Lions, Tigers, & IT Bands... Oh My!

It's been said and seen (from many sources) that running is a dangerous sport with a 79% injury rate. Well, if you held that statistic to our group, we are sitting at an injury rate of 75% right now. Fingers crossed, knocking on wood we don't hit 100%-- ouch!

We've been conscious of resting when tired. Armed with MyFitnessPal accounts, we're becoming more aware of our nutrition. Yet we still have three out of four who currently have or had an injury. What's the deal?

After discussion and comparing what we do outside of running/workout, we decided none of us are stretching the adequate amount that we should. And so I have put together a little note sheet of some stretches for us to do- after running, working out, AND in our spare time.

If you just asked yourself, "Spare time? What's that?" All four of us have the exact same thought. We all work "8-5" jobs which easily and most days looks more like 8-7 (or later) with some occasional weekends thrown in there. Two of us are working on a Ph.D. part-time. One of us teaches a course at the university on the side while another serves as an advisor to an active student organization. Then on top of ALL of this we attempt to hold some sort of a social life. Don't forget- we're still running and working out. Whew...

To put it lightly, we know busy. Being told, "You need to stretch for at least 10 minutes each day" only solicits eye rolls. No, 10 minutes is not that long of a time. In the grand scheme of things, if you want to get nerdy with it, 10 minutes is 0.7% of the day. In the rush of life, that is too much time. Sadly when life tends to ramp up and get busy, our personal wellness is the first to fall to the wayside. Stretching seems to be one of those things that you only think about when you start hurting in the middle of a run or workout. It's in those moments of pain that the importance of stretching hits you, but all too often that's a little too late.

So, we don't have 10 minutes to spare daily for stretching (we probably do- but why fight reasoning). My response- let's incorporate it into our daily tasks. I've been doing some research and have come up with/compiled "office friendly" stretches that can be incorporated into our work lives to help with our more active lifestyles.

Across the top you should see some newly added pages with some stretching tips and actual stretches- some office friendly, some not so much. This is what we're trying to do to better our runs to prevent further injuries without overloading our already full days. What do you do in your recovery time in the midst of this chaos we call life?

The heat is on...

Yes, this song is on repeat in my head as I type this post... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teljgwFfl94

Well, Spring has officially sprung... according to the calendar at least. While we had a few days of what some would call "heat", in south Mississippi it's still a little bit chilly; the temps have yet to really level out to true heat. Two weekends ago though, Toni and I experienced a taste of the heat that is yet to come when we attempted a prescribed 8 miler. I say attempted because we completed 6.5. After weeks of training in coolish to cold weather, 65 degrees was almost like a furnace. I was not ready- mentally, emotionally, or physically.

Then and there on that run, with my head feeling like it would explode from heat and my body just plain tired, I decided while the heat is on- on the street- it's time for me to crank up the heat. In the kitchen that is.

I feel my life cycles in themes. When one topic/subject comes up that I need to pay attention to, it pops up in all areas of my life. Lately the theme has been nutrition.

"You can't out-train bad nutrition."

"You have to put quality in to get quality results."

"Nutrition is key, it's the only way to see results."

These are things that have been said to me (many, many times for a while), but it's now starting to sink in- I've been told I can be stubborn at times. I've always thought, "I'm working out- that's better than nothing, right?" Wrong. Yes, it's good that I'm working out, but the workouts will really benefit me if the food I eat is clean. And so I am challenging myself to eat better- to eat clean(er). In order to do this, I feel I need more control over how my food is prepared, hence turning the heat up in the kitchen.

This should be interesting...

A surefire feeling

A few weeks ago (three, maybe?), Staci planned one heck of a run that took us through downtown. It was a really great, scenic seven miles. You may remember myself or Toni blogging about it after.

Honest moment - when Staci finagled me (kidding) into taking on this challenge, I really expected to get to about five miles and then hate myself every day after when it came to running. The exact opposite has happened.

At mile seven that day, I felt incredible! Re-energized, I guess you could say. I then realized that I had surpassed my own expectations (albeit: they were a bit negative).  That single run has jumpstarted my passion for running again. I can remember when 5 miles was a dreaded "long run" and now it's a weekly maintenance run that kickstarts my day. This past weekend, I was able to run the prescribed 8 with my sister - and had my legs not felt like they would fall off, I would have continued on.

Over the next four weeks, we will conquer another 8, then 9, down to 4, up to 10 and back down to 8 before we leave for the big day. And I am thoroughly excited! But don't get me wrong, I gloriously look forward to NOT waking up at 5:30 a.m. every day of the week. But this new runner's high? I think I'll keep that!

I'm losing my toenails...

I'm losing my toenails. I announced it this morning at Versus AT during our warm up. Yes, I had to clarify toenailS, as in more than one.

In middle and high school I lost one toenail on each foot annually at minimum, the pointer-finger-equivalent on my feet. I attributed this to my extra-long pointer-toe, it would rub the top of my shoe, it would bruise, and eventually it would work it's way off sometimes with help from my pointer finger and thumb.

Before you ask, yes, I clip my toenails. In fact, I'm one of those people who pays extra attention to their feet, I don't know why. It seems to have started when I was very young, I’m talking 3, 4, 5 years old. Dad says I would kick my shoes off as soon as I got home and take each toe and it's neighbor, spread them wide as I could, and dig the sock-fuzz and sand out from in-between.

Two things to note here: 1) when I say sandbox, one should take that figuratively and literally. We lived in Kuwait and Pakistan at the time, as in the Middle East. 2) This practice of spreading my toes as a child led to an incredible talent for having "finger-toes". 

Even now, I can't stand for anything to be between my toes, I clip my toenails regularly, and give myself at-home manicures because I'm still learning to live on a budget so no, neglect is not the cause of my loosening toenails.

The cause has got to be running. I’ve never run so much in my entire life. Even during basketball season in high school I don’t think the running we did during all of our practices adds up to the amount of running I’m doing now with just-4-kicks.

My toenails will grow back. I’m not worried about my feet, although my toes can be quite tender to the touch during the shedding-of-the-nail process.

What an interesting post, eh?

Bet you thought I was going to talk about how awful last weekend’s 7 miles were....

Running to the Beat of a Different Drum…

Okay, well, no drum. Because I forgot my headphones. On long run day…7 mile long run day.

I had a brief moment of panic  (“should I go home and get them?”), but then my pride (ego, laziness, whatever you want to call it) kicked in and I was like “nah, I got this…let’s just go with it.” So, I ran without music, and I thought well I might as well run without Runkeeper as well, and just see how I do mentally without  1) distraction of music and 2) reminders of how far we’ve gone (which for me often translates into “crap, we have ____left to go”, except for the last mile).

I think it was the strongest start I have had in a pretty long time, maybe ever. I attribute this in large part to the new surroundings as well (see Sam’s post for details) and the extra rest we got during the week. But still! It was probably mile 4 before I really started to “feel it” and even then it really wasn’t that bad. Staci and I kept up a running commentary on the houses we passed, and I was occasionally serenaded by one of my head-phoned friends (“getting hot in here” anyone? Which, btw, it most certainly was NOT…30sumodd degrees and frozen hands for that particular song). I appreciate that my friends didn’t totally disappear into their music and remembered my vulnerable self out in the open (ha!), especially considering the (very) limited breath one has available when running! But really, overall, I felt kind of free. I was definitely more aware – of everything. Which is probably good since I can get very tunnel-vision with music, this is okay-ish on the trace when the greatest danger is getting squashed by a mad cyclist (ack!) but less okay when running on the road…with like…full-sized vehicles. But I feel like I even noticed smells more. Mostly good ones (fortunately!) like clean laundry, and fried chicken (I have no idea why someone was frying chicken that early in the morning but I swear they were!). And sounds - like birds. I like hearing birds. I do not like hearing barking dogs. But that’s okay…and I did like not having the every mile reminders of how far we had gone. The ladies were kind enough to update me every now and then, but I didn’t have to know every time. And that really helped me. I think I will turn off my notifications every now and then from now on, just to make me push a little harder. Why must running be SO mental?!? Ah well.

Anyway, so I agree that this was probably my favorite run thus far, and I’m so super proud of all of us!!! We could have run more, and now we know that, but it’s crazy to me that we are up to where we are to begin with. I love it. And I love these girls! Because I would never push myself the way I do with them, or feel so supported when I’m not doing so hot, or have the fantastic conversations over breakfast at Southbound, or look forward to waking up prior to the sun (or at least dread it less on some days…haha)…It’s kind of awesome. I really think I am becoming a stronger person, and I don’t mean just physically, because of this challenge with these friends. I know that may sound kind of strange, and I didn’t really expect it but I don’t know how else to describe it, but it’s pretty cool, and I highly recommend it to anyone who may wonder if they should 1) set a pretty intense goal (half-marathon) and 2) work toward it with a group of friends J

Movin' on up!

Can I take a second to brag? I think yesterday's run was one for the books. A book that specifically highlights phenomenal runs and great feelings.

We've been running on the trace - out and backs, if you will. Mentally - these can be both tough and easy. Easy knowing that you really only run half a mile further each week the mileage increases. Tough when the atmosphere is tree, tree, tree, squirrel, crazy cyclist, tree, tree, tree, tree... Get my drift?

Staci emailed us early in the week to tell us she had something up her sleeve for Saturday's run. Her initial email outlined an 8-mile run that would take us a true eight miles through downtown - ending at our breakfast spot. The idea was something we all were excited (loose use of the word) about, but the 8-miles? While it was according to the training plan - we all (minus Staci) balked.

Why would we do such a thing?
Jess felt like she pulled a muscle the week before.  Toni's knee had been acting up.  Me? Well, we've been after speed quite a bit these days. I was worried that if we went for both speed and an increase of 2-miles - we might hurt SOMETHING. Not to mention, I felt like seven would be said if we left him out of the mileage increase. Last week was six, seven is only right in the order of life! So Staci kindly brought it down to 7-miles.

The run was FANTASTIC. It was cold (can Spring please make its way to Mississippi!?), but it was fun. We sang, we laughed, we ate sport beans and we moved from street to street. We averaged a 10-minute mile (some faster than others), and we finished right around 70 minutes. It was by far my favorite run thus far and I am actually really excited about next week's long run. I know, I know... shocker.

I'm proud of us. We ran and we ran hard. And yes, we all felt like we could have easily added another mile to it (Staci, we know!). No worries, there will be no more doubting of the training plan.