Off the Wagon

Fallen that is. Didn't get in my workout as planned yesterday and even succombed to some mindless eating of Yesterdog (oh so yummy, at First), pizza and some chocolate chip cookies. Oh well. Today will be different. I WILL get on my bike.

Also, Happy Birthday Danielle!

Yes, made them this morning - Strawberry Rhubarb Oat Muffins

it's her golden birthday...hint hint

Exhausted...

My insomnia re-formed last night...felt like my mind was racing all night and I didn't sleep. It didn't help that I was trying to call the sports doctor at 7:45 this morning to try and get an appointment when for the first Monday in a long time, I could sleep a little longer due to a later flight. Then, I dragged around all morning drinking coffee, packing and checking email before leaving for the airport.

My busy, probably over-scheduled, weekend is contributing to my lack of shut-eye. Barry was busy with work and the Great Lakes Green show @ the Devos Place all weekend. We're juggling having only one car right now and with the rain on Friday, I couldn't ride up to his work to borrow it. But, I did get in an early evening tempo ride *yes* after the rain finally quit, showered, and headed downtown with my friend, Taryn to eat @ Bloom. Taryn just had surgery on her wrist and had this humungous splint/cast that went up to her bicep. We figured we'd be safe walking around town in the dark in Grand Rapids....or New York for that matter as one swing with that thing and the attacker will be toast! But our main mission was to try to hang out with our friend, Gwen who is also one of the owners and pastry chef extroidinaire! She couldn't leave early to go out on the town until the restaurant calmed down as they were short a server. So, Taryn and I hung out at the bar and ordered, as always, their amazing fare.

Artic Char with Beet Sour Cream

Raspberry Dessert!

We ended up not getting home til 2AM due to some mix up with Barry and us hanging out at Rockwell til way after midnight. The worst of it was...Barry had to be back downtown @ 9AM for the show. I somehow got up Saturday morning, dropped him off, picked up some amazing veggies at the farmers market and met Danielle and Scott at Marie Catribs for breakfast all before 10am. We were hoping to watch the women's Olympic Mountain Biking but due to NBC's endless coverage of the noth..I mean, all the same-thing - that was out. So we finally got in a nice two hour mountain bike ride. See Danielle's post for pics.

Sunday, I did get to sleep in but not too long as my parents were heading down to a National Eventing Show (Horses) in Richland. I have to say, I'm glad they convinced me to go as it was pretty sweet! - especially the cross country course. Mountain Biking has a minimal danger factor compared to anything in that cross-country course - keyhole and 5 foot wide platform jumps into water...no thanks. I may have mentioned it but horses were a huge part of my teen years - including lots and lots of jumping lessons.

We got out for a long ride later in the day - Yeah! that's 3 for 3. Three days of saddle time!

Oh and Convincing your parent's that the Wii is cool! - Priceless.

Of Course it's Raining!

Figures...From my massive consumption of airplane cookies and WhiteCaps BallPark food last night - I was planning a good hard ride today and even a tempo run but mother nature doesn't seem to want to cooperate with my ideas. Too make matters worse, my friends decided we need a night out on the town...Tonight! Ugh. (guess I should be excited...and not that I don't want to go) but not when my training is in suffer-mode. What? 'Trainer' you say...isn't this still August...no thanks! Speaking of August, can't believe it's almost over. Starts me in on thinking about the Fall...I may have to attend a work conference out in Utah in September which so happens to be close to Park City (excellent planning on my part)...maybe a chance for some real mountain biking! If anyone reading this has some suggestions for that area - I'm all ears!

An update on the leg problem - trying to get into a Specialist ASAP but my own personal doctor is dragging their feet *of course* to do a referral. So, Meeeeanwhile, trying to take it easier but still holding the GR Half Marathon in the back of my mind. There's also the Saugatuck Duathlon in September that I've always wanted to do. I used to train in the dunes out there for Adventure Racing about 5 years ago and it was always challenging and a lot of fun!

If the rain will let up...Tomorrow, between Mens and Women's Olympic Mountain Biking coverage (Whoot Whoot!), I'm hoping to get in a good singlespeed ride with Danielle and challenge her in her professional coffee drinking skills.

succombing to spectator...GAH!

Yesterday, after a very filling lunch with my family at one of my favorite restaurants in GR (ok, I'm biased as my friends own it) - I dragged Barry out to Pando to watch Danielle finish up her 6-hour training race because I'm such a good friend. ;^) Of course, she spanked everyone and most of the guys too. We hung out for about an hour, running into some old racer friends and getting some flack about not riding, or racing for that matter. It's funny, but I didn't have the usual desire to race when I got there. Usually, I get pretty ansy watching and usually make some comment about 'how I could be out there'. But not this time...probably because 1) Danielle was racing and KILLing all and 2) there was hardly any other women racing for 6 hours. But, I did have some motivation to get on the trails - so we hit Easy Valley afterwards.

Barry ready to ride and realizing his seat is way too low and he's without tools

Barry complaining on a climb about his seat height

The bruise I got trying to take a picture of him still clipped in

What it looks like today - yes, bike bruises are back!

Doing my best 'Toni Musto'

Another stranded night...

Well, this week has not been the greatest for me. I barely recovered enough from the intestinal flu to be able to fly to work on Tuesday. I had IT all weekend and basically slept all weekend. So, my first weekend back HOME really stunk! Not sure if it was food poisining or if it was a bug I got earlier in the week that decided to hit as soon as I let my defenses down at home on Friday. All I can say is, I haven't been that sick in a long time and even spent some time laying between our back entry and the laundry room on our slate tile. It was most interesting.

So, Tuesday, I was a little nervous to return to the plane, mainly the germs, and face work too. So, I've been getting my energy back slowly - I think I even lost 5 lbs. from the sickness...mostly water and probably muscle, probably my bike muscle. So much for trying to get back into regular spin classes the week prior.

Tonight, I'm facing a 2.5 HR. Delay and then I'll have to spend the night in Milwaukee before finally getting home tomorrow morning. Why do I do this again???

Like a Peg Leg…

My intentions are not to bore you with injury posts – no one likes a downer – but hey you’re reading this. Plus, if I chart this – maybe it’ll be a good summation for a doctor who cares to listen to my self-diagnosis.

So I made it through the half marathon feeling great but as soon as I got off the return shuttle bus, I was hobbling…and have been doing so most of the week despite icing, elevation, massage (self-massage as my wallet can’t seem to cough up the 55 bucks), stretching and REST. Stretching has been hard as I really have to warmup and get my leg muscles loose to feel like I’m not going to hurt my leg more. So stretching has occurred post spin class (which doesn’t hurt) or after pilates mostly as anything involving vertical movement is painful (so jumping jacks in my hotel room are out.) Walking even hurts especially in my high heels for work – but I don’t think they want me showing up in my birks. So, after formulating all this – I think I have muscle compartment syndrome. It’s more than shin splints. It’s not a stress fracture (I hope) as I RACED Sunday and the pain went away when I was running. With a stress fracture, from what I’ve read, the pain only increases upon impact. But muscle compartmental syndrome symptoms are this:

Q: Does your calf feel tight, does your shin feel tingling? Does it ache when you're not exercising? Do you feel numbness or weakness in your foot?

If the answer is yes, you could have Compartment Syndrome, see [A] below. If no, read on.

[A] Compartment Syndrome occurs when pressure within the muscle along your shin builds to dangerous levels, preventing blood and oxygen from reaching the nerve and muscle cells. See a doctor for a "pressure test," which measures the internal pressure of your muscle. Expect a four- to six-week layoff from running, during which you should treat it with ice, anti-inflammatories, massage, and stretching. If this therapy doesn't work, surgery may be necessary.


I have all of them…the tingling sensation, the standing/walking ache etc. But the whole thing about the pressure scares me…sounds like my leg might explode or something. Better get this checked out – now, only if I could find a sports doctor that was willing to see me on Saturday or Sunday. I flew directly back to my work city so I’m just arriving back home today in two weeks. I kind of forget what it’s like to Be At Home. Barry’s not going to know what to do.

Finally the Olympics! – the opening ceremonies are on and I'm completely glued to the TV. Happy Friday!

San Fran 1/2 Marathon Weekend

It's funny how you get this great race idea - train for 15 weeks and within 2 hours, it's over. I guess some would say, it's not worth it but I hey, it's more about the experience and not just the race, especially a foot race.

Pre-race Saturday, we had gorgeous blue sky weather to explore the city - play a little tour guide(which I enjoy) - and just relax. After a hellish week at work, giving 1 kickoff presentation and 2 workshops, and feeling like I talked my head off - I was happy to just drift around in the city, not have a scheduled itinerary and let my friend, Taryn do the talking. We did some of the normal tourist stuff just to let Taryn figure out what San Fran was about and see that the non-touristy aspects are better...the parks and ocean beach! But, since we were staying within a block of Union Square, we got some retail therapy too, especially @ Lululemon where we couldn't help buying new running outfits even if we were girly dorks. Saturday night we stopped @ Walgreen's to grab a last minute Gatorade and some bandades and...some women's knee high socks - what runner doesn't want arm warmers huh? The hotel front desk probably thought we were a little wacky as we used their fiskas to cut off the toes but I saw only one other girl race morning with arm warmers in the 50 degree start.


5:15AM Sunday morning we ran from our hotel to the start - there were crowds of people near the starting waves with a herd of people in line for the 10 or so port-a-jons. After we checked our post-race bag, we realized Wave 3 had just started so we decided instead of sprinting to be in mid-pack, why not wait for Wave 4 since their scheduled finish time was still the same. Miles 1-4 were pretty uneventful, except for watching a girl trip and skid across the pavement around Fisherman's Wharf. Mile 5 we spied the hill leading up to the bridge. This was Taryn's first half marathon ever and she decided to take it pretty easy up the hills as we didn't know what lay ahead even though we did scout out the course around mile 12 and knew there were some rollers. I decided to stick with her since I didn't know how my shin/calf would feel but it seemed to be warming up and not giving me any of the normal shooting pain pre-run. Mid-Golden Gate (bridge that is) my 4AM coffee hit me along with 45 degree gusts and by mile 7 I was looking for a bathroom. The end of the bridge was nearing with a slight decline and we were to turn around in a rest area. I decided to hit the bathrooms (mentally relieved these were not port-a-jons) but totally unlike me to use them during a race. Taryn was in and out (sparing you the details) shouting to her I'd catch up. The half way point clocked me @ a disappointing 9+min. mile but, with my re-Newed self :^), I kicked it with another 'bathroom' stop girl who was also needing to catch her friend. I caught Taryn mid-bridge (mile 8.5) running 7s to catch her. I caught my breathe at her 9 min. pace and decided to leave her around mile 10 (HILLS) to try and beat 2 hours.

Odd things about the course - there were no split times (or at least they were invisible to me) and I hadn't yet seen a mileage sign (although I kept the course map in the back of my head). Mile 10 was HILLY - probably the longest hill but I tried to stay consistent until the top where I knew we had a nice break and vantage point of the bay on top of the Presidio. Mile 10-11 was steep and almost too much downhill, down to a water grab and then the 'similar to Michigan' rollers began on 27th street. What I couldn't get over was how many people were walking. Come on people...yeah, we were running with the Marathoners but this was only mile 12. I definitely made ground on the rollers as it rose to Golden Gate Park. The Park was full of activity as the Full Marathoners went one way and the remainder of us got diverted left and the Second-Half Marathoners were just beginning. I started really picking up the speed after we turned underneath a bridge but as always, the last half mile seemed to really stretch out. The finish was on a decline (nice) but the clock was ticking way over 2 hours @ this point so I knew I was off my goal time even though we started 15 or so mins later then the start of the actual race. I was amazed at how good I felt, lung and even leg-wise. My first thought was...I could keep going! Which may be a sign that I'm ready for more...marathon anyone??? But as I waited for Taryn, my calf started to get tight again - darn injuries. Taryn was really happy finishing and even kicked it to the finish line which was surprising to her. Funny thing was, it wasn't even 8AM yet.


I ended up finishing in 1:57 which was my same time for my last Half back in October. But this was a whole lot hillier and throw in a bathroom stop - and well, I think I did pretty well. We took the shuttles back to the Ferry Building and hobbled back to the hotel for a stretch and to ice my leg. I was also able to run with my orthotics newly fixed by A.D. Taryn had kindly gone to his office the week prior to get some of the sole taken down in my arch where it was rubbing. They felt great during the run so I was happy for that despite the newly formed blisters from my unbroken in birkenstocks I accidentally wore in the Pacific.
Instead of sticking around town, we decided to rent a car and head down to Monterey along highway 1. We were pretty tired by the time we got down there and felt like old ladies...bathroom stops and cruising the town before settling on a parking location to minimize long down hill or uphill walks.

Monday was back to work for me - no rest here.

Taryn, after saying she never gets blisters...

Gotta love the forehead shot on Lombard street

Wishing the Trolley conductor would hurry up and take the picture.

The Great Salt Lake from 33,000 ft.

San Fran loves me!

San-Fran-Cisco! Met my friend Taryn @ the airport Friday afternoon and we've been exploring the city yesterday and today. I love the boutique hotel we're staying at near Union Square and apparently, they love me too. This is what they brought me after we checked into our hotel room. So everything has kicked off well.


We race tomorrow morning...early, and I mean EARLY - our wave start is at 5:35AM!!! Wish us luck - track me here @ www.runraceresults.com/liveRC1