Category Archives: Weekend

Chicago Marathon Training Week #1

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Hello! Welcome to Monday. I hope your weekend was stupendous and filled with rest, relaxation, and ice cream.

Here’s how my first “official” week of training for Chicago looked:

M: Rest

T: 10 m run/8:30 avg. page + yoga

W: 10k fun run!

T: Spin + 20 min stair stepper

F: Maximum sculpt class + 80 min swim

S: 16.2 m run/8:45 avg. page

S: Spin + 4.4 m run

Totally weekly running mileage: 36.8 m

I wasn’t going to run yesterday. I had planned on a recovery run from Saturday’s LR, but since my knee hurt a bit from the day before, I decided to opt for spin. However, around 5:30 (and after a lot of beach relaxation) I felt a weird urge to go run in the evening heat. I went with the urge, headed out watch-less for a quick little out-and-back, and wound up feeling better than I’ve felt since I started running again!

It also felt fast, which immediately made me regret not wearing a timing device. But have no fear, because I’m OCD and was determined to figure out just how fast I was going, I tallied up the songs I had listened to on the run and added up their times.

Creativity points?

Anyways, I figured out that I was averaging 7:30 miles, which is much lower than I’ve been clocking recently. It was a little surprising, because like I said—I felt so good on this run and my legs felt happy and pain-free. Looks like I might need to let the chains let loose a little bit more.

This was one of those runs where I decided to listen to my body (not a training plan, not my Garmin) and just GO. And the results were great! It truly is best sometimes to just run by feel. I knew I would have been fine without going yesterday, but something was telling me to head on out. I loved this run, and I loved feeling some speed under me after so much time without.

The rest of the weekend can pretty much be summed up in one word: SUN!

So much sun. So many sunshine filled activities—including the aforementioned one above:

The rain does go away sometimes!

I made friends with a jelly fish yesterday, although I don’t think he was as into following me as I was into following him.

Also, does your face look like this after long runs?

Salty face by way of emo MySpace picture

I was told during my time in the medical tent at the Tacoma Marathon that I’m a “salty sweater” and I was a little surprised because I thought everyone got this salty during long runs. Do you? Just me?

How was your weekend?? What kinds of things did you do in the heat? Did you have to adjust your plans according to the hot weather? Are you a salty sweater?

BF B-Day and Weekend Snapshots

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I am pressed for time today, but I do have some photos from the weekend to share as well as a birthday wish to give…

HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY MR. BF!!!

We’ll be celebrating tonight with some festivities, presents, and other birthday-related shenanigans. I am definitely the bigger fan of birthdays and holidays and general over-the-top merriment in the relationship, so I think I am typically more excited about his birthday than he is. But, hopefully my 24-hour bombardment of birthday wishes, emoticon-filled texts, and delicious treats helps get him in the spirit. In case he reads this post—I’ll leave my specific plans secret— but details will follow soon.

I know, you were horrified about missing out.

Now, just four days late, here are some snapshots from last weekend. It was an eventful one indeed.

RB and RR 4EVER

Remember when I talked about that bacon cheeseburger from the second happiest place on earth on bad mood Friday? Here it is, in all its glory, and it was perfect. I think I have a real deal huge burger about three times a year (red meat and my digestive system tend to hate each other), which means that when I go for it—it’s all the more spectacular.

Huge Blue Moons don’t hurt either.

No, those are not jeggings, just clown feet combined with BP jeans.

Another once-in-a-blue-moon event that happened this past weekend (DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE??) included a trip to the bowling alley. We were planning on going to the synonymy, but we had time to kill before dinner and the show. So obviously going bowling was the best option. We each won one game, and check out the results of the second game:

So the obvious next step is joining a league with sweet jerseys with inside-joke nicknames on them. Mine will be “Bird.” Original, I know.

Then after some delectable sushi (which I am SUPER into right now, so if you want to go—please invite me), it was off to our adult date at the Seattle Symphony.

And by “adult” I really don’t mean adult at all.

YOU GUYS. Let me tell you about this special show. This was a “Disney” themed performance, meaning there was not only a stellar selection of the best scores and songs from Disney movies, there was a screen projecting said movies behind the orchestra.

AND THERE WERE SINGERS.

I was dying, if you couldn’t guess, and every time I think I’ve grown out of my 6-year-old Disney princess phase and have become a functioning adult, something like this comes along, and I’m back to infantile giddiness and giggles.

Lucky for me, I have a boyfriend who a)goes to this kind of stuff with me b) still dates me despite my behavior and c) may just love it himself. I know BF wasn’t quite as rainbows and glitter about this as I was, but let’s just say I saw that foot tapping and a smile on that handsome face more than once during the show.

I know you love it when I sing Mary Poppins and Little Mermaid songs in your ear, baby…you’re welcome.

Which brings me to Sunday morning, in which this occured.

I had two goals for this run, the first “long run” since I regained run-ability.

1)Go slow

2) Finish

I was very content with this level of expectation for myself, and while my pacing was not exactly what I would have liked, I did accomplish both goals. I am really trying to get it into my head that long runs are supposed to be slow, and relatively speaking—this pace was right around the slow mark I need to hit. However, it terrifies me to run long runs so much slower than I’m supposed to run the actual marathon at the end of it all, so it needs some getting used to. A happy medium perhaps, at some point.

Anyway, I would show you my splits—but that would require me figuring out how to upload my Garmin data. You see, I’m just now realizing how often I need to charge this thing and how not to reset it during a run. Baby steps…the whole “uploading data” thing will come in time.

I can tell you that it didn’t feel awesome. It wasn’t awful, and I was happy to have retained some of my endurance over my running hiatus, but it definitely didn’t feel how 14 miles felt a few months ago.

But, like, DUR. Just goes to show ya…running takes patience. Of which I have none. But I’m trying.

So there you have it. Remember how I said I was “pressed for time,” initiating that this would be a brief post?

Yea, fail.

Apparently I just like to hear {watch} myself talk.


Have a lovely day, and prepare for some 4th of July wonderment, blogger-love, and Favorites coming up tomorrow!

In the meantime…how was your 4th of July? How is your “Every Single Person is Hungover Today” Day going? Did you take work off? Was asking your boss for the day off awkward? Did you eat as much watermelon and me? NO YOU DIDN’T.

A Running and Zoo Filled Weekend

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Happy Monday!

I have nothing very specific to talk about today, but I am pretty pumped about the random musings I do have to deliver. I know what you’re thinking…”Robyn, everything you have to say is exciting! I totally love hearing about your injury whining and cookie addiction on a daily basis.”

You guys, stop making me blush.

No, I know I’m not very original. BUT, happenings such as those that went on this past weekend (super interesting grammar right there) ARE in fact exciting to me, therefore you get to hear about them.

This weekend involved a lot of running… …but not by me.

Which was fine! Because it was still great, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I spent a raging Friday night curled up on my couch watching the trials and crying for cheering on Amy and Dathan. It is SO amazing to me that all these athletes train for YEARS for just ONE race that will determine their Olympic future. Many of those races, mind you, are UNDER ten seconds. TEN SECONDS! All of which hold the fate of their Olympic dreams.

Crazy…and I admire that kind of determination. It takes some kind of guts to know that all your hard work will either make or break it in such a short time frame.

Anyway, I geeked out hard over the trials, and it reminded me so much of my old track days. I was a sprinter in high school, however my main event was the 400m hurdles. We short folk have a disadvantage in the 100m hurdlers, therefore my coach forced me into the longer race, which should also be known as, “Hold in your puke while jumping over 10 barriers and sprinting at full speed.”

That race is a beast, and I still have nightmares about it. But, I still loved it, and I could so clearly remember the butterflies that came with sprint races while watching the trials.

Oh! And the whole Western States thing that was going on this weekend, which was also fun to follow. The nice thing about a 100 mile race? You can check on it, go about your day, do whatever you want, then that night you can check on it again and the runners are STILL GOING. Just another weekend, right guys?

Onto Saturday. I think everyone with a Twitter account/everyone within a 100 mile radius of Seattle knows that Seattle Rock ‘n’ Roll was on Saturday at 0700. I wasn’t doing it, but a ton of Seattle area bloggers were…which obviously meant I was a)jealous and b)determined to involve myself somehow.

So, when I asked Nicole (who was running the full) where she would like the most cheerleader support, she responded asking if I would run the last 6 miles with her.

Um, best question ever?? YES! I was psyched…partly because it would lessen my sadness about not running the race, but mainly because I am ready to jump at any opportunity to help someone to the finish line after over 20 miles of running. After the kind lady in Tacoma helped carry my feverish butt to the end of the race, I not only felt indebted to the universe to help someone myself…but I also realized how moral support can really be a clutch after that many miles of running.

Sign me up RicoleRuns, I was pumped.

However, despite my ample pre-planning (course studying, timing allowance, etc.) I quickly realized there was no way I would be able to join her at mile 20. You see, mile 20 was one of the miles along i-90, so in order to get on the course I would have to park on the side of the highway, dodge traffic, run the wrong way against thousands of people running a marathon, and causally hang out until I hopefully spotted Nicole. AKA, not happening.

When you’re in a panic to get to a race course, you obviously should Tweet about it.

So, I rerouted, meandered around Seattle, and found the closest spot I could get to that was off of i-90, which ended up being just before mile 23. So I cheered, I chatted up some super fast chick who was rooting for runners as well, and just like clockwork there was Nicole…right on time target!

She said she felt terrible, but you wouldn’t have guessed it. She looked great, and I did my best to distract, encourage, and move her along those hilly last three miles without her punching me in the face for being too chatty/energetic. It was funny because I think some of the aid stations thought I was running the marathon too—humorous, because if they saw what I really look like at mile 23 of a marathon, they would realize how false their assumptions were.

Anyways, Nicole killed it. And despite the normal “I hate everything” feelings that come at the end of a marathon, she finished strong and I was so honored to have been a part of it. 3:57 for her, 3 of those miles I got to spend along for the ride. Good times. Read her race report here!

Run Nicole Run!

Thanks to Becky for snapping this shot!

And how does one get back to one’s car after running along a race course to the other side of town? Why, by running back of course! Fortunately for me (and thanks to the fine organizers of Seattle RNR) the course ran right alongside downtown Seattle, so I was able to weave my way back to my car no trouble. In fact, I got to see many RNR runners that had finished their races along the way…so I congratulated every last one all while on my own run. It might have been weird, but whatever…I dug it. Although I would have liked to have been running the race, I felt like I had actively participated as much as I could otherwise.

Sunday, after a two hour spin class (also see: sweat, sweat, and a very slippery floor), BF and I headed to brunch and then the zoo. I don’t care how old you are, the zoo is crazy amounts of fun—and thanks to the lovely weather yesterday, all the animals were out and about and strutting all their wild stuff. BF and I are both big animal lovers (him probably more so) therefore we are unable to leave even one display unseen.

Flamingos!

The butt of a hippo.

Children, don’t you know I am trying to photograph the orangutan wearing a burlap sack as a cape WHILE drawing on the window in chalk for my blog/personal collection??? Rude.

More trials last night, more gawking at abs and quads, and all in all a very enjoyable weekend.

I’m getting my running groove back (please knock on your table/desk right now), I have some pretty sweet life changes happening, AND I have a sweet announcement for later this week. HINT: It involves running. Unpredictable, right?

Have yourself a lovely Monday friends…and because I enjoy hearing about people’s weekends/races: Did you run RNR? How did it go?! Any other neat weekend happenings? Did you want to do sit-ups after watching the women’s 10,000m too? Did you just go get fro-yo like me instead? What’s your favorite zoo animal?

Perspective

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Did I blog yesterday? No.

Was I going to blog yesterday? Yes.

So what happened? Well, consider my lack of communication an act of sparing readers from my down-in-the-dumps-ness. Yes, that makes sense.

You see, I had big plans for some positivity, some weekend recap, and some random banter. However, life chose to thwart that plan a bit—and alas, my ability to even fake happiness yesterday was completely zapped away. I didn’t feel I should divulge my feelings to the Internet, so I decided to follow the mantra that Mom always says, “It will be better in the morning.”

And you know what? It is. Sure, things are still pretty damn crappy, but thanks to my unavoidable optimistic hard-wiring, I’m feeling about 700% better than yesterday. And heavily caffeinated, which is a staple in the RB recipe book of creating a good mood.

But let’s back track a bit. Because despite my resentment toward the shit that’s gone down, I cannot leave you hanging like that. Note that I am wary about reporting personal, non-injury related bad news on my blog, however this isn’t so private. So, onward.

On Sunday, BF, my friend Anna, and I were headed east to do some hiking. BF was driving my car, while Anna and I followed in her own. To make a long story short, BF started going 30 on the highway, pulled over, we screwed around with some engine starting and stopping, and it was concluded that we needed to get the car towed. We still managed to get in our hike thanks to Anna’s vehicle, but at the end of the day BF and I spent our evening getting my beloved Glinda settled at an auto repair shop in West Seattle.

Gooooooooood times.

(Side note: AAA can see right through it when you try to get a membership after you need their services. In summary, get AAA before you need them—it’s worth it.)

Anyway, yesterday I went back to the auto shop with some high hopes for a simple, fixable, not-too-expensive diagnosis for my poor car.

Can you see where this is going?

Take the opposite of those high hopes, and that’s exactly what the mechanic got to tell me.

Essentially, my car needs a new engine, which including the labor involved in installing it, is going to come to oh just a little bit less than I initially paid for the car. Super duper fun times.

So, after a lot of discussion over what to do (you know how those conversations always need to happen in crappy car situations), I decided to bite the very expensive bullet and get my car fixed. It’s really, really not an ideal situation—but that was the best decision to make, and so all I can is move forward.

Other than feeling really bad for my car (she’s my baby!) and being pissed at the blow to my bank account, I was mostly just sad for all the things I wouldn’t be able to do/would need to put on hold due to this super inconvenient circumstance.

In truth, I was really just feeling sorry for myself. I spent most of yesterday alternating between crying and racking up a list of all the things I need to currently buy, pay off, and save for that will have to go to the back burner.

You know, because adding up all those things was really going to make me feel better about the whole thing.

It was a pity party to say the least, and while I’m still wallowing over the set-backs this will undoubtedly produce—the truth is, these things happen…and it’s going to be okay.

Sure, it sucks, and as a young 20-something I’m not exactly the most equipped person to handle the financial blow of it all. But, it really is all about perspective.

I might not be able to buy the road bike I’ve been planning on for a little while longer, but you know what? I’m still healthy, I’m still clothed, I’m still fed (a lot), and I’m going to be fine. There are many people who would have had to cut their losses completely in a scenario like this. And with that said, there are many people who don’t even have a car—nor the means of retaliating from a situation like this. When I can shift my perspective in that regard, it makes the whole scenario a lot more manageable.

Am I going to be paying an extra, hefty monthly bill for a while? Yes. But, it’s not the end of the world.

When I began realizing that this situation is only going to be as severe as I make it, I began to draw the same parallel to my lingering injury. The fact is, I’m still in pain, I’m still not feeling like I’ll be long running for a while, and I’m still in and out of very pissy moods about this whole thing. However, when I can pull out my better-self and think about this injury in the grand scheme of things, much like my car, it doesn’t seem to be such a big deal.

I can’t run right now, but that doesn’t mean I won’t run again. I know I keep repeating this (mainly because I have to keep re-telling it to myself) but all runners get injured. You are almost as much a runner when you’re injured as when you’re busting out PRs…it just comes with the territory. When I think about all the professional and Olympic-bound (Kara, I love you) runners whom I admire and look up to, it’s comforting to realize that all of them, at one point or another, has been sidelined—and, obviously, that never stopped them from doing great things.

Being a great runner isn’t about always being able to bust out a marathon on a whim or running fast every single day. It’s not even about times, podiums, or number of medals hanging in our houses. It’s about having the mentality that no matter what situation we’re in, whether sidelined or on the race course, all we can do is our very best. If we do that, there’s nothing to be disappointed in.

The transition from the whole car perspective thing to my injury reflection was a bit janky, I realize, but I think the biggest lesson I’m coming to terms with is that no matter what the scenario…everything will really be okay. In the big picture, hiccups happen, but they are only as big as we make them out to be. Even when we’re feeling overwhelmed, sad, or generally pissed off at the things that have brought us down, it’s so important to remember that we are still in control—no matter our feelings to the contrary. Because we are…we just need to keep the reigns in our own hands instead of letting our emotions and stress take them away.

Okay, enough serious stuff. I will leave you with some pictures from the weekend, instead of detailing all the adventures. As I said on Friday, my friend Anna came to visit me, and we had a wonderful time. Here is some documentation of that wonderfulness in photos. Spoiler, there was a lot of food involved.

Ikea! Please note our new indoor tree. Name yet to be determined.

A trip to Via Tribunali in Upper Queen Anne was the ticket for our Saturday night feeding, and it did not disappoint in the least.

Whole bottle of wine at dinner, check.

…And what goes better with a bottle of wine than a huge floppy pizza? This was all mine, in case there was any confusion.

BF approves.

And obviously after you are full of wine and pizza…the next best move is for…

Molly Moons ice cream! No, both are not mine, this time…

 

So, obviously I have a certain tendency to take pictures at meals. No need to photograph our beautiful hike, or any other activities for that matter apparently…I promise to get better at this!

So, regardless of the car mishaps, my weekend was certainly fantastic, and I’m thankful to have such a wonderful friend who will venture across the state to eat, play, and laugh with me.

 

I hope your week is going well so far! And if it’s not, try taking some control over your situation, and remember that although things could be better, they could always be worse as well. And if all else fails, go find yourself a pint of B&Js, or a puppy to play with. Strangers’ puppies are perfectly acceptable. 

 

Getting Uncomfortable

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TGIF

I really feel like I’m saying that a lot more frequently than normal. Again with time dwindling away…

Where does it go?!

Actually, I think I only feel like this because I always posts on Fridays, therefore my forced Friday acknowledgment makes the time seem to go quicker.

That’s my justification.

Hello! Welcome to the end of the week, and another round of “I have too many other things to say there I’m not doing Friday Favorites, AGAIN.”

Sure, I could save up all of my running-related thoughts for posts in the future, but I’m the kind of person who doesn’t necessarily like to wait on the things that are currently going on in my brain. Also, I never “draft” posts—that would be way too productive. I’m sure you thought I spend days ahead of time writing my posts, given their not-at-all rambling and stream of consciousness nature.

Sorry to let you down. I fly by the seat of my pants and often have typos.

So, despite my lack of dedication to Friday Favorites and my fear of the speed of time, I am generally feeling rather cheery today. Superb workout (including RUN!) and my beautiful, tall, law school attending bestie Anna is coming to visit for the weekend.

Friendship! This is actually one of the few “nice” pictures we’ve taken.

Anna and I get along for a number of reasons, but mainly because our friendship takes little effort; it’s easy, it’s fun, and it has no filters. We also enjoy many of the same things, namely being active and food—sometimes in that order, sometimes not. With that said, our weekend will consist of some hiking, some Ikea browsing (also known as people watching, impulse buying, and getting lost), and food consumption.

There, that’s more accurate.

Additionally, I have some pretty exciting endeavors/news in the works. Exciting is relative, meaning it might only be exciting for me, but I am PUMPED for some things going on in the near future. More on that on Monday! Let’s just say I spent the better part (aka: all of) yesterday morning plotting/emailing/texting/Tweeting with Nicole about some pretty sweet and sweaty plans. I love having people that can share in my athletic delusions ambitions.

Oh, you want a hint? Here.

I’m in this weird balancing act right now of settling into a routine of not running as much, trying new things, and wanting really bad to run again. The thing is, though, it’s becoming just that: a routine. And truthfully? I don’t hate it.

Yes, I love running all the time. Particularly long, salty-sweat face runs that leave me in a heap of endorphin-filled giddiness on the couch, whilst stuffing oatmeal in my face and planning my dessert for the day.

Running is the best. DUH.

But, I have to say I am really digging discovering all of my body’s short-comings and working on them.

Do I have calves that don’t fit into most boots? Yes. Do I have quads that could likely strangle someone? Yes, not a pleasant thought there. But other than that…I’m realizing that I have a lot of room for improvement in terms of my strength, and it’s both humbling and exciting to figure that out.

Case in point: the current state of my rear. It’s sore. It’s been sore since Wednesday. I definitely have not been massaging it in public.

With the exception of some occasional leg lifts, I rarely did any kind of glute work when I was logging heavy miles. This isn’t awesome…considering the strength of your rear muscles and the propensity of getting injured are directly related, but the truth is I never had any interest. I might love a long, exhausting run or a sweat-covered spin bike, but honestly…I actually shy away from things that I know will be hard. Once I am confident in doing something (such as the aforementioned cardio activities) I have no problem hopping right into them…but give me something I’ve never done before and I curl into a ball of stubborn reluctance.

And thanks to my new-found need and interest in testing out my weak points, I’m realizing that being a good athlete isn’t actually about focusing all our energy and attention into the things we’re good at. Sure, if we’re good at something—we want to capitalize on it, but being a good athlete is actually more about finding the areas we need to improve on more than the things we already excel in.

I am so guilty of getting into a place of routine with my workouts. I know they will be fulfilling enough to tide me over, I know that I will get through them no problem, so I’m content with never changing them. Sure, a 10-mile run every Tuesday is a great workout, and it kept me in great running shape, but hand me a pair of hand weights and make me do single-leg lunges? I turn into a crying toddler.

Do you see the imbalance? I think a lot of us do this…and although it’s great that we can excel and be great at certain things, that does not excuse us from making our bodies work hard in other capacities.

Which is a very wordy, roundabout way of bringing back to where I am now. I don’t think at least one of my muscle groups hasn’t been sore in the past two weeks. I’m doing exercises that I have long proclaimed to loathe, simply because they are hard. I’m accepting that not being the best in a class is okay, and I’m letting instructors give me advice.

And I’m loving it. I love being sore, even though it necessitates doing things that are uncomfortable or even painful. I love feeling that there’s a lot of room for improvement, and I love my new mentality of “all-around” fitness as opposed to the one-dimensional cardio focus that I tend to hide in.

This whole way of approaching my physical health hit me right between the eyes this morning when I thought about trying to run. And while I bellyache about not running, and all I seem to think and talk about is when I can run again…I somehow felt reluctant when it was go time. Was it because the walk/run is annoying? No, I’m getting to be okay with it. Was it because the weather was bad? No, no rain.

It’s because I knew it would be hard. Hard, sure, because of my persnickety IT band, but mainly just hard, physically. Even in marathon shape, you can’t go a month with minimal running and expect to just jump back into it effortlessly.

A part of my brain, the newly-developing humbled part, knew this as I went back and forth with the running decision. All of a sudden, my go-to, default mode of exercise has become a little more difficult to force out…and it scared me. It scared me the same way squats and lunges always scare me. It scared me the same way biking scares me, and lifting heavier weights, and trying a new yoga pose scares me.

(Side note: Running is hard no matter what. I am simply speaking as someone who is normally in running shape and is currently out of running.)

Running has become a little more ambiguous than I’m normally used to. That bothers me a little, but I’m happy that running can slowly become a part of the mix of things that I’m working on getting better at. I am fairly confident that once my injury whittles away, my running is going to come back no problem—but for now it’s something I need to challenge myself with. And that’s okay.

What’s my point? I don’t really know…there’s a lot of rambling going on in there.

Ultimately, I think I’m realizing the importance of leaving our comfort zones. You might be able to bust out miles week after week, but are you actually challenging yourself to be better?

I encourage you to look at the fitness safe zones you stick to—and maybe try and step out of them a bit. Improving upon your weak spots isn’t going to take anything away from the things you’re already exceptional at, and in fact—it will probably make you better in them. Whether it’s adding speed work to your training routine (I’m speaking to myself when I say this one) or going to a weight lifting class for the first time—try getting a little uncomfortable.

You’ll be sore, you probably won’t be the best in the class, and you will probably utter many swear words during the process. But you will positively leave in a better space than you started off in. We cannot get better by sticking to the same routines—we plateau, we get bored, and eventually our fitness can actually decline. We get better by pushing our own limits, doing things that are hard, and regularly questioning how we can improve.

What kinds of things do you want to incorporate in your fitness routine? What do you actively avoid, for fear of failure or it being “too hard”? 

Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde: Injured Runner Brain Dichotomy

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If you were sitting around on Saturday wondering why you all of a sudden you felt void of any stress or unhappiness, it’s because I had taken EVERY NEGATIVE FEELING IN THE WORLD and conglomerated it all into my own personal pity party. Yep, all my Friday positivity decided to completely dissipate come Saturday morning, and it took essentially all day to work myself out of my I-hate-everything-and-everyone funk.

Also, if I really could take away all your sadness, that would be very neat and I’m sorry I have not yet figured out how to steal away bad feelings.

It took until late Saturday night (imbibed with Footloose musical fever, tequila, and sleepovers with friends) til my grumpy self got over herself and I returned to a more stable, level-headed place.

Oh wait no, that’s never happened—stable and calm are not exactly my “strengths,” so let’s just say I returned to a happier, I-actually-don’t-want-to-throw-rocks-at-people state of mind.

Why the freak out, you ask?

Well, there are two things that send me into panic mode: picking the wrong dessert and not being able to undo it, and not being able to run. Since I had a fantastic helping of strawberry shortcake Friday night (read: a bowl of whipped cream sprinkled with bits of cake and some strawberries), I bet you can guess why I was pissed.

I want to run, I cannot run, seemingly everyone in the world is running, and I was/am sad.

I got all down and out on Saturday because all I was hearing about were PRs, registrations, long runs, carb loads, etc. and it all felt very far away. Truthfully, I’ve been out of the running game for just over two weeks, but in a runner’s brain that is approximately equivalent to forever. Every day without running counts for about three weeks of real time, and it feels like the further away I get from it, the less accessible it seems.

There is a big, gaping, holy-hell don’t fall in that hole difference between what I know and what I think. My knowing self is rational, practical, and reasonable. She’s the part of me that graduated from college, that listens to my mom, and that decides, “Okay, you probably don’t need dessert number 3 of the night.”

Then there’s my thinking self. The self that spirals herself into a state of senseless panic over absolutely irrational thoughts. She is the over-reactor, the freak-out mode professional, and the reason behind a lot of my less-than-finer moments. Sorry BF for reminding you about all those.

Okay, my “thinking,” of-the-moment self isn’t always such a whiny little bitch, and there are certainly redeeming parts to her, however she tends to get in trouble when her spasms overrule her knowing counterpart.

Case in point: I know I will be fine. I know this isn’t *too* serious. I know I ran a marathon faster than my training and no-shit-sherlock I’m probably still feeling those effects. I know that I can maintain my fitness without running. I know that I will race again before long. I know that Chipotle is the best food ever.

Commence Saturday’s “thinking” routine: I think I won’t run all summer. I think everyone else is going to have fun and run fast and improve while I disintegrate into a running-less glob of rage. I think I’m going to have to start  over from scratch when I can run again. I think I will never stop being injured. I think everyone loves their life while I have to be sad all the time.

STOP ME NOW. And eventually I did. Shut the eff up Robyn…that’s what my knowing self eventually came and said, while she fed me lemonadey cocktails and hit me over the head with my running shoe.

Fact: No I can’t run right now.

Fact: I will run again.

Fact: Things could be a lot worse, and I need to eat my own words.

Seriously, one of the things I like about blogging is that it keeps us accountable. Despite the fact that I kind of hate the power of the internet, it is pretty impactful to go to your own website and see the words that you’ve so ardently preached. It’s a really good kind of humbling, and it keeps my in check with my rational self when my crazy lady takes over.

So I can’t run for now. I still have all my limbs, a roof over my head, a very wonderful male friend who lives with me, and a lot of other good things going on. Yes I’m sad I can’t take off on a long run, or even a mile-long run, without fear of IT pain. But hopefully maintaining a more sensible outlook and a relative perspective will keep the storm calm.

I apologize for revealing the whiny pity-party that I went through on Saturday. Afterward I felt silly and I actually a little embarrassed. However, I think it’s an important message for runners to remember, as I am always and endlessly reminding myself of it:

Running is important. It’s part of who we are, and we love when we get to do it. However even when we aren’t doing it—we’re still runners. Being injured is a part of being a runner, the two go hand-in-hand. I know I still think of running friends and bloggers that are injured as runners, and there’s no reason I should count myself out of the game due to a temporary decrease in mileage.

The hardest part is keeping this lesson in the front of our minds. Even as I was typing all that out, I could hear the small voice in my brain aching to be out running, and crying over the fact that I was not.

Those voices don’t need to be shut out, in fact they should be listened to, but they shouldn’t overwhelm us. All the sad non-running thoughts exist because it’s something that we love—and, frankly, because you always want what you can’t have.

But you know what? Bodies heal. And the best part about running? It’s going to be right there waiting whenever that healing is complete. Races are always going to be happening, training is always going to be readily available, and all the running routes in the world aren’t all of a sudden going to get up and skip away before you get a chance to trot them again.

So what am I trying to say here? Well, honestly, most of this writing was for myself. I hadn’t really planned on this post going in this direction, which I think is a sign that I needed to do some therapeutic reflection. And I do feel better. I’m still confident that the longevity of this lingering pain is getting shorter and shorter, and in the mean time I’ll be planning my future race endeavors (info on that soon!) and staying off my Twitter feed on weekend mornings.

In fact, I think I should do that no matter what my current state of physical health may be. The internet is great, hello stress-relieving-blog-posting and meeting sweet people , but there’s also a black hole effect to it. Stepping back, living real life, and letting all the ramblings of the world sit for a while is always a healthy practice.

And just so you know, I actually do love hearing about everyone’s PRs and goals and such. I was just a negative nancy for a while in there, and please don’t be afraid to tell me about your running-filled fun.

Thanks for reading about my two-faced mindset on being injured. I know I’m not alone in this type of back-and-forth ness between being okay with not running and hating every single person with fully functioning legs. It’s the nature of the running bug beast—that little devil.

Now tell me, if you feel so inspired, what was the best thing you gained from a time when you could not run? Dare I say—how did being injured make you thankful?

A Little Sad, but More Happy

6 Replies

Cheerio all you folks out there.

How’s it going?

I’m going to be straight and tell you I had an especially peppy and optimistic post planned for today, however that plan has derailed a bit. There will still be pep, and maybe even some pizzazz, but for now I am allowing myself 60 seconds of bitching. After that, I’ll be done…but I need to shake some anger, so be warned.

After the hardest race ever, and after VERY CAREFULLY resting and recuperating my IT band has decided to be a huge a-hole and all of a sudden develop ITBS in the form of bad knee pain. I can’t really run, I hate it, and it’s ALL I WANT TO DO. I currently want to throw rocks at everyone that can run in the perfect, ideal, OMG SO PRETTY Seattle sunshine, and I get jealous even seeing people in  running clothes.

Dramatic? Yes. I know I ran a marathon only 8 days ago, and some pain may be lingering. However, I am currently void of all residual race soreness and aches, and I’m unfortunately thinking that I’ve got a pissed-off IT band that’s here to stay for a while. AND running is literally the only thing that bothers it. Spinning? No problem. Swimming? Piece of cake. But one mile into a run, I’m crippled with knee pain and I have to turn around. I’m pissed, I’m trying to be hopeful, but I would really enjoy going at least a few months without a new injury. DAMN YOU running shoes/form/gods/whatever that is ailing me with issues.

Okay, done.

Can you tell how my morning started out? Yup…a solid 18 minute run in which more than half was spent walk/running. This was the first time I’ve attempted running since last Thursday(when I first felt the pain), and until this morning I have had no knee pain whatsoever. Booooooo.

Sorry, sort of went back to bitching there. Anyways, this is definitely a marathon-ripe injury and completely new to me. Anyone have ITB syndrome issues before? Care to share on your experiences/remedies? My foam roller has been feeling some hot lovin’ these past few days, but otherwise I’m not totally sure how to tackle this.

How about some happiness now?

Great.

I spent the weekend basking in the sun. Literally, that’s about all I did…and it was splendid. My skin doesn’t necessarily agree with the whole “splendid” part, but it will get over it once it cools off and accepts its new glow as opposed to its wintertime pasty horror.

After a double-spin class(my favorite!) on Saturday morning, there were few things I did the rest of the day that did not involve drinking a cold beverage, lying on the beach, reading a book, or eating. I wore a dress and everything. Part was spent with friends, part was spent alone, it was all-around a grand ole time.

Coffee! Book! Sun! Beach! Dress! Exclamatory single-word sentences!

Also, if you weren’t aware, the Lakers beat the Nuggets in GAME 7 on Saturday night, and while BF hated me for a while during the game, it was awesome and I will be reaping the bragging benefits for an indefinite period of time.

The sweet taste of victory is even better than a HUGE scoop of ice cream, which also happened this weekend.

Sunday was also spent in the sun, on a canoe! A good friend of mine works at a sleep-away YMCA camp, and she has access to Puget Sound boating galore. In celebration of her birthday, some of us took a massive “tribal” canoe to a tiny island out in the San Juans. Porpoise and bald eagle sightings, beer-on-board, and sunshine—I was one happy camper. And not to mention the scenery was absolutely fantastic.

Mountains and sea, I love you. Yes, this photo needed to be HUGE.

The paddling was about an hour each way, and my back is feeeeeeling it today. I love doing things that are out-of-the-ordinary, and yesterday was one of my favorite days in a long time.

On my drive to the canoe ride, I was traversing along the exact path of about miles 20-24 of the marathon from last week, and just seeing the path made my shudder. I feel like I might develop some PTSD from that race—like seriously—and while I cursed every last hill and turn while running the actual race, I can’t help but want redemption.

In due time though…all I want now is to run. Particularly, I want to do a long run; I’m already ready to rekindle my Saturday morning routine of sweaty miles, but for now…given the whole IT band asshole thing…I’ll settle for baby steps.

Drinking via your medal’s bottle opener counts for redemption, right? Or rebellion perhaps? TACOMA WHY DO YOU HATE ME?

I’m thankful that I can do the other things I enjoy in terms of exercise, and I’m certain—as always—that once this hiccup goes away it will make running all the more sweeter. Because at this point, the only thing that sounds sweeter than running is a pound or two of strawberry shortcake, which will likely happen once or ten times this week.

Now….Tell me what you did in the sun this weekend! Seattle friends, I know you all got your sun-on for sure. And if not, WHO ARE YOU?! Go away. Also, does anyone have advice for post-race IT band issues? Or just ITBS ailments in general? 

 

 

“Tri” Weekend and Celebrating the Earth

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Hello!

I hope you had a great weekend and I hope your week has started off swimmingly. I could be mistaken, but it seems as if everyone is a little bit high on a “it’s getting warmer and sunnier and therefore life is good” kind of mood, meaning there is general cheer in the air. The onset of summer is always an enjoyable time of year, and when you’ve been down-trodden with rain and gloom for several months as we have in the PNW, a little dose of sunshine can go a longgg way.

Case in point: This past weekend.

I normally have a generally good time on the weekend, based on the increase in food consumption, the decrease in computer time, and the amount of running I get to do. However, I can boldly say that I don’t know if I’ve had a better time overall on the weekend as I did this last Saturday and Sunday. Everything was generally perfect, therefore I am going to tell you about it.

Exercise-wise, I was able to do a “tri-series” of sorts over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Essentially, this means lots of swimming on Friday, lots of spinning of Saturday, and lots of running on Sunday. It was highly enjoyable to mix up my workouts, and I love being able to focus a lot of energy on one solo activity at a time.

I find that when I front load a heavy-exercise weekend with some swimming, everything feels better. As you know, I believe swimming is magic, and my body always seems to enjoy the time spent in the pool.

Although, I will admit, I have a difficult time not getting a tad paranoid when I’m doing laps and the “family area” is filled with 50 toddlers learning to dog paddle. I’m not an uber germ-a-phode or a clean freak, but the thought of swimming in tons of urine is really dampering to the whole experience. I think I’m going to tell my children that if you pee in the pool it comes out bright orange and everyone can see it. This should scare them out of it, right?

Anyways, I don’t normally do a heavy spin day before a long run, but since this week’s LR was only 16 miles, I decided to go for it. And despite my quads feeling a bit tired yesterday at the end of those 16 miles, overall I felt great, and I loved spreading my sweat through tons of different activities.

Also, who am I? I just said “only 16 miles.” Okay, 16 miles is still a long run. Fact. BUT, after 22 last weekend, 16 feels a lot more accessible…particularly when it’s done in 60 degree sunny weather on an all-flat course.

Which brings me to the vitamin-D filled glory that was this weekend.

People, I know we’re not supposed to talk about weather in blogging. But when you have not one, but TWO 70 degree days in Seattle, WA it is a BIG DEAL.

I took full advantage of the splendor, and it was nothing short of fantastic.

Aside from the aforementioned endorphin filled activities, allow me to show you some more highlights.

my backyard

While BF did man things on Saturday, I decided to take full advantage of this beautiful land I live in and took myself to the beach. I spent a solid 2 hours with an ice coffee, an Anne Lamott book, and the sun basking in water-front glory. I actually fell asleep laying against some driftwood, and it was heaven. There are few things more calming to me than being by the water, and given the fact that I was already in a post-spinning/caffeinated state of elation, this whole set up was my essence of perfection.

This also happened on Saturday, which is always a party.

See that “Now Open” sign? Yes, TJ’s has come to West Seattle, a mere 7 or so minute drive from my house. Do I talk too much about grocery stores? Yes. Positively. I will own every ounce of that statement. BUT any TJ’s fan out there will agree with me on the general happiness increase that goes hand-in-hand with your proximity to a store.

I think I could get an award for my excitement for the little things in life. I’m not sure if this is a good thing, or it means that I shoot too low in terms of my expectations, but no matter. I love you Trader Joe’s and your cheap almonds and whole wheat pizza dough.

Sunday had the promise of all-day sun, and BF and I were ready to take full advantage. Oh, and take it we did. Not only did we take it, but we took every single hour of the day and squeezed as much sunshine-filled activity out of them as we possibly could.

As I stated earlier, the day started with a 16 miler, completed averaging 8:20 miles (very happy about that) and the biggest blister I’ve ever gotten in my life. With two toenails on their death bed and now this beauty covering my entire pinky toe, I think it’s safe to say I’m ready to be done with training and get this marathon show on the road. I’m in a bit of a pickle because I think my old shoes are the reason for all my foot ailments, however my new shoes make my knee hurt, so it’s really just a debacle between which pain I’d prefer.

Post runs (BF did 10 miles), we walked to our typical bagel spot. Walking in shorts and flip-flops mind you. THIS IS A BIG DEAL.

Blueberry w/cream cheese and strawberry jam. Perfection.

Bagels should be an essential food group.

Afterwards, we decided to take on an endeavor we’ve only talked about hypothetically in the past: Planting a vegetable garden.

You see, we live in a big house that was turned into 5 separate units, and with the whole “living in a real neighborhood in a real house” scenario comes a 24 sq. ft patch of garden with which we can “do whatever we want,” according to our landlord. We both liked the idea of a vegetable garden, however it required not only the soil and the plants, but we needed to remove all the weeds and various shrubbery that had taken over our plot of garden.

As you can imagine, it was easy to procrastinate taking on this activity.

But not yesterday, when being outside was required, and we had a day to do whatever we chose.

So off to the hardware store it was, and we loaded up on all the things you need to be a green-thumb person. Okay, it was actually more like this:

Me: “Oh! Spinach!”

Me: “Ohhh!! Strawberries! Kale!”

BF: “How about….”

Me: “OHH!! PRETTY FLOWERS!”

Bf: “Check this out..”

Me: “Can we get a big chocolate cookie after this?”

Eventually, we made it out with a large variety of vegetables and a few flowers to plant.

Hooray gardening!! Also, those are my running clothes I'm still wearing. It's fine.

I got my cookie too, don’t worry. So did BF.

Also, in a very “we are a semi-adult couple who lives in a semi-adult home” move, we bought PATIO FURNITURE which was on sale. Again with the little things people. Until yesterday, when BF got all handy-man and set up our new table and chairs, the sole piece of furniture on our porch was a little, lone rocking chair. Now, we can do all kinds of fun things out there, including eat dinner, play cards, and make fun of all the people of segway tours that “drive” by our house.

Seriously. WALK.

Anyways, once arriving home and setting up our new sitting area, we got to work on the garden.

You pour the soil BF, I'll document.

After some pulling, clipping, digging, and planting, we had a final product!

Gardening!! Earth Day!! Not going to Safeway for vegetables every day!!

Into the newly poured soil went: spinach, snow peas, kale, strawberries, beets, chard, mint, basil, rosemary, radishes, and flowers. I’m PSYCHED. Now, let’s just see if this actually produces anything…

To celebrate our “manual labor” we headed to the park down the street to play some catch/whiffle ball. Note: It is not easy to play whiffle ball with two people, though it is highly entertaining, and perhaps more entertaining to the people watching.

It was actually after all these activities that I realized it was Earth Day, which made everything so highly appropriate.

I love the sun. I love running. I productive days. I love convincing BF to buy cookies with me.

Did you know these things?

I’m sorry if you’re tired of reading about me getting excited over and over about the exact same things all the time, but what can I say? I’m easy to please and I know what I like.

 

So, that’s all for now. If you made it all this way through my weekend recap, both thank you and I hope you had a great weekend as well. Today begins the less than two week countdown to marathon day, which will be on May 6. I’ve technically begun tapering, but as you can tell by my recap of exercise this past weekend, the real tapering is yet to come. I’m probably going to turn into a crazy, “I HAVE EVERY FEELING IN THE WORLD” person, and so I can almost guarantee some frightening/entertaining posts in these next couple of weeks.

NOW YOU! Tell me about your Earth Day, your weekend, your long run, your favorite grocery store, your simple pleasures, or ALL OF THESE THINGS! I enjoy comments.

[College]town Glory

2 Replies

It would be a big fat lie to be as bubbly and glitter-filled as I originally thought I was going to be when writing this post. I did have a spectacular long run on the marathon course last Saturday, and everything in life is generally going great, but right now I’m really just feeling tired and spacey.

I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since last Friday night, and although I’m normally fine on less sleep, I think it’s catching up with me. Heavy mileage weeks + waking up every two hours= Grog Fest 2012. So while I certainly have plenty to do work wise and in my own life, all I really want to do is eat Cadbury Mini Eggs while lying on the couch alternating between Friends reruns and napping.

Also, if you are worried about my Cadbury Mini Egg supply, have no fear. The Easter Bunny, who somewhat resembles a strapping, brown-haired 23 year old boy, replenished my supply with TWO big bags. I know you were worried, so no stress there.

So, although I’m wishing that all my clothes would magically turn into sweatshirts and yoga pants, I’ll do my best to recap some of the real-person-good-life happenings as of late.

I know that recapping every. single. weekend long run is the opposite of interesting, and I’ve tried to tone down the detailing recently. BUT Saturday’s excursion down to Tacoma was just too good not to share, and it gave me some great insight into the value of “preview runs.”

Per the advice of a former college friend of mine, I mapped out a 20 mile run through Tacoma that would roughly take me on 14ish miles of the marathon course. The run included parts of Tacoma that I’d never run through before, as well as some of my favorite old spots to trot through. I was really excited to see the spots that I always used to pass by on runs, including a jaunt by my alma mater as well.

This was my run. It was very long.

It was the perfect setup for a long run: I was well fueled, I had a handheld bottle filled with Nuun, the sky was completely clear and sunny, and no matter what I was ending with an oatmeal breakfast with a good friend. Ideal situation, and the run definitely delivered.

There was quite frankly not one forgiving part of this self-designed course. It was rolling hills nearly the entire time, including a few pretty brutal climbs—however this element was key in terms of actual race prep. It felt great to be running in spots that I knew I would see on marathon day, and I liked thinking that I’d be familiar with specific sections that would be harder or easier than others. I practiced an easy pace on the uphills, an aggressive pace on the downhills, and finishing with a strong kick. The last mile or so was the only all downhill part of the run, which was a great simulation for how the actual race ends. Although it’s easy to think that a downhill finish means the last few miles will be easy, I think it’s surprising to see how much the downhill impact actually affects really tired legs.

I finished 20.3 miles in 2:53, which translates roughly to 8:30 average pace. I’ll take it—especially with those monster hills.

Also, NO KNEE PAIN! I love Aleve, and I also love that my knee has decided to start cooperating, specifically on mega runs like this.

An all-around win in my book.

Obviously, this was a necessary end to the day.

re-hydrating

Also, this photo epitomizes BF:

chemistry and beer= BF

Easter Sunday was marginally uneventful, but it was fun. The best part was awaking to an egg hunt that BF designed for me. Both of us get a kick out of child activities as adults, and so I think sending his girlfriend on a search for plastic eggs throughout our tiny house was probably more enjoyable for him than it was for me.

Just kidding babe, I loved it.

Here are some action shots of the hunt:

NOT FAIR. Hiding eggs out of short-person reach is discrimination.

I haz eggz. And an XL sweatshirt that is the epitome of flattering.

Once I cleaned myself out of my somewhat-hungover-disheveled-Easter-morning state, it was time for some chocolate. Because on Easter, you obviously need to consume about 10 servings worth of candy before you eat any actual breakfast.

This is a picture of me eating.

Oh and by “cleaned up,” I mean put my hair in a pony tail and put on mascara. Again with the female habits, I really need a beautician or a babysitter.

Also, here are our baskets. I’m a little afraid for the amount of candy we have in the house…because it’s easily equivalent to at least one isle at the grocery store. My teeth are scared for their lives.

What's that Target? You ran out of candy? Oh, that's because we have it all. Also, cookie monster is appropriate for Easter, obviously.

After a midday nap and lazing around in a candy coma, I finally managed to go on a 7 mile recovery run, done at a perfectly slow pace. I got to see all the families out for a sunny Easter beach stroll, along with all the other “mall people” that show up whenever the sun comes out in Seattle. People watching makes running go by so much faster, and no matter how many “WTF are you doing why would you be running ever?” looks I get from strangers (more than you’d think), I will still give them a huge cheese ball smile in return.

You will witness my sweat and you will LIKE IT people.

And, on one final note…because the fluidity of this post is just about Pulitzer worthy…I give you a look at how dogs make me SO EFFING AWKWARD. Remember how I take pictures of random dogs? Yea, so yesterday this happened.

Oh... and yes, you are looking right into my camera.

I blame BF for this. He loves Newfoundland dogs more than anything in the world, so obviously when I saw this guy on a stroll I needed to attempt to capture it in photo form. But guess what Robyn? Leaning across your car holding your phone up and driving slowly by people will PROBABLY MAKE THEM NOTICE YOU. I played it really cool when I realized the man saw the whole photo thing go down, and by “really cool” I mean I immediately held my phone up acting like I was trying to get reception. We both knew what happened though. Don’t worry nice newfie-owning man, I really only care about having a photo of your dog.

 

So that’s all. Thanks for listening to my ramblings, as well as my apathy toward the world that has taken over my mood these past few days. And actually, writing all this down has helped remove me a bit from my slump. I’m still going to eat all the Mini Eggs though and feel super embarrassed about the unbelievably low production level of my HTC relay application. I’m really glad I applied, and I really really hope I get in, but for real…there are some stellar videos out there, which you should probably check out, and I think you’ll realize why I’m about 5 minutes away from enrolling in some kind of intro to movie making classes.

I would love to hear some uplifting thoughts from you beautiful people today. Tell me something you are excited about, something you are proud of, or just something that is making your day better.

Warning: Sparkly Excitement Ahead

3 Replies

You know how you secretly hate those people who are all “Happy Monday!” “Welcome to the week!” “I love life!”? Seriously, pretty much everyone is merely trying to get through this first day of the week, why do you need to shove it in our faces that you are hyped on Prozac and caffeine and unicorns all the time?

Yea, well…today, I am one of those people. So, if you aren’t feeling exclamation points and glass-over-flowing-with-excitement optimism this afternoon, go ahead and quietly scroll your arrow to the little “x” box at the top right corner of your screen and pretend like you were never here. No hard feelings.

Still with me? Sweet! Now let’s make some sweet sweet rainbows and sunshine together.

On Friday, I posted a bit about my hopefulness and hesitation for the fate of my spring marathon aspirations. Due to my knee being a huge a-hole and my training getting thwarted for two weeks, I was coming to terms with the fact that things may not pan out as I’d hoped.

And I was okay with it…I really was.

Then came yesterday’s run. Oh dear, sweet yesterday’s run.

After very grudgingly getting out of bed for an attempted “long run,” I decided that I would be shooting for 16 miles. That was the ideal, and if I had to cut it short, I would accept it. Because that’s the Smart Runner Bird I’m trying to be, remember?

So then, I started to run. And I felt fantastic. And I kept running…and I still felt fantastic.

Call it cortisone, call it rest, call it luck, call it the Aleve I took literally 3 minutes before walking out the door, but no matter what it was…it worked. I kept running, waiting for my bursa sack to inflame and immobilize the rest of my leg the way it had been for the past two weeks.

NADA. NOTHING.

I stopped halfway through to stretch a bit, and while my knee tingled a bit, there was no indication that running was irritating or bothering it in any way. As I started off on the last half, you could not get the smile off my face. It was ridiculous and reminiscent of an elementary school “You Can Do It!” motivational poster…but I just couldn’t help it. The thought, “I’m back!” kept reverberating in my brain, and I relished every moment. It also didn’t hurt that despite a forecast of rain and wind, there was sunshine and {some} wind instead.

So proud of you Seattle, so proud of you knee.

I even threw in a mile long hill at the end of it all with a 300 ft. elevation gain for some added grunt, and the knee seemed to take it all in stride. I felt as if my knee was like, “Okay Robyn, since you actually did the right thing and laid off me I’ll suck it up and get better. You win.”

Total mileage? 17.22

SO PSYCHED. This was super encouraging, as I’ll {hopefully} still be able to get in two, 20+ milers before taper.

Please excuse my overly enthusiastic Tweet yesterday in which I had miscalculated my mileage before mapping it.

awkward.

No problem. 18 would have been great, but 17 is great too.

Side note: I have this weird thing about running distances that are odd numbers. As in, I am really uncomfortable with it, and I almost always try and run even numbers of miles. Half Marathons are great, but 13.1 is scary numerically to me. Fun Fact Monday. Well, maybe not fun, but maybe it helps make you feel more normal?

I even foam rolled afterwards and stretched! Improvements!

I would like to say this face was exaggerated, but that would be a lie. Self portrait attempts + quad mutilation via hunk of foam + face caked in salt= the essence of beauty.

And if I hadn’t already basked in pain-free running glory enough, I decided to do the wise injury-prevention thing and go to yoga yesterday afternoon. It was definitely not my best performance, and I stuck to all the easier versions of the poses, but my calves and hammies were very happy with all the stretchy attention the got. I think I fell asleep for a minute in savasana also, but that must mean I was really meditative and Zen. Right? Good.

And speaking of meditative and happiness and birdies, this was also a necessary end to the day:

Oh buttery, sugar-coated, pink, bird sugar cookie, I love you.

I am feeling wonderfully sore and sleepy today. After not doing a long run for a few weeks, those miles definitely wiped me out in the best possible way. I’m still on the watch for lingering injury pain, but yesterday was definitely a fat ole’ confidence boost kick-in-the-butt. {I also don’t think you can get more adjectives/descriptive nouns in one sentence. Way to go English major, way to utilize your inability to tone down your detailing.}

Nothing like a little patience to really make a run feel like solid gold.

Shake out run today, and presuming things keep going well, I’m looking forward to continuing on in this [final!] month of marathon training.

____

Now… please let me hear your lovely voices! Did you race this weekend? Long run? How’d it go? Are you as sad as I am that Alec Baldwin is engaged?