This morning, Janna and I did six miles in Griffith Park. Because we were only doing six miles we started at 7am and the weather was perfect. It was slightly overcast the whole time we were running. I’m hoping that’s what the weather will be like the day of our marathon in San Francisco. We’re also doing shorter runs alone next weekend, and then our first 20 miler the following Saturday.
I’m not going to lie, I am very nervous about our 20 miler. My knee started hurting a bit toward the very end of our six miler today, and after last weekend’s 15 miler, I am worried I won’t be able to finish the marathon which is now only five weeks away.
In non-running news, I’ve made a decision about work that I can’t really talk about here yet, but it involves my taking a bit of a risk that I hope will end up being a good thing. It may mean that teaching dance goes on the back burner for a bit, but I’m ok with that. I’m still going to take my TCRG exam, they released a date: February 2-5th 2012. I’ll keep you all posted as soon as I can!
What’s the biggest career risk you’ve taken?
Stepping Forward: One Step at a Time
13.1 Unexpectedly
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Yesterday morning, I woke up at 5:15am and met my running buddy, Janna at Griffith Park at 6am. Â On my way out the door, I’d eaten a piece of bread with peanut butter on it, and by the time I got to the park, I needed to find a bathroom. Â So, before meeting Janna, I high tailed it to the nearest bathroom and prayed for two things. Â One, that there would be toilet paper, and two,that there would be no murderers or animals in the bathroom. Thankfully for me, my prayers were answered. When I first met with Janna we agreed to just see how far we could go today. I had no real milage goal other than “maybe 6 miles?” We first went along our usual route, up a giant hill, down the giant hill, around the golf course and were heading out toward the road when we discovered a side street we hadn’t noticed before. Â It lead us up onto a trail that took us back around to near the golf course and we just kept going. Â By the time we got to the Pony Rides, we had hit a little over 6 miles. Janna then told me that her goal for the day was a half marathon, 13.1 miles. We had tried to keep our pace at conversational, which for me meant really slow, but my legs felt good. Â My left knee was feeling ok, but my right was starting to twinge a bit, and I had done a lot of power walking. So, knowing it was at least another 4 miles back to our cars, I said I’d see how I felt once we hit 10 miles. Â I wasn’t feeling super awesome, my hips were getting really tight which made my IT band really tight, which made my right knee sore, but I toughed it out, walking almost the whole thing. Â We eventually finished our 13.1 miles, and then spent a good 15 minutes stretching. Â I’m still not proud of the time it took us to complete the milage, 3:34, it’s a whole hour slower than I finished my last half marathon race, but I was proud of the fact that we covered the distance. I kept reminding myself that it has been 8 months since I last covered that kind of distance, and being mostly out of commission for several weeks hasn’t helped either. Â Next weekend, I’m going to lobby for doing 5-6 miles and then we’ll try for 14 or 15 the following Saturday.
When you start to feel your muscles tighten up during a run, do you stop and stretch or power through? Â We stopped to stretch twice, but I have a feeling I may actually also need a little extra arch support in my shoes.
This morning I’m a bit stiff and sore, but not nearly as bad as I thought I’d be. Â I think the extra stretching, nap and icing I did when I got home helped. Â Also, the ibuprofen.
Last night my parents took Travis and me out to an early birthday dinner. I chose Flemming’s Steakhouse  in El Segundo because I’d never been, love steak, and had heard good things about it.  It did not disappoint, although the dining room was really loud which was kind of annoying. The food was great, the service was wonderful and we all left with full tummies.
Now, I’m off to breakfast with my parents at their hotel, then to dance to help and finally we’re having a friendfamily dinner in the Marina tonight. Â Travis and I are bringing a Greek Salad. Â :) Hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend.Â
Workout Guilt
Jasmine at Eat Move Write has a great post with some wonderful suggestions regarding combatting missed workout stress. Â It couldn’t have come at a better time, since I ended up working until almost 7:30pm tonight, and need to be up at 5am for work tomorrow which means I missed my workout today. I should have gotten up early this morning to run, but instead, I slept in. Â Work got crazy, and I ended up working overtime to prepare for a big meeting tomorrow morning (I have to pick up the bagels at 6:30am and set up for the meeting which happens at 7:30am).
Last night, Travis and I both went on a quick 2 mile run in the neighborhood. I didn’t wear my Garmin, but Travis wore his new Nike GPS watch, which is pretty snazzy. Â He is just starting to get into running and is having a tough time. Â He walked five miles yesterday and six miles this morning, but running is a challenge.
So, I left my Garmin at home, and decided to try and help Travis pace himself, thinking maybe he’s starting out too quickly and burning out. I did 2.4 miles in 25 minutes which is a 10:25 average pace. Â This is I think the fastest average pace I’ve ever managed! I was shocked. Â Travis and I both jogged/ran the first mile, then walked a bit of the second mile, and then I took off and wanting to finish at the same time as Travis, went a block further and then met him. We wanted to make these runs a nightly thing, but clearly, tonight wasn’t going to happen. Â I’ve got dance rehearsal tomorrow night so I’ll be getting my workout in tomorrow for sure.
I’m working on not feeling guilty for missing yet another run. How do you avoid missed workout guilt?
3 Sweaty Miles in the Park
I don’t know about you guys, but Ali on the Run is one of my favorite blogs to read. Â She’s super upbeat and cheerful and funny, and I usually end up having major city envy when I see her runs in Central Park. Â Los Angeles doesn’t really have a Central Park, Griffith Park is kind of a close approximation I suppose, Â although I guess we also don’t have the humidity that New York has either, so….toss up? Â Anyway, as I’ve been trying to slowly ease myself back into a running routine, I find myself not running in Griffith Park as much because I’ve been skipping my longer runs (bad Catherine!) and have been doing most of my runs in my own neighborhood and Pan Pacific Park.
My running buddy’s son broke his arm for the second time yesterday so she spent the whole evening in the ER with him. Â Poor guy, they had to put him out to re-set his arm 
Not a fun way to spend a Friday night, right? Â So, of course, I slept in this morning instead of waking up at my usual run time and going to Griffith Park by myself. Â By the time I was getting my butt out the door for a run it was 12:30pm and about 70 degrees. Â Not too bad, but still a little warm when not in shade.
I actually probably did a full 5k because it took my stupid Garmin a while to find the satellites, in a little over 37 minutes. Not too shabby, eh? Â I tried to be good about keeping a manageable pace, somewhere between 10:30 and 11 minute miles. I always seem to forget how hilly Pan Pacific Park actually is. Â I did about three laps in the park before heading home. Â I really wanted to attempt 5 miles today, but the heat was starting to get to me. Â The good news is there are several drinking fountains in the park, the bad news is, it’s still pretty hot and I could feel my face getting super red. Â My legs felt like they could have kept going a bit longer, but I didn’t want to push it, and I was starting to get really hungry. Â I only ate a Vanilla Gu before I head out for my run, so I knew I would definitely need food very soon.
Once I got home, I stretched and iced my knee. Â The weird tightness/pain I’d been experiencing in my left leg, where the seem of the knee sleeve sits, wasn’t too terrible today. Â I was able to keep running and eventually it went away, so I think the sleeve just needs to stretch a bit.
Tonight we’ve got a birthday party to go to at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. How are you spending your Saturday night?
Return of the Run
My left knee has been acting up, and after months of attempting to self treat/ignore the pain, I finally made an appointment to see a Nurse Practitioner.  I didn’t want to go through another terrible injury like I’d done when I was dancing. For the last four weeks I was good. I followed the advice of the Nurse Practitioner, and I rested.  No running, only very little dancing, icing, ibuprofen, stretching etc. I also purchased the neoprene knee sleeve that was recommended.  Until last week, I’d been waking up with some pain and inflammation. On Saturday, I finally felt it was time to attempt a run.  I put on my knee sleeve, sprayed on some sunblock and headed out.
When I first started, I felt good, but I knew I was going too fast. Â I was hitting a 9 minute mile, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to sustain that, so I tried to slow down, but it was tough. It felt so great to be running again! I didn’t bring my iPod with me, so I just enjoyed the nice weather. I did a loop around Pan Pacific Park, which is actually pretty hilly, which may have been a mistake. Â After I hit the mile mark, my legs started to fatigue. Â I think some of it was that I had started out too fast, hadn’t really hydrated well during the day, and well, let’s face it, after four weeks of no exercise, my legs were confused. I headed home at a much slower, mostly walking pace, and while I was disappointed that I wasn’t as strong as I’d hoped, I was really, really glad to be able to get through a run with almost zero knee pain.
My knee was a little sore, but not much at all, and I made sure to stretch for a good twenty minutes and then ice when I got home. Â Even with the stretching, I woke up Sunday stiff and a bit sore. Â :( I have a long road ahead of me, especially if I want to even attempt the Nike Women’s Marathon in October (I do). But, at least, I don’t feel like I’m totally back at square one, and I don’t feel like it’s an impossibility.
The truth is, I haven’t been doing the strength training I know I need to do. Â I guess it’s time to really get on that, huh? It’s funny because I used to be the person who preferred strength training to cardio, but now, it’s so much easier for me to hop on a treadmill and run than to think about doing weights. Â Do you prefer cardio or strength training?
I’ve been thinking about buying The New Rules of Weightlifting for Women. Â I’m just not sure if it’s worth the investment. Yes, I know, it’s only $20 but still. 
Once More With Feeling
I expected to post several times this week. Â I was going to make a post about last Sunday’s adventures on Monday, but I forgot I was meeting a friend at the Arclight for a screening right after work. Â Then, I figured, I’d just post on Tuesday, but a crippling migraine knocked me out all day Tuesday and Wednesday. Â Thursday I got home from work and was completely exhausted, having worked a full day with the lingering headache leftover from the migraine. Â Friday, I went right from work to a dance rehearsal in the valley, then back out to the Westside for late dinner. I didn’t get home until around 11pm and went right to bed.
So, now it’s Saturday again and here I am, sitting in the second bedroom with the kittehs anxiously waiting for me to feed them dinner. I’m babysitting late tonight, then again tomorrow afternoon and we have errands to run tomorrow so that, you know, we have groceries for the week. Â Even though Tuesday and Wednesday were spent doing nothing, it feels like this week has been non-stop.
Anywho, I’m bringing my laptop with me when I babysit tonight in the hopes the family with have WiFi that I can use. Â The babys I’m sitting for are 10 months and 2 years and will already be asleep when I get there (easy money, hai.) I am also bringing all of my TCRG study materials because I am about to mail off my application for the exam in January and need to get very serious about my studying.
In the meantime, here’s some news: I went on my first run back in like almost four weeks today. Â More on that later.
Caved
Sunday, I managed to run 3.22 miles. Tuesday, I ran 4 miles, and yesterday I ran 5. Although, saying I “ran” 5 is a bit of a stretch since I did a hell of a lot of walking. My left knee is not getting better. It still hurts, even after icing. I had diagnosed myself with runner’s knee a while ago, and sort of attempted to “rest.” Clearly, I didn’t really REST, but it was the closest approximation of rest I could manage. I’m an idiot.
So, I caved. I made an appointment to see a Nurse Practitioner on the 14th. I’m pretty much worried she’ll tell me to stop running. When I talked to my dad after work yesterday, he said “maybe you need to stop running.”
My answer?
“I already paid for the marathon in October and the half marathon in January.”
“Well, you have to decide which is more important… your knees or race fees…”
“Dad. It’s like $300.”
“….they’re your knees.”
So, until the 14th I’m still going to struggle through my training plan. That sounds smart, right?
Memorial Day Weekend
Memorial Day, here in the United States, is a day where we remember those who have died in our nation’s service. I can count myself as lucky considering my grandfather, father, great uncle, and one of my uncle’s served in the armed forces and all made it out alive. While I am firmly a supporter of peace, I have a huge amount of respect and reverence for those who choose to serve our country and put their lives on the line to ensure the freedoms we enjoy and mostly take for granted on a daily basis. Without these brave men and women our lives would certainly be quite different.
I kicked off this Memorial Day weekend by going to a dance rehearsal on Friday night, which gave me insanely gross blisters on both heels. I put some Neosporin and bandaids on them and then did a 4 mile run on Saturday afternoon. It was warmer out than I expected and I was not quite hydrated enough, but getting outside and running again felt glorious.
Hello red face. I had sunblock and a hat on, and managed to not get burned, just was super flushed. Isn’t it great being really fair skinned? =X
I can’t believe I’m typing those words when about this time a year ago I could barely make it a quarter of a mile without feeling like I was going to die.
Jasmine, over at Eat, Move, Write, posed a question to her readers, “Does Running Get Any Easier?!” A year ago I was in the same boat. Having been talked into signing up for my first half marathon, which was also really, my first distance race of any kind, I struggled with my training in the beginning. Not only did I have the physical hurtle to leap over, I had a huge mental block. I was not a runner, in my mind it was impossible for me to run. It wasn’t who I was, it wasn’t what I was good at, and as far as I was concerned, I hated running. The truth is, I had never REALLY run at all, so saying I hated running was kind of silly.
I still remember that first group run with my running buddies in Griffith Park. We didn’t really know how far we would go, or where we were actually going, and I was the first to need to walk, and needed to walk a lot. The second week, I let the girls go ahead of me, not wanting to hold them back, and still, lots and lots of walking. I’m still the slowest in the group (now only two of us,) but it has definitely gotten easier. Having conquered two half marathons, I can honestly say, it does in fact get easier. It takes some time, though, and the real trick for me, was finding joy in the small accomplishments that meant so much to me personally. Finishing my first mile running the whole way. Being able to complete 5 miles without feeling like I was done for the day. Finishing 10 miles, and finally completing my first half marathon. Each milestone helped propel me to train harder, and get stronger, because I realized with each passing week that I was capable of so much more than I ever thought possible.
Saturday afternoon, I went to a picnic at Barnsdall Park in East LA to celebrate a friend’s birthday, then met Travis out in Santa Monica for a BBQ. The whole group of us walked down to the beach around sunset and then after that a few of us went to a bar in Playa del Rey for karaoke. I hadn’t been to this particular bar in probably years. The last time had been on a Sunday when we discovered they had karaoke on accident, but before that, my friends and I used to go almost every Tuesday for College Night drink specials. It was fun, but also weird. haha
In other news, I ordered myself a new bathing suit from Victoria Secret because I couldn’t find any of my other suits (which are all a little worse for wear anyway,) and we are going to Vegas for a wedding next weekend. It arrived on Friday and I was super excited when I tried it on and realized it fit!
I’m going to be honest, I still don’t 100% love my body in a swimsuit, but I’m getting closer! I see a day where I’m not as self conscience in the near future. Woo!
This afternoon, before grocery shopping for our short week, Travis and I hit up Korean BBQ for a happy hour special lunch. It was delicious, and I was just the right amount of full when we left.
Now, with all the groceries put away, I’ve got some light clean up and some strength training planned, followed by reading and snuggling with the kittehs.
How have you spent your Memorial Day weekend?
Left Foot, Right Foot…
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Does any one remember this episode?
Today was my first run in weeks. Sure, I only did a little over a mile, but hey, you gotta start somewhere, right? I figured attempting the 5 mile Tempo Run on my marathon training plan wouldn’t be wise. So, instead, I hopped on the treadmill for a quick mile, and then headed to spin class.
Thankfully, I got through my mile with NO knee pain! None at all! I’m taking this as a good sign. Sure, it was only a mile, but it’s a start!
I think my new shoes helped.
I ordered two pair so that while I train for my marathon I can alternate.
I didn’t realize how badly I needed a new pair until I put them on and remembered, “Oh, so THAT’S what arch support feels like!”
The new pairs are super clean and the laces seem to be a bit shorter which I’m into. I’m pretty thrilled, even though they’re the same style I’ve been wearing for over a year.
In other news, on Monday, after I blogged, I passed out and was dead asleep by 7pm. Travis woke me at 8 to ask if I wanted dinner, and I managed to stay awake until about 10 before passing out and sleeping hard the rest of the night. I guess I needed the sleep?
First Sunburn of the Year
This morning I spent about an hour and forty-five minutes outside at a work related site walk through, and managed to get a super attractive sunburn in the process.
You can see where my staff name badge was, awesome, right? It’s like an ongoing reminder that I’m an idiot and ran out the door without sunscreen. Also, a reminder that I will never, ever be “tan.” This picture is so unflattering, I hope you all appreciate the amount of self esteem I have in order to share such gems with you all
Last night, Travis and I were out way past our bed time for a school night because we had game night with some friends. It was so much fun, but I am paying for it today. I’ve been so exhausted that by 1:30pm I felt like I could lay down under my desk and sleep the rest of the day away. I decided to skip out on spin tonight in favor of resting up so that I will be in top form for my (drum roll) first attempt back at running this week.
I ordered two pairs of new running shoes from DSW who happen to carry the style of Brooks I like, because they were, as my Nor Cal friends would say, “hella cheap.” They arrived on Saturday, and I’m itching to break in the first pair, and get going on my Marathon training plan. I’m using Runner’s World’s Smart Coach to train for my first marathon, and lucky for me, even with skipping spin I’m still technically following my plan!
Sure, spin could have fallen into the XT category, especially since Tuesdays are a total wash for me with my teaching gig out in the valley, but, some days, when you feel like you are sleeping standing up, it’s best to go home, put your feet up and fall asleep on the couch with one hand in a bag of chips and the other holding open a young adult fiction novel.
I’m off to do just that while I wait for Travis to get home from work. It’s too early to go to bed at 6:30, right?
