Aaron biked first, then I went at 8:00 am. Sun was out and it was beautiful! Felt great to get my heart and lungs pumping in the fresh air.
Went to the gym at 10:30 am and did about 30 minutes of core/hip work and 30 minutes of weight lifting. Trying to get my hips strengthened. Right hip flexor is still injured and weak.
Biked 18.69 miles in 1:16 with 1,033 ft elevation change Aaron rode the same route right after I got home, only he did it 3mph faster than me. My hip is still weak and causes disruption in my daily routine of walking, squatting to pick things up, and standing on one leg at a time to put shoes or clothing on.
24 degrees this morning at 7 am when I hopped on the bike. Sun came up over Standley Lake around mile 4 (SO beautiful). Despite wearing warm socks and biking booties, my feet started to feel cold around mile 8. After a downhill in the shade near mile 10, my feet were painfully frozen. I literally cried out loud three different times as I pedaled the remaining 8 miles home. When I got home I cried again as I soaked my frozen feet in warm water. My 3yo daughter came in to soak her feet with me and offer words of comfort as my feet regained feeling.
Reminded me of the time I raced in Ames, IA for the NCAA Cross Country National Championships in November, 2000. It was 4 degrees (-19 windchill). My eyelashes, hands, nose, forearms and most painfully, my FEET were frozen. After the race I went to the rental car to warm up and screamed as I regained feeling in my feet. Frozen feet are really not my favorite thing.
30 minutes on the stair-stepper, 20 minutes of dynamic stretching drills (lunges and skipping forwards, backwards, and sideways plus single leg squats and a bunch of leg raises.) 30 minutes of weight lifting.
My baby was really sad by the time I got back to the child care to pick the kids up. She's sleeping now. Poor girl, she was up twice last night puking. Must have been something she ate? Three loads of laundry later, I think she's feeling better.
I'm headed in for some more ART today, hoping to start feeling some improvement. My hip has been pretty much in the same weakened injured state since last week. No worse, no better.
Did 20 minutes of core/hip stuff this morning. Later this afternoon, swam laps next to Burt's Mom. She kicked my butt. Thats because I'm a horrible swimmer. And obviously Burt's Mom has much more developed shoulders than me. The picture gives her secret away. My weak little arms couldn't move my body fast enough to stay warm enough to not be miserable. I think my gym keeps their pool water unusually cold. Counting blue tiles on the bottom of the pool with chills all over my body and water leaking into my goggles. Fun.
I was attacked by a stomach flu bug yesterday evening. My stomach began eliminating its contents around 7:30 p.m. and didn't stop until after midnight at which point I was extremely thirsty and went to the kitchen to get some water. The next thing I knew I was lying on the floor and Aaron was shaking me trying to wake me up. I had a bump on my head, couldn't talk very clearly, and was sweating all over. He carried me back to bed, got me a bowl, I puked some more and went back to bed. He also got me some saltines and electrolyte drink and I nibbled/sipped a couple of times in the night. I'm starting to get my energy back now, but I think I'm going to take a rest day.
Aaron was so helpful and caring. His reward? He's puking now.
Yes, I seriously slept 10 hours last night. Aaron left for Seattle yesterday afternoon so I didn't have anyone to hang out with after the kids were in bed. I was feeling tired probably from my illness and I didn't really feel like wasting my time watching a movie when I could be peacefully sleeping. Also my baby was having a hard time falling to sleep so I just held her and let her cuddle with me in bed and the next thing I knew it was midnight and we had been asleep for hours. I put her back in her crib at midnight and slept until 6am when she woke up for the day.
Went to the gym and decided my hip felt good enough to try running today, so I carefully ran 2 miles in 18 minutes. My hip was slightly tight, but definitely improving. Then I hopped on the elliptical and did a 30 minute workout. Threw a random sampling of surges with 1 minute rest in between each; I think it was something like this: 30 sec, 1 min, 2 min, 3 min, 2 min, 1 min, 30 sec, 1 min, 1 min, 30 sec, 1 min. Just did what I felt up for in the moment. It felt good to get my heart beating fast and the sweat dripping. The guy next to me kept giving me strange looks when I did my surges as he observed my speed go up into the 13+mph range. It was funny.
Another funny moment was when one of the Bally's trainers, Margie took her step class out of the aerobics room to do lunges around the track. It was like watching a mother duck lead her ducklings through their first walk across a street. Margie was smiling and waving at friends while doing her lunges in perfect form. A couple of other enthusiasts were of similar cheery attitude while powering through their lunges, and then there were those few new ducklings who were in obvious pain, trying to simplify the lunges by doing some kind of penguin walk. Good entertainment.
I also did some core/hip work and weight lifting afterwards. Great workout today! Feeling happier about life. Glad that I'm over my illness and on my way to being healed from my injury. I'm going to see my ART guy, Richey again this afternoon and then I'll rest Sunday and pray I can run a little more on Monday.
3 miles on the treadmill in 8:35 ave. pace plus 30 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes of core/hip work and weight lifting
I feel so cautious while running because I don't want to aggravate my hip. I obviously started coming back too fast from my hamstring injury a couple of weeks ago which caused my hip flexor injury, and I want to avoid any possibly re-injury this time. My hip felt a little better than it did Saturday, so I went a little farther after three miles, I decided it was time to enjoy some elliptical fun. I tried three machines before I found one that wasn't squeaky, commenting to the guy I ended up next to about how annoying squeaky machines are. Then of course right as I got settled in another guy jumps up on the squeakiest of the machines a couple of spots down from us and the guy next to me and I just look at each other and roll our eyes. It was really annoyingly squeaky. We commented to each other how surprised we were that the squeak wasn't bothering the guy causing the squeak, yet it was really bothering us and many other exercisers that kept giving him dirty looks. Its like when your own dog is barking in the middle of the night and it doesn't wake you up, only everyone else on your street. Finally, after about 12 minutes of squeaking and receiving dirty looks, he got the hint and stopped the maddness. Thank goodness. We all continued our workout in peace.
Hip felt a little better today than it did yesterday! Yeah! Did hip exercises after my run and stretched well. One more visit to Richey for some ART tomorrow, and I'll keep slowly building up my running miles.
Hip is slightly more tight than yesterday so I did the elliptical for an hour and then 25 minutes of core/hip work.
Saw this guy walking on the treadmill in front of me with the incline way up, I assume in an effort to get a great workout. Then I saw that he was holding on tightly to the treadmill faceplate which effectively is like walking half of his body weight up a hill. No wonder he wasn't breaking a sweat.
What a BEAUTIFUL day! Temperature was a sunny 31 degrees on my run. The combination of sunshine and exercise is amazingly mood-boosting! And my hip felt better than it has in WEEKS!! The ART work yesterday must have helped. I have to admit, that ART stuff can be excruciating fun. I found myself doing mental exercises to avoid kicking Richey in the face as he scraped my adductor. We concluded yesterday that my hamstring and hip flexor are adhesion free, but the adductor is still working kinks out.
I had some sugar temptation yesterday and really wanted candy. My 3 yo daughter had earned money all week because she really wanted me to take her to the candy store in the mall so she could buy a treat. She had earned $4.68 which was enough for a small bag of assorted treats that she shared with her Dad and siblings. She kept offering me some and I kindly declined. It gave me renewed strength to remember all my fellow bloggers resisting the treats all month too. The smell in that store is so yummy, I just wanted a taste of a few things, but it was not to be. As a consolation, I had a bowl of "kid tested, mother approved" Kix when I got home.
Hip didn't feel as good today as it did yesterday but still runnable. Today was even warmer weather!! Sunny 37 degrees!
Did a bunch of hip exercises and foam roller after my run. My quads and ITBs are pretty tight, so I was lovin' the foam rolling.
I'm excited for the weekend because Aaron and I are going out for dinner both tonight and tomorrow night with different friends, and tomorrow we'll probably go see a movie after dinner. For V-Day, he is giving me some time tomorrow without kids to do whatever I want and he scheduled a massage and facial for me in the morning. One of my good friend's husband scheduled her massage and facial at the same time and place as me so we can hang out and go to lunch afterwards. I've never had a facial, and have no idea what they do, so I guess I'll find out. I'm thinking I'll get a haircut while I'm at the spa too.
Got a massage and facial at an upscale spa with my friend, Kristy courtesy of our husband's scheming. It was SOOOOO relaxing. During the facial I almost fell asleep. After the spa, we went to lunch and Kristy was asking me all about Aaron's barefoot running. Then later that night we went to dinner with two other couples and they were asking about his barefoot running too. We seem to be talking about that a lot lately. After dinner we went to see Valentine's Day with our friends. I wondered if the star-packed cast meant they spent all their money on the cast which meant the script would suffer, but it was actually pretty well-written too. I laughed many times and almost cried once (in the final scene with Julia Roberts, in case you were wondering). There were a few characters I didn't like, but overall it was pretty good.
The no sugar diet is going well, and I'm not planning on taking a free day today. I figure I'm on a roll and I don't want to risk throwing a wrench in it by having sugar today. I gave the kids each a new toy and a little candy for Valentine's Day and I'm not planning on baking any cookies or treats.
Hip felt a little bit better today. The tightness keeps shifting back and forth along the front of my hip from my hip flexor to my adductor. Saturday it was in the adductor, today its back in the hip flexor. But I had a pleasant 6 miles in the sunny 15 degree weather regardless.
Wow, I must be loosening up because it seemed a lot easier today to get into a little faster rythym. I'm SO glad to be running again!!
Out of the blue this morning my 3 yo said, "Mom, you're never going to have another baby in your bellie." "Why is that?" I asked. "Because your bellie is too small." Haha, if only she knew how much bellies can streeeeeeetch in 9 months. I just agreed with her though, "Yeah, maybe I wont." Certainly not anytime soon anyway.
YES!! Another pain-free run!!! 28 degrees and sunny this morning on the Big Dry Creek trail. Legs feel GREAT! I'm going to go for a "long run" tomorrow and take the pace a little easier. I think I'll do 12 miles. Then I'll go easy and short on Friday and meet my team for a workout on Saturday. I just need to resist pushing it too hard in the workout because I think the speed is what makes me tight more than the distance.
Lots of hip/core exercises today and some foam roller work. My ART guy recommended that I just do 5 minutes at a time on the foam roller but do it frequently throughout the day so as to not fatigue the muscle too much in one session, but to consistently work it out a little at a time.
My brother is flying in from Memphis to stay with us for a couple of nights while he interviews with a Dental practice in town. He is just finishing up his Dental residency this Spring and is planning on moving to Denver to get started with an established practice for a while before he decides where he wants to set up his own practice long term. I SOOO hope he decides to set up his own practice in Denver. It would be GREAT to have some family nearby.
31 degrees and sunny. Beautiful morning! Felt great to be out running in it!! My legs felt a little sore, but nothing unusual and they warmed up after about 4 miles. I didn't see very many exercisers out, just a few walkers and one runner. Two short stretching breaks and two quick pit stops. I'm going to roll out a few times today and do some hip exercises to keep loose.
Took the kids to the gym so I could lift weights after my run. Did some dynamic warm-up, ran 6 miles on the treadmill, and did more dynamic stretching/core/hip work afterwards. Lifted weights for about 30 minutes too.
Met Running Republic at Potts Field for some running on the Boulder Creek path. It had snowed, but the path plows had been out, so it was just a slick film of hard snow with patchy wetness. Traction was pretty slippy, so we adjusted the pace to be a little slower. I ran with the middle group instead of the fastest group so as to not overdo my pace.
20 minute warm up, stretching, strides.
3X2 miles (6:48, 6:42, 6:46, 6:46, 6:27, 6:41) with 2 minutes recovery between each
1 mile in 6:31
15 minute cool down
Hip felt good, just mild tightness. I scheduled an appointment with Richey again on Monday to get some more ART done on it.
Just couldn't seem to get going today. After the snow fell lightly all weekend the sidewalks were covered in chunky frozen snow and it really agitated my right adductor and hip to run in it so I just came home after 2 miles and did lots of hip stuff and stretching. Got some ART treatment on the area around noon and attempted another run on the treadmill at 4pm. Just couldn't get into a groove and feel comfortable. My form was off and I just wasn't up for pushing through.
Happy Birthday to Aaron! Got up and made french toast, fed the kids and got them dressed and ready to go for the day so Aaron could sleep in. He woke up around 8 am and took the kids to the gym with him so he could work out and I could go running.
After talking to my ART guy yesterday about whether or not it is still possible for me to build up to do Boston, I decided I should avoid running on uneven, icy surfaces and seek out flat, dry surfaces. So this morning I left for my run fired up to go do some interval work. Decided I would do 3X10 minutes at 6:20-6:30 pace instead of doing the group workout in Boulder since that workout was a lot of shorter, faster stuff run on crusty trails.
Warmed up 20 minutes, stretched, and did some easy strides.
Ran 10 minutes at 6:18 pace. Noticed that my left hamstring felt pretty tight and my right adductor was not liking the speed either. Jogged for 3 minutes. I started the next interval more conservatively at 6:33 pace and went for 4 minutes, but my form just kept getting uglier and uglier and I became overly frustrated so I just stopped. And walked. Lots of thoughts flooded my mind, mostly discouraging, dispairing ones. As I continued walking I noticed I was limping again. Not limping at the beginning of the run, but limping now. Great. I've done it again.
Maybe I just need to stop pushing the pace altogether. Maybe I need to stop hoping I can get it together quickly enough to run Boston and just take my time getting over this injury. Its obvioulsy not willing to heal as quickly as I hoped it would and I keep trying to push it and it just comes back. I really want this injury to heal and I also really want to run Boston but I'm feeling very mentally fatigued from trying to train when my body is not cooperating. Maybe I should just set other non-running related goals to keep me motivated in life in general and when my body gives me the green light to progress in running again, I can do so.
For now I'm just going to try not to think about it and have a fun time with Aaron on his Birthday. He agreed to go to Chuck-e-Cheese with the kids tonight (Abe's idea) but I think we'll eat dinner at home and just go there to play since their pizza is hardly edible. The kids and I made him a yummy cake and I think I will take one freebie slice of cake on my husband's 30th birthday since its almost the end of my no sugar month, and I haven't taken any freebies yet.
After two days of no exercise, I finally got out to the gym this morning for an hour on the elliptical and about 20 minutes of hip/core work. Felt good to move my body. Right adductor still painful with certain movements, but the elliptical seems okay.
At the end of every year I compile the 2-3 hours of family video we've taken throughout the year and make a 10-15 minute highlight video. I usually get it done in December and post it on our family website, but I slacked this year and have not done it yet. SO I've finally decided to stop procrastinating it and get 'er done. Over the past couple of days I've cleaned out my video folder on my computer, put all the old video on our external hard drive, and captured all the 2009 video into a new project file. Now I have the task of making a fun, short video out of 2.5 hours of footage. It usually takes me 50-60 hours of work. So that is my distraction from running since I'm injured and I could use a healthy, fun distraction. Here is the video I made last December, highlighting 2008. Stay tuned for the 2009 video to be released shortly...
