Monday, May 23, 2011

Moved Blog

Hi friends.  I haven't posted to this blog for a really long time.  I decided to import it's contents to my cooking blog.  I've started eating clean and I'm going to run a race or two during the summer, so please look for updates there.

Thanks!

Laura

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Brooks Cascadia 5



I'm now running in these bad boys.  Liking them a lot.  Happy Birthday to me.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Last Week Stats and Campground

It's official. I paid for a campsite at Malibu State Park, where my 25k trail run will be taking place in August. I've never camped before a race, so I feel pretty hardcore doing this. As I stated before, my little brother's running with me for the first time, so I'm pretty stoked.

All my workouts went great this week, but I didn't end up doing my long run because we went camping and I wasn't organized enough to schedule it in. I know that's pretty lame. I thought about doing the mileage this week, but I'm just going to move forward with my schedule.

Last week I did a lot off weight lifting, I had an awesome speed workout, 5 mile run, and a terrific 6 miles rollerblading on the bike trail. I get an F- for my long run though.

Here are my 3 key workouts for this week:

1) 10-20 minute warm-up 2 x (6 x 400m) (1:30 RI) (2:30 RI between sets) 10 minute cool-down (I already did this one yesterday and did a bunch of leg exercises as well.)

2)1 mile easy, 2 miles @ MT pace 1 mile easy, 2 miles @ MT pace 1 mile easy

3)8 miles @ HMP + 15 sec./mile

This is just an outline. I'm less concerned with speed this time around, and more concerned with being able to tackle hills, since this is a trail run, so some of my miles that are supposed to be speedy, I'm going to trade out for running uphill. I plan on cross training with the stepper, maybe rollerblading again, and lifting weights.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

12 miles

Yesterday I ran the farthest I've run in awhile: 12 miles. I actually read the wrong week on my calendar and was supposed to do that next week, but oh well, I'll do it again. After my run, my tendon that was giving me problems before felt a little strained. I'm going to try really hard to just put in 3 quality runs a week and cross train by biking and doing the stepper on the other days with the hope that I'll stay injury free. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

After my 25k trail ran, I have my eye on the Santa Barbara International Marathon for November. My plan is just to be anal retentive about trying to stay injury free; the rest is out of my control.

Here are my 3 key runs for the week:

1)10-20 minute warm-up 2 x (6 x 400m) (1:30 RI) (2:30 RI between sets) 10 minute cool-down
2)1 mile easy, 2 miles @ MT pace 1 mile easy, 2 miles @ MT pace 1 mile easy
3)12 miles


I'm not sure what marathon pace should be for a trail run, so I'm just going to run those miles as hills.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

My Schedule and Lifting Weights

I haven't been blogging here much lately, but I am still training for my race. I haven't signed up yet, so don't go taking my spot. Just kidding. I'm super stoked because I think my little brother's gonna fly down and run it with me. (He lives in Utah.) He thinks he's all cool because he's been training on pretty running trails in Park City and I have the "scenic" Bakersfield bike trail. I'm gonna be the one laughing when I smoke him on race day though. (My brother isn't a runner, but he's always in great shape, so I'm just talking big...He'll probably beat me.) At any rate, I'm excited we're running together.

I'm really paranoid about getting hurt again, so I'm sticking to running 3 days a week for now. I'll probably run more often when I get closer to the race. Today my work out was as follows:

Stepper- 40 minutes at the gym
Leg Press - 4 sets
Leg Extensions- 3 sets
Lunges with dumbbells- 3 sets
Free motion squat machine- 4 sets

Manana I'm going to run 6 miles on the bike trail. Maybe Chest and Abs at gym
Friday- Stepper and back at gym
Saturday- 9 miles on the bike trail.


That's it folks!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Posterior Tibial Tendonitis Recovery Story

I received a comment on my blog today asking me to tell my Posterior Tibial Tendonitis recovery story. Other people have found my blog googling the same issue, so I thought I'd post about it since I didn't really say much after I was diagnosed. So, this story is for you, Tammy. If you have any questions that I don't answer here, feel free to ask!

I guess I'll start by explaining when it all started, how I felt, and then what I did to resolve the problem. I had run 3 half marathons in 2009 with virtually no problems, and I decided I would run the LA Marathon in April of 2010. I made a sub-goal to also qualify for the Boston Marathon, so my training time goals and workouts were with this goal in mind. My training was going awesome, actually, and even though I had the Boston goal in mind, I was truly trying to follow my body and didn't feel like I was overexerting myself.

My problems began when I received a new, lighter pair of shoes for Christmas. I had previously been running in Mizuno Waverider 12's but decided to try the Mizuno Elixir 4's because although they were in the same class of shoes on Runner's World, the Elixir's are a lot lighter and have far less support. I never tried them on before buying them and I immediately knew when I received them, that I probably needed more support. I didn't want to wait for new shoes or spend more money, so I used them anyways. This was an idiotic move on my part, but I thought I'd be okay.
I can't blame everything on my new shoes because I was also putting more mileage in, so the culmination of these two factors was probably what lead to injury.

Anyways, I started feeling soreness and mild pain above my ankle, but I just attributed the pain to the toughness of training for a full marathon, so I didn't give it much thought. I stretched a lot and tried to roll out that part of my leg with my Marathon Stick. For awhile, I thought this helped, but the pain still lingered. My mild aching above my ankle turned to debilitating pain within the course of 2 weeks. It didn't really hurt that much when I walked, but when I tried to run, I limped and couldn't even run a mile. I started cross-training with the stepper at the gym, but there came a point where I could barely do this. I probably should have gone to the doctor at the first sign of pain, but I didn't want to be a sissy and was hoping it would get better.

I finally went to see my doctor and the PA on duty took X-Rays. He and the X-ray techs initially thought I had some trauma on my bone and referred me to a podiatrist. When I went to the podiatrist, he pushed my foot around in different directions until I squealed. He was able to diagnosis fairly quickly that I had posterior tibial tendonitis caused by too light of running shoes and over-pronation. I was surprised to hear I overpronated because I had my shoes and run analyzed at my local running store and they thought I was a normal pronator. They were wrong. So, the shoes that hadn't caused me problems in the past, were technically wrong for me.

The podiatrist gave me two options: I could either purchase shoes with more support or get fitted for orthotics. He said about half of his marathoners choose orthotics, and he highly recommended I go that route. I did. It took two weeks for my orthotics to come in, so I went back to using the stepper to cross train, hoping that I could still run my race. I had a lingering chest cold that I came down with a few weeks before Christmas, and I probably should have stopped working out altogether, but I didn't. My chest cold became worse, and I went back to the doctor and found out I had full blown pneumonia. He said running my race was now out of the question, and I just needed to take it easy.

I was really depressed over finally deciding that I had to throw in the towel. But, in the end, taking a rest probably not only helped my lungs recover, but probably helped my tendonitis as well. I was supposed to run the LA Marathon in March, and it's now May. I've been running 15-20 miles for the last month or so, and started training for a new half last week. I feel my orthotics have helped me a ton and I don't feel pain anymore. At first my orthotics felt like a piece of wood in my shoe, but now I barely feel them. I'm not putting the kind of mileage I was before in, so I guess only time will tell. If you're dealing with a posterior tibial tendonitis problem, and I didn't answer a particular question here, feel free to ask. I suppose my recovery story is yet to be concluded. I'm thinking about another full marathon in November, so hopefully my new orthotics will continue to make a difference. Hope that helps!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

6 miles in the heat

I read my next race is gonna be hot so I ran 6 miles in the middle of the day today on the local bike trail. Okay, I'm just making excuses to justify this...I actually like running in the heat. I'm from Bakersfield. So sue me. My run went well, but I need to be better about timing how fast I'm going. I think I'm gonna rollerblade tomorrow for cross training.