Trying it out - WIAW

For awhile now my pretend publicist and longtime friend Danielle, has been pestering me to throw together a What I Ate Wednesday post for you all. It's a popular Wednesday topic on the Healthy Blogosphere, and while I don't fully consider myself a Healthy Living Blogger, well, I try sometimes.

So I woke up this morning and said heck, I'll give it a shot.

You want to see what I ate today? Here we go.

Every morning starts with these little guys. And while they aren't food, I personally find them important. Calcium, vitamin C and Biotin (for beautiful, luscious hair).

Next up is my favorite breakfast that I discovered while trying the 21 day sugar detox - Plantain Pancakes. I prepare them almost every night before bed by blending two eggs, a plantain and cinnamon, and then frying those bad boys up in coconut oil.

Smother with almond butter and enjoy.

And of course, this is always a staple. Black coffee.

Here's where things get tricky. When my day got crazy and I started running around from work to errands to meetings to home to working out (that was my day in a nutshell) I stopped taking pictures. Hunger overtook my brain, and I stuffed my face before I could snap a beautiful shot of my lunch. So for the rest of the day, you get a list:

-Mid-morning snack: almonds and a banana
-Lunch: one of those Naked Vegetable Smoothies (it was a tomato blend and I didn't love it) and are you ready for this? - a cold acorn squash stuffed with tuna salad.

WHAT?

I know, it sounds gross, but I actually LOVED it. The tuna salad was simply a packet of tuna mixed with mustard, hot sauce, and chopped up carrots. I'm pretty sure most people would think this is the grossest combo in the world but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm not sorry.

-Mid-afternoon snack: chocolate animal crackers, an apple, and peppermint tea.
-Dinner: A sweet potato with an egg and a side of veggies.

As you can see, I try to stay fairly paleo, but don't kill myself over it. I would call this a fairly normal day of food for me, outside of the of the odd squash/tuna combo. Not the most exciting blog post, but hey maybe next time I try a WIAW I can slow myself down and take some more pics?

I also wrapped up the end of the October Challenges (cannot believe that November is on Friday) that I committed myself to - today I achieved this:

250 squats - never thought I could do it. It definitely gave me more of a respect for air squats, if nothing else. And a little more toneage in the arm department, thank you pushups.

I have a slight feeling I'm being chased by one of those fall colds that seems to nail everyone at some point, and am going to take a shot of airbourne and head to bed. Let me know thoughts on my first WIAW, if you think I'm off my rocker, or if you never want to see one again.

Hope Wednesday was fabulous, cheers my friends!

K

Burrowing

Happy Monday!!

I got my butt out of bed a little early this morning so that I can do a quick check in with my favorite blog readers.

On Friday I had told myself I could do whatever I wanted this weekend. There would be no alarms, no planned workouts, no set expectations.

The dramatic side of me wanted to throw a pity party yesterday morning and not get out of bed, at all. The temperatures have finally starting falling down into the 30's here in good ole' B-more at night, and therefore 3-4 layers of blankets are now necessary to thoroughly burrow like a mole rat in my bed at night.

I spy Karl, my bear from Andrew....

Anywho, I woke up on Sunday morning and thought, "You are suppose to be running a marathon right now," had a short pout fest, and then went back to sleep. While nothing quite beats the feel of achieving 26.2, a nice Sunday snooze was still a treat, and helped me to sleep away some of my blues.

All in all, it was a fairly low key weekend. My roommate Megan and I carved pumpkins on Saturday evening, and while my body may currently hate me, I still carved my runner girl pumpkin with much pride.

Mega's crab pumpkin is a bit more impressive, I know. That girl has so much Maryland pride, some even may be beginning to rub off on me. GASP

That's really all I have it. It was an unplanned, low-key weekend. I got boring things done like finally taking my sweaters out of their boxes and hanging them in the closet. I'm actually a little excited to pull one on today.

I'm also excited for one or two of these

Heading into Monday with fire people. I painted my nails gold last night, so I'm feeling a little frisky. Like Katniss from Hunger Games or something.

Let's make it great.

Congrats to all the runners this weekend, MCM finishers, etc. Gotta support my peeps!

Cheers -

K

For the Love of the Run

Buckle your seatbelts folks, this is going to be a long one.

I originally wrote parts of this post awhile back, right after Andrew left. At the time I needed some motivation; a pick me up, if you will.

I need that again. So if you’re looking for a pep talk today, like I am, scroll down to the last couple paragraphs.

I’m not running the Marine Corps Marathon this Sunday. I cancelled my hotel reservation yesterday, and went on my final test run today. The verdict: my stress fracture needs to heal, my hamstring needs to heal.

really i just wanted a picture of my cool running capris

Turns out that two weeks of ‘low mileage running’ doesn’t magically heal stress fractures – not even when you’re running on a treadmill in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  Not only that, but the weird compensations my body has been making while I’ve been running long on this tiny crack in my foot has led to an increasingly aggravated right hamstring strain.

I got off the boat this past Sunday excited to run eight miles. I completed them right around that 7:30 pace I’ve been loving lately, yet the last mile I was just waiting for my right hamstring to completely fail me.

It. Hurt.

Limping walking the last quarter mile home, I felt pretty defeated, and was mulling over the pros and cons in my head. I want to run MCM. I had made it to the LAST WEEK of training, gotten up at 5 AM on weekends to run, spent too much money on physical therapy.

I had put in the time, the money, hundreds of miles, and so much freaking energy. The sweat and tears. And I'm just not going to see it pay out this year.

so very true, thank you pinterest

I know pain well, he’s actually a friend of mine. I’ve pushed through an array of injuries throughout soccer, volleyball, and now running. And while I promise I'm spitting these words out of my mouth as I say them; ‘this just isn’t the kind of injury that I can push through, and run 26 miles on.’

Call me one of the two P words, that's fine. I'm going to call it being proactive.

At very few points throughout training for this marathon have I felt confident, have I felt excited for what was to come. When I first began training, my body wasn’t at 100% - it was at 85% at best. And I would say since then I’ve dropped to 65% on a good day. And here’s the big it factor for me: I haven’t enjoyed running injured. Almost every run was a careful run, an evaluation. I would strap on my shoes unsure of how my body would respond. Does my foot hurt, how does my knee feel, what is that weird feeling in my hamstring? Is my IT band going to go next? I mean, you can only imagine the absurdity of it,coming from the Queen of Hypochondriacs.

For the love of the run, and for the respect I have for my body, I cannot run 26.2 miles on Sunday. Because even if I were to finish, I would have ran a race far from 100%, and crossed that finish line feeling far from awesome, with an even more battered body than current state. Wondering what my pace/time would have been if I wasn’t injured, and most likely in tears.

Before making the official decision to not run, which was only 100% finalized in my head today, I spoke with three other female runners who are near and dear to my heart, and whom I have massive amounts of respect for as athletes and as women. One was a stellar college track athlete who endured more injuries than anyone ever deserves, another an about to be eight-time marathoner, and the last a recent Kona Ironman finisher, to top the list of her impressive feats.

In short, the unanimous vote was no, don’t. Not worth it.

The most encouraging words from one of the above ladies that have helped me keep my chin up:

"You have improved SO much and made SO many gains throughout these few years. I think it'd be smartest to not race MCM and just CRUSH a spring marathon. Plus, with all the new cycling (and maybe swimming?) you'll be doing while your stress fracture heals, you'll be a rockstar triathlete in no time :) "

A spring marathon may or may not be in the books …. But it was the rockstar triathlete part that made my smile.

Had a BLAST at my first sprint tri

Running has changed my life. It has changed the way I see my body, the way that I treat it. It has strengthened my faith, it has brought awesome people into my life, and ultimately it’s the reason that I started this blog.

Did you know I'm 25? 25 years old. With a whole lot of miles to still run. And I’m just not looking to put myself in a boot these last two months of the year, and be utterly miserable.

Oh I will.

A stress fracture I can work with. I can swim, bike, lift, etc. Maybe even run a jingle bell 5k if I’m feeling good at that point, and progress from there. Breaking my foot at mile 22 and being on the DL through the holidays – that, I don’t have the emotional stability to currently handle. I can't work with that.

Do you know who Ryan Hall is? He’s a U.S Marathoner, a really amazing runner who has accomplished a ton as an athlete as well as a person. Last week he announced that he was pulling out of the New York Marathon.

“A long string of very aggressive training has aggravated my hip and it has not been able to fully calm down, such that I don’t think racing on it is wise. I am very disappointed that I won’t be lining up on November 3rd as I had so looked forward to, but I am refocusing now on getting back to 100% and going after some big goals in 2014. Redemption will have to wait, but it will be all the more sweet.”

It will be all the more sweet. 2014 will be all the more sweet.

If I recall, I made this bold statement back in January that 2013 was going to be epic. I sat down and launched into this flamboyant broadway performance, possibly even fooling myself into thinking that this year was going to flat out wonderful, no issues at all.

There have been a lot of tears this year.

The truth is, I wasn’t bullshitting you. Because as I’ve slowly learned over the past few months, wonderful is not the definition of epic. And while I may have moments between the injuries, the arguments, the hard life events, where I questioned my declaration for this year and the valiant speech that I conjured up back in January, I have never wanted to take it back.

Whatever the definition in the dictionary is for epic, I don't really care. An epic day for a child over in Africa is going to may look a lot different than that of a rich billionaire in L.A. but it's still equally epic, as epic is a word that should never be discounted. You make your own definition for your own epic, I’ll make mine.

Situations change, plans change, people sure as hell change. Life happens. And recently, I have just been having those moments in life where I desperately want to see life - for all it's worth - as beautiful. Even the parts that come with the tears, and the pain. 2013 has been epic, because it has been life-changing, in both good and bad ways. But do you know what? I think it's these hard times, the lonely times, the bad times that I just don't want to be in, that are making it so impactful. Because in the end, it’s changing me, prepping me, and shaping me to be a much stronger person.

There's your pep talk. There's my dramatic announcement, my babbling, and my pep talk to myself. No time to sit around feeling sorry for myself, I've got to figure out my next move.

Cheers - 

Cruise So Hard

Happy Tuesday! By far the most boring, worthless day of the week in my opinion, but hey we’re almost through it...

I suppose you want to hear about my trip? I’ve been putting off this blog entry because I mean, how do you cram a seven day cruise recap into a couple paragraphs? I’m not sure, but I’ll try.

Last February I volunteered at the Polar Bear Plunge for the Special Olympics of Maryland; a bunch of my coworkers and I braved the frigid February weather and watched thousands of people hurl themselves into the artic Chesapeake Bay for fun.

oh kait you look like you're having a blast.

Little did I know that while I stood with my face plastered to the space heater, my name was being entered into a raffle with all of the other people who had volunteered from my company. About a week later, I received an email informing me that I had won a free cruise to the Bahamas!

Another reason to volunteer, my friends. What goes around comes around.

Fast forward to last Sunday. My sister, Bri, and I boarded the Carnival Freedom in Baltimore with no idea what to expect. Neither of us had been on a cruise, neither of us had been to the Bahamas.

Things we learned:

The buffets will be the end of you. There are several of them, everywhere, almost always open. Of course the Pizza Bar and Ice Cream Bar were open 24/7.

Lemonade, water, tea, and coffee are free, and juices at breakfast. Any other beverage must be purchased.

they gave us these limoncello shots at dinner presenting them like they were free...
turns out they were $8 each.

The elevators on the ship are slow, and let’s be honest, unnecessary. Bri and I made a vow within the first hour to take the stairs at all times – even if it meant going from floor one to ten. 

Never got on an elevator once.

Going back to that beverage thing – alcohol is not hard to carry on in your checked luggage. I’ll leave it at that.

the giraffe that I requested

 Our house keeper was the sh*t, and left us awesome towel animals every evening. He knew our names even before he met us, and by day three knew to ask me if I was ‘going to exercise?’ when he would see me in the halls during the day.

awesome towel monkey

At the actual sit-down restaurant, ordering as many starters/entrees is A-OK – actually, some may even say it’s encouraged. Needless to say, we each ordered two plates of lobster on Monday night.

 

so good.

It is actually quite hard to drive a scooter. Not only that, it is hard to drive a two-person scooter on the wrong (left) side of the road on a foreign island.  I promise, helmets stayed on the entire time.

Banana coladas taste the absolute best out of freshly carved coconuts, while on the beach. The Bahamas may have the best rum in the world. Good thing I brought back a bottle.

 Dolphins love swimming beside cruise ships – at least they loved ours. We saw four our second day at sea; they hung around all morning just outside of our balcony. I would insert a picture of them below, but that picture happened to be snapped on my sister’s phone, which…

Disappeared. Let’s just say that Nassau ate it. It was sacrificed to the beach. Oh well.

Carnival offers a crap-ton of excursions that you can pay to go on, that in my opinion are severely over-priced. Most one hour snorkeling packages averaged about $75, but Bri and I finagled our way into a $20 cab ride to the beach, and $15 to snorkel at a beautiful reef for three hours. We saw sting-rays, barracudas, the whole deal.

I managed to sneak in workouts five of the seven days, my favorite being the morning I got up early and watched the sunrise as we slowly made our way into the Bahamas to dock.

 

it's hard enough to elliptical on a moving cruise ship. it's even harder to snap a picture while doing it.
someone give me some props here please.

Overall, an awesome week with the sis. We learned a lot about the whole culture of cruises, and feel much more equipped if we ever were to go on another. Nonetheless, it was good to get back in Baltimore on Sunday and slowly ease my way back into routine. It made me realize how much I love my routine, and that the world actually doesn’t end if I break it for a week.

Cheers to cruising!

Babbling Brookelyn

Hello Lovelies!

I am taking over while Kait is off on a cruise around warm pretty places. Who allowed Kait to go on a cruise and not take me anyway?! Boo, not fair! I am way cooler than her sister…Kidding kind of.

Anyway, let’s get to what is important here: ME! Again kidding, kind of! I’m Brooke and you can find me over at Babbling Brookelyn, where I do things like babble about my life, my workouts, and my favorite music! I live out on the best (west) coast - Portland to be exact and I am trying to do this whole being in your mid twenties and acting like your life is together thing. Some days it works out better than others.

Currently, I am in the middle of studying for my Personal Training Certificate through NASM and and loving it, but there is a lot to learn. Who knew the body has so many muscles?! Since I am trying to get my CPT, I figured I would share with you a quick little work out. Don't worry, Kait, you don't need any equipment for this workout, so it's cruise friendly because I know you are dying to get workouts in during your vacation.

If I didn't scare you off with the workout, come say hi over at the blog or stalk me on twitter ...or both, I'm not picky!!!

Cheers!

<3 BB

Songs That Make Me Angry

Partners in crime for life.

Hello out there! I’m Danielle, Kait’s longtime friend and her part-time blog publicist. I’m not sure what that means exactly since she definitely doesn’t pay me (get on that, Kait) and I really don’t do much except encourage her to keep writing. Kait and I have known each other since we were 5 years old when I moved across the street from her family. For you math wizards out there, that tells you that we’ve been friends for over 20 years. Through ups, downs, and everywhere in between, our friendship has been a constant in my life and I’m honored she asked me to write this guest post!

Yep, we were cute. And slightly dorky.

I was actually going to do a heartfelt post on my keys to happiness, but then my dear friend Kristen sent me this article and the wind kind of went out of my sails, so to speak.

Hey, Kris! She always looks like this.

I was going to just go with it and let myself feel stupid and cliché, but then something happened. I was sitting at work, absentmindedly going through my To Do list, when the local radio station launched into a different song. The opening bars to Justin Timberlake’s “Mirrors” started their obnoxious opening. I immediately turned the volume down on my speakers to spare myself the instantaneous headache and irrational anger I feel whenever I hear that song.

This started me into thinking about what songs I genuinely cannot stand. Like those songs that come on and you instantly curl your fists in rage and practically break your hand changing the station as quickly as possible. I don’t know what it is or if there is a common denominator between all of these obnoxious things, but for whatever the reason, there are certain songs that just make me want to slap the artist. I thought I would list some of my least favorite songs that send me into an unquestionable rage. P.S., no, I don’t have an anger management issue. I swear.

Justin Timberlake- “Suit and Tie”. I must just have an issue with JT songs. Believe me, I really do recognize his extreme talent, but I can’t stand most of his music past his days with *NSYNC. I was a BSB fan, anyway. #Notsorry

The Wanted- “Glad You Came”. Is there anything worse than this song? I instantly think about 27 different cats scratching their claws down a dry chalkboard the second this song comes on. Truly, that is how awful I think this song is. Please, go back to England with your wretched music (is that where they’re from? I don’t care enough to learn).

Luke Bryan- “That’s My Kind of Night”. To be clear, I really do love Luke Bryan but I feel like he made an extremely poor choice with this song. All the “dinner, winner” rhyming really grinds my gears. You’re better than this, Luke. 

Shakira- “Whenever, Wherever”. I don’t care how much she shakes her curves, this is one of the worst pieces of music I’ve ever heard, hands down. It’s hard for me to even think about this song without getting aggravated.

Pink & Nate Ruess: “Just Give Me a Reason”. I actually liked this one a lot when it initially came out. Then I realized that the radio stations were going to play it every 5 minutes for the entire summer, and it has now been added to my “never, ever, EVER. play” list.

Kelly Clarkson- “Catch My Breath”. Seriously, Kelly?! You are super talented, you won American Idol when it was still worth winning, and you actually have a good voice. Please don’t ever sing this song again. Let’s add “Don’t You Want to Stay”, her duet with Jason Aldean, to this list as well.

Taylor Swift- “We are Never, Ever Getting Back Together”. Ugh, do I even need to go into this? TERRIBLE!

A shameless pic of my dog to help ease your anger when these songs inevitably get stuck in your head now.

These are just a few of the songs that annoy the pants off of me (literally.). Of course, there are more than enough great songs out there to make up for these monstrosities, but that is not the point of this little guest post. I feel a lot better now that I’ve gotten this off my chest. :) 

What songs send you into a tailspin of anger, rage, and annoyance?

Cheers to the bad songs that make us appreciate the good!

Danielle

Rainy Balty

I did something super creepy on my way to work yesterday.

6:45 AM is still extremely dark these days, yet about a block from my house I spotted a runner in a bright orange jacket.

“I recognize that jacket,” said the weird little voice in my head.

He was running fast, it was raining which made it even harder to get a better look at the jacket. So of course I followed him down the next block until I was able to confirm…

The same Boston Jacket I have – same color, same year!

the color in this pic is weird, it's actually orange...

My instinct was to pull over and become his best friend but it was raining and I had just done my hair, so I gave him a silent salute like a creepball and drove to work.

In other news, it's been raining non-stop in Baltimore since Wednesday night. Which made for a very soggy seven miles for me today after work.

Immediately after taking this wet-dog-like picture, I threw all my clothes into the dryer, threw on some warm sweats, and here we are.

In other news, I got another interesting email this week:

"Congratulations KAITLYN COMISKEY. You have qualified for the Olympic-Distance race at the 2014 USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships on August 9 in Milwaukee, Wis., after finishing in the top 10 percent in your age group at the Druid Hill Park Sprint Triathlon."

Is this cool? Should I be excited about this? I'm not sure. From what I found, about 4,300 athletes participated in the Age Group Nationals last year, counting both the Olympic-Distance and Sprint-Distance athletes.

What's confusing to me is that the Druid Hill Park Sprint Triathlon that I competed in this past August was actually a sprint distance. Olympic Distance was definitely next on my list for 2014, followed by a Half Ironman...

So technically it would make sense to participate in Nationals next summer. What do you all think? I'm looking for advice from triathletes out there, as I've only done one...

Speaking of triathlons, the grandaddy of them all is going on this weekend - tomorrow actually. Kona.

I have a role model runner of mine competing in it, who is not only an awesome athlete but an extremely awesome person. Pop over to Jacqui Giuliano's blog and wish her (and her husband) good luck, and a Happy One Year Wedding Anniversary. That's a hell of a way to celebrate if you ask me.

If I'm not mistaken both Baltimore and Chicago has 26.2 mapped across their cities this weekend - what a weekend for endurance athletes across the country. It's a beautiful thing.

That's all I've got. Still have to get to packing before the sis gets in tomorrow. Can't freaking wait.

Cheers my friends - 

K

something that never happens

Sometimes I forgot how hungry running makes me. And then I run 20 miles on a Tuesday night, and find myself eating everything in sight come Wednesday.

No joke, if I would have participated in What I Ate Wednesday (should I? thoughts?) you would all most likely be appalled yet hopefully impressed.

I have something to show you guys:

I reset my watch after the first 10 mile loop for sanity reasons.

Comes out to a 7:59 pace.

This was surprising to me. Not necessarily the pace, I knew I had that pace in me, but the consistency. I’m still not the best at holding a pace, and holding a pace for 20 miles in row… that’s just mind-blowing to me.

I definitely can't say that I felt great. I felt good the first half, decent the next 5 miles, and defeated the last 5. When my watch hit 20 miles I’m not sure I had one more mile left in me.

I definitely have a stress fracture in my right foot. It’s not as bad as the one in my left foot that I had back in January, but it’s there, and I certainly felt it at times. Yet my concern at this point isn’t necessarily the stress fracture – I’ll ice the crap out of that bad boy and continue to stay away from high heels, etc. My concern is the way that I'm subconsciously compensating because of the stress fracture.

Let’s just say that my right hamstring is far from happy with me. Time to invest in a compression wrap. Any suggestions? In the meantime, I shall wear these guys to work:

I have 2.5 weeks to hold a low mileage and pamper the sh*t out of my body, excuse my French. I’m talking stretching/foam rolling/icing/compressing/lay by the pool on the cruise ship to the max. 

this pool may just be the key to my healing.

The plan is to do that, toe the start line in DC on 10/27, and hope we can make it all 26.2.

Anyways, there’s your run-date. Outside of running, my plank/squat/push-up challenges have been going well, and I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw this on pinterest last night….

Let's be honest, no one looks sexy doing a plank...

One last thing. Starbucks is doing something pretty cool through tomorrow, and I wanted to share:

It's amazing what a free cup of coffee can do to lift someone's spirits. You never know what the person behind you in line may have going on in their life - it could be something as large as being part of the Government furlough, or as small as their fantasy team having a bad week. Regardless, spread the good, come together, love each other.

Cheers, and Go Bears!

Kait

a 70 lb surprise

I took a cool picture about an hour ago:

taken with my iPhone and nothing else, I promise.

I'll tell you what, I've seen a lot of beautiful Colorado sunsets over the Rocky Mountains... but Baltimore sure has pulled some pretty stunning light shows of its own during my time out here so far. Definitely giving CO a run for its money.

To make my evening even better, I came home to a surprise. Two 35 lb surprise boxes....

 Inside of them were these four little gems:

A set of kettlebells - 10, 15, 20 & 25 lbs. From Andrew.

Confirmation that I found the love of my life - he doesn't send me candy, he sends me weights. We recently had a discussion about additions I have been scouting for my measly home gym, and he took it upon himself to surprise me with a little bit of help.

Miss that man.

I coincidentally wore my 'We Run Chicago' shirt today, and then I realized that the Chicago Marathon is this upcoming weekend... so here's a little shout out to all of you Chi-town runners who are feeling the jitters this week. You're gonna kill it.

love this shirt from my sis

Speaking of marathons, I saw this today:

15 miles went well for me on Saturday. My plan is to push 20 tomorrow, and taper like a mad woman. Fingers crossed things stay on track.

Cool Kait, be a litte more vague in regards to running.

Ok, I can do that...  I'm going to run until I can't. How's that sound?

Hmmmm let's see... what else? I tried a new Larabar flavor this weekend and loved it. If you're a Lara looney like moi (that's french for me, I had to google how to spell it) I recommend Key Lime Pie.

That's all folks. I'm winding down tonight feeling especially thankful for this evening, that sunset, and a lot of people who love me.

Cheers to that my friends -

K

Confessions of a Hypochondriac

Good Morning, and Happy Friday!

I'm back at my favorite Friday spot - Panera. It's been awhile, but I think they remember me. During my 10 seconds standing in line I considered getting a pumpkin muffin, but decided to save the indulgences for the cruise starting next weekend.

Speaking of pumpkin, I have something a bit odd to share. I saw the idea on Carrots 'n' Cake first, so I can't take the credit. Yet I added a twist on her recipe, and came up with this...

Pumpkin, 1 mashed up banana, some chopped up figs, almond butter, and a dash of both honey and cinnamon. Once warmed up in the microwave, I almost felt like I was eating dessert or maybe a form of baby food?

Either way, it was a quick, easy and delicious breakfast.

Recently I've kind of been putting off the topic of running because I'm not really positive what's going on with my body (surprise, surprise). I do know that I've been having several runs like this:

This was Monday, followed by another 8 miles last night at a 7:30 pace. Cardio-wise, I feel great. And then there's my feet.

About two weeks ago on a 12-miler I got that feeling in my right foot that made me instantly want to throw myself over the side of the bridge I was running over. That stress fracture kind of feeling.

Now, I'm very torn. I've obviously still been running the past two weeks since feeling that all too familiar feeling. It's odd because some runs I feel it, some runs I don't. Most runs I feel great cardio-wise, and tell myself that I simply must be insane.

Even my mom, one of the more cautious people that I know, asked me when I was home,

"Are you sure you aren't just making it up in your head? You are a hypochondriac after all..."

That's a statement that I can't argue. The past year, outside of the real injuries that I've actually had, I've been convinced that I had a torn hamstring, a torn achilles, a torn meniscus, a torn hip flexor, low iron, ulcers, pink eye, a broken toe, depression, gluten intolerance, and dairy intolerance. 

I didn't have any of those things. Can we all take a moment and give my boyfriend an appreciative head nod? Because who do you think I ran to (oftentimes in tears) every single time I self-diagnosed myself? Him.

Felt like I should insert some comedic relief 

Anyways, back to the running a marathon with a possible stress fracture topic. Part of me wants to do it. And I definitely don't want to defer until I know 100% that I can't do it. It may even be too late to defer, I'm too afraid to check the website.

My plan? To set out for 15-18 (close to home) miles tomorrow morning, and listen to my body. See at what point things start hurting, what kind of pain it is, etc. This weekend was suppose to be 22, and then taper. Best case, I hit 20 tomorrow and declare 'It's on' and let the taper begin.

And if it hurts? And that all too familiar stress fracture feeling is screaming at me and I come to the realization that 26 miles on a semi-broken foot is a poor idea? Well, it's not the end of the world. But we can talk more on Sunday once I've figured this stupid foot out.

I'm glad this is out in the open now, I feel like I've been hiding a heavy dark secret for the past two weeks. 

Good luck to my runners this weekend. My roommate is running her first (DC) Ragnar Relay, and I hope she has an absolute blast. I'm off to start my Friday, I even wore a skirt today so I'm feeling extra productive.

I would love feedback from runners on the stress fracture thing. I wouldn't love long-winded lectures on 'being smart'... believe me, I'm not stupid. I've played through torn ligaments and given myself vertebral fractures, the whole nine yards. I'm no stranger to pain and what I should and shouldn't push through, I promise.

Cheers!

K