Pre-marathon jitters

11 days til the marathon and I'm freaking out.  I'm not doing what I know that I should do.  I ran 2.6 miles on Sunday and I stopped the second I felt a tiny bit of pain, even with both knees taped up.  I am not icing or foam rolling like I should.  Add an extra layer of anxiety: my 39th birthday is Friday.  Like in 2 days Friday.

I said a week ago I think that I would blog every day up until the marathon.  I thought this would keep me focused.  But I am absolutely freaking out!  Freaking out about the training that I've missed, beating myself for running too hard at the 18 mile Marathon Tune Up, and obsessing over everything I could have done differently leading up til now.  What's done is done, and my attitude does not help.  I know this in my rational mind, yet I can't stop.  And having a pity party about feeling old doesn't help either.

I've ran 18 miles as my longest run.  I've built up my base.  Now just try really hard not to be injured 11 days from now.

I'm also quietly freaking out on the inside about a couple other things that I don't really want to share on the internet.  

Maybe I need more yoga in my life.  I went to hot yoga the past 2 weekends and felt great.  If someone would open a gym and a hot yoga studio within 2 blocks of my house, this would really help combat the winter blues.

I did find a great website with tons of information and advise about running your first marathon, and all about the NY Marathon: http://www.runarweb.com/index_e.php. 

I still don't know what I am going to wear.  The weather looks like it will be low of mid 40s and high of mid 50s.

I have been thinking about the various devices that I need to charge. Will I wear earphones?  The crowds and bands along the route are supposed to be amazing and motivational.  I really need new music and playlists, I'm open to suggestions.

I can't see putting myself through this again.  Especially next year, so close to my 40th birthday.  Why the hell do I put myself through this?  All this time, effort, money, pain, and anxiety!  (I did take the time to look up the chances of gaining entry by lottery which is 8-10% and I did check out the half marathon times for qualifying which I am nowhere near close.)

I promised myself and my fiancé that after this, I will chill out.  No more new projects, classes, sporting events, for at least a little while.  Which is not a specific unit of time, and is subjective.  I have to admit, I am already secretly planning to conquer conversational spanish and my great return to knitting so I can make wardrobes for my doggies.  I keep pushing myself and pushing myself and pushing myself. 

Am I any different or better than a workaholic?

What is my point?

Really need to reasses some goals after this.

Rest & Recovery: 19 more days of blogging 'til the marathon

Today was a scheduled day off from running for my training program.  My knee is a little hurty, but feeling much better overall.  It did start to bother me while sitting down for a long meeting, and then again while sitting in Spanish class.  Unfortunately, this is a repeat injury for me and the symptoms are way too familiar.

I have been taking a medication that a specialist prescribed for me last time I had the same knee injury: diclofenac.  For some reason Aleve doesn't really work for me, even the prescription strenghth.  But this medication really helped with pain very quickly.  I remember last time that I felt great by the end of my 1st 30 day supply.  After I went off of it, and the pain returned in 2 days.  By the end of the 2nd 30 day supply I was healed.  I'm about 2 weeks in so far, so the meds should having me feel great by race day.

I hate Physical Therapy.  I've done it twice before, different injuries and PT's.  I've learned a lot about my injuries and my body.  But I still hate it because I feel like all the exercises and poking around in my trouble areas just makes it worse.  Sometimes you need to just heal and rest.  My Chinatown acupressure guy is so much better, I seriously might go to him soon.

Izzy must have pulled something in his back because he burst out squealing in pain tonight for no reason.  Actually, as he was eating cookies and milk he suddenly keeled over in pain.  I laughed, because all I could think of is that the milk was bad and he had stomache cramps and explosive diarrhea was eminent.  I know, I am such a lovely girlfriend!  So I took my muscle roller stick to his back and backs of his entire legs.  I could tell that he enjoyed it, I think he was even able to block out the lecture I gave about how foam rolling.  And then I made him do it to me and it was magical and so much better than doing it to yourself.  They sell much more expensive ones, or I've heard people take a rolling pin to their sore muscles.  I got this one from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GTLOUDM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Seriously, they have a stick roller massager for pets: http://www.amazon.com/The-Stick-GW-740-Pet/dp/B001HTX80C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413255517&sr=8-1&keywords=The+pet+stick

I put some icy hot on my knee, popped a pill before bed, and put on my knee brace from Back On Track, which has ceramic powder within the fibres which creates infrared thermal warmth which is supposed to increase blood flow to the injured area and reduce inflammation: http://www.backontrackproducts.com/People-Products/Knee-Calf-Braces/Knee-Brace-w-Strap-p306.html

I did not foam roll and I did not wear my night splints for plantar fasciitis.  Still feeling a lot of tension in my hips, going to see if Izzy will hang me upside down tomorrow night in the gravity boots.

What else can I do???

20 days blogging to the NY Marathon

20 days, 16 hours, 28 minutes and 30 seconds until the marathon on November 2nd.  I have been preparing for this since January 2013.  I became a member of New York Road Runners, ran in 9 qualifying races in 2013, and volunteered at the 2013 NYC Half Marathon.  This year I've run almost 500 miles so far, spent hundreds and hundreds on entry fees, membership fees, virtual training programs, and energy gels.  There is no other option but running on November 2nd, I will walk or crawl if needed.

My knee is STILL hurting, and my training has suffered a lot.  For the last 4 weeks, I have done very little running.  Today was supposed to be a 19 mile run, the longest in the training program and would have been my longest run ever.  So I'm getting nervous.  I have got to get better.  

I can feel my hips, lower back, legs, and IT band are still really tight, so I went to hot yoga tonight.  And I feel great.  The key to relieving my knee pain is going to be loosening up all of these areas.  Tomorrow is a day off from all fitness, and I'm hoping to do an easy, pain-free run on Tuesday.  My strategy is yoga, stretching, foam rolling and gentle running for the next 20 days.  And Epson salt and ice.  I will be taping everything on race day.

Ideally, I would love to do 10 miles next Sunday and then taper for the remaining 2 weeks.  Wish me luck!  I am going to blog every day until the race.

Marathon Training Blues

4 weeks now until the NY Marathon.  As it gets closer and closer, my goal finish time increases.  Before I started training, I had a goal of 4 hours 30 min in mind (beat Oprah!).  Now my goal is to finish under 6 hours (beat Pam Anderson!).  Check out some other celebrity marathon finish times here: http://running.about.com/od/famousrunners/tp/celebritymarathonrunners.01.htm

Training was going pretty good, I felt really fit, strong, and injury-free until the 18 mile Marathon Tune-Up on September 14th, which I finished in 3 hours, 34 minutes, and 28 seconds.  This is a 11:55 min per mile pace, which is significantly slower than the pace that my training program estimates (11:04-11:24).  Izzy commented that I looked completely fine as I crossed the finish line, not like someone who ran 18 miles.  But as the day went on the serious pain sunk in.  Previous to this, my longest run was 17 miles, after which I was tired but my body was injury-free. 

I got almost no running in before my next running event, which was the Bronx 10 mile run on September 28th.  My right knee was killing me, so I taped it up with KT tape.  For anyone who has ever wondered how much this helps, I can attest that this is pretty amazing stuff because my right knee didn't bother me at all.  But my left knee started hurting immediately!  And my right ankle was sore too.  This was one of the worst runs I have ever had, my finishing time was 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 40 seconds.  (Actually, I am making a commitment to myself right now to finish a half marathon in less time than this next year.)  But I finished and I earned another medal.  And I completed 4 our of 6 of the Five Burroughs series which earned me guaranteed entry to the NY Half next year.  Clearly, I am going to tape all of my legs for the marathon.  I did a little research, and decided to order "Mummy Tape", which isn't as pretty as pre-cut, colorful KT Tape but is supposed to stick better.  And I bought a spray that also helps the tape to adhere better and stay put.

This past week I ran less than a mile and a half with my doggies, and today 2 miles on the treadmill.  A whole week wasted when the marathon is so close!  My plan at this point is to take it easy and slowly ease back in to running this week.  If I have to go to the gym and ride the exercise bike just to keep up my fitness then I'll do it.  Because time is running out and I don't know what else I can do.

I'm sure that this is totally related: I have been feeling fatigued and depressed for the past several weeks.  I sort of crashed the other week, all of the extra training and also extra work hours seemed to catch up to me at once.  As much as I would love to be able to do everything that I set out to do (which is a lot) I do actually have a physical and emotional limit.  I think the changing of the seasons has a lot to do with it, and cumulative effects of hard training.  I had my first facial ever yesterday, and the facialist suggested that the pattern of my new acne breakouts on my skin suggest stress or adrenal dysfunction, and hormonal issues.  All of which were theories of mine based off of internet research.  Another theory is that my pH level is too acidic, I plan to eat more whole foods this week and drink lots of Smart Water.

Also notable news is that my birthday is this month. And Izzy's birthday too, he is exactly 10 days older.  We'll both be 39.  We're keeping it mellow this year, just having one combined celebratory dinner.  Izzy won't even tell me what he wants for a present.  Training is definitely keeping me in line.  Usually, October is always such a busy month for us.

Besides that, I have been taking spanish again.  This time just a 6 week class, which is perfect.  Better teacher this time.  My spanish is still not that conversational, but it's getting better.

3 months until NY Marathon 2014 and Izzy's first boxing match

Just 3 months until the NY Marathon!  I ran 8 miles yesterday, as prescribed by my online virtual trainer.  It's been humid and hot, and running has become so much harder.  Last Sunday, I ran 16 miles for NYRR long marathon training run, longest run to date.  I found out that it is actually much harder to run at a slower pace, and the last 2 miles were excruciating.  But I did it and I'm a better person for it.  I'm starting to plan my post-marathon party.

So I quit 30 Day Abs.  I will do it again.  Some day.  I mean, I invested $20 in that ab mat, so...

Izzy had his boxing match, it was so exciting!  I had no idea that I would enjoy it that much.  He lost, but he gave a good fight.  And not many people actually get up there and do that, so there's that.  Everyone got a trophy, and our friends from the local dive bar made him a champion belt made out of six pack holders, beer coasters, and tin foil.  So much love and support!  I think about 30 friends came out to to see him, plus he raised over $1000 for charity.

And Izzy has already signed up for his next athletic challenge.  We signed up with a bunch of friends to do a Zombie Run (5k obstacle) on October 25th.  We all decided to be runners (or humans) and not zombies.  My initial thought was that a 5k would be a piece of cake, but then reality sunk in about the obstacle part...  The marathon is the following weekend.  I should probably train for this event, but this is definitely outside of my comfort zone.  Taking suggestions and advice from anyone who has trained for this type of event, particularly if you lack upper body strenghth like I do!

Which reminds me, yesterday was the NY triathalon.  Some day I will do this...  So little time!

30 Day Abs: Shit is gettin' REAL.

I noticed a few of my friends publicly committing on Facebook to do 30 Day Abs, and I thought that this challenge could help me established a new healthy fitness habit and would benefit my marathon training.  There are several free and paid iphone apps, I settled on "30 Day Ab" free version by Jozic Productions (www.jozicproductions.com).  There are 4 exercises: sit-ups, crunches, leg raises, and plank.  Day 1 is 15 sit-ups, 5 crunches, 5 leg raise, and 25 second plank.  Pretty easy!  And didn't take so long.  But for some reason it took me a week to mentally prepare for Day 2.

The program is 3 days of exercises, followed by a rest day.  Each day is a little harder than the previous.  By Day 11, I could barely finish.  So after a day of rest on Day 12, I decided that I would repeat Day 9, 10, and 11.  I did Day 9 on Friday, and yesterday I justified skipping a day since I had to run 9 miles for marathon training.  Now I find myself at the crossroads of procrastination.  I am telling myself right now that as soon as I finish and publish this blog that I will go to my bedroom at complete Day 10.

I starting running in 2009 using the Couch to 5k program.  I read somewhere that if a week was really hard that it was best to repeat a week rather than move on.  I repeated many weeks and took extra rest days between run days.  But I finished it.  And I've run 3 half marathons to date.  So I thought the same method could be applied to 30 Day Abs.  My journey, at my own pace.

If anyone else is considering doing this challenge, I highly recommend buying an ab mat.  I bought one for $20 on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Workouts-Machines-Equipment-Trainer-Exerciser/product-reviews/B00BBLDN56?pageNumber=2. It's basically a little curved mat that supports the small of your back.  It also helps you get a better range of motion and do the exercises more effectively.

Here's a similar 30 Day Abs program, the one I saw circulating on Facebook:

Solstice means it's officially summer!

It is absolutely gorgeous today in Brooklyn, we were out of the house this morning by 9 am to enjoy the longest day of the year.  We did our usual long doggy walk down Franklin St. and Kent Ave. to Williamsburg.  We always stop at Sweetleaf Coffee on N. 6th, which serves the best coffee and pastries on the planet.  Then we go to Bushwick Inlet Park along the waterfront to enjoy our tasty treats while we watch soccer.  Of course, we always take the doggies to the dog park at McCarren Park.  Oh, did I mention that we got another doggy?

Landon was showing signs of boredom, so we adopted a sister for him.  Irene is a chihuahua pug, she has a mean looking grin, one ear that is always curled forward, and she snorts like a pig.  And she is an alpha female. We love her so much, but these two are a hand full!

According to my new Misfit Shine activity tracker, I have walked 4.8 miles before noon today.  (Shine is "the world's most elegant physical activity tracker": http://www.misfitwearables.com). I still need to run 55 minutes today (about 5 miles), according to my Gipis app marathon training program.  

Izzy and I have had sinus infections that are interfering with our training.  Izzy is still set to box in the ring for the charity at Gleason's on July 19th.  I'm running the Queens 10k tomorrow and marathon training is gearing up.  I am registered for long training runs through NYRR in July, August, and September.  And I'm thrilled that the Queens 10k is a month earlier this year (and probably 20 degrees cooler), and that I will earn a medal.  Last year I finished in 1:08:02, and hoping to finish under an hour. Check out this photo of me last year, apparently I looked like I just bought a Toyota.

If anyone wants to track me, NYRR offers live tracking here: http://liveresults.nyrr.org/e/NYRR-QUEENS-2014#b=na&v=ptrack  My bib # is 9058.

I started Day 1 of 30 day abs, but I never got to Day 2.  I am using a free app called 30 Day Ab by Jozic Productions.  I am recommitting to this, starting today.