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 - 

Perfection

I've got to start off this post by giving a huge shout out to the perfect Maryland weather this weekend - without 3 consecutive days of 65 and sunny, my weekend would have been far less fun.

First Sun Sesh of the year!

Secondly, in order of importance, I just got back from running five miles. It felt so great. Not like, hey that was super easy kind of great. But hey, I am continuing to have more and more confidence in my foot, and it feels so good to be running again kind of great.

I wanted to push it and do six, but I think I'll save that for next weekend. I did push to hold an 8(ish) minute pace, and I stuck to it pretty well. 8 minute miles certainly don't come as easily as the did last September but hey, I'll get there again. My body knows how to do it, it's just a matter of re-training. Right?

As alluded to above, Andrew and I spent a large amount of time outdoors this past weekend. We did some frisbee golfing Friday evening, during which for some reason during it I felt super tired and kept whining and sitting down on the course. He loved that.

I think it's because I hadn't eaten enough protein that day? Maybe?

Late Saturday morning we headed down to Great Fall, Virginia, for some pretty beautiful hiking. The weather was once again awesome, and the trails that we hiked offer some grand scenes.

We also saw a large amount of caterpillars while out on the trail, which I hated, because I was convinced I was going to step on one. Andrew kept assuring me that half of the things I was pointing out weren't caterpillars, that they were centipedes, but I stuck to my guns and continued calling every bug we saw from there on out caterpillars.

Sounds about right, doesn't it?

Mr. Grillmaster threw some veggie burgers on the grill upon returning home, and I did the essential by whipping up some margaritas. We had an awesome dinner on the patio, enjoying the last of the warmth that the day had to offer.

Here we are, another Sunday. Another busy week ahead of me. I have this sneaking suspicion that May is going to fly by - the rest of our month is packed with activities and travels and shenanigans. Just how I like it. 

Any racers this weekend? I know there were a lot offered this weekend. I have a small 5k next Saturday with my Girls on the Run team that should be fun for all.

I'm off to throw some weights around, strong is the new sexy after all :)

Cheers!

Ramping Back Up

It's been a bit since we've talked running on here eh? Kind of weird. Have you been worried? Don't be. I think it's because things have been so iffy.

I've been feeling a little less iffy.

This past weekend, I ran 3 miles on both Saturday and Sunday. That's nothing, I know, but for me where I stand right now, it's something. My foot didn't yell, it felt good, and this is on top of being on my feet most of the day on Saturday while bar-crawling through Annapolis.

That's a whole different story.

Saturday morning Andrew and I ran in a local 5k put on through his cousin's school. It was small - small enough that we both finished right under 24 minutes with his younger cousin and each placed first in our age group. Hey I'll take it.

Especially seeing that my breakfast prior to the race consisted of this:

Tots. Sorry I'm not sorry.

Long story short, I feel good about my foot. Finally. For awhile I was back and forth, and super nervous to ramp up the mileage too quickly.

I will stay between 3-4 miles tomorrow and Thursday, and possibly try for 5 miles one day this weekend if things go well.

My goal is to 'comfortably' get back up to my normal 7-8 mile jaunts by June 1. In my mind, marathon training starts in June. 

Until then, I'll continue to stick with all my swimming/yoga/spinning distractions on the side. And of course, so many planks.

Spring = planks outside!

Andrew's out of town this week so I am getting back to neutral in many areas of life, as well as making plans for the month of May. Can you believe that May is on Wednesday? That blows my mind and makes me so happy.

On the music front, Mr. Kenny Chesney himself has a new album out tomorrow if you're a country fanatic like me. Just thought you may need something to brighten up your Tuesday!

Cheers to ramping back up!

Dabbling in ART

Public Service Announcement: Tomorrow, I’m going to be a featured blogger on Fit Blogger! Be sure to head over there and check it out. Click on the picture below to link to the website.

CLICK ME!

Moving on… yesterday, I had my first ART experience.

And I’m not talking about this kind of art:

Yes, I really did paint this.

While drinking a Blue Moon. Not too shabby?

ART stands for Active Release Techniques, and quite a few runners have steered me in this direction in regards to the plantar faciitis in my right heel. I went in with fairly high hopes, and left feeling confident… but a little rattled to be honest.

Source

Why am I currently still a little rattled? Read it and weep (or laugh).

This guy knows his stuff, no doubt about that. He’s treated tons of runners with the same nagging injury I have, and has gotten great results. He also really loves to hear himself talk.

He told me that my current mileage of about 30ish miles a week is high. I don’t see that number as high at all. When I told him I averaged 50 per week last summer, he acted like that was the most absurd thing in the world.

I never saw a problem with it. Most of it was run on Colorado trails, so it was lower impact.

This is one of my favorite place in THE WORLD to run. I would throw up if I could run there this weekend.

He started suggesting I look into triathlons as well, as cross training is a little less harsh.

Sure doc, hire someone to teach me how to swim and I’m in. Oh and you can pay the absurd race fees for triathlons as well. While you’re at it, want to buy me some bike shorts?

because right now I bike in my volleyball spandex.

The discussion we had during my basic examination went something like this:

Doc: “Whose your primary care doctor?”

Me: “I don’t have one, I recently moved out here.”

Doc: “Oh yea, what for?”

Me: “A job, and my boyfriend is out here as well.”

Doc: “What?! You shouldn’t be following anyone anywhere without a ring on your finger!”

ME: Gives him a long, blank stare. 

Doc: “How old are you guys?”

Me: “24.”

Doc: “Oh well hell, you guys are too young to be married! Definitely wait it out a few years.”

Gee, thanks for the love advice doc. Now fix my freaking foot.

All humor aside, I trust him. When I finally handed over my foot, he instantly put his thumb on the exact spot where it hurts. Everything he said made sense, and I walked out of there feeling (rattled) yet assured that he will be able to help me.

However, one thing I don’t like. I don’t like when people tell me to run less. He suggested that I bring down my mileage before coming back in for my first official treatment next week.

I went home and ran 7 miles. Come on bro, I have a marathon to train for. How can you possibly see that as a reasonable request?