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September 28, 2006
Avoiding germs
Yesterday I hiked about 45 minutes in the morning carrying Ryan in his front carrier and a backpack with about 15 pounds in it on my back, so I got a bit of a leg strength workout unintentionally. Which is good, since I have not been able to start my lifting routine like planned, since my husband is sick, so I guess next week will be the start for that instead. I just need to be flexible and do what I can to progess each week. Yesterday I also ran about 5 miles at the girls practice. Today, in line with my being flexible, I only ran a little bit of a warm up with the girls before their speed workout. Instead of cooling down and adding on some mileage, I talked with a couple of my injured girls about our plans for their training/racing. I was than running late to get Ryan, so I had to get going. When I got home I did get on the elliptical for 30 minutes and stretched before getting Ryan off to bed. So far so good on both of us avoiding all the germs in our house. Another day of good health and I will start to feel like we might make it. On that front, I should start heading towards bed.
Posted by Ann at 8:36 PM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2006
Sleeping all night
I am very excited to announce that Ryan has slept for about 9 straight hours the past 3 nights! That means that even spending a little time with my husband before heading to bed I have gotten 7 to 7.5 hours of sleep in a row. I feel so rested! Ryan was still a little sad about his shots yesterday, but seems to be back to his normal happy self today. I did take the little guy over to the YMCA child care yesterday morning. I did not want to leave the building since I was not sure how he would do, so I did 40 minutes on the ellptical and stretched for a while. In the afternoon I got 4 miles in at the cross country meet, but did not have time to add in any more, since it was my husbands birthday and I had to rush over to my in-laws house to join in their celebration. My husband is home sick today, so I am really hoping he keeps his germs to himself, since Ryan and I are both feeling good again finally (after his shots and my pelvis being out of place).
Posted by Ann at 7:27 AM | Comments (1)
September 25, 2006
So that is what was wrong...
I have not updated in a while, because I have been very frustrated with my running. The week before last was my first week of running where I started to feel good about where I was at, and than last week I barely ran at all. As I mentioned in my previous post I had food posioning on Monday and than my back which had started to really hurt over the weekend got worse. I did run every day, but only 2-4 miles because every step would send sharp pains up my back. It got to the point where it hurt all the time and any sort of twisting motion or bending over would send really strong sharp pains all through my lower back. I kept thinking it would just go away with some time and stretching, but I finally got in to see the doctor that helped me with my sciatic nerve pain during my pregnancy on Friday. He told me that I had jammed the left side of my pelvis up way higher than it should be in the car accident a few weeks ago and that is why things just kept getting worse since than. He did some painful manipulation things to my back and left leg and it starting feeling better right away. By the next day I still had a little soreness, but I could move normally and there were no more sharp pains. It is so nice to feel normal again. The down side is that last week I only ran 22 miles and did not do a long run or a speed workout.
Today I did 45 minutes on the elliptical in the morning while Ryan took a nice long nap. This afternoon I ran 4 miles with the girls I coach and did a good core workout when I got home. We were going to take Ryan to the YMCA daycare for the first time today, now that he is 2 months old and is allowed in there. However, he got his 2 month shots (4 of them!) today at his doctors appointment and has been really sad all day, so we decided to wait. I did find out that I am allowed to leave the building and run outside, so once we get him use to it, I should be able to run some mornings from there.
Posted by Ann at 7:01 PM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2006
Not much running to report
Sunday I took as a cross training day, since I had already gone over my miles for the week. I did 45 minutes on the elliptical trainer while my husband watched Ryan. It was nice not to have to worry about him waking up in the middle of the workout. Yesterday I was planning to run, but I ended up getting what I think was food posioning (possibly a stomach bug). I am feeling better today, but rather worn out. At the moment I am drinking tea and watching Ryan and wishing I had taken my husband up on staying home with us today.
Posted by Ann at 8:04 AM | Comments (0)
September 16, 2006
Something resembling a speed workout
Yesterday I ran 4.5 miles at my girls cross country meet, and did not add in any of my own running because my mileage was already adding up pretty fast for the week and I am trying to be reasonable about mileage increases from week to week. I ended up hitting 37 miles (instead of the planned 35 miles) after today's speed workout, so I think I will just add 1 mile and do the planned 38 miles next week.
Today I pushed Ryan over to the high school track in his jogging stroller for a warm up. I was not sure how this workout was going to go between how poorly my first attempts at anything fast have gone and the fact that I was not sure how long Ryan would let me sit his stroller on the side of track. It ended up going much better than expected, although I still have trouble accepting how much slower I am at everything. I was planning to do 6x800 at 3:15s in to prepare for my first post baby 5k in 2 weeks. The good news was I was able to run the workout just the way I wanted hitting 3:14, 3:09, 3:09. 3:08, 3:07, 3:04. I am not sure how this is going to translate into a 5k since this is my only full workout to base my race off, but at least I was able to run each one the same or faster even if it was really hard and Ryan slept through the whole thing. We jogged back together and I am at least feeling like I finally did something resembling a real speed workout.
Posted by Ann at 1:59 PM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2006
A real long run!
So after Tuesday's depressing and aborted attempt to run fast, I had a much more fun and encouraging running experience yesterday. I know many of you are training for marathons and doing 20+ mile long runs, but since I enjoy running 5k to 10 mile races at the moment I consider 10 miles to be the beginning of long run territory. And yesterday I finally ran the whole 10 miles that the cross country girls do for their long run. It was so much fun. I ran with 2 of my top varsity runners and we did this beautiful and very muddy trail loop and it felt so good to not have to cut if short. I may be far from getting my speed back, but at least my endurance is starting to come back. Today I have lifted weights while Ryan took a nap and plan to run 6 miles at practice this afternoon.
Posted by Ann at 12:18 PM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2006
An easy 7 miler
Yesterday I ran an easy 7 miles. I know that sounds like a normal thing to say, but I just have to say it one more time...I ran an easy 7 miles. I ran with the girls I coach and we did not run particularly fast, but we were going a decent pace, probably 8:30s at the beginning and 8:00s at the end, and I felt great for the whole thing. It was so much fun to just chat and enjoy running and not have to work so hard at it.
Afterward I came home and showered and fed Ryan. My parents came over to babysit so my husband and I could go out to celebrate what to the rest of the country is a day of national tragedy, and is otherwise known as my 29th birthday! Dave and I had dinner at a local restaurant and than we came back and picked up my parents and Ryan and went out for ice cream. Overall it was a very enjoyable birthday. I am glad that as I approach a new decade next year I am feeling very content with where I am at in my life and anyway who can worry about getting older when you still have to deal with people thinking you are in high school (I even got middle school once just 2 years ago, seriously).
Today I did an hour on the elliptical in the morning, although it took several attempts to get Ryan to let me do the workout. The first 20 minutes or so were broken up by many stops to switch Ryan's position or to rock him in his seat, but he finally fell asleep long enough for me to finish the workout, stretch and shower. It is amazing how much of a luxury I consider getting to take a shower right after a workout, now. At practice the girls were doing a speed workout and I timed all but the last interval. The girls really wanted me to run with them and I figured I could keep up even out of shape for 1200 meters. I hate to say I was wrong. I could run with all but the top 3, but I can't believe how fast sub-6 minute pace feels now! I had to take a short cut to get the front girls their times...sigh. I think I will blame it on the fact that I did not do a warm up beforehand, or I could just accept the fact that this is going to be a process of months not weeks getting back into shape...but denial is so much easier. I than ran another 5 miles with my top girl who needed to get some more mileage in, so I ended up enjoying myself in the end.
Posted by Ann at 9:33 PM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2006
The 7 hour flu?
Friday I ran 5 miles with the girls I coach mostly on their cross country course. Yesterday was the girls first cross country invitational of the season. It was raining really hard and the course had a lot of twisting muddy trails, so the time were pretty slow, but the girls ran really well. We took 1, 3, 4, 5, and 8th winning easily. I am excited too see the early season looking well because this is by far their best chance to win the State meet, since I graduate most of my top runners at the end of this year.
I ran about 4 miles at the meet and tacked on another 3 miles afterward to get my 7 miles for the day and 32 miles for the week. I have been feeling pretty good running this week, better than last week, so I am going to aim at another 3 mile increase to 35 miles next week. I also plan to do my second speed workout at some point when it fits in around the cc girls schedule.
Last night I had the weirdest sickness. About 6pm my legs started hurting so bad I could hardly make it up and down our stairs and I got the worst headache and was freezing cold. I had to stay up until I fed Ryan and put him to bed about 8:15, but than I collapsed into bed expecting to sleep so soundly. Instead my whole body hurt and I kept getting so hot I was sweating, but as soon as I pushing the covers back I was shaking with cold. I laid in bed until midnight not able to sleep. Finally I took an Ibuprofen (I am trying to avoid medicine since I am nursing, but I needed to get my fever down) and starting feeling a bit better and was able to fall asleep after Ryan's 1am feeding. By morning I was pretty much back to normal, so I guess it was the 7 hour flu? I am just glad not to be still sick going into this week. Today was my day off running anyway, but I decided not to cross train, just rest up. I ended up enjoying an hour long hike with my husband and Ryan in a carrier, and plan on holing up in our house for the rest of the day.
Posted by Ann at 3:23 PM | Comments (0)
September 7, 2006
"Long Run"
Yesterday I did my "long run" with the girls, although it is still not long enough for me to count as a real long run. My 7 miler felt pretty hard this weekend, so I was unsure if I wanted to try longer or not just a couple of days later. I was feeling good during the run and enjoying talking to my girls, so I decided to do 8 miles. I was tempted to go the whole 10 miles with them, but figured I would be pretty mad at myself on the way back, espesially since the whole route is hilly trails. I was tired the last mile or two, but overall 8 miles felt much better than my 7 miles last weekend, which made me happy.
This morning I got on my elliptical trainer for 30 minutes, which is how long I could get Ryan to play happily, although I did have to get off and move him to his bouncy seat half way through. I wanted to get that in since my girls were doing a workout at practice and I figured I would not get much running in. I was right and ended up doing just 3 miles and was not able to add on, since I was already running late to pick Ryan up.
I guess we are going car shopping this week. I got a call from our insurance agent and they are going to total the car from the accident, since it needed $4500 in repairs and that is about the value of the car. It is very frustrating because we just put some major money into repairing it just last week and car shopping is far from one of my favorite things to do. At least this waited to happen until after two a day practices were over.
Posted by Ann at 6:52 PM | Comments (0)
September 6, 2006
Running in the rain
Yesterday I ran 5 miles at the girls' practice with one of the varsity girls who was not feeling well. The rest of them did the 5 miles as a tempo run, we just ran it easy at right around 8 minute miles. I was pleased that it felt pretty easy to run at that pace yesterday. It poured rain during the middle of our run and I was reminded how much a cotton t-shirt can weigh when wet. I have not been quite ready to reveal my abs yet, at least around the high school girls. My stomach does not look too bad, but it is not flat like before at this point. This may have cured me of my vaniety though, since it was so annoying. I would like to spend a few more weeks doing crunches and lose a few more of the pregnancy pounds (I have about 15 pounds to get back where I was when in racing shape) before that though, so we will just have to see what the weather is like.
Posted by Ann at 9:52 AM | Comments (1)
September 4, 2006
My husband's home!
My husband got home from California late last night. It is so good to have him back, espesially since he has today off work for Labor Day. The only bad thing is I am really tired, because I stayed up late waiting for him to get home and several hours after he did, that Ryan needed to be fed 3 times in the night. Shortly after I got up I ran 4 miles on a very hilly route in 8:15s. The run itself did not feel bad, but my body is still feeling kind of beat up. My right hip, which I hurt a little over a year ago was a bit sore after my run, but that could just be soreness from the car accident, since that is the leg I was hitting the brakes as hard as I could with, when we crashed. It is still shocking to me how hard running easy distances and paces is. I have never taken this long off before plus the post pregnancy recovery...I guess I am going to have to take my build up even slower than planned. I can't stand the thought of getting hurt and having to stop running right now. I ran 29 miles last week and was planning on 32 this week. I am going to see how I feel as the week progresses and consider holding the same mileage from last week again this week. I know if I am just smart about this I will be back in racing shape by the late spring/summer races, so I just need to be patient and hang in there.
Posted by Ann at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)
September 3, 2006
Car accident
Well, Ryan and I had quite a weekend. Friday we met my mother at some trails to go walking in the late afternoon. On our way home we had a driver turn left onto the street I was driving on directly in front of my car. I hit the brakes as hard as I could, but there was no where near enough time to stop. I was so scared for Ryan, since he is only 6 weeks old. He has seemed fine since the accident, but it took me quite a while to stop being so worried that he was not okay and I just didn't know it yet. I am going to be so glad when my husband gets home late tonight from California, it will just make things seem so much better.
My neck is pretty sore from the accident, so I was glad that I had planned yesterday as my day off from running. I did do 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer and stretched, which made me a little sore, but I think loosened me up in the end. Today I did my "long run" of 7 miles. My parents were kind enough to come over and watch Ryan so I did not have to push him in his jogging stroller for that whole distance. I am quite amazed at how tired I get doing what should be so easy, espisally since I took it slow and ran 8:30s. At least I am progressing in my training, even if I am impatient to be further along sooner. I know I need to remember I have only been running again for 4 weeks and I took off 15 weeks after months of easy running while pregnant, but it still hard to wait to get back to what I consider out of shape.
Posted by Ann at 1:06 PM | Comments (0)
September 1, 2006
Just the two of us...
My husband left this morning for California to be in a friend's wedding, so Ryan and I are going to be on our own for the next 3 days. So far we are doing pretty good. I took Ryan running this morning in his jogging stroller over to the nearby high school track. Pushing him makes running harder, but it is kind of fun to have him looking at me and smiling while I run. He loves his jogging stroller, espsially during the small trail section we went on, since the ride is more bumpy and fun. While at the track I ran 2x1600 with 5 minutes in between (not pushing the stroller) at 6:38 and 6:43. I know I should be happy that I ran them faster than 7 minutes, since that was what I guessed I could do at this point, but I have to admit to still being a bit in shock that running that pace was actually quite hard. The good thing is that I got my first speed workout done and I should never do another workout that slow again.
Posted by Ann at 3:17 PM | Comments (0)