Well.....poo.

Nice title right? It just fits my running attitude lately. Dang it. My knee is still giving me troubles. No really enough pain that if I was being chased by a murderer I would have to stop running, but it's just enough to scare me into stopping in fear of hurting it even worse.

Since I last posted, I have seen a dr., got the ok to start running again......tried to start running again.....hurt still......rested.....tried again.....hurt still.....resting now. Blah.

I've tried icing, stretching, strength training, now I'm going to try to tape it and see if that works at all. My dr. said it was just overuse, but I took a 13 day break before I even attempted to run on it--then in the last two weeks have only run a few miles.

Hmmmm......maybe another dr. appt. is in my future cause I'm thinking all that rest should have taken care of overuse. I'm feeling terribly unmotivated to work out since I can't do what I really want to be doing. It's like if I can't run, I'll just do nothing. That's no good!

But I am not giving up that easy folks! I really, really want to start training again in February for the Oklahoma City 1/2 Marathon. I'm registered, I have to go! And I have to run it!

A Look Back At 2009

Well, 2009 over....time to reflect on the year. Something happened this year, I think I became a running crazy person!

As of July 2009 (late May is when I started walking/jogging, but July I started logging my mileage)

383 miles logged! That equals about 38,300 calories burned!
July ~ 21 miles
Aug ~ 89 miles
Sept ~ 107 miles
Oct ~ 80 miles
Nov ~ 69 miles
Dec ~ 18 miles



Um, can you tell I hurt my knee late November? Something just is not right about December! But, I'm building back up now, planning on doing some strength training this go around, getting ready to start training again for the Oklahoma City 1/2 Marathon in April.

2010 race goals ~ 10K, March 2010. 1/2 Marathon, April 2010. Full Marathon, October 2010. YIKES. I'm scared about that last one! Happy New Year!

Oh yeah baby!

Scored some new running shoes for Christmas! After putting those babies on, I realized how stretched out my others had become. These shoes feels SO FREAKING AWESOME! I can't wait to break them in! 10 inches of snow here though, and since it's Christmas the gym isn't open of course.....so it will have to wait until at least tomorrow. My hubs is the best. OH and I forgot almost the very best part--they are PINK :) weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Here I am on Christmas morning barely awake, but VERY happy to see these little mamas under the tree!

Taking a Little Break

After the 10K, my knee was hurting pretty bad so had to take a break from running. Well, ok, I promised I would....but really I had a sinus infection anyway....so it seemed like a pretty good time to take a break. 12 days with no running, then went out for an easy 4 miler. My knee was hurting, so I quit. I'm going to go ahead and see a doctor next week, but for now I'm water jogging and doing Yoga to try to keep the exercise habit going. It's tough not running.....because that's what I really want to be doing. But I know long term I am better off resting the knee and doing some strength training to get stronger for training which I hope will start back up again in January.

I'm planning on doing the 1/2 marathon in Oklahoma City in April and *maybe* the Chicago Marathon on October! :)

10K in the freezing rain!

OMG what is wrong with me? I have issues. I signed up for a 10K race set for December 6. Yeah, ok, I live in Kansas. What did I expect?!

Every night before a race I'm a complete basketcase. Seriously. Doesn't matter what the mileage is, I'm a total freak. Even when it's a 5K or 10K--I know I can do the miles no problem, I've ran much farther than that. It's just ugh, my nerves just get the best of me. Every night before a race I tell myself "this is so stupid. If you want to run that many miles, just go freaking run them. You don't have to freak yourself out with these races. Maybe I'm not meant to race. Maybe I should just enjoy running for health, fitness, etc." Doubting myself and just blah.

I even have freaky racing dreams the night before. Saturday night I dreamed that I forgot my GU (I don't even take GU for a 10K, so I don't know where my head was!). But I forgot it and tried to get home to get it. I was running home and there was some parade, so I had to go around it, which made me end up clear on the other side of town. Then I ran into a friend who was cleaning out her RV (she doesn't even have one by the way), and I said "hey, let me help you with the trash". Then I rushed to get back to the race, but couldn't get there fast enough and knew I had to save my legs. So then this random person gave me a ride, but made me sit in the back of the truck. Holy moly, what the heck does all that mean?! haha Well, anyway....

On to race day.....Freezing rain, cloudy and 25 degrees, not to mention some wind mixed in there. Weather was miserable....but the race was totally fun! Once we got going it really wasn't that cold. The slippery road at the end was a little scary though! The last 10K I did back in September my time was 1:02. My time for WinderRunderland was 59:03. :) I was really happy with my time and came home with a second place metal (for my age group). Ok, there was only 2 people in my age group. haha But still, really happy to meet our goal - I wanted to make it in 1 hour.

So after all that fretting the night before, the psycho dreams and spending all day race day freaking out....I set a PR. :) If you are runner and are reading this, a 59:03 10K is really not very fast at all....but hey, it's really awesome for me!

I'm going to take a little break from running now. Not because I want to, but since my last 1/2 marathon my knee has been hurting. I really, really wanted to run this 10K, so I went ahead with it. My knee was feeling great during the run, but after I could barely walk on it. Now a few days later it's feeling ok--still a little tender, but I'm hopeful that since it seems to be recovering well from the race last weekend, that all it really needs is rest.

Once I look back on my training, I have ran one 5K, two 10Ks, two 1/2 marathons since my training started in June, when I couldn't even run 1 mile. So I'm thinking I might need to take it easy and let the knee heal. Maybe I will see if I can swim instead--although that will be harder to fit into a lunch hour. Anyway, can't stop exercising all together....with it being the holidays....I'm sure to pack on the pounds!

Next race will be 10K in March for St Patty's Day, then the Oklahoma City 1/2 Marathon in April. Then I'm going for a full marathon in October....the Chicago Marathon! :) Wait, didn't I just say I was taking a break from running?!?

Here's a picture of Penny, Angie and I last Saturday doing a quick run before our race on Sunday. The sun was shining bright on Saturday!

Gobbler Grind, My 2nd 1/2 Marathon

Here's a pic of the group at Gobbler Grind 1/2 Marathon, Overland Park

Whoa Nelly! This experience was so much different than my first! I was equally as nervous, but NOT equally prepared. Mileage was there, training was done....hill training....ooops, didn't do that. This race had hills and man, I don't run hills. Ever.

My time was one minute slower than my Des Moines 1/2. Going into the race I was just shooting for the same time as Des Moines or faster. I thought if I was slower I would be totally bummed out. But, with this course, I was very happy with a 2:15. The girls I went to the race with have all been running much longer than me, they were way faster--just amazingly fast times!

I'm now having an issue with my right knee :( I think probably from the downhill full blast running I did--trying to make up for the time I lost going up, up, up.

So, as I lay here with ice on my knee almost a week later, I'm bummed that I can't run. I tried to go out Thanksgiving morning, but ended up walking most of the way because it was hurting. I have a 10K next weekend.....I just hope it's all good by then!

Back to Training....

Recovered and ready to do it again! I am running another 1/2 marathon in Kansas City on November 23 :) Excited!!
I took about a week off from running after my last race. I was traveling for work that week after, did a little running, but not much.
This past week I started over with week 8 of my training schedule. I'll do week 8-12 over again and then it will be race day! This week was pretty tough, because week 8 & 9 are the hardest of my schedule. But I did it! One more hard week and then I'll taper again for the 2 weeks before race day.
Wish me luck :)