Expanding my {fitness} horizons

Injury...a word avid runners come to know well. Or at least most of them.

A little over a month ago, I injured my left knee during a race. I had just taken two weeks off while the hubby and I were in Italy, and I had maybe squeezed in a week and a half of decent runs before taking home my FIRST first place finish (whoop!) at Zoom Through the Zoo. I felt great after, but then the next morning my knee had swollen to the size of a grapefruit.

A few days later, after trip to the orthopedic doctor, I was diagnosed with fluid buildup and put on anti-inflammatory meds and a light-intensity workout plan. Needless to say, a mild case of depression set in.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am rather passionate about running. One might call it obsessed. But obviously I've had to transform my training for the time being...and I have LOVED every minute of it!!

For the past month or so, I've been alternating swimming 2-3 times a week and biking at least 2 days. The biking has been somewhat satisfying, but the swimming...I never knew I would enjoy it this much!

A HUGE thank you to my dad, who paid for a month's membership for me at the Y, so I could see if I liked it. Not only is it something we can do together, but it's so much better for my joints, and my body just feels different. Who knows. Maybe there's a tri in my future?! For the time being, though, I think I'll stick with individual workouts. :)

New workout view!

Today was the first Road Race Series race of the year. I promised myself to keep it slow, so as not to injure my knee again. I kept a super slow pace (at least for the first 2 miles), finishing with my worst 5K time to date. But I'm not upset in the least. It was super fun, a new course, and my knee is feeling good.

Anyway, I'd have to say that my fitness horizons have definitely expanded. And regardless of how good the knee (hopefully) continues to feel, I'm going to keep up with the cross training.

Marathon training begins in less than a month!!

Take that, 20 miles!

For those who don't know, my first 20-mile training run didn't go that well. So needless to say, I was pretty nervous about this go-round. Not only was I running this ridiculous distance alone (again), but I was also concerned about how my knees were going to hold up.

I've been going to physical therapy for a little over a month now, and it's amazing how much it has helped. The stretching and strengthening exercises for my IT bands (the root of my knee issues) have truly worked wonders. I've also been reading up on the Hanson's "less is more" training plan.

I had planned to run 18-20 miles on Saturday, but really just wanted to get through whatever my body would let me. I am SO excited to say that I made it through 20.5 miles, and I actually felt good afterward! I only stopped at mile 8 to take Gu, mile 11 to stretch for 30 seconds, mile 15 to take another packet of Gu, and mile 17 to stretch for 30 seconds. A few months ago, I would've beat myself up for stopping at all. But seeing as how I have been doing the "run a mile walk 30 seconds" plan for so long, yet didn't feel the need to do that this time (my longest run EVER), I was extremely proud of myself!

No music, no running buddy...just me and the open road. Bring it, Country Music Marathon!

20.5 miles courtesy of Casey at OrthoMemphis, a harsh ice bath, and so many people who have encouraged me throughout my training. :)

P.S. I am SO getting a shirt made like this!

Marathon Training: 20 miles...or not

So...Saturday was scheduled to be my longest run to-date: 20 miles.

I started out feeling good, though I had to deal with colder than normal temps and a slightly nagging knee pain. Oh yeah, and I was going to be running all 20 totally alone. I haven't run with music in over three years, so I didn't want to mess with my routine this far in. So off I went...

About six miles in, my left knee started screaming at me. Awesome. It's always been my right knee and/or hip giving me issues, while the left side never justified so much as a thought. I started walking for a few minutes to see if that helped, then tried to run a mile or two. Not so much. I pushed through the pain, knowing how stupid that was (side note: after the 2007 St. Jude Half Marathon, I had to take 8 months off from running due to completely screwing up my knee and IT band) and made it through 12 miles. Granted the last six were mostly a brisk walk, but I still marked it down as a solid 12.

After basically crawling up my driveway in pain, I completely broke down. About 1,000 thoughts ran through my head...how did I get here again? Why did I even sign up for the marathon? Can I really do this? I'm so not enjoying running right now...wait, what did I just say?! Ugh, I hate this!

Then it hit me. I did this to myself!! I got so wrapped up in the amazing "runner's high" that many of us runners experience, and that's all I did. No cross training mixed in, if I stretched at all it was nowhere near enough, and my mindset was totally off.

That was it...that was the day I decided to start singing a different tune. I immediately called OrthoMemphis and set up an appointment for physical therapy. The one good thing about meeting your extremely high insurance deductible? Everything else for the year is FREE!! :) I also started reading Marathoning the Hansons' Way, which follows the less-is-more plan (booya 20-miler!). We'll see how it goes!

Wish me luck...more to come on my training and PT experience!