Recently in General Running Category

check it out!

Not that I'm doing any trail running this week or last, nooo! But at least the swelling has gone down. I'm left with a few bruises and residual pain. Man, that surgery really knocked me on my ass.

I think I'll try heading out for a hike or two this upcoming weekend; I've got Humphreys at the end of the month that I need to be prepared for! Then it's the Run'n'Roll 8k that I've done for the last four years. And this year, I'd really like to run the corn maze 5k I keep hearing about. We'll see how my training goes as far as Pemberton...I haven't registered yet, because I want to wait and see how my knee does with higher mileage. I got a few weeks of double-digit miles, and then nothing (due to the surgery). I want to see how things go this month (and maybe next) before I register.

So I may have mentioned in the past that I'd like to go back to school (for Geology). Well, due to the rather unconventional life I've led, I never attended college. At all. So I sort of have to start at the beginning. At 30! Yikes! But I figure better to start now than when I'm 40 or 50 or 60. I've held this 12-year dream to attend college for too long; it's time to make it a reality. The local community college has a fast-track two-year degree program, where I attend one class a week, year-round, allowing me to still work full-time and get a two-year degree in, you guessed it, two years! That's great. If I tried to still work full-time and attend school part-time, it would take a lot longer than that traditional classes. So I'm working on getting that started this week. But I have to do assessments before I can register for anything. I'm wondering how well I'll do.... After I get the two-year degree, I can transfer to the University of Arizona and obtain my four-year degree in Geosciences at that point. Also at that point, I can determine if I want to continue as a Graduate student, or enter the workforce (I want to be a park ranger), or well, whatever! But first - I need to tackle the first two years.

Another double-digit week, yay! The next two weeks are full of Ash-time, though, so I won't be getting much running in. I can't wait for winter, when it's cool enough that I can run at lunchtime.

I went up Mt Lemmon yesterday and it was beautiful. A great hike, followed by pie. Mmmm...

Did my first spinning class on Saturday since the injury - it went well, although it kicked. my. butt.

My wisdom teeth will be removed next week. I'm not looking forward to that.

Here's some of what I've been working on:

Three ~2 mile runs in the last seven days and two gym visits...not bad after a summer of maybe once-a-week workouts.

Still have Pemberton 50k on Feb 14 2009 in mind.

And I figure it starts with just a few steps. A couple miles. Eventually, the steps will link together and I will finish 31 miles.

I'll be getting a CT scan and going to a neurologist to check up on my brain...make sure there's nothing wrong. I think it was just a major bonk and I need to take better care of myself - being very aware of my fueling and hydration needs, even when I'm not in major training mode. Which I can't wait for, by the way!

Ash and I have extended our family - by adopting two adorable kittens. Pi (my name for the black one) and Fuzzy (Ash's name for the - you guessed it - fuzzy multicolored tabby) are sisters and they are adorable. And loud (2 am - thumpthumpthumpthump as they chase each other across the house). They are currently curled up between Ash and me while I type and Ash watches Alvin & the Chipmunks (although Fuzzy keeps trying to walk on the keyboard, goofball).

Ash is about to go on a 12-day vacation with his grandmother to Michigan. I hope he has tons of fun. But I am going to miss him!!!! I will get my first 'long' run in while he's out. Now that Sabino Canyon is open again, I'll head up the road. It's been so long. I miss it.

Finally! It happened Tuesday morning. 2 (very slow) miles, with no pain - during the run, after the run or even a few days later. Amazing!

While I was slow and could tell I've put on 10 lbs (no joke), I was pleasantly surprised at how well my lungs did (considering it was hot and humid). Yay for the gym!

Looking forward to trying to get out to Sabino early morning this weekend. Add some hills and a little longer distance.

I'm feeling a little down about the weight and lack of running, but I can tell I'm at a good spot to slowly build up my mileage again. I feel confident that I'll be ready for Pemberton in February, woo hoo!!

I took a vacation and - gasp! - didn't take my computer.

Yes, in response to the e-mails I received, I am alive and well :) My knee did not allow me to hike Humphreys, so my friend Mo and I decided to head back in the fall and give it a go.

So here's what I was doing:

Oh yeah, and a little bit of this:

I ran this morning. That's right, you read that correctly, no you don't need to get your vision checked.

I ran!

Okay, so it was more like jogging, and I walked part of it. But whatev. I went for a run.

And it felt great. The knee didn't hurt until I started thinking about the hike I'm s'posed to do with my peeps in two weeks: Mt Humphreys, the tallest summit in AZ. 12,633 ft. 8-9ish miles to the top, 3000+ feet of climbing. Then my knee slightly twinged. But really, I think that's just psychosomatic (sp?). I hope, anyways.

And then I mapped out my strength training and run schedule (complete with baby steps for speedwork!) for the summer and plugged it into my calendar and sychronized that to my smartphone. And when I got home after work, I did my knee strengthening exercises, just like my smartphone nagged me to do! I love it!

And today I moved to phase II of my diet plan, which I haven't blogged about yet. I decided a few weeks ago that I was ready to be serious about getting healthy. And instead of focusing on what I shouldn't or didn't want to eat, I decided to focus on what I wanted to eat. Positive reinforcement, right? (It goes hand-in-hand with a fascinating techinque for public participation - my field of work - that I got to learn a little about last week called Appreciative Inquiry. Basically, the idea is that when people find what works in human systems (societies, organizations, cultures, family units) and then focus on doing that, they have a much better success rate than those who focus on what doesn't work.) Which dovetails nicely with my (usual) state of Pollyanna Positivity (the last three weeks excluded).

Where was I? Oh - the diet plan. Focus on what I WANT to eat. Okay - that means veggies and fruits. That means a specific target for caloric intake at each meal (except for dinner). It takes time to build new habits, new grooves in the brain, so my first thing to remember is baby steps. And grace. No "thou shalts" here. Flexibility and positivity is the focus.

So the last few weeks I focused on eating 1 veggie per day. Do you know how hard that was?! Wow, I hadn't realized that I wasn't in the habit of eating even 1 veggie per day. I averaged 1/day for maybe 4 days a week. I want consistency - every day (the idea being that I get in the habit of reaching for fruit instead of pudding or cake for a snack). The other focus was on waiting when I got hungry. Waiting just 30 minutes from the first sort of "I'm hungry" thoughts. Because usually, I'm not actually hungry. I'm just stressed.

Last week, I realized I could get two servings of fruits/veggies in one (awesome tasting) cup of new V8 fusion pomegranite blueberry juice. So that quickly upped me to 3 servings/day, just like that! This week I decided I'm going to aim for four servings/day. I made it today already! I like this, it gives me a goal and I feel good when I reach it (because I keep reaching it) and I know I'm building new grooves and new habits and before long it'll be second nature. Yay!

I'm still working on the waiting to eat thing - it's hard - I'm very much an emotional eater. But I did decide I'm ready for the next baby step: portion control (yikes!!!). Paying attention to my portions is the first step, along with leaving one bite behind. (Just one bite. That's easy.)

I'm telling you, I'm really digging this focus on what I WANT thing. I'm using it with my son, even. Talking with him about what I want for our family, getting his ideas on what he wants, giving him expectations, discussing how we interact. (We'd been having difficulties.) This feels good. Yay for baby steps to progress! (And three cheers for endorphins!!!)

So both the ultrasound and x-rays showed normal results for my knee. I'm thinking I just need to let it heal a little more after the race (and avoid dancing the chicken dance at weddings!). I'll give it a whirl later this week or early next week to see how it feels. Over the weekend, it only hurt when I had to keep it at an angle for driving 2 hrs to and from Mesa (to see my family - whew, that was exhausting! but good).

Hopefully, it'll be healed up enough by mid-June, so when I go on a road trip with a couple friends, we can hike Mt. Humphreys (the highest peak in AZ - 12,633 ft) with a minimum amount of pain :)

I'm looking forward to a Memorial Day weekend bbq with friends this weekend, and resting. Also looking forward to mine and my friend Barb's joint birthday bash in a couple weeks (yes, my birthday was in April). We're both turning 30 this year; her bday's in June, mine's in April. We were going to have the bash in May, but it got moved back a couple weeks. I don't mind; I still get to have fun!