Work break

I'm in the middle of a timecourse experiment right now and my next time point collection is at 7. Sooo I'm sitting around waiting for another hour. How I love science!

I just checked back in my archives and I got that GC shot in my knee on 30 January. Wow I hadn't realized it's been that long! The doctor had advised me to skip out on running for a week, which I followed, no problem. I've learned not to run through injuries! Then, Jon came home, making it easier for me to put it off even more.

On Valentine's Day weekend, I went out to get a new pair of running shoes. I decided on the Saucony Grid Hurricanes because I loved them so much when I wore them last in 2004. I don't know why I didn't just keep getting those! I just got fitted for a new pair of shoes every time I had to go in for new ones. So I went back to those, but unfortunately, they didn't have my size. The store ordered them for me and they just got in last week.



So yesterday I was super excited to run again! I had been stretching my IT band as best as I could and keeping up with my cardio kickboxing class as much as I could (last weekend's interview didn't make that easy). I went to my favorite running path after work, happy with the 80-degree weather, thinking this was the perfect day to run. I decided I would take it really easy, running my 3 mile loop at about a 10-minute mile. Well, I got to mile 2 and, like in my last run, I started experiencing that dull throbbing in my left knee. Actually, I felt it towards the beginning of the run and just kept going, not too bothered by it. I stopped running at about 2 miles and walked. I was really raring to go so when I couldn't feel any more pain I started running fast. When this injury first popped up in 2006, I noticed that if I ran fast I didn't feel the symptoms during the run so I felt I could keep running. I thought maybe my gait was that drastically different when running fast as opposed to when I was just doing an easy jog. Of course it hurt after the run, but I was dumb (and stubborn) back then to keep doing it. So I decided to give it a shot yesterday. It was not the case. Rather than a dull pain, I experienced an intense throbbing pain within a few seconds! I gave up and walked the rest of the way.

I stretched really well when I was done. I didn't feel any pain in my knee at all, which just frustrated me because only a small amount of running aggravated it. I ran the length of the parking lot back and forth a few times, trying to get it to hurt again (I was trying to find anything wrong with my gait). The only time it hurt was when I stopped and turned to go back. It felt good otherwise. But I'm hobbling today and taking the stairs like a two year old.

This is the most frustrating injury I've had. Granted, when I hurt my ankle it took two years for me to be able to run without recurring pain, but at least it hasn't happened in a while! It did flare up last weekend for the first time in two years, but switching out my boots for good supportive shoes for a couple days put it back in its place! To think my main concern in '04 when training for my marathon was shin splints. I'd take shin splints over ITBS any day! I feel like I can't make any progress with this stupid IT band! What more can I do? I stretch, but is that enough? I find it difficult to stretch. Are there any good stretches out there for it? How long should I stretch it for each day? Should I invest in one of those foam rollers? Will that really help? A lot of questions that I'm asking any runners to help me answer. Any advice?

Odds and ends

Well, I went out and bought my running shoes yesterday. These are what I ended up getting

They are the Asics Gel Cumulus. I was so excited to try them out!  When I got home I threw on my new running skort, sports bra, and bright pink shirt that I got from Target last night and hit the road. It was beautiful out: 70 degrees with scattered clouds and a light breeze to help cool me off. I had some hip hop/reggaeton mix on my trusty iPod nano to help me keep pace. I was concentrating on my breathing and running as comfortably as I could. It was an easy run overall that should have totaled about 3 miles. But about a mile short of getting home I started feeling that persistent aching on my left lateral knee--IT band. I groaned to myself and immediately started to walk (fast). I was hoping worn running shoes were the problem, but not so. To top it off I have matching blisters on both my feet, right below the ball of my foot and today I have some soreness in my right knee, which I've experienced before, but not for a while. Runner's knee maybe? 

I hate how touchy my knees have been these past three years. If I sit down too long when I'm running regularly, they get a little stiff. When I go out to see a movie, it sometimes takes some hobbling around when I first get up to walk that stiffness off....and I'm fidgeting throughout the movie! I'm so stubborn. I can't quit running! I love it too much! I'll take shin splints over these more touchy, persistent injuries any day. That's all I had to worry about when I first started running seriously. Then I started training for the Vancouver Marathon and decided to help alleviate the problem since I would only be increasing mileage. Went to a physical therapist and discovered I had weak joints when a simple exercise had me writhing on the ground in pain after what felt like a tendon slipping in my ankle. I limped the entire day at work. It was over the next day when I stubbornly insisted on running....I only made 6 of the 12 scheduled miles, but I'm sure more damage was done to the poor ankle. 

So the chronic injuries persist today. I'm going to schedule an appointment with a sports medicine doctor because I'm done with self-diagnosing. The last orthopedic doctor I saw had no interest in even figuring out the problem and told me to just quit running. If my joints were OK with running before, I really think that with some guidance from a professional and some rehabilitation I will be able to figure this thing out. I want a doctor to examine my gait, my leg anatomy, and tell me what is wrong and what I can do to fix it. I haven't got a straight answer yet, and that's all I want.

In other news, Jon is probably coming home in a couple weeks. He told me the beginning of last week and is scheduled to fly to Kuwait next week! That's one month early! Maybe, just maybe, I will have my husband home with me on Valentine's Day! I'm still not getting my hopes up too much because we all know how the Army can just pull the rug out from under you in an instant! I'll be asking him every day if plans have changed. :)

Well, I'm off to clean now. I don't do this enough, and I've dedicated my Sundays to cleaning. Enjoy the rest of your weekend everybody!

Time to work off those tamales and holiday sweets!

I have to say, I'm hurtin' right now. A month and a half of nearly no exercise took it's toll on me yesterday and today! I went for a run yesterday, finishing my usual 2.8 miles. No, wait. I couldn't finish it because my left knee started bugging me. I felt the pain on my lateral knee about 3/4 of the way through. I stopped and walked for a bit and stretched it out a little, but to no avail. I had to finish the loop walking, which is just torture to me. My lungs had a lot more left, but my leg couldn't take it anymore. I think it might be my IT band, which I injured 2 years ago. At least I think it was my IT band. I never saw any sort of doctor and self-diagnosed. I did have that pain walking downhill and down the stairs, though. I don't know what to do! I don't want to quit running, but my body is really against me here! Is there any way I can continue running and eventually accomplish my goal of running a marathon? I saw an orthopedist who did nothing for me, so what's next? A podiatrist? There has to be some way!

Anyways, after my run and a good stretch, of course, I went home and did a whole bunch of side leg lifts, sit-ups, crunches, tricep dips, and a few push ups. My arms are so weak now--I use to be able to do triangle push-ups! All that and I was walking around with sore hips/but today.

Not bad, but then I went to my cardio kickboxing class on the Air Force base. I could barely move after class! The instructor is intense! When we all are getting sloppy with our punches and kicks, she's jumping around and dancing around to the music. She has endless energy! But I need a class like that, because I'm horrible at pushing myself until I can't go anymore. There's this sequence that she does and when she starts it, everyone in class acknowledges it with a groan. On each side, we do side knee lifts while bringing arms down toward the opposite side. Doesn't sound too hard, right? But she has us do 16 facing one corner of the room, rotate, do 16 more facing the next corner and then continue for the rest of the corners. Oh we're not done there! We then go 8 per corner, then 4 per corner, 4 per corner two more times, and then she has us hold it until she makes us stop and switch legs. Then we do that all over again for the other leg. My poor hips and butt! Here's a video of the move I just described. Just ignore the cheesy music and it's the move shown at 2:56.

It's a pretty good video of basic cardio kickboxing moves, but she's so slow compared to my crazy instructor! After the cardio part of the workout, we do arm strengthening and abs. Endless, I tell you! So yeah, I could barely move after all that! I did manage to squeeze in a few pull-ups and dips, though. I'm up to lifting about 80 lbs of my weight. Hopefully one of these days, they'll be unassisted!

I'm skipping out on the running until my knee feels better. I'll be skipping out on the Wednesday night runs for a month, though, because I just signed up for my final cake decorating class! You ready to see more cake decorating action? It just might be all you see of my baking because I don't want junk food hanging out in my house! But then, I can't really go that long without baking. ;)

Operation Kick My Own Ass commences!

It's been a month since I worked out regularly. I was lucky if I made it to the gym once in a week! On top of that, I started to eat out a lot because I was so sick of cooking and eating the same thing for a week. I've also been craving Chinese food, which, sad to admit, isn't the same when cooked at home. I've been weighing myself pretty regularly for a long time now. Like I told Sara, I weigh myself at least 3 times a day, but do that mainly to gauge my hydration. You really do have to drink a lot more water here in the desert! So yeah, my weight fluctuates, sometimes as much as 3 pounds in one day. I have to admit, I do love weighing myself in the morning after going to the bathroom because I feel happy seeing that smaller number on the scale. And why can't I look that skinny throughout the day, rather than when I first wake up?

On Monday I forced myself to run. It was just the usual loop around Reid Park (about 3 miles), but I surprised myself by running it fast. I was so proud of myself because I've run maybe twice in this past month. Maybe once a week of high intensity cardio kickboxing was enough to keep my fitness! So far:

• Monday: ran 3 miles, lifted weights for an hour (arms and legs)
• Tuesday: cardio kickboxing class--45 minutes of t-shirt soaking kicking, jumping, and punching, followed by 15 minutes of endless crunches and more lunges (ouch! I'm still hurting from my lunges and squats on Monday night! Let's see if I can walk tomorrow!)

Hopefully I can run on Wednesday! Not only will I be waddling tomorrow, I have to see if my IT band is OK with it. I'm hoping it's not too achy. I'm so sick of all these pains from running. If only a doctor would try to help me figure out what I can do to make it better. I've had poor experiences with numerous doctors that just aren't interested in getting down to the bottom of your symptoms. It's so frustrating! I will not quit running! I'll just look for a doctor that will actually help me! Running a marathon has been high on my goal list for 4 years now and I'm going to accomplish it!

Well I really should get to bed. I have to take the car in at 7:30 tomorrow morning for an inspection. We just bought a used car and want to make sure it's all sound. One good thing that came out of this deployment: we were able to save up a good amount of money, so were able to pay cash for this car! OK, off to bed. I have to deal with disappointed McCain supporters tomorrow!

 

What happened to fall?

OK it went from 90s to 70s. What happened to my 80-degree weather? When I went to bed last night it was already 48 degrees. I guess it got down to 39! Brrr!!! I froze today! My fingernails were purple when I decided to go out for a walk to warm up.  I don't know why the whole building is so cold. 

I skipped out on my run pretty easily today. I had packed shorts and a t-shirt last week for my run and I thought that would be ok for today since it was supposed to go up to 76. I was wrong. By the time I got out of work, the sun was about to set and it was super windy....66 degrees. Way too cold for this desert convert! If only I had pants packed, maybe I would have run like a good girl.....but probably not. Ugh! I need to get out of this laziness streak!

Lacking motivation

I've skipped out on any type of exercise this whole week now. And I'm supposed to be preparing for the Tucson Half Marathon (don't think I've ever mentioned on here that I was planning on doing that). I just checked the route and lucky me, it's all downhill for the most part! The distance isn't that big a deal to me because I've run that far in the past. Problem is, I haven't done it in two years. I can't run further than 6 miles here so I really don't know what the deal is. Four miles used to be my base, no matter how long it had been since I last run and now 3 is a struggle for me. It's so frustrating! I'm still convinced it's the difference in elevation here because I went for a run in San Diego last April and it was cake, regardless of the hills and my stubbornness to keep a fast pace. I'm going to run my ass off when visiting my parents for Christmas, just to redeem myself.

Excuses for skipping out on working out:

• Monday: supposed to run 3 miles and lift weight at the DM gym. Excuse: I was feeling nauseous all afternoon due to (I think) going back on the Pill (aside: one month to R&R!!)
  
• Tuesday: Cardio kickboxing class at DM (major sweat fest). Excuse: the debates are on and I did miss the first one, so I really want to watch this one. And at the last minute, I took the car to the dealership to fix something that's been bugging me for a while. They didn't fix it because they had to order the part and the debate was a major bore.
• Wednesday: again, run 3 miles and lift weights. Excuse: I'm still really full from my huge lunch at the Arizona Inn (boss being gone, we sometimes take longer lunches). Also, I really do hate lifting weights at DM. There's maybe one female in the whole weight room so I feel like all eyes are on me when I walk in. I'm super self-conscious and feel like I don't belong there!

Well, that's it. Hopefully I won't come up with another excuse tomorrow and that I make it to my cardio kickboxing class! I also really need to start doing my weekly long runs, when I'm not accustomed to doing any exercise on the weekends. I just need to find somewhere to run! 

It's off to bed for me. I don't know what I was thinking when I scheduled my car appointment at 7:30 a.m.!

It's definitely summer here!

It's past 10 and it finally dropped down to 95 degrees! It was so hot today, yet I still saw quite a few people running around Reid Park at 7 pm when it was still at least 100--brave souls. I miss running there! I decided to run in the mornings now when the temperature is more bearable, so that I can save myself from the awful headaches I get from running in the heat. Except I don't want to run at the park so early because it has a reputation. One of my cardio kickboxing buddies almost got raped there, and I am not taking any chances. So I have to stick to the Tucson International Airport, a four mile run round trip from my house. But...I think I'll be out for a while. I just donated my precious O+ blood today and even walking upstairs leaves me panting now :(

Another running story

I absolutely hate wind. I'll start off by saying that. How is it that on Tuesday it was 103 and sunny when today at the same time it was 67 degrees and cloudy? This is crazy weather I tell you! Spring in Tucson is full of windy days. It's not so bad when you are safe inside, protected from all that flying dust and debris, but once you step outside, hold onto your hat! And say goodbye to that good hair day you were having.

Here as just some of the reasons I despise wind so much:

1. Hair in mouth and eyes. And nobody wants hair that looks that wind-blown.
2. Dust and other fun stuff in your eyes (mine, in particular, are magnets for such things even on calm spring days).
3. I can't wear my pretty girly skirts or dresses, lest I want my chonies on display for everyone to see!
4. Running against it! With gusts up to 50 mph, you might as well strap a parachute behind me.
5. When I was still driving the Corolla and commuting to and from Sierra Vista, these hurricane force winds would almost push me into another car in the lane next to me or hold me back as I battled my way up the steepest hills at 85 mph.

So the main reason I hated the wind today was #4. No matter which direction I ran, it seemed like I was running against the wind. Well, except when I was running east, which means the wind was probably coming from the north- and southwest. I convinced myself to still go for said run even after gazing out at the windy conditions all day. And all because I couldn't just "waste" a perfectly good sub-90 degree day, considering these will be few and far between in a couple weeks. So I'm 0 for 2 for good runs this week. At least I was able to finish this time and run faster. Better luck next week.

Oh and those of you in the PNW...can you please stop sending us your crap our way? All those storms and low pressure systems, while producing the welcome drop in temperature when they collide with our high pressure ones, are the reason for these crazy wind storms here. Thanks, I'd appreciate it!

The Arizona summer approaches

It hit 103 today. I have not been looking forward to us breaking the 100 degree mark, but here we are. I suppose it's not that bad because it's "dry" heat--I'd be dying if it were this hot in Seattle (especially since AC is nonexistent in the apartments there!) Even at 10 pm it's still 90 degrees out. And I was stubborn enough to run after work. Exercise is something I've been keeping up with and doing for myself since Jon has been gone and I really hate missing out on it. I started running again in February and have missed only a few days up till now. I wasn't about to let a barely 100-plus degree day hold me back. How much hotter would 103 feel when I've been running in 95 degree conditions? After all, shouldn't I be acclimating here?

The run was awful. I decided to take it easy, but even this normally easy pace was hard today. I was dragging even though I stopped at every drinking fountain along the David Bell Path at Reid Park. I didn't even finish the 2.98 miles. I had to walk the last 0.3 miles of it because I was getting too dizzy to continue. Normally, my heart rate will decrease to normal within several minutes of stretching, but long after I was done with my 10 minute stretching regimen, I could still feel my pulse quickly pounding throughout my body. Ugh. I lay on the rare patch of grass for a few minutes, letting the breeze blow over me and evaporate some body heat away. Sunscreen was dripping its way down my face, arms, and legs, leaving white trails coursing across my body. I hate running in the summer. It results in bad tan lines, dizziness, and headaches for me. My left shoulder and arm are already significantly darker than the rest of my body!

Running never seems to get easier here. What happened to my endurance? Back in Seattle, 4 miles was my base.....no matter how long it had been since I last went out to pound the pavement. More and more, I think it has to do with the elevation here (2,584 feet above sea level) and the super dry air here (about 15% humidity lately). My run in San Diego last month convinced me of this. Wonderful moisture in the air and sea level conditions led to the best run I had since I left Seattle. My poor skin is so used to the dry air here, I swear I could feel every little water molecule--I felt like I was dripping wet! But I ran fast....even up the hills. I felt like I could go forever.

Maybe next time I run, I should eat better beforehand. I realized later that last night's dinner and today's lunch didn't help me out in any way: wheat thins, grape tomatoes, and white chocolate hazlenut mousse last night and a salad and cherries today.

Yay! Thirty percent chance of rain on Friday and 79 degree high--ahhhh!!!