clarkson” like Steve Carrell in the 40 Year Old Virgin.  Then I say a few other choice words, and he just responds, “ahhhh…..now we see the real you come out”.  I’m thinking no, this is not the real me, this is the holy batman I’m about to give birth through my foot me.  Before I know it, out of nowhere the tears go streaming down my face.  I am crying…..involuntarily crying….I can’t stop it.  It sucks.  I can’t remember being in this much pain before.  Poor Dr. Black, just looks at me and says “I’m sorry, I know this hurts, but I have to do it if you want to get better.  If it makes you feel better my ex-wife used to have major foot problems, and every time I worked on her feet she always cried.”  Hmmmm, I am thinking to myself, there’s probably a reason that “wife” was preceded by “ex” in that previous statement. 

Anyway, this torture goes on for about 15 minutes (might have been less, but it seemed like forever) and it’s finally over.  I just knew I wasn’t going to be able to stand up, but to my surprise when I put weight on my foot it actually felt better.  I was able to run 5 miles on it the next morning.  I have continued to stretch, exercise, ice, and heat the foot, and it has improved some.  I go back for even more torture tonight.  Wish me luck!

If you want something to make you laugh, check out the pic from my last blog post.  Hysterical. :)

Frisky Reindeer & HBBC Updates

Last weekend I had my first ever 22 mile run and it really took it out of me!  I have been having foot pain, IT band pain, you name it, it hurts on me right now.  So, luckily this weekend my long run was only 13 miles.  Who knew I would ever get to the place where I could put 13 miles and "only" in the same sentence.  That feels pretty good.

Anyway, I was just running around my neighborhood on Saturday, and as I was approaching the 1 mile mark on my my run I came across a couple of reindeer in some random person's front yard that apparently got a little frisky overnight.  I couldn't help but laugh and take a picture.  I was hoping I wouldn't get caught taking the picture so they didn't think it was me who re-arranged their poor reindeer.  And although I thought it was pretty hilarious, I was also hoping that they didn't have any kids.  I wouldn't want to be the parents who had to explain this situation.

This is my last real training week before Disney.  I have a 20 mile run on Saturday (Christmas Eve) and then it's taper time.  This time, in 3 weeks, I'll be (hopefully) posting my race report and will be able to officially say I'm a marathoner!

HBBC Update:

Last week I earned quite a few points since I started my week with a 22 miler!  Of course, I didn't run as much with the pain in my foot, so I biked alot more instead.  My week looked something like this:

Miles Run/Walked:  31 Miles = 31 points
Miles Biked:  42 miles = 14 points
Hours Spent Weight Training: 1 hour 20 minutes = 5 points
Days I got in 7 fruits/veggies: 4 days = 4 points

Points Total = 54!  Woot, Woot!

I've gotten a total of 194 points so far, which seems like alot, but I'm in the advanced group and there are some people who are earning like 80 points a week....no way I can compete with them.  Plus this is my final week of hard training and then I move in to taper mode so my points will go down significantly.  That's ok though, I've had a great time doing this and it's helped keep me accountable and focused on eating better!

If I Were a Race Horse I Would Have Been Put Down by Now

“If I were a race horse I would have been put down by now”, I texted my friend Coy of First in Philly.  If you know much about race horses, this is a sad but true statement.  Unfortunately when they become injured or can’t perform well anymore many times they are put to rest.  If they are lucky they find a nice home and someone to take care of them.  But, if they were habitually injured they’d be glue for sure!



Soapy Horse (stolen from my friend Coy's FB page). Thanks Coy!



I feel like an injured race horse.  Luckily for me no one is trying to put me out of my misery.  Maybe they should….not literally….but sometimes I wonder if it’s time to hang up the racing dreams.  But I really just can’t imagine doing that at all.  Plus I have delusions of living out the Dreamer story (injured race horse returns to former glory).  I can see the headlines now, "Habitually injured runner and triathlete Michael Weatherly breaks world record", or something like that!

My body drives me crazy. It literally revolts against me.  I get over one injury only to have a new one creep up out of nowhere.  Every time I make forward strides, something strikes and pushes me back again, but I keep moving forward.  I don’t stop.  I just try something else.

As most of you know I’ve been battling a hip injury for the last several months, but I’ve been a woman on a mission.  I have been going to ART (active release technique) therapy 1 to 2 times a week for two months, I have been eating better and losing weight, I have been stretching daily, I have been working out my core daily and I have seen HUGE improvements.  After my 22 miler, my left hip was a little sore, but it’s kind of worked itself out over the last few days.  Things have been going great…….

Then……out of the blue……LITERALLY.  I am walking across my bathroom floor when all of a sudden I have the most awful, burning, painful, cramping feeling in my right arch/heel.  OUCH!  Maybe it’s just a cramp………nope, still there an hour later, and another hour later, and the next morning.  When I wake up Wednesday morning I can’t put any weight on that foot.  It feels like someone sliced it open, pulled out the nerve and poured acid inside.  So many of you are automatically thinking plantar fascitis right?  That’s the same thing I thought when I had this two years ago.  Turned out to be Tarsal Tunnel syndrome; it’s just like carpal tunnel, but it’s in your foot.  You have a nerve that runs from you ankle into your heel which can get pretty inflamed.  When this developed the last time I had 3 cortisone injections in my foot (not fun) which didn’t help at all.  I ended up in a boot for 6 weeks and in tennis shoes and orthotics only for several months after that.  It finally healed and hasn’t given me any problems, until now! 

Seriously????  It’s 3 weeks til Disney.  I will say this came on much more suddenly than last time, so I’m hoping it’s just some kind of weird flare up that will go away as quickly as it came on.  And even as I’m writing this post, it has already improved some.  But, I took action right away.  I iced it immediately, took some ibuprofen, massaged it on the tennis ball and have been stretching my foot and calf every few hours for the last few days.  Tonight I go see my ART Dr. to see what he can do for me.

I do not want this to be another Hyvee Triathlon where 1 week from the event I get sidelined.  I can’t mentally deal with that.

Rest assured however, that I will be running the Disney Marathon.  Some way, somehow, it will happen!  Thanks alot for all of the great comments on my last post about my 22 miler by the way.  They are seriously so encouraging!

I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to work so hard only to be habitually injured.  I feel like a whiner and a complainer and that’s totally not my style.  I ask myself all the time, am I just not tough enough???  Are these just minor things that other people just deal with, or am I just “special” in that I’m constantly developing some ridiculous new pain and injury.  My ART Doc and I are trying to get to the bottom of this mystery.

OK, on a positive note.  I lost another 1.4 pounds at Weight Watchers and reached my goal weight this week!  (well I came within 2 pounds of my goal weight, which is all that is required by Weight Watchers to get back to Lifetime status).  This means I get reimbursed for the 10 remaining weeks of our At Work Series!  Woot!  Money in the Bank!  That’s a total of 12.2 pounds overall!

22 Miles and I Lived to Tell the Tale!

Last weekend I was supposed to run 21 miles as part of my Disney Marathon training.  After battling a sinus infection for a week, I just wasn’t up for the task.  I cut it short and did 15 miles – which felt like a million.  The previous week was a recovery week from the 19 miler I had done the week before…..so I hadn’t done a really long run in 3 weeks!!  But I knew with Disney just 4 weeks away, I had to get in a good quality long run this weekend.

I know a lot of marathon training plans don’t take you over 20 miles, but I knew for me that mentally I had to get past 20.  6 more miles is a ton!!  4 more miles, well that just seems more “doable”.  However, jumping from 19 to 22 was a lot – especially when I hadn’t done a long run in 3 weeks.  I was determined to get out there and get it done though.

So yesterday I set out for a 22 miler!  It was chilly, but the sun was shining.  I started about 7:30 in the morning.  It was about 30 degrees, but with winds of about 12 mph, the wind chill was around 23 degrees.  I had frost built up on my shoulders by about mile 5.  As I’ve mentioned before I do a run/walk technique and it works pretty well for me.  I run 3 minutes and walk 1.  I knew those last few miles would be difficult, so I told myself that once I got to mile 18 I could change it to a 2 minute run/2 minute walk. 

By mile 10, I really wasn’t feeling it.  I was tired, and drained.  I still am not totally over my sinus infection, but I kept pushing.  I did two 11 mile loops, and when I finally reached 11 miles, I thought, holy crap I have to do this again!!  I was really starting to tire by mile 16, but kept pushing myself to keep that 3 to 1 ratio.  A 3 minute run might not sound like a lot, and it’s not at mile 5, but by mile 16 it seems like forever.  I finally made it to 18, and just about that time my left calf started cramping so badly I could hardly stand on it.  I tried over and over to stretch it out, but it just wasn’t helping.  My 2/2 ratio was kind of out of the window.  I did the best I could, but I really kind of hobbled and limped my way through those last 4 miles, although still running some!  It was pretty miserable.  But I got through them…I really had no choice – I was 4 miles from home.  I have had the calf cramping issue before and it’s always in that same calf.  I’m not really sure what causes it.  I was hydrating and using sport beans, and even ate a granola bar during my run.  I am just super hopeful it doesn’t happen on race day. 

I ended up averaging a 13:30 pace -  I was doing a little better than that, but my 15 minute miles from 18-22 really hurt my overall average.  Anyway, in case you were counting that means it took me almost 5 hours!  4 hours and 59 minutes to be exact.  That is a LONG time.  I’m serious, you fast runners just have no idea how lucky you are.  All I kept thinking was this would have only taken Jim like 3 hours and it took me 5!!

At the end of the day though I made it and even walked hobbled another mile with Jack as recovery for a total of 23 miles and I know that had it been race day I would have finished.  I would have limped to the finish, but I still would have finished!  Only 4 weeks til Disney!!

Today I feel ok though.  Better than I thought I would and I'm pretty happy about that.

THE END.

What UP Wednesday!

What’s Up……

·        It’s FREEZING!!  This morning it was about 11 degrees with wind chills of about 4 or 5 degrees.  I headed out for a 7 mile run, but decided just to do 5.  I think that was plenty.  This picture doesn’t do the cold justice….my eyelashes were literally frozen, and I had ice crystals on my head and gloves.

I'm Sexy and I know it!  (Yes this is a hot look, if you are a Ninja!) 

·       I purchased this new Brook Baraclava (the headgear).  It helped keep my head warm and toasty this morning, but I can’t really get used to running with something over my mouth and nose – I kept lowering below my mouth to breathe.

·       Cold weather running sucks…..it means 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of pants, 2 shirts & a jacket, 2 pairs of gloves and something on your head, face and neck!  That has to add like 5 pounds to your body when running.

·       Speaking of pounds, yesterday was weigh in day at Weight Watchers – I have lost 10.8 pounds to date!!  (That’s 7 weeks if you’ve been counting)  Woot!  Woot!

·       I have to run 22 miles this weekend.  That’s a lot of miles!  Only 5 weeks til Disney!

·       It’s only 3 weekends til Christmas and I still haven’t finished decorating my tree (sigh).

What’s New in YOUR World?

From Bustin' Bootie to Feeling Puny!!

Well if you read my post last week you know I was bustin' some bootie in the workout department - logging my most running miles in a single week ever and racking up 55 points in the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge.

Sick as a Dog!

Unfortunately that came crashing down this past week when I came down with a sinus infection and cold.  Last Saturday I had a long run of only 10 miles (recovery week), but during my run I noticed my throat was really sore  -  I hoped it was just the cold air I was breathing in.  After I got home, showered, stretched, etc I realized I was getting sick - CRAP!  Saturday for the most part I felt ok, it was just that my throat was on fire.  By Sunday, I knew I was coming down with something, but I decided I would still try to get in a bike ride on my trainer.  As the day progressed I felt worse and worse.  I tried to still do "something" most days whether it be a 2 or 3 mile walk/run or a few miles on the bike, but I didn't have much energy to dedicate to training, but so close to my first marathon I knew I had to keep doing something.  Finally on Thursday I broke down and went to the Dr. where I found out I had a sinus infection (and cold), but I was given a Zpak antibiotic (yea!!!!).  By Friday I was feeling much better and yesterday I was feeling ok enough to go for a 15 mile run.  I was supposed to do 21.....but knew there was no way I could do my longest run to date feeling the way I was.

That missed 21 miler is going to hurt my training schedule a bit, but that's ok, I'm going to make it work - so 21 miles this weekend.  I am hopeful to feel back to 100% so I can have a good running week overall.  I really need it.

Anyway, in spite of the illness I still managed to rack up a few points this week in the HBBC!

Miles Walked/Ran - 17 miles = 17 points (1 point for each mile)
Miles Bike - 27 Miles = 9 points (1 point for each 3 miles biked)
Hours Strength Training - 1 hour and 20 minutes= 4 points (1 point for every 20 minutes)

Eating 7 servings of Fruits/Veggies = 4 points (1 point for each day you reach 7 servings)

Total Points: 34

I will say, being sick and knowing my points would be down helped me to focus on my eating my fruits and veggies a little more to get my points up.  I'm sure it helps since I was sick anyway.