Ugly Toes

Feed update

2009-09-22T01:59:33Z

Jeff moved me over to Word Press, so update your RSS feed bookmarks to http://breakingthetape.com/ugly-toes/?feed=rss2.

Tap, tap ...

2009-09-20T17:53:16Z

is this thing on?

This is the longest I've been silent on my blog and probably not coincidentally, 2009 has been the worst year in my post-college running "career."

I present some numbers:
2008:
Jan: 73.13 miles (8 months pregnant)
Feb: 58.50 miles (9 months pregnant)
Mar: 25 miles (gave birth middle of the month, took 2 wks off)
Apr: 60.33 miles
May: 86.53 miles
Jun: 60.75 miles
Jul: 87.44 miles
Aug: 113.43 miles
Sep: 76.84 miles
Oct: 104.88 miles
Nov: 69.23 miles

2009:
Jan: 22.76 miles
Feb: 3.51 miles
Mar: 11.30 miles
Apr: 18.09 miles
May: 36.58 miles
Jun: 24.38 miles
Jul: 37.42 miles
Aug: 24.24
Sep: 45.89 miles MTD

That's really fucking depressing to look at.

]]> When I last blogged, running was going okay. I mentioned a hip issue after running a 10K in September, and in November it started getting worse. I ran 8 miles right after Thanksgiving, and it was really aggravating me. I remember that it was really bad when I would run downhill, and felt like my leg was trying to break free from my body. So I decided to take a week off and see if that would help things out.

But then right as I was about to pick back up, Little Miss got sick and then I got sick. So I ended up not running at all for December. I picked back up a little in January, but just as I would start getting on track someone would get sick and I end up with long stretches of not running. That basically sums up my entire winter and spring. I think we had H1N1 in June, which was tons of fun. But I got past that and started back up again and was making decent progress through July. I was all set to maintain my streak at the Women's Race, even though I knew it was going to be slow and embarrassing, but then I woke up the day before with horrific vertigo and a stomach bug. I actually stayed home from work and I almost never do that. The vertigo stuck around for a couple of days which was terrible. So then I fell off the wagon again for a month.

Last month, I decided enough was enough and forced myself into running 5 days a week. I just finished week 4 of that, and it's going OK. One of the biggest things that helped is that I changed my work hours from 8-4:30 to 7:30-4 so I can run after work. My biggest problem has been waking up early enough to run; most days I couldn't get up in time so then I would just end up not running. Running after work is working out much, much better for me. I either take Little Miss with me in the BOB, the Engineer picks her up on his way home, or I go get her after running. I feel guilty making her stay at daycare so I can run, but this way she's getting picked up at the same time when I worked until 4:30 so I don't feel so bad about it.

I've also been doing the 200 situps and 100 pushups programs. I'm doing girl style pushups, not real ones, and the situps are actually crunches. The crunches program isn't too bad but the pushups one is really hard. They also have a squat program that I might pick up at some point.

I am really getting the marathon itch ... one of my co-workers ran his first in May and another is running his first in December. The May marathoner also just registered for 2010 Ironman Wisconsin. I'm kind of regretting letting myself get so out of shape that a late fall/early winter marathon is completely out of the question. The next marathon window I see is probably Med-City next May, but I hate Memorial Day weekend marathons and that's a long way off. The Engineer would probably be on board with it, though, since it would mean he would be much closer to getting his way of having kids spaced 4 years apart.

Anyone still out there?

And just like that ...

2008-11-09T02:28:22Z

I'm out of NaBloPoMo. I meant to post yesterday but didn't. I was smart and actually went for bed after Little Miss went to sleep last night so I actually got a full night's sleep last night. I'm usually pretty dumb on the weekend and dick around on the internet after she goes to bed; Little Miss wakes up about the same time on weekends as weekdays so if I stay up late I don't get as much sleep as I should.

Winter has arrived in Minnesota. We had enough snow to coat the grass yesterday morning, although it melted by yesterday afternoon. This morning, it was 30-something with a 20-something windchill and close to 30 MPH winds. I would have put off my longer run until tomorrow except that it's supposed to be at least 10 degrees colder. I got in 9 miles this morning. I would've liked to get in 10, but I was just so tired with that wind. I hit 8 miles and turned into the wind full-on and it sucked so I decided 9 would be good enough.

I got nothing

2008-11-07T03:36:39Z

It's going to be a long 30 days if I don't come up with some topics to post about. I skipped running this morning again after I was up too late last night. Unrelated, but they are talking about possible snow this weekend. We had a couple of unseasonably warm days (70 degrees) but a cold front came through today and dropped it down into the 40s. I'm not looking forward to winter, especially the part where I'll have to get Little Miss in and out of the car when it's below zero and/or snowing. A very nice benefit of her being on the small side is that I'll still be able to use her infant car seat as a carrier so that I at least won't have to deal with buckling/unbuckling her in the cold. I got a cover (not a BundleMe, those are not approved by car seat techs) for her seat to help keep her warm. It's one of the funniest things, though, since only her head peeks out.

Streak broken!

2008-11-06T03:53:12Z

My sleeping in and not running streak, that is. I was pretty tired this morning, having stayed up past my bedtime to watch the election results, but I still managed to treadmill 3 miles. The treadmill is so boring ...

Why did I think this was a good idea?

2008-11-05T04:05:22Z

I'm remembering why I didn't like doing NaBloPoMo last year .... I don't have much to say. I took Little Miss with me to vote this morning. We had to wait in line for maybe 20 minutes, but that wasn't too bad. I passed another polling place on the way, and the line was not only out the door but people were lined up just to park.

Another super boring post

2008-11-04T02:51:23Z

Obligatory post for NaBloPoMo ... no run this morning. I'd planned on treadmilling this morning but was too tired. I hoped I might be able to pull off getting out to daycare/work early so I could leave work early and run before picking up Little Miss but that didn't happen. I'm going to end up with 4 days off in a row, because I won't have time to run tomorrow morning since I want to go vote before going into work. Getting to my polling place is going to be a big pain. My site used to be awesome - I basically had two turns and it took less than 5 minutes to get there. But this year, the road the site is on is under construction, and I'm going to have to go the long way to get there which will take maybe 10-15 minutes. Pain in the butt.

So much for that long run

2008-11-02T15:38:35Z

I will not be going for a run today.

]]> I had planned on running 10 or so miles this morning, but I'm too tired to even go out for 3-4 miles.

We had a fun night last night. A few weeks ago Little Miss developed this yucky cough that was mainly bad at night, but over the last week it seemed like it had gone away. Last night I had trouble getting her to go to bed; she'd fall asleep but then wake up (ready to play) if I put her in her crib. I finally got her to sleep in her crib, and then the cough came back - but it sounded really awful. It was barky and would sound like she was gasping/struggling to catch her breath at the end. I'd start to fall asleep, then she'd cough and I would have to go check on her to find she was still sleeping and seemed okay ... lather, rinse, repeat for an hour. I brought her into our room so that I could stop getting up, and we noticed that her breathing was kind of labored. So we called peds on-call, and were told to bring her in to the ER. The resident said it was croup and was leaning towards not doing anything since she was breathing better, but the attending (?) wanted to do some steroids to help her out. That was kind of a pain - they didn't want to do a shot, so they asked if she had a favorite pudding or jello that they could crush the pill into. I didn't think 7.5 month olds ate either of those things, but she doesn't like food yet so it's moot. (I got the feeling they thought we were big weirdos for her still being basically exclusively breastfed). So they got it in liquid form and tried to get her to take it from a syringe. Little Miss wasn't a fan. She managed to fall asleep after we got home, but I slept terrible because she kept coughing. I think I maybe slept 2-3 hours total? I don't know, but I don't really feel like running today.

Little Miss is being her usual sunshiney self, so that's what matters.

Oh hi ....

2008-11-01T20:24:13Z

Wow, 2.5 months since my last post? I knew it had been awhile, but didn't realize it was that long! Obviously been a bit busy!

]]> I've been running - August totaled 113 miles, September 76 and October 104. My BTT sidebar's a little out of date. September was lower because I had a weird thing going on with my hip, and took a week off. I made the mistake of thinking it would be fun to do a 10K on 9/20. Oh, real fun, that was. It was maybe my 3rd slowest 10K ever, even taking into account that it was 1/10 mile too long. I just couldn't run any faster than I did and then I had this horrible, sharp stabby pain in my right hip afterwards. It's been a little depressing to me that I'm in such terrible race shape - I'd had hopes of being able to re-BQ this fall (back when I thought I might be able to take on marathon training) and yet I can barely run 8 minute miles for a 10K. But it's not a huge deal ... I just have to hope that I'll be in shape next year. At least I've lost all the weight I gained while pregnant, and am back in my size 4 pants. I've got maybe 5-7 pounds to be back to "normal" and for my size 2s to fit, but that's not too terrible high on my priority list.

This time of year is so depressing. I have to run in the morning, and it's been too dark for me to run outside so I've been treadmilling for the last month. It's kind of hard for me to get excited about 1) running at 5:30AM when I'm tired and 2) running on the treadmill. I had been running 5 times a week for a total of 25-27 mpw, but the last two weeks I've dropped down to 4 times a week because I've been too tired to get up. I do get to go outside on weekends, and have gotten my long run up to 11 miles. I've been able to average 8:50s for my runs, including the longer runs, so that's at least a step in the right direction.

Little Miss is doing well. She's now sitting up without any assistance, and she's trying to figure out how to get up on her knees so she can crawl. She's getting really big - it's funny because she's only in the 30th percentiles for both height and weight but she doesn't look tiny at all. She is definitely going to be a shorty like her mom. At 7.5 months, she can still fit into some 0-3 month sleepers. She's wearing some 6-9 month pants, but that's really only because of the cloth diapers. If she wore disposables (less bulky), she'd still be in either 0-3 month or 3-6 month pants.

It's NaBloPoMo (or whatever it's called), which I think I'm going to attempt again. Can't promise anything exciting, but almost anything would be better than what I've posted lately (ie, nothing).

Awesome

2008-08-17T16:06:57Z

I feel awesome this morning:
1 | 8:47
2 | 8:45 | 17:32
3 | 8:44 | 26:17
4 | 9:02 | 35:20 (all uphill)
5 | 9:01 | 44:22
6 | 8:57 | 53:19
7 | 9:11 | 62:31 (overpass + starting to get tired)
8 | 9:07 | 71:38
9 | 9:09 | 80:48
10 | 8:52 | 89:40
------------------------------
10.03 miles with Little Miss/BOB | 90:00 | 8:58/mi.

Not bad for pushing a 14lb 15oz 5-month old!

What a Week

2008-08-10T18:53:19Z

I am so glad this week is over.

]]> The Engineer went in for his Electrical Physiological study (the EP) on Friday. We were both really anxious and nervous about it all week. Worry that something would go wrong with the procedure, worry that they wouldn't be able to trigger the tachycardia, worry that the pathway would be in a position that they wouldn't be able to do anything ... But long story short, the EP was long but they were able to trigger the tachycardia and it was in a position that they could do the ablatation. I think the worst part of the whole thing for him was having to basically be flat on his back without moving for something like 12 hours. He had to stay overnight but is home now and feeling pretty good. I am so relieved to not only have this over, but that I won't have to worry about him playing broomball or doing anything physical anymore.

His nurses were all really nice, and the other medical staff was pretty decent with one exception. There were two different people that came out to talk to us during the procedures - and they both addressed his parents instead of me. I even introduced myself to the surgeon as his wife (after he'd told the surgeon that his wife was waiting) and he still addressed the parents. That was pretty annoying.

The other exciting event of the week? Thursday morning, I'm out running by myself since Molly had her playmate in town. I'm just running along, minding my own business when I hear a rustle in the bushes. I look over, expecting to see a rabbit or something. Uh, no. It's a skunk! And it's running towards me. I start running faster, and I see the skunk kind of turn maybe like it's going to spray. So I started just hauling ass to get away from there. I don't know if it did spray; I picked a different route home just in case.

I think I've possibly turned a corner with my running. With the exception of Wednesday's run (9:04), the average paces for all my runs this week were below 9 min/mile. I even ran 9 miles today, averaging 8:59, and I didn't feel too bad. I have to keep myself in check, though - today's run was decent enough that I caught myself thinking that maybe I could run the local half-marathon in 2 weeks. But even though I feel good about the pace I ran today, I know I'd be mad after the 1/2 if I did the same. It seems today like I'd be okay with a 9:00 average for a 1/2, but I'd feel disappointed in myself for not being able to go faster. I could run the 5K, though. So that's something to think about.

On a roll

2008-08-06T01:55:23Z

Had a pretty decent run this morning, with some being run below 9 mpm. I think I probably could've done the whole run under 9, but I had Molly with me. Molly is ridiculous sometimes. She gets super excited when she hears the Garmin turn on (even if I'm just turning it on to download my runs or to look at splits). She knows my running clothes - if I dare go out the front door in my running clothes without her in the morning, she barks and wakes up the Engineer. When I first got my BOB, Molly howled and cried and whined that I was not only going running without her, but I was taking Little Miss. We'd be outside, either getting settled in the stroller or just getting back from running, and we could hear the sad pup.

]]> So anyway, Molly gets to go with me most weekday mornings so that she doesn't annoy the Engineer and because she's a fatass who needs exercise. She hasn't gotten to do a lot of running in the summer previously because it's too hot for her thick black coat, but since I'm going at 5:30AM it isn't too terribly bad for her. She gets really excited when we start running ... but then she starts to get this look of "why did I want to come with you again?" and she starts dragging. I have to remind her that we're running; sometimes she'll rally for me but other times I have to kind of pull her along. Running with her isn't always the most pleasant because she does still sometimes cross behind me or get scared of something and get all weird, but I think she does enjoy getting some time alone with me and she really does need the exercise.

1 | 8:40
2 | 9:03 | 17:44
3 | 9:01 | 26:45
4 | 8:56 | 35:41
---------------
4.09 miles with Molly | 36:30 | 8:55/mi.

Two in a row?

2008-08-04T01:36:36Z

First, I have managed to screw up my blog template so things look really weird here. I guess that's what happens when you just start messing around with things without first figuring out what they are and how they work. Good thing I was at least smart enough to backup my template so I can reverse my changes if I can't make them work.

]]>
I had another good run this morning, but this time it was by myself. I was prepared to take Little Miss with me until I saw how windy it was outside. She's not a big fan of big gusty winds so I left her with the Engineer. Since I was staying mostly within the neighborhood I broke one of my rules and ran with my headphones. I am pretty firmly on the "headphones are for inside only" side of things, but every once in awhile it's nice to have a little music outside.

1 | 8:27
2 | 8:29 | 16:56
3 | 8:37 | 25:34
4 | 8:35 | 34:09
--------------------
4.10 miles | 34:00 | 8:32/mi.

I did feel like I was making more of an effort than most of my 5:30AM runs, but not that it was necessarily a much harder effort (or that it was an entire minute faster). So I am fairly pleased with being able to have a good run the day after a pretty decent 7-miler.

I did have a lot on my mind, though. Long-time readers might remember that the Engineer has PSVT, Basically he has a defective pathway in his heart and occasionally something will happen to trip it up and cause his heart to beat really fast. Sometimes people like to tell him that they have a racing heart, too. It irritates him because when it happens to him, it's really fast - in high school it was measured around 290-300 beats/minute. Over the last few years, it's mainly just been a problem with broomball,
but when you're talking about sprinting across ice when it's -20F it's not that surprising. However, he's had a few problems this summer with softball, with one episode involving us going to the ER because his vision started fading. And long story short, this Friday he's going in to have an electrical physiology study done, and if they can identify the malfunctioning pathway they will ablate (burn/destroy) it. The success rate is pretty good, but it's still a little nerve wracking. If anyone wants to send good thoughts in our direction on Friday, we'd appreciate it.

Great Run

2008-08-03T03:06:00Z

Jeff's updating BTT this weekend and advised us not to post until the update is complete, so I'm temporarily posting here (ETA: on blogspot). I had such a good run this morning and wanted to write about it while it's still semi-fresh instead of waiting and then forgetting. That's one reason I rarely blog anymore, I'm too busy when stuff's fresh and then when I have time I can't remember what I would've written about.

]]> I am so bored with running around my neighborhood. The last time, other than trips to the parents or in-laws, that I started my run from anywhere other than my house was in November (the time-prediction race and my Ryan Shay run) and before that it was last July. So yeah, running around here has gotten really old. I struck a deal with the Engineer that I would get up early to go run on the bike paths. I'd leave a bottle for Little Miss, and he'd get up with her and take care of feeding her while I was out. I was really curious to see if part of the reason my longer runs have been kind of crappy is because I both pump and nurse before running, so this way I'd only have pumped.

I woke up around 6:15; I didn't intend to wake up that early but I was hungry so I went ahead and had breakfast and pumped. Little Miss went to bed between 8:30-9 the night before, so based on previous weekends I didn't expect her up until 8:30-9AM. But I peeked in at her around 6:30 and her eyes were open. I gave her a pacifier and she did seem to go back to sleep ... but when I looked in at her awhile later she was back awake. Now, she wasn't being fussy at all so I could've just continued getting ready and let her wake up the Engineer when she did get hungry. But I would've felt like a total dick leaving an awake baby alone in her crib. So I got her up for the day and decided if the Engineer was still sleeping after Little Miss nursed, I'd just take her with me (running from the house). As much as I wanted to run somewhere else, by myself, his needing to sleep trumped that.

So Little Miss, BOB and I went for a run. I initially thought maybe I'd just do my 4 mile run and try the bike paths/longer run tomorrow. But Little Miss was being content in the stroller and I felt okay so I decided to just get the longer run out of the way. And as said above, it turned into a great run. Here's the proof:

1 | 9:03
2 | 9:10 | 18:13
3 | 8:58 | 27:12
4 | 8:57 | 36:10
5 | 8:57 | 45:07
6 | 8:54 | 54:01
7 | 9:01 | 63:03
------------------
7.22 miles | 1:05:00 | 9:00/mi.

Most people smiled at me and/or looked like they were trying to get a peek of Little Miss. I did have one woman that gave me kind of an odd look, though. I don't have any idea what that was about. The absolute best part of my run was probably just after 3 miles when I had to run up an overpass. Not only did I catch up to a guy, but I passed him. Normally that'd be no big deal, but passing someone up a hill with a stroller felt kind of badass. I did fade a little towards the end, but nowhere near as bad as most of my runs lately.

Today's run was just kind of what I needed to feel a bit better about my running. Maybe I need to run with the stroller more often.

Short Report

2008-07-19T16:09:32Z

Thoughts that ran through my head this morning:
"I can't believe I paid money to feel like crap"
"OK, I gave birth - I can suck it up and run for 10 more minutes"
"It sucks that I have to work this hard to run this slow"

]]> I thought going in that 8-somethings would probably be a good effort. I ran the first mile in 7:30-something, which surprised me. I felt like I was running through quicksand. I fell off of that pace, though but managed to only let 2 or 3 (?) people pass me. I ended up running 31:43 (I think) for a 7:56 average. So better than I expected, but nowhere near where I'd want to be. But it's okay, although I do get frustrated when I read about other new moms having more success - you know, why can't that be me? But I'm sure I have things that other moms are jealous of, like my mostly sleeping through the night baby or the over 600 ounces of breastmilk I have in my freezer. (Just call me Bessie, seriously). I think I'm probably definitely out for next month's half marathon, though. Aside from my long run being stuck around 6 miles, I do not want to work that hard only to come in over 2 hours. That might sound a little snotty, but if I'm going to work hard for 13.1 miles I'd like to actually feel like I accomplished something at the end. I don't want to even bother running a half until I can sustain a pace that starts with a 7.

But it was good to get back out there. And the most surprising thing? I finished 3rd in my age group! Obviously someone stayed home ... but that keeps up my hardware collecting streak for this race. The prizes are always handmade - 2004 was a wooden box with press clippings from the previous 25 years screenprinted, 2005 was a box in the shape of a flower, 2006 was a clock. This year it was a tissue box cover - very handy since I needed a tissue!

I got passed by the woman in white without a hat.

Post-race.

My prize.