Breaking all sorts of rules…

After weighing all of the pros and cons of whether or not to run 15 miles today, I made the decision not to run. Yesterday, I walked around a lot in Lawrence, KS with a friend and my ankle was very tender by the end of the day. I’ve been on a serious ice regiment and I’m really hoping to make a great come back. My marathon is just too important to me to risk further injury. I’m telling you, it was HARD decision. Especially since last week the most I ran was 5 miles and since then, I’ve only run 4 miles. This is not good…

But, I’m determined to make it to the marathon. If I’m under trained, I’m under trained.

Having made the hard decision, I knew I had only one option left. Three grueling hours on the eliptical machine. That’s right folks. Your friend Stephanie has gone where she hopes no other RBF members have to go. From 6:45-10 a.m. this morning (the 15 minutes extra was the time I spent walkingand stomping around in circles every hour to wake up my feet) my life consisted of eliptical hell. I wanted to be running so bad.

In order to prentend I was running, I still followed my pre-run routine of eating, drinking water and even using body glide. (Hey, I didn’t know what my body would do if I spent that long on the thing.) I also brought along a thing of gu to keep my body used to it. (And after 1.5 hours, some extra energy was sounding great.)

At our apartment complex workout room, there is HUGE sign that reads: “Please limit your workouts to no more than 30 minutes. Thank you.” So, I was super nervous that I would get busted. Believe it or not, there are people who WANT to work out on that thing. I figured if I went early enough, I wouldn’t have too much of a problem.

After 2 hours, during one of my walking around stomping breaks, a girl came in and asked me if I was done on the eliptical. I said no, I have (pause.) an hour left. She looked at me like, “WHAT?” So I apologized and explained the entire saga of my marathon and my ankle and my training etc… She seemed to forgive me and moved to the treadmill. I apologized a million times. But we talked for a while and suddenly I’m thinking, she knows an awful lot about me. The first few hints were subtle:
“How’s your husband?”
“Did you cut your hair?”

And then:
“Is your air conditioning working?”

That’s when I realized…it was the apartment complex MANAGER!!!!! Yikes. I hope we don’t get evicted. Luckily, she was nice. I feel like I should bribe her with something.

Here’s to hoping I’m up to my 16 miles next week. I really hate breaking the rules.

Stephanie’s Running Interview

As a blatant knock off to Brent’s running survey, I thought I’d take a chance to interview the RBF.
So, without further ado, I tag Jeanne, A.Maria, Josh, Flatman, Liz, Margarette, Riona, and anyone else who wants to participate in my interview to answer these questions on your blog and then tag others who aren’t named here. Let’s see how many people we can get going on this.

Q: What are you training for now?
A: The Kansas City Marathon on September 24.
Q: If you are raising money for a cause, what is it and why is that cause important to you?
A: I’m not, but I would love to find a group running marathons for ALS.
Q: What is the furthest distance you’ve run in your training and what is the furthest distance you will run before your event?
A: 13 miles and the most I will run is 20.
Q:What is your favorite flavor of gu? (or other sports gel)
A:I like the caffeine in espresso and the taste of tri berry. I currently have two packets of tri berry in my purse.
Q: How many days a week do you run?
A: Three, same as TNT.
Q: Are you injured in any way right now? If so,what are you doing about it?
A: Yes, in the brain. Just kidding. My foot and ankle are sore, but no “official” diagnosis.
Q:What is one item of running clothing/gear (shoes don’t count) you can’t run without?
A: Body glide and socks that go slightly higher than the backs of my shoes. I used to be all about those cute little low-cut running socks. No more.
Q: Do you have a talisman you are planning on taking to your event? If so, tell us!
A: My husband! He’s my main cheering squad and I think he’s bringing a small crowd of our friends and family with him. That makes me the happiest.
Q: Share one thing about yourself we don’t know.
A: I used to host Morning Edition on an NPR affiliate. It involved getting up VERY early.

I’ve been a bad bad girl…

I RAN! I know I wasn’t supposed to. Here’s why:
1. It was beyond beautiful weather.
2. I miss running.
3. I was worried that if I didn’t run any that my 15 miles would shock my system and be worse for me.
4. “There’s always ice.”

Still hurting, but I made it. It wasn’t the kind of pain that you can’t walk or run on. I ran 4 easy miles. I mean, really what’s the use of training for a marathon if you can’t run when it’s so nice outside?

I panicked, but the doctor says I’m ok

News Flash: I panicked. HOWEVER, my doctor said it was a good thing I did because it means I am in tune with things. She x-rayed my foot/ankle and said, there is no stress fracture!!! YAY! And, (yes, Jeanne, I agree with you about g.p.’s not knowing the foot as well as a podiatrist and if I continue to have problems, I’ll have her refer me) she even gave me stretches and ice techniques for my foot. Her hypothesis is that it is just the tendons in my foot/ankle screaming at me from overuse. And she supported that by reminding me that the pain was not localized. It moves. (from my ankle to my foot and back…) I am so happy. I am so happy that I will continue to work on the eliptical for the rest of the week until my long run without complaining.

I have a history of osteoporosis because my mom has it and I have tested positive for early stages of it. That is why I panicked about the stress fracture. She said lots of calcium supplements and stretching and ice and I should be OK. But she also said to return if the pain became worse or more localized.

She is also very proud of me for quitting smoking and said nice things about my overall health now.

I am wiping the virtual sweat off my forehead and continuing on with training as I knock on wood and cross my fingers… Thanks so much for the support.

I hate the eliptical part 1

The eliptical is now my arch enemy for the following reasons:
1. I am forced to use it until my foot/ankle feels better (I know what you are thinking: I thought it was your ankle! Well now it’s both…more on that in a sec.)
2. My feet fall asleep when I use it (am I too fat? can I not bear the weight of my own body for periods of time?)
3. It represents the fact that I cannot run right now.

I’ve just spent 30 minutes feeling sorry for myself while gliding away on the rinky dinky eliptical machine at my apartment complex.

Yesterday, in addition to my ankle, I realized that my foot also hurts. (same leg) So basically I have random areas of pain from my toes to my ankle. Weird. It also was very swollen compared to my other foot. I started to “stress” out about the possiblity of having a stress fracture somewhere in my foot or ankle or both! (I can be very dramatic, I know.) Then, I got online and read about plantar fasciitis which is essentially pain in your arch area, which is where the pain in my foot is, but does not explain the ankle. I’m desparately hoping it is this because from what I read, I could train through this ailment. My worst, worst fear is a stress fracture.

SO, I’m going to the doctor tomorrow. Just my general practicioner, who I’m sure will just want to refer me on, but what I’m really hoping is that she can listen to my woes and say, “No, Stephanie, you don’t have a stress fracture. Yes, you can run your marathon. Carry on.” Basically, I really don’t give a flip what my “injury” is as long as I can still run on it.

If you are reading this and care, I’d love to have some good vibes or whatever sort of positve brain waves or hopes or nice thoughts you care to send my way.

Thanks for reading.

Views like this make me so thankful to be a runner…even if I didn’t finish. 

A is for ankle and actually I didn’t run the whole way..

I want to say that making the decision NOT to run two laps around Shawnee Mission Park was the hardest decision ever. I was having a great run. I was conquering the hills, running without walking and exceeding my performance from my last run at the park. Somewhere around mile 4, I stopped to take a drink. About two steps into my walk, I felt my ankle throbbing. I knew it was tender, but I had no idea how much it hurt until I stopped running. I didn’t know what to do. There was no one to ask, should I keep going? Is this serious? All I knew was my ankle was seriously hurting. I ran another mile to my car, again, feeling strong, up hills etc… But as soon as I started walking again, the pain was back.

So, I made the decision. I didn’t want to stop. I wanted to go another round. But I’ve heard that training is about getting to the marathon, not finishing a weekly run. I figured, that it was more important for me to heal for my 15 mile run next week, as opposed to running on it and injuring it further? (am I injured or is it just my tendons?) I’m so scared.

I’m also super depressed because I didn’t finish my 8-10 mile run (one plan I looked at said to run 8 this week, another said 10. I did about 5.) and my husband said I should have pushed through the pain. So now I don’t know what to think and I’m bummed.

In other news, I took pictures with my phone when I was running (I know, talents abound.) of the sun over the lake at Shawnee Mission Park and the birds (I think they were turkeys?) I scared off the road. I’ll put those up later today or tomorrow.

I hope you all had great runs and I hope I’m back in business next Saturday. Because the thing is, I was feeling pretty darned good otherwise….

Sometimes you surprise even yourself…

Last night I really had intentions of resting the knee/ankle etc… on the eliptical. But I got home and it just felt like a running night. Strange. But I wasn’t going to do the whole 4 miles because I wanted to rest my aches and pains. However, somewhere between mile 2 and 4 I gave up on that because I just ran the whole way…no walking breaks even…. it just felt great to run. I have no idea what my time/pace were because I didn’t calculate. But I do know that there are days when you surpass even your own expectations. Yesterday was one.

I was just using it wrong!

It turns out tobacco isn’t all that bad?! Here’s good news for all the tobacco farmers in North Carolina where I used to work as a reporter. According to the Runner’s World Daily Tips today:

Training: Reduce inflammation and bruising with tobacco. Training expert Ed Eyestone recommends applying leafy tobacco, cooked into a poultice, to a sprained ankle, pulled muscle, or bruised toe, to reduce inflammation and bruising. Zap a few leaves in the microwave for a minute, drain the water, pile the leaves into a washrag, and apply them directly to the sprain or bruise overnight.

Now after all that fuss I made about quitting smoking for this marathon, now I find out the stuff is actually good for my aches and pains. Hmmph. Time to go grab a pack out of the freezer (I know, I know…emergency’s only!) and start unrolling it.

I kept my end of the deal…

So, on Saturday, I made this little promise to my body that if I made it through my 13 mile run, I wuold give my knee/ankle etc…a well-needed break from high impact work outs. So, today was the eliptical. I know, it’s boring but at least I kept my end of the deal. Let’s see if my body remembers this come marathon day.