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February 28, 2006

I am Really Sick

Today's "training" entailed the following:

1) 3 hours of extra sleep
2) 2 hours reading in bed
3) 2 hours watching tv while laying on couch

This was all preceded by me getting up at my normal time of 4:45 am, feeding the dog, packing my lunch, taking a shower and stretching some and then realizing in all honestly that I felt like COMPLETE AND UTTER CRAP. My ears hurt, my head hurt, my throat hurt and bad stuff was coming out of my nose. I decided I should call into work and tell them I wasn't coming. And then I crawled back into bed with Roxy and we did some training. :)

I only got out of bed (for the tv watching) because I was hungry for lunch. I tried to talk Roxy into getting it for me but I wasn't confident in her ability to deliver - I trust that she could get into the refrigerator for food, but not so much that she would bring it back uneaten.

The good news is, I'm feeling better now, at least somewhat. I briefly considered driving over to the YMCA for some light ellipticalling but decided against it. If I'm going to take a day off I might as well take a day off and get better. I have to go to work tomorrow because I have class at night in which we are taking our mid-term. So today is my chance to heal. It would appear that today is also my chance to study for said mid-term, but that would require some motivation. Afterall, I think Law and Order is on next...

Posted by beth at 1:29 PM | Comments (3)

February 27, 2006

I am Sick

Not that you didn't already know that from my whining yesterday.

I felt okay at times today but probably overall worse than yesterday. It came and went but it's now at the stage where I can't breathe and I can't hear. Fun. And I'm still not convinced that I didn't catch TB from that patient yesterday... :)

Anyway, I really wanted to run after work today so I went to the trail. It was snowing and blowing but actually not that cold. I ran out for 28 minutes and came back (in around 7:35-7:45 pace) in 27 minutes. Oddly enough my cold didn't bother me much but my stomach was definitely protesting. I felt hungry right before I left so I ate a granola bar (something that wouldn't usually bother me), that I then felt for all 55 minutes of my run. Yuck. The good news is I ate chili for dinner (not an upset-tummy kind of meal) and things were fine.

I usually lift on Mondays but I wasn't sure if I wanted to partake in such a venture when not feeling too well. The YMCA is right on the way on the drive home though so I stopped and then did my full lifting routine just cause. It was probably one step too far because I felt pretty tired, worn out and stuffy again afterwards. Oh well, too late to go back now.

I'm thinking I'm going to go to bed soon. Rest and vitamin C do a body good! :)

Posted by beth at 8:13 PM | Comments (1)

February 26, 2006

Fire Cough

My fire cough seems to continue to stick around despite my best attempts to make it go away. I also now have congestion in my head. O told me I sounded like a smoker today. Yuck. There's no habit worse to me in this world than smoking (okay, I can think of a few, but I *really* detest smoking). And to top it all off I had to go see a patient with tuberculosis today (the kind that is highly contagious such that the patient is in a special room and you have to wear a special mask if you are going to be around them). I usually don't mind patients with infectious diseases but TB is one I just do not care for. I always feel like I have it when I leave - totally irrational yes, but nonetheless my fear. Anyway, despite all this I really don't feel that bad - I just don't want things to get worse.

After work today I headed to the Pitt gym for some biking and ellipticalling. I did each for 30 minutes, did my core exercises and then headed home. While I was working out the USATF indoor championships were on TV so that was a nice treat. They didn't show any distance races but what can you expect? Besides the 1500 and 3000 were both yesterday anyway.

And now I've been looking up results from all the indoor conference championships and trying desperately to avoid starting my studying. I was very proud of myself for studying for about an hour and a half last night. I really don't understand why studying is so hard for me now - I didn't have this trouble so much when I was an undergrad. O tells me it's because I'm not longer a student first, but rather have other things higher on the priority list. Whatever the reason, you would think I was getting my teeth pulled every time I have to open my notes/book! The good news is, after this class I only have 3 more classes to take and then the rest of my credits are for doing my thesis - not that I'll like doing that much more... Such is life of the unwilling student! :)

Posted by beth at 6:47 PM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2006

One of Those Days...

...where I'm not going to be able to think of a title. At all.

This morning I woke up quite congested. It only feels like the congestion is in my chest. When I cough I feel like my throat is on fire (very nice I know), but otherwise I feel fine. Let's hope it stays that way.

O and I headed to the YMCA around 8 am for me to swim and him to lift/play basketball/practice pitching and for both of us to take a spinning class. I wasn't set on the spinning class if I started to feel worse though.

I did the following workout in the pool (one I've done once before):

300 yd easy/200 yd kick easy

3 sets of:

50 on 1
100 on 2
200 on 4:30
100 on 2
50 on 1
200 on 4:30

300 yd kick easy/200 yd easy for a total of 3100 yds, 2100 yds hard

I've been feeling pretty good about my swimming lately. I know I don't have the best form and I'm certainly not the fastest (and I don't really know how to do any other strokes than freestyle), but I feel like I'll be able to hold my own in a triathlon. I won't be first out of the water but I won't be last. I'm not worried about drowning - or at least I wasn't worried about drowning until I read this. MUST PRACTICE OPEN WATER SWIMMING! And I'm not going to have a wet suit so I feel as if the cold-water-I-can't-breathe-I'm-going-to-die feeling is going to be even worse. And why exactly did I want to try this thing called triathlon? :)

Regardless, after my swim this morning I felt good enough to go for the spinning class. This particular spinning instructor is kind of on the lame side - she doesn't do much (you could go for 2 or 3 songs just humming along doing the same thing) and I find my mind wandering, not at all paying attention to the task at hand. That would usually annoy me but today I think it was just right because (a) I wasn't feeling 100% with my fire cough, (b) this was my first spinning class since my knee got mad at me and I wanted to take it easy on it and (c) the swim workout was long for me and I was tired.

And now I have to either finish cleaning the house or study for my mid-term on Wednesday. Neither is a very appealing option so in this case one would clearly choose option C - take a nap! :)

Summary for the week:

Sunday - core and feet exercises only
Monday - 50 minute run and weights (arms only)
Tuesday - 45 min bike and core/feet exercises
Wednesday - weight only (both arms and legs)
Thursday - 55 minute run
Friday - 2500 yd swim w/550 yd time trial (UGH!) and 4x50 yd hard/4x50 yd kick hard, 2x25 pushups and 2x100 crunchups
Saturday - 3100 yd swim w/3x(50/100/200/100/50/200), 1 hour spinning, core/feet exercises

Posted by beth at 1:05 PM | Comments (0)

February 24, 2006

Botched Time Trial

So I went to the pool this morning before work with the intention of partaking in another 600 yd time trial. Turns out I don't know how to count though. What's up with that?

I started with my normal warmup, 400 yd easy, 200 yd kick easy, 200 yd easy. And then I started my watch and the 600 yds hard. Somewhere along the way I lost count of my laps though because when I finished what I thought was 600 yds, my watch read 8:43 - which certainly couldn't have been right considering my previous two time trials at this distance have been 9:52 and 9:51. It seemed obvious to me that I still needed another 50 yds - but I didn't really figure that out until about 10 seconds later when it was really kind of pointless to hurry up and sprint another 50 yds to make things right. Bugger. It's not a big deal at all but I was really annoyed with myself because assuming it would have taken me a maximum 50 seconds (and possibly less) to swim that extra 50, I would have had a big PR - maybe around a 9:33?! Double bugger!

After my botched time trial I swam an easy 100 yds during which I contemplated swimming another 600 yd time trial. It was a dumb idea though which I realized after about 1 minute. I can always do another time trial in a week or two. I did do 8x50 yd hard (4 of them swimming, 4 of them kickboard, 10 seconds rest) instead of 6 repeats to make up for my lost distance. I cooled down with another 300 yd easy, 200 yd kick easy, 200 yd easy to total up 2500 yds. And then I took me and my scattered brain home. :)

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Posted by beth at 4:06 PM | Comments (1)

February 23, 2006

Early Morning Jaunt

O and I are meeting a friend for dinner tonight down near where I work so I decided to run in the morning before work, go in later and therefore avoid coming all the way home, only to turn back around and leave for dinner. It was a very good plan but I will say it's been a LONG time since I've run that early. It's at least been since September when we moved into our house because it occured to me that I wasn't even sure there was street lights in our area! What's up with that?!

Turns out there were street lights though, and the weather wasn't too bad (around 30 degrees) and Roxy and O came with me for about 1/2 of the run - an all around good time! I ran for a total of 55 minutes and felt pretty good. I will always maintain that running early in the morning is the best time to run (especially in the summer!). Not always the best time to perform, but the best time to run...

And now I'm sitting at work and trying to think of things to do. I am in the midst of an unusually unbusy day. Weird. But I'm not complaining. I am really wishing I would have brought my notes from class so I could be studying for our upcoming mid-term!

Posted by beth at 3:09 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2006

Just a Lift

I had planned on taking today totally off even though I don't have class tonight just to stay in the routine and not get my days out of wack. I realized though that tomorrow I'm not going to have time to both lift and run (since we are meeting a friend for dinner) so I decided to do just the lifting today and just the running tomorrow. Good compromise.

I lifted both arms and legs. I was worried about things like lunges with my knee but it seemed to handle them just fine. I have no doubt that I'm going to be sore tomorrow from doing leg exercises that I haven't done for about 10 days, but there's just no getting around that. Lunges make me sore everytime I do them! :)

And now it's almost time to leave for Roxy's graduation! O and I are such proud parents. We are even taking our camera... :) Have a great night everyone!

Posted by beth at 5:04 PM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2006

Back to Biking

I returned to the Pitt gym today after work to bike a little. I haven't biked since my knee started acting up as I suspected biking as the primary source of pain. I chose to do the stationary bike today instead of a spinning class so I would have more control and could stop after 10 minutes if it hurt.

I rode for 45 minutes with 3x5 minutes of increased resistance. My knee felt pretty good until about the last 5 minutes when it started to ache a little. I'm not overly worried because now several hours later it doesn't seem to be much worse for the wear. I also did my core and feet exercises tonight.

Nothing much else going on. I can't believe it's going to be Wednesday tomorrow already. I highly recommend taking all Monday's off - makes the week fly by! I don't have class tomorrow night either which is a nice treat. It's perfect timing because Roxy graduates from school tomorrow and I can now attend the ceremonies and take pictures as she gets her diploma! :)

Posted by beth at 7:22 PM | Comments (3)

February 20, 2006

Homework Break

Last night we couldn't find Roxy until we discovered her curled up on our bed, nestled between the pillows in a little round ball. Cute. We took pictures and now I'm posting them on my blog as a homework break.

Posted by beth at 5:43 PM | Comments (0)

Joy!

As I expected I've been having quite the joyful day since O and I are both off from work. Perhaps the key to finding joy in life is quitting one's job? :)

This morning I had a good run. It was cold, around 18 degrees and maybe more like 12 or 13 degrees on the trail by the river, but bright and sunny. It looks like summer outside if you look out the window. Anyway, I drove to the trail and ran 50 minutes. I ran out for 25:30, hitting the 3 mile mark in exactly 24 minutes. I told myself I should aim to get all the way back to the start in the remaining 23 minutes I had left once I got back to the 3 mile to go sign. I didn't really start running harder per se, but I was finally warmed up at that point and just naturally picked up the pace. When I had one mile to go I only had 7:25 left to complete that mile. I thought there was only a slim chance that I would be able to run that fast but I decided I'd try. I went 5 seconds over to finish with a 7:30, which is pretty pathetic in and of itself, but is a step forward for me so I can't complain. My feet feel about the same as always and my knee, although a little sore, isn't getting any worse.

After the run I stopped at the YMCA to lift. I still only lifted with my arms, but decided that I would lift again with my legs on Thursday if my knee was still behaving itself.

After all that, icing, showering and stretching, O and I walked to Pizza Hut for their lunch buffet. This has to be O's all-time favorite meal choice - all the pizza you can eat for $5! The walk was only about 20 minutes each way. It was a nice day to walk over because the sun is shining so brightly, and by lunch, it had warmed up to around 30 degrees.

The bad news for the day came when we went to pick up our car from the shop. It needed a 60,000 mile checkup which apparently entails a lot, including new rotors, brake pads, tires, and a whole bunch of other "stuff", all to the tune of $1111.07. Yes, that's right, there are four 1's there! ARGH! Good thing for tax returns! :)

And now I must do the homework that I've been putting off for 2 days. We actually have exams in this class (most of my grad classes up to this point haven't entailed exams) and our mid-term is coming up. There is a strong possibility that I might need a nap first though - just to ensure my head is thinking clearly and I can maximize my studying capacity! HA!

Posted by beth at 3:06 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2006

The Discipline of Joy

I don't have much physical activity to report on. Despite the fact that my knee continues to feel pretty good, I decided to take the day off today so as to give it a rest (which never hurts my feet either). I had determined last Thursday that I would take today off if I could swim Friday and Saturday, so the decision had been made a while ago. It wasn't that hard to stick to it this morning though when it was 5 degrees with a -4 windchill. Of course it felt that cold in our house too so I'm not too sure going outside would have been much worse. And to think my family actually had the gall to complain about how "cold" the weather was in South Carolina - all the way down into the high 40s! Awful! (although it's entirely likely someone in Minnesota or Montana could be reading this post and wondering why in the world I would complain about 5 degrees above :) Anyway, I did my core and feet exercises (inside!) and called it a day. Tomorrow I plan on a 50 minute run.

Regardless, I thought I would mention something I found very interesting in the Bible study O and I went to tonight. The series we have just started is all about "spiritual disciplines", things like fellowship and worship, reading the Bible, prayer, tithing, fasting, etc... But tonight's spiritual discipline was "joy". It doesn't seem like joy is something we should have to work at and practice, but after tonight, I think I realized it is. Just speaking for myself, I can say (with some regret) that I often find myself going through the day with the goal of crossing things off "the list". It's the "get this over with so I can move onto the next thing" type of attitude, both at work and at home and even sometimes when I'm working out. Of course sometimes there is drudergy in life, but if I think about it, more often I'm working at "getting through things" instead of really enjoying things, no matter what that thing is. What an awful attitude! Life will pass me by while I trying to cross things off my to do list! Anyway, it was a nice little reminder to enjoy life and find joy in all the little things we must do. If I had to guess, I'd say only 5% of our lives is spent doing things like vacation and "fun stuff" while the other 95% of our lives is the "daily grind". If we don't enjoy that daily grind and find joy in it, I'd say we'll be pretty miserable people! So my goal this week is to find joy in all I do, even doing the laundry and lifting weights and on Friday at 3 pm at work, knowing that we are too richly blessed not to enjoy life. I suspect my project will get off to a good start tomorrow because O has the day off work and I took a vacation day. Even I can find joy in that. :)

Posted by beth at 9:56 PM | Comments (2)

February 18, 2006

More Swimming

My knee didn't seem to mind the swimming yesterday so I headed back over this morning for another workout.

3000 yd total/1800 yd hard

400 yd easy/200 yd kick easy/200 yd easy

6 sets of 100 yd, 4x50 yd w/10 sec rest between intervals and 1:30 rest between sets

200 yd kick easy/200 yd easy

Now my arms are tired. I was trying to swim at least one of the 100's in 1:30 but kept doing 1:32-1:35. Finally on the last I did a 1:29! Yippeee! It makes me want to learn how to do flip turns so I could swim faster, although I know that's probably not a worthy way to spend training time because all (except 1) triathlon I'm considering doing this summer have swims in open water. No need for flip turns in the ocean if you know what I mean.

As of now I'm icing my body down with frozen vegetables. Perhaps I could get a Green Giant sponsorship? ;)

And in about an hour I am going to leave for a baby shower. It's over a 2 hour drive to get there but she's a very close friend and my other friend is coming with me so I can't complain!

Week Summary (not too much to report here)

Sunday - 45 minute run and core/feet exercises
Monday - off due to very sore knee, 2 hour nap on the couch :)
Tuesday - knee still painful, weights w/arms only
Wednesday - off (class), knee getting better
Thursday - 50 min run and weights (arms only again)
Friday - 3000 yd swim w/2x400, 2x200, 2x100 and 2x25 pushups and 2x100 crunchers
Saturday - 3000 yd swim w/6 x (100, 4x50), core/feet exercises

Posted by beth at 9:52 AM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2006

Getting Away With Greedy?

I think I might have gotten away with my greedy 50 minute run yesterday! First of all, it's about 20 degrees with a windchill of something much colder today - quite the drastic change from my 57 degree run yesterday. Secondly, my knee feels okay, at the very least not worse and truthfully (I think) somewhat better.

I had planned on doing a little swimming today but postponed it until after work so I would have the whole day to walk around on my knee and see how it felt. Turns out it felt pretty good (sore when I woke up but better throughout the day) so I headed to the YMCA after work.

As I got in the water I suddenly got concerned that pushing off the pool wall would make my knee ache but things seemed fine so I went ahead with my planned workout:

400 yd easy/200 yd kick easy/200 yd easy

2x400 on 9
2x200 on 4:30
2x100 on 2

200 yd kick easy/600 yd easy (w/some drills)

That was 3000 yds and my knee didn't seem much worse for the wear. I came home and iced myself down. Now everything is frozen and numb. :)

If my injury progresses as it has been I'm going to label it the best injury I've ever had. After having PF linger for over 7.5 months, a week long injury is like a breath of fresh air. Of course I'm not counting out the fact that it may ache again sometime very soon, but I'm hoping for the best. As of now I plan to swim again tomorrow, take Sunday off, run Monday and then go from there. I'm trying to avoid the bike for a little while because I think that is what preciptated this whole ordeal.

And now it's Friday and I have a 3 day weekend coming up! I took Monday as a vacation day, mostly because O has it off (President's Day) and also because I have vacation time to waste. Nice. :) Hope everyone had a great start to their weekends!

Posted by beth at 6:48 PM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2006

Greedy with a CAPITAL "G"

So I got really greedy today and ran 50 minutes. I know, I know. I've been running for close to 15 years and I'm very well aware of the fact that this was probably not a good idea. I realize I'm now not allowed to complain at all of knee pain as I've done a rash thing. But boy did I enjoy those 50 minutes. It was 57 degrees - need I say more?!

Let me back up a few steps. Yesterday I was pretty encouraged by my knee's progress. Despite the fact that I could barely walk straight on Monday, the knee was feeling much better Wednesday to the point of feeling more like an annoying ache. I had class yesterday (likely a good thing) so I wasn't able to work out.

Walking around today at work my knee again felt good. I do feel it at times, but it wasn't that sharp, acute type pain that made me wince. When I walked outside after work I knew I was in trouble. It was so warm and spring like and I knew I wasn't going to be able to help myself from trying to run.

So when I got home, I changed and drove over to the soft trail. I reasoned that I would try it out and see how things went. Well 50 minutes later I decided I had already been SOOOOOO greedy and should really stop. It was so delightful outside - it felt like a spring day at track practice - I just couldn't help myself!

My knee felt decent during the run but I will admit that it was getting a little achey and sore by the end. It's definitely more sore now than before my run, but it doesn't feel awful by any means. I'm definitely not back to square one, at least not right now. I can't predict what's going to happen tomorrow morning though.

The good thing about the knee and all the worries it brings is that I pretty much forgot about my feet today. I realized after the run that I hadn't thought of them at all during the run which is odd considering they usually consume my thoughts. I'm happy to report that they are generally hanging in there as well.

I have two big fears about my knee right now - (1) I did a lot of damage today and it's REALLY going to hurt tomorrow morning and (2) it felt okay running because I'm compensating how I run (subconciously of course) so that it doesn't hurt - this of course leads to injury elsewhere.

Regardless, I did what I did (and enjoyed it too!) and now I just have to wait and see what's going to happen. If my knee doesn't explode overnight I'm going to try and swim the next two days, take Sunday off and perhaps try another run on Monday. If my knee does explode, I'll have to re-evaluate. :)

I did go to the gym after my run to lift and showed just an inkling of self control by only lifting with my arms instead of my arms and my legs. See how good I am?! :)

Posted by beth at 7:30 PM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2006

Knee Update

First of all, I'd like to mention that I'm currently icing 3 body parts, 2 feet and 1 knee. I had to stop at the Community Market on my way home from work to pick up an extra bag of frozen peas (the best ice pack I've ever come across) since I only had 2. I'd also like to mention that I'm drinking hot chocolate. Icing in the winter is quite the temperature challenge! :)

My mood and outlook is much better today. Don't get me wrong, my knee still hurts like a dickens (I have no idea what a dickens is by the way), but it feels ever so slightly better and I've come to the point wherein I realize there is a lot worse in this world than an injured knee. It usually takes me a day or so to get to said point.

My synopsis for the day is this - my knee still hurts just as badly as it did yesterday, but it hurts LESS OFTEN - meaning when I walk up the steps I only wince every other step. When I bend my knee it only aches every other time. I hope this trend continues to the point where it doesn't hurt at all by the end of the week. That's likely wishful thinking but I can still hope... :) I did schedule an appointment with my favorite sports medicine doc for about 1.5 weeks from now. Best case scenario is that I can cancel the appointment because I'm all healed, but if not, I have it scheduled and he can hopefully shed some light on the situation.

I did go to the gym today to lift. I just lifted my arms because I didn't want to aggrevate my knee with squats or lunges or anything of the like. At the gym I did a little self pep talk. I told myself that this injury will hopefully only last 1-2 weeks and I could stand a little 1-2 week break. The first triathlon I want to do is in mid June, a full 4 months away. Having to take a break now is better than having to take one in May. IT WILL BE OKAY! :)

In other news, it's Valentine's Day. How about that? O gave me his V-day gift yesterday because he thought I could use some cheering up. For being an engineer turned math teacher, I'll tell you his creativity can surprise you at times. The gift was a treasure hunt of sorts where I followed his clues to find different items (such as peanut butter cups, sugar cookies, etc...) throughout the house. I was impressed for sure! Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day with lots of love!

Posted by beth at 7:16 PM | Comments (6)

February 13, 2006

Knee = Badness

So yeah - my knee really hurts. What's up with that?! To say I was frustrated and angry this morning is a bit of an understatement. O can attest to that unfortunately. But like with most of my "injuries" I need to be angry and sad for about a day before I can start to think forward and decide the next plan of action.

My synopsis thus far. I swam and biked on Saturday and felt no pain in the knee whatsoever, before, during or after. When I woke up Sunday the knee hurt but not enough to really think too much about it. I went on my planned 45 minute run wherein the knee did not hurt when I ran. Through the day Sunday said knee continued to hurt and this morning it hurt so badly I thought I was going to have to chop it off. It's torture to walk up the steps - as in there is a grimace on my face. I'm more used to chronic type pain, not really sharp acute pain, so I was quite upset about this.

The knee is not swollen. It's not bruised. And the pain really shows up when I lift my knee up - so like when I walk up the steps, it's not stepping down that hurts, it's getting the knee high enough to clear the step that kills me. The pain is on the inside and lower part of my knee. Doing a little internet research I decided I probably didn't do anything to the ligaments (MCL or ACL) because I likely would have felt pain right away and would see a lot of swelling. Perhaps it's the meniscus?

I certainly didn't do anything on it today. I came straight home after work and slept for 2 hours on the couch instead. I iced it after dinner. I'm going to give it a few days and *REALLY* hope that the pain disappears as quickly as it appeared, but just in case I'm going to make an appointment at the sports medicine clinic for about 2 weeks from now. Hopefully I'll be able to cancel the appointment and this mystery injury will be long gone by then.

I like to think this is a small, temporary thing, but the trouble is when you've had 2 lengthy injuries (hamstring x 3 months, PF x 8 months) you get very gun shy. You worry more than you probably should thinking that this is going to be Big Injury #3. I sincerely hope it's not. I can't even think of a cross training activity I could do that wouldn't aggrevate my knee considering most all activities require lifting up your legs.

If there was some competition in which you sat on the couch and watched TV - I think that would be my next goal. You can't possibly hurt yourself doing that. Or perhaps I would find a way... UGHHH!

Posted by beth at 7:54 PM | Comments (4)

February 12, 2006

Sore Knee

I think the "Big Storm" missed us. We only got 2 or 3 inches of snow at the most. Boston, on the other hand, seems to have gotten hammered. Unfortunately that means I missed an opportunity to meet my first fellow blogger Audrey as her flight into Pittsburgh this morning was cancelled (along with every other flight in Boston I think!). Hopefully she'll come another time.

This morning I woke up with a very sore right knee. I was pretty surprised by it because I don't remember doing anything to it and it wasn't sore at all yesterday. O must have been kicking me in my sleep last night. It hurts on the inside and is felt most acutely when I walk up the steps. I didn't think much about it and went running anyway and truthfully once it got warmed up, it was fine on the run. O, Roxy and I ran for 45 minutes and everything (including my wayward feet) felt pretty good. 45 minutes is a long haul for me so I was pretty tuckered out, but I was glad to get be out there and enjoying running for that long! When we got back I did my core and feet exercises.

I don't think the running made my knee any worse but the soreness persists. I'm guessing the culprit is spinning yesterday as that seems to be pretty hard on the knees. I'm definitely going to have to keep my eye on this new ache because I don't need another injury on top of my persistant plantar fasciitis! Bah!

Otherwise this day has been pretty relaxing. We went to church, went out to lunch for our Valentine's Day meal (actually going on Valentine's Day requires too much waiting!), went to get O a Steeler's Super Bowl sweatshirt with leftover Christmas gift card money and also purchased the part needed to (hopefully) end the puddles of water we keep finding under our kitchen sink. Turns out the water supply line for the dishwasher was corroded and leaky! Kudos to O for taking the dishwasher apart (and actually knowing how to get it back together) and figuring out what we needed without having to call in professional help. Who says a math teacher is no good around the house... :) And now we are soon headed back to church for a meeting. Did I forget to mention at some point in there I took a 90 minute nap? Ah...what a life... :)

Posted by beth at 5:28 PM | Comments (2)

February 11, 2006

Double Duty

Today I did another brick workout - a swim in the pool and then a spinning class. I was positively tired afterwards!

Pool workout:

400 yd easy/200 yd kick easy/200 yd easy

2 sets of (3x200 yd w/15 sec rest) 1:30 rest between the 2 sets
10x50 yd kick w/10 sec rest

300 yd easy/200 yd kick easy

That's 3000 yds total w/1700 yds hard. The 200s challenged me today. I was swimming them in about 3:15 each and I could feel the fatigue in my arms from yesterday. Good stuff.

The spinning class afterwards was fine. It was an instructor that I had never had before and she led a pretty tame class which is just what I needed after my swim. O joined me for the spinning and then took Roxy on a run when we got home in order to finish off the triathlon I had started... :)

And now I have homework to do. I'm trying to do it before I do anything else so that it's done and I don't worry about it (something I tend to do). O is currently entrenched under the kitchen sink trying to figure out how to stop the dishwasher leak that we diagnosed last night. Handymen we are not. We did get all our taxes done last night though (federal, state and local) and boy did we make out like bandits! Anyone looking for a nice tax return needs to follow our approach of buying a house AND having a combined salary of just above the poverty line. :) It may be challenging otherwise but come tax time you are loving life...

Summary for the week:

Sunday - 45 min elliptical, 15 min bike and core exercises (yeah Steelers!)
Monday - 48 min walk/jog w/43 min running, weights and feet exercises
Tuesday - 1 hour spinning and core/feet exercises
Wednesday - off (class)
Thursday - 45 min run and weights
Friday - 2500 yd swim w/600 yd time trial and 6x50 yd kick, 2x25 pushups and 2x100 crunchers
Saturday - 3000 yd swim w/2 x (3x200) and 10x50 yd kick, 1 hour spinning and core/feet exercises

Posted by beth at 12:45 PM | Comments (3)

February 10, 2006

Time Trial #2

About 3 weeks ago I did a 600 yd time trial in the pool. It was fun because I had nothing to compare it to. Well this morning (before work) I headed to the pool to undertake time trial #2, a tougher task knowing what I had to live up to (which was exactly 600 yds in 9:52).

I started with my usual warmup (400 yd easy, 200 yd kick easy, 200 yd easy) and then set off on my task and 600 yds later exactly 9:51 had passed. Wow - how about that for improvement?! :) Actually, as long as I wasn't slower I don't much mind. :) Perhaps my goal for the next 600 yd trial will be to get under 9:45. :)

After the 600 hard I swam an easy 100 yds and then did 6x50 yd kick hard and a cooldown (300 yd easy, 200 yd kick easy, 200 yd easy) for a total of 2500 yds, about 50 minutes and one tired body. I think the extra long run yesterday made me sore!

It was nice to come home today from work (albeit about 2 hours later than usual) and just eat dinner. There is something to be said for working out in the morning, but there is also something to be said for going into work early and missing rush hour traffic. A nice balance is probably the best approach.

So now O and I, being the wild and crazy partiers that we are, have decided on this Friday night to (1) give the dog a bath (complete) (2) diagnose the eitology of the puddles we keep finding under out kitchen sink (in process) and (3) do our taxes (not yet started). I'm actually looking forward to doing our taxes because I think we may get some money back and that's very exciting.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Posted by beth at 6:52 PM | Comments (0)

February 9, 2006

Turkey Time

Every year for Christmas I get a turkey (by choice - the other option is a ham) from work. Said turkey is currently sitting in the big freezer in the basement (next to all the DiGiorno pizzas we buy on sale), but I had considered making it this weekend. I don't know much about cooking a turkey but I do know that the thing is way frozen and probably needed thawed out for a while. I sent my mother an email to ask her how to make a turkey and this is what my FATHER's (unsolicited) reply was...

1. Take the critter out of the freezer two days before the big dinner
2. Allow a full inspection from a canine...possibly Roxy to insure freshness
3. Allow a sampling from a canine..to insure tasty-ness
4. Bake the bird for 2 days in a 700 degree oven.
5. Allow Roxy to retaste
6. Bake more depending upon the canine's reaction
7. Allow the husband to sample
8. Broil for 6 hours to finish off the cooking process
9. Feed to husband and canine
10. Go to McDonalds for your dinner
11. Have the car warmed up to take husband and canine to the nearest hospital for stomach poisoning
12. Send a thank you note to the turkey that sent you all this advice.

Quite the joker isn't he? I don't know what is more amusing - the email itself or the fact that he took the time to think it all up. :)

Regardless, today I went for a run after work. It was really cold but I survived just fine. Because of the cold I decided I couldn't do any walking today, just all running, so that's what I did. I ran for 45 minutes and really felt like a runner! I started out around 8 minute pace but timed the last two miles in 7:48 and 7:40. I don't know why I time the miles other than the fact that I do because I can - they are marked on the trail. Either way it was a nice run once I got warmed up. Afterwards I headed to the YMCA to lift.

And now it's almost time for bed. I was really sleepy at work today, a good indication that tomorrow is going to be even worse! Good night all!

Posted by beth at 9:30 PM | Comments (1)

February 7, 2006

An Unsettling Trend

In the past 4 days (1) a sophomore at the school where O teaches passed away after a battle with leukemia (2) the daughter of a friend at work commited suicide (3) the husband of another aquaintance at work died of gastric cancer (4) a long time nurse in the ER died suddenly of a heart attack. It's a bad trend for sure. Did I mention that I work in a hospital where people die all the time? Occasionally it makes me want to work as a wedding planner or something of the sort, where only happy things happen...

Regardless, I'm still healthy and alive (thank God!) and went spinning this afternoon after work. Pretty standard spinning class. I was working pretty hard and my quads really hurt. I also did my core and feet exercises.

On Kembie's suggestion I bought Following the Flame and it arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon. What a treat! This will easily be one of the 4 books I read this year and I may even finish it before February is over. That is quite a complement to the book considering it usually takes me upwards of 3 months to finish something half it's size.

Posted by beth at 8:47 PM | Comments (3)

February 6, 2006

SUPER Bowl Indeed

Much like every other Pittsburgher in the nation - I'm still basking in the glow of the Steelers Big Win yesterday. I think it's pretty funny how SOMEONE ELSE'S win can make me (and everyone else within a 100 mile radius) so happy. Sports are like that though - even though we are nowhere near the field or court or arena or cross country course (!) we can still feel that same emotion as if we were in the game/race ourselves. Pretty cool stuff. It's so fun to watch everyone else be so excited too. Pittsburgh was a madhouse last night. If I had to guess - I'd say today is probably one of the highest absentee/lowest productivity days of the year. :) In fact, most schools in the area today had a 2 hour delay despite the fact that we really didn't get that much snow. Coincidence you ask? I think not... :)

Regardless, I was very glad to have today off work (legitimately :). Working yesterday (until about 2 pm) and having today off instead was a best case scenario. It allowed me to get my work in, go to the gym and still arive at O's parents' house well before the start of the game last night, but still sleep in this morning. Yesterday's workout was a pretty standard one - 45 minutes on the elliptical, 15 minutes on the bike and my core exercises.

Today I headed out on a run and for the first time felt like it actually was February in Pittsburgh. It was cold and windy and snowing. Not that I would always wish for this kind of weather, but I have to say, there is something inherently wrong with wearing shorts for the majority of your winter runs when you live north of...say...Virginia. So I bundled up and hoped the snowy roads wouldn't make my feet hurt. Turns out they didn't really. I was pretty pleased actually with how my feet felt. As always I hate to get too excited about them, but it's very fun to run and not have my feet hurt during or afterwards.

I ran for 35 minutes, walked for 5 minutes (in which time I became so cold I was wondering if my legs would move again) and then ran for another 8 minutes. I wasn't moving very quickly this morning. The wind was having it's way with me and the snowy roads made for slow going, but regardless, it felt great to run. I'm hoping to soon get rid of the walking portion of my runs and slowly increase the length. If all goes well I MIGHT try and add a 3rd run in the week by March. (that's a big might by the way). From there I'm not sure. I don't think I want to try more than 3 runs/week given the other triathlon training components. Eventually I'm going to have to try and run faster than 8 minute pace. Harder workouts are WAYYYYYYYY down the road though. I certainly don't want to get too far ahead of myself. That only leads to bad things. :)

After the run I came home, changed and then headed over to the YMCA to lift. I still have to do the feet exercises today that I was suppposed to do yesterday but never got around to (on account of a certain team playing in an important game :). And I also plan on taking Roxy for a walk. This all of course to avoid doing my homework. If there was a degree in procrastination, I'm fairly certain I'd have a PhD by now... :)

Have a great day all!

Posted by beth at 2:13 PM | Comments (2)

February 4, 2006

Super Bowl Eve

The Big Day is almost upon us. I have to work tomorrow but will have plenty of time to work, make a stop at the Pitt gym for a workout and then head to O's parent's house for the 6:30 pm kickoff. Very exciting! I really hope they win or Pittsburgh is going to be one depressed city. Let's not think about that... :)

Our trip to Penn State yesterday was fun. I was going for a mentor program dinner and Roxy and O just went along for the ride. The dinner was good and I had plenty of time to meet my mentee and learn a lot about her. I really like her. She's very humble and doesn't really know what she wants to do after she graduates. I told her I still don't know what I want to do. I suspect many people feel that way - but they just keep working at their current job until it hits them (if it ever does hit them :). She thinks she wants to do what I currenly do so that's why we are paired up. She's going to come "shadow" me for a day or two and then otherwise I just help her with stuff like resumes, getting the clinical internship that she will need to have after graduation, tips on the registration exam we all have to take, etc... I'm pretty excited about it because I feel like I may be at least a little useful to her. I would have really liked to be involved in this program when I was a student but they didn't have it back in the day. Penn State is a WONDERFUL school but most of the faculty in the nutrition department don't really have clinical experience per se - they are all researchers and have been most of their lives. This is a good thing but also doesn't lend well to helping students with "real life" experience advice, etc... I guess that's why they started the program.

Regardless, we got home around 10:30 this morning so I quickly unpacked and headed over to the YMCA for the 11:15 spinning class. I really didn't feel like working out today so I figured spinning would be the best option - exercising with a group of energized people was much more appealing option than the elliptical or endless laps in the pool. I also did my core and feet exercises today.

Summary for the week:

Sunday - 41 min walk/jog with 35 min running, core and feet exercises
Monday - 45 min bike and weights
Tuesday - off (major headache)
Wednesday - off (class)
Thursday - 50 min walk/jog with 40 min running and weights
Friday - 3100 yd swim with 3 x (50,100,200,100,50,200), 2x25 pushups and 2x100 crunchups
Saturday - 1 hour spinning, core and feet exercises

Posted by beth at 4:21 PM | Comments (1)

February 3, 2006

A New Kind of Workout

For this morning's swim I copied down a workout I found in one of the triathlon books I bought a while back. It was one of those workouts where they give you the distance and then the time in which you have to not only swim that distance but then recover afterwards before starting the next interval. I suspect that's how most swim workouts are done, but this was the first time I had attemped such a thing.

Here's what I did:

500 yd easy warmup

3 sets of:

50 on 1
100 on 2
200 on 4:30
100 on 2
50 on 1
200 on 4:30

200 yd kick easy
300 yd easy

This was I believe 3100 total yards, 2100 of which were hard. Going into the workout I really didn't know what to expect. I had no idea how long it takes me to swim a 200 so I wasn't sure if I was going to get a 2 second rest or a 1 minute rest. I was a tad scared I wasn't going to be able to keep up but after doing the first set I felt pretty comfortable that I was going to be able to complete the workout as planned. Not to say it wasn't hard and that my arms weren't tired on the last set of course. :)

Roughly, it took me about 46-48 seconds for the 50s, 1:35-1:40 for the 100s and 3:25 for the 200s meaning I had ample rest, especially after the 200s. It was a long workout though and I was glad to be done. I rather liked doing a workout like this because I was constantly thinking of what I was doing, how much rest I had, etc... which kept me engaged and focused. After reading about some swimming techinique in one of my triathlon books I tried to focus a little on my form as well.

And now I am pretty pumped because when O get's home in a couple hours (he only had a half day at school today) we are headed to Penn State! :)

I'm also pretty pumped because in about a week I am going to meet my first fellow blogger - Audrey! This is such exciting news. I've whined before how all the other bloggers know each other but I had yet to meet anyone else. I even thought about visiting Boston or DC where a high concentration of bloggers live - but alas, Audrey is coming to Pittsburgh so I don't even have to leave home! Perhaps Audrey would consider bringing some other Boston bloggers with her (Alison, Caitlin and Becky) so I could meet a whole flock of eliterunning.com women! :)

Posted by beth at 8:30 AM | Comments (1)

February 2, 2006

Yipppeee!

List of good news:

1) I don't work tomorrow - O and I are going up to Penn State (and bringing the pooch too) because I somehow got myself involved in this mentoring program wherein I (who needs much mentoring myself) am a mentor to a nutrition student at Penn State. There is a big dinner kickoff tomorrow night where you meet your mentee in person. Yeah - free GOOD food! :)

2) My headache is finally gone! My head hurt all yesterday (through my 3 hour class too) but at a much lower intensity - kind of just a little achey. This morning I had NO headache though and although I was overcome with a wave of dizziness right after I got out of the shower, I have felt no ill effects of this "sickness" since.

3) "Dem Stillers" are playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday! I'm ready for it to be over to tell you the truth. There is only so much black and gold you can take. :) I work on Sunday but am going to a Super Bowl party at Oscar's house after work. I am really excited for the game and for the fact that I don't work Monday. :)

4) I got a raise today. I only got it because it was my annual review and that's when everyone gets their raise, but it's always nice to make more money no matter what the reason. Trust me - I'm not going out to buy that new Porshe or anything - but I told Roxy she might get a new toy out of the deal.

5) I RAN 40 MINUTES TODAY! This is quite a haul for me. I ran 30 minutes and then took a 5 minute walking break before I did the last 10 minutes. Roxy and O came with me too - one big happy family! We ran on the trail and trialed letting Roxy go off the leash. She was really good, but every once in a while she started to get pretty far ahead before we had to call her back. Anyway, the run felt great - it was 50 degrees and I was able to wear shorts. My feet are still hanging in there - I'm keeping my fingers crossed. After the run I lifted weights at the YMCA.

And that's that! I have some more chores tonight in preparation of leaving tomorrow for Penn State (laundry, groceries, etc..) so I better get moving!

Posted by beth at 7:01 PM | Comments (1)