Derailed?

I thought of a million differet title posts but not one could really sum up the way I am feeling. I am sort of stuck in limbo between doing what is right and what I want to be doing. Let me rewind just a bit.

Two weeks ago I ran the Napa Marathon. If familiar with the roads there, you know the slope/angle/pavement issues associated with it. Do the race- check. Come home- check. Back to work/training- check. Run again Thursday - check. Run Saturday after -
check but some pain/issues in foot. What?

Continue on for a few days. Tuesdays bike/run = OUCH. Not only now does foot hurt but knee pain starting. First thought- I don't have time for this. Do we ever have time for *injuries?* Talk to coach, assess goals- no biggie. Short run break emphasis other areas. Move on. In the meantime last week make appointment with foot/ankle specialist (who happened to be sick last week) for Friday (yesterday)

Start last week- great. Run - fine. Tightness yes but no pain. (call me stupid sometimes but I am not going to run in pain. Stubborn heck yeah but stupid no. Learned that the hard way) Solid week of training. Good times. Good work.

Friday- Go to appointment. After diagnosing myself and with the help of PT friends/doctors figured I had posterior tibial tendinitis. Bought some kinesio tape on amazon, some Ironman sports creme. Stay consistent with training/stretching overall plan. I would be good to go.
(I even thought about cancelling appointment but kept it just to be safe not sorry- get an xray make DOUBLE sure everything good and be set)

First words out of said doctors mouth. "I'm going to break this to you slowly what I think based on these xrays." EXCUSE ME? He said don't jump off that table just yet.
(doctors must love endurance athletes who go in and tell you their diagnosis/plan injury prognosis :) Seems to him there may be an avulsion fracture/ old- new /or not.
To be SAFER rather than SORRIER, I am going to have an MRI (as soon as humanly possible- thank you insurance companies for SUCKING) Then I will have a 100% tell tale picture.

What does this mean? It means that in the midst of the chaos of my life these days, my brain was on overload yesterday and for the better part of the night. I planned 1,000,000 different outcomes. I talked to coach who reassured me nothing was PROBABLY wrong but lets be sure. We talked about A, B and C races and what this would mean.

THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MY YEAR. 37.5 years of age was the magic number of greatness (well greatness in my world) The year of challenge, the year of conquering.
I've been through this injury/rehab 6 years ago with my bike accident. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

It is Saturday morning and I *have* on tap a bike/run combo workout. I wrestled with doing/not doing the run. Coach even said cut it shorter if you want. No biggie. I DONT CUT THINGS SHORT. IF IT IS THERE I DO IT. Let pain be your guide. I haven't had pain? Part of me thinks if I don't do this run and next week I have something wrong I will be wishing I had one more good workout inside. The other thinks that if something IS wrong then I will just make it worse. AAAAHHHHHH.

I'm signing off now. Stay tuned.

Gonna go start my day.

Hitting Reset-

This past week has been very hard on all fronts. First I had another mini meltdown from overall exhaustion. Then I realized that my one *good* leg had some residual pain from my little foot race the past weekend which in turn caused a new knee issue.(WTF?) That led to some back pain and then some overall crabbiness/bitchiness/unhappiness. Add that to volumes of work, training and general life and you got one big melting mess.

Enter coachie who assured me that this small break was oh so worth it and oh so good for me. So towards the beginning of the week I had to suck it up and take a small break from running. My volume would go down obviously but we would make it up on the bike and in the pool.

Running is my first love and when I can't run, I am not the same person. Nothing makes me feel freer than running. I love running into the morning when the sun is still coming up. I am a happy runner and yell good morning to everyone day or night.

I also implemented more stretching and recovery time this week which has rendered me useful instead of useless. Years ago I would not have welcomed this little pause in the action but I think I am smarter now in my older years!

Now that the reset button has been pushed, all I can say is watch out-

Oh and look what Santa brought today-

Also- If you have not tried Joint Health,you are seriously missing out! Get yours today! Use my coupon code or email me with any questions.

Completely Shelled

This week and weekend (so far) has me completely shelled. I think the little run I did last weekend + heavy work/training load left me pooped. It wasn't so obvious on my workouts today until I met with Jen who I do TRX with every Saturday. She took one look at me and just knew. That is how good she is :) So we improvised and spent the hour mainly doing therapy/stretching instead of "work."
Often times it is very hard to take a step back and do something *unusual* versus the regimented routine. Sometimes that is all it takes to snap you back. That and a good little old fashioned rest.
After stocking up on enough food to last until next weekend it was time for some much needed couch time with the feet up.
Happy Daylight Savings Time = It's about time. Bike time after work!
What's on tap tomorrow? = my favorite ride!

NVM Race Report

This was my first marathon 13 years ago so what better way to test the legs than to do a little run in beautiful Napa, California- except it didn't really work out that way. For starters, I don't do the traditional taper that most *marathoners* do. In fact, I didn't taper at all. That is the beauty of long distance training though- you can jump in anytime and be ready. Then there was the weather. The weather. When I ran this race in 98 it was beautiful and sunny. Not the case Sunday.

I woke up Sunday morning at 5 ( woo hoo sleeping in!) First thing I noticed was my stiff neck. WTF? This day of all days to wake up like this. Nice. Then a pain in my hamstring. WTH? I never wake up with ailments. I stretched, rolled, stretched and then left to get the work done. Got up to the start in Calistoga with about 8 minutes to spare, just like I like it (no time to waste just get ready and GO!) There was a lovely downpour going on but the temps weren't all that cold. And then we were off. Just a lovely Sunday run in the rain. That's at least what I told myself for the entire morning.

Here are a couple of things I learned on Sunday:

- Recovery e 21 really works. I took 2 every hour on the hour and felt the difference
- Headwinds suck to run into esp. for 26 miles
- Mentally the breakdown does not happen for me until about 23 miles those last 3 are LLOOOOONNNNNGGGG
- Missed my time goal by about 5 minutes but it is not the end of the world. Going to take the positives from the race and put them in the training bank.
- I love breaking down runs like this in my head and especially during IM to show
progress. For example a marathon is only 105 laps around a track. Long but not enough to kill you. So starting out I was 105 laps from the finish, but say at mile 16 I was 40 laps from the finish. For some reason that progress makes me feel so much better. ( I know... I am weird, but we all got to have something right?)
- This year is gonna be good!

A little picture from my dad who came and saw me (after the fact at mile 1 then took off to do a little winery hopping! (navy skirt capri long sleeve white shirt)

Thanks for reading. Sorry kind of random :)

Doing Work!

February was a short month but not short in training (or life)
Swim: 36,775 yards (random I know)
Bike: 671.5 miles
Run: 108.5 miles
TRX: 7 hrs

The year is starting off on a good note. I am becoming a more comfortable *faster* runner (its all relative right?) I am more confident on my bike and I'm a frickin swimmer now! (not!) What's on tap for the weekend? A little footrace!

And to quote one of the best words I learned all week: http://racingawareness.blogspot.com/2009/01/greedy-triathlete.htmlI love that word triathletism. Just love it. Haven't we all felt that at one point or another!