weekend updates!

Hey friends!  Happy Monday.  It is SO nice here, actually the weather has been pretty darn great all weekend.  We are supposed to get rain for the next 5 or so days, but I'll take the warm weather and sun while it lasts.  I had a extra good weekend so I have lots to talk about.  As you know I had a race on Sunday, but I will get to that in my next post :) 

I preface this by stating that after my track workout and an easy run on Thursday, I noticed that my left hamstring was really tight/sore.  I may have pulled it a little bit and on Friday morning it was hurting pretty bad.  I didn't want to mess it up so asked Nichole what to do.  I ended up taking Friday and Saturday completely off.  Let me tell you, it took all I had not to throw on my Mizunos and run a few miles. I had a lot of "running energy" that made it super hard to just do nothing.  There is a big difference between a planned rest day and ones that are forced.  Needless to say I was pretty antsy for my race on Sunday.  One good thing about not being able to run, was that I had more time to bake cupcakes!

A co-worker of mine asked me to make 10 dozen cupcakes for her parents 50th wedding anniversary.  I baked from the time I got home from work Friday until about 7:30pm, the woke up bright an early Saturday to finish them up.



we've got lemon meringue, chocolate fudge, vanilla strawberry, and gluten free banana!


 Let me tell you, staring at 10 doz. tasty cupcakes for 24 hours is tough!  I do not recommend this when you are training for a race.  You better believe I'll be enjoying a cupcake when I cross that Fargo finish line!

After the cupcakes were picked up, Jake and I headed up to Eden Prairie for my running gait assessment.  It was held at TC Running Co.  I had never been there before, and thank goodness it's far away, because I could seriously spend my entire paycheck there!  So much awesome stuff, anything you would need they have.  A physical therapist from OSR Physical Therapy was there for the assessments.  Before getting started I had to fill out an intake form, and let him know of any issues I might be having.  I explained my recent hamstring issue and my past issues with my left knee.  I hopped on the treadmill there and he had me run at a very slow pace, for about 15 minutes.  One thing that made me laugh, was as I was running, he asked if it would be ok if I ran in just a sports bra, he said he is able to get a better look at the way my hips move.  It makes perfect sense but I have never run in just a sports bra - that takes more confidence then I thought I had, let alone run in one in the middle of a busy running store!  But I was there for a reason and wanted to get as much out of this as I could, so I took off the tank I was wearing and tried not to pay attention to if my stomach was jiggling all over the place (note to self - do more ab work).  It actually wasn't that bad and nobody gave me a dirty look and told me to put my shirt back on.  Also, it was extremely hot in the store, so it was actually pretty comfortable.  I think I have officially gotten over my fear and wont be afraid to strip down on those hot humid summer runs. It's all about comfort baby!

He videotaped me running from the front, side, and back and using a software called Dartish, is able to load everything into the program.  He said the whole video will be ready in about a week and he will email everything to me along with his notes. He did want to go over a few things while I was there though, so he uploaded some video and we took a look at a few angles.  The biggest realization was my foot strike - holy smokes do I land on my heels!  Watching me actually do it and the force its putting on my knees made me cringe.  He also noticed I lean back as I run, which results in my hips pushing forward and putting more torque on my knees.  He pointed out too, that I move my upper body a lot.  He mentioned it should only move about 8 centimeters, and I was moving at about 15-20cm.  He told me that if there is one thing to start working on and make a habit now, is to shorten my stride to increase my cadence.  He said that will help me land on more of my mid-foot, and he also said that it will also help with my upper body not "bounce" as much.

He also mentioned that my hips and glutes looked a little weak so I will want to work on strengthening those.  He said getting those stronger will help take the pressure off my knees having to absorb so much force.  He gave a few examples of things to start doing (ex. single leg balance exercises, single leg dead lifts, ect..).  I'm really excited to get the full video and notes though and be able to really go over it slowly and look really carefully at it.

This assessment was so awesome.  I always thought I looked ok when I am running, but this really put in perspective what I need to work on to be as efficient as I can, and hopefully injury free.  He was pretty impressed with the amount of weekly miles that I do and said because of that, these changes should become a habit pretty fast.  If anyone gets the chance to do something like this, DO IT!  It's incredibly beneficial and it's always nice to learn something new.

So that was the start to my weekend.  Saturday night we had our usual pasta with chicken and got things ready for the race in the morning!  Back with that recap later...