Wide-Angle Wednesday!

I think there's only one thing appropriate to post for wide-angle Wednesday this week! 

 Good luck to all my runner friends headed to Dumbo Double Dare this weekend at Disneyland!  I hope you all have a fabulous time, I cannot wait to read the race reports! 

Anyone stuck home like me?  The good news is that this means the Princess Half is getting closer!  179 days!!!

Any of you PLL fans?  Tell me last night was all a mistake, I feel completely betrayed!  Ahhhh!  And we have to wait until October.  Sigh. 

Weekly wrap-up and Superhero 5K!

I'm doing them together b/c my wrap-up is really JUST the 5K!  I didn't run at all this week until the race and I'm happy to report that I did run and there was no pain from my heel bursitis!  Yay!!!  The 5K was Superhero themed and the proceeds all went to The American Cancer Society, so this time Savannah decided to join in and see if her friends were interested.  She followed Talia Joy Castellano and was really sad when she passed away.  We thought this would be a nice way to honor her memory and contribute a little.  Dallas and I had no trouble getting up and dawning our Superhero gear, but Savannah isn't used to these early mornings. It took a bit to get her up and she looks a wee bit tired in  the photos! LOL. 

Bonus!  My BFF was there so I had a personal photographer.  I even got lucky and she forgot her memory card so she used my camera.  Even easier! ;)   It seemed like we were going to get off to a late start but they gathered up everyone pretty quickly at 9am and started.  Pretty late race for August.

The race shirts were cute (you can see them, the blue ones, in the shots)  I decided to run and see how my heel felt.  I think the Wonder Woman costume helped. I'll admit, Rey thought I was walking.  I told him afterwards that I had run, but I just didn't want to hear it before the race. 

   Hope got this shot of us taking off and look who is next to me!  She was the only other woman dressed as Wonder Woman.  Love it!

 

You can see how I taped in this next shot, on my right leg.  I went up from the heel and also across it (in the shoe where you can't see).  I think it helped.

 

I thought we were taking it easy taking off, but Dallas says we didn't.  All I know is I had a huge grin on my face b/c I was running!  There was no pain and I was so excited.   The girls were walking the race, although I was told they ran a few times as well.  Savannah said she actually liked running more because of the breeze...yep, planting the seed! 

 

The race was on a mostly flat paved trail and then back up the road and it's somewhere I run normally, so it was nice to not worry about where I was going or the route.  They had posted it previous to the race, so I knew where I was going, which was great.  At each mile marker they had fun signs like "SHAZAM! 1 Mile!"  and "KABOOM! 2 Miles!", that was really cute.  

It was pretty hot but they had a water station at 1.5 and I got in a small water fight with Dallas as we ran.  I love running with him!  He was on his game and after a slight mishap where he thought his mp3 player was going to die, I was chasing him the whole race!    Me, on the other hand, not so much.  It wasn't the heel, although I was nervous to push it, so I tried not to go to fast.  It was my lungs.  After a few weeks with only 1 run, my lungs were not happy.  I got a stitch in my side, which I get occasionally, but I just couldn't settle into my breathing like I usually do.  I was so happy to be running though, I just didn't really care.  I walked a couple times to catch my breath and then continued on.  Dallas got quite a bit ahead of me by the end, over a minute.  He PR'd!  I was so happy for him, he said everything just went right this race and I'm so glad.  He's had some issues the last couple races.  No PR for me, but I didn't expect one.  33:20 was good enough for me!

 

The girls came in quite a bit later and I know at least 2 out of the 3 said "never again" after crossing the finish.  LOL.  Notice the capes are all off as well.  They chattered about the race afterwards for a long time though, so I know they had fun and maybe in the future.  I can only hope a little seed was planted.  Mwahahaa...my evil plan.  

I call this the "I don't understand why she actually likes these things?" face.  LOL

I took my shoe off right after the race and my heel feels ok.  It doesn't hurt, but there's some tenderness and I'm not about to push on it to see if it hurts more.  I suspect more rest this week until it completely heals.  

Oh and for those of you that are Disney lovers, I made my ADR's this morning for the trip!  Got everything I wanted and we're eating in the Castle for dinner after the race!!! WOOT! 

So, have you ever run injured or on the mend?  Do your kids run races with you?  I got 1 our of 3, but I plan to convert the others eventually! If you are going in February, did you make your ADR's?!?!  Where are you eating??

Wide-angle Wednesday

 Today Savannah is having a root canal.  My girl has a severe social phobia when it comes to strangers, doctors, or dentist and so we are having to drive two hours to a specialist that will sedate her completely while she gets this done.  She's been full of anxiety and fear about it for the last month while we've waited for the appointment and I cannot wait for this to be over so she doesn't have to feel this way anymore.  It is gut wrenching to see your child in pain and scared.  So, since it's all about my girl today, a couple photos of her.

at her favorite happy place

Last weekend at the Zoo

She loves doing makeup artist type stuff, she did this "comic book look" the other night, so I stole one of her shots to share. 

 Lastly, on the injury-front... I believe I have heel bursitis.  After spending some time reading about Achilles symptoms, I found info about an injury a bit lower on the heel than Achilles and it looks like all the symptoms match up with heel bursitis.  Normal R.I.C.E. suggestions and no running for a bit.  I suspect I won't be able to run the Superhero 5K next Saturday with Dallas and Savannah, but I'll cheer them on if I can't.  I just want to get healed up so I'm ok for Half training when I'm due to start.  I'm trying not to focus on the stamina I'm going to lose in the next week or two, taking a break and staying positive.  You may have to remind me of this in a week when I'm going nuts because I haven't run! ;)

Think a good thought for my girl today! 

Weekly Wrap-up

Well, it's not much of a weekly wrap-up!  I ran 3 miles this week.  Yep.  It was a glorious 3 miles, just Friday afternoon, after resting all week.  The back of my heel felt ok during the run, but I was stiff for a bit because I hadn't run all week.  Felt great, BUT...we went to the zoo all day yesterday with Rey's family and it's hurting again.  Gah! 

See the tiny giraffe whispering in my ear? LOL

We had a fantastic day, even if it did aggravate this bizarre injury.  It's been three years since the kids have seen Rey's parents and sister.  

AND, my mama came, she's who took the pic for us! 

Rey already left this morning and his parents leave tomorrow morning.  I'm going to have to figure out what's going on with my heel.  When I took my shoe off after the zoo yesterday, there was a big red mark where the shoe is pushing on the back of my foot (the heel shield thingie).  It's NOT a blister, and doesn't feel like rubbing, but all three pair of my PureFlows are doing this, or at least hurt when I put them on, so I'm unsure what is going on.  I've been wearing this shoe for months and don't know what would cause it to do this, but either way, it makes my heel feel bruised??  

More later, we're off to go bowling!  Hope everyone had a nice weekend!   

Editing to update:  Bowling shoes were a no-go, but I bowled anyway with it just slipped on but the heel smooshed down.    When I got home last night I hit the back of my heel with my other foot by accident and it was SO painful.  I believe it's swollen and that's why the shoes bother it, but thinking right now that it's not actually the shoes, just that the shoes are pushing on the injury.  I'm not in any pain when I'm walking barefoot or in flipflops, so I think I will just have to rest another week (*heaving sigh*) and hope it heals up.  I have a 5K on Saturday I want to run.  Superheros!  Don't want to miss that!

Oops, Wide-angle Thursday

Yep, I lost a day, again! Wednesday just slipped right by.  Rey's parents and sister arrived yesterday and are here for the rest of the week, so I've been busy.  I am still resting and feeling better, having them here is keeping me busy, so it's not that awful to be taking a few days off from running.  The Mexican sweet-bread they brought with them...probably not super helpful when I'm not burning any running calories! LOL 

I'm not in any pain and doing lots of stretching, but I tried to put my running shoes on yesterday afternoon and the back of my heel immediately hurt.  It's almost like it's bruised and only hurts when something touches it??  Not great for running since I kind of have to wear shoes to do that.  Well, I guess I don't HAVE to. 

In any case, I hope everyone is having a good week and the road is treating you well! 

 

Boo.Hiss.

I have no idea what else to title this.  

Here's me right now...

 

That's an ice pack if you cannot tell. So for the past week or so, I noticed when I put my foot up on the desk (just like in the picture, MINUS the ice pack) that it felt almost like a bruise on the back of my heel.  I didn't think a lot of it, I thought it was just a little sore.  A couple times I noticed it burned/hurt as I was putting my shoe on, but it wasn't hurting after that or while I ran. I took an unplanned rest day yesterday because I was sore all over from my Friday and Sunday runs and felt ready to do a little treadmill work this morning.  I went to put my shoe on and BURNING pain in the back of my heel...yep, self-diagnosed Achilles pain.  

This is me right now.

 

I'm probably a bit more dramatic than Alice, actually.  

Dallas still wanted to hit the gym, so I decided I would do some strength training while he ran but that was thwarted as well on the first set of shoulder lifts as something pulled in my neck.  WTF??  I  admit, I got on the TM for about a minute to see if I could run but I knew that even if the pain subsided that I would be doing some damage, so I was banished to the bike for 25 minutes.  Sigh.  

I'm not even sure at this point if I can bike, it seems sore just after doing that too.  Wah!!!!!! 

When I try to do calf stretches, it burns, so I'm just sitting here on my pittypot with my ice.  It's not like I haven't been here before, the last injury I had was at the very beginning of my running career when I was out 10 months with PF.  I NEED to run, why can't my body get with the program??? 

So what do I do other than icing, anti-inflammatory and stretching?  Anyone have achilles experience?  I don't think it's a severe injury, I may have caught it in time.  Hopefully that in a few days this will clear up??  Help!

Weekly wrap-up

I had such a fantastic running week!  18 miles, which is one of my highest weeks ever.  Maybe ever. I might have done 17 or 18 a couple other times.  I'm not going to go look it up, no time for that!

Monday- Started off the week running 4 miles in the pouring rain!  It was awesome and I had so much fun. 

Tuesday-Rest

Wednesday-STILL raining (we had some bad flooding in our area!) so Dallas & I headed to the gym.  Actually, I went to the gym TWICE.  Once for a tempo run by myself, 3 miles,  then back with Dallas. I did upper and lower body strength training and 15 minutes on the elliptical while he ran.

Thursday-more rest, yowsers, I was sore!

Friday-long run!  Longest run so far, 8 miles in 1:32:11! 

Saturday-rest

Sunday-3 easy miles. I was going to do 4 but I was still sore from the 8 on Friday and decided not to push it.  

I got my Team Run Disney tank and my new Fantasy Sparkleskirt this week and this awesome RunDisney lanyard that a friend sent me.  It seems I can never get enough workout clothing. LOL.  My tank is cute and feels great running, I wore it this morning. 

Today will be spent cleaning!  Rey gets home Tuesday and my IL's arrive Wednesday morning for 5 days! 

It will be a busy and fun week around here.

How did your week go?  Anyone else have special stuff going on this week? 

 

You Need Me, I Don't Need You...

WOOT!  Before I start a-rambling, let me just announce that I ran 8 miles this morning and I'm on cloud nine!  That is the farthest I have ever run and it felt fantastic.  I wore my new SparkleSkirt and it fit like a dream.  I'm going to have to buy stock or something because I can see my skirt collection growing.  Here's a pic of it from after my run when I was sitting on my driveway, trying to grasp that I just ran 8 miles straight. 

So, I don't know if I have shared this in my blog before, but about 3 years ago when I first started to take up running again, I had a bad experience.  I don't want to drag out the whole story, but basically, I was fairly overweight and running along with earbuds in, but turned down so I could hear.  Two grown men (at a bus stop with their children, no less) made fun of me as I ran by, calling me jiggly.  It hurt.  bad.  I cried and then I got angry.   It pushed me  once all was said and done, to show them that I could do this.

Fast forward to this morning, years later, and I'm running along when a car drives by with the windows open and they were laughing and saying something about me as they drove by.  My reaction?  I LAUGHED.  No, I really did.  I laughed at the ridiculousness of it and then smiled at the first thing that I thought. The first thing I thought was that I could bet any amount of money that they couldn't run 8 miles!  (I'm positive of this only b/c what runner would laugh and make fun of another runner?!? Wouldn't happen.) 

When I got to my last mile and started to pick up the pace, one of my favorite Ed Sheeran songs came on.  If you don't know who Ed Sheeran is, you are missing out.  This guy is a poet.  He writes all his own songs, no autotune, plays the guitar and when we saw him in concert, he blew us away.  He just came out on stage, nothing extra, and was this amazing ginger-haired guy with so much talent, it oozed from him.  Savannah says she's going to marry him and I gave my permission...even though she's just 12.  LOL.  Most of his songs are slow ballads, but this one is not and I love running to it.  This morning it took on a new meaning in that last mile.  I thought about how I wasn't bothered by the people in the car laughing at me b/c I honestly LOVE myself and I don't NEED their approval anymore.  I don't need them...but I think they may need me.

(to make themselves feel better) 

(Ed is only in the very end of the video, he usually only plays a small cameo in his videos)

I'm sure I'll be flying on this runner's high the rest of the day!  This is what succeeding at 8 miles and truly being proud of yourself and accomplishments looked like on me this morning:

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!  Anyone else plan to do a long run?  I know you DDD runners have some long runs coming up before you have to taper!  Have you ever found yourself empowered by something that previously crushed you?  Do you know who Ed Sheeran is? (I'm asking for Savannah who will be sorely disappointed in all of you if you don't!) LOL

Wide-angle Wednesday

Shew, running a bit late today!  Dallas didn't want to get up this morning, we had storms that kept us up all night and lost electricity.  I ended up heading to the gym early for some speed work on the treadmill and came home just in time for him to wake up and start complaining that he wanted to go.   Sooooo, we went back!  I did have the decency to change workout clothes before going.  The second time I did strength training and 15 minutes on the elliptical while he ran.  THEN I went to my mid-day petsit and walked more with one of my favorite furry friends!  I'm spent now.  Time for the couch. 

Anywho...on to wide-angle Wednesday. I think it was Lauren that requested Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party Photos?  I had to go back, it was 2009 when we went last, and my photography skills weren't so fantastic back then. I didn't have a single shot of the parade that wasn't blurry.  Disappointing, but I figured that I would overcompensate with other MNSSHP shots to make up for it.   

I adore how they light up Main Street for the parade.  See the ghost??

SPOOKY!

  

Hallowishes are SO awesome and totally different than Wishes

Nothing like a little Disney Halloween to make me feel like Fall is on the way! 

Have you been to MNSSHP?  Do you ever do double the workouts in a day?  Am I gonna hurt tomorrow? LOL.

Where I Run?

 OR...a wonderful and wet representation of how NOT to take photos!  Yep, I think that's what we should call it.

 I was all poised to do a Where I Run blogpost today and link it with Running Escapades Where I Run Linkup.  Dallas passed on running, which was the perfect opportunity for me to do my 4 mile circle that I do in my town. Then it poured.  No problem!  I'm not new to running in the rain, I love it, so I threw my phone in a plastic baggie and headed out.  I was actually really excited b/c it is SO beautiful outside in the rain.  I put Pandora on a nature/instrumental station and it was such a fantastic run! 

As for Where I run?  Ah, well, not so much.  I thought I could capture the beauty, peacefulness, and exhilaration of my run in the rain, but what you will get is a blurry, foggy, wet mess of shots.  I had a good laugh when I got home and looked at my "beautiful run photos".  LOL!  I'll post them just for fun, but you are not allowed to judge my photography from this...or my run for that matter!  

First mile I run up around the lake at the park.  It's lovely.  No, really!

Hill that leads up to the graveyard. Yep, looks like a muddy mess...but it wasn't, that's just my fantastic rainy-photog skillz.  Don't hate me for taking such awesome shots.  ;)

  

When running in the rain, I feel invincible!  I actually laughed out loud a couple times when it started coming down really hard.  Glad there aren't any people out other than me because they might just think I'm completely MAD, running down the street in the rain, LAUGHING out loud!  

Photos of myself during such bliss don't even remotely capture how I feel, just the huge mess the rain is making of me. 

 

 Graveyard was beautiful and peaceful this morning.  You would never know it from my picture though.

 Oh the beautiful tree lined sidewalk!  (note my dripping sarcasm please)  It really is a nice place to run, shaded when the sun is out...if you can see anything through the BLUR!

Home at last and I pulled the phone out of the soaked plastic baggie.  4 miles perfectly when I hit my driveway. 

Ok, so let's face it, there's just no capturing a rainy run properly.  It's something you just have to GO DO and then you will know how fabulous it is! 

This had me questioning a few things about the Princess Half, however.  

It could rain and obviously, I love rain, so I wouldn't mind but let's assume it does not rain.  I won't have to contend with a plastic baggie, but I have serious doubts about my phone taking any photos that are up to my standards.  Obviously I cannot run with my DSLR, but I need to find a middle ground.   

 When not in the rain, my phone takes ok shots, BUT, it's hard to handle/manuver and I'm concerned that the CM's will have trouble working it when I try to pass it off to them.  I'm thinking I need to borrow a point and shoot or find a cheap one (which undoubtedly will also NOT take shots that I find pleasing to the eye) What's a girl to do?!?!  I'm afraid being a runner and a photographer don't mix that well!

If you have run the Princess, what did you carry?  Just your phone?  A Point & Shoot?  What kind?

Weekly Wrap-up

What a week it has been!  Busy and lots going on, forgive me if I ramble!  Training was hard this week, but I got it done.  It was the first week of my "official" training plan that I made up for the next 30 weeks, I got all my runs in.  They weren't all without some pain though!  

Monday- 4 miles, easy pace.  I noted this as BLAH on dailymile b/c I had a stomach ache the whole time.

Tuesday- 3 tempo on the TM.  BLAH again, really struggled to keep my speed up, ended up with 10:03 pace.

Wednesday- WALKED and stood all over Six Flags.  My legs and feet were killing me and this concerns me.  I'm going to do a half day at Magic Kingdom the day before the race, I hope it doesn't leave me feeling like I did Wednesday!

Thursday- 3 AWFUL miles.  I had planned on doing my normal 4 mile loop of my town but cut it short b/c my feet were in pain and I was concerned I would have a PF flare after months free of pain. 

Friday- REST and stretching.  So sore still and pretty worried. 

Saturday- Finally!  I was worried b/c I was due for a 5 mile run.  It was pouring so we headed to the gym and I set the TM really slow.  Most of the time I ran a 10:54 pace, but sometimes I bumped it to 10:42 and then I sped up the last half mile.  Felt really good and no pain!

Sunday- REST!

   SLOW needs to be my new mantra.  If I want to get my mileage up, I need to learn to slow it down.  I'm supposed to be training for distance.  

I was pretty worried at how sore and in pain I was the day and the day after walking at Six Flags.  Does anyone else have problems when they stand for long periods?  It doesn't make sense to me that I can run for so long but I can't walk and stand without ending up in pain?  

We had a great time for Dallas' 18th Birthday, my mom came out to visit and crushed us all in Monopoly.  She was pretty pleased with herself! She said she never wins Monopoly. 

 On top of being a busy week, Dallas & I had some scheduling conflicts with training.  He wants to train with me but does not wake up as early as me and this lends to problems with coordinating our runs. He also wants to go to the gym more than me.  We talked today about what would work best for my training and his. 

  My petsitting is pretty early and I'm usually wanting to run right after I do my morning sits.  My training schedule had me doing a long run on Saturdays and that is not going to work.  First and foremost because Saturday is my busiest day usually and I have more clients.  When my runs get longer, I think I won't have enough time on Saturday.  The gym also does not open until 8am on Saturday (this is a whole other rant, really. I live in a small town, that's basically why.  They don't open until 11am on Sunday!) 

In any case, there will be times in the winter that I will need to do indoor runs and waiting until 8am isn't going to cut it.  So, after looking at it, I realized I could just scoot the whole thing back a day.  Instead of M-T-TH-S for runs, I can just do Su-M-W-F.  This has my long runs on Fridays, which works better!  I know, this is crazyboring, but I need to document it somewhere.  This is the new training plan.  I also bumped up some of my mileage sooner as some people suggested, I think this will work well. 

 I keep having the urge to go in and bump those miles up even more! LOL..I'm just going to have to play it by ear a bit and add miles if I need to.  I'll drive myself crazy if I keep changing it.  All in all, it was a busy-fun week for us and I got my miles in, but they were hard miles.  Hoping next week isn't such a struggle!  

Do you ever find you are more sore from walking/standing than running?  If you have run a race at Disney, did you tour the day before?  Half day before?  (this is not really negotiable, I MUST get the girls to Magic Kingdom for a bit on Saturday!)

Wide-angle Thursday?

I lost a day there!  LOL. It was worth it, I was with my daughter and her friends at Six Flags.  Savannah had never even been to Six Flags (what can I say, I'm a bit of a Disney-snob!) and we went with friends and had a really fun day.  So, technically, I took these shots on wide-angle Wednesday, so it still counts.  AND I'm going to post more than one! It's my blog so I say it counts!  ;)

Hope you all had a nice Wednesday!  Today is Dallas' 18th Birthday and we're head out for a run!!!  I'm editing to addihis 18th bday picture that he just posed for! Best.running.partner.ever.