Knee Pain...Half Marathon...motivation.

Week Recap:

Monday: day off

Tuesday: 20minute tempo (felt good and fit!)

Wednesday: banged knee (see below), 9miles total, 20mile bike 

Thursday: 3x1600, 2x800 (planned 4x1600 but knee dictated my run!)

Friday: planned 6....made it 4 before about crumbling in pain

Saturday: planned 4....made it to 3.5 before the pain set in.

Sunday: Palos 1/2 marathon. More pain than I've ever felt in my life (including running through stress fractures), but pay day so can't complain.

It turns out that I'm more of a klutz than I thought.  I always knew I wasn't graceful,  but Wednesday showed a new side of my klutziness.  Ryan and I received a LARGE (length-wise) package on Wednesday afternoon, filled with sweet new PowerBar backpacks (TYR brand, so super nice).  I was pretty excited to see how they looked since the bike clothes I had received the day before were nice.  I was so excited, in fact, that I couldn't get the box in the door without hurting myself.

Since the box was pretty long (my arms were fully outstretched), it was awkward to bring it in.  I ended up banging my knee REALLY hard on the metal frame of the door.  At first, I just told myself I'm a klutz...and then the pain started to hit.  A neighbor outside walking on the sidewalk outside actually looked to our front door like "what the heck?" because of my scream.  You know that feeling of bumping your elbow on something? Yeah, that's that weird and painful sensation my knee felt. But, I had kids to get to practice so off I went.  

I didn't notice the pain at all on the drive, until I stepped out of the car and almost fell flat on my face.  Guess the knee was hurt. I still decided to bike with the kids as I thought the blood flow might loosen my knee a bit.  I ran 4 miles all pain free after.  I figured my knee pain was gone.

Thursday, I could still feel the pain when I woke at 5am to run, so I opted to run at the kids' practice instead on the treadmills.  The warmup felt fine, so I planned to do the 4x1600 workout as planned.  At about midway through the second 1600, I figured I could probably only do one more before having to switch to 800s with how I was feeling.  The workout itself went well, but having the knee pain be even more intense during the cooldown really scared me.

Friday was a waste.  I felt fine for the first two miles, and gradually my knee pain worsened.  I wanted to get 6 miles in, but just about collapsed after 4 from the shooting pain.  Saturday, I had to lead the Run Club so figured since I hadn't felt any pain Friday during the day, I'd try to see how it felt--bad choice; pain came on around 3.5, so I stopped. 

I wasn't planning on going to the Oswego Wine Festival with my mom, aunt and cousin on Saturday originally, but figured that my knee pain might prevent me from racing anyway on Sunday, so I might as well go enjoy life.  And enjoy we did.  The live bands were awesome (the country one I would almost book for our wedding, that's how good they were--if you're a Carrie Underwood fan...this girl hit her songs PERFECTLY--they're called Jin and Tonic).  The company was awesome.  The wine was awesome.  So it was a pretty good day :)  

I left the wine fest to drive to Orland Park to spend the night with my friend, Sam, from college.  She just graduated from her Master's Program, so I was happy to be able to congratulate her in person!  We stayed up a little too late talking, but it was SOOO good to catch up!

RACE DAY:

Driving over, I felt pretty good...I could still run a low 1:20s and be happy, I decided.  I started walking over to get my packet, and saw my hs friend Megan Hode!  So random, but such a nice surprise!  Megan ended up with a 2minute PR today, so I am thrilled for her!!!

After getting my packet, warming up, etc., I actually felt ready to go.  The first two miles felt SO easy (except that we were running 6:01 and 6:15) and were pain free, so I knew I was going too fast.  My knee didn't start hurting until about mile 4...and then about a mile later my teammate/friend dropped out.  She was the 4th place female, so I knew I'd be "safe" if I just stayed where I was (in terms of winning prize money-- top 5 receive it).  I was just about to catch her and tell her to rock the race and drop out myself, so when I saw her drop, it gave me the motivation I needed to power through the pain.  

At mile 3, a guy joined me and ran up until mile 6 with me, which was nice to have.  We were talking (he found out about my knee after asking if I was doing okay), laughing, everything was good.  At about the 10k mark, my knee really started becoming painful.  Unfortunately, since this is an out-and-back course, if I was to drop out, it'd be a LONG way back.  Plus, I could see at the turnaround that the 5th place female was only a minute or so back.  I latched onto a guy named Jose who was SO friendly and fun.  I could also see that the 3rd place female was starting to tire a bit.  

She had a friend biking back and forth, kind of updating her on how things were going.  I knew at about mile 8 that she was within striking distance.  I started reminding myself of the $$ we need for our wedding/house and how GREAT that extra $100 would be.  My teammate/friend Rick had been spectating and was now on his bike cheering people on, me being one of them.  He told me that I need to concentrate and go get her.  So, with about a 5k to go, I did just that.  

It's not that I wasn't motivated to catch the 3rd place female before that point, it was honestly the amount of pain was outweighing the care of earning an extra $100.  Yes, that is sad because $100 is a lot of money, but I can't describe the pain I was in.  At about mile 9, I had Jose break off from me because my knee pain was causing me to slow down.  But, once I saw Rick, I knew I could use his encouragement to catch back up to Jose (thanks, Rick:)).  

The best part of the race is that Jose and I pushed each other for the second half of it.  Complete strangers, pushing each other to do their best.  Love it.  

Overall, I ended up finishing 3rd with a time of 1:25:11... last year I was 5th with a 1:24:55 (I had to make a 42 second pit stop in the PortaJohn, whoops), so it was a little disappointing.  Yes, my place improved, but my time doesn't really indicate where I am at in my fitness.  I was literally talking to the first guy or Jose almost the entire race, my breathing wasn't labored, and my legs (besides my knee cap on my right) felt like I was barely moving.  Kind of like how I felt at Milwaukee...yeah, I ran well and even earned prize money, but I'm in better shape than what I'm showing!!! So hopefully, my knee gets better...I met with one of the Athletico people on site after the race and she thinks I just bruised the bone.  The way to heal it? Not run on it.  Biking and swimming should be fine, but no running.  Next week's log might be a little bare;)

http://theracershub.com/results_view.php?id=1618&result_type=db Palos 1/2 results

Very happy that this was a successful weekend for my friends (those running the marathon or cinco de mile yesterday and those racing today, and of course Sam for graduating from her Masters Program!, and Julie for ROCKING Flying Pig marathon) and family (dad and Nic ran the Indy 1/2 yesterday, cousin Becky graduated college!!).  

Congrats to all of my friends and family who rocked their races this weekend!!!

Make me angry--I run faster that way:)

MONDAY: day off...weird to say that
TUESDAY: 4miles in AM; 45minute tempo in PM
WEDNESDAY: 6miles in AM, swim workout in PM
THURSDAY: 800/400 workout in AM, hard bike in PM
FRIDAY: 6miles easy in AM
SATURDAY: 12.5miles in PM with fiance
SUNDAY: 5k race, $200 richer

Nice Break:
After that 10k on last Sunday, I was wondering if those 13 days that I was forced to take off because of my bronchitis-like symptoms really paid off.  I figured we'd test that theory in workouts this week.  I thought about doing my tempo on Tuesday morning, but just honestly felt like "sleeping in" with Ryan instead. Tuesday evening came around and I REALLY didn't want to run a 45minute tempo. This is why I do workouts in the morning--that way they are over with before I can decide that I don't want to do them!

Tuesday Tempo:
Anyway, Ryan told me he would meet me at LifeTime, so that motivated me to actually go and do my workout.  It was about 20mph winds, so I decided to be smart and run my tempo inside.  I also decided to test my A5's out again to see if I could maybe even do a 10miler in them.  My workout actually went really well.  It wasn't until about 40/41minutes that my legs started feeling a little fatigued (I attribute this to the fact that I took Monday off, something I never do, so my body felt funny and not recovered from Sunday).  I ran just over 7miles for a 6:27 pace per Coach Cari's calculations based on my sickness/comeback from sickness.

Thursday nightmare:
Thursday, the workout was supposed to be 4x800 and 4x400, buuuuut I slept in for 3minutes too long and had to cut a 400 out.  The main goal was to run them all evenly.  My first 800 was a 2:41...yikes...I need to be closer to 2:45.  The next ones went 2:47, 2:48, 2:47, so I was much happier with those.  The 400s were better than expected--1:17, 1:18, 1:17.  I had to do this workout on the "Woodscreek school course" where there is a completely flat 0.3 portion, then a slight incline and slight decline portion, so everything equaled out for the 800s, but the 400s were flat the entire time:)

Then Thursday night rolled around.  I am currently driving two triathletes to their practice and generally only drive when they have their swim/run practice (MWF). Well, I was asked to drive Thursday (biking is Tues/Thurs), so I figured why not--might as well get a workout in too.  I got in a workout alright... I got more than I bargained for.  I made sure to stay far enough in back of the pack of the 7 riders--I'm not confident enough in my or their abilities to not crash!  Anyway, a pretty good cyclist from a local bike shop came to ride with us as well.  He was there to help the kids out, evaluate how they can improve things such as cadence, etc. At mile 25 of the 32mile ride, he came back to try to help me... except that the things he kept telling me to do slowed me down.  Eventually, I could barely see the pack.  He left me to ride back with them, and I was left on my own.

I should probably stop here and say that I am horrible with directions.  If you get me somewhere once, I can find my way there again, but if you tell me "go to this road, make a left, go 7 blocks turn right, etc.," chances are, I'll get lost.  So, I stopped and asked for directions.  Luckily, the park where we started from had three GIANT water slides and football and soccer fields, so I described the park to the guy mowing his lawn and he told me how to get back--"a left when this road ends, a right when the next road ends, another left when that road ends and it's 1.5miles from there."  Sounded like it would be easy enough.  Except that the park I ended up at was a playground with baseball fields.  Not quite what I thought I had described.  So, practically in tears at this point, I asked one of the baseball coaches how to get to the park I described.  He told me to go up to the light, make a left and follow it about 2 miles down.  Just what I needed--another 2 miles of riding:(

Luckily, this guy knew what he was talking about and I found my way back.  I felt HORRIBLE for the two kids I drive because they had to run barefoot (the kids run a few miles after biking) and then wait around for me as I  had the car keys.  From now on, I'm bringing my phone with on group rides!!!

Sunday's 5k:
Annnnnd finally, today's 5k recap. Ryan had found a race with prize money, so we decided to do it.  I had a 5k on my schedule anyway, so it worked out.  We showed up about 45minutes ahead of time, do some warming up, see that two parts of the course (it's a double loop) are on grass, and then Ryan and lil bro Alex throw around the baseball waiting for the race to begin.  Ryan saw some good competition for him (two Naperville guys) and me (Saucony and PowerBar teammate Kate) and we both hope we can still have good days.  The gun goes off and Ryan and the two guys go FLYING.  A little girl (8th grade) goes with him--SERIOUSLY? I'm not too worried--I know she's going to fade back.  It takes about 1/2 of a mile for her to realize she went out wayyyy too hard and she falls back.  Kate hasn't been running too much (structured anyway) since the Trials, just gradually getting back into things, so I made sure to get a gap right away just in case.  I went through the first mile in 5:30, thinking that COULDN'T be right.  My watch beeped, indicating the first mile was actually 5:45. Phew.

Then we came to the hill--we had to do this hill on both laps and literally heard EVERY person who finished the race complain about it.  It definitely slowed me down, but today wasn't a "go for a PR day," so I was okay with just staying under 6minute miles.  My second mile was 5:54 and third was 5:53.  I knew breaking 18 was still attainable with about a half mile to go, but remembered the hill and decided that I know what kind of shape I'm in--I'd rather not kill myself trying to break 18 on this hard course, and save something for next week.  I finished in 18:18, 4th place overall.

Ryan hung tight with these two Naperville guys for more than half the race, but they just broke off and he couldn't hold on--I'm thinking they probably didn't stand on their feet working for PowerBar from 7am-3pm and then go run 12.5 miles.  Ryan still won $50, but donated it to the race as that's how good of a person he is.  After the race, we went out to breakfast (!!!) before heading out to ride 2 hours (me) or 4 hours (Ryan).

I should probably mention that I was PRETTY MAD going into this race.  Something really not good happened on Friday, something out of my control.  Instead of getting upset over something I can't control, I decided to channel my anger toward my next race (after being an emotional eater and having Tortilla Chips, cookie dough, candy and potato chips to the point of wanting to throw up).  I guess it worked out :)

Overall, a great day.  Here's to hoping next Sunday is just as great!

SHOUT OUTS:
Julie Ralston for placing THIRD at the Illinois marathon in 2:56 (almost 2nd place!!)
Matt Villicana for crushing the course in a 2:52 (next year I'll be there to run it with you:))
Rich Calvario for representing the alums in a 2:47!
DPFT runners for smoking the Lakefront 10miler on Saturday (SO many of you to list!)

Recap (on time!) of first 10k back!!!

After the poor performance I gave in the Race That's Good for Life (again, this was the dumb decision I made to run it despite basically having bronchitis just so my mom and I could possibly win the Mother-Daughter competition), I have been itching to get back into racing.

Today was my chance.

Ryan ran a race two years ago that he described to me as a "flat, fast 10k"...I haven't had a flat, fast 10k in awhile, so I was immediately convinced, providing my workouts went well throughout the past week.

Well, my workouts did go well (yay!) so I told him I was ready to break that looming 38minute mark that should be SO attainable for me!

This race that we did is a little different--the OSF Heritage Run 10k and 2mile race doesn't begin until 1pm. I can't think of the last time I ran such a late race, so I was nervous about stomach issues (I was fine).

I knew the wind would be an issue (20mph from some direction according to weather.com), so Ryan and I talked about sharing the lead with the other runners in the hopeful packs we'd be in.

We arrived and warmed up after BARELY being allowed to race day register as registration cut off time was 12noon and we arrived at 12:05. After our warmup, we saw one of our teammates (Shannon) which was great, but it also meant that I wouldn't be able to win this race as she's a PHENOMENAL runner and would for sure break 37. I was bummed, but told myself to just stick with her and hope that she'd pull me along to a PR.

She did just that. There were two other girls that pushed the pace in the beginning, but I didn't let it get to me as I knew they'd eventually fade (about 1mile in). Shannon's group of her and two other guys seemed to alternate and block the wind for each other...which I was very jealous of as I had broken the two other girls and one other guy that had stuck onto me at the beginning.

Overall, it was probably better that I just ran my own race as it not only pushed me harder, but also gave me confidence that I can run well even with the wind factor. At the turnaround is when Shannon saw me, realized how close I was and took off (she told me after the race). Unfortunately, I had no one blocking the wind for me throughout the beginning 3 miles, so I was exhausted and just told myself to maintain pace.

It worked! I broke 38minutes ALL BY MYSELF. WOOHOO!!!

The only part that I was a tad concerned about (I didn't know physically how my body would handle it) is that I coughed up a bit of blood at mile 5. I'm just going to say that was because I was running a lot into the wind and that I'm no longer sick :)


Splits below...

5;53
6:07
6:13 (18:20...just under 19 for 5k)
5:59 (my only goal was to have my splits equal or be faster than the previous ones -- so mile 1 and mile 4 should be similar, mile 2 and 4, etc.)
6:03
6:04
1:32 last 0.2
37:54.......2nd female, 8th overall finisher.

This workout also showed me that I AM in better shape than I thought after that 13 day hiatus. Now I just have to plan my next race!!!!

SlimKicker recap

If you read my previous post, you know that I was sick (and out of commission in terms of running) for 13 days. During this time, I was VERY concerned about gaining weight as I NEVER take time off of working out.

While I was lucky that I was able to write everything down, I know that many people WISH there was a way to track calories on their phone. I also know many people who would LOVE to have some sort of motivation to eat right...not necessarily lose weight (an added bonus for me:)), but just eat GOOD food so they don't feel sluggish come 3pm.

WELL. Good news! Someone who I had been contacted by probably a year ago now had asked me if the above comments were something I'd be interested...basically an "app" or website that could help a person not only track calories, but also stay motivated. The app/website is here!

www.slimkicker.com

Try it... honestly, I had NO IDEA that I was eating the amount of sugar that I am. No wonder I'm feeling fatigued around the 3pm timeframe. I am now starting to watch how much sugar I eat, in addition to carbs/fats/proteins and calories. This website/app makes it super easy.

Try it, you'll like it:)

Getting back into shape... April 9-April 20

Well, I now understand what people mean when they say it's just so hard to stay motivated to run.

With being out for 13 days with basically bronchitis, I got into the habit of not working out. I was watching what I was eating so that I wouldn't put on any extra pounds, and actually lost weight from not working out. Yeah, I'm not sure how that works either.

So, it was very hard for me to start running again. Luckily, I had no choice on April 9th.

It had been two weeks since my last real day of working out, and I was driving two athletes to their triathlon practice. I was in workout clothes because I was considering running since I was no longer coughing up mucus....and the kids asked me to come with. So, since I was planning on running anyway, I ran with the kids. When I stopped 2 miles in (they had a plyo set to do before running back), I began coughing again. I ran back with the kids and then hopped on the treadmill--no coughing. So, I decided the next day to do my 800m repeats on the treadmill.

April 10th.

800s on the treadmill, AND in my new TypeA5's, worked out wonderfully. Not only did the 800s go better than I was hoping (started at 2:52 to see if coughing occurred... went down to 2:35s for the last two), but the shoes felt great! I ran a 30minute tempo on Friday per my schedule...but my hamstrings remained sore for quite some time after (4 days). Very frustrating.

April 16th.

The workout called for 20min tempo (5min jog), 10min @10k pace (5min jog), 3min@5k pace (3min jog), 1min @mile pace. I again planned to do this on the treadmill as I just didn't want to get back to the hacking cough that I had while sick. I was able to complete the workout with no real problems, and even swam with the kids after. Not surprisingly, my upper body was what was sore the next day.

April 18th.

Schedule called for 2x1200 at 6min pace, 2x1000 fast. Well, I was staying at my aunt and uncle's house in Overland Park, Kansas, for work and they just happen to live right across from an elementary/middle school...which just happens to have a track. Do you see where this is going? YES...I broke away from the treadmill habit! My 1200s and 1000s ROCKED and my hamstring soreness was completely gone!

I guess what I would want everyone to take from this semi-rambling post is DON'T GET SICK! And if you do, AND if it's respiratory, DON'T RUN! No matter how badly you want to run a semi-fast 5k so you and your mom can win the Mother-Daughter division, DON'T RUN! It will prolong the respiratory problem and you'll be coughing up blood for weeks!

It's definitely hard to stay healthy with all of the stress that we put on our bodies on a daily basis, so if you start feeling sick...EsterC usually does the trick for me. Load up on that Vitamin C, Green Tea, etc. and take a break from working out. Your body will thank you for it:)

EGG SHELL SHUFFLE: race director's recap

Running wise, I have nothing to report this week as I literally tried running once since the Race That's Good for Life (Thursday, 1200 repeats, and it failed).

...except that the Egg Shell Shuffle, the 1/2 marathon and 5k race that Ryan and I put on, was AWESOME.

I can't begin to describe the compliments that we've received so far. Normally, race directors receive emails within the next 24 hours with ways to improve the race...people just like to complain. I know this because of my race director dad. However, we have received 16 emails... all with positive comments. Crazy, right?!

We did, of course, make a list of ways to improve the race for next year. Instead of going over those in my blog, I'm going to list the small successes that we've had throughout this race.

1. WE SOLD OUT AS A SECOND YEAR RACE. Yup. You read that right. We capped our race at 800 runners, had to close online registration at 6pm on Wednesday night. We still allowed runners to register at Dick Pond Athletics in Schaumburg on Thursday and Friday and had race day registration as we had been advertising this since January, not thinking we'd sell out.

2. We had 915 runners finish the races! We had over 500 runners compete in the 5k--which DOUBLES last years total between BOTH races.

3. Our prizes for the egg hunt rocked. Correction, our prizes in general rocked.

Skechers donated shoes to the top three overall male and female winners in both the 5k and 1/2 marathon. And donated 3 free pairs of shoes to our egg hunt. We also had an egg hunt winner receive a MOTOACTV (Motorola) GPS watch. Other prizes include: signed Bears football with two jerseys, Marian Hossa autographed photo, Nick Leddy autographed photo, Dick Pond gift cards ($25-150 range), Panera dinner for two, free Potbelly sandwiches, Nike+ watch, AlterG treadmill card ($250 value), Starbucks gift baskets, Dick Pond gift baskets, Dicks gift card and iTunes gift cards.

Top three in each age group received a Saucony bag with a waterbottle and PowerBar product (1st place), Timex hat with PowerBar product (2nd place) and a PowerBar water bottle filled with PowerBar product (3rd place).

4. Did I mention that instead of giving out tshirts like most races do, our runners received RUNNING SHORTS with our logo on them? Yeah, not your typical race.

5. Our volunteers were A-MAZING. Not only did our family and friends help like they did last year, but we also had 50 Conant High School National Honors Society students help out, in addition to 6 Starbucks employees. I was getting compliments throughout the race on how great our volunteers were.

Overall, there's no way we could put on as successful of a race as we did without the incredible support of our friends and families. We are SO excited that this year was an even bigger success than last year and cannot wait to start planning next year's event!

Feel free to check out our race website (we will upload pictures soon) at www.eggshellshuffle.com

In other news, after 13 days of not running (except for trying to run twice and failing to run at the Race That's Good for Life last Sunday), I'M RUNNING AGAIN TOMORROW! :)

Hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Easter. Can't wait to see blog recaps on Boston for a lot of my friends!

Race That's Good For Life... note to self: NEVER race with a respiratory virus.

After Powerman Alabama, I had a trip to Canada for work. Ryan and I drove the whole way home with his dad and two little brothers. Well, one brother was sick and I think I caught a little bit of it...that, combined with the "nasty little bug" going around in Canada has caused me to be sick for 13 days now.

I arrived in Canada Tuesday and had a fartlek 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 with equal rest scheduled. I usually feel a little tired after an early flight, but I was excited to do this workout. Unfortunately, my lungs did not feel the same way. I went from 70-80 degrees in Alabama to 40-50 degrees in Canada, and I'm pretty sure my body just shut down. Physically, the fartlek was great and I rocked it....minus the coughing up blood part. Yep. I pinpoint Tuesday, March 27 as the day that I acquired this wonderful virus.

I did take medicine after consulting a pharmacist at WalMart and I honestly think it helped my fever and whatever stomach bug I had. However, it did nothing for my runny nose and wheezing cough. I kept telling myself it'd get better; viruses stick in your system for 7-10days. Coach Cari said I could run still, but Ryan (who had just finished being sick) thought taking time off would be better. Ryan won as I literally had no energy the entire week.

I didn't want to skip the Race That's Good For Life as I calculated that if I ran an 18minute 5k and mom ran her usual 24minute 5k, we could win the Mother-Daughter competition. Well, the warmup on race morning was awful. I only ran a mile and decided that I'd just try to break 19 at this point. I did just that...I ran a 19minute 5k. I knew this meant that mom and I wouldn't win, which was the only reason I had even decided to run the race. I collapsed at the finish line, not able to breathe and realized that I was an idiot for even thinking of running.

Lesson learned.

If you have a respiratory infection, or even just a hacking cough, DON'T RUN! It will just make things worse! Honestly, I know as runners we are stubborn people, but it is not worth it. Be smart, take a few days to get healthy, and you'll come back stronger. I promise.