2011: Bring it on!

Let's call December a wash, shall we? I think I ran maybe ... three times? Or four? During the whole month? That's pretty pathetic.

As a non-competitive runner, it's all too easy to let other things get in the way of my running. Fortunately being a non-competitive runner also makes it easy for me not to beat myself up over it. I didn't run much in December, because I was busy doing other things, and that's okay.

It's okay because I know I will run again, and soon. My legs are itching for it, and my lungs can't wait. I'm not going to worry about it too much until next week when everyone in my house is back at school and/or work, but then, then it will happen. I just know it.

I'm going to spend the last couple of days of our winter break finding some new music for my running playlist, and then on Tuesday when the kids are back at school and the husband is back at work (he works at home, but still) I'm going to hit the ground...


... wait for it ...


... RUNNING!

Recovery

Well, that took longer than expected! Today is the first day I've laced up my running shoes since my 5K on the 7th. I was super sore the next day, but by the third day out I felt like I might be able to run again. Or my legs and hips felt that way, anyway -- the rest of me, not so much!

Unfortunately I came down with a wicked cold and cough just as I was recovering from the race. It started out feeling like allergies, which made sense because there is a bunch of stuff in the air right now that I'm allergic to and I was out running around in it (instead of on my treadmill) for 45 minutes, plus the time my husband and I spent at the pre- and post-race activities that morning. Within a couple of days post-race, though, it was pretty obvious it had morphed into a rotten cold. Ugh! Just my luck!

Anyway, after taking it very easy for a week, I'm finally feeling much better today so I hit the treadmill again. I only did one mile, and only ran about half of it (at a very easy pace). My right hip, which had really bothered me during the race, was a little bit twingey when I first got started, but by the time I'd finished my mile the hip was feeling great and so was I!

I don't have any other races on the horizon right now, but I am really happy to be running again! With the stress of the holidays, I know my treadmill is going to get a major workout over the next few months. I'm so grateful to have my climate-controlled, steps-away-from-the-bathroom, no-hills-unless-I-want-them treadmill at this time of year, although I certainly won't rule out some outdoor runs when the pollen levels aren't too bad.

Onward!

Working on it

Well goodness, it's been almost a month since I've updated. Sorry about that! And I'm also sorry to say that I haven't been running or cross-training nearly as much as I would have liked during that time. A couple of weeks of severe allergies, a fibromyalgia flare, lack of sleep and an extremely busy schedule kept me away from my usual workouts, and once I fell out of the habit, it's been really hard to get back in. This is not good, especially since the Komen race is in two weeks! TWO WEEKS! Yikes! I guess it's a good thing I signed up for the untimed version, huh? I think I will probably end up walking a lot of it.

I'm having a really hard time carving out a running/workout schedule. I am a creature of habit and my habit has always been to run or work out in the mornings after dropping the last kid at school. For the past few weeks, though, my schedule hasn't allowed that so I just haven't been doing it at all, really. Maybe one or two mornings a week when I actually have the time, but that's it. I think I need to really sit down and think about finding another time of day that would work better more consistently. Not easy! Ever since school started we have just been crazy busy around here. I know I need to make my running a priority but it just seems like there are so many other things that need to be done with that time.

Oh well. Maybe what I really need is an attitude adjustment, but I don't think one is coming anytime soon!

Ups and downs (and I don't mean hills)

So here is my week in review, running-wise:

Monday
Had kind of a terrible morning and did not feel like running at all. Got on the treadmill anyway and once I got going, I felt great! I did about a mile and as I was doing my cool-down I thought, "You know, I'm not really ready to stop." So I ended up doing another mile and my attitude afterwards was 100% improved. This was proof to me that running is no longer just something I want to do, it's something I need to do! I am just a happier person when I've put in a good run.

Tuesday
Too busy to run. Not good!

Wednesday
I decided to map out (with CardioTrainer on my phone) a new route that was slightly longer than the 1.84-mile triangular route I had run the week before. I wasn't going to try to run it, just walk it in order to map it (there were trails involved so I couldn't drive it and map it that way). Well, about a third of the way into my planned route it became obvious that my GPS wasn't working again. This was so super frustrating and if I had been smart, I'd have picked up my pace and started running to get out my frustration. But I didn't; I just took a shorter route (walking) home, fiddling with my GPS settings and cursing under my breath the whole way. It was super humid out and it was also trash day in my neighborhood, so by the time I got home I was in a really foul mood, soaked to the skin with my nostrils still full of garbage smells. Not what you would call a good walk/run!

However, I did have a major highlight on Wednesday! I hopped on the computer when I got home and was going to write out my frustrations on Facebook when I saw that I had received a few donations to my Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. It turned out I had exceeded my fundraising goal by $30! It really helped put things in perspective to learn that while I was off having a miserable, short, frustrating walk my friends and family were rallying to the cause and helping support me in my upcoming race. So Wednesday ended up being a good day after all!

Thursday
I gave myself a rest day and felt okay about it.

Friday
I made darn sure my GPS was working and set out once again to map a longer route around my neighborhood. I told myself I would walk it but decided I would see how I felt and run some of it if I wanted. I did end up running about a third of it, which felt great. I only ran the sidewalk/road portions and walked the trail portion, and it's a good thing I did because the trails were really washed out and rutted due to some flooding that we had in the neighborhood last week (courtesy of Tropical Storm Hermine, which dumped 15 inches of rain on us in a 24-hour period). I was slipping all over the place just walking it. While I was on the trail a woman about my age blew past me, light and nimble as a gazelle. Sometimes I wonder if other runners feel as weightless as they look! I am a healthy weight for my height but I definitely feel gravity pressing down on me when I run, especially outdoors in the humidity. Anyway, I was hoping this new route would be close to the 3-mile mark so I could use it for 5K training, and it turned out it was 2.7 miles. Not quite as far as I would have liked, but I think I can make up the extra distance by entering a different trailhead than the one I used this time. Oh, and I was able to maintain an overall pace of 14:22, even with all the walking I did on the trail!

So all in all, Friday's run/walk was pretty darn productive and I was feeling good about it. Then I came home and opened my email to find that my "big" 5K that I have been training for all this time had been canceled. It was to take place on a different trail system near here that received much more flood damage than we did, and the trails are just in awful shape right now so they can't do it. That was a little bit heartbreaking, to tell you the truth. I had been looking forward for months to my very first 5K, and this one was going to be perfect because it was happening right in my neighborhood and right after my birthday. Combine that with the fibromyalgia thing and it really felt like a significant milestone. Oh well!

So now I'm setting my sights on the Susan G. Komen race in November. I signed up for the untimed 5K and I'm looking forward to seeing how I do. I would kind of like to pick up another 5K before that, but all of the ones I've learned about in my area are taking place on weekends when we're just too busy to fit anything in.

This week was definitely full of ups and downs, but I am looking forward to next week. The Komen race is all roads and no trails, but I'd still like to work on my trail running a little bit and this will give me time to do it and still recover before the race in November. Onward and upward!

The good, the bad and the ugly (not necessarily in that order)

Let's start with the ugly: My kids went back to school on Tuesday of this week and I've been so busy buying last-minute school supplies and driving this kid here and that kid there and re-stocking our pantry and whatnot that I've had no time to run whatsoever. And it shows in my mood, big-time. I really need to do a better job of making time to run, even if it's at a weird time of day. I can take two or three showers a day if I need to, right? Sigh.

Now the good: I did get to run this morning! In fact, it was so nice and cool this morning (coolest morning since ... I don't know, May sometime?) that I hit the sidewalks in my 'hood for the first time ever. Well, I mean, I have walked on them before, but I've never run them. I live in the 'burbs and my neighborhood streets are not laid on on a grid; the "blocks" are all oddly shaped and wonky-sized and oblong and weird and huge. So I picked a route that would take me around a very big block. And it was mostly slightly downhill -- bonus! I am sure I looked like a dork with my two knee straps and my phone in an armband and my earbud cord poking out of my shirt (I stuff the excess cord in my bra when I run so I don't get tangled in it) and my water bottle strapped to one hand and the extremely slow pace with which I run, but I don't care. It was kind of nice to get out in the elements for a change, especially with the deliciously cool temperatures!

The bad: MY GPS DID NOT WORK, ARGH! I used the CardioTrainer app to keep track of my time and distance and to map my route, and it has worked for me before for walking the trails and stuff, but this time it completely failed. Did not record a single thing. I know, I am running for fun and not to be competitive, yadda yadda, but for my first time running that particular route I was really hoping to find out how far it was and what my pace was. Maybe the treadmill has spoiled me but I like to know how far and how fast I'm going, even when I'm just having fun with it and not trying to up my numbers. So I was super disappointed about that. I guess I will have to fiddle around with my GPS filter settings, or else find a new app. Anyone have a favorite running app for Android? Does RunKeeper have music integration? Because I need my music when I run! Lack of music integration is a definite deal-breaker.

And finally, one more good: So far I do not appear to have injured myself at all while running today! I was really nervous about that because I have only run on the treadmill since recovering from my knee injury a couple of months ago. Plus my first 5K is looming and I really don't want to blow out my knees and miss it, you know? On the other hand, the 5K course is on a trail that is partially crushed granite and partially sidewalk, so if I don't want to blow out my knees during the race then I will have to get used to that environment beforehand. Anyway, all seems well -- nothing hurt while I was running and nothing hurts now that I've stopped. Fingers crossed!

And this might be considered an ugly since I am hitting you up for money, but the money is not for me so I prefer to think of it as a good: Don't forget to sponsor me in the Susan G. Komen Run for the Cure! I am doing the untimed 5K in Austin on November 7th and I am running the race for my beloved sister-in-law, who is a breast cancer survivor. If 25 people give $5 each I will have met my goal of raising $125, which is enough to pay for one mammogram. Any amount you can give will help tremendously!

Not feeling it

So I'm back on the treadmill after my oral surgery hiatus and I seem to have lost my mojo a bit. Monday was my first day back at it and I ran intervals for 2 miles, yesterday I did a brisk 5 kilometer walk, and today I was not. feeling. it. At all. I ended up only running intervals for about three-fourths of a mile and then walking for a bit to cool down. Better than nothing, I guess, but not at all what you would call a good run!

Monday my right knee was a little twinge-y so I wore a patellofemoral strap and everything seemed fine. Tuesday it was my right hip that started feeling wonky around the two-mile mark, so I slowed my pace and stretched the heck out of it afterwards. Today the hip was fine, but my left shin was acting like shin splints were imminent. Argh! It's always something. And as I've said before, fibromyalgia amplifies the body's pain signals and sometimes makes non-pain sensations read as pain. So I never know if I have an actual tissue injury or if the fibromyalgia is taking some random soreness or muscle spasm and amping it up to eleven. Very frustrating!

My original plan was to do 2.5 miles of intervals today. It became obvious after half a mile that there was no way that would happen. In addition to my shin hurting (which came and went as I ran and feels fine now that I'm done) I just felt so sluggish and unmotivated and blah. Maybe that 5K walk yesterday was a bad idea, who knows? I spent most of my brief run arguing with myself about whether I should push through it and do my planned 2.5 miles, but in the end I decided to call it quits for the day. I reminded myself that even though I'm off the heavy-duty pain meds, my body is still recovering from something fairly traumatic and I probably just need a little more time to heal from that before I'm back to my usual form.

That's my story, and I'm sticking with it!

Humming along

Everything is going pretty good this week, training-wise. I've been running intervals every other day and either walking or just resting altogether on the days in-between. Feels like very slow progress, but I've been able to add an extra running interval every day that I've done them, so I guess I am progressing!

I'm going to be taking a couple of days off, though, and I'm a little nervous about that. Today was a rest/easy day for me anyway, but tomorrow morning I'm having oral surgery so I'll be out tomorrow and probably Saturday, too. I'm pretty sure the treadmill falls under the heading of "heavy machinery" that I'm not supposed to operate while taking narcotic painkillers, and I don't relish the thought of being arrested for public intoxication if I attempt to hit the sidewalks/trails near my house! Besides, if you saw the way I careen around like a drunken emu while sober, you'd know that any attempt on my part at ambulation while under the influence is just a sprained ankle waiting to happen.

So yeah, a few days off makes me a little nervous. The thought of running this 5K in seven weeks, on a trail with a bunch of other people, in the heat and humidity, makes me a lot nervous! I think I've figured out why the trail busted up my knee a while back, though. In addition to side-to-side stabilization issues, I have to pick up my feet a lot more on the trail than I do on the treadmill. That translates to more impact on my knees. So within the next couple of weeks I'm going to head to the running store for some trail shoes and try some short trail runs while wearing knee straps on both knees (along with stretching, stretching, stretching). I've got to get acclimated to the trail somehow if I'm going to survive, much less finish, my 5K!

Talk to you all after the pain meds wear off!

The F word

Take a giant dose of stress, throw in a 3-night lack of sleep, shake vigorously with several days of low barometric pressure and what do you get? A fibromyalgia flare! For those of you who've never had the joy of experiencing one, I can only describe it as a full-body toothache meets the flu. You wake up in the morning feeling as though you've been beaten with a baseball bat, and every time you move, every muscle in your body exhibits the raw-nerve sensation of biting on an abscessed tooth. Exercise is completely out of the question. Surviving it is pretty much the only goal.

This latest flare was mercifully brief. It hit Monday evening, laid me low Tuesday and Wednesday, and finally started to subside sometime yesterday morning. On a scale of one to ten I'd say it averaged around a 5. The most frustrating thing, of course, was not being able to run and work toward my goal of running a (slow) mile without stopping, which I was hoping to reach by the end of this week.

I really didn't feel like running this morning, but since I was sure the flare was 99% gone, I forced myself to hop on the treadmill. I had no plan in mind whatsoever -- walk a slow mile? Try to run just a little? Who knows? But once I had my earbuds in and the Prodigy exhorted me to "Smack My Bitch Up" (look for a post about my running playlist soon), I felt like trying a couple of running/walking intervals like I did on Saturday -- running for 30 seconds, then walking for a minute. I was thrilled to find that not only did it not hurt, it felt fantastic! So fantastic that I didn't want to stop. I did two miles altogether, including warm-up and cool-down. That's almost two-thirds of a 5K!

So my goal has changed. Forget running a mile without stopping. That hurts, and my body doesn't like it, and it was an arbitrary goal anyway. I'm just going to add intervals until I'm up to the distance I need. What I'll do after that, I don't know, but that is my new short-term goal -- build up intervals until I'm doing at least 3.1 miles total at a time.

Alrighty! Onward and upward!

Another running injury

Fortunately I don't think this one will impact my training much!

Can you even see it there? That tiny little round dot of a bruise on the very tip of my ring finger? You wouldn't think something that small would hurt very much, but you would be so very wrong.

I love my treadmill, goodness knows I do, but there are two things about it that bug me. One, I wish it had the ability to set a custom speed that could be accessed with one button. For example, I run most comfortably at 4.2 miles per hour (don't laugh). It's such a pain, when I switch from walking to running, to have to hit the "4" button and then the "up" button to increase the speed in .1-mile increments. All I need is a button labeled "custom" that I can set to whatever speed I want, making it really easy to toggle back and forth between my walking speed (3 m.p.h.)(I said don't laugh) and my running speed. Is that too much to ask?

Second, the side rails are so poorly designed. They're too short and too high, and they consist of pretty much just a couple of capped metal tubes that jut straight out from the front of the machine. I can't even count the number of times I've smacked my hands into them while running, but this is the first time I've actually been bruised by one of them. I guess I got a little too windmill-y today! My next treadmill will have curved side rails. Or rubber side rails. Or no side rails.

Anyhoo, apart from my crippling finger injury I had a great run today! Yes, I said run. I did 1.25 miles (five laps) again with a half-lap each of warm-up and cool-down, but this time I alternated running .6 laps and walking .4 in-between. Man, it felt great! So happy to be back to training. I'm going to knock out that one-mile running goal in no time, you just wait and see!

Back in the saddle

Well, that was fun. The low-grade fever I came down with on Wednesday evening ended up lingering for several days, forcing me to stop running altogether while I got over it. You haven't seen grumpy until you've seen me sick, and when you add not being able to run into the mix, well. It wasn't pretty.

I've been fever-free since yesterday morning, so this morning I hopped back on the treadmill. What I really wanted to do was pick up where I left off and run my heart out, but I knew that would be stupid with my body still in recovery mode so I took it easy. I did five laps, or 1.25 miles, altogether with a half-lap each of warm-up and cool-down and then alternating half-laps of moderate walking and speed-walking in between. I didn't want any impact on my muscles, joints and whatnot after just having gotten over a fever, but I didn't want to just mosey either. It definitely felt like I was working but my body seemed to handle it okay, so tomorrow I'll throw in some running intervals and take it from there.

I'm not going to lie, I'm getting a little nervous about the 5K in September. My training has suffered way more setbacks than I would like. I've been checking online for local races coming up this fall so I can line up another one down the road if I have to punk out on this one, but it really will feel like failing if I don't even try! Fingers crossed that I can reach my short-term goal of running a mile without stopping by the end of July. If I can do that, I think it'll really boost my confidence.

Human after all

Well, I solved the mystery of yesterday's crummy run. I'll spare you the list of symptoms, but it appears I've come down with a mild bug of some sort. I run a low-grade fever at the drop of a hat -- I guess that's a convenient signal to slow down -- and I know from experience that I can either heal from whatever ails me or exercise, but not both at the same time. So I skipped the treadmill altogether today and will see how I feel tomorrow. With luck, I won't be sidelined for too long and will at least be able to get back to some easy run/walk intervals soon!

Like running through oatmeal

That's how it felt on the treadmill this morning. I ran the exact same speed/distance/intervals as yesterday (and the day before, for that matter) but for some reason today it was such a struggle. My legs were burning a bit after the first running interval and I didn't think too much of it, but then my precisely timed walk break seemed so unexpectedly short. The second running interval was a definite struggle -- I was fatigued, the air felt thick, I found myself leaning forward while simultaneously landing on my heels more than usual (how does that even work?!), and my calves were burning. The second walk break seemed to last microseconds, and when the third running interval rolled around I found myself thinking "oh no" instead of my usual "let's go"!

My internal pep talk even regressed to monosyllables as I mentally chanted, "Go, go, go. Push, push, push." (Usually my pep self-talks go more along the lines of: "You're strong. You can do this. Just keep moving.") By the time I finished I was panting and wheezing and felt about half dead. It took forever for me to cool down and get my heart rate back to normal.

What gives? I don't know what was different this time. I actually slept better last night than the night before, and had a decent breakfast of protein and complex carbs, but it really was like running through oatmeal today. Maybe it's because it was my third day in a row running the same speed/distance/intervals? Pundits say you shouldn't run every day, but I've found that because of the fibromyalgia, if I don't move every single day my body resets to "zero" and I have to start all over again to build up intensity. It might be time to play around with alternating easy runs vs. hard (for me) runs, though. I definitely don't want to get another injury, and more than that, I want to be having fun!

Yesterday's run was so great, and today it was just torture. Same run, two completely different experiences. Is it the fibromyalgia, or just running in general? Who knows? I just know that for the first time today, with my 5K almost exactly two months away, I started to get a little nervous about it. And that is no place for my head to be while training.