Archive | April, 2012

hi!

30 Apr

so.  stuff.

i have had my little hiatus, which in honesty is still going on until the 8th when i begin my new training. i am seriously looking forward to this training and it feels really good to say so.

my hip feels fair.  significantly better than it has and i have a good week to rehab it up and continue to rest it and just elliptical the days away.  i am still aware of the discomfort but it’s better.  there has been improvement.

i am in a much better place mentally, too.   this past week, i took friday off to have a long weekend.  it was really great.  i spent friday with my husband, then the bulk of the weekend with my best friend at the pool then had a lazy sunday with el hubs.

i ate a lot of gluten free pizza.

(a lot of pizza)

the hubs and i visited a gluten free food trailer up in north austin.

this, folks — is a gluten free chocolate chip scone and cookie from lembas austin.  It’s a gluten free, grain free bakery and food trailer.  this was DELICIOUS.  we bought an extra cookie and i kinda wish i had it right now.

so, yeah.  my reset was great.  i spent a lot of time with my love, my best friend, and my couch.  i am ready to get this party started – bring on the texas heat.

Tags: , , , ,

wordless wednesday

25 Apr

(source)

Tags:

recovery.

18 Apr

wednesday!

i am still sore from sunday’s 10 miler.

i had physical therapy yesterday that my therapist actually cut short.  It was cut short because i couldn’t move! she also said i looked miserable. i probably did.   she mentioned to me that i was not the first person that told her or another therapist that they ran the 1020 and are beyond sore.  the course was twisty, turn-y and it was humid.

see?  twisty. turn-y.

so at least i am not alone in my sore misery.  maybe, somewhere in one of these offices downtown someone else is dying trying to pick a pen up off the floor of their office.  (maybe).

she threw me on the bike to get my quads working and to try to get some of the lactic acid flowing and muscle fiber moving.

good news is that i dont have to go back for three weeks.  THREE WEEKS!  just continue to do my at home therapy and reevaluate from there.

i have little intention of running for about 2 weeks and every intention of just being a gym rat.  my pals agreed that the three of us would take a tiny 2 week recovery break between our long programs and running in general.  i can concentrate on my at home therapy and give my hip a rest.  i would like to be injury free for the start of the san antonio rock & roll half marathon training in July.  after our two week hiatus is up in may we’ll meet up at our regular weekly and saturday times for short mileage just runs until san antonio training.

i think a running reset will be good for me mentally…   and i would like to fall back in love with my running.  not that there was a falling out, but running and i have been in a nasty spell since the austin half in february. i need to get back in touch with one of the main things that define me and brings me joy.

Tags: ,

austin 1020

17 Apr

the inaugrial running of the austin 1020 was this past sunday in north austin.

but first, let’s talk about packet pickup.

packet pickup was held for an entire week at austin’s luke’s locker running store.  i, of course, waited until the last day.  i  really REALLY need to stop this waiting until the last minute to go get my packets.

the line moved quickly.

the packet was full of stuff (including an awesome sample of biofreeze) and a $500.00 “gift card” for a company called Red Star Worldwear.  yeah…..no.

(i have enormous wrist veins)

i was a tad confused by this and texted my pal to ask if she got a random card.  yup, she did.  we both wondered what the catch was — so, i googled.  and no, thank you red star worldwear.  a quick sweep of the better business bureau’s website gave this company a C-, an a AND an F.  google immediately brought up websites with the word “scam” in it and other websites also were not friendly to the company, either.  this is one of those deals where you use the “gift card” and buy merchandise but then pay a service charge (9%, per the back of my card) and some people claim they don’t get their merchandise but DO get their card charged a service fee.

i threw it in the recycle bin.  i was a little bugged that the race would include something like red star in their packet.  otherwise the packet was pretty nice.

race day.

eyes were on the weather thanks to a crazy front that blew through.  it was humid and overcast.

i really didn’t have my head in the race.  honestly — i wanted the weather to cancel the race.  but it didn’t.  the race started late.  traffic was kind of an ordeal and so was parking.  we cheated and parked at home depot and hoped that we would not get towed… (we didnt)

gunfire went off and away we went.

it was a struggle.  there wasn’t any real body aches and pains – just the humidity beating us up and me not being in my head.  i saw a significant amount of people walking due to the humidity and around mile 7 was a group of boys handing out wet washrags — WHICH WAS AWESOME.  i held onto my damp rag until probably mile 9.5 before tossing it to the ground.

there was a band every half mile.  most were great.  one – not so much.  but that’s personal taste and opinion. (mentioning no names)

the band everclear was the “headliner” for the event.

in my eyes the race went well.  no real nightmares. plenty of water and Gatorade.  a suggestion would be to MAYBE not have little children manning the water stops.  the first Gatorade station i got maybe a spit’s worth of drink.  come on honey child – that’s not gonna work.

we left without hearing everclear.  i wanted to get home and so did the rest of my crew.  we agreed that none of us were properly prepared for the race.  but we got a half pound metal.  and that, in and of itself is pretty great.

medal bling

16 Apr

this is half a pound of medal.  it is larger than the palm of my hand.

race recap to follow…

Tags:

my other obsession is knitting.

11 Apr

last night was the last workout for the austin 1020 training group i joined.

i joined this group over halfway into its training.

i think a lot of the problem i have been having with this training is that my pals and i joined a group that had already assimilated.  we never fit in and felt very much like outcasts.  and i guess, in a way, we were.  the coach was great but my little running group of 4 never fit in with the rest of them.

i think last night the coach realized this – at least to some extent as it was clearly noticable that he was giving me and my buddy a significant amount of attention.  i am not sugguesting it was a “too little too late” kind of thing. not at all.  i think there was some pity on his part.

i am hopeful that since this training is over that my mindset will improve.

we were invited to the group happy hour – and we politely declined the invite as we had other plans.  more important plans.

i am not going to go into detail here because it’s not my place to do so on the health of others but one of our friends has cancer and we met for dinner and drinks last night at vivo’s tex-mex off manor road.

(source)

unfortunately i did not take any photos but it’s a well known eatery.

(source)

beautiful patio.  beautiful restaurant.  my friend, unbeknownst to me, called ahead to see if there was anything i could eat on the menu that is gluten free.  she had some problems conveying my situation to the hostess but we had an amazing waitress who knew exactly what i meant when i said “i need to eat gluten free” and told me (off the top of her head and without hesitation) what i could eat and what menu options could be modified so that i could eat.

in a nutshell, the chips and salsa are gluten free.  The tortilla soups are gluten free without the fried tortilla strips.  the verde enchilada dish is gluten free along with the rice and beans and a handful of other food items.  i had them create the verde enchiladas for me without chicken and made it a cheese enchilada dish.  delicious.

best service.  it was even a busy night.

we had some adult drinks, we had some food.  we had some talk about nothing in particular.

i decided and told my friend that i am going to knit her some hats to wear as she goes through chemo.  several for summer and several for winter.

i love knitting hats and can whip one out in literally no time.  this also gives me an excuse to buy super soft fancy yarn as I am a bit of a yarn snob. *squee*

so i will look on ravelry and gather some patterns from their website and my personal pattern stash and get to knitting some super cute, super soft hats.

and if you find yourself up off manor road on the east side of austin any time soon, i highly recommend Vivos.  it would be a great date place.  Oh, and don’t forget to visit their restroom while you are there.

…trust me. it’s a sight to behold.  and i am going to leave it at that…

Tags: , ,

it’s a brand new week

9 Apr

i got on the scale this morning.

i had a significant amount of easter candy over the weekend.

i was hoping that my 7 mile saturday would have prevented any candy weight gain — but no.  there was some significant weight gain…

mr. husband and i acquired an easter basket from his mom.  we now have enough candy and homemade treats to last us for close to a month.  i should note we don’t have a kid, either.  i got many cadbury creme eggs.  come to find out the jury is split on the cadbury creme egg bandwagon.  i, personally love them.

the austin 1020 race is this sunday and i couldn’t be happier.  i, frankly am ready to be done with it and ease into 3 months of lighter running and hip healing before training starts for san antonio in july.  i still am in a major funk with my running and i think part of it may be that i joined into a training group that was already under way and things feel “weird” and not comfortable.  i dont know.

sounded good to me.

i am still having a great degree of difficulty with the heat and my pace and it’s not even summer yet.  But i have seen others that appear to be walking more and maybe we’re all fighting the same battle, just to varying degrees.

i will try to stop whining about it.  while it’s good to moan and complain about something it’s not so good to do it 24/7 and who wants to read about that, anyhow…

…i kinda wish i had brought a handful of easter candy from home…

 

Tags: , ,

i need to snap to it.

6 Apr

i have been so lazy.

i blame the heat.  it was 92 in austin yesterday.  that’s hammock weather.

lately, i have been wanting to be in the hammock and not on the street running.  i guess we all go through phases.  i realized that i have slipped out of my mental mindset that i normally have and maintained during my long runs in the fall/winter.  it’s hot…  it’s humid…. why am i walking, i never walk…  why is my hip hurting when it wasn’t earlier…. running is just as mental as it is physical.  i need to snap out of it and get back in the right frame of mind.

went for 4 miles last night and my hip was really acting up.  i figure it was due to having my PT the day before. oh, and it being 92 degrees downtown.  it was breezy and actually felt very nice, if i am truthful.

today is a short day at work.  it’s not a long weekend, but it’s a tiny bit longer than a normal weekend, i suppose.  and i’ll take it.  and easter candy.

(They were delicious)

improvement

5 Apr

i had physical therapy yesterday and finally things are starting to shape up and get better with the good old hip flexor situation.  i am still uncomfortable and am not running without some level of varying discomfort.  But there is no pain.

i am finding that i am able to run longer distances without being under heavy compression which is GREAT because it’s already in the high 80′s in austin and its april.  compression shorts = hot and i dont want to overheat in any way or wear more layers than i need to.

i have been wearing the shorter under armour compression shorts.

(these)

 i am more and more convinced now that the compression is there in the under armour shorts —  it’s just not the high compression that i prefer.  the shorts are working out really well for my tuesday night workout at the track and on thursday night’s run but i fear i still need more compression for long run saturday.

my therapist is now doing this odd (to me) thing wherein she utilizes a seat belt to pull on my leg and get that part of the femur away from the front of the pelvis.  my whole problem is that the femoral head is pushed forward in the ball and socket joint there in the hip  and is too close to the pelvis (because i am weak and puny).   but we’re working on strengthening it…

this week technically begins taper for the 1020 on the 15th.  the whole “deal” with the austin 1020 is that it’s a 10 mile race and there are 20 bands along the way with one big headliner at the end.

the headliner is everclear.  to be honest with you, i didnt know they were still a band or relevant. no offense to everclear, but i dont think i will be sticking around.

the 1020 medal is huge and heavy.  i tried it on at packet pickup for the austin half and it’s a piece.

(source)

I suppose the 1020 is going off a similar model to the rock & roll race series having a headlining band at the end of your race.  Granted, austin is the live music capital of the world so they may just be capitalizing on the fact that there are an abundance of musicians here.  (“live music capital of the world” is the city’s official motto.  it’s also a registered trademark.  i tend to believe it.)  our austin marathon route is covered with bands playing for the crowds.  it’s really nice.  though you only hear them in doppler.

i am feeling that this post is leaving things up in the air or reading as unfinished so i leave you with this cartoon narwahl:

Tags: ,

a tiny post about a lazy, happy girl.

4 Apr

tonight i get back on the right track.

not that i am off track – just been lazy but lazy in a good way.

physical therapy is this morning.  hopefully work won’t be silly like it was yesterday and part of the day before.

austin has felt like springtime and it’s felt wonderful.  but seriously, i have a 10 miler in 2 weeks.   after 1020, i wont begin training in earnest until july for the san antonio half.  my partner and i have decided on the program to do for our 3 month lull in large race training, so that will be a tiny reset as well.  and i can heal in that time, too.

but a tiny reset was nice.

Tags: , ,

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.