I Am A Warrior...........

I did it.....I am a Warrior.  Warrior Dash was so much fun.  It is a crazy race where people dress up, you get mud in all areas and the rinse off area is the lake.

The best thing about this race is Mario and I did it together.  It was so great running a race with him.  I have a small hope that he is going to eventually like running a little and will do 5k's with me, but we will see.  But it was really neat to actually have him beside me for the race instead of waiting at the finish line for me.

We ran the race on Sunday at 11:30am.  We had to park down the road and be bussed into the race.  It was very interesting.

 Once we got there we saw exactly what we imagined.  It is like a Renaissance Festival 5k.  There are people dressed in all different costumes and matching outfits.  There are turkey legs and pints of beer everywhere. 

There was a pile of shoes in the middle of the road that people are donating to charity (I looked up which one so I could tell you guys b/c it was a great cause but now I can't find it anywhere).  The shoes from Saturday were there so it was already a big pile when we got there, Lance and Andi added to the pile.  I hate to be the person whose job it is to clean all of those shoes.  There were some pretty nasty ones.

Mario, Andi, Lance and I ran the race together.  My plan was to walk most of the race because my calf had been bothering me again after the indoor tri.  But of course once we started off and we were jogging it felt really good.  So I was going......being careful......but going......

Andi and I ran together for a while and then walked for a while, we alternated that for a little bit and then Andi decided she was done running.  That was fine with me.  I wanted to do this with her b/c this is probably one of the only races I don't care too much about my time and since we run at such different paces we never get to do races together.

Lance and Mario started running together but Lance soon realized he would rather walk as well.  We did most of the obstacles together.  After a while Mario and I started running to the obstacles, just to run, and would then wait for Lance and Andi before doing the obstacle.  It was really fun to do it all together.

I think my favorite obstacle was the cargo net.  I enjoyed climbing, that is something we as adults don't do that much anymore, not as much as kids do.  I also thought the jumping over fire was pretty cool.  I looked at the pics the WD people take and I didn't realize I could jump that high.  I was going to make sure there was no way fire was touching me.

The last obstacle is where they get you muddy.  We had to crawl under barbwire in the mud.  It was very gross and to top it off Mario dropped his expensive sunglasses in there when he did a belly flop so I was feeling around in the mud as well. We never did find them.  But we did all finish and took our "finisher" photos and got our medals.

As you can imagine there was mud everywhere.  All in our shoes, squelching between our toes, in our shorts and Andi found a good amount in her top.  It was pretty gross.  Mario was wondering what in the world was in his pockets and he thought, did I put some crumbed up paper in there, etc.  So he stuck his hands in to see.....this is what it was......

......two globs of mud!

The funniest thing to me was the rinse off area.  The lake.  And to get to the lake you have to go through about 20 yards of mud.  Very interesting.  I did go out there just b/c I was sooooo nasty but it didn't too much good.  But I never did take my nasty shoes off until I got back to the car.  There was no sense in changing into my flip flops, I would just get muddy again.

After we rinsed off we went and got our free beer.  Luckily for Lance I don't drink beer so I gave him my ticket.  You had to turn in your timing chip to get the ticket and his somehow came off during the race. (he's not an official finisher)  We then listened to the band that was playing and went to the finish line to see if we could see Niki cross over.  Her wave was an hour after ours.  We got a great view of everyone jumping into the mud pit, crawling thru it and then crossing the finish line.  And we did see Niki finish as well.  You could tell she was having a blast she was grinning from ear to ear.

We then decided to head back to the car.  Mario and I had a softball game later that day we needed to get ready for.  We all changed at the car.  We just held towels up and changed.

The entire experience was so great.  We had such a great time and we can't wait to do it again.  We are all four signed up to do the Beach Palooza race in Sept already.  And we will be back for WD next year and maybe some of the other ones as well, like Muddy Buddy, etc.



Here We Go Again....... Part 2

I absolutely hate to post this.  But this is the best way for me to get it out.  I am back to square one!  My calf, or what I now know is actually the Achilles Tendon, is hurting again.  I have not been able to run in over a week.

I ran the 20 minute tri on Sunday, 3/6, at a higher pace than normal but nothing too wild, it felt great.  Then the following Monday I ran 5 miles.  Once again, felt great!  One of the best runs yet.  But it was pretty much all down hill from there.  It started bothering me on Tuesday and has bothered me ever since.  I have taken a few days off (well kinda) to see if it would subside and it hasn't.  I have foam rolled and iced every day, as well as stretch.

So, here we go again.  Back to the beginning.  Back to the search for what is going to fix this. Back to the doctor's appts, etc.  I am beyond frustrated at this point.  Runners get this injury all of the time, why are they able to heal so quickly?  I have heard the same thing from all three doctors, "some people just heal faster than others".  WHATEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  There is no reason why I should be injured with an Achilles Tendon for 4 1/2 months.  Especially after trying all of the different "solutions" I have tried.  I mean come on now!

Ok, so now that I got that out (thank you for listening)....let me say I am not giving up.  I have had 4 people say to me, "maybe running isn't your thing."  It is!  No one is going to tell me otherwise.  I feel so happy when I run and I get such joy and relaxation from it.  How can it not be for me? 

So for those that know me well know that I already have the next 3 steps planned.  The next 3 steps to get me running again.
1.) Visit doctor in Kingwood that is supposed to be GREAT with these kind of injuries.  The running coach at the gym suggested I try him out.  Apparently he is a "miracle worker".  Yea, well apparently I am going to need one of those so let's just see how good he is.
2.) Once I am running again, even if for 20 minutes at a time I am going to get a biomechanic test done on my run form.  This will pinpoint problem areas to change so I can reduce risk of injury once I do get healed.  My god, I do not want to go through this again.
3.) Research minimalist running style.  I am currently reading the book Born to Run.  It is an absolutely amazing book that spotlights the barefoot running theory.  It follows a Mexican tribe that runs thru the canyons of Mexico for long distances at a time in home-made sandals.  It explores the theory that our bodies are made to run and we could run further with less effort if we 1.) adopted the running form our ancestors used when that was their main mode of transportation and 2.) chucked the running shoes and ran in a more minimalist shoe.

I am very intrigued with this book.  I have done some research already and apparently this one book alone has transformed a lot of people into barefoot runners or minimalist runner.  I am going to look into it more though.  I am going to "interview" runners who run in these type of shoes, check out the barefoot running websites and read the authors and other runners in the book websites.  Maybe it is the answer.  Who knows.....but what do I have to lose at this point?  It makes a lot of sense to me.

On a good note, 2 things:

1.) Mario, Andi and I are doing Warrior Dash on Sunday.  I am not running all week so I can do it on Sunday.  I don't plan to run much at the race but will need all I can get.  I can not wait, it is going to be so fun!
2.) I have made headway with the swimming.  I have figured out that I only need to take a breath every 5 strokes instead of 3 as I was doing.  And because I was taking more breaths than needed I was filling my lungs with unneeded air, raising my heart rate.  At least that is what I think. :)  Either way it is better.  Still much to be desired but better.

Thanks for listening.  If anyone knows of anything else I can try to heal my leg please let me know.  Or if you know of someone who has had this same issue.  I am open to anything right now.

I TRIed It.....and Loved It!

I completed my first "triathalon" on Sunday!  The indoor triathalon at the gym.  It consists of a 10 minute swim, 30 minute bike and 20 minute run.  And you earn points based on distance covered during those times.

I have been taking swim lessons for this, for a month.  I wanted to learn how to swim freestyle with my head in the water.  I did finally learn how to do it, although I still really need to work on it.  I just can't get the breathing down yet.  It is very frustrating but I know I need to just keep practicing and I will eventually get it.  But as of right now I don't really care for it.  But I think I will as I get it.

So it was the part I was dreading the most at the tri.  The worse part was you had to share a lane with someone and since my plan included a lot of backstroke (a stroke that is much easier for me) I was worried I would smack them.  But then I remembered my friend Niki was signing up for the tri as well I didn't feel as bad smacking her. :)  She will forgive me.  Another good thing was it was very relaxed and you could stop anywhere in the pool, walk the length of the pool, or just stand there if you wanted to, as long as you got in the water.  So I wasn't too anxious about it, just glad it was first b/c I just wanted to get it over with.

So Niki and I met up at the gym at 7:30am.  We checked in (got a really nice performance tee), set up our transition clothes, and headed to the pool.  There was one wave ahead of us and they were already in the water.  I expected to see at least one person walking, standing, something, but they were all swimming, really well. Oh well....I will just do the best I can.  The plan was to do 4 lengths freestyle and the rest back.

And we were off....the swimming was as hard as I figured it would be.  I have a lot of work to do on swimming.  My goal was to complete at least 10 lengths, and that is exactly how many I did.  Although I didn't make 4 lengths freestyle, just two.  I couldn't handle all of the turbulance and swimming right next to Niki.  So I just swam backstroke for the rest of it and only hit Niki twice, on the last two lengths.  I said "sorry"! :)

I was very glad to get out of the pool and change for the bike riding.  We headed up to the cycle room and when we walked in the guy said we have 30 seconds to start.  Oops....apparenlty we took a little long changing.  We jumped on, I was able to at least adjust the seat before getting on, but the handle bars wasn't high enough.  The volunteer was nice enough to come raise it for me and then push my seat forward, as I stood up and pedaled.  I averaged about 29 mph and kicked it up a little higher in the last 10 minutes.  I ended up going 14.4 miles, higher than I had been doing so I was happy with that. Best thing was my legs weren't even jiggly afterward, I was ready for the run.

I definitely did the best in the run, shocker, right?  I ran at about a 10min/mile for 10 minutes raised it to 9min/mile for about 5 min and then went to about a 7:45min/mile for the last 5 minutes (that is 8.0 on the treadmill).  It felt so great to run that fast.  My legs weren't bothering me at all.

Afterwards Niki and I stretched out and headed home, glad that we did it.  We both really enjoyed it and we are looking forward to the Super Sprint Tri in May.  I just have to conquer my fear of swimming in lake water to do that.

Oh.....this just in.  As I was finishing this up I received the results from the tri.  I tied for 6th place out of 10, in my category.  23rd out of 32 overall.  :)  The swimming killed me.  I have pretty competitive times in the running and biking. Oh well I will keep working on it.

Now on to Warrior Dash in two weeks!  And hopefully a Half Marathon in 3 weeks!

I Am Released.....

As of last Thursday I am officially released from Airrosti treatment.  I am a little uneasy about it but excited at the same time.  I have been doing well, there is no doubt my leg is improved.  I ran 4 miles twice last week and it felt fine.  Didn't hurt at all.  And it didn't bother me much afterwards.  I am still icing twice a day, sometimes more.  I have this handy ice pack I use at work now that wraps around my leg and sticks with velcro.  Now that is making the most of your time. (something I have perfected over time)  I am also foam rolling at least once a day. I now foam roll calves, shins, quads and it band.  It is actually to the point it feels good now!  If I run I foam roll twice that day, just for good measure.

I guess I am uneasy b/c I still feel some twinges throughout the day.  Nothing major, in fact anything but.  But I just thought they would go away completely.  I am worried that as I get higher up in the mileage it will just start all over again.  But I won't know if I don't try, right?

So I am done wearing the pretty kineseo tape everyone so enjoyed.  To let you know what everyone has been staring at, I posted a few pics.

So now the goal is to run 5 miles/twice this week and then maybe 3-4 miles once.  I ran 5 miles tonight and it felt great.  Much better than I thought since I have been under the weather but I had to get out there and do it, it takes a lot to stop me from running.  I will put ice on it tonight and a lot more tomorrow.  I am going to swim and cycle tomorrow, giving my legs a rest and then try and run 5 miles again on Wednesday with the 3-4 mile run on Friday.

So I am now heavily considering running that Half at the end of March.  I keep going back and forth in my mind, praying about it, etc.  I don't want to push myself and injure myself further but I feel like I won't.  You just never know.  I think if I run the first 1/2 of it and then use the 5:1 technique (run 5 minutes/walk 1 minute) for the rest of the race I will be fine.  Plus there is a super long time limit so if nothing else I guess I can walk it when I need to.  Not really how I planned to run my first Half but it is better than not doing it at all.  I really, really, really want to complete a Half Marathon.

I am going to see how the next two weeks go.  The registration deadline is next Friday so I have two weeks to see if I can hold up.  If I make it through the 5 miles this week I will run 6 next week a few times to see how it holds up.  Wish me luck!