catching up

Um, I've gotten really lousy at updating this.  Mostly because I've been trying to not focus so much on time and just on running, because that's what I wanted to do for the race, given how rough the training time was.

Quick update:

Knee: better, but not great.  It bothers me about half the time, but it's more feeling uncomfortable than actually debilitatingly painful.  I'd say it's about 65-70%.  Not strong enough that I feel like I can really go all-out.  I am still nowhere near the pace I was running pre-injury, which is depressing in some ways, but it's also been good for making me more focused on just running rather than trying to shave off a second or two.

Pregnancy awesomeness:  much more tired than I would normally be, lots more pain from the cyst.  Manageable, but not making it my best training year ever.

Half-marathon:

• All things considered, the training actually went pretty well.  There were a lot of runs where I was very ill, and in a lot of pain, and there were a handful where I couldn't run more than a mile or two before I had to stop and just wait for the pain and the nausea to abate so I could start again.  I missed 2 runs, both in Week 10 (3 miles and 11 miles.  I took the 3 off because I was so incredibly exhausted [it was also a grading week] and I had been very very sick the week before.  Took the 11 off later that week because my dad was in town, I hadn't seen him in months, it was Conference weekend, and I wanted to go hiking with him rather than leave to go running in the short time we actually had to do anything).  Ran every other single run, 5 days a week for the 12 weeks, despite some pretty crippling pain, nausea, and fatigue.  Entire first trimester.  So fun!
• I was pleased with how the race itself went.  My time was 2:08:19, which is a full 10 minutes slower than my PR for the last half-marathon I ran, during which I was also pregnant.  There were no splits on the course, so I really didn't know how fast I was going, and I was fine with that (I left my Nike + at home on purpose because I didn't want to push myself harder than my body could go).  Let me tell you...this is a real triumph for me.  It may seem sort of oxymoronic, but I have SUCH a hard time not being ultra-competitive all the time that actually backing off was way more of a challenge!  I did have one freak-out moment at mile 8, when I was worried about going over 2:10 (which I'd kind of mentally set as the point at which I would feel lame about the race), and I asked Neil to tell me that I was okay because I was running a race with a bad knee, an ovarian cyst, and 3 months pregnant, and thankfully we've been married long enough that he knows that I just need to hear it from someone else to accept that it's okay.  So he handled that and then I was fine again and stopped panicking.  It was a really fun race, because I was just going for miles and not minutes, and I kept being surprised that it was already another mile down!  Which was great.  In all honesty, I don't think I could set a PR on this course without a lot lot lot of effort, because it was incredibly hilly.  They actually changed the course because there was so much initial outcry about how hilly it was, and man, I can't even imagine how exhausting that first course would have been, because this one was intense.  Our town sits on a hill, and then there's a river, and then another town on a hill across the river, and we just kept running up and down those hills between the towns.  And the last 2 miles were almost all uphill, which was pretty murderous at that point.  The final approach to the finish line was all uphill until mile 12.9, and I have never seen so many people walking!  It was crazy.  I checked the Facebook page afterward and a lot of people were talking about how they had run tons of races and this was by far their worst time ever (then again, the guy who won ran it in 1:05, so somebody was doing just fine!)
• Recovery has been pretty good--I was stiff Saturday and my joints really hurt, but the joint achiness was gone Sunday, and there was just some residual muscle soreness.  We went on a long walk as a family Sunday evening (the uphills on that were hard on my hip flexors, but otherwise it was fine) and then I ran 3 miles today and it was totally fine.  I would have liked to run more, but I didn't start early enough, and I thought I should probably take it easy today anyway.
  

So there's the last while in a nutshell.  

Not the best

This was a hard week for running; I found out on Wednesday that I have an ovarian cyst, which has been what's causing all the pain (thankful that it was not an ectopic pregnancy, as I had originally thought, but still worrisome because I'm 10 weeks pregnant and the cyst could potentially be pretty dangerous to the baby.  How's that for a pregnancy announcement?!)  :-)

Anyway, for the past few months, with how sick I have been with this pregnancy, my goal has been miles rather than time, and this week was definitely along those lines.

Monday: 5 miles on treadmill
Tuesday: 4.5 miles speedwork (9 x400), treadmill
Wednesday:  accidentally ran 6 miles.  Long story.  Usual Wednesday run should be 3 miles, but I swapped it with a 5-miler and then realized a couple miles in that I was running a 6-mile route instead of the 5-mile route.
Thursday: blessed day of rest.  Good because the pain started up again, so I cancelled my plans to go running Friday morning with a friend and instead
Friday: ran 3 miles on the treadmill
Saturday: really long 10 miles (approximate--didn't have a good tracker and it was through tiny winding trails in the woods).  My stomach pain woke me up this morning, and it was pretty agonizing--I had to walk about 100 yards in.  We quickly revised our running plans so that we were running 7 miles of woods loops so that we would never be more than a couple of miles from home, instead of running halfway across town.  I made it through the run, but it was pretty agonizing and there were periods every mile or so when I was just bent over with my hands on my knees breathing through the pain.  So frustrating when my body shuts down on me like this, but as far as I know, there's nothing to be done about the pain other than just deal with it.  So, so, so insanely glad that Neil was with me.

Chicago is for runners

So I really, really, really love running in Chicago, and that is what I got to do today.

We were scheduled to run 10, but we decided to take it back a notch and run a couple less miles, because we were planning to spend ALL our time walking around downtown (and frankly, I am so glad we did, because there was the strongest wind I have ever run against and it was exhausting, plus I picked up a blister and my hips hurt like death, so anyway).

Back to the beginning of the week:

4.5 Monday (treadmill)
4.5 Tuesday (speedwork on treadmill)
5 Wednesday (outside on trails by myself in the evening...pretty grueling run, but it was exactly what I needed after a really rocky day)
3 early Friday morning. plus a TON of walking around downtown--at least 4-5 miles, likely more.

7.25 (at least--maybe more?) Saturday morning--we started out from our hotel (the Hilton overlooking Grant Park), ran down past Buckingham Fountain and along the lake by all of the yachts, over the river and down the Riverwalk to the very end of Navy Pier, then turned around and ran back along the lake out to the Field Museum, past Shedd, and all the way around Adler.  At this point the wind picked up at it was INSANE.  I was running SO fast because otherwise I would have fallen over from the wind battering at my back...when I stretched out my arms and the wind caught my long-sleeved shirt it was seriously acting like a sail.  The whitecaps were crashing against the breakwater next to us and it was awesome--until we turned around and started running into the wind back through the Museum Campus and back to the hotel.  Great run.  A little harder than usual because I didn't have anything to eat other than a couple of granola bars until 1 pm that day, which is tres unusual for me, but that's how the morning worked out.  Then we showered and walked all over the city for another 4 hours.  Awesomeness!  And my hips hurt so bad all the way home from running stairs against the wind that I am super excited to get into bed tonight!

So running in general is more challenging these days.  Any guesses as to why?

Oh--and I have a summons for jury duty next week, which could seriously wreck my running schedule (and the rest of my life.  So uncivic of me, but I am really really hoping that I get dismissed and I don't actually end up on the jury.  I can't even imagine how I would work that one out.)

9/15

Still haven't missed a run, although this morning was close.  I've been having some stomach pain lately that has been making my life miserable, and when I got out of bed this morning I couldn't even stand up straight.  I went running anyway, and although I had to stop to walk a few times, I felt better once I was done (and then I came home and went back to bed for another two hours).  I think it probably didn't help that I finished running 9 miles at 8:45 last night, slept about five hours (lousy night's sleep with abdominal pain), and then ran another 4 this morning.

Monday:  4.5 miles (treadmill)

Tuesday: 8x400 (4.0 miles total, treadmill)

Wednesday: 3 miles (outside)

Friday: 9 miles (outside, LOTS OF HILLS)

Saturday: 4 miles (outside, some low rolling hills including woods trails)

Good week

I feel really good about my runs this week.  I had a couple of rough ones early in the week, but the last 2 were great, and I got in 3 outdoor runs, which is what I've been trying to do, so that was also great.

4 on Monday, 4.5 on Tuesday (tempo run on the treadmill and it was sooooo long...my laptop finally died so I couldn't watch a movie and I didn't have a good book to read that would stay up well so I could read as I ran).  3 on Wednesday with my friend, who was so kind about the fact that I was feeling awful and I stopped a couple of times thinking I was going to throw up--it was honestly the worst I have ever felt on such a short run!  It was a pretty warm & humid day and I totally hadn't drunk enough, plus I was really tired--it was a bad combination.

8 last night with Neil--one of the very best runs we've ever done together.  We were running the toughest course that we can do around here (hills all the way with a big hill in the middle--one mile down, one mile back up again), and it started running before we were even a mile in.  HARD.  It stopped again after another mile or so, but around mile 3 it started raining and and at mile 4 it was DUMPING rain.  Like so insanely hard that the trail was completely awash, our feet were soaked, our clothes were plastered to us, and it was really hard to see!  It was so completely insane that we both just started laughing and we ended up singing at the top of our lungs (and making out about 6 miles in, which usually we're too sweaty to do when we're running, but when you're standing in torrential rain, it works!).  By the end I was starting to shiver and the rain was little pellets and I could feel it puddling in my collarbones (my skin was so red and abraded afterwards) so I was glad we were only running 8.

Ran half of the course (4 miles, starting at the big mile uphill) by myself tonight, running home from a ward potluck at a park.  Really fun run and I spent most of it thinking how grateful I am for my body.  I'm not as fast as I was a couple of years ago, and who knows if I will be again, since my knee is still not totally stable and pain-free, but I think that year of pain and injury has taught me to just appreciate running for the sheer love of running, and not being (quite) as obsessed about my pace and splits.

M 4, T 4.5, W 3, F 8, S 4, 23.5 for the week

Boiled eggs are the worst pre-run food ever

4 miles Monday, 3.5 miles Tuesday (speedwork 7x400 sprints), 3 miles easy Wednesday, rest Thursday, 8 miles Friday, 3 miles Saturday

I've felt kind of cruddy this week, but I did all my runs!  Some were good and some not so good...lots of them I was pretty dizzy and nauseated.  Yesterday's 8-miler was an endurance test--it was just under 90 degrees (at 7 pm) and insanely humid (thunderstorms on their way).  I ran 3.5 miles to meet a friend, ran 3 miles with her, and ran 1.5 miles home by myself.  I'm so glad that I was meeting her halfway because it would have been really hard to run that all by myself--the first 3.5 I was motivating myself by trying to catch up with other runners (and felt inordinate satisfaction when passing them!).

3 miles tonight were so revitalizing--I felt SO incredibly sick all day.  I took a nap this afternoon and then spent about an hour and a half lying on my bed while everyone else was eating dinner, which I felt too yucky to eat (I got almost done making it and then I just couldn't handle it anymore, so I ended up boiling myself two eggs and lying down to eat them).  When I finally got up Neil had the kids almost in bed, and I got dressed and went out to run hoping that would make me at least feel better mentally if not physically.  The eggs started to come back up about 2 minutes into the run, but I hung in there, and ran out to what used to be my favorite route and is now a construction zone.  I ran through the muddy mucky mess of road-in-progress and up the hill and it was the best part of my day--just being alone out there with NO cars and no people and nothing (not even any construction equipment--just a deserted sweep of dirt road) but geese honking and swimming in a nearby flood zone.  When I turned around I was so sad to go back to civilization!

8/25

I've done all my other runs this week; they just haven't made it on here.

So 3.5 miles on Monday, 4 miles Tuesday, 3 miles on Wednesday (which oddly enough felt harder than either of the shorter runs, because I'd pushed those really hard and I was trashed on Wednesday, plus I got up about 5:30 to go run).  Another 3 miles yesterday, and then 7 today.

And whew!  Today's run was a first in that it is the first time I have ever ever ever run in public wearing just a sports bra.  We ran the first 3 miles and I was dying, so when we got to the woods I just carried my shirt for the rest of the run.  Since it was right around 90 degrees at 6 pm and I was starting to get dizzy, I think it made a huge difference in being able to finish comfortably.  I felt SO much better afterwards.

So 7 good miles through heat and hills...much slower than we'd normally go, but since it was the end of the day and we'd done 3 hours of yard work that morning (I mowed the lawn in that awful heat and then spent forever weeding the garden!) I was pretty happy with it.  Stopped 3 times for water.

20.5 miles for the week; knee is a little twinge-inducing but overall pretty good.