4th Journal Entry Baby Steps & Oprah

So who know an injury could alter so drastically the way you move in such a short time?  I took a few days off from running but did do some cross training via my bike and elliptical and some other stuff.  I tried running again a couple of days ago and I feel like I've had a major brain injury and have to relearn how to move my legs.  It's the weirdest thing ever.  I'm trying to take it slow too and only do 15 minutes at at time.  Ergo...baby steps.  Still hurts a little too but I'm trying to follow "doctors orders" and take the Advil and ice the area.  The Spring Thaw run is in a week.  I had hoped to do the 10 mile option but now I'll be happy to do the 5k.  Oh well. 

I'm also obsessed with barefoot running.  But having learned my lesson from trying it a few months ago I know that too requires baby steps and perhaps some special shoes.  I know...oxymoron.....barefoot running = shoes.  But it's the new hot thing.  It's supposed to help improve your stride and make you less likely to get injured.  OK I'm a sucker for a salespitch.  But hey  NEW SHOES.

Something else I learned recently.  Oprah ran a marathon!  Yep she did about 10 years ago, in her 40's.  And get this...she did it in 4 hours 30 minutes!  Compared to my pace that's SMOKING! 
So now I have another reason I HAVE to do this.  I mean come on....OPRAH???  Dont get me wrong.  I LOVE Oprah and think that she should run for President.  But she's not exactly the picture of athleticism.  So dang it if she can do it SO CAN I!  At least I sure hope so.  Beating her time...well yea that's probably not going to happen unless it involves motorized transportation. 

3rd Journal Entry

Just a quick update because apparently I cant add to a draft of a blog post.  So last week my running came to a screeching halt!  Sunday I told you I struggled.  Monday was a "rest" day but who does that when you're an over achiever so I rode my bike for an hour.  Tuesday was a 6 mile run which YEA was outside.  All be it on our suicidal highway.  More on that another day.  Anyway, my legs were really bothering me.  More specifically my "hip girdle".  I know, I'd never heard of it either until NIKE told me I should be exercising it.  Which I did..... occasionally and which would probably explain why I was now in PAIN.  But as quitting is not in my vocabulary and NIKE said I had to do 6 miles...I did.  And then took lots of Advil when I got home.

Wednesday was to be a short run day and while my girdle was still hurting NIKE said it must be done.  So I packed up Vegas our brittany spaniel and headed to Adams Nature Preserve to run on the trails.  Nothing nothing nothing went well.  I limped out out a mile and a half before I threw the towel in and stopped "running".  I can't even say it was running.  Picture a 90 year old arthritic person with a broken hip and that would be me that day.  So now I'm totally humiliated, depressed and in a ton of pain and have to do the dreading WALKING back to the car for 1.5 miles.  To make matters worse, Vegas discovered I had NOT put on her shock collar and decided running off was FUN!  So I apologize to any other nature lovers who may have been there that day that had their peaceful environment ruined by some lunatic who kept yelling VEGAS COME....and a few other colorful phrases.  She even thought it would be great to take a swim in the lake because I have a new car and wouldn't a wet muddy dog be great addition to it.  UGH  My only resort when she finally got out of the lake was to take my bra off and use it as a leash.  And of course it couldn't be one of my cheap ones from Target either.  Oh no it was a nice Victoria's Secrets one.  At this point I'm ready to kill the dog.  As we get closer to the parking lot I decide I really dont want anyone to see my bra/leash so I take it off her.  And off she goes AGAIN!!!!!  By now I've decided to heck with my husband having had her bloodlines for 40+ years it's time for a new dog and finders keepers to whoever finds her!  But no, muddy paws and all she does find my truck just in time to leave.  But I showed her that night and she got no treats or pets to the head from me!  And I bought a new bra on Friday.

Since that debacle, I talked to a sports injury specialist and was told to lay off running.  I likely had injured my hip flexor (sounds better than girdle).

Guess this is a common running injury.  So I haven't run for 5 days.  That sounds like nothing but when you have convinced yourself you are addicted to running its really weird not to be able to do it.  But dont worry, I supplemented that time with eating pretty much everything I could get my hands on.  My best friend and I went to Omaha for St Pat's day and to see Lady Ga Ga.  Well she forced me to eat at the casino buffet where they had cotton candy!  Have I mentioned I love casino buffets?  And the next day was Ben & Jerry's ice cream with chocolate covered potatoe chips in it.  ohhhhh ymmmy yummmy yummmy

Why does it take two weeks to lose 2 pounds but 2 days to put it on????  Some things are just not right in this world!

So today I'm trying to get back to eating healthy and "cross training".  I may try a few minutes on the treadmill tonight too but I know I need to take it slowly getting back to running. I was also told to get some frozen peas to ice the area.  So word to the wise if you come for dinner, maybe skip eating the peas.

2nd Jounral Entry

Running makes no sense.  Friday I took advantage of some warmer weather and ran outside with my friend Sandy.  In the book I'm reading about training for a marathon the author's running buddy is "Chipper Jen."  Sandy is my Chipper Jen and thus has a new nickname.  She's younger than me and way cuter.  And she can run better and faster and is always in a great mood.  ie.......Chipper Jen.  We first met years ago when I started work at Great West Casualty as a law student intern.  She was the self appointed social director of the young and hip crowd at GW and sure made my time at GW better.  Anyway, we're going to go do a "long" run.  Last time we did 10 miles and I had to walk a couple of times.  But we visited the whole time which adds to the effort it takes to run so I didn't feel too bad about having to make her walk a little.  But Friday I was dreading the run.  Turns out we had a GREAT RUN.  We did 11.5 miles and never walked and talked the whole time.  Operating off that high I was looking forward to another long run on Sunday.  Well nothing about it was good.  I still did 7.3 miles but every step hurt.  I ran to my friend Melanie's house and it was all I could do to keep going.  The only "good" thing of the run was I did some hills which so far I've avoided.  Ok need to do some more hills in the future.  The ironic thing about having so much pain was that the chapter in the book I had just finished was titled "PAIN".  Guess that should have been warning.

I'm almost done with this book and I'm really bummed about that.  This book has been really fun and motivational for me.  I have 5 months left of my training.  What am I going to read now? 

#1 Journal Entry---WHY?..you ask

Never been much of a journal keeping person and never had a blog before.  But look what it did for that Julie chick who blogged about a cookbook!  Plus I'm reading this really funny (and surprisingly helpful) book "The Non-Runners Marathon Guide For Women" and she says it will help if I journal.  Actually what I think she said is that it will give me something interesting to read when I'm all done and thinking about doing something crazy again. 

So I'm not a journaler.....I'm also not a runner.  My attention span is too low and running is boring.  Yes I openly admitted that.  And I have NO speed.  Turtles can pass me.  But completing a marathon is on my bucket list.  And it will catapult me in the coolness factor.  Ok just in my mind but hey.  And I have another reason too.  I have MS.  It sucks.  But I'm lucky.  I CAN run.  Lots of people like my friend Gert can't run.  Or the mystery woman at the MS150 a few years ago.  She wouldn't be able to do this either.  So I dont take for granted how lucky I am or that at any moment things could change.  So I'm running.  I'm running because I can and for those who can't!

This running idea didn't just start.  I've dabbled in it doing several 5K's over the years.  But I've struggled to run them without at least 1 or 2 walking breaks.  So the idea of 26.2 miles is a bit daunting.  And I dont want to walk it.  At least not much of it anyway.  I'm way to competitive.  I know I will be behind a ton of other people's butts (hopefully not too many will be in short shorts) but I will be totally happy if I can finish anywhere close to the middle of the pack. 

I'm not actually admitting yet that I'm going to run a marathon.  But that's the plan I'm 75% committed to right now.  I'm shooting for the Leading Ladies Marathon in the Black Hills on August 21, 2011.  First it's all women.  Second, it's all downhill!  I don't know if that's really a good thing but it sure sounds like it.  I figure if I get in trouble I could lay down and roll to the finish line.  Ok maybe not as most of our roads are gravel.  But a thought.  But I have officially committed and registered for my first 1/2 marathon, the Mickelson Trail Marathon on June 5.  I'm already up to running 10 miles without walking so I should be ok to do this. 

Yep I'm up to 10 miles.  Do you know how far that is?  That would be me running from our house in the country to the Casey's in Riverside for a donut.  Eventually I'll be able to run back home after the donut.  But not yet.

I started really running about the end of November.  Blame Apple.  My old ipod was acting up so I got a new one and it had this Nike program on it.  Well being a lover of all things techie I got the Nike+ Ipod kit and started tracking my runs on the treadmill and uploading them to Nike/Facebook.  Well the constant logging on to the Nike website to get the video praises of my progress led me to think 2011 should be the year of my marathon.  So I signed up for a Nike coaching program, bought some new shoes and have been working on it ever since. 

OK this is enough for my first journal entry.  I've got more to add.  Like about the pain in places I didn't know could hurt.  But that's for another day.