Week 2!

I'm happy to say I have NOT fallen behind (yet) on my 100 days of running challenge, despite getting shin splits and generally not wanting to go for a runs this past weekend:

5/16/13 - My longest run to date - felt pretty good and I was able to keep up for the most part with the prescribed intervals of the C25K program (2.66 @15'31")

5/17/13 - Longer yet! This one was a little bit harder for me, mostly because my left shin was realllllyyy bothering me. I'm trying to run using good form, so leaning forward a little bit and hitting the ground mid-foot instead of heel striking, but it aggravates my shin. I'm hoping some ibuprofen, stretching and ice will alleviate the issue. (2.76 @ 15'44")

5/18/13 - I had a pretty busy day today .... I went to test drive cars in the morning, though I'd be there for an hour or so and then be able to come back and get my run in. Wellllll  ended up BUYING a new car so I was at the dealership for 4 hours instead of 1, then I had to rush home, force myself to run instead of playing around with my new car and then rush around to complete some errands before an event I had. Because I;ve committed to running everyday for 100 days for at least 30 minutes each time, I slugged out a blisteringly slow 1.7 miles, trying to replicate the same program I ran last night. I really had zippo mental willpower and ended up running/giving up/walking (repeat ad nauseum). It also started raining and I was just DONE.

5/19/13 - Another busy day but I got a run in in the morning in a foreign neighborhood ( I was dogsitting for some people and stayed at their house), but again I had 0 willpower to do it, though my shin has started to feel better. I also cheated on my Atkins diet last night and drank beer :-)

5/20/2013 - Week 3 day 1 of the C25K program  and it felt good!!!!! My shin was not bothering me much past the first 1/2 mile. Week 3 of C25K includes the standard 5min warm up then 1.5 minutes of jogging, 1.5 minutes of walking and then 3min jog/3min run for the remainder of the time. I got through the first 3 minute jog sessions without walking at all, but definitely needed to stop a few times in the middle of the remaining sessions. (2.56mi @ 15'36")

So I'm discouraged that I am still running at 15 min pace BUT I understand that the C25K program is designed to get you running for periods of time first, not necessarily distances or at a certain pace. I guess I should be happy that my time is static and not going up!

94 more days!

Keep running-
MC

Week 1 Wrap Up and 100 Day Challenge

So it's been a little more than a week since I decided to get back into running. I'm having a blast and actually looking forward to getting home and getting out on the road.

I am doing the Couch to 5K program that comes with some random free iPhone app.  It has you progressing from 30 minutes of walking for 1.5 minutes/running 30s/60s to running a 5K in about 8 weeks. So far so good!

Run 1 (5/8/13) - Terrible. Terrible. TERRIBLE. Maybe I just wasn't used to running but I could BARELY make it through the first 3 30-second intervals and ended up walking a decent amount of this "run". To make maters worse, I ended up somehow losing the key fob to get me back into my apartment! I realized this about 2 miles in and then spent another hour retracing my steps in the dark and rain looking for it - all with no luck. My lower back hurt, my knees and ankles hurt and I discovered I had a hole on the inner thigh of one of the legs of my pants - which felt really good after 2.5 wet, gross miles... not. The important thing is that I got out there and got it done. (2.1 miles @ ??? pace ... I forgot to shut off Nike+ when I circled back looking for my fob)

Run 2  (5/9/13) - Not so terrible. I went out tonight not expecting  anything better than yesterday but was pleasantly surprised when I was able to run almost all of the prescribed intervals. I'm "running" REALLY slowly - according to Nike +  my average was 15'33" (yikes) - but at least it's not sitting on the couch. I also FOUND MY FOB! Hooray! (2.13 mi @ 15'33")

Run  3 (5/10/13) - Instead of hitting the bar after work for happy hour, I hit the road and ran my longest and fastest run yet. I hot all of the prescribed intervals and I felt pretty good ... no low back pain, no hip pain, no shin pain. I could get used to this! (2.35 mi @ 14'31")

Run 4 (5/13/2013) - I inadvertently repeated Week 1 Day 3 of C25K.... but so what. This was the best I have felt thus far. I also made more of an effort to run hard for 30 seconds towards the end, but that ended up in my walking slower and my average pace increased a little. (2.45mi @ 14'47"). I also decided I do NOT want to take more than 1 day off of doing something cardio. I read somewhere that you start to lose fitness after 48 hours ( not that I have fitness), so that's not an option.

Run 5 (5/15/2013) Week 2 of C25K has me running for 1.5 minutes and walking for 1.5 minutes. All good, except I was starting to get tired after the first few run intervals and ended up both running and walking slower because of it. But I finished. I'm also noticing pain in my left shin. Good news is I am not winded at all! (2.43 mi @ 15'33")

Two news items:
1.) I signed up for the Army Ten Miler - it's on 10/20/13 ( the day after my birthday!). 10 miles in a few months shouldn't be too hard. I am hoping that this goal, along with the fact that my sister's wedding is the weekend before - will keep me honest in both running and eating ( I am doing Atkins). I need to  not look gross at the wedding and not die in the 10 miler the week after.

2.) I've decided that while the 10 miler is my ultimate goal - I want to have some kind of intermediate goal as well. To that end I am pledging right now - to the whole world - to run 100 consecutive days. I am following the guidelines on http://www.100daysofrunning.com/. Ive made my goal public knowledge on Facebook - so hopefully I'll stick to it!

Other exciting news - I have lost TEN pounds ( I'm sure it's all water weight but a pound is a pound when you are as fat as I am!) and my pants that were too tight and initially sent me into this tizzy...FIT.

-Keep running
MC

I'm Back. I'm Fatter. I am Boston Strong.

So, good old Google reminded me the other day that I had this blog and I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand it reminded me that I sucked at continuing to write about running, and continuing TO RUN, but on the other hand, re-reading everything I wrote about how awesome running made me feel and how accomplished I was six years ago, has reinvigorated something within me. So here I am.  
What happened in the MCM 2007?

Quick update on what happened to my running career in 2007.  I started running in the beginning of the year, decided to run the MCM, trained my butt off and broke my foot in the middle of the Parks Half Marathon in September 2007. Yep...BROKE.MY.FOOT. WTF!? It really daggered my spirit. By the time I was able to start running again, my motivation was gone because my fitness was gone. It was getting cold out, mornings were darker and more lonely without the sun, and honestly.... I had really enjoyed drinking beer and sleeping late while I was out of commission. Not gonna lie. I promised myself I'd start over in the new year, and then spring time came and I broke my right ankle playing softball. Yep. BROKE.MY.RIGHT.ANKLE. WTF!? By the time that was haled up and ready to go I was even more unmotivated and out of shape than before, so the excuses piled up. So did the pounds. Another year came and went and I found myself saying - in 2009 I will run again! Then the springtime came and I broke my left ankle playing soccer. Yep. BROKE.MY.LEFT.ANKLE. WTF!? You can see where this is going......  

And now?

About 2 years ago I was walking back from a baseball game (totally sober might I add...not) and tripped over a curb. I apparently dislocated my shoulder out the back as I landed on my outstretched right arm, but had no idea at the time and was actually more concerned about a.) wearing a dress and flashing a few hundred people by adult-sized day of the week underwear (and of course I was wearing Tuesday undies on a Saturday) b.) the fact I was covered in blood and c.) the fact that my wrist and elbow hurt like heck! That quickly subsided bu I noticed over the next few months that my shoulder really began to bother me, especially at work. I finally broke down and went to a doctor and after weeks of painful physical therapy treatments, MRIs and other diagnostic tests, went under the knife for what ended up being rotator cuff damage and a massive labral tear. Greattt. Actually the recover was almost COMPLETELY PAINLESS from the moment I woke up in the OR until just after 2.5 months, when I suddenly started getting really bad pain right where the doctor had screwed my labrum back into my joint. After another few weeks of painful physical therapy, MRIs and other diagnostic tests, we discovered that I somehow retorn the labrum all around the screws and as such went back under the knife on January 2, 2013. he tossed in a few more screws and actually did something called a biceps tenodesis - where they cut the long head biceps tendon from it's insertion into the shoulder socket, and screw it into your humerus. Sounds tasty right? This recovery has ben completely different from the first. I was in horrible pain upon waking up in the OR and I am still struggling almost everyday with limitations, mostly due to pain in the tenodesis site. So here we are 4 months out. I've been playing soccer and generally pissed about the fact that I suck at running all over again. And I got fatter, and Im eating a crapload of carbs and drinking so much beer. I'm freaking 32 years old (almost). I should be at my prime. I should be able to run circles around people on the field, I should be able to look in the mirror and now get discouraged every day that my cloths look terrible on me. I should be able to go out and meet guys without wondering if they are secretly looking for ways to get away from the fat chick. I should let the people who are interested in dating me do it, instead of hiding behind my self consciousness. I should...I should...I should.  

You should tell me where you're going with this

 I should tell you I am from Boston. I should tell you I was TERRIFIED on 4/15/2013 when I had no idea if my family and friends were alive or dead or injured. I should tell you that as ironic as is it is that so many of the injured in Boston lost their legs as a marathon, I am inspired by these people - taking on battles way bigger than I face - for the rest of their lives. I made a decision right there, right then, to run. To run as long as I can, as fast as I can, in tribute to people like Jeff Bauman - subject of the now infamous wheelchair photo showing both of his legs blown off below the leg. People who will never be able to use their legs again to do something as simple as walking, let alone running. Sure it's "cliche" right now as everyone has made a resolution to run Boston or run for Boston or do X for Boston, but at least it's a good cliche, I guess. So here I am... 5 years later and unfortunately about 100 lbs FATTER than I was before when I set out on this journey. I had my first run tonight - day 1 of the couch to 5K program. I felt really, really stupid walking for 5 minutes on the TM (I started at incline 2.5 though!) and then running for just 60 seconds, every 90 seconds, but it will come. Being as fat as I am right now I don't want to overly stress anything at this point (since I am apparently made of glass).

Thanks for staying with me through this insanely long post. I hope you guys will keep me honest and accountable this time around.

9ish Miler - I ROCK!

As much as I was dreading it, I went out on week 4's long run of the Higdon program - 9 miles. I definitely haven;t done all of the training required to even deserve to be running the week 4 portion, but that's my own damn fault and I have to start somewhere...I have to start feeling like a runner. After last night's 5 miler (which is now posted with an official time of 58 minutes! My watch said 56...wtf), I set out at about 230 to run it and damn was it hard!? I originally started out running 12min and walking 2 just so I wouldn't get too tired, but that got all effed up when I ended up going hard and stopping at every freaking traffic light from here to Georgetown. I probably ended up walking like 1.7 miles in total, which is still good. I am HOPING and praying that the 5 miles less than 24 hours ago was a major contributor to my suckage, but I hate making excuses! The long and short of it was that I got the 9 in, I did it in 1:42, which is still less than a 12 min/mi pace and I am proud of myself. Tuesday I start week 5!!

Twilight 8K

After a few strong runs on the TM, I was feeling good about maybe running the Twilight 8K at 10:00/mo and finishing it in just under 50 minutes. After getting annoyed with the gym in general, I moved my runs outside and have been struggling a little bit due to heat, humidity and hills. Tonight was no different. I ran mile 1 in 10:15, and was slight peeved that I didnt kick it in gear when I was at 9:50 and could see the mile marker up ahead. The course lopped 1.5 times around a HILLY ass neighborhood before finally kind of flattening out and detouring. I haaattttteee rerunning sections. I ran to Marine Corps cadence the whole time but for some reason wasn't as pumped up as I usually am when that stuff comes on. It did help me keep pace for a bit, but after the first of 3 hills I started slacking of a bit. I got a mean side stitch that dulled and came back with avengance 3x, but finally got through that. Thoughts of defeat as I saw my split times getting further and further apart also contributed to slowing down a little bit. I only took water at one station and walked maybe 5x, for about 30s each. I refused water at the final 2 stations b/c I knew it would make me walk and b/c I was over half full on my Camelbak. Speaking of which, I think I took 4 sips period from the damn thing. I originally bought it b/c I couldn't run more than 1 mile without getting cotton mouth.Maybe I have learned how to run more efficiently and/or breathe a little bit better? It could also be the 4 cups of water I drnak in the hour before the race that made me have to pee 4 times before the race, including the time where I waited in line, hit the porta-potty, got out and got right back in line. Nervous bladder much? Long story short, I finished in 56 minutes and I am disappointed with that. That's essentially zero improvement over my 1st 8K in March. I feel slightly better knowing that I sprinted the last 0.2 miles and that some guy on the sidelines said "whoa look at that girl take off!". I felt good passing people who has been exchanging positions with me all race.

Gotta get in 9 miles tomorrow. I have an out and back course planned that shouldn't be too too bad. Hopefully my legs feel good tomrrow!

Paprazzi do Not Belong in the Gym...and Neither do I

After what I now deem a semi decent run last night, I was ready to go for a 5-6 miler today. It's hot as balls outside, so I was waiting until nighttime, then decided I needed to weight train as well, so I may as well run at the gym. AT least there I can control my pace a little better and it might be a tad bit cooler than outside...right? WRONG. Shittiest run ever!!!! True it IS warmer outside than inside but at least it is fresh air and there is a little breeze. I do not understand why the gym insists on keeping the A/C at 75. People are working out, if they are cold, they can bust their ass a little more and break a sweat. I have NEVER been so drenched while running EVER...not even that day I did the 10K on the freeway in the 95 degree mid-day sun. I set the TM on "10K Boulder Run" and ran about 2 of the 6.2 miles. I did it at a decent pace, 10:30 the whole way through but I was dying of heat exhaustion. That was bumming me out and then...ohhhh then.....this stupid lady was taking pictures of her kids in the pool and that was just it for me. How many pictures do you need of your stupid kid with her stupid goggles on, in her stupid bathingsuit, at night in an indoor pool in a GYM!? (Note: my gym is on the 3rd floor of a hotel....so we share it with hotel patrons) The pool is separated from the gym by a long plexiglass divider, so she can clearly see there are about 15 people working out on the other side of the TWO WAY plexiglass who are probably just as pissed off as I am about all of this friggin flashing going on. Not to mention I don't think you should take pictures if I am in the background sweating like a hog b/c the gym staff likes to be warm and stuffy while they watch tv at the front desk. UGH. So much for that. I have GOT to do my runs outside. If I had been on my 5 mile route today, even if I wanted to stop at 2 miles, I would still have to get back home and in that process I would still have to run another 3 miles to do that. It's just too easy on the TM to be like eh, I am getting off. SO now I am going to TRY to wake up early tomorow and go for 4. I suppose 2 is better than zero right?

Tag You're It

I am not much for blogs, but since Overpronator tagged me, I will bite. I guess I have to tell you 6 things you didn't already know about me. Since I am an anonymous blogger, that should be pretty easy right?

1. I am petrified of spiders
2. I actually graduated from college 1.5 years after everyone else in my life thinks I did.
3. I <3 beer with all my heart and soul
4. I have never been in love (exception #3)
5. I clean my ears AND my nose several times a day with Qtips
6. Often times if I run at night I go to bed gross and wake up for my AM run without showering AND putting the same clothes back on.

Speaking of running....5 miler here I come