While I was in Chicago this past weekend, I went to Fleet Feet, the store where I bought my running shoes, hoping to find another. I got my feet measured again to make sure nothing has changed. Unfortunately, they had nothing in my size under $110, so I came home without new shoes. Probably I'll look 'em up on Amazon soon - after all, it is 4 months until the Bix, and if I'm gonna have a prayer of running the entire 7 miles with no walking at all, I need to be getting more serious about training.
Unfortunately I have not modeled that this week. I had my running clothes with me when I went to Chicago, but in a moment of not thinking things through fully, I didn't pack my shoes (because "I was going to buy a pair," you know.) So there was no run on Monday.
And then my brother surprised us all with a visit all the way from Arizona, so I was up too late Monday night to get up and work out yesterday morning. Which was still not yet stressing me out. I went to bed last night looking forward to this morning's run.
But then in the night, I developed some very ouchy pain in 3 of my toes. As in, every time I rolled over, the feeling of the blankets pushing on them made me suck in my breath and whine. I'm not sure what that's about, other than I suspect it's because I walked around quite a bit in not-running-shoes this weekend while in Chicago. Who knows. Monday night and yesterday, I had a similar sort of pain in my right hand, to the point where I couldn't really pick anything up or squeeze anything without wanting to cry and feeling it go weak.
All of that seems like joint related stuff, so maybe it's more arthritis showing itself. For now, I'm going to assume I'm just dehydrated. After all, I've not been very intentional about water lately. And I know water makes a major difference in how my joints feel. So! Today, I drink, drink, drink water and trust that the pain that left my hand and went to my toes will leave me altogether.
And that I can run tomorrow. Gotta get training!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
take THAT, brady street hill!!!
Had to run a friend to the airport very early this morning. It was the perfect opportunity - I already knew from last night that my bridge has too much snow and ice on it for a good run - so on the drive home I took a detour to drive up Brady Street hill to do a sidewalk check. I was happy see that it was cleared enough for a run.
Oh, the Brady Street hill. Truth is I started dreading the run as soon as I realized it was possible. So BIG. So long, so steep, so much. Wahhh!!! But what I know about that is: it is possible. All I have to do is make a choice, each step: I will not stop.
And...I did it. Here in snowy March, far from the weather that lets me really get great outdoor exercise. I kicked Brady Street hill's butt. I mean...not by much. I thought I was going to throw up, about a block from the top. But all that matters is...it did not defeat me. AHA, my worthy opponent!!
And then followed the always-gratifying run down Main Street hill. Love the way I can feel running downhill working in my thighs and butt. Always, always, always makes me glad.
This morning I am grateful for not falling. There WERE a few bad spots after all - stuff you can't see from the car. Where the snow has been melting and running off and freezing in perfect slickness on the pavement. If I weren't the slow, careful, plodding runner that I am (and even slower and more careful than ever, this morning)...I'd have been down at least 3 times. As it was, I just felt the little oopsie as my feet slid around a little. No harm, no foul.
BRING SPRING! I am ready.
Oh, the Brady Street hill. Truth is I started dreading the run as soon as I realized it was possible. So BIG. So long, so steep, so much. Wahhh!!! But what I know about that is: it is possible. All I have to do is make a choice, each step: I will not stop.
And...I did it. Here in snowy March, far from the weather that lets me really get great outdoor exercise. I kicked Brady Street hill's butt. I mean...not by much. I thought I was going to throw up, about a block from the top. But all that matters is...it did not defeat me. AHA, my worthy opponent!!
And then followed the always-gratifying run down Main Street hill. Love the way I can feel running downhill working in my thighs and butt. Always, always, always makes me glad.
This morning I am grateful for not falling. There WERE a few bad spots after all - stuff you can't see from the car. Where the snow has been melting and running off and freezing in perfect slickness on the pavement. If I weren't the slow, careful, plodding runner that I am (and even slower and more careful than ever, this morning)...I'd have been down at least 3 times. As it was, I just felt the little oopsie as my feet slid around a little. No harm, no foul.
BRING SPRING! I am ready.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
yummo strange cheap fast tacos
Just stopping by to say that I've been eating this VERY FAST FOOD the last 2 nights. It's a decent choice, I think...just an odd variation of taco:
tortillas
very little bit of brown rice, cooked
seasoned black beans (found cans of them at Target), drained and heated
tabasco
tons of chopped raw cabbage
Just make it into tacos. I'm here to tell you...YUMMY, YUMMY food. And cheap. And super fast, if you're like me and keep cooked brown rice in the fridge.
Cynical? Come on...try it....it's good!
tortillas
very little bit of brown rice, cooked
seasoned black beans (found cans of them at Target), drained and heated
tabasco
tons of chopped raw cabbage
Just make it into tacos. I'm here to tell you...YUMMY, YUMMY food. And cheap. And super fast, if you're like me and keep cooked brown rice in the fridge.
Cynical? Come on...try it....it's good!
countdown workout and an ozzie quote for the day
I did what I am now calling the "countdown workout" this morning, in the warmth and dryness of my apartment, as the beautiful snow fell outside my windows. You know...the countdown workout:
jumping jacks
pushups
squats
crunches
jump ropes
First 10 of each, then 9, then 8, etc all the way down to 1.
I had made the decision last night that this is what I would do. I now have a little piece of paper with that list typed out, to help me, because as we know, KAREN CANNOT THINK at 5 in the morning. So I lay the list on the table and have to look at it literally between EVERY SINGLE TRANSITION.
Still, it's a beautiful thing. I can do it in my dark apartment, with only the indirect lighting of the streetlights outside. No noise has to happen. No other human voices or music I didn't choose. It's a nice pick for me, for a light workout on my days of not running.
Here's hoping they clear the sidewalks well today. I'd love to be back at running tomorrow.
In other news, I saw this quote on my Oswald Chambers site this morning...very apropos to the naked page, methinks (discipline, discipline, discipline...it is our friend, alas):
Much of the misery in our Christian life comes not because the devil tackles us, but because we have never understood the simple laws of our make-up. We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says “Sit,” and He says “Go,” go! When the body says “Eat,” and He says “Fast,” fast! When the body says “Yawn,” and He says “Pray," pray!
jumping jacks
pushups
squats
crunches
jump ropes
First 10 of each, then 9, then 8, etc all the way down to 1.
I had made the decision last night that this is what I would do. I now have a little piece of paper with that list typed out, to help me, because as we know, KAREN CANNOT THINK at 5 in the morning. So I lay the list on the table and have to look at it literally between EVERY SINGLE TRANSITION.
Still, it's a beautiful thing. I can do it in my dark apartment, with only the indirect lighting of the streetlights outside. No noise has to happen. No other human voices or music I didn't choose. It's a nice pick for me, for a light workout on my days of not running.
Here's hoping they clear the sidewalks well today. I'd love to be back at running tomorrow.
In other news, I saw this quote on my Oswald Chambers site this morning...very apropos to the naked page, methinks (discipline, discipline, discipline...it is our friend, alas):
Much of the misery in our Christian life comes not because the devil tackles us, but because we have never understood the simple laws of our make-up. We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says “Sit,” and He says “Go,” go! When the body says “Eat,” and He says “Fast,” fast! When the body says “Yawn,” and He says “Pray," pray!
Monday, March 4, 2013
ahh that's more like it!
The past several Mondays, I have had trouble stretching before my workout. My muscles have been tight and resistant. I have had to be careful not to hurt them in the process of trying to stretch them.
I think that has been because I haven't found the time or made it a priority to get some exercise over the weekends. After yesterday's bike ride, my muscles were joyously cooperative this morning for the stretch.
Truth: I woke up SO EXCITED to get to run outside again. Though the snow is falling hard now, it was just a little spitting rain when I was out there. Just enough to make me feel like a badass, and we all know how much Karen loves that.
Still, I haven't run in a week or two because of the weather. Have done stairs and such, but not run. Which means it was a hard push, doing my usual 2.5 miles. My legs got heavy as lead, even though the rest of me was in happy celebration mode.
But that's just lost momentum. I know how to gain it back. :-)
I think that has been because I haven't found the time or made it a priority to get some exercise over the weekends. After yesterday's bike ride, my muscles were joyously cooperative this morning for the stretch.
Truth: I woke up SO EXCITED to get to run outside again. Though the snow is falling hard now, it was just a little spitting rain when I was out there. Just enough to make me feel like a badass, and we all know how much Karen loves that.
Still, I haven't run in a week or two because of the weather. Have done stairs and such, but not run. Which means it was a hard push, doing my usual 2.5 miles. My legs got heavy as lead, even though the rest of me was in happy celebration mode.
But that's just lost momentum. I know how to gain it back. :-)
Sunday, March 3, 2013
bike!
Today I rode my bike! It was so great. The weather was somewhere up around 34 degrees or something. I have found that some of the Iowa bike path is cleared. I was able to ride over to and around Credit Island, and also the opposite direction from my house for quite awhile before coming to an unplowed area.
I had to come home and soak in the hot bathtub. The cold made my knees hurt, and made the fat part of my thunder thighs cold, and that can take many hours to warm back up without help. Nothing like a nice searing hot soak in a bubble bath to regulate the ol' body temp. Bubble bath is a very Sunday appropriate activity, don't you think?
Tonight my legs are sore from riding. Just the right kind of sore. MAN it's good to have been back out there riding, even if it was just a little 10 miles or so.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. BRING ON SPRING!
I had to come home and soak in the hot bathtub. The cold made my knees hurt, and made the fat part of my thunder thighs cold, and that can take many hours to warm back up without help. Nothing like a nice searing hot soak in a bubble bath to regulate the ol' body temp. Bubble bath is a very Sunday appropriate activity, don't you think?
Tonight my legs are sore from riding. Just the right kind of sore. MAN it's good to have been back out there riding, even if it was just a little 10 miles or so.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. BRING ON SPRING!
Friday, March 1, 2013
indoor workout again
Snow kept me indoors again this morning. It looks wet out my window. Last year, I ran in snow quite a bit, but it was mostly powdery dry stuff. This looks splashy wet, and that's not cool (or, more precisely, it's FREEZING) with my mesh running shoes.
So instead I stayed in. Since I WILL NOT be derailed by weather, I resorted to the indoor workout again. Ten minutes of stairs that felt like an hour and left my leg muscles still trembling an hour later. I got in 100 crunches, 75 of which were on the ball and the other 25 on the floor. 100 push ups, 75 of which were on the ball and the other 25 on the floor (everything is SO MUCH HARDER on the floor!) Bunch of arm work with my hand weights. And 40 or so of those side leg lift thingies, along with 3 rounds of doing the plank until I fell (which is a VERY SHORT time at this point).
I didn't do my little "rounds" of jumping jacks, squats, etc this week...that was a great workout, but both Tuesday and Thursday my workouts got derailed by very late nights, the nights before. Keeping my many commitments means, unfortunately, doing NONE of them perfectly. But I look forward to getting back to those rounds next week. That was a good workout, for my "off" days.
A friend cued me in to another possibility to aid the indoor workout - the kettlebell, which Wikipedia describes as "a cannonball with a handle." She tells me it's a pretty vigorous workout and it for sure meets my requirement of being usable in darkness and silence and low speed and without allowing that other people might dare to exist on my planet at 5 AM. :-) I hear it is way cheap at WalMart ($15) so maybe I'll weather what I hatefully call "the headache store" (because I have my headache before I even get out of the car, when I visit a WalMart Superstore) to get one.
Someone told me it is going to snow throughout March. I hope not. I miss running!!!
So instead I stayed in. Since I WILL NOT be derailed by weather, I resorted to the indoor workout again. Ten minutes of stairs that felt like an hour and left my leg muscles still trembling an hour later. I got in 100 crunches, 75 of which were on the ball and the other 25 on the floor. 100 push ups, 75 of which were on the ball and the other 25 on the floor (everything is SO MUCH HARDER on the floor!) Bunch of arm work with my hand weights. And 40 or so of those side leg lift thingies, along with 3 rounds of doing the plank until I fell (which is a VERY SHORT time at this point).
I didn't do my little "rounds" of jumping jacks, squats, etc this week...that was a great workout, but both Tuesday and Thursday my workouts got derailed by very late nights, the nights before. Keeping my many commitments means, unfortunately, doing NONE of them perfectly. But I look forward to getting back to those rounds next week. That was a good workout, for my "off" days.
A friend cued me in to another possibility to aid the indoor workout - the kettlebell, which Wikipedia describes as "a cannonball with a handle." She tells me it's a pretty vigorous workout and it for sure meets my requirement of being usable in darkness and silence and low speed and without allowing that other people might dare to exist on my planet at 5 AM. :-) I hear it is way cheap at WalMart ($15) so maybe I'll weather what I hatefully call "the headache store" (because I have my headache before I even get out of the car, when I visit a WalMart Superstore) to get one.
Someone told me it is going to snow throughout March. I hope not. I miss running!!!
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