AAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

My back is out. AGAIN!!!

I've spent the whole weekend pretty much flat on my back or in a fetal position.

F'ing sciatic nerve.

At least there's still 5-1/2 months before my next marathon, but still. UGH!!!!

Knee update

When I woke up this morning & started to get out of bed I braced myself for the pain I was sure I was going to feel once my feet hit the floor & I tried to stand. To my surprise, there was no pain. Stiffness? Yes. But pain? No.

HOORAY!!

Then I took my dog for his morning walk. My knee popped with every step. Again, there was no pain, but a definite, audible "pop".

My dog & I are quite a pair. Moe blew his knee out 6 months ago & he never completely healed after his surgery (his hair still hasn't grown back all the way!) so he walks with a slight limp & here I am walking beside him with my knee popping like a little girl w/ chewing gum. Yup. Quite a pair indeed.

In the immortal words of Roseanne Roseannadanna...

Today was my first day back running after a 2 week break & it was not easy. As usual, the humidity was awful & the wind refused to make an appearance but I trudged on. I started out walking for the first 30 minutes w/ my friend Carissa, then she kicked in to power walking mode & I kicked in to my usual slow jog & it was only a matter of minutes before Carissa was WAY far ahead of me. It's kinda depressing to me that my run is slower than other people's walk. I had a tough time running at the beginning, only able to sustain it for about 2 or 3 minutes at a time, but after a while, I was back up to about 5 or 6 minutes with 2-3 minute walk breaks in between. It's strange how it will be so hard in the beginning but then seems so easy. I guess my muscles just need a little longer to warm up these days.

As I made my way through the Heights & started back to the park I was feeling pretty good. Then I got to the waterstop at Waugh/Memorial. Almost as soon as I stopped I felt a SUPER sharp pain behind my knee-cap which then shot down the outer side of my calf to my ankle. It was a white hot constant pain & freaked me out. I have NO idea what I did. I hadn't been feeling any pain in my knee at all until just that second. I tried to stretch out my leg/knee but it hurt too much. I ended up hitching a ride back to the park w/ my coach Ginny. The pain subsided in the car, but my knee still didn't feel "right". When I bent it, it felt super stiff & swollen deep inside, like there was a pocket of fluid in there.

When I got home I took a long ice bath, then when I got out I put an ice pack on it for about 20 minutes. The knee is very stiff & pops when I straighten my leg. I'm thinking that's not a good sign. I plan to keep off it & ice it all weekend & hope that it will be better by next week. I really hope I didn't do any serious damage to it.

It just goes to show you, it's always something.

Boring

There hasn't been a lot to report training-wise this past week. I didn't do a long run this weekend because I was out of town floating on the Comal River with some friends. It was good times. (I actually got a bit of a different work-out from all the paddling I did. I woke up Sunday morning with sore shoulders & back muscles.) We ended up driving home after dinner Saturday night so there was no running at Town Lake in Austin for me. Instead I spent the night & most of the following day hanging out w/ 2 good friends. Then I headed out to my parents' house to see my brother & nephew who were in town to take my dad deep sea fishing for his birthday. It was super great to see them. I wish I saw them more often.

Work life has been SUPER crazy busy & I've had to work late & come in early a lot. By the end of the day it is WAY too hot & I've been too tired to run outside, so I've been doing yoga & pilates the last few days in the comfort of my nice air conditioned living room. It's better than doing nothing but I really need to get some running in.

Ugh.

I cannot properly express to you how much I HATE the heat. I don't do well in it at all. It makes me tired. It makes me grumpy. It gives me hives. It pisses me off.

I.

Hate.

It.

This weekend's long run is supposed to be 10 miles. It's gonna suck. Blech.

*GASP!*

Today's high temperature: 94º

Real feel: 105º

& that's most likely in the shade. In the direct sunlight it feels about a BILLION degrees.

Yup. It's time to start going back to the air-conditioned gym.

I hate summer in Houston.

It's not the heat, it's the humidity.

Oy! The humidity!!!

Mother Nature continues to be a bitch by insisting on making it rain practically every single day. Saturday was no different. I woke up at 5:00 am to find that it had apparently been pouring right up until the time I woke up. When I stepped outside the air was as thick as pea soup. Oy. I REALLY didn't want to run in that humidity but I sucked it up & made my way to the park. The mileage for the day was supposed to be 10 miles, but since my last long run was 6 miles, I decided to do only 8. I went out of the park short, down Memorial to Waugh, to Allen Parkway to Sabine & back.

Like last week's long run, I walked the first 30 minutes, but unlike last week I walked it pretty close to my regular pace. After 30 minutes I started to run. I started out pretty good... running about 5 minutes & walking 1 or 2. I wasn't paying too much attention to my watch. I just wanted to see what my body could do & I stopped when my body felt like it needed to stop & started up again when it felt like I could run again. After a while, the humidity was really taking its toll & my running time dropped to 3 & 4 minute incriments, but I still kept it up as long as I could.

When I finally made it almost back to the park, I decided to see if I could run the rest of the way in without stopping, & I'll be damned if I didn't do it! I ran for a full 8-1/2 minutes. I know that may not sound like much of a victory to anyone else, but for me it's huge. I'm really surprised at how much I'm able to run now, especially since I most definitely don't have your typical runner's body. I notice that my legs are definitely more muscular. I still have a loooong way to go to get my body even close to what I want it to be, but things like this encourage me.

There will be no long run for me this Saturday because I am going out of town with some friends for a belated birthday celebration for my friend, Lori. We're going tubing down the Guadelupe, then we're off to Austin for the rest of the weekend. I may bring my running shoes with me just in case though, because 2 of my friends that I'll be with are both training for their 2nd marathon so who knows, they may feel the urge to run a few miles (that is if they aren't too hung over). Truth be told, I really wouldn't mind running at Town Lake. We'll see.

Oh yeah! I got an email today from the Houston Running Bloggers. Turns out I came in 2nd in their HRB Runner of the Month voting. Pretty cool, eh? What sucks is that I didn't get the email about the voting until the last minute & I never had time to vote. Who knows, maybe if I'd voted for myself I would've won. But truth be told, I would've felt weird nominating myself so it probably wouldn't have made a difference. But it still feels nice to know I got nominated. :)

4th of July Re-cap

Fireworks at Hermann Park (taken by yours truly)

Yesterday I, along with several of my TNT buddies, did the Run Wild 5K race in Uptown. After my run this past Saturday I was feeling pretty confident about this little race & was hoping I'd be able to PR. Alas, it was not meant to be.

The day started out EXTREMELY humid & there wasn't a single breeze to be found. It was cloudy so it wasn't too hot, but the humidity was so high that it just sucked the life right out of me. It also didn't help that I wasn't properly hydrated. From the very start I had problems with cramping on the side of my right calf. After a while I think I just blocked the pain out of my mind. It was quite disheartening when I wasn't even a full mile into the race & I saw runners coming back about to finish the race. Stupid fast people! But again, what matters is that I was out there & that I finished the race. My final time was 48:45.

Eh.

One thing I was happy about was the fact that I was able to maintain a run/walk ratio of 5:1! I'm really amazed at how my legs can hold out that long. I guess I'm in better shape than I thought (at least in my legs). I think the mileage for this Saturday is 10 miles. I'm going to see how far I can keep that ratio up during that run.

After race several of us "tailgated" in the Uptown parking lot, drinking Bloody Mary's (I, however, didn't have any) then we all went to the Spanish Flower for a late breakfast (I'll admit that I had 1 margarita). As soon as I left the restaurant to go home it started to pour down rain. The rain continued off & on thru the rest of the day so I lazed around on my couch, napped & watched movies on cable. At 9 pm I walked over to Hermann Park to watch the Houston Symphony play & see the fireworks. In all, it wasn't a bad day. :)

Hope y'all had a happy 4th!

Rain check

Well, we never did get around to doing Ass Day today. It was a rainy day today & I had the day off but I know the girls all had to work. I never did hear from any of them so when I got the call from some other friends, I went to the movies with them instead. (We saw the new X-Men movie. Quite good. Go see it. I normally don't care for facial hair, but Hugh Jackman is a yummy exception. And of course there's Patrick Stewart - aka Capt. Picard - as their leader. I do love that sexy bald head!) It's just as well. I have a feeling AD would've kicked my ass & I really want to be feeling good for the 5K tomorrow. Maybe I'll do my own AD on Wednesday. We'll see.

Thursday we normally do a loop or 2 at the park, but it's my dad's 70th birthday this Thursday so I'm driving out to Spring to have dinner with the 'rents & help dad celebrate. I may leave work an hour early that day & do a loop at Rice instead (weather permitting). It wouldn't be too hard since it's only a block away from the office. Again, we will see.

Time for bed.

Happy 4th of July!

A few steps forward

Friday night was my 1st test... a night out with my girls. It was supposed to be just dinner, then home & in bed by 10:00 so we'd all be fresh & ready to run early Saturday morning. Of course, with us, it never works out how we planned. But I was a good girl. I had one drink at dinner & when we went to a bar afterwards, I only had water. When the girls decided to go to another bar around 11:00, even though we were having a great time, I bid them adeux & went home & was in bed a little before midnight. Not great, but SO much better than it would've been had I stayed out w/ the girls.

I was up at the park a little before 6:00 am to meet up with the TNT'ers at the picnic table. My tummy wasn't feeling that great (note to self: no Mexican food the night before long runs) so I started out reeeeaaaaaalllllllyyyy slow. It was basically a stroll instead of a run. About 10 minutes into it, I almost decided to turn back & go home, but I knew I really needed to run, so I stuck with it. I finally started to perk up once I got to Starbuck's on Memorial so I started to run (which for me is really a slow jog). To my surprise, it felt really good to run. In fact, it felt better to run than it did to walk, so instead of doing my usual intervals of walking 5 mins. & running 1, I did the exact opposite. I couldn't believe that I was able to do that at all. I kept waiting for the time when I just couldn't do it any more, but it never happened. I was amazed!

When I got to my turn-around point, I was feeling pretty damn good. When I was almost back to the park, I heard someone yell "GO ERIN!!!" & turned to see Jon Walk & several other Houston Running Bloggers headed my way. Jon ran beside me & talked to me for a short bit. It was a nice surprise to see the HRB'ers & a great way to end my run. When I got back to the picnic table & looked at my watch, it had taken me 43 minutes to do the 2nd half of my run... 22 minutes faster than the 1st half & it was the exact same distance! Imagine how fast I would've been if I hadn't done that super slow stroll for the 1st 30 minutes. It was very encouraging. I wasn't even that sore afterwards. The only soreness/stiffness I felt was after breakfast because I'd been sitting for about 30-45 minutes. Once I got up & started moving around again, I felt great.

Today was a day of rest but tomorrow will be what the girls have deemed "Ass Day". Every Monday we plan to do hills, squats, & lunges at Spotts Park in an effort to strengthen our legs & hopefully decrease the size & increase the perkiness of our asses. Here's hoping I survive my 1st Ass Day so I can do the Run Wild 5K the next morning. *crosses fingers*