Oh,no!!

My left heel has given me a little trouble here and there but nothing much so I ignored it.  Today, I felt great until about mile 10 or so and then I could feel it during the run.  That is a first.  So, I sucked it up for 5 more miles.  Iced it at Rogue and went home for a nap.  Now it is screaming and hurts like crap if I step on it.  Guess all there is to do is keep icing it, take some anti-inflammatories and STOP running.  If it isn't a lot better by Monday, I'll go to my trusty podiatrist.

Why did this happen???  Hmmm, maybe it was starting some track work outs a few weeks ago, maybe it was being on track for 50 miles this week.  Nothing else is bothering me in the slightest so I find this heel thing quite annoying.

Oh well, no running until I get it sorted out.

New diet

OK - so I had my appointment with Meredith and have been faithfully following it. I have not strayed and eaten trash except one bacon/egg and cheese sandwich at the horse show. I ran 6 miles at a moderate pace on Monday and felt a little like I ran out of gas at mile 5. I was dizzy and nauseous as I took my cool down shower and it took me about 30 min to get rid of that. A little juice was all it took. I lost 5lbs in 6 miles - it was really humid if not all that hot and I don't carry water for short runs. I will attribute feeling so bad after that run to dehydration and low blood sugar. I need to figure out how much to add to my diet after I run to make sure I'm eating enough. I don't think a pizza all to myself is the solution thought. Both pizza's looked good though!

Tuesday, I met Jim Gelb at the Manor track and planned to do 3 - 2000m at 1/2 M pace. OK until 1200m of third one and my legs said no more so I stopped before I injured myself. I ran 8:55 for the first 2 and 4:55 for the last 1200. Felt OK after the last one - just some left foot pain. I need a massage and to ice it.

Got to work and found out we saved the life of some old guy at the jail last night when we sent him to the ER for no BP or peripheral pulses. Yay!! That stuff makes my less than ideal job worthwhile.

Plan to try and do 10miles easy in the morning.

Fun Times

OK - I'm with Mike.  NBC Sucks.  While I did enjoy the good and bad times on the Olympic track, I missed seeing Canada win team Silver and individual Gold in Show Jumping.  Pretty sure it wasn't on NBC and I don't have time to hunt around the internet for sites that cover everything.  I thought it was pretty cool that Norway got Bronze in Team Show jumping. 

I have logged the big zero as far as running goes this week.  Why??  Because I am at a horse show and having a blast.  I took Riley and since he really hasn't got a clue, he is doing the beginner horse classes and he's doing OK.  I am riding a friend's horse in the jumpers and having a blast.  This is one amazing horse and he has a ton of heart.   He won one class today and got second in the other.  Yay!!  I have just 2 classes tomorrow morning and then I will come home for a major nap before going to work on Sunday night.

On Monday morning I will resume running and will be cutting back on the riding for the winter.  It has been a great summer vacation and I have enjoyed relaxing and running for fun with no specific goal in mind...that is all over!  Bring on AT&T!!

Some surprising olympic results

In case you didn't know, I'm from Canada. I kind of casually keep an eye on how Canada's doing in the Olympics. So far 10 medals....most notably some medals in rowing, silver in team show jumping and silver in men's triathalon. One of the members of the show jumping team, Ian Miller, has been to 9 olympics. The silver medal is his first Olympic medal ever...yay!! I'll bet he won't be tossing that in the closet anytime soon.
No run on Monday - kind of humid out and Riley is sound. I rode him for the first time in weeks and he was full of energy but behaved pretty well. My priority this week is getting him ready for the horse show on the weekend so running will be on the back burner.
Just a few weeks left of my running vacation...once I start the AT&T training, I will start a new blog so keep an eye out for it!

Actually able to run in the afternoon

It would have been even nicer to run this morning but after a tough night at the jail, I went to bed instead.  It was 85 degrees this afternoon and overcast.  Ran a good 7 miles - felt pretty good - ran out of gas a little on a long gradual climb in the middle but got right back in the groove at the top.  I still have a sore left heel, annoyed achilles - mostly on the right but my right knee is all better.  I am tired now and would prefer to watch a couple hours of the Olympics and go to bed then go to work but I guess I gotta pay the bills.  Looking forward to taking advantage of the next few cooler days - I don't even care if it's pouring.

Snapped out of the haze

Maybe I was inspired by Michael Phelps or Dara Torres but I woke up and had no trouble getting out of bed at 4:15 today.  Thursday, the best I could do was send an email to Leslie at 4:30 am telling her I was not coming to our usual run and Friday I just could not get up at 6am.  I'm still on my running vacation for a few weeks so I'll cut myself a break.

Ran 16 today - Bruce was nice enough to invite me to join the team Rogue run so Jim Gelb and I tagged along.  Started out a little faster than I normally would have but felt good. Ended up slowing up a little for Jim as he hasn't done anything longer than 5 or 6 miles since Boston.  Ran strong for the last mile or so.  Over all feeling strong.  What a great group, it was fun to have a pack to run with for the first 6 miles or so.

Jim and I stopped for breakfast afterwards at Trudy's and now I'm getting ready for a shower and nap.

Blew a wad of cash at the tax free Rogue sale and got my self a new pair of shoes to race the distance challenge in..always good that they were on sale!

Sending out a little rain dance...please, please rain.  Did I see a high of 89 one day next week??

Diamond in the Rough...continued

You wouldn't associate a really nice athletic facility with Manor, TX would you?  I wouldn't.  Jim Gelb and I met at the Manor New Tech School track tonight for an informal workout.  The track surface is perfect.  Nice restrooms, no graffiti, no trash on the track, a gorgeous football field and plenty of local families participating in cheerleading and soccer practice and some walking and jogging on the track.  A nice wholesome environment.  Definately nicer than Austin High (I'm not touching the East side track!).

We ran 200-400-800-1600-800-400-200 with appropriate recovery between with a 2 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down.  We did not do any drills - will next week.  I attempted to run at 6:30 mile pace - OK until the mile - Jim tried to pace me but my legs were screaming by 8oom.  I was about 40 sec slow.  Everything else was OK and we did finish up with a fast 200m.  It was a little hot - we went a 6:30 pm.  All in all, I feel a nice sense of fatigue.

Diamond in the Rough

View my page on Keep Austin Running

Continuation...

So, after being at work for 10 hours on Monday night, I went to the gym, ran 5 miles around Hyde Park (I felt really good), took a shower, grabbed a muffin and drink and headed to court. I parked by a parking meter near the court house and as I fed it a bunch of change, it suddenly said "fail". So I called the # on the meter (turned out to be 311) since I really didn't feel like getting a ticket. Met with my supervisor who said he had a message on his office phone saying I needed to be in court at about 1pm. He called the people back and said "unacceptable" and lied a little saying that if I went at 1pm I wouldn't get enough sleep to be fit to come to work and so then there would be no nurse in CB. They suggested I go home and come back and he lied a little again and said I lived in Bastrop (almost but not quite) but that they could get me a nice hotel room and that would work. Anyway, they caved and I gave my 3 min. of testimony at 9:30 am. Surprisingly the defense attorney had no questions for me. Got home and crashed at about 10:30am and ended up with about 6.5 hrs of sleep - not enough but OK. I am going to leave at 4am...take a power nap, get up at 8 am and take care of Riley and maybe do a short run and then go back to bed.
I see for everyone except the Tahoe folks, the run in GT is 10 miles. Seems crazy to drive that far for 10 miles so as long as I feel good on Sat I'll do at least 16 miles. Hopefully there will be someone slowish doing the 16 mile run.
My weekend starts on Wed. Yeah!!!

Tired and likely to get more tired

I haven't run since last Thursday. Last night my allergies were really bad so when I got home I took 1 Benadryl, 1 Zyrtec and some nasal spray and crashed. At about 1pm the County attorney's office called and asked if I would be court tomorrow. I said no. When they asked why, I said because I didn't get a subpeona or 10 working days notice and if they had a problem with that they could call my supervisor. I fell back asleep only to be woken up an hour later by my supervisor asking me to go to court. I told him I had gotten 2 subpeonas for next week via inter office mail - they are supposed to be hand delivered. Went back to sleep. Got up at 5:30 to take care of the horses and eat. I still feel a Benadryl hang over and my eyes are dry.
Since I supposedly have to be in court at 9am and I get off work at 6:45, I brought my running stuff to work and will try to get 5 miles in - if they are lucky, I will take a shower and change before I roll into court. Of course, I have no idea what I am being called to court for and have no idea what court it is in.
This is how I forsee it will work...I will show up at 9am and they will say..."sorry, it's been postponed until 1:30pm" (this has happened before). If that happens, I am not going to be back in court because I'll be sleeping....I really don't like my sleep being messed with.
I got a nice email from Betty Sport letting me know that they are having everything in Rogue at 20% discount and it is the tax free weekend. I have my nice little $100 gift cert. from Rogue..woo, hoo!! I will be there at 10 am to get some good stuff!

Weekly wrap up

Low mileage week - about 20 miles.  Spent the majority of the weekend at the horse show and I have to admit I'm whipped.  I did get to ride a few jumper classes on a friends horse and that was a blast.  He is a super talented horse and just goes out and does his job.

I took Riley to the vet and while he does have a sore foot, so far they haven't found anything worse than a bruise causing the lameness.  They checked his back leg which had a severe joint injury years ago and it was perfect and the xrays of his sore foot showed perfect bone structure for his age.  So that is all good.  He is resting for 10 days with antiinflammatories and ten will get a good hard ride and we will see what happens.

The jail has the Olympics on for the inmmates to watch and so far they seem to be quieter than usual...they are actually watching the TV instead of fighting.  They need to record it and play it all year long!

I hear a lot of people saying that Equestrian sports have no part in the Olympics because it is boring.  Well...I challenge any of those people to get on a 1200 pound animal and try to get it to do a complex dressage test, jump 5+ft high jumps or gallop around a 4-5 mile course jumping 4+ft obstacles that don't fall down.  And this would be on an animal that has a mind of it's own!

I think Geezer would agree that it is harder and scarier than it looks!

Summer Sunstroke Stampede Wrap Up

Tonight was the awards banquet for the series.  12 5K races at either Brushy Creek or Town Lake Trail.  The temperature was over 95 at every race except one and over 100 at several.  I don't tolerate hot brain very well so it was a challenge.  But a worthwhile one...I won overall women masters (1 cool trophy, 1 gift cert. from Rogue EQ for $100, 1 gift cert. from Performance Wellness and a Rogue hat) and was one of only 12 people to run all 12 races - we probably really needed a gift certificate for a local psychiatrist but instead got a cool trophy.  Running at least 8 races also netted you a nice tech shirt.  For $10 a race it seems like a great deal.  Chip timing too!

Also scoring big was Nancy Dasso - overall women, Leslie Barclay 1st place 40-44F and Jim Gelb 1st place 45-49M.

New Title for Blog coming up....

After reading Geezer's blog today obviously I'm going to have to come up with a new title for my blog in September.   Hmmm....should it be...."Watch out Geezer, you're about to be passed by a Skirt"??  If you have any good ideas post them in the comments.

Geezer talked about joining a real training group and if that means Team Rogue then sorry, ain't gonna happen.  I'm not making excuses, this is just the plain ol' facts.  While you guys are running, I'm at work tending to the criminals in Austin.  Nope, I'm in Duane's group and I think that will be just fine.  The extended break over the summer has done me good, I feel stronger than ever and am looking forward to training for a fast AT&T.   Yeah, I sandbagged those 2 marathons this year but my priority is AT&T this season and I'm gonna go for it.  For me taking it easy has gotten me further than just hammering all the time.  (Hmmm 3:33 vs 3:50 some - and don't even start about the blister Geezer)!!

This one's for you Geezer

So my work hours got a little shuffled tonight and I won't be out of work until 9am tomorrow. So I went for a 5 mile interval workout tonight. I had a workout I downloaded off ITunes that gives you a warm up and then 4 min hard/4 min easy x 4 and then a cool down. I ran each hard section progressively faster going from MGP to sub 5K pace. The interesting thing was that I would end the 4 min hard section thinking, "there is no way I can do that again" and after the 4 min recovery I would ramp it back up to even faster with no problem. Overall, I felt great during the run. No heel pain at all anymore.
There was a brief sprinkle of rain during my warm up that felt great. It was a bit humid after the rain stopped but at least it wasn't hot. I just can't deal with the overheated brain feeling. It was good to run the intervals in my neighborhood which had minor ups and downs on the route I took. Will make the track work in September seem easier. Thank you Geezer for getting after me last summer...that is always in the back of my mind and helps me push just a little harder.
It also helped that I had been up and on my feet for 4 hours before the run. I had ridden one horse and tended to Riley.
Riley, unfortunately, is no better so will be going to the vet this week to see if they can figure out what is making him lame. I have done everything I can to get him better with no luck. His lameness is odd too...sound when he trots in one arena and dead lame in another.
Going to shoot for the mid 30's to 40 miles this week depending on how busy I am with helping at the horse show this week.

New Plan in Action

Despite an overwhelming desire to go home and go to bed after work this morning.  I put my running stuff on and ran out the back door of the jail.  Ran six miles with most of it on the trail.  By the time I got out there, all of the serious runners were showered and at work.  When I was out there there were 2 prissy poodles with their prissy male owner whom I'm sure was making sure they didn't get a spot of dirt on them.  Lots of walkers and shufflers.  I did stop at the tennis courts for a bathroom break and there were a lot of anorexic looking xc highschool runners getting ready for a workout.  Anyway, I felt great.  I am going to ease into this afterwork running thing so I don't get sick of it and quit...been there.  I am a little extra tired now even though I got 8 hrs sleep today.  My heel seems generally better as well.  I month until AT&T starts.  I feel exceptionally well prepared this year.

Telekinetic connection to MikeW

I read Mike's post about Staurdays long run and I did exactly what he read about. I ran easy for the first 5 miles or so. Pushed through the hills and for the last 5 miles pushed a bit faster. Averaged 8:00-8:20 for the last 5miles. I felt great.
I made an effort to eat properly on Friday - I was tired when my alarm when off on Friday so I chose not to run. Slept in 'til 9am. Made an extra effort to really hydrate well. Took a little longer than usual to fall asleep but got around 41/2 hours sleep on Fri night.
Got up at 4am...took a shower, fed the dog, ate 1 waffle with pear butter and had a glass of Cranenergy drink. Had gotten a bunch of Sport beans that were 50% off at a Linen's and Things that was closing so figured I'd try those on the run. Took the 11 mile map and the 16 mile map. Ended up doing the 16miles and could have easily done 18 or 20.
I felt really strong on the run. It's a good sign when I have to tell myself to ease up every now and then. Ran with Julia for a bit and Diane after that. I got a little disoriented in the last few miles and kept worrying that I was going the wrong way on Shoal Creek...eventually got to the park and all was fine. My heel didn't hurt a bit and the Sport Beans worked just fine.
Got home and hit the scale - lost close to 6 pounds!! Yikes...I'm not surprised because my clothes were just dripping at the end of the run. I drank 3-4 small cups of water at every water stop. Interestingly when I woke up I noticed I was a few pounds heavier than when I went to bed. I assume that is water hooking up with the carbs I ate for lunch and dinner.
Had a good breakfast, a shower and then went and rode a horse. Went out for lunch and had a burger and fries. Major 6 hour nap on Sat afternoon - preparing for work! My legs do not feel like I ran at all - I didn't bother with an ice bath.

Whine, whine, whine....

It's too hot, my heel is sore, Riley still has a sore foot too...honestly I can't wait until it's a little cooler so I can run when I feel like, not when it's reasonable out.  While it seems like most people I know like getting up early in the morning, I don't.  Didn't this morning so therefore there was no run.  Got in 9 yesterday but my legs felt strangely dead.  By mile 7 they came alive but still weren't great.  I'm liking the hydration coach Geezer mentioned on his post...I usually don't have a problem getting enough water in but occasionally the day will get away from me and at dinner time I realize I'm a liter or 2 behind.  

As far as the horse thing goes, the lady that owns the barn where Riley lives, owns a really nice young horse she doesn't have time to ride enough.  It's the kind of horse I can't afford to buy.  Anyway I get to ride her now and once Riley is better, I will make the time to continue riding her...she is that nice.  Not fancy looking but nicely bred and the riding skills she needs to learn are easy for her.  Very comfie trot too.  I am going to ride Riley at the walk on the grass until he is sound.  Can't see how that will hurt given that he walks around outside all day and he isn't limping at the walk.

I'm going to soak my left foot with cold water and epsom salts tonight and hope for the best tomorrow.  My foot seems slightly better today after not running.  I'm sure it will be worse tomorrow but we shall see.

Good news...I fixed the flat on my bike and am pleased to see I can still change a flat in under a minute.  Might try and ride the bike more as it seems to be less nasty to ride than run when it is really hot.

Off to walk Riley around.....