Injured Reserve: Add Me to the List

Injuries suck, especially when you are in the running groove. Most of this was written a few  weeks ago but I'm finally getting around to posting it. It helps that I'm over the worst of my 'no-running allowed' blues. For real though, I wasn't any fun to be around when I got that news.


But since I suck at blogging let's recap how my injuries (yes plural) came to be. Well there were some of these: Freihofer's Run for Women, Father's Day 5K, Warrior Dash, and a few others that didn't get blogged about.

Old vs. New. Heel strike much?

More specifically before I even began running this spring I did something to my hip on an elliptical machine. I saw my Doctor and we did X-rays (pointless since I knew I didn’t break my hip), steroids, NSAIDs, muscle relaxers and physical therapy. I took my drugs, went to physical therapy, I start running. No one can tell me exactly what the problem was; narrowed down to either bursitis or IT band issues. Months of physical therapy, naproxen and running and eventually things started to feel better. That lasted a few weeks and then it came back in a mild sort of way. For the most part I ignored it and kept running. 


I built up my mileage and my pace. Hit a PR during almost every race I ran. 5K training was in the books and decided to tackle a 10K. I trained and hit those miles faster than I thought and ran the inaugural Fall Frun 10K in November. It was epic and I felt so good. I hit a 5K PR by a minute on the second 5K. Highest of Runner’s High.

As shown, picture stolen from Greg. Sorry Greg. 

The next day I woke up to some soreness in my foot and it didn't go away. I took most of the week off from running with no improvement. I bought new shoes which also didn't help. Here we go again. Saw my Doctor, got x-rays, yadda yadda. I also decided to see a Sports Medicine Doctor for both my hip and foot pain. Basically, he agreed that my bursitis was back in the hip (greater trochanteric bursitis) and had some tenonitis in my foot (peroneal tendonitis). Joy. And he advised me to back off from running and the bootcamp class I've been taking and to go back to Physical Therapy. 


So that's where I'm at. I had some awesome races planned but now I'm mostly couch bound. I'm bummed but hopefully I'll be back pounding the pavement soon. I'll keep ya posted! 

Warrior Dash: The Sequel

3.2 miles, 12 obstacles, 1 mountain.

Saturday was the second Warrior Dash held at the Windham Mountain Ski Resort in Windham, NY. The obstacles were just a bit crazier, the crowds just a bit bigger and the mountain... well it seemed as big as last time.

Keeping it classy at the Dash.

We had great weather. I have to be honest, when I heard it was in August this year I had visions of 90 degree weather and having to park myself in the first water/mud pit to cool off. Mild temps and slightly overcast skies made for perfect Warrior conditions.

Clean feet. Clearly a before.

There were some repeat obstacles with a new twist (i.e. logs to swim over, barbed wire to crawl under) and a few new obstacles to battle.

The hill goes up and up and up...

Looking back at the Barricade Breakdown

About to enter Road Rage

Katie and I on top of a snazzy junker car

Teetering Traverse. Sort of scary and required excellent balance.

Dead Weight Drifter. May look gross, but one
of my favorite obstacles for the cool down factor. 

Missing a picture of the Cliffhanger. Picture running through a muddy pit as above, then climbing out of it using some ropes. Ta da.

Dead Mans Drop.
Climb up, drop down. Sure, sounds easy enough.

Rubber Ricochet.

Cargo Climb.
Climb up, carefully (!) turn around, and climb back down.

Chaotic Crossover.
Horizontal cargo nets are hard to climb across.
I'm sure I looked extremely awkward.

Petrifying Plunge.
I had no momentum (since I stopped to snap a pic)
 and this was much more tame than last year.

Warrior Roast (near the top) and Muddy Mayhem, both very fun.

The End. Find a drink (water), shower, and find a drink (beer).

Before and After. Amazingly enough the shirt resembles the before after a bunch of washing.

Well worth it!

A little less classy 'after'. 

Shoes ready to be cleaned and donated.

Warrior Results.

Another great Warrior Dash day! I'm sure I'll be back next year... if my legs stop hurting by then.

Warrior Dash 2010 recap.

Father's Day 5K Re-cap

When I joined No Boundaries back in February I had a goal of running 3.1 miles without stopping, at the Father's Day 5K on June 19th. After injuring my hip (IT band) before we even started, 8 weeks of physical therapy, snow in March, rain in April, 90 degree weather in May and everything in between for 12 weeks I wasn't sure it would happen. When I woke up this morning with a terrible stomach ache (greasy pizza is NOT a good way to carb load the night before a race, FYI) I was even more doubtful.

We had a beautiful day for running, my stomach cleared up and I actually felt good. My goal was to run at least the first mile, which I knew I could do based on past races. When I reached Mile 1 (in around 11:30 mins) I felt I could keep going so I decided to run for 15 minutes, then 20 minutes. At that point I knew I was close to Mile 2 and felt okay, so I kept going. After that I decided to keep going until I needed to stop. Around Mile 2.5 my mentor Elizabeth found me so there was no way I could stop. The last .6 miles actually went fast and before I knew it I had .2 miles to go, then .1 miles.

I RAN THE WHOLE THING! And my final time was 38:05 (by my watch), which meant that I kept a pretty steady 11:30-12:30 minute mile pace. In my memory, I can't remember running that far, ever. It's totally possible that I did while training for soccer or track in high school or maybe for rugby in college, but certainly in the last 5 or so years, I haven't run 3.1 miles without stopping!

I'm sort of in disbelief that I made a goal in February and reached it in June. I sort of suck at reaching goals but it feels pretty dang good!

Maybe my favorite race t-shirt. 

It was such a fun race because there were tons of No Boundaries mentors and participants running the race. Every few minutes I came across another runner or mentor who was there to cheer us on or run with us for a bit. Plus, every so often there were signs with Father's Day trivia questions and then a hundred yards or so later, another sign with the answer. Did you know...?

The person who is credited with inventing the concept of Father's day was Sonora Smart Dodd.
It's always celebrated on the third Sunday in June.
President Lyndon Johnson "proclaimed" Father's Day as an official holiday in 1966 and was signed into law by Presient Richard Nixon in 1972.
The most common Father's Day gift is a tie. (I don't think I've ever given my Dad one!)

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there!

Freihofer's Run for Women Recap

Before the great tunes on Saturday, I ran the Freihofer’s Run for Women. I’ve been 5K training this spring with No Boundaries (thanks Fleet Feet) and this was my third 5K of the season (maybe I’ll recap those later). It’s such an awesome race for so many reasons. It’s a women’s only race, there are International Olympic/Professional level runners, 4,800+ other participants (new record this year), great crowd support, it’s well organized, close to home,  we run through a beautiful park, you get a free box of delicious cookies … I could keep going.

The weather was perfect! Nice and sunny but cool and with a little breeze. It was a vast improvement from last year when it was really hot and humid! Like I said I’ve been training but I’m not up for running 3.1 miles straight (yet). I had plans to walk and run depending on how I felt. I was feeling pretty good so I actually ran the whole first mile (and then some) without stopping; I can’t remember the last time I’ve done that! I was worried that I’d run out of steam so I took a bunch of walking breaks after that, I probably could have pushed myself a little harder but I wanted to finish strong so I had no problem walking when I felt like I needed to.

I love the course (despite the few uphill sections) because the last  ½ mile or so is all downhill with a great view of the crowds and finish line. There are lots of cheers and announcers pushing you to finish strong, I booked it downhill to the finish. I beat my time from last year by a few minutes (though running had fallen by the wayside by that point last year) and I had a season’s best time by about 35 seconds, so not bad. Can't wait to see what is in store for the Freihofer's run next year!

My next race is June 19^th!

P.S. Congrats to Mamitu Daska from Ethipoia who won the race in 15:19! 15:19!!

P.S.S Again no pictures, sorry. I could steal some from someone else but I’m pretty sure that’s not legit and I still refuse to post crappy cell phone pics. I really do need to get a small digital camera to cart around. There are some cool pics and videos here if you want to check some out.

How about a pic of me before another race from this year? Works for me!

Looks like a runner.