Oh How I Love Free Stuff!!

Just found out about this giveaway...thought someone else might be interested, too...

http://tallmomontherun.blogspot.com/2009/07/medal-to-wear-all-day-giveaway.html

Time Off

I'm still in limbo w/ my knee...the dr wants to rule out a bunch of things so I had an MRI on Thursday. He told me no running until I go back for the results. So, here I am on vacation and I can't run.

What I'm really worrying about is taking time off from my training and then trying to get caught up. By the time I go back to the dr. I will have had 2 weeks of no running and then face the possibility of even more time off. I have to try not to stress over it. The marathon is early though (Oct. 11) so that's not a lot of time. If it were November it would be a little easier to make up the lost time.

Well, that's my state of mind right now. Still enjoying our vacation with or without running.

Happy 4th of July!

Stupid Knee

I've had a rough week running. My knee has been bothering me more and more. This past week called for 3, 4, 3 & 5 miles. I am now only able to run about 2.5-3 miles before my knee starts hurting. (It's not really my knee, it's the muscle in back of my knee...it's just easier to say knee, that's all). I couldn't even make it through the 5 miler. I had to walk when I got to 3 which was very depressing.

So, I made an appt. to see a sports dr. I go see him on Tuesday which is great because I'm going on vacation on Thursday. I'm happy that I could get in before going away. I think I really just need to rest it for a week or so and give it a chance to heal. I don't think it's anything major at this point, but I do think I'm only aggravating it more by continuing to run on it.

I'm being super cautious by going to a doctor, but I want to take care of it before I get too far into my training. As it stands now, I'm probably still going to have to change around my training plan somewhat. The next 2 long runs are 9 & 10 miles and I just don't see that happening with the knee the way it feels now.

I'll try to post again after my dr. appt.

Popliteus

Yes, I learned a new word "popliteus". It's the muscle behind your knee. Thanks to the internet, I diagnosed the pain I've been having. It started last Saturday after my "long" run (haha - 6 miles isn't really a long run, but according to Hal Higdon's training plan it is). Anyway, I noticed it after I got done with that run. It didn't hurt at all during the run. By that night, I had an ice pack on it and was taking ibuprofen. By Monday morning, it felt fine. I ran 3 milers all week without any pain. Yesterday, I had to do a 7-miler and started feeling the pain around mile 5. Nothing too bad, but enough to be bothersome. So, now I'm getting a little worried being that I have 16 weeks of training ahead of me. I'm not sure how I'll deal with having an injury. That's not part of the plan! I'm doing the whole r.i.c.e. thing and hopefully that will help. I need to do some more research...Dr. Cindy will figure something out :-)

Here are a few pics of the Bronx Zoo...& Happy Father's Day!

Week 2 Marathon Training

So far marathon training has been easy. I know I won't be able to say that for too long so I'll enjoy these short runs and easy weeks while I have them. I keep feeling like I should be running more than what the plan calls for, but then I realize that I'll be doing that soon enough. For now, I'm building up my base (right?).

My husband went to a conference last week in Florida and while he was there he won a mini Dell Notebook in a raffle. The best part is he gave it to me! I finally got everything transferred from my desktop. One small glitch was something got messed up with iTunes. Every file is in there at least twice. Not sure what happened there, but I'll be working on that later tonight.

We set our two little turtles free over the weekend. It's warm enough where they should be able to survive...I have to admit that I was a bit sad letting them go. I felt really bad when I woke up to a storm Sunday night. Believe it or not, my first thought was of the turtles and how scared they probably were. I don't remember the last time we had such a bad storm. I didn't think I was that much of a softy, but I guess I am. It even crossed my mind to go and try to find them yesterday, but then i came to my senses :-)

It's the end of the school year....just one week left until the kids are done. We're going on a field trip to the Bronx Zoo on Friday. I haven't been there in so long that I don't even really remember it. I'll post some pics next week.

Wishing a happy early Father's Day to all you dads out there in the blogland...

Two Days Down

Well, I officially started my marathon training plan this week. I ran Monday & Tuesday. I'm going again tomorrow morning. I've been getting up and going very early - I'm out at 6 a.m. - yikes! I don't look forward to getting up that early, but I'm so glad when I'm done with my run and it's not even 7:00.

When I did my half marathon training plan last year, I picked up that plan about 1/3 of the way into it because I was already running more miles than what the plan called for. With me being sick recently and not being able to run for a few (2) weeks, I've decided to follow this training plan just the way it is. Even though prior to that I was running much more. It's hard to believe I only took 2 weeks off - it seems like it was more than that. I think it's because I was sick for SO long. I was running through most of it, but I always felt like garbage. Anyway, since I'm still easing back into my running, I thought this was a good way to do it.

This week it calls for 3 three miles runs and a long run of 6. Easy. Actually, the first month is pretty easy and that's just fine with me.

Well, it's already after 11:00 so I should get to bed. 5:30 will be here before I know it :-(

Garmin Fix

I figured out what keeps happening to my Garmin. It freezes while it's charging. Here's the fix: press the power, mode & lap buttons all at the same time, then release. Press power again and it should turn on. It really works!