Eau Claire Half Marathon Training – Week 8

This Minnesota winter is just holding on for dear life. And there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. I really don’t know if we’re every going to see spring. I just hope we actually get a summer. I need some hot, sunny days made for sweaty runs followed by recovery on a patio. Who’s with me?

Whole 30 continues to go pretty well. The weekly meal prep is still time consuming, but I feel like I’ve got the hang of it. I’ve definitely noticed my clothes fitting better, but I can’t say my energy level has changed much. How long it takes for changes to happen can vary from person to person, so we’ll see how the rest of it goes and if I notice any other changes.

Monday – 4.5 miles (9:40/mile)

That MN winter I mentioned was rearing it’s ugly head and I didn’t feel like dealing with it, so I fired up the treadmill.

Tuesday – 4.5 miles (9:40/mile)

Another day of treadmill miles.

Wednesday – 7.03 miles (9:36/mile)

Was finally able to get outside for a longer weekday run.

Thursday – rest/yoga

My workplace actually offers free yoga over lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have not been taking advantage, but I’m trying to do better.

In the evening my sister and I went to see The Greatest Showman. I am now officially obsessed with the soundtrack. So good!

Friday – 4.27 miles (9:24/mile)

Got in an easy run to end the week and get ready for Goldy’s on Sunday.

And my Oiselle Volee singlet arrived just in time for my spring races to kick off!

Saturday – rest

Sunday – 10 miles (9:13/mile)

Goldy’s 10 mile!

Eau Claire Half Marathon Training – Week 6 & 7

Yea, I missed my weekly recap last week, so let me get you caught up.

I’m halfway through Whole 30! I can’t call it easy, but it’s not as hard as I thought it would be. I’ve found some new recipes to try and am eating some good food.

This taco salad was a nice change to my usual weekday lunch.

I had book club during week 1 of Whole 30, so I made these prosciutto wrapped pears, and they were really good! I was glad I could contribute something compliant that wasn’t just raw veggies. Though our book club host was amazing and made a compliant meal because a couple of us are actually doing Whole 30 right now! Support from family and friends is REALLY nice when doing something like this.

I’ve been making egg bake for easy breakfasts during the week. This is the egg back from week 1, but I actually made an even better one for week 2. It’s a trial and error process with new recipes.

The Whole 30 plan calls for a pre-workout and post-workout snack to help fuel your workout and recover. Took me a little bit to find things that worked well, but I think I’ve got a routine now.

As far as running goes, I’m still chugging along with the training plan. This plan is kind of high mileage, so I have a longer weekday run and my other runs are slowly getting longer, too. I can kind of feel the mileage in my body now. I may end up taking an extra rest day from time to time, or cut a run a tad short as I get ready for all of my upcoming April/May races.

Partially because I don’t remember (whoops) and partially because this is getting long, I’ll keep the workout updates short.

Week 6

Monday – rest

Tuesday – 4 miles (9:40/mile)

Wednesday – 6.06 miles (9:27/mile)

Thursday – rest

Friday – 4.03 miles (9:36/mile)

Saturday – 3.1 miles (8:33/mile)

My “long run” for this wee was a 5K race. I didn’t actually sign up for a 5K race, so I just headed out and planned to run fast. And that’s what I did!

Sunday – Alchemy private class

Got in a great cross-training workout at Alchemy. My friend won a free private class, so she invited a bunch of friends to come do a workout. My legs were a little sore from all of the running during the week and my fast 5K. I was happy to hear the class was going to focus on upper body stuff. And man, were my arms/shoulders feeling it the next day!

Week 7

Monday – rest

Tuesday – 4.79 miles (9:25/mile)

Wednesday – 3.3 miles (9:24/mile)

Thursday – 7.35 miles (9:32/mile)

Friday – rest

Saturday – 9.19 miles (9:49/mile)

It snowed overnight. Yeah…Minnesota. I waited this late morning to do my run so the snow would have a chance to melt a little on the path as the sun came out. I did a loop along the river. I started out and the mile was fine, but when I crossed the river the path was only semi-clear. This meant the first 4.5 miles were somewhat slow. When I crossed back over the river for the second half, the paths were great and I was able to pick up my pace a little.

These 9 miles actually flew by. I just sort of zoned out and before I knew it I was done!

After my run, I did some meal prep in the afternoon. Then my sister and I headed to a roller derby! A friend of ours has been doing roller derby for several years, but it was her last bout, so we had to go cheer her on. It’s a super entertaining sport and those women are tough!

Sunday – rest 

My sister and I headed to Wisconsin to spend Easter with our grandmother. We ate our Easter meal, played a card game, watched an egg toss at her senior living facility (super cute watching the residents participate and have fun!), and chatted for a little bit before heading home. I did a little more food prep in the evening and was exhausted, so skipped any kind of workout.

I’m gearing up for the second half of Whole 30 and getting ready for my spring races to start. Maybe one day soon the snow will stop falling and it will actually feel like spring!

Eau Claire Half Marathon – Week 5

The week started out pretty busy with the end of my San Diego trip and some evening plans a couple of nights. I was also continuing to prepare for a new 30 day journey: Whole 30.

When I first heard about Whole 30 a few years ago, I never thought it would be something I’d try. Cutting out sugar, grains, alcohol, processed food, and lots of other things just didn’t sound that appealing to me. I started to come around to the idea of trying it as I heard more and more friends have positive things to say when they did it. It wasn’t just weight loss benefits, it was things like better sleep and having more energy. That sounded appealing to me.

A big part of Whole 30 is also learning how certain foods affect you. I know what my “normal” feels like, but I also have a feeling that I don’t know what I don’t know and could probably feel even better. I’ve never felt like my diet affects my ulcerative colitis, but given my recent flare, it couldn’t hurt to see what changes might make me feel better overall. So, I’m giving it a shot. It’s 30 days. I’ve found a lot of good recipes that I’m actually excited to try, and I have several friends doing Whole 30 at the same time, so lots of social support. So important!!

And half marathon training continues. Here’s how week 5 went.

Monday – 6.02 miles (9:27/mile)

After two busy days of exploring the zoo and safari park, my sister and I slept in a little and then headed out for workouts about 9 a.m. I had 7 miles on my plan for my long run for week 4 that I had pushed to Monday. I wasn’t really sure how far I’d make it and had resolved to just do whatever I could.

The weather was perfect: low 60’s and sunshine. I was enjoying exploring some of the parks and paths along the water and before I knew it I was closing in on 6 miles. It felt really good, but my sis and I wanted to do a few more things before our flight, so I called it good at that point.

Here are some highlights from the run.

Tuesday – 3.27 miles (9:10/mile)

I had Flight Club with the Oiselle Volee team. We met at Lake Calhoun and did a loop around the lake before dinner. It was nice to run in daylight after the time change!

Wednesday – rest

Took the night off from working out and attended a networking event/panel discussion. Felt good to take a little bit of a break after several days of activity. My body needed it.

Thursday – 6.04 miles (9:25/mile)

I started out on this run thinking I might add in the “big hill” that I ran last week, but a couple of miles in I decided my legs just weren’t up for it. I still had a good run without it and had some small hills on my route.

Friday – 4.00 miles (9:26/mile)

Legs were feeling tired and heavy for this whole run. Normally I wouldn’t care that much, but I was a little nervous knowing I needed to do an 8 mile run the next morning.

After running, I kicked back to watch some March Madness and dug into Whole 30 meal planning for week 1.

Saturday – 8.00 miles

The weather was basically perfect for this long run – mid 40s and pure sunshine. I decided to do a loop around the river crossing a couple of bridges and admiring the blue sky above and blue water below.

As I got started, I could feel the tiredness in my legs. It was that way for the first 3 miles or so. Then it seemed like they finally warmed up, but around mile 5 I could feel the tiredness again. It stuck around until I was done, but it felt good to be getting into the higher mileage long runs.

Sunday – HIIT

A friend was able to get a group of us into a free workout class at her gym. It was a high intensity interval workout. The variety was nice, but it was definitely a hard workout that my body felt for a couple of days after.

We headed out to brunch after to consume all of the calories we burned. 🙂 I was also in a mode of savoring my last tastes of certain food before Whole 30 started the next day.

In the afternoon, I hit the grocery store and did a LOT of meal prep for week 1:

• Slow cooker sweet potato chili
• Turkey & egg breakfast casserole
• Baked chicken
• Hard boiled eggs
• Cut strawberries

Should set me up for a successful first week!

Eau Claire Half Marathon Training – Week 4

It’s not always easy to fit in training runs when you’ve got work, friends, travel and more going on. That’s how last week felt with figuring out workouts during a busy week, but I managed to get it done! It helps me to be flexible while also keeping running as a priority when I’m adding things to my calendar. Sometimes you have to get up a little earlier or move runs around throughout the week to fit everything in.

Totally worth it this past week as it meant I got to hang out with friends and take a fun trip with my sister!

Monday – 3.5 miles (9:31/mile)

Days like this one are why I bought a treadmill. We got a lovely snowstorm that started in the afternoon, so I didn’t feel like braving the path and slipping and sliding all over the place. I turned on some music and cranked out my 3.5 miles while watching the snowflakes fall.

Tuesday – rest

I happily took a rest day to meet up with a group of friends to have dinner at Hai Hai in Minneapolis. They serve “Southeast Asian street food” and it is 100% delicious! I ordered a couple of dishes and got to taste a couple of things that friends ordered. I need to go back and try just about everything else on the menu!

   

Wednesday – 5.32 miles (9:25/mile)

By Wednesday the temps had warmed up enough that the paths were clear. I headed out for my longer weekday run. I was feeling ambitious, so I decided to add a big a$$ hill to my route. It fairly steep and is .25 miles long. I wanted to do a big  hill because Goldy’s 10 mile always has some hills on the course, so I want my legs to be ready. I made my way down the hill first, ran on flat pavement for a minute, and then started my assent. It was slow and steady, but I ran up the whole hill. The legs were burning a little near the top, but I kept going and continued running at the top to finish up this 5+ mile run.

Thursday – A10 workout with Alchemy

I met up with Hyedi for a cross training workout to celebrate Alchemy’s 3rd birthday. The workout was held at an event space rather than one of their studios. We brought our own yoga mats and they put us through and A10 workout. It starts with some warm up that incorporates stretching, yoga and practice doing the moves that make up the main part of the workout. Then, they put 10 minutes on the clock and you do a high intensity interval workout trying to do as many rounds as you can in 10 minutes. This workout was all body weight exercises (e.g., squats, sit ups, shoulder taps). It also included burpies (which I HATE), but I survived. Then you do a cool down with some more stretching and yoga moves.

We were sweaty, but still smiling at the end. Since it was a birthday celebration, there were snacks and drinks following the workout.

Friday – 3.5 miles (9:40/mile)

I did a morning treadmill run because my sis and I were off to San Diego in the afternoon!

Saturday – Walk, walk, walk (San Diego Zoo)

We got up fairly early to make our way to the San Diego Zoo by 8:30 a.m. We decided to do a special panda tour where you get into the zoo before it opens to the general public and get some dedicated time in the panda exhibit as well as some behind-the-scenes looks at other exhibits in the zoo.

Anyone who knows me knows I LOOOOVE pandas! I have since I was born. I’ve seen a panda in the National Zoo years ago, but only for a few minutes. This tour allowed us to hang out in the panda exhibit for awhile in a smaller group, so we weren’t rushed through. It was so cool to be that close to the gorgeous creatures!

The tour took us around the zoo on a cart, but when that was over we spent about 5 more hours exploring the rest of the zoo. I think we covered every inch of it! Needless to say, it was a lot of walking and my legs were feeling it by the end.

I took a ton of pictures, but I’ll just share a few more here.

Polar bear nap time

Baby giraffe

Aren’t tasmanian devils kinda cute?

After the zoo, we headed back to the hotel to chill out for awhile and then went to Juniper & Ivy for dinner. I was sooo excited to try this restaurant, and it did not disappoint! Absolutely delicious meal!

Sunday – More walking (San Diego Safari Park)

We spent most of Sunday at the San Diego Safari Park, so it was another full day of walking. We got there when it opened, so beat some of the crowds to see the butterfly exhibit. There were hundreds of butterflies just flying free around you.

We hopped on the “Africa Tram” to do a 25 minute tour around some of the park.

Then we spent time visiting all of the other exhibits. We saw some of the same animals as the zoo, but the feel of the Safari Park is a bit different with some of the wide open spaces they have for the animals.

King of the jungle

These gorillas deserve a special shoutout. They were so entertaining to watch! They were really active running around, teasing each other, and even wrestling from time to time.

On our way back from the Safari Park, we stopped in Old Town for some Mexican food and margaritas to cap off the day!

I was exhausted after two busy days and slept really well before our last day of vacation. I did get in a run around San Diego, but more on that in next week’s recap since it happened on Monday!

Have you ever been to San Diego? How do you fit in runs with a busy schedule?

Eau Claire Half Marathon Training – Week 3

The training plan had 2 rest days on it which was nice since I had a fairly busy week. Here’s how workouts shook out for week 3!

Monday – 3.56 miles (9:51/mile)

A few nice and easy miles to kick off the week.

Tuesday – rest

I had a meeting in the evening, but I was able to stop by Mill City Running to pick up some new shoes before! I needed another pair that are dedicated for the treadmill. I don’t want all of the sand/salt/dirt from my other pair ruining the belt of my treadmill. It’ll probably be good to have a couple of pairs that I can alternate while training.

Wednesday – 3.5 miles (9:40/mile)

With a happy hour after work, I needed to get my run done in the morning. I made it through with a little help from my “Friends.” 😉

Thursday – 5.06 miles (9:18/mile)

I wasn’t intending for this to be a pace run, but it kind of ended up that way. I started out and realized pretty quick that I was running a fairly fast pace. I was feeling good, so I just went with it.

Friday – rest

I headed to a kick-off event for our local Take Steps Walk for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. I’m on the planning committee for the walk, so I helped check people in at the event and mingled with some of the other attendees.

Saturday – 40 minute walk (2.55 miles)

A couple of friends and I hosted a baby shower for one of our friends in the morning. We played games, decorated onesies, ate food, and she opened lots of cute gifts.

The shower took place at my house, so I was in host mode the whole time. It was super fun, but I was exhausted when it was all over around 3 p.m. Despite it being a gorgeous sunny day, I decided I just did not have the energy to run. I needed to do a cross training workout for the week, so took a nice walk instead.

I ate dinner when I got home and then went to my sister’s place to watch the Duke vs. UNC game. Duke pulled out the win! Great way to end the day. 🙂

Sunday – 6.17 miles (9:25/mile)

There was some rain on and off in the morning, so I used it as an excuse to be a little lazy and do some things around the house. Around 11 a.m. I was feeling a little hungry, but I wanted to run around noon, so I didn’t want lunch yet. I ate a snack and gave myself about an hour to let it settle. I started out on my run and my stomach felt…off. Apparently what I ate still wasn’t sitting well. I went out about a mile and then circled back to be closer to home. I made a pit stop at home to drop by gloves and use the restroom. My stomach was feeling better by this point, so I headed out to finish the last 4 miles. Overall, it was a good long run. Just a little odd with the pit stop in the middle.

I’ve felt pretty good the last couple of weeks and think I’m getting my groove back. I’m hopeful that will continue as I move further into this training cycle!

 

Eau Claire Half Marathon Training – Week 2

Week 2 of training is in the books! Here’s how it went.

Monday – 3.06 miles (9:50/mile)

After the first week of training, my legs were feeling a little tired and heavy on this run, so luckily I didn’t have to go too far.

Tuesday  – 30 minutes stretch/strength

I wanted to do something, but wanted to give my legs a break from running. I opted to do my PT exercises and a few circuits of some strength and cardio exercises. Some ab exercises, push ups, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, etc.

Wednesday – 4 miles (10:03/mile)

I played a little game of “dodge the ice patch” for 4 miles, but it felt good to be outside. I stopped halfway through my run to take a picture of the pretty sunset colors and then my phone decided it was too cold to function, so it died on me. It started up again when I got home and got it warmed up, but I ran the last 2 miles with no music, which just made me sad. Wanted my tunes.

Thursday – 3.06 miles (9:49/mile)

I got a new treadmill! I worked from home so I could be there when it was delivered and assembled. After work, I took it for a 3 mile test run. Still getting used to all of the buttons and features, but it’s going to be so nice to have this easy indoor option.

Friday – rest

I headed to a coworker’s engagement party after work. They had a Foosball tournament going. I haven’t played in years, so it was super fun—even tough my team lost. 🙂

Saturday – 3.25 miles (9:20/mile)

I had a fun morning/early afternoon hanging out with Hyedi and her son.

A snowstorm rolled in mid afternoon, so after I stopped at the grocery store, I decided another treadmill run was the best option. I needed to do 3 miles pace, so I picked a slightly faster pace and whipped out 3 miles while watching “Friends.”

Sunday – 5.02 miles (9:59/mile)

I met friends for our monthly “brunch bunch” to start the day.

After a delicious eggs benedict and potatoes, I definitely felt like I needed a run to burn it off. The sun came out and the temps were very pleasant to start melting some of the snow we got the day before. I waited until about 3 p.m. to do my run in hopes that the path would be decent.

I started out and found that about 1/3 of the path looked like this…

A 1/3 of the path looked like this…

And the rest was somewhere in between. Felt like an all-terrain run. It slowed me down and the slipping and sliding in the deeper snow took a toll on my ankles and legs. I got all 5 miles in, but I was pretty relieved when the run was over.

To recover, I made a shrimp scampi with spaghetti squash instead of pasta. It was really good and super easy to make!

A week without social media

I took a week off of social media. And as you can see, I survived.

Social media is part of my daily life — as I’m sure it is for many you. It’s not only part of my personal life but my professional life as well. I work in communications, so I spend time at work strategizing how we can use social media to reach people with a health message.

I love social media. I love that I’m able to keep up with what family and friends are doing. I love that I’m able to share moments and memories from my own life. But I started noticing some not-so-good things and habits, too.

• I’d wake up in the morning and check Facebook or Instagram before even getting out of bed.
• I’d mindlessly scroll through my feeds looking at pictures and status updates on my phone. Not all bad, but still a lot of time on social media channels rather than connecting with people in real life.
• I’d spend all that time on social media and come away not feeling as good about myself or my life. A great thing about social media is sharing things from your life, but a bad thing is when you start comparing your life with other people.
• I’d post something and find myself constantly checking to see how many “likes” it got.

It was around the holidays that all of these habits and feelings came to a head for me. I decided I needed to do something to reset my social media mindset. I figured January was a good time since it was a new year and the perfect opportunity to just step away for a week.

I primarily use social media on my phone, so on a Saturday night I deleted my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat apps to reduce temptation. From that moment on, I was off social media for seven whole days. And you know what–it was surprisingly easy. I didn’t miss it as much as I thought I would.

In those first couple of days, I still had the impulse to go on social media and check out what was going on, but I’d move on to do something else and it would go away. On Monday of that week we had a really big snow storm, and I was definitely tempted to share a picture of the snow outside my front door, but the feeling quickly passed. I’ll share it with you now, though cause this post needs a couple pictures. 😉

After those first couple of days, I wasn’t noticing that urge as much. The week got easier as it went by; even when Facebook started sending me emails telling me a friend had posted a photo or updated their status to try and get me to come back to the channel. Before I knew it, seven days was over and the world hadn’t ended.

It felt really good to just unplug and reset both my habits and my mindset around social media in my personal life. I’m not giving up social media forever. The apps were re-downloaded on my phone after my week was over.

The usual things I post about will still show up on my profiles: running, food, etc. I even posted a food pic the day my break was over after brunch with friends.

But I am trying to change a few things to help keep a healthy relationship with social media.

• Being mindful of how much time I spend on social media. It’s so easy to go down the rabbit hole of scrolling and get lost in your feed. I want to spend some of that time connecting with friends offline or doing other things to stimulate my mind.
• Turning off push notifications on my phone. I go on social media enough that I’m not concerned about missing things. I think things like the notifications from Instagram when someone liked a post just added to my need to constantly see how many likes it had. Not needed.
• Reminding myself that someone’s social media life isn’t their real life. Most of us pick the fun, cute moments to share, so it can be easy to assume that everything is sunshine and roses in someone’s life (heck I’m guilty of doing that). I need to do better at stopping myself from comparing where I’m at in my life with where other people are. It’s not good for my mental health.

This break really showed me that while social media is really nice to have in my life, it’s not something I have to have to get through the day. I want to focus on the good things social media can bring to my life and limit the negative. I may take other social media breaks from time to time, even for a day, just to remind myself of these things if I start to forget.

Have you ever taken a social media break?

Don’t call it a comeback

No, I did not fall off the face of the earth.

Just took a break from blogging. Mostly because there hasn’t been much to say about my running/workouts for the last few months. Some life stuff got in the way and changed up my usual activity.

I felt good after the marathon–tired and sore, but good. It went surprisingly well given the derailed training I had near the end. I took a couple of weeks off of running after that, which I had planned to do. I was just starting to slowly get back into it at the end of October when I got a bad cold that knocked me out for about a week. I took 3 sick days at work, which I never have to do.

I finally got better a couple of weeks before my annual 5 mile Turkey Trot race and tried to get myself in (somewhat) decent shape. The weekend before the race I was doing a 4 mile run and my right hip flexor started to hurt while I was running. It remained really stiff and sore the rest of that day and even the next day. I made it through the Turkey Trot, but it hurt. Any time I ran after that caused the pain to flare up. That caused me to take some more rest days than I was originally hoping.

To top it off, since November I have been feeling more fatigued than usual. I’m not 100% sure why, but think it is related to my ulcerative colitis flaring up. A flare means there’s inflammation and one of many symptoms can be fatigue. The flare started sometime around September and, so far, hasn’t got away yet. I switched to a different medication a couple of months ago to see if that would help. I’m hopeful that things will get back on track soon with having my UC under control.

The illness, injury, and fatigue have really affected my running. I’ve been less motivated to go out and run or do any kind of workout.

It’s been hard.

Running hasn’t been the physical, mental, and emotional release that it used to be. It hasn’t been fun. That just affects my motivation even more and it turns into a bad downward spiral. This is the first really rough patch I’ve gone through with my running. A running slump, if you will.

Over the last two weeks I’ve been trying to get back into more of a regular workout routine. Trying to get out for even a short run after work and doing some other cross training workouts. I had a three-day weekend last weekend and did hot yoga, two runs, and a spin class in those three days.

Super sweaty hot yoga

 

Yea, it was cold

Killer spin class

I kept it going with a group run on Tuesday and a 3.5 mile run on Thursday night. It’s feeling better to be back in a more regular routine. Crossing my fingers this means things are looking up.

Don’t call it a comeback, cause I don’t know what it is yet, but I’m working on it. And that’s what matters.

Have you ever had a running slump? 

Twin Cities Marathon Training – Weeks 16-18

Well, I’m way behind on updates. Sorry. It’s been a busy month!

The foot is…ok. It’s not worse, but it’s not totally better either. The past three weeks of training were heavy on cross training with a few short runs thrown in. My hope is the low impact and extra rest will keep the foot in good enough shape to get me through 26.2 miles.

I won’t give a day-bay-day account of training since I’m so far behind. Let’s give some weekly recaps instead.

Week 16

I got in a couple of 10 mile bike rides and a 30 minute elliptical workout during the week. My sis and I also headed to a MN Lynx WNBA game. They are pretty phenomenal athletes and really fun to watch!

The big event of the week, ok year, was that I closed on a new home! Excited for new adventures in home ownership.

On Friday, I went for a 3.1 mile run to test out the foot. It felt fine on the run, and felt great the rest of the weekend! Over the weekend, I headed up north to a friend’s wedding. We had gorgeous views of the lake from our cabin.

And we stopped at the iron mines on our way home.

I was exhausted by the time I got home on Sunday. I had high hopes of getting in a 2 hour workout to keep up my fitness. I ended up getting in 90 minutes on the stationary bike and elliptical. Not bad, but wished I could’ve done a little more.

Week 17

I did a short run on Tuesday morning since my foot had done so well over the weekend, but then it was sore later in the day. So, obviously not totally healed. My other workouts for the week were cross training.

Bike ride views

Over the weekend, I moved into my new home. Moving is a workout all its own. We were going almost non-stop from about 10 a.m. until about 4 p.m. It was exhausting, but so glad we got everything done. And my foot did just fine all day.

Week 18

In this final week before the marathon, I was continuing to try to be smart with my workouts. I did a 3.3 mile run on Tuesday and felt good on the run and the day after. I did a bike ride on Wednesday just to be safe. On Thursday, I did another 3.1 mile run and then had to go clean my old apartment. I felt good on the run, but noticed my foot getting a little sore after bending, twisting, squatting as I cleaned. I iced when I got home and decided I needed to just take it easy for the next couple of days to be ready for Sunday.

On Friday evening, I headed to the Health & Fitness Expo to pick up my packet and check out some of the vendors.

I could feel the energy walking around. I could also feel the nerves. I’m ready for Sunday to get here so I can just do this thing and stop thinking/agonizing about it.

I’m as ready as I can be, and just want to get out there and enjoy the race and celebrate the end of a 4+ months of training.

TC Marathon, here I come!

Twin Cities Marathon Training – Weeks 14 & 15

I had a vacation that fell in the middle of these two weeks, so I’ll have to catch you up on everything that’s been going on. Unfortunately, it’s not all good.

Week 14

Monday – 2.69 mile walk

I woke up still on a bit of a high after completing my 20 mile run. My Achilles was a bit tight and sore in the morning. It loosened up as the day went on, and Hyedi and I were able to get in a nice walk in the evening. It felt good to move my legs a bit.

Tuesday – rest

Technically, I had flag football practice, so I did do a little running. I was taking it easy because the field was a bit uneven and my legs were still recovering. I was tired when we were done and needed to pack for vacation, so I didn’t do any more running that night.

Wednesday – 4.12 miles (9:48/mile)

I went out for a morning run before needing to head to the airport. I was planning to do 5-6 miles. When I started out, I felt ok. My legs did not want to move very fast, so I resolved that this would be a slightly slower pace. Then somewhere around mile 2-3, I started to have some pain in my left foot. I kept going to see if it would go away. It didn’t. As I made my way closer to home, I realized I needed to cut this run short. The pain was more than I’m used to dealing with and did not feel like something I should run through.

I headed in and iced my foot a little before leaving. Walking through the airports wasn’t a lot of fun as my foot still hurt. By the evening, I was at the beach and hoping that a good night sleep would make my foot better.

Thursday – rest

The foot was a little better, but not enough where I felt comfortable running on it. I decided to take a rest day to see if that would help. Sitting on the beach with family was also a good excuse to take it easy.

Friday – 7.37 mile bike ride (36 minutes)

The foot was still a little iffy, so my sister and I hit the workout room and I did some cross training on a stationary bike.

Saturday – 7.1 mile bike ride (30 minutes)

One more day of cross training to give the foot a break.

Sunday – rest

I was supposed to do a 12 mile long run as a step-back week, but with the foot I figured I’d better skip that and keep resting it until I felt more confident that it was better.

All of these foot issues were not fun to deal with, but at least I was still soaking up the sun and enjoying some time in my happy place.

Week 15

Monday – 3.03 miles (9:57/mile) and 6 mile bike ride (25 minutes)

I decided to test out the foot on a short run. I did an easy 3 miles. It felt just fine during the run. Yay! I hit the workout room right after to get in a little bit more of a workout.

I was really happy that my foot held up ok on the run. It did good the rest of the day as well. I was really crossing my fingers that the time off had solved the problem.

Tuesday – 7 mile bike ride (30 minutes)

I got up and got myself ready to run. I even went outside and started warming up. As I was doing my dynamic stretching, I felt a little soreness in my foot. I was super tempted to just run and see how it did, but I decided it would be smarter to go with a low impact workout that day.

Wednesday – 4.77 mile run (10:01/mile)

I felt ready to attempt another run. I had 5 miles on my training plan for the day, so I thought I’d aim for something around 4-5 miles as long as my foot was feeling ok. My foot was feeling good as I got going. My legs were tired–my calves were tight for some reason–so pace was a little slow, but I was so happy to get through the run ok.

Later that afternoon, it ended up being a cloudy, rainy day so we went shopping. As we were walking around the outlet mall, I noticed my foot hurting. *Crap* I had been thinking about going to a doctor if my foot still didn’t seem like it was getting better and this pushed me over the edge to wanting to do that.

Thursday – 7.79 mile bike ride (35 minutes)

I had to say good-bye to the beach and travel home, but I was back early enough to get in a short workout on the stationary bike. My foot was feeling ok, but I wanted to take it easy.

Friday – rest

I had a doctor appointment in the morning for my foot. They did X-rays which didn’t show a stress reaction or stress fracture. That was good, but the doc said it could still be early, so something just isn’t showing up. He said and MRI is an option to see more. I’m giving it another week of rest/cross training before I think about going that route.

I’m working on finding some cross training things that will still help me keep up my fitness. I’ll keep biking and might try to do some pool running and swimming.

Saturday – 12.88 mile bike ride (1:10:08)

This was supposed to be the day I did my second 20 mile run. I woke up and it was 55 and sunny. An absolute perfect day for running. But, I was not running. I had already decided that attempting a 20 mile run would not be a good idea. I set out for a bike ride instead. My foot did fine, but my butt and hamstrings were sore afterwards–not used to that much time on a bike seat.

I was super frustrated and bummed that I couldn’t run. I have one 20 miler under my belt, but I had a goal of getting in two for this training cycle to hopefully help me be even more prepared for marathon day. I’m a little anxious thinking staying in shape for the big day without Hanging out with a cute kiddo in the afternoon while babysitting for friends helped brighten my mood. 🙂

Sunday – Flag football tournament

Sunday was the Touch of Football event benefiting the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. The flag football tournament took place at U.S. Bank Stadium, where the MN Vikings play. I was taking it really easy with my foot, and luckily had a very understanding team. We did A LOT better than last year and had a lot of fun for a good cause!

I am hoping and praying that some more rest and cross training will help me get to the marathon start line healthy enough to still have a good race.

How have you dealt with a running injury close to a race?