Slow & Steady Wins the Race :-)

Happy New Year!

Even though I'm on such a roll, no work-out today.  I'll have to start my 30-something streak of working out again over at 1 tomorrow.  Just too tired from too much fun last night. Ha! :-)

I had such high hopes for my running in 2009, looking back at my resolutions for last year makes me sad.  I only met 1 goal, which was to run a half marathon in less than 2 hours (and was the one I broke my ankle in).  I hope hope hope 2010 is a much much MUCH better running year.  So resolutions for this year, include first and foremost:

1) STAY HEALTHY!  Do not get injured.  Do not do not do NOT get injured.  Being injured is miserable, I lost a good 6 months of 2009 and I can't let myself forget that.  I feel I have lately, and just love running so much, so I've let the running get out of control again.  6 days a week, nearly 30 miles a week, now that is just ridiculous and just asking for trouble.  So I'm going to be smart.  I think I need to suck it up and join a gym so I can use an elliptical, or just be consistent in doing P90x or yoga on running days off.  So for now, 3-4 days of running a week ONLY, try to keep it 20-25 miles.  Rest is good. 

2) STAY HEALTHY!  But if I do, finish the 2010 Atlanta Half Marathon on March 21 with @Leandrea.  We just signed up!  Just finish it, no time goals whatsoever.

3) STAY HEALTHY!  But if I do, perhaps a fall full marathon? 

Took Cooper out for a walk today, only ran about .8-.9 of this, was still feeling a little shin-splinty and wanted to take it easy since I'm running tomorrow with Lisa and Anya.  Hopefully I can make it through the run with them without walking!  Getting a little worried.... Maybe I just need a whole week off or something.

Ran 5 miles at BPA trail with Lisa and Anya, then out to breakfast at Black Bear Diner for Lisa's 30th Birthday afterwards! :-)

That's the good news.  I am worried, very very worried.  I feel my ankle again, and I fear my new year's resolution and new training plan is too little, too late.  I am going to take this whole week off, I have purchased some homeopathic remedy (I know, never done that before!) and I am just going to take that and hope.  Hope hope hope.   I DO NOT WANT TO BE INJURED AGAIN!  Hmm, at least i already have the crutches and boot ready?

Week off.  So did about 30 minutes of yoga.  

2 miles walking on the TM, followed by a little yoga, squats, and Day #1 of the 100 push-up challenge, which was: 6,6,4,4,8(max).

Went to the Dr this morning, convinced me all over again how horrible my dr was before and that I should have gotten someone new a longggg time ago instead of wasting all this time.  I have a bone scan later this week (scary! I've never had one before, kind of scared of the injection!), so then I will know for sure if my worst fears are true.  Yesterday and today though my ankle has felt much better though, so I did run 1 mile today on the TM.  2 miles total.  I did .5 walking, .5 running, .25 walk, .5 run, .25 walk.  Tomorrow I'm going to try 2-3 miles and see how it feels, and if it feels good, start my 3 days a week routine.  

Here's what she said though:

1) Orthotics - I got the SuperFeet Berry insoles for my shoes, I'm supposed to try these for a month and if they don't do enough for me I'll go the route of getting official expensive orthotics.  This should help with the shin splints, and possibly correspondingly, with the ankle.

2) Stretching & Strengthening - I need to warm-up, cool-down, stretch, and strengthen (duh, but I don't do it!).  Strengthen my front shin muscles, my knee inside, outside, and front muscles.  Do more p90x plus the special exercises, and do more yoga for the stretching.

Oh yeah, and Day 2 of the push-up challenge: 6, 8, 6, 6, 8(max)

Ran 2 miles on the TM at 5.0 (12:00, that's right, 12 minute miles!).  Did .5 mile warm-up and 1 mile cool-down for total of 3.5

At the end felt a tiny ache in my ankle.  Ugh, why can't i just be 100% and do whatever I want?  I'll try again on Tuesday and see how it is.  Bone scan sometime this week.

Day 3: 8, 10, 7, 7, 10(max)

CardioX.  

Ran 2.5 miles on the TM, 3.5 miles total (.5 mile warm-up and .5 mile cool-down). Felt better, I think. Less achiness about the ankle, and felt okay running.  What's sad is in just the week off I can already see my aerobic fitness is much worse!  I'll try for 3 on Thursday and see how it feels.

KenpoX.  Poor Cooper, he thinks anytime I'm moving around I'm trying to play with him, and today he took an uppercut right to the snout!  I felt sooo terrible.  He seemed to be fine, but I seriously connected with it like I was trying to punch him in the face.  Poor little guy.  

In other news, my arms have been so sore the last 2 days that the push-up challenge is out of the question.  So maybe I'm a little behind on that!

Walked a mile, ran 3, then walked another .5, on the TM.  

Found out my bone scan is going to cost $300 freaking dollars tomorrow, ugh.  If I can't afford health care WITH health insurance how can people even begin to afford health care without insurance?  So I'm trying to get out of it, but since it was past 5 when I found out this and a bunch of other problems ensued I'm not sure I can without paying a penalty. So I don't know what to do.  Just seems like a waste of money with my ankle feeling better.  I HATE HEALTH CARE COSTS!

Ran 3.25 miles with Cooper outside.  Ended up going to get the bone scan/xray yesterday despite the humongous cost, ugh.  We'll see what the dr says next week.  I have a feeling I'm in for some rest though, I better go get a gym membership and become best friends with an elliptical and the pool.  blah!

Played and walked about 13/14 holes of golf on the most beautiful Seattle day!  It was seriously gorgeous, like an April lovely spring day, not a day in the middle of terrible rain storms in January!  

I think I'm taking a running break for awhile, until maybe my ankle is healed.  Sad.  I'll try not to get too depressed about it.  

That's right, 2 miles today, outside with Cooper!  :-)  My Dr called earlier and SHOCKINGLY said she thinks I am healed, my xray and bone scan looked fine!  She said there is still some remodeling going on which might be why its achey, or it could be soft tissue that I need to strengthen, which I'm going to work on.  So she got me an ankle brace (which I wore and it feels so good and supportive, though chafing is a minor problem) and I'm going to go to a few physical therapy sessions to learn strengthening exercises and such.  I am ECSTATIC! Can you tell? :-)

Later I was in such a good mood we went and played tennis for the first time in forever.  I was terrible, and am going to be SO sore tomorrow in the weirdest places, like my pinky finger and the weird muscle in my hand and probably my shoulders.  

YAY!

Wonderful run with Lisa and Anya, its soooooo good to be running!  The ankle brace, although a chafer, is wonderful in terms of support.  I should have had that thing this whole time for sure.

 3.5 miles, up a HUGE hill (thanks Lisa!), I'll have to upload the Garmin data later just to see what the elevation change was.  It was rough.  

Garmin Update - Splits: 13:12 (the HUGE hill where we walked at the top), 10:53, 10:32, 10:23 (0.5)

Average pace: 11:22

That hill was 400 feet!  Total ascent 572. 

43 F.  Ran 5 miles with Lisa today at BPA trail, and it felt GREAT.  So happy to be out there.  And it was very very hilly, and we both did great, ran the whole time without walking any of the hills.  Just a tiny sprinkle, it started raining on my drive home so we got done just in time.

Splits: 10:22, 9:36, 9:50, 10:15, 10:07

Average: 10:02

Walking .4 mile cool-down.  The brace is great, but I have to figure out something about chafing.  Even over the sock, today it rubbed my heel raw.  Maybe I'm tying it too tight?  Or need something else (like lyrcra based?) underneath it?

3 miles on the TM, at around 5.6 (10:42).  .25 warm-up and .75 cool-down for a total of 4, while watching the Biggest Loser. I must say I think this is the worst season yet, I don't like ANY of the people on there!  Tonight was ridiculous.

In a separate note, I must first say how incredibly happy I am to be running again.  Soooo happy. But, now on to complaining :-) I really really really hate the treadmill.  It makes running feel like torture, while running outside is the most wonderful thing ever. The pace is either uncomfortably slow or uncomfortably fast, even at 10:42 miles.  BUT I DO LOVE RUNNING!

PS I can't WAIT until next Tuesday - LOOSSTTTT!!!!

Went to the park and ran 2 miles on the track with Justin, then played some tennis (30 minutes?).  I am a little bit better, but still sooo bad and slow at all the sprinting.

The run was great though, Justin was fast (he's actually been running a lot lately), so I struggled to keep up with him the first mile, and the second mile I ran pretty hard (for me).

Splits: 8:54, 8:21

Time: 17:14, Average: 8:37

45 minutes playing tennis with Justin.  My wrist was tired immediately, need to take tomorrow off from tennis.  That and the tendon on the inside of my elbow is sooo sore.  But feeling better!  Plus I'm getting my racket restrung and I found a team to be on!  

Got home right at 5 and it was still a little light out so I chanced it for a run with Cooper around the neighborhood.  Seemed like it was barely barely sprinkling, and I was hot in my rain jacket and regretting it, but when I got back both my hat and jacket were completely drenched so guess its good I wore them.  Was dark dark at 3.5 but finished to 4, just sticking in the culdesacs around my house.

Splits: 10:07, 10:11, 9:51, 9:55

Average: 10:04

30 minutes of Your Shape.  Was actually a surprisingly good workout (said I burned 308 calories but that seems like too much), but it was obnoxiously annoying saying I was doing it wrong the whole time even though I wasn't!  It said I only did 60% of it right or gave 60% effort or something, which made me mad, and the constant "watch your arms" "watch your legs" drove me crazy, I need to figure out if I can change the settings or I'll never do it again. It probably didn't help that Cooper was running around in front of the camera the whole time!

So glad this run is out of the way.  Ran up to Celebration Park (almost, it was more hills to the top so stopped just before) and back.  Not to be a Debbie Downer, but it wasn't too enjoyable.  WAY too much traffic, if I'm going to do this route I need to leave way earlier on a weekend day, it was loud and exhausty and I thought I was probably going to be killed.  It was also pretty hilly (pretty much all of 9th street is a one mile+ hill!), I kept getting a side-ache, and my right shoulder kept hurting (probably from being tense from thinking I was going to die).  The good part was that if it had been in my neighborhood, I'm sure I would have stopped way earlier because I was tired, and all these other reasons!  Walked 0.23 cool-down for total of 6.57.

I missed Lisa and Anya today.

Splits: 10:11, 9:42, 9:55, 9:40, 9:40, 9:42, 9:42 (.34)

I am pretty consistent eh?  Average pace: 9:47, Total Ascent: 701 ft.

Later went golfing so got in probably another 2 miles of walking.  Good thing, because I just ate the most delicious and terrible meal for me ever.

Weekly Summary: Mon-off, Tues-3, Wed-2, Thurs-off, Fri-4.15, Sat-off, Sun-6.34

Weekly Total: 15.49