Tuesday, May 20, 2014

How my 20 Mile Long Run Became 10

Plantar Fasciitis.

I've been fighting it for several weeks now.  My foot will feel better for a while, then it will start hurting so bad I hardly want to walk from my car to my office.  Since I'm expected to spend part of my time at work knowing what's going on out on our production floor (concrete), this poses a problem.  I refuse to drive a golf cart at work.  I can't bring myself to do it.  We don't have trikes, so off I go walking on the hard concrete floor.  This can tend to make my foot hurt more.  Ugh.

We took off on Saturday afternoon on the "People Trail" in a nearby town.  The goal was to run as many miles as possible while G's daughter was at her school book fair (3 hours).  The original goal was 20 miles, but I didn't want to get up at 5am to run them before taking her to the book fair.  We got in maybe 2 miles before my foot started hurting.  A few more miles, and my leg started hurting from compensating too much.  In the end, we wound up cutting the run short at 10 miles with plans to make up the other 10 miles on Sunday morning.

Yeah, Sunday morning didn't happen for me, either.  G had to run those without me.

Luckily, I should still be OK for the marathon on 5/31, since I just ran one in April.  Unfortunately, I feel like I've let G down in his training.  He should have done a lot more miles than I was able.

I felt pretty good last night, so we ran 6 miles after work.  That's 26 miles in 3 days for him.
Today, ouchie foot.  Aargh!!

Any suggestions for dealing with plantar fasciitis are welcome.  Bear in mind, I'm quite stubborn and probably won't stop running.  I may take a week or two off after the marathon, hopefully that will be enough.

Next race:  Noblesville Mini Marathon - 5/24

Monday, May 12, 2014

Lazy Weekend


Lutherun 5K was on tap for Saturday.

Then the alarm went off.

Let's back up.  My husband and I have been dealing with some minor drama in our lives (something I swore I would never be involved in again, but here we are).  Don't worry, it's not between us.

Anyhow, I calmed that with wine on Thursday evening.
Then, Friday night, we had date night (more alcohol and much yummy food).

Saturday morning, 7am was not happening.

Saturday afternoon, we ran across the mess that was my son's bedroom.  So, we spent Saturday evening cleaning my 19 year old's room (no running, no workout).

Yep, I did that.

Mess, I can handle.  Stink is a different story.  He may not be happy about it, but next time I'll bet he thinks about cleaning it himself.

Sunday morning, it was storming.  I run in the rain, but not in a thunderstorm.

Sunday afternoon, champagne brunch.


The plan is to get a run after work today, since the weekend was a bust.  Now, it's in writing.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Throwback Thursday

So, getting back into the habit of blogging, I'm going to try to post every day when I can  -  at least a couple of times a week when I can't.

For Throwback Thursday, I went back to when I first created this blog in 2007 and grabbed the first picture that I posted here.



I had captioned this picture "What Happened to my Waist?"

Seriously?  I'm young, I'm fit, and I just won a trophy at a 5K.  And, I'm COMPLAINING.
Hopefully, I've learned to be a bit more kind to myself since then.  I try.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

52 Minutes?

There's a loop that I tend to run at home on most of my weekday runs.  It's 4.3 miles.
Last night, G and I decided to go for a run after work, since I said "Hell No" when the alarm went off at 5 in the morning.

First run after our Half Marathon on Saturday.
I didn't care about time, but I always wear my Garmin and he likes to "Map My Run".

Anyhoo, we get home from the run, and I'm just happy that we ran the entire time with only a short walk break at mile 2.  When he ends his workout on his phone, it informs him that it was 52 minutes.  He actually had to make me show him on the Garmin that, yes, it WAS 52 minutes.  Yeesh.  I mean, yes it was much slower than we normally run our loop, but I needed it to be.

I enjoy running together, and he hates running alone.  But, I'm afraid there is going to come a point where I'm going to have to tell him to go and get his run on and let me trot along at my turtle's pace alone.

Or, I'll magically get my old speed back.  Time will tell...

Monday, May 5, 2014

Indianapolis Festival 500 Mini Marathon


What a good time!



I had registered for this race way back in October, shortly after registration opened.  Since I live in Indiana now, it was a given that I have to run this race.  The nation's largest Half Marathon, of course I have to run it.

We went to the Expo the night before, and I ran into an old colleague from my former workplace.  Small, small world.  We then ate at Fazoli's.  Yep, we're big spenders.  Actually, I was hungry and wanted to eat and go home, so we chose the fast food route.  Full of spaghetti and meatballs, and exhausted, my husband too excited to sleep.  Yes, it was his first half marathon.  It was enough to almost make me excited about race day again.  

Anyhow, we get up Saturday morning and make the trek to Indianapolis.  For such a huge race, there was ample parking very close.  And cheap!  Where else can you go to such a large event and pay a flat $5 for parking?  

G was assigned to Wave 3 and I was assigned to Wave 4 (due to an oops when I registered him).  We decided to try and get into Wave 3 and get started 15 minutes earlier.  That was no problem.  We started with the Wave 3 group, at 8:15am.  G was shocked by how crowded it was along the course (imagine if there wasn't a wave start! Oy!).  There was almost always entertainment along the course, bands and cheering and tons and tons of water/Gatorade stations.

Yes, we got to run around the speedway, but after a mile of this, I was ready to get out of there.  Still another mile left.  Ugh.  Boring.

When it was all said and done, I was pleased with how we ran (he stayed with me the whole time, even though he could run quite a bit faster than me if he would go).  I felt stronger and stronger throughout the entire race (plus, NO HILLS!).  Just check out those split times!


Finish Time
Finish Net2:35:31
Finish Gun3:07:45

LocationNet TimeClock TimeTime of DayPacePace Between
Start00:0032:158:20:26
5K37:411:09:558:58:0712:06 /mi
11:59 /mi
BRICKYARD1:32:452:04:599:53:1012:02 /mi
11:56 /mi
11M2:12:112:44:2510:32:3612:00 /mi
11:03 /mi
Finish2:35:313:07:4510:55:5711:51 /mi













Our next Half Marathon is on May 24.  G plans to run it with his brother and see how fast he can go.  I'm just hoping to beat the time I posted on Saturday.  

Next race:  May 10, just a 5K.  

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Run for the Ivy 10K, 4/26/14

I was supposed to work all day Saturday.

Well, "supposed to" is strong language.  A consultant was in, and I had sat in on the sessions with him Thursday and Friday, planning to spend Saturday.

We had already registered for a 10K race on Saturday.

I had already worked over 60 hours for the week.

Friday evening, when I left work at 8pm (and skipped out on their after-dinner session), I decided that I had enough and was going to run the race on Saturday morning anyway.

Saturday morning, up and at 'em.  Only, not that early.  The race had a 9am start time, and the high for the day was predicted to be in the 80s.  I dressed in a running skirt and tank and hoped for the best.

The race started a few minutes late (as most races do around here, from what I've seen so far).  I was a little worried when we started because I felt like my skirt was slipping down my hips (it was new).  As we got going, it seemed to stay put after the first half mile or so.

I pushed myself harder than I usually do the first run after a marathon.  With the long hours at work all week, I hadn't had a chance to get a run in before the race.  I was on my feet all day most of the week, so I did work out all of the soreness and felt strong for the 10K.

The 10K course was 2 laps of the 5K course.  Ugh.  I hate those.
BUT, we did manage to lap the last group of walkers.  Woot! for us.

I got a little warm by the finish, but manageable.
Our finish time was 1:10:17
Yep, they recorded my husband and I with the exact same finish times.
And we were almost last.  Aargh!  One of my least favorite things about small town races.  We averaged 11:20 per mile, granted not my fastest but I thought it was respectable.  And STILL almost finished last.  There were only 2 finishers behind us.

A couple of observations now that I've done some races in my new(ish) small town.

1- Why do they never start a race on time?  If I go to warm up, I'm always cool by the time they start the race.
2- They give out more awards to the walkers than runners.  This is the opposite of what I've seen in my past in other towns.
3- All of the women look MUCH older than they are.  I finished right behind a woman that I guessed to be mid-50s, and she was MY AGE.  This has happened with multiple women at every race I've been to in Indiana.  I have since stopped drinking the tap water here.

Next race is the Indy Mini on Saturday.  We are certain not to be last place for such a huge race!
Saturday will be my husband's first half marathon.