Mumford and Sons...

Saturday started with a 4:30 am wake up call. All my fabulous running friends had 18 on the schedule, and since I am currently building back up for half marathon training and bike crash recovery I was shooting for 8-ish super hilly miles.

We met to run the east side hills, and let me say how dark it is out there at 5:30 in the morning. It's a little scary when you can hear the dogs barking and it's too dark to see them. I did get the batteries in my headlamp changed today and it's going to be a whole new world on Tuesday morning.

I got in ten hilly miles before heading home to crawl back into bed for a short nap. We got around and the girls and I headed up to Edmond to pick up Paige. First stop was for food.

We went to The Garage.

These two never sit next to each other.

Paige and I. The lighting in there was really bad.

After lots of fries, we headed to Guthrie. I was very impressed with how the city handled the huge crowd. We parked in a big red dirt covered field and caught a tractor to the park

Camy, Carson and Paige. They did get slick out of the super bumpy field we parked in. I might have been driving a little fast, which may or may not have contributed to the extra bumpiness.

We got in the park, got our concert t-shirts and found a place to lounge in the grass and waited for the sun to go down and Mumford and Sons to come out.

Super sunny shots of us laying in the grass.

Paige is so serious. I don't think my chin is ever going to look normal again.

Carson was doing a little reading.

It was a great show. Mumford and Sons played for about two hours and played almost every song we wanted to hear. They even covered a couple of Beatles songs with the other bands that performed over the weekend; Come Together and With a Little Help From My Friends. We sang at the top of our lungs and danced around and had a fabulous time.

We got Brock to take our picture when we dropped Paige off. Can you tell we are tired and covered in a layer of red dirt? We were. The girls and I made it home at about 1am. It was a very long but great day. I can't wait until the next concert.

 

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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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Softball, Softball and More Softball...

So it's that time of year again, Camy started back with softball practice two weeks ago and they had their first tournament of the fall this weekend.

One game last night and four games today. The last one will start in about 15 minutes. We are very lucky, it has been a beautiful day. It was pretty sunny earlier but it sure doesn't feel like August in Oklahoma. 

Camy is still not big on swinging the bat, but she has batted right handed and got walked in the first and third games today. 

She is really good at stealing bases when she gets to first and she has scored both times. After seeming like she got left on third every time she got on base last fall, it's been very fun watching her score today. 

Carson has been a super spectator. Although she has friends to keep her company now. 

Hope everyone else is having a wonderful weekend. 

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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WIAW On Vacation...

I am currently sitting on the couch at my aunt's house at Ocean Isle Beach, NC. Beach vacations are my favorite. The family is asleep and I am really wishing I had slept better last night.

My sinuses have decided to cause me some misery. I am waiting on my doctor to refill a prescription so by this time tomorrow I will be feeling much better. 

We have plans to spend some time at the beach and go to the movies later. 

So now onto the WIAW eats. 

We stopped for lunch at Cracker Barrel in Memphis on Saturday. I had a baked sweet potato with this salad, I ate it before I could take a picture. It was that good. 

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Nashville. The construction in the hotel was a bit annoying, but the breakfast almost made up for it. Spinach and mushroom omelette with pancakes and hash browns. 

Pre Wilco dinner in downtown Nashville, no picture of my veggie burger. It was so good. There were black beans and chick peas in the burger. Dessert is pictured above. Cinnamon donut holes with caramel dipping sauce. I could have eaten the entire order, but I shared. 

Real food on the road. We decided to stop at an Ingle's grocery store near Asheville, NC and I had the salad bar. Makes me wish we had grocery stores like this in Oklahoma. Carson had a made to order sandwich and Josh and Camy had chicken strips. So much better than fast food. 

Then there was my post horrible run breakfast yesterday morning. Eggo waffle topped with peanut butter. I went a little crazy with the peanut butter and ended up cutting up a banana to top it off. 

Check out the other WIAW eats at www.peasandcrayons.com. 

At The Beach...

We got to Ocean Isle Beach yesterday afternoon. After unloading the car, a trip to the grocery store and spaghetti we walked down to the beach. 

It was pretty windy, but it was a beautiful night. 

I got up this morning, though not near as early as I should have, and laced up for a run. 

I ran on the beach for a while. Let me just say that it was hot. Like running on the surface of the sun hot. Okay, maybe not that hot but it was 80 degrees and there were not many clouds in the sky. Trust me, it was hot. 

This is me not having much fun. In fact, I think you can barely call what I did running. It was hot. If I am going to run again I am going to have to get an earlier start. 9 am was not fun. 

After, 3.3 miles we got some breakfast and packed up for the beach. It was cloudy and even sprinkled on us for a little while. A rainy day at the beach I'd still better than a sunny day at work. 

What a great day at the beach. I got a little too much sun so I am really cold now. 

We did walk down and get ice cream.

I went with the root beer float. 

Here's hoping my sinuses are a little less crappy tomorrow.