Day 101: Little too excited...

I absolutely could NOT get out of bed this morning. I am burnt out from work and never sleeping more than 6 hours a night for the past... I don't know how long. So I ran this afternoon; unfortunately, that messed things up for Chris, so I had to run alone. I did 6.5 miles of repetitions of the loops in Lullwater park. It's actually starting to get nicer in the early evenings... 80s instead of 90s and 30% - 40% humidity instead of... like... 99%. The park was full of people: runners, walkers, students studying, lots of dogs. It's a great environment because it's so close to the university, so the trails are lined with water bottles, shirts, towels, etc. and most people are friendly and smile and say hello. We're bonded through our workouts. I also like running there because I read a challenge in Runner's World to try to run on as many different surfaces as possible, to give your joints a break from the harshness of concrete and asphalt. So running there, I get gravel, dirt, sand, pavement, and grass. Pretty good, huh? My time was about 1:11, so definitely room for improvement, but I felt pretty good afterward and I'm glad to be claiming my afternoon runs back.

I think I got a little over-zealous and decided to go to a Bikram class today too (hey, I'm paying for 10 days unlimited... I might as well use it, right?). Talk about dehydrated. It did help alleviate some of the soreness after my run though, since I got all stretched out, but I am EXHAUSTED. Excited for a good night's sleep. And probably taking a rest day tomorrow... I could use the extra rest. Maybe I'll walk some extra stairs or something to make up for it.

Final thoughts: believe in the power of yoga! Today while I was pondering whether it was too immodest to just wear shorts and a sports bra to yoga (it's so hot, seriously... I think I should just wear a swimming suit), Randy was like "why do your abs look like they have a six pack going on?" Obviously, because they do! (Commence prancing about the apartment and excessive "feel my abs! Feel the rock-hardness!" I swear I tried to not let it go to my head...) I was also noticing how awesome my arms look... I don't think I've ever even had arm muscles. The only workouts I do consistently are running and yoga, so the combination must be working. Yay!

Days 97 - 100

Holy crap day 100.

My apologies for failure to blog.

Friday: rest. Saturday: pilates/yoga combo in my apartment because I overslept and had 1000 things to do. The good thing is I realized that I've taken enough yoga that I am competent enough to work my way through all three sun salutations and a few of my other favorite postures all on my own. I think someday when I am either retired and super bored or 40 and still single and childless and bored I will get my teacher certification. I could handle teaching some beginner's classes, and it'd be great extra cash. Oh, and I also went dancing on Saturday which is a surprisingly good work out and definitely counts towards cross training.

Sunday: 13 miles. My goal is to get us over the fear of that distance. So we've essentially run two half marathons in three weeks. We should have a good base and be ready to move ahead. It was, however, a pretty rough run. Things I learned this weekend: whiskey sours do not count towards hydration, beer does not count as carbo-loading, and only getting 6 hours of sleep after a day that consisted of workout, work, pig roast, dinner out, and clubbing is really not conducive to a long run. Soooo dehydrated. Should have planned about 13 water stops instead of 3. We got through in about 2:32, so not great. But done. And ready to up it to 14 (!).

My month at Active Sol is up, and I have another coupon, but seeing as how I'm headed to Savannah this weekend and Canada for a week, I didn't want to waste my second month with that much time away. So I found a secret Bikram yoga studio literally across the street from the VA. Intro 10 day unlimited for $30, so I decided to give it a try... it will get me through until I go to Canada. Tried my first class today for my strengthening and stretching... hardest class I've EVER taken. Seriously. I've done a little hot yoga before, but oh my gosh... the instructor who checked me in was like "It's only 103 today, so it's not too hot..." I briefly considered running away then, but decided to stick it out. It was a really good workout, actually... elevates heart rate, lots of strength and balancing postures, and the heat helps you get deeper into stretches. But you pretty much feel like you're swimming instead of doing yoga. Should be an interesting few classes. It will be strange to sweat more during yoga than when I run for once.

Days 95 & 96: Irate ITB

Oh, I know that pain. That knife stabbing in my left thigh right where the bone should be. I had such a great start too. Feeling all athletic and professional in my cute little running shorts and my new runnergirl dry fit shirt with my Garmin all fired up, I had decided I'd use my 6 mile run to do some hill sprints to work on my speed. First two hills were great. Then, half way up hill 3, just over mile two, I felt an all too familiar pain shoot up the outside of my left leg.

Honestly, I knew the minute I woke up this morning that I should take it easy, maybe skip the run altogether. My hip was so tight my leg actually felt shorter, and I could feel the knot in the muscle right under the joint. But by the time I got home, it was feeling better, and the weather has been stomry, so I attributed the early morning pain to my premature powers of old lady joint weather forecasting and went for it anyway.

Poor life choice. All I could think about was how similar this felt to my ITB strain months ago, and how long I couldn't run for, and how frustrated I was. I slowed to a walk and simultaneously started hobbling through the five stages of grief.

It's not my ITB, it can't be. It's just a cramp. I'll just walk it out.

Damn it. Stupid hip. Stupid ITB. Why did I skip yoga yesterday (hey, I worked from 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. At that point what was I supposed to do?)? Why have I not been stretching more? I'm so stupid.

Please just let it stop hurting. I'll take a few days off, I'll hydrate better, I'll eat more potassium, protein, calcium, I'll stretch 4 times a day, just please let it not be an ITB strain.

I really think it's my ITB. What can I do? I might have to take time off. What if I can't even run the marathon? I might cry...

Ok, it's my ITB for sure. What are my options?

I stopped on the side of the road to stretch and weigh my choices. I could turn around and walk back, but that would be a long walk. After a good stretch, the stabbing had subsided to a dull ache, so I figured alternatively I could continue in a run/walk/stretch pattern and get through the rest of the "run." I opted for the latter, deciding it would be more productive and less boring, and set off at a slow, easy pace. I actually covered a decent distance without incidence, until the headlights from a car behind me illuminated a giant spider web spanning the entire sidewalk in front of me and I found myself eye-to-eye with a spider the size of my palm (no, seriously. The bugs get bigger the further south you go. In Florida, they have cockroaches the size of my thigh). Stopping on a dime has a new meaning to me. I carefully picked my way through brush and oncoming traffic to get around the web, and continued on my way. My leg felt cramped and tight but the pain wasn't too bad, so I was doing pretty good... until some jackhole decided to beep his horn at me on a quite, dark street and nearly give me a heart attack, subsequently causing me to run face first into a tree. After calming my jittery nerves and pounding heart, I once again took up my snail's pace. I was only two miles from the finish at this point, I had to keep going. Just to keep things exciting, in the last mile I missed a pothole in the dark and rolled my right ankle. I briefly considered attempting to combine my left ankle and right thigh and convincing Chris we should run a three-legged marathon. Deciding against it, I plowed up the last hill and, one strained ITB, one minor black eye, one rolled ankle, and a minor stroke later, I tumbled into my apartment after the most epic 1 hour 12 minutes and 34 seconds of my entire life (hey, I told you I was taking it slow, don't judge me).

So what now? Thankfully I have two days to rest my leg before I have to run again. I'm going to start stretching 2 - 3 times a day, and definitely before AND after EVERY run... I've been a serious slacker lately. Ideally, I'd find someplace flat to run, but around here, that's non-existent. So I'm going to have to start running on the "wrong" side of the road. Roads slant up toward the middle, and when I run on the "right" side (against oncoming traffic), it puts my right leg higher than my left, accentuating the limp I already have. So running on the "wrong" side of the road evens it out a little. I wonder if I can get permission from the police department for that or something...

Days 93 & 94

Monday yoga. Today also yoga, and running. But due to scheduling craziness I couldn't run until after yoga, so it was late and dark. Actually, it was probably the nicest weather I've had for a long time. No sun, low 80s, medium high humidity. Plus I was all stretched out from yoga, so I started off really well, and you'd think it would have been an excellent run. But I got tired pretty quickly and it ended up being just ok: 6 miles, 1:03:17. Maybe someday when I catch up on sleep I'll have another awesome run. But I do miss running in the afternoons and evenings... I can't wait until the weather allows it more often... and when "evening" isn't 9:00.

Days 90 - 92: Adventure!

Friday was a "rest" day, which meant a very full day of work and then a trip to Tennessee! Because Saturday, a bunch of us went white water rafting on the Ocoee! I count that as my cross training for the day. My heart rate was definitely up, I got a good arm and ab workout, and we even did a little swimming at the end. We rafted part of the Olympic kayak course from some year the Olympics were here (I'm so bad at history), and that was definitely the most challenging part. Not quite as wild as it looks on TV though. Which is probably good. Trying to swim out of a swirling pool of death is probably a little extreme for cross training.

I'm doing the next few runs solo. I'm feeling very overwhelmed, and I need some time to reconnect with myself and clear my head and remember why I love running in the first place, and sometimes it's just easier to do that when the only sound you hear is your own feet crunching pavement. So I did the 9 miler this evening on my own. I didn't worry about time at all because I knew it was going to be bad after eating like a pig and drinking like a fish all weekend (is there such thing as a pig fish?), so I have no idea how I did. I didn't plan a route either, I just turned on my Garmin to keep track of distance and went for it. I ended up running a bunch of trails in the park behind the VA (and almost got lost... who knew there was a trail there that went to a secret building... it's like a hidden manor or something). It was a decent run considering the sore, dehydrated, cramptastic state of my body.

Back to the real training this week. Pretty scared for a week from today... 14 miles?! That will be the farthest I've ever run. Which I guess I'm going to be saying a lot pretty soon...

P.S. There IS such a thing as a pigfish! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_pigfish

Day 89

Somehow I managed to get up this morning and run my 5 miles. I'm sooo tired from this week. My time was pretty good. 51:35... so a little faster than Tuesday, miraculously, considering I was by myself and I haven't slept more than 5 hours at a time since Sunday. Super glad for a day off tomorrow, and the rafting trip this weekend! Although I don't think that will help me keep up on sleep...

Day 88: Does a 12 hour work day count as a workout?

How about if I only sat down for a grand total of 30 minutes during those 12 hours? And it was 90 degrees inside so I sweat the whole time?

My legs are sore, so I think it should.

This is my way of saying I failed to actually work out for the day. But when yoga starts at 7 and I'm leaving work at 7:15... well... you get the idea. So I ate pizza for dinner instead. Fair trade, right? I mean, I work out to feel better, but eating pizza makes me feel better... so it's totally the same.

Gah... whatever. Bedtime so I can run tomorrow.

Day 87: 5 misty miles

This week is a fall back week, so weekday runs drop a mile, and long runs drop a couple miles. So this morning we "only" had to do 5. The weather was gross... it was trying really hard to rain, but wouldn't, so the humidity was like 99.9%. It wasn't hot, but I felt so gross afterward, I might as well have run in 90 degree weather. We finished in 52:27. Didn't break any records, but I think we're both still recovering from Sunday. Neither of us have trained longer or farther than this before, so I think we're also both nervous to push it. Hopefully an easier week this week will build up our confidence and give us a little extra energy for a great week next week.

Also did yoga today. It was a struggle though... I'm feeling really tired lately. Just so much stress at work, and a very full social calendar, on top of struggling to stay on top of things like laundry and grocery shopping... definitely not sleeping or relaxing enough. I need running and yoga to keep the stress levels under control, but apparently working out so much doesn't make you feel less tired. Imagine that. I think if I can make it to September 1st, life will calm down. Maybe then I'll have so much new energy I'll be able to run super fast! One can only hope...

Day 86: Surprises!

Stretch & stregnthen = yoga! Of course. I've decided I really like this studio. The good thing is it's not too expensive for a month unlimited, and since they canceled the yoga at the student rec center, I need a new plan. Thankfully, I have another coupon for the discounted price, so I can decide if I really want to start making the investment. Otherwise... not sure what I'm going to do.

In other news... I got surprises from my mommy today! She went on a minor shopping spree on runnergirl.com, and I ended up with an awesome hot pink running shirt, a magnet with the Runner Girl logo for my car to go next to my 13.1 magnet, and a cute little button I put on my work bag so everyone can see and be jealous. I'm so excited! Chris and I were talking about how anticlimactic our run yesterday was, since that's the farthest distance we've ever run, and unlike the Thanksgiving half and the ING half, there was no crowd, no free food, no medal, and no T-shirt at the end. But now I got a T-shirt, and other fun stuff. Yay! Chris will be jealous. I'll be sure to rub it in. :-p

Days 83 - 85

Friday rest day. Nothing exciting to report there.

Saturday I got brave (and got up early) and went to the Intermediate - Advanced Power Yoga class. I was totally fine. I just had to be familiar with poses and know how to modify poses for myself. It was a great class... closer to the Ashtanga style I liked so much at the other place. I felt really strong and really stretched out afterward. And... I did a really hard balancing pose called Crow that I could never do before... for like 3 seconds. But it was the first time ever, so I was super excited.

Today we did a "half marathon"... we reached that point in our training, but we didn't have a race to run, so we just did 13.1 around town. Finished in 2:31. Not our fastest, but we conquered a lot of hills, and it gives us a time to beat in October. I'm super sore though. It's weird to think we have to run on Tuesday... for our other races, we would be done with training by now and get to take some time off. But we still have so far to go...

Day 81 & 82: Best run of my life!!!

Ok, maybe except for that one time I ran a 7:30 mile in high school. But that was only one mile... on a track... and I was in high school... so it hardly counts.

ANYWAY... Wednesday I had every intention of working out. I even drove to Peidmont Park to go to yoga. But there was SO. MUCH. TRAFFIC. So I was too late. And then by the time I went back to work and got home, I was just too tired, so I actually cooked food, instead of making a salad or sandwich, and gave up on the work out. It's not like I was totally lazy... I walked to campus for a meeting, and ended up climbing those 5 flights of stairs 3 times instead of 1. And did I mention I cooked? That's a work out in and of itself, given the fact that I'm kitchen-challenged. But I still felt slightly guilty for skipping.

However, I definitely made up for it this morning. Despite the fact that once again I could barely get up out of bed, Chris and I rocked our run. 6 miles in... ready? Drum roll please... 59:27!!!!!! We broke that 10 min/mile wall! It was crazy... first two miles in 9:25 each. Third in 9:55. FOURTH in 9:43. We slowed down to a bit over 10 after that, but 4 miles in a row under 10 minutes!!! I kept looking at my Garmin in disbelief. GREAT start to my day; it was hours ago and I'm still excited about it. Also a huge confidence builder. Our training is definitely working, and I have the potential to improve my speed, even over long distances. Who knew? I thought I was a 10:30 miler for life. Maybe we can finish this marathon in under 8 hours after all...

Next hurdle: break the 3rd run curse. Tuesday's run must not suck. It doesn't have to be as totally, completely, wonderfully excellent as today's, but it just can't suck. Bring it, 6 miler #3!

Days 79 & 80: Remind me again why I'm doing this...

I am really not doing well at keeping up with this. I guess that's what happens when you burn the candle at both ends, so to speak.

Yoga yesterday for stretching and strengthening. Between my calves and my hips, I could barely walk, so the stretch was much needed. I can tell the strengthening part is working too... did you know I have muscles in my arms? No way! I thought it was just skin and some amorphous material to give them some shape. But holy triceps! It's super exciting.

6 miles today. It was so hard to get out of bed. I almost didn't. Good thing Chris was coming over, or I wouldn't have. But I would have felt kind of bad just leaving him at my front door at 6:45 a.m. while I was snuggled in bed. So... up and out for 6 miles I went. Our time was 1:03:40, which I think is a good starting place for the set--fast enough to feel good about, but still leaves room for improvement, so we have something to work for. I also went to yoga again tonight. We did lots of hip opening, so I think I'm all stretched out now. If not, class tomorrow should take care of the rest, just in time to beat myself up again Thursday morning.

Why am I doing this again? Balancing work and training and... well... life... I'm exhausted right now. I really must be crazy...

Day 76 - 78

Friday = rest day. And fat day... pizza, beer, etc.

Saturday I was going to go to a "Power" yoga class in the morning (cardio, strength, and stretching all at once), but then I chickened out because it said it was for intermediate to advanced students, and I still don't know where I fall. If it's just that it's fast paced so I need to know the poses, I could do it. But I'm not good at inversions and some of the poses that require both balancing and flexibility (tight hamstrings, what can you do?), so if I need to be able to do those things, then I'm not ready. I think I'm going to ask the instructor this week if she thinks I can handle it. She's been at almost all the classes I've been to, so I feel she'll know, or at the very least can tell me what I need to be able to do. Then I'll try again next week. Anyway... instead I was going swim, except that my car wouldn't start. So I spent an hour waiting for AAA and an hour getting my battery replaced, which pretty much shot my day, since I still had to go to work and had dinner plans. So I just did Pilates instead. Which isn't the worst thing... I decided I really need to work on my core more. I get back aches after my long runs, and having a strong core really helps with balance and endurance through hill running.

Today was a 12 miler. We tried running this morning, since Chris' schedule allows now. We started around 9 a.m. It was actually perfect... it was early enough that it wasn't in the 90s, but late enough that the sun had burned off some of the tropical rain forest humidity we get when we run early on weekday mornings, and there was a nice, cool breeze rather than the desert wind that's been blowing through here lately. Don't get me wrong, it was still hot and humid, but it wasn't nearly as bad as we've been dealing with. I planned a route away from the neighborhood we've been running in too, so we headed more in toward the city, for a change of scenery. We were able to pick up our pace from last week's long run to 11.4 min/mile, and finished in 2:17:40-something. All in all, a good, solid run, and I'm feeling pretty positive... and slightly less guilty about my lazy Friday and Saturday.

Day 75

Wow, 75 days sounds like so long. Probably because it is.

Last 5.5 miler for this set. Definitely kept with the pattern. Finished in 59:02. Not nearly as awesome as our run last Thursday, but it was a good, solid run and I was feeling pretty good about it afterward. Almost makes up for Tuesday.

Also went to a yoga class today... Ashtanga style hip opening. I've decided the Ashtanga style is my favorite; you get a great strength workout while getting a good stretch. Hip opening was pretty much mandatory at this point, so hopefully the class worked its magic and I'll be feeling less like an old woman tomorrow. I feel like I should come with a disclaimer though: "Warning! Messed up hip!" I think I freak people out a little when it pops, and sometimes I just have to say, "Yeah, there's no way I can do that." I'm learning how to modify poses though so that they work for me, and I noticed I'm becoming much more self sufficient at it, so I'm starting to feel like I'm ready to move up from the beginner's classes. But we'll give it a little more time.

Oh yeah, AND I walked back from campus to the VA after yet another defense today, so that's a mile in like 100 degrees, 90% humidity, which should definitely count for something.

Exhausted from the week and really glad for a rest day tomorrow. Need some recovery time before 12 miles...

Days 73 & 74: Tough couple days

My foot recovered sufficiently for me to run Tuesday morning, but it was a bad one. 5.5 miles, 1:04:48. I seem to be keeping with my pattern for our short distance sets: first one good, second one great, third one awful, fourth one good. So that means tomorrow's run should be ok, right? I also walked to campus and back for my lab mate's defense, so that's an extra 2 miles on my feet.

I was going to do some real cross training today along with yoga, but then work happened. So... just yoga in the park for me. I love it. It's kind of a pain because I have to drive to the park, but it's so different and so relaxing, and I DEFINITELY need the deep stretching right now. The crazy weather (thunderstorms on and off) is bothering my hip (yes, I am a 78 year old grandmother, I know), and my ankles and calves are pretty sore recently, which just happens when I hit the longer mileage runs.

I wish I had something more exciting to report. But I feel we're settling in to a good training pattern, so no news is good news, I suppose. Early morning, so off to bed...

Days 69 - 72

Failure to blog, sorry.

Friday was a rest day. Check. Including some extra gluttony with a couple vodka tonics and McDonald's. Double check.

Saturday I was going to go to yoga, but set my alarm wrong. Then I really, really wanted to swim. But by the time I got done at work, it was storming. So I settled for some pilates. Not the best, but better than nothing. And a good ab workout.

Sunday was the worst day ever. And all I wanted to do was run to get rid of some frustration. But by the time Chris and I could meet... it was storming. Poor Chris walked into my apartment to find me near hysterical about "I can't miss my run too on top of everything else!" Thankfully, he's very patient, and by the time he'd cracked a couple jokes to make me smile and I'd calmed down, there was a break in the storms. So we decided to ditch the route and stick close to home and just run loops in the neighborhood nearby in case it started to storm again. But we got all 11 miles in without rain, in 2:10:48. And although I was sore and tired, I felt a ton better. Thank goodness for great running partners!

Stretch & strengthen today... one tough yoga class definitely accomplished both. Sadly, I dropped my computer on my foot tonight, so hopefully it'll be ok and I can run tomorrow. The computer is fine, but my foot is awesomely purple. I'm gonna be extra sad if the reason I can't run is because I'm that clumsy.