Just call me Michael Phelps

Except don't....that would be embarrassing, for him mostly, I'm just that good


So lets see...here's where we are at.  Last Monday I ran, I took that first step and it was bad news from beginning.  I should have just stopped, but because I'm stubborn, and that lack of patience, I ran the 3 miles, cursing and being angry the whole time ( Sorry Jake!).  Not more than an hour after we got home, I could barely walk.  I couldn't stand to put any pressure on my left leg at all, and I knew something was really wrong.  This was the worse it's felt since the beginning of my injury.  Woke up the next morning and it was still the same.  I saw Jim that next afternoon, and he wasn't even able to work on it and do the usual adjustments because it is so irritated.  I would cringe each time he tried anything - not good.  The thing is, I should know better.  If I cant even walk normal, how can I expect myself to run.  Sometimes I'm stupid. 

So, this all means, NO RUNNING.  For an undetermined amount of time.  Here are the things I can do, as long as I don't feel any pain at all. Swimming, biking or walking.  I'm on board with the biking for sure, swimming will be interesting, and walking seems really boring.  Since I want to do everything I can to get myself better so I can come back a stronger runner, I will do what it takes, so last Tuesday night I went out and bought this...

the answer is yes, I do look sexy in my swim cap

So last Wednesday I put on a brave face and ventured to the YMCA pool.  Now, I know how to swim, I mean I wont drown, but lap swimming?  That's something I have little to no experience with.  Unless you count the 5th grade swim club I was in.  I sucked it up, and jumped in.  I really had no idea what I was doing, but I swam for about 35-40 min.  Which may not seem like much, but I thought it was a good start.  I mostly did freestyle, and think that's what I will have to stick with.  I made the mistake of doing the breast-stroke a few times, and I think the leg motion of that one irritated my hip - lesson learned!

It actually felt pretty good to be in the water.  I am definitely NOT efficient and my form is probably awful, but I found myself breathing hard afterwards so I think this will be a good thing.  It will keep my lungs strong that's for sure.

see, I told you, I've never looked better!

So, counting today I have successfully swam 4 times, and each time gets a little better.  I don't feel as awkward and have started to do some "drills".  I found a beginner swim plan online that sounds pretty good.  I also was offered help by a family friend who happened to be swimming the same time I was  one day last week.  It's nice to know I've got people who want to back me up and help me out.  Makes this whole recovery process much better.  I've also been biking too, which is great, except the ol' rear is NOT used to a bike seat, ouch!

So until further notice, track parties will have to wait, but in the mean time, grab your water wings and noodles and come to my pool party!

Scenes from my weekend

Hey there!  Hows your Monday treating you?  I'm just dandy over here, although I could have used one more day to the weekend.  But since I cant, I'll just relive my weekend here, and take you along for the ride :)

This weekend was a good one, despite not being able to run much I still managed to have a good time, so let me break it down for you.  Saturday I was able to run, and went to a flat trail to do a whopping 3 miles.  It was slow, and awkward.  My hip and knee bothered me a little, but nothing bad enough to make me stop, and it wasn't as bad as the beginning of the week. So still not completely normal, but I hope I am on my way.  Jake had gone on a bike ride, and when we both were back we got ready to go and hit up the Stockholm At Fair in Stockholm, WI.  We go every year and love it.  We ended up picking up some local pottery, handmade soaps, and wind chime thing and Jake bought me this


I've seen these stamped charms before and always wanted one, I don't care how cheesy it is

 I added it to the necklace that I wear everyday and it works great.  This artist had a ton of different necklace charms, and she also said she can custom make them too ( i.e. certain PR time, Iron Man symbol, specific dates, ect..) which is pretty cool.

After putzing around for awhile we made our way to Pepin, WI and stopped and a brand new winery that is there.  Seriously, this place is awesome, and in the middle of small town Wisconsin.  It makes you feel like your in a different world.

It has a huge event center, in the building that's behind me - pretty much made for weddings.  Cant wait to go back!

After Pepin, we kept on our WI tour and stopped in Nelson, WI at the Nelson Creamery for a snack and glass of wine.  It was such a nice day out so we sat out on their back patio for awhile.  This is another favorite place of mine.  They have a huge selection of wine, gourmet meats and cheese, lunch items and ice cream ( the line was about 20 deep for ice cream when we got there).

cheers to summer!

After Nelson we had plans for dinner out at Vino in the Valley.  ( I cant get the direct link to work, but I've mentioned this place before here.)  This place never disappoints.  We had a long wait, but that's to be expected.  It was a beautiful evening so there were tons of people there, and with this scenery, waiting isn't too terrible :)\

So that was our Saturday.  It has been a long time his Jake and I spent a whole day with just each other so it was nice to hang out for the day :)

Sunday it was raining all morning, so it gave me an excuse to sleep in and not feel completely guilty.  I decided that I was going to bike on Sunday instead of run.  I was still sore from the run on Saturday, so I thought I would take the ol' cycle out for a spin.  First time since last year!  I felt bad, it was so full of cobwebs and dust :(  But we got it cleaned up and once the sun was out Jake and I set out for 32 lovely country road miles.




I love that bike :)



We took it pretty easy, but man, biking uses a whole different set of muscles than running.  My legs felt like jello when we got back.  But, on the plus side my hip and knee didn't bother me at all.  I felt it pull a few times, but nothing major, and it actually felt pretty good after the ride as well.

My plan for this week is to still keep things easy, and monitor how things are going. The plan is to run again today ( 3 miles), then 4 tomorrow (with possible biking afterwards if I feel good) after I see Jim for an adjustment.  With all these sporadic and shorts runs, I need to start getting in more "time", so the possibility of adding in biking to get my volume up is something I'm excited for.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend and were able to get outside and do something fun and active!



oh, and I told you these would start popping up....

looks gross right?!  There's 2c. of spinach in that baby - couldn't even taste it!

going green

Well hey!  Long time so see.  Happy Friday friendlies!  Ok, so there's been a reason for my absence.  I wish I could say that I was doing something super cool like " oh, sorry I've been missing, I was too busy running marathons while tightrope walking across the Hoover Dam while pulling a boat....with my teeth", but alas I'm NOT super cool, and have spent the better part of, well honestly 2.5 weeks, being injured and hating my left hip/knee/leg/life in general.  I will spare you the specifics, but last week I ran a whopping 18 miles, and this week an earth-shattering.....5 ( whomp whomp).  Thats right, I ran on Monday - it was painful, I felt defeated, and actually stopped halfway though and cried a little.  Yes, I'm dramatic and this is a total #firstworldproblem.  After an email with Nichole it was decided I take Tues-Fri of this week completely OFF.  I think I cried again when I read that.  Again, see above dramatics. 

However, after some appointments with chiropractor Jim (miracle worker I swear!), and a good pep talk.  I realized that this is (hopefully), short lived, and that I need to not focus on that past ( i.e. how was I able to run 13 miles just 2 weeks ago and now I'm not even taking a step?!), and not focus on the future either ( i.e. how will I ever be able to get my training back to where it was going, adios Fall half PR), and instead focus on the present ( i.e. I am feeling better today, can walk normally with minimal pain/soreness, my house has never been cleaner!).  I am hoping I can run this weekend, even for a few miles.  I just keep looking at my Wave Riders sitting sad in the corner waiting to hit the pavement. 

But enough with that - there's nothing I can do but wait it out, and continue to figure out other ways to keep myself healthy.  With this new found time off, I've had the chance to read up on a lot of nutrition and even though a green smoothie may not heal my bum leg, it sure cant hurt my overall wellbeing, so folks, we're going green!



see all the bagged green on the left?  we've got kale, spinach, leaf lettuce, power greens, and more green veg.  yea buddy! also notice the tofu front and center....giving it another try...we'll see how it goes

Yea, I shop at Walmart.  Listen, I'm poor and cant afford a $16 box of quinoa from the co-op or fancy chia seed-kombucha-sprouted wheat grass mumbo jumbo from Whole Foods.  I prefer to get the most for my pennies and turns out, Wally World can have some pretty good options for produce, plus I can 100% guarantee that the people watching is MUCH more entertaining there.  I also dont own an electric car or reuseable shopping bags so I probably wouldnt be let in to those fancy organic stores anyway.  Maybe one day I will just plant an actual produce garden that way I can avoid it all together and just shop in my backyard ( wait, that's sounding a little hippy-dippy now...).

Remember how I wanted to start eating more  real food?  This goes right along with it.  I found that I was making a lot of bread and carby things.  Not that carbs are bad, especially when I know the exact ingredients.  But I realized I cannot live on wheat bread and tortillas alone ( bummer).  So I'm going to start making a better effort to jazz things up and get some more colorful variety. 

My point to all this is while I'm resting and not running to heal my muscles, I also need to work on healing the rest of me, and need to start getting more variety and good stuff in my body.  So greens and more fresh produce it is!  Plus cutting back on any sweets and finding different recipes and options for those things ( I already have a few I'm going to make this weekend - I'll post the recipes if they turn out) 

So don't be surprised if I go to the dark side and you see a green smoothie pop up on here.

4th of July 5k race recap...and a NEW PR!!

Last Thursday Jake and I ran a local 5k race.  I was coming off my previous 5k at Musky Fest and was really hoping to redeem myself.   I have been putting in some hard work at the track working on my speed and I was really hoping this would be the time it would pay off, to see a 20 instead of a 21. 

Jake agreed to pace me, and to guarantee a PR all I had to do was hang on to his heels.  We got to the park where the race started to pick up our numbers.  Since its a local race we knew a lot of other people there.  Its always fun to do a hometown race too.  There was a great turnout and the weather was pretty perfect too.  I set out for a quick warm-up then changed into my flats.  I took one last bathroom stop then we lined up.  There were a lot of kids doing the race, so I wanted to make sure I was at the front of the start to avoid any blocks. 

Then we were off!

check out Jake's sweet outfit :)

We did well at not starting out blazing.  I'm getting better about that, so I just let people bust out ahead of me, I knew I would catch them eventually.  I felt good and steady, and I just told myself to focus.  Mile 1 split was 6:35.  My breathing felt good and controlled and I just kept my eyes in front of me. 

at about mile 1.5.  Look!  Our strides are the same!

The crowd was really great, lots of people cheering and waving.  I tend to get tunnel-vision in races and don't pay attention to people spectating, but I always appreciate a hoot and holler!  Mile 2 split was 6:39.  We turned a corner and I knew we were on our way back to the park to finish.  This is when I started to feel tired.  There was  a woman who had been a good 400 yards in front of me the whole time, and Jake said to me he could see her legs getting tired, that I could catch her.

We got into our last loop to the finish and I felt my legs get tired and start to give out.  I told Jake to go ahead and just let me be on my own.  I think my words to him were "see ya later!".  He took off and I got tough with myself.  I told myself to man up, and go catch that woman, who was now a little bit closer to me.  I rounded my last corner, mile 3 split was 6:33, and gave it everything I had, and squeaked by her.

hard to see, but this was when I made my move!

coming into the finish

I gave it one last kick and pushed it through the finish.  Nubbin split was:32 sec., a 5:40 pace.  The whole race I didn't look at my watch once, I relied on Jake to give me split times and make sure we stayed on track.  When I crossed the finish line, and pressed "stop" on my watch, I looked and saw 20:21!  I did it, finally!  And not only did I get a sub-21, I crushed my previous PR.  I was just hoping to get a few seconds under, but to get it by a good 45 seconds was just awesome.
* I should note that the official results have me at a 20:24, the other times were from my Garmin.

This is proof to me that I do have it in me, I can be faster that I thought, and that if I just let myself run, I can do it.  Do I have a sub-20 in me this year?  It's seeming more and more likely, and I kind of love it :)

So thanks to Jake for pacing, not an easy job, especially when pacing me ;)  Thanks Nichole for the tough track workouts- they are paying off in a big way.  Shooting for a time in the 19's is scary, because its just seems SO FAST, but it's also pretty exciting that it's so close, and something I never thought was possible.

also, ya cant beat a homemade trophy :)

weekend collage

Hi all!  Happy Monday - here are a few snapshots what what I was up to over the long weekend :)




Wednesday: Twins game!  Bumped into Jakes brother from Canada and his girlfriend - small world!



  

local 4th of July race - Jake paced me to a NEW PR!! ( review to come...)

 






4th of July picnics #1 with family, #2 with friends - clearly I like to bring fruit



Saturday: Afton 25k Trail race for Jake, 13 miles of rolling hills for me





Jake's birthday dinner at the Melting Pot with good friends - SO MUCH FUN!



Happy July and a great track workout with the help of a friend

Happy Tuesday guys!  Thought I'd pop in for a quick hello this week.  Because of the the holiday, its a short week and tomorrow is my last day of work before a long weekend.  I plan on spending as much time outside in the sunshine as possible do I doubt I'll be back here at all. 

I cant believe it's July already, the year is half over and that got me thinking about my New Years goals I set.  I plan on doing a post sometime this month about how those are shaping up.  I know some are going better than others, so I wanted to check in with them to see what I can improve on for the remainder of the year.

Ok, onto yesterday's workout.  I had another 10x400m workout, same one I did for my first track workout back.  Except last time I was all by myself, this time I had some company.  I mentioned in my last post that Jake and I met another runner up at the track last week, and she said she would be up for joining me someime.  So I messaged her yesterday to see if she was up for it and she was - hooray!  She used to run track in college so I know running with her will be a big help, plus we are around the same pace so thats always nice.  Running with another person always makes me push myself harder than I would by myself.  It was pretty hot yesterday, but we gave each one of those 400's everything we had.  There were multiple times we had both put our hands on our knees and catch our breath, and many times we both wanted to puke at the end.  The last one we gave our best effort and it left us both laying on the ground - a sign of a successful workout! 

I will spare you all the details since there were so many, but I am happy to see that compared to last time I was about 2-3 seconds faster this time around, I even did my last one in 1:16 so I was really happy with that.

I will also say, as I think I have mentioned this before, but I swear Nichole is some kind of crazy genius.  I swear she knows me better than I know myself because I honestly didnt know if my legs would be ok for this.  Every run since my last rest day ( last Thursday) have been slow and heavy and my calves/legs have been sore.  But on yesterday's warm up they felt great!  Calves didnt hurt, legs felt lighter, and they felt ready to run fast.  It's like she knows exactly how to line up my easy and hard days to get the most out of me - I guess thats why she's such a great coach and professional :)  I am running our local 4th of July 5k race on Thursday and this workout makes me confident I can have a good race.

But even though things are improving, I still get nervous about the hurt that's about to happen every time I drive up to this place...



although a sunny day always makes it a little better :)


Also, yesterday was the start of  birthday week for Jake! 

He turned a whopping 28 yesterday so feel free to call him an ol' geezer!  We have some fun plans this week so I'll try and post up some pics of what we're up to - should be fun!


I hope everyone has a safe a fun 4th of July and get a chance to watch some fireworks!