Saturday - 4.5? miles

So, this morning my arm was feeling better and I wanted to go running. It was going to be a "mentor-led" run (no coaches, no water stops, etc) so I just went running on my own with Justin up at the Berkeley Marina. We did a pretty similar run to the 6 mile run I did there previously. We shortened slightly and overall had a pretty good run. My shoulder was achey by the end but no where near as painful as it was earlier this week. This afternoon I am flying to Colorado - I am spending the rest of the weekend with my old college roommate, and then going to Vail for a housing conference Monday through Thursday. I am sort of looking forward to training in the higher (much higher) altitudes, though we will see how much training I can handle up there!

My body doesn't like running

So, the knot in my shoulder wasn't going away and was getting so painful that I was having trouble breathing. So I went to see my doctor this afternoon. He tested to make sure it was just muscular, and then told me to put my arm in a sling for 3 days (and no running for those three days). He said he could actually see the swollen muscle along the top of my shoulder. Yippee. The good news is that I will only miss track, the bad news is that this means I haven't been to a track workout since August! I should be able to run on Saturday though. If it isn't my foot, its my shoulder. Still all on my left side. Bah.

Tuesday - buddy run

This morning was the Lake Merritt buddy run. It is staying darker longer which means the sun isn't rising until we are almost done with our run. It really doesn't seem that long ago that the sun had already risen by the time we were beginning our run. I ran with Lisa again, though our time was a little slower than it has been in the past. My shoulder is still sore - I need a masseuse to follow me around to fix me. :)

Monday - pilates & karate

So today I went to a pilates class during my lunch hour. I thought it would help to stretch my legs out from the 10 mile run on Saturday. It was at a studio I haven't been to before called "Dharmaspace". It was a really nice low-key class with only 6 students. I enjoyed it a lot, though this afternoon my left shoulder started to bother me.

I also went to karate this evening which went pretty well. I worked with new students for the first hour and then we did exercises and kata at the end of class. My shoulder felt like it had a knot in it which I worked through but it was still sore after class.

The day after the 10 mile run

So, the day after the run I am okay. Not great but not destroyed. My legs are pretty sore. My left foot is cranky - the outside of the foot is swollen and painful though I can walk on it. We went for a hike today which was good - I think it helped loosen my legs up a bit. I did some upper body exercises as well which was good. I think I might buy stock in ibuprofen though. :)

Nike Preview run

So, I did the Nike Preview run and lived! :) Better yet - I ran 10 miles! Ok, I ran/walked 10 miles, but who's counting?

Lisa (my adopted mentor) picked me up at 6:15am and we went over to San Francisco. The weather wasn't so great - it was kind of chilly & raining. We got there right around 7am. Our group wasn't supposed to start running until 7:15 so we had a little time to look around, use the bathroom, and get maps. There were probably about 400 Team in Training folks there, and I saw a bunch o AIDS Foundation people training for a marathon as well - so it was quite a crowd!

Lisa had done this run before the last time she was training for Nike so she knew how the course was going to go. She wasn't feeling great so we started out really slowly. I was planning on just trying to do 7 miles so as not to push it too hard. Lisa said she was planning on doing 10 so I decided to see if I could make it to 10 as well. We did a fast walk up the first really steep hill (the hill the Cliff House and Sutro Baths are on for anyone who knows SF). Then we left the road area and went into trails along the cliffs. It was really beautiful and an area of San Francisco that I've never been in before. By the time we reached the top of the trails, Lisa decided that she was probably going to walk most of the course and encouraged m to leave her behind and go at my own pace. So I headed off on my own.

The next part of the course went through the Seacliff neighborhood - I heard some other runners say that we were passing Robin Williams house (it was a very nice neighborhood). We descended towards the Presidio, then turned around and ran back along surface streets to Golden Gate Park. The hills along in the area were pretty devastating. I mostly did a very fast paced walk up them and then ran down them. By the time we were back to Golden Gate park I was getting pretty tired but I decided to keep going. Once Lisa had mentioned the 10 miles I kind of fixated on it. I made it to the 10 mile turnaround point somehow. I was so oblivious that I couldn't figure out why there was a tour bus and tourists taking pictures of a deserted field. So I slowed down and stared - it turned out that the field wasn't deserted - there were buffalo in it! I was just so tired that I couldn't see them!

I did make it all the way back and was even able to run for the last half mile to the finish line. Lisa was there and ran in with me for the last 100 feet. She had only run 6 miles and then stopped because her achilles was killing her. They had massage therapists at the finish line and lots of potluck foodstuffs. The 10 minute massage was awesome.

Friday - rest & yoga

So Friday is the rest day - not supposed to do anything. However, I was kind of freaking out for two reasons - one is that I didn't really do any training on Wednesday or Thursday, and second is that Saturday was the Nike Preview run. The Nike Preview run means that all the Bay Area teams go to San Francisco to run part of the Nike Marathon course (a segment in the middle & end of the course). It is a really big deal and a terrific opportunity to see the course. I was also kind of worried because I hadn't run for two weeks, and then this week I just did the Buddy run (3.5 miles) but Saturday I was supposed to run 7-9 miles.

So what I did was go to a lunchtime yoga class - it was a mellow flow yoga so not too streneous, but it got me nice and stretched and calmed my nerves some. Overall I think it was a good decision...

Wednesday & Thursday - no training :(

So Wednesday I planned to go to a Pilates class over lunch. But I had forgotten that I had scheduled a business lunch (which was quite wonderful) so I couldn't make Pilates.
That evening I couldn't do karate either because I started a grief group run by a local Hospice. The group is for Daughters Grieving their Mothers and it is every Wednesday from 7-9pm which are the exact same hours as karate. I was very nervous about going - it is a group of about 9 women - I was by far the youngest there as well (I think the next youngest woman is 40). I think this is a good step for me to be taking though and while it is taking time out of my physical training, I am optimistic that it will help me emotionally.

Thursday I was planning to make my return to the 6am track practice. However those plans were foiled when I was up all night with stomach problems. I wasn't even able to go into work on Thursday and instead worked from home.

Mmmmm, massage

Just got home from my 70 minute massage. I have to say that Kirsten at Apotheca is just awesome (if you are in SF, I recommend a visit - www.apothecasf.com). And the other good news is that so far I have no deleterious effects from this mornings run. Yippee! Now I am just partially dreading this Saturday's run - it will be part of the marathon course in San Francisco and I am supposed to run 7-9 miles. Obviously, I will play it by ear and I know that Lisa will be there so I will try to run with her. Her pacing really saves me from myself I think (otherwise I would go too fast).

Good run this morning

So I did the Lake Merritt buddy run this morning - pairing up with Lisa again. We did the full 3.5 mile run - our pace seemed pretty slow, but Lisa always times us and she said that we took 3 minutes off our time from the last time we did the run. I didn't have any pain in my foot or knee (despite the fact that I forgot to tape my knee - bad me!) The only soreness at all is in the back of my left leg along the hamstring. I think that is because I went to the gym last night instead of karate and I did a bunch of hamstring exercises that I've never done before. Luckily, I have a 70 minute massage scheduled for this afternoon which I am looking forward to - I think I will have the therapist focus solely on my legs.

Running again

So, Justin & I ran this morning. This was the first run since August 31. We covered 3 miles here in Emeryville (just running on the sidewalk). I ran for about 2.5 miles of it, then my foot was pretty sore so I walked the rest of the way back. Overall I felt pretty good about the run. After not running for two weeks, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do it (as silly as that may sound) but it was fine. In fact, I felt better (aside from the foot) than the last time Justin & I did that run.

My next run will be Tuesday morning at the Lake Merritt buddy run. I am also planning on going to karate tomorrow night though I will be taking it easy.

I'm ok!

Heyas all. Hope I didn't worry everyone. So Tuesday September
4th I went to see the podiatrist. They took x-rays, and poked my foot quite a bit. From the poking she decided that I probably had the beginnings of a stress fracture on my 3 metatarsal in addition to the plantar fasciitis. She put me in a "boot" (something that my friend's 2 yr old daughter called an "Owie Boot" when she had to wear one for her broken foot). I had to wear it for a week. Within an hour of putting it on, the pain had completely disappeared. Justin & I spent the past weekend in Seattle (I had to be there on Monday & Tuesday of this week for work so we went up two days early). Wearing the boot meant I got special treatment at the airport (it didn't set off metal detector alarms but they needed to wipe it and my fingers down to make sure there weren't traces of anything nasty on them). We did quite the hiking around Seattle though so I got lots of good exercise.

I had my follow-up appt. with the podiatrist yesterday. The foot wasn't very painful at all when she poked it, so now I am wearing a compression band around the front of my foot. I can start running again on Sunday. I can walk until then though which is good - I just need to be more careful and take it easy.

So the bottom line is that I've lost two weeks of training, but I am still going to do this thing. After all, I am part of team "Just do the damn thing".