And this would be the post about my injury

Soooooooo I was running this past Thursday afternoon minding my own business, not running to fast, not running in a weird way, not running in a new way, and my left foot decided to say “Nope, you’re done for a while.”  I haven’t felt pain like that ever in my foot since I’ve started running 2 years ago, aaand when I started running 2 years ago I did it in a dumb way and increased my mileage waaaaay too quickly and I STILL never had foot pain like this.

I tried to walk around a bit and try to run again and it hurt just as bad.  No problem really, a foot injury isn’t the end of the world, but I was 2.5 miles away from my car and it was really cold and walking on my foot hurt pretty darn bad.  Luckily Josh was around so he came and picked me up and gave me a lift back to my car.  I tried to stay off of it for the rest of that day, but then I had to work the next day, and on Saturday it was worse than it had been, or so it seemed to me.  I ended up at Med Express that afternoon, sure I had myself a good ol’ stress fracture but some x-rays proved me wrong!  The doc said that he thought it was a sprain and gave me an ACE wrap, told me to ice it, elevate it when I can, and to not run for a while… he also said that I probably shouldnt’ go through with my half marathon on the 9th, so I said sure, if I need to rest it then I need to rest it!

So I plan on resting my foot until Wednesday.  Wednesday I will try to run and hopefully it won’t hurt.  In the meantime, I am keeping it wrapped with an ACE wrap, icing it when I can at home (I have a 12 hour shift today and tomorrow), keeping off of it, taking ibuprofen if necessary, and soaking it in epsom salts (mom’s order).  Oh, and of course I plan on proceeding with my half marathon on the 9th ; )

I do understand that I have an injury and need to give it time to heal so I don’t do further damage (the doc I saw yesterday seemed to think a stress fracture was in my near future), but I am going to do my absolute best to speed the process up as much as possible.  This is the worst possible timing for an injury like this, I have actually followed a training plan for the first time in my life before a big race (half or full), I normally start following one and do my own thing about a month in, but this time I listened!  I increased my mileage gradually, I did long runs slower than my goal pace, I did speed work for heaven’s sake!!  And this is what it gets me!  Oh well, like I said I know I’m not the only one, but I’m still bummed.

Have you ever had an injury hinder your training for a goal race or stop you from running in it altogether?  What did you do to heal?  Any advice for me?  Thanks for reading!!

Parent’s Place 5K

Sooooo this past Saturday I ran the Parent’s Place 5K in Star City, WV.  The weather was GORGEOUS for the race, and there were about 150 runners and walkers total for the event, which took place on the local rail trail and started and finished in Star City.  It’s not a major theme of the race, but runners were encouraged to dress as a super hero for the race (I dressed as myself for this one, I do however have a super hero outfit in mind for another race coming up this month).  I was happy that I had a couple of days off before this race so I wasn’t tired from work since I’ve been working a lot of night shifts lately and I kept my running schedule pretty regular this week.

As the race started, I felt like I was running SO slowly, when my watch alarmed at mile 1 however, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was an almost 9 minute flat mile, the second was about the same.  To some, running 9 minute flat miles may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but I am very happy since even a year ago I wouldn’t have been running this well, it’s also validation that my half marathon training is working.  I ended up running the third mile in 8:44 and passed 2 more runners on my way to the finish (if you haven’t noticed yet I really like to pass people right close to the finish).  I couldn’t decide if the 2 girls in front of me were in my age group so to make it easier on myself I decided I would just pass them!

I ended up with a PR and 4th in my age group, just missed getting a medal, but I can’t be upset with that run one bit!  I felt good and I’ve got plenty more 5K’s coming up to keep running better and better!

 

Pierpont Veteran’s 5K & Cooper’s Rock 10K

Sooooo that time of year has come!  It’s a magical time, a time when I begin to have a race just about every week!  After a snowy and cold winter, I’m more than ready to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather and races make it that much more fun!

My first race of the springtime was the Pierpont Veteran’s 5K located in Fairmont, WV at the “Tech Park” located just off I-79.  I was SO excited for this race but… I had just finished working my last night shift of a stretch of nights that morning sooooo I was literally running on a couple of hours of sleep.  It was a cold and rainy/drizzly evening for this race, but I don’t mind running in the rain.  There was a really good turnout for the race despite the weather.  I was optimistic that the race wouldn’t be too hilly (there are some hills on either end of the park) but I was wrong.  The majority of the course was flat-ish/rolling but then there was this really steep part close to a mile in, and then after climbing that I thought I’d be going down the hill soon after WRONG.  I had to climb another small hill, run around a tower, and then I got to run down a hill, and then do the first part of the course again!  Overall, the course wasn’t the worst I’ve run, but after working a couple of nights in a row and not being my most rested it was very tough!  I’d recommend this race definitely!  The t-shirt that we got was a pretty cool design (it’s in the other room where my husband is sleeping, so I’ll try to remember to edit these posts later with pictures of the shirts when it’s daylight or when he’s not sleeping).

The race I ran about a week after Pierpont was at Cooper’s Rock just outside of Morgantown, WV.  If you’ve never been to Cooper’s Rock I highly recommend you go!  The overlook is beautiful and so scenic!  (I would suggest sometime when there’s more foliage, the fall is definitely gorgeous!  And I didn’t get to make it out there to take a pic to put on here… sorry!!)  This race was a 10K which is pretty hard to come by in this area and it was run mainly on the main road that runs from the entrance of the park to the overlook, the race is usually run on the last weekend in March since it’s the last weekend that the park is closed to traffic.  The weather wasn’t terrible that day, just really cold, especially up on a mountain top, so there was a really good turnout for the race.  Josh had just run (and placed 3rd overall) in a marathon the day before and had thought it would be a good idea to run this race.  Since he wasn’t totally feeling it that day he decided to run the race with little ol’ me!  It was so nice to run with him since we rarely run together anymore, it was also nice for me mentally to have someone to push me through.  I was optimistic about this race… until I started running it!

The course was rolling and hilly, 2 of the hills were SO steep it was crazy!!  I couldn’t have been happier to outsprint 2 girls in front of me (and my husband 😉 ) and be done with that race!!  I still recommend this race because it provides beautiful scenery and a challenging course, you can bet I’ll be back there next year!

Another post, finally!

Sooooo I’ve not posted anything since mid-march when I talked about my terrible eating habits.  I’m happy to report that my choices in food are much better than they used to be, but I’m not 100% where I want to eventually end up.  I’m much smarter about my choices but I definitely don’t deprive myself either.  I’m also trying new things!  Today I tried to make my own mayonnaise… I was SO excited!!  I got one of those stick blenders recently (for this particular occasion) and read up on all of the tips and tricks to make a good batch of mayo.  I got the consistency right which seems like the hard part for everyone to get (from what I read) but the taste is a bit off, I think this was due to the fact that I got “lighter” olive oil instead of “light” olive oil.  The instructions said to get light but all I could find was lighter and I just wanted to make the damn mayo already!!  I’ll try one more time, should I find the right olive oil, because I can make all kinds of dressings and sauces with this mayo as the base!

Enough about mayonnaise, I’ve been running races again and it’s finally gotten nice outside!!!!  I’m attempting to stay up late for night shift tomorrow and realized that I have been terrible about posting on here, so instead of writing one terribly long, boring, monotonous post about everything I decided that I’ll catch up on the basics and then write other posts about the races I’ve done.

I’m also still training for the Harper’s Ferry Half Marathon!  I’m very excited about this race!  Harper’s Ferry is such a neat place and the scenery is amazing!  My training has been going really well and so far I haven’t encountered any hiccups or injuries, my schedule has been erratic so I’ve had to do a lot of rearranging to fit in all of my runs but I have a feeling it’s going to pay off come race day!

My sister also recently got into running lately and decided to start a blog about all of the goings on down in Houston!  We have a goal race of running Rock n Roll San Antonio together this December!  Check out her blog here!

What have you all been up to lately?

Thanks for reading!!