It was much harder than I expected, especially given I've already been running this type of mileage. I think in general by body is just not happy and something may be slightly off that is causing all this difficulty. I've been waking up most mornings just not feeling rested and knowing that my body needs to get up and perform. I woke up this morning after a really rough night of sleep and feeling sick to my stomach (guess that means back to the doctor this week) I was not quitting today, I told myself even if I had to walk the entire 4 miles that is what I would be doing. The first mile really sucked, my legs hurt and I have new shoes so while I could tell my legs and knee appreciated it my feet needed that first mile to adjust to the new shoes. I ended up taking several very short walk breaks to drink some water. This seemed to work well and I managed to keep a good pace with the short breaks, although it kills me to have to walk because I didn't need to do this several weeks ago. I'm happy I made it through week 1 of training and while I don't expect it to get easier I do hope that my body catches up to my brain and makes it a little less frustrating next week.
Week end totals:
Run: 10.20 miles
Bike: 14.67 miles
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
answers and week 1
My lab results came back yesterday that once again I tested positive for Group Strep B which in turn caused a bladder infection. Really? This is the third time I have tested positive for it in the past 5 years. It got me thinking after some research this is more than likely what caused my uterine infection and eventually sepsis after the birth of Kylie. They were puzzled at how I developed a uterine infection one month postpartum, they basically guessed that I had an e-coli infection that moved into my uterus. Looking back I think it's more likely that that the Strep B is what started it all. My doctor wanted to induce me to make sure I could get at least one round of antibiotics in before I delivered Kylie. Since My first labor had only been 5 hours she was very worried about me making it to the hospital in time to get those antibiotics. Sure enough, 2.5 hours after breaking my water Miss Kylie arrived. While I did get one dose of antibiotics in and Kylie spent so little time in the birth canal she escaped any harm herself. I didn't think to be concerned about it, because Strep B doesn't typically cause any harm to an adult unless you have a compromised immune system.
I am on antibiotics now and I'm hoping this will cure all of the ickies I have had for the past few weeks. I'll go back and redo my blood work in a couple of weeks to see if the infection is what triggered some other off results.
On to today's workout. Today was my first run of week 1 of training! It sucked! Treadmill running is just not fun for me, especially for 3 miles. I've discovered that I may need to wear my glasses on the treadmill. It's easier for me to focus on something while running on the treadmill to distract me, TV, the theater across the street, people.. whatever. I'm noticing I am having a hard time doing this which is causing me to get dizzy. Guess maybe I should wear my glasses, I wear my sunglasses outside to run, so wearing my glasses on the treadmill should be okay, right? I'll give it a go next week. I had to take a couple of walk breaks, which irritates me, since I didn't have to do that before I got sick! But I keep telling myself it will come back and just cover the miles!
I am on antibiotics now and I'm hoping this will cure all of the ickies I have had for the past few weeks. I'll go back and redo my blood work in a couple of weeks to see if the infection is what triggered some other off results.
On to today's workout. Today was my first run of week 1 of training! It sucked! Treadmill running is just not fun for me, especially for 3 miles. I've discovered that I may need to wear my glasses on the treadmill. It's easier for me to focus on something while running on the treadmill to distract me, TV, the theater across the street, people.. whatever. I'm noticing I am having a hard time doing this which is causing me to get dizzy. Guess maybe I should wear my glasses, I wear my sunglasses outside to run, so wearing my glasses on the treadmill should be okay, right? I'll give it a go next week. I had to take a couple of walk breaks, which irritates me, since I didn't have to do that before I got sick! But I keep telling myself it will come back and just cover the miles!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Proceeding Cautiously
It's been a joy ride the past two weeks. After succumbing to the flu for 6 days I thought I was ready to get back on track and got two days of running in last week before being flat on my back for the long weekend. I had a physical scheduled anyway and some of my lab work came back a little off so we reran some labs on Friday and will do some more within the next 30 days to see if my numbers are off due to some little bug that I have or if there is legitimately a problem.
Today I decided would be the day that I got back out there no matter what. I woke up this morning with sore legs ( a strange phenomena since I have not run in 10 days) so I put on my compression socks while I got ready and told my self to just get over it. I have some new toys that I wanted to try out today; one being my RoadID. Yes, I finally ordered one and will put it to good use so that I don't lose my license again. The second new toy is a hydration waste pack. I knew I would need something for my longer runs and when I tried on the hand ones at the store, it just never felt right, so I ordered this:
While I didn't really need it for today's 3 mile run, I wanted to try it out and see how I liked it and since I've been sick I loaded it up with some FRS Energy Drink just in case. I found it to be pretty comfortable on today's painful run. I did however notice that when one bottle has more liquid in it than the other it pulls to one side a little bit, but for the most part it stayed put pretty well. I know some people said the sloshing around of liquid bothered them, I couldn't feel the liquid sloshing around and since I had my tunes playing, I couldn't hear it either. The other bonus is the little pocket. Since my armband had been causing chaffing on my last few runs I decided to skip the armband and keep the i-touch in the pocket, awesome!
As I mentioned the run sucked. I really need my new shoes but since I ordered narrows by accident, it will probably be at least a week before I get them back. My shins protested slightly on my normal zippy, downhill first mile so I took it really slow. I felt pretty decent until the return trip back. Even though it was early and the temperature outside was still nice, it was clear and the sun was beating down on me. I had to slow to a walk at two points just to gain my composure before I could start running again. Once I made the turn onto my street, the long, slow, uphill street I was just toast. But I was not quitting, I probably could have walked faster, but I was not going to walk. I got the 400 meters warning, it seemed forever before I got the 200 meters and the last 100 meters was brutal. But I did it. I ran up probably .40 miles of 1 mile killer street.
Another day, another run survived. Tomorrow I officially start Hal Higdon's 12 week 1/2 marathon training program. I hope the next 12 weeks go more smoothly than the past 2 weeks have. At least I think I have all of the proper tools now to get me there.
I discovered my love of the foam roller so I got my own! Based on a friend's recommendation I got a Trigger Point Performance foam roller. It's small enough that I should be able to take it Vegas and it has all of these different nubby textures on it that are supposed to be great for releasing those tight muscles.
Week end totals:
Run: 3.10 miles
Bike: 5.64 miles
Today I decided would be the day that I got back out there no matter what. I woke up this morning with sore legs ( a strange phenomena since I have not run in 10 days) so I put on my compression socks while I got ready and told my self to just get over it. I have some new toys that I wanted to try out today; one being my RoadID. Yes, I finally ordered one and will put it to good use so that I don't lose my license again. The second new toy is a hydration waste pack. I knew I would need something for my longer runs and when I tried on the hand ones at the store, it just never felt right, so I ordered this:
While I didn't really need it for today's 3 mile run, I wanted to try it out and see how I liked it and since I've been sick I loaded it up with some FRS Energy Drink just in case. I found it to be pretty comfortable on today's painful run. I did however notice that when one bottle has more liquid in it than the other it pulls to one side a little bit, but for the most part it stayed put pretty well. I know some people said the sloshing around of liquid bothered them, I couldn't feel the liquid sloshing around and since I had my tunes playing, I couldn't hear it either. The other bonus is the little pocket. Since my armband had been causing chaffing on my last few runs I decided to skip the armband and keep the i-touch in the pocket, awesome!
As I mentioned the run sucked. I really need my new shoes but since I ordered narrows by accident, it will probably be at least a week before I get them back. My shins protested slightly on my normal zippy, downhill first mile so I took it really slow. I felt pretty decent until the return trip back. Even though it was early and the temperature outside was still nice, it was clear and the sun was beating down on me. I had to slow to a walk at two points just to gain my composure before I could start running again. Once I made the turn onto my street, the long, slow, uphill street I was just toast. But I was not quitting, I probably could have walked faster, but I was not going to walk. I got the 400 meters warning, it seemed forever before I got the 200 meters and the last 100 meters was brutal. But I did it. I ran up probably .40 miles of 1 mile killer street.
Another day, another run survived. Tomorrow I officially start Hal Higdon's 12 week 1/2 marathon training program. I hope the next 12 weeks go more smoothly than the past 2 weeks have. At least I think I have all of the proper tools now to get me there.
I discovered my love of the foam roller so I got my own! Based on a friend's recommendation I got a Trigger Point Performance foam roller. It's small enough that I should be able to take it Vegas and it has all of these different nubby textures on it that are supposed to be great for releasing those tight muscles.
Week end totals:
Run: 3.10 miles
Bike: 5.64 miles
Monday, August 30, 2010
Derailment
Last week was without a doubt one of the worst weeks of the year. I knew it would be a challenging week for my family as I had an interview for a position I wasn't 100% sure I wanted, Sydney was starting Kindergarten and Scott is handling a major project. What I was not expecting was that Sydney and I would get the stomach flu, she would miss her first 2 days of Kindergarten and my training plan would fly out the window.
Sunday, as we know, was my longest run ever, 4 miles. On Tuesday I was scheduled to run 3 and did it on the treadmill at the gym and it sucked, it hurt but I got it done. I was in a lot of pain on Tuesday and come Wednesday it was ridiculous. Every muscle and bone in my body ached and I seriously thought if it was this bad how in the heck would I make it through the rest of my training. Later in the evening I knew something was wrong when it hurt to touch my skin, and sure enough I had a low grade fever. Part of me was relieved to know that it was not my training that had done this to me but the flu. Although, it really was not a pleasant 5 days.
As my body is trying to recover I'm faced with how to proceed with the week. Today was strength training and stretching which went fine, I even did a quick easy 2 miles on the bike at the gym to remind my legs that I would be expecting some performance from them tomorrow. Ideally, I would like to run 3 miles tomorrow, but I'm going to test it out and see how the body responds, if running all of it seems to be too much I'll at least walk and be sure to get my miles in that way.
Nobody said it was going to be easy, right?
Sunday, as we know, was my longest run ever, 4 miles. On Tuesday I was scheduled to run 3 and did it on the treadmill at the gym and it sucked, it hurt but I got it done. I was in a lot of pain on Tuesday and come Wednesday it was ridiculous. Every muscle and bone in my body ached and I seriously thought if it was this bad how in the heck would I make it through the rest of my training. Later in the evening I knew something was wrong when it hurt to touch my skin, and sure enough I had a low grade fever. Part of me was relieved to know that it was not my training that had done this to me but the flu. Although, it really was not a pleasant 5 days.
As my body is trying to recover I'm faced with how to proceed with the week. Today was strength training and stretching which went fine, I even did a quick easy 2 miles on the bike at the gym to remind my legs that I would be expecting some performance from them tomorrow. Ideally, I would like to run 3 miles tomorrow, but I'm going to test it out and see how the body responds, if running all of it seems to be too much I'll at least walk and be sure to get my miles in that way.
Nobody said it was going to be easy, right?
Sunday, August 22, 2010
I seem to be a cluster this week
So yesterday I nearly get taken out by an SUV, today I lose my drivers license.
I should be sitting here feeling so great about getting my 4 mile run in today. It's the furthest I have run, ever. As I completed my cool down walk I thought about how if I can do this, the training plan is working and I will be able to run a 1/2 marathon come race day. I felt so great!
Then, I get home and reach into my pocket to grab my key and realize my license is not in the pocket. WTF? I had to unzip the pocket and the key is still there so how is the license gone. I feel around for holes and there are none. Seriously, how do I lose one and not the other. So, now I'm sitting here stressing about not having a license and having to go to the DMV to request a new one. As I think about my run, I think that I may have unzipped and checked the contents of the pocket to make sure everything was still there (why, I don't know, probably to distract me from the run) I'm thinking maybe it fell out then. After recovery and a play date for Sydney I tried driving my route to see if I could find it. No luck, although I wasn't able to drive the sidewalk parts of my run that go up a hill, so I'll try later to go back and walk that area. I am so frustrated with myself, I've been meaning to get a Road ID but just haven't done it yet because I'm spending money on so much right now for training and the 1/2. I wasn't even going to bring it, but than I remembered how I nearly was taken out by a careless driver and decided to bring it.
Oh well, life goes on.
Week end totals:
Run: 9 miles
Bike: 16.63 miles
I should be sitting here feeling so great about getting my 4 mile run in today. It's the furthest I have run, ever. As I completed my cool down walk I thought about how if I can do this, the training plan is working and I will be able to run a 1/2 marathon come race day. I felt so great!
Then, I get home and reach into my pocket to grab my key and realize my license is not in the pocket. WTF? I had to unzip the pocket and the key is still there so how is the license gone. I feel around for holes and there are none. Seriously, how do I lose one and not the other. So, now I'm sitting here stressing about not having a license and having to go to the DMV to request a new one. As I think about my run, I think that I may have unzipped and checked the contents of the pocket to make sure everything was still there (why, I don't know, probably to distract me from the run) I'm thinking maybe it fell out then. After recovery and a play date for Sydney I tried driving my route to see if I could find it. No luck, although I wasn't able to drive the sidewalk parts of my run that go up a hill, so I'll try later to go back and walk that area. I am so frustrated with myself, I've been meaning to get a Road ID but just haven't done it yet because I'm spending money on so much right now for training and the 1/2. I wasn't even going to bring it, but than I remembered how I nearly was taken out by a careless driver and decided to bring it.
Oh well, life goes on.
Week end totals:
Run: 9 miles
Bike: 16.63 miles
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Exactly why I don't have a road bike
I love riding my bike, but sharing the road with cars makes me nervous. Even Scott hardly ever rides his road bike anymore, I'm sure it has to do with his work and how many bike versus vehicle's he comes across. Today I had 30 minutes of cross training scheduled. I thought it would be a good idea to get on the bike and map out tomorrow's run. I'm thinking I'll run towards the trail that I use for my bike rides, which I pick up at Moraga Commons Park. I ride down my street and head towards Moraga. I make a left onto Old School Road that is adjacent to Safeway. The street is pretty deserted with no cars parked so I have a good visibility. I check my mileage and as I look up see a woman exiting the Safeway parking lot who has decided not to stop at the driveway nor look as she makes a left hand turn onto Old School Road. I hit the breaks hard to avoid a collision with her, just as I realize I'm going to be okay, by back tire fishtails out from under me and I think oh shit, I'm going down anyway. Thankfully I held it together and was able to stay upright. As the woman in her SUV is waving and mouthing "sorry" at me. Needless to say, I'm obviously pretty shook up by the entire event. I continue riding and hit the trail. Still pissed, I realize I need to focus on what I'm doing and figuring out how far I need to run tomorrow before turning around. I have two options, to run out further and walk the 1 mile back up my street to cool down or turn around earlier and run 1/2 mile up my street leaving a 1/2 mile to cool down. I think I may shoot for the latter, I guess we'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow.
I'm nervous about tomorrow, but I have to stay positive and know that I can do this.
I'm nervous about tomorrow, but I have to stay positive and know that I can do this.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Week 2 in the books
I have completed 2 weeks of training towards my 1/2 marathon program. It feels good, but I know in the weeks to come that it will become more challenging and push my limits more than ever before.
Today I had scheduled a 3 mile run and was lucky to be able to do it on the road versus the gym before Scott left for work. I woke up with a headache and was dreading running my 3 miles today. Knowing that I was on a time limit to get it done, I got dressed and headed out. As soon as I hit the pavement I felt great. The cool morning air was doing wonders for my headache and I felt strong, maybe a little too strong because I ran down my 1 mile street maybe faster than I should have. As I got to the 1 mile mark there was a walker ahead of me so I sprinted to the intersection to make it across the street without having to stop and wait for the light. All that effort in the first part of my run made for pain in the last mile of my run. This is my normal 2 mile route, but I added a little to it to get my 3 miles in today. On the return I veer off of the bike path and onto a pedestrian path because the bike path really narrows. It just feel's safer on the pedestrian path rather than sharing the road with the cars and bikes in this particular area. The only other downside to this, other than the obvious concrete versus pavement is, it's uphill. Typically on my 2 mile run, I get to slow to a cool down walk around the uphill portion. Not today, today I powered through the pain. I felt the pain in my thighs which was good because I knew my muscles were working hard. As I crested to the highest point it felt like I was running in place because I was moving so slow. As soon as I thought I was going to keel over, I hit the downhill portion and finally back to flat. Overall, the run felt good, I even planned the route so that I would have to run up some of my 1 mile street. We all know how much I detest hills, but I also know that hills will make me a stronger runner, so I'm working on it.
Glad that the week is over and that tomorrow I get to work on stretching and strength training. Next week I'll be working on increasing my mileage, wish me luck. I should run 4 miles next Sunday, which will be the most I have ever run! Scary and exciting all at the same time!
Week end totals:
Bike: 15.53 miles
Run: 7 miles
Today I had scheduled a 3 mile run and was lucky to be able to do it on the road versus the gym before Scott left for work. I woke up with a headache and was dreading running my 3 miles today. Knowing that I was on a time limit to get it done, I got dressed and headed out. As soon as I hit the pavement I felt great. The cool morning air was doing wonders for my headache and I felt strong, maybe a little too strong because I ran down my 1 mile street maybe faster than I should have. As I got to the 1 mile mark there was a walker ahead of me so I sprinted to the intersection to make it across the street without having to stop and wait for the light. All that effort in the first part of my run made for pain in the last mile of my run. This is my normal 2 mile route, but I added a little to it to get my 3 miles in today. On the return I veer off of the bike path and onto a pedestrian path because the bike path really narrows. It just feel's safer on the pedestrian path rather than sharing the road with the cars and bikes in this particular area. The only other downside to this, other than the obvious concrete versus pavement is, it's uphill. Typically on my 2 mile run, I get to slow to a cool down walk around the uphill portion. Not today, today I powered through the pain. I felt the pain in my thighs which was good because I knew my muscles were working hard. As I crested to the highest point it felt like I was running in place because I was moving so slow. As soon as I thought I was going to keel over, I hit the downhill portion and finally back to flat. Overall, the run felt good, I even planned the route so that I would have to run up some of my 1 mile street. We all know how much I detest hills, but I also know that hills will make me a stronger runner, so I'm working on it.
Glad that the week is over and that tomorrow I get to work on stretching and strength training. Next week I'll be working on increasing my mileage, wish me luck. I should run 4 miles next Sunday, which will be the most I have ever run! Scary and exciting all at the same time!
Week end totals:
Bike: 15.53 miles
Run: 7 miles
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