Happy Day!!!

First off, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I know I did. And now I have something to truly be thankful for.

For once in my life, my utter laziness has worked in my favor. All this non-running the past 2 1/2 weeks has really helped my knees. I still have a slight pain in my left knee when I bend it back too far, but the lingering pain in them from sitting is completely gone. So after a seemingly endless hiatus, I decided to muster up the courage to try and run a slow, steady 3 miles this morning.

After about 5 minutes of running I must have looked like a crazy person. I was literally smiling so hard from the excitement of a pain-free run that I felt like my face was going to split in half. On every run I have had since the marathon (all three of them), the pain under my knees came on as soon as I was done warming up and by 2 minutes was full throttle. This time, that burning pain in my tendons was nowhere to be found. I did feel a little sluggish and had a little bit of discomfortin the left knee but I think it was because my legs were rusty from all inactivity, wine drinking and eating this past month.The best part of all though, was afterwards there was no pain whatsoever, even later as I sat at my desk all day. This is a pretty good sign.

So without getting too overzealous, I am cautiously jumping back into the running pool. I am going to try another 3 miles tomorrow and on Saturday, while my training group is doing 14 miles, if I feel O.K. I will attempt to run at least 6 with them and then finish on the bike. If my knees cooperate, I need to start getting my mileage up so I can catch up with the group and our schedule. Otherwise, my laziness and inactivity will keep me out of the Miami Marathon, not my knees.

Other than that, I have finally put up the trees and decorations.

I even have most of my Christmas shopping done. Now if I could get to wrapping gifts, making cards (I don't know why I feel like just because I do graphic design I need to design our own cards), and making Christmas cookies I may be able to relax enough to enjoy the holidays this year.

Maybe.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Good luck to everyone during their Turkey Trots!!!
Run, eat, drink and be merry!

Long Lost Me.

So, I haven't been around much this past week or two. Between not running and the impending holidays, I haven't been thinking about blogging too much. However, my solemn vow is to spend some time this weekend at my parents house on the couch with the laptop, stuffed from Turkey and Pumpkin Pie, catching up on all you running nerds. I miss my pals. :)

So things have been OK. I have spent the past week walking Zero and getting to the gym a couple of times to lift and work out on the elliptical. Nothing too exciting. Saturday morning was my Miami Marathon training group's first 20 mile run of the year. Since, there was no way I could run it, I decided to borrow a friends bike and ride along with them. It sounded like a great idea until:

A) I had to get up at 3:15am to NOT run.

B) I had to spend over FOUR hours COASTING on a bike.



My ass/crotchal region is still recovering three days later.

I am still glad I went though. I think it was good for me to get up and still be a part of it so that I just don't sit around and feel sorry for myself. Also, the weather was so nice Saturday morning, I actually had to wear a jacket the entire time. That's pretty much unheard of around these parts.

At the 10 mile turnaround we all gathered for a group picture that came out great considering we huddled together in about 3 seconds to get the shot. I'm third from the left on top :)



Other than that, things are good. My knees are feeling better every day, but they are still a bit sore and tender. The most random things hurt them, like when I tried to do crunches on a stability ball yesterday. It was murder! So strange. The good news is it gave me a great excuse to not do crunches.

I am hoping with another week of rest, ice and Motrin, they will be better soon. Hopefully.

In other news, I have been tagged by POM and Leana to post 5 random facts about myself. There are hundreds of thousands of weird,random facts about myself, but I will try to keep it brief.

Fact number 1:
I worked as a bartender/server/manager in the service industry for ten LONG years. Every time I go out to eat, I thank my lucky stars I went back and got my degree.

Fact numero dos:
I, much like POM went through a "dark" phase in high school. I wore all black and about 30 cross necklaces, had REALLY big hair, listened to only metal music (mostly Metallica, Iron Maiden and Anthrax) smoked ALOT of this and that and had a pretty bad attitude in general.

Here I am at 15, smoking in the girls bathroom in high school. Lock up your sons!


From here I went through my "alternative" phase, my "grunge" phase, and my "hippy" phase, with better and broader music following me every step of the way.

Here I am at 22, living in Athens, Ohio.


I think I never realized who I was for real until I was about 24 years old. Which is just a normal person with really good taste in music from all her different phases.

Fascinating Fact number 3:
Goat Cheese sucks! Yes, that is a fact.

Fact Four:
If I hold open a door for you and you just walk through it without either grabbing it from me or saying "Thank You" I WILL say something mean to you. You can blame my living in Miami for my increasingly thinning patience with bad manners.

Final Fact (5):
I quit smoking last year after a 16 year habit. It really makes the whole running this easier.

Next up (forgive me if you've already been tagged):

1. Taryn (when she's back)
2. Sonia
3. Micki
4. Irish Blue
5. Leah

Broken

Yeah, I suppose my good luck had to end sooner or later.

The good news is my flu left almost as quickly and mysteriously as it had appeared. I was sick as a dog from Saturday to Wednesday. It hit me all at once and just stayed bad.

Until I woke up on Thursday and I was magically cured.

I felt great. I still had a slight sniffle, but my head was no longer congested and I had no cough at all. I was so excited to get out there and run on Saturday with my group I couldn't even stand it. We had a 16 mile run scheduled and since I had only run a total of 4 miles since the marathon, I decided to meet them at their 10 mile mark and run in a conservative 6 miles with them at the end.

"Six miles is nothing", I thought. "My flu is gone, and my knees only have a slight dull ache after I sit for a few hours, nothing to worry about", I told myself.

I'm sure you can detect my ominous foreshadowing.

So I ran. Not fast, but a nice, easy pace with walk breaks. The last mile, I fell to the back (way back) with another in my group that was having some issues. I wasn't tired or having any ill affects of the flu, but my knees...my aching, throbbing, fire-ridden knees!



By the time I was done I could barely walk. We went to breakfast with a large group and as I sat, I couldn't even lift my legs. When I went back to pick up my car later from the 10 mile mark, I could barely drive. Yes, it hurt to lift my legs from the gas to the break pedal. Thank God I got rid of my stick-shift last year!

My friend Kevin who is not a medical doctor, but has his PhD in Exercise Physiology talked to me and told me it sounds like Patellar Tendonitis. Of course I need to get checked out to make sure, but after doing a bit of research on my own, it's word for word how I feel. Unfortunately, the first treatment is to STOP ALL RUNNING. Then ice, ice some more and to not run some more.

As we all know, it is pretty hard to train for a marathon without running.

I know I should be happy with my first marathon. I did one and it was great and blah, blah, blah. But I really want to do Miami as well. AND I was looking forward to the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving and the Sarasota Half Marathon in March. I had this whole grand plan about the next 6 months of my life and this has totally threw me for a loop.

Not to mention I can't work out right now (since I can barely walk) and this makes being a part of POM's weight loss challenge a bit difficult. I have officially GAINED 4lbs since the marathon.

Sigh.

And then there is the weather. The beautiful, wonderful, HUMIDITY FREE weather is FINALLY HERE!!!!! What I wouldn't do to be out there running in this awesomeness! Damn you evil Miami and your summer devil weather!

The good news is, I have a plan. Half-assed, but a plan nonetheless.

I have started getting up in the mornings and walking my dog for at least 30 minutes. If I can't run, at least we both will get a little exercise by patrolling the neighborhood in the A.M. This is good for her since the time change makes it hard to walk her at night. Not so good for me since she is 12 years old and walks like a 90 year old woman. Oh, and she stops to sniff EVERY THREE STEPS!!! But whatever, it is nice to hang out with her outside in the mornings.

I also have this whole group leader thing to worry about. Saturday is their first 20 miler and instead of running it, I plan on borrowing a bike and riding with them. We have two other leaders in the group, so I could just skip it, but I feel being out here with them doing something will help me from sitting at home and feeling sorry for myself. It will also keep me from staying up late and eating/drinking on Friday nights, which will help me from gaining more weight (beer and pizza are my downfalls).

Along with that, I am still making it to the gym in the mornings a couple days a week to lift with Jeremy and soon, my knees will feel better enough so I can use the elliptical again.

So my plan is to not run for at LEAST three weeks. Do NOTHING that aggravates my knees in any way. Then on December 3 I will go out for a 1-2 mile run (with walk breaks) and see how I feel. If I'm OK, I will work my way back up. If it still hurts, I am totally screwed and need to make a doctors appointment because I have probably really messed something up. For now it's rest and ice packs on the knees every 2 hours. Plus Motrin. Oh how I love Mortin. Who needs stomach lining anyway? Maybe without it, I will stop stuffing my face with beer and pizza.

Unfortunately, I will more than likely not be able to do the full marathon in Miami. If I feel good in a few weeks, I can maybe attempt the half, but if I feel any pain at all, I wont do it. it's just not worth it to me for this much pain. Of course, I could try the half in Miami and the full in Sarasota, but I don't even want to get worked up about that just in case.

Cinderella (the band not the princess) wasn't kidding. You really do not know what you've got until it's gone.

Ugh...

I feel like crap.

I know I should be thankful that this sudden case of the flu came on this week and not two weeks ago (and I am), but it still sucks. I feel like crap.

Did I already mention that?

Unfortunately, the flu is not the only thing keeping me down these past couple of weeks. It seems that running 26.2 miles was a little bit too much on the old knees. I guess that's what happens when you have chicken legs from the knees down. Anyway, I have developed a case of Runner's Knee in BOTH knees which has prevented me from jumping back into the swing of things for my Miami Marathon Training program. It's frustrating for two reasons.

1. Everyone else I ran with feels great.

This is awesome for them, however it's killing me that everyone is out there running 13 miles and I can barely get through one. It hurts to know I felt so good during training and the marathon and now I am injured.

2. The weather is incredible right now!!!

I have been waiting MONTHS for this weather to get here. I have been running in 85+ degrees and 80+humidity in the DARK since MAY just reassuring myself that even though the summers here SUCK, the fall/winters more than make up for it. So here it is, the first cold front of the year. The highs are in the low, low 80's, humidity in the low 70's and it's AMAZING! And here I sit in my house, for the FOURTH day in a ROW, watching people run by my house.

Yes, I am totally feeling sorry for myself, I know.

I did get to the gym a couple of times last week. I lifted a couple of times and rode the elliptical once, which only bothered my knees at the end of the 40 minute workout. Then last Thursday I woke up early for a slow 3 mile run, ran for about 7 minutes, then turned around and ran back home. My knees just weren't ready.

Then Saturday, my Miami Training group had a 13 mile run scheduled. I decided just to run the first three since I still wasn't sure. It was O.K. but definitely still hurt. And the rest of the day my knees were killing me.

Then I got sick.

So since then, I have been sitting on my couch, drinking Thera Flu, blowing my nose, icing my knees and popping ibuprofen. Nothin' but a party around here. :)