chugging away

Now that all the clocks have been turned back for winter, I find myself out of daylight to run sprints after work.  You will find me bright and early on Sunday mornings at the track...still chipping away at my new year's resolutions.

Four seconds and 7 weeks to get my mile time under 7 minutes....

Happy Weekend

I am absolutely in love with this race picture from the Color Me Rad run last weekend.  

That Boy

That backward glance

Those hands clasped tightly together

My world right there

A Run in the Woods

My favorite running buddy (other than the boy of course!) and I ran the Wicked Thorn trail run last weekend.  It was my first official trail run.  7.25 miles of single file, kind of rocky, lots of hills running.  This might just be the farthest I run before the half marathon I'm signed up for at the end of October.  Eek!

 

It was cold at the start but the views were beautiful and the run felt good to my lazy, just back from vacation muscles.  I must admit, I didn't study the elevation change much before hand and it was a lot harder than I anticipated!

And of course the after run carbs tasted so good.  You can never go wrong with a bratwurst and a budweiser.

Nine

I took a sick day last Friday and did the Eagle Staff Spirit Run.

Nine miles of this scenery.

(And three respectable hills....we'll call it training)

A sunny, cool day.

Good music playing in my ear (I love-love this song)

Who could ask for anything more?



Officially

I had my very last physical therapy appointment yesterday. 

It feels good to be closing this chapter.

I left with a pinky swear promise that I won't be jumping off any tall platforms anytime soon.

Just regular running for me, none of that fancy stuff from now on.

Week two post surgery

I got my staples out yesterday, that felt weird.  They have a tool that looked suspiciously like a regular, old staple puller.  I wondered if it would bleed but thankfully it did not.  The nurse has sufficiently scared me though.  She said my knee looked really swollen still and was quite worried about the staple that sits over my knee cap.  So now I keep wondering if that's going to bust open any second now.  I've had ice on my knee close to none stop since I got home yesterday.

We are in the middle of the second, poorly time work trip for the husband.  So far it's been going alright.  I'm on my second night in a row of sleeping in my own bed instead of on the couch...that's progress.  The two biggest concerns right now is that the dog keeps getting out of the backyard and how am I going to get myself to work? 

Because of the bone contusion and cartilage damage the doctor recommended that the running miles come way down and I find a different activity to spend most of my time with.  I guess it's going to be triathlons for me.  I don't care for bike riding that much but I've done swimming before and it wouldn't be terrible to return to it.  Or maybe I'll just aim for 5 or 10Ks and not too many of them.  Not the news I wanted to hear or the way I wanted to end my running days for sure.  I guess we will see how it goes with time and rehab.

Sunday night, when I was attempting a bath while trying not to get my right leg wet (it was heavily saran wrapped....), I noticed that my calf is already very noticeably smaller than the other one.   I measured it today, a full 1.5 inches skinnier than the left one. Great, now I'm going to be a gimp with one chicken leg!

But I finally finished reading Cloud Atlas and I got an Indian shooting a star on my tootsie roll pop, so we'll call it a good day.

Day 2

Highlights:

Flowers delivered from the peeps at the boy's work.

Got the drain removed and the bandages changed.

The hole where the drain leaked quite a bit. 

That was gross.

I got these "hot" TED compression stockings I have to wear to prevent blood clots.  All I need now is a nurse's cap and I'll have next year's Halloween costume all set.

I took a picture of my knee before they bandaged it this morning.  But it's the kind of thing someone needs to be warned about I think.  6 stitches holes and several staples and all kinds of swelling.  Maybe later I'll have a fun before and after to compare.

Add another tally to October

Statistically speaking, October has always been a terrible month for my health.  There's been mono, and thyroid radiation, and that one year I had terrible morning sickness, a month long case bronchitis.  This year, instead of trick or treating, I got a new ACL, lost 50% of my medial meniscus, got stitches in both meniscus, and some fancy staples down my shin bone.

This year's halloween costume

The part I was most worried about (the anesthesia going out and coming back) was no big deal.  The part I was sure I would get through (the pain) was so much worse than I thought it would be.  Everyone said day two would be so much worse than day one.  But upon waking, on a scale from 1 to 10 on pain, I'd give it a 57.

Highlights:
After waking up my throat was really sore.  The nurse said that was from the tubing they put in my mouth to keep my tongue from cutting off my airway. 

Me: Can I see it?

The Nurse: Are you sure? It looks like big vagina.

Me: I'm sure.

Except I don't really remember what it looks like, I think I wasn't fully awake yet.

We emptied my drain twice in the night for a total of 90ml of blood and whatever.  Fun right?

Here's to day two, hopefully it is filled with less pain, more sleep, and getting the drain removed.

A Rad Run

I have been eyeballing this 5K for a while.  The closest race to home had been Sacramento up until now.  And I was having a hard time convincing the tribe to drive to Sacramento just for a 5K.  But Color Me Rad came to Reno this year.    So it was an easier sell.

In case you were wondering just how crazy the color was, here is our before picture. 

At the very end, every runner got their own color bomb to throw at the designated, celebratory time. 

Emma had some much fun she kept running back into the crowd to do it again.  The run was seriously so fun, I don't even mind that two weeks after I paid full price for registration it was half price on groupon. 

6 years old and first 5K in the books!  She did great too, only walking a little bit on the hills.

Come back to Reno again, Color Me Rad, I'd repeat the fun!

I went to the mudder

And she bested me.  But I had such a great time getting my booty kicked. 

Here are just a few pictures of the day.  I'm off to shower and scrub the gravel out of my elbows. 

That's me in red, assessing the ring situation.  I assessed poorly.
 Ended up swimming.

Halfway done.  Yay!

Some of American Savage.
It's only pipes filled with water and barbed wire above, no big deal.

Quick photo break

Still have a little more scrubbing to do on my number.  Can you tell which knee is swollen?

Even though I didn't get to finish the course (I buckled my knee on obstacle #14 at mile 8) I accomplished quite a bit and am happy.  Plus I got to ride in the medical vehicle down the mountain and have hot chocolate with the EMTs. Experiencing a little bit of the behind the scenes action of the race.  I think the EMT girl could tell I was frustrated and trying not to cry, she drew me the sweetest, sharpie heart across the tape of my knee bandage.  It's the little things in life.

Should the opportunity arise again, you can be I'll be settling the score with the Tough Mudder!

CCHS Construction Club 5K

It's been a while since I've raced in a 5K.  Almost 2 years.  But when a newbie runner asked if I'd run with her because she was nervous I said of course.

I finished in 26:43

Pretty excited about that time,  It's a minute and half faster than my last one.

 I ended up getting 2nd in my age group and now I have a new 5K best.

This PR came without medals, ribbons, or awards....but I'll take it!

That's me in the middle....the only one without a fancy sign to hang above my bed :)

To India

Remember how I found money a few months ago while running in the 2012 Tinkerbell half marathon.  I finally decided what to do with it.

I sent it here: http://sometimessweet.blogspot.com/2011/11/what-really-matters.html

I found Kristin's blog around the end of last year and fell in love with her story.  I admire her courage and her heart, to reach out to people worlds away and see in the face of a stranger a precious soul that matters in this world. She started this journey by going to India to work for Operation Smile.  What was supposed to be a couple months of work and a return to the US has turned into so much more.

Checkmarks and PRs

Run a half marathon - check

Don't die while running said half marathon - check

Try really hard to not be the last one to cross the finish line - check

Instead of our usual Labor Day weekend plans (which involve the most amazing ribs, little people birthday parties, small town parades and oodles of candy), the boy and I drove down to Anaheim so I could run in the 6th annual Disneyland half marathon.  I attempted to take pictures along the course so that the boy could feel like he got to see all the cool behind-the-scenes at Disney things I got to see.  But I was so impatient to get that third checkmark up there that my feet kept running and most of the pictures were blurry.  (Don't worry Husband...I'll make it up to you in January). 

I did end up getting a decent one of the Sign Shop,

in the back of the park kind of behind the rivers of America.

There were so many people starting the race that the first 4 miles flew past without much heart pounding or heavy breathing, either that or I was too distracted by all the characters and fun toons blaring over the sound system.

While I was training someone told me that at mile 6 people start to hurt.  At mile 8 the bottom drops out for a lot of first timers.  So I made sure I carried beans with me and stopped at all the powerade stations.  Miles 8, 9, and 10 came and went and I was still trotting along.  I started really watching the time at mile 11.  Apparently running and math aren't my strong suit.  For some silly reason I decided that once I hit mile 11 I only had one more mile to go...one more mile to go.  I can totally do this.  And if I hustle I'll beat that 2 hour 30 minute mark so I can start in the corral next time.  Just one more mile to go....

Except....I didn't really have one more mile to go.  I had 2.1 and 20 minutes to go.

Damn you mile 11

If I hadn't have been up since 4 am, I might have had the foresight to take the uneaten sports beans out of my shorts first and not take my "I finished and didn't die" picture in front of the sanihuts...maybe next time.

The official stats are:

13.1 miles in 2:30:37

Overall ranking 5,319 out of 12,785 finishers

2,779 out of 8,368 women

512 out of 1,410 30-34 year olds.

I'll be returning in January to run in the first ever Tinkerbell half marathon. 

New goals:

faster AND take pics with the characters



Anyone for a game of Pooh Sticks?

Dusk - July 15th

Three

How many 800 M sprints does it take to get to your best friend's house on an idle Sunday morning?

Three

The boy followed behind with the kiddos so we could all have a play date and snow cones together.

Hay Down

June 23rd