Another Stress Fracture Means NO Marathon

My left foot has hurt the last few weeks. I've been ignoring it as best as I could.

But I finally went to the doctor on Wednesday and had what I already knew confirmed.

another stress fracture.

This time it's my #2 toe.

You can't see in the picture, but the bone is "fuzzy" all the way down on both sides. Not good.

So I'm out for six weeks.

which means that all of the crazy hard training, getting up at 4:10am and so forth will not be used for the Fort Worth Marathon.

It's frustrating.

Doctor's orders are NOTHING running related for 2 weeks, then I can run 1 mile IF there is no pain. I go back in 4 weeks for an evaluation.

The goal is to be able to run a 10k in December, a 1/2 in January and a full in February. UGH.

But what can I say, I did this to myself. I upped my training and as I had been saying, IF I could remain healthy, it was going to be great. I'm stronger and faster. But I knew that I was playing a gambling game running 6 days a week and logging a ton of miles.

So I'm going back to the Galloway method. I used Jeff Galloway's method and ran half a dozen or more half marathons plus a full marathon injury free. I changed plans to run for a time goal thinking I needed something more ambitious and ended up with a stress fracture on the left foot after Austin. And here I am 8 months later with another stress fracture on the same foot, different toe.

So, I'm telling myself to STOP IT! Galloway's plan is for injury free running. That should be my goal. That is my goal. Cause I have to say, going into the holidays not being able to run off stress and food is hard!

But I am determined to get my foot pain free and I'll them be back on my training plan. this time I'll just be smarter with it and use Galloway!

Running Shoe problems and an AH HA moment

My left foot hurts.

No big deal. Unless you are training for a marathon and need to run around 60 miles this week. So yeah. big deal.

Sadly, I think it's from my running shoes.

I have a closet full of running shoes. And none of them feel right.

One of my first "real" pairs of running shoes are still my favorites. but alas, they were model 10's and now the company is making 13's and there is not much of the 10 left in these shoes even though they are the same model.

(Anyone out there have a new pair of size 9 Brooks Glycerin model 10's?) I'd pay good money about now for a pair! Here I am in my brand new pair in 2012!!

Wow. Look at me in 2012. It's weird to look at pictures like this. In this picture I was wearing my first smaller/weight loss outfit and my new running shoes. I was in Chicago with Doug and running and feeling great.

And now I look at it and am reminded of how far I have come!

Maybe I need to look at a different pair of shoes?

Since the above me is wearing a size 10 pants and weighing at least 15 pounds more than I weigh now, it seems a little odd that the cushion and support of the running shoe that I would need would be the same that I need now.

Hmm.

This is a picture of me a couple of weeks ago. I'm wearing a size petite small skirt.

Maybe it's time to go get a new gait analysis and look at some new running shoes!

I gave it the 'old college TRI!

A couple of weeks a go, my friend Alisa (below in green) sent me a text at 5:30pm on Friday night.

She said, let's skip our Saturday long run and join Lesley (below in blue) in tomorrow's sprint TRI!

I said.. "Do you know how long it has been since I swam??"

She said, "As long as it has been since I have!"

So we went on down to packet pickup and signed up!!

CRAZY TIMES!!

I have to say, I LOVE the fact that I am fit enough to say... "Let's do it!"

So Saturday morning dawned and I gathered up my stuff trying to remember what all I should take for the race!

Here we are before the race.

The cool thing about this race is that while it is a sprint tri, it is a backwards tri.  Meaning that you run, then bike and finally swim. It works because the swim is in a 4 feet deep pool. 

So off we went on the run. I wasn't sure how fast to go out. I ran the first mile and 1/2 on my own and then Hans, a 69 year old ironman was running besides me and we talked the way in. It was a good moderate pace. I did the 5k in 30 minutes flat. One of the coolest parts of racing is making new friends and hearing amazing stories from veterans along the way.

Then on to the bike. This will be my LAST race without clipping in! UGH. I love riding, but man, this course was super hilly and tough! 14 miles later I was back and into transition.

Finally, the swim. It was nice hitting the water at this point. As I stated earlier, I hadn't swam laps in at least 9 months. Quite possibly since my last tri a year ago! oops.  Anyway, I muddled through the laps using ALL the strokes I could think of!

My time? 1:40:38.

And since I trained NOT ONE OUNCE.. how did this compare to my other times? Well... my personal best time is 1:40:35:1. 

Amazing.

If I had known I was THAT CLOSE, I could have shaved a few seconds off a transition, gotten in the pool faster, or did anything just a minute faster!

Oh well :) 

I had so much fun!!

And look what I brought home.

Second in my age group.

Not bad at all.  And yes, of course I'll be competing next year. I might even train! ;)

So since I didn't train for the tri? What am I training for? 

Well, I'm training for a full marathon!! 

Last week I ran 45 miles. My most ever.  

Thanks Kylie for putting lotion on my poor tired feet.

And I'm buying a few new clothes. I haven't lost any additional pounds (one CAN NOT LOSE while training for a marathon.. one can only HOPE to NOT GAIN!!!)

But my clothes from last fall are too big! So shopping it is.

Here is my latest Stitch Fix. 

And that is what we are up to. 

Maddie is busy with colorguard and trying to get well. She has been sick for the last month.

Lexi is reading. She might do other things but I'm not sure... :)

Kylie is mastering being in FIRST GRADE.

And Doug is working and preaching.

We are busy, busy people.

So thankful it is a good life!

Does the Jeff Galloway method really work?

I love running the Jeff Galloway method. Why? Because I'm faster, stronger and injury-free. That's why!

The Jeff Galloway Run,Walk, Run method is about balance. Or maybe in today's fitness terms, it's a HIIT workout that just doesn't quit. (HIIT: High Intensity Interval Training)

For all of you non-runners and non-Galloway people out there... the Galloway Method gives you a starting point, helps you to find your path to fitness and keeps you going. Galloway says, okay, you can run for 30 seconds? Great! Do that and then walk for a minute. Then run for 30 seconds and then walk for 60 seconds and repeat.  In fact, this is his plan for the 16 minute per mile group. If you can run faster than that, well, then run longer and walk less. But DON'T stop the walk breaks.

For more information, check out his pace chart here.

In fact, for people thinking about running, I think Galloway's plan is ideal because it keeps you moving longer. Sure, many of us at our most unfit state could push through a mile. But without a plan, we are going to HURT later and have to take off days to recover before we try again. Galloway says, stop doing that to yourself! Just get out there and move.

Two years ago when I started running, I didn't know what to do, so I tried the couch to 5k plan to start, but it was hard and the expectation that within seven weeks I'd be able to run for 30 minutes straight was disheartening! Instead, I'd run as far as I could, then walk and then run till I couldn't breathe and so forth. My mile pace was an average of 14 minutes per mile. I can't imagine how much more successful I would have felt if I had been doing a 30 sec run/ 30 sec walk pattern from the start!

But thankfully, just three months into my new running lifestyle, I made some incredible friends with ladies who run using Galloway. They did a 3 min run/1 min walk. I was SCARED TO DEATH to try to run with them. And at first is was tough. But I did it and quickly was able to keep up! .

What I learned from the group was that by having the consistent breaks, I could push harder during the 3 minutes of running because I knew I'd get a walk break! My pace got better and I have to say, looking back at my stats, I am so proud of myself because truly, just three months into running, I logged a 5 mile run at a 10:54 pace!

What I have found over the last two years is that I'm confident in who I am enough to say that YES, I am interval runner. That I can and do take consistent walk breaks so that I can run stronger and faster. And most importantly, to those people out there that believe and say that if I take a walk break, I'm not a runner... the proof is at the finish line! Sure, I can run an entire 5k or 10k and probably even a 1/2 marathon. But why should I do that to my body when I can take a short walk break, catch my breath, run faster, finish stronger and not have the horrible recovery?

Don't believe me? These are a few of my real life stats from May. I didn't include all of it, cause remember I did a 1/2 marathon a couple of weeks ago and was training and tapering for that.

 

The important thing to notice here is that the slowest time I have for this distance.. was when I DIDN'T take the consistent walk breaks! 

Nothing like feeling like a REAL runner and have a SLOWER time!

So for all of you fence-sitters out there who are wondering when I will "work up to running all the time" I can tell you that I'm not planning on it!  Jeff Galloway has qualified for the Boston Marathon multiple times using his run/walk/run plan and while I'm not trying to get my times down to Boston times, I do consider myself a "real" runner even with the walk breaks!

In two years I've gone from being a 14 minute miler to an consistent 9 minute miler and even more importantly, I haven't been hurt!

I'm excited about the future... in another 2 years could I be a 7 minute miler?  hmm.. for my age group to qualify for Boston, I'd have to run a 3:45 marathon. That's an 8:34 pace. My lone marathon time is a 12:05 pace.. guess I better get to work if I want to go to Boston! :)

I am a Marathoner!

Today was the day. I ran my 26.2 mile MARATHON!

It's wasn't fast, and wasn't exactly pretty, but it was FUN! And I have to think that none of you thought I'd say that! It was fun because I didn't push myself to run a crazy fast pace, I had LOTS of friends and family come out and support me and I trained smart!

The race was Marathoning for Miracles. It supports the Children's Miracle Network. The sticker they sent out is great! It will be on my car tomorrow along with my 26.2 sticker!

We had planned to go down Friday night, but Maddie was playing with the high school band at the football game, so we ended up going to the first half of the game, getting to bed about 11pm and leaving the house at 4:30am. We arrived in Abilene at 6:30 am. It was supposed to be mid 40's. It wasn't. It was mid 30's. 

Here I am with my friend Crystal who was running the half marathon and my friend Lesley who BIKED and drove around the course to be my roving aid station! It was incredible having her help me. I needed her, but more than that, I KNEW that if I needed her, she could get to me quickly. It was awesome!!

And here I am with Doug. He did his first HALF marathon today!!! I hate that his big accomplishment was lost in my big day!

It was sooo cold when we were starting the race. Crystal's grandmother was there and she gave me her gloves to wear! Thank you Crystal's grandmother!!

Crystal and I started the race dead last. We were in the back anyway and then I couldn't get runkeeper to start! I was NOT going to do this big race without runkeeper tracking my progress!!

We ran the first few miles amid the frost and peace of the morning. Then we turned to the airport and had to run on unpaved hard-packed roads. YUCK!! We were NOT ready for that. We ran on the gravel, in and around potholes for a few miles. When we finally came through that junk, Crystal's family was there to cheer us on! FUN!! As we got to mile 8+, Crystal had to turn around go back to join the 1/2 Marathon race. (She started incognito with me 15 minutes early to pace me!! Super Friend!) Then I ran and ran and ran, alone on the country roads. 

Thankfully Lesley found me a few times and offered aid and cheering and SIGNS made just for me!! 

I wasn't sure where I was in the race, dead last? But then at mile 12 I saw a runner off in the distance and used him to motivate me. So I passed him at mile 13 and then picked off another guy at mile 14. Then it was back to lonely running on ROLLING HILLS!! OUCH. This marathon was billed as FAST AND FLAT. It was not! 

Anyway.. at mile 17 we turned back to where we had started and straight into a head wind! I knew it was coming. I went to college in Abilene (shout out to Hardin-Simmons University here.)and the wind is just part of West Texas life. My pace slowed a lot at that point.

As I neared mile 18, Crystal and her family were there to cheer for me and a dear friend ran towards me and offered to run with me for a while! YES!! Sabrina and driven two hours that morning, just to be there for me and to run with me for a little while if I needed her! She ended up running 8 miles with me! And these were CRUCIAL miles!

Then at mile 19, Doug, my mom and dad and my girls were there!! That was tear worthy! They tooted horns for me! (That was so cool! Shout out to two more incredible friends Mindy and Rachel... they made me a goody bag and sent the horns for my family!!!) My parents and girls had never seen me run. This was a huge deal for me!

From that point on, I had family and friends support my journey. It was incredible. This was my journey, but it was bigger than that, it was OUR journey! Crystal came back and ended up running 4 more miles (she ended up over 17 for the day!) and Doug walked a little with me, by that point he was DONE, but he wanted to join the effort too. Yes, he is a keeper!

I wish I had pictures of everyone along the way, but I was a little busy and I didn't want to take a chance of killing my phone battery before the race was over.

So finally, after 26.2 miles, here I am running in at the end. Lexi took the picture of me! I love that you can see my leg muscles!

And here I am at the finish!!!

And below is another picture that Lexi took. It's a horrible picture of me, but I love it. My dad is caught in the picture and I love that you can see that I'm not dying. My greatest goal for this race was that my girls would see that it was HARD, but that I wasn't doing something that would hurt me.

Now I just have to focus on those love handles and hips. no more donuts?

Anyway...
Love that we both got medals today!

And finally, here I am after the race and a shower that I got to take at Crystal's grandmother's house!!! See, it really was a group win.

Now that's the race is over and we have been home a while, I can say that without a doubt, this is one of those defining moments in life. To be able to say that I have run a marathon is mind boggling! That's the kind of thing you hear about OTHER people. And hear I am. Even better, I do plan on running another marathon, probably this same race next year.

In the end, my time was slower than I had wanted. I ran the first 13 miles exactly the way I wanted. Then I ran 14-17 even better. I picked up the pace just as planned. And then wham, the wind. Even then I was doing great. In fact, up until mile 21 I was feeling good. But then, the hurt was more than I could ignore. The ball of my left foot had hurt since mile 3 and it was just not going to play nice anymore. My right quad and calf were spasming and the pace dropped. Even worse, at this point, we (my two awesome friends Crystal and Sabrina and me) were running on the highway and the oncoming traffic was heavy and big trucks were LOUD and would blow you off course. But we laughed and talked and persevered. 

After it was all said and done, I wasn't last!!! In fact, I finished 3rd in the 30-39 age group. And yippee, I turn 40 next year, so I'll age up! (yes, running is probably the only sport where aging up is a good thing!)

So if reading this inspires you, I suggest you get off the couch tomorrow and go for a walk. Then find a local running group and start a run/walk/run interval program. Cause at the end of the day, there were two ladies laying on the floor of the expo with their legs propped up in bad shape. I stopped in there and had a few chicken nuggets and was enjoying my girls. As we got up to leave, one of the ladies stopped me and said, you are in MUCH better place than we are! So I said, well... I do a run/walk/run interval and that makes the difference. The other lady said, I guess we should have walked some. I told them that I did a 3 minute run with a 1 minute walk and that I just finished my first marathon in 5:13 and that while I don't want to go for a run right now, I'm good. They just shook their heads and said, that was our time.... I said that they might want to learn about the Galloway method. They agreed! I then smiled and told them good luck and walked out with my girls, without limping,  while the ladies struggled to move.

So to all of you out there, see you at the next race! I'll be one of those run/walk/run-ers enjoying my race, posting times that are better than my previous times and having a great time with my friends and family!

And thank you for sharing my journey with me!

Run For A Reason. I want to run... anyone want to pay for my entry fee?

I really, really want to run the Chevron Houston Marathon as part of the National Kidney Foundations, Run For A Reason, runners. 

Really.

Bad.

But the fee is a $350 tax-deductible donation + the entry fee. And it's not a committement that I'll raise the money by the January marathon. It's an immediate charge on my credit card. ugh.

So... here is what I am wondering.

Anyone out there want to "Gift An Hero" Entry for me?? 

I promise, if you purchase my entry for the National Kidney Foundation, I will run with PRIDE and DETERMINATION and make you PROUD.

https://secure4.marathonguide.com/register/houstonmarathon/GiftAHero.cfm?

Thanks for thinking about it.

And feel free to pass it on to anyone that you know that might want to purchase a "Gift A Hero" entry for me!

Getting Stoked for the Big Day!

My mom and sister's gave me this necklace today! I love it! Especially during this taper time when all fears and nerves start lingering in the back of my head. 

26.2 Believe! I'm believing.

I've done the training. More months of training really than I had to given that I was running 18 back in March.

Now it's just getting me healthy and ready.

The outfit is about there... New Brooks Glycerin 11s. And new compression socks. The rest of the outfit is to be determined based on weather.

All that's left is figuring out the kids and logistics of the weekend. No problem. Right? 

Oh yeah, and running the 26.2 miles!

The Epic 20 Miler... CHECK! Next stop the Marathon!

I have heard so much about the dreaded yet epic 20 mile training run from friends, from reading running blogs, from training books that I have to say I was nervous and a little worried about my ability to complete it upright! Everyone says that it's a mind game and given that my last 18 miler was horrible, my mind was in a whirl all week!

But guess what?

It could not have been a better run! And even better, I know why. I took it SLOW!! Yes, my very slow pace kept me on the road longer, but it worked. I finished feeling great and knowing that I could have done another 6 miles! How cool it that!

My friend Sharla and I started at 4am... well, you can see from runkeeper that the official start time was 4:06AM.

It's pretty nuts, I'd would NEVER get up at 3:45 for work, to go anywhere or do anything... but running well sure! We started out and got to see some of the teenage/college kids coming home. Scary to be on the road with people who have been up partying all night! 

It was low 70's with 70% humidity, but at this point in the year, that feels cool-ish. 

At mile 4.5 we picked up some more friends at the park and continued on.

At mile 8 we dropped off a friend.

At mile 13, the winds changed, it got cool and started sprinkling. It was so nice. I'm guessing the temperature dropped 10 degrees!

At mile 15 we dropped off another friend and picked up more friends.. fresh legs are always welcome!

At mile 18.5 it was just us again.  

At mile 19, we decided to kick it in gear and finish well by conquering "splashville hill" a steep grassy hill at our city park. We did it!

And at Mile 20, we knew that if it had been race day, we would have conquered that too!

What a feeling!

Here we are at the end of the run. For just having run 20 miles we look fantastic!

So what do I do for the next few weeks. TAPER! My training plan calls it Sharpening. But nonetheless, a little less mileage on the weekends.

I am really getting excited about the Abilene Marathon now!

Trailblazer IV Two-Fifths Marathon

Last Saturday morning, since I was in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and had time on my hands, I decided that instead of a long training run on the hotel treadmill, I'd run at a local race.

I was still exhausted from the Big Show the day before, but since the race didn't start until 8:30am, I could sleep later than I sleep on Saturday mornings anyway.

I got up and left the hotel in downtown Dallas and found the park in Arlington where the race was held. It was already humid and not cool. When the race started at close to 9am it was officially 82 degrees and 82% humidity. That makes for painful conditions.

I enjoyed the first half of the race a lot. The course was on the bike/running trails around Arlington and easy to follow. It was just so hot! After the turn around, I struggled. As I ran through mile 7, I was kicking myself for eating so little on Friday. Fueling up for a 10.486 mile race means eating more than 1/2 of a egg/spinach wrap for breakfast, 1/2 of a 1/2 of a ham sandwhich and a couple of pieces of pizza for dinner. Worse, I only drank probably the equivalent of one glass of water all day. OUCH! Needlesstosay, I was not fueled or hydrated to race.

In the end, I finished slower than I had wanted, but I was proud of getting through the race. I really felt like it was a good simulation of the mid 10 miles of the marathon.

After it was all over, my time was 1:55:30 for 10.6 miles unofficially. There wasn't a chip time, so I'm not sure exactly how they get true times.

I placed 3rd in my age group.

As you can see, getting the medal was a great pick me up!

And another thing I'm really proud of is that I have learned to keep moving throughout the day. I used to race and crash. Now I race, shower and keep going!

And lastly, the Abilene Marathon is 31 days away!

I did it. I registered for my first marathon!!

EEK!!! I'm soo excited and a little scared. I just registered for my first marathon!!

So if any of you readers out there live in/near Abilene, Texas I'd love your support!! Saturday November 2nd!

Oh my.