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March 30, 2008
Shins
A quiet weekend, no major training, although today was supposed to be my last really long run before the London Marathon in 2 weeks. On Wednesday I felt a twinge in my right leg and the warning signs flashed bright enough for me to go to the physio. The outcome: shin splints.
She told me to rest, ice and take it easy ... and see how I felt the first 2 miles of my run today. If there was the slightest twinge, I had to stop and head back home. So this morning I put on my shoes, and started running, fuel belt optimistically loaded and around my waist. Gels packed and all. And there was a twinge. More than a twinge really. After 2 miles I could feel that I was in trouble, because the twinge felt worse than it did on Wednesday.
So where does this leave me for London?
Broken hearted.
I'll go back to the physio tomorrow and see what she recommends, but I pretty much know what they like to say ...
Posted by karinm at 2:39 PM | Comments (4)
March 26, 2008
The LA Marathon Piccies
The LA marathon piccies arrived by mail this morning. And these are a few of them :)
Posted by karinm at 2:36 PM
March 25, 2008
Listening to Old Music on the Sofa
I'm going through some strange stage now where I listen to music from the 90's, 80's, 70's... anything but current music. Which just isn't normal for me. I'm normally the one that loads those new songs onto my iPod first and then head off with it when I go to work, go cycling, go running ... even when going for a drive. I love listening to music - I'm definitely not one for a quiet drive too often.
While writing this, I was listening to "Born To Be Wild" by Steppenwolf
But this weekend I found a load of old CDs and loaded them up into iTunes to listen to ... and haven't listened to anything other than that since then. I've found that I prefer listening to things from way back when rather than the current list that I had on my iPod before Friday.
This morning I headed off to the pool again... albeit a tad later than normally because I overslept. I got to the pool... there were 2 people in it. One was an older man that felt the need to get into the pool with a too tight Speedo and the other was a guy that is training for an Ironman event somewhere in the US.
The man with the too tight Speedo was placed in the medium lane... where I was supposed to be swimming. But its a big pool, so instead I got into the lane that is normally filled with all the grannies and people that have no need for the pool other than to swim from one end to the other at an incredibly slow pace.
Here I had four nice, big lanes all to myself. I got in and started the session... and 1400m later, precisely halfway through my session, the pool staff loudly announced that it was time to get out and go home. I would've tried to sneak an extra 50m, but the guy with the pole looked like he meant business, so I got out and took my shower and moped all the way home. I really wanted to finish that session.
I could of course go back to the pool tonight, but it just wouldn't be the same :)
Anyhow.
I have this week off, so I got home and took a nap on the sofa and then looked at the week ahead. If the weather warms up, I could probably go somewhere and wander around, but for now it seems I'm going to be stuck inside with the cold that is pestering me outside.
At least I can occupy myself by playing Wii tennis while I'm stuck inside :) Or bowling. I'm really enjoying the Wii at the moment - Andy's sister and her partner joined us this weekend and we ended up challenging each other to bowling and a few tennis matches. They're quite fun! Even if the next day my arms are so sore that I can hardly move. :)
Posted by karinm at 12:35 PM
March 23, 2008
Evil Eye Babies...
This baby is absolutely the cutest!
Posted by karinm at 7:42 PM
March 22, 2008
Ever Done This?
Ever done this?
Posted by karinm at 10:28 PM
March 21, 2008
Snow, Rain, Wind... its all part of Fall
Today was an incredibly lazy day. This morning we got up, watched some obscure programs that we didn't know existed, and then got in the car and drove all the way to the in-laws to spend one of the days of Easter weekend with them.
England's weather at the moment truly sucks... seriously. The wind picked up on the way ... and I was the one in the driver's seat. A few minutes after we arrived at the in-laws, some drops of rain started falling... and then all hell broke loose and we had gusts of wind that made me think the trees were going to fall over and almost horizontal rainfall. And then snow. And then rain. And then snow.
Having grown up in a warm climate, and only having seen snow at a very young age, I was glued to the side door, watching the ice and rain pelt down, but at the same time I was wondering... is this a sign of how summer is going to be this year? In which case, I'm moving to a warmer place!
Posted by karinm at 10:38 PM
March 15, 2008
Saturday Morning Madness
I awoke this morning to find that time has passed me by and I had slept for more than 11 hours. 11 HOURS!!!!! Of course, it was 10am... but for some reason I was positively starving. I hadn't eaten in 12 hours, but that's hardly unusual. I hadn't eaten a lot yesterday though, so that made a tad more sense.
So myself and Andy headed over to the local cafe to grab a sausage and bacon sandwich with a lot of brown sauce on it so that we could fill our tummies, come back home and I could do that cycling thing that I mentioned yesterday.
Well, noon is fast approaching and in a few minutes I'll be getting on my bike, but due to the traffic outside and the cold weather and fast approaching rain... I'm going to wimp out and spend it on the trainer inside the house. With a good movie on the tele... just not sure which movie that'd be, considering that I've not really thought about it yet.
Last night we went to see 'The Other Boleyn Girl' at Cineworld in Notts - and despite various reviews that said it was complete rubbish, I loved it to bits. I thought that it got to me a little, but like I said, I loved it.
Which means the next movie will be the choice of my loving husband - he better not choose something with a lot of blood and guts in it, or he'll have a hard time for the weeks to come!
Right, bike time...
Posted by karinm at 11:58 AM
March 11, 2008
Another Pool Blog
Sometimes amused, other times a tad more sleepy... that's mostly how I arrive at the pool in the morning and this morning was definitely more sleepy than amused. I meant to be at the pool at 7, but waking up at five-to-seven made that near impossible unless I was racing there like a speed demon at 120mph. Yeah, not happening.
So I got to the pool at 7:30 and it was quiet. Graveyard quiet. Except maybe for the girl behind the counter who swiped my card without so much as a word. Maybe she's a zombie or something. Although, maybe everyone is a zombie at that time of the morning.
There was exactly 8 people in the pool - 3 in the narrow fast lane, 4 in the less narrow medium lane and... 1 in the lane that takes up half of the pool... yes, the slow lane. I hopped into the medium lane for good measure and this prompted the girl that was doing backstroke and the-man-that-wears-too-much-aftershave-to-the-pool to move to the slow lane. The girl that swims backstroke did a very good job of swimming diagonally, so it was probably a blessing in disguise.
It was in the pool that I realised my body is still a tad tired. And I don't mean in the I-got-too-little-sleep kind of way. I mean in the at-some-stage-I-tapped-all-the-energy-out-of-my-body kind of way. I felt SLUGGISH. But I swam until I could swim no more without being late for work and then rushed through the shower where the pregnant girl/woman was soaping herself up to the point that I thought the bubbles would start rushing out the door, into my little cubicle, realised I didn't bring socks (AGAIN!) but decided what-the-heck and put my boots on anyway.
Now there is 30 minutes left before I shall go for a run, but first I have to await my husband's return from work with the goodies that he got from the store that will make my clothes whiter than white and smelling fresher than fresh. All without hanging them outside because some storm has decided to hit the UK and batter us with winds and water.
Have a fun day everyone!
Posted by karinm at 6:01 PM
March 5, 2008
The Marathon
Sunday morning arrived... far quicker than I thought it would.
I got up and while I caught a shower, Andy went to wake the poor girl that was on duty at the Inn to get me some boiling hot water for my oatmeal. I felt so sorry for her.
I got into my clothes and .... attempted to show my enthusiasm for the run that was about to take place. Andy decided that 
the world needed to know....
At 5h20, Jeff was there to pick me up and head to the start line. I had everything. My belt was in my hand with a good amount of Gatorade Endurance Mix in it. I had honey, I had some anti-shafing gel, I had water, I had everything that was required.
As we drove towards Universal Studios, my stomach started with the familiar fluttering of butterflies, but that quickly went away as I became more excited about starting the marathon. As we arrived at the parking area, it was clear that there was going to be an amazing amount of chaos with the arrangements. First they had 3 lanes merge into one. Then they had someone checking that you were involved in the marathon before pointing you to the parking area.
As we walked up towards the general loo area, the marathonfoto.com paparazzi overwhelmed us and asked whether they could take a quick picture or two. We managed 3 on our way and then it was time to pick up my fuelbelt, get rid of my shirt and head to the starting point. I said goodbye to Jeff and headed to the start line.
There was an amazing amount of people. I've NEVER run in a race with more than 2000 people, so this was quite and experience for me. Everywhere was feet, bodies, heads, arms... the smell of bodyglide in the air.... I held on to my bottle of water and sat down and did a few stretches in the shade of those standing around. The sun had come up and the air was already heating up.
Before I knew it, 8h20 had arrived and it was time to start.... I started off conservatively and felt pretty well. The first mile was mostly uphill with a nice climb. The crowd at the start was great. They cheered and went crazy and in general they were just making a lot of noise, which is exactly what I wanted to hear. The atmosphere was making me all giddy and it took everything in me to not speed up and burn up every ounce of energy I had.
The miles passed and I kept a careful eye on my watch to make sure I wasn't going faster than I should. At mile 13 I was still feeling great and only had 3 miles to go before I had to meet up with Jeff. My nutrition was holding up, my legs felt great, I still had 3 gels left... I was feeling awesome....
... but the marathon is unpredictable - it only takes one small thing to make your day go a little off.
Mile 14 arrived... and with it my stomach decided to feel unwell. I stepped in the queue to use the porta-potty and shortly afterwards headed off again towards mile 16. But with every step I now felt a little worse off.
At Mile 16 I spotted Jeff in a sec and he fell in next to me. He was so supportive and motivational and I felt quite bad that I was in worse shape than I would've liked to be. My left leg started hurting shortly after and then I just had to talk to myself and listen to Jeff and it all became roses and moonlight and fluffy bunnies!
The last few miles were increasingly difficult, but the one thing I did NOT want to do, was walk the last mile. So the last 1.2 miles were hobbled/run/jogged/run through gritted teeth.
As I crossed the line and collected my medal, were handed a drink, a blanket,
pushed towards the photographers and managed to get out of the chaotic finishers area with non-runners in, emotion started to overwhelm me. I couldn't believe that I managed to finish it! My legs were hurting so badly it wasn't funny.
I met up with Jeff in the family reunion area with tears in my eyes and we made it back to his car.
That evening we headed over to Jeff's where smsmh made the most wonderful supper. I was dead on my legs though and in dire need of a lot of sleep and we went home relatively early. The sleep I got was the most heavenly of sleep and I could not have asked for a more comfortable bed.
Posted by karinm at 7:53 PM
The LA Marathon (The Trip)
On February 28th, 2008, at 11:00AM (GMT) I got on a plane to Los Angeles with Andy by my side. The 11 hours and 40 minutes on the plane was nothing compared to the 5 hours we were stuck on the I-405 towards Laguna Beach. We checked into the Casa Laguna Inn shortly after 9pm and after a quick call to Jeff quickly fell asleep - after all, our bodies thought it was well into the morning hours with the 8 hour time difference.
Friday morning arrived and after 4 or 5 or 6 cups of coffee, we had the most delicious breakfast before going for a walk on the beach and seeing the area around us. We headed back to the inn and an hour later Jeff picked us up to make the long journey to the McDonalds Quality of Life Expo to pick up my race pack and goody bag and to venture into the world of expo exhibitors. I managed to get away with a LA Marathon top, a running skirt, some shoes for Andy and various bars and nuts and things that the stalls handed me.
Then it was back to the inn for a quick nap.
During the course of the evening I met TC, smsmh and had the most delicious Lasagna to start the carbo loading for Sunday's marathon. TC was the cutest! Honestly, when he smiles, you can't help but melting. He's going to break hearts when he's older!
Saturday morning we woke up relatively late... I lie. We woke up at 7, had coffee at 7:30, breakfast at 8 and then decided to head to the town centre of Laguna Beach to watch the Patriot's Day Parade. It was something neither of us had experienced before and we had a ton of fun watching everyone come by. The kids that took part in the parade seemed to have a load of fun.
We caught some lovely Italian food afterwards and before I knew it, it was evening and I had to prepare everything for a very early morning on Sunday. I put my D-tag on my shoe, I put my number on my shirt (4 times), I put my socks out, my shirt, my Garmin, my fuelbelt... everything. And then I fell into bed and fell asleep while watching Without Limits.
Posted by karinm at 7:08 PM