August Training...

I didn't recap July, mostly because it was not a good month of training for me, and now August is over and I am nowhere near where I had hoped to be on September 2nd.

I logged 57 miles in August, which was five short of where I was in July. By August 11th I had already rode 76 miles on my bike and I was well on my way to feeling confident about the Half Ironman at the Redman Tri that is three weeks away. I was back in the pool, and while I am never uncomfortable in the water I was getting in the grocery of tri training.

All it took was one small rut in the road to completely derail my fall plans. Everyone I have talked to about my crash/wreck/accident (I still can't decide which makes me sound tougher) has heard me say that I know how lucky I am. While it was bad, it could have been much worse. But to go from the middle of tri training to the sudden stop of a broken bone, separated shoulder, road rash, insanely bruised legs, and banged up face is not easy. It was not easy at all. You end up with a lot of free time.

Day 12 post accident found me sitting at my desk realizing I was going to miss another Saturday group run, and I'm not embarrassed to say I had a mini meltdown. It is one thing to not be able to run because of a sprained ankle or strained quad, but not running because of an injury that didn't involve my legs was especially hard. Injured shoulder means very limited cross training options.

This was unlike any injury I have ever had. It was inescapable, everything hurt that first week. I still have some discomfort in my shoulder, and I would kill to be able to sleep comfortably on my right side. When I saw my orthopedic doctor last week he said that my shoulder is healing well but it'll probably be another month before it feels completely normal.

My face looks much better than it looked here. Yellow is not a good color for me.

Camy and Carson and I had some girl time on Friday and Saturday night. We watched Sixteen Candles, Admissions and Warm Bodies. Camy and I ordered Chinese food on Saturday and this was my fortune.

How fitting. It's not always easy, and sometimes the plan will change but I will keep going one step at a time and see where the road takes me.

 

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No Triathlons in 2013...

For this girl anyway. Clearly there are tons of great races and racing going on, but sadly I will not be able to participate.

My first tri was the Tie Dye Tri at the Norman Y in 2009 and I have done this race every year since then. It was part of my crazy racing September last year. (Who could forget a 5k, Ragnar Relay, sprint tri and Olympic tri in the span of four weeks?). 

I hadn't ruled out doing the TDT this year, it is the week before Redman and I was considering it as a good taper, get your mind ready for transitions sort of race. Plus I placed in my age group last year...

*sigh*

In post on Monday I talked about my fabulous me vs. the sidewalk experience on Sunday. Clearly I was the loser there. Well, I went to see my orthopedic doctor Tuesday morning and got some sad news. 

There will be none of this...

And none of this...

I addition to my AC joint separation I manages to fracture my scapula. According to Dr. Hines it is a skinny bone that will heal quickly but I have four weeks until the Redman and realistically he said that its just not enough time. 

Am I bummed? You bet. It's been a hard summer for me and I feel like ever since my stress fracture last year I have struggled mentally and with injuries. (Hello sprained ankle and strained quad!). 

Plus, and the battle scars from Sunday are just fabulous. 

I haven't even taken picture of my poor legs. I find a new bruise every day. 

Green really isn't my color. 

So for now, I'm sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing. Waiting for my poor body to recover. I'm not very good at this. 

If all goes as planned there is a half marathon in Kansas City in October and the Route 66 half in Tulsa in November. My revised goal is to run one (or two) strong half marathons to finish out 2013. 

Keep your fingers crossed. 

Adventures in Bicycling...

It's been a while. It's been a hard summer personally and I haven't felt like putting a lot done on the blog.

About a month ago I decided that instead of a fall marathon I was going to shoot for a fall triathlon.

You might remember last September Rochelle and I tackled our first Olympic distance tri at the Redman, I've been throwing around the idea of the half ironman since then. About a month ago I decided that it was scary as hell, but all that crosstraining would make my body very happy.

After my quad strain in May, running in June was horrible. Even with the heat it has gotten better and I finally saw double digits on my Garmin about three weeks ago. Focusing on crosstraining has taken the pressure off my running and the result is that my running has gotten more comfortable and normal.

It is time consuming training for a HIM. I am just shooting to finish, since it's my first race at this distance, so I am trying to fit in as much training as I can.

The bike is the most worrisome aspect of the race for me. 56 miles is far and prior to starting this training cycle I hadn't ridden farther than about 27 miles. A week ago I got up to 38, and riding that far by myself is pretty boring.

I was happy to have a plan to get in about half of yesterday's ride with some friends. We set out yesterday morning in the east side hills. The dogs that looked to chase us were pretty scary, but we got through the hills and at a little ober 20 miles and headed to the flats on the west side of town.

I really felt pretty good out there, and I was on track to get in 40+ miles. I was headed back on Tecumseh when my wheel caught a rut in the road. It was enough to throw me off and I tried to correct but just couldn't avoid the curb that I hit. I landed on a sidewalk right next to a light post.

Thankfully, some very nice women saw it all and stopped. They got my bike off of me, called Josh, called 911, and helped to calm me down. One of them even got a small blanket out of her car for me to rest my head on while we waited for the fire fighters to get there. I am very thankful for the kindness of strangers.

I'm not gonna lie. I was a little humiliated, something so silly as a little rut in the road and I caused such a fuss. The firefighters helped me sit up and checked me over. We decided we didn't need an ambulance, once Josh got there he took me straight to urgent care.

I basically landed on my chin.

And my right shoulder. They X-rayed my shoulder and said I have a grade I AC (acromioclavicular) joint separation.

Those bruises on my forehead are from my helmet, the scratch on my nose is sidewalk, and my left cheek is bruised.

I am very lucky. It could have been so much worse. That being said, my whole body hurts today. I am waiting on a call back from my orthopedic doctor to follow up on my shoulder. I am going to need to get my bike in to get my front tire replaced and check to make sure the wheel and frame are ok. Oh yeah, and I need a new helmet.

Not sure what this does to my Redman plans. The thought of getting back on my bike scares the hell out of me. I guess we will dee what the doctor says.

 

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Saturday...

I got up to meet Anne and Carrie at the Y for a nice Saturday run. My quads had been sore all week from our two morning runs and some weights, but I figured it might be a shortened long run bit it would still be a run. 

Boy was I wrong. 

We got through the first at a 10+ pace and it was shortly after that I decided irritation in my quad was not shared equally in both legs and could only mean one thing. 

I'm not 100 percent yet. 

So after a little over a mile I ended up walking about three miles. I was glad to not be responsible for ruining anyone else's run. Anne and Carrie went on without me and got in six miles. 

I finished up with some arms and then headed home. Not the morning I thought it would be but I am resigned to the fact that I want to run, but I don't want to run if it feels like crap. It seems like an eternity since my last really good run and it feels like it will be as long until I have another one. 

So I'm going to bike, spin, swim, get in some strength training and even try out deep water running. Am I bummed?  Sure. But crappy running is way worse than being sidelined for a little bit. 

We will be at the beach in a couple of weeks and I am hoping to be able to get a few miles there. I love running at the beach. 

Lunch today was awesome. 

Breakfast burrito with egg whites, potato, broccoli, spinach, cheddar cheese and avocado. Yum. 

Now Carson and I are hanging out watching the last two episodes of Revolution. 

Penny has been hanging out with us. 

Have a great Saturday!

Running and I are Breaking Up...

Part of my lack of posts this month has been in part because of the complete and utter horribleness of my running this month. It started a bout six weeks ago since we had a six mile run with an average pace at about 8:39, afterwards I had a small twinge in my right quad that has been mildly irritating since then. Over the past three weeks I have taken extra rest days to try to get back to normal, but it hasn't helped. Add to the rest, ice, compression and Advil and it has still gotten worse.

I have had a string of pretty awful runs, including 8-10 mile runs that I have not been able to finish without an embarrassing amount of walking, and ending with four miles of hill repeats where I was running with a noticeable limp.

I broke down and called my family doctor this morning, mostly because I can usually see him the same day. It's nice to have a doctor that is a former runner too. I thought I would see him first and if it was more serious I could always go see my favorite orthopedic doctor.

Dr. Stout has diagnosed me with a strained quad. He said I am lucky it's a strain and not a tear, because a tear would mean no running for a year. As it stands, it will be no running for two weeks, and after that I will be running in compression shorts until I can run without them with no pain.

So running and I are gonna have a little break. I have been cleared to swim, or spin or do yoga if I don't have pain. I can honestly say that after training pretty much non stop for the last year, I am okay with a short break. I have no races on my schedule right now, aside from the OU Medicine Corporate Challenge this weekend where I will not be doing the 10K on Sunday.

I think a couple weeks off will be good. I have not been loving running this month, and I want to love it again. It has been miserable and really hard these past few weeks. I don't want to dread getting up to pound the pavement, I am ready to feel strong again.

Two weeks will put me at being able to have a nice early run on my birthday. There is no better way to start a birthday than a run with my friends at the crack of dawn. I can't wait.

 

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Intergalactic World Championships...

Sounds pretty fancy, and like it was a really big deal, right?  It was formerly called the Red Dirt Championships.  On Sunday afternoon we {I sort of made Josh come with me} headed out to Thunderbird for some trails, food and beer to be a part of this annual trail run that raises money for Relay for Life.  We had plans to run the 10k, and I had plans to just go have a good time.  Rochelle, on the other hand, had plans to win. 

You probably shouldn't even have to ask if we took pictures.

Ross was finding his happy place. 

Josh and Ross, this was not long before Ross said, let's just hang here and drink beer until they get back and Josh said something about needing to earn their beer.  This is an important part of the story.

Rochelle, Anne, Kim, Me and Monica

So at approximately 1:17 we all lined up and headed out on the trails.  About a mile in I rolled my previously sprained ankle and fell on my butt.  Kim was with me, so I dusted myself off and we set out again.  They say if you don't fall atleast once you aren't running hard enough.  I was hoping that that was my only fall of the day.

Not long after this we ran into Josh and Ross.  In an attempt to beat us all back to the finish they were taking short cuts.  Kharma must have caught up with Josh becasue he had just dislocated his ankle and was lying on his back across the trail.  The ankle was back in it's socket, but there was discussion about who would take him back to the start.  Ross said he would take him and they set off, not following the path back in the direction we had just come, but in some unknown direction they thought would get them back faster.

We headed off again and ended up passing them a few more times on said short cut.  Josh had a walking stick, and there were stories about being carried and some farting that had occured. 

Kim and I ended up spending quite a bit of time with Gus and Tracy.  Gus is one of the owners of my favorite local running store, OK Runner, and Tracy, who I didn't know before Sunday had some mutal friends and graduated the year after I did from my rival Westmoore High School.  Yes, it's a small world.

This is Gus on one of the obstacles along the trail.

Kim tackled it too.

For anyone that has known me for any length of time, it would come as no shock to you that I did not attempt this.  We did get some more pictures though.

It's a Thompson family photo with Tracy and Kim.

This is what happens when you ask a older guy on a bike to take a group picture for you.  We should have known it would be blurry and his thumb would be in the way when he asked what button he should push on my iPhone to take the picture.

We set off again.  I had one other near fall, where I had to catch myself on a tree.  I am sure it looked as graceful as I felt.  Then I watched Kim stub her toes on a small root and then managed to do the exact same thing.  That was quite painful.

Yes, we even saw Sasquatch!

Tracy, me and Kim with Sasquatch.

We got back to the start, Josh finally made it back with the help of Ross and some medically trained runners.  He was rewarded with food, beer and an ice pack for his efforts.

And there were more pictures.

Me, Ro, Kim and Anne with the best photobomb of the day.

Ro finally got her picture with Sasquatch.  She didn't stop on the trail like we did because she didn't want anyone to pass her. 

Needless to say, Josh and I went straight to urgent care when we left.  He didn't break anything, just strained some ligaments.  He is in a boot, and on crutches until he can walk in the boot without pain and he will go back in two weeks to see if he can get out of the boot.

What a great day with friends!  I love running trails, and I think if I did it more often my hips would not still be sore and my legs wouldn't feel so beat up by them.  My previously sprained ankle was a bit swollen on Monday, and where my car door hit me in the back of the calf when we were leaving is pretty bruised.  Even so I can't wait for the next trail run.

No Exercise Saturday...

I can't remember the last Saturday that involved zero exercise. Even the Saturday before Cowtown I got up and faced the sub freezing temps for a two mile shake out run. I much prefer to start my weekend out with a good sweat session. Technically, had I not sprained my ankle my weekend would have started yesterday, but it's my blog and I can be as technical or non-technical as I want.

I did have a reason to get up this morning, one of my favorite six-year-olds had a big gymnastics meet this morning. I was sad that I didn't get to see him do his recently mastered round-off back handspring, but I did get to see him get his first ever 10.

Austin, he is quite the little gymnast. And look, he started off his floor routine with a nice Warrior III pose. There was even a plank and an upward facing dog. Everything I know about gymnastics apparently I learned at my yoga class.

He did so good, and his team won the team competition! That was a very happy group of 6 to 9 year olds.

Austin with his very proud parents.

I came home to thre 12-year-old who spent the afternoon with Minecraft and My Little Pony. I spent the afternoon like this:

I really am trying to be good and stay off my ankle as much as possible, but it is not easy. It was so nice out this morning. When I was driving to the gymnastics meet I saw a runner out on the streets in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. Yes, I was jealous. We have such a limited number of really nice spring days here in Oklahoma. The weather tends to go from really cold to really hot in the blink of an eye and I hate to miss it.

I do know I am irrational, it's a sprained ankle and I should only be out for a week or so, but again it's my blog and I can be as irrational as I like here.

On the bright side, my swelling is not near as bad as it was on Thursday, I really think my night time use of my CEP compression socks has helped tremendously.

It has become a little less painful to actually put the compression sock on.

The chocolate cookies I made yesterday have gone over very well. I am going to have to bake some more cookies sooner than I thought.

Penny says good night.

 

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Morning Run, a Sprained Ankle and WIAW...

About a mile into our run this morning I rolled my ankle. I stepped on something that was on the path an rolled my left ankle. I walked it off for a minute and felt okay to keep going. Five miles later, we had just over six miles in 57 minutes. Not as speedy as yesterday but I felt pretty good out there.

I don't give up on a run very easily. I did quit after my fall last summer with Rochelle, but I felt horrible about ruining someone else's morning run. It has been just over a year since my horrible run that turned into a stress fracture, and quitting after 14 miles was insanely difficult.

I thought I was ok, I ended up putting on my running shoes and it felt better. After lunch my shoe started feeling a little tight, so I took it off to look at it.

It was a bit swollen. I decided to had to urgent care after work and they did an x-ray. They said it didn't appear to be broken, but they put me in an air cast for at least a week.

Guess if I can't run for a week or so, it's a good week if some of my friends will be out of town for Spring Break. I figure I will see how it does not running all weekend, and maybe see if I can get back to yoga on Tuesday.

To add insult to injury, I got a package in the mail today.

They are so cute! I can't wait to wear them, but I guess I will have to wait a little bit for that. Bummer!

********************************************

Now on to WIAW, how about what I actually ate today?

Pizza Shuttle pizza. I went with the Broccoli Shuttle, broccoli, oions, cheddar and mozarella. Pizza Shuttle really has the best pizza. That's a cheezy breadstick on the side. I might want to consider not eating my veggies like this over the next week if there isn't going to be any running going on.

For breakfast this morning I had a little bit of Chobani yogurt, raspberry with dark chocolate chips. I really love this one.

I also had peanut butter with honey and chia seeds on toast. I was too lazy to make my overnight oats last night. I thinkI will make some for tomorrow.

I swear there is going to be some more interesting eats next week. I am hoping to get my inspiration back and spend some time in the kitchen this weekend. I will be limping around the grocery store on Friday, so maybe I will find something new to work with.

 

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I'm Gonna Try to Not Be Such a Girl...

Today my #RWrunstreak ended. Let me explain.

During yesterday's Dirty Bird Trail Run after about a mile or so Ro sped off without us and Kim and I stuck together for the remainder of the miles. At the water stop we meet back up with Tim and ran and chatted with him for a few miles.

Here is something funny. This picture was taken yesterday...

This one was about shear and a half ago, same trails different day.

We had some interesting conversations on the trail. One was about injuries. Tim told us about how he has never suffered from a running related injury, he didn't even need to knock on wood after.

He had a very good theory on injury prevention. His thinking is pretty simple, if he doesn't feel good while he's running he stops. What a novel idea, to listen to your body, to not always push through the pain. To know when to say when and to be okay with it. To know that, as runners we are not defined by just today's run.

It seems so simple. Why is this such a hard thing?

I have had two runs in particular that I can say were my most horrible. One was durning marathon training, the second was when I had my stress fracture in March. Both times it was so hard to stop, even when it was insanely painful. I try not to think of it in terms of quitting, but that is just what it feels like.

Is it a girl thing? I think it might be. Why do we push ourselves so hard? Why don't we let ourselves off the hook? Why is it so hard to remember that one run, race or mile doesn't define us?

With this new thinking in mind, I decided to call it quits with the Runners World Holiday Running Streak. After running a marathon this weekend {I know it was over two days, but I think that's a lot of miles for two days} I meet Ro at the Y this morning for some cross training. I figured I would get my rest day one mile run in after I got home from work. The more I thought about it, the more horrible it sounded and the more my body was telling me that I just didn't need to do it. So I came home, made some pasta and have been watching tv with the family, just relaxing all evening.

Here is what I have decided I will do.

• Listen to my body, if it tells me that I shouldn't run then I won't, if it tells me to stop then I will. {This is going to be so hard!}
• Rest, I have a hard time embracing my rest days, I really need to get over that.
• Focus on cross training, weights will make me stronger even though I hate them.
• Become consistent with yoga. I am going to work very hard to keep doing Sunday night hot yoga, and Thursday night free yoga at Lululemon.
• Keep my fingers crossed that Patti keeps doing her Wednesday night Pilates class at OK Runner.

Running is fun, and there is nothing worse than thinking that everyone else is out running and having fun without me. My new goal is to help my body keep running for a long time to come. There is lots of pavement to pound, trails to cover and races to run. I'm gonna try to be a big picture kind of girl.

 

I didn't say it would be easy but I am gonna try.

 

Do you push yourself too hard? Do you try not to?

 

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Am I Injured?

After all the wonderful food on the cruise, I thought I would be ready to kick it into gear.

Kim and Kelsey and I all signed up for the Fit 45 class at The Athletic Loft.

The class is nine weeks, four evenings a week. Strength twice a week with cardio the other two.

Three weeks into it and my body doesn't seem to be liking the new exercise program. The strength sessions have been good, except for all the jumping jacks we did on Monday. The cardio sessions don't seem to agree with me. Hoping up and down makes my knees and ankles angry.

I thout I could just deal with it until this week. We did lots of abs last Sunday, with only a little jumping round, but by Monday my right knee started feeling achy on the outside below my knee. I managed to get through Monday night's class and 6.6 miles of hills Tuesday morning and a 6 mile run on Thursday. I ended up going to the free Thursday night yoga class at the new Lululemon Showroom because traffic was so bad.

All the while my knee was just achy. I decided to go talk to my favorite running expert and he suspects that my IT band is a little angry with me. Apparently when I decided to go all out downhill last weekend at the race, and then did jumping jacks, lunges and squats at bootcamp my body wanted to remind me that I can't do it all.


So I have been icing, spending time with my foam roller, and taking it easy on the downhills. I am thinking that Fit45 and half marathon training don't go we'll together. My new plan is to get in the pool once or twice a week, yoga a couple of times a week (yeah for free Thursday night yoga at Lululemon!), and rumor has it my friend Patti will be doing Pilates at OK Runner on Wednesday night.

I habe also been told that running the stadium stairs would be really good for building strength in my legs so I might have to fit that in somewhere. As for running, I like that we have only been running three days a week. The 6.6 hill route we have done the last couple of weeks is definitely going to help with Tulsa and the second 6 mile run in the mornings has made me okay with just three runs a week.

Two weeks until my first half since Cowtown in February and I am confident that I can have a strong run even while dealing with my IT band. I have focus for my training now and I'm going to try to stick with it. After Tulsa I plan to sit down and decide what marathon I want to train for.

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Injury Update...

It's been almost two weeks since I was not able to stay on my feet and ended up sprawled on the road less than a mile into my morning run. Even after two weeks the injuries from the fall are still visible.

Here are pics from the end of last week.

The remains of the scabs are gone now. I discovered my knee is still pretty tender when I did a child's pose at yoga tonight.

My hands are almost back to normal now I only have one scab left on my left hand. I think that one is going to be a scar for a while.

Two weeks later and I am getting back to normal. We did have a scare on Monday when Abby took a spill on the same road. She got back up and we went on to do 10 x 20 seconds sprint with 40 seconds recovery. It was pretty brutal.

I just hope there is no more falls in the near future.

 

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