Ending the hiatus at last

If you've kept up with this blog at all, you may be wondering what I've been doing for the last six months since the Tyler Rose Half. The short answer is: moping. I've been moping and feeling sorry for myself. I've gotten most of that out of my system now. I'll be posting some new fitness and nutrition goals next week.

For a more detailed break down of my six month pity party:

Race Day:

Aka, the "purpose" of this entire blog. It didn't go as planned. During our first 9 mile run (about a month from the half), I had some kind of physical break down where my hip gave out and my guts went crazy. I had to stop running about 6 miles when my gastrointestinal distress became so severe that I feared an imminent pants-disaster. We stopped at a gas station but I couldn't go to the bathroom. So, we tried to run again (because I'm hard headed) and that's when my hip just gave out. I didn't feel anything snap or pop, it just suddenly became loose and wobbly. I hobbled down to the nearest Dairy Queen and made it to the bathroom just in time. Then we hobbled back home about 3 miles. The next day I could barely walk. Awesome.

I made a lot of bad bad decisions that run. Looking back, I should have stopped for good the first time. I should've called a friend to come pick us up. I should've refueled better and eaten more carbs before the run. I should've kept up with my strength training, since I knew my hips were vulnerable to injury.

I basically rested for the next two and a half weeks, and then attempted some 30 minute walks along our normal running paths. Although I still had some serious hip discomfort, I was too bone-headed to give up. By the day of the half, I felt "well" enough to convince my husband that we should walk the half. So we did. It was incredibly cold (like, almost freezing). It was slow going, but my hip and my fear kept us from running. We did end up running the last mile, which was pretty encouraging. All in all, it took us about three and a half hours to cross the finish line... pretty abysmal. Because we got there so late, the race organizers had run out of finisher's medals. Ugh. We did eventually get them in the mail.

They looked like this:

After the race:
I didn't feel like running EVER again. I felt incredibly discouraged, stupid, and worthless (never mind the fact that I had just walked 13.1 miles after training for months, something that should have made me feel proud of myself). It just seemed so pointless. I spent about two months doing nothing aside from some karate and half-hearted walks. Needless to say, I put on a bit of weight. Then the holidays came, and I put on some more weight. Yay!

At some point, I decided to get off my butt and do something. I landed on this strength training program from Kara Goucher, courtesy of Tony Salazar. It's specially designed for runners and it is a beast. I made it through one full round (four weeks of increasingly heavy weights + one rest week), put on a lot of muscle, and felt pretty awesome about myself. During my first week of round two, I screwed up by not eating enough calories (again) which resulted in me almost passing out in the middle of a set.

Shortly after this experience, my husband and I traded various flu strains back and forth for about 6 weeks. Then I got a little depressed. Then, we had this ridiculous month of crazy weather changes that threw my poor joints into a tailspin.

Then I went out of town for ten days for a conference in New York. Then I got sick again.

Aaaaaand now I'm here. Sick and tired of being sick and tired, as they say. Last week, my husband and I started a new round of the Kara Goucher workout. Next week, I'm going to start a weird paleo food challenge called the Whole30 Challenge. So there you go.

Words of encouragement are welcome, as are any hilarious stories of failure that you might have.

Worst timing ever... trucking along

On top of the hip troubles I mentioned last week, I spent the weekend (technically Thursday through Monday) with the worst case of flu I have had in the last five years. It was super adorable. Anyhow, with three Sundays to go until the BIG DAY, it's become abundantly clear that this race won't be what I would consider a successful one. We haven't run/walked more than 9 miles, and that was almost a month ago. I'm just not sure that I have the lung integrity and hip strength to accomplish 13.1 right now.

That said, we're still planning to attempt the race even if it means walking most of the way.

After October 7th, we'll start training for the next attempt (February 3, 2013, Irving, Texas: the Texas Half). In the week after the Tyler Rose Half, I'll write an analysis of what we can do better to train for Irving.

Half-marathon distance, I *will* own you.

Catching up, and a new record

I've been pretty silent on here for a few weeks, but rest assured that we haven't given up. I got a bit bogged down by the blogging process.

Here's what you've missed, in the meantime:

• Wednesday, July 18 run - a 30 minute run that got cut short due to hip pain; kept up a decent pace though.
• Vacation in Miami - in which we endeavored to run, but failed (Saturday July 21, Monday July 23, and post-vacation recovery on Wednesday July 25)
• Saturday, July 28 run - 8 mile target, just under 6.5 run (making this the new longest run ever). Run/walk of 10min/3min was adjusted to 8min/5min to deal with hip pain, headache, and tummy ache. Ended up stopping 5 minutes earlier than planned because I completely depleted my glycogen stores and just couldn't run any farther. It was a surreal experience which taught me that: 
• a) I need to have a plan for fueling on runs longer than 1 hour
• b) I am infinitely tougher than I used to be; seriously, this was the most out-of-body miserable experience I have ever put myself through
• c) My husband makes an incredible long-distance runner; he isn't affected by this stuff at all
• d) Old Jacksonville Hwy inside the loop has great sidewalks
• e) It's time to buy that CamelBak
• f) I still hate the heat, and probably always will, but it doesn't have to keep me from running
• Tuesday, July 31 run - a 30 minute run fraught with whining and puttering and grunting. I learned that:
• a) Some runs are just really hard for no reason.
• b) My attitude problems aren't gone, but they are getting better (and Matt allows me enough grace to make up for it)
• c) I need to be mindful of my tendency to fall into a slow-pace rut
• d) Accordingly, it's time to kick it up a notch
• e) I still let my emotional environment dictate my physical output
• f) Sometimes my feelings are wrong.

With the Saturday run, we wrapped up what I consider another week towards our bribe-thermometer (lost a week while in Miami).

It's been really tough here lately. I know lots of people experience seasons of discouragement in their training, so I'm not alone. I've been struggling physically and mentally for the last few runs. What have you done to get through periods like this?

Monday's run, another adventure

For this run, I don't have much to say beyond what I wrote on my Dailymile account:

"Well, we made it at really great pace (10:42)... but just before the 2 mile pace, we got caught in a HUGE lightning storm. We got totally soaked, and had to stumble home early. I could not see anything because of the rain on my glasses. Matt had to hold on to my arm to get me home (I ended up taking off my glasses because I could see better without them. I have 20/200 vision)

To make matters worse, running up College St I became suddenly aware of impending intestinal DOOM coupled with sudden weakness. Second run in a row this happened. Got home, dealt with crisis, took a shower, passed out. Experienced lots of sickness/issues the next day. Apparently, I got a bug from my husband. Still dealing with it, and probably have to delay today's run.

But, at least we had a good pace and no real joint issues! (Just a little nagging in my hip)"

So, there's that. Also, the temperature was in the low 80s so it was really nice. That humidity is something else, though. It feels like breathing pea soup. We did some mild speedwork until the Impending Intestinal Doom hit, at which point I abruptly stopped running.

This week's training plan:
Monday - 30 minute run  24 minute run
Wednesday - 30 minute run 36 minute run (to make up for Monday's lost time)
Saturday - 6.5 miles (Plan to run/walk 85 ish minutes, approximately 6.5 miles worth of 13:00 pace. Run 10 minutes, walk 3 minutes)

Two runs, one day (have we gone mad?)

Today, I experienced two "firsts" in my running journey...

1. We ran twice today, after our second run of the week was repeatedly delayed.
2. I had my first experience with Impending Intestinal Doom.

Our two runs were nothing spectacular, but we got them in.

The first was a 30 minute run around 10:30 am at Rose Rudman, in 95 degrees with a heat index of 104 (it was SUPPOSED to be 85 degrees... thanks weather forecast). It was really hot and humid, like breathing pea soup. We tried to keep track of the distance, but somehow got on the wrong trail or something. Still haven't figured that out. We estimated the pace about 13:30, since that's our usual M.O. for hot runs. One good thing I noticed is that my mental game is getting a lot better. I normally request time updates every ten minutes. This time, I was able to hold out well past that. Matt let me know when we looped back around to where we started

The second was a 30 minute run around 9:30 pm in the Azalea District. We covered 2.37 miles, with an average pace of around 12:30. The best part of this run is that the splits were within 10 seconds of each other; this is even more impressive if you've ever run north on S. Chilton street, which is basically a series of giant neverending hills. Seriously.

We lost a lot of time after the first hill when I had some issues trying to get a drink of gatorade (basically stumbled all over the place trying to drink it, then choked on it). We also lost a bit of time around the 2 mile mark when I had an "OH CRAP" moment... and I mean that in the worst way. Fortunately, I was only a few blocks from my mom's house so I knew I could stop there if I had an emergency. Even more fortunately, I did not have an emergency. :) I think the culprit may have been the cabbage/bacon/feta rolls I made earlier today. I picked up the pace significantly for the last .37 miles, which saved our pace a little.

On the injury front, my hips seem to be doing well-ish. They feel generally sore like I've been working them, but not painful or too weak. My shin started bothering me again after the first run, which has me a little worried about the possibility of a stress fracture. I was able to run on it without any pain during the second run, but I iced the snot out of it anyway.

So with that, we've wrapped up another week... happy days! I'll update the thermometer soon, but Blogger seems to be having issues with HTML right now. For a manual update, this makes the 8th week of completed training (9 total, one was a hiatus week), so I've "raised" $80 for myself! :)

Great news! (Update)

Contrary to my fears from last post, my doctor cleared me to run today. She said that I'm most likely experiencing normal recovery from my bout of bronchitis, which can take 4-6 weeks for really bad cases. She sent me on my way with a short-term prescription for prednisone and some directions for using my Albuterol inhaler.

She was really supportive of my plans to train for a half-marathon. I'm excited to have a medical endorsement... apparently, I'm not totally out of my league here.

I thought I might fall victim to Murphy's Law for Runners, but it looks like I'm spared this time!

(found this at http://womensrunning.com/blog/murphys-law-for-runners/)

                                     

A possible snag

Well, yesterday's run went really well: run 10/walk 3/run 10 on the UT Tyler trails. We pushed through some light rain and heavy humidity, and Matt has almost learned all the states (reciting states in alphabetical order is one of the devices Matt uses do distract me when I'm mentally flagging; hilariously, he misses a lot of them).

My weight bearing joints performed great, although I have a bit of soreness in my ankles this morning. It's not the injury kind of soreness, but the working new muscles kind. Breathing seemed pretty reliable; I could definitely feel the exertion, but it stayed steady and I had no pain.

However - here's the snag - I experienced some coughing and chest pain last night a few hours after the run and this morning. Obviously, these symptoms would be worrisome any time, but they're particularly concerning to me because I just recently got over "bronchitis". This bout of bronchitis kept me laid low for about 2 1/2 weeks, making me miss what would have been our 3rd annual North Texas Warrior Dash. I'm actually still pretty peeved about that (p.s. they did NOT refund our money).

So, I made an appointment with my primary care doctor to get checked out again. Sigh sigh sigh. I go in today to see if they can figure out what's going on, and whether or not it might hinder my training plans. Wish me luck.