Meltdown Currently Suspended

The last time I bothered to update my blog, I was having a knee situation.

Ice on the back and the front. Yes, I wear flip flops to work.

Now normally, I wouldn't worry too much about that. I might give myself a break from running until it felt better, which is just me not feeling bad about any sort of desire to plant my ass on my couch instead of running. Better lazy safe, than sorry, right? Then I'd proceed to take more time off of running than necessary and call it "resting my injury" which is just code for "I'm addicted to Netflix and I can't stop watching long enough to put on running clothes."

In all of my 4 years of racing, I've never been too freaked out about a tweaked joint or muscle, but my knee had me on a downward spiral that was starting to border lunacy. After all, the New York City Marathon is less than two weeks away.

Last Monday night, I ran 4 miles on my bad knee and I was okay, but definitely worried about how I would feel at mile 15, 18, or 22 of the marathon. I've trained for this marathon 3 years in a row - 2012 was cancelled, 2013 deferred and 2014 is my last shot. To say I was going into freak out mode is an understatement. I don't think I could have finished a half, let alone a full.

So after a fair amount of wailing, whining and crying, a friend of mine made me an appointment with a naturopathic joint specialist. He actually got on the phone and made the appointment, most likely in an effort to keep me from bothering him every 5 seconds.

Long story short- I had prolotherapy done on my knee, which is where they inject glucosamine, glucose, procaine, etc, into the joint and it promotes self healing without using steroids. Being a naturopathic clinic, they use hydrocortisone as a last resort. The doctor told me that if I was still having trouble, they'd do a steroid injection.

 

Well, let me tell you: they inject a decent amount of fluid into the joint. So I left the clinic in much worse shape than when I walked in. I could barely walk. And now I was worried that I had made a huge mistake. When I walked in, I was still capable of running and barely capable of even walking on my way out.

Luckily, I was able to walk the next day and it's gotten better each day since the procedure. This morning was the first day since my injection on Thursday that my knee felt better than pre-injection.

Hallelujah. Now I can finally calm the fuck down. Just to show how seriously I've taken this, I haven't even ridden my horse (my trainer has ridden him, though) and that almost never happens. I just can't risk this marathon. I've worked too hard to get here.

 

I was supposed to run the Lake Powell Half on Saturday as my last long run, but I stayed home. I haven't run since last Monday, and I still think it would be prudent to give it another couple of days. I'm concerned about losing a bit of my endurance, but I guess being able to toe the line of the NYCM start is better than watching from the sidelines.

In short, I'm back to being excited for the NYC Marathon.

And speaking of Netflix, I'm now obsessed with Reign. I watched the first four episodes last night, which means I got four hours of sleep. So damn good! Is anyone else watching this show? Let's discuss, mmmm'kay?

 

 

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Longer, Faster, More

Yesterday morning, Lara and I met at 5:00am for our long run. The plan was to do 14 miles. Now for the last month, all of our long runs have been in the double digits which is about the most consistent training I have done in years.

Good morning, Scottsdale!

 

Also, they've all ended rather miserably with my hips tightening up and my feet killing me. We had done some speed work on Thursday and I reported that it was the first run in forever where I actually felt good about running.

Hidden Mickey

 

Well, I'm happy to say that Thursday's run wasn't just a fluke. I actually felt pretty good for almost the entire run. Sure, I felt pretty beat when I sat down in my car, but I also felt like I could have continued for at least a little bit farther and that is always an amazing feeling. Granted, this time I was smart and took some Advil before our run. I know some people are against taking NSAIDs before running, but it really helps me. So I'm not advocating that others should do it... But it totally helped me not want to die at mile 10. Plus, I only took two.

 

Random bike and tent. Not sure that's happening here...

 

It has been really humid in Arizona this summer, but it wasn't quite as miserable as it has been so that was nice. Every 10 years or so we have what is called an El Niño year where we get a considerable amount of rain. Looks like we're having one this year, because we've had crazy storms and flooding. The desert looks like a meadow. Although we haven't been running in the desert because I'm so sick of seeing that same scenery over and over and over. We've been running along golf courses, which are pretty hilly. Even though the hills are small, there's a ton of them so we're getting in some hill work, too.

 

This is not supposed to be a pond.

Anyway, we ended up doing 14.5 miles and I didn't want to die. I consider that a win. We took way less walk breaks and the breaks were took were shorter. Our overall pace was faster (although that really applies more to me than Lara because she's capable of running faster than me any day).

Not really a problem...

 

So yeah, two runs in a row that I'm feeling good about. Months ago, I had a goal of running NYC Marathon in sub 5, but I don't think it's possible. I've been way more consistent about training but to pull that off, I should have trained harder this spring. C'est la vie. Plus, this way I can go into that race just soaking everything in. I definitely want pictures and I want to remember every second because I know it's the most amazing race there is.

I've run past this light for the last 5 weeks and I never noticed how cool it is.

Later, I went to Chipotle and ordered a gigantic lunch. While I was in line, I saw this teenaged girl wearing floaties on her arms. I saw the same thing at a restaurant last weekend. Is this a thing? It's so ridiculous, that I couldn't stop staring. Did my generation do things this weird and now I'm just old so I think it's dumb?

So weird.

Only 41 days until the New York City Marathon. Eeeeeee!!!

This blog post was brought to you today by the letter M. For Marathon, of course!

 

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It Might Be Time To Freak Out

I keep thinking I have all sorts of time to train for the NYC Marathon, but it's getting frighteningly closer. I keep checking the New York Road Runners page, not for marathon updates, but for swag updates. Because God knows, I am going to go cray cray buying things with that logo on it.

But then I saw the count down. (Cue ominous music here)

Well, yikes. That's pretty close.

I've actually been training, but it's not pretty. Like, at all. I've done several double digit runs, but I've been hovering in the 12 to 13 mile range, because, well, anything longer just blows. Plus, being the slow turtle-like runner that I am and the Florida-esque humidity along with the Arizona hellish heat, it has just been really, really miserable. I know, I know, boo hoo. Suck it up.

My new awesome weather app.

 

I keep imagining how much nicer the weather will be in NYC, but it will be crappy here until pretty much the weekend before we leave. In a lot of ways, I keep wanting to just blow it all off and wing it, but I also don't want to have a completely horrible experience. After all, how many times will I get the opportunity to run this race?

In the meantime, I've been trolling the NYRR store website. In 2012, they offered really cool finisher jackets for pre-order that you could have delivered right to your hotel the next day. How cool is that?! This year's finisher jackets haven't been released, yet, but there's other cool stuff.

A little pricey for a t-shirt, but I want it.

 

Water bottle? Yes, please.

Of course, the thing I'm really holding out for is the Asics NYCM back pack. My sister got me one from when I was supposed to run it in 2012 as a gift. Now, it doesn't have the year on it, but it has the old ING logo. NYRR has partnered up with TCS and the logo is different. So of course, I need a new one, right? Right?

The answer is yes. I'm a sucker for awesome backpacks and the Asics NYCM backpack is really reasonably priced and really good quality. At least the one I have is. I haven't seen the new one, but I emailed them and they assured me that one would be offered this year. #priorities

Somebody help me use restraint. Anyway, looking at merchandise helps motivate me to get out there and run. Mainly by scaring the shit out me.

This app is the best. Seriously.

 

 

 

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Marathon State of Mind

I'm in a marathon state of mind, which also means I'm in a New York State of mind because I'm running the NYC marathon and Billy Joel is now stuck in my head which I suppose is better than Soft Kitty. I'm a complicated person.

Last night I did 4 miles, which I will admit was actually a walk, not a run. But miles are miles and I wasn't guzzling wine on my ass watching TV, so I will count that as training.

When I trained for the NYCM in 2012 (which as most of you know, was cancelled), I was part of a local team and therefore, had all of my planning done for me. I didn't have to think about when I should increase mileage or what I should do on what weeks. All I had to do was show up and run. And most of the time, I showed up. At least for the long runs. I did the weekday runs on my own. Mostly. Okay, about half of the time.

I decided on a 20 week plan rather than the usual 16 week plan because I wanted a little more cushion and I have 7 months to train. So that leaves me with about 11 weeks until marathon training starts to work on my base and losing a little bit of poundage. I'm not 100% sold on this particular program because I have plenty of time to make my plan final, but I like it. I like that some weeks have a shorter long run before adding to your mileage the next week.

Currently, I'm still in the making-charts-and-downloading-pictures-and-envisioning-my-medal-rather-than-training phase of marathon training. Plus, the weather is gorgeous here in Phoenix so it's easier to be gung ho. Let's see how I feel when marathon training actually starts on June 15th.

 

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Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty, Little Ball of Furrrrrrrr....

It's scary how much I identify with the guys on The Big Bang Theory... as far as nerdiness is concerned. I won't even attempt to try and convince you that I am smart like them because that would be far too unbelievable. But I am super nerdy like they are. Or is dorky a better word? Doesn't really matter.

Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur...

Any time I think of TBBT, I immediately start singing Soft Kitty. If I have successfully transplanted that into your mind, I will consider myself successful. I'm a meanie.

Anyway, I bring up my nerd side because yesterday I registered for The New York City Marathon and I immediately decided I needed some sort of motivational things to keep me on track.

I'm the queen of making charts and posters, etc, all while not actually doing any training. I think I need to cut out some NYCM pictures to hang in my cubicle to stare at all day long. It doesn't help to hang such things in my house unless I am hanging it directly on the TV screen. At work, however, I'd rather think about running since right at that very moment, I can't. So, that's really the only time I want to run. Does this make sense?

Oh, Sheldon.

I'm pretty excited. I want to make every second of that marathon count. I don't want to wish I had trained harder or wish that I was thinner or any other number of things I could be thinking. I want it to be as awesome as I can make it in the 7 months I have to get ready.

I picked this up at the Princess expo.

So, if you have any super awesome motivational ideas, let me know. I need a good craft project! And I need one of these in my life:

Ermahgerd, how cute is this?

 

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How Not To Train For A Marathon

Anyone reading this blog has probably figured out that they should not follow my example...on pretty much anything. I'm like a little kid that runs around and runs around until I come to a screeching halt and pass out wherever my gas tank ends up empty. 

I'm currently on a 5 hour flight from Baltimore to Phoenix. Did you guys know that Southwest Airlines offers free Dish TV episodes for their passengers? I knew some of their flights had wifi, but free TV? Yes, please! However, after my one hour flight from Albany to Baltimore and an hour into my second flight, I was a little burnt out on old episodes of 30 Rock. I had to break out the Visa and splurge to pay for wifi because I still have 2 plus hours to go.

I'm blogging from the sky because not only have I been a lazy blogger, but I've been a lazy runner. And I must share my vast wisdom with you all because a certain friend of mine ( although she's from Delaware and when she says " mine", it sounds like "Mayan") thought it would be awesome to take lots of pictures of me while I was stupid drunk. 

Everyone needs pictures of themselves passed out in a chair...wearing rain boots, no less, without there being any actual rain.

I'm very proud of these boots, by the way. On the way to purchase obscene amounts of booze, we stopped by the shoe store. Leave it to the girl from the desert to insist on buying rain boots. I may not have done any training, but I did wear my Disneyland Half 2011 gear, so I figure that counts for something.

 

In my defense, we had some extreme flash flooding last weekend in Arizona, hence my need to purchase rain boots. 

Okay, so polka dots may have had something to do with it, as well. These boots are adorbs.  

Anyway, I met up with friends from all over the country for a 4 day vacation in Amsterdam, NY. I half assed brought some running clothes, but I knew there was no way I'd be running. I think I was supposed to do a pretty long run on Saturday in my training for NYC Marathon - like something over 10 miles - but that just wasn't happening. I really should have considered taking advantage of running in that area because, holy shit, do they have some hills I could have trained on. Instead, I trained my liver. And my stomach, because the food was beyond amazing.

I'm guessing I consumed approximately 10,000 calories a day while in NY. I'm really scared to get on the scale when I get home. It was totally worth it, though.

I better get serious, because Dumbo is only a month away. Oh, and that little thing called the New York City Marathon *chokecoughchoke* is getting dangerously closer. I think the weekend before I left for Disneyland last year, we did a 15 mile run. 

The gist of this long, rambling post filled with narcissistic drunken photos is, don't do what I do, kids. I'm a lousy example of an athlete. 

Yes. Yes, I am.