Don’t peel me, I’m not a banana

Pfffffft.  That’s about how I feel right now with running.  I suck at it.

Race for the Cure 5k was on Saturday.  I ran a 20:12 on a hilly course earlier in May, so I was expecting my time to improve.  I was WRONG.  So what happened?  What excuse do I have?  The course was super flat and familiar.  Weather was pretty nice.  In the 70s.  I ate a good breakfast.  Didn’t drink all that much because I didn’t want to use the portapotty, but that is always my race day strategy.  Things that went wrong-  I didn’t sleep that well because Red had night terrors, but I still got a decent amount I think.  It must boil down to me having my period and not wearing my lucky shoes?  Gahhh.  I didn’t push myself like I could have.  So my time was like 20:35.  That’s like 6:40 avg pace.  Yesterday I ran 4 miles at that exact same pace.  So irritating.  I have no planned 5ks until fall, just my usual 4 and 7 miler in July.  Hopefully I will fare better at those races.  Hoping for a 26:xx at the 4 miler and under 50 at the 7.  Really depends on the weather and, as I found out last year during July, the state of my sinuses.

After the race I ran about 2.5 miles on the bike path near the finish and then hopped in my car.  Came back home and ran another 4.5.  Then, while Red napped a few hours later, I ran another 4 on the treadmill.  That put me at 14 for the day.  Ran 7 on Sunday, 4 on Monday, 10 today, and will finally give my weary legs a rest tomorrow.  I will be out of town next week for work (ew), so I am hoping for long runs this weekend and on Monday before I leave so I can take it easy while I’m there.  Also I don’t want to get lost/mugged/raped etc. in a strange town.  Wait… I don’t want that to happen anywhere

I am no longer a Mother-boy, I am a Mother-man!

Well that darn foot is still bothering me.  I went to the Dr on Thursday and they never called me with results, so I guess it’s ok in terms of bones.  The chiro adjusted and ultrasounded it yesterday.  Wrapping it seems to help but then I wake up in the middle of the night and my heel is throbbing so I have to tear it off.  I must wrap it too tight.  It felt ok while I ran this morning until I rolled my ankle and nearly tumbled into a parked car.  It’s very irritating.  I need to get it cleared up as I start long runs again this weekend.  I have Race for the Cure on Saturday which will be part of my 14 miler.  The weather should be great since it is unusually cool, so maybe a sub 20 is in my grasp.

Corgi #2 almost died on Sunday morning.  It was my off day, so the corgis woke me up at 6 for a feeding.  I stumbled to the kitchen, fed them and opened the back door.  Woke up again and both were snoozing with me on the couch so I sent them outside again.  As I was getting some water, I saw a couple jogging with a yellow lab.  I squinted at them to see if I recognized them when suddenly a little dog came running up beside them…my dog!  I ran out the front door and yelled for him to come, and, being the good boy he is, he came.  But so did a car.  The car was far enough away that I hoped they would stop…not stopping..not stopping….me screaming STOP!  Joggers screaming NOOOO!  Finally the car screeches to a stop about 4 inches from Henry.  Luckily, the usually busy street was quiet, so he was able to run safely across the other lane, where I stood shaking, and directly onto our porch.
Once he got inside, I was so relieved that he was ok, that I barely remembered to scold him.  Apparently the fence’s gate blew open in the middle of the night, which is kind of odd because it has a latch and a pole that goes through it.  I feel very blessed that everything happened with perfect timing so that he ended up ok.  I mean really…they didn’t run away while I slept from 6-7…I just happened to be looking out the window and see Henry… the car stopped JUST in time.  Thank You

 

 

 

Free cake! Free cake!

Well I thought I overreacted on the last post because I had been running fairly normally after taking 3 days off… in a row.  The horror!  I got in 42 miles last week but my longest run was 8 miles.  I planned on doing 12 on Sunday, but I seem to have caught a cold, so I pushed it to Monday.  Because my body defeats colds in one day, right?

Well Monday morning, my head still felt heavy as hell, so I laid on the couch on watched Arrested Development.  I started to perk up though and then ended up running 10 miles on my treadmill.  I thought, heck, let’s go ahead and make this my long run from last week.  So Red woke up from her nap and we ran another 2.5 in her stroller.  Did I fail to mention that my foot started throbbing around mile 5 of this run?  Cause it did.  And now I’m back to where I started.  Icing and praying and rubbing my foot at work, creating awkward situations.  In desperation, and after running another painful 6 miles this morning, I finally called my doctor.  He’s going to be like, your foot hurts again?  Here’s some extra strength naproxen.  Stop whining.  I am also going to call my chiro and make them ultrasound it because I’m starting to join their cult and believe in their whackadoodle therapies.  I’m still pretty sure it’s just a weird muscle strain or something but I love to fool myself.  I also love to be pessimistic and believe that I won’t be able to run a marathon this fall.  Just one more PR before I get fat and knocked up again…pretty please?!

Red has been really funny lately.  She still doesn’t say many actual words and the ones she does say are always exclamations!  Whoa!  Uh-oh!  Oh No!  Wow!  Yay!  Hi! Henry!  Dog/dad..these sound exactly the same.  That’s about it.  I bet when she does start talking she’s going to say some crazy shit.  Can’t wait.

if I woke up lookin’ like that, I would just run towards the nearest living thing and kill it.

Despite my many conditions and ailments, I ran a half marathon yesterday.  And I PR’ed. 

I waited til the last minute to register, again.  I did the same thing last year.  I was more nervous about finding parking than the actual race, which was a nice change of pace from last weekend when I was nervous as haaaale. 

I jogged for less than a minute as a warmup.  The gun went off and I started to remember the course as we ran it.  We make a turn right after the first mile marker and basically run up a huge hill for 800 meters.  After that, I was warmed up and ready to go.  Nothing was hurting me at this point.  I didn’t pay much attention to the course and I didn’t listen to music for the next 8 miles.  My shoulder started cramping up again after just 4 miles!  I must have horrible posture because this is becoming a real issue.  When we got down by the river, the wind really picked up and I started to feel sciatic twinges in my right glute and hamstring.  I just kept telling myself, mind over matter, and that actually helped.  Surprisingly optimistic outlook from a pessimist like myself. 

I did not pass nor get passed by a women since the 2nd mile.  We did an out and back and I saw several in front of me, but I wasn’t sure how many.  We had another hill right near the end and then we turned and ran down into the stadium for the finish.  Unfortunately we had to run nearly a whole lap to the finish line.  I came in at 1:36:33 or something like that.  All finishers got a medal and flowers.  I can’t remember where I planted my flowers last year, but the medal was cooler this year. 

Today I am pretty sure I have a stress fracture on the top of my foot.  All yesterday I kept dreaming of PRs and being awesome all summer long.  I guess I was ignoring the nagging pain.  Then when I woke up, it was screaming.  I taped it up and took Red for a walk anyway.  I’m sure taping it is the best thing for a stress fracture right?  JK.  So I’m really not sure when I will call the doctor because I really don’t want to hear that I can’t run for 6 weeks.  My shoulder is really sore too but at least my chiro can look at that tomorrow.  big SIGH.

So all of this overshadows the fact that I got a PR and 8th woman overall.  I was about 3 minutes faster than last year (when I got 4th overall ) but I was coming off a really bad wonky knee episode last year.  I’m getting really frustrated that my age group seems to be getting faster and faster.  New fast people seem to be converging on the 30-34 AG.  I need to stop comparing myself to others and just work on getting PRs, but it’s hard. 

fugg i need a haircut.  Im rocking retro bieber hair. 

imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light

My knees feel slightly better and this is without any NSAIDs, just with foam rolling and stretching.  They seem to feel okay in the morning while I run and then, as the day goes on, they feel worse.  Probably because I’ve been walking a lot, pushing Red in her trike and climbing stuff at the park.  I messaged a chiro friend to see if he knew anyone who is trained in the Graston Technique.  Sounds like Medeival torture.  I’m into it.

I ran 16 miles on Sunday.  I was stiff from the 5k, so it definitely felt like the last 16 miles of a marathon.  I figure that’s good enough and I should be ready for the next race, whether it be 25k or 26 m.  I ran by the track where the 24 hour run was being held and tried to motivate myself.  Didn’t really work.  It was the last hours of it, so they were all walking anyway.

I am mad craving some Doritos right now.  A sure sign that my .  is about to start.  Plus I ran 7 fast miles on the mill this morning and running fast always makes me more ravenous than running far.  I think treadmill running is better for my IT band, but gosh dang it’s so beautiful out this week.

I’m trying to find a better pair of shoes for my running.  We don’t have a fancy running store that will analyze your gait and pick a shoe for you.  I still love my Nike frees but I’m afraid they are making my situation worse.  I hate shoes with any type of cushioning.

So I prepaid for another dog from a shelter.  It’s a corgi mix that is being brought up from freaking MIAMI.  Apparently the shelter there is so over run with dogs and cats that they euth them after they have been there for just 2 weeks!  So some non profits go in and save a bunch to transport them to no-kill shelters around the country.  The dog’s name is Negra, which obviously is Spanish, but not something I want to be yelling in my yard.  I have been coming up with other possibilities.  I am very worried that it’s not going to work out because 1- RKY doesn’t know.  2- Henry is possessive of me and super jealous.  Praying it works out somehow.  Will pick her up next week.