So You Want To Know About London and the Olympics

(That is totally what I am going to name a band someday.)

It's been one month since we left for London so I guess it's about time to blog about it.  I'm going to try to do this in one post.  I just can't remember all the details and the daily things that happened to write multiple posts about it.  Warning, it's going to be long and it's going to contain a lot of pictures.

We had tickets to three events and were able to attend three (and tried to see a fourth event) free events.  We also did a little sightseeing.

Tennis
You might think that running is my favorite sport, but you are wrong.  Tennis, is actually the sport I most enjoy watching.  I am a huge tennis fan having been to the US Open in 2005 and attended one of the ATP hard court tournaments in Cincinnati.  One of my Life List items (and if it's not on the list, it should be) is to attend all four majors.  To go to Wimbledon is any tennis lover's dream.  Well, I may not have seen the Wimbledon tournament, but I did get to go to Wimbledon to watch tennis at the Olympics.  It was beautiful and much smaller than I anticipated.  We had tickets to men's and women's third round.  Our tickets started before we even got off the plane, so we missed our first match which was Serena Williams (eventual gold medalist).  We did get to see Novak Djokovic/Lleyton Hewitt, Marcos Baghdatis/Andy Murray (eventual gold medalist and Team GB favorite), and Caroline Wozniacki/Daniela Hantuchova.  I'm not gonna lie, I cried being at Wimbeldon and Centre Court.  It was so amazing to watch the crowd go crazy for Andy Murray.  And we got to have the ultimate Wimbledon experience by eating strawberries and cream.

Rowing
If you don't know, I was on the women's rowing team at Ohio State my freshman and the start of my sophomore year.  I love rowing.  It's such a neat sport - so tough and powerful and yet it looks so elegant.  The rowing venue, at Eton Dorney, was about an hour away from London.

As a side note, no venues were that easy to get to.  Eton Dorney required a trip by train, and then bus, and then about a 20-30 walk.  Most venues required a lot of walking!!

Anyway, one thing each sport did a good job of was explaining the sport for the spectators.  Rumor has it, the Brits when given a chance to purchase tickets to the Olympics were put into a lottery and you got whatever sport you got.  So, each sport was explained at the venue.  We were about the only Americans at rowing but it was so exciting to be part of the Team GB excitement as we saw them win one or two gold medals.  We got to see a total of about 10-12 races that day including four or five gold medal races.  Total worth our money.

Weight Lifting
Of all the sports we were interested in seeing, you might be surprised to know that weight lifting was one on the top of our lists.  We specifically wanted to see the women's 75+kg as we had a local girl competing in it (Holley Mangold).  Again, we were really happy the sport was explained to us because we had NO idea how competitive weight lifting works.  It's a little like a chess match.  Each competitor gets six lifts - three snatches and three clean and jerks.  The athletes compete from lightest weight to highest and can change their weights at any point, even after missing a lift.  This allows them to screw with their competition and of course, allow them to lift the correct weight to get a higher score.  Speaking of score...you either lift or you don't.  There are three judges and they decide what's considered a lift or not.  This proved to be interesting as our girl, Holley Mangold, looked like she had successfully snatched a weight only to have the judges say no and therefore she missed that lift.

In the end, the Americans finished 9th and 11th (I think) and we got to see three world records broken.  Pretty cool.

Triathlon
Both the men's and women's triathlons were held in Hyde Park and were free venues.  Triathlon must be a really popular sport in England because Hyde Park was PACKED.  We were able to fight our way into a pretty good standing spot and saw half of the swim and a small section of the bike and run.  Being 5'1", I didn't see a whole lot, but at least it was something.

The men's triathlon, however, was a totally different story.  Being that the Brownlee brothers were expected to do well, and did, the venue was even more packed than the women's triathlon.  There was no way were were going to be able to find some standing room to see this race.  Instead we sat up on a hill to watch the swim and then basically just listened to the rest of it on the PA system.  I kinda wish we had stayed in the hotel and watched this one on TV.

Women's Marathon
The women's triathlon was a few days before the women's marathon, so we were smart enough to get our buns down to the race A LOT earlier than the start time.  We picked out our spot along the street where we would get to see the runners six times.  We got there over an hour before the start of the race and got a spot right along the fence.  Soon enough we were flanked by tons of people including these cute British children who said the cutest things.  I wish I could convey it words, but the accent was so important.  Let's just say, we waited a long time for the runners to come by and when they finally did, the little girl beside us in her cute little accent said, "Our patience is going to be rewarded."  Loved her.

If you watched the women's marathon on TV you know that it was pouring down rain for the majority of the race.  And we got drenched.  We wore our raincoats, but it did not protect our feet, our legs, etc.  And worse, we were going straight from this race to the weight lifting competition.  It was worth it, though, as the marathon was amazing and I really enjoyed watching the American women battle it out for most of the race.

I have been to the Olympic trials in 2008 and 2012 and am so happy to have seen the Olympic race.  Those chicks are fast too.  Faster than you think.  There was a girl who was WAY off the back of the pack for the entire race.  We didn't know exactly the mile marker we were at, but we were estimating the girl was probably running 8:00/miles and I thought, I could compete with her.  Turns out she ran a 3:22.  Even the slow girls are fast.  :)

Race Walking
We tried to see the race walking.  We thought it would be interesting and we thought not a whole lot of people would be out there.  I mean, come on, race walking?  Surprisingly, it was crazy crowded.  So crowded, it was like five deep the entire route.  We stuck around for a few minutes and heard the race come by, but I couldn't see anything.  We nixed the idea of watching this race quickly.

Sightseeing
As you can imagine, it was crowded in London.  Shocking, I know!!!  :)  The only place we actually toured was Westminster Abby.  It was cool to see where William and Catherine got married.  Beautiful!  It was also really cool to see the crypts (is that the right word?) of famous Brits like Newton, Darwin, Shakespeare and other writers, etc.  It was really crowded there and felt a little bit like you were constantly in line for a Disney ride.

Other sightseeing included Big Ben, Tower of London, the London Eye, Tower and London Bridge, etc.  Oh, and we also got to have dinner and watch some Athletics (track and field) with our friends Angelina and Shaun.

***************

Our trip was both short and long.  We jam packed those 9 days, but we were exhausted and ready to come home by the end of it.  There was a lot going on back at home (see last post)....

The Summer of Unexpecation

Okay, maybe unexpectation is not a word.  Maybe I should say, "The Summer of Unexpected Things".  Whatev.

I mentioned back in July that we were being hit with a swarm of highs and lows.  The high of booking our vacation to the Olympics (I swear I'm working on a post about this); the lows of some unexpected and costly medical and otherwise bills.  I also mentioned in the middle of that post that we had some big news regarding the husband's job.

Dave has always worked for a small company that has changed hands a couple of different times since he started there 11 years ago.  With the last management change, the company is now based in a different city and although they are keeping the office open here, the team he is on is now out in the San Francisco bay area.  Negotiation talks began and quickly we found ourselves looking to move.  Yep, this girl who has lived in the same town her entire life was ready to pack up and head 3000 miles west.  We had met with a couple of realtors here and had a timeline for when the house would go on the market.  We had decided we would move in January and come back in the spring to work the remainder of photo booth events we still had.  We started to clear out rooms by donating things and selling off other things.  The wheels were in motion.  Even though we were only a few days out from going to London, all we could talk and think about was moving.

But as our summer of unexpectation continued, everything changed....

Has Race Pricing Gotten Out of Control?

**Soapbox out (because it's MY blog!!!)**

There is a local 5K tomorrow put on by a big-name company that benefits a local, charitable organization.  The race includes a goody bag will the usual non-useful stuff and a t-shirt.  There is also a party after the race that includes a band, food (not just bagels and bananas), and alcoholic beverages.  The cost for employees is $25 and they can bring one guest for $35.  The cost for the rest....$125.  Yes you read that right.  ONE HUNDRED TWENTY FIVE EFFING DOLLARS FOR A 5K!!!!!!  They're not serving caviar and Dom Perignon.  It's hot dogs and keg beer!

Rumor has it, they don't want people from outside the company to actually participate but yet tout this as a fundraiser and that's why the price is what it is.  I don't know, call me crazy, but

ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME?!?!

What runner in their right mind would pay $125 for a 5K?  And wouldn't you think you'd get even more runners and therefore, more dollars for the charity, if the price was more reasonable?

I was having a discussion, that turned heated, with my coworker regarding this race and the price.  She said lots of people from outside the company do the race (I'd beg to debate that).  She said that people would pay that much because it was for charity.  I said no real runner would pay that much for a 5K no matter what the money was going to.  The debate turned into an argument and it's been silent ever since (thank god, she drives me insane!!).

So, help me out blogsphere?  Am I the one who totally off-base?  Have I become one of those elitist runners (which, I'm totally okay with by the way)?  What is the maximum you'd ever pay for a 5K and why?

Ironman Louisville Revisited

Today is the 2012 edition of Ironman Louisville.  For the first time in three or four years I'm not there to watch it in person.  Instead I have been following it on my iPad, with my pajamas on, in bed.  All.Day.

It's been two years since my DNF at Ironman Louisville.  The pain of not finishing is still as fresh today as it was then.  Since that time I have had two DNS at ironman, another DNF at an ironman, and haven't even run a marathon.  Ironman Louisville crushed my soul.  I used to line up at races ready to crush my competition.  Now I line up at a race scared of what lies ahead.  I absolutely dread racing anymore.

On the outside I like to say it's okay that I've gone back to running and that being "only" a runner suits me.  But I'm totally lying.  See, I don't really feel like I have anything left to accomplish in running.  I have run marathon after marathon and finished up my last marathon at Boston with a new PR.  Let's be honest, I will never qualify for the Olympic trials, so I don't really feel like there's a whole lot left for me as a marathoner.  Sure I can keep getting faster, but what's bigger than a PR at Boston?  The only thing I have left for my athletic goals is Ironman.

And it has to be Ironman Louisville.

It will be at least two years before I will toe the line again at Ironman.  I think my mind needs time to heal.  I need to live some life and know that there are things bigger than Ironman.  Then and only then will I be ready to try again.  And I will try again.

Giant Eagle Multisport Festival 10K 2012

**This race was run on July 29th.  I am way behind on posting.**

The reason I did my 20 miler on a Friday, besides being done with work for the week, was because I had a 6 mile tempo run on the schedule and thought, hey why not do a 10K?  10Ks are hard to come by around here and knowing there was one with the Giant Eagle Multisport Festival (Ironman 5150), I thought I would go ahead and sign up.  Well, I didn't sign up until Thursday evening (expensive) and by Friday it had sold out.  Lucky.

Being that I had already run 32 miles for the week, having just done a 20 miler two days ago, and knowing that this 10K wouldn't be a big deal since this was a multisport event, I had zero expectations. The race was really small and I lined up pretty close to the front.

In a word, the course was brutal.  Maybe that's too tough a word.  The course was not easy and not fun.  From the start it went immediately uphill towards Front Street and turned right.  The it headed back across the river and caught the Olentangy Trail.  I hit the first mile in 6:30-something.  Yikes!  And then there was an 180 degree turn.  And another one and another one.  There were eight freakin' 180 degree turns on this course.  The miles were schizophrenic too.  Mile 1 - 6:30ish, Mile 2 - 7:15, Mile 3 - 8:34, Mile 4 - 7:something, Mile 5 - 6:54, Mile 6 - ????

I knew right from the start that there were no awards at this race.  Normally I wouldn't care, but I worked my bum off in this race.  Miles one and two I was the 5th place woman.  Around mile 3-1/2 I caught the fourth place girl.  For the next two miles I tracked down the 3rd place woman and finally caught her at the five mile mark.  I was going to place in the top three of this race and of course, there was no podium.

I finished the race in 45:40, 3rd place woman, and a new PR.  Awards or not, I'll take a solid race effort.

I got two medals.  One for the race and the other for completing two of the three Mayor's challenge races this year (Cap City and this race).

Why Hello!

Why hello, blog.  It's been a while.  I know.  I've been gone on vacation and busy and whatnot.  But I swear I'm coming back to you very soon.  I've still got to talk about my last race (got myself on a nonexistent podium), and I haven't talked about July totals (yes I know it's the middle of August), and of course there's that small talk of my Olympics vacation.  And some crazy, exciting stuff that has happened to us over the summer that has yet to be discussed publicly.  Hopefully that will hold your attention for the next four weeks or so.  So what do you think, blog....can we be friends again?

20 Mile Training Run 3 of 5

Having worked all my hours for the week by Thursday afternoon, I took Friday to get my long run done for the week.  On the schedule this week, yet another 20 miler.  This time the pace was marathon pace plus 30 seconds - 8:19 pace.  I got up at the same time as Dave, 6:30am, and was out the door by 7:30.  I thought the heat wouldn't be bad yet but I was wrong.  I was barely a mile into my run and it was HOT and humid already.  I did a small loop of the neighborhood and headed home to drop off the shirt and just run in a sports bra.  I rarely do this, but desperate times require desperate measures.  :)  A quick reply of sunscreen and I was out the door again.


Because it took me forever (11-1/2 miles) in my last 18 miler to reach the pace, I decided to start out a little quicker in this run and hold on for dear life.  Things actually went pretty well.  I reached a sub-8:30 around 7.5 miles and by 11 miles I was already hanging out at a 8:24.  Pace seemed to be going well today, but it was the heat, well more like the humidity, that was kicking my butt.  By 10 miles into the run I could wring out my shorts.  That was about the time the sun decided to come out and make everything even worse.  I could feel the heat coming off the pavement and the breeze felt like a furnace fan.  Around 13 miles in, I needed a break.  I decided to take in more water and stop at each mile for a water break.  I was really suffering in the heat.  It felt like my insides were cooking.  Despite all that, the pace was falling and I was hanging out right where I was supposed to be at a 8:19 with four miles to go.  Here, I got tough and slogged through a few more miles.  With one mile to go, I didn't think I could get any hotter.  I stopped at the drinking fountain, filled both my water bottles (10 ounces each) and poured them directly over my head.  It was refreshing for a moment and then it was time to get the last mile done.

20 miles - 2:45:XX, 8:17 pace.

Two more 20 milers to go...

Week In Review

Monday 7/16 - Hot, hot, HOT track workout.  5 miles.

Tuesday 7/17 - 3 miles easy on the treadmill
                        3 X 10 snatches at 40 pounds.  I think I should have gone a little heavier on the weight.

Wednesday 7/18 - Dog and Meredith meltdown!  No workouts done today.

Thursday 7/19 - 6 mile tempo run
                          2 mile warmup, 3 miles short tempo (goal pace 7:04, actual pace 6:59!!!), 1 mile cool down.  I freakin' ate this tempo run for dinner!!!

Friday 7/20 - Rest day.  Dave came home from his work trip today and I also got my parents dog for the next week.  It was chaos, chaos, chaos in our household this day.

Saturday 7/21 - 18 mile long run (goal pace 8:19, actual pace 8:20).  This was a pretty good run.  I started a little later in the morning than I wanted and although it wasn't hot, it sure felt hot.  I was melting.  Regardless, it took me about 11-1/2 miles before I could get under a 8:30 average pace and knew I was going to have to work to get to an 8:19.  And I did, which means my fitness and speed are on like Donkey Kong!

Total Weekly Miles - 32

With less than nine weeks to go until the marathon, I don't know if I'm burnt out or just have too much going on (you have no idea) but I don't have a whole lot of interest in running right now.  There's a big part of me that does not want to do the marathon but I've already paid for it so I'll keep training.  Next week I leave for London for 9 days (OMG!  I'm going to the Olympics!!!), and I may not run at all for that time.  I'll be walking a lot, though.  Is this a mistake to not run while I'm there?  I had to take that week or two off for my broken toe and found it a little difficult to get back to training.  Should I take some running attire?  What would you do?

Today....more sprinting.

You Would Cry Too If It Happened To You

**Warning!  This post is a little on the gross side!**

Per usual, yesterday afternoon when I got home from work I laid down for my afternoon nap.  Sloopy, my dog, usually joins me but because it was thundering outside she was freaking out and wasn't in bed.  So, I got up to go get her and when I did I noticed there was dog vomit on the bed beside me.  And a lot of it (my dog is only 11 pounds - how did she have that much in her stomach?).  As I'm stripping the bed apartment and dragging it into the laundry room, I see that she has thrown up in three more places in the living/dining room.  Seriously Sloopy?

I find the dog and put her into her crate.  While it looks like the vomiting started shortly after she had breakfast (I mean, it barely looked chewed), I didn't want to take my chances. 

I start the water in the washing machine and beginning wrestling the comforter into it.  Now, I swear I have washed it before, but king sized comforter versus regular size washing machine...well, you do the math.  As I'm smashing it in there, I begin to hear water outside of the washing machine.  OH MY GOD!!!  I'm flipping every damn switch on the washing machine and couldn't figure out how to turn it off.  Finally, after what seems like an eternity, I turn it off, but of course it's too late and the entire floor of the laundry room now has standing water in it.  Awesome.  I went to the basement to get the mop and there was water dripping in from the laundry room into the basement.  Double awesome.

And did I mention that I'm on my own this week?  Dave is in San Francisco for work.

I called Dave in a panic.  WHATDOIDO??  WHATDOIDO??  WHATDOIDO??  Being that he's 3000 miles across the country, he wasn't much help.  I called my mom.  I called my dad.  I found every spare towel we had in the house and started mopping up the mess.  My dad agreed to come over after work and help me move the washing machine so I could dry behind it and he also checked out the basement to make sure I hadn't done some damage. 

I did get the comforter washed in the machine, but when I took it out, it still had crusty puke on it.  At this point, I lost it.  I was screaming like a mad woman and saying a few choice words.  But, I got creative and washed that comforter in my bathtub like an Amish person.  Rubbing it.  Scrubbing it.  Ringing it out as best I could.  Three and a half hours later in the dryer, it was finally dry.  Well, sort of dry.  It was a little damp when I put it on the bed.

Needless to say....I had a drink yesterday.  :)

My Favorite Track Workout

(if it wasn't ungodly hot!!!)

This was the temperature in the middle of my workout and notice, it's after 7:00pm.

The workout looked like this:

1 mile warm up

2 X (6 X 400 at 1:31 pace) with 1:30 rest interval

2:30 rest interval in between sets

1 mile cool down

I started with the 1 mile warm up and was already sweating bullets.  But, I love 400s so I thought, this ought not to be too bad.  And for the first three it wasn't.

Interval 1 - 1:28

Interval 2 - 1:27

Interval 3 - 1:27

Starting with the fourth 400 I was beginning to lose it mentally.  I was trying to focus but all I could think was "I'm gonna barf."  The times were still good though.

Interval 4 - 1:27

Interval 5 - 1:28

Interval 6 - 1:29

Instead of the 2:30 rest break between sets, I took a full five minutes.  I refilled my water bottle and took a bathroom break.

Interval 7 - 1:29

And the worst of the worst...my iPod died.  NOOOO!!!!  Guess I was sweating too much.  Why can't Apple come up with a waterproof iPod shuffle since it's supposed to be used for exercise?

Interval 8 - 1:29

Interval 9 - 1:30

Interval 10 - 1:29

Interval 11 - 1:30

Interval 12 - 1:31

Then I threw up in my mouth.  Ew!  I know!  But, god was it hot.

I finished out the workout with an easy mile cool down.  

This was my favorite workout when I did the half marathon training plan and has so far, been my favorite workout for marathon training.  I love 400s.  They're tough but doable and short compared to everything else in marathon training.  

It begs the question, though....if I can run 12 400s at roughly a 6:00 pace, how come I couldn't have run a 6:00 mile in the last race?

Week in Review

Let's get right to it....

Monday - 20 miles.  The first big one.  You can read the details here.

Tuesday - off

Wednesday - 3 miles in the hood with the husband.  It was painful and slow.

Thursday - off

Friday - Tempo run.  1 mile warm up, 6 miles at long tempo pace (7:33), 1 mile cool down.  I totally nailed this run with my middle six miles at 7:31.  This is a very comfortable pace for me once I get going.

Saturday - One mile race.

Sunday - I was supposed to run 13 miles today at an 8:04ish pace, but my legs are just trashed.  I am really struggling to recover from these workouts.  My shin has been hurting, my calves are hard as rocks, and overall I'm just feeling really fatigued.  But, my years and years of running has taught me that missing one workout doesn't make or break your race.  There will be more runs and I'll start again on Monday.

Running Totals - 33 miles

CRC Mile Dash Anniversary Bash 2012

This weekend I ran a 1 mile race, the CRC Mile Dash Anniversary Bash.  Yes, just one mile.  It was hard; it hurt; it kinda sucked; and I'm so glad it was only one mile.  There's not much to say about a one mile race but here's the race in a nutshell.

Although the temperatures are much improved over last weekend it was still hot and H.U.M.I.D. on Saturday and this race was at 5:00pm.  I stupidly did not hydrate well and was thirsty going into the race.  Dave and I did a short one mile warmup to the race start and added some fast pickups in there.  For me, this was probably not enough warmup as, honest to goodness, it takes me at least four miles to feel comfortable in any run.  But I was sweating really good and didn't want to do any more warmup.

The race was broken down into two waves: (1) men under 6:00 and women under 6:30 and (2) everyone else.  So, this separated Dave and I.  I would be in the first wave and he would be in the second.  Looking at my wave, it was mostly men, and considering it was supposed to be under 6:00 for the men, I lined up behind them all and behind the high school girls.  I thought that seemed smart.  Turns out it wasn't.  The gun went off and I took off like a bandit.  Barely 200m into the race those high school girls were running six across and I couldn't get around them or through them.  So I said, "coming right between you", touching two of them on their sides and squeezed between them.  In my head I feel like I shoved them out of the way, but hopefully it wasn't.  I felt bad the rest of the way.  That's racing I guess.  At the quarter mile mark I was at 1:24.  Awesome.  My goal was to go sub-6:00 if possible (6:02 is my PR on the same course) and I was right on track.  I was feeling really thirsty by this point and was licking my lips a lot to try to get some saliva going.  It wasn't working and I was just trying to stay focused.  It's only 6 minutes, Meredith.  At the half mile mark I was at 3:01.  Geesh.  Unlikely I'm going sub-6:00 at this point and I would have to go even to be able to at least match the PR.  At the three quarter mile mark I was at 4:40.  Come on legs!  What the heck!  Get moving!  I did feel like I picked it up a little in the last quarter mile.  In the end my final time was 6:13.  It wasn't what I wanted; it wasn't what I think I am capable of; but who cares it was still fast for a 34 year old.  

In the end I won my age group (out of three).  This is my kind of race, though.  It cost me $10 and there was no race packet, no t-shirt, no medals, no awards.  Pure and simply running.  And, they had cake at the end.  Perfect.

20 Mile Training Run - 2 of 5

So, this is actually my first 20 miler I've done for my marathon training, but it's actually the second 20 miler out of 5 (yes, FIVE!) for the plan.  I didn't get to do the first one because it was exactly one week after I broke my toe.  The original plan was to do this run this past Saturday but since it was THE HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR!!! and it was already 81 degrees at 5:00am, I thought I would postpone.  Instead I got my tail to work yesterday (yes Sunday) put in a day's work and then took today off to do the run and get other stuff done that I wasn't able to do last week.

I started the run just before 8:00am.  I think I waited too long to start the run.  Although it wasn't super-hot, it was sunny and the sun was really beating down and making me hot.  Right from the start my legs felt dead.  They've felt dead now for over a week.  Yet, I was easily into a sub-8:50 pace by mile 2.  Because I was doing this run on a weekday, I was doing this run all alone.  That also meant that I was carrying my own water and nutrition.  In case you care, I take one gel every 4 miles starting at mile 4.  I drink only water and I drink it every mile.  I use a Nathan water belt which holds two, 10 oz. water bottles, so I have to refill my water bottles at least twice during a 20 miler.  But enough about that crap...onto the run.

I started my run through the neighborhood so I could get in a little extra mileage instead of going 10 miles out and 10 miles back.  Things started okay as I mentioned above.  The legs felt dead but the pace was going well.  I was hot but at least there was a breeze in my face on the way out.  The course goes, basically, uphill for the way out and downhill for the way in.  Now it's not hilly-hilly, but looking at a chart of it, you can see it's definitely uphill.

I kid you not, but 8 miles I had had enough of this run.  This is usually my sweet spot of a run and I was already struggling.  Oy!  Nonetheless, I put one foot in front of the other and turned around at 10-1/2 miles.  Usually I would throw myself some good pity parties when I'm feeling this beat up on a run, but instead I tried to use mantras to get myself back in gear, like "Just Run and Get It Done."  And my new favorite, "Somebody's got to be the best, so why not me?"



Fifteen miles was my last water refill stop and this stop just about broke me.  I knew I had 5 miles left but did I really need those last five miles?  I mean, there were still three other 20 milers on the schedule, plus I had a really successful 18 miler last week.  We could just throw this one away.

But I didn't.  I literally told my legs, out loud, to shut up and on my way I went.  It wasn't pretty and I was certainly doing the marathon shuffle (although the pace was holding steady), but I got it done.

20 miles, 2:51:07, 8:33 pace

Looking a little salty after the run.

Week In Review

Last week could be perfectly be described as a hot mess.  Not only was it HOT, what a mess that was created by the storm and subsequent lack of power, air conditioning, refrigerator, cable and internet.  Finally, after 8 days and just over $400, we got our power back, had our air conditioning fixed, fixed our refrigerator ourselves, and got our cable and internet back lastly on Saturday night.  Not to mention, we were able to get our days without cable and internet credited.  Good job, Insight.

And along the way, there was a little bit of running.

Monday 7/2 - 5.5 miles track workout.  This workout was a disaster.  It was crazy hot (in the mid 90s) and I just couldn't get my head and legs to cooperate.  Not only that, but Dave had his own workout and forgot his watch (we were staying at my parents with limited supplies), so I let him borrow mine and I would just do what felt right.  The workout was:
1 mile warmup
2 X 1200
3 X 800
(2:00 rest between each)
1 mile cool down
Well, whatever.  I did the second 1200 as 3 X 400.  I did a lot of bitchin' and moanin'.  It (and I) was a mess.  Moving on...

Wednesday 7/4 - 5K race along with about a 2 mile warmup

Friday 7/6 - 3 miles easy on the treadmill
                   55 double leg crunches on the BOSU and 55 bicep curls with 10 lb. dumbbells.  This was done as 10-9-8...etc. crunches and 1-2-3...bicep curls.  This is a variation of a workout my friend Andrea gave me.  I was sore in my biceps for DAYS!!!!

Saturday 7/7 - This was supposed to be the day of my 20 mile run, but when I woke up at 5:00am and it was already 81 degrees, I said no.  Safety first.  More on the 20 miler tomorrow.

Sunday 7/8 - 3 miles easy in the neighborhood.  For some reason my calf was killing me and just would not loosen.  I spent much of Sunday evening wrapped in a heating pad and even put some Ben Gay on it.  If that doesn't say sexy, I don't know what does.

Totals:
Running - 16.5 miles
Other - 0.25 hours

It's Getting Hot in Here!

Westerville Rotary 5K

Despite the craziness of this week, I decided to do a 5K on the Fourth of July.  I had a tempo run on my schedule, so why not?  Why not?  Well that's an easy one.  Because the temperature right now might be cooler on the face of the sun than it is in the Midwest.  I don't know what the temperature was at 8:00am at the start of the race, but it was hot and sticky and liquid air.  I did a short 15 minute warm up and I was already drenched in sweat.

The race was off and I was off with it.  It was a loop course that went downhill first and then back uphill (as much uphill as you get in Central Ohio (none)) towards the finish.  I took off pretty quickly just hoping to do okay.  I quickly realized that this was going to suck.  With this heat, lack of sleep, and the crap we've been dealt this week I just don't have any power in my legs.  By the turnaround point in this race, I was fried.  I wanted to walk, even.  But, I kept my legs moving.  Slowly, but I was moving.  Did I mention I forgot my iPod too, which made this race even more miserable.  Ugh!

Anyway, and unfortunately, I let two women go towards the end of the race.  I just had nothing left to chase them.  In the end, my time was okay for the conditions - 22:52, which is scarily the same pace I used for my last half marathon.  But, according to Dave I was the 10th overall female.  On crappy days, you've got to chase your competition and not the clock.

We stuck around for awards which were inevitably screwed up.  My time wasn't even recorded.  I guess, technically, I didn't even participate in this race.  If that's the case, can I get my money back?  According to the original results I finished second in my age group which netted me a $20 gift certificate to a local running store.  They have since updated the results which now gets me third but still they don't have my time or name.  Either way, I have the gift certificate and I'm gonna be keeping it, dang it!

There was a highlight to the day and that was meeting Miss Molly.  We've seen each other at races before but this was our first time meeting.  It's like I've known her for a very long time.  We hit it off so well.  We live only about 20 minutes apart so hopefully we can do some training together in the future.

Next race....next weekend.

My Own Personal Hell

They say when it rains, it pours.  This is a perfect way to describe the highs and many, many lows we've had during the last month and specifically this week.

I've kept it as no secret on this blog that I battle depression and anxiety.  The pass several weeks have been a real test of my grit.  I have to admit, I'm struggling.  Today, I just want to curl up in a ball and cry.  Here's some of what we've been faced with in the last couple of weeks...

With our highest of highs we booked our flights and reservations to London to see the Olympics.  But never fail, as soon as you spend that much money, you are bound to get hit with unexpected expenses.

First, there was the broken toe.  Although I have great insurance with my job, it doesn't cover 100% so I know there will be some big bills coming in considering there was a trip to the ER; I've had three different x-rays; and they gave me a boot/protective shoe to wear.  I'm dreading getting these bills.

The very next week Dave had a dentist appointment and without fail had a cavity.  He got a filling two days later.  Ca-ching, ca-ching.

And then our car started making noises.  Bad noises.  Noises that resulted in a $500+ fix.  Good god.

Also, we got some BIG news regarding Dave's job and it's going to be something BIG for us.  We're not quite ready to announce this one publicly until we get more details, but let's just say it's BIG and has filled me with a lot of anxiety.

Things really fell apart last Friday with the storm.  Our neighbor let us know on Tuesday that the power was back on.  So around 9:00pm we headed home and at first, things seemed normal....except, our fridge wasn't cold.  The fridge was on, the lights came on, but there was no cold air.  We unplugged it for an hour and tried again.  Nothing.  This didn't really matter, though, as our food was still at my parents' house.  Then we went to bed and I heard a strange noise when our air conditioner kicked on.  The noise would come and go and didn't sound normal.  I woke Dave up and made him listen.  We went outside to our air conditioner and noticed that even though the fans were blowing inside, the air conditioner was not actually running.  We turned off the air conditioner and decided to head back to mom and dad's at 12:15am.  Looks like maybe we had a power surge and blew out our air conditioner and refrigerator.  Awesome.  So, last night we intended to spend the night again at my parents' house but at 11:00pm another strong storm blew through and they lost power.  When the lose power, they don't have water (they have a well).  We packed up again and headed home, again.  Sure we didn't have air conditioning but at least we could shower and use the bathroom.  It was a hot night and I slept in half hour spurts. 

Today we've started making our calls to the insurance agent, the air conditioning people, the fridge people.  I can only imagine what this is going to cost.  And worse....they say they can't fix our air conditioning until tomorrow.  Tomorrow's high is 101 degrees.

It's been a trying last couple of weeks and this past week has been my own personal hell.  I know it's got to start looking up soon but it sure doesn't feel like it. 

June Totals

Despite the broken toe and having to take a full week off plus one week easy workouts, I still think it was a pretty big month of training.

Swimming - Still a big, fat ZERO!!!

Biking - 19.25 miles.  It got hot and therefore, I did not want to ride my bike for transportation.

Running - 91.78 miles.  That's quite a bit of miles considering the toe and the time I needed to take off due to the injury.

Other - 1.25 hours of lifting and core work.

How I Started My Day Running 18 Miles and Ended Up in the Hospital

That title got your attention, didn't it?  Actually, this is nothing like my last trip to the hospital. 

As I mentioned in the previous post, I got up super early on Saturday morning and headed out for my long run, 18 miles, around 6:00am.  The plan was always to get up this early.  Frankly, I started a little later than I wanted, but my stomach was not in agreement with me and required a little more attention than I had planned for the morning.  Anyway, Dave also got up to accompany me on the bike.  As we headed out I mentioned how hot and humid it was and Dave said, "Really? I'm actually a little cold."  Not fair. 

The plan was 18 miles at marathon pace plus 45 seconds per mile ...carry the one....that's an 8:32 pace.  I put my Garmin to average pace for the full 18 miles and had it set to between an 8:25-8:40 pace.  Per normal, I started slow and worked my way into this pace.  No kidding, it took me a full 8 miles to get the average down to an 8:40. 

Like I said, it was hot.  HOTTTTTT!!!!  Saturday's high was supposed to be in the mid-90s and the humidity was full-on.  Even at 6:00am I was already miserable.  When I reached 9 mile and was ready for the turn around, I actually said to Dave, "where's the breeze".  No lie, the winds immediately picked up and the sky got dark.  I continued on for the next mile.  Then there was a flash of lightning, a rumble of thunder, and I quickly picked up the pace.  I saw what the storm did on Friday, there was no way I was going to be stuck out in that kind of storm.  Luckily, the only structure in sight was a local surgical hospital and also luckily it had power (no kidding, it may have been the only building in New Albany with power).  Neither Dave nor I had our phones with us so we asked the security guard if he could look up the radar for us.  Of course, with the storms, they had no networks but he was somehow able to pull it up on his phone.  Yep, a big blob of red over Central Ohio.  Awesome.

As it turned out, it wasn't that bad and within 15 minutes we were back running again.  And I kinda felt like I had gotten a second wind.  My times had now dropped to an 8:29 average and I was feeling great.  I caught up to a group of guys who were training for a different marathon and we spent about a mile running together until we went different directions.

All in all, it was a great run.  The toe is a little tender but I'm not in any pain.  I'm feeling pretty good about marathon training and am glad I'm back running so quickly.

New York City has no power, and the milk is getting sour

(If you know the reference in the title, you and I were destined to be friends.)

Friday night I was working at my computer when I noticed the sky was getting dark and the wind was picking up.  I closed up and went downstairs to turn on the TV.  That's when I noticed the trees were bending in half and I heard our recycling bin rolling down the street.  I ran outside to retrieve it and just about got blown over myself.  Holy wow!  This was a big storm.  Right at 6:00pm, I turned on the news to see how bad of a storm it was and BAM! our electricity went out.  I tried to turn on I Heart Radio on my phone and had no network.  Dave was still at work.  Sloopy (my dog) and I just sat and waited to hear the emergency sirens.  There were some HUGE cracks of thunder and lightning.  Somewhere between 6:30 and 6:45 Dave called and said Hamilton Road was closed and that he would have to take a different route to get home.  By 7:00pm he was home and we still had no power.

We had dinner at my parents' house and headed home after that.  On our drive home we noticed NO ONE had power as we got closer and closer to home.  And we, of course, didn't have power either.  I didn't sleep very well that night as the temperature rose in the house and our smoke detector beeped all night.  I finally got up around 4:30am in a panic because (a) we still didn't have power and (b) our photo booth for Saturday's wedding was across the street in our storage facility behind an ELECTRONIC GATE!!!  With nothing I could do until the office would be open I headed out on my long run just before 6:00am.

(More on the long run in the next post.)

We returned around 9:00am and I called the storage facility to no avail.  Luckily, it's a chain and I was able to call a different one in town and was able to get information.  Without even showering, Dave and I hopped on our bikes and rode over to the location.  And what we saw on our way there was like nothing I had ever seen before.  It looked like an apocalyptic movie:

Yep, that's less than a quarter mile from our house.  Supposedly the wind took down 12-15 electrical poles and trapped 20-25 cars underneath all those wires.  One car was smashed by one of the poles and severed a man's foot.  Those people were trapped in their cars for upwards of 5 hours.  Saturday morning the cars were gone, but a lot of damage remained.  We were not getting power any time soon.

So, we packed up a few things, including as many refrigerated and freezer items as we could, and headed to mom and dad's for the day.  We were fortune enough to be able to get our photo booth and the venue where we were working had power.  We spent the night at my parents' house Saturday night.  We were also able to hear from our electric company that the estimate for getting our power back would be NEXT Saturday, July 7th.  Holy wow!

Sunday morning we headed back to our neighborhood to drop off the photo booth and obviously, still did not have power.  Our poor neighbors who had nowhere to go!  We checked out the damage again and although it looked better, there was still a long way to go:

We were able to talk to a cameraman for the local TV station, who just happened to have worked for the power company in a previous career.  He said that this was really a three week job but that they were bringing in resources from other states.  Wow!  Honestly I'll be surprised if we get power by next weekend.  For now we're staying at my parents' house and making the best of what we've got. 

Restart

It's twelve weeks until the marathon and two weeks post toe break, so I figured it was a good time to get back to the training grind.  Yesterday was a track workout that on paper looked like something I could handle given my small hiatus from running.

1 mile warmup
3 X 1600 at 6:30 pace with 1:00 rest interval
1 mile cooldown

1600s by 400.

Everything started fine with my one mile warmup.  I hit it at 8:41.  I was back and feeling good.  Then I started the repeats.  I struggle on the track, I have to admit.  It's so easy for me to stop.  I mean, you're just going round in circles.  Just stop and take a break when you need it.  And of course, stop your watch too.  So easy.  The only really successful track workouts I've had is when Dave is running shoulder to shoulder with me.  Dave loves track workouts, so I know he's not going to stop.  But, yesterday I was on and it was just too easy.  No my toe was not hurting, but I was huffing and puffing and feeling completely out of shape.  It was a bit embarrassing, to say the least.  I was able to get through my miles by doing some 300s, 400s. 600s, 800s - whatever I could do to get it done.  I was counting my steps or counting down the 100s left in the interval.  I was singing with my music.  Nothing was helping.  At one point, I even took off my watch during the interval while it was still running so I couldn't stop during the next lap.

Regardless, I still hit my intervals:
1 - 6:26
2 - 6:25
3 - 6:25

I can do a 6:30 mile in my sleep.  I'm not sure why I freak out about it so much while on the track.  Next time Dave is coming with me and either pacing me or timing me so I HAVE to get the workout done.

Onward and upward.  Welcome back.

Week In Review

Despite the broken toe, I got back to work last week.  Sure, it wasn't a whole lot of miles and many of them were done on the elliptical, but I felt that if I could handle the pain (and the toe was more sore than painful) that I should continue with my training.

Monday - 4 miles elliptical

Tuesday - 2 mile walk on treadmill at 15 min/mile  Yeah, tough workout.  I
                Core work - 45 crunches, 45 supermans, 45 obliques

Wednesday - 4 miles elliptical

Thursday - 10 minute walk/10 minute jog/10 minute walk = 2.17 miles
                  Core work - 55 BOSU crunches with weights, 55 TRX pushups

Friday - 5 minute walk/20 minute jog/5 minute run = 2.51 miles
             5 X 5 bench press at 50 lbs.

Saturday - 3 mile neighborhood run with Dave

I hit 17.68 miles of "running" this week and did about 45 minutes of core/weight lifting.  Next week (today) I plan to jump right back into training and see how it goes.  As I mentioned, the toe is sore - mostly in the muscles at the base at the toe.  I'm sure that's from having to reset the toe and really working those muscles.  But the toe, specifically where the break is, does not have any pain.  The swelling is a little bit annoying as some shoes feel very bad and some are just fine.  The good news is that my running shoes fit really well and I have no pain.  We'll see how getting back to training goes.

Thursday Thoughts

When you're in the wedding business, you have to plan your business a year in advance.  Right now we're working on bridal shows and advertising for 2013.  We are currently reevaluating our advertising tactics and I'm looking for input.  We have done bridal shows, advertised in print media and online, and obviously do a lot of social media (be sure to like us on Facebook).  Not too surprisingly, we get a lot of our business from referrals.

When you got married, if you're getting married, somewhere in the future/someday wedding....

....how did you do your research for planning your wedding?  Did you go to a bridal show?  Did you use internet or social media?  Did you use any print media?  How influenced were you based on referrals your friends gave you?  What type of businesses did you meet with face-to-face?  Lastly, if you were interested in hiring a photo booth business, where would you look for information regarding services and business?

Success

Well, I did it.  I went shopping, to Victoria Secret, and came out successfully.  I only had one small nervous breakdown where I told the associate that I likened bra shopping to getting a root canal, but she took me through all the steps and I left that store with two new bras and many, many dollars poorer.  Introducing the Body by Victoria bra: one in demi and one in racerback.




And my favorite part of all of this was the associate handed me a card at the end of my time that had my size on it and had checked off all the ones I tried on that I liked. That way, next time, I can go into the store or shop online and know exactly what I'm what I want. Great customer service Victoria Secret!

My Girls Need a Lift

My friend posted this picture on my Facebook timeline. Nothing like seeing yourself from behind to let you know you desperately need a new bra. Unfortunately, I already knew that. I mean, look at my lats hanging over the top of my bra strap?!  (We'll pretend that's my lats and not some far.)  But I enjoy going bra shopping about as much as I enjoy going to the gynecologist. I know I've blogged about bra shopping before and how I absolutely hate it, but I think it was back in 2009 when I blogged every single day and I just can't find the post.

Anyway, today is the day I am going to go bra shopping. I'm dreading it with a passion. Why is it that retail stores carry ginormous bras for the overly endowed, but don't carry a thing for the itty bitty titties? Last night I tried to shop online but if you don't know exactly what you're looking for it's hard to buy a bra without trying it on.  I think that this is going to be a waste of my time.  I've tried Macy's.  I've been to Victoria Secret.  Kohl's gives me hives.  The best bra I ever bought was Wacoal.  It was expensive but fit well and besides my boobs looking fake in it, I still where it on occasion.  But, I think that was a lucky find at Macy's.

So I'm asking for help from you all.  I knew there are tiny runners/triathletes who read my blog.  And I know you where a bra.  Where do you shop?  What brands/styles do you like?  Help me, help me, help me!  I'm desperate!

Bits and Pieces

(Yeah, that's a totally inappropriate title after last post.)

Okay, I totally do not like bulleted blog posts, but you all have asked a lot of questions in the last couple of blog posts so I'm going to give some updates and answer some questions in this post.

• Toe update.  Well, there's not much to update.  I'm in a bit more pain now than I was in as the swelling has gone down.  The bruising is looking better and I am starting to walk a little better.  I've been icing every day and sleeping with it elevated.  The doctor has cleared me to do some stationary biking.  My least favorite thing to do in the world, but I'm going to do it to keep my fitness up in hopes that I will get to return to running really soon.
• Olympics update.  I had several of you ask about what we are planning to see at the Olympics.  Tickets are hard to come by and as you can imagine, super expensive.  With the help of a friend in London along with my husband's brilliant computer skills we have secured tickets to women's 75+kg weight lifting (we have a local girl who qualified so this is exciting to us), rowing, and tennis (OMG! I'm going to the All England Club!!!!).  In addition, we are going to be able to view many free events like men's and women's triathlon and the women's marathon.  I'm so excited!
• House hunting update.  We actually really loved that house discussed a while ago.  It had some quirks: 
• The electrical outlets in the second bedroom were not grounded, which worries me a little about inspection.
• The master bathroom had this HUGE weird box that was drywall directly to the wall.  I'm not sure what it was hiding.
• There were two fireplaces in the house and neither of them that were really useable.  One was in the basement and one was in the garage.  Yeah, the garage.
• There was no food pantry in the kitchen.
• The second bathroom had a tiny, tiny shower in which the shower door was hung crooked and it was hard to open and close.
• The neighbors looked like they have a hoarding problem as the very back of their property looked like a junk yard.
• But there were a lot of great things about the house.  
• The kitchen was totally redone and really nice.  It included new granite counter tops and new cabinets.  It also had a built in eating area and some of the appliances were already upgraded.
• It looked like the living space had some nice new carpet.
• The yard space was amazing!
• The basement, although not finished, had separate rooms including one that would work really well as a pain cave.
• So, we also saw some other houses too and frankly they were awful.  And surprisingly they were in a higher price point than this one.  I don't even need to say anything about these.  We have another one we'd like to take a look at soon.  As far as putting our house up for sale, yeah, I'm just not sure.  I'm afraid to find out what it would be listed at and I also worry that it might sell quickly and then we'd be without a house when we're not really all that serious about finding a new house.  I don't know.  I don't know.
• What else?  I got yelled out by a grown man in a car today while riding my bike with Dave while he was running in my neighborhood today.  I was riding on the wrong side of the street.  Yes, I know I was in the wrong there.  But I also also going, like, 6 mph and off to the side IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD and he had the WHOLE DAMN ROAD to get over.  He actually stopped his car to scold me.  Oh yeah, I gave him a piece of my mind too.
• I've been debating a lot about closing my business.  It's not that we're in financial trouble because we're not, we're just kinda wanting our lives back.  When you own a business there is no downtime, no vacation, no saying no.  When things go wrong you have to be responsible.  And when you break a toe in the middle of a reception, guess what, that photo booth has still got to stay open.  For the last three years I've been doing this as my only employment.  Now that I have other employment, it's really exhausting to work five days a week and then again on the weekend.  At least I'm part time.  Dave works A LOT more and rarely complains about it.  I don't know.  I just would kinda like to know what it's like to have a weekend and go out on Saturday nights and actually get to do normal grown up things on the weekends besides work.  We've been debating it for quite some time and still haven't come up with an answer.

I guess that just about wraps it up.  Obviously there may not be much content on the blog for a while I heal and don't have any running to do.  Hopefully with my doctor's appointment on Friday I will have better and more concrete news about when I can get back to training.

How I Started my Evening at a Wedding and Finished it in the ER

***WARNING!!!!  If you are squeamish, do not read this post!  Graphic pictures and detailed descriptions.***

Thank goodness I did my 15 miler on Saturday morning because I won't be doing any running for quite a while.

Saturday was like any typical Saturday for me.  I ran in the morning, napped in the afternoon, and then had to work the photo booth in the evening at a wedding.  Halfway through the wedding, though, things went bad.  For the first time in like 150 weddings, we had a customer spill her drink on a scrapbook page.  The page was completely ruined, but luckily that picture was the only one on the page and we could easily replace the page.  (And people wonder why we do not allow drinks in our photo booth.)  The problem was that the drink also got the entire table cloth wet.  So, I was in the process of taking off the table cloth and putting it into another room when I stubbed my toe on someone's shoes (and yes I was stupid and wearing sandals).  I immediately was in a lot of pain and thought right off the bat I had broken my toe.  I hopped on one foot to the other room while telling Dave I thought I broke my toe (all while carrying the tablecloth).  When I got in the other room I looked at my foot and my toe was pointing in a different direction.

***WARNING WARNING WARNING!!!  GRAPHIC PICTURE!!!***

I immediately went into hysterics.  OH MY GOD!  OH MY GOD!  OH MY GOD!  I was crying and sorta yelling and wondering what the hell I was supposed to do with my toe sticking in the wrong direction.  Luckily the wedding coordinator and another person were sitting in this room and got me a chair and some ice and made plans to get me to the hospital.  Without evening saying goodbye to Dave and hoping he knew to continue with the photo booth, the coordinator put me in her car and we were off to the hospital.

I was dropped off at the hospital where they immediately began intake and registration and no lie, within 15-20 minutes I was in a bed.  Sweet!  This isn't going to take very long at all!  (Read: ironic)  Before I went back I texted my mom and told her what happened and where I was and then sent the coordinator back to the wedding letting her know that Dave was going to need help and that he could come pick me up when he was finished.  My first few minutes consisted of pregnancy test (negative), doctor saying the he would take an x-ray, numb my toe, put it back in place, re-x-ray, and that I would be out of here in no time.  Let me set up a timeline: The doctor came in and told me all this around 11:00pm.

At 11:30 the PCA came in and told me how to work the TV.  I decided to just read my Nook on my phone anyway.  At 11:45 the nurse came in with her phone saying my mom was on the phone.  Funny.  My mom had called the hospital directly and the nurse somehow got the call and was able to talk to me.  At 12:30 my parents showed up and I still had not gotten any X-rays or anything done.  The PCA said he was really surprised as he thought the doc would have just put it back together.  It was obviously just a dislocation.  Somewhere around 1:00pm I think I finally got the first X-rays.  Results...

Broken.

Shit.

The doctor came in and this is when I started to go a little crazy.  See, he took out a needle that was long and thick and promptly jammed it into one side of my toe.  (I did not watch any of this.)  I swear to god, he must have touched the other side of my foot with that thing.  It hurt so bad.  Then he did it on the other side of my toe.  My dad, the eloquent one, said "woah, your foot is really getting big from all that medicine".  Awesome.  We waited about 10 minutes and then my whole upper foot was numb.  Again, for the next part, I did not watch.  And luckily the doctor was blocking my view anyway.  The doctor took my toe, like a joystick, and maneuvered it back into place.  He would stop every once in a while, look at the other foot, and then ask me if it looked normal.  Cool.  Finally he said he thought he got it as best as it could be.  I was x-rayed again.  Finally the doctor said the x-ray looked perfect.  My toes were taped together and was given a very lovely half boot/half sandal to wear.


I was discharged and sent on my way with strict instructions of no running for 4-6 weeks.

Double shit.

This was around 2:15am.  My poor parents, but thank goodness they were there.  In case you were wondering about Dave...I sent him home after the wedding since my parents had already decided to come down to the hospital.

Once I got home, the numbing agent was starting to wear off and I was in pain, hungry, and not really all the tired.  Dave went to bed but I grabbed some food and took a bath.  Finally around 5:00am, I fell asleep.

Sunday I got up around 8:30 (yes you read that right, 3-1/2 hours of sleep), ate some breakfast, and promptly went back to bed.  Finally awake after noon, we had to prepare for our next photo booth event in a few hours.  The pain was pretty bad on Sunday.  I was swollen and the bruises were starting to appear.

 Nonetheless, I got through it all and worked for another 5+ hours Sunday night.  Once finally home for the night, I took off the boot to see my foot lovely shades of black, purple, and pink.


Today I went to see my regular doctor (actually another doctor in the practice as my doctor is on vacation).  The news was mixed.  The toe is still very much in place (good news).  The bad news was that there was no dislocation in my toe.  My toe was pointing sideways because of the break.  This all means that there will be a long recovery time, which means there's a big question mark with my marathon in September.  If it's only 4 weeks recovery I would still have 11 or 10 weeks to go until the marathon.  Frankly, that's doable.  Sure it may not be the 3:25 I was hoping for, but maybe I can squeak in with a Boston Qualifier anyway.  The doctor did tell me I could begin riding a stationary bike now (good news) but that my foot was probably going to throb (bad news).  He taught me how to better tape my toe.  I will be going back again on Friday to be re-x-rayed and see how everything's progressing.

So....um...yeah.  I don't know what else to say.  I'm so mad about it all.  I'm mad that I was stupid and wearing sandals.  If you know anything about me, you'd know that I absolutely can't stand sandals or flip flops.  I'm mad that my running has come to a screeching halt and that all the work I've put in this year may be thrown out the window.  I'm mad that I can't run the Relay Around Columbus this weekend with my friends.  And I'm starting to wonder if all this is going to affect my trip to London.  But, accidents happen and there's no other way to describe this than a complete accident.  I'm just going to follow doctor's orders and go from there.

OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!!!!!!

Later this year Dave and I will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary.  All together now....ahhhhh!!!  For our fifth anniversary we threw caution to the wind and took a whirlwind trip to Europe.  Dave has been talking for quite a while about what we want to do this year for our anniversary...

Tuesday Dave sends me a text while I'm at working asking if we have any photo booth events in September.  Being the responsible businesswoman, I, of course, do not keep any of that information with me.  (Sarcasm intended.)  On my way home from work he calls me and explains to me why he was asking.  I guess he found great airline tickets to Zurich and that we could spend 12 days in Europe on vacation.  Well that's all great and all, but I just don't care.  Sure it's not just another day, but there are ways I'd rather be spending my money and time than taking some big adventure.  I've been to Europe.  I've been to Switzerland.  In the last few months I've mentioned to him New York, Chicago, California, Portland, etc., but not Europe.  I told him I wasn't interested.

Wednesday morning he calls me at work (I don't know why he does that.  I sit in open seating with about a million other people.  It's not exactly conducive to talking on the phone.) and tries to entice me again on a big vacation.  Before he even makes the offer I turn him down.  If we've got that money then I don't need to literally be saving my pennies and quarters for a treadmill.  But he continues anyway and gives me an offer I couldn't refuse.

And my friends, I have the most absolutely exciting news in the history of this blog to date.  Seriously.

I am going to the Olympics.

There are not enough exclamation points for my excitement.

!!!!!!!!OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!!!

Now the real question....do I get the US or UK version of these shoes?

Product Review: Zoot CompressRx Tights

The Run Less, Run Faster training plan is no joke.  Even though the plan is only three days a week, I'm finding it more difficult to recover from these tough runs than it was to recover from the relentless ironman training.  I'm doing all the things I should...chocolate milk, ice baths, lots of napping, compression socks.

Compression socks.  I love me some compression socks.  I have three pairs of them and two pairs of compression calf sleeves.  I wear my socks after ever workout.  I wear my compression sleeves for all my long runs.  I truly believe in the recoverability (sure, it's a word) with compression socks.  And while my calves love compression socks/sleeves, my quads and hammies and knees are crying for some relief too. 

Two weeks ago I threw it out to my Facebook friends if they had any thoughts regarding full compression tights.  I got a few responses back.  Then I started doing some research of my own.  Dang, those suckers are expensive.  Finally, with coupon code in hand, I ordered a pair of Zoot CompressRx tights from Running Warehouse.  A few days later I received them and have worn them pretty much after every hard workout I've had sense.

Here's what I think about them:

Negatives:

• They are absolutely hideous.  I was hoping they'd look a little more like plain tights.  There's no way I could wear these with a tunic or long shirt and get buy with them in public.  

• I ordered the smallest size as I am tiny.  However, for a short person I have long legs and a short torso.  I've had a hard time getting the tights up into my crotch (that's what she said, Jamie) so I'm not sure how effective they've been high on my hamstrings and hip flexors.
• Despite not being able to get the tights all the way up and looking like I dropped a load, they are really high waisted and come way past my belly button.  I roll my down onto my hips usually.
• They are super tight and hurt my fingers like crazy to struggle to get them on.

Positives:

• I like that my toes are not covered which has allowed me to sleep in the tights and get full benefit out of them.
• THEY WORK!!!  Do I really need to say anything else about them?

I have been minimally sore after wearing the tights after my difficult workouts, which is pretty much every workout.  I'm so glad my friends recommended these to me.

May Totals

I know I'm a little late on this posting, but better late than never, right?

Swimming - 0 meters
This was the month I officially quit the gym so there probably will be no more swimming for the time being.  Right now I have no desire to go back to triathlon and since I've been healthy (knock on wood) I don't really want to add any swimming to the mix.

Biking - 65.6 miles
Most of this biking was done riding around 7 mph right next to Dave while he did some running.  He rode quite a few miles while I ran too.  But, I did ride to work one day this month too (and probably will be quite a bit in June as the road I usually drive to work will be closed for the entire month and some of July).  Since most of the miles ridden on my bike were not replacing my driving miles, I only saved a whopping $3.17 in gas.

Running - 103.55 miles
Gosh, I'm not sure I missed a run in May and even threw in a few extra.  That's a pretty good chunk of mileage considering this is not marathon training.

Other - 0.5 miles
So, I didn't do a whole lot of weight lifting and got tired of doing all those pushups.  But, I hope to return to lifting now that the half marathon training is over and marathon training is beginning.

Deckers Creek Trail Half Marathon 2012

A few months ago I wrote on one of my former track athlete's Facebook page that I needed her to move back to Ohio so we could be friends in real life.  She replied, "how about we meet and run a race?"  Well, don't tempt me with a good time!  She is a law student at University of Richmond, so we chose a race sorta kinda half way between us: Deckers Creek Trail Half Marathon.  For me, I made this an "A" race and actually trained for it following the Run Less, Run Faster program for the last nine weeks.  I had no goal time in mind, but I knew a new PR could be in play.

But let's back up a minute.

Friday morning I woke up with a terrible headache and a bit of a sour stomach.  I took two Tylenol and headed off to work.  A couple hours later I was still feeling bad so I left work early.  I popped two more Tylenol.  Nothing seemed to be working.  We left Columbus and I was still feeling awful.  I couldn't see straight, my head was pounding, and my stomach was just off.  I barely ate any dinner.  Come on, Meredith!  Are you really getting all worked up over a half marathon?  You've run, like, a hundred of these!!!

Saturday morning we woke up and I was still not feeling great.  This is stupid.  I don't want to run anymore.  I'm so over feeling like this.  Luckily, we were staying only two blocks from the race site, so we basically got up, went down there and picked up our packets, and then went back to the hotel room to get ready.  After seeing there was nothing to get worked up about, I settled down a bit and was able to get down some breakfast.  The race finish was at this park close to our hotel.  You met there and then they bused you to the start of the race.  It was a point-to-point race that was on a rails to trails limestone trail that was touted as being downhill.  We boarded our bus and immediately struck up conversations with others around us.  Everything was really casual and I was feeling better.  The ride only took a few minutes and then we were left for last minute preparations.  Then it was about a quarter mile walk down the trail to the start line, or as it was, a stick in the ground with a sign on it reading "Start Line."  I do love a casual race!

The race started and immediately I knew we had lined up too far back.  The trail could only support, maybe, three people across so it was a struggle to get around in the first mile and get in the position I needed to be.

Mile 1: 8:00

By mile 2, though I had found my position and was cruising.  Being that it was a small race and I wasn't wearing my Garmin, I assume that the mile markers were a little off in places.

Mile 2: 7:04
Mile 3: 7:43
Mile 4: 7:29

I've got to be honest.  I felt like crap for the first four miles.  I felt like the trail was zapping my energy and I just was not interested in running.  But, the pace was somewhere around a 7:30 so I knew a PR was still possible.

Mile 5: 7:27
Mile 6: 7:14

By mile 6 I was feeling great.  Yes, it takes me a long time to warm up.  And as you can tell from the picture below, I obviously thought things were going well.




Mile 7: 6:57

I actually said out loud to myself when I saw that split, "Shit Mer!  Slow down."

Mile 8: 7:36

Obviously the previous mile marker was a little off.  :)

By mile 9 I had had the same gentleman following me for a couple of miles.  I told him, "If we were biking I would tell you to stop sucking my wheel."  He told me I was setting a good pace and I asked him what it was.  He said about a 7:20.  Alright.  It could be a PR day.  I told him he could keep running with me.

Mile 9: 7:09
Mile 10: 7:06

Around the 10-1/2 mile mark the trail goes from crushed limestone to pavement.  And it hurt.  It felt like you were running through jello.  My legs did not want to go.  Still I was catching women and I was hoping this race was going to be enough to get me an age group award.

Mile 11: 7:04

And then I got tired.  Like, where the hell is the finish line tired.  I was hot on the heels of another female runner and I just didn't have anything left to run her down.



Mile 12: 7:30

I screamed at my legs to get moving in the last mile.  I had hit mile 12 at 1:28 and my brain was so fried that I had no idea if that would get me a PR.  I kept trying to add 1:28 plus 8 and just kept coming up with 1:40.  Yeah, I don't know either.  I pushed and pushed hoping there was a PR in me.

Mile 13: 7:27
Last 0.1: 40 seconds

When I could finally see the finish line, I saw the clock was 1:36.  Obviously I couldn't do math and obviously I was getting a BIG PR!

1:36:31 (7:22 pace)

Afterwards I waited for Dave and my student, Brittany.  We all had lunch together and then went to the awards ceremony.




This race was my kind of race too.  There was little to no swag - cotton t-shirts, no medals, no chip timing, and the price was right.   But the awards were amazeballs.  The overall male/female winners received trophies that were shaped like runners welded out of old railroad spikes.  The age group awards (10 year age groups) were also railroad spikes with plaques on them with the placing.  I really wanted an award!  I had looked at last year's results to give myself an idea of what it would take to get an age group or overall award.  Based on last year's results, a 1:37 or better would get me an award.  But, a small race with little to no swag tends to bring out the real runners.  They don't care about all that crap.  They just want to run for a cheap price.  And there were some fast chicks out there!  The overall female winner went 1:17.  The age group winner in my age division went 1:27.  Third place in my age group went 1:34.  My 1:36 got me 6th in my age group and a big fat nothing to take home.  Gosh!  That's fast!

Overall, this was a great race.  Definitely a race I would consider again.  The course is fast.  The weather was perfect.  The price was right.  And I'm super happy with my performance and excited to start into marathon training.

Boy, do I have a story to tell!

Our plan for Memorial Day weekend was to completely redo our front landscaping as we have let the grass grow over it.  Seeing as it was 90 gazillion degrees outside all weekend, we didn't really do any of that.  So, Dave took his work inside and decide to super-clean out/declutter some spaces.  Yesterday he came down the stairs with a small slip of paper in hand.  Dave did Appalachian Service Project in high school, about 20 years ago.  This was a volunteer project he did in another state.  I don't know where he was when he did this project.  Anyway, he said, "I met a girl" while on this project.  Oooh, awesome!!!  This is his story, as told by him.



Back in the early 90's, my church youth group would head out each spring for a missions trip with ASP.  I can't remember which year this was, but we were staying at a head start school with groups from a couple other states.  In the evenings after our work was complete, we would socialize with the other kids and get to know them a bit.  Well, there was a girl I met that year from Georgia.  I maaay have had a small crush on her at the time, but don't tell anyone!  Anyhow, at the end of the week, I mustered up all my early teenage courage and asked for her address.  She entrusted me with it on one condition - that I would PROMISE to write her.

Did I mention I was reeeeally shy?  I wrote a letter, but never sent it.  Time passed, and at some point it was too late.  I must have filed away her address with other treasures of early teendom, and that's where the story ended.

Fast forward 20 years.

I was cleaning out a box of old papers - letters from high school, souvenirs from vacations, old sheet music, etc.  And I came across that name and address.  Thanks to the magic of the internet, I thought maybe I could find out whatever happened to her.  So I typed in her first name.

Well, that's odd.  Had I done this search before?  Did Google just start reading minds instead of that inconvenient keyboard thing?  And so I clicked on the first search result.

Lennon Parham (born October 26, 1976) is an American actress and comedienne best known for starring on the sitcom Accidentally on Purpose from 2009–2010 and the NBCseries Best Friends Forever in 2012.

NO.  WAY.

Not only had she gone on to become famous, WE HAD BEEN WATCHING HER ON TV, and I never put 2 and 2 together.  So, without further ado, let it never be said that I break my promises:

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Dear Lennon,


How has your summer (and the 20 years after that) been?  Mine has been good.


I thought I was going to be a doctor back then, but I ended up writing software - it was a good decision, and actually more interesting than it sounds, honest.  Ten years later, I married my wonderful wife Meredith, and we now have a dog, Sloopy.  I still live in Ohio, though I came down to Columbus for college and stuck around ever since.


I can't remember what you were going to be when you grew up, but it looks like you've done all right.  It's really great that you found something you love to do and are talented at, and have managed to make a career out of it.  I hope you and your projects have nothing but success.


Oh, and sorry I didn't write until now.


Sincerely,
Dave

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