Two Days Off

Well It seems the magical spot that I originally had this x-ray taken in the fall for is acting up again!! I think its a terrible shin split.... 3/4 the way up inside left calf. BOO. It goes away after I start running, but it hurts walking around now. Im on my hardcore RICE plan- with I standing for ibuprofen and ice! 

That said Monday I ran 4 miles, stupid shin hurt the whole way and yesterday I ran 1 mile on the elliptical. It was the best elliptical ever I actually felt like I was running with ZERO pounding. It was a startrac brand? 

Anyways I did my lifting thing as well and have decided no running till next week. Just some elliptical and weights with a whole day-o-rest today and tomorrow! Fortunately its cold out. However city sports had a sale and I got some snazy cold gear underarmour tights to be able to run outside in comfort. I love spandex!  I suppose doing the elliptical only this week as fine and I had planned for a "kick back week" since I have been increasing my weekly milage pretty steady. Funny how I plan safe ways to go about doing this... with built in rest and kick backs and my stupid shin still kills!

Treadmill Running

Well this week I logged a bit of treadmill running. I've been getting bored and annoyed with running on the sidewalks of center city and don't always feel like biking out to the east/west river loops unless its for a longer run. So I've been chilling with the treadmill. I find I can push myself pretty hard on the treadmill and throw in a fast 8 min mile here and there which I think will be good for a little speed training every now and again. I have a hard time doing things like that on the road because I just tend to run at pace with my music. 

I dont know that I ever said this... but my goal for 2009 is to run 800 miles and complete another marathon. I am hoping on Chicago, but Philly is always here for me if I need it. I think I'll do the half for sure! But that is a ways away.

Im training for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and am stoked! I'd love to cash in around 1:30, but I don't know if I can do it... I think its possible I rarely run slower than 930 min/mile now. I got 2 months!

This week:

monday-nope

tuesday 3.1 @ 9:14 pace

wednesday- nope

thursday- 8.5 @ 9:38 pace

friday-nope

saturday- 5 miles 9:18 pace

sunday- nope

I got 16.6 miles for a total of 46.8 this month! 

A Run For Matt

So I did it in the cold. I ran 8 miles (my longest since the marathon) on Friday in "feels like 3 degrees" Philadelphia. It felt great... Even in the cold. I have cold gear under armor top and bottoms and fleece pants and a fleece jacket, gloves and head band to boot. I only had a slight chill. My pace was 10 min average, which because of the cold I'm okay with..

So the reason I ran outside in the cold instead of the treadmill, and 8 instead of 6 miles was because on Thursday I went to the wake for one of my patients. A 20 year old man, Matt, fought a year long courageous fight with leukemia and passed away last week. He fought with every ounce in him till the last minute. I was very very close, as was our whole floor, to him and his family. After the wake another nurse and I went back to their house till around midnight! We felt so included. Every member of the family came up to us and thanked us for the care we gave matt and his family. I have gotten many thanks, and comments that make me feel appreciated, but this was overwhelming. So when something started to hurt, or I got a bit cold, I thought of matt on this run and pushed on. To be honest I think about my patients a lot when I run. Its a good way to decompress from the high emotions there. When I start to hurt, their struggles help me put things in perspective, and make me thankful that I can run and hurt at all! So this is a thanks to Matt and his family.

Running in the Cold

SO I've been MIA from the blog, but not from running!! To back track.... I got two runs in when I was in icy/snow/friggin' freezing NH over new years. A 3 miler and 4 miler. One after a full day of skiing! It was so cool to run through the crunchy snow. I don't think I could feel my legs towards the end, and was STOKED for the hot tub after each run. That week I got in 7 miles over three runs with my cross training being two full days of down hill skiing... slim but I'll take it as Im GRADUALLY building the base.

The next week  I got in 2 runs and a bike session at the gym totaling 10.4 miles over 2 runs. These runs were very very cold. 14 degrees cold, I find you do warm up after 5 minutes and I am amazed how my sweat doesn't find a way to freeze!... I think it was frozen on the tips of my gloves!

This week: My sweet road bike was STOLEN out of my basement the previous friday! So Wednesday I went to keswick cycle company in Glenside, complements of a car ride from my grandparents. I got a sweet way better Specialized Allez!!! It cost the same as my other K2 and is WAY better. To bad I'm a chicken and I think its too cold for a long ride today. I'll test it out going to work on Monday. So yea... they broke into our basement (my roommate and I that is) and took our bikes-- cut my lock to do it. Fortunately our insurance covers it... PAIN IN THE BUTT...

So I had 30 min to kill before my grandparents dinner reservation and I got a 2 miler in...showerd and was ready to go, all in 30 min! Go me. 

Thursday I worked and went to a patients wake.. more on that.

Right now my arm is killing, as it has a pulled muscle. My gym has free training sessions, I finally did one. And I guess they pushed me a bit hard... and it is pulled/strained! But the workout was killer.

So now I am debating to run 6-8 on a treadmill, or outside. More to come after as to my rationale! It says feels like 3.... and I'm going to bundle up and go for as long as I make it!

Adios!

Some Christmas Photos

Here are some visions of my week at home!

Two of my best friends and I in downtown Boston

Winter wonderland! I love snow!

 Christmas Morning: My mom put my dogs antlers on!!

Mom and I Cooking

Gotta love poppers! Our own little band (my grandma, sister and mom)

Sisters!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

More blogging from work

Well I have been bad at blogging...and running- I suppose since I blog about running, the two are related. I have been non-stop for the past bunch of days, worked nights for three days, went home for christmas, and am back on nights for three more days. I ran 3 miles the day I went home (the 19th) and 3 miles again on Christmas in my snazy new Asics GT2140's which are AMAZING! So much cushion, a great shoe, and great improvements on the 2130- in my opinion.

Then today, or yesterday to be technical, I RAN 5 MILES!... My dad and I didn't get our acts together to run together at home, so sad. But he called me up to make sure I got home safe yesterday and told me had had run 5 miles, the longest since the 1/2 marathon. I got jealous, because I hadn't run that far...just a couple of 3 milers... So I bit the bullet and ran a fiver to the art musuem and back. It felt great. I think I'm back in the groove. I've been on my feet most of the night and everything feels good. I got a little bit of this creaky-rusty-door-opening-like feelingin my right achelies, but not pain!

Not really making progress with the push ups... I'll get there.

My week home was great, I got to catch up with some old lifetime friends, make some good memories with my family and enjoy Boston in the SNOW- lots of SNOW. I went sledding made hot cocoa from scratch and had my first holiday with my family in a full year! I introduced my parents to Buddy the Elf... what a great movie.

What amazed me was how everyone still wanted to talk to me about the marathon. Since none of this side of my family had seen me since, they all wanted to hear about it. I couldn't believe how proud and inspired they were. It made me feel so good to know that I was an inspiration to them, not necissarily to run, but to strive to meet goals of their own. Part of the reason I started to train was because a co-worker of mine did a 1/2 Ironman and is training for a full. I was inspired by her. There is something pretty powerful in this running stuff! It was special to see how such a personal achievement positively effected so many people in my life.

Blogging from Rhoads 7

So I am blogging from work. This is a first. Got three days of night shift ahead of me then home for the holidays. How I manged to get a whole week off around Christmas... I don't know. But I am not complaining. So I woke up after 12 hours of quasi-sleep at 3pm today and ran 3 miles without stopping outside in 67 degree weather. Philly is having a heat wave I guess? So the three miles felt really good, I made the mistake of not eating before running and not having eaten anything for 18 hours before... so that was DUMB. But other than that it was so exciting because I hadn't had a run that felt AWESOME since the marathon. I had been craving that feeling for sometime now!

I am definitely going to take it slow. I ran 6 miles all together last week. Ha. That is quite low from 40mpw. But I'm still beat up from 26.2. This week I want to do 3- 3mile runs. As for pushups, I did Day 1 today which was a set of 6, 6, 4, 4, and 6. We'll see if I stick it out. And I'm keeping track of my Bootie Buster points on my side panel. Im at 16.5 now. Its definitely keeping me motivated to get my butt out of bed in the morning! I think I'll settle for middle of the pack!!

Thats all for now. Registering for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler the 1st thing I get home tomorrow! 8am!! I can't wait to be home in Boston and go on some runs with my dad hopefully get a run or two with snow! Happy Holidays everyone!

Working for the week & 100 Pushups!

So I just got back from my first 12 hour shift of 3 in a row. I don't know if I'll make it to the gym after work... any of these days... its just too hard after being on my feet all day and then I'm cutting into my sleep time! I did manage to workout/run after work when training, but that was some serious motivation, and only worked when I got off at 7am because it was sunny and happy out.

I was all sore at work today from doing a whole lifting circuit at the gym on Tuesday. At the same time it felt really good. I kinda love the "I-just-worked-my-muscles-so-hard-they-are-going-to-get-stronger-feeling!" So I think I'm doing well with that.

 At first I saw Denise's blog saying she is going to do this 100 push up challenge thing.. I literally laughed and thought, "ha THATS funny, I can squeak out 10 at best." But then I saw the link to it on Janice's blog and the icon looked kinda cool. THIS LOOKS TOTALLY DOABLE!! The line is in the picture on my page... Im getting better at high tec blogging. Maybe these pushups can fit in after work for sure... anyone got a good ab routine? Mine's starting to get very dull. So 100 pushes up... here I come.

I RAN!

I did it! I got my but out of my warm bed on my day off. I have to admit the Holiday Booty Buster Challange helped get me out of bed- can't be a slacker on the first day. It was 23 degrees out. Ouch! Got my sneakers....yes they still had the timing chip from the marathon on them... So I didn't really plan a loop or a distance I just went out the front door to run! First mile felt great I was so happy to be out there... I have literally been going crazy from not being active. But then after what I estimated to be mile two my achilies tendon and left knee (the spots of me most sore after the marathon) started SCREAMING so I walked the mile I had left back to my apartment. Not too bummed out. Just glad to get out there. I'll go to the gym today and do the elliptical or cross trainer.

GOALS: I want to become a better runner. And I think going into a marathon with NO running base at all. I did take 15 weeks to train, but even that is skimping it. So chatting with my dad we decided leg strengthening (on weight machines) and getting up to a solid 15-20 mile per week base is one of the ways to do this. (other suggestions???) So right now that is my goal... to get up to that base, taking it slow, and letting my body learn to run without getting injured... because I came too close too many times training!

That said...I did have my snazy new heart rate monitor on a Timex Ironman Road Trainer! I debated getting a gps thing, but I dont want to be slave to the numbers-  yet.... (I tend to get obsessed with numbers if i have access to them) It was my present to myself at the expo. I think I'm a bit de-conditioned... my HR was 180 for the running part! I recovered real quick, but normally when I test it myself I'm a bit more 160-170s! So thats a good fitness goal!

So I'm dreaming of when my body is done being beat up by the marathon and I can get up my speed and have an ache/pain free run... That high is amazing...I'll be chasing after it for a little while i think! 

Boredom, Runner's Toe and Finals!

So I was all ready to go running on Monday after I picked up my snazzy new orthotics from my foot doc. I have NO ARCHES, NONE, COMPLETELY FLAT- thanks Dad. I find orthotics to be glorious. (I find a lot of things to be glorious). And the ones I just used for my marathon were the kind you are supposed to replace every 400 miles... well I have had them for 6 years. I don't think they were doing much- regardless I got through Philadelphia!

Anyhow, the doc saw my toe... which I did a "procedure" on Wednesday after the marathon. I took a 22 gauge (really really small) needle home and sterilized my toe, and bore that little sucker through and decompressed it- lots of gu came out! He said that my doing that probably saved the toe, but the key is... he said to go down with the needle PARALLEL with the nail bed instead of perpendicular- for any of you out there self treating your runners toe! (my needle was sterile... he didn't like the heated paper clip trend either) As it is still tender, he said to give it another 3 days before I run, or I'll just "induce more trauma." 

As disappointing as not running is, I still have work full time and two finals this week, well one down and one to go. So I suppose Monday is my new d-day for running again! Until then, back to the books. The Neuro, Endocrine, Liver, and Gastro-Intestinal System are MINE!