Philadelphia Half Marathon 9-18-2011

Here it is...finally, my race report. Wasn't sure it was going to get done until later in the week, but here you go....

So, before I give you my race report, I will give you an update on life for me lately. It's been an interesting year. It's hard to believe that I only have 2 more half marathons to complete before I can stick my tongue out at the naysayers who said I was crazy for doing 6 in one year. Yeah, I won't lie, it is part of my motivation :) As usual before I do any race, I somehow manage to injure myself or have some kind of crazy issue...I think that is normal for me. So, right now, I am under the care of the orthopedic surgeon again....Dr. Ekman is taking care of my left wrist. It has been bothering me for about 5-6 weeks and I was finally able to get in to see him yesterday. He believes that it has been injured in the past, though I am unaware of any injuries and so is my mother. In addition to it being completely abnormal (so were my hips! LOL!), arthritis has set in and made lifting and little tasks like opening bottles, driving, etc. painful. So, I am now in a wrist support brace for the next 30 days to try and get it back to normal and I am on anti-inflammatories!! I had gone to see a chiropractor that I could get in to see earlier than Dr. Ekman and found out that they couldn't do anything for my wrist but my back and neck are way out of alignment. So, now I am on the chiropractic route and in a wait and see pattern about the wrist.

So, that is what's going on with me prior to flying out to Philly on Friday. We got into Philly and were able to get our rental car and get to the Expo. And I shopped...found lots of fun stuff...like the perfect shirt for me that says "I Run So I Don't Kill People" and it has the chalk outline. Yeah, I couldn't resist :) The expo was fun. We headed to what Food Network says is the best place for philly cheesesteaks only to find out that no one agrees who makes the best. It was a pretty fabulous philly though! The day before race day, poor hubby forgot that a walking tour would be a bad plan and walked me to death which agitated my hip and legs and back. So, on race morning after standing in the forever long port-a-potty line (and I forgot to stuff my bra! Bad morning). I headed over to join in my corral.

I started off with a pretty good run pace. And then I spotted my kindred spirit. Deanna is a runner who also does the run/walk program and she was injured. She was doing this half marathon with a broken foot. She was only 6 weeks out from the break and was determined to finish. Luckily, she did not require surgery. So, I made Deanna my best friend and decided to do the smart thing and stick with her as she walked it since she was doing about the pace that I wanted at that point. I figured that my neck and back would be helped greatly if I took it a bit easier this early in to therapy. Deanna was a rockstar...we talked the entire time distracting each other from any possible pain. And yes, we finished and finished strong. I had fun. And I remembered my dear friend and ironman, Taz, telling me that I needed to stop pressuring myself and have fun. I never even thought about the time for a second. It was great. Beautiful course. It ended near the steps to the Philadelphia Museum of Art where Rocky ran the steps :)

All in all it was a great race. My post race recovery though was not up to standard. I did not factor in a recovery day, so we rushed back to the hotel, got me a shower and packed up and then had lunch and headed to the airport. We managed to fly out standby and got back in earlier than expected. I did not get much sleep Sunday night due to a neighbor whose car decided to have the alarm go off for 4 hours...yes, 4 hours. It was insane and kept me up most of the night. Then, I had to get up early and head out to see Dr. Ekman and then off to the chiropractor. Stop for a quick lunch where I forgot to eat a sufficient amount of carbs and then off to work for 6 hours. Work was fun...I have half marathon brain :) Then I headed to grab dinner quickly and got a post race massage. When I got off the massage table, my body started shaking uncontrollably. I went in to shock. I was able to get the shaking to stop and then headed home where my hubby and my friend helped me in. I got a shower, warmed up and my body began the uncontrollable shaking. I was also fighting a headache all day that wouldn't go away. After trying to go to sleep, I gave up and decided since I was now unbelievably hot to check my temperature and had a nice temp of 101.9. The fever finally broke around 2:30. And of course, after very little sleep, I was up early to get in to work today. It's going to be a really fun week of recovery!! I fully intend to listen to my body and go to bed when I get off work tonight...promise.

But next week, I am gearing up for Myrtle Beach in October. Then a nice recovery run in Savannah. Clearly even though I thought my body could handle what I was putting it through, it let me know otherwise which means I will plan for a much easier day after the race to recover better and much more sleep.

I loved the course in Philly and could absolutely see myself doing it again :)

In A Funk!?!?!?!?!

If you are a Facebook friend, you may have noticed that I have been in quite a funk lately. In fact, I noticed this week, that several of my friends have been feeling quite similarly. Maybe it's the end of summer. Maybe it's how overly busy we all are. Who knows. Whatever it is, there's a lot of people out there who are just not feeling quite like themselves!

What does that mean for me? It means nothing feels quite right. I am not sleeping well. I am easily irritated (should be read as everything around me ticks me off!) My workouts don't excite me and usually are not up to my usual standard. My runs are trash...mileage but only because I have to. Generally, I am a whining and complaining mess. It sucks. And it sucks to be around me during these times too! Sorry dear friends, I love you, but I know I am a pain to be around when I am like this!

So, how did I get this way??? Well, you see, I did it to myself. I apparently am way too much of a people pleaser and have a very hard time saying No. Simple word, but so very hard for me to say. And what happened...I got way too overwhelmed and way too stressed out and pretty angry and felt slightly abused! Not good feelings I assure you!

A lot of it stems from my frustrations about my hip, work, weight loss, not getting pregnant, missing my family, etc. etc. The biggest stressor has been work though. I have not had much time off lately because I do not have a reliable backup to process while I am out. I have been trying for several months to get this one person completely trained but I can never finish his training. He is always pulled away when I am trying to finish things up. I have taken a couple days off in the past couple of months due to a visit with a friend and due to a death in my family and each time management was supposed to process and take care of my job. Each time, the whole process was all screwed up and a huge headache for me!! Ugh!!! I just want to be able to take a day or two (or a week) off of work and be able to come back and not worry about the disaster that I will have to deal with. I don't feel like that is too much to ask for!!! Oh well! I am trying really hard to get my backup completely trained in the next couple of weeks because I am definitely taking some time off and soon!

My hip is doing better. But I know that I am actually scared about reinjuring which causes me a lot of concern. I hate that I can train or run like I want to for fear of reinjury! I find myself being more timid in my workouts and my runs because I don't want to hurt. It sucks! So, in order to challenge myself further, I apparently agreed to run a 10k and 5k in September. I am already scheduled for a half in October and am seriously considering a half in December too. I guess that would mean, I need to get over my fear and just run. Luckily, I have some good friends who also run who have agreed to help me. Cathy and I get together every Saturday morning for hiking, jogging or running. We are trying to incorporate more running into our routine now and so far, it's pretty good. Also, my friend, Chuck, runs and he has agreed to try and help me out more. He told me that I need to start just running as far as I can for now (without pain) and try to keep increasing it. I like this plan. So, Monday, I jogged for about 1.5 miles. It wasn't too terribly fast but it wasn't bad either especially since it was after leg day with Tye! Tuesday, I had a bad run because my legs were still sore from Monday. Wednesday was elliptical day for me. I am hoping that if I feel up to it, I might get a good run in today...we'll see!! I am excited about the upcoming races but feeling slightly intimidated too. So, this shall be interesting. I will keep you posted.

And my sleep schedule has been so off this summer. I sleep but I don't think I get quality sleep a lot of the time. This week, I have slept in our guest room because I am tossing and turning a lot and don't want to keep Jason awake. I feel like I may have gotten a little bit better sleep most of the week. However, for some reason, last night, I went to bed at 11:00 p.m. and was wide awake by 2:30 p.m. I gave up on sleep at 3:30 p.m. and can only pray that coffee will sustain me today because it's another full day!!! I will likely sleep pretty well tonight though!!

I have had quite a few meltdowns on friends this week and last week. I hate that too. I try really hard to keep it all together because that's generally what everyone needs from me. But lately, I feel like I am falling apart. And I have fallen apart in front of a few good friends and I am thankful for them. I think being able to be real and cry through some frustrations is helping me to feel better and to work myself out of this funk. It's hard to pretend everyday that life is grand and wonderful. I hate when people tell me that you should just fake it and eventually it will be. Sometimes you have to be dead honest about your feelings...positive or negative. Sometimes you have to be 100% real. And lately, I have been holding back a bit too much. Don't get me wrong, I am still reserving a good bit of things (that's just me!) However, I am releasing some unnecessary frustrations too!

And this week, my lesson is to learn how to say NO. LOL!! Tye was preaching at me today about learning that. I am a people person and I like to help others. However, I have to remember that occasionally I need to think of myself first. So, if I have to say no to protect myself then NO is the answer. That's going to prove difficult, but also be necessary. From now on, I am going to be in charge of my own schedule again instead of letting others dictate my time. And I am going to make sure that other realize my time is valuable too. Yeah, that's right, I am going to take up for me!

Okay, now I feel like I am rambling. Don't get me wrong, I have had a great summer. It's been crazy busy, but some downtime is in order. A return to my normal schedule is necessary! A return to my positive and happy demeanor is a must!! Next time, you read from me, I hope to be completely out of this funk :)

Getting Into A New Routine

This summer has taken its toll on me and my routine. It didn't help that I started out the summer recovering from hip surgery. However, I am craving my normalcy...I want to get back into a regular routine. No, I need to get back into a regular routine. Before hip surgery, my work schedule was regular and so were my workouts. I knew exactly when everything was going to take place. But this summer has really goofed up the whole routine!

So, here is my current plan. I need to ramp up (safely of course!) my workout schedule again. My next half-marathon is in approximately 10 weeks. So, I need to get my butt in gear and start getting my workouts in and my cardio and my mileage again. Next week, Tye and I are returning to our pre-hip surgery routine of 3 strength training sessions a week. I am very excited about this and cannot wait to get started...just hoping my energy level vamps up enough to help it all out! In addition, I have decided that I want to go back to my routine of taking 2 yoga classes a week at the gym. I have really missed my regular yoga practice and now that I can start doing it regularly I want to start scheduling that.

As for cardio, I need to get my plan going. I generally trade off running days with elliptical or arc trainer days. So, since that is usually pretty successful, I think I will stick with that. Just time to start getting that implemented again.

As for mileage, I am now going to be training Jason to walk his first half-marathon in December. He told me today that he wants to join me and some friends for the half that I am planning to do in Charlotte. I am excited! So, that means I need to get him started now since he is recovering from foot surgery. We will start out slow. My plan is that every night after dinner this week, we will walk a mile. I want to work him up slowly to more mileage and this plan gives me plenty of time to do that. If I get him in a regular practice, I can start increasing mileage and get him ready to kick butt in December! Jason has no grand illusions about this. His goal is completion. He knows he cannot run it or jog it due to injuries he has sustained in a car accident in 1993. However, I am so thrilled that he wants to try this out. I told him I was going to start giving him supplements to help out with some joint issues...fish oil and glucosamine chondroitin and a multi-vitamin. I think he will do awesome. My hope is that Cathy and Robert can work out their schedule and join us. That way, Jason and Robert can walk and Cathy, Chuck and I can run without feeling bad. If Cathy and Robert cannot work it out, then Chuck and I will walk with Jason and all cross together. Either way, it will be awesome!

And I will be continuing my new stretching routine...even though I missed a couple days this week. I am going to try and stretch every night for at least 30 minutes. I want to make sure I start getting the whole body stretchy and ready to go. The more stretching I do, the better my body recovers.

On Saturdays, Cathy and I have been getting together and walking/hiking for a couple hours and then grabbing breakfast together at Cracker Barrel. (Don't freak out...we are eating rather healthy when we eat there! It's a wholesome breakfast...egg beaters, turkey sausage, blueberry muffin, fresh fruit and yogurt with granola...delicious!!! And under 300 calories) I love our time getting together and walking and talking. We have a great time and get a great workout in!

Things are about to get crazy here. I am going to start adding some ab workouts in to work on strengthening my core and helping out the hips. And all of this means, I will need to get my sleep schedule back on track! Lately my sleep has been off and I do mean really off. With Jason being out of town this past week, I didn't sleep well at all. In fact, a couple nights I got very little sleep at all. So, hopefully, I will be able to get back to trying to get at least 8 hours a night in.

I cannot wait to get into a good routine and making it all a reality. Lately, I feel like I have been letting my life run away with me instead of me running away with it. So, this is my attempt at getting things back on track. So, if you don't see much from me for a little while, it's because I am crazy busy with my training schedules for myself and Jason. No worries though, I love to blog...so I will carve out some time in my schedule for it at least once a week!!!

Oh So Tired!!!!

It's been another long week. I am tired. That seems to be how I feel all the time now. I am not quite used to that, but lately I am not getting enough sleep. My goal for this coming week is to try and get at least 8 hours of sleep every night. I am not sure how well that will work out for me. Jason will be traveling to Vermont for the week. I never sleep well when he is traveling. So, hopefully I can manage to get 8 hours of good sleep every night while he is away.

I did not have a stellar workout week this week. I did an upper body workout with Tye on Monday. I was experiencing a bit of hip pain so I begged off of having leg day on Monday. Turns out this was a smart plan for me. I admit last week I was not a good stretcher. I tore my legs up too. I saw Jeremy Monday afternoon and my legs are all out of sorts. I have tight adductors, abductors, hamstrings, and glutes!! Lucky me!! I am overcompensating due to injury and causing my right side to be out of whack. And I just totally screwed up the lower body by missing my massage for 3 weeks and by not stretching properly!!! All I can say is ouch!!!

And that is exactly what my hip has been saying since last Sunday. So, I am on a mandatory plan of stretching for at least 30 minutes every day. I took it easy Tuesday and did not engage the hip any more than necessary. I woke up Wednesday feeling really sick, so I cancelled my appointment with Tye. My hip was also not improved. And I did not do anything strenuous on Thursday to give my hip a rest. Friday morning, it was feeling a bit better. So, I went for a short walk with Chuck. And then I remembered Friday night that I can ice my hip when it is bothering me...duh!!! So, I have been stretching every day for at least 30 minutes since I saw Jeremy. I started icing it since last night. I really hope all this extra work is going to ease out the pain in those too tight muscles!!

This morning, I went out with Cathy and we walked the dam. I had hoped after walking a bit that my hip would warm up enough for some light jogging, but it seemed to be a little tender. So, we stuck to just walking. I am hoping this week that I can reincorporate some jogging back into the routine...and most definitely some cardio and strength training!!! We'll see!! I see Jeremy on Monday to find out if the extra stretching is helping. And to be honest, if it is not helping, I think I will go crazy!!!! I have not missed a day of stretching since he told me to, so my body better not tell him otherwise!

Other than just normal life, I am just really tired. I am heading to bed in just a bit. I need to get up early and get Jason packed in the morning and off to Vermont. Here's hoping for some good rest this week and maybe someone to entertain me while the hubby is away!!!

Tired, Oh So Tired

Today, I am just exhausted. I am not really sure why. I slept well last night but this afternoon, I have kinda crashed. Sadly, my busy day was not the reason why I am so exhausted.

This morning, I headed over to physical therapy and dropped off a huge bowl of fruit and a thank you card. I know that if it were not for them, I would not be as far along in my progress. I certainly would not have been released this soon from therapy without their help! And running...I think it is unlikely that I would be able to do that yet! They were so sweet! I got hugs from both Amy and Christy and Daniel congratulated me on my return! I promised to stop back by and visit but hopefully not to return as a patient! And I promised to report back to them in October after my half-marathon!

Then, I headed into work. I was there for a very long time on Sunday, so today was a short day for me. I was in and out within an hour! I got to enjoy a nice lunch with my hubby!

Then I came home and looked at the Fit Test for Insanity. I did some of it but not anything I will record at this point. To be honest, I think I may have to wait to attempt the Fit Test for a few more weeks so I don't reinjure the hip. All of the moves were very difficult and hard on my hip, so I opted to play it safe. I think for the next couple of weeks, I will focus on the workout's abs and cardio portions. I knew when I ordered this that I would have to mold it to fit what I can do right now, but that Fit Test was not something that I could alter to work with my hip! Hopefully, I didn't overdo it today! I am a little sore right now and just kinda tired.

So, my plan for tonight is eat some dinner and then be brain-dead until bedtime :) And bedtime will be sooner rather than later! Tomorrow is training day with Tye and I suspect he might make me jog again. Even if he doesn't I know he is going to wear me out, so I need a good night's sleep to prepare for that!

That's about all that my brain can put into words for today.