My Randoms.

There have been a lot of the random lists posts floating around the blogosphere... and I was tagged in a couple of them, but never got my lazy buns around to writing one.  Since I'm pretty sure everyone has already been tagged, and I don't have enough randomness to do more than one of these, here are my 7 Facts of Kim... (and some good news!)


1.  One time while I was trying to quit smoking I ate an entire 1 lb bag of baby carrots in about an hour.  I do not recommend this.


2. Charmin Ultra Strong toilet paper is like a punishment for crapping.  Seriously.  Good thing I bought the super jumbo package.... 2.5 rolls left.


3.  I am a huge supporter of birth education and choices, and plan to crap out any future babies at home in my living room.


4.  Overuse of the phrase "crapping out babies" is the number one reason I've been hesitant about pursuing a doula career.


5.  When my kids were babies, I would find myself standing at the window at night waiting to see my husband's headlights coming down our road, because being a stay at home mom of newborn twins, while rewarding, can be very.... challenging


6.  Some days, I don't really miss running.  I work out more now than I ever did when I was a runner, and I miss it less and less as the weeks go by.


7.  The first time I Skyped with my husband, I had an overwhelming desire to take off my clothes.  There's something about seeing your husband on a grainy image on the computer that's reminiscent of a cheap porno.  Judge away.


And the good news....

I can run today!!!!!  

Don't worry, I'll write at least four posts dedicated to my one 1-2 mile run.  :)

Pelvis Woes

Had a little unintended blog hiatus for a few weeks... but I'm back!

I've been seeing this chiropractor for a couple of weeks, and I'm feeling cautiously optimistic.

He took some pelvic X-rays and is working on fixing the rotation of my pelvis that's leading to all of these right-side injuries.

Interesting pelvic X-ray sidenote:  Did you know that X-rays have the image of soft-tissue as well as bone?  I guess I never realized that, until my lady bits were on display in high-res on Mr. Chiro's computer screen.  Yikes.  Hello flabias, I haven't seen you since this morning.


Anyway.  Here's the gist of my diagnosis, and now that I'm thinking about drawing this, I should've just asked for a copy of the X-ray.

Here's the front view of a normal lady pelvis:

source

See those two little holes on each side of the bottom?  My X-ray doesn't look like this.  The left side looks normal, but the right side has an appearance of having a small slit instead of a hole because it's tilted so far forward (or backward, I don't really pay attention).

So this is making my right leg longer, and it's causing all of the issues I've been having (minus the lightening bolt pubic hair, that's only in my dreams.)

Mr. Chiro also did a foot scan, and it showed that the arch on my left foot has dropped enough to cause mild overpronation, and I'm going to try out orthotics for this.  As soon as the inserts come in, I'm going to be cleared to try to run again.

Honestly, I'm worried that my long distance running days are over.  If he can't correct the pelvis alignment, there's just not any way I can run and not have constant, severe injuries.

I've not signed up for any races this year - except Ragnar... but that's only a couple of miles, right?  Should be fine.  :)  

I really felt touched (in a loving, mostly non-sexual way) by the emails I got from a few blogger friends  during my hiatus wondering if I'd jumped off a cliff.  Never fear, I've just been drinking heavily and crying all day spending some time away from the computer.  So, thanks for being awesome!

Sidelined. Again.

Hey, good morning.

Before I tell you the bad news, have a look at some good news:

Numero uno.  My training has been awesome.  In the beginning of December, I crafted a smart, slow return to running after my femoral stress fracture, and I've executed it perfectly:

Weekly mileage courtesy of DailyMile.  I really didn't skip a week, not sure why "1" is blank....

Numero dos.  I've fallen in love with other forms of exercise.  Since December 1, I've swum almost four miles, spent hours on the spin bike, lifted weights, rowed, yoga-ed.

Numero tres:  I think I've found an excellent chiropractor who is going to fix me.


With all that fantastic news, what could be wrong?

1.  My femur hurts.  Ruh-roh.

2.  My hip hurts.

3.  My posterior tibial tendinitis that I thought I kicked in June is back.

4.  After five years of running with no knee pain, my knee hurts.

And before you worry that I was struck by lightening in the crotchal region, never fear.  I just kinda always wanted to wax my nether-foliage into a lightening bolt shape like what I think Wonder Woman's pubes might look like.  Or a stripper.  Whatever, let me have my dreams.

So, it sucks bad.  Obviously, I can't run with this multitude of injuries I'm stacking up, but the great news is I know it's nothing I did wrong.  I didn't jump back too quickly into training.  I had my gait analyzed.  I went to physical therapy.  

I had an appointment yesterday with a chiropractor, and he said, and I'm quoting, that my case was "fascinating", and he "couldn't wait to work on me".  He said my pelvis is very twisted, and now also my foot, ankle, knee, and hip on my injured right side area all f*cked up too.  

Basically, there's no way that I can run with this problem and not have a litany of injuries result from it.

I'm taking this setback surprisingly well.  Yes, it sucks that I really felt like I was on my way back, and I'd just started to sign up for races, but I feel positive and I really think that I've finally found someone to address the root of the problem.

It's shocking, I know, but apparently being on bedrest for 14 weeks is not excellent for the pelvis.  

Ah well, it's just another thing I can guilt them with when they're older.  :)

My little monsters.

So for the forseeable future, you can find me swimming, cross-training, and drinking heavily.

Morning Person?

If you ask my mom - the woman who has had to drag my whiny, eyes-still-closed, pretending-to-be-sick butt out of bed thousands of times in the first decade and a half of my life - if I am a morning person, she'll laugh.  And laugh.  No, her daughter is definitely not a morning person.

If you ask my husband - the man with whom I've shared a bed for nearly all of the past three thousand nights - if I am a morning person, he'll give you a sarcastic "Ha!"  Then he'll tell you that he doesn't even talk to me when I first lurch out of bed because even the sweetest "Good morning babe!" will be met with an icy glare.

Give me coffee or die.

In fact, I had a rule at work that no one harass me before 8:30.  I never had to enforce it, because nobody wanted to talk to me.  Seriously.

But if you ask my morning workout partner, or Rachel, with whom I've raced dozens of races that required us to leave the house before dawn, if I am a morning person, I'm willing to bet not only do they think I'm a morning person, they've been pretty irritated by my "morning enthusiasm" (And, no not that 'morning enthusiasm' dudes wake up with every day)

Especially my race buddies.  I'm usually the organizer of our group of racing friends:  sign-up reminder, mini-van driver, sweet mid-90s race mix maker, and self-nominated team spirit captain. And when their cars pull up alongside my minivan on a dark cold morning to carpool to a race I've badgered them in to, they are often met with the sight of me dancing vaguely seizure-esque in my van to "Tootsie Roll".

(C'mon, you know you want to.  "To the left, to the left... to the right, to the right... now let me see that tootsie roll!"

Worse yet, when they open the door of their Chariot of Team Spirit (as I secretly like to call my van in my head), they are met with a loud and hyper, "Good MORNING!"

On race morning, I'm like that puppy that's so excited to see you it pees itself when the door opens.  Except instead of peeing myself, what happens instead is a constant stream of peppy nonsense.

source

 "How are you?  You're going to do so great!  How did you sleep?  We're so awesome! How do you feel?  Are you ready?  You are going to kick so much ass! What's your pace plan?"


It's a lot to deal with, I know.

So when someone asks me if I'm a morning person...  what do I say?  No, unless something awesome is going on?  Yes, as long as I get up before sunrise and get to irritate a van full of people?



Are you a morning person?

I Gotta Feeling...

That this week's gonna be a good, good week.

You can thank me later when your brain is taken over by the Black Eyed Peas.

Have you guys seen that site... Unhear It?  When you have a song stuck in your head, you can go to this website and they'll play you another super-catchy song to get something else stuck in your head.  Weirdly addicting... and mildly irritating.  The first song they played for me is "Electric Avenue."  Must.  Find.  New.  Song.

Anyway, I'm pumped because the new session of classes starts this week.   I'll be getting up in the ungodly four o'clock hour and hauling my buns to the Y for a class each morning.

Last week turned out to be great fitness-wise, and I've got a good plan for this week:

Week in Review: 1/2-1/8

• Monday:  Biked 10 miles, Swam 500m. 
• Tuesday: Ran/walked 3 miles in 34 minutes/ Biked 5 miles
• Wednesday:  1 hour Spin Class, Swam 550 m 
• Thursday: Ran/walked 3 miles in 30 minutes
• Friday:   Rest
• Saturday:   Swam 1050m.
• Sunday: Ran 3 miles in 28:02 minutes.

Total Run Mileage: 9 miles

Total Workouts: 9

Favorite workout:  

I had two awesome workouts this week.  On Saturday, I swam over 1000m and was able to swim 6 laps freestyle without stopping.  On Sunday, I ran 3 miles without stopping and had no pain. Glorious.  I freaking love running.

Plan for the Week: 1/9-1/16

• Monday:  Core Class, Bike 9 miles, Run 3.5 miles
• Tuesday:  Spin Class, Swim
• Wednesday:  Core Class, Run 3.5 miles
• Thursday:  Swim, Yoga
• Friday:     Bootcamp Class
• Saturday:   Run 3.5 miles
• Sunday:   Rest

Most important goal for the week is to rest the femur if I have any pain.

What was your favorite workout last week?

What's a song that always gets stuck in your head?

You Saved My Ass! (literally)

A few weeks ago I posted about my spin class experience and my nether-pain that will now be known as two-by-four syndrome (because spinning without protection is like getting whacked in the bits with a two-by-four).  Over and over.

Your comments were wonderful, and it was pretty much a collective "Get some padded shorts you dummy!".  

So padded shorts I got.  I scored some Pearl Izumi shorts from Amazon.com for $38, and I was pretty excited to try them this morning.

This isn't me, but this is exactly how I look in these shorts.  I swear.  

The difference was amazing.  I actually enjoyed the class (the lack of 80s power ballads helped a bit) and I definitely feel my form was better because I wasn't constantly readjusting or rounding my back to take the pressure off of my bum.

I can't say I'm in love with spinning, but I'm not dreading next week's class.

After class I got in some swimming, and now am officially more than half done with KDUB's half-Ironman challenge.  Pretty excited.

To balance out all of those super healthy activities, I came home and made a pretty good dent in a bag of powdered sugar mini-donuts.

source

Do you feel entitled to a little culinary indulgence after a good workout?

What's the food you sometimes eat a bit too much of?

Tuesday Tidbits

Tidbits.  That's a funny word.  When I'm in the grocery store, I'll pick the pineapple tidbits over any other form of pineapple because then I can finish my shopping saying "tidbits.tidbits.tidbits" over and over in funny voices to myself.  Same thing with "niblets".  If any food comes in "niblet" form you can bet I'll be buying it.

It's weird I don't have more friends.

Anywayyyyy..

I've got a couple of things to say here, so we're going to do an old-fashioned list post today.


1.  A huge belated thank you to my sweet Secret Santa, who did not include his or her (but I'm guessing her - but don't have a masculinity crisis if you're a dude, ok?) name in the package.  She/he got me this super cute personalized runner ornament - it seriously made my day when I opened it.

2  I am doing KDUB's 70.3 Birthday Challenge.  The idea is to complete a half Ironman - swim 2100 yards, bike 56 miles, and run 13.1 miles between January 1st-11th.  I was actually most worried about the running, as my femur-rebuilding mileage is so low, but my schedule calls for a little over 15 miles during this time, so it was perfect.

Turns out, I should have been worried about the biking, because apparently I hate cycling.  It does explain my inability to catch the spinning bug, and the neglect my poor rusty Schwinn has suffered over the years.  This challenge is the kick in the pants I needed to stop whining and try a new spin class.


3.  My recovery is going GREAT so far.  I'm slowly and steadily increasing my run/walk ratio and am up to three miles of running, 3 minutes running/1 minute walking.  It's difficult to crank the treadmill down after the three minutes, but I'm hoping my patience will pay off in the long run.  Ha.  Long run.






Anyone else doing the 70.3 challenge?




If you've suffered an injury, were you able to stay patient on a slow rehab program, or did you jump right back into your normal mileage?

2012 Goals!

Well, I managed to eek by without doing a Christmas post, and thought I could quietly slide into the new year without a obligatory post of goals for the new year, but I've been so inspired reading all of your 2011 recap/2012 goals posts I had to put my own out there.

My 2011 running can be summed up in one word.  Injury.  Read all about it here.

I am so ready for 2012!

Running/fitness goals:

• Run 1,000 miles in 2012.
• Run a sub 1:55 half marathon.
• Get a new 5k PR - current PR 23:17
• Complete a triathlon.
• Run Ragnar Madison to Chicago relay.
• NO MORE STRESS FRACTURES!

Life goals

• Join Toastmasters to conquer my fear of public speaking.
• Pass the ACSM Certified Personal Trainer exam.
• Focus on getting the kids out of the house for activities during the week.
• Knock out at least eight items on my "Fear Can Suck It" list.

I have a feeling it's going to be a great year!






If you could accomplish one running/fitness related goal this year, what would it be?