Lori
Week 9. D*MN foot injury!! Well slid back a bit on timing, went to an 18 minute mile but I’m creeping back to a 16 minute mile depending where I am at (gym or park). This past weekend was to be at the Yoga 101. Missed it again! As I’m driving to the event my tire gauge goes crazy so I think I have a flat tire. Pull over and get out to look, like I really know what to look for. No flat as far as I can tell. So I’m still in Newburgh, my car was going in for oil change anyway SO, did I go home and go back to bed and wait till 11:00 for my oil change? NO, I go to Bob’s gym and hop on the treadmill for a 90 minute run/walk. See you can change habits! Got 5 miles in, three short of what we were going to do at the training but it was starting to get busy at the gym and I think people were thinking I was camping out on that treadmill. Did another 5 miles on Sunday and more 90 minute workouts to go this week.
My foot is FINALLY feeling better, getting more distance now and with only a mere 4 weeks left before the big race so I’ve got to keep up the pace. I’m still feeling intimidated by the bridge we need to be over by 8:30. That will be the biggest push. In 4 weeks I need to be at a 2.5 miles in 30 minutes to finish this! STILL working on running with music. I usually don’t but knowing I’m going to be out there run/walk for over two hours (unless I get my time better) so experimenting with apps or downloading some inspirational running music. Pandora kind of sucked for that, so I’m gathering a list of my fav music in hopes of keeping me going for two hours. So until next week, the clock is ticking……..
Katie – Truth Hurts
My fiance has been wanting to take me to the St. Louis aquarium for quite a while, so this past weekend we planned to go. It was quite an adventure.
After searching for this aquarium for about an hour, we found that the “St. Louis World Aquarium” is a room, with fish tanks lining the walls. Talk about disappointment. We laughed about it for quite a while, and then decided to walk the streets to look for other things to do. We came across this Wax Museum and decided to give that a shot. I am laughing out loud as I type this out, remembering our experience. These “wax” figures were…well some were clearly made out of plastic, and some of the faces on these figures…Abraham Lincoln looked like belonged in a horror film. And speaking of horror, they had two “horror floors” filled with wax heads hanging from the ceiling, there were wax clown figures (which was the scariest part of the whole museum for me, I literally HATE clowns, OMG), there was so much gore and blood, but it was still so funny because the quality was so terrible, LOL. The whole experience was hysterical, and I will never forget it. Afterwards, we decided to try out the zoo, since we’d heard so many great things about it.
It was PACKED. We paid for parking and were continually guided to “the next lot” because all of the lots were full. We ended up parking at the top of a parking garage, in which we could barely even see the outskirts of the zoo in the distance. We began our trek over, and spent the next few hours walking throughout the zoo, enjoying the bright, sunny day. My favorite part was seeing the sea lions. Sea lions are so funny! They are so interactive with people.
By the end of our day, I was worn out. I definitely got some walking in which I was excited about, since I’ve been resting my hip for the last week—I was ready to try and get active again. But by the next morning, I was, once again, limping in pain. Near tears, I spent most of the day with a heating pad, laid up in bed. It was then that I made my decision—the decision to back out of the River Run. There’s part of me that feels like a quitter, that feels like I’m letting my ambassador team down, and letting OA down. But there’s also a part of me that is scared I could further injure my hip, and who knows what that road could lead to. I’m getting married in 5 short months, and I have so many things going on right now that I am needing to focus on, and dealing with a more severe injury would only add to my already crazy stress levels. I’m trying to avoid becoming “Bridezilla” but let me tell you, this is much easier said than done. I’ve been dealing with hip pain for the last two-three weeks, pretty much nonstop. And any sort of activity that requires walking even a short distance causes this pain to increase drastically. We are four weeks out from Race Day, and I am nowhere near where I need to be. I am heartbroken and disappointed, but I’m learning that my body requires a lot of vigorous stretching before attempting to push itself to its limits. I’ve learned so much about how far I actually can push myself, and I’m learning what limits I should push, and what limits I need to ease into. Looking back on this whole experience so far, I’m proud of myself for making the decision to sign up and push myself in ways that I never have before. I’m proud of myself for completing at least one big race (The Run of Luck), and for pushing myself to train even when all the odds are against me. Ultimately, I had to make a really tough decision, and I’m even proud of myself for being able to say “I’m done.” Because as much as I didn’t want to be a disappointment, I need to put myself first, and my body is telling me that it needs to heal.
Even though I won’t be participating in the race, I will be there at the finish line, cheering on the rest of my ambassador team. I hope to still be an advocate for them, and I wish everyone the best of luck in these last few weeks of training. I’m excited to celebrate the end of the race with my co-workers and friends, and I’m still going to treat myself to an Oreo Blizzard.
Nikki
There comes a time when everyone reaches their breaking point. With the amount of frustration and impatience I am having, I feel myself slowly reaching that point…
I should have known something was wrong as I started to train this past week. I made it a point to plan on working out every day this past week; whether it was running, walking, bicycling, or just walking. I told myself I would not push myself since I seemed to be having continued difficulty with my knee so I would start slow and build myself up so as to not hurt myself. My problem was, as I was running by myself, I was not getting far at all. I could not seem to push through my minor aches and pains so my first day I only did a couple of miles. The next day I did my core class and rode the bicycle without problems so I decided to run after I got off work that day, which was a mistake. I made it a mile and was having a lot of pain in my lower legs so I decided to walk another mile to shake things out. I took an easy Wednesday and rested and Thursday I got back into my core class and riding the bicycle without problems. Friday is when the sickness hit me again; fever, chills, headache, stomach ache.
I am unsure if my body is trying to convince me I am too old to get into mini-marathon shape but if I wasn’t discouraged enough as it was after my first week of sickness, with now 4 more weeks until the big run and still feeling miserable, I am in a rut. This week, until I start to feel better, my plan is to do light impact work-outs at the gym so that I can still get my cardio but avoid causing further problems.
