Heat and a broken toe

Many things have conspired lately to keep me from the gym, chief among them are the heat and my toe.

It is blastedly hot here in NYC. Not only hot, but humid. Walking outside feels like wrapping yourself head to toe in hot wet towels. Just going about your day is exhausting. We have minimal A/C here in the apartment, so working out at home is right out of the question.

Even with the heat I was managed to get to the gym a few times last week, until on Saturday, while getting ready to go to a friends party, I kicked our scale while walking past it. We have one of those glass topped, square, scales. I kicked the corner of it with my second to last toe.

I swore a lot, sat down, and tried to put my shoe on. The act of putting on my shoe caused a nausea level pain to shoot through my body from my toe. There was more swearing, followed by a heated debate between me and my S.O. as to whether I was OK to go to the party. When I still couldn't put pressure on my foot half an hour later without loosing several shades of color, my S.O. called it, and spent the next two days making sure I was as immobile as possible by waiting on me constantly.

Having broken several toes several times, I am almost positive (as positive as I can be without an x-ray) that this toe is broken. So I'm doing the sensible thing, taping my toes together, splinting it, and staying off my feet as much as possible. This also means little to no exercise.

Today I'm going to attempt a return to the gym, but I'm going to stay away from running. I'm going to be demoted to either the bikes or the row machine. Both of which are far from my favorite machines. But hey, at least it's something.

Stupid toe.

Running in pants makes me hot.

Yesterday's run was educational. My normal workout clothes were all dirty, so I ran in my running pants, instead of the capris I normally wear. I was hot. The entire run that was all I could think about, how hot I was. By the end of the run I was drenched in sweat, and I felt like I had run faster and farther than I had. 3 miles at a 12:13 pace isn't great, but it was all I had in me.

After the run I did some Ab work, my Sensei Mark Specials, some cross crunches, some lying straight-leg raises, some knee crosses in Plank, and some strait leg raises in the captains chair. The machines were all full, so I grabbed some hand weights and did my old strength set of elbow curls/shoulder press and french presses. Nothing too amazing, I was only using 7.5 lbs.

It wasn't a stellar workout, but it wasn't that horrible. Unfortunately the 12:13 pace keeps that run from counting towards my "run faster" goal. I'm now one run behind my target to hit an average 11:00 pace by 7/9. Hopefully the next couple of runs will pick that pace back up.

Keeping myself moving.

Yesterday I did a proper run, and got myself back on track. This weekend did not go well, fitness wise. After walking around a bunch on Friday, I stepped funny walking home from the train, and then spent the next two days nursing my knee back to health. It frustrates me to no end that still, years after the injury, one bad step can cause me to loose almost complete mobility. To that end I have decided that I need to strengthen the muscles supporting my knee. I've grabbed a bunch of exercises and found a workout DVD I want to get (Strong Knees by Gaiam), and once I get health insurance again, I'm going to try to get in to see a sports medicine doctor about some serious PT.

Anyways, trials of the weekend aside, yesterday I got myself back on track at the gym. I've set myself up with a bunch of goals on the Nike+ site, one of which is to run faster. That is, according to the goal, to run a 11:00/mi on average by 7/9. I knocked one run off the total requisite 5 under pace yesterday, clocking a 10:51 pace for a little over 3 miles.

I've noticed a distinct lack of motivation in myself lately. I'm not sure what is causing it, all I know is that it's been increasingly difficult to convince myself that working out is a good idea. I think I may be bored, or maybe it's the lack of a 'goal' like the 5k. I suppose I'm not doing too badly overcoming it, since other than the weekend of immobility, the past week was a decent week workout wise. I just wish it didn't feel so difficult to get myself to the gym!

Realizing progress.

I suppose a proper post is in order. I've been horribly lax since the Lilac 5k about updating. That week, after the Lilac 5k, I went on a bunch of runs with friends up in Rochester. It was great to run with a people, and to have that motivation around when I felt like just skipping a run.

It got tough again when we got back to NYC. We got in really late on Monday night, and ended up taking the following Tuesday and Wednesday to recover and get settled back into the routine. That Thursday, I was starting to develop some sort of post-nasal drip nastiness, but forced myself to go to the gym. I did a tough 30 minute run, only keeping a 12:35 pace, and then did a full strength set to make up for the slow run.

The next three days the sickness was on full force and I coughed and snotted my way through in a haze of NyQuil and DayQuil. By Sunday I was starting to feel better, but wanted to give myself that extra day to make sure I didn't tip myself back into sickness.

Monday's run was awesome. One of those runs where you barely feel the effort, where you run faster than before and feel you could run faster still. I ran 3 miles at a 10:54 pace, and still had enough energy left in the tank to do a full strength session afterward.

Wednesday's run was the opposite. My left calf was bugging me before I even stepped on the treadmill. I paid for every step. I tried to keep my pace up, but ended up barely being able to push through 2 miles. It was a completely frustrating run, especially following Monday's. I did a full strength set minus the ab work afterward, and went home feeling depressed and discouraged.

Today I'm feeling a little better about it. I waited till today to post to let myself get a little distance and perspective, to keep this post from being all doom and gloom. Today I can look at it as: I went, even though I didn't want to. I ran 2 miles on a bad day where once I would barely have hit one. I kept my pace at a respectable 11:15, where once I couldn't crack a 12 min/mile.

This is progress. Hard won, small steps. I am also weighing in below 155 again. Today the scale told me 153.3. The graph of my weigh ins shows a distinct downward slope. I'm refocusing on my goals. I'm keeping better track of my caloric intake than I was before the Race, when my focus was squarely on finishing the Race.

I've set new goals on my Nike+ site. Run 10 times by 7/7, Run 30 miles by 7/7, and average an 11 min/mile by 7/9. I've been toying with the idea of starting one of their training plans, but I think I'll wait until after my friends wedding on the 19th. I think it'll help me to have a specific goal for each workout.

Quick Update!

Oh man I need to update! Life has been so busy lately. After the 5k, I rested for a couple days, then went on a couple shorter runs with everyone. It was so hot! I don't do well running in the heat, but I suppose it's something I'll get better at.

My nike+ system just told me I've reached Orange level now! that means I've run more than 30 miles since I got the arm band. Woo!

I'll post a more comprehensive update later...right now I'm battling a bit of a cold or something and am rather fuzzy headed.

Medved Lilac 5k 2010!

I did it! I ran an actual race, and finished with a PR!

The race was early, well early for me, with a start time of 8am. This meant I was up by 6 and out the door by 6:30 to meet up with my race buddies at 7. We had quite a pack, My usual Running Buddy, her recent training partner (who's done marathons before!), a friend of mine from college, his 6 months pregnant wife, and me.

I was super nervous before the race. This was my first race, EVER, so I had very little idea of what to expect. Also, I've been running at a relatively slow pace, around 12 minute miles, compared to my Running Buddy's close to 10 min miles, so I was worried about keeping up.

We headed up to the corral, with our two spectators in tow: My running buddy's Hubby (who happens to be my S.O.'s brother) and the marathoner's boyfriend (who is *also* a friend of my S.O.'s family - everyone knows everyone up here!) They both had cameras in tow, so we hammed it up pre-race.

Then it was go time. It was weird because I don't remember a starting gun or announcement, just everyone started moving slowly forward. The mob picked up pace and I fell into step behind my Running Buddy. We got separated from my college friend and his wife rather quickly by the crowd. I've never run in a pack that dense before, it was odd. It's hard to tell exactly how fast you're running until the pack starts to stretch out.

The group of us: My running buddy, the marathoner, and me, spent the first mile dodging around slower runners, and generally keeping a fast 10 min mile pace. I felt good, but it was a slight downhill, and I was still worried about how I'd handle the last part of the race.

Close to mile two we passed a friend of ours, who is a super awesome runner, but who was currently out of commission due to a pulled muscle in her hip. She was helping mark the course, she saw and recognized my running buddy and cheered us on as we passed.

Halfway through the course we turned into the uphill. It wasn't a huge hill, but by then it was incredibility muggy out, something I have never dealt with before. I was finding it hard to breathe, and by the time we were near the top of the hill, I found myself gagging and coughing, close to tossing all over the road. Someone who was running by me slowed down to ask if I was ok, and I tried to smile and nod, but I hope they didn't think i was being rude, I was just concentrating so hard on not throwing up.

I was still keeping pace with my Running Buddy, although our Marathoner friend had taken off somewhere near the bottom of the hill. Both of us called a surrender at the top of the hill to learn how to breathe again. I walked for about 30 seconds before deciding I was ok to run again.

I remember thinking the whole race "this isn't that far, this shouldn't be this hard" but each breath felt like it was half water, and I just couldn't seem to fill my lungs. It was tortuous by the end.

When we got to the big flags that had marked the starting line, I realized that we still hadn't crossed the finish line. I turned to my running buddy and said (rather loudly) "Where the F*%k's the finish line?!" Only to spot it a few seconds later a little way further down the road.

Pushing through the finish line took everything I had left in me, which you can see in these two pictures of me and my Running Buddy crossing the finish (Yeah my sunglasses are fly, I know ^_^)


I got our official results this morning: we crossed the finish line with an official time of 33:26, which gave us a pace of 10:47. That is by far a PR for me. I finished 56 in my age group (30-35 for those who care) out of 107, and 714 overall out of a pack of 1079. I can officially say now that I am a mid-pack runner ^_^

After meeting up with my parents, who had watched the race but hadn't seen me pass, we regrouped, and headed to get some food at a local diner. There was much talk about a half marathon that may or may not be in the cards for me in October, and much good food and camaraderie.

It was awesome hanging out and just enjoying the fact that we had just achieved a goal we'd been working towards for months.

A few more runs

Did a couple runs since my last update. I actually got out and ran on Saturday in Prospect Park. We did the loop, with the hill near the end, and then tacked on an extra 1/4 mile for good measure. I started out feeling sluggish, almost like I wasn't going to be able to finish the run, then about halfway through I hit my stride. The hill felt a lot easier, and I kept the pace up even through the "bonus round."

Sunday we walked around the park, but other than that I took the day off. Monday I did Self's "Slim and Sleek Fast" video, which didn't feel like a ton of work when I was doing it, but man was I sore the next day.

Yesterday, we hit the gym. I had an amazing run, which I had to cut short because of the 30 minute time limit when the gym is full. I pushed it a bit, till I hit 3 miles and then a short cool down walk, but no one called me on it so it's all good. After the run I did some ab work and some strength training. Enough that I'm pleasantly sore this morning.

We're getting down to the wire here. Only one more run on the schedule before Race Day.