run this amazing day

You guys probably don't realize how much work it is to take a decent ass picture.  I was the creeper in the locker room for about ten minutes trying to get this shot right.   I finally just gave up and took this one. I'm also extremely excited about my sexy new bake-and-wear bike shoes. Sadly, there was garlic bread in the oven so I couldn't make shoe casserole last night. However, the puppies all approved of the new addition to the shoe family.   Ass and puppy, with a side of new bike shoe. Happy Wednesday.

If you thought for a second that I could triumphantly return to running without documenting every little tiny insignificant step, well, then you're a fool. I was granted ten minutes of running at my PT appointment yesterday morning, and I tried to wait until the conditions were ideal to head out: sun shining, wind gently whipping my sunglasses off and into the street, stomach the perfect combination of "I ate too much pasta for lunch" and "feed me again, please." The poet made sure to commemorate the occasion by taking at least six photos for every glorious minute I was permitted to bounce down the street. Indeed, it was a family affair. I started out pretty tentatively, but after a minute or two without shooting pain up my leg, settled in and it felt oh-so-good.  Heavenly, even.  Big ups to my calf. Sadly, 10 minutes and 47 seconds was definitely enough for the first day, and I woke up sore and stiff and limping just a bit, but I'll take it.  Don't

I get to try 10 minutes of running today!  I hope it feels like this: But it will probably feel more like this: But I don't care!  I'm so cracked out on the fact that I'm healing that I almost can't deal with myself.  The pink boxes are back, bitches!  (That's the Training Peaks boxes for those not in the know). Happiest of Mondays, friends!

1. I can't sleep with socks on. 2. Having the hiccups makes me really angry. 3. There is a mouse living behind the washing machine, and he is smarter than several different kinds of mouse traps. 4. I changed my mind a lot in college, but eventually graduated with the same major I started out in. 5. I like that my smoothie is pink. 6. When I first moved to DC, I was mad because I liked it so much I thought I could live here forever.  I wished I had moved other places first and settled here.  Now I don't think that anymore. 7. In any situation, I really appreciate good manners. 8. I think white spandex is a terrible invention. 9. Sometimes I worry about who is going to take care of me when I'm old. 10. My favorite kind of tea is Earl Gray (decaf). 11. When something makes me laugh, I repeat it over and over. 12. There is no peace like waking up with a puppy snoring in your ear. 13. I bought calcium chews and glucosamine this morning.  I'

1. The "what the hell is wrong with my leg" trainwreck Q&A I've been playing for the last week was abruptly halted yesterday with a diagnosis: partially torn soleus.  The soleus is the big calf muscle that lives inside of the outer calf muscles and runs up the back/inside of your lower leg.  I came home and googled it and every single symptom, every single one fits, it all just clunked into place.  The symptoms of a gradual tear due to overuse or tightness, the pre-tear symptoms, all the various places my leg has hurt since this all happened, everything.  Essentially the tightness in my shins that was caused by all my gait changes was exacerbated by my failure to transition into my Newtons properly along with an increase in running volume (NOT intensity), and eventually that tightness turned into a tear which grew until I couldn't run anymore.  Hindsight is such a bitch.   2. My PT is overjoyed about the diagnosis because it finally all makes sense.  He said th

Tennis balls are a serious business. Who will emerge victorious? Molly, duh.

My trick collapsing leg is still being quite the trickster, and as such, I haven't run in over a week.  I've done a handful of 10-20 second test runs, each slightly less painful than the last, but I'm still getting quite a bit of pain in my ankle shooting up my calf and into my knee on impact.  Pool running doesn't hurt, but it irritates my hip flexors, so I'm staring down a pretty serious swim+bike block until my body gets its shit together.  I've been giving the angry calf plenty of attention in the form of the weird salt bath, compression socks, ice, and continued torture from Dr. Paul, which has left me rocking this bad boy. As most of you know, the weather was nice enough outside this weekend that I could take my new crank out for a spin, so we decided to head into Arlington to test that sucker out on the Tuesday night Conte's hill loop.  2.5 loops plus some bonus climbs in and out of Falls Church later, I'm pretty happy to say that I've regain

1. I don't like scented candles that smell like cookies, vanilla, sugar, anything like that.  I like the light flowers and the minty stuff. 2. I think someone wrote my phone number on a bathroom wall somewhere.  I've been getting a lot of very interesting picture texts from wrong numbers. 3. This is the first house I've lived in since I left for college that has curtains in it. 4. I really like my boss. 5. I have a very difficult time choosing furniture. 6. I got my ankle realigned this morning.  Stupid hypermobility. 7. I found a pair of running shorts with a pocket.  And it zips closed.  Why don't more companies do this? 8. I find it hilarious that my dogs bark at the mailman. 9. I wish my house had more windows and natural light. 10. It makes me happy in a way that I can't describe when all the puppies snuggle up together. 11. I don't buy groupon-type deals. 12. I feel like my electric toothbrush is sad when the batteries die. 13. I hate when men

1. The first thing has got to be ow.  Lots of strange things have been happening to my legs since my appointment last week - first it seemed like it was healing, then I had a perfectly good long run, then some weird calf pain came back, then my knee felt like it was 8 times bigger than it should be, more collapsing leg, all kinds of fun stuff.  I plunked that hot mess on the desk of the fabulous Dr. Paul, and from that he deduced that my posterior chain is just real pissed.  (Note: any medical information told to me goes through the cheese grater of my ability to remember so it's possible that this is all wrong.)   My solaris muscle (one of the hamstrings, apparently there are many) was really tight and pulling on my knee from the top, and my calf was a giant mess of inflammation-turned-clumpy-scarlike-tissue that was actually glueing my two calf muscles together and yanking on my knee from the back.  So that's the recipe for collapsing leg, in case you are trying to make it at

I'm honored and more than a little intimidated to be included on this list of pretty ridiculously awesome athletes. It's not just about the ass shots anymore, boys and girls.   Okay, it's always going to be a little bit about the ass shots.

It's rest week now.  I'm a little torn about rest week, because on one hand, I have all this free time and should make all those dates I haven't been able to make for the past three weeks because I've been a hamster on a Training Peaks wheel.  But on the other hand, rest week is about letting all my little broken parts heal so they can be stronger for the next three weeks.  So I'm trying to compromise.  Yesterday and today I am treating my body like the little tired solider it is.  Lots of time drinking tea and resting with my legs up and having toast instead of a protein smoothie for breakfast.  I've got plans for later in the week to spend time with some friends, but for the most part I'm going to really try and rest.  To heal. I came out of this block with some pretty pissed off legs .  I think I've zeroed in on what caused the problem (a hard run in some shoes I wasn't completely adapted to yet, followed six hours later by a not-so-short run).

New Year's Eve 2009 brought the first time I had run any distance since November 4th.  I had been jumping through hoops with a multitude of doctors in those two months, all who told me to stay off my right foot with the weird pain.  I had a couple of cortisone injections and a bunch of x-rays, but finally had been cleared to run.  After the NYE race, I began running just a little bit, on the treadmill at the gym where my boyfriend had purchased us gym memberships for Christmas.   By the time February rolled around, I was running at least two and sometimes even three times a week. I signed up for the 5K.  My boyfriend had been running pretty regularly for a while now and he signed up as well, his first race.  The original date for the race was Sunday, February 14, but the race was postponed after a huge snowstorm hit the DC area. I was actually pretty glad to have another couple weeks of runs under my belt and even got in a long run of 5.5 miles one week before the race.  I was r

1. I remember reading something somewhere a while ago that said something to the effect of, while you are training hard, you aren't growing brain cells.  That sentence should prove that this theory is correct. 2. Two separate women stared at my crotch this morning in the locker room.  I'll get a bikini wax next week, RELAX. 3. Yesterday I tried to eat conversation hearts on the trainer.  It's a pretty bad idea. 4. We bought one of those $20 digital-rabbit-ears thing for the TV a few weeks ago.  I still watch all  both of my shows online, but it brought the NFL back into this house. 5. I buy my compression socks one size too small for some extra leg hug action. 6. My eating has been totally out of control this week.  I'm trying hard to make sure I'm putting down GOOD food (for the most part #3) but the sheer amount is kind of startling. 7. I wish I had a prehensile tail. 8. The best thing about fixing my broken ass ?  I don't have to wear spand

1. My cranky shins started barking extra loudly earlier this week after a double-digit double-run day, so I went to see my " strength is important and oh this is actually going to really hurt " PT for some relief.  My left shin/calf was aching every time I put weight on that leg, my IT band/hip was sending zip zaps of pain all over the place and my knee kept buckling inwards for some reason.  His diagnosis is that none of it is anything too serious, but it's all related and slowly crawling upwards from my foot.  My shin crankiness has been around for a while, and is largely from my body adjusting to the changes that happened to my gait once my glutes started firing last summer.  In the past 2-3 weeks, I've run a higher volume of weekly miles than I probably ever have in my life, so that contributed, and I'm in a peak week of training right now, where the name of the game is loading up the training stress.  I also started wearing a pair of extra-comfy new pink sho

It might be slightly crazy a lot of the time, but it was totally and completely worth it.

Like it or not, I eat some kind of protein/fruit/granola/something bar about once a day.  They are quick and convenient and for the most part, better than eating a candy bar when I'm in a hurry.  And just like everything else in my nutrition life, there has been an evolution.  I used to only eat Kashi bars, especially the chocolate ones.  Then I started looking at nutrition facts.  YIKES.  So now I have a big pile of different brands/flavors that I rotate through, and they all serve different purposes (for example, this box was on sale at Costco).  I thought it might be marginally interesting to talk about it (it's February and I'm not racing, cut me some slack, there isn't a lot else going on). Clif Bar The Clif bar, for a long time, was my wake-up-and-go-exercise bar.  No matter what I was doing, it would go in the mouth and I'd be out the door.  My favorite flavor was Cool Mint Chocolate, but then I discovered it had caffeine in it so I switched to Crunchy Pe

I got in this weekend to get refit on my bike.  Of course I documented every step for you all. Yes, I do have enormous thighs. Sunday afternoon I spent inside hiding from the nasty weather, watching old episodes of the Biggest Loser and chatting.   With a tiny little cheerleader. Sarah approved the guest shot of her ass. My appetite for the past week or so has been pretty depressed, despite my training volume.  I'm pretty sure it caught up with me Sunday evening, but I beat it into submission with homemade chili and probably less than half a bag of M&Ms.  How was your weekend?