July Tally & Return to Pool

July by the Numbers

• Miles by Feet - 74.5
• Trips up the hill - 20
• Yards Swam - 2750 (see below)
  
• Ab workouts - 4 (more on that later in a separate post)
• Injections received - 3
• Rest Days - 5

Thoughts

• Seventy-four point five miles walked, including twenty trips up and down the same hill. I'm either crazy or stubborn (or both!)
• I don't recommend swimming for anyone trying to lose weight. Swimming makes me hungry. Crazy hungry. I'll-eat-anything-I-can-find hungry.
  
• My idea of returning to normal activity and the orthopedic's idea of the same are two different things. When he said I could return to normal activity next week, he did not mean running. I'm not cleared to start running (or do any other strenuous activities involving my knee) until the 15th of Aug. Even then I need to start out short and easy until mid-September. There's no rushing the healing process. Sigh.
  

Plans for August

• Keep swimming.
• Keep walking.
• START RUNNING!!
• Send Son off to College
  

The Return to the Pool

I had been thinking about swimming all week. Then the orthopedic guy burst my bubble by telling me that I couldn't start running again next week after all. That's the nudge I needed to bite the bullet, re-join the gym, and get back to the pool.

I intended to swim 1600 Friday afternoon, but quickly learned that one loses significant swim fitness from taking a year off. My 200 yd "warm-up" wiped me out. Who knew?!? I made it to 1000 before calling it a day.

Not one to be so easily defeated, I returned to the pool Saturday morning. I asked a guy who was clearly counting laps if I could share his lane.

"I'm swimming a mile, " he said smugly.

"Me too," I quickly retorted.

And just like that, I had committed myself to go 1750 (yes, I know there's technically 1760 yds in a mile but 1750 is close enough for me). And so that's what I did. Booyah!

Friday Five - High Desert Edition

I live in the high desert of central New Mexico. When most people think of the desert southwest, they think of the low desert (Phoenix) and saguaros and such. That's not what it's like here. We're up a mile above sea level! So not only is it different from where most of you live, it's different from what you might imagine. Today I looked for five photos from my camera to share a little bit of my world with you.

I took this first one just the other day as I was coming down the hill. This is what my neighborhood looks like. Most of the houses are one story with flat roofs. The primary plant that you see naturally growing is sagebrush. The "soil" is sand. The mountains are the Sandias. Sometime I'll share a photo from sunset in winter when they turn pink.


From first glance, I'm sure all you see is brown. But there is color in the desert, I promise! This next self-portrait was taken in front of my house the day before we left for our vacation in NYC. Hummingbirds love trumpet vines, I don't have to put up a feeder to attract them.

I took this next photo out of the passenger's window of my car. I promise, I wasn't taking photos while driving, my car was stopped!

As I mentioned earlier, you won't find saguaros here. That doesn't mean we don't have cactus plants, just not that type. This particular cactus is growing near the fence line of our back yard. I think it's interesting how the blossoms are two different colors, yellow and pink.


And I couldn't resist adding this one in. The roadrunner is our state bird. I see them daily running across the road. Somehow a roadrunner found it's way to the roof of our house one day this spring. They can't really fly, so it seemed odd that he was up there. It's a neat photo though, don't you think?

Now you know a little more about my world. In a bit I will be off to get my third and final shot in my left knee. WooooHoooo!

Three Things Thursday

1) I'm posting this at 3:15am. When I have a lot on my mind, I wake up in the middle of the night unable to sleep. On my mind right now is my Son's imminent departure for college. He leaves in a little over 3 weeks. We need to decide who he wants to go with him and book our flights. I'm going to talk with him about that tomorrow. On the one hand, I hope he wants me to go with him so that I can see where he'll be living. On the other hand, I kinda hope he wants his dad to take him so that I can shed my farewell tears in the privacy of my own home. Sigh.

2) I've walked 72.5 miles so far this month including 18 trips up and down the hill. Do you have any idea how freaking long it takes to walk that many miles? Three days to go before I close the books on July. Even though I can start running again (knock on wood) in August, I think I will continue walking on my cross-train days. It's growing on me.

3) I'm officially out of the Chile Harvest Triathlon. Mixed emotions about this, but I believe it was the right decision. Maybe next year. Oddly, shortly after getting that taken care of, I received an email about the Patriot Tri in mid-September. That's the one I didn't do last year because it was a few days after my dad died and I was an emotional and physical mess on race day. Now I need to decide whether to add this one into the mix or just concentrate on the HM in October. Hmmmmmmmm. Stay tuned.

Wordless Wednesday

Monday Musings

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that I've been sick for the past few days. Stupid strep throat. In retrospect, sharing a water bottle with my daughter (who also ended up diagnosed with strep a few days earlier) was not such a good idea. Sleeping, drinking water/tea, & taking meds is pretty much all that I've done since Saturday evening.

I must finally be feeling better because I'm starting to get a bit stir crazy and bored. In my boredom, one of the things that I decided to do was look back at posts last July.

Did you know that it was roughly this time last year that I tried out Saucony Progrid Triumph 5 running shoes courtesy of a giveaway from onlineshoes.com from Wes's blog? Wow. How awesome that was! I ended up switching to these shoes and I couldn't be happier.

I was also sporting a broken/smashed finger. Don't miss that one bit! What is it with me and stupid injuries in the summer? Last year smashed/broken finger. This year scraped/broken elbow.

My running mileage in July 2009 was 55.7 miles with my long run at 7.0 miles. I've exceeded that mileage total already this month walking hills, but it's obviously not the same as running. And the long stuff isn't happening for me right now. However, somehow I am reassured by looking at those numbers. I don't think I'm too far off actually.

My post reading was interrupted by the postal carrier ringing the doorbell. I appreciate our postal carrier driving up to the house to deliver a box at the doorstep instead of leaving a slip and making me go pick it up myself at the post office. But I don't understand why she puts the rest of the mail in the box (I have a long driveway) rather than bring it up as well. Anyway, the package was a box with a few interesting products from American Nutrition to try out and review. Will post a review in about a week once I've had ample opportunity to try them out.

I also decided to make a word cloud. It made me smile so I posted it on my sidebar. Oh, and I made a few slight changes to the blog layout.

That's all I've got for now. Stay healthy!

So close, and yet so far

Received my second of three Euflexxa injections on Friday. On August 2nd, I can resume whatever activities I wish including running, however it might not be until early September that the full benefits of treatment are realized.

I was signed up for a local Sprint Tri on Aug 7th. I haven't been able to train for it. I have debated whether or not to show up and try to have fun or cancel my registration. It seems unlikely that I can go in unprepared and finish this with a smile, so I sent an email to the race director this morning asking if I can give up my spot so that someone else can participate. The race is likely to sell out, so I am fairly certain he will either give me a refund or forward my registration to next year.

The following weekend is the Rio Grande half-marathon. Earlier in the year I had wanted to participate in this event and aim for a time goal. That's obviously not happening. Instead, I am participating as a volunteer. I'm actually looking forward to being on the other side; it should be fun.

My plan is to begin running in early August. Starting off slow and easy to test the knee. If all goes well, I'm jumping straight into half marathon training for a race in mid October. As long as my goal is to finish upright, smiling, and wanting to do it again, this should be do-able. I won't take crossing the finish line for granted after several months of down time.

Looking at my sidebar I notice how empty it is of race results. Oddly, I'm okay with that. My return to run training will coincide with my son's departure for college. Something tells me that I'll need it then way more than I need it now anyway.

Friday Follies - Back from NYC Edition

Wow. Five days, four nights in the Big Apple. What an experience. I took 175 photos with my brand new Panasonic Lumix DMC- ZRI camera (love it!) and uploaded about 30 of them to facebook - find me there to see them. For the blog, one photo and a few thoughts from the trip



1) There was a lovely path with lots of other runners along the Hudson river just steps from our hotel. I wasn't able to run, but took a nice stroll one night as the sun was setting.

2) New Yorkers get a bad rap. I expected rudeness, but experienced nothing but kindness.

3) The subway was convenient for getting around, but it was unbearably hot in the tunnels while waiting for the trains.

4) Blue Men Group was the highlight of the trip. And Son was chosen as an audience volunteer to participate in the show. How cool is that?!?

5) Holy smokes there were a LOT of people everywhere. Especially Times Square at night. Aye Carumba.

6) Gelato = best sweet treat ever. Why, oh why, don't they have that where I live?

7) It was cool how every neighborhood was different and unique. So much diversity on one little island.

8) Embassy Suites Hotel rocks for a family of four. Huge room, bedroom for us, kids slept on the couch bed in the other room. Breakfast buffet included with made to order omelets.

9) Two words to describe the financial district = Concrete canyons.

10) One of these days I'll learn. Bringing exercise clothes on vacation does nothing but waste space in my luggage. No worries though, we walked all over Manhattan!

Have a great weekend folks. Time for me to tackle a mountain of laundry...

Looking forward

I may not be there yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday. ~Author Unknown

I realized yesterday that if I can walk 6.2 miles over the next 2 days, I will be 0.1 miles over my May monthly miles by feet on July 15th. Now if that's not some motivation to get out there and keep moving forward, I don't know what is!

I get my first of three Euflexxa injections the morning of the 16th. That comes with some planned downtime, so the numbers won't go up too much after that.

Essentially, this is the base I have built for myself for when I come out on the other side in August ready to run. Will it be enough? Time will tell. Right now the plan is to run Duke City HM again in mid-Oct. That means when I start running, I'm headed straight into half marathon training. Yeeehah!

Crazy? Perhaps. Determined? Absolutely!

Stubbornly persist, and you will find that the limits of your stubbornness go well beyond the stubbornness of your limits. ~Robert Brault

Saturday Seven

No, not seven miles, seven random things:

1) As of the morning of July 10th, I have logged 32 miles of fitness walking which includes 12 trips up the hill. It's growing on me, but I miss running.

2) I'm getting really bored with that hill. Need to find a new one to climb.

3) I *so* love Marshall's. I recently picked up 2 pairs ($9 each) of Layer 8 shorts that are designed just like Nike Pacer shorts except that they are missing the rear pocket for an Ipod. One is grey with yellow trim, the other is black with pink trim. Score!

4) I also found really soft microfiber twin xl sheets in brown and khaki for Son to take to college. I'm sure that's not as exciting to most of you as the shorts, but it's something he needs for the dorm room and the price was perfect. Score again!

5) I also love Headsweats hats. The only time that I don't wear them when walking or running (or gardening) is when it's too cold. I picked up two new ones recently: lime green and white with pink trim.

6) Last night we went to the Zoo for a summer concert. It was a perfect night to sit out and listen to music. We had never heard of the artist, Carrie Rodriguez, but were pleasantly surprised to find out that we really enjoyed her music. I think I might pick up her latest CD.

7) Five days until my first Euflexxa injection. Not that I'm counting or anything...

Three Things Thursday

Yet another reason I'm anxious to get on with knee treatment...I'm running out of things to say.

1) Still walking and walking and walking and walking: 21.75 miles in the first 7 days of July. After dinner last night, I had the opportunity to walk up the hill with my son. While we were heading that way, I mentioned that I've seen a two runners recently run a bit further up to the very top and then disappear I have no idea where they go. We decided to climb up there and check it out. It's just a big sandy plateau up there. I'm still not sure why they go up there or where they go after that! It's not obvious that it connects to anything. Maybe they go down the other side and connect to another road/trail and make it a loop instead of an out and back? Oh well, at least now I've been up there.

2) I am enjoying gardening wayyyyy more than I ever expected. I'm out there every day tending to the plants, weeding, harvesting veggies, and sometimes just observing progress. I am so glad we decided to fence in an area for it when we did our landscape remodel. Before this year, I was doing container gardening which was not nearly as much fun. Pretty much everything in the garden is doing well, except for the strawberries. The strawberries have really been struggling. Over the past few days, I tore out some of the dead/dying plants and replaced them with new plants. That by itself would be the definition of insanity - doing the same thing and expecting a different result. I also attached some netting to the fence on that side of the garden to give them filtered instead of direct sun for at least part of the day. When instructions say to give plants full sunlight, they don't mean 15hrs of the intense, cloudless sky, high UV, scorching sun of the desert southwest. From my past experience with container gardening, strawberries did better in partial sun. It's worth a try anyway. If this doesn't work, I'll give up on strawberries entirely and plant something else there next year.

3) While parts of the country are struggling with insane crazy hot temps, it's actually been quite nice here. Highs this week around 85-90 and lows 60-65. The big temp swing during the day brought to us by virtue of cloudless skies and high altitude (nothing to trap the heat when the sun goes down) makes for quite pleasant mornings and evenings.

Off to a Good Start

With the cortisone shot now kicking in, my knee is feeling a bit better and July is off to a good start.

Thursday evening I took the dogs up the hill. I then dropped off Bandit at home and took Stymie out for another mile.

Friday morning the dogs went up the hill with me again. I dropped them both off afterwards and went for a 1.5 mile easy run. I wasn't wearing my Garmin, so I'm not sure how fast I was going, but I'm sure it wasn't very fast. I was pleased that my knee felt "okay" and considered going for a longer run Saturday morning.

Saturday morning came, and I decided that I'd be better off walking the dogs than trying to go for a longer easy run. Anytime that I've tried running multiple days in a row, it has not turned out well. Instead, I took the dogs up the hill, dropped off Bandit, watered Stymie, and went back out with Stymie to traverse the hill a second time.*

(*For the record, I'm not playing favorites with the dogs. Bandit is older and gets tired after the 2 mile hill climb. Stymie, on the other hand, has the boundless energy that one might expect from a large 15mo old puppy).

So for anyone keeping score, here's how it adds up: We're three days into July. Already I've traveled 10.5 miles on my feet, including 4 trips up the hill and one short 1.5 mile easy run. I'm quite pleased.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone. In honor of Independence Day, I'll leave you with the following thought: “What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom “to” and freedom “from.” ~ Marilyn vos Savant

June Tally

The Numbers

On my feet: 58.0 mi
On my seat: 9.3 mi
Races: Nada

Thoughts

Being injured sucks. Being "double" injured sucks doubly. Focussing on what you CAN do rather than what you CANNOT - priceless.

Plans for July

Keep walking hills. Receive treatment for knee. Reconcile race schedule.

The Verdict

What's up with the Elbow and Knee?

Arm/Elbow - Got X-rays and had a quick follow-up appt in which I received the green light to resume normal activities. If it bothers me in the future, come back, otherwise case closed. That was good news. I was good about following doctors orders: resting it and doing my mobility exercises. I think this helped speed up recovery.

Knee - Same diagnosis as in 2008. Chondomalacia Patella (irritation of the back surface of the kneecap) from Patellofemoral Syndrome (kneecap scraping on the femor). Essentially, this is a chronic issue that is never going to go away completely, but it is manageable.

Treatment plan - He gave me a cortisone shot yesterday which hurt like crazy, but is supposed to provide short term pain relief by tomorrow. I will start a series of 3 Euflexxa injections spaced out one week apart beginning on the 16th. My patella tracking doesn't seem to be much of an issue, so no PT this time, but I should keep up with the PT exercises from before for maintenance.

What is Euflexxa?

Euflexxa is a particular brand of medicines for HA therapy.

Essentially it helps replenish the joint fluid, providing cushion & lubrication to the knee. This works for my issue, because it gets the kneecap up off the femor so that it stops scraping. It normally provides relief for 6-12 months. In my case, it was wildly successful treatment last time, providing relief for nearly 18months. He said he's never had a patient report such long lasting results. I'm optimistic that it will work for me again, although I'll probably consider going back sooner if I have even mild symptoms because once my knee started bothering me it went downhill fast and the wait to get in for treatment is rather long.

What does this mean for Training/Racing?

I don't expect to be able to resume run training until mid August. If you follow me on FB, I posted a note yesterday with my thoughts on specific upcoming races and a half-baked training plan for the interim. When I figure it out completely, I'll fill you in here.

All-in-all, I'm encouraged. Just a bit anxious to put this all behind me. Mid August seems like a long way off.

Tuesday Three

* My fitness walking (with an occasional wog) added up to 19.25 miles last week. That's on par with my run mileage during half marathon training. I may not be building cardio fitness, but it should be good for building strength; I went up and down the hill 10 times last week!

* Son traveled solo for a few days at UC Berkeley last week. His travels went well except for a minor issue on the BART (boarded wrong train) which he was able to work out. Apparently he had a blast while he was there. He came home *very* excited for school in the fall. Next time that he heads out to Cal, he will be moving in and staying for 4 months. *gulp*

* Today is my long awaited orthopedic appointment for my knee. I hope he devises a plan to fix me up soon so that I'm able to run again. My knee has gotten progressively worse over the past several weeks. It now bothers me even on my walks. This appointment also includes a follow up on my elbow fracture, which is feeling much better. Perhaps I'll be released to normal activity on that front. Fingers crossed...

Monday Musings

• Walking is a pain in the butt. Literally. I don't really feel it anywhere else, but my glutes have been particularly fatigued since embarking on my run-walk endeavors.
• Our neighborhood is home to not one, but two three-legged dogs. One is missing a rear leg. One is missing a front leg.
  
• This weekend I bought a pair of white jeans that are too long. I knew they were too long and bought them anyway. Why? I like how they fit in the rear.
• My elbow is feeling a lot better this morning. I'm hoping to get the green light for normal activities (from an elbow perspective) when I go back to the orthopedic next week.
  
• I'm still waiting on the appointment for my knee. Not happy about the long lead time...
  
• Bandit graduated from basic obedience training this weekend. He did even better than Stymie! Proof that you *can* teach an old dog new tricks.
• One of my cherry tomato plants is out of control. I counted 15 tomatoes on it this morning and at least 75 blooms. It's crazy!
  
• I planted my watermelon and cucumber hills 5 ft apart in anticipation of being overwhelmed by the vines. Instead, the plants are maybe 3" tall. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong.
• I totally misjudged how long it would take to walk 4 miles Sunday morning. As a result, I missed church. Oops.
• It's officially the first day of Summer. I hope this means that the wind will finally die down.
  

The Elbow Saga continues...

Tuesday morning I got a call from the Urgent care clinic. Upon further review of my x-ray, the radiologist discovered a non-displaced fracture at the radial head. I was told to see an orthopedic asap.

Got in this morning. Ortho doc explained that when you move your forearm, turning your wrist over, the radial head must rotate within the joint. A fracture reduces this movement, causing problems with extension, as well as forearm pronation and supination. I need work on these movements so that I don't lose mobility. If it heals improperly, mobility is gone for good. That would be bad.

No cast or sling or surgery required. I consider that to be a good thing.

No swimming, no cycling, no weights. Take it easy with the arm and just work on mobility.

Running technically okay, dog walking not so much. But he stressed that taking it easy so that it heals properly is very important. Damaging it further would be a bad thing.

I'm supposed to go back in a few weeks. Until then, I guess I'm on injured reserve...

Greek Yogurt & Elbow

Greek Yogurt

A few weeks ago, I decided to get on the non-fat Greek Yogurt bandwagon. On paper, it's a great snack - loads of protein, zero fat, real sugar (but not too much of it), pro-biotics, and calcium. All packed into an individual snack sized container.

I don't recall the first brand that I tried, but it was a big YUCK.

Next I found Oikos brand in strawberry, which I liked a lot. Except for the price tag. It was ~1.69 for a 5.3 oz serving. Yikes.

Then a local health food store had 6 oz servings of Chobani on sale for .99 each. I picked up a couple in several different flavors each: strawberry, pomegranate, vanilla, peach, & blueberry.

The strawberry was too sweet for me straight out of the container, but my daughter likes this one. With some real berries added in (strawberries or blueberries), the flavor is balanced out more to my liking.

My first try of pomegranate was favorable, but since then I've decided that I don't care of the crunchiness of the seeds. I probably won't buy that one again.

I did not like the vanilla when I first tried it. The vanilla flavor is too overpowering. But it's grown on me. I actually enjoy it mixed in with my granola instead of milk and a handful of fresh blueberries.

Peach is hands down my favorite. I like it every way that I've tried it. I like it straight out of the carton. I like it with my granola. I like it with berries. I think I could eat this for breakfast, snack, and dessert and not get tired of it. Just thinking about it is making me want another one..

My husband's favorite is blueberry. I like this one too, but not as much as I like the peach.

Flavors I didn't try were plain, pineapple, and honey. I wanted to try plain, but they didn't have it in the 6 oz containers. Pineapple sounded interesting, but it wasn't non-fat. Honey simply didn't sound like something I would like. I also noticed that it had more sugar & more calories than the other flavors that I tried.

Elbow

I ended up going to urgent care this morning because my elbow was hurting more quite a bit more than I thought it should. It was also a bit swollen. They took an x-ray and it doesn't look fractured. However, the wound had gotten infected, which is what the doctor thinks was causing the tenderness and swelling. They cleaned it up again, wrapped it, and put me on antibiotics (Good thing I have all this Greek Yogurt on hand to replenish the good flora). Tomorrow morning I need to unwrap it, clean it up, and wrap it again. I'm really hoping that the doctor is right, and that my elbow will feel better when the antibiotics kick in.

Good thing I wasn't chewing gum...

You know how some people can't 'walk and chew gum' at the same time? Well apparently I have trouble with the simple act of walking. Who knows what would have happened if I had complicated matters by trying to chew gum too...

I woke up early Wednesday morning to give time to do a repeat of the hill gallowog from Sunday before work. I was out door at 6:00 with Bandit in tow. We had just completed a run segment and were slowing down to a walk.

When out of nowhere, I was attacked by a speed bump! Okay, maybe "attacked by" isn't the right phrasing. Perhaps "surprised by" is more accurate.

Next thing I knew, I was going down...and man oh man, that asphalt was unkind upon impact...

So, I picked myself up, dripped blood back to home, and proceeded to clean up my newly acquired road rash.

The worst of it is on my left elbow, where is where I took the bulk of the impact. I have a very impressive 2 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch gash/wound. It's rather disgusting looking and still painful. I'm expecting a scar to match the one I have on my right knee from a swing set related injury as a kid.

I'm taking a few extra days off so this can get a good start on the healing process.

On the bright side, this new elbow injury has distracted me completely from the problems I've been having with my left knee!

Be safe out there. There may be a speed bump hiding in wait to attack YOU!

Hill Gallowog

After reading more about the Galloway method, I decided to give it a try on Sunday. Right now I'm thinking of it as walking with run breaks (vs running with walk breaks) and expecting it to balance out to a slow jog pace. Hence my term, Gallowog.

The plan was to take one dog out solo and go up the hill near my house. Try something like a 1:1 or even a 1:2 (more walking than running). Return home. Repeat.

Decided to take Bandit out first. Had to adjust the run/walk interval a little to optimize it to the route we were running, but it went fairly well. My run/walk buddy, Bandit, did a good job matching my pace and staying at my side with a loose leash.

Switched dogs and went out with Stymie. Woah, boy! During the run intervals, he consistently took off at a much faster pace and I found myself trying to reign in my 80lb puppy. I need to work more with him to get him to match my pace and/or use the hands-free leash if I plan on running any with him.


When it was all said and done, it took me about 60 minutes to "gallowog" the dogs for a total of 4 miles and traverse the hill twice.

I'm quite pleased. This seemed like a much better workout than normal dog walking, was fun, and still didn't bother my knee.

Looking at my exercise logger, I realize that I haven't taken a rest day for the past 10 days. So, that is what I shall do today.

Have a great day!

Running vs. Walking

This morning I covered ~4 miles by feet, of which only 1.25 mile was running. In addition to being easier on my knee, the slower pace of walking allows me to enjoy the world around me in a new and different way, but it takes *forever* to cover the distance.

When I got home, I decided to do a little research about the benefits/disadvantages of running vs. walking. This is what I've discovered:

1) From a calories burned perspective, logging miles makes a lot of sense. It doesn't matter if you run a mile or walk a mile, it takes the same energy either way. But since running is faster, walking requires a larger time investment to burn an equivalent number of calories. It's doable, just takes longer.

2) Walking does help with cardio fitness, but not as much as running. That's because normal walking doesn't usually raise one's heart rate to the optimal training zone. Brisk walking and/or hilly terrain, however, may help.

3) Running has 3-4 times the impact on your bones and joints than walking. That means running has a higher risk of injury. It's also why it bothers my knee more. But on the flip side, the higher stress on the body from running has a bigger benefit toward building/maintaining bone density.

After digesting all that I've learned today, I'm beginning to think that a good compromise may be either a structured easy run/walk (Galloway-style) or race-walking (which I'm really not too interested in).

And with that, I'm off to learn more about the Galloway method...