Not so fast....

Well...I guess my body didn't want that video montage of a comeback...not less tan 48 hours after I posted that last entry, my hip started aching again.  Insert appropriate curse word here, I liked MOTHERF@&$ER!

So...once I stopped eating cupcakes, cause that's what you do when things don't go right, eat cupcakes...I tried something new...

Yes, those are bunny butts and they were yummy.

So...onward.  My friends had told me to try something called Active Release Therapy.  Luckily I have a friend who had a doctor to refer me to and I started getting the therapy.  I googled how it helped with hip pain and it seemed promising: seemed.  Did it work?  Kinda.  On top of the bursitis, my hip is a hot mess of tangled muscle fibers and for that part, yes, it certainly worked.  We then started throwing other therapy at it such as Graston and ultrasound, but I believe we reached a point of disminishing returns and "empty wallet syndrome".  So...I stopped.  I cried more.  It became less about being able to run and more about 5 months of daily pain in sitting and walking.  Frustration level: off the charts.

Then, I got angry.  Angry and pissed at everything.  I despised reading people post about training, races, hell anything positive.  Even my close knit friends were getting to me.  I shut down, I went off the grid, I processed.  Then I said it out loud.  "I don't think i will ever run again".  "What if THEY were right?  Maybe they are right.  No...no...no...maybe?"

I had a very emotional shower, bawling my eyes out and just coming to terms with that.  I said it a few times more and just remained sad for several days.  

Then the weirdest thing happened.  The pain got less.  This whole time I had still been religiously icing my hip multiple time a day.  The pain got smaller.  More tolerable and I thought, could the bursa sac FINALLY be shrinking?  This past Monday, April 14th, I don't know what made me do it, but I took an Aleve and went upon my work day.  As the day progressed, the irritation was less noticeable.  I also kidded around with my friends and decided that if this a-hole was going to be in my life, I would give it a name, so I named my bursa sac Claude.

Tuesday, April 15:  I woke up to work out and the oddest thing...no sign of irritation or pain.  I thought, "huh".  It happened to be leg day and I did my whole workout and still nothing, "huh"...I got to the mats to do my rehab exercises and I thought, " for sure I will feel it cause I always feel it", nothing.  "What.the.fuck."  I quickly texted my friend Professor Badass at 5:30 am, cause that's what friends do lol, and said, "no sign of Claude." And then I shed a few tears. Proceed with caution.

Several days passed, no sign, happy me.  The weather went to crap later in the week and on Saturday, Claude poked his head back.  I'm not sure if there is a correlation between bursitis and humidity.  Must google.

Maybe I am getting better.  Maybe.  Still, no plans to,lace up until mid May, assuming Claude stays away.  So, until then, I continue the routine...ice, rehab exercises, anti inflammatories, hope.  At least I have cute physical therapy partners:

Momma...can we help?

Until next time...

Queue the video montage...

Hi Everyone!

I know, I know, it's been a while.  I hope everyone is doing well at their goals.  I continue to be inspired by the many Facebook posts from my friends as they continue to crush it.  It also doesn't hurt that this was Olympics month.  How motivating!

Things in my camp have been progressing quite well.  I have been doing well at my 6x a week workouts and now have drafted others into the Early Morning Crew.  That helps knowing they are up and at it somewhere...keep me motivated to get up and get my workout done.  

My current mantra is "quality".   Just focus on quality.  I have been working very hard on strengthening my hips and it's working.  I can now run 45 minutes on a treadmill at a reasonable pace.  I have enough confidence in my recovery that I am signing up for 5ks and a few longer races.  Although I am disappointed I missed the 6 weeks of cool weather due to the injury and now it's back to 78 degree, higher humidity runs...joy.

This injury has humbled me.  It really has.  I never had one that hurt all the time.  Little things like getting in and out if a chair were painful..eye watering painful. But I am ready to put it behind me.  It's also made me mentally tougher and smarter...I am hoping I will no longer ignore pains before they get out of hand. 

So, I'm optimistic and frustrated at the same time, but this picture sums things up in my camp:

And so the official comeback has begun...queue the inspirational music and cliche sport clips...here I come...

2014 goals

Happy new year everyone!  Can I still say that?  It's the 4th, as I draft this, but I think the rule says if it's the first time, I can still wish everyone a happy new year...anyway...

Ready for 2014!

Did we all make it through the holidays?  I did, barely.  Fun times and a lot of continued work on my hip issues.  I saw my doctor again and it'll be another couple of weeks before I can try to run.  I am just starting to do cardio again.  I am going bat-shit crazy not being able to do any cardio.  The weight training is fun, but I need to move.  Patience they say.  Argh.

So, everyone and their brother are posting their goals for 2014...so if you can't beat them join them!  Here's the list of what all my haters will try to talk me out of this year...

Running

650 miles:  I think this is doable.  I ran 455 last year and that was with a lot of forced breaks.  Seeing how I am working on getting back to beast mode in my strength training...think I can achieve this.

Working out

6 days a week.  To get back to beast mode, I can't pussy around with 3-4 days a week.  I've got to train 6 days a week and by train, I mean run, cycle, weight train and stretch.

Push-ups:  so, my running group has this push up challenge going.  While not high on my list, I would like to be able to do 3x15 full push-ups with good form every other day.

Races- big ones

1 Fall half marathon

1 FULL marathon (January 2015)

I do plan to sprinkle in some shorter races, solely to build back my t-shirt collection.

Weight

Ha ha ha!  Well...I would like to lose 15 pounds.  I gained 15 pounds when we upgraded to our new house due to the added financial stress, but that's been resolved and now it's time to ge the weight off.  Enough excuses.

Included in this weight goal is getting back into 4 pairs of jeans that have been collecting dust in my closet.  

Stretch goal: would love to influence at least 1 person in my circle of naysayers to take a positive step in health.  This is probably the hardest of them all!

I am sure there may be some set backs in the road ahead, but I think I have a good plan in place.

With that said, calling it a night!

We've got work to do!

CNTL-ALT-DELETE

We’ve all been there, our computers freeze, hang or just don’t go according to spec; the fix?  Hit CNTL ALT DELETE it makes everything better.  The same can be applied to me and the activities or non activities of the last couple of weeks and draft plans for 2014.

I had great plans, Disney Half Marathon in January, another half in March and a bunch of shorter distance races set for the first quarter.  Well, that got flushed down the toilet when I got the news from my doctor about my hip tendonitis and bursitis.  No running through December, no race.  Gone are the plans for Disney, for the first quarter.  I grumbled and felt sorry for myself for a day, then drew up the short term action plan.   Time to hit CNTL-ALT-DELETE.

I’m in the process of ‘rebooting’ my 2014.  I have to admit, not having any races on the calendar right now brings about a certain peace and calm to my life.  I am enjoying going to the gym (something I haven’t done in 2 years) and hitting the weights (also something I haven’t done in 2 years).  I forgot how much I enjoy the ‘day after pain’ of a good leg workout, or the feel of the (imaginary) knife stabbing you when you sneeze after abs.

Over the next 2 weeks, I’ll start mapping out a longer term plan, but for now here’s the here and now:

Wake up the beast.  The beast has been in hibernation for about 7 years now.  The beast was strong.  The beast was lean.   The beast did it on only 2x week of strength training – albeit it was using a trainer, but still + 4 days of quality cardio.   For the next month, the ratio will probably be reversed as I have to work on my leg (hips specifically) strength due to my injury (that’s 3 times a week), figure I’ll add on 1 day of Upper Body with the hope of finally taking a fantastic finish line picture where my arms will actually look good.

My little beast

It’s been several weeks since I’ve done any cardio.  The bursitis has been too painful.  It’s STARTING to feel better.  Hello Bike…see you soon.

When will I run again?  I’m not sure and right now, I’m OKAY with that.  The reason I got into this situation is due to a shaky foundation.  Time to strengthen that up first.  I’m in no rush to get reinjured.  I want to run happy.   Speaking of, I’ll leave you with this…

While I can’t run Disney, I’m making the best of a disappointing situation.  I was previously going up to Orlando without my husband because races aren’t his thing.  Now there’s no race.  Since the hotel is all paid for and my husband and I haven’t been away in a while, he’s going with me.  The man is 47 years old and HAS NEVER BEEN TO DISNEYWORLD.  I am looking forward to seeing it through his eyes (and secretly hoping he loses it when he sees a character coming towards him).

The people at Run Disney allowed me to Defer my race registration to 2015.  Here’s the big announcement.  In 2015, Walt Disney World will be the race I run my first FULL MARATHON! 

Well that didn't take long...

Wow world, I dared you and you responded.

I got the news yesterday from my orthapod, "I'm sorry, but I don't recommend you run the Disney half marathon".

Gotta admit I welled up for a second or two, then got it together.  Turns out I have a bit of tendonitis and bursitis in my left hip.  Son of a bitch!  The night before I was speaking to someone in my inner circle about my hip really hurting and they responded, "(sigh) when are you going to accept that you have to give up running?"

I wanted to shoot flames into this person, but thankfully, I had a sleeping puppy on my lap and just paused and replied, "I'm not there yet," (inner voice, shut the fuck up you asshole).

So, the game plan is this...no running for the next 3-4 weeks and the only cardio for now has to be in water.  Maybe later next week I can resume spinning.  Prescription meds and the like.  I have already started doing my rehab exercises.  I know the root cause:  god gave me hips, just not strong ones!  So it will be a lot of work rebuilding the strength in my smaller leg muscles.  I'm cool with it.  Gives me a chance to catch up with my old friends at my gym and build up some muscle mass and possible get lean, as long as no one throw cupcakes in front of me.

Thank The Lord I didn't Double Dog Dare you all!

#leanerstrongerfaster2014

Go ahead: doubt me.

What's up world!

So here I am. This is me.  I am a runner. I am a wife. I am a mom to 3 pugs.

Thirty (30) days out from Walt Disney World half marathon...it's been 7 full days since I have done any sort of training due to some nagging injuries. I am trying not to listen to the fear that I may be completely unprepared for this race. I ran Philadelphia half mid November, took a week off, then started back and injuries flared again. My inner circle will raise doubt as usual, but I am determined to run this race and finish with a smile.

I officially started running seriously 5 years ago. I've completed 3 half marathons, each time with a slower finish time than before. Quite frustrating. I've also dipped my toes into the triathlon world, having aspirations to do an ironman.

Let me put this out there now. I suck at running. Ok, maybe I'm average. I am a middle of the pack person. But I try and those 60-120 minutes I am out there, is total peace for me.

The people that are closest to me don't get my running thing. Wonder why I would venture out @ 4:30 am to run, or run in the rain or cold. They don't get that I don't really like to drink and look at me weird when I tell them I have to stay in
or go to bed early cause I have a long run in the morning. My husband supports me from afar; he tries.

If you are into running, reading about my training and my pugs, join me will you? I have big aspirations for 2014; ones that people will doubt I can achieve.  

Dare me. Go ahead.