WDF 5K 2013

This morning was the 27th running of our local Women's Distance Festival 5K.  For me, it was probably about the 4th or 5th time that I've done it. I love this event because it's so supportive and there are always several first timers running it.

I haven't been running very much lately and didn't expect to have a particularly good race, but I figured I could probably finish in the 29-30min range.

As it turned out, my finish time turned out to be 28:30, and I was pleased with that.

Love the race swag too.  They gave us a women's technical t-shirt and a small bag with reflection on it.  At the finish, we received a carnation and some chocolates.

I didn't stick around too long after the finish; I wanted to get home so I could get cleaned up and make it to church (which I did).  They have't posted the official results yet, so I'm not sure of my exact age group placing. I'll be interested in that detail.

Update:  Official results are now posted.  I was 8 of 17 in my age group, 52 of 163 overall.

Next up for me is another 5K in a few weeks.  And then the women's triathlon that I haven't been training much for due to my shoulder.  It's going to be an adventure, if nothing else...

Too much of a good thing...

Oh, hey.  When we said we needed rain, we didn't mean THIS much.  We've been lucky at our house in Corrales, there was a makeshift river running through our backyard leaving debris behind, but no standing water and no mud.  Some friends of our haven't fared so well.  Needless to say, I didn't go running this morning.  Although swimming may have been an option...

Rain floods Corrales | New Mexico News - KOAT Home

do run run run

I've been a good girl and giving my shoulder a lot of rest.  I've cut back on icing and anti inflammatory meds.  It's feeling better, but not 100%.  I may try a short swim next week.

I have been running, though. I've done 3 four mile runs this week.  All at an easy pace.  I've actually got a 5k on Sunday, but I'm still planning to run 5 or 6 miles easy on Saturday.  

Then I have another 5k a few weeks later.  Then the Sprint tri which I'm not able to train for properly because of the shoulder and I'm not even sure that I'll be able to do that event.  I'm just taking it one day at a time.  At the end of the day I need to remember that this is just a hobby and a way to stay in shape.

Caption This!

Guess I'm getting a little slap happy from sitting around with a cold pack on my shoulder.  Oh, and I now have two cold packs, this white one and a blue one.

Help me out and share some thoughts on witty captions for this photo. Here are a few of my ideas, but surely you can do better:

"Hey, I've got quite a chip on my shoulder"

"Arrrr Mateys!  Someone swapped me parrot with an ice pack!"

Putting it into practice...

How interesting that I posted on having a good day yesterday.  It was a challenging day to put it into practice, but I think I was successful in finding the positive in each of the challenges that came my way.

Challenge #1 - Shoulder injury

• The bad - I've been having significant shoulder pain since July 4.  I'm not sure what happened exactly.  I've seen the chiropractor twice and talked to the doctor.  They both suspect impingement syndrome, tendinitis, or bursitis.  Initial cousre of treatment is rest, ice, anti-inflammatories.  Rest for the next 3 weeks includes anything that requires me to lift/extend my arm past a certain point.  This includes both cycling and swimming and I have a triathlon on my schedule in just over a month. Uggh.
• The good -  I had it checked out early enough that the conservative treatment of rest/ice/anti-inflammatories *may* be sufficient for healing.  Fingers crossed! 

Challenge #2 - Dental appointment

• The bad - I'm an extremely anxious dental patient as it is and have been having sensitivity issues on bottom front teeth.  My normal dental hygentist is no longer at the dental office, so I had to see someone new who doesn't know me or my anxiety issues.  I told her about the sensitivity and anxiety and she used a topical numbing solution to allow her to clean those sensistive teeth.  She also applied a de-sensitizing agent to try to help long term.
• The good -  I brought up my concerns right at the beginning, and the appointment went very well.  I dont' have to go back for another 6 months!

Challenge #3 - Water problems still not completely resolved.

• The bad -  Our irrigation system is still not working right.  Everything is getting water at the same time though, and the garden should be separated from the rest of the plants in the yard.
• The good  - The water well/pump problems were resolved on Friday, it's just a matter of getting the details of the irrigation system sorted out. We no longer need to hand water outside or deal with a big hole in our backyard where they were working on the control valves.

On having a good day

I told my husband this morning that I was determined to have a good day. Within two hours, things weren't going as well as I hoped and I told him it wasn't working.  He quickly reminded me "but you said you were DETERMINED to have a good day.  So do it."

Which brings me to a very important point: what happens to someone is not within their control, but how they respond to it is.  Or as the wise Abraham Lincoln once said "Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be."

This is relevant to how we respond to our workouts as well. Lots of time I hear people talk about how they had a bad run or a bad swim or a bad day at the gym.  Maybe it was a race, maybe it was a training event, but somehow they judge their performance as not up to par and end up unhappy.

I think it's important to remember that even a "bad" experience can have good results.  Sometimes the bad experience is rich with learnings for the future. Sometimes getting out the door is an achievement in itself.  Sometimes a run isn't up to performance expectations due to a pending injury and listening to your body is just what you need to prevent a significant injury.

I hope everyone who reads this will choose to have a good day today. :-)

Craptastic Friday

Ever have one of those days?

Well it started off with a planned 5 mile run.  For some reason my shoe was bothering me. When I took off my shoe I realized why.  Apparently the back of my shoe had rubbed the back of my ankle raw.

I have not had that problem before and not really sure what went wrong.  But now I have a Bandaid on that spot and it seems to be healing up.

I turned on the water to take a shower and get cleaned up when....no water.

We live in a rural residential area and have our own water well and pump.  I tried hitting the reset button on the pump, but the tank pressure stayed at zero. No water means no flushing toilets, no watering the garden, no taking a shower, no washing dishes, no cooler, etc.  We are really dependent on it!

Long story short, about 12 hours and a lot of $$$ later, we had water again (along with a new pipe, pump, panel, water tank, etc).  We went out for dinner as we had missed a concert that we were planning to attend (couldn't leave the house until the guy was done and he wasn't done until after 8pm!).

In the midst of all this, we were having a problem with the irrigation system.  It couldn't be fixed until the water situation was resolved.  So even now that we've got water again, we've been having to manually irrigate until we get the irrigation resolved.  Hopefully that can happen early in the week.

Getting Somewhere

Serfas RX on top, Forte Contour XFC on bottom

Bet you're getting tired of me blogging about my saddle woes. Yeah, well me too. But short of telling you how I ran in a downpour yesterday (with a bit of hail thrown in for fun) and skipped my swim this morning because of a sore shoulder (not related to the hail), I don't have much to blog about.

So more saddle discussion it is.  Sorry

I decided that I should at least try out this Forte Contour saddle that I bought last weekend before taking it back. Looking at it more closely, I realize that even while it isn't much narrower in the front part of the nose, it's a bit squishier on the sides than my current saddle and it is a bit narrower further back on the nose.  Plus it's visually appealing, which is always important for something you put your butt on, right?  Ha. But seriously, I do like the looks of it.

My bike sporting the Forte Contour XFC, sans saddle bag

Well, this morning I went ahead and stuck it on my bike and gave it a test ride (9 miles). Initial impression: I may have been too quick to dismiss this one.  And that's actually a good thing, because it means this one may actually be a keeper.

I stopped about midway in the ride and adjusted the saddle position a little.  After that, I forgot about the saddle and just enjoyed the ride.

I think I'll test it out on a longer ride before I make a final decision, but so far, so good!

Saddle Woes

So I mentioned about the problem I'm having with the nose of my Serfas Women's RX being too wide for my comfort in my last post, right?  Well, it's really bothering me.  A lot.  Enough that I don't always like sitting on my bike.  And I like everything else about the saddle from a comfort perspective.  Just not the nose width.  It was a real problem last week when I rode three times in 6 days.  Not as much of a problem if I only ride once or twice a week.  But if I ride more often than that or longer distances, I feel almost like I have bruising where the outside edge of the nose contacts my body.  Ouch.

Well, I decided to try a women's saddle by Forte from Performance bike store.  It had decent reviews, isn't too expensive, and looks similar to the saddle that I have.  I had talked with customer service and they gave me measurements that led me to believe that the nose was significantly narrower than the saddle I already have.  So, I picked it up yesterday.  But after bringing it home and comparing side by side, it's basically the same width!  They must have measured the very front part of the nose not the mid section of the nose.  Anyway, this is not going to solve my problem, so it's going back.

Back to the drawing board.  I decided to email Serfas  and explain my problem.  They suggested that I try the Serfas Niva which they say is similar material, similar back, narrower nose.  I see that they carry it at our local REI, which is right across the street from performance.  I'll stop there when I go to return this other saddle.  But this time I'm bringing my tape measure!!!  I'm not buying it if it's not significantly narrower.  I'm starting to wonder, is it just me?!?  Is my build that much different from other folks??  Or maybe I'm just narrow in the pelvis and should consider a men's saddle?

There's one more that I'm going to look at while I'm at REI, if they have it in stock, the Selle Italia Lady Gel flow.  This one has good reviews for long distance riding.  I don't know what the dimensions are though.  Again, I'm bringing my tape measure so I can check a few things out before I buy.

This whole saddle thing is so confusing.  I hope I find something that works for me!

Staycation

Upon returning from Seattle, took some time off this week for a bit of a staycation.  Feels like our time off is almost over, but it's Friday evening and we still have a weekend to enjoy.  Here are a few things that we did while we were off.

Got in a couple nice bike rides this week.  Also stopped to get some new tires, but I haven't put them on yet.  I'm toying with the idea of getting a new saddle.  I have an older ladies Serfas RX which I like a lot EXCEPT that the nose is a bit wide for me which causes discomfort especially with back-to-back riding.  Any suggestions for a comfortable ladies saddle would be appreciated.  Btw, I'm thinking of trying a newer serfas rx.  The design looks a bit different, but I can't tell if the nose is narrower or not.

Doesn't show my saddle.  I wasn't thinking of it when I took this shot

(have a bike photo to upload, but having problems with blogger.  Will try later)
 Got a couple swims done too.  No photos for that.  But one of the days that I swam, we also went to the Isotopes ballpark to have someone show us club level seating (you can't get up there on game day without tickets).  I got a nice shot of the ballpark getting dressed up for the 4th of July game (star on the field, Isotopes painted red,white, & blue).

Isotopes Ballpark getting ready for 4th of July

Ran a few times too.  I have a red/white/blue shirt from Patriot triathlon from a few years ago.  I don't wear if very often because it fits tighter than I like, but figured it was good to wear for a 4th of July run.  Probably won't wear it again until next year this same time, but maybe I can cut the emblem out and put it on another shirt.  Has anyone ever tried doing something like that with a race shirt?  

Squinting because I left my sunglasses inside.

Also started painting our great room.  Ran out of paint ( I knew I would ), but I don't particularly feel like going to get some more right now so I guess I'm done with that for the day. Hoping to get it wrapped up by end of the weekend, but we'll see how that goes. 

Enjoy your weekend!

June Tally

Numbers

• 81.4 miles by feet (36.6 run, 44.8 walk)
• 94.5 miles by seat
• 1 new waterproof ipod
• 5400 yds in the pool
• 2 upper body strength workouts
• 1 trip to Seattle
• 1 bike event (quarter century)
• 1 run event (8k race)
• 1 infected bug bite
• 10 days on antibiotics

Thoughts

• A fairly well balanced month for a change.  And I swam! 

Plans

• Focus on tri training for upcoming sprint.