A foot follow up

Well, I went to the podiatrist again today and the good news is that nothing's wrong with my Achilles, which is what I was worried about. He's still convinced it's plantar fasciitis and that it's treatable. Since I've already gotten the custom orthotics and have done a round of anti-inflammatories, he suggested either a cortisone injection or physical therapy 3 days/week for 3 weeks (minimum). I'll be the first to say that I'm a gigantic baby when it comes to shots...I will cry and beg doctors to not give them to me. But that's the route I went. I just can't see struggling with this for at least another 3 weeks when I can take the next 5 days off and then feel better.

The injection was a bitch and I'm glad it's over. My foot's been numb all night and it's terrible to walk on, but it should feel better tomorrow (numbing-wise...it may be a little more painful than normal). I hope this is all that I need. I'm not sure I can keep going with this.

Race Report - Up and Running 5k...and a little extra

So I ran the second race in Fleet Feet Albuquerque's Gran Prix 5k series. This one was familiar but a little different. The race was on the Bosque bike trail starting at the Alameda Open Space, where I generally run since it's so close to home. This one started up on the bridge though, over the river, went down under Alameda and continued a little passed Paseo before turning around and going back...very familiar for the most part, except for the giant, steep hill around Mile 3. It's not a long hill, but it's very steep.

Overall it was a great race, complete with lots of friends. It was freezing cold with a headwind all the way through the turn around, complete with a little snow (or ice...one flake hurt when it smacked me in the lip). I finished in 41:09 and I was thrilled with it considering I haven't had time to run during the week BUT I managed to run the entire thing without stopping. This is one of my goals for the year - I really want to get better at running further without walk breaks. I still plan on taking walk breaks for Chicago, but if I can make it through a half without stopping, I'll be elated.

In other news, I had a 6 mile training run yesterday, which I was a little nervous for. Again, I haven't had the time to run as much as I should and I honestly haven't run that far since NYC. Not only did I make the 6 miles without dying, it was the fastest I've ever run that distance. I went in with a plan though. I ran the first and last miles as slow as I wanted (13:30 pace for the first mile) and then each of the middle miles faster than the one before. So, for Mile 2 I had to keep it below 13:00 pace, Mile 3 was below 12:50 pace, Mile 4 was below 12:45 pace and Mile 5 had to be below 12:40 pace...the exciting part was that I never saw my watch go above 12:20 on Mile 5. Yeah, I know that's crawling for some people, but I was blown away. Overall I finished in 1:17:25...before that my fastest was 1:20. I'm glad I set up my watch to show my current pace, so I'm going to see if I can keep this going.

Not much else is going on. Work's been nuts, but it should have calmed down over the weekend. I have an appt with the podiatrist tomorrow because my foot isn't getting any better - actually my Achilles is starting to bother me now and I'm getting a little worried about it. Maybe it wasn't PF after all. I'll update once I get some answers from the doc tomorrow. The permits have been pulled for the new house and the foundation will be started tomorrow. I can't wait to see our new home come up from the ground (literally)! I'll be back with pictures once we get some dirt moved around. :)

Talk about slacking off...

So, it's probably been about a month since I've had anything to say and it has been a CRAZY month. Not too much to report on the fitness-side of things. With my crazy work schedule lately, it's been hard to get out during the week. Luckily all that is slowing down and I should be able to get back into a good routine this week. I have a 5k tomorrow morning and I'll be doing a 2 mile "warm up" before that to make up for missing today's run...

And I missed today's run because the hubs and I are in the process of building a new house! I can't believe it! We initially bought our condo thinking we'd be here for about 2-3 years and then either move into a bigger house or possibly move out of state...4 1/2 years later we finally decided to take the plunge. It helps a lot that a couple of our best friends will be living 2 houses away from us and that we have several other friends building on the same street. We listed the condo a week ago and have had 4 showings (3 were the same couple) but no offers yet. I'm a little nervous about selling the condo before closing on the new house (yes, I realize this may be the dumbest thing I've ever done) but it'll all work out. So, we signed the contract for the new houseon Thursday and we're expected to get started the end of this coming week...closing will be the end of June to mid-July!

And this is where our new home will be (eventually):

And here's me and the hubs chillin' at the lot last weekend:

I'll be back tomorrow with a race report!

Here We Go Again

So my laziness is finally catching up to me and I've decided that I'd better re-join my running group this year if I don't want to sit around and watch my ass spread even larger. I haven't actually registered yet, thanks to 11-13 hour days at work, but I'll be there bright and early Saturday morning to register and get my 3 miles in. I've still been able to get out on the weekends, but it's the weekly runs that are hard (see above re: 11-13 hour work days). Maybe once I spend some money it'll motivate me to juggle my schedule around a bit. And one of my co-worker friends is joining too so that'll probably help.

I'm considering a gym membership too. I will not run on a treadmill - seriously, if my life depended on it, I'd probably choose death - but it'd be nice to have a yoga class and a pool available if/when I want them. I'm trying to decide between two gyms right now...a pricey, very nice gym with one location a 5 minute walk from my office and another location on my way home from work (and about a 5 minute drive from home) OR a not-so-pricey, not-so-nice gym with more convenient group class times, still on my way home from work (about a 10 minute drive from my house) and no where near my office. Ugh, the decision making process kills me. Thus, the whole plan has been tabled for at least another few days.

So yeah, not much else to add considering my laziness has taken over. Hopefully more to report on Saturday after my first No Boundaries meeting of 2010.

A Late Race Report - Run to Resolve 5k

I ran this 5k a few weeks ago and just never got around to updating my blog. My local running shop, Fleet Feet Albuquerque, has a Gran Prix going this year - a race per month. The Run to Resolve 5k was the kick off to the Gran Prix and my first race of 2010. It was held in a weird area, starting at the soccer fields right next to Journal Pavilion and then wound its way through a cross country trail. The course was a little challenging with some up and down hills and some off-road terrain, but it was nice and different from the usual race. Like everything Fleet Feet does, it was well-organized and fun. It was a small group, about 50 people total, but it was a nice change compared to my last two races (the Turkey Trek, also sponsored by Fleet Feet, and the NYC Marathon). I was impressed, though not surprised, and will be participating in as many of the races as possible this year.

Also, last weekend a couple of my friends, Cindy and Denise, participated in the Goofy Challenge at Disney World. For those of you not in the know, the Goofy Challenge is a half marathon on Saturday and a full marathon on Sunday. Making the whole thing even more impressive is the fact that this was Denise's very first full marathon. Congrats to them!

Running-wise, things have been a little slow around here. Work has been crazy with year-end stuff going on but we're hoping to get all of that wrapped up by mid-February and to get back on a decent schedule. I'm considering re-joining my running group for their spring session this year. I was dead-set on not joining this year (at all), but now I'm having second thoughts. I do better when I have structure, and even though I've found that I enjoy running alone more than with a group, I think that having a group environment is helpful for me. I'm going to talk to a few people and get some more opinions before making a concrete decision though.

Welcome, 2010

All right, here we go...the start of a new decade. I think I'm looking forward to this. Don't get me wrong, 2009 was a good year, but I'm glad to see it go and to move on to the fresh, new year.

Anyone who knows me half-way decently knows that I'm not one for New Years resolutions. I don't understand the point of waiting till a specific date to start bettering yourself. What's wrong with today, right now, this very second? As for bettering myself, I've already come up with a few ideas. Some have been put into place, some will begin when the time is right.

- I'm going to take my training for Chicago seriously. I won't have my exam this year (!!), so that really should make it a lot easier, time-wise/stress-wise. This will be my "big" race of the year. Nothing else will really matter.

- That said, if I don't make another race because of Chicago training, that's okay. I'm not going to let myself get upset over. Which leads to...

- I'm not going to let my friends influence me so much. If I don't feel like doing something, I'm not going to do it. They're an amazing group of people and I know they won't be "mad" if I don't follow along with whatever they do...now I just need to act on that and get over this feeling of letting them down.

- I really need to carve out some more "me" time, which includes "me and the hubs" time. Between my exam and his school/work schedules, we haven't seen a lot of each other over the past year and a half.

Happy New Year to everyone! I'll be kicking it off with a bang tomorrow (the 3rd) with a 5k and continuing with some of that "me and the hubs" time while we really get into some home projects. Hope everyone has a great 2010!

Neglect

I've been letting a lot of things go lately...I'm not sure it's necessarily a bad thing, just different. Firstly, I haven't written in a while, but it's not like that's new. There just hasn't been much to say. But really, I haven't been running much. It took me a long time to wrap my mind around it and to be okay with it (and I'm not really sure I'm "okay" with it yet), but I think I'm burnt out. For anyone who's been reading my ramblings since Day 1 - or for those of you who's known me this whole journey - it's not unusual for me go through phases where "I love this!" or "I hate this!" with running. I'm not loving OR hating it right now. I just don't wanna. And when I don't wanna, I won't. I'm all about good intentions, and every weekend I'll have something planned out, but the majority of the time something better pops up (shopping, cleaning, movies...yes, you really did read "cleaning" in there). I thought for sure that after I finished my exam I'd jump wholeheartedly into running, but nope, it didn't happen. Instead, I just want a break.

I think I need something new. I still plan to run Chicago in October, so as much as I'd love spend the next decade sitting on the couch, I can't. I want to really investigate this bikram yoga thing, so I think I'm going to go that direction. And like I said, Chicago is still on the calendar, so I can't stop running altogether...I'm going to send out a couple of emails after I'm done rambling here to see what I can do to keep moving without wanting to cry at the mere thought of it.

I feel better though, coming to this conclusion. I didn't do it alone...it came through the words of one of my greatest friends. As usual, she (and everyone else) had asked me if I was meeting up to run on Saturday morning and I finally just told her everything I'd been thinking. And all she said was "It's okay." And you know what? It really is. All the pressure to go go go go go went away...and just because everyone else is doing it, I don't have to.

And now that the pressure is gone, I was able to go out and do a 3 mile run this morning. Without a watch. Completely pressure-free.