Let Me (Re)Introduce Myself

Confession.  It's been 5 years since I've lined up for a race. 

Hi, I'm Meredith.  I started this blog about a million years ago as a way to document my running and racing adventures.  And there were lots of adventures.  I've run 23 marathons, including Boston five times.  I've done lots of triathlons, including four 70.3s.  I tried and painfully failed at the full iron distance.  I've dipped my toes into ultras completing a 50K, 60K, and 50 miler.  And I've had some fun with friends traveling the country for races.

2019 was the last time I toed a line, though.  The pandemic has thrown me into a vortex I seem to be stuck in.  At first things were adventurous.  I ran a personal 5K, 10K, and half marathon in one month.  I ran every road in my hometown.  I chased after Strava segments.  Eventually I grew tired, stopped racing, started eating and drinking myself to a 40+ pound weight gain.  There have been a few highlights.  I joined Orange Theory for a year.  It was fun but I didn't feel like I was getting fit.  And last summer I joined a weight lifting program that I absolutely love and still do.  

On my 46th birthday this year, I felt like time was starting to run short.  In my head, I feel like I have three goals left to accomplish - beating my dad's PR in the marathon (3:21:21), finishing the freakin' Ironman, and running a 100 miler.  My friend Amanda agreed to take on my head case and help coach me.  We've decided to have some fun in the next year on the way to accomplishing a 100 miler.

So, I guess I'm going to restart the blog.  I'm too old to use TikTok, I have an iPhone so out of date I'm surprised it still gets updates, and I don't know how to make a Reel, so the blog it has to be.  I'll be updating on my training, my adventures, my weight lifting, my mental health, and generally whatever.  Welcome back and I hope you come along for the ride!

And then I got injured

My left hip started to hurt three days before the Columbus 10K.  I thought maybe it was because I was doing a track workout - quick stuff, lots of circles - the pain persisted and hurt with every step of that race.  After that race I was in a world of pain.  I could barely walk and the pain was very reminiscent of when I got the stress fracture two years ago.

I called the doctor the very next day.  I've got big plans and big goals this year and if I'm injured, let's get on with it.  The doctor, of course, thought it was another stress fracture.  Awesome.  I had some x-rays that showed nothing, was told no more running for a while (double awesome) and was scheduled for an MRI.

A few days later I had the MRI and a few days after that I was back in the doctor's office.  No stress fracture.  Say what?  I could go back to working out as long as it didn't hurt.  Honey, everything hurts but if it's not fractured, I'll keep working out in some way.  I did a lot of swimming and a lot of water jogging.  I tried one run.  I made it nine minutes and had to turn around and walk/limp home. 

I sent a message to the doctor.  She wanted to do more evaluations including another MRI, this time with contrast - an injection right into the hip joint.

Last week I had the arthrogram MRI done at the local hospital.  It was painful, it took forever, and I don't ever want to do it again.  I can't believe I've now had two of them for my hips!  I got the results the next day.  I have a labrum tear on the left side (both my hips are gonna fall apart!) and tendonitis where the hamstring connects to the sit bone.  I exchanged about one billion emails with the doctor - why is there pain in my outer hip and my groin when the tendonitis was in the hamstring/sit bone?  She wants to do physical therapy.  I want better answers.  She said I could workout as long as it didn't hurt.

I, of course, signed up for a race a few days later...

Columbus 10K 2017

Last year was the first time I ran the Columbus 10K.  It was super fast and super competitive, and I knew I wanted to add it to the schedule again this year.  Three days before the race I started to have a little niggle in my hip (more on that another day) and frankly, I just haven't been feeling in all that great of shape, so I didn't expect a whole lot from this race.

We got down there in good time, but there was still a line for the three port-a-johns already a block long.  I decided to take my warm up run to the other side of Columbus to where I knew there was a public bathroom.  It was hot and humid and I was feeling like this race was going to suck.  I barely got back in time to get in line for the start.

I decided I just wanted to go hard and not worry about my splits, so I put a sticker over my watch.  In hindsight, this was a bad idea as my first mile was the fastest of the day and although I thought I was holding back, I wasn't.  I was suffering right from the beginning.  I wasn't getting passed by many people but I was getting passed and I was falling further and further behind.  I was struggling to keep my head in the game.  Six miles felt like they took forever. 

I have no idea what my final time was, but it was a solid 1:20 slower than last year.  I have no excuses but it is frustrating that I feel less in shape than last year when I have bigger goals this year.

Regardless, I still placed in my age group.  Last year I was fifth with quite a respectable time and this year with a slower time I finished third and walked away with a camp mug. 

WORST.BLOGGER.EVER!!

Worst.Blogger.EVER!!!

I said I was going to be consistent last month and whatnot and I wrote one freakin' time?  Can I do better in July? 

Here's what's coming up.

• I got hurt
• I ran a race
• I got more hurt
• I had a whole bunch of MRIs and X-rays done
• I did another race
• I'm still hurt

Chew on that.  I'll be back tomorrow.
 

I'm Back!

Life has been busy.  That's an understatement.  Training and work and parenting and wife-ing and I'm enrolled in some online classes and my handicap dog and LIFE!  This blog has taken a hit.  I don't even know if people still blog or if anyone cares.  But, I'm gonna try to give it a few weeks of concentration and see if the magic is still there or if anyone still cares and then who knows?!

The best thing happened to me today.  I went my favorite local running store to pick up my race packet for this weekend (oh yeah, I'm racing!).  I gave them my last name and the clerk said, "Samantha?"  Nope, dude.  I'm Meredith.  He was shocked by that because Samantha was 28 and I'm 11 years older than that.  Still looking hot!

Do What You Need to Do

Day 1

It's 5-1/2 months until aquathlon nationals and I'm ready to commit.  I started the day off strong with a run test.  It's been since December since I had a run test and then I was coming off a terrible cold and was just beginning my marathon training.  This time I am coming off of the marathon and starting to feel like myself again.

The test is 3000m on the track as hard as you can go.  I started out fast, probably too fast, but I was doing what I could to hang out.  Several time I had to sort it out in my head.  My brain struggles on the track.  I would do much better if the run test was a race.  I clocked in my first "mile" (the garmin never matches up to the track) at a 6:14.  Holy pajamas!  I haven't run that fast in years!  I pushed and pushed and came away with a 12:41, which is like a 6:49 pace (although my watch read 1.99 miles for 6:22 pace).  This was a 45 second improvement over the last run test I did.  Hopefully this translates into some speedy races this spring/summer.

So now I have a baseline for a little while, which includes new heart rate zones and paces.  Most of my workouts have one or the other so lots of updates to come soon as to if I can hit these new zones/paces.

Vacation Pictures

Yep, I promised them last week, but I suck.  No, I'm adulting.  And adulting is hard.  I'm exhausted.  I have a hard time finding time to do my workouts let alone blog about them and the rest of my life.  But today we cancelled our cable which means I'm gonna have lots of time (I'm kind of addicted to tv).  I'm gonna try harder.  I swear.  I SWEAR!!!

Two weeks ago we went down to Florida for our annual spring break with my parents.  My parents, now retired, are staying down there for a little over a month so we went and visited and stayed with them.  Here's a few pictures (mostly of Anderson) from our trip.  (And if you're my Instagram friend, you've seen most of these.)

The day we flew down to Florida was Anderson's 4th birthday.  We had gotten up at 4:00am and the little dude did not take a nap all day.  He was nearly asleep as we lit up his cupcake.

Looks like he still enjoyed his cupcake, though.

Our family friend who lives in the area got Anderson a kite for his birthday.  He loved it!

This is probably my favorite pictures from the trip.  I made this my lock screen on my phone. 

My boys. 

Sunset at the beach.

Oh yeah.  I was on this trip too.

Weirdos. 

Immediately after he got to the park he tripped over the root and landed on his face.  Hence, the dirt on his face. 

These are out of order.  On the way home, the captain invited Anderson into the cockpit, let him sit in his seat, and even wear his hat.  Um, I was jealous. 

It wasn't all beach (although it mostly was).  One morning Anderson enjoyed running through the fountains in the middle of Venice.

My sister is down there this week and my parents come home in a few weeks.  I have done this trip every year for as long as I can remember.  It's fun, although with a toddler now, it is a lot of work.  There's no more taking a nap on the beach.  Next year we will probably not get to go since we will be going to Boston for the marathon.  It's time for a change, though.  Maybe the break's not such a bad thing.  Either way, anything has got to be better than winter in Ohio.  Happy spring!!!