run this amazing day

I have a lot of running music that brings back very distinct memories/moments.  When I first became a runner, I had no idea what I was doing.  I would just hop on the treadmill and run until I felt like I was going to keel over.  20 minutes (of running! no stopping!) was a huge accomplishment.  And one of the songs that fit my pace perfectly was "Survivor" by Destiny's Child.  I didn't even particularly like the song, I just liked that my feet slapped the belt with the beat.  Most days I would listen to that on repeat the whole time, and then let me mini-disc player (hey, it was 1999) continue on while I did some other things in the gym.   Now, whenever I hear that songs, it reminds me of that time of my life, specifically the spring of 2002 when I was living in Indianapolis, student teaching, not really knowing anyone because I was only there for 4 months, going to the gym after teaching all day, eating mini-meals in my studio apartment with the bed that flipped o

Over the past 2 weeks I've realized that I have a completely different relationship with food when I am running.   When I'm injured, I basically feel as if anything I put in my mouth is me being a fat pig and giving in.  The idea that you need calories to survive has been completely wiped from my brain.  Everything that goes in makes me feel fat and slow.  The first two days home from the hospital I basically survived on toast.  Then I tried to get back to my regular eating habits, but with a few extra doses of potato chips.  Ugh.  I felt guilty about almost everything I was eating, and had to try really hard not to weigh myself every 5 minutes. But when I'm running, it's a totally different story.  First of all, I don't feel guilty for eating.  Even that slice of BBQ chicken pizza is okay, because a) I ran 5 miles and b) I am eating a much more balanced diet.  And that's the other side of it - when I'm exercising, I want to eat more healthy food.  I'

So I bought new capris, they are agreeable with my ass/waist situation, the world rolls onwards. However, I have the same problem with my Fuel Belt.  It doesn't like to stay put on my big-mama hips, but instead slides upwards until it is sitting on top of my hips, loose around my waist.  This means that the bottles are whacking me in the elbows every time I swing through.  Cinching it on my waist is too high and makes my stomach feel weird.  I've tried many different geographical locations, but it bounces around no matter what.  Usually I just deal with it, but after reading this review and this review of the iFitness belt, I thought I'd try one. It's amazing. It doesn't bounce, or move, from where I strap it on.  I tried it with the pockets around front and around back and it doesn't move.  I love it! My iPhone (which is STUCK inside it's case) fits really well in one pocket, and I can fit my ID/credit card, nuun, and a big handful of jelly beans in t

I have Polish and Czechoslovakian ancestors (I promise, this is relevant). When you think about Czech people a hundred years ago, it conjures up a lot of images.  All the female stereotypes are generally something like: a woman in an apron carrying a pig under each arm and a baby on her back while whipping up some tasty curds and whey with one hand and crushing meal into flour with the other.  I like to imagine that my ancestors lived on potatoes, milk from the goat outside, and tons of tasty fresh vegetables.  They had to walk miles and miles over hilly countryside to do things like help the babas get birthed and trade corn meal for salt licks.  Generally you were either a singing minstrel, a shepherd, or a peasant. None of this lends towards, "Thanks, genetics, for the super thin thighs!" Now, I made peace with my body a long time ago, so this isn't another rant.  I'm proud of my stallion legs (and even the badonkadonk) because those legs have brought me a long

I decided to run with my bf and roommate this morning - they were only planning on a short one (2 miles).  It's cold and gloomy here, and I really wanted to stay in bed. First mile was a little quick, and my IT band felt a little tight, so we stopped to stretch.  During the second mile, my lungs gave up.  It wasn't hilly and we weren't running that fast, but I just couldn't take a deep breath.  I sent the boys home and stopped and walked and stretched for a few minutes.  I really just wanted to be back in bed.  When I felt I could, I slowly ran the last 1/2 mile home. Total: 2.5 miles/24:48/avg. pace 9:55 I'm still happy that I can run, and my shoulder bothered me a lot less today, but I think I'm going to take it easy the rest of the day.  Hopefully I get over this in the next two weeks before the Cherry Blossom 10-miler.

I ran today!!! When I woke up, I was still on the fence - run today?  Run tomorrow?  Don't run ever again?  Chop my foot off and get one of those big springs?  But when I stood up out of bed - no pain.  Walked around all morning - no pain.  I texted my running buddy and we decided to head out for 5.   The weather was my favorite running weather - sunny and 45 degrees.  We went out to the Mt. Vernon trail, parked at Belle Haven, and headed out on our usual 5-mile out-and-back.  About 10 steps in, I got a giant rock in my shoe.  Dumped, ran another 10 steps, and realized that something was yanking on my shoulder.  Turned out that "something" was a combination of my large-&-in-charge boobs and a stretched-out sports bra.  On every step, the right strap of the sports bra was being yanked downwards - causing some discomfort in my shoulder but not pain.  So I ran the entire 5 miles with my right arm in the claw position, preventing the tatas from ripping my tiny surgery-h

I think I'm over-reacting a bit. I'm now on day 6 of being in the air cast (prescribed 10).  I was hoping my foot would have calmed down enough to get back out on the streets this weekend.  I had tentatively planned a 5-miler with my running buddy for Saturday (or Sunday) morning, and I really want there to be no soreness, twinges, tightness, anything before I go back out.  But to me, on day 6, it feels exactly the same - little pangs occasionally throughout the day, a teeny tiny bit of soreness right where the tendon attaches to the bone, and ice feels good.  No major pain at any time.  But those little pangs really freak me out - similar to taper twinges, where I feel something tiny and in my head turn it into my leg needing to be amputated. The reality is I'm afraid that if I go back out too soon, I'll end up making it worse.  But I've been running on it for about 2.5 months, and it hasn't gotten worse - and I actually think it's gotten a bit better.

1. My puppy snores louder than most humans.  His favorite place to sleep while I'm working is with his nose under my right arm, snoring away.  He's there right now.  He also dreams a lot, and his feet twitch and he makes like whiny-snorty sounds.  Sometimes he gets the hiccups while he's asleep.  He's pretty silly. 2. A good friend of mine found out yesterday that she has a stress fracture in her foot after running Shamrock last weekend.  This strikes a weird chord with me - I got a stress fracture in my foot last winter training for Shamrock, and ended up missing the race.  I really feel her pain on this one!!  She's mostly annoyed about the money she's losing out on the races she's signed up for in the next 6 weeks, so to help her out, I'm going to buy her Cherry Blossom bib.  :)  :)  :)   Last year I had a Cherry Blossom bib, but ended up running the 5K instead of the 10M because of that same stress fracture.  This year, I missed the Cherry Bl

Lemon crisp Luna bars are my new addiction.  I've been eating the Kashi chocolate-raspberry bars for months (they have crack in them, nom) but tried the Luna bars because they were on sale at Target.  NOM NOM NOM.   However, I don't think they are supposed to be combined with potato chips for a "balanced lunch."  Fail.

Went to the ortho for my 6-day check-up this morning.  Shoulder report: range of motion is good, still clicking, he wants to see me again in 3 weeks.  He said I can do "whatever I want" until then, except swim.  The foot is taking its sweet time, but he said that I can run as soon as it feels fine.  I've got another 5 days in my prescribed 10, so this weekend may be out.  He said that I can pool run/recumbent bike as of now, though, which is great. We talked about possibly doing a sprint distance tri this summer ("sure, go ahead") and a half-marathon in late summer/fall ("a half marathon is a lot of training, you know" - says the man with multiple Chicago Marathon/Boston Marathon/Olympic-distance Tri medals all over the wall), and all of that is a go, as long as my foot cooperates.  So good news all around. On the flip side, driving the 25 minutes to the doctor left me nauseous, light-headed, and incredibly sleepy.  The drive home was more of the sa

It's been 5 days since I had surgery on my shoulder.  The first two days I spent almost entirely in bed, asleep, letting my body do some scary deep healing.  Sunday morning I was able to get up, shower (!!), and get dressed.  So Sunday was my first day in the boot (out of a probable 10).  I've only left the house a few times, but I've been making an effort to get up, shower, dress, and move around during the day, instead of laying in bed all day.  I also think it's better for my foot to be in the air cast as much as possible, especially since I want it to heal magically by this Saturday (when I think I'll be shoulder-cleared to run). I've been trying to drink a good amount of soy milk every day, take vitamins, and eat more fruit & veggies - anything to help my body heal.  Sometimes I fail miserably (re: yesterday's lunch of luna bar and potato chips, last night's after-dinner two scoops of ice cream). I'm also still taking a pretty serious

Since I can't write about the amazing run I had last night or about how I ran hills until I puked over the edge of the WW bridge (yeah, I miss it), I'll write about my horribly trashy running music. I'm one of those runners that can't race without music....I know it's going to kick me in the ass one day, when I sign up for a race that won't let me, but so far, so good.  The only times I do well without music are when I'm running with a buddy and we can talk each other to death...but even then, during a race, I'll have one ear plugged in. Here's my current list.  Disclaimer: yes, I am embarrassed about my girly music!  And yes, I LOVE IT!!! I saw a picture of Ke$ha on one of the celeb-news blogs I read a couple weeks after adding "Tik Tok" to my running music, and went, "omg.  THAT'S who sings that song?"  Ugh.  Girl has too much unstructured free time.  If I put on chapstick when I get up in the morning, it's a lot of

puppies are silly things.  

I weighed myself on Wednesday night.  I don't like weighing myself, because then I start to become obsessed with the numbers and would end up weighing myself 400 times a day.  But I wanted a "pre-surgery" idea of how much I weighed, so I could try and keep things in check while I am "sitting on my ass" (a direct quote from my doctor) for about two weeks. Thursday I had surgery, and spent the rest of the day puking.  I think I managed to keep maybe one bite of toast inside me. Friday morning I decided to weigh myself, figuring that I'd probably lost weight due to 24+ hours of no food going through.  But the Wii Fit said I'd gained EIGHT pounds.  Whaaaatttt???  A few hours of frantic googling later, I think I'm just swollen and retaining water from surgery.  This morning I weighed myself and I'm only up 3 of those 8 pounds.  Maybe this is the universe's way of discouraging me from living on ice cream and diet ginger ale until I can run again

Now that I've got a handle on how long it will be until I can run again, I can start putting some races in the calendar.  I planned 2 late-April 5K's, but without a "return" date, I didn't want to plan anything longer or sooner.  I'm sad now that I passed on that Cherry Blossom bib, but, ah well. But now I'm looking for some (fairly local) races.  I'd like to get in a few 10K's before the weather is too disgusting.  And I'm starting to eye some of the bigger, more fun half marathons for later in the summer.  Hmmmmm.....

Last night I dreamed that Richard Dreyfuss walked in on me in the shower. It was strange, I was just scrubbing away, and the sliding door opened (wait, where am I showering?) and there he was. I think it might be time to stop taking the percocet before bed.

I'm injured and not running again, but this time by choice.  What a difference it makes to my mental state. Backing up...I've been semi-permanently injured twice in my life.  Once took me out of running for several years, and then again for about 9 months.  Being injured is frustrating.  I would see runners while I was driving around and start crying and want to drive my car up and over the curb.  Both times I had a "mysterious" injury that no one could figure out - of course, both times this was total crap, and I was just not going to the right doctors.   Last year when I got hurt I decided to swim.  I hate swimming.  HATE IT.  I don't like water in my ears.  My nose.  I don't like jumping in the cold water and feeling like I'm going to drown if I stop and everyone is so much faster than me and then I go home and want to EAT EVERYTHING.  Why does chlorine make me hungry?  Anyhow, I started swimming while doctors started trying to figure out what was wr

I'll start out with some silly things.  Everyone likes silly things, right? I like my feet. I like beer. I like vibrating lobsters (hi Julie!!) And other silly things.... Report non-humans??! I like my feet.  I also like running, like I said.  I like reading about and talking about things like socks and hills and Gu and splits and all that other crazy stuff runners spend so much time talking about.  And for a long time, I couldn't run (more on this yaaawwwnn subject later), so I couldn't talk about all the STUFF.  But now I'm running again... With some very cute help!