Training for a Belt Buckle

I Ran!

Life doesn't get much better than that.  My son was over when I got home from work and I was going to go running and he borrowed some of my running gear and ran along with me.  It was great to run. It was great to run with my son. It was great to talk to my son while running. I pushed my pace a little and he slowed down a lot.

A little pain on the inside of the knee, but not much.  Stretched good after the run.  Now I am heading out to walk the dog and finish my cooldown.

Part 2:  After walking the dog, iced my leg good.  Then headed to the gym and did 10 min warmup on the stationary bike, followed by 40 minutes leg workout.  Wasn't able to do any hamstring related exercises, but was able to do all the other leg muscles.  Hopefully after a week of focusing on stretching, the hamstring insertions will heal.  Need to remember to see if my hotel has a fridge, so I can pack an icepack if it does.

Ran 4 miles with Twilight this morning.  Geesh - she isn't even panting and wants to play.

OK - just got a phone call from my daughter.  It made me laugh. My son-in-law's parents were divorced when he was 17.  His Dad got remarried right away. His Mom got remarried about 3.5 years ago, but they separated right after my daughter got married.  

Anyway - they told me a month ago his Dad got divorced and apparently his Mom got divorced too, because they read on facebook this morning that they got remarried yesterday.

First time using my Garmin in 6 weeks.  The plan was to run this morning, but I had a restless night, so delayed the run.

Flew to Michigan and after I got into my hotel, threw my Garmin in the window to get satellite reception, changed into running gear, and was out the door within 10 minutes.  Walked 1/4 mile to the freeway.  I found a paved path that runs along the freeway.  It is about 20 feet from the freeway, but there are trees and bushes along the way so you hear the traffic, but don't always see it.  The colors are changing and it was beautiful out.  Warm wearing a long sleeve shirt and running shorts.  

While running I decided to try and do 4 miles a day in October staying under 11 minute miles once I warm up (unless there are significant uphills).  Turned around at the Little Caesar factory.  It smells as awful as I remember.  1/4 mile cooldown.

Avg - 10: 32     miles 11:03, 10:20, 10:28, 10:16

Needed to work off some frustration. Somebody stole our son's car up at the U yesterday.

Going to do some yoga and stretching now, then off to dinner later.

30 minutes yoga.

Jet lag made it hard to sleep last night, so didn't run this morning.  Woke up with a bad sore throat (guess taking EmergenC every day for a week didn't pay off).  

After work it was pouring out and my throat was bugging me, so changed clothes before I got lazy and hit the treadmills in the fitness center.  Ran 4 miles - pouring sweat because it is a small room.

No pain yesterday, pain less than 1 today.

The run last night seems to have shocked the sore throat out of my system.

Very windy this morning, so waited until after work to run.  Same route as Monday night.Walked 1/4 mile to the freeway.  2 miles out and 2 miles back on the paved path that runs along the freeway.  Colors changed even more after rain and colder temperatures yesterday. 1/4 mile cooldown.

Avg - 10: 39     miles 10:55, 10:38, 10:39, 10:21

Knee doesn't hurt while running, but sure hurts when taking off my cowboy boots or shoes.

35 minutes yoga.

Been feeling pukey the last hour while running and doing yoga.  I hope I didn't get food poisoning.

Time to pack and eat dinner.  I work until 2 or so tomorrow and then head to the airport.

Got into town late last night.

Worked a half day this morning then took the rest of the day off. I enjoyed running my usual 4 miles in the sun today. The left piriformis is bugging me a bit - think I may have overdone the yoga the last night I did it. The tendon in the right knee is bothering me a little (but not running) - so might try a brace on it for a few days to see if that allows it to heal.

Avg pace: 10:32

Busy day with the Swedish Weaving Convention.  After dinner I hit the treadmill at the hotel and did my 4 miles.  The piriformis that has been bugging me for a few days seems to be easing up.

I need to get out and exercise, but cannot honestly say that I will.

Monday was a crazy day finishing up the Swedish Weaving convention, helping out my friend, and getting the puppy back home.  I could have got up early to run, but I hate to disturb the other three ladies that I shared a room with.

Tuesday was back to work. I had a nice lunch with Leslie and was jealous of her running the 50 miler this weekend.  My right eye has been bothering me for a few weeks off and on and it started getting really bad that afternoon. I thought I had something in my eye, but the irrigated it and work and couldn't see anything.  I finally was able to get the worst of the pain to go away by wadding up a paper towel behind my sunglasses to force my eye to stay shut. The pressure helped.  I finally went home early to rest the eye.  It eased up long enough for me to run some more running stuff to Leslie's, but on the way home it started getting painful again.  Taped gauze on the eye, but it was still a tough evening and felt wasted because I had things I wanted to do, but could only watch tv.

The eye was still hurting this morning, so called in for an emergency eye exam.  The doctor took one look at my eye through the scope and announce my Recurrent Corneal Adhesions had gotten very bad and my eye was totally irritated. As she put it - I can see bubbles and oozing and several tears in the cornea.  They put in a contact lens to keep pressure on the cornea (which has lessened the pain a lot) and I am on numerous eye drops to keep the irritation down and keep it moist and keep infection away.  I see the head eye doctor from the Moran Surgical Center on Friday to see if I possibly need to have PRK surgery done on that eye to fix this issue for good.

So - to make a long story short - I can't run because of pain and because it might dry out the eye.  I will probably just lay around watching tv and reading because that is not too painful.

UPDATE!  They found the car!  Golf clubs are gone, radio torn out and a screwdriver in the ignition.  Other than that, it is fine!

PM - walked 3.5 miles with the dog.  At least I was moving. :(

I am way behind on blogging.  I didn't do much running this week because I wanted to see the doctor and make sure my knee was not getting permanently injured.

Quick wrapup of events.

Monday - finished up Swedish Weaving Convention. Back home and time to unpack.

Tuesday - back at work.  Lots to catch up there.  Lunch with Leslie to pass on some ideas and gear for the 50 miler.  Found out my son's car that was stolen was found.  Severe eye pain in my right eye.  Back to Leslie's in the evening with more gear.

Wednesday - eye still extremely painful. Emergency eye doctor visit with diagnosis of RCE (recurrent corneal erosions).  More on that in my other blog.  Contact placed on my eye to act as a patch.  3 mile walk in the evening with Twilight.

Thursday - my daughter and son-in-law from Italy (en route to Georgia) came into town for 2.5 weeks.  Love having them here and they are mainly staying at my place as their base.

Friday - puppy to the vet.  $250 later - found a thorn imbedded and infected in her paw. Knee doctor - knee is healing. He instructed me to do lots of massage, some strengthening exercises, continue stretching, more icing and heat - avoid downhills.  Eye doctor - need to have PTK laser surgery on the right eye on November 5th to correct the RCE. Late night call from Leslie that she finished all 50 miles (my little running friend is all grown up now).

Saturday - took Jenn and Jeremy to Antelope Island for the 1st Mountain View Trail Half Marathon.  Saw a herd of 100 antelope right by the road.  After setting up our aid station (we were moved to the last aid station), we had 90 minutes to kill, so walked 4 miles with my son-in-law.  Helped 120 runners through the aid station. Loaded up the van.  Ran 2.5 miles to the finish, stopping to help some cramping runners along the way.  Ate lunch. Unloaded the van. Loaded 11 people in a 7 passenger van to get 8 of them 13.1 miles back to the starting line.

Going to do some work on the right leg today.  Tomorrow morning I will start back with the 4 miles of daily running.  Twilight will be taking it easy most of the week to let her paw heal (much to her chagrin).

At 6 I am going to Leslie's house to see the DVD of her great adventure!

4 miles running on the treadmill and 20 minutes on the stationary bikes.  Stomach is a bit upset.  Also did my leg stretches and some single leg squats working on the hamstring. Now I will massage it in a hot bath and then ice it afterwards.

No energy tonight.  I struggled on the flats and uphills to keep my pace under 11mm.

avg 10:45

miles10:33/10:39/10:26/10:49

OK - this afternoon's run won the award for the nastiest run ever. I made the mistake at work of drinking a Red Bull.  This from the person who has only ever drank one cup of cola in her life.

Came home from work and was going to do 4 quick miles before working at the temple.  .75 miles into the run I found a ward member's house for an emergency potty break.  3 more emergency potty breaks before 1.5 miles - no houses to be found.  Without providing details - lets say certain parts of my body were totally raw by the time I got home and had to shower.  

So - turned around at 1.5 miles (especially because the park potty there was closed for winter). I'll make up the other mile another day.

Ran 4 miles in the dark tonight followed by one mile of jogging/walking as cooldown.

I tried to run by feel and sound, not looking at my watch a lot. If I heard the alarm warning me I was going too slow I would speed up, otherwise, just run what felt good (but pushing a little bit). Much happier with the endurance today.

10:25/10:12/10:29/10:32

The eye has felt kind of goopy the last couple of days and was almost sealed shut this morning, so I must be getting some infection under the contact lens. The doctor told me to go back on the antibiotic drops and the heavy saline drops if that occurred, so started on that today.

Excitement for me at work - they are ordering me a laptop.  I am using my personal laptop at work in the meantime because we needed to reconfigure my old desktop computer for a new employee.

I heard geese this morning and that prompted me to get closer to nature.

I went over to Wheeler Farm and ran 4 miles on various paths around there. No pushing - just a nice recovery run. As I ran I was enjoying the various shades of gold, red, brown, orange and salmon.  I  kept thinking it would be a beautiful place to take some pictures this time of year.  

Interestingly enough - as I took my last step running, the sun broke through for the first time in my run. I was able to enjoy the sun glinting off wet leaves and grass. As I walked a cooldown mile, I counted more than 25 groups taking family pictures.  Guess I wasn't the only one with that idea.

Didn't run on Monday because I had some weird thing occur on Sunday evening where I lost part of the hearing in my right ear and had a lot of pressure in it.  Went to the doctor on Monday and they put me on some antihistamines and nasal spray that cleared up the blockage.

Tuesday - in the office before 6 a.m. for meetings.  After work, my son-in-law and I did 5 miles together in the wind and snow.

I'm having a hard time finding workout time with all my company the past couple of weeks.

After work I went to the gym and did 5.6 miles on the treadmill in 60 minutes, then 10.5 miles on the stationary bike.

Heading up to Ogden soon to see my nephew open his mission call.

5.3 miles on the treadmill followed by 2.7 miles on the ellipticals.  Spent the afternoon with Jenn and Jeremy.  Was going to go help my ex move into his new house tomorrow, but he is already done moving, so I can be lazy.

Couldn't fall asleep until after 3, so slept in until 9. The beautiful weather was calling me, so headed over to Draper to the Porter Rockwell Trail. I walked one mile warmup, ran 5 miles, 1.15 miles walking cooldown.  The contact lens is really driving me crazy today.  Only 5 more days to put up with it.