Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Pre Thanksgiving post and photo dump

It's that time of year again!  I have been trying really, really hard not to dial up the christmas radio and just jam out.  I am getting super excited for this holiday because heck, my kiddo is super excited and thanksgiving is only tomorrow!  We have to drive around the neighborhood every night because people already have their lights up and little red LOVES lights and decorations.  The park will be lit up by the end of this week fully and he begs me every night to drive through and check.  He is getting me SO excited for the Christmas season.
This week has been so much fun thus far!  We got to drop Uncle Cayce at the airport in KC and visit the T-Rex Cafe and afterwards, walk around the Legend's mall (which is an outdoor mall space).  I was kind of worried about going to the T Rex cafe based on the yelp reviews.  I didn't see much over a 1 star review but I kept my expectations low and was pleasantly surprised.  Plus earlier this summer, andrew was a little scared by animatronics animals at the Rolling Hill's zoo in Salina, and I figured there would be many in this place.
Yeah, the place was a money suck, and yeah we had to wait to be seated even though it was empty, and yeah it took a while for our food to come out BUT, we had TONS of fun.  They have a huge gift shop with lots to look at that kept us entertained while we waited, we ordered very simple dishes that were very tasty, and our waitress was super nice and helpful.  While waiting for our food, we did the scavenger hunt and found all of things on our list, which took up most of the time we would be waiting for our food.  At the end, because of the wait for our appetizer, they took that off the bill and honestly, for the amount of food we got (including a commemorative cup with an icee), the bill wasn't bad at all.  
We even decided to do the build a bear workshop, which of course was build a dino instead of bear.  Meet Salvy, the red dino, AKA little red's best new friend.
 After dinner, we walked around and looked at the christmas decorations.  Little red had so much fun looking at the trees all lit up, and we had fun stretching our legs before another 2 hour car ride back to home from KC.  The weather has been unseasonably warm for November which helped make the walking even more enjoyable.
Then last night I had this on my plan!  Well, it was originally for monday, but since we went to KC, I switched monday to an off day, and last night to a speed work session.
I was a little worried about several things, one being my ankle, two being the wind, which was sustained at 16 mph and coming from the south.  My preferred repeat gravel road is a north south road, but we made it work.  We did our 600s into the wind and our 400 recovery after that was walked.  Then we headed back north for the 400 and 200 intervals, and ran those recoveries at a slow jog.  We ended up doing over 6 miles, and I am happy to say my ankle is only a tiny bit sore today.  I have decided to run exclusively in my Kinvaras, since I am having so much luck with them and my ankle/shin issues.   I hope this keeps up, because I just bought new ones on sale from Sacouny to keep back for when these wear out:)  I just couldn't pass up free shipping and 20% off!

I wanted to close out this post by saying what I am thankful for.  I am not sure I will be able to post tomorrow as we have company coming over and my hubby has mucho cooking to do, which means mucho keeping little red out of the kitchen for me.  It's hard to narrow it down to just a few things.  I honestly live such a blessed life and am lucky to have many family members who love me, a great hubby, great friends and the best little red headed baby and dogs.  We are thankful and blessed with good health, a roof over our heads, and  jobs that give us money to live comfortably with.  Other than a few blips here and there, this year has been exceptionally wonderful and drama free, and I am super thankful for that.  I hope this continues into 2016:)  

Have a great thanksgiving and happy turkey trotting to all of those running tomorrow!


 


Saturday, November 21, 2015

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy birthday to me!  My mom put this pic on FB this morning.  I was suppose to be a christmas baby, and I ended up being a thanksgiving baby, thanks to me being born a month early.  Back then, they didn't use ultrasound regularly, and mom actually had to have an xray before I was born that determined I would be a c-section baby, since I was breech.  Note the similarities, my own son was breech:)  Guess it is genetic.
The hubby had to work today, so andrew and I slept late (wow 8:30 after going to bed before 10) and went to town and shopped.  We hit up my ever favorite Target, after a short stop at Menards for dog food, and to look at christmas stuff (andrew's fav thing right now).  We also stopped at my favorite coffee shop, so I could have some birthday coffee, and again checked out the Christmas decorations that up already.

My mom went all out and had me a whole HUGE bag of work out clothes including pants, shorts, tank tops and a couple of cute winter weather tops.  She finds the best deals, as everything was marked down and all either target brand or old navy but not at full price.  She is a shopping deal ninja!
I ordered my present from tony and andrew in advance, and it arrived just in time for me to do a quick 3 mile run last night in the dark.  I had been wanting a new head lamp, one that didn't come from home depot, so when I saw the newest one from Nathan in the latest Runner's World magazine, i was so excited.  Then I looked up the price, OUCH!  Lucky for me, they had one that was still quite amazing with most of the same functions, yet a little cheaper.  I found it on amazon at a great price, showed the hubs quickly ordered.
This pic does not do the amount of light it puts out justice.  This is an area of my running route that is VERY dark, as in no street lights and lots of trees.  You can't see your hand in front of your face on a cloudy night.  The nathan headlamp honestly lit up the entire road, and I had no issues seeing at all.  The other function that I LOVE is that you can change the brightness you need by a wave of a hand over the sensor. I also love that it will strobe when oncoming cars are headed towards you, so they can see you. I try and wear both passive and active light options, so this is a bonus for being seen.  
I can't wait to use it more next week on my nightly runs.  And now to go finish celebrating my birthday!  Hoping to have a long run tomorrow as this cold is slowly exiting and the coughing hasn't gotten any worse.  Have a great weekend everyone!

  


Monday, November 16, 2015

sickly part two

Whelp, I have a sinus infection.  Took the pharmacist's advice and got in with a dr today.  After going over my symptoms and finding fluid in my ears and some very sore sinus cavities, and declaring my lungs to be clear, the decision was made that it was an infection worthy of some antibiotics and some cough meds.  I also get a nifty steroid to inject up my nose.  I kindly said no thank you to anymore sudafed.  Last night i was up to 1 am, very anxious, not at all sleepy. I am a lover of sleep thank you, so please don't take it away from me!  I had decided, since the cough had gotten worse, to forgo my long run.  That was after much messaging back and forth to my running friends and coach.  Since my cough isn't productive, I felt like my lungs were okay, BUT until I had a professional opinion, I wanted to wait until I started running again.  I have a 10 miler coming up and I would like to think I will be in some sort of shape for that, even if I have 0 goals other than to finish with a smile on my face.

It was a busy weekend though minus the long run.   The weather, although windy, was gorgeous!  I got a short run in saturday with stella ella who has been going slowly insane.  Lots of frisbee has been played but running is what wears her down.  The hubby and I tackled lots of projects around the house, including leaf  jumping in raking.  Little red was actually helping at one time with his tiny rake that grammy got him.  The whole endeavor wore him out so much that he was asleep by 7 pm last night!
He also LOVES to vacuum up dog hair, so I let him.  Takes twice as long when he does it, but we make it a game and a chore I dread gets done.  Now if I can just figure out how to make laundry a game, I am set!
We also tackled a much needed to do project.  Little red got this train table last year from Santa.  We had left it downstairs, and over the course of the year, he lost interest in playing with it.  He still loves setting up tracks all over our bedroom, so we hypothesized that we could move it upstairs to his bedroom, thus making it new again.  We hoped  maybe he would start setting tracks up on it instead of all over our bedroom floor. So far so good!  He played with it quite a bit last night, and had fun enjoying his "new" room.
 AND, we moved his toy bin from our living room up to his room.  We are hoping if he plays in his room more that maybe he will also some day sleep there (YEAH right, who am I kidding:)
I am hoping these drugs kick in and i can feel like a human very soon.  The worst part about this has been the pressure in my sinuses.  It is so bad that I have had lots of pain in my teeth and jaw as well.  I am glad I took off work today to get looked at, and got to set  my fears aside that this was headed to my chest. I still plan on taking it super easy this week, and deciding about a long run closer till the weekend.  The weather is kind of crappy this week, high winds and lots of rain, so may be running on the dreadmill some.  

Have a great week!  Here are some pics that the Tails on the Trail people have posted on their website.  I LOVE free pics!

Getting ready to line up.  Yes i am overdressed, but forgot my short sleeved shirt.  I need dog paw compression socks!  Pro compression, make it happen!
Sled dog taking off.  The pics from all of the runners with dogs were pretty funny.  The dogs all took off like shots out of a cannon!
Getting our second place trophy and bandana.  Love the bandanas!

Cheesing for the photographer!





Saturday, November 14, 2015

sickly

This week has been a bust.  I kind of felt like I was coming down with something,  and BOOM, it finally hit.  It hit with much force as in completely clogged sinuses, ears clogged, and no sense of taste or smell.  I finally went to the pharmacist (no not the doctor, no fever) and told him my symptoms and begged for mercy.  He suggested trying Sudafed and an antihistamine.  I had a really bad reaction to sudafed when I was a kid, but I was so miserable, I felt like it was worth the chance.  I am happy to say I feel way better after several days of meds and good sleep.  I am really glad i tried it, even if it makes me feel like I can smell colors and run down the road naked while simultaneously making me want to go to sleep.

I found this really good article on running with sick here.  It reiterated when to run and when not to.  Fortunate for me, most of my symptoms are "above the neck" and i am not running a fever.  I haven't really felt like running till last night honestly.  We had some bad weather come in this week, including high wind gust up to 40 mph, and then a brief cool down, and I just couldn't handle sudden winter and being sick.  I like to ease into winter slowly, and so far we have been, well until I was sick this week.
Anyway, yesterday was mid 60s and beautiful all day, and I just couldn't help but to try and run when I got home from work.  I had decided if at a mile I felt bad, I would just head back and be happy with 2.  As I headed out, I felt perfectly fine and hit my normal easy pace quite quickly.  About the time I was getting to the road I turn on and head out into the wild blue yonder, a car going verrrryyyyyy slow went by and really creeped me out.  They headed to the right, the way I was headed and it just un nerved me, so I headed left towards the very few houses that are on my running route. I also got my phone out just in case.  I should have just headed back to the house, but for some reason, the car turned around and came back towards me and then turned off.  I would like to think they were just lost.  So, stupid me just headed back on my normal path.  About that time, I got the worst cramp under my rib cage.  I have had those before and they are usually gas.  Before I left, I was starving so I thought to myself, it can't be gas, I haven't eaten.  I tried walking and running it out, and I couldn't seem to get it to let up.  I ended up calling my hubby to come and get me, because I was still more than a mile out from the house.  Unfortunately, he was at the grocery store, so by the time I walked/ran home, he was just at the house.    I ended up doing almost 3.4 miles of painfulness.  I don't think it was related to my cold but more maybe because i didn't eat before I headed out.  I am going to try and do another short run today and see how it goes before I attempt a long run tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Science is my life.

Some times I wish I wasn't a scientist. I view my life as one experiment after another.  Here is case in point:

So before my son, I was a caffeine addict.  I also had horrible insomnia at night, so I would sleep from like 2 or 3 am till around 8 am, and then get up and have to drink tons of caffeine, usually in the form of diet soda or tea.  I would feel buzzed for hours and it felt GREAT! I even would drink a decaffeinate soda with dinner.  Wow.  Anyway when I got preggers or found out I was preggers, I cut it all out to about 1 cup of either coffee or half a soda a day and water, water, water.  Big difference.  Post breast feeding and getting back to normal (or whatever normal is now LOL), I slowly have moved more caffeine back in my life, but more in the form of black coffee.  I noticed a big difference in that instead of that buzzed feeling I use to get, I feel sleepy when I have too much caffeine, almost worn down and fatigued like you would feel right before you started your period.  

Okay, now rewind back to last week.  I had been using a Nuun product that was an all day hydration tablet, in order to get more water in during the day (I drink most of my water when I get home at night, and then am up all night peeing).  Well, I got a huge sample of the all day product at the Chicago marathon and ran out.  I went to the running store here, and the only version they had of the all day hydration product was the one that has caffeine in it called the energy version.  I bought that to keep up with my all day water drinking habit.  Well, honestly, even though it has about half the amount of caffeine in it than a cup of coffee, between my half a cup in the morning and my half of a tea at lunch, I think I was over caffeintating.  Not that I was feeling like I was sick,but I was over buzzed.  This weekend, I just did regular Nuun for my morning hydration and also today. I have felt totally fine.  

Also take my whole shin/ankle issue.  I had moved from my Nike Vomero's to a more cushioned shoe, the Sacouny triumphs.  I also added in strength training two days a week.  Well, while reading another blogger's blog, she mentioned an article about shin injuries and how to over come them.  I was very interested in the part about the misconception being, if you have this issue to move to a more cushioned shoe (something I did).  I had bought some Kinvaras on a sale rack, hoping to move them into rotation as speed work shoes.  I had decided not to use them till after the marathon, so I wasn't changing anything.  When I read this article from Runner's Connect via The Hungry Runner Girl's blog, the red flashing lights flashed and warning bells sounded.  What if this is the one variable i could change, and easily change at that to help my shin issues?  I immediately got my kinvaras out (I had been wearing them as an every day shoe) and started using them for running instead.  I did my trail race with them and my recovery run the next day.  I also did my 5 miles with interspersed fartleks in them yesterday.  I have had ZERO pain since changing to them.  Now i know I need more than a few days to really make a conclusion, but the fact that I had gone from being in some sort of pain pretty much all day every day to ZERO pain, even after a trail race is amazing!!!!  

So there, experiment after experiment.  Yeesh.  Now to figure out why deuce's allergies have returned YET again!  Sigh!

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Race Recap: Tails on the Trail 2015

You know me, find a race that I can run with  my training partner Stella ella and I am there!  I found this race right after Andrew was born a few years back, and have been going back as long as I am healthy.
This year I talked my good friend Mel into going with us.  Stella was very happy to have two of us there.  Mel is speedy so she lined up much closer to the front than we did, and I am pretty sure that is why I saw a 6:45 for a brief second on my watch.  She was trying to get to her beloved Mel.
Stella didn't like waiting around.  I am glad we got there early though because packet pick up was a breeze and I even managed to change clothes from what I originally was going to wear.  I had picked out tights and a long sleeve shirt but ended up in a skirt, compression socks and a long sleeved shirt.  I really think I would have been fine in a tech T, with maybe some arm warmers till I warmed up.  The weather was PERFECT!
I LOVE this race.  Seriously.  They even give the dogs bibs to wear.  The race starts out relatively flat.  You go across open fields that have gently small rolling hills.  Then you head around a baseball diamond area twice before you head out to the trails.  There is a mix of hills, flat, rough and smooth terrain.  There is one monster hill but it is over fairly quickly.  I really didn't know what to expect with my legs.  I still feel like we are slowly recovering, and that the speed in them isn't there.  Plus, I am battling my ankle not being 100%.  I am happy to say that even though we negative split, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  8:43, 8:54, and 9:25.  I would like to keep them all under 8, well, honestly I would LOVE to hit three 8:30s, but I guess I still have a ton of work to do.  It was a super small race, so I ended up finishing in 27:40 and 2nd in my age group, 10th woman overall.  Stella ella and I won a cute little trophy, and another beautiful embroidered scarf.  

Mel G won second in her age group as well.  Stella wanted to pose with her so I let her.  


We had a TON of fun and will be back next year.  I wish the weather could be this nice every year:)

If you are looking for a small race, less than an hour from manhattan that you can do with your dog, this is the one for you.  100% of the entry fee goes back to the shelter!!!!  You can't beat that!
Stella ella and I were very honored to be part of the brochure/poster last year.  
Happy Trails and until Next year!







Monday, November 2, 2015

ANKLES and ROYALS!

So, my strides felt great last monday.  My legs felt like  normal and Mel and I felt like we had the best run ever.  My ankle felt like it was almost ready to  be back in action, and I was hopeful.  Then Tuesday, I woke up with a very stiff ankle and wednesday as well, and during my run, I had some moments of pain.  Nothing horrible but enough for me to take notice.  I came home, unfortunately had to do some house work, but after a few hours, was able to pop some advil, take a load off and elevate and ice.  The next morning, it didn't feel so bad, just maybe tight, but I wore my compression socks, just in case and took some advil with lunch.  I am frustrated with this dang ankle.  Doug isn't for sure what is even causing it to hurt.  Yes, the knot in my calf was pulling, and yes it felt better post massage, but then it has slowly over time started hurting again.  What is even weirder is the fact that it normally doesn't bother me during my run, but yet hurts the other 23 hours of the day. Again, not a horrible pain but a 2 or 3 on a 10 point scale.  

I have my theories of course.  One is that it is still that tendon/ligament issue that I may battle the rest of my life, since I run funny and have changed my bio-mechanics (thus putting a different type of load on that area).  Sometimes i cling to Doug's theory that all runners have aches and pains, and this is normal and will be my new normal.  Another theory is that by wearing my kinveras during the day at work (to try and get away from wearing old broken down running shoes as my everyday shoes), that i have caused some difference in what my foot/ankle is use to.  I am hoping that I am in some sort of break in period, and I should just ride it out.  Note: I started this experiment of wearing my kinveras the monday post marathon and have been wearing them ever since.

I know I over think things and if you can guess, things are slow at work, so my mind wanders to running and my stupid ankle.  I don't want to over think things and yes, my ankle was getting better till we added those strides in (and they felt SO good during), but I also want to pay attention and get anything that is lingering fixed before I go into training for my halfs.

Okay enough about my stupid ankle.  How bout them ROYALS!!!!!

 
Many late nights have been spent watching these boys in action!  I am so excited to have an awesome team to cheer for here in Kansas!  Not only are they super awesome,they play as a TEAM!  I am so excited to have some super role models for my son to grow up and watch.  Congrats to KC for winning the World Series and just being extra awesome human beings!

I also need to correct a couple of things with my thank you post.  I left out one very important person.  Doug at Body first was key to me being able to complete this journey.  He absolutely helped me for FREE post my injury last year, giving up his time and expertise to get me back on the road.  He works on me when I need it and provides me with sound advice and totally understands us runners and our insanity.  If you need a deep tissue massage or help with a nagging injury, PLEASE go to Doug at Body First!!!!!  He understands the runner's mind and body and even travels with the track and field team to help keep them in tip top form.